POLITICS
Gov. Chris Gregoire
Gov. Chris Gregoire will be in town to kick off her re-election campaign. Expect  state law enforcement and firefighter organizations to announce their endorsement of the governor in front of elected officials, community supporters and Uncle Bob who has been passed out from a wedding held there over the weekend. â€" Brad Allen
[Landmark Convention Center, noon, 47 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, www.governor.wa.gov]

POP
Sirens Sister
Singer Zach Davidson’s songwriting for Seattle’s venerable rock ‘n’ roll giants Vendetta Red was a bleak and despairing glimpse into a world fraught with loves lost and stories untold, running a dark and emotional gamut that stretched from ridding yourself of your own existence to acknowledging the perversions of the human spirit. As Davidson’s haunted pop songs took shape and Vendetta Red began to burn itself steadily out, Sirens Sister became a reality through what the group has decided is a run-in with serendipitous fate. “We knew we had to start a new band because the music is so natural and different; it really was its own individual that needed its own space to grow," explains Davidson.

Sirens Sister is Vendetta Red all grown up, trading a little bit of fuck you for a lot more maturity, both in songwriting spirit and in controlled, competent musicianship. And Davidson’s voice! No more screeches and the kind of strained screams that tear vocal chords to shreds. Instead, more dynamic range and clarity focus a beam of light on these new ideas about love, about craft, and about musicality. â€" Mike Stasiak
[Hell’s Kitchen, Sirens Sister, Casket Salesmen, Inverse, Ghost Runner On Third, 6 p.m., all ages, $8, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

LINK: Rockaraoke and more in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Let’s eat Chinese today.

ALEC CLAYTON: NOUVEAU GLAM TACOMA >>>

The hoity toity in the Emerald City have chosen Tacoma artist Robbi Firestone to be a featured artist at “Nouveau Glam,” PONCHO’s 46th annual Red Carpet Gala to be held at Seattle’s Westin Hotel April 12.

PONCHO â€" Patrons of Northwest Civic, Cultural and Charitable Organizations â€" has been supporting the arts in the Pacific Northwest since 1962, during which time the organization has given more than $32 million to support more than 200 different area arts organizations.

Firestone is a portrait artist. Her portraits are glamorous, colorful and new-agey, with a slight funhouse mirror distortion. She calls them “Spirit Capture” oil portraits and says they represent the subject’s “inner essence.” On her Web site, Firestone describes a portrait sitting this way: “We discuss your vision for life, your joys, your passions and dreams. I script an intuitive reading into the background of the piece, speaking of the divine 'Beauty I See in You.'

“Share with me your loves, your legacy ... your innermost beauty. I will portray your inner essence, so you may 'be truly seen' in an exquisite oil portrait to last for generations.”

If this appeals to you, you can bid on a Robbi Firestone Spirit Capture oil portrait at the PONCHO gala.

"The arts have flourished in our region largely due to PONCHO's 46 years of major contributions,” Firestone said. “Arts education is imperative for creative problem solving. It is our responsibility to provide creative learning environments for our children. This is why I support PONCHO's mission."

Tickets for the black tie affair start at around $300 and include dinner and entertainment by Hit Explosion. For tickets or more information, go here or call 206.623.6233.

BOBBLE TIKI: BREAKFAST WITH BOBBLE TIKI >>>

THE DAILY WORD
Woebegone \WOE-bee-gon\, adjective:
1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow; woeful.
2. Being in a sorry condition; dismal-looking; dilapidated; run-down.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Bobble Tiki found himself woebegone upon learning the bar had just run out of Grey Goose. His night never recovered.

MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Superintendent saga continues

OLYMPIA: Colored signs

SEATTLE: Taking back their own park

UNITED STATES: Slate's Hillary deathwatch

THINGS TO DO TODAY
FILM LISTINGS: Look here
MUSIC LISTINGS: Here’s what’s happening

MATT DRISCOLL: IS FREE FALLIN' NEXT? >>>

Gov. Christine Gregoire is pumping up the crowd inside the Landmark Convention Center right now with Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down."  I'll give you a full report soon.

MATT DRISCOLL: GREGOIRE'S BUS >>>

News Tribune reporter Nikki Sullivan sprinted past me a few minutes ago after Gov. Chris Gregoire's speech inside the Landmark Convention Center.  Sullivan is riding on Gregoire's bus.  I'll have something posted soon on the event.

In the meantime, check out the license plate on Gregoire's bus.

Oregon?

Thanks to the brain trust at Doyle's for pointing that one out.

MATT DRISCOLL: GOV. GREGOIRE VISITS TACOMA >>>

Are you happy with the direction Washington State is headed? If so, Gov. Christine Gregoire would like to take credit and urge you to keep her in office come November.

On the first day of her campaign for reelection, amid many “keep Russell in Tacoma” shout-outs, Gregoire hit the road by bus and after stopping for a rally in her hometown of Auburn made Tacoma the second stop on her tour. Gregoire spoke to a moderately full room inside Tacoma’s Landmark Convention Center this afternoon â€" and the crowd, which seemed to be an equal collection of flannel clad union members and local politicians (including Mayor Bill Baarsma, Tacoma City Councilman Jake Fey, Pierce County Councilman Calving Goings, and a slew of others), ate it up. The pep rally ended with chants of “four more years.”

But it took nearly 40 minutes to get to that point. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) got the crowd going, speaking of his longtime working relationship with Gregoire â€" through her time as attorney general and work with the Department of Ecology. He proclaimed, “Washington has never had a better governor than Christine Gregoire.”

Pierce County Executive and Attorney General hopeful John Ladenburg was up next, nailing a short stump speech about the Democratic mission to “change America from the top down” this November, and his pledge to stop the “politicalization” of the Attorney General’s office once he’s elected. Unfortunately for Ladenburg, any momentum he’d gained during his brief stint in the spotlight was nullified when he introduced Gregoire at the conclusion of his speech only to find out she wouldn’t be coming out for another 10 minutes. Apparently Ladenburg was a little confused about the order of today’s rally, and Dicks grabbed the mic from him to introduce another speaker before Gregoire made her way to the stage.

My first impression upon seeing Gregoire in person this afternoon was how small she is, even in a purple power blazer. In my notes, the strange scrawling of “Gregoire is tiny. Tom Cruise tiny. Eddie Vedder tiny,” reminds me of this initial response. Surprisingly, though, especially for a politician, her charm and charisma made up for any lack of physical presence. Until today’s campaign stop I hadn’t realized how personable and comfortable Gregoire is with a crowd.

The themes of her stop in Tacoma, and her entire campaign I imagine, were basic. If you believe Gregoire’s hype, she’s a candidate who’s “taken on the tough challenges and delivered real results.” Gregoire touted accomplishments like taking Washington to its lowest unemployment rate in history, creating 225,000 new jobs, adding 84,000 children to Basic Health, and aiding the largest expansion of prison beds in state history.

All of it made me wonder why I hadn’t realized Washington was fairing so well. I guess I’m just a cynic.

On the other spectrum, Gregoire did her best to drive home the idea that her opponent, Dino Rossi, is a fear monger, just like George Bush, and if he’s elected he’ll do nothing more than act as an “echo box” for evil, representing people like the president and corporate interests instead of citizens of Washington.

After 20 minutes of pep and talk, Gregoire concluded her stop at the Landmark Convention Center and headed to King’s Books for a rock star style meet and greet with citizens of Tacoma and local politicians.

The campaign continues, as it will into November. It’ll be seven more months of Gregoire vs. Rossi, just like ’04, but this time around Tacoma got a chance to see the opening blows.

I think that means we’ve made it

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: TACOMA WRITERS TELL ALL >>>

A panel of local authors are going to talk about the voodoo they do at a discussion tonight at the Tacoma Public Library.

Peter Bacho, author of Nelson’s Run; Mark Lindquist, the Tacoma attorney who wrote The King of
Methlehem; and Brent Hartinger author of Geography Club will be in the hot seats with Tacoma
School of the Arts instructor David Savage moderating the show.

The collection will talk about The Things They Carried, a must-read for would-be writers who are interested in the craft of writing and the art of storytelling. The book explores the questions surrounding why we write and how authors manage to pull it all together.

The discussion starts at 7 p.m at the Olympic Room, Main Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. South. Visit: www.tacomapubliclibrary.org.

RON SWARNER: WRIGHT PARK RENOVATION >>>

It’s been fun watching the Wright Park renovation, as well as Lynn Di Nino’s restoration of Our Lady of the Lake, a concrete statue that stood on an island in the park for 115 years before it was vandalized.  Metro Parks Tacoma gave Di Nino the statue’s body, part of its head and two boxes of miscellaneous parts, which Di Nino has been puzzling over for the last two months.

Here’s a couple of shots of her progress. Whoa, am I seeing double?

News Tribune columnist Peter Callaghan chatted with Di Nino, too.

Oh, that's not the statue that will end up in Wright Park.  Wish it was.

LECTURE
Merna Ann Hecht
O hear my words: Poetry is alive! April is National Poetry Month, and all over the South Sound, writers will be rhymin’ and readin’ their swirl of stanzas. Today, local poet Merna Ann Hecht explores the ways in which artists meld poetry and visual art at the Tacoma Art Museum. The presentation is free with museum admission. More local poetry events can be found here. â€" Tammy Robacker
[Tacoma Art Museum, 10:30 a.m., $3.25-$7.50, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

COMMUNITY
Downtown Open House
The City of Tacoma will host an open house to unveil the Downtown Tacoma Economic Impact Analysis, which was recently conducted with the help of Austin, Texas-based Angelou Economics. This stage of the study will tell us how Tacoma impacts the local and regional economy. The open house event will take place at the Phoenix Room inside Freighthouse Square. City of Tacoma and Angelou Economics staff will be available to address questions based on the report. â€" John Herbert
[Freighthouse Square, 5:30 p.m., 430 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.591.5207]

LINK: Last Hurrah and others in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Catch a flick today.
LINK: Let’s eat Southern food today.

BRAD ALLEN: MALARKEY'S POOL AND BREW >>>

City Lights Billiards is now called Malarkey's Pool and Brew. That's old news.  Here's what's new at Malarkey's:

DJ Aaron Mack spins industry and '80s every Thursday without a cover charge.

Danny Ray hosts karaoke every Friday and Saturday beginning at 9 p.m.

Beth McBride hosts an open mic at 7 p.m. every Wednesday.

And Matt Coughlin, Dirty Bird, and Dirty Cartoons will perform April 19 without a cover charge.

[Malarkey's Pool and Brew, 445 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.383.3301]