Weekly Volcano Blogs: Walkie Talkie Blog

Posts made in: December, 2009 (125) Currently Viewing: 121 - 125 of 125

December 24, 2009 at 4:29am

Who's open today and tomorrow?

RON SWARNER: FOOD MATTERS >>>

Top Of The Holiday: The Top of Tacoma Bar and Café will be open 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. today for Taco Thursday and holiday food specials. They’ll also be open Christmas night beginning ta 5 p.m. with a limited menu.

Open Today: Sip in Gig Harbor and The Melting Pot in Tacoma are open today from 5 p.m. until close. El Gaucho Tacoma will be open today from 4-8 p.m. Basilico Ristorante Italiano in Olympia offers a Christmas Eve four-course dinner from 5-9 p.m. Who else will be open tonight for dinner?

Plan Ahead: The Red Wind Casino will serve a Bloody Mary Breakfast New Year’s Day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $8.95.

Food For Thought: List of "50 things that changed our lives in the aughts" includes chefs, foodies ... and obesity.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Eat & Drink section

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

LINK: Wine and beer tastings

LINK: South Sound coupons

December 25, 2009 at 12:02am

Merry Festivus, readers

MICHAEL SWAN: TO YOU AND YOURS >>>


My humbug Manhattan-loving publisher, after a long day of sealing the office’s roof for the 50th time this year and spit-shining his hybrid automobile, climbed out from under mounds of coal and shouted, “Swan! Write me a Christmas post, dammit! Something about Muppets, mistletoe, good will toward men!”

Whatever.

Since I know only a little about Muppets and nothing about mistletoe, I thought I’d aim for the “good will toward men” part.

From everyone here at Weekly Volcano/Spew land, happy holidays to you and everyone in your life. Thanks for picking us up, visiting us online, and continuing to show that you give a damn about the South Sound. We wish you the very best holiday.

P.S. Look for me at Denny's. In the corner. All day. Weeping and slightly drunk.

December 25, 2009 at 8:00pm

Dance off the eggnog

Christmasho SUZY STUMP: HO HO HO A GO GO >>>

Here's the scene: It's getting late on Christmas night, the orgy of gift giving was over hours ago, and you have eaten enough to hibernate through the winter. Grandpa Freddy's head is beginning to bob, the Parcheesi game is coming out — and you are all out of spiked eggnog. Now is the time to get your young, vibrant self out of the family room and on to the dance floor. Now is the time to go to Lakewood.

Two clubs are open tonight featuring DJs in Santa hats and Naughty Little Ho Ho Hos with goodies for the naughty and the nice.

Happy Days Casino, Christmas Day DJ Dance, no cover, 9 p.m.

Last Call Bar, Christmas Day Party with DJ C-Luv spinning old skool, hip-hop, dance, Top 40, $5, ladies no cover, 8 p.m. $5.

Filed under: DJ/Electronica, Holidays, Lakewood,

December 26, 2009 at 4:58am

Holiday afterglow

MICHAEL SWAN: NOW WHAT? >>>

Zoolights The last of the eggnog has been dumped down the disposal, and the Old Navy turtlenecks have mercifully been returned, but despite this apparently damning evidence, the Weekly Volcano is here to tell you that the holidays are not over.  These two Christmas-themed shows run through Jan. 3:

Fantasy Lights â€" A two-mile drive through 300 animated holiday displays, through Jan. 3, 5:30-9 p.m. daily, $13 a vehicle, Spanaway Park, west of 152nd Street and Pacific Avenue, Spanaway, 253.798.3330.

Zoolights â€" Explore Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium by the glow of thousands of holiday lights including hundreds of handcrafted figurines plus live entertainment, food, and, more, through Jan. 3 5-9 p.m., $6.50-$7.50, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, 5400 N. Pearl, Tacoma, 253.591.5337.

Filed under: Events, Holidays, Spanaway, Tacoma,

December 31, 2009 at 3:39pm

Drop by the grander Grand today

CHRISTOPHER WOOD: FOURTH SCREEN MEANS MORE MOVIE MAGIC >>>

Santa/Jesus/James Cameron (take your pick) certainly filled Hollywood's celluloid-lined stocking this year, with the holiday weekend lineup drawing movie lovers to theaters in record-busting numbers. Meanwhile The Grand Cinema had its own gift to present Tacoma. A chilly Christmas morn saw our town's indie-flick hot spot unveil a posh new theater space to a host of proud patrons. The biggest Grand supporters made an almost Magi-like pilgrimage to take in the freshly-painted walls and untouched seats, and to inaugurate the room's maiden screening of The Young Victoria. Sitting there in that transformed place, viewers must have felt a bit like royalty themselves.

"This new addition is a part of Grand history," notes Director of Communications Emily Alm. "This is big for us ... it's probably one of the biggest things we've had since we existed."

Size definitely matters when conceptualizing a location in which to show movies.

The final bill was no tiny amount either - The Grand needed more than half a million dollars to turn concept into reality. But thinking large means insisting your high-end projection system also comes equipped with surround sound, giving your clientele a richer viewing experience.

Says Alm, "It gives us the ability to play more movies, which is our main goal: to play as many independent movies that people want to see."

Months of steady renovation paid off, thanks to the generous donations that streamed through The Grand's doors. The staff got creative and offered an incentive to those who gave at least $200 - a name of the donor's choosing engraved on a seat in the new joint. Surrounded by a small sea of names should remind visitors that this project was truly the effort of a community.

One serious problem remains, however.

"The seats are new, so they're not totally cushy yet," laughs Alm.

C'mon Tacoma - show your civic pride and rush those butts down to the theater. Generations of future rumps will never forget your Grand gesture.

Today's screening at The Grand, including The Young Victoria in the new theater:

AN EDUCATION: A 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan) is the target of a sophisticated seduction by a 35-year-old man (Peter Sarsgaard).  Could have been shabby or painful, but the luminous Mulligan makes it romantic and wonderfully entertaining.  The romance isn't so much with him as with the possibilities within her, the future before her, and the joy of being alive.  Sarsgaard plays a smoothie who bewitches her protective parents.  He's a dirty rotten scoundrel, but a real charmer.  With Mulligan, a star is born. (PG-13) Four out of four stars - Roger Ebert

Today-Sunday noon, 4:40, 9:15. Monday-Wednesday 4:40, 9:15. Thursday, Jan. 7 noon, 4:40, 9:15. 


INVICTUS: Strange, that the first of many proposed biopics about Nelson Mandela centers on the South African rugby team.  Mandela took an intense interest in the Springboks' drive to an eventual World Cup championship, and it was a famous victory for the parish apartheid state.  Here it is foregrounded, and who would have expected this film to be structured around who wins the big match?  Yet Clint Eastwood has crafted a strong film with many other key moments, and Freeman and Damon are well cast.  Entertaining. (PG-13) Three and a half out of four stars - RE

Today-Sunday 12:15, 3, 5:45, 8:30. Monday-Wednesday 3, 5:45, 8:30. Thursday, Jan. 7 12:15, 3, 5:45, 8:30. 


NINE: My problem may be that I know Fellini's 8 1/2 too well. Your problem may be that you don't know it well enough. Both of us may be asking, who exactly was Nine made for?  This is a big-scale version of the 1982 Broadway production, but lacking the passion, the guilt, the innate music of the great Fellini musical.  And it doesn't have a single great song.  The role played on film by Marcello Mastroianni and onstage by Raul Julia is now played by - Daniel Day-Lewis? (PG-13) Two out of four stars - RE

Today-Sunday 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9. Monday-Wednesday 3:30, 6:15, 9. Thursday, Jan. 7 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9.  


PRECIOUS: School is an ordeal of mocking cruelty for a fat teenager, and home is worse.  Precious avoids looking at people, hardly ever speaks, is nearly illiterate, is pregnant.  One of her teachers (Paula Patton) and a social worker (Mariah Carey) see something in her, or simply react to her obvious pain.  They try to coax her out of her shell.  She's not stupid, but feels defeated.  Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe gives a powerful performance in the title role, and Mo'Nique is frighteningly effective as her abusive mother.  Directed by Lee Daniels, based on the novel Push by Sapphire. (R) Four out of four stars - RE

Today-Jan. 7 2:15, 6:50.


THE YOUNG VICTORIA: Emily Blunt makes Victoria as irresistible a young woman as Dame Judi Dench made her an older one in Mrs. Brown (1997).  Shows her at the center of a mighty struggle that also involved her adolescent emotions.  She's almost equally warm toward the good Albert (Rupert Friend) and handsome Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), the sort of cad most mothers, but not hers, would warn her about.  A charmer. (PG) Three out of four stars - RE

Today-Sunday 11:45 a.m., 2, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45. Monday-Wednesday 2, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45. Thursday, Jan. 7 11:45 a.m., 2, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45.

[The Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

Filed under: Screens, Tacoma,

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