GODDAMN IT! >>>

So, like, let me be the first to point out (at least publicly) that we totally fucked up the date on our Grant Hart (from Husker Du) It List blurb this week (it's since been fixed online). Hart will be at Hell's Kitchen next Thursday, June 16. We printed Wednesday, June 15 - for reasons that will never be completely clear (other than the monkeys are tired and hungry and shouldn't be worked that late into the night ...).

We apologize.  

You can find ticket information for the show here.

WEEKEND-LONG FESTIVAL IN OLY >>>

Capital City Pride began under the aegis of Rainbow Center Olympia. Back then, the festival drew a few hundred people. Now as many as 10,000 celebrants converge on a two-day extravaganza that marks the climax of a very busy year for the organization. After a champagne kickoff party at the Urban Onion on Friday, June 10, the live entertainment begins at 11:10 a.m. Saturday with a performance of the People's Choir. Capital Playhouse's resident guitar picker and set designer extraordinaire Bruce Haasl takes the stage shortly thereafter. After a welcome from Mayor Doug Mah, Jericho plans to rock your face off at noon. While that may seem an odd slot for such numbers as "Bad Lesbian," Jericho isn't worried.

"I think (we live in) a really interesting time," she muses. "There's a heightened sense of things out there. The sides are both pushing harder, and I think it's one of those times in history when something changes. At least that's what I hope for."

To read the full article click here.

[Capital City Pride Festival, June 10 - 12, most events free, Sylvester Park, Capitol Way and Legion Way, Olympia]

TALKIN' SPORTS, YO! >>>

Oh, for eff's sake. Must I really devote another column to the booster-funded clusterf*** taking shape at THEE Ohio State University?

It seems so. It seems, on the heels of Jim Tressel's disgraceful exit last week, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor decided to become former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor this week, announcing his decision to leave school and pursue football on a professional basis. Pryor, of course, was in the middle of the Ohio State firestorm thanks to an alleged string of improperly provided cars he drove during his time at the school, as well as the well-known autographs-and-memorabilia-for-cash-and-tattoos scandal that had already gotten him suspended from the first five games of next season. Pryor now reportedly hopes to enter the NFL's supplemental draft, or perhaps spend time honing his skills in the UFL.

Basically, if what we've heard is true, Pryor has been profiting off football for a long time. This week he just announced his decision to make it official.

To read this week's full column click here.

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Not From Brookklyyn Biatch!!! in response to Rev. Adam McKinney's article on Deep Sea Diver, a band playing the New Frontier Lounge on Sunday.

Not From Brookklyyn Biatch!!! writes,

Got get on that Deep Sea Diver train. Or train to be a diver or something. Underwater welding. It pays like 80 to 100 an hour. You can't make that scratch scratchin' booties.

FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011 >>>

1. The Olympia Experimental Music Festival kicks off today at Northern. In its 17^th year, it promises to be as strange and wonderful as ever. If you're looking for something a little more straightforward perhaps, find the Volcano's extensive South Sound live local music listings here.

2. Proof opens today at Tacoma Little Theatre, billed as a story about a woman named Catherine and her father, Robert, who is a "brilliant mathematician, who has misplaced both his brilliance and sanity in later years." Or, if you're looking for something else, browse the Volcano's South Sound arts and entertainment calendar here.

3. The Capital City Pride Festival  will be in full force today in downtown Olympia. Find more info on the weekend-long extravaganza here.

4. Flashback alert: Sea Jayne Trip will play Hell's Kitchen tonight!

5. Vote for Tacoma's best baristas, politicians, bloggers, bartenders and local businesses in the only 253 "Best Of" issue that matters. The Volcano's annual Best of Tacoma issue publishes July 28, and this year's readers' poll launched last week. Let your vote be heard now! Find all the details here.

THE SOUTH SOUND'S ONLY LOCAL FILM CRITIC >>>

Super 8 opens in 1979, as the soon-pubescent Joe (Joel Courtney) and his friends work to finish up a low-budget zombie flick on their Super 8 camera. Mere months earlier, Joe's mother was killed in an industrial accident, leaving him to deal with his father, with whom Joe has very little in common. Joe's dad disapproves of his interest in filmmaking (somewhat bewilderingly, although fathers in coming-of-age films generally disapprove of whatever their child is interested in, short of baseball).

While filming a scene by the railroad tracks, Joe and his buddies witness a train crash, narrowly dodging hurling train cars and debris. After escaping with their lives, they do the only natural thing, which is to swear that they will never tell their parents, even as signs that the train crash wasn't an accident (and what that means for their quaint little town) begin to emerge.

Soon, it becomes clear to us that something not quite savory was in one of those cars, and it has been unleashed upon the town.

To read Rev. Adam McKinney's full review click here.

PART OF THIS WEEKEND'S OLY EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FEST >>>

When I interviewed Olympia Experimental Music Festival booker Nathan Markiewicz and performer Sam Melancon (Megabats) for my piece on this year's OEMF, there was one artist on the festival's line-up both were particularly excited to see. As Squim, Portland's Chris Phillips has released a wealth of material (much of it undocumented online), including two on Melancon's own Debacle Records. Notably, 2007's Zephyrus (the first in a planned trilogy that's now 2/3rds complete), was put out by esteemed underground label Olde English Spelling Bee.

Part of Squim's appeal lies in the methodical, intuited approach he takes to produce his enveloping electronic drones.

"I usually start with an idea then break things down and reassemble them. When I like what's happening with a recording and I have enough material I stop. Sometimes I gather a lot of source material beforehand. Other times I severely limit my palate of sounds," Phillips says.

"The process is more sculptural than musical to me. Building up and breaking down sound over and over until I get a frame to build on.  I like to think about what it would be like for a cave man to find a computer or synthesizer left behind by some pre-existing civilization and what he would do with it- what sounds would he make?"

There's something expressly scenic and cinematic about Squim's eerie soundscapes-his caveman scenario quite readily calls to mind 2001: A Space Odyssey-and Phillips, fittingly, hopes his music gives people "an emotional impression, some sense of a weird landscape." He elaborates, "If it makes them think 'What's making that sound?'- that's great. If it makes them have an out of body experience or fall asleep that's good too."

Clearly, he's not picky. When Phillips isn't tinkering with software and keyboards, he's scoring independent films and post-apocalyptic video games. For someone who cites both Carl Sagan and H.P. Lovecraft as influences, that makes a weird kind of sense.

Squim performs at the Northern as part of the Olympia Experimental Music Festival on Saturday, June 11, at 7 p.m.

17th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Festival

with Megabats, L.A. Lungs, Dead Air Fresheners, Squim and others
Friday, June 10-Sunday, June 12, 7 p.m., all ages
Northern, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia
northernolympia.org

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER >>>

Weekly Volcano's ever-expanding Nosh League made a ruckus in the Old Milwaukee Cafe last night. That's right, I said "night." Members and newcomers packed the tiny breakfast joint for a lesson on how to make the perfect pancake, as well as taste the goods - four variations - long after the Sixth Avenue breakfast/lunch joint's typical closing time. Owners Patricia "Pat" and Chad Kerth received several rounds of applause and damn near royalty bows on numerous occasions. People hug the Kerths. People name babies after the Kerths. The Kerths put to shame those pale and lazy and uninspired breakfast plates knocked out every day by other breakfast shifts at other restaurants across the fruited plain.

Although capped at 20 Nosh leaguers due to the diminutive size of the Old Milwaukee, Pat kept darting behind the curtain to grab more chairs when the door was locked after the 27^th smile entered the restaurant, although the Kerths, had they owned more space, wouldn't have turned their back on those pressed against the glass front door. Service before self (read: enormous pile of dirty plates) pours from their soul like buttermilk batter.

Speaking of buttermilk - that was pancake the Kerths chose for the demonstration. Pulling a table and hotplate from behind the curtain, Pat came clean with the ingredients while Chad whipped egg whites in the back kitchen. Ingredients stay in the Nosh League, although I will tell you that melted butter and folding in egg whites are key - as well as the timing of the first flip. Somewhere between a Swedish pancake and a fluffy pancake lies the Old Milwaukee Café buttermilk pancake - a fluffy Swedish pancake, if you will. Nosh League member Gayle Selden, known for her awesome pancake recipe, gave props to the Old Milwaukee pancake.

Two rounds of raffle prizes and a whole bunch of screwdrivers, Bloody Marys and Kahlua and coffees elevated the gathering to an 11.

For two hours we dined on buttermilk, huckleberry, bacon and dessert pancakes, plus eggs, bacon and sausage. Every bite of the bacon pancakes reveals salty goodness. And the huckleberries don't burst with core of the sun heat. Whipped cream and peanut butter stood ready for those who felt 1,000 chocolate chips wasn't adequate in each dessert pancake.

The Weekly Volcano food group Nosh league meets the second Thursday of the month. July's gathering hasn't been solidified as of this post. We'll be at D.O.A. sampling new chef Aaron Grissom's invention in August. September takes us to Affairs Café in University place where Gay Landry has chocolate up her sleeve.

To join the Nosh League, click here (you may have to join our community first). We also are on the Facebook here.

LINK: Steph DeRosa recently dropped in on the Old Milwaukee

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Partly sunny, hi 68, lo 51

Saturday: Partly sunny, hi 66, lo 49

Sunday: Partly sunny, hi 69, lo 52

>>> SATURDAY, JUNE 11: 10 Years of the Malcolm Clark Band

The Malcolm Clark Band has been together 10 freakin' years! Doing anything for 10 years straight is tough ... we know firsthand, seeing as this is the 10th year of the Weekly Volcano. Saturday, Clark, Mike Couloues and crew celebrate 10 years - blues style, of course - at the FUSE Cafe in Ruston. Expect the blues-based groove Clark has come to be known for, and quite possibly a Hawaiian shirt.

• FUSE Cafe, 8 p.m., Point Defiance Casino, 5307 N. Pearl St., Ruston, 253.722.8712

>>> SUNDAY, JUNE 12: TACOMA CULT MOVIE CLUB

The Reverend Colin, along with Mary K. Johnson and Tobin Ropes of Mad Hat Tea Company fame, kicked off the first Tacoma Cult Movie Club gathering in April 2009. Inspired by a Seattle group that regularly ran grindhouse cinema, the three founders desired to bring their own love of trashy art into this eclectic community. The free meetings take place at 7 p.m. on the second Sunday and third Monday of every month at The Acme Grub Cage. New members should brace themselves for much more than staid discussions of obscure films. Sunday, drop in for the Cult Movie Club's "The Doctor Is In (and out of his mind!), which the entity's "creative grunt," Holland Hume, predicts will feature films akin to Dr. Giggles -- though he stresses Reverend Colin never divulges his plans prior to go time, so anything could happen.

• Acme Grub Cage, 7 p.m., 1310 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, 253.272.1892

>>> SUNDAY, JUNE 12: JULIAN PENA'S CMYK

Celebrate the opening of Julian Pena's "CMYK" art exhibition at the Mix on Saint Helen's Avenue in Tacoma Sunday from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Along with a nifty event flyer depicting a hipster kid having life pumped into him by a hovering pink octopus (or something like that), the happening will feature wine tasting, food, beverage and music.

• The Mix, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m., 635 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.383.4327

>>> SUNDAY, JUNE 12: BACK TO BEALE STREET 2012 COMPETITION

It's become tradition in our area - a yearly blues-blowout local music fans look forward to for the quality it draws. And, like clockwork, it's back. Sunday at Jazzbones, the preliminary contest of this year's South Sound Blues Association sponsored Back To Beale Street 2012 Blues Competition goes down at Jazzbones, offering a chance for competitors to earn their way to the heralded International Blues Challenge in Memphis later this year. Three solo and duo acts will battle it out in front of a panel of judges, as will 10 bands. Included in the musical goodness will be the Rafael Tranquilino Band, the Michal Miller Band, the Al Earick Band, Doug Skoog and Joe Hendershot, the Cody Rentas Band and many more. The top four bands will advance to the finals, to be held during the 4th of July Freedom Fair and Air Show on the Duke's Chowder House Blues Stage.

• Jazzbones, $10, kicks off at 3 p.m., 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169
  

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
Considering graduation is this weekend, as well as the downtown Pride Celebration, I imagine my weekend will be a cycle of busting my ass to make drinks, drinking to heal the pain of bartender knees and back, then sleeping in and doing it all again. Sunday, a barbeque at the in-laws should be relaxing.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
I'm celebrating my 43rd birthday with two dozen of my closest friends by eating delicious Mekong Thai and seeing Super 8 in IMAX. Also, I'm told there will be some sort of alcoholic beverage, which I gather I'm now old enough to drink.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: Writer
Saturday, my brother plans on dragging me to the Rishloo/Wide Eye Panic/Esitu show at Hell's Kitchen. Sunday, I plan on dragging a friend to the Deep Sea Diver/Slowwave/Makeup Monsters show at the New Frontier. If I end up getting a devil tattoo on Saturday, will I be ostracized on Sunday? Please show your work. No calculators.

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
While recouperating from my end-of-the-school-year cold, I will be washing mounds of laundry and chasing after my 10 month old. I may throw in some gardening before heading to a friend's beach house to enjoy the final Sunday before school is out.

ALEC CLAYTON Visual Arts Critic
Capital City Pride Saturday and Sunday!

.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer 
Having a kick-ass yard sale at 1607 North Proctor in Tacoma both Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Yeah, I'm totally exploiting The Hustle. Come by and meet me in the flesh and buy some stuff. After the most awesome yard sale ever Friday I'll catch the free concert at TCC at 7 p.m. Saturday night I'm cooking (yes, I do that) for a friend followed by a stroll down to Jazzbones for the Bass Odyssey show. Sunday is South Tacoma Way farmers market followed by church services.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Meat Market Photographer
It is my kiddo time, so I will likely be going to the Working Waterfront Museum's open house on Saturday to see how that effort is growing. There will likely be a trip to the Grand as well followed by some geocaching around town and planning my daughter's Murder Mystery birthday party.

JOE IZENMAN Theater and Music Writer
I am up to nothing less than rocking the hell out. Solo acoustic set at Amocat Cafe music night? Check. Deborah Page rock show in Renton, of all places? Check. Cerebral play about mathematics and insanity at TLT? Check. OK, that last one isn't rocking the hell out. But I'm doing it anyway.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

Q&A GOODNESS >>>

How much of an Olympia mainstay is former vaudevillian Saul Tannenbaum?

Enough so that Tannenbaum (who made his Olympia debut just a year and a half ago) is performing Sunday, June 12, as part of Capital City Pride.

The show, dubbed Saul Tannenbaum and His Friends of Dorothy, is the highest profile gig to date for Tannenbaum (the alter ego of theatrical Josh-of-all-trades Josh Anderson of Olympia). And it's the first one open to an all-ages audience.

This success is particularly impressive given that Tannenbaum is fictional, the creation of Anderson and actress-singer-writer Christina Collins, who scripts the shows and portrays Tannenbaum's perpetual special guest, Mona von Horne.

But people - even Anderson himself - often seem to forget that fact.

"It's a rainbow connection kind of show," Anderson says. "It's Sunday afternoon in the park after a parade, and I think Saul understands that, too."

The 90-minute show is set to begin at 2:15 p.m. in Sylvester Park, at Legion Way and Capitol Way, Olympia, with a cast including Tannenbaum regular Lauren O'Neill, plus Bruce Haasl, Kerry Martin and Stephanie and Jared Nace.

In honor of this "songstravaganza," as Tannenbaum calls it, the Volcano interviewed the elusive entertainer, who dictated his answers to Collins.

To read the full interview click here.

[Capital City Pride Festival, June 10-12, most events free, Sylvester Park, Capitol and Legion, Olympia]

[Sylvester Park, Saul Tannenbaum and His Friends of Dorothy, Sunday, June 12, 2:15 p.m., all ages, Capitol and Legion, Olympia]