Weekly Volcano Blogs: Walkie Talkie Blog

Posts made in: October, 2009 (183) Currently Viewing: 71 - 80 of 183

October 10, 2009 at 4:09pm

Tacoma Moment: Revengers

RON SWARNER: SCRAPS ON THE BADLANDS CD OUT SOON >>>

Revengers When will the Revengers new CD, Scraps on the Badlands, hit the streets?

They don’t know yet.

I just snapped this shot of the band outside Hob Nob Restaurant & Lounge on a break from their CD release planning session. 

The Weekly Volcano will keep you updated.

Thanks again for the CD guys.

LINK: Previously on Spew

Filed under: Music, Tacoma,

October 11, 2009 at 9:46am

TFF Sniff 14: Double Take

CHRISTOPHER WOOD: THE GRAND TAKES ANOTHER LOOK AT FILM FEST FAVES >>>

"The house needed vacuuming."
"Those late-night classes shovel out an ungodly amount of homework."
"The kids want just one more tractor ride at the pumpkin farm."

Excuses, excuses.

Bottom line: You didn’t make as many Tacoma Film Festival screenings as you’d hoped.

Yet The Grand Cinema, like a hero off one of its silver screens, comes to the rescue. While many other festivals give visitors only a single chance to see their favorite films, our city’s biggest little theater has planned additional viewings of this year’s award-winners and most popular locally-made works. By extending its festival’s week-long run to include Oct. 12-14, The Grand once again answers its patrons’ collective call.

“If there’s a desire out there to see a film then we want to be able to play it,” says Director of Communications Emily Alm.

TFF-OtisvMonster.7 Making its “re-but” this Monday and Tuesday, Otis v. Monster marks a return for Patrick Neary to his childhood hobby of animation. Each figure he molded by hand, then in his garage tirelessly repositioned the models for every frame. Festival judges awarded his humble efforts Best Regional Film.

Neary admits the recognition carries with it some pressure. “It’s a nerve-wracking experience to sit helplessly in the theater and hope that people like the film, or at least don’t openly scorn it!” he says.

Festivals certainly haven’t scorned Sebastian’s Voodoo, another animated short and recipient of an astounding 64 awards worldwide. This UCLA-produced piece ratchets up yet another honor in our town with Best Short Film.

TFF-Freeing-Silvia From computer-generated realms of fantasy we jump over to stark reality, where Freeing Silvia Baraldini resides. This eye-opening look into the imprisonment of a true-life American activist won its directors Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas Best Documentary at TFF.

Pelletier has personal connections to the faces and events onscreen â€" she met Silvia and did half a year in jail herself. Nonetheless, she and her crew praise The Grand’s egalitarian mission to provide a spectrum of voices the means for expression. She says, “They are one of the truly genuine independent film festivals left. … They accept films through a truly democratic process. … We hope that never changes.”

Best Feature Film winner Dave Boyle feels similarly toward intimate venues like TFF. He says they “really helped me spread the word about my film and also figure out how to market it.” His White on Rice plays Monday.

TFF-It-Don't-Rain Were you one of the many turned away from Randy Sparks’s It Don’t Rain on Sunny Days last Tuesday because tickets sold out within hours? Don’t worry â€" it plays again this Wednesday alongside other local favorites. The film’s star, Joe Rosati, fondly muses over a year’s work in getting to this point:

“I will never forget actually being tazed for one scene.”

At the 2009 Tacoma Film Festival, lightning does strike â€" twice.

Monday, Oct. 12, 6:30 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Best of the Fest Winners: White on Rice, Otis v. Monster and Sebastian's Voodoo
LINK: More details

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6:30 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Best of the Fest Winners: Freeing Silvia Baraldini, Otis v. Monster and Sebastian's Voodoo
LINK: More details


Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6:30 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Local Lens program with some of the most popular regional films this year, including It Don't Rain on Sunny Days
LINK: More details

Tickets forthe second showings are on sale now at The Grand Cinema.

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival on Twitter

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival Web site

LINK: Full film descriptions

LINK: Weekly Volcano Tacoma Film Festival cover story

October 11, 2009 at 3:11pm

Shout Out: Bandolier

JOE IZENMAN: WENT FOR BATTERSEA; LEFT A BANDOLIER FAN >>>

Sometimes a band catches you off guard. Usually it happens to me at festivals. I'll see a band I've never heard of, and be absolutely hypnotized, by their show, by their music, by their everything. The first time I saw the Decemberists at Bumbershoot; Frank Turner opening for Gaslight Anthem; Ben Harper wailing his way through a weather-worn crowd at Sasquatch 2006.

Last night I went to The New Frontier Lounge to see Battersea, and Battersea was good. They are a band full of people who love English post-punk, and it comes through in their songwriting. There is a balance of driving guitar strums and melodic vocals to be struck in that kind of music, and they execute well.

Before Battersea was The Color Of East (celebrating the release of their EP In The House Of Endless Light), and The Color Of East was good, too. They delivered a solid set of what they aptly deem "psychdelic-garage-pop," and though it took some time, they got the crowd up on their feet at the end. 

But before all of that was Bandolier, and Bandolier absolutely blew me away.

Bandolier writes pop songs, and I mean that in a good way. They are floating somewhere in the ephemeral songspace between ‘50s bubble gum and modern indie, and making a kind of music that is far too rare on much of the local scene: music made of different instruments which you can actually hear. It is, put simply, musical. A hollow-body electric guitar sound that fails to utterly overpower the rest of the band. The sharp pop sound that doesn't come out of anything but a Rickenbacker bass. Noisy keyboard mashing eschewed in favor of constructed counter-melodies. A drummer with the skill to be interesting but the restraint to lie back instead of driving the volume to extremes (a frequent problem with mixing at the New Frontier). And two lead singers who can, who would guess it, actually sing. Not wail or scream or growl or moan, but just genuinely sing. It's hard to pull off two lead singers in a single band, but Lino and Ann do an admirable job balancing male and female leads while still continuing to sound like the same band, and spewing crafted harmonies all night long.

There is plenty to be said for well-constructed noisy rock. The aforementioned Bandolier, for example, and any number of other Tacoma and Seattle bands. But I miss music like this, music that's pretty and happy and energetic and fun. It's music that makes wallflowers dance. It's music that makes people smile. It's music that sounds like music, for people who like music. It is, in short, really really good.

Don't be sad, though, if you weren't there. Bandolier is back in Tacoma on Oct. 24, playing an all-ages show at The Den inside UrbanXchange on Pacific Avenue, to celebrate the release of their new CD. Go forth and attend. It'll make you smile.

(Also I really liked the keyboard player's sparkly hat. I want a sparkly hat to play keyboards in. Seriously.)

October 12, 2009 at 12:12am

5 Things To Do: Monday

MICHAEL SWAN: MONDAY, OCT. 12, 2009 >>>          

10-12-5-things 1. The Tacoma Cult Film Club heads back inside the Acme Grub Cage at 7 p.m. for films featuring Coffin Joe, the ‘60s Brazilian icon of horror from plus usual shorts, trailers, and a raffle.

2. Dine at Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante from 4-8 p.m. and 25 percent of your bill will go to the Hospitality Kitchen, which provides 1,300 meals a day to homeless men, women and children.

3. The Washington Center offers a free film screening of master choreographer Paul Taylor's 
DANCEMAKER at 7 p.m. followed by a post-film Q&A with some of the 
Paul Taylor Dance Company.

4. LAKE, Karl Blau and Allan Boothe will play an all-ages show at 7 p.m. inside The Den at urbanXchange.

5. Little Bill & The Bluenotes drop by The Swiss for an 8 p.m. free show.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

October 12, 2009 at 12:30am

Cosmos for the Cure, $5 wine

JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Cosmopolitan Cosmos For The Cure: Stanley & Seafort’s honors October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by donating a $1 from every Cosmopolitan cocktail sold to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Drink for a great cause at 115 E. 34th St. in Tacoma.

Wine Mondays: The Rosewood Café offers $5 glasses of wine every Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 3323 N. 26th St. in Tacoma.

Plan Ahead: Primo Grill celebrates their 10th anniversary Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. with a Tuscan meal with paired wines and a live auction to benefit Tacoma Community College. Call Jacqueline at 253.383.7000 for more information.

Food For Thought: Sneaky ways restaurants are saving money in a down economy.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: South Sound Dive Bars

Filed under: Food & Drink, Food Matters, Tacoma,

October 12, 2009 at 2:04pm

Closing: Deluxe shame

RON SWARNER: DELUXE THRIFT STORE TO CLOSE >>>

Deluxe-sign Buddy Parent is forced to close his beloved Deluxe Thrift Store at 1205 Martin Luther King Jr. Way on Hilltop Tacoma.

The economy is the main factor behind his decision to close the store.

"All the stressful elements kind of weren't worth it anymore, in terms of the decline and people not spending their money as much as they did before," Parent says. "I love this store, but it has drained my bank account."

Parent will close the store on Oct. 26. In the meantime, everything in the store has been marked 50 percent off, which includes cool stereo cabinet equipped with record player ($75); old silver from the Heathman Hotel in Portland ($75); original artwork (a few by Parent); wheelchairs; tools; queen oak headboards; a suede Hartmann suitcase ($650 marked down to $75); mannequins; punch bowls; 400-500 albums ($30 for all); Russian hats; Halloween and Christmas decorations; glassware; and on and on.

Deluxe-hats Deluxe-lights Deluxe-man Deluxe-punch-bowl Deluxe-records Deluxe-silverware Deluxe-stereo Stop by while the deals last. Parent keeps it open Monday-Saturday.

October 12, 2009 at 2:30pm

Happy Hour: Shenanigan’s and Selling The Vatican

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

Discuss the above video over happy hour at:

C.I. Shenanigan’s
3017 N. Ruston Way, Tacoma, 253.752.8811
Happy Hours: 3-6 Monday-Friday, 9-close Monday-Sunday
Drink Specials: $3.50 wells, $3 micro brews, $4.50 select wines, $5.50 refreshing cocktails
Food Specials: bar appetizers are buy one get one free

LINK: Other South Sound Happy Hours

Filed under: Food & Drink, Tacoma,

October 12, 2009 at 3:24pm

Mind blower Thursday night at Fulcrum

RON SWARNER: QUIET MUSIC CULTIVATION THURSDAY NIGHT >>>

James.r.cobb.iii Referred to as quiet music, the work of local composer James R. Cobb III embodies refined aesthetics and intellectual stimulation, thus defying most conventional tags.  Through his specialized synthesizer Cobb generates subtle, animated sounds that change their tonal characteristics â€" thus producing a beautiful noise taken to evocative destinations. A former ‘60s rock drummer turned ‘80s L.A. underground theater soundtrack producer, Cobb’s mind sparks on all cylinders when he creates â€" the musical ideas flowing and gracefully transitioning through themes and contrapuntal ideas.

Cobb performs “Quiet Music Cultivation: 40 Years of Experimental Music” at the Fulcrum Gallery during Third Thursday ArtWalk. With the Modern Cave: Assemblage by Malcom Mclaren exhibit hanging on Fulcrum’s walls, someone’s bound to levitate.

[Fulcrum Gallery, Thursday, Oct. 15, 6-9 p.m., no cover; DJs 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., $5 to benefit Tacoma Contemporary; 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253.250.0520]

LINK: Tacoma Third Thursday ArtWalk

October 13, 2009 at 12:14am

5 Things To Do: Tuesday

MICHAEL SWAN: TUESDAY, OCT. 13, 2009 >>>

10-13-5-things 1. The Kamand Enseble performs classical Persian music with lute and percussion instruments to kick off the free Classical Tuesdays in Old Town series at 7 p.m. inside the Old Slavonian Hall.

2. Tuesday Afternoon Writing Salon kicks off today at 2 p.m. for a four Tuesdays in a row run at the Mandolin Café. If your book is almost done, these sessions are for you.

3. Introduction to Genealogy â€" a free class that will introduce you to the tools you need to start finding your roots â€" will be held at 6 p.m. inside the Olympia Room at the Tacoma Public Library’s Main Branch.

4. The Grand Cinema re-screens Tacoma Film Festival Best of the Fest Winners Freeing Silvia Baraldini, Otis v. Monster and Sebastian's Voodoo at 6:30 p.m.

5. The Pacific Coast Pirates Presents The Funky Jah Punkys Corporate Takeover CD Release Party, with Psycho 78 at 9 p.m. inside Hell’s Kitchen.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

October 13, 2009 at 9:54am

Indian Cooking, Southern Night

JAKE DE PAUL: FOOD MATTERS >>>

The Art of Indian Cooking: Learn the secrets of Indian cuisine with a 5 p.m. class tonight at Bates Technical College.

Half-Price Wine: Maxwell’s Speakeasy is down tonight.

Plan Ahead: Babblin' Babs Bistro hosts "A Southern Night with the Chef" Sunday, Oct. 25. Chef William will transfer you to the South for $75 per person.

Food For Thought: Why did doctors sell out to Coke?


LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: South Sound Dive Bars

Filed under: Food & Drink, Food Matters, Tacoma,

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