MARKET
Proctor Farmers Market
Valhalla will unfold on earth once again when the Proctor Farmers’ Market opens for the season this morning. While your best bets for fresh produce this time of year include tomatoes, green beans, salad greens and possibly strawberries, this farmers’ market doesn’t stop there: You’ll also find flower bouquets, oysters, artisan crafts, and concessions. â€" Jake de Paul
[Proctor District, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, North 27th and Proctor, Tacoma, www.proctorfarmersmarket.com]
THE ARTS
Arts Walk XXXVI
To visit a community art fair is to be exposed to the sheer vastness of the human creative spectrum. Art, theater, music, word and film grace both ends of the spectrum this weekend at the Olympia Arts Walk XXXVI. Grab a pal and spend a couple of hours in downtown Olympia today taking in the mind-bending variety of stuff some people conjure up to express themselves and sell. The collective experience â€" bands in alleys, theater on the streets, lumberjacks and punks hugging, the proliferation of hand-painted clothing â€" can be both invigorating and thought provoking.
There may be lines drawn between fine art and crafts, and music and noise, and hobby and self-indulgence, but the 300 visual and performing artists overwhelmingly demonstrate an enthusiasm and engagement with their work â€" and it’s so much freakin’ fun. â€" Suzy Stump
[Downtown Olympia, noon-7 p.m., Procession of the Species Saturday at 4:30 p.m., 360.570.5858]
DANCE
Rudraksjya
Let’s travel to India’s east coast through dance. In Orissa, temple carvings show deities entwined in elaborate voluptuous poses. Odissi, the dance form that once enlivened those temples, embeds that sensuality in the body of the individual performer. When the Indian dance troupe Rudraksjya takes the Experimental Theater Saturday, the women onstage will settle into the traditional stance, their knees turned out and deeply bent, their bodies draping into S-shaped curves. As they stamp and turn, they wheel their torsos above those mobile hips, and right into my groin. â€" Brad Allen
[The Evergreen State College, Saturday, April 26, 8 p.m., $10-$20, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W., Olympia, 360.867.6833]
BLUES
Loose Gravel and the Quarry
Take a cup of blues, a pinch of soul and a dab of folk and you get Steven ‘Loose Gravel’ Luhtala. Give Luhtala his band, The Quarry, and you have one of the finest sounds to come out of Tacoma in a long time. â€" Tony Engelhart
[Roberts 99th St. Bar and Grill, 8 pm, 9825 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.536.1464]
LINK: Andrew Foard benefit and others in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Let’s eat in a bar.