LOCAL BLOG ROUNDUP >>>

Another week, another six days of cruising the local blogosphere for decent reading.

Exit133 is many things Tacoma - civic involvement, politics, and urban development. It is also a watchdog for awards and trends associated with the City of Destiny. 

Thursday morning Derek Young announced that the year 2010 will be a bitchin' year for Tacoma's real estate market. 

The folks at Moody's have once again put Tacoma on one of their lists. Last year we made the Best Real Estate Market and the Most Likely to Rebound lists. Now, at the beginning of 2010, we are predicted to be the top performing real estate market in the country this year.

The five areas that Moody's foresees home prices performing best in 2010 are: Tacoma, Wash., (an increase of 2.44%); Memphis, Tenn., (up 0.99%); Pittsburgh (up 0.89%); Charleston, S.C. (up 0.18%); and Seattle (decline of 0.50%).

WAH-WAHHH: Young also points out that the Tacoma data most likely included some Seattle data, too.

The Trib's GO Arts blog announced that Tacoma Opera conductor Sara Jobin - Faust (2009) and The Barber of Seville (2008) - has been nominated for up for a Grammy music award for "Best Opera Recording."

WAH-WAHHH: Rosemary Ponnekanti points out the nomination wasn't associated with Tacoma Opera, but rather Jobin's conducting performance from Volpone by John Musto with Wolf Trap Opera. Still, way to go Jobin.

City Arts Tacoma's blog the CAB highlighted the work of Tacoma artist Jeremy Gregory - specifically Gregory's "alternative" comic "True Grit," which appears monthly in the Seattle-based magazine.

But, like the pages of City Arts themselves, True Grit is not in the same place today as it was in the beginning. The comic has seen quite an evolution in the past eighteen months - due in part to change in editorial staff and vision, but mostly to Gregory's creativity, flexibility and developing talents. So, in the spirit of our "Resolution Issues," Gregory has graciously assembled a slideshow just for you that shows all of the past episodes of his comic, in chronological order leading up to the most recent - plus some sketches that give insight into his process.

See the evolution here.

WAH-WAHHH: Gregory's artistic talents graced the Weekly Volcano every week in the form of mug shots for our columnists. Unfortunately, we no longer have the space to run the art with the columns. Some day we'll fire those back up.