FRIDAY, AUG. 20, 2010 >>>

1. This year's 25 New Faces, as chosen by Filmaker Magazine, will be showcased at The Grand Cinema, beginning today at 2, 4:15, 6:45 and 8:30, in what is apparently the first film festival modeled after the magazine's list.

"It's kind of a built-in festival, if you wanted to put it together, but I was curious if anyone had ever tried to do that," says Philip Cowan, executive director of The Grand Cinema. "I assumed someone probably had, but I got in touch with Filmmaker Magazine, and nobody had ever done that. They had talked about it, but nobody had ever tried to pull it together. So they were on board."

The idea is to assemble the work of these 25 New Faces - or most of it, anyway - and there you have a festival. Most of these filmmakers are young, innovative people whose daring projects impressed early on. Read the full story here.

2. Billed appropriately as a "Countryside Freak-out! (in the gentlest of ways)," the annual Helsing Junction Sleepover happens this weekend in rural Thurston County. One of the best ideas K Records has probably ever had - which is saying something - the Sleepover is a multi-day music fest partnering purveyors of local, free-range, organic music (K Records), with purveyors of local organic sustenance (the Helsing Junction organic farm). It kicks off today with Gary May, Human Skab, The Maxines, Angelo Spencer, The Curious Mystery, Japanther, Arrington De Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa and a bunch of films from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

3. Is anyone else just a wee bit sick and tired of hearing about how AWESOME Portland is? Every time you turn around someone is talking about Portland and something the Rose City is doing right, or something Tacoma is trying to copy in one way or another. Of course, PDX (Damn! It even has a nifty abbreviation thingy!) is pretty cool, but let's not let the facts interrupt a good anti-Portland rant! It smells like Kombucha down there! At 7 p.m., Sustainable Tacoma Pierce, in conjunction with its Tacoma Permaculture Design Course, will host a discussion at King's Books featuring Matt Bibeau talking about "Inspiration from Portland's City Repair Project." Portland's City Repair Project spawned a nationwide movement of "placemaking" - a kind of DIY urban beautification. You see potholes. Bibeau sees community gardens.

4. Spoken word open mic Mouths & Mics hosted by the 2009 Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate and Speak Your Soul Poet Antonio Edwards runs 7-9 p.m. inside Café Messina on Market Street.

5. The Best of Musical Broadway, or BOMB - a musical revue of Broadway hits performed by students of Lakewood Playhouse's Youth Theatre program - hits the stage at 8 p.m.

More suggestions in The Weekend Hustle.

LINK: New movies open today

LINK: Concerts go on sale today

Filed under: 5 Things To Do, Screens, Community, Music, Theater, Word, Olympia, Lakewood, Tacoma,