MICHAEL SWAN: CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR WEDNESDAY >>>

Water chat and ride
The Puyallup River Watershed Council will hang out at the Carbon River entrance to Mt. Rainier Nation Park Wednesday, Aug. 26.

Want to join them?

Meet at the Sumner Library (116 Fryar Ave.) at 10:30 a.m. First, you have to sit through a slide show concerning the hydrology and sediment transport of rivers presented by Paul Kennard and Susan Dolan, scientists from the Park Service.

At 11:30 a.m. you’ll hop on a bus. After a two-hour ride (you have to have snacks along the way!), you’ll pile out for short and long walks to see flood impacts from previous floods. Discussion on river hydrology and the Park’s future by Bryan Bowden, Park planner/ranger will be part of your day.

It’s back on the bus at 3:30 p.m. for return trip. If you’re not sunburned, the Puyallup River Watershed Council hosts a forum at the Sumner Library beginning at 5 p.m. on rivers management in both Pierce and King counties.

For more information, call the Watershed coordinator at 253.798.3096
               
Do It Right Tacoma
Do It Right Tacoma, a blog “created by concerned citizens wanting the City of Tacoma to demand Sound Transit to reevaluate, review, and present their plans to result in the best solution possible for our city,” will host a public discussion on Sound Transit’s rail plans for Tacoma Wednesday, Aug. 26, 5 p.m., at 402 E. 26th St. in the Tacoma Dome District. The meeting will include a walking tour of Sound Transit’s plan for the Dome District.

Expect Do It Right Tacoma to encourage you to attend Sound Transit’s presentation to the Community Councils of Tacoma that goes down Thursday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m., in the Tacoma Municipal Building.

BOBBLE TIKI: HOW DO YOU USE A DISTRICT? >>>

In the future, when the super-cool, vaguely disturbing Big Brother Google takes us on a voyeuristic Google Street Views tour of Tacoma’s Brewery District â€" the downtown neighborhood just to the south of the University of Washington Tacoma campus â€" what will we see?

Will it be congestion and parking woes and drunks and random urban demons careening around  smashing windows and exchanging gunfire and peeing on Brewery District stoops?

Or will we see five or six full city blocks carefully preplanned to look like some sort of idyllic "natural" Euro-American village, with benches and grassy areas and trees, 60 shops, 17 restaurants, five movie screens, 12 spas, six four-star hotels, mini-gardens, courtyards, terraces, nice lighting, scented clouds, nose jobs and hot coeds drinking tasty brews in sidewalk cafes?

The City of Tacoma would like to know how you use the Brewery District and what ideas you have for its future. Please click their Survey Monkey to complete the City of Tacoma's online survey. It doesn't bite or scratch and only takes 10 minutes to complete.

For more background information and maps, check out TacomaCulture.org.

Your thoughts are only good through Sept. 30, 2009.

MICHAEL SWAN: TODAY’S HAPPY HOUR DISCUSSION TOPIC >>>

Today’s Happy Hour Suggestion:

Rosewood Café
3323 N. 26th St., Tacoma, 253.752.7999
Happy Hours: all day Monday
Drink Special: wines are $5/glass

LINK: South Sound happy hours

MICHAEL SWAN: THEATER IN THE GROUNDS >>>

Tonight as Origin 23 Coffee’s espresso machine hisses in the background, Nick Stokes’ greatest plays he’s ever written â€" Whiteout and The Sound We Make â€" will be read out loud. The plays will no longer be read just in Stokes’ head. Nope, at 7 p.m., in front of the coffee house crowd, Stokes’ greatest plays will be shared with the public so he may tweak them before his full production at Tacoma’s Old City Hall this November.

Stokes’ first greatest work, The Sound We Make, finds three homeless locals in Tacoma’s Fireman’s Park coping with the loss of a street legend.

The other great play, Whiteout, tells the haunting story of a man with no past and a woman with nothing but in a snowbound Montana motel.

Produced jointly as “The Greatest Plays Ever Written by Nick Stokes,” and made possible by a Tacoma Arts Commission TAIP Grant, the two, hour-long staged readings are free.

[Origin 23 Coffee, Monday, Aug. 24, 7 p.m., no cover, South Union and Sixth Avenue, Tacoma, 253.212.1503]

MICHAEL SWAN: TUESDAY, AUG. 25, 2009 >>>

1. Armando Iannucci's white-hot satire In the Loop both mocks and laments the diseased political culture that pushes the U.K. and the U.S. toward an unnecessary war against a Middle Eastern country screening at 4:10 at The Grand Cinema.

2. It’s Psychic Night beginning at 5 p.m. inside the Cliff House Restaurant. Some of you already knew that.

3. Thirty-two restaurants, two micro breweries, and five wineries set up shop at the Olympia Farmers Market from 6-8 p.m. as part of the Taste of the Market benefit.

4. The Jessica Blinn Quartet, an Olympia-based jazz combo, performs for the 7 p.m. all-ages Swing Dance night at Olympia’s Eagles Ballroom

5. Rep. Adam Smith holds a 7 p.m. Town Hall at the Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

SUZY STUMP: THE ARTLATCH EXPERIENCE >>>

No, it’s not a rave and it’s not a museum security system, but Artlatch â€" an open-to-the-public, communal creative session slash potluck has the potential for its own late-night craziness.

A truly populist art event, Artlatch charges no fee for artists, uses no jury and doesn’t tell you what you can create; simply bring your art supplies, and your current creation if you have one, and be ready for other creative types to join in on your creation.

Come prepared to create simultaneously with other artists, too.

Oh, and bring a casserole, or garlic and parsley frittata or drinks to share.

[Tac25 Collective, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 6-11 p.m., no cover, 2367 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, tac25-collective@googlegroups.com]

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY >>>

Brad Oberhofer is one of the ones that got away. Having found success at Tacoma School of the Arts, Oberhofer fulfilled the promise that all art students make to themselves: he left. Having studied music for most of his lucid life, he finally got out of dodge, heading for New York of all places. Listening to his music, it was the first time in a long time that I was really surprised by a local band. Though he only records by himself, all his songs have a huge sound befitting that of a full band.
 
It’s the kind of bombastic indie music that somehow always strikes a chord with me. Although, Oberhofer didn’t start out creating this kind of music â€" he started with rap.

“When I started in seventh grade…I started free-style rapping,” says Oberhofer. “I actually knocked a kid out one time because he broke my Ginuwine CD.”
  It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that there are no borders in music. To listen to Oberhofer’s driving, orchestral indie rock would not immediately suggest an upbringing in rap battles. But so goes music. Brains are sponges, I’ve found, and they are free to soak up and mix about whatever they wish.

Playing live, Oberhofer pulls together whatever musicians he can, depending on what side of the country he’s on. While he’s visiting home, he’ll play a show at The Den. It’ll be a guitar-and-drum affair. On other occasions, he’s performed with a real band, featuring strings and such.

But no matter how full the band, the sound is much the same. It’s all about conveying a giant sound, jamming it into your ear canal and into your brain and from there it shivers down your spinal column. The feeling may be likened to that of an electric shock, but without the messy death part.

[The Den @ urbanXchange, Hunting Hat, Bluebird, Cozy Kitchen, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m., all ages, $3-$4,1932 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2280], 7 p.m. $3-$4, all ages, 1932 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, 253.572.2280]

JAKE DE PAUL: TASTY! >>>

Taste of the Market: Thirty-two restaurants, two micro breweries, and five wineries set up shop at the Olympia Farmers Market from 6-8 p.m.

Farmers Market: Tacoma 6th Ave Farmers Market Tacoma runs from 3:30-7:30 p.m. today at Sixth Avenue and North Pine Street.

Heavy Metal: Naturopath Tom Griffith addresses major health issues involving heavy metals, chelation therapy and IV nutrient therapies tonight at 7 p.m. at Marlene’s Market & Deli in Tacoma.

Rib Night: The Hub offers one pound of barbecue baby back pork ribs served with baked beans, corn on the cob and mini cornbread for $11.95 every Tuesday.

Prix Fixe: Every Tuesday night Asado runs a $25 menu featuring three appetizer, four entrees and three dessert options. Ride in at 2810 Sixth Ave. in Tacoma.

Spiedini: Bayview School of Cooking in Olympia offers a hands-on cooking class on Italian skewers Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 6 p.m.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Robbers Suck: One in Federal Way; one on Sixth Avenue; one against worker's will to live.

Fish Fail: Heat blamed for drop in Hood Canal oxygen level.

OMG: President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology warns that half of the U.S. population could become infected with swine flu (with about 90,000 possible deadly cases).

Different Kind Of Torture: Prosecutor named to probe CIA prisoner abuses.

Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!: Obama taps Bernanke for second term.

Oh, Really?: North Korea invites U.S. envoy to renew nuclear talks.

Tysoned: Man allegedly bites off love rival's ear lobe.

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

Arctic Monkeys, Humbug

Matisyahu, Light

Whitney Houston, I Look To You

Needtobreathe, The Outsiders

Willie Nelson, American Classic

Colbie Caillat, Breakthrough

Jet, Shaka Rock

Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Kitty Daisy & Lewis

Collective Soul, Collective Soul

John Fogerty, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again

Delores O’Riordan, No Baggage

Smokey Robinson, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun