MICHAEL SWAN: ONE CITY. 30 DAYS. WHAT WILL YOU DO? >>>
 
Art at Work Month: Friday, Nov. 27

November 2009 marks the eighth anniversary of Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month. There is something for everyone to enjoy throughout the month: lectures, music, dance performances, readings, workshops, theater performances, visual art exhibits and more.

Here are today’s highlights:

Free Ya Mind presents its monthly Art in the City open mic and artist talk-back at 7 p.m. inside Tully's Coffee at 764 Broadway in downtown Tacoma.

Tacoma Little Theatre opens A Christmas Story at 7:30 p.m.

Chholing Taha will be working on story blankets from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Washington State History Museum.

There are many more events today. For a complete Art at Work schedule, click here.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: MUSIC IN THE SOUTH SOUND TONIGHT >>>

After Thanksgiving, we can think of no better way to detune and unpressurize than to club hop. Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we have you covered.

During the past 17 years as an international DJ, Lakewood-grown Donald Glaude has been responsible for seeding vibrant musical landscapes for audiences up and down the West Coast. He's back in his hometown tonight spinning with dAb, Omar and J-Fresh at The Swiss.

The one-man-folk-band thing is getting a wee-bit played out. That said, Ghostwriter is NOT played out - and the shtick is anything but boring. While Steve Schecter - the man who is Ghostwriter - has the country-fried, chicken feather bit down - there's also a gloominess to what he does that keeps things interesting. Check it for yourself tonight at The New Frontier with Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel and the Fun Police.

Hell's Kitchen continues its string of final shows at its Sixth Avenue location with all-female AC/DC tribute band Hell's Belles headlining with The Jet City Fix and Witchburn at 9 p.m.

MICHAEL SWAN: IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE … >>>>

The holidays can be hell. I suggest you set one goal for each day leading up to your holiday of choice, and stick to it. Trying to buy Nana a Clapper and little cousin Latisha a collectors' edition Beanie Baby might be feasible in one day, but not if you also try to whip up four batches of divinity fudge and volunteer to lead dreidel-spinning at the local library children's hour. You can't do everything Martha Stewart does in her holiday special, and neither can she, so get over it.

Today, buy your Christmas tree â€" in Tollefson Plaza!

Yup, it’s true. Two Five Trees is open for business in Tollefson Plaza.

Read up on it on the Two Five Trees blog here.

MICHAEL SWAN: SATURDAY, NOV. 28, 2009 >>>

1. The Broadway Center will kick off the holiday season today with the family film The Polar Express at 3 p.m. in the Pantages Theater followed by the 64th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting at 5 p.m. 

2. Centerstage Theatre presents its third annual English Christmas pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at 8 p.m.

3. The D.A.S.H. Center hosts a Casino Royale fundraising night at 7 p.m. inside The Robert Daniels Gallery.

4. The all-ages venue Viaduct hosts Jessie Justice's Birthday Bash (potluck dinner) featuring Monsters Scare You, Burning Twilight, 10cc Love Affair, Creature Of The Deep, Passion For Peril, at The Ellis Armor at 5 p.m.
   
5. The Joshua Adams Band play at 9 p.m. inside the 4th Ave Tavern in Olympia.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

WEEKLY VOLCANO: MUSIC IN THE SOUTH SOUND TONIGHT >>>

Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we have you covered:

Benefiting Second Cycle, Hilltop's loved bicycle co-op, Raw Talent #2 will be a chance for anyone to check out a cast of local performers - many of them relative newbies - busting out spoken word, poetry, music, comedy and maybe even a puppet show or two at 7 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

The sizzling licks of Blues Redemption's players - the venerable Doug Skoog on keyboards, Joe Hendershot on bass, Barner on drums and vocals and Brian Feist on guitar and vocals - will fill Bob's Java Jive at 8 p.m. Throw in the Michal Miller Band and some typical Jive eccentricities (we hear go-go dancing action) and the evening is a sure winner.

Fox 45 (pictured) and Little Reuben are both bands that play a kind of slapdash, minimalist pop. It's earnest music that makes no effort to hide cracks and flaws. What makes these bands important is they represent, we think, Tacoma's next wave. Check them out with Monday Mornings at 7 p.m. inside The Den.

Is there a need, anymore, to make a point of defining certain bands as "bedroom pop"? More and more, the act of retreating to one's bedroom and putting hissy, intimate pop to tape (or computer) is becoming as common as garage bands ever were. The Webelos (a bedroom pop band) declare in "Yellow is the Color" that they've moved out of the bedroom and are now "living room pop." Fair enough. See them with Thought Bandit at 8 p.m. inside Le Voyeur in Olympia.

Hell's Kitchen - which has stood at Sixth and Proctor like a pillar of Pabst stains, punk rock and Tacoma live local music viability since 2002 - is moving, to downtown Tacoma of all places. Tonight, after two shows with the semi world famous all-female AC/DC tribute band Hell's Belles (all-ages show at 5 p.m., 21+ at 9 p.m.), Hell's Kitchen will shut it down for good on Sixth Avenue, focusing on a new location at 928 Pacific Ave. that should be up and running by mid-December.

MICHAEL SWAN: PHOTO HOT SPOT >>>

Michael D. Martin recently uploaded a few shots of the Chihuly art inside Union Station in Tacoma. He added them to his Tacoma WA Area set, which is loaded with gems. Click here to see more.

MICHAEL SWAN: SUNDAY, NOV. 29, 2009 >>>

1. Kids in Koncert, a nifty youth choir, will present a Singing Christmas Tree in Olympia’s Sylvester Park at 4:30 p.m.

2. The Friends of McKinley Park will repair and beautify the park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

3. Tacoma Bike has put together two rides, both taking off from Tacoma Bike headquarters at 309 Puyallup Ave. and ending up at Mad Hat Tea Company.  A kid friendly ride leaves Tacoma Bike at noon. A 21+ group takes off at 3 p.m. â€" and will continue on to local alcoholic watering holes after stopping at Mad Hat.

4. Marcus Walker and Scott Campbell reprise their roles in another "celebrity" performance in the hilarious A Tuna Christmas at 2 p.m. inside the Lakewood Playhouse.

5. Mandolin Café’s Open Mic begins at 6 p.m. hosted by Bill Farmer.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

RON SWARNER: THE TRADITION CONTINUES ... >>>

Size does matter … well, when it comes to Christmas trees. Bigger means better as hundreds gathered last night in front of the Pantages Theater for the 64th lighting of the Holiday Tree Lighting Celebration in Tacoma. After the Fort Lewis Brass Quintet filled the Pantages' lobby with holiday tunes, Broadway Center Executive Director David Fischer, Mayor Bill Baarsma, Fort Lewis Garrison Commander Col. Thomas Brittain, and The News Tribune columnist C.R. Roberts said a few words before Santa flipped the light switch on the giant Douglas fir, courtesy of Fort Lewis.

LINK:

RON SWARNER: A FEW FAREWELL SHOTS >>>

Because I can't remember much past last week, I buried myself in the yellowed, crinkly piles of Weekly Volcano past issues in our archive department - which comprises a shelf, a Safeway shopping cart, and a filthy pair of Keds. I sat on the floor with a nice Fat Bastard (the wine, not the guy who does our windows once a year), and reviewed the shows I'd seen at Hell's Kitchen since it opened in 2002 - and the approximately 3,120 cocktails I'd threw back there. Punched in the side of the head at the 2004 Prong show, vertigo bout during The Posies show, chatting with Peter Buck - I've had many good times inside the Sixth Avenue club.

I dropped by Hell's Kitchen last night to toast the club's final night on Sixth Avenue (read the full story on its move downtown here).

Booking agent Flash told me the new downtown location might be ready by mid-December, but it WILL be open for a free local bands show on New Year's Eve.

LINK: More photos on our Photo Hot Spot

WEEKLY VOLCANO: TRAGEDY IN PIERCE COUNTY >>>

Three men and a woman from the Lakewood Police Department were shot dead in a Pierce County Forza Coffee shop this morning at 8:30 a.m. in what a Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman described as a "flat-out ambush."

Pierce County has set up an emergency Web site here.

The News Tribune is following the story.

If you have any information regarding this morning’s shooting, please call the tip line at 253.591.5959.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the four officers as well as those who witnessed the shooting.