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Beer likes company, so the Nosh League will hold its next nosh pit inside the Engine House No. 9 for a beer and cheese tasting Thursday, Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. Weekly Volcano Grocery Stories columnist Kris Blondin will sift through her knowledge of cheese to find a few friends for several lucky beers, picked by Tacoma brewmaster Doug Tiede.

Join the Nosh League here, and then join us Aug. 12 for a cheesy, happy time.

The Weekly Volcano follows B & C-list celebrities so you don't have 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...

Taylor Swift!

July 4: Taylor Swift gets all educational and stuff and plays with stickers

"Sitting on a porch with (Twitter friends we're probably too old to recognize omitted) eating BBQ, discussing American history." 5:42 p.m., via Echofon

July 3: This many tomatoes always takes Taylor Swift's breath away

"Local produce tent = yay!" 1:35 p.m., via Echofon

May 8: What exactly is Taylor Swift's job again?

"I've been eating Cheerios like it's my job lately." 9:24 a.m., via Echofon

Tune in tomorrow for more hot Twitter Stalking action from the Weekly Volcano.

NO HONKING BY THE TENNIS COURTS >>>

Tomorrow and Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., portions of Schuster Parkway will be closed for street repair.

According to City of Tacoma officials, "A chip seal repair will be completed on two separate days, requiring closure of northbound lanes on one day and southbound lanes the next day.
 On Wednesday, the northbound lane between South 7th and McCarver streets will be closed, and on Thursday the southbound lane between South 7th and McCarver streets will be closed."

So all you who race down Schuster at excessive speeds, which includes almost all who drive it, you'll have to take an alternative route, like Tacoma Avenue North. Warning: The Pacific Northwest Tennis Championships are being held at the Tacoma Lawn Tennis Club through Sunday. Keep your eyes on the road and not on the skimpy white clothing.

SPELL OUT A GOOD TIME WITH ARTIST JAMES GRAYSON SINDING >>>

It's thinking out of the box time, the box being Tollefson Plaza.

Normally, when one appears in Tollefson Plaza, it is not what one would call a "happy" time. It is not a time of joy, but rather, of boredom and, perhaps, well, non-joy. So, if one were to visit said plaza Saturday, July 31, say 11:30 a.m., you'd see artist James Grayson Sinding thinking out of the box, creating a happy place ... with thousands of wooden letters. Spaceworks Tacoma has the happy scoop here.

Block some time out July 31, and be happy.

NEW AND IMPROVED >>>

I'll just come out and say it: Sweet Things Cupcakes & Couture in the Proctor District grabbed second place in our 2010 Best of Tacoma Readers' Poll. The cupcake shop scored a baker's dozen of votes - over and over. I'm sure there's something involving the word "frosting" that I could add to this opening that would cleverly describe their second place finish and earn me the Pulitzer Cupcake, but I got nothing - other to say "way to go Sweet Things."

Now, kiss Sweet Things goodbye. Yup, they're gone - frosting and all (got it in - sweet!).

Jubilee Cupcakes & Vintage Candy announced it will open Friday, July 23 in the Proctor District spot formerly occupied by Sweet Things Cupcakes & Couture. According to a press release, Jubilee will incorporate a back-to-basics approach to cupcakes, which means, "that all cupcakes, buttercreams, chocolate and caramel sauces, various ganaches, meringues, lemon curd and marshmallows used in Jubilee cupcakes (and espresso drinks) are homemade from their own recipes and perfected over decades."

However, as the cupcake crumbles, Jubilee is actually Sweet Thing's owner Patti Frank's rebirth of the cupcake. She has reinvented her Sweet Things cupcakes, and her business model, reopening Friday with a new name, a new look and, as she told me over the phone, "the best cupcakes in the state."

Frank wasn't happy with her recipe, the clothing retail portion of her store, or the seating inside and out. Friday, the clothes are gone, replaced with vintage candy from Hammond's Candies, including old-fashioned lollipops, ribbon candy, and hand-pulled taffy.

"It's the kind of candy popular in the 1940s through 60s," she explained.

The store will also carry cupcake accessories, party supplies, and greeting cards.

Seating wise - there's a lot more, both inside and out on the deck.

And the cupcakes?

"I took them in a different direction – a 180 degree change," Frank frankly said. "They are now extremely moist."

Frank entered the cupcake lab and didn't leave until she knew she had the state's best cupcake. Frank incorporated fresh ingredients into her new recipes, including hormone-free dairy and eggs from area farms, and fruit from community farmers markets.

According to the press release, along with more traditional flavors, Jubilee's menu includes "rotating flavors such as the S'more cupcake (Valrhona dark chocolate baked with organic graham crackers and bittersweet chocolate topped with traditional toasted Swiss meringue and a drizzle of homemade bittersweet chocolate sauce), the Pink Champagne cupcake (champagne infused cake brushed with champagne, topped with strawberry buttercream and sugar pearls), and the Chocolate Maple Bacon cupcake (Valrhona dark chocolate cake baked with maple bacon and topped with a maple buttercream and piece of homemade maple bacon)."

Yes, indeed, there's a Chocolate Maple Bacon cupcake on the menu.

For Friday's grand opening, the featured cupcake flavor will be a Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake that features Valrhona dark chocolate cake filled with a chocolate raspberry ganache, topped with raspberry buttercream and a market-fresh berry. Valhalla coffees and Mad Hat Tea blends join the new venture, too.

All that from a cupcake shop that many people, at least according to our readers' poll, already loved.

Jubilee Cupcakes & Vintage Candy

2510 N. Proctor St., Tacoma

LINK: Jubilee's menu

READY FOR YOUR CLOSE-UP, MR. CUCUMBER? >>>

Tacoma Farmers Market, along with Click! Cable TV, are going viral to get the word out about healthy living, food and farming.

Their contest, which deadlines Aug. 15, requires participants to create videos four to 10 minute sin length promoting local food, farming, and markets.

All submissions will be judged by Tacoma Farmers Market, Triniti Media, and Click! Cable TV! and awarded prizes accordingly under the subjects of ‘Most Creative,' ‘Most Informative' and ‘Farm Themed' states a press release.

Meant to be read very quickly aloud: The chosen short films will be shown at the markets and broadcasted on Click! Cable TV's On Demand Service. Titles must be 19 characters in length with a 200 character long description in order to be published on the network. All DVDs must be mailed to Tacoma Farmers Market at PO Box 707, Tacoma, WA 98401 by Aug. 15, 2010. For further information or questions please contact Samantha Kielty at sam@tacomafarmersmarket.com or visit tacomafarmersmarket.com.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2010 >>>

1. Treypac, Sierra Rae, Horse Bodies and Pizza T's Z-Kamp play a 7 p.m. all-ages show at Northern in Olympia.

2. Vetri Glass and the Hilltop Artists in Residence have teamed up to provide Hilltop students an experience with the business side of the art world. Dylan Buffler and Chris Downing are the two dedicated artists selected for this season's exhibition. Check out their work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Vetri Glass on Dock Street in Tacoma.

3. Joey Jewell performs a tribute to Frank & Dean beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Steilacoom's Pioneer Park.

4. Filmmakers Lexy Lovell and Michael Uys trace the stories and evolution of five combat veterans of five different American wars in their film, The Good Soldier, screening at 7 p.m. inside King's Books.

5. Your Girlfriend's Favorite DJ spins during Masa Comida Mexicana's College Night at 10 p.m. while you sip rum and Cokes alone in the corner wishing you paid more attention in Communications 101 class.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Comedian Jon Lovitz is 53.

>>> SOUTH SOUND SPECIFIC

Ezra Meeker, the man who founded Puyallup, died on December 3, 1928, in room 412 of the Frye Hotel in Seattle. He was 27 days shy of his 98th birthday. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that as he lay dying, two chartered airplanes flew above the Frye loaded with coastal rhododendrons, Washington's state flower. As the planes soared over the hotel they "dipped their wings in salute and the pilots released their blossoms, which showered the hotel and the crowds in nearby streets." (Thanks HistoryLink)

>>> WORD OF THE DAY

terete \te-'ret\ adjective [L teret-, teres well turned, rounded; akin to L terere to rub] (ca. 1619)

Approximately round or cylindrical but usually tapering at both ends

Usage example: "If you look closely, which you probably shouldn't get so close, you'll notice that Mel Gibson's head is ever so slightly terete in shape, due to the amazing proliferation of bizarre worm-like creatures growing in his alienesque skull."

>>> DID YOU READ THIS?

RAPID CITY JOURNAL REPORTS: A member of the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Commission has resigned. Merton Clarkson of Ludlow served on the commission since April 2003. Gov. Mike Rounds announced Monday that he accepted Clarkson's resignation with regret. Clarkson cited personal reasons.

It's the Weekly Volcano's guess that Clarkson left South Dakota in search for better pay and a change, a fact which should probably cause no reaction in anyone reading this because after all, it's South Dakota, and unless you're deeply into farming there's no real reason to stick around when you could be headin' out for the wild crazy states of Iowa and Nebraska, where the real action is, because they have like, a Starbucks and stuff.

>>> NEWS TO US

Kick ass at Rock Paper Scissors.

Today in most massive star, like, eva.

Playboy launches a non-nude website for guys who are afraid of boobies.

Morning Spew posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on this blog. Sometimes, it even posts in the morning.

Hug us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Or just join the discussion in our Community.

BEAT THE HEAT >>>

Air conditioning is defined as the dehumidification of indoor air for thermal comfort.

This is important.

Not as important as, say, making the best pizza in all of Washington but it's still important.

It's 85 degrees outside and I'm waiting inside Puget Sound Pizza for Peter Tjetjan from the electro-kitsch Umber Sleeping, Trevor Dickson from indie darlings the Nightgowns and Jason Freet from the stoney and hypnotic Drug Purse. It is, at the very least, exactly the same temperature inside PSP as it is outside.

Drenched in sweat and the smell of delicious Italian food I think of Job Carr. After building a cabin, which would later become Tacoma's first Post Office, and basically creating what we now know as Tacoma, Carr spent numerous summers without air conditioning - sweating.

Peter Tjetjan walks into the delicious-smelling sauna a bit frantically. "I need to go to the post office," he plainly states. It's an eerie coincidence.

Instead of asking why, I ask both Tjetjan and Dickson (who has also shown up) what it is about Tacoma that makes so many bands err on the side of psychedelic or revival music?

Tjetjan - visibly distracted by the current prices of stamps - says he thinks it's because Tacoma isn't a metropolis and a lot of bands don't really care if they "hit it big." Dickson, touching on a similar theme, tells me, "The hipster circuit in Tacoma isn't as large as the other big cities, so there really isn't a scene where everybody is trying to do the same thing. A lot of kids that live in Tacoma now came from the suburbs. I know, for me, I listened to a lot of old music growing up."

As for the show Saturday night that will see Umber Sleeping, the Nightgowns, the Drug Purse and The Midnight Sun share a bill at Bob's Java Jive, Dickson and Tjetjan tell me it was Freet who put it together.

Outside and inside, it's still hot.

"Yeah, it's funny because I was just talking to Cody (Jones) about wanting to do something at the Java Jive this summer and maybe a week or two after that Jason called me with the idea," says Dickson of his bandmate in the Nightgowns and their similar desires. "There is a certain kind of magic that is captured when a good crowd shows up ... and they used to have monkeys."

Tjetjan then hurries away to the post office.

The Tacoma music scene is as rich as it has been since the Ventures made surf rock the most popular form of music in Japan, and this excites me, as it did on during the ill-fated, post-office themed interview at PSP. Sadly, Freet (predictably) never showed up, and my elevated heart rate made the heat inside Tacoma's best pizza joint more closely resemble a sunspot than a cool summer day.

If you live in Tacoma, care about Tacoma or have any interest in music you simply must go to this show. Air-conditioning or not, there's no doubt Job Carr would agree.

Bob's Java Jive

Featuring The Drug Purse, Umber Sleeping, The Nightgowns, The Midnight Sun, Saturday, July 24, 9 p.m., cover TBA
2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma
253.475.9843

THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010 >>>

1. A curio ostensibly from the former Soviet Union, the Red Elvises bills itself, collectively, as "the legendary legends of Siberian surf music and the highest-payed [sic] wedding band of the Kamchatka Peninsula." The L.A.-based band plays tunes like "Elvis and Bears," "Ballad of Elvis and Priscilla" and "Shooba-Doobah (Elvis' Vacation)" - you get the idea. We still say they should be called the "Red Elvii." The Czars of Rock n' Roll perform at 9 p.m. inside The Swiss.

2. The Tacoma Farmers Market Broadway will fill two downtown Tacoma blocks with local produce, flowers, food, vendors, activities for the whole family, and live bluegrass by Southern Skies from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

3. The Second City Chamber will take a Lakewold Gardens audience to musical shores familiar and foreign, known and undiscovered, in their "Flags of the World" concert beginning at 6:30 p.m. We suggest you bring a picnic basket full of ethnic foods.

4. Comedy Underground Presents Auggie Smith at 9 p.m. in the basement of Big Whisky Saloon in downtown Tacoma.

5. No Bullshit Battle Of The Bands begins at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound