JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Hey Kids! Do You Like To Taste Wine?: Wine tasting, noon to 5 p.m., Tacoma Wine Merchants; Wine tasting, 2-5 p.m., Harbor Greens Wine Bar; French wine and cheese tasting, 2-4:30 p.m., Wine Bank.

Late Night Happy Hour: Woody's on the Water runs a happy hour tonight from 9 p.m. to close featuring half-priced appetizers, $4 micros, $1 off wells, and $4 house wine.

Sandwich Smackdown!: MSM Deli’s BBC and Vuelve A La Vida’s Steak Torta step into the octagon and duel to the death.

See Your Future, Be Your Future: Duke’s on Ruston Way hosts a beer dinner featuring Georgetown Brewing Company Thursday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. The cost is $49.85. Reserve your spot at 206.985.9466.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: South Sound Dive Bars

JOE MALIK: THE STRADIVARI QUARTET IN THE HOUSE >>>

Zurich, Switzerland-based Stradivari Quartet will play four pieces on four instruments designed by legendary luthier Anton Stradivari tonight inside the Pantages Theater. The quartet was formed when the Swiss Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger lent four exceptional Stradivari instruments to four young musicians from Zurich.

The Tacoma Philharmonic welcomes the quartet to the Pantages tonight. Expect pieces by Schubert, Turina, Bartok and Brahms.

[Pantages Theater, Saturday, Oct. 17, 7:30 p.m., $32.50 $62.50, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5894]

MATT DRISCOLL: THE KINGS OF OUTLAW COUNTRY >>>

The Kings of Outlaw Country have a motto: “Livin’ Hard and Drinkin’ with Both Fists.” So, does it come as any surprise the band will be plugging in at O’Malley’s tonight? Something tells me they share the motto with a number of O’Malley’s regulars.

But besides an affinity for liver damage, this is a band built on all the good things country music used to be â€" wild, unrestrained, dangerous, sometimes drunk â€" and none of the things that’s corrupted the genre â€" like Toby Keith’s well manicured beard.

Throw in a punk rock swagger, and you’ve got “music for your inner hillbilly,” as the band likes to say.

Let that hillbilly loose tonight.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: TRUE MARGRIT TONIGHT AT THE JIVE >>>

I spoke recently about the dubious new subgenre “dad-rock.” Is there such a things as mom-rock? If no one has hit upon this idea yet, I’d like to nominate San Francisco’s True Margrit as the first mom-rock band ever.

My proof?

I am certain that, though she hasn’t heard the band, my mother would love True Margrit. It possesses all of the qualities she looks for in a night out to the bar with the girls: Punchy, blues-rock piano and a funky girl lead singer, backed up by a jammin’ band. After seeing True Margrit, my mother would no doubt inform me that they “rawk.” And then she’d try to set me up with the lead singer.

So goes mom-rock.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: FIFTH ANNUAL TATTOO EXTRAVAGANZA TONIGHT >>>

The Tattoo Extravaganza tonight at Hell’s Kitchen, is, perhaps more than an exhibition of the art form, a display of this strange relationship between artist and subject. Tattoo artists sign up for this competition and are judged based on numerous criteria and given awards in 12 categories, ranging from Best Overall to Best Sleeve to Best Black & Grey and even Worst Tattoo (more on that later).

But instead of these artists arriving with a portfolio, they actually present to the judges the person whom they tattooed. It’s an indisputable mark of quality for these artists to be able to bring a client in and have them proudly display themselves in front of an audience, not only for observation but for scrutiny.

Read the full story here.

JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Sunday Football Breakfast: The Ram Restaurant & Brewery serves breakfast burritos, meatlover’s skillets, French toast, breakfast club sandwiches and more during the games. Jump on theram.com for the nearest location.

Christmas Beers: 99 Bottles in Federal Way received an early Christmas present â€" 30 holiday beers now in stock including Noël de Géants, Scaldis Noël, Kerstmutske Christmas Nightcap, Serafijn Christmas Angel, Amager 2008 Vintage Julebryg, Nørrebro Julebryg, Ølfabrikken Jule Ale, Insanely Bad Elf, Lump of Coal Holiday Stout, Santa's Butt, Pickled Santa, Reindeer's Revolt, Peculiar Yule, and Santa's Little Helper Stout

Plan ahead: Babblin' Babs Bistro hosts "A Southern Night with the Chef" reservation only chef’s dinner Sunday, Oct. 25. Chef William will transfer you to the South for $75 per person.

Food For Thought: An apple pie is assembled and baked in one minute, thanks to time lapse video technology.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: South Sound Dive Bars

PAUL SCHRAG: LOVETT AND HIATT PERFORM TWO SHOWS TODAY >>>

Oh man do I love Lyle Lovett. He’ll be at the Pantages Theater today with John Hiatt, who is almost as awesome as Lovett. But Hiatt has never jumped in the sack with Julia Roberts, so he loses a few points there.

Lovett, one of the great singer/songwriters of our age, and Hiatt, who has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, will play an all acoustic set as part of what should be considered by all you music fans out there as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

MICHAEL SWAN: SUNDAY, OCT. 18, 2009 >>>

1. Check out artist Lynne Farren’s Dia de los Muertos/Black Cats and Frida from noon to 5 p.m. at the 253 Collective, 1901 S. Jefferson Ave. in Tacoma.
 
2. The Tacoma Fall Home & Garden Show ends today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Tacoma Dome.
       
3. Tacoma Musical Playhouse stages Curtains, a show, which is centered around Boston’s Colonial Theatre as it stages a new Broadway bound work, at 2 p.m.

4. The Northwest Playwrights Alliance presents August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at 3 p.m. inside the Washington State History Museum.

5. Small Minds, Mojomatics, and JAIL play an all-ages 7 p.m. show at The Den@urbanXchange.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: MONDAY, OCT. 19, 2009 >>>

1. The September Issue, a backstage documentary about Vogue magazine’s September 2007 issue, which set a record at well over 800 pages, will screen at 3, 5 and 7:10 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

2. Mnemonic Sampler: An Abecedary by Chandler O'Leary is on display at the University Gallery inside Pacific Lutheran University from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

3. Picha’s Pumpkin Patch in Puyallup hosts a variety of pumpkins, gourdes and cornstalks, 5 acre corn maze and a pumpkin sling shot from 3-6 p.m.  

4. Dr. Bret Ruby, Fort Lewis cultural resource manager and coordinator for Native American affairs, will lecture on "The Historical Archaeology of Greene Park: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Fort Lewis and the First World War" at noon at the Washington State Capital Museum in Olympia.

5. Havok, Sword Of Judgement, A Lesson In Chaos, and Torture Box play a 6 p.m. all-ages show at Hell's Kitchen.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Apocalyptic Eating: Food utopia found in a likely place.

$5 Wine Mondays: The Rosewood Café is pouring them at $5 a pop.

Plan Ahead: Classically-trained French Chef Thierry Liot teaches Autumn Fare … a la Francaise Monday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. inside the Bayview School of Cooking in Olympia. The class costs $45. Reserve your spot at 360.754.1448.

Food For Thought: Hard cider is gaining popularity in the United States.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: South Sound Dive Bars