MICHAEL SWAN: TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2009 >>>

1. Muckleshoot Casino hosts L80's Night (get it?) featuring That 80's Show Impersonator Variety Show beginning at 9:30 p.m.

2. Artist Jen Elek spends the day in the Museum of Glass' Hot Shop beginning at 10 a.m.

3. Nicholas Nyland's show at mineral consists of one ambitious three-dimensional work and about a dozen smaller and more modest wall hanging paintings and sculptures.

4. Rare documents and medical equipment help uncover a century's development of nursing in Washington as part of the Nurses at Your Service: A Century of Caring exhibit at the Washington State History Museum.

5. It's Ha Ha Tuesday night at Jazzbones and host Ralph Porter welcomes guest comic Dave Testero at 8 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

JAKE DE PAUL: TUESDAY FOOD LINKS >>>

Shoppers of the future will “pick” fruit from supermarket shelves.

How to sweeten a cocktail

Cook the Book: Noodle Kugel

Today’s South Sound Specials

Wine Tasting Tuesday, Jacqueline and a wine expert discuss and pour, three wines paired with appetizers, $25, Primo Grill, 601 S. Pine St., Tacoma, 253.383.7000.

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.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Broadway LID: Expect construction delays beginning today.

Not In Our Hood: A $1 million federal grant will help pay for three gang-fighting efforts in Pierce County.

Naked Rock Throwers: A 23-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of damaging at least 14 vehicles by throwing rocks onto them from a railroad trestle over Interstate 5 near Lakewood while naked.

Plowboys And Indians: Brazilian farmers are slaughtering native tribes for land.

Life’s Important Question: Why Meghan McCain is so popular?

MICHAEL SWAN: THIS IS COOL >>>

The Olympia band Wolves In the Throne Room made the New York Times this week:

The Wolves in the Throne Room play the Studio at Webster Hall tonight. Check them out if you're in New York City.

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

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Marilyn Manson, The High End of Low

Mandy Moore, Amanda Leigh

JAKE DE PAUL: ANOTHER COOL BEER EVENT AT THE PARKWAY TAVERN >>>

If you’ve always dreamed of a beer-tasting trip to Belgium but your hours have been cut and your 401K is kaput, the Parkway Tavern offers an attractive alternative: USA vs. Belgium Beer Challenge.

It's unlikely that the U.S. will emerge victorious tomorrow as American versions of Belgian style beers against their Belgian counterparts. The Parkway folks say they haven't come close in years past. Who cares, it’s a great excuse to drink a bunch of great beer.

The tasting runs from 6 p.m. to close on Wednesday, May 27. The line-up will probably look like this:



Big Al’s Trippel vs. Witkap Pater Tripel



Great Divide Saison vs. Dupont Foret



Hale’s IX Golden vs. Van Honsebrouck Brigand


Cascade Mouton Rouge vs. Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru



Victory Abbey 6 vs. Delerium Nocturnum



Allagash Wit vs. Hoegaarden



Avery The Rev. Quadrupel vs. Gouden Carolus Rood


Anderson Valley Winter Solstice vs. N’ice Chouffe



And don't forget the giant 9-liter bottle of Ste. Feuillien Tripel â€" one of the best beers on the planet.

[Parkway Tavern, Wednesday, May 27, 6 p.m. to close, 313 N. I St., Tacoma, 253.383.8748]

MICHAEL SWAN: IT WILL BE FIERCE AT THE BLUE MOUSE FRIDAY >>>

These drag divas will be fierce.

Tyra Banks without the word "fierce" is like Paris Hilton without "That's hot." Celebrities co-opting colloquialisms is an absurd alliteration, but it's an even more ridiculous opening for this blurb. I apologize.

Anyway, turn off the E! and find some wild entertainment Friday night at The Blue Mouse Theater â€" where real boys looking like real women get hot and fierce. AIDS Housing Association of Tacoma hosts a fund-raising drag show Friday night titled Until The Fat Lady Sings featuring some of Puget Sound’s most recognizable female impersonators: Lady Chablis, Mz. Victoria Eyesli, Mahogany Knight, Busty Palmer, Katrina Duall, Polly Ester and many more.

[The Blue Mouse Theater, Friday, May 29, 6:30 p.m. VIP reception ($20), 7:30 p.m. us poor folk ($10), 2611 N. Proctor, Tacoma, 253.752.9500

Um, does this look right?

MICHAEL SWAN: WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009 >>>

1. The CLAW (Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians) will be having their Open Swim tonight at the Mandolin Cafe. Besides their usual hijinks of doodling and preparing the path for the robotic overlords, there just might be a secret ceremony performed.

2. Author Daniel James Brown discusses and signs his new novel, The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, at 7 p.m. inside the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma.

3. Four Schillings Short performs an all-ages show at 7 p.m. on A Rhapsody in Bloom’s indoor porch.

4. Kareem Kandi will fill Pour at Four with jazz while everyone nibbles on small plates and tosses back glass after glass of wine.

5. The Doug Skoog Band will lay down some wicked blues around 7 p.m. at Uncle Sam’s American Bar & Grill in Spanaway.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide