MICHAEL SWAN: GREAT IDEA >>
   
The original Christmas story is a narrative of hope and joy, but there’s no denying that a considerable amount of dread and hardship play into the story. After all, for the weary Joseph and Mary, there really was no room at the inn. That’s small potatoes, however, compared to the difficulties we face today when we run out of gift ideas with only five shopping days left.

City Arts has posted a list of last minute gift ideas â€" tax deductible charitable donations for arts organizations. Nice. Click here for their suggestions.

MICHAEL SWAN: ART OF MODERN ROCK >>>

Here’s a holiday gift for someone you really love. Released in 2004, Art Of Modern Rock is a $60, 20-pound book which traces the progress of the modern art rock poster. With work from more than 200 artists, Art Of Modern Rock is nothing if not complete.

Devotees will recognize the names of Art Chantry (Tacoma represent!), Ames Bros., Frank Kozik, Lindsey Kuhm, Mark Arminski and the many other artists; others will only recognize the style.

Selected from 8,000 submissions, the posters in the book capture an era (1989-2004) where rock poster art went through a transformation and once again became fine art. It’s in its fifth printing.

There’s entire pages devoted to psychedelic jam band posters; String Cheese Incident receives its own section, in fact. But non-hippie bands are well-represented too. There’s a lovely Tori Amos poster in which John Lennon, from beyond the grave, endorses the red-haired singer. Graphic designers go nuts over this sort of thing; and it’s easy to see why.

Non-artists can appreciate the varying styles of poster art and how Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others help resurrect it as an artform in the 1990s.

You’ll need two hands to carry it and a ton of paper to wrap it, but any lover of art and popular music, especially jam band music, will love this book. Click here for more info.

MICHAEL SWAN: THIS JUST IN >>>

Mineral gallery tossed the following press release our way a tiny time ago. Tacoma artist Chris Sharp has a new show, TINY, at the Tacoma Dome District gallery except the freaking thing is by appointment until Jan. 3. Those attending the Northwest Wedding Expo at the Dome Jan. 2-3 are SOL unless they phone ahead. Damn holiday-loving gallery owners!

Oh course we kid as Mineral owner Lisa Kinoshita is super rad.

Here is the press release with the operating hours at the end:

Mineral is pleased to present TINY: New Works by Chris Sharp, through February 2, 2010. This exhibit offers a glimpse into the artist's process through a collection of drawings and paintings in various stages of completion. As Sharp writes, "A painting isn't a linear object with a beginning, middle or end. There is no such thing as a finished painting or a complete body of work. My paintings are a living history of my perspective of formalism. It's a vote as to what I think painting should be." Visitors are invited to flip through stacks of Sharp's studies, which are clipped to the gallery walls. 

Sharp is a widely known local artist who, in 2008, received the first annual "Foundation of Art Award" established by the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. In addition to his fine art, he has influenced the look of downtown Tacoma with work as a painter of original signage, creating classic, free-hand logo art for businesses including Satellite Coffee, the Rosewood Café, the Hub Restaurant, Tacoma Bike, and Blackwater Café.
 

TINY includes figurative paintings and abstract compositions layered with suggestive, fragmented messaging. "Typically illustrative and sentimental paintings weird me out," he says. "I can be sincere in the moment, paint something heartfelt, and for awhile it abides by what I see as being good, but over time the sentiment is lost and the painting feels unfinished and too dependent on that context or that particular emotion that made me paint it in the first place." In that sense, the work in TINY feels more like an open-ended proposal.


In addition to regular hours, a gallery event for TINY will be held at Mineral on January 21. 
Address: 301 Puyallup Ave. - Suite A (that's in Tacoma's Dome District, not Puyallup)
. Hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday noon-5. By appointment only December 22-January 3. 
Contact: 253.250.7745.

MICHAEL SWAN: WEDNESDAY, DEC. 23, 2009 >>>

1. The Hub hosts an ugly Christmas sweater party at 7 p.m.

2. The Tacoma Public Library's Handforth Gallery hosts great selection of paintings, painted cloth and applique from Zimbabwe as gift ideas. Volunteers from UWPC's Youth United program will be on hand from 4:30-7:30 pm. to take your money and send you home with art.

3. Masa hosts its first Naughty Navidad Party with a costume contest, pictures taken with Santa at the Naughty North Pole and more beginning at 10 p.m.

4. Bronn and Katherine Journey go off on the harp in their 28th Annual Christmas Concert at 7:30 p.m. inside Minnaert Center.

5. Saul Tannenbaum and His Jingle Belles will delight you with Yuletide favorites new and old at 9 p.m. inside The 4th Ave. Tav in Olympia.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: WHY DON'T I EVER MAKE YEAR-END LISTS? >>>

Pitchfork has reviewed the decade in music with pitchfork.com/p2k. Start clicking around for The Social History of the MP3, The Decade in Pop, The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s, The Top 50 Music Videos of the 200s and much more.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: BECAUSE “SERIES” IS OUR MIDDLE NAME >>>

We're posting a South Sound store window daily through Christmas to give you a quick jolt of holiday spirit. Ho, ho, ho!

On the 23rd day of Christmas we drove by: Bair Drug & Hardware Store. Bair Bistro will open in Bair Drug in January 2010.

LINK: Drive-by Holiday history

RON SWARNER: DEPT. OF NICE! >>>

This just arrived at the Weekly Volcano World Headquarters. Christmas arrives early for 19 lucky arts organizations.

The Tacoma Arts Commission recently awarded $45,000 in 2010 Arts Projects funding to 19 different Tacoma organizations in support of public outreach projects in the fields of music, dance, film, theater, literary and visual arts. The awards range in value from $1,000 to $4,000 and serve a cross-section of Tacoma’s community.

“These art projects reflect the innovative, inclusive and eclectic community that is the heart of Tacoma. The diversity of the arts reflect the diversity of interests and experiences of our citizens and enhances our ability to express our Tacoma values and identity,” says Robin Echtle, 2010 Chair of the Tacoma Arts Commission.
 
The Arts Projects funding program supports high quality community projects with a strong focus on arts that are accessible and affordable to the public. Thirty-three Arts Projects applications were submitted to the Tacoma Arts Commission with requests totaling $133,640.

Funded projects include the production of a series of urban drama webisodes, publication of a first book of poetry, traditional Cambodian dance and urban hip-hop classes, a variety of music performances, theatrical productions, visual art instruction and exhibits, arts and cultural festivals and poetry readings.

Funded organizations include 6th Avenue Business District, Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Auricle LLC, D.A.S.H. Center for the Arts, Exquisite Disarray Publishing, Fulcrum Gallery, King's Books, Northwest Playwrights Alliance, Old Town Business and Professional Association, Proctor Farmers Market, Puget Sound Poetry Connection, Roosevelt Dancers, Second City Chamber Series, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Theatre Company, SoJust, Tacoma Art Place, Tacoma Concert Band, Tacoma Farmers Market and Tacoma Pierce County Sister Cities. Arts Projects is one of three funding programs administered by the Tacoma Arts Commission. For a complete listing of funding programs, publicly accessible funded projects and information about the Tacoma Arts Commission, visit www.tacomaculture.org.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: THIS JUST IN >>>

Tacoma Goodwill sent us a release regarding sad news that has hit the agency. Help out if you can.

TACOMA - Tacoma Goodwill today mourned the tragic loss of the wife of an employee who was found deceased in the Lakewood apartment fire yesterday. The agency has established a fund to help the family
 
Eduardo Vilog's wife, Aida, 63, was lost in the Village Apartments fire. Eduardo, 73, was working at Goodwill's production facility when the blaze occurred. He has been with the agency since 1998. Tacoma Goodwill established the Eduardo Vilog Family Fund with Columbia Bank to assist with immediate needs, including funeral-related expenses.
 

"Our hearts and prayers are with Eduardo and his family as they go through this tragedy, which is especially hard to take at this time of year," said Terry A. Hayes, Tacoma Goodwill CEO, who noted the agency has made counseling available to all its employees. "We want them to know they have friends here who will help them through this horrible time."
 
A second employee was also a resident of the apartment complex and was at work at the time of the blaze. Goodwill is supporting the work of The Red Cross with whatever emergency requests for clothes and household items are needed for all the families the fire impacted.
 
"We will offer all the help possible to support our employees, and help them and other victims through this tragedy," Hayes said.

MATT DRISCOLL: WINGIN' IT >>>

Yes, it's true - here at the Weekly Volcano we are friends with Roxanne (Murphy). You may need a last name to identify her, but we certainly do not (although we have called her by other names upon occasion).

This Saturday, the day after the Christianized and/or commercialized world celebrates Christmas with presents under the tree, overcooked turkeys and awkward family get-togethers, Doyle's Public House in Tacoma will help Roxanne celebrate her birthday - which is Dec. 26, for those playing at home - with a rock show worth its weight in stocking coal.

Tacoma's Goldwing, a slay first, ask questions later band of T-town troublemakers corralled by Rory Turner (who, now that I write this I realize I identified with a bogus last name a long time ago in a blurb that made the print version of the Volcano - journalistic excellence at its finest!), will share a bill with And Those Who Were Dragged. The night after Christmas show starts at 9:30 p.m.

In preparation for Saturday's show at Doyle's, I was able to catch up with Turner this week to get his thoughts on Goldwing's place in Tacoma, the importance of Roxanne's birthday, and which member of the band is closest to Robocop.

Here's what Turner had to say. This interview was posted in two parts - with the first installment hitting Spew on Monday, Dec. 21.

VOLCANO: Where does Goldwing fit in Tacoma? If Goldwing was an item off the Frisko Freeze menu, or a hot dog at the Red Hot - what would it be?

TURNER: If you asked Barham it would be the biggest heart attack burger from Frisko. I've personally invented my own hot dog at the Red Hot. It consists of: veggie braut, crushed Fritos, nacho cheese, and then topped of with coleslaw. It soaks up Rainier like a big delicious sponge. However, it will not make you any less drunk.

VOLCANO: What do you want for Christmas and are you expecting to get it? Or, did I just offend you with such a blatantly Christian assumption? If I did offend you, how offended were you earlier when I ask which was more important, Baby Jesus' birthday or Roxanne's?

TURNER: I don't think I could be offended if the question made me think about Wu Tang. 

VOLCANO: Talk a little about the bill for Friday's show - pretty solid. Are you guys already chummy with And Those Who Were Dragged? What can people expect out of this show?

TURNER: We actually share a guitar player (Barham). So, we have an awkward My-girlfriend-is-friends-with-her-ex-boyfriend-now kind of relationship. We pretend to be really nice to each other, but we really just want to keep him to ourselves. 

VOLCANO: In all seriousness, what are Goldwing's plans for next year - and what can fans of the band expect to see?

TURNER: Other than releasing a record, we're gonna try and not change the way we do anything. We like predictability. We've developed a formula: Pete and Dave are the "order" side. Whereas Barham and Myself are the "chaos" side. Which I guess makes Rusty "justice"... or Robocop.  

GEOFF READING: IT STARTED WITH STEVE JONES PART TWO >>>

This is the second part of the “It started with Steve Jones” story. For a refresher on part one, click here.

So, we (New American Shame) go and play our show. It is almost impossible to get tired of playing rock music to a house packed to capacity with rock fans. What we were doing wasn't rocket science, but it seemed to convey. Performing in front of The Cult's crowd, it felt like we made a connection every night we went out there, and that’s really all you can hope for. 

After we got off stage, a friend that had made the trip from home and I high-tailed it out the back door, through the loading bay and out to our tour bus â€" intent on stealing a few moments alone. My friend looked like a Barbie Doll from a Marilyn Manson video â€" which is to say she looked great.

As we're rushing to make our way back- in the way we had come out - we run smack into Mr. Steve Jones.

Trailing Jonsey was somewhere between eight and 12 girls - all high heeled and low cut. This was Vegas, after all, and this was Steve Jones. There was a lot of after market accessories on these ladies. I look at him, and then behind him, and then I notice he’s doing the same thing to me. Then we both gave the same little 'half smirk/half dude nod' to each other. He told me he’d been trying to get all of these girls in the back door, but was having a mild amount of difficulty with the gentleman whose job it was to not let people in the back door without passes (even if you were in the Sex Pistols). Jonsey had a pass, of course, but he was in the market for a dozen more. I told him I would run in and find The Cult's tour manager, or at least send someone down whose job it would be to tell the door guy to stop doing his job so well.

I excused myself from my friend and got someone to open the backdoor floodgate, all before The Cult started in on “She Sells Sanctuary,” my favorite song in the world. Things were going great. 

After the show finished, The Cult's guitarist Billy Duffy told me to hang around for a bit. He had to do a meet and greet, and wanted me to wait for him. He said we'd take a cab to catch up with the rest of our two bands who were headed to a strip club. So I did. He did his thing, I milled around until he was done.

When we left, it was Duffy, Martyne LeNoble and myself. We walked out of The Mint (the venue inside the Hard Rock Casino) and passed a long, rectangle bank of slot machines with a double life sized, mirrored statue on top of it. At this point, I'm VERY aware that I'm currently bro-ing around with a guy whose music made me want to attempt to live this life in the first place - still in the moment and enjoying it, but extremely aware of how close to a dream come true I am.  

Duffy gives a little head nod up to the statue, "How ya like that, mate?" he asks.

I have to explain here that when Sonic Temple came out I thought “Fire Woman” was a cheap rehash of “Sanctuary.” I went to see The Cult on that tour and they sucked. Ian was drunk, Sorum was out of the band by that point, and I was completely disappointed. So, I never bought that record. On the tour we did together, they were all sober, and they were hungry again. I found the songs on Sonic Temple to be some of my favorite to watch the band perform. I had seen the cover â€" which features Duffy and his axe - but never really put together what it was.

Back to Vegas, and I take a second look at the statue. Then I realize the mirrored monster statue is the “Legs spread wide, guitar hanging low, arm in the air windmill style” from the cover of Sonic Temple.

And then I really realize, just in that moment, that it’s him.

I found myself saying, "Oh yeah, man. That’s that thing from...the... from your.... Ooohhhhhhhh shit! That’s fucking YOU!” 

Martyne gave a little non-condescending smirk, and Billy just chuckled â€" saying something about getting “comped” whenever he comes here.

Then the three of us got in a cab and were off.

Drummer Geoff Reading â€" who writes a bi-weekly online column for the Weekly Volcano called “Holding Down the 253” in addition to his weekly Wednesday music column â€" has played music in tons of Northwest bands â€" Green Apple Quickstep, New American Shame, Top Heavy Crush and most recently Duff McKagan's LOADED â€" to name but a few. He's toured the world several times over, sharing stages with the likes of Slipknot, The Cult, Buckcherry, Korn, Journey, The Sex Pistols, Nine Inch Nails and on and on. He has called Tacoma home since 2005, and lives in the North End with his wife and son.