JESSICA COREY-BUTLER: PLUS ABBY'S ON BROADWAY SET FOR THE MIDDLE FLOOR >>>

Tacoma has always delighted me with its uncanny ability to present The Random. And when The Random mixes it up with wine, I become positively giddy.

One long-time random wine haunt of mine has been the Chevron gas station off Pearl Street, near Point Defiance Park. While I loved the ability to multi-task â€" gallon o’ gas with that liter of wine? Yes please! â€" my friends would look at me with something akin to horror when I would offer up a bottle of gas station wine. When that wine was a bottle of Townshend T3 (sadly, not a bottle carried there anymore) or a cute bottle of “Rosé the Riveter” those expressions would meld into pleased surprise.

Now I can expand my random wine shop repertoire to include two new fabulously established businesses. I can’t wait to say, “Oh I’ll just get myself an antique wardrobe, get my eyebrows waxed, and pick up some Infinity Soup with a bottle of red at Sanford & Son.” Or, I can tell the honey, “I’m just going to get my hair done” â€" and come back with a fresh new look and bottles of shampoo and chardonnay from Azarra Salon.

Yes, wine is coming to Sanford & Son and Azarra Salon. Unfortunately, neither place is technically ready for me yet.

Sanford & Son welcomes Abby’s on Broadway to its Middle Floor Merchants. The wine shop received their license to sell last Thursday, and are working on getting moved in and ready to go.  They’ll be joined soon by Infinite Soup in the downstairs Library (huzzah!), who will serve up their hot goodness from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., daily

At Azarra Salon, Aura Mae’s specialty has always been dishing up The Random with serious quality. She has a disclaimer on her Web site, after all, explaining that, if you take yourself too seriously, perhaps this isn’t the salon for you.

“In California, if you aren’t offered a glass of wine, you feel snubbed,” Aura Mae quips, adding hastily, that it’s legal in Cali.  In Washington, the liquor laws are, she suggests, a tad more “provincial.”

She elaborates, “(the Washington State Liquor Board) doesn’t just hand out licenses. While there are salons that do pour glasses to clients, that is, technically, illegal.”

She warns against the expectation of having a glass in the chair.  For one, it doesn’t sound that fun to swallow hair snippets with your sips.  Then there’s the matter of bouquet. Aura jokes, “Mmmm, I smell blackberry, and … ammonia?”

But without a joke, Aura Mae clearly states, “We have a license to sell bottles of wine for off-premise consumption.” She adds, “We’re very interested in following the rules. We want to show the liquor board we’re good people.”

Currently, she’s building an inventory, and expecting to open for wine sales in a few weeks. Those wines, bottles under $20 with labels that share the irreverent values of the salon (expect things like “Bitch,” Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” and others of that ilk) will be deftly paired with recipes and commentary via the Azarra Salon Web site and other social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Aura Mae’s goal is to build her wine sales to the point where it’s 50 percent of her business, which will enable her to do wine tastings in an adjacent room. 

“The more wine people buy, the sooner that can happen,” she says, in her funny-but-serious, pragmatic manner. She points out, quite seriously, “We’re a business. We’d like to make money.”

And then she points out, pragmatically, “These are dicey economic times. I want to be selling whatever people are buying (that’s legal).”

[Chevron, 5043 N. Pearl St., Tacoma, 253.759.7602]

[Abby’s on Broadway, Sanford & Son’s Middle Floor Merchants, 743 Broadway, Tacoma, 253. 272.0334]

[Azarra Salon, 1944 Pacific Ave., Suite 210, Tacoma, 253.752.1519]

JAKE DE PAUL: TUESDAY FOOD LINKS >>>

Vodka is passé.

Store bought vs. homemade: what's more cost-effective?

Tweaking traditions for culinary inspiration

Today’s South Sound Specials

Revisiting Chardonnay tasting, 5:30-8 p.m., Pour At Four, 3814 N. 26th St., Tacoma, 253.761.8015.

Half Price Wine Night, Pacific Grill, 1502 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.3535.

Tightwad Tuesdays with $2 tacos, $2 beers, and $2 wells, Hell’s Kitchen, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003.

Wine Tuesday, 20 percent off bottles wines on regular list, Toscanos Cafe and Wine Bar, 437 29th St. N.E., Puyallup, 253.864.8600.

Future Things Are Coming

NEW MUCKLESHOOT CASINO RESTAURANT: The Auburn casino will open “8,” an Asian restaurant serving cuisine from China, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia and Thailand, Friday, May 1. The 172-seat, full-service restaurant will be open daily for casual dining. The casino is at 2402 Auburn Way S.

FRIDAYS UNCORKED: Cervezas for Cinco de Mayo, Friday, May 1, 5-7:30 p.m., $12, Bayview School of Cooking, 516 Fourth Ave. W., Olympia, 360.754.1448.

AROUND THE WORLD IN YOUR GLASS: Washington Contemporary Ballet’s annual wine tasting and dinner, Saturday, May 2, 6 p.m., $85, Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel, 2611 E. E St., Tacoma, 253.474.4312.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

The Long Recess: As many as 220 educators in the Bethel School District could lose their jobs after receiving layoff notices Monday.

No Recess For You: Legislature didn’t finish its assignment.

Fighting Fire With Firemen: Lakewood and University Place to hold the same hose.

The Real Swines: Thank your GOP members of Congress for stripping flu pandemic funds from the stimulus bill.

Foldio: Portfolio magazine portfolio comes to a halt.

Not A Sly Fox: Fox network decides not to air Obama’s “100th day” press conference tomorrow. Will run “Lie to Me” instead. Ah-huh.

NEWS TEAM: WANKERS OF THE DAY >>>

The Swine Flu Thing

The whole “100 days” thing

The Bank of America thing

And NBC Marketing Dept. does its thing.

RON SWARNER: IT’S RECORD RELEASE DAY >>>

Los Straitjackets, The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets

Black Crowes, Warpaint Live

Bob Dylan, Together Through Life

Ben Lee, The Rebirth of Venus

Ben Folds, University A Capella

Heaven & Hell, The Devil You Know

JAKE DE PAUL: TEMPEST LOUNGE HOSTS A BENEFIT >>>

Not even kidding here, folks. Friday was National Hairball Awareness Day. Did you know that it's not just cats that get hairballs? Your pet goat also gets them. So do kids who compulsively eat hair. Bezoars, as they were called, used to be cherished, and would be set with jewelry. They can also be made of nondigestible food, like celery (celery?!) or gum (don't swallow gum!).

Hungry?

Well, maybe by next Wednesday.

The Tempest Lounge hosts Breakfast For Dinner, a benefit for Coalition: HUMAnE Wednesday, May 6 from 5-7 p.m.

“We're excited about this event because Michelle and I have benefited from their services in a big way,” explains Tempest co-owner Denise Tempest. “We have a feral colony in our neighborhood and if it wasn't for Coalition: HUMAnE we couldn't afforded to fix all the cats we've had fixed.”

The Tempest will be serving breakfast for dinner: scrambled eggs, sausage, roasted potatoes and pancakes.

Expect door prizes, too. Thankfully, they’re skipping the hairballs.

[Tempest Lounge, Wednesday, May 6, 5-7 p.m., $12, 913 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253.272.4904

CHUCK DULA: LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FAT TUNNEL >>>

Editor's Note: As you may recall Weekly Volcano scribe Chuck Dula struck a deal with a bisexual female friend of his. If he can lose 25 pounds by May 1, then said friend - and another female to be determined later - will have a three-way with Mr. Dula. That's what I call inspiration. Chuck will be chronicling his weight loss efforts every Tuesday here on Spew. Below you'll find the latest installment in Chuck's quest to be less fat and have sex with two women at the same time. Enjoy.

Beginning Weight: 176

This will be the second to last installation chronicling my journey through fat hell. Over the last four months I’ve lost 20 pounds and 8% of my body fat. What I do for women… (specifically, two at the same time).

It's an interesting culture we live in now. Today we live in a globally connected society where visions of what might be considered beautiful can be shared by everyone. But this is a fairly recent event in the context of human existence. Since humans started going on dates to the local saber-tooth cookouts, they have looked for someone who looked like them. Pygmies dug pygmies for being short. Massai women dug Massai men for looking like Manute Bol. And lesbians bring a truckload of their belongings to first dates. Selective mating, then, has produced societies where people look the same. So, why is it that in a country like America, where there is a 2/3 rate of obesity, we are so consumed with being skinny? Why is it that, instead of eating tubs of bacon fat and deep-fried Twinkies we spend countless hours on cabbage soup diets and stair masters?

Booty. We do it for booty.

And booty is awesome. One love.

Ending weight: 174

PREVIOUSLY 25 POUNDS TO FREEDOM COLUMNS ON SPEW

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BRITNEY, RUSTON, AND THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE >>>

In 2007, Ruston resident Karen Pickett was frustrated with the town council of Ruston. Public comments at meetings had been curtailed, and Pickett felt like residents had lost their voice. She opened a free account on Blogger and started Ruston Home, a place for Ruston residents to talk about their town.

Since then, as Ruston has seen mayors resign and its very existence questioned--some on the town council believe the town should be annexed into Tacoma--Pickett’s blog has been on the scene, combining reporting with commentary. It provides a valuable way for busy residents to find time to discuss their community and participate in its future.

Pickett’s blog, and the community that has formed around it, has been around for a year and a half.

But many online groups are much more fleeting.

Three weeks ago, right before Britney Spears brought her circus to the Tacoma Dome, a radio station plastered stickers and posters around the Dome District. Some people in the neighborhood found them tacky.

Before the rapid social networking available through blogs and Twitter, that might have been the end of the story. Maybe a complaint to the City of Tacoma or a complaint to the radio station, but not much beyond that.

Instead, one person posted photos of the offending ads on his blog with links from Twitter. Another person posted a phone number to the appropriate Tacoma Dome official. And yet another posted email addresses for the station’s staff. Those people may have never met in person, but they were all part of a quickly-formed small group aimed at getting the ads taken down.

Links to the photos were sent to the City via Twitter complaining about the signs.

@CityofTacoma, the official City of Tacoma Twitter account, quickly replied: “Thanks for the heads up about this sign. I will pass this along to our sign code folks.” Three hours after that, they followed up: “The Tacoma Dome folks are helping look into this. Your pic is very helpful. As far as I can tell so far, no permission was given.”

The Tacoma Dome staff contacted the station and got the ads taken down. And that was that. The group’s mission was accomplished.

Rob McNair-Huff, the Community Relations Manager who runs the City of Tacoma’s Twitter Account @CityofTacoma tries to respond to questions and complaints like this as often as possible. A combination of broadcasting news, and fielding questions, the account has nearly 600 followers and grows daily.

The stories above are only possible thanks to those tools. Before they were available, hosting a forum to a town of 800 people would have meant renting a hall.

Affecting change used to take a lot more time and effort. Because of that, relatively small complaints--like signage on public fences and glass in the road--just weren’t worth the hassle to try to get fixed.

Now governments have to deal with small, informal groups trying to affect major and minor change. Some--like the City of Tacoma--are trying to work with those groups. Those that don’t, and that write off small online groups as insignificant, are going to find the ground has shifted underneath them.

Participation has become easy. And, if you resist that, life is going to get really hard.

PREVIOUS HAZARDOUS BUSINESS COLUMNS ON SPEW

ABOUT HAZARDOUS BUSINESS: Erik Emery Hanberg's Hazardous Business column - which looks at the business of technology and the environment in Tacoma and the South Sound, and how it will shape our future- appears every other Tuesday here on Spew.

MICHAEL SWAN: HAPPY HOUR DISCUSSION TOPIC >>>

LINK: South Sound happy hours