BOBBLE TIKI: BREAKFAST WITH BOBBLE TIKI >>>

THE DAILY WORD

Fiduciary \fih-DOO-shee-air-ee\, adjective:
1. Relating to the holding of something in trust for another.
2. Someone who stands in a special relation of trust, confidence, or responsibility in certain obligations to others; a trustee.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Much like former Miss Washington, Bobble Tiki has some embarrassing drunken moments in his past. Luckily for him, Bobble Tiki’s fiduciary friends at TGI Fridays will never tell a soul.

MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Happy birthday new Tacoma Narrows bridge

OLYMPIA: That's a lot of tools

SEATTLE: Charges filed in traffic circle assault

UNITED STATES: That Obama cartoon everyone's talking about

ENVIRONMENT: Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling

JUST BIZARRE: Inside job

MORE STRANGE NEWS: Indecent

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

DANIEL BLUE: MEET BEN MEERSMAN >>>

Ben Meersman no longer lives in Tacoma, but he is a genuine product of our pleasant village.   

I met Ben through our mutual friend Joel Meyers, who was a fellow ballet dancer and emotional magician. 

Ben is the strongest human male I know. His physique is nothing short of epic, lifting young women and young men all over the stage in statuesque animation.   How is that possible, to be static and dynamic in the same moment?  I do not know, but it is pleasurable to view. 

Ben falls no measure short of being described as sweet.  His character is mature and his tolerance is high.  Patient and kind, his soft voice soothes one into a trance of sorts, wherein a body desires to simply find companionship with the source of utterance. 

Ben now dances in a cabaret in an underground bar aptly named the Can Can at the entrance to Pike Place Market.  His apartment deck looks down on the Seattle Art Museum's Hammering Man.  He has become a metropolitan ballet demigod, but as I teasingly called him a traitor he seemed genuinely hurt and said, "Daniel, I love this town."    

Your love is good enough for now.

MATT DRISCOLL: THAT’S A LOT OF WEED >>>

So, how much pot do you go through in two months? What’s your 60-day supply? How many doobies can you put away?

Well, for those using weed for medicinal purposes (people I’m always a little jealous of until I pull my head out of my stoner ass and I realize they’ve probably got glaucoma), the State Department of Health just attempted to define how much weed is a 60 day supply.

And it’s a lot.

According to the Department of Health, albeit preliminarily, 24 ounces of usable marijuana sounds just about right â€" or if you’ve got a green thumb up to six mature plants and 18 immature plants. The recommendation of 24 ounces as a 60 day supply is the first step in the process â€" opening a public comment period on the suggestion, and setting the stage for an August 25 public hearing on the matter. After the public hearing the State Health Department will finalize their definition of a 60 day supply.

For the record, the approximate street value of 24 ounces of marijuana- sold by the ounce â€" is about $6240.

According to a press release distributed by the Department of Health yesterday, the current medical marijuana law in Washington “limits patients to a 60-day supply, but does not define supply ― leading to confusion among patients, doctors, advocates, and law enforcement.”

Defining a two month supply as 24 ounces is the State Health Departments way of clearing that confusion â€" though something tells me going through 24 ounces in two months will lead to confusion of its own.

It must be noted that while, by all indications, the most pot a medical marijuana user can have over 60 day period will likely soon be 24 ounces, doctors who prescribe bud will be able recommend less or more than specified in the soon-to-be rule.

Either way, anyone out there got a green card? I’m looking for a new best friend.

SUZY STUMP: BE A STAR >>>

Have you been stifling your fly dancing moves?

Click! Cable TV and the Tacoma School of the Arts are producing a music video to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Click! SOTA students composed the ditty.  Filming begins this Friday in and around downtown Tacoma.

Want to be a part of it?

The video calls for crowd scenes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the final scene, a dance scene, in Tollefson Plaza.

If you are interested, contact Jermae McCoy at Click! All participants will receive their own DVD plus a bitchin’ Click! T-shirt.

Come on, now â€" bust a move!

STEPH DEROSA: PLEASE TO MEET YOU >>>

I'm typically happy to meet and see pretty much anyone I know when I'm out and about in the community. Whether I'm shopping with the babe, or sipping coffee with Bandito Betty, or cruisin the local weekend festivals with Carmen and The KAke; it's always assumed I will run into people I know. It's Tacoma, after all. Right?

I wish I could take a public poll: How many people feel the need to duck and hide sometimes in order to avoid the ol stop and chat? Is it wrong to feel that way sometimes? What are the laws of public conversation and how do we know our boundaries?

Perched upon my barstool at everyone's favorite, Parkway Tavern, I was there to accomplish two things: Catch up with Bandito and have a damn beer. I had no intention of hanging out with anyone else, but I go into any social situation with the assumption that I will spot a familiar face. What if I see someone I know, but don't feel like talking? What if they don't feel like talking to me? When is conversation necessary?

When the beer hit my bladder and it was time to break the seal, my time inside the bathroom gave me opportunity to calculate public conversation appropriateness.

1. If it's a crowded venue and you make eye contact with someone you know, a smile and wave is mandatory. If there is nothing important to say, keep moving. Very rarely do I pretend I don't see the person, but I have done so on small occasions, I'll admit it. This rule of thumb goes mainly when you are in a place where everyone is standing. Like a grocery store or concert.

2. At bars and restaurants I always say hi to people I know. If they are at another table, I will always stop to say hi, but I will never stay and chat. I think it's rude to leave without personally saying hi, but it's even ruder to interrupt their company for too long.

3. Now let's say I saw someone I recognized but had never met. I'm talking anyone from a mutual friend, all the way to a celebrity. This is a hard call. I suppose it depends on how I recognized the person.

• First example:You know my cousin Angie, and I just wanted to introduce myself¬" that is an easy one.
• Second example: A celebrity. In my heart of hearts, I say in no way would I bother them by showing up and fawning over them. If I'm introduced, then that's cool. I've stood next to celebrities being yelled at from afar, and it always bothered me that people were so intrusive. That being said, lately I've had some eye-opening experiences that confuse me on what stand I should take on all this social etiquette bullshit. Please see next note:
• Let me start out by saying that by no means do I view myself as a celebrity, by ANY stretch of the imagination. But it is a fact that I, amongst many other amazing people, write for the Weekly Volcano. Lately I've begun to meet people who recognize me and know me from this lil alternative weekly we have going on here¬" and I love it! It sincerely makes me so happy to hear that people read, how they feel about reading it, and what they have to say. Just typing this out makes me smile; it's genuinely nice to meet people who read the Weekly Volcano.

So I suppose that's where my confusion lies¬" I feel like I don't want to bother anyone, but I don't want to be rude by not saying hi, but then I don't mind being bothered when people want to say hi to me. Leave it to me to take something so insignificant, and put it in a Petri dish for closer analysis. 

Regardless, to everyone new I have met in the past few months it was certainly a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And of the 67,999,999,999 blogs out there on the Web to chose from, thank you for reading this one.

LINK: Toilet Tales archive
LINK: Steph DeRosa likes dive bars
LINK: Steph hangs in the Forum

SUZY STUMP: I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT >>>

Why, Pork Rinds, why am I ignoring my instincts and contemplating a relationship with you?

I know you're a puffy snack literally cut from pigskin.

I also know you’re deep-fried.

It's that Men’s Health magazine, isn't it? It says you’re not a bad match for me. The mag also says I may hook up with your friends Alcohol, Beef Jerky, Sour Cream,  Coconut and Chocolate Bar.

Wait, this is crazy. You made me feel bad. Just leave me alone.

ART
Forty Part Motet
Canadian artist Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet combines sound, movement and environment in her work. The TAM visitor will proactively move through the space activating sounds and unfolding narratives. Forty Part Motet is a 40-track audio installation that allows listeners to experience sound from the viewpoint of a choir, physically involving them in a piece of music by the 16th-century English composer Thomas Tallis. â€" Suzy Stump
[Tacoma Art Museum, through Sept. 7, $6.50-$7.50, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

FILM
Kenny
The 2006 film Kenny brings to the surface a subject we normally cringe at: poop and pee. Its eponymous hero installs and cleans public waste receptacles for a living. Almost two hours of excrement â€" sounds like the perfect vehicle for Adam Sandler’s juvenile brand of comedy, right? â€" Kenny actually hails from Australia. Already having garnered multiple awards and won fans Down Under, Kenny smartly avoids the easy raunchiness of its premise, instead painting an enjoyable and sympathetic picture of a man â€" and occupation â€" that society ignores. Read full review here. â€" Christopher Wood
[The Grand Cinema, 4:50 p.m., $4.50-$8, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

BLUES
Blues in the Round
Many blues songwriters find themselves at a crossroads these days. The farms, factories, prairies, barns and silos that gave them early inspiration are disappearing, buried under strip malls, urban sprawl, subdivisions and unbridled expansion.
What the hell do they write about these days?
Find out tonight when Rhapsody in Bloom hosts Malcolm Clark and his friends for a blues in the round concert. You know Mike Coucoules will be there with his funky bass ready to join Clark for their versions of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone," "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "All Along the Watchtower." Ah, old is still golden. â€" Brad Allen
[Rhapsody In Bloom Florist and Café Latte, 7 p.m., all ages, donations, 3709 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.761.7673]

POP
Scott Fisher
Fisher’s latest CD, Step Into the Future, has been burning a hole in Bobble Tiki’s Discman (Bobble Tiki’s old school, yo!) since its release last year. An astounding mix of many of Bobble Tiki’s favorite flavors â€" like jazz fusion, reggae, and radio ready pop â€" Step Into the Future, which features Fisher’s backing band 1 a.m. Approach, was easily one of the most exciting piano driven records to drop last year. â€" Bobble Tiki
[Jazzbones, 7 p.m., all ages, $5, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169]

LINK: Cancer Birthday Bash and more in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Discover when the movies start here.
LINK: Let’s eat at a bistro today.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET BEN PARIS >>>

Ben Paris no longer lives in Tacoma, and he did not grow up in Tacoma.  Despite these things, the mark he has left on our funny bones and our metronomes will not be lost even if he stays away for a time and a half.   

This is truly the strangest man. Once in my kitchen he placed a colander on his head and said, "I am the queen of France."  He then began to wave his arms like tentacles to the rhythm of a Latin-type beat boxing blurting forth from his beard-bordered lips.   

I spent quite a bit of time with him heckling customers from behind the counter at urbanXchange, where we worked together for more than a year. "Um, you don't want to buy that?" he would ask with disgust to teenage girls simply trying to get on with their day. 

I was the good cop,

"Hey man, let the girls buy what they want." 

Usually our argument would escalate into a slapping frenzy, to the giggling pleasure of the bewildered and now ignored store patron. 

Ben's weirdo factor is only surpassed by his genuine love for the well being of those who have adopted him as their beloved comic relief.  He will be missed, until he returns, when he will no longer be missed.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive