SUZY STUMP: YUM >>>

Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first. 

We own stock in that maxim.

At the Weekly Volcano, our days are make-it-or-break-it, depending on which stories and photos come through. 

But beyond our editorial hive, we know Fate and her fickle friend Mother Nature have itchy fingers, dying to reach out and touch others. 

Someone who’s getting hired or fired. Someone else who’s been hit by a fire or flood.  Or the lucky devil with the Wonka Golden Ticket.   

So, we couldn’t agree more in putting the sweets (and art) before the brussels sprouts. We hit the Tacoma Art Museum’s Building Birthday Bash Saturday, celebrating TAM’s fifth year in their building, cramming as many cupcakes down our throats as we could and working it off before DJ Pana-Jesus Villegas in the plaza outside.  It was a beautiful, fun bash.

TAM lined its walkways with multi-colored non-edible cakes created by local artists in honor of the museum’s fifth year of residency. Grab a piece at the Weekly Volcano’s Photo Hot Spot.

BOBBLE TIKI: BREAKFAST WITH BOBBLE TIKI >>>

THE DAILY WORD
Fustian \FUHS-chuhn\, noun:
1. A kind of coarse twilled cotton or cotton and linen stuff, including corduroy, velveteen, etc.
2. An inflated style of writing or speech; pompous or pretentious language.
3. Made of fustian.
4. Pompous; ridiculously inflated; bombastic.

USAGE EXAMPLE: When it serves him, Bobble Tiki’s speech is full of bombast and fustian, but usually he just talks like a trucker. 

MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Good ol' Ruston

OLYMPIA: Mad skills 

SEATTLE: Top two

UNITED STATES: Obama and Orwell

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

BRAD ALLEN: ON SALE SATURDAY AND MONDAY >>>

Nine Inch Nails will play KeyArena Saturday, July 26. Tickets are $35 and $55, and go on sale Saturday, May 10 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.

Stevie Wonder's only Northwest appearance will be Friday, July 11 at the White River Amphitheatre. Tickets are $45, $59.50, $69.50 and $125. The tickets will go on sale Monday, May 12 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.

Bridge, On The Rocks, originally uploaded by johnwayneismydad.

This shot rocks!

SUZY STUMP: 72-HOUR FILM COMPETITION >>>

You know how sometimes you watch a particularly crappy movie and you think to yourself, “Even I could make a better film than that!”? Apparently, the people at Tacoma’s Grand Cinema agree with you, and that is why they gave 30 teams with a video camera and $50 a chance to write, shoot and screen a five-minute film. The films were shot over the weekend. The movies will be screened, and prizes will be awarded at the 72-Hour Film Competition Friday at the Rialto Theater.

On of the films to screen Friday will be Clueless In Tacoma, a collaboration between Trinda Love, Vicki Jackson, Jennevieve Schlemmer, Greg Youtz, Lynn Di Nino and Becky Frehse.  Looks like it will be a bubbly flick.

[Rialto Theater, Friday, May 9, 7 p.m., $9-$11, 310 S. Ninth, Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

MATT DRISCOLL: LOVES FREE SHIT>>>

Today is a busy day at Weekly Volcano World Headquarters. Pappi Swarner is running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off, and Bobble Tiki smells like he drank his lunch (even more so than usual.) This is the way the beginning of the week usually goes here at the office.

Maybe you’re as busy as me, stuck in front of your computer in a cubicle somewhere and looking for something to raise your spirits.

If that’s the case, let me suggest the new Nine Inch Nails record, The Slip, which as of today is free for download here. That’s right. Absolutely free. Apparently it’s a thank you from Trent Reznor to his fans for all the years of support. Either that or it’s a reaction to the ever changing music business, where record sales are plummeting and everything is available for free somewhere on the Internet anyway. Whatever the reason, I recommend taking advantage of it. Free stuff is the bomb, especially when it’s a new NIN record.

LINK: NIN tickets go on sale Saturday.

MATT DRISCOLL: RESIDENT NOISE ORDINANCE EXPERT >>>

Tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Olympia (at council chambers, 900 Plum St. S.E.) the Olympia Planning Commission will revisit a hotly contested proposed amendment to the Olympia Noise Ordinance that would make it illegal for bars and live music venues to be noisier than 60 decibels between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The Commission is expected to make a recommendation on the proposed amendment tonight, and forward that recommendation to the Olympia City Council â€" who will decide the issue once and for all at a later date.

The meeting is open to the public and the Weekly Volcano recommends showing up and giving the Planning Commission an earful about all the reasons this new amendment is wrong for Olympia.

Here’s something from today’s Olympian.

And here’s a piece about the proposed amendment that ran in the Weekly Volcano a few weeks ago.

FILM
Paranoid Park
The title of Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park refers to a rough skateboard park underneath a bridge in Portland, Ore. â€" a place where, they say, “dead bodies” are buried beneath the contoured cement.  It also describes the confused conscience of Alex (Gabe Nevins), the emotionally isolated teenager who narrates the movie and who actually sounds like a teenager while doing it.  In voice-over, Alex reads aloud from his journal as if he were delivering a book report in class, but he’s trying to confess the darkest secret of his young life. 

Many films make use of scrambled chronology just to make the story seem more interesting than it really is.  That’s not what happens in Paranoid Park.  The story, told as Alex pencils entries into a lined notebook, is an elliptical record of how he processes the terrible thing that happened one night in the neighborhood of Paranoid Park.  The narrative moves in arcs and curves, like the skateboarders who float and glide around in dreamy 8mm slow-motion, as Alex circles the truth in his writing, promising himself, “I’ll get it all on paper eventually.” Rated R for some disturbing images, language and sexual content. Three-and-a-half stars â€" Jim Emerson
[The Grand Cinema, 4:50 and 9 p.m., $4.50-$8, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

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. His unassuming legend binds up our hopes and dreams and repackages them in songs with innocuous titles like "Teddy Bear" and "Blue Suede Shoes." When he moves, he incites the '50s congressman to reproach him and his music as "violative of all that I know to be good in taste."

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. Randy Linder will join Vernon as the John Fogerty. â€" Brad Allen
[Red Wind Casino, 7 p.m., no cover, 12819 Yelm Hwy. S.E., Olympia, 360.412.5000]

OPEN MIC
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 open mic tonight. â€" Tony Engelhart
[O’Callahan’s, 7:30 p.m., no cover, 15610 92nd St., KPN Key Center, 253.884.9766]

LINK: Dustin Lafferty and the others in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Let’s eat Italian tonight.