MATT DRISCOLL: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH >>>

Want further proof that politics and political campaigning is vile and disgusting? Just check out what everyone's talking about here.

MATT DRISCOLL: DOESN'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HINDU HINDUISM>>>

Last Friday at the State Capitol in Olympia, Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain and Indo-American leader, performed the first Hindu opening prayer in the 154 year history of the Washington State Legislature. I got a press release hyping the event late last week and thought it sounded like a really cool thing to stick on the Spew. It was history, after all.

Not long after, I completely forgot about it. Damn short term memory loss.

Anyway, today a picture of the historic event found its way to my inbox and I thought I'd pass it along. This post is a day(weekend) late and a dollar (at least 78 cents) short, but I figured what the hell. Better late than never, right?

Here's a story about the prayer from the Seattle PI.

And here's the picture I mentioned.

BRAD ALLEN: SCREW THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO COVER >>>

Pierce College's Jazz Ensemble II grabbed 1st place in the community college band division at The 2008 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Spokane Moscow, Idaho. Also, Gabriel Burbano won 1st place for the trumpet soloist division and Scott Allen won 1st place for the trombone soloist division.

LINK: Festival results for the day Pierce College competed.

BRAD ALLEN: TOP 10 OF THE DAY >>>

Live Science offers: Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You.

LECTURE
Rev. James Lawson
I never heard of the Rev. James Lawson, but if Glen Anderson of Olympia’s branch of Fellowship of Reconciliation says he’s “one of the strongest leaders in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement,” then he must be. I trust Anderson.

Lawson will speak in Tacoma today at St. John Baptist Church; and Wednesday, Feb. 27 at the University of Washington, Tacoma. 

Lawson was the main organizer of the nonviolent sit-ins to integrate lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn., in about 1961. He has a strong background in Gandhian nonviolence and had actually spent time in India studying the principles and methodology with some of Gandhi’s close associates.

"Speaking to Lawson is the closest most of us will ever come to speaking with Martin Luther King, Jr., who called him the leading theorist of nonviolence in the United States," says Prof. Michael Honey of the UW-Tacoma.

For more information, call: Associated Ministries of Tacoma/Pierce County at 253.383.3056 ext 119. â€" Alec Clayton

[St. John Baptist Church, “Dialogue on Economic Justice and the Church,” noon-1:30 p.m., 2001 South "J" Street (at 20th), Tacoma]

MULTIMEDIA
Langston Hughes
We tend to accept ideas when they're proffered without pomp. Wax ostentatious and you'll be cutting yourself off from a sizable array of listeners. Langston Hughes's clever and heartfelt way with words was invariably delivered in a plainspoken manner. Waxing both direct and artful were two of the poet's main goals.

Pierce College presents a multimedia show celebrating the African-American poet through jazz, spoken word and shifting images.  Under the title Langston Hughes’ Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods of Jazz, Dr. Ronald McCurdy, a professor of music and chair of the Jazz Studies department at the University of Southern California, aims to recreate Hughes’ vision of the global struggle for freedom in the early ‘60s. â€" Michael Swan

[Pierce College’s Brouillet Library, 6:30 p.m., $2-$5, 1601 39th Ave. S.E., Puyallup, 253.840.8416]

POET
Mark Doty
The word on the street in Tacoma today is, well, words. Celebrated American writer, poet, and memoirist Mark Doty will be sharing his words of wisdom, reading poetry and signing books at Pacific Lutheran University tonight in the Lagerquist Concert Hall.

“Mark Doty is one of the most important American poets alive,” says Rick Barot, assistant professor of English at PLU and one of the program coordinators for PLU’s Visiting Writers Series. “Doty’s writing is a rich, important body of work, with wide public appeal. He is reader-friendly â€" people can really access his writing. It’s not just for academics. He is also a huge gay icon. A great poet in his own right, Doty is also an important voice on gay matters. He’s really given a voice to the gay experience.” â€" Tammy Robacker

[Lagerquist Concert Hall, 8 p.m., no cover, Pacific Lutheran University, Wheeler Street South and Eighth Avenue South, Tacoma]

HARDCORE
On the Last Day
Seattle post hardcore band On The Last Day will play Hell’s Kitchen tonight. It’s a Weekly Volcano sponsored “Tightwad Tuesday” featuring two dollar beer, well drinks and tacos. â€" Matt Driscoll

[Hell’s Kitchen, On The Last Day, Theme For Murder, The Formal, Girl On Fire, = 6 p.m., all ages, $5, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

MORE MUSIC: In the clubs tonight.

BOBBLE TIKI: REPLETION, MARK DOTY, MAHJONGG >>>

THE DAILY WORD
Repletion \rih-PLEE-shun\, noun:
1. The condition of being completely filled or supplied.
2. Excessive fullness, as from overeating.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Somewhere in between the grande nachos and mozzarella cheese sticks Bobble Tiki reached repletion, but that didn’t stop him. A few chicken strips, a couple handfuls of kettle chips, and three beers later, Bobble Tiki wished it would have.

MORNING NEWS

SEATTLE:Goodbye messengers? 

TACOMA: How barista training will ruin your day

OLYMPIA: Watershed repairs

CAMPAIGN ‘08: Texas

HUSTLER OF CULTURE
You can stand atop the mountain and scream your naked desires to the universe or shed that synapse epilepsy and hug the South Sound today with your fellow man:

MUSIC: Bobble Tiki isn’t exactly sure what’s happening tonight, because the Weekly Volcano’s website seems to be acting batshit crazy. Without www.weeklyvolcano.com Bobble Tiki has nothing. It’s not music, but think about checking out Mark Doty today. He’ll be reading some poetry and signing books at PLU.

MORE MUSIC: What’s on tonight
SPRAY PAINT WAR: In this week’s issue
FORUMS: Check ‘em out

THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN
Bobble Tiki is currently slaving away on his column for the week, which focuses on Mahjongg’s show this weekend at the Capital Theater in Olympia. It’s not done yet, which means you’ll just have to wait until Thursday to read the magic Bobble Tiki comes up with. Rest assured, though, it will be magic.

Breakfast with Bobble Tiki runs six days a week now. Deal with it.

STEPH DEROSA: MOD-DECO PEEING >>>

Last week I had the privilege of attending Wintergrass 2008 in the Hotel Murano. I was able to soak in the beautiful artwork, and all the fancy-schmancy renovations that were so badly needed in the old Sheraton Tacoma Hotel. Can you guess what major re-do was my favorite? Easy answer: The restrooms. From the small tiled walls to the blue bowl sinks to the art-encompassing chocolate brown backgrounds, these restrooms screamed mod-deco.

But of course, my mind wandered as I sat upon the shiny new Hotel Murano potty thrones. It wandered back to my short-lived career as a restaurant supervisor at the old Sheraton Tacoma Hotel in 1999. Then my mind wandered to all of the jobs I've encountered, or should I say have encountered me. I've had just about every job in the United States. OK, maybe just every job in Texas. OK, fine, every job that a graduate of a small Texas no-name party college could have. I've even been a pizza delivery person.

Look, not that there's anything wrong with being a pizza delivery person, (God knows we all can appreciate someone bringing you a round and cheesy cardiac arrest at midnight), but leave it to me to degrade myself just a little bit more¬" I actually delivered them on a bike. I delivered them right onto the campus of Texas A&M. Ugh.

I would strategically time when exactly I would be riding the pizza express bike across campus, so as not to run into any ridicule from students.

Hey you on the bike! That's my pizza! 
Hey girl! Ride that pizza-mobile over this way!
Hey pizza girl! Vote for George Bush!

You get the point. They were all morons. The mocking hurt, and it definitely wasn't good for my ego.

Aside from the ridicule, there were the logistics. Think about it, you're riding a bike with a pizza. Where the hell do you put the pizza on a bike? You tied that damned thing to the back of your bike¬" where there was a pizza basket. Yeah, that's right, you heard me. A fucking pizza basket. It really couldn't get any worse. Maybe if they made me deliver on a pink moped embellished with red flames on the side. That maybe would've been more humiliating. Maybe.

So although the bike riding expedited the pizza delivery, and even if you rode fast enough to dodge the humiliation, you still had to walk the pizza into the building. Imagine this: Walking a pizza through college classroom buildings and dormitories in a red Pizza Hut shirt. I recited my mantra repeatedly in my head as I wandered those scholastic hallways,Someone please, kill me now. My worst nightmare was to run into someone I knew.Oh, hey Steph! Whatcha doin¦ *looks at pizza*¬Â¦ oh. You're delivering pizza? Didn't you finish college? What happened with that?

How do you answer a question like that? I was constantly reminded that I was, in fact, living in Satan's petri dish. They would say something like,Oh yeah, I'm working toward my masters in Ecology and Steve and I are engaged to be married next fall.Listening to this, I would want to stab myself in the ear with a fork. Damned bitches.

So as I finished up my very modern potty break in the very modern Hotel Murano restroom, I remind myself how I'm quite lucky to be where I am now. I've paid my dues with some shitty jobs, but now I have my favorite job ever. I get to watch some amazing bands, trot around town, write down my rants and obsessions, and these suckers at the Weekly Volcano actually pay me for it. Now if I could only field the late night phone calls from Matt Driscoll trying to order a deep-dish from me. Jerk.

MATT DRISCOLL: IS GOOD AT BEING A DICK >>>

Before I forget, I wanted to pass along some information from a promotional email I received this week regarding a "conversation about your newspaper" that the News Tribune is hosting tonight at 6:30 p.m. The event will take place in the Tribune's Baker Community Room and will be moderated by Joanne Lisosky, associate professor, Communications and Theatre at Pacific Lutheran University. Along with the News Tribune's non-caucusing editorial board, the "conversation" will include a "panel of distinguished newspaper and communications experts."

Isn't that special. I wonder if David Zeeck will bake cookies?

Not only has the Tribune openly assumed they are, in fact, "your" newspaper in this email, but they've gone to the great length of inviting a "distinguished panel of experts" to talk journalism  with them and the community.That's a fairly ironic proposition.

First of all, the Tribune isn't my newspaper. Let's make that clear.

Secondly, perhaps this "distinguished panel of experts" will have some insights to offer the Tribune's editorial staff about why stories like this one suck, stories like this one don't deserve the ink they're printed on, and stories like this one are just plain embarrassing.

Here's to hoping...for "your" sake.

BRAD ALLEN: THINKING >>>

Thinkin’ bout the times I drove over you in my car.
Thinkin’ what might happen if I drove too far.
And I’m thinkin’ bout the shove if you’re not stable.

LINK: New bridges to open in Tacoma.