BRAD ALLEN: GUITAR CENTER DRUM OFF >>>

Drummer Gary Guzman of the Rush tribute band 2112 out of Lakewood advanced to the Guitar Center Drum Off competition finals after winning a preliminary round Oct. 7. The Tacoma store finals will be held Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.

This is Guzman's fourth time being in the finals. He competed 2002, 2003 and 2004. He took second place in finals in 2003. The other times he grabbed third. He served as a judge for the last three years but decided to compete this year.

If Guzman wins Tuesday, he’ll advance to the district finals Nov. 11, then regionals Dec. 2 and the Grand Finals January 2009.

Get your Neil Peart on Gary!

STEPH DEROSA: CLOSING NIGHT WINNERS >>>

I had the honor of presenting the Best Short Award tonight during the Tacoma Film Festival closing ceremonies. Nick Lentz took home the award for Verlaine. The other three awards presented were:

Audience Award: Weiner Takes All: A Dogumentary

Best Documentary: On Paper Wings

Best Local Film: Memorize-You-Saw-It by Jon Betz

I'll tell you what went down tonight in the morning. The balcony is closed.

CHRISTOPHER WOOD: TFF FINAL DAY >>>

Closing Night at the Temple Theatre - talk about swanky. The Grand Cinema concluded its third annual cinematic circus known as the Tacoma Film Festival last night at the Temple Theatre. Classy yes, but the cavernous ballroom seemed an unnecessary venue given crowd turnout. Though the Temple has landmark status (serving as the city’s first movie house), the chosen location should have captured The Grand’s intimate feel better. I made due by gorging on the Harmon’s catered banquet. What a trooper.

After stuffing myself and refusing an elderly woman at my table the chance at romance with a dance (Pearl Django provided music), the evening’s big moment arrived. The Volcano’s own Steph DeRosa headed to the podium first and presented Nick Lentz’s film Verlaine with the Best Short Film plaque. Too bad Nick couldn’t accept his prize. (No filmmaker did. Lame.)

I had the fortune to view the winner for Best Documentary, On Paper Wings. Ilana Sol’s moving feature tells of several children in Oregon killed from a balloon bomb sent across the Pacific by Japanese military during World War II. Portland filmmaker and history buff Sol jokes about the five year completion time for Wings: “Making this film is a testament to what a nerd I am.”

Tacoma continued to show Portland love in, strangely, the Best Local Film category. The harrowing real-life stories told in Jon Betz’s Memorize-you-saw-it find redemption through John Bosco, a Ugandan youth seeking to help other former child soldiers. Though he remains detached in his reporting, Betz regards this project as a very personal one. “One of my dreams is to…help [Ugandans] produce their own media about their own issues,” he says.

Weiner Takes All: A Dogumentary won Audience Choice. The talk of the festival, Weiner sold out both its screenings.

And the Temple even awarded me. I drove home with the biggest trophy of all â€" a Volcano sandwich board. Attention Tabitha: Your signage is in my trunk.

Signing out.

VOLCANO SCRIBES: MORE LIVE THAN YOU’LL EVER BE >>>

Air Supply
YouTube member Wakakashi says it all, commenting on Air Supply’s seminal ballad “All out of Love.” “I did not know that the chorus is sung by a man. Somehow awkward …” he writes. “Awesome song though.” For those of you fortunate enough to have forgotten the 1980s, the Emerald Queen Casino continues to resurrect blissfully-forgotten pop zombies, sending them to assault musical evolution like hell-bent cultural creationists. Oct. 10, undead super-Brit Graham Russell and Australian mate Russell Hitchcock will join the horde. God help us. Still, there’s something about those ballads.
As long as you don’t watch him sing, the androgynous Hitchcock will dig through your cynicism and encrusted emotional armor and give your soul the equivalent of a gentle baby oil backrub. Songs like “All out of Love” and “Here I Am” are pure gold. Like it or not, Air Supply is part of our cultural DNA. Go on. Check them out. If you’re not already spent, you’ll probably get laid afterward. â€" Michael Swan
[Emerald Queen Casino, Friday, Oct. 10, 8:30 p.m., $20-$40, 2024 East 29th Street, Tacoma, 888.831.7655]

Music of Northern India
My earliest memory of listening to music was the Beatles Revolver LP. George Harrison had recently traveled to India and discovered the sitar. “Love You To,” which featured both sitar and tabla, was one of his two contributions on the disc. I have loved the sound ever since. I will be loving it again Friday as the Classical Music of Northern India concert features Pandit Debi Prasad Chatterjee on sitar and Seattle musician Tor Dietrichson on tabla. â€" Tony Engelhart
[TACID, Friday, Oct. 10, 7 p.m., $10-$15, 6315 S. 19th St., Tacoma, 253.752.8262]

The Atomic Outlaws
The Atomic Outlaws pump out straight-forward, all-American rock, done Tacoma-style. If you’re looking for a good time, head to Hell’s Kitchen this Friday for a wild night of rock, whiskey, and hell-raisin’. It’s not metal. It’s not hardcore. It’s just a good blend of typical rock and roll staples sure to get your head nodding and feet stomping. Crunchy guitars and arena rock vocals will have you hooked, whether you remember the ’80s or were only born in them. â€" Carady Madden
[Hell’s Kitchen, Friday, Oct. 8 p.m., $8, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

Helms Alee
Helms Alee, made up of musicians who’ve worked with Harkonen, These Arms Are Snakes, Roy, Lozen and Your Enemies Friends, is hitting up Bob’s Java Jive on Friday. The band’s dynamic indie-grunge is par for the course at the Java Jive. After last month’s release of Helms Alee’s full length album, Night Terror (Hydrahead), the band is gearing up for a West Coast tour with Minus the Bear, which ends in Seattle Nov. 22. You’d never expect such a big sound from a three-piece, but this band delivers, and they don’t neglect melody either. They’ll be sure to blow you away in one way or another. The show is also a fund-raiser to help pay for a new PA at Bob’s, so go support your local scene. â€" CM
[Bob’s Java Jive, Friday, Oct. 10, 8:30 p.m., $5, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]

LINK: South Sound live music and DJs tonight

STEPH DEROSA: IS THIS A POPULARITY CONTEST? >>>

Since someone somewhere at Weekly Volcano headquarters bought Matt Driscoll a desk, I complained like a jealous little bitch, and now I have one too.  Across my brand new desk a multitude of announcements flowed from local TACOMA shops and restaurants stating that they’ve been nominated for what I declare as television news history’s most brilliant marketing scheme ever: Best of Western Washington contest.

Everyone except Christopher Wood and myself have been nominated for “Best of Western Washington.”  Seriously.  I’m not debunking the fact that our locally owned businesses are in fact the BEST, but this contest has just gotten out of control.  Here’s the 10-step process to how it works:

Step 1: As a business owner, tell a friend or regular customer about the contest.

Step 2: Let the customer/friend nominate you. 

Step 3: If in a hurry, or have no customers, nominate yourself under a fake name.

Step 4: Send out emails and make phone calls to people who will help whore out your votes.

Step 5: Send out multiple MySpace and Facebook blogs and bulletins telling people to vote for you. 

Step 6: Friends go to The King 5 Web site

Step 7: After being blinded by flashing screen adds and clicking out from numerous pop-up adds that I’m sure were sold for top dollar due to constant Web traffic, friends vote for your business.

Step 8: Wait.  Maybe smoke out, watch Scarface a few times while reminiscing on puberty and what eighth-grade was like for you. 

Step 9:  Realize that a plaque on the wall from King 5 does not determine how much Tacoma loves you.  Yes, you are awesome, that’s why you opened up a business in Tacoma â€" because you have something of precious value.  I, for one, will tell you that anytime you want to hear it.  I am proud of my community and it’s independent business owners.  Come to me and I will stroke your ego all you want.

Step 10 (second option from step 9): Send Steph DeRosa hate mail for writing this.  Fuck her!  She’s just a bitter bitch who uses this blog for venting her own irritating frustrations.

See?  It’s easy!  In just 10 steps you too can win King 5’s Best of Western Washington!

Now time for debate:

Is this a popularity contest?   Whoever can rally the most friends wins?  Is the love your community has for you and amount of true customers actually reflected in these votes?  What about the senior citizen who comes into your restaurant for breakfast EVERY Sunday, but who doesn’t use a computer?  Or the 5 year old who begs her mom to go into your store after school for ice cream every day?  Or what about the guy in a suit who stops by every Friday after work to get flowers for his wife?  Are they on MySpace? Is the 5 year old going to the King 5 Web site?  

Go ahead and flame away.  It’s my two cents.

LINK: Best of Tacoma. Go Local!

RON SWARNER: WHAT, NO SCONES? >>>

ME: Paul, are you writing up this Go Local! organizational workshop this morning?

PAUL SCHRAG: I don't know, you?

ME: I don't know.

Well I guess that's a big yes from Schrag. This just appeared on the Business Examiner's Daily E-mail Newsletter:

Nice job Paul.

Milchen was thorough and impressive. After his hour-long presentation, Downtown Merchants Group President Patricia Lecy-Davis grabbed the meeting for a nuts and bolts session on how to take it to the next level â€" solidify the name (Go Local Tacoma!), establish a footprint (greater Tacoma area, which includes University Place, Lakewood, Puyallup and, basically, Pierce County), set membership categories and prices (done) and establish a board (in the process).

Yes, it will be an organization for small, independently-own businesses to gather strength and battle the big-box retailers and corporate giants of this world through collaborative campaigns, shared resources and education.  It will also be an organization to create and promote vibrant city centers through civic efforts.

As a independent local business owner with more than 40 years living and working in the greater Tacoma area, I was honored and proud to participate in this morning's program. It's a worthy organization with noble goals. I suggest Pierce County independently-owned business check out the Go Local! Web site and climb aboard.

Let's Go Local!

MATT DRISCOLL: STRAIGHT TO DVD >>>

There’s some action scheduled to go down at the Post Office in downtown Tacoma over the  next week or so â€" or, more accurately, the old courthouse above the Post Office.

The New Tacoma Neighborhood Council sent out an update today, letting it be known that a film permit has been issued for a movie scheduled to shoot in the old courthouse between Monday, Oct. 13 and Wednesday, Oct. 22. From what we here at Weekly Volcano World Headquarter understand, they’ve already started moving in the props for next week’s action.

However, the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council release doesn’t give many clues as to what movie is being shot. Luckily, we’ve done some digging.

Apparently, it’s what knows as a “major, low budget feature.” We assume that means it’s a smaller film being put together by major players, not necessarily that the film has a majorly low budget â€" but who knows.

Anyway, the movie will be called The Whole Truth, and it stars Elisabeth Rohm (better known as that chick form Law and Order), along with Rick Overton, Sean Flanery (Powder, bitches!), John Fuglesang, and Tin Tin the Dog.

Here’s how the movie’s Web site describes the forthcoming project:

A greedy, high living acting coach transforms disgusting criminals to appeal to juries, until she overhears a client she helped set free plan a heinous crime - and becomes his target for murder. Escaping death and finding who she really is becomes the most expensive - and rewarding experience of her life.

And did I mention it stars Tin Tin the Dog?

So, if you see a bunch of C-list actors milling around the Post Office downtown over the next week or so, it probably has something to do with The Whole Truth.

Is it too early to start some Oscar buzz?