WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18, 2010 >>>

1. Popular guitarist Vince Brown fills Swing Wine Bar & Cafe in Olympia with jazz beginning at 9 p.m.

2. Have you heard of this Twitter thing? Yeah, we hadn't either. Apparently, though, a whole bunch of people are into it, and it's supposed to be the next big thing ... or something. We're not sure. We don't really get it. Once we learned about Twitter, we discovered a whole bunch of people giving monotonous 140-character descriptions of nothing (trips to the grocery store and shit). What's that all about? Like we said, we're not sure. That's why we'll be attending the 1 p.m. "Intro to Twitter" class at the Tacoma Public Library main branch. We'll be the guy sitting between the man that just woke up from a 15-year coma and the dude that lives under a rock.

3. An aging wooden lifeguard chair stands sentinel as Tollefson Plaza turns into a beach for A K Mimi Allin's Seaside Opera, a performance art pieces that lasts for 15 minutes from 2-7 p.m. on the every half-hour. The artist performs to a mesmerizing audio of ocean-inspired operas and carnival sounds. Viewers may be enticed to participate by the toy-strewn water pools.

4. King's Books hosts a "Bad Poetry" edition of Scrabble Rousers, where beginner, intermediate, or expert Scrabble players battle it out on the board - with the option to stand up and read some very bad poetry. Entrance fee is $10 per person with proceeds directly benefiting the Tacoma Community House Student Scholarship Fund. The words start flowing at 6:30 p.m.

5. Plague Ships, Devils Of Loudon and Helles rock Hell's Kitchen beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound