STEPH DEROSA: YEE-HAW! >>>

All it took was a birthday call from my dad in Houston. With a Texas twang in his 60-year old hick voice my old man belted out something resembling “Happy Birthday” into my voice mail, and with that I had Southern country on the brain. I jokingly mention this to Pappi Swarner, and he immediately tortures me with classic country tunes blaring through the Weekly Volcano offices as I try to get what little work I have done. These were tunes that I am admittedly all too familiar with. Ugh.

I felt homesick. I needed a little country back in my life.

As we explored our plethora of hillbilly music libraries, we found there to be an oddly large amount of country events happening this week in and around our sweet South Puget Sound area. The most obvious happening this week is of course  Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome with tickets running about $40-$50 at Ticketmaster.

Other local events meant to cause ruckus involving longneck beers and Copenhagen:

Oly Old-Time Fest
A weekend of concerts, jams and workshops to celebrate Olympia's old-time music community kicks off today and runs through Saturday. Tickets are $15 for a weekend pass or $10 each for tonight's concert and Saturday night's square dance. For more on the fest, visit their Web site.

Schedule
Today, 7 p.m.: Concert with Deaf Lester, the Grizzle Grazzle Tune Snugglers and the Tallboys, as well as open jamming, at The Loft, 525 Cherry St. S.E., Olympia.

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: workshops on playing instruments, singing, clogging and square dance calling, at The Evergreen State College Longhouse, Longhouse, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W., Olympia.

Saturday, 7 p.m.: square dance with the Young Geezers, the Watertower String Band, and the Atlas String Band, as well as open jamming, at The Loft.

Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley parties
Varsity Grill hosts a meet and greet with Dierks Bentley Saturday at 4 p.m. You may win VIP tickets to his concert with Paisley.

McCabe’s American Music Café hosts a before and after Brad Paisley party Saturday night.

Vintage country
“Love Jail” with DJ Doll Hands spinning vintage country every Monday at 9 p.m. at The Brotherhood Lounge in Olympia.

Photo: Dierks Bentley photo snatched from Steph DeRosa's wallet.

STEPH DEROSA: SLOW BURN >>>

Infinite Soups
Ethiopian Spicy Beef
Price: $2.50 for 8 ounces
Burn Factor: Four out of four Molotov cocktails
 

I knew Wendy from Infinite Soups could stir up some of the best concoctions known to man, but little did I know she could also open up a can of whoop-ass on my mouth.  I had asked Laura, her daughter, to hand over the spiciest soup they had that day.  Of course if you’ve ever been to Infinite Soups you know there are 20 different kinds to choose from on a daily basis. You know at least on will be spicy. I scored. She handed me not one but two spicy soups.

The first one that sent me frantically digging in my purse for bottled water was the Ethiopian Spicy Beef soup.  With ingredients such as yams, beef, poblano pepper, garlic, and ginger â€" it sounds pretty harmless, right?  Yeah, the poblano had some kick but it was Wendy’s Berber Spice Blend that put this soup over the edge.  Although there are about 30 other spices within this blend, I have just one very important ingredient for you: Cayenne. 

I couldn’t eat it.  It was too hot.  Full of fantastic flavor, I was dying to conquer a bowl of Ethiopian Spicy Beef, but I simply could not.  For the first time ever, something has kicked my ass.  Congratulations, Infinite Soups.

Side note: To repay these guys for burning my internal organs with spiciness (and because it’s their two-year birthday), I will be behind the Infinite Soups register this Saturday from noon to 1 pm. during their birthday celebration. Please stop in to wish them a happy birthday, grab a bowl of soup, a fresh Corina Bakery baguette, a Corina cupcake, and possibly harass me a bit as I intentionally miscount your change. 

[Infinite Soups, 445 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.274.0232]

JOE MALIK: IT'S LONELY OUT HERE >>>

So being unemployed is a lonely venture. Scratch that. Being employed is a lonely venture and being unemployed makes it starkly evident just how alone and alienated the average American workplace can be.

Until I was summarily booted out of the place, I didn’t realize how much I had come to depend on my workplace for social connections. And that’s the really pathetic part, because most of the people I worked with were generally annoying, or downright despicable human beings.

So why do I miss some of them so much?

Well, the people you work with â€" whether you like it or not â€" are kind of like your surrogate family. You see them every day. You know about what goes on in their personal lives - whether you want to or whether you want to run away screaming to wretch up a breakfast-lunch gut omelet every time they start blathering on and on about their insipid lives. Sorry. But most of all, the workplace seems to be one of the few places that many of us have a chance to make any sort of deep, personal connection with people. I know people that I worked with better than I know some of my so-called friends.

When it comes down to it, they were the best the world had to offer, as long as I was stuck there with them.

Now that I’m no longer there, I have this horrific, looming need to connect to people. But I’ve spent so much time working, while pretending to be someone else so I can fit in at work, that I don’t have the slightest idea where to begin.

It’s utterly terrifying.

A study published by Duke University suggests that it’s not just me that’s ended up in this pathetic boat. According to the report, our connections to one another are eroding on a massive scale.

According to the study, which was published right before the economy began its nosedive, Americans are far more socially isolated than they were 20 years ago. A sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide. A quarter of people interviewed said they don’t have anyone to talk to about their daily struggle. That’s more than double the number measured in 1985. You’d think the so-called “Me Generation” would feel more isolated than any. But we’ve got it worse. So much worse that Duke University researchers said their study “paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties - once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits - are shrinking or nonexistent,” according to a researcher quoted in a Washington Post article by staff writer Shankar Vedantam.

One researcher suggested that the weight of professional responsibility has left people too exhausted to interact even with their own families in many cases. Many of us are so beat that social interaction is limited to things we can do passively â€" sitting together in a room watching Lost or American Idol. Or going to a movie, sitting with people absorbing mythical reenactments of the kind of lives we’d like to be living, if only we weren’t so exhausted and drained from our pursuit of the almighty dollar.

So I’ve forced myself to peek out of the shell I’ve built around my being, and have been spending time with people I’ve lost touch with. It’s harder than you might think, but worth ever awkward moment. It feels so good, in fact, that I may end up deciding to stay unemployed forever.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For those of you who may have missed some of Weekly Volcano writer Joe Malik's jobless musings, here are a few links to previous "Unemployed in Tacoma" columns, which appear every Friday on Spew.

LINK: Unemployed in Tacoma #1

LINK: Unemployed in Tacoma #2

LINK: Unemployed in Tacoma #3

VOLCANO NOSHING STAFF: WOK THIS WAY >>>

Pho tai
Vietnamese
3814 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.471.4221

Stepping into the new Pho tai at 38th Street and Pacific Avenue I liked how the room looked. The warm, earth-tone walls decorated with only a few overblown Asian characters; the simple tables and simpler settings; the space between those tables; the high, high ceiling â€" I thought it was deliberate urban minimalism, nearly Japanese in its austerity. Pho tai does fried rice the hard way ($5.99 chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetable) â€" searing fresh white rice in the wok, then tossing it with meat and vegetables, rather than taking day-old rice, staining it brown with cheap soy sauce and re-steaming it to make it soft. I'm a pushover for Vietnamese coffee and condensed milk ($2.45). The sweetened condensed milk sits on the bottom of the tall glass, with the rich coffee on top, so there's a good bit of stirring necessary to mix the two. I close my eyes for the first sip, to focus on the sweet, dark flavors. â€" Ron Swarner

Rosie’s Asian BBQ House
Japanese, Chinese
430 E. 25th St., Freighthouse Square, Tacoma, 253.572.9132

This tiny spot in the Freighthouse Square Food Court makes some killer rice plates. Any dish using marinated beef from scratch is a sure thing. The beef fried rice ($6.25) is a simple version laced with carrots, peas, onions, egg, sweet and salty beef strips and just enough oil to coat each grain of rice in a sumptuous slickness. But there are numerous other fried rice plates to suit any craving that strikes you. It might take a few minutes, but the massive pile arrives piping hot. â€" Jake de Paul

North China Garden
Szechwan, Mandarin Hunan
2303 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.5106

North China Garden might be light on crowds, but it does well with its limited home delivery and take-out service. Every time we visit, there’s liveliness in the take-out department. North China’s fried rice is a meal in itself, but it can be skipped. The huge mound houses ample pork strips, plus peas and carrots. It’s not horrible, just nothing special ($6.50). An argument could be made that this is probably the way it's made back home â€" a dish of leftovers, chicken or pork, some rice, a little of this, a little of that, comfort food from mom's own kitchen â€" but authenticity does not always equal good eats. Throw in some chili oil and the salty, greasy dish would come alive. â€" JDP

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Photo: Pho tai chicken fried rice

BOBBLE TIKI: PAPPI SWARNER’S JUKEBOX >>>

There is a certain evident moment when, try as Bobble Tiki might to ignore it, it becomes clear things are careening dangerously out of control. Often its true weight hits when Bobble Tiki realizes he became the guy who drinks wine out of a box every evening and whose major excitement each week revolves around hoping the new issue of Rolling Stone has some good cleavage shots.

Bobble Tiki had another moment.  It came on 30 minutes ago when Bobble Tiki was making a guest appearance at his place of employment.

Bobble Tiki sauntered in to finish off a few mundane odds and ends â€" salaried employees are quietly but firmly expected to dutifully tidy up. A few minutes pass. Bobble Tiki meanders and procrastinates â€" another wonderful American tradition â€" until suddenly editor Matt Driscoll comes running out of the bathroom screaming for a plunger. Yup, Driscoll clogged up the toilet. Better yet, he couldn’t turn off the water. One, two, six â€" water everywhere.

The Weekly Volcano doesn’t own a plunger.  Nice, huh?

Anyway, this disaster coincided with our fearless leader Pappi Swarner’s Friday afternoon music/booze session know throughout the land as Pappi Swarner’s ‘70s Jukebox hour.  Appropriately, as Driscoll mops the floor with Weekly Volcano T-shirts (yup, no mop either), Pappi is cranking Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work.”

Ha, ha, ha â€" Driscoll just mouthed “I foresee terrible trouble.” By the looks of it Bobble Tiki does, too.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

MATT DRISCOLL: STILL HOPE FOR ARTS COMMISSION >>>

As I reported in yesterday’s edition of the Weekly Volcano (and on Spew the day before), the Pierce County Arts Commission is currently in survival mode. With a major deficit to deal with the Pierce County Council and County Executive Pat McCarthy will be forced to make many, many spending cuts. While the Arts Commission received its funding for the first quarter of 2009, all other funding has been put on hold until the council and executive pass a supplemental budget at the end of the March. Many involved with the Pierce County Arts Commission, perhaps most vocally Chris Van Vechten, fear the funding may be gone for good.

I spoke with county councilmember Tim Farrellearlier today and he told me he doesn’t anticipate the supplemental budget will totally dick the Arts Commission, saying he does expect the commission to receive some funding. However, he also noted things could change (for the worse, presumably) before then, and if things do get worse there’s no guarantee the Arts Commission will be saved.

“I don’t think it’s going to get zeroed,” says Farrell of the Pierce County Arts Commission’s chances of receiving funding in the supplemental budget. “It is on the table.”

“(The Pierce County Arts Commission) is a priority,” continues Farrell. “It’s not the number one priority.”

Stay tuned.

RON SWARNER: SISTERHOOD OF THE VOLCANO >>>

You’re a walking contradiction â€" Jackie O style with a touch of Gwen Stefani’s funkiness, a perfect lady who swears like a sailor. Where does a girl like you hang out on a Saturday night? Why, Vesuvius (1114 Court E. St., Tacoma), of course. Artist Mary K Johnson has created a women’s only girls night out party titled Vesuvius Saturday, Feb. 28 offering a blast of DJ spins, fashion, food under the theme Roaring ‘20s. Invitations were sent out by secret e-mail, but I nabbed the secret e-mail â€" vesuvius253@gmail.com (go for it!) â€" and a quick interview with promoter Mary K.

WEEKLY VOLCANO:  Did you take the name Vesuvius from the volcano or the fictitious band in the film, The Rocker?

MARK KAY JOHNSON: Vesuvius the volcano!
1) This is a volcano town.
2) This dance-focused event is a very enjoyable way to blow off steam.

VOLCANO: You are a kickass artist. Are you now a kickass party planner?

JOHNSON: This town is populated with heroes, and I am just an example manifest of the exposure to so much talent disciplined. I came here with my own bag of tricks, but I've really grown in this 253. My favorite thing about living here is the ongoing waves of creative energy that allow for and embrace manic creation. This place is amazingly open to accepting new artists, and my "in" happened in a collective art co-op on Broadway. I've been part of various events in town over the years, since I cut my teeth on Tacoma at RampArt some years back.

The piece is designed to stimulate multiple senses.

Audio â€" through the killer thematic stylings of Linda Luluspice, JoMomma and DJ Crazy Chrystal

Visual â€" Hopefully the theme of the party will inspire enough attendees to dress the part and therefore create an alternate universe of flappers and pin-stripe clad divas. The attendees going further toward taking a real night off by setting aside their identities and therefore all of the responsibilities that go with them for the night, and stepping into this imaginative variation they are capable of creating.

Environment â€" If all goes as planned, the feeling of the Roaring ’20s will be depicted through decorations, adding to that departure from daily life to some kind of wonderland.

Because I like to enrich local business if I can, I tied in local merchants that would enhance the experience through their service offerings and products, and hopefully generate a flux of demand for otherwise stagnate merchandise, as well as more foot traffic to our much-loved local businesses.

VOLCANO: Why did you choose roaring ’20s as a theme?

JOHNSON: It was random. It just came to me, and felt like a great offbeat excuse for attendees to get superbly glamorous for a night. I did some research on the ’20s, and the pivotal aspect of that time-frame for women specifically. Namely, it was the great departure from the Victorian era woman, a liberation from old iron-sides. Women moved away from restrictive clothing and high-maintenance aspects of apparel to free-flowing and directly expressive means of self-expression. Dress-length moved from ankle to just above the knee, and were of a free-flowing sort (to dance) and brighter makeup, cropped hair, etc. They started cruising around with flasks. Drunken rebels. So, unintentionally, I picked a theme that kind of calls out the wild aspect in all women.

Right now, a lot of women are doing double duty as professional working women and mothers, keepers of the home-front, etc. Leaving little time to actually go out and really take a night off.

Instead, they tend to find themselves supporting their sisters through verbal venting, which is absolutely healthy, but not as much fun as dancing. This sort of fun adds to another level of bonding and release that is harder to attain.

VOLCANO: Explain how the night will proceed?

JOHNSON: From 7 to 9 p.m. the floor will be open to networking and to donning the role. Local merchants â€" urbanXchange, The Show Sow, Orange on Broadway â€" have agreed to supply themed merchandise for sale, in case party-goers decide to take advantage of the convenience of doing their costuming the night of.

For the completion of the role, Embellish Multispace Salon has agreed to provide hair and makeup services for the night. And because Tacoma's girls deserve it, a representative of Mary Kay will be providing a special spa service.

Willow of Willow's Photography will be available to capture the moment for these ladies. A snapshot of our divas as a keepsake.

From 9 p.m. till 1 a.m. the dancing is to ensue, the role taken on, and the release to really happen through movement or the witnessing of this floor of dancing divas supporting each other through this self-expression and therefore themselves.

VOLCANO: Are you worried about boys crashing the party with frogs and itching powder?

JOHNSON: Please point me at the group of fellows willing to go on a frog hunt. That should be entertaining. There's going to be an evaporation field of magnetic energy around the building that will detect and decimate any ill-fated tools of a prankster nature.

VOLCANO: What is your favorite Crayola color?

JOHNSON: I'd rather interpret an ink-blotch if at all possible. Color is so subjective.

VOLCANO: What’s your favorite Thomas Kinkade painting?

JOHNSON: Dude. ...

VOLCANO: When was the last time you got in a fight?

JOHNSON: I had to let a girl beat me up when I was 15. She was pregnant, and 17. I'm almost over it. The girl beat me up because I punched her boyfriend in the mouth for calling me a name I found really derogatory.

VOLCANO: Let that be a warning to the guys out there who are thinking about crashing this party.

For additional information about this function and some background about the reasoning behind the event, visit the party's Web site.

WEEKLY VOLCANO STAFF: TGIF, YO! >>>

It's Friday again, thank god, meaning it's time for yet another CD review from the fabulous staff of KUPS The Sound.

This week, Kayla Morrison reviews DM Stith and Heavy Ghost.

Check it out here.