EVENT
Urban Art Festival
For the fourth annual Urban Art Festival, the presenters are predicting the weather will find a happy medium between last year’s monsoon and the previous year’s heat wave. Ever learning, the patient founders have opted to again use the Fireman's Park and surrounding streets, but have evolved the layout into a more compact and approachable footprint. Read the full details here. â€" Daniel Blue
[Fireman’s Park, noon til dusk, corner A Street and South Ninth Street, Tacoma, www.urbanartfestival.net]

EVENT
In The Spirit
The Washington State History Museum and the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at The Evergreen State College will host the third annual In the Spirit Northwest Native Arts Market and Festival today. Hosted at the History Museum, In the Spirit will showcase North American native culture as it moves into the new millennium, says curator Mellissa Parr, who characterizes artistic offerings such as Seneca artist Linley Logan’s Mosquito Mask as gifts rather than commodities. The values of the gifts, she says, are in their power to provoke feeling â€" awe, revulsion, elation â€" sometimes all at once. And while many arts festivals promise to move your soul, only to fall embarrassingly short, “In the Spirit” sounds like it just might deliver on its name.  â€" Paul Schrag
[Washington State History Museum, noon to 5 p.m., $6-$8, 1911 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, 888.BE.THERE]

COUNTRY
Diamond Rio
Still alive and kickin’, Diamond Rio is one of the most enduring bands to come out the ’90s country revival. A hybrid of pop-country, bluegrass and rock and roll, the group was in step with the times alongside McBride & the Ride and Blackhawk. Diamond Rio proved they had staying power well into the new millennium as in 2001 they celebrated their second No. 1 with “One More Day” and in 2002 they had a third with “Beautiful Mess.” â€" Tony Engelhart
[Little Creek Casino, 6 p.m., $27-$32, 91 W. State Route 108, Shelton, 800.667.7711]

STEPH DEROSA: DINNER WITH DEROSA >>>

There’s a new cupcake in town, folks.  Original, unique, and creative ingredients help make this flour induced newbie a real contender.

I noticed The Spotted Dog Cake Company’s tent last week at the downtown Tacoma Farmers Market, and was drawn in by the simple display of tiny little cupcakes.  For 75 cents I was able to pick from four different creations, ultimately choosing a lavender vanilla flavored piece of mini-cupcake bliss.  This week, The Spotted Dog Cake Company will be providing homemade sugary snacks for our theoretical, imaginary, online weekly dinner known as Dinner with DeRosa.

Aside from the Tacoma Farmers Market, I was also able to attend the opening day of this year’s Taste of Tacoma.  Fortunately I have this kick-ass job and a kick-ass boss to work for â€" giving me endless opportunities to get out and be a part of this town.  I get paid the big bucks to hang out in the sun with Matt Driscoll, blog live from events, eat a bunch of greasy alligator (on a stick!), and even drink beer if I feel so inclined.  This week’s Dinner with DeRosa guests are some of the people I had the incredible luck of meeting at the 2008 Taste of Tacoma.

Andrew Wyman, my first guest, is part of the B97.3 street team.  I was immediately charmed by him and wooed toward his tent last Friday as Matt Driscoll and his family waited in line for free S&W rice.  The dude gets paid for just standing there and being the charming, enthusiastic fella that he is.  (I’m talking about Andrew, not Matt.) How can you beat that?  It was his first day on the job, and he was taking it by the horns.  Excellent job â€" and rock on, Andrew!

Dolling out energy drinks only a sugar-bred college student would drink, were the gorgeous members of Everett Community College’s softball team.  I made fun of them for being from the 425, until Kally Behen quickly chimed in to let me know that she was in fact from the 360.  I said that was close enough to my 253 and then gave them all the stamp of coolness.  Joleen Monfiletto and Stacey Todd were the other two beauties that rallied and tolerated my area code abrasiveness.

Remember back in the day, way before cable television and back when the hardest-hitting drug in the schools was pot?  Yeah, that was also back when it was mandatory to drink eight glasses of milk a day.  Then eventually bottled water came to town and poked its head into the markets.  Now, all of the sudden, those eight mandatory glasses of milk becomes eight mandatory glasses of WATER.  I agree that water is vital to your body’s well being, but I also believe that the bottled water companies have had a strong pull in how America now obsesses over this dietary aqua regimen.  Plain and simple, they want your money. I claim my conspiracy theory right here and now. 

Look, I even have proof with this picture I took of a Crystal Waters guy.  He’s saying it right there: STOP Free water!

There’s no need to go into detail about my next dinner guest.  All we need to know is he is sporting a rat tail/mullet combo.  Check the badassedness out.

My last guest is the main man with the plan, the gentleman who led the troops of summer-smitten camp-going youngsters at Annie Wright School, Tal.  Being a graduate of Annie Wright School, Tal is now in college, but has made his way home to lead a summer camp, which housed my daughter for the last two weeks while I did my Weekly Volcano thing sans 5-year-old.  I know my daughter appreciated you and your staff as much as I did, Tal. 

Mangiamo!

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: SHOESTRING>>>

Barefoot Studios is dead. Long live Barefoot Collective.
The new Barefoot Collective is working to incorporate as a not-for-profit dedicated to the practice and performance of movement and related arts in a way a studio could only imagine. The venue  will continue to teach and work in the beautiful space everyone in the arts world knows as Barefoot Studios. But there will be more, much more.

The effort will add more classes, more faculty and more events starting in August and running through the New Year.

FILM
Mongol
A ferocious film, blood-soaked, pausing occasionally for passionate romance and more frequently for torture. As a visual spectacle, it is all but overwhelming, putting to shame some of the recent historical epics from Hollywood. If it has a flaw, and it does, it is expressed succinctly by the wife of its hero: "All Mongols do is kill and steal." At the end of two hours, its hero, not yet known as Genghis Khan, has two more movies to go. Awesome, if you go for nonstop carnage. Full review here. Rated R. Three and a half stars. â€" Roger Ebert
[The Grand Cinema, 3:15, 6, and 8:40 p.m., $4.50-$8, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

BLUES
Little Bill Engelhart
Little Bill Engelhart is soul on wheels. He’s also probably one of the most inspirational musicians that you’re likely to meet in person.

He grew up on Hilltop Tacoma and learned rock ’n’ roll by playing rhythm and blues with the black musicians’ downtown, which was unusual for a young white kid at the time. He formed a band with some of his teenage friends and had a national hit when he was just 19 titled “I’m in Love with an Angel.” Life after that seemed a bit anti-climactic. Once you’ve toured with the most famous musicians of your time, it’s hard to come home and be an every day guy.

He engaged in the usual rock-and-roll pitfalls and lived to candidly tell the tale in an autobiographical memoir titled “Next Stop Bakersfield.”

After 54 years in the music business, Engelhart still works every day booking, promoting and playing music. Did I mention he also has polio and spends the majority of his time in a wheel chair? Despite any adversities he’s faced, he and his Bluenotes are still one of the most sought-after acts in the Northwest. The Washington Blues Society has awarded him with best band; best bass player, best blues writer and lifetime achievement award. He is a legendary Northwest blues musician and perhaps the Godfather of rock ’n’ roll in Tacoma. He and his band, the Bluenotes, are featured in the EMP museum’s Northwest Passage. He’s kind of a big deal. â€" Angela Jossy
[The Swiss, 8 p.m., no cover, 1904 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2821]

LINK: The Globes and others in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Check out the movie stating times here.
LINK: Let’s eat American today.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET JULIE BENNETT >>>

Julie Bennett is the owner of urbanXchange and a major force behind much of the mercantile activity that happens in her corner of Pacific Avenue.

When I met Julie downtown four years ago, she was working as the attendance lady at the Life Christian Center private school. Even then she was working hard to expose people to culture and arts. She asked me and some friends from downtown to come and speak at the school early one morning. I'm not sure what the hell I even talked about, I was just trying to make sure I didn't say any swear words, but I remember seeing Julie in the isle crying her little heart out.

She got the idea for her store from heaven, it seems. When I discovered she was acting on her dream, I walked in and told her she was going to hire me. I worked at urbanXchange for two years. She was like everyone's mom. Annoying sometimes, telling you to drink water and brush your teeth, but we knew we were loved.

The urban X is still rocking downtown with more culture than you can find on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

LINK: The Globes, Tree Roots In The Basement, and others play an all-ages show tonight at 7 p.m. at urbanXchange.

BOBBLE TIKI: BREAKFAST WITH BOBBLE TIKI >>>

THE DAILY WORD

Indigent \IN-dih-juhnt\, adjective:
Extremely poor; not having the necessities of life, such as food, clothing and shelter.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Waiting for his bus at 10th and Commerce, Bobble Tiki was bombarded by Tacoma’s indigent homeless population, all of whom seemed to need a dollar for the bus or a cigarette for the wait.

MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Cross-base highway answers

OLYMPIA: Sustainable prisons

SEATTLE: Hot gays

UNITED STATES: Clarence Thomas and Barack

ENVIRONMENT: Trains vs planes

JUST BIZARRE: Did you see that?

MORE STRANGE NEWS: I'm out of here

THINGS TO DO TODAY
FILM LISTINGS: Look here
MUSIC LISTINGS: Here’s what’s happening
SHOOT THE SHIT: Weekly Volcano forums

JOHN HERBERT: REDUCE CRIME, MAKE PRETTY >>>

It's officially creepy â€" Make Tacoma Safe and Clean is the name given to the City of Tacoma's crime reduction efforts, complete with a huge list of tactics.

Let's get to work.

STEPH DEROSA: HOT TIME IN THE CITY >>>

It was one hot MFing day yesterday.  All weekend, actually â€" but on Sunday the sun was relentless on our pasty Tacoma bodies as hundreds of eclectic individuals (including myself) set out to attend one of the best festivals this city has to offer: Urban Art Festival.

It’s a given that I will inevitably run into familiar faces anytime I set out to a community event, and Urban Art Festival was no exception.  As the sweat rings increased under my breast folds, it became more apparent that no matter how damn hot it got, I was there for the long run.  I simply could not leave!

Amazing local artists lined the streets of downtown’s back alleys and Fireman’s Park.  A surplus of melodic talent also graced many of the four music stages this festival had to offer.

Tacoma Mama had her usual kiddy set-up, giving local youngsters and outlet, and urban parents a well needed break.  (Can I request the beer garden be located next to Tacoma Mama next year?)

Stephanie Johnson belted out her usual heavy vocals as she flawlessly stroked her guitar for admiring onlookers.

Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing enticed all who were present, especially the kids.

Can-U featuring DJ Reign was definitely one of the highlights for me that afternoon.  His lyrics speak volumes, and my body listened with admiration.

The Swiss brought cold kegs of alcohol relief as my posse and I sought the shade of the beer garden and took in the sounds of Don’t Tell Sophie.

Of course my favorite part, and the place where I hunted most refuge was the Weekly Volcano lounge next to Mad Hat Tea Company. 

The craziest stage on sight was definitely the House Stage.  There were sprinklers, a wading pool, hula-hoops, and lawn chairs galore.  Throw in a BBQing, beer drinking Mr. DeRosa and you have an exact replica of my backyard.  If only I could get the artists and bands to show up, I’d never leave the house.

LINK: More Urban Art Festival photos at the Weekly Volcano's Photo Hot Spot.

LINK: Urban Art Festival cover story