EASTER MAY BE OVER, BUT PEEPS LIVE FOREVER >>>

What is it about those garishly colored marshmallow-and-sugar candies shaped like chicks? I could call them the Easter equivalent of fruitcake, except I actually like fruitcake.

But Peeps? A friend's Facebook status update revealed the existence of tequila-infused Peeps ("really gross"), although a web search turned up not recipes but peeps of the human variety consuming tequila. You can, however, make hors d'oeuvres with them. 

Perhaps, though, these mysterious creatures are not so much candy as toys. The Olympia Timberland Library seems to be taking that position with its Peep Into My Favorite Book Contest. The library invites you to create a shoebox-sized diorama starring Peeps and having literary or library-inspired roots. The contest is open through May 7. Dioramas will be on display at the library (313 Eighth Ave. S.E., Olympia) and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony Wednesday, May 11.

Rules and entry forms are available at Timberland libraries.

Submissions begin Wednesday, April 27.

BEER AND WINE ARE BACK >>>

Vinum Coffee & Wine Lounge in downtown Tacoma added beer and wine to café this month. New owners Natural Allah and Jennifer Zaskorski have also added a happy hour. You can grab a $3 beer or $5 wine pour from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, and 3-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. During happy hour, their appetizers here are marked down to $5.

Zaskorski tells us they're expanding the café into the upstairs space, adding a 56-inch TV with couches and a pool table creating a man cave during "special event" sports castings.

Oh, Vinum is open to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. After you pour out of Hell's Kitchen across the street, drop by Vinum for a burger or sandwich.

Vinum Coffee & Wine Lounge

9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday
9 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday
3 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday
1001 Pacific Ave., Tacoma
253.779.9901

LINK: Download our South Sound Happy Hour App

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Do you think Vinum's baristas are sexy?

LESSON LEARNED >>>

BOUT ONE: Tide Pool vs. Death Drops

After two completely sunny and much needed spring days, Tacoma's Dockyard Derby Dames had a hard time selling out Pierce College's Health Center last Saturday for their double header of bouting between the best-of-the-best rollergirls.

Opening for the main event was DyDD's B-team, Tide Pool, which consists of some of their strongest skaters from all four original DyDD teams.  Up against Centralia's Rainy City Rollergirl's Death Drops, the Tide Pool had no problem wiping the flat track with moisture left from what was once a "rain drop" from Centralia.

The second jam of the bout began rare with no lead jammer, ultimately leaving the girls with no one to call off the jam and skating the full two-minute time limit.  Apparently that was just the calm before the storm.  Jammer (and my favorite skater) Misty Miyagi began jam three in the penalty box, but busted out like lightening as soon as her time was up.  Seconds after she whizzed by, Miyagi was lead jammer, taking no prisoners and getting Tide Pool's scoring off to a furious start.

From there it was a textbook ass-kicking.  My friends Liesl and Melanie discussed potential roller derby sponsorship ideas (sports bras and thigh-glide, in particular) while I noticed a few areas with room for improvement:

• Rainy City's Jess Playin':  Has room for balance-improvement when it comes to being a jammer.
• Bit Hit O' Honey: My favorite candy, and my favorite female roller derby announcer.  Too bad you could hardly hear her with the crowd being noisy little butterflies.
• I'd like a private bathroom located just behind my sideline seat next time, m'kay, Vitamin V?  Those Bud Light tall boys are very un-forgiving on my bladder.

The award for best roller derby entertainment of the evening goes to Crack Attack of Rainy City's Death Drops.  I applaud your attitude, your tight silver shorts and your extremely visible asscrack.

FINAL SCORE - DyDD Tide Pool = 137, Rainy City Death Drops = 50

BOUT TWO: Wave of Mutilation vs. Terminal City Rollergirls

After a smooth 20-minute halftime between bouts, the action began again with Dockyard Derby Dames' All-Star travel team, Wave of Mutilation, facing off against Vancouver, B.C.'s Terminal City Rollergirls.

Let's be honest here.  Most roller derby spectators hit their girl-slamming quota by the end of the first bout.  Most people leave, just as I wanted to do (and did at last month's Season 5 opener), after the first bout.  But since I was assigned to cover the entire event I felt obliged to not leave early this time around and to do my duties as a top-notch sports writer. (Stop laughing!)

OH BOY was I ever glad I stayed.  Holy Toledo, Batman - that was the BEST bout ever! 

I cannot begin to put into words how fist-clenching, gut-wrenching and eye-popping this duel became.  I think I can speak for the rest of the crowd when I say I was on the edge of my seat, if not standing up, for the rest of the night.

DyDD's Snickerbrutal showed her tumbling prowess, Skate Paulie Girl pulled out all magic jamming skills and Betty Drillder repeatedly lead her pack with a vengeance.

The penalty box had never seen more action than on this blistery spring night, and with 8:41 left, Terminal City's #77- Rollergirl was kicked out of the bout for good. Grand Slams (five-point and over jams) and Power-Jams were achieved at an alarming rate and at one point Terminal City's #44 luludemon had no competition with almost all of DyDD was in penalty.

Jams were short and sweet, injuries were aplenty, ice packs were flowing, and pissed-off skaters were in full force.  Let me break down just how awesome the scoring was in the last 20 minutes of the bout:

20 minutes left on the clock - DyDD= 49 points, TC= 104

13 minutes left - Hope is on the way

9 minutes left - DyDD= 97, TC = 110

3:06 left - DyDD = 105, TC = 111

FINAL SCORE- DyDD = 125, TC = 118 121

See what you missed by leaving early?! 

Oh, and to top it off, as the DyDD were continuing to score as the final clock ran out, the jammer for TC, #44 luludemon, took a critical hit - providing the evening's most jaw-dropping injury.  In the end, you couldn't help but wonder how much of it was dramatized.  I caught some of it on video... now you tell me how much of the attention might've been milked.

Lesson learned: Never again leave before the end of the second bout.

LINK: Photos from the bouts

A POT IS A POT IS A POT >>>

A quarter century ago - I can't believe it's been that long - I was teaching art in a university down south and writing art reviews for a local newspaper, often reviewing shows in the same art department where I taught. That may seem like an obvious conflict of interest, but somehow it seemed to work back then. I wrote under the pseudonym Ken Clark. More often than not I bit the hand that fed me.

I really got in trouble with my fellow faculty members when I made a snide comment about ceramic pots in a show I was reviewing. The remark was a variation on a famous quote from Gertrude Stein. A pot is a pot is a pot.

The former chairman of the department, who had been my ceramics teacher years earlier, wrote me a scathing letter, and a close friend and co-worker who made some of the pots in the show was not overly pleased with what I had written.

Did I backtrack? Did I apologize? About as much so as the typical politician apologizes or takes back public statements. I said that it was true that some pots might be more than just pots. I said that it was possible for pottery to rise to the level of fine art but that it was rare. I think I might have given examples of ceramic artists whose work went beyond mere pottery. The only one I can think of offhand whom I might have referenced is Peter Voulkos. (Interestingly, I just now Googled Voulkos and saw pictures of pots that looked very much like one I made in my college ceramics class under that same professor mentioned above. Maybe I was influenced by those pots, but I can't remember having seen them back then.)

If there's a point to all this, it is that there is a difference between art and craft. I've mentioned this before, and I've always contended the difference is too complex to explain in the space I‘m allowed. That's an easy out for me, I know, but I'll take it. Art should be more than just attractive or witty. It should do more than sit on a shelf and gather dust. It should provoke a deep emotional response or inspire heated discussions. It should be akin to a religious experience. Not every painting or sculpture rises to that level either, but it's surprising how many do.

In the Pacific Northwest it is not pottery but glass art that reigns supreme. The existence of the Glass Museum and Tacoma Art Museum's Chihuly collection and the art in Murano Hotel in Tacoma and William Traver Gallery, not to mention the newly proposed glass museum for the Seattle Center, all give evidence to the immense popularity of glass - and 99 percent of the glass art we see is essentially pottery in a different media. I'm tempted here to say... OK, I'll go ahead and say it: glass is glass is glass.

Now you'll know that if I praise a show at Museum of Glass or William Traver I must think it is really, really good. Or maybe I'm just being generous with my comments. In that case you'll have to go see the show and make up your own mind.

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Skate Pauli girl in response to Steph DeRosa's recap of Saturday's Dockyard Derby Dames roller derby bout.

Skate Pauli girl writes,

Thank you, Steffie!! Great article! I saw you Saturday, but you didn't see me waving, because you were busy filling your mouth with ice cold beer!

Ps- When is Doxy going to out you, closet rollergirl? ;)

PRAY FOR SNOW >>>

The Rainiers have been losing a lot of games. A LOT of games.

But let's not focus on that because last night the rain came. And the rain washed away all the Rainiers' ills. Hopefully for a long, long time.

That's right, in last night's 12-inning game that included a lengthy rain delay, the Tacoma Rainiers squeaked past the Salt Lake Bees by a score of 5-4. Second baseman Dustin Ackley wound up with the game winning hit, doubling to left field to drive in Johan Limonta. This win ended a three-game losing skid, giving the Rainiers a record of 5-14. It's still a bad record, but we're tired of ripping on our boys of summer. And like we said, last night's rain delay washed away their ills. Let it be prophesized. 

Thoughts

>>> Rainiers announcer Mike Curto mentioned on his blog (which we pilfer material from religiously) that Dustin Ackley's double was only the second hit he's had off a left-hander all season. Last night was a multi-hit outing for Ackley, but we wonder if his inability to hit lefties hurts his chances at getting called up to the Mariners anytime soon. Because according to this blog, the Mariners already hit left-handers like, "they're the green pigs in Angry Birds."  We're guessing this means they can't hit lefties. We're guessing.

>>> Josh Lueke threw 2.1 scoreless innings in his first outing back with the Rainiers. According to Lookout Landing, nobody knows why Lueke performed so poorly in his time this season with the Mariners. So far he's performing great with the Rainiers, so who cares how he did with the Mariniers.  

>>> Before last night's win, the Rainiers had dropped 10 out of their last 11. Now we know it's a new start since the rain washed all their bad mojo away, but yeesh. ...

Tonight's game is underway with left-hander Fabio Castro going against the Bees' Erik Shoemaker. Curto predicted earlier today that the game is questionable because it was snowing in Salt Lake City this morning. We here at the Volcano say they play ball. If the rained cured their ills like we have prophesied, just imagine what snow could do.

LET'S DO THIS >>>

The annual nationwide fund-raiser Dining Out for Life is set for Thursday, April 28.

Participating restaurants donate a portion of their proceeds to area AIDS service organizations.

Among the restaurants in the South Sound: Adriatic Grill, Asado, Cascadia Grill, C.I. Shenanigans, Daby's Cafe, The Harmon, Il Lucano, Indochine, Marzano, Pacific Grill, Oldschool Pizzeria, Primo Grill, Ravenous, Southern Kitchen, The Spar, Swing Wine Bar, The Swiss, Tempest Lounge, Toscanos, Traditions Cafe, Varsity Grill and many more. So awesome.

Full list here.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011 >>>

1. Hands of Toil rocks the Wednesday Sessions at Jazzbones tonight. For some reason the Volcano's comprehensive live local music listings originally had the venue as Hell's Kitchen. We're not sure what's up with this, but we fixed it. Take a gander at the rest of Wednesday's musical offerings and let us know if there's anything else we botched ...

2. The Steilacoom Pub and Grill Steilacoom offers "Trivia with Dave" tonight. Sounds awesome, no?

3. The always awesome James Coates brings his game to the Tempest Lounge tonight from 7-9 p.m.

4. Vote for the sexiest South Sounders you know and help the Weekly Volcano round out its highly anticipated second annual Sexy Issue.

5. According to the hype, one can "Explore the use of oil pastels, acrylic paints, ink and watercolors," tonight starting at 5 p.m. at Tacoma Art Place. It's all part of the Materials and Techniques of Painting series which goes down every Wednesday.

This week ...

Thing: Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

Covered in: Chocolate

And sometimes: Caramel

And also: Nuts, toffee

Made by: Breeze Wetzel

In: Bonney Lake

Breeze's assistant: Madyson

Madyson is: 5 years old

She probably: Cooks better than me

Do I care: No

Will I eat the marshmallows regardless: Damn straight

To read Steph DeRosa's full "Person, Place or Thing" column, click here.

THURSDAY READING AT BELLABALLS STUDIO >>>

Not as much a romantic as she is a realist, there's a palpable pragmatism to Tacoma's new poet laureate, Josie Emmons Turner.

If you expect the usual june-moon-spoon doggerel from this poet, you won't find it. There are no cute, rhyming monosyllabics in her writing. Emmons Turner takes on tough topics like death, loss, difficult family relationships and the complexity of love. She refers to the canonized masters as the "old dead guys." She won't even entertain the lofty notion that poetry could heal the world. "That's a lot of responsibility to put on a poem," she says.

Emmons Turner will be reading her work at her first public poetry reading as Tacoma's new poet laureate during a free event at the Bellaballs Studio (747 S. Fawcett Ave., Suite B) Thursday, April 28,at 7 p.m. Emmons Turner will be joined by three former Tacoma poets laureate and special guest poets.

Read former Tacoma poet laureate Tammy Robackers full interview with Emmons Turner here.

Poetry reading

Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m., bellaballs studio, 747 S. Fawcett Ave., Suite B, Tacoma