THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010 >>>

1. If you followed Weekly Volcano Editor Matt Driscoll's lead last night at the Best of Tacoma 2010 party, chances are you're in desperate need of an effective hangover remedy this morning/afternoon. Since the main culprit of a nasty hangover is dehydration, you should have been drinking plenty of water with your booze last night at Masa. If not, only time is going to make the hairy, ugly pounding go away. These morning-after drink recipes from legendary restaurateur Trader Vic Bergeron, however, may help.

The Banana Cow

1 crushed ripe banana (a good source of hangover-fighting potassium), 2 level tablespoons of powdered sugar, 3 ounces of whole milk, 1-1/2 ounces of Puerto Rican rum, and (cough! ouch!) cracked ice; blend well.

The Prairie Oyster

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 dash of Tabasco, 1 raw egg, a few drops lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a shot glass.

Bloody Mary

4 ounces of tomato juice, 1-1/2 ounces of vodka, 1/4 ounce of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, dash of Tabasco, and celery salt and ground pepper to taste; stir well over ice cubes in a Collins glass, garnish with a celery stalk and serve (cough!  ouch!).

Failing any of these "cures," a well-placed ball-peen hammer to the forehead can work wonders.

2. Celebrate artists and arts organizations using their creativity to liven up vacant spaces in downtown Tacoma from 5-8 p.m. at the Spaceworks Tacoma Block Party bubbling over at Ninth and Broadway. The party will include guided walking tours, theatrical performances, live dance performances, an ongoing screening of short films and a season preview for the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts.

3. The beloved Paula Tutmarc Johnson, former owner of Two Vaults Gallery in Tacoma, curates a new show at The Robert Daniel Gallery. She's brought in a new collection by Karl Krogstad, some "barely dry" original oils by Ethan Jack Harrington, works by J. Neils Harvey (her premiere show) and artwork from The Robert Daniel Gallery's artists. The opening reception is tonight from 5-9 p.m.

4. The Lakewood Playhouse offers a "Pay What You Can" performance of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead paired with Stoppard's Fifteen Minute Hamlet at 8 p.m. This is collaboration with the new dynamic acting company The Outfit Theatre Project.

5. The Loft on Cherry in downtown Olympia hosts The Pasties CD all-ages release show that also features The Solvents and Invisible River beginning at 8:30 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

BEST OF TACOMA 2010 PREMIERE PARTY RECAP >>>

In addition to the 2,375 awards handed out at last night's Weekly Volcano Best of Tacoma 2010 Premiere Party, there was one award we had to save for this morning.

Best Hangover. I win.

Or, rather, tequila wins ... again. You would honestly think I'd know better by now.

But the important thing is I had a really good time, and (though I'm a bit biased) I get the feeling Tacoma did too. The showing was nothing short of amazing. I've taken to saying the Best of Tacoma 2010 Issue (In Spectacular 3-D!) is the finest slice of Tacoma ever put to print, and I believe the Premiere Party at Masa last night held up its end of the bargain: the finest slice of Tacoma ever packed inside Masa to down Tecate tall-boys and bask in the sun and glory of the 253.  It was pretty awesome.

Here are a few photos of the Best of Tacoma 20120 Premiere Party taken by Volcano photographer J.M. Simpson (click here to see the rest). I'm especially fond of his capturing of the pushup contest between Tacoma's Most Sexy Local Business Owner Melanie Manista-Rushforth and the ultra-ripped Masa door guy, and also the photo of emcee Doug Mackey prodding Best Local Actor Joe Rosati (tied with actor Matt Shimkus) into reading the Masa menu in thespian fashion - while EvergreenOne (in the Sonics jersey) tweets in the background about how "cracking" the party is, or how the greeter (accidentally, I hope) gave him a butt-sweat handshake. (Seriously, if you're not following EvergreenOne on Twitter you're missing out.)

A big thanks to everyone who voted in this year's Best of Tacoma readers' poll, everyone who came out to Masa last night to celebrate with us, and all the winners for making the 253 so damn awesome.

LINK: More photos in our Photo Hot Spot

The Weekly Volcano follows yammering 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...

Kanye West!

Earlier Today: Kanye west just can't get no satisfaction

"I specifically ordered persian rugs with cherub imagery!!! What do I have to do to get a simple persian rug with cherub imagery uuuuugh" about 4 hours ago, via Web

Earlier Today: Firt persian rugs with cherub imagery, now this...

"Vintage Hermes travel bags are tight yo!!!"

July 28: OK, now this is really just getting bizarre. Is this Kanye West's Twitter account, or my grandma's?

"I'm into these type of glasses this is a new decade its over with for all those tongue and cheek ironic..." 10:40 p.m., via Twitpic

July 29: Oh, for fuck sake...

"I hate half empty water bottles so I copped these #goblets to drink out of" 9:38 p.m., via Web

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

BONUS TWITTER PIC OF KANYE'S WEST'S COUCH

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Partly cloudy, hi 79, lo 53

Saturday: Partly cloudy, hi 73, lo 54

Sunday: Partly cloudy, hi 74, lo 54

>>> FRIDAY, JULY 30: FRIDAY AT THE FORT

Over the years, the Weekly Volcano has heard tales of an inexplicable summertime condition.  When the sun is shining, we're told, some people lose their appetites. They all have some ridiculous excuse. Some refuse to sweat and eat at the same time. Sissies. Others say they're too busy. Whatever. Still others pull out the old "it's swimsuit season" excuse. Foolish vanity.  The best we can figure is that they all have heatstroke and aren't quite right in the head. After experimenting, we have reached an indisputable scientific conclusion - When the sun is shining, things just taste better. Prove our theory at the Friday at the Fort event inside the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum's fence. Pampeana will serve their delicious empanadas, 7 Seas Brewing will be pouring pints full of goodness while Irish band Mooncoyne jams.

• Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, 6-9 p.m., $5-$7, Point Defiance Park, 5400 N. Pearl St., Tacoma, 253.591.5339

>>> SATURDAY, JULY 31: BEST OF THE NORTHWEST COMMUNITY FESTIVAL

The Tacoma Art Museum hosts a free community arts celebration Saturday centered around a "Best" theme. Hey(!) Copycats. Anyway, hear a dozen local performers under the wing of Billy Farmer, build and fly a kite, create outdoor chalk art, create a landscape, and more.

• Tacoma Art Museum, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272. 4258
  

>>> SATURDAY, JULY 31: ART-A-THON

Mobilize the Proctor Art Gallery into artistic and social action; reserve some booths at the Proctor Farmers' Market, and do it all to benefit one of the most worthy causes you'll find - F.I.S.H. Food Banks - and you have an event worth repeating. Following the success of last year's inaugural run, the Proctor Farmers' Market Art-A-Thon is back this weekend, where artists will once again display their work and techniques in hopes you'll be inspired enough to donate - with the money going to F.I.S.H.

• Proctor Farmers' Market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., 27^th and North Proctor Street, Tacoma, fishfoodbanks.org

>>> SATURDAY, JULY 31-SUNDAY, AUG. 1: 24 HOUR ZINE THING

Magazines have been around in one form or another throughout history. In Elizabethan England, there were small chapbooks of Shakespeare's text. In colonial America, there were pamphlets by people like Thomas Paine. In this modern world, with its easily accessible technology, print media has morphed into zines, a sort of alternative, personalized media. Come see how other people express themselves during the 24 Hour Zine Thing, hear zinesters read from their work (3:30 p.m. Sunday) and maybe even make your own zine - in 24 hours. Yup, the event runs for 24 hours straight.

• Northern, 5:30 p.m. Saturday to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.352.0595

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

MATT DRISCOLL Editor and Don Draper Hair Double
Sadly, I wont be doing anything terribly exciting this weekend. Even more distressing, I can't even make jokes about mowing my lawn anymore as my lawnmower was stolen last weekend, surely by a pack of metal-scavenging tweakers. My wife leaves for a month in Germany on Sunday, so all-in-all it's lining up to be a crap-sandwich of a weekend. Not to be a downer or anything. Party on, Wayne.

PAUL SCHRAG Senior Contributor
I'm spending the weekend camping with all the Olympia-Seattle-Portland homies. There will be debauchery.

NIKKI TALOTTA Feature Writer
This weekend I will be kicking myself in the ass for not making the Best of 2010 3-D party at Masa and devising a way to use duct tape and PBS to babysit my kids for any future parties with the Volcano. I will also be serving up delicious drinks at one of the best bars in Oly.

THE REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Feature Writer
I will work on several projects including, but not limited to, practicing my breathing in an effort to expunge the experience of having watched Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore. At some point, I will no doubt end up at the New Frontier, as per usual. Rock and drink.

On Saturday night I will be driving a Weekly Volcano and Sparks Firehouse Deli sponsored yellow school bus while hosting a good ol' Tacoma bar crawl. The bar crawl was purchased at an auction benefiting the Children's Museum of Tacoma and will visit some of my favorite bars including Top of Tacoma, The Swiss, Meconi's, Harmon Tap Room, Doyle's and The Red Hot.

JOE IZENMAN Music/Theater Critic
Saturday night and 6th Ave is where it's at: catching Jake Westhoff's acoustic stylings at Cork (Volcano-confirmed Best Wine Bar In Tacoma) at 9 p.m., then following him down the street to O'Malley's for Where Sails Meet Rails and Sordid Sentinels at 10. Rock music will be balanced by extreme nerdery as I spend Sunday moving Comic Book Ink to its new location and playing Dungeons & Dragons. Because that's how I roll. With a d20.

KRIS BLONDIN Food/Wine Writer
Co-chillin' Mason County style at Philips Lake with some friends. Drinkin', eatin', swimmin' and perhaps some pyrotechnics will be involve. Most likely in that order. We will try to wait a proper 30 minutes after eating before we swim.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
My beloved turned 30-plus Monday, so we'll be celebrating by – well, that's a surprise. I'm indulging in some top-secret shenanigans for an upcoming cover article. And last but not least, I'll be rippin' and tearin'.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
I'm going to the Funkin' Fun Benefit Dance with Func Pro Tunc for Olympia Therapist Beth Fischer at the 4th Ave Tav.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

GIRL TROUBLE V. GORILLA PRODUCTIONS UPDATE >>>

I got a chance to chat briefly with Girl Trouble frontman K.P. Kendall last night at the Best of Tacoma 2010 Premiere Party, and naturally the subject of Gorilla Productions' lawsuit against drummer Bon Von Wheelie and the band came up. While Kendall told me the iconic Tacoma drummer is keeping her head up, and believes in what she's fighting for, he did sound like the situation is certainly causing the entire Girl Trouble camp a considerable amount of unneeded stress. You'd be shocked and dismayed to know how much money this nonsense has already cost Von Wheelie.

During the course of the conversation Kendall tipped me off to a recently published cover story in the Cleveland Scene "Northeast Ohio's Only Alternative Newsweekly." It's an interesting read, as it details the nasty situation between Girl Trouble and Gorilla Productions from an Ohio point of view, where Gorilla is based.

Oh, and by the way - Since the Volcano's first set of stories on the lawsuit came out (here and here) here's a look at the press garnered by Gorilla's lawsuit - which, mind you, is about defending the "promotion company's" name. Is this really helping?

Ernest Jasmin at the News Tribune picks up the story

The Stranger's Line Out

R.R. Anderson attacks Tacomic style

Tim Apello at City Arts chimes in

Weekly Volcano Spew update with excerpts from court documents

Cleveland Scene publishes a cover story this week

FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2010 >>>

1. Tacoma is often described as a city full of underdog freaks. If this is the case (and there does seem to be some truth to it), Tacoma will eat up the Hellzapoppin Sideshow Review, set to infest Hell's Kitchen with more bearded women, human pincushions and oddities than normal beginning at 8 p.m. Having awed and weirded-out audiences around the world, including on the Van's Warped Tour and Ozzfest, the traveling misfit hellions behind the Hellzapoppin Sideshow Review know a thing or two about capturing your attention. Bizarreness sells, and it's wildly entertaining.

2. The Here and Now show at Fulcrum Gallery from noon to 6 p.m. explores the parallels between young artists and professionally showing established artists. Read Alec Clayton's review of the show here.

3. The Olalla Community Club will host a fundraiser for this year's Olalla Bluegrass (& beyond) Festival at 7:30 p.m. featuring music by The Blackberry Bushes String Band and Asthmatic Kitty recording artist Shannon Stephens.

4. Chances are you've got a couple dumb friends. It's the law of averages. Well, Hamlet was no different; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may not have been the sharpest, but they were his buddies - even obliviously escorting him to banishment. The Outfit Theatre Project stages Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at 8 p.m. inside the Lakewood Playhouse. Read Joe Izenman's review of the show here.

5. A fundraiser for the Underground Derby League, an all female roller derby league, featuring R&B funk band Bump Kitchen as well as raffles, drawings, merchandise and information about the Underground Derby League will be held at 9 p.m. inside the 4^th Ave Tavern in Olympia.

LINK: New movies open today

LINK: Concert go on sale today

DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Grand Opening: Will there be one of those really absurd, super-sized pair of scissors at the official Amocat Café ribbon cutting ceremony tonight from 5-9 p.m.? Tough to tell, but there will be healthy doses of Valhalla Coffee, city Councilman David Boe, Mayor Marilyn Strickland, not to mention wine tasting and live music. Though folks have been enjoying Amocat for a while now, this will be a moment of triumph for Tacoma's coffee scene.

25 For $25: Stanley & Seaforts has introduced a new wine bottle list featuring 25 wines all priced at $25.

WTF: What's beefy, smothered in cheese, loaded with your favorite condiments and blended to creamy perfection?: Jamba Juice's new Cheeseburger Chill smoothie. Check it out here.

Future Things Are Coming: 7 Seas Brewing will celebrate its first year in business with a beer bash featuring brats, burgers, ribs, fish tacos, um, BEER!, and live music by China Davis, Perry Acker, and Black Market Revue Saturday, July 31, from noon to 8 p.m., at its brewery at 3207 57th St. Ct. NW in Gig Harbor. We have the scoop here.

Coffee Matters: Jittery America runs on espresso, soda, and Red Bull. Our most caffeinated cities are listed here.

LINK: Join our Nosh League

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

BRING ON THE WEEKEND >>>

Is it August already? Well, no, not technically - but by the end of the weekend it will be. The bottom line is summertime's a wastin', whether the sun is out or not. You'd be well advised to take full advantage of your fleeting moments of freedom.

With that in mind, here's another installment of the Prefunk, a weekly guide to weekend fun with you and your liver in mind - with a picture of an alcoholic household pet thrown in for good measure (and because it's funny).

Enjoy.

National Dance Day/ Pierce County Dances Together

Saturday, July 31

I'll shoot straight. I had NO IDEA there was such a thing as "National Dance Day." And even if I HAD known there was such a thing as "National Dance Day," I surely wouldn't have suspected that it's, "being recognized with an official act of Congress after being created by Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer and co-creator of the FOX series So You Think You Can Dance."

Oh, but it's true - unless the Tacoma Regional Convention and Visitor Bureau is sending out really funny fake press releases.

And they're not.

No, rather, Saturday is the first annual "National Dance Day," and all this prodded moving and shaking is the creation of the minds behind So You Think You Can Dance. Apparently, at locations all across the country, counties and townships so desperate for any spotlight that even having constituents filmed in mall parking lots doing a poor rendition of the cha-cha sounds appealing will engage in mass dance demonstrations, all in an aim to "empower, challenge and inspire everyone to try various styles of dance," according to the press release.

So You Think You Can Dance will be filming these mass dance spectacles, and the best-looking and/or least pathetic towns and counties will be featured on an upcoming episode of the show.

Yes, Piece County is getting in on the action. Naturally! On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon in the South Hill Mall parking lot in front of Competitive Edge, a swath of Pierce County's dancing hopefuls will gather to dance their asses off and hopefully end up on TV - calling the event "Pierce County Dances Together."

Here are the details:

So You Think You Can Dance will be filming National Dance Day events around the country to air on an upcoming episode of the show. If our community is chosen to appear on the show Pierce County will earn nation-wide recognition.

Join the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau [TRCVB] at "Pierce County Dances Together" from 10 a.m. to noon on July 31, 2010 at South Hill Mall in Puyallup. Dance festivities will be held in the parking lot in front of Competitive Edge, near the 9th Street SW entrance.

Be a part of the county's largest Cha-Cha Slide. The TRCVB is working with community partners to encourage the support of dance and the healthy benefits it provides. This opportunity to participate in National Dance Day will bring together individuals, families, organizations and communities through creative expression in dance.  So You Think You Can Dance is going on tour this fall and will be performing at the Tacoma Dome on Nov. 6, 2010.

Dances include:

•            Dance group performances

•            Zumba instruction

•            Pierce County's largest Cha-Cha Slide

•            Free-style dance

"Pierce County Dances Together" encourages everyone to get up and move in a place where all dance styles are welcomed. Join the fun - this event is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.traveltacoma.com.

PREFUNK:

There's Krispy Crème in that same parking lot.

With a drive through, I believe.

Just saying...

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 >>>

1. How many folks out there knew Tacoma hosts one of the biggest and best rugby 7's tournament in the entire region? For the last 33 years, Tacoma has hosted a summer 7's tournament featuring some of the best male rugby teams in the area. What's especially exciting about this year's event, however, is it will feature women's 7's teams for the very first time, drawing six of the top female rugby teams in the Northwest. The action goes down at the Portland Avenue Play Fields in East Tacoma beginning at 9 a.m.

2. Following the success of last year's inaugural run, the Proctor Farmers' Market Art-A-Thon is back from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., where artists will once again display their work and techniques in hopes you'll be inspired enough to donate - with the money going to F.I.S.H.

3. China Davis, The Lillie Bros, and Stoned Evergreen Traveller perform at the 7 Seas Brewing one-year anniversary party from noon to 8 p.m. at the brewery in Gig Harbor.

4. Art matters. Suckers for a good pun, we mention this in relation to Olympia's most sustainable gallery, Matter, which opened in September 2009 and prides itself on featuring "recycled, reclaimed and responsibly harvested materials." From 4-7 p.m., join Matter for a "Midsummer Gathering," which will reportedly include light refreshments and, more importantly, a chance to mingle with the many artists who make Matter such a sight to see in Olympia. Michael Gray and Vince Brown will provide music.

5. The zombie movie master George Romero is back with a new creative trek into the flesh-eating genre of horror. In Survival of the Dead we are whisked to an island off Delaware that's been spared from the zombie apocalypse. Here we meet two families: the O'Flynns and the Muldoons; one believes in zombie annihilation, while the other stands for zombie rehabilitation, as they wait for a wished-for cure. As both clans spar over their appointed causes, there are lots of shocking scares and inventive zombie killings in this subtle treatise on capital punishment cleverly disguised as a quasi-zombie western. Watch it in all its gory at midnight inside the Capitol Theater in Olympia.

LINK: We listed a couple more ideas in The Weekend Hustle

LINK: Concert go on sale today

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LIVE MUSIC IN THE SOUTH SOUND TONIGHT >>>

HARDCORE: It could accurately be called the end of an era. Tonight, Tacoma's Viaduct all ages venue - which has been a regionally known epicenter for hardcore music and hardcore youth - will hold its final show ever, bringing Shook Ones, Make Do and Mend, Hostage Calm, Cowardice, Oblivion and a bunch of other scream-happy ragers to the stage. "There were five owners of the Viaduct," club employee Jeremy Bushnell told the Volcano earlier this month. "On a monthly basis, they were paying anywhere between 50 and around 300 bucks out-of-pocket to keep the place open. It got to the point where they couldn't do it anymore. ... The beginning of this year, around January or February, is when they were really getting to the point when they were like, ‘We might have to think about doing something else.'" Unfortunately, that time is upon us.  Though we do hear there's already a new tenant lined up for the space, and the plan is for another all ages venue that will focus on reggae and hip-hop. That'd be nice, but any way you slice it - losing the Viaduct sucks. With Shook Ones, Make Do And Mend, Hostage Calm, Cowardice, Oblivion, Wreck, Cool Runnings, Power, Sixes, Open Fire!, Swinglow, Saturday, July 31, 7 p.m., $5, The Viaduct, 5412 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.226.1820 - Matt Driscoll

INSTRUMENTAL ROCK: They Rise, We Die is Tristan McNabb's newest project, a musical rebound from the 2009 break-up of much-loved Tacoma-area instrumental act Waves and Radiation. Winners of the 2006 Weekly Volcano award for "Best Experimental Band," Waves and Radiation made epic, shoegaze-y post-rock that coalesced a number of pedal-happy influences (e.g. the Kadane Brothers' slowcore masterworks) into one heavenly mixture. McNabb is right to describe his new outfit as "heavier" - They Rise, We Die is a monstrous band, evoking the sun-blotting scale of an alien mothership hovering over Washington state. Read the full story here. With Levator and Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel, Saturday, July 31, 9 p.m., Bob's Java Jive, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843 - Jason Baxter

HIP-HOP: Scraps on the Badlands - it's an evocative name, bringing to mind dusty, forlorn, almost uninhabitable stretches of nothingness, and also (in many ways) Tacoma. This makes sense, considering Revengers, a band spawned by the Biznautics and T-Town itself, and who dropped Scraps on the Badlands late last year, basically ARE Tacoma ... or damn close to it. An album crafted amidst both triumphs and horrible tragedies (producer Tom Pfaeffle died the summer prior to its official release, and Danny "D-Child" Cline - formerly of the Biznautics and fellow T-Town hip-hop act Nasty Left - lost his battle with cancer not long before its release), Scraps on the Badlands is a lyrical, profoundly artistic and haunting ode to the city that spawned it. "That's a lot of what our record is about, is standing your ground in the face of hardship and not getting beaten up by the world, so we kind of had to live by that," Revengers' Dale Coleman said at the time of the record's release. The fight continues. Saturday, July 31, 9:30 p.m., no cover, Doyle's Public House, 208 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468 - MD

LINK: More live music in the South Sound