BATTER'S UP CLOSES FEB. 27 >>>

Cool your cookies, Betty. Your batter bowls will be available after Feb. 27, the day The Art Stop's ceramic bowl show Batter's Up closes. I've seen the red dots next to the bowls signifying they've been sold. And while the bowls are works of art by local talent, I imagine a few of you will skip the mantle for the cupboard. You have pancakes on the brain. Your new bowl is scheduled for breakfast batter. Betty Crocker's message was keep the home comfortable. Your message is to mix Gold Medal-branded bleached flour in style.

By the way, congratulations to Tacoma artists Mark Hudak and Ken Turner for nabbing honors at the Batter's Up show. Over the Moon Café owner/chef Deanna Bender gave the two artists "Chef's Choice" at the beginning of the exhibit's run. Turner's White Batter Bowl grabbed Bender's Most Functional award. Hudak took Most Aesthetic for his creation. Bender stepped in after Primo Grill/Crown Bar co-owner Jacqueline Plattner called in with back issues.

[The Art Stop/LeRoy Jewelers, through Feb. 27, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, 940 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.272.3377]

LINK: The Art Stop co-owner Phyllis Harrison discusses Batter's Up

Saturday, Feb. 20 >>>

1. Tonight at Puyallup's renovated Liberty Theater, 2112- A Tribute to Rush and Blind Floyd- A Tribute to Pink Floyd will take the stage beginning at 8 p.m.  With a drink in one hand, and her sunglasses in the other, Steph DeRosa will be prepared to take on even the most intense of tribute band laser shows.  8 p.m. $10 116 West Main Avenue, Puyallup, 253.864.8116

2. Witness one of the best collaborative works from local dance groups tonight at Mt. Tahoma High School.  Artists represented include The BareFoot Collective, Washington Contemporary Ballet, MLK Ballet, ARIA Dance Company, Ballet Northwest and many more.  7 p.m. $15 pre-sale, or $18/$20 at the door.  4634 South 74^th Street, Tacoma

3.Ladies of the Territory are cordially invited to attend an afternoon Tea and Ladies Fashion Review with Mrs. Colonel Silas Casey, and her daughters Abigail and Elizabeth, at the Casey home located in Ft. Steilacoom, Washington Territory.  Call ahead to make sure your upcoming presence has been noted.  2pm $15.00 9601 Steilacoom Blvd S. W. Lakewood, 253.582.5838.

4. Our very own local cable service, Click!, is providing a free family film series at the Grand Cinema that continues all year long.  Tonight's movie will be Wallace & Grommit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit. Doors open at 10  a.m. and the movie will begin at 10:30 a.m.  The film is completely FREE to everyone, so hurry to get your seat. 606 South Fawcett Avenue, Tacoma, 253.593.4474

5. Kim Archer sends her soulful, live music through The Hub's airwaves tonight. Free 9:30 p.m. 203 Tacoma Avenue South, Tacoma, 253.683.4606

TODAY'S HAPPY HOUR DISCUSSION TOPIC >>>

Discuss the below video over happy hour at:

Adriatic Grill Italian Cuisine

4201 S. Steele St., Tacoma, WA

(253) 475-6000

Happy Hour: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today

Drink Specials: $3.50 drafts, Stellas, premium wells

Food specials: $4 appetizers: five cheese pizza, linguine with red sauce, garlic potato wedges and much more.

LINK: More South Sound happy hours

CALLING ALL WASHINGTON STATE POETS >>>

For a poet, that first book deal with a publisher is a career milestone, a ticket into academia, a potential pathway to immortality. It's also next to impossible.

Exquisite Disarray Publishing could help make that poetry book deal a reality. The Tacoma-based literary arts organization hosts its first annual First Book Poetry Contest featuring a $200 cash prize and publish the winning manuscript as the poet's first book. The winner will also be expected to give a free, public poetry reading and poetry workshop during Tacoma's Art at Work month in November 2010. 

In addition to the winning poet's work being published; a separate contest prize of $100 cash will be awarded to the poetry manuscript submission that contains the best "Tacoma poem."

This contest is open to all Washington state residents 18 years of age and older who have not yet published a full-length book of poetry. The deadline for poetry manuscripts is May 15, 2010. Full contest guidelines and editorial contact information can be found on Exquisite's Web site.

HEADS UP, ARTSY TYPES >>>

Tacoma Art Place is running a contest that encourages amateur and professional filmmakers to create a 30 second video promoting the mission of the non-profit art center located on Hilltop Tacoma.

Video submissions are due March 8, 2010. The videos will then be uploaded to YouTube for a two-week run. The video with the most hits on YouTube wins placement on the Web sites of Tacoma Art Place and Comcast, as well as $250 cash.

Contest details can be found here.

MONDAY, FEB. 22, 2010 >>>

1. The Cave Singers and the Duchess & the Duke perform at 8 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

2. Olympia author Deborah Jane Ross reads from her book The Schneiders of Schneider Creek: Rediscovering a Pioneer Family at noon inside the State Capital Museum.

3. When Kevin Powell was a member of the very first Real World, the beast was nowhere near the depressing culture suck it is today. Powell went on to write for just about every magazine that's worth two shits, publish books, interview and profile both Tupac and Colin Powell, and become a Writing Fellow for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies - among other things. Hear him speak at 6 p.m. inside the University of Washington Tacoma's Longshoremans Hall.

4. Swing Reunion Orchestra featuring Melanie Vail will perform at 7 p.m. inside the Imperial Dragon Restaurant.

5. Lisa Shapiro will lecture on "Gender And Philosophy in Early Modern Europe" at 7:30 p.m. inside the University Center at Pacific Lutheran University.

LINK: Today's movie showtimes

GO FOR THE PLAYGROUND BURN >>>

Like oil and water, Elizabeth Taylor and marriage, and Iggy Pop and body fat, some things just don't mix. You can add athletes and bookstores to that list - you rarely see people tossing a baseball in the Art/Architecture/Photography section of a bookstore.

Well, the resurgence of playground sports is putting that theory to the test, as the Intermittent Health And Fitness Club, or IHAF, combine their gym-class glory days with a night of exercise. Titled "Recess," IHAF offer a night of Double Dutch, four square and hopscotch - "our ridiculous way to get fit" - March 3 inside King's Books. These minimally challenging yet often acrobatic and exciting games don't require fancy equipment, refined skills, testosterone or a book club card. However, sometimes it just feels good to "double tap" someone's ass in four square followed by a quick 20 pages of Paul Madriani's legal thriller Double Tap.

[King's Books, Wednesday, March 3, 7 p.m., free, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.8801]

SEE A CANADIAN MUSIC HALL OF FAMER LIVE >>>

Just because he's always been bigger in his native Canada than down here doesn't mean veteran singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn won't draw you into his world. Cockburn loves his guitar and telling stories of his experiences traveling to less fortunate countries. And when he performs, he brings his listeners to another place, experiencing a different lifestyle.

Experience Cockburn's world Friday, April 30 when he performs at the Capitol Theater in Olympia.

Tickets are $35 for adults and $17.50 for ages 14 and younger. You may purchase them now at Rainy Day Records in Olympia, or through buyolympia.com.

LINK: Bruce Cockburn's world

LAKEWOOD CLUB TO REOPEN FRIDAY >>>

The former McDonald's restaurant at the edge of the Lakewood neighborhood of Oakbrook that morphed into several nightclubs the past 15 years will reopen Friday as the third version of the Fan Club Sports Bar. Original Fan Club owners Don and Lisa Daniels (they sold it to the last Fan Club owners) are giving it a go again at the same spot. The Daniels will kick off their new old life with one of their favorite local rock cover bands, Igneous Rocks, which will perform this Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. with no cover.

[Fan Club, 8315 83rd Ave. SW, Lakewood, 253.584.1290]

NASEEM RAKHA TALKS ABOUT THE CRYING TREE TOMORROW IN OLYMPIA >>>

Too often in America we fall victim to our inflated sense of self, the better self delayed by the hater self, the squeaky voiced youth of self doubt long ago formed, wringing your hair in a hand of doom, cursing the snickering moustache and its wheezy canine sidekick.  We like to think we know ourselves best, waiting to talk when we should be listening.

Sometimes, it takes something like a 10 minute phone call with someone you've never met to discuss their book - a book you haven't finished reading - to humbly remind you to shut your yapper and truly listen - because wisdom happened by on chance's wings and is trying to tell you something.

Naseem Rakha's debut novel, The Crying Tree, catapulted her into a category of new literary icons that very few writers achieve - even less on their first novel.

"The second agent that we shopped it to said 'This is an important book'," says Rakha. "They picked it up immediately."

That is something rarely heard of in the publishing industry. The Crying Tree launched a bidding war between several major publishers. Broadway, an imprint of Random House, eventually emerged victorious - but there's a great reason for it.

The story is very intense, and reading it can change a person's perception of emotional responsibility in life.

The Stanley family is from rural south Illinois and relocates to eastern Oregon, much to the chagrin of everyone but the father, who has taken a job as a deputy sheriff. He believes it will provide a fresh start and new life for all, despite the fact it means leaving the town the family grew up in, and everything they have known. 

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