LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

Backstage Bar & Grill Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. NXNW Metal Fest, with Keeping Secrets, 10:45 p.m.; Monsters Scare You, 10 p.m.; Ellis Armor, 9:15 p.m.; Crowd War, 8:45 p.m.; We were dreamers, 8 p.m.; Plague Ships, 7:15 p.m.; Athena, 6:30 p.m.; From Deeper Seas, 5:45 p.m. $10.

• NXNW Metal Fest devotes three whole days to a dizzying assortment of bands, ranging from hardcore to mainstream metal to death and speed metal. From Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24, Sixth Avenue - specifically the Backstage Bar & Grill - will be the absolute loudest place in Tacoma. Put together by Lonnie Local and Chris Cricket Johnson, and sponsored by KISW Metal Shop, NXNW will be an all-ages event with a bar for those older than 21, and discount piercings being done by Johnson, courtesy of Action Tattoo. Read the full story, click here.— Rev. Adam McKinney

Bud's Bar & Grill Milton. Twang Junkies. 8 pm. NC.

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. Atomic Outlaws, Bloodrunk Shenanigans, Vigilante Sol, Halcion Halo. 9 pm. $5.

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Jack Daniels Tennesee Honey Launch Party, with SweetKiss Momma, Aces Up. 9 pm. $10.

LakeBridge Forza Lakewood. Kari Ehli Band CD Release Party. All Ages. 7 pm.

Louie G's Pizzeria Fife. Dream On, Nolan Garrett, Dreams Jaded. All Ages. 8 pm.

Mandolin Cafe Tacoma - Central. Jeff Ross. All Ages. 6 pm. James Coates. All Ages. 8 pm.

Metronome Coffee Tacoma. The Flight of Phanuel, Abi Grace. All Ages. 7 pm. NC.

The New Frontier Lounge Tacoma - Dome District. Takata Fest, featuring Gold Teeth, Mahnhammer, Cody Foster Army. 9 pm.

• Goldteeth are fairly well unfuckwithable in these parts. Their music is supernaturally muscular punk rock, imbued with the kind of intensity that may be overwhelming with a three-piece, let alone stretched out to the expanded lineup that they possess - which can reach about seven members. Because they play infrequently, they tend to draw pretty large crowds whenever they appear, which - combined with the super-psyched feeling their band normally has - has the ability to result in a packed and volatile section at the foot of the stage. Their upcoming New Frontier show, which celebrates the birthday of Goldteeth's own Dave Takata, also features equally intense local favorites CFA and Mahnhammer. It is going to be insane. If you come, you will likely find me huddled in fear against the back of the room. - Rev. AM

Northern Pacific Coffee Co. Tacoma - Parkland. Life after Life w/guests. All Ages. 8-11 pm. NC.

Old General Store Steakhouse & Saloon Roy. Sammy Steele Band. 9 pm.

R & R Live Graham. Vintage Car Show, featuring Hard Money Saints, Hot Roddin' Romeos. 9 pm. $5 donation.

The Spar Tacoma - Old Town. Gavin Guss. 8 pm. NC.

Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill Spanaway. Benefit for Blind Melon Chitland from KISW. 8 pm.

LINK: More live music tonight in the South Sound

SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011 >>>

1. Today marks the final day of NXNW Metal Fest at Backstage Bar & Grill on Sixth Avenue in Tacoma. Find details here.

2. Tacoma is for lovers. Really, truly. Just ask Tacoma Is For Lovers, the community-based organization of T-town do-gooders and creators who, through artist fairs and similarly crafty endeavors, strive to make Tacoma a better place. Today, in partnership with Indie Tacoma Arts & Crafts, an Artist Craft Fair will be held at King's Books from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Artists confirmed for the fair include Laurie Cinotto, Maija McKnight, Jessica Bender and Maggie Roberts.

3. The UK's Grammy-winning reggae act, Steel Pulse, will be at the Pantages tonight, promising a show "that will make you feel good!" Of course, that could have been paraphrased, but we thought the exclamation was important. Amidst all the good times, expect some politics to seep in as well.

4. You've got one last chance to see Oleanna, dammit!

5. Mark Dufresne will lay it down at the Spar in Old Town Tacoma tonight.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

MONDAY, JULY 25, 2011 >>>

1. For many people around the South Sound, venturing into a comic book store for the first time can be a terrifying experience. Don't worry, The Capes & Cowls Book Club has you covered. You'll be among friends. Every fourth Monday this new book club will ease you into the superhero comics genre with support and friendship. At 8 p.m., the group will discuss Incognito by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. If you don't know where to go, don't worry. We've got you covered on that front too - King's Books, of course.

2. You effed up yesterday. You plum forgot the power of the sun. Your kids are burned to a crisp. You need a fun indoor activity to redeem yourself. The Children's Museum of Tacoma is celebrating its 25th birthday with a special party from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. featuring birthday-themed crafts and activities, bubble parades, playdough cupcake decorating and face painting - all yours for 25 cents a kid. Do it.

3. Fast Eddie Felson from the 1961 classic The Hustler wasn't good with booze, money or women. But he could sure shoot a mean game of pool, and that made all the difference. Malarkey‘s Pool & Brew offers Man Day Mondays with half-priced burgers, 25 percent off drinks and free pool on the 9-foot tables. Half-priced burgers and free pool? Fast Eddie would be proud.

4. Blues and jazz singer Maia Santell - with the help of Jho Blenis on guitar, Jay Mabin on bass, Billy Barner on drums and special guest Jumpin' Josh Violette on guitar - will perform from 8-10 p.m. at The Swiss.

5. Every Monday night beginning at 9 p.m., Jazzbones hosts Rockaraoke - a chance to sing onstage with a live band - plus a plethora of cheap Miller High Life. It's valid excuse to drink on a Monday (!) night.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: RSVP to the Super Best of Tacoma party this Thursday

WHEN IT ALL GETS A LITTLE TOO REAL >>>

In David Mamet's Oleanna, a play in which I just appeared thanks to Theater Artists Olympia, a blowhard professor is accused of sexual harassment, battery, and attempted rape by his student, Carol, played in our production by a lovely, dedicated actor named Deya Ozburn. Deya and I are friends, as are Deya and my wife, and I wouldn't have agreed to play the professor if Deya wasn't already locked in as Carol. Since the script required me to verbally abuse Carol, maul her, slam her into a desk, and call her one of the ugliest words in the English language, I felt it was crucial to work with a performer who understood we were both just playing make-believe. I wanted to stay friends with my costar when the show ended, and that's exactly what happened. Our attendance improved slightly over our final weekend, and on balance, I'm glad I did the show--but that was seriously jeopardized by an incident that followed our Saturday evening performance.

Deya did her absolute best to inject plausible motivations and vulnerabilities into Carol. It was important to her, as it was to me and our director, John Munn, that Carol be anything but a vindictive, irrational bitch. Carol is torn between two competing influences. Can that make a person act insane? You bet. Hell, it made HAL 9000 act crazy, and he was a major appliance. But Carol was NOT a feminazi in our production, nor was she a harpy, nor was she a psychopath. What she was, and I say this after feeling as if I were at war with her for seven weeks, was a fighter, and fighters don't always choose their battles correctly. Perhaps you can relate.

But as I may have mentioned before, we humans prefer to "relate" to characters who are far wiser, more heroic and attractive than we are. We want to believe Jennifer Aniston will have trouble finding love, because we did. (She won't. She never has, because she looks like Jennifer Aniston.) We want to believe we're so heroic we'd always make the right choices, even as our autobiography calls us on our self-serving crap. When some audience members, many if not most of them women, saw Carol wage a bitter campaign against a professor who probably meant her no harm, they took it personally. Very personally.

Too personally.

It got harder and harder for Deya to greet friends in the lobby after the show, because patrons got in her face. Not Carol's face, her face. Deya and I were always careful to change into street clothes before entering the lobby, but it didn't matter; to infuriated audience members, Carol was Deya and Deya was Carol. What Carol had done, Deya was responsible for. David Mamet had nothing to do with it. The fact that Deya and I are friends, or that I'd go home safe and sound to my beautiful wife and condo every night, didn't enter their calculations. If you'd asked them directly, they'd say they knew it was "just a play"--but it wasn't, not to them. It was real.

It's one thing to be confronted by audience members directly, where rules of social propriety keep things in check. Email, unfortunately, is another matter, and Deya's been fielding some doozies. Then came Saturday night. A patron saw the show, went home angry, slept on it, hunted Deya down on a social networking site, and messaged her at length Sunday morning, still every bit as enraged. This wasn't an insightful analysis of the show, recognizing Deya as a talented actor playing a character written by somebody else, it was a venomous attack on Deya's motives, sanity, and decency. To this patron, there was no divide between Deya and Carol, no distinction between reality and fiction.

We actors try our best to contextualize such feedback as a compliment to our skills in portraying naturalistic (not natural) behavior. That only gets us so far. Eventually, it wears us down, and we're forced to contend with the fact that even fellow actors sometimes see us as our "type." I've played a child molester, a rodent, a werewolf, an imbecile, an aged pornographer, and the Devil himself. I am none of those things. Likewise, Deya is neither "exotic" nor "bitchy," despite her dark Latin looks. Theater outsiders often tell us it must be painful to deal with all that rejection, but in truth, it's the brand of acceptance we receive that rankles most.

EXCITING >>>

Oh, you gotta love the package concert tours. All these artists come to town, perform for one day and give you enough entertainment to shut you up for a whole year until they come back in another package tour next year. It's kind of like a musical drive-by.

A different kind of package tour will roll into the Tacoma Dome Oct. 13. This kind of package involves a massive entourage. Jay-Z and Kanye West have teamed up to form the group, The Throne. The entourages of collaborators Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam recordings, Roc Nation and the two artists will converge on Grit City as part of a national tour. Presale tickets are available Thursday, July 28 here. Further ticket information isn't available.

Today, the lead track from their collaborative album Watch The Throne, "Otis," is available on iTunes here. The album drops Aug. 12.

From the press release:

The longtime friends and music innovators inspired each other to new heights with their collaboration on WATCH THE THRONE recorded in person at various locations around the world. Over a year in the making and a truly global affair, the duo recorded in London and Bath in the UK, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, Paris, and New York City.  Though shrouded in secrecy, the album has already been heralded a ‘masterpiece' by those who have heard it, and features production from The RZA, The Neptunes and Kanye's longtime collaborator Mike Dean. The short list of featured vocals includes Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Curtis Mayfield and Mr. Hudson.  The lead track, "OTIS," which premiered over New York radio waves on Wednesday, July 20th night during HOT 97's FunkMaster Flex show, brilliantly weaves Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness."

FOR GOODNESS SAKE >>>

Legend has it that sake, the Japanese wine made from fermented rice, was originally called kuchikami no sake, which means, "chewing in the mouth sake." An entire village would gather to chew up nuts, rice and other tasty grains and then spit the result into a tub, where the enzymes in the saliva would ferment the liquid for several days - or so the story goes.

Fortunately, today's sake is made with more sanitary procedures.

And sake doesn't get any tastier than what's in TWOKOI's Wasabi Samurai. To create this light and refreshing cocktail ($9), Gekkeikan Deluxe sake - made from two varieties of select rice and pure underground water - combines with Ketel One Vodka, wasabi and ginger to create an earthy martini with a kick.

But watch out: Sake has always been known for its potency, or kuchi-atari.

TWOKOI Japanese Restaurant

1552 Commerce St., Tacoma
253.274.8999

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Benjamin Collins in response to the Weekly Volcano review of last November's production of Grease by South Puget Sound Community College and Saint Martin's University.

Collins writes,

Honestly, I find this review to be insulting. As an ethnic actor myself, I understand the difficulty in being cast as anything other than the "minority" role. I've seen many a show where white actors are cast in highly specific minority parts (white Coalhouse Walker, white Bloody Mary, etc). The actress that played Frenchy was incredible; most definitely the standout from the Pink Ladies. So it baffles me that someone would find her, an African-American actress, playing a non-racially specific character offensive. It's Grease. It's Olympia, Washington. It's the 2010's. Who cares if Rydell High was not racially integrated in the 50's? I find the remark about the cast "having a lot of fun, so it can be forgiven for such historical revisions as a presciently integrated Rydell High" incredibly pretentious and offensive.

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011 >>>

1. The DJ Switch and drummer Wiggles battle it out with hip-hop, house and Top 40 tunes every Tuesday night at the Backstage Bar & Grill. Seventy-five cent beers bring you into the battle.

2. Abracadabra! Hocus-pocus! Rama-lama-ding-dong! Local magician Jeff Evans will teach kids important lessons at 11 a.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch. We're not going to guarantee you scantily clad assistants, but audience participation is enforced, so keep an eye on your watch - there's a fine line between David Copperfield and a pickpocket.

3. In the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch show Scott Hillstrand and Ryan Simpson risk life and limb for a boatload of Alaskan King that will end up piled high at Red Lobster's weekly crab fest. Of course the guys got paid. Where are they spending their money? At the Varsity Grill from 5-10 p.m. that's where. OK, the Discovery Channel probably has their back, but you can spend your hard-earned cash to hang with the fellas, throw back a few drinks and stare at the Jager girls. Bonus: The VG will screen a new episode of the Catch.

4. Chat up dragons and orcs while rolling multisided dice from 7-11 p.m. tonight at the Northern Pacific Coffee Co. If you don't know what that means you have no business being there.

5. The Never Never have the boy and girl vocals meet over a bed of guitars dynamic down pat. Check out the band's sweet harmonies with a classic alternative rock sensibility with Fifty Up North at 8 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Just a few days until the Super Best of Tacoma party!

SOUTH SOUND DINING NEWS AND NIBBLES >>>

Now Open: Kimberly's Café has opened for breakfast and lunch in the former Lakewood spot Vive Bene - and all the way back to Mime's Kitchen - once occupied at 11126 Gravelly Lake Dr. SW. Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., the restaurant serves traditional breakfast dishes, flat bread pizza, Connecticut grinders, paninis, sandwiches and a few entrees such as spaghetti, cod fish and chips and angel hair pasta. Everything is priced at $10 or less.

Brewer's Night: The Crown Bar hosts Georgetown Brewing Company tonight for beer, prizes and giveaways. The party begins at 6:30 p.m.

Beer Vault: The Wine Bank in University Place is now called the Wine Bank & Beer Vault because the wine store has added craft beer to its inventory.

Thanking Soldiers: The Harmon Brewery group in Tacoma will feed 60 soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Group, along with their spouses. Not only will dinner and beer be provided, but also each soldier will be receiving a dozen roses to give to their loved one. Finishing the night in style, each couple will be guests aboard a sunset cruise from Commencement Bay to Gig Harbor. For those interested in donating, visit the Harmon's Tacoma locations: The Harmon Hub, the Harmon Brewery & Eatery and The Tap Room. Those who donate will be given a voucher for the restaurant, such as a free appetizer. If you donate at The Hub, a staff member will ring a bell followed by cheers from the entire staff.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: Happy hours!

THE ART OF VALLY NOMIDOU AND SCOTT FIFE >>>

A friend posted a link on Facebook to an article in Juxtapoz about sculpture by Greek artist Vally Nomidou. When I looked at Nomidou's work the first thing I thought was that her life-size paper figures are like the life-size and larger cardboard figures by Seattle sculpture Scott Fife, who did the giant puppy dog at Tacoma Art Museum.

The opening paragraph in the Juxtapoz article reads, "Using just paper and cardboard, Greek artist Vally Nomidou creates these life-sized sculptures of people. The results are somewhat creepy three-dimensional figures that look almost too lifelike to be sitting in a gallery."

That's a very inaccurate description. Nomidou's figures do not look lifelike at all. But they do look creepy and yet strangely beautiful. If you want to see figures that are "too lifelike to be sitting in a gallery" take a look at works by John DeAndrea or Duwayne Hanson. I once almost bumped into a Hanson sculpture of a workman in the Museum of Modern Art and said "Excuse me" before I realized it wasn't a real person.

Being lifelike does not necessarily make art good, and it's no secret that I get very huffy about people who go all ga-ga over art based on nothing more than the fact it may be made from some unusual material. A piece of sculpture should be judged on how good it is as art not on whether it was made from clay or marshmallows or aardvark intestines.

Nomidou's figures are both creepy and beautiful, lifelike and surrealistic. She has a figure of a standing woman in a bikini wearing some kind of open weave beach jacket over her swimsuit. She is attractive and fashionable, but there is something machine-like protruding from her leg and her neck appears to have been cut and sewn back together a la Frankenstein's monster. There's another one of a little girl sitting on what looks like a weird hospital examination table. She is also broken and stitched back together, and there are strange strands of thread (or something threadlike) all over her body. As Juxtapoz said, these figures are creepy. But there are also newsprint type and dots and floral patterns that can be seen through layers of glass-like transparencies that are quite beautiful.

Seattleite Scott Fife makes portraits of celebrities and historical figures and animals that can also be quite creepy - especially since many of them are just heads detached from bodies and sometimes lying face down. Heads will roll, and in Fife's sculptures they come to rest in sometimes strange ways. As portraiture they are easily recognizable. There's no mistaking Elvis or Winston Churchill or Picasso with horns.

Like the online articles I found on Nomidou, the articles about Fife stress how lifelike his sculptures are and how unusual that they're made from cardboard. What makes them interesting to me is not that they're realistic - they're not - but that they're surrealistic. They're death images regardless of whether the subjects are dead or alive. And the surfaces are intriguing in that they look like clay that hasn't been fired, made of slabs of clay held together by brads. Again, as with Nomidou's figures, there's a Frankenstein's monster quality to these works.

If you haven't seen the big puppy at Tacoma Art Museum, you're missing something pretty amazing, although I think his portraits are more interesting (the best thing about the puppy is its size). If you get a chance to see his work in person, please do. You'll be glad you did.