GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND BE HAPPY >>>

Your mother and I just want you to be happy. Not unreasonably, irrationally happy, but moderately content. Why can't you play miniature golf with the other teenagers? And why do you refuse to wear pastel?

What do you mean by "hanging out with other artists"?

I don't know about this Tacoma Art Place and their crazy ideas about letting you learn about pottery wheels, photography, sewing, and making ripped paper collage paintings. (And why do I speak so stiffly?) Spinning clay on a wheel and playing with photos in the dark? Oh, this all sounds very strange. Why can't you just paint flowers?

What? The non-profit art center is hosting Community Free Day? Did you say free? Oh, very well.

[Tacoma Art Place, Saturday, March 13, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., list of free classes here, 1116 S. 11th St., Tacoma, 253.238.1006]

RUMORS WE HEAR >>>

The word out of the Firwood Rock Lounge camp is that their liquor application MIGHT be finally granted (although it doesn't appear on Liquor Control Board's approved application list). They say they're also waiting for their cabaret license to be approved.

Taqueria El Guadalajara, the Mexican joint located in Tacoma's Stadium District, will be moving inside the Neighborhood Market building at 3002 Sixth Avenue at the end of the month.

BLACK AND WHITE, YET NOT >>>

Austrian Michael Haneke can be a frustrating filmmaker. His film Caché (2005), while fascinating, moved at a slow pace with an ending that could be maddening to viewers who expect answers out of their mysteries. His latest work, The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) - a black-and-white drama set in a small German village on the eve of the first World War - also moves at a snails pace, and again, you're given only the suggestion of what the events you witness mean. Yet, it's more than clear how things will end.

The White Ribbon opens at The Grand Cinema Friday.

As Roger Ebert describes it, The White Ribbon "tells a simple story in a village about little people and suggests that we must find a balance between fear and security." Ebert loved the film, tagging it with four stars, and applauding its cinematography - as did the Academy, which nominated the film for Christian Berger's chilly cinematography. The film also received a nod for Best Foreign Language Film.

LINK: Roger Ebert's review of The White Ribbon

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010 >>>

1. The Purcell Brothers - Evan and Ryan — will perform at 7 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge.

2. South Sound companies that exhibit successful, innovative approaches to utilizing or developing technology for the purposes of business sustainability will be given SHIFT Awards from 5-8 p.m. inside the Theatre on the Square.

3. Fresh, the film that celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system, screens at 6 p.m. inside the Rausch Auditorium on the University of Puget Sound campus.

4. The Golden West Restaurant and Lounge presents Bluegrass Night hosted by Shotgun Red every Wednesday at 6 p.m.

5. Machina Mageddon, Fallen, State of Murdoch and City By Sea will rock Hell's Kitchen at 9 p.m.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

WHAT WE'VE FOUND TODAY >>>

Nerd Alert! Whatever happened to the cast of Revenge of the Nerds?

RIP: Cory Haim

Rosemary Ponnekanti reports that MLKBallet founding director Kate Monthy will move after MOVE! #16.

The Weekly Volcano's jetpacks are ready.

X Sigma Partners LLC introduced a new iPhone app 'Tiger Text," inspired by the Tiger Woods scandal, which allows users to permanently delete texts that have already been sent.

Fuhgeddaboudit being mayor. Mayor Pringle of Belmar, N.J., announces that he will not run for re-election this November after 20 years of office, after he made fun of Jersey Shore guidos in his blog.

Bank of America is ending overdraft fees on debit cards. Really?

Seriously? Halpert from The Office is playing Captain America?

FUN WITH FRANCES >>>

Some people just make you curious. You want to see how their minds work, what their thought processes are. You want to go through their stuff. Now's your chance. Beginning the first Monday in April, Puyallup artist Frances Buckmaster will open her downtown Puyallup artist's studio/gallery for local artists to work together on a regular basis. Space will be available by subscription. A one-session fee will be $15 for three hours of studio time. Those making a prior purchase of 12 sessions will receive a 10 percent discount.

For more details, call Buckmaster at 253.831.6005.

NEW SHOW OPENS AT HANDFORTH GALLERY TOMORROW >>>

You might have notice that there are letters everywhere. You're reading some right now, in fact. But when was the last time you really thought about them? Not the sentence you're reading, or the concepts conveyed - just the individual letters.

Olympia artist and musician Sarah Utter (Bangs, Western Hymn) thought about letters. So did her mother, Karen. And their friend Lynne Ferren.

And then they painted them - kind of.

The two Utters and Ferren will open their show Animal Abecedary tomorrow night at Handforth Gallery inside the Tacoma Public Library's Main Branch in downtown Tacoma. All the paintings - 26 of them - are new works, each a vibrant animal correlating to a different letter of the alphabet.

"I've always wanted to do a collaborative show with my mom, as she was the one who got me into art as a kid," explains Sarah.

Both Utters are self-proclaimed library nerds so they felt the Handforth fit them to a T.

"On the flipside, the gallery is HUGE and we both felt a little overwhelmed with filling it by ourselves," adds Sarah. "So my mom got in touch with an amazingly creative and prolific artist named Lynne Ferren - who happens to focus primarily on animals in her paintings, too."

To tie-in with the library they settled on a letter theme.

"It all came together naturally, though we each have a different take on our assigned letters. I went with scientific names: Uncia Uncia, Vulpes Vulpes, etc.," Sarah says.

Sarah's library nerdiness can also be found on her wares - shirts, stickers, mugs - she sells on buyolympia.com. Her most popular items are tagged with "reading is sexy".

The artist will be at the show's opening Thursday, March 11 at 6 p.m. Karen Utter has baked cupcakes for the event.

"All the work is really bright and crazy," says Sarah. "This is definitely the kind of show that kids as well as adults might be stoked on."

Stoked with a capital S.

[Handforth Library, Animal Abecedary, March 11-April 16, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5661]

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 >>>

1. The crafty group Tacoma Is For Lovers hosts another Craft Night, this time welcoming Tacoma artist Chris Sharp who will introduce collage using a 1980s book on break dancing as source material at 7 p.m. inside King's Books.

2. Artists Sarah Utter, Karen Utter and Lynne Farren's Animal Abecedary opens at 6 p.m. with an artist reception at the Handforth Gallery.

3. The first Academy Award winner for Best Picture Sunrise will screen at 7 p.m. inside the Washington Center.

4. Fulcrum Gallery presents Ambient Night featuring rising stars in barbaric harmony Going Shopping and Humble Cub at 8 p.m.

5. Big Wheel Stunt Show, Paris Spleen, Handlebar Mustangs, and Brotherhood Of The Black Squirrel perform at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

WHAT WE'VE FOUND TODAY >>>

How on earth did we miss this: Barbie Mad Men dolls!

Massive aftershocks rock Chile during presidential inauguration.

Proposed education guidelines would, for the first time, create national standards for all American students.

OMG! The new Twilight: Eclipse trailer. Yes. Yes! YES!

WEEKLY VOLCANO COLUMN FEEDBACK >>>

Weekly Volcano columnist Geoff Reading (drummer for Green Apple Quick Step, New American Shame, Top Heavy Crush, Duff McKagan's LOADED) wrote about his first concert experience yesterday in his weekly Wednesday Reading column. We linked the column on Facebook, posting the question, Where was your first concert?

More than 30 people have chimed in with their first concert experience.

What was your first concert experience? Come clean here.