MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2010 >>>

1. The BareFoot Collective presents Dance Film Night Featuring dance films by artists from New York, California and the Puget Sound 8 p.m. inside the Merlino Art Center. For a list of films, click here.

2. The Arts Commission of the City of Olympia invites local artists and arts organizations to join its March Olympia Community Arts Roundtable on costume design at 6 p.m. inside the Olympia Timberland Library meeting room.

3. Tacoma Community College presents the symposium "Corporations: What Have We Created?" from noon to 3 p.m. in its Auditorium.

4. Jazz with Greta Jane at 8 p.m. inside The Royal Lounge in Olympia

5. Jason Diamond spins roots reggae at 9 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

LINK: Movie show times for the South Sound

WHAT WE FOUND TODAY >>>

40 computer display home office or secret missile launch center?

Breaking down the dysfunction: It's budget time in Olympia.

"It sucks," says an Internet movie critic, using the most common aesthetic reaction on the Web. Goodbye to smart film criticism.

Want to save Pierce County bus service? Buy a brownie.

Prudential Insurance of Britain announced that it will buy American International Group's life insurance company for an estimated $35.5 billon. Also, fuck you, AIG.

Dale Welch recently walked into a Starbucks in Virginia, handgun strapped to his waist, and ordered a banana Frappuccino with a cinnamon bun. Advocates for openly carrying guns have found a new friend in Starbucks as the gun caused no alarm.

Our brains become slower but shrewder with age.

WELL, MAYBE NOT A 1,000 BUT CERTAINLY A LOT >>>

Forget less is more. As far as we're concerned, more is more - which is why the more composers the better.

Confused?

It's simple: The University of Puget Sound will be hosting classical music composers from around the world (OK, our nation plus Canada) Friday and Saturday as part of the Society of Composers 2010 Region VIII Conference — and it includes free concerts for the public.

Yup, highlighting the conference will be seven concerts - free and open to the public - that showcase the diverse work of the attending composers. According to conference host Robert Hutchinson from the UPS School of Music, the concerts will lean toward modern classical music, also known as Western art music or contemporary music.

"Some music is very accessible, borrowing harmonies and rhythms from pop music, whereas other pieces will be dissonant and challenging," Hutchinson states in a press release.

Hutchinson's own work, Jeux d'Enfants for orchestra, will have its premier performance in a new version for band.

The event will also include a lecture by guest composer Carter Pann titled, "The Confidence to Be a Tonalist." No doubt that lecture will tonally rock.

Details for the free performances:

Friday, March 5

10 a.m.: Chamber Music Concert 1, Schneebeck Concert Hall

1:30 p.m.: Percussion Ensemble and Electro-Acoustic Concert

3 p.m.: Carter Pann's Lecture, Music Room L6

7:30 p.m.: Symphony Orchestra, Schneebeck Concert Hall

Saturday, March 6

9 a.m.: Chamber Music Concert 2, Schneebeck Concert Hall

11 a.m.: Voice and Choral Concert, Schneebeck Concert Hall

2 p.m.: Brave New Works String Quartet Concert, Schneebeck Concert Hall

7:30 p.m.: Wind Ensemble, Schneebeck Concert Hall

Click here for directions and a map of the UPS campus.

MUSICALLY SPEAKING >>>

If you're anything like me, you spent your weekend sleeping in later than normal, moving slower than usual, and partaking in twice as many calories as usual thanks to a trip to Costco and all those damn samples. Life is so simple on the weekends.

However, now it's Monday again - which for most of us means back to the grind. It's the day of the week when I envy the unemployed most.

But there's no sense fighting it. Monday is upon us, so it's back to work. Here's a look at what the Volcano has in store this week, musically speaking...

BAND PROFILE PUSH
The Weekly Volcano's annual Music Issue is coming. If you're in a band, and have yet to sign up for a Band Profile, you only have a week left to do so to make sure you see your name in print when the Volcano's Music Issue hits the streets March 11. We'll be reminding you all week to sign up - which can be simply accomplished by going here.

EGG PLANT, THE NIGHTGOWNS, THE DRUG PURSE

The text message went out a couple weeks ago: "Friday March 5^th - Biggest Tacoma show of the year. The Nightgowns, the Drug Purse, and Egg Plant @ the New Frontier! - Team Unicorn"

The Weekly Volcano's Rev. Adam McKinney took note, and in this week's paper he'll be bringing you an exclusive interview with Egg Plant's lead singer Luke Short, a former Tacoman turned PDX indie rocker.

"I find pretty easy (in Portland) to, basically, throw a rock and hit a guitar payer, you know?" says Short about his new digs.

Find the full interview in Thursday's edition of the Weekly Volcano.

RIP THE WAREHOUSE

As you may know already, Tacoma's most revered and heralded DIY, underground music and arts venue - the Warehouse - is no more. It ceased to be late last week, thanks to landlord issues. In Thursday's paper the Volcano catches up with Adam Ydstie of the Warehouse to get the full scoop.

PLUS: Dudley Taft and Witchburn, Survive the Darkness and Radio Active

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010 >>>

1. Western Ghost House is yet another band that straddles the middle ground between indie rock and country, enriching and expanding both. Catch them at 8 p.m. with Crooks at The New Frontier Lounge.

2. The W.W. Seymour Conservatory opens a new monthly display featuring shamrocks, hydrangeas, and flowering spring bulb plants from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

3. Author Ken Miller reads from his novel Langata Rules and then discusses piracy and terrorism, under-development, the business of books and the writing process beginning at 7:30 p.m. inside the University Bookstore at the University of Washington-Tacoma.

4. The Camas Wind Quintet will perform pieces by Gustav Mahler, Paul Taffanel, Amy Beach and Andre Jolivet from 8-10 p.m. in Lagerquist Concert Hall. 

5. Sok and the Faggots' songs generally err on the side of doing terrible things to corpses, the wonder of substance abuse, and what a slut your mother is. If you attend their show tonight at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen, you're bound to get some sort of fluid thrown at you. You've been warned.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

NEED TO SATISFY MY HABIT ELSEWHERE >>>

It's not that I've been in denial, as they say in rehab. Denial is not my strong suit. For years I acknowledged my addiction with a blithe one-line toast: "Ah, coffee, the last drug of my generation."

Technically, of course, it isn't the last drug. Or even the last legal drug. But alcohol has been limited to non-pregnant, non-driving people in non-liver-and-life-destroying quantities.

Smoking isn't banned but banished beyond doorways where a community of folks look like they're having much too much fun.

Coffee, on the other hand, is culturally approved, universally accepted, socially enabled, and financially promoted. There's a fix on every corner.

Except in Tacoma's Theater District this morning.

The Café at 744 Market Street, or whatever it's being called at this moment, is dark with a "Coming Soon" sign announcing the future arrival of Café Messina. Messina's Web site announces an opening date of March 15.

WHAT WE FOUND TODAY >>>

The best-selling hot sauce in the nation turns 142 years old. Happy birthday, Tabasco.

Tacomic: Plight of Megan Elizabeth Lenn and the Pierce County Bikini Baristas

RIP: The Tonight Show

Can't find that Porta Potty when you just have to go? A Swedish entrepreneur has created a biodegradable one-time-use toilet bag, the Peepoo, in hopes to help urban slums and developing countries dispose of their waste properly.

The nation's grief, shown through 1.5 million letters to widow Jackie Kennedy, are compiled together for the first time in Ellen Fitzpatrick's new book, Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation.

ONE STUDENT'S STORY >>>

Think it takes ink to make a lasting impression? Parents can make one, too.

One University of Washington-Tacoma student considers getting a tattoo. She asked her parents for their opinions. Discover the outcome here.

TIME TO DRESS UP AND PRETEND >>>

Will Jason Reitman and Up in the Air fly away with Oscar? Or will The Hurt Locker destroy the competition? James Cameron describes his Avatar - the top-grossing movie in history - as "a celebration of nature." Will this eco-adventure of woolly mammoth proportions woo academy voters based on the numbers?

These questions and more will be answered Sunday night when the national telecast of the 82nd annual Academy Awards screens at the Rialto Theater in downtown Tacoma. Rather than falling asleep on the couch before the Best Original Screenplay winners are named, movie junkies can endure the four-hour show by exchanging snarky comments in a genuine, old-fashioned movie theater at The Grand Cinema's annual Academy Awards party.

The party will begin at 4 p.m. when Tinseltown legend Quinton Loyne-Packard chats with celebrities on the Rialto Red Carpet.

What? Certainly you've heard of Mr. Loyne-Packard.

Yea, me neither. But according to the "Tinseltown legend" he's starred in many classic monster films, including the Japanese film Monster Industry, as well as District 9, Avatar and Precious. And he has the ego to match his statements.

The odd Mr. Loyne-Packard says he's co-hosting The Grand's party with Alec Baldwin and Maestro Gavin Guss Sunday. During my interview with Mr. Loyne-Packard Saturday over martinis at The Lobster Shop on Ruston Way, however, I argued Tacoma City Councilman Marty Campbell is co-hosting and not Baldwin - something I know for a fact. Mr. Loyne-Packard would have none of it.

He's quite odd. He brought a giant stuffed pink prawn and cat food to The Lobster Shop interview. Even more bizarre, we weren't kicked out.

After the red carpet action in front of the Rialto this Sunday, Mr. Loyne-Packard and Guss will perform a musical tribute to the Oscars, which most likely will be a retrospective of Mr. Loyne-Packard's film career including clips of his performances in this year's Best Picture nominees.

Promptly at 5 p.m., and most certainly involving a giant hook, Mr. Loyne-Packard will leave the stage for the televised coverage of the red carpet festivities in Hollywood followed by the Academy Awards broadcasted on the Rialto's giant screen.

Guests inside the Rialto will be given an Oscar ballot to fill out with the Grand Prize winner receiving "The Golden Ticket" - a free movie pass for a year to The Grand Cinema.

During the commercial breaks, Campbell (or Baldwin, I suppose) will give away raffle prizes and host the movie star-themed costume contest. Contest winners will score $100 El Gaucho or Maxwell's gift certificates.

The event ticket also includes box lunches courtesy of Jonz Catering, desserts courtesy of Corina Bakery, free make-up artists (4-6 p.m.) courtesy of Embellish Multispace Salon, and a chance to bid at the silent auction.

Read more...

FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

Remember in 2004 when - to the dismay of aging punk fans (most of whom are apparently sad, married, balding taxidermists with only their deep love of gutting Bambis to remind them of happier, more anarchic dances with the Sex Pistols) - a British TV company announced that John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) had agreed to appear in the reality show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" He lasted 11 days to finish in eighth place. Bobble Tiki remembers thinking the line between true authentic raw art and commercial commodity might never actually have existed. Thank you.

Anyway, Public Image Limited - the rock/dance/folk/ballet/pop/dub band Lydon formed in 1978 - will perform at the Showbox at the Market Tuesday, April 20, AEG announced.

Public Image Limited - Lydon (vocals), Lu Edmonds (guitar), Bruce Smith (drums) and Scott Firth (bass) -earned critical and public acclaim for their concerts in December 2009, with many British media outlets championing them as the shows of the year.

This year sees the 30th anniversary of the band's first U.S. tour and also their U.S TV debut on American Bandstand, where Lydon invited the audience onstage to dance with the band.

Tickets for the Seattle show are $39.50 at Ticketmaster, or $45 at the door. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 5 at 10 a.m.