THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011 >>>

1. Join the Volcano at the Pacific Grill for the launch of our South Sound Happy Hours Mobile App from 5-7 p.m. Be the first to download the app and enjoy 50-plus appetizers, meals, snacks and desserts at 50 percent off. Even sweeter: DJ dAb will spin funk and soul. Even sweeter than that: at the party you can be the first to download the app for free! The sweetest of all: be the first to taste Pacific Grill's "Volcano Drink!" It's so on.

2. National Beer Day - now there's a holiday we can get behind! It has everything we're looking for in a holiday ... mainly an excuse to get drunk. Tacoma's Harmon Tap Room will celebrate National Beer Day ALL day by tapping some T-Town Blonde Ale, offering $1 beers during lunch, giving away a bunch of awesome stuff (read: beer!) and even throwing a '30s era dress contest from 6-8 p.m. Did we mention it's NATIONAL BEER DAY? They had us at "beer."

3. The Lula Washington Dance Theatre - instrumental in creating the mesmerizing movements of the blue-skinned Na'vi tribe in Avatar - performs at 8 p.m. at The Evergreen State College. Choreographer Lula Washington developed the tribe's signature movements, and for Avatar she and members of the company wore motion sensors so their movements could be translated to animation. Since founding her company and dance school in inner-city Los Angeles in 1980, Washington has used her work to explore social and humanitarian issues.

4. No doubt the Thursday Beer Runners voted daily in our Tournament of Pizza, being fans of carbo-loading. And we're almost positive they planned to have tonight's run at the winning South Sound pizza joint. A few runners were disappointed with the elimination of Infernos Brick Oven Pizza in Tumwater as running around the old brewery would have been bitchin'. Instead, Katie Downs was crowned the top pizza joint in the South Sound Monday, and the runners will meet at the Ruston Way waterfront restaurant at 6:30 p.m. for an easy 3-mile run, followed by copious amounts of pizza and beer.

5. May Day Press proprietor Catherine Alice Michaelis and local poet Anne Spiers will discuss the creative process of artist and writer collaboration and the synergy created from the intersection of these two fields from 7-9 p.m. at the Collins Memorial Library on the University of Puget Sound campus.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound