Weekly Volcano Blogs: Walkie Talkie Blog

Posts made in: March, 2011 (193) Currently Viewing: 71 - 80 of 193

March 14, 2011 at 9:57am

5 Things to Do Today: Pi Day, Hip-Bone, "Race to Nowhere" and more...

Hip-Bone

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011 >>>

1. According to King's Books, "It's Pi Day! March 14th aka 3/14 aka 3.14 is Einstein's birthday and a scientifically-proven reason to eat Pie!" Hard to argue with that. In celebration, everyone making a purchase over $3.14 will receive free pie on a stick ... while supplies last.

2. Hip-Bone will fill The Swiss with blues tonight - starting at 8 p.m. Click here to check out the Volcano's extensive live local music listings.

3. Stuck in Chehalis? Bummer. Lucky for you, though, the Matrix Coffeehouse welcomes Chingado, Assassinators and Generation Decline tonight for an all-ages show.

4. The DODO show kicked off at Mad Hat Tea Company over the weekend - to rave reviews. It runs through April 30, but why wait? Today would be an excellent opportunity to see what everyone is talking about.

5. Technology is crazy shit, yo. For example, tonight at the Capital Theater in Olympia, the film Race to Nowhere will be shown - which looks at the pressures of our education system on children. But that's not the crazy part. What takes the cake is the Q&A scheduled with filmmakers after the showing ... via Skype. Check it out at 6:30 p.m.

March 14, 2011 at 11:20am

SHORT ORDER: Tap Night Tacoma tonight, TWOKOI sushi roll deal ...

Load up on TWOKOI's Caterpillar Roll and Dynamite Roll during lunch.

DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Tap This: Recognizing the burgeoning craft beer market in the Tacoma area, five local watering holes - The Red Hot, The Parkway Tavern, Doyle's Public House, The Swiss, and Engine House No. 9 - have joined forces for a monthly beer event.  Every second Monday of the month - that's tonight people - the five locally owned and operated joints will simultaneously tap a fresh cask of ale at 6 p.m. then yell "Tap Night Tacoma is on!" The Red Hot will tap Iron Horse Brewing Oaked IPA, The Parkway will unleash Schooner Exact Imperial Project Porter, Doyle's will pour Wexford's Irish Ale, The Swiss will serve Hales Dry-Hopped Mongoose IPA and Engine House No. 9 will tap their E-9 Amarillo IPA.

Sushi Deal: TWOKOI Japanese Cuisine in Tacoma has extended its Endless Roll Special through March. For $19 you can order as many full-size rolls, in their Sushi Bar, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Thursday.

Wine Monday: The Rosewood Café discounts their glasses of wine to $5 every Monday.

Future Things Are Coming: Toscanos Café & Wine Bar in Puyallup hosts a "Martini Madness Cooking Class" at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 20. More details at 253.864.8600.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Filed under: Food & Drink, Puyallup, Tacoma,

March 14, 2011 at 1:31pm

Plan Ahead: St. Patrick's Day parties

LUCKY CHARMS: Don't be this guy on St. Patrick's Day. Photo courtesy of Trimark Pictures

ERIN GO BRA (LESS) >>>

Everybody's favorite excuse to get wasted in the middle of the day - like you needed an excuse - and profess dubious Irish heritage hit sthe South Sound Thursday.

Check out our round-up of St. Patrick's Day parties here.

March 14, 2011 at 2:10pm

CARV'S BLOG OF THE WEEK: Plaudits and pans

DO CRITICS EVEN MATTER? >>>

This weekend I saw a movie, Battle: Los Angeles, that Roger Ebert - the best movie critic who ever lived, mind you - gave half a star. "Young women," he advised, "If your date likes this movie, tell him you've been thinking it over, and you think you should consider spending some time apart." Brutal. I already had tickets, so I went anyway; but lo and behold, my date and I both liked it well enough, and our relationship is intact. I also saw two local play productions. Now, I don't have the freedom to unleash verbal hell on awful scripts, nor do I have the desire. I don't enjoy hurting people's feelings, especially those of people I'll see down the road, and I'd certainly rather not quash anyone's enthusiasm for live performance. But if I were of a mind to spew zingers, one of those plays would be the show that inspired them.

Yet there will be people who attend that play and truly enjoy it. There were probably cast and crew members who loved working on it. Don't their opinions matter just as much? Meanwhile, I heard yawns at the other show I attended, which I found much more satisfying on any number of levels. Was I wrong? The heart and mind want what they want, even for professional critics. Taste is clearly subjective. All I can hope is to persuade you that my opinion is informed by a lifetime of study and a lifelong passion for theater.

Over the last few months, things have changed for me. The volume of offense incited by my reviews has been dwindling, and people have made special efforts to tell me they appreciate my efforts and those of my colleagues. People are starting to accept that I review their work as impartially as I can, as I would have them do for mine. I still work in live performance myself, and I'm willing to accept the slings and arrows I dish out when they're deserved.

Do critics matter? Do we improve the level of anyone's work? Do we boost public interest in what's often perceived as a "dying" art? I hope so. I think so. I'm not just in this for the towers of money, believe me. I have to promise myself that for every bruised ego, there's a patron who'll be thankful for a more informed ticket purchase. I see myself as a consumer advocate, but also as a (discriminating) cheerleader for South Puget theater - which, even after a widely mixed bag of shows this weekend, I still think is some of the best I've ever seen. My taste may vary from yours, but surely we agree that when local companies focus their efforts, they hold their own with any companies anywhere. I just want to be part of the refining process.

Filed under: Arts, Screens, Tacoma, Olympia, Theater,

March 14, 2011 at 4:07pm

2011 Pokemon State Championships coming to Tacoma

GOT PLANS THIS WEEKEND? NOW YOU DO ... >>>

While it may be off some of your radars, there's no way in hell the Weekly Volcano is going to let anyone forget that the 2011 Pokemon State Championships will be held this Saturday at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. Believe it or not, the action will start at 8:30 a.m., though, considering the excitement this card game can incite, this really should come as no surprise.

According to the official press release, the 2011 Pokemon State Championships is a free event and open to all players. Among other prizes, an invitation to the 2011 Pokemon National Championships will be on the line.

All of this, of course, is almost as exciting as the time this kid got the Blastoise card ...

Filed under: All ages, Games, Tacoma,

March 14, 2011 at 4:47pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A potty mouth debated

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comments of the day come in regard to Steph DeRosa's most recent "Person, Place or Thing" column - in which she dives mouth first into the world of fish tacos and sexual references.

First, Steve Fisher writes,

Dear Ms. Derosa,

There are many marginally intelligent writers that can produce salient reviews of food understood by those of us in the 'Hinterland'. Your "Potty Mouth' embellishments, in the guise of journalism, are not necessary. Take your Centennial Pilgrimage to church this Easter and reassess your vision of how to inform the world.

Steve

To which a reader going by the name of "King Fisher" replies,

Dear Steve,

Fuck off, you pretentious asshole.

King

Filed under: Comment of the Day,

March 15, 2011 at 9:31am

5 Things to Do Today: James Coates, Irish Sessions, Rafael Tranquilino and more ...

James Coates

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011 >>>

1. Quite literally, James Coates is one of the nicest dudes you'll ever meet. The centerpiece of local roots rock outfit James Coates and the Lost Souls, Coates seems to literally bleed emotion through his music (and even eyes). Today, Coates will play the Mandolin Café with Gina Belliveau. Click here for the Volcano's comprehensive South Sound live local music listings.

2. Get geared up for St. Patrick's Day tonight at O'Blarney's in Olympia (feels like Lacey). Every Tuesday the bar unleashes its "Irish Sessions," featuring live traditional Irish music.

3. Rafael Tranquilino's Rockin' Blues Jam is held every Tuesday night at Stonegate Pizza in Tacoma.

4. Been trying and trying to get your story on paper? Having a rough go of it? The Memoir Writing Group, led by Olympia educator and author Delores Nelson, might be just what you need. The action runs from 1-3 p.m. at the State Capital Museum.

5. The Rainier League of Arts meets on the third Tuesday of every month - which just happens to be today. Designed for area artists of all types, the Rainier League of Arts regularly features guest speakers and creators, along with support and inspiration. More info can be found here.  

March 15, 2011 at 1:15pm

CLAYTON ON ART: Norman Rockwell and civil rights

Murder in Mississippi (preliminary sketch), 1965 Oil on board, 15” x 12 ¾” Preliminary sketch published as the first illustration for Southern Justice, by Charles Morgan, Jr., Look, June 29, 1965 Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL. Fr

ADDING TO THE RECORD >>>

I'd like to add a few comments to my article on the Norman Rockwell show at Tacoma Art Museum (Weekly Volcano, March 3). I voiced the usual complaint that Rockwell was too sweet, corny, sentimental and out of touch with reality - not necessarily in those words, but that was the gist of my criticism.

The thing is, we know kids are cute, especially if they look like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, which all of Rockwell's kids did. We don't need an artist to illustrate that fact. Likewise, we value family, love a big Thanksgiving meal and are touched by soldiers leaving home for war and coming home from war. Most Americans are patriotic, even if we don't always express our patriotism in the same ways. Most of us are also kind of susceptible to nostalgia and have a hankering for small town values and kind of think going to church and going to school are important - although if we had our druthers we'd rather play hooky from both. Playing hooky and skinny-dipping are also all-American traditions that Rockwell celebrates, but only among kids; God forbid grownups should do such things.

Rockwell's art has universal appeal precisely because so many Americans share the likes and values he expresses and because he makes us feel good.

Underneath all the good feeling his art celebrates a world of hurt that he seemed to have never acknowledged until the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam awakened him to reality. I'm not saying artists should necessarily show the ugly side of life, but I think an illustrator with the kind of immense popularity Rockwell enjoyed owed it to his public to not be so damn Pollyannaish.

People gush over how realistic the people in his paintings are. They are realistically drawn, but they don't look real because they are such clichés. They look more like cartoons than realistic paintings.

Rockwell did finally show some gumption with his paintings of the little black girl being escorted to school by U.S. marshals (not an illustration of but symbolic of a historic event) and his painting Murder in Mississippi, illustrating the murder of the civil rights workers activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney.

The former is a beautifully done painting, a celebration of civil rights and condemnation of racism. It was also inventive of him not to show the marshal's faces. Their heads are cropped out of the picture. It's also strange but somehow compelling that the marshals do not react in any way to someone throwing a tomato at the little girl. Such stoicism, but if she were my little girl I'd want them to shield her and arrest the bastards that threw the tomato.

Rockwell also showed courage and conviction in Murder in Mississippi. Indicating the murderers' presence with shadows showed an  inventive flair for drama never seen in his earlier illustrations, and the preliminary sketch included in the exhibition shows a loose painting style that I wished he'd used in some of his finished work.

Filed under: All ages, Arts, Tacoma,

March 15, 2011 at 1:17pm

Movie Biz Buzz: Film in the blank

SEATTLE CONTEST ACCEPTS ENTRIES >>>

Cinematic lore tells us that upon witnessing D.W. Griffiths's 1915 epic The Birth of A Nation, President Woodrow Wilson called it "writing history with lightning." Now you have a chance to (re)write your own history with film. Until Friday April 1, Seattle's Museum of History and Industry will accept entries for its first "History Is _____" Film Competition.

So what goes in the blank? Insert a word or short phrase of your choosing, then tell your unique story in any genre between 60 seconds and 5 minutes. With so many other contests stifling potential creativity and heaping rules on participants, this one stays as loose and free-form as its title.

The Awards Gala happens May 7. MOHAI's providing some very cool prizes for its inaugural event, like a SIFF screening of your winning work in May, an exclusive meeting with documentary maestro Ken Burns, and a filmmaker's best friend: moola. And Celluloid Seattle, an upcoming exhibit at the museum, will house the best shorts, making you literally a part of history.              

According to Helen Divjak, MOHAI's Manager of Programs and Public Engagement, "History tends to be seen as this stuffy thing." She hopes to dispel such a notion with this competition. "History is happening all the time - every day, to everybody," she says.

So go capture yours...with lightning. For more information go here.  

Filed under: Screens,

March 15, 2011 at 2:09pm

PERSON, PLACE or THING with Steph DeRosa

JOHNNY'S DOCK: The Reuben will have to fill the void left by the PB&J & Bacon

This week's intended thing: Johnny's Dock PB&J & Bacon Sandwich

Deleted from existence: Six months ago

Tears shed regarding item deletion: 2,329

Popular menu item: Yes

Popular enough: Obviously not

Initial gross out factor: High

Actual deliciousness: Heavenly

Jelly used: Jalapeno

Random ingredient: Cheddar Cheese

Thing substituted for this week's column: Reuben sandwich

Read the full story here.

Filed under: Food & Drink, Tacoma,

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