5 Things To Do Today: Kila, Meeker Days, "Summer in the Sixties," "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and more ...

By Volcano Staff on June 19, 2011

SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2011 >>>

1. History takes center stage from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with Meeker Days Festival in downtown Puyallup. Visitors will learn how the "hops king" managed to make his fortune selling beer-making grain while managing to be a teetotaler his entire life. Ezra Meeker's mansion is on display to show visitors how the rich and wealthy lived more than 100 years ago. However, if history isn't your thing, this largest street festival in Pierce County features four live entertainment stages, two food courts, almost 200 vendors, antique tractor displays, classic car shows, inflatable rides and more.

2. Harlequin Productions is celebrating summer with another original compilation of the greatest music of the sixties titled Summer in the Sixties. A live band, five fabulous singers, a psychedelic dose of video, hot tunes, cool drinks and "A Whole Lotta Love" hits the stage at 2 p.m.

3. Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) did for the black movement what Getting Straight did for the student movement: reduced it to escapist entertainment, cinematic stylishness, and near nonsense. The Brotherhood Lounge screens Peebles's single-minded paean to an L.A. whorehouse at 7 p.m. DJ James spins after.

4. The sextet Mojo Overload will fill The Spar in Old Town with blues from 7-10 p.m.

5. Mother's Day has the highest number of phone calls each year, but Father's Day has the highest number of collect phone calls. Dads win the most beloved parent competition as often as Tito wins most beloved Jackson.  Treat dear old dad to Kila's fusion of Irish and world music featuring strong percussive-like singing, gorgeous melodies, and daring harmonies - which are driven by a serious rhythmical undercurrent - at 7 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater in Olympia. Olympia's Burren Boys open.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Movies!