BOBBLE TIKI: Knell, Dead dogs, Henry Butler

THE DAILY WORD

Learn it, use it spell it

Knell \NEL\, verb:
1. The stoke of a bell tolled at a funeral or at the death of a person; a death signal; a passing bell; hence, figuratively, a warning of, or a sound indicating, the passing away of anything.

intransitive verb:
1. To sound as a knell; especially, to toll at a death or funeral; hence, to sound as a warning or evil omen.

USAGE EXAMPLE: In the distance, ever so faintly, as Tom Brady’s final (albeit sexy) pass fluttered harmlessly to the turf, the funeral knell of the Patriot’s perfect season was tolling.

THE MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Icy start

TEXAS: Dead dog not dead

BOSTON: Too bad, so sad

NATION: Tech war

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: While it’s slim pickins tonight in 
Tacoma for live music, Bobble Tiki does have a couple fine suggestions. At the www.myspace.com/bobsjavajive">Java Jive on South Tacoma Way, the Shrouded Strangers â€" a kick ass indie band from Oakland, California will warm the place up, and at the Viaduct Utah’s www.myspace.com/larusso">Larusso will put their cheery brand of pop rock on display for all to see. Bobble Tiki knows there’s not too much to choose from tonight, but it’s not quantity it’s quality, after all. Tonight has quality.

MORE MUSIC: What’s on tonight

SUPER BOWL HANGOVER: Try a movie

THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN
Bobble Tiki interviewed New Orleans piano legend Henry Butler a few days ago, but you’ll have to wait until Thursday to get your grubby hands on a copy. Until then, here’s a taste:

“Blinded by glaucoma since birth, Butler has never been one to be kept down by the challenges of life. The fact that, in addition to his musical career, Butler is also a world class photographer whose work has been exhibited all over the country is just one of many examples of this fact. When the murky water of Katrina flooded him from his home, Butler simply adjusted â€" packing up his surviving belongings and heading to Boulder, Colorado. After a year there, Butler relocated to Denver where he spoke with Bobble Tiki by phone earlier this week.”

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

NATASHA: TOP OF TACOMA CAFE

If you woke up this morning with a dry mouth, a headache, fatigue and drowsiness like we all did after yesterday's Super Bowl, never fear, Tacoma has just the thing to help you.

Forget about yesterday's keg of beer, little smokies and those cheap potato chips. Items that are much, much better are arriving on plates starting at 11 a.m.  today on McKinley Hill.

The Top of Tacoma Bar is opening their cafe, and even better, the entire menu is half price for this day one just so they can get all of their kinks worked out, and to ensure your utmost happiness.

What's spinnin’ on their menu is hearty, homemade food that will without a doubt help with that Super Bowl hangover: Hummus, caprese, and meat and cheese plates. Two homemade soups. Spinach, Caesar, chef, Italian and garden salads. Eleven kinds of grilled paninis. Homemade mac and cheese. Three cheese ravioli. Spaghetti. Yum!

The cafe will open at 11 a.m. for takeout for lunch and dinner and the cut-through window will service the bar until 9 p.m. on the weekdays and 1 a.m. on the weekends.

I'm never going to leave McKinley Hill again.

BRAD ALLEN: CLASSIC ROCK REPLACES HIP-HOP

The 21 and older Pacific Lounge has replaced its DJ hip-hop weekend with live rock. Check out Black Dog Feb. 15-16 and ZZ Top tribute band LaGrange Feb. 22-23, beginning at 9 p.m.

[Pacific Lounge, 2409 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.274.0311]

MATT DRISCOLL: JOURNEY INTO THE WEIRDNESS >>>

If you follow the work of the Trib’s Scott Fontaine, better known as the “Word on the Street” guy, you may have heard about the current small town fiasco gripping  Ruston politics. (Coincidentally, if you follow Fontaine’s work you may also have noticed that guy seems to have more vacation time to burn than any blogger in history.)

Basically, politics in Ruston are weird. That’s the one word everyone seems to start with when describing them. Other words, like contentious, heated, mean spirited, and down right nasty typically follow.

Tonight, at Ruston’s City Hall, a Ruston Town Council meeting will take place. The drama starts at 7 p.m. Ruston Councilman Bradley Huson enacted “Rules of Engagement” at Ruston’s last council meeting, limiting the comments of both local residents and council members to the last 15 minutes of a meeting. If the council meeting runs long, the comments are dropped from the agenda. The “Rules of Engagement” are a response to the heated and unproductive council meetings of recent memory, when public comments and basic name calling have slowed Ruston's political process to a standstill.

Needless to say, many Ruston residents are none too happy about being told to shut up.

Tonight’s Ruston Town Council Meeting could get interesting. Real interesting. If you need a little background check out these local Ruston blogs: Ruston Connection and Ruston Home. If you need some excitement in your life, consider paying closer attention to politics in Ruston.

SUZY STUMP: I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU >>>

It’s a fast-paced world we live in today, and we don’t seem to have time to do anything anymore from plant watering to floor resurfacing, it all takes time we don’t necessarily have, so we end up giving up the important stuff like meeting the opposite sex because how can you have time to toss your hair and work your smile if you’re always late for your next meeting and your palm pilot doesn’t have space for that in your schedule anyway so you have to make time and the best way to maximize the benefits your pheromones provide is to join in an organized event something like Speed Dating at The Swiss that allows you to meet people in less time than it takes to reheat a frozen chicken pot pie â€" a food you will never have to enjoy alone or at all again if you join in this particular occasion because you’ll finally have a life and the Last Chance Romeos will perform after oh how I do love them so.

[The Swiss, Thursday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m., 1904 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2821]

FILM
Juno
Very smart, very funny and then very touching; it begins with the pacing of a screwball comedy and ends as a portrait of characters we have come to love.  Ellen Page in an Oscar-worthy performance as a pregnant 16-year-old who decides to keep the child.  With J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney wonderful as her parents, older and wiser than most parents in teenage comedies.  And Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the would-be adoptive parents, and Michael Cera, shyly winning as Juno’s boyfriend.  Screenplay by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman; the best movie of 2007. Rated PG. Four stars â€" Roger Ebert

[The Grand Cinema: 4:20, 6:35, 8:50; Lakewood Cinema 15: 12:50, 3:50, 6:35, 9:40; Lakewood Towne Center 12: 3:05, 5:20, 7:35, 9:50; Regal Martin Village 16: 11:40 a.m., 2:15, 4:45, 7:45, 10:20; Regal South Hill 6: 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 4:30, 6:50, 9:20]

MORE FILM: On local screens today.

SHOW
Elvis tribute
There are two Elvis Presleys: Jailhouse Elvis and Vegas Elvis. Don't confuse them.

Jailhouse Elvis sang purdy gospels for his mama.

Vegas Elvis ate 14 cheeseburgers, washed them down with half a bottle of pain killers, and shot the crap out of a 21-inch Panasonic color TV with a .45 caliber pistol because he thought he saw Ringo waiting in the wings on the set of Merv Griffin.

Tonight, Danny Vernon, this best Elvis we have in this state, will tackle both Elvis eras. â€" Brad Allen

[Red Wind Casino, 6:30 p.m., no cover, 12819 Yelm Hwy. S.E., Olympia, 360.412.5000]

JAM
Billy Farmer
A gifted guitar player, Farmer plays acoustic with a folk style, electric in a Chicago blues stomp style and knows his way around the Delta, too.  His arsenal of strings includes a reliable 12 string, Dobro, mandolin and banjo. When he needs a little oomph, Farmer plugs in his Les Paul or Stratocaster. Farmer is a master of mimicry and can imitate everyone from Jagger to Cash.  Farmer leads the Tacos & Jams Open Mic tonight. â€" Tony Engelhart

[O’Callahan’s, 7:30 p.m., no cover, 15610 92nd St., KPN Key Center, 253.884.9766]

MORE MUSIC: In the clubs tonight.

MICHAEL SWAN: SUPER TUESDAY, SUPER FUN

The Weekly Volcano usually counts down the hours until Super Tuesday but not for the obvious reasons of gorging on bowls of clam dip and getting pie-eyed on cheap beer. Nope, we usually love Super Tuesday because while folks are cloistered away screaming at their TV sets, the city is our oyster.

Not this year.  We’ll be glued to our TV sets seeking celebrities for guidance.

LINK: Alternet.

BOBBLE TIKI: FUGACIOUS, SUPER TUESDAY, NAKED DEROSA >>>

THE DAILY WORD

Learn it, use it spell it

Fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:

Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Despite his best intentions, and the support of every friend he had, Bill O'€Reilly'€s stint at rehab was fugacious. O'€Reilly checked himself in Friday afternoon, and by the Saturday night Bettie Ford volleyball game O'€Reilly had jumped the fence, covering his naked body with only the issue of How To Yell Louder: A Guide to World Domination Through Vocal Domination which he had keestered into the facility. Citizens should be on the look out for a blabbering and disoriented white male, possibly armed (because it's his freakin' Constitutional right, yo!)

THE MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Oops

SEATTLE: Loose Nickels

HOLLYWOOD: But writers don'€'t like to work.

NATION: Decisions, decisions.

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: Just because it'€s Super Tuesday, and the fate of our country over the next four years will go a long way towards being determined today, don't let that stop you from letting it all hang out. Let everyone else stay home and discuss politics and policy. Chumps. Join Bobble Tiki at Maggie O'Toole'€s tonight for the club€'s Loud and Local show â€" guaranteed to rock your face off.

MORE MUSIC: What's on tonight

MEET STEPH DEROSA: She'€ll kick your ass and show you her tits

THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN
Bobble Tiki interviewed New Orleans piano legend Henry Butler a few days ago, but you'€ll have to wait until Thursday to get your grubby hands on a copy. Until then, here's a taste:

"Blinded by glaucoma since birth, Butler has never been one to be kept down by the challenges of life. The fact that, in addition to his musical career, Butler is also a world class photographer whose work has been exhibited all over the country is just one of many examples of this fact. When the murky water of Katrina flooded him from his home, Butler simply adjusted - packing up his surviving belongings and heading to Boulder, Colorado. After a year there, Butler relocated to Denver where he spoke with Bobble Tiki by phone earlier this week."

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

STEPH DEROSA: THREATENING PUNKASS KIDS >>>

It was in Olympia that I found the coolest of the cool kid bathrooms. Wind Up Here, located downtown on Fifth Avenue, has a room that houses a toilet, and reminds me of my very first acid trip. Dr. Seuss everywhere! Purple molding! A room long and narrow! I was expecting Knights in White Satin to begin playing through the speakers. While I flashbacked to New Year's Eve 1986, I thought of my teenage rebellion and drug experimentation. Then I thought of my sweet daughter: will she be a naughty teenager like I was? Will she lie to me? Will she defy authority? Oh shit, of course she will, she's my daughter. I'm so screwed.

I recently came across a Stadium High School teenager with nothing but defiance and attitude streaming hot through his blood. I consider him brave, yet stupid, seeing as how he attempted to release some teenage angst onto me as I was passing him by. I would only hope it would scare him straight:

First off, let it be known that Steph DeRosa is a fan of Bikram Yoga, aka hot yoga.It takes place in a room in which temperature exceeds 100 degrees. Needless to say, I am going to be smart and dress very light for the four gallons of water I'm about to sweat out thus wearing shorts. So what if it's 40 degrees outside? I've got my little yoga shorts on as I drop my daughter off at preschool and head to Bikram Yoga.

On the morning of the incident, I had prepared myself to engage in my usual Bikram Yoga ritual, so I was wearing my sweat-ready shorts on a blistery 45 degree morning and had my hair in some stylin pigtails. Though somehow after dropping my daughter off, I was convinced to skip yoga and join my friends for coffee talk at the Stadium District Tully's.

After we had our gossip time, and a warm fill of coffee, it was time to pick the kids up from preschool. Apparently Stadium High School had let out early that day, because the swarm of kids outside was reminiscent of a New Orlean's Mardi Gras parade. As I headed to my car, I passed by a group of teenage boys who took it upon themselves to make fun of my yoga-shorts-wearing- ass. They had a few choice words for me, and at first I ignored them and kept on walking. You know, what the mature person would do, right? Then it hit me. As they continued to heckle, I had begun to have enough. I turned and headed right back to them.

As I approached the boys, I got right up on them, nose-to-nose, and asked them to say it again¬" this time to my face.Huh? What? Lady, you're crazy!¬" they couldn't do it. Yeah, they thought they were tough as I was walking away. But say it to my face? They didn't have the balls.

The hoodrats started to walk away, but I wouldn't let them. It was payback time. I followed them, and heckled right back:Hey, look at you in your baggy pants¦ look at you walkin like you took a big dump in your pants you punk ass kid. Yeah walk away, go run to mommy. How does it feel, huh? You're not so tough now, are you?That's when I heard one of them say to the other,You're not going to tell mom, are you?Then they ran. As they ran, they called me names, but I just yelled back. I let them know that they'd be cleaning my pool one day. That is, if it was even feasible to own a pool in the Pacific Northwest, but you get my point.

OK, so I had my immature moment, and I have no regrets. I hope I scared the punks at least a little. I did it for my daughter's future, I did it for all yoga shorts wearing women, and I did it for any person walking down the street who is about to pass by a group of teenagers. Be not afraid to stick up for yourself! Down with yoga shorts heckling!

JENNIFER JOHNSON: BALANCING BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT >>>

Balancing Body, Mind and Spirit, an inspiring and empowering evening with Elizabeth Bloom, D.H.M., a leader and practitioner in the field of holistic medicine, and Linda Christiano, an RN specializing in cardio-pulmonary rehab and coronary health will take place at Tacoma’s Savi Day Spa Thursday, Feb. 7.

Bloom’s background in homeopathy, naturopathy, and holistic medicine combines various cultures and medicinal practices. Bloom will relate tips for balancing the stressors of life, aligning the mind, body and spirit, and increasing overall health.

Christiano will share information on the LIFE system of biofeedback, stress detection and reduction.

Proceeds from Thursday’s event will be donated to the American Heart Association in conjunction with the Heart Ball 2008 Saturday at the Hotel Murano.

[Savi Day Spa, Thursday, Feb. 7, 6-8 p.m., $30 reserved space, Hotel Hurano, 1320 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.627.2000]