DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Ole!: Mazatlan Restaurant on South Hill Puyallup offers $1.99 burritos every Monday in the bar.

Benefit: Dockside Bistro and Wine Bar presents an Ash Hollow Estate Vineyards wine dinner to benefit Thurston-Mason Crisis Clinic tonight at 7 p.m. The cost is $100. Reserve your spot at 360.956.1925.

Monday Deal: Engine House No. 9 serves an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner every Monday for $4.95, with each meatball priced at 25 cents. Also, they knock a dollar off martinis every Monday.

Another Monday Deal: The Hub serves spaghetti or Fettucini Alfredo for $5 every Monday from 5-10 p.m. For another $3 you can receive cheesy garlic bread, three meatballs or grilled chicken breast.

Wine Discount: Budd Bay Café in Olympia offers half-priced bottles of wine every Monday.

The Food Lab: baking powder vs. baking soda

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: Wine and beer tastings, dinners and events

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: Send us your restaurant and lounge news

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

The FCC is going to make the internet less fun.

Al Qaeda released a 24-minute video yesterday stating that new attacks that will kill more Americans are planned.

Here's a knock-knock joke from Roger Daltry

Iran banned two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the country today

A fisherman found himself face-to-face with a periscope.

The Weekly Volcano follows the people you're too embarrassed to >>>

Just like most good, new-age, social media applications, Twitter allows people to share and be privy to once personal, almost wholly pointless information about peoples' lives. It's seemingly endless. While Twitter is mostly full of everyday, ho-hum people - just like you and me, sharing info about what type of oatmeal we ate for breakfast and where we get our hair cut - Twitter is also a magnet for the moderately-famous.

Stars of yesterday, illiterate millionaire athletes, former cast members of Saved By the Bell - you can follow them all, intimately, on Twitter.

But, you've got standards. We get that.

That's why we'll do it for you, in a feature we like to call Weekly Volcano Twitter Stalker.

Today, checking in with...

Extra special potpourri!

BOB VILLA

June 21: Bob Villa is a mundane Twitter whore

"Beware of the perils of putting out bird seed in hot weather: http://www.bobvila.com/t/birdseed" via Web, 9:00 a.m.

P-DIDDY

June 16: P-Diddy offers sound advice. Wait. What?

"Mindfuck somone tonight! It will make you feel better:) GO" via UberTwitter, 10:45 p.m.

June 15: OK. That's more like it.

"TONIGHT!!! Watch "THE CITY" on MTV-10:30pm!!" via Web, 1:12 p.m.

THE DALAI LAMA

June 12: Fuck yeah, the Dalai Lama is on Twitter

"Because of the profoundly interconnected reality of today’s world, we need to relate to the challenges we face as a single human family" 2:04 a.m., via the Web

Tune in tomorrow for more Weekly Volcano Twitter stalking action!

A TREASURE IN OLYMPIA >>>

Besides delivering show-stopping food, Sorrento Ristorante Italiano owner Franco Cannava also visits tableside for his own version of a dramatic reading - mainly the menu in one act.

Sorrento popped into my mind after I discovered Cannava on YouTube:

By the way, The veal is sensational – and so is the tiramasu.

LINK: Interview with Chef Cannava

MADNESS! >>>

Live Nation today announced the 10 day countdown to the end of "No Service Fee June" by offering fans a special $10 all-in lawn ticket for specific artists:

Beginning Monday, June 21, 2010 White River Amphitheatre and the Gorge Amphitheatre offer fans $10 all-in lawn seat tickets exclusively at LiveNation.com. Each promotion will begin at 12:01 am local time through 11:59 pm local time on the specified dates.

"No Service Fee June" continues through 11:59 pm ET on Friday, June 30th with no service fee tickets for all artists, all seats and all shows at both White River Amphitheatre and the Gorge Amphitheatre.
             

Participating artists/events at White River & The Gorge:

June 21-25

RIHANNA w/ special guest Ke$ha - White River Amphitheatre - July 2, 2010

LILITH w/ Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland - The Gorge Amphitheatre - July 3, 2010

June 26-30

TOBY KEITH w/ Trace Adkins & James Otto - White River Amphitheatre - July 24, 2010


BRAD PAISLEY w/ Darius Rucker & Justin Moore - The Gorge Amphitheatre - Sept. 11, 2010

For a complete list of all artists, please visit LiveNation.com.

LINK: Find a concert in Western Washington

TACOMA REPRESENT >>>

Even from all the way across the country, it's easy to see Brad Oberhofer's star continue to rise in Brooklyn.

I received an email today informing me Oberhofer will soon be releasing his debut 7", featuring the songs "o0O0o0O0o" and " Don'tneedya." The effort will be self-released, which is possible, Oberhofer tells me, as a handy side effect of having had one's music in a commercial. This is to say nothing of Oberhofer's continued coverage in reputable music Web sites, including Brooklyn Vegan, Dazed and Confused, and most recently, a track review of the giddy "Awy Frm U' on Pitchfork.

He's gonna make it, but the tension of waiting is killing me.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out this week's issue of the Weekly Volcano - hitting the streets Thursday - for an in-depth look at former Tacoma School of the Arts students making a go at music in New York, including Brad Oberhofer.

CONCERT ALERT >>>

Van Morrison, that barrel-chested Belfast brooder, brings his misty and mystical meanderings, his legendary brand of white soul, and a dose of cynical complacency to the Gorge Amphitheatre Sunday, Aug. 8 at 6 p.m.

Morrison may be a bit of a curmudgeon these days, but take a listen to the dusk-time sound of Astral Weeks and you'll be reminded why the mercurial man and his inimitable voice can be classified as timeless.

Tckets are $50, $90, $125 and $200 and go on sale Monday, June 28 at 10 a.m. at LiveNation.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or charge by phone 800.745.3000.

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 2010 >>>

1. Pecha Kucha Night V. 06 is all about a day in the life of the great people of Tacoma featuring guest hosts Antonio Edwards and Jeremy Gregory. Beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside Shakabrah Java, Stella Haioulani, Leilani Williams, Julie Bennet, Allan Boothe, Tobin Ropes, Patricia Lecy-Davis, Jonathan Kellett, Brad Brown, Michael Johnson, Timothy Pinchney, Kit Evans, and Zach Marvick will show 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds each.

2. The D.A.S.H. Center for the Arts holds a Ladies Hip Hop dance class every Tuesday at 6 p.m. for those 25 and older.

3. An open mic featuring poetry by Olympia poet Don Freis will be held at 6:30 p.m. inside The Loft on Cherry in downtown Olympia. The $3 suggested donation goes to support the Art Kitchen.

4. Our Only Escape out of Denver will rock The Viaduct with Seeking Skylight, Enthused, To Kill A Genre, West On 18, and Temporary Heroes beginning at 7 p.m.

5. Honeybear, Letters, and Fauxbois play an 8 p.m. all-ages show at Northern.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Tipsy Tuesday: Brix 25 in Gig Harbor hosts an all-day happy hour every Tuesday featuring $5 wine, $4 draft beers $5 specialty cocktails and half-priced appetizers. More South sound happy hours here.

Tuesday Deal: Goodfellas Italian Steakhouse inside the Great American Casino offers a four-course dinner every Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. for $20. Do it at 10117 S. Tacoma Way in Lakewood.

Nosh League: Join our foodie social conglomerate and attend our wine and cheese tasting July 8 at Cork!

Future things Are Coming: Wine Bank in University Place hosts Small Vineyards Italian wine tasting with appetizers Thursday, July 1 for $16.50 per person. Importer Tristan Ohms will lead the tasting, which sold out last year. Reserve your spot at 253.564.1101.

Food Matters: A list of LA's best Mexican popsicles

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

HURRY! SUMMER'S HERE FOR A SECOND >>>

Apart from the word "sex," only "free" captures the human imagination with such force. "Win" isn't bad either. For the ultimate in attention grabbing, then, nothing does the trick quite like "win free sex." Watch them leap, see them run.

Alas, while the Weekly Volcano can't offer help in the sexual arena, summer offers a wealth of free activities including the four spraygrounds in Tacoma - South Park, McKinley Playfield, Wapato Hills Park and Jefferson Park.

As a result of the 2005 Park Improvement Bond, the old wading pools in Tacoma parks have been replaced with spraygrounds - wet playgrounds that shoot water in the air that doesn't accumulate for safety. 

Besides, the spraygrounds are an opportunity for us all to observe a micro-sized petri dish of American life as it pulses and spurts and knocks out our contact lens.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6, weekends only Sept. 7-26

LINK: Metro Parks has the scoop