TONY ENGELHART: TONIGHT AT THE NEW FRONTIER >>>

Before you lump Jesse Knoll into the vast group of Northwest folkies, there are a few things you should know. Rather than the traditional sway of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan for folk singers, Knoll was influenced by blues legend Robert Johnson and experimental rocker Frank Zappa â€" an interesting and almost unheard of combination to say the least. While Johnson’s acoustic blues is most prevalent in his music, shades of Zappa can be spotted in Knoll’s hidden agenda as he mixes the Mississippi Delta with a contemporary flair. Knoll’s guitar pickin’ is rough, raw and exceedingly complex. Still, he sounds like a white guy singing the blues, but somehow it works for this singer/songwriter.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Dylan Morrison, 8 p.m., 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]

MARK THOMAS DEMING: COOLING TOWER 5 HELPS ARTISTS MAKE THEM >>>

Precious. Not a word you’d normally associate with a 500-foot-tall, 400-foot-wide concrete hulk. But in conversations about Cooling Tower 5, that’s the word that keeps coming up: precious.

It is a relic from an era that never really was, the golden age of American nuclear energy. In the 1970s, the Washington Public Power Supply System, nicknamed “Whoops,” embarked on a plan to construct five nuclear reactors in the Evergreen State: numbers 1, 2 and 4 at Hanford and 3 and 5 at Satsop, west of Olympia. It was the largest such project in U.S. history, and one of the biggest snafus. Due to billions in overruns and mounting public concern, only one reactor was ever completed, no. 2.

Today Tower 5 is empty, just a shell. Grass grows on the ground inside. Lichens and moss line its walls, and birds roost around its rim. It’s open at the base, supported by struts, and the hourglass shape â€" designed to encourage flow â€" channels air, draws it in and breathes it out.

Thanks to the collective Environmental Aesthetics, the brainchild of sound enthusiasts Gabriel Bacon and Paul Schrag (Full disclosure: Schrag writes for the Weekly Volcano. Duh.), artists such as Novak have been working in Tower 5 since 2007, by agreement with the Satsop Development Park. Tonight, some of the sounds those artists have captured will be on display at the Fulrcum Gallery, as part of Third Thursday.

To read the full article, click here.

JESSICA COREY-BUTLER: TACOMA'S HAPPY PILL >>>

I know, I know. The weather outside is enough to make you want to open a main vein and escape this mortal coil, or at least curl up in the fetal position listening to Bauhaus and The Smiths. Everything you hear and see on the news echoes the grey skies and hail and rain, and you just want to escape it all.

And once again, like a sunshiney-bright chunk of Prozac, Tacoma is here to help.
How, you ask?

ArtWalk.

Yep, that Third-Thursday, walk-about-the-town-enjoying-culture-from-five-to-eight-p.m. ritual is back â€" though it never actually went away â€" and like all the best things in life, it’s free. You can pull yourself up from that pool of snot and tears and get your art on. Act as art-pretentious as you want to, or be honest about your feelings and perhaps learn a little while meeting some fine folk â€" whatever you want, it’s there.

I mention a few ArtWalk highlights on the Weekly Volcano Web site.

RON SWARNER: WANKERS OF THE DAY >>>

Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s Office

Tacoma crime: This one and this one and this one

Merrill Lynch & Co.

Numbered Spaces: The losers (and winners) in Pierce County last week

STEPH DEROSA: BAR EXAM >>>

I usually kick myself when I wait until the last minute to visit a bar for Bar Exam, but I’m glad I did so this week. My tardiness paid off this time by hitting Lakewood’s premier Irish bar, Maggie O’Tooles, on the day after St. Patrick’s Day. Why? Imagine how you’d feel as an opening bartender having to clean up and re-set the bar after a night of unadulterated Irish-inspired drunkenness. Needless to say, the bartender that day was pissed off â€" more so than a fingerless dude with recently contracted scabies. He was irritated, angry, and extremely unhappy.

Read what else I discovered at Maggie O'Toole's in my Bar Exam column on the Weekly Volcano Web site.

JAKE DE PAUL: RISTORANTE IL LUCANO >>>

I ordered the one and only beef steak dish on Ristornante Il Lucano's menu, bistecca al pepe verde, thinking if you have only one, it’s probably done expertly. My plate touched down, knife slid in, fork pierced and beauty flowed. Ordered medium rare, the New York steak was exactly that. Blood swam into the brandy and green peppercorn sauce. Please excuse me while I beat on my chest with a mouthful of sensationally spiced semi raw meat.

I enjoy Il Lucano because it’s a real restaurant in Gig Harbor, not a joint where you order fish’n’chips served in a paper bag from a counter. It just does not count.

[Ristorante Il Lucano, dinner 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 4-9 p.m. Sunday, 3119 Judson St., Gig Harbor, 253.514.8945]

LINK: Ristorante Il Lucano's dinner menu

BOBBLE TIKI: TAKE IN THE IRON GALLERY TONIGHT >>>

First off, allow Bobble Tiki to apologize in advance for any strangeness or inconsistencies in this blog post. As he writes these words, he’s deep in his fourth day of what has been Bobble Tiki’s worst case of flu ever. Not only does his high, fluctuating fever have him sweating like Chris Brown, but it also makes him prone to bouts of delusion, which at times can be slightly confusing. For instance, as Bobble Tiki types this, he doesn’t know why his computer’s keyboard keeps morphing from regular letters to faces from the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City (R is for Ramona Singer), or why that darn ape in the corner keeps throwing little pickles at Bobble Tiki.

Bobble Tiki read and reread Doris Conrath’s press release regarding her Unfolded Spaces photography show that opens tonight at the Iron Gallery. Bobble Tiki thinks even if he didn’t have the flu he’d have no idea what it means. You try:

Let Bobble Tiki take one more stab at it. …

Nope.

[Iron Gallery@UTW, Thursday, March 19, 5:30-8 p.m., no cover, 1742 Pacific Ave., Tacoma]