ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY >>>>

Well, gee, Bobble Tiki wonders what today is - oh, that's right.  In 1920, innkeeper and "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley is born.  Helmsley is famous for two things: marrying a very old wealthy man and once saying, "Only the little people pay taxes."  Join Bobble Tiki in blowing up a photo of her with an M-80. 

Today is also the Fourth of July. Here at Spew, Bobble Tiki and crew be taking the day to spend time with our families, shoot off some fireworks, and work some corn dogs. Be sure to join us again tomorrow when we'll be back in full force, with the latest in entertainment and Prince William & Kate Middleton news. In the meantime, enjoy this, America! You goddamn deserve it.

MONDAY, JULY 4, 2011 >>>

1. Well, in Tacoma there's Freedom Fair. Duh. Find details right here.

2. What's that? You live in Orting. Well, they'll be celebrating to Fourth of July there too.

3. In Tumwater they really know how to celebrate the Fourth of July in style with the Artesian Family Festival and Thunder Valley Fireworks Show. Find details here.

4. The picturesque town of Steilacoom also knows how to party on the Fourth of July. Here's a link to Steilacoom's Fourth of July celebration.

5. In DuPont, they bring the "Greatest Generation" into the Fourth of July fun with the Greatest Generation Fourth of July Celebration.

6. You could blow your fingers off ... but that kind of sucks.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

SLAP-HAPPY JOYS OF BACKSTAGE CHATTER >>>

Gene Siskel used to say the mark of a bad movie was when you'd rather watch its actors sitting around the craft services table chatting than the movie itself. I'm blogging to you almost-live today from Olympia Little Theater, where we'll be spending the bulk of our Fourth of July holiday tech-rehearsing Oleanna. This play is incredibly difficult for actors, and it's cost us considerable time away from our families, other friends and paying jobs. We're exhausted, one and all. You've heard theater companies form instant families, but it might be in large part because we have no other options remaining.

Think of this a Blu-ray extra feature for Theater Artists Olympia's production of David Mamet's Oleanna, the content of which inspires disrespectful badinage on a scale seldom heard in ordinary workplace conversation. We'll take you behind the scenes, where actors Deya Ozburn and Christian Carvajal, director John Munn, and stage manager Eric Mark have been bandying such vital world topics as:

*   how to establish one is doing a Sarah Palin impression with only a single word: "maverick"

*   whether Joe Johnston, the director of The Rocketeer, might've made a decent movie out of Captain America

*   pubic topiary

*   whether the purchase of a white iPhone 4 betokens unstated racism

*   the relative gayness of Ke$ha's "Blow" video, which is gayer than two naked barbershop quartets watching Richard Simmons videos in a Savannah bathhouse filled with lavender scented candles and organic potpourri

*   the vicissitudes of political correctness, and their sad, ongoing marginalization of the usefully dismissive adjective "gay"

*   whether Carv read J.W. Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which, for chrissake, he most certainly has

*   childhood euphemisms for "vulva"

*   where the hell to buy glow tape in Olympia (the answer, it seems, is Music 6000)

*   words we hoped we'd never say on stage, including my penultimate word in this production

*   religious safety brochures including "Help, I'm Developing Stigmata!" and "Ten Signs Your Child Might Be a Bodhisattva"

*   lucid dreaming vignettes including the plaintive line, "Look, Mummy, there's a fornicator up in the sky"

It's a measure of my confidence in our production of Oleanna that despite all that, we'd still give the late Mr. Siskel his money's worth.

TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2011 >>>

1. Catch Old Man Malarkey and the Cutwinkles at Hell's Kitchen as part of Tightwad Tuesdays - a T-Town tradition.

2. Like fiddles and facial hair? Good. The Barleywine Revue performs tonight at the Mandolin Café.

3. Drop in on tan epic "DJ & Drummer Duo Battle," at Backstage Bar & Grill on Sixth Avenue, featuring DJ Switch and Chris Dahl.

4. Tuesday means it's Beer Pong Tournament time at Longhorn Saloon in Lakewood.

5. The Royal Lounge in Olympia invites you to "get your comedic variety showcase groove on," every Tuesday for the club's weekly "Comedy Lounge" showcase.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

BECAUSE WE CARE >>>

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Food Guide Pyramid suggests a certain number of servings of the meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain food groups. The Weekly Volcano spent countless hours in search of a way to glean the proper quantities of these foods by ingesting discounted and free snacks in bars. It was like multitasking. The results can be found via the Weekly Volcano Happy Hour Mobile App. Download it for free here.

Already have it? Then check out the list on our website for quick planning.

BARBECUE AT DAVE'S MEATS AND PRODUCE >>>

Our romance has blossomed into something special, to say the least.

What once was just a simple gander across a crowded Nosh League event has now had us locking eyes all night long. No sake tasting, fish filleting, or chocolate espresso could ever take away the memories of those precious times we spent noshing together.

Not even a bacon pancake would stand in the way of us being happy. ...

This time, let's make it official. Won't you Meat Me Halfway?

Derek Kipapa of Dave's Meat and Produce has agreed to host the Weekly Volcano foodie group Nosh League in what is certainly to be the best spread of barbecue you've ever seen while your undeniable love for food is acknowledged in your own mental ceremony.

For a measly $15  Kipapa will bestow up on you four different types of beef, chicken, four salads, dinner rolls, BEER, and best of all ... his famous and very popular Hawaiian pork rolled in banana leaf - all in one glorious buffet.  Kipapa will also go into meat - tutorial mode - showing us the difference in cuts, how to cook them, and most importantly, making the bond between our love for food even stronger.

This, my dear foodie, will be our next step toward a meaningful secret food relationship that you will never find an opportunity for again.

Well, at least until next month's Nosh League, but whatever.

Make it easy on your heart and mine. Meat Me Halfway.

Join the Nosh League Facebook, then RSVP to the event. Seating is limited, so hurry.

RED HOT AND HEADED BACK >>>

In the winter of 2008 the Red Hot Blues Sisters, representing the South Sound Blues Association, set Memphis, Tenn. on fire with a semi-final win at the International Blues Challenge. Suze Simms (vocals), Teri Ann Wilson (guitar), Patrick McDanel (bass), and John Oliver (drums) turned heads inside the New Daisy Theatre with their soul-infused, energetic interpretation of the blues. 

Looks as if the band will get a second chance at the finals.

The Red Hot Blues Sisters won the SSBA's International Blues Challenge final selection competition yesterday held on the Duke's Chowder House Blues Stage during Freedom Fair.  The band will be representing the South Sound in Memphis this coming winter.

THE VOLCANO'S VISUAL ARTS CRITIC CHIMES IN >>>

I went to a gallery tour Q&A with Dale Chihuly at Tacoma Art Museum Thursday morning, and while I enjoyed the Q&A with Tacoma's most famous artist, the things that really knocked me out were 1) Chihuly's collection of Edward S. Curtis photographs, 2) the two Willits canoes suspended from the ceiling (much more impressive than the silly cars hanging from the ceiling of the Seattle Art Museum, 3) the Virna Haffer exhibition in the adjacent gallery, and 4) a huge painting (untitled) by William Ivey in the Safeco collection exhibition.

I've got to get back to TAM. There was not enough time Thursday to see all the wonderful art on display. There are three new shows at TAM, and one of them - Chihuly's - takes up all of two large galleries. This is a mind-blowing amount of art all in one place.

Readers who have followed my columns over the years know I have mixed feelings about Chihuly. He's like the nursery rhyme girl. When he's good, he's very, very good.
And when he's bad he's horrid. There's a lot of both in this show. Among the best things are the surface decoration (essentially abstract expressionist paintings) on many of his blown glass baskets and cylinders. And did you know he is an avid collector of just about everything from Native American crafts to bottle caps? He shares large chunks of his collection in this show, including one huge wall of Pendleton blankets and another entire wall of Curtis photographs. And all of it is beautifully and tastefully displayed - kudos to curator Rock Hushka and his team for a great job.

If Chihuly is Tacoma's most famous artist, Virna Haffer is our least known. "Virna Haffer has been an all too well kept Tacoma secret," said museum director Stephanie A. Stebich. From the 1920s until her death in 1974 she was one of America's leading and most inventive modern photographers; yet she has somehow been lost to history. I for one am overjoyed that TAM has searched out a large sampling of her work for this show.

Haffer brings to mind the great Man Ray. She's that relentlessly innovative. Her surrealistic imagery and experimental distortions of figures and scenes are both daring and aesthetically pleasing. On display are works representing an amazing range of experimentation from overlapping images and strange viewpoints and even photos done without a camera in a process called the photogram (the same process Man Ray called a Rayogram). "Her artistic curiosity is palpable in her work, which in itself is staggering in its volume, diversity and range," said curator Margaret Bullock.

Finally, there is the exhibition from the Safeco collection featuring some 400 works by Northwest artists donated by Safeco Insurance. Included are works from established giants the likes of Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan and Morris Graves and more contemporary stars such as Michael Brophy and Michael Spafford. Is this the best collection anywhere of Northwest art? I don't know. If it's not it certainly runs a close second to anything else. The big painting by Ivey that I mentioned in the opening paragraph is one of the most impressive abstract paintings I've seen in a long time.

Dale Chihuly's Northwest

through Oct. 2, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. third Thursdays
$10 student/military/senior $8, family $25, children 5 and younger free
Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma

SEE LOCAL FILMS AT ART ON THE AVE >>>

Want to sample some of the best in Tacoma film, and for free? Art On The Ave hits Sixth this weekend, and a chilled summertime mix of local cinema will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 10.

Though now making its thirteenth annual appearance, Art on the Ave has finally decided to add a movie dimension to its art panorama. Festival Director Angela Jossy called on a former collaborator, Randy Sparks, to assemble a lineup. With all his connections inside the neighborhood indie scene, it didn't take long for Sparks and partner Dave Graham to wrangle 29 shorts by 17 filmmakers (as of this writing).

Music vids, documentaries, dramas and comedies. Stop by the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church for at least an hour on Sunday and you'll get a decent dose of unique film, Tacoma style. This offer comes with the Sparks Guarantee: "You're not going to see one bad film. They're all fantastic."

Speaking of "bad" film, check out the never-before-released Bad Idea by News Tribune scribe Craig Sailor, a jolly woods-romp featuring that equally elusive Sasquatch. Viewing and reviewing films for years is one thing, but Sailor describes "a huge learning curve" with his maiden voyage as writer-director-star of his own work. Bad's great visuals come from the hand of Hollywood cinematographer Patrick Neary - an "invaluable" contributor, Sailor states, both on set and throughout the editing process.

If you've frequented the Grand Cinema's 72-Hour film viewing parties these last years, you should recognize a few favorites this Sunday, like works from Isaac Olsen and Ryan Loiselle. The latter's first entry was 2007's Vinny Vegas. The clever premise brings to the screen a real persona, star Brandon Boote, a performer at weddings and events. Loiselle teaches computer graphics and digital photography at Lincoln High School, and besides Vegas will show three other shorts.

So does this mean film in our area earned status as serious "art"? Sparks definitely believes so: "When I look at this list of films, I believe Tacoma has taken a giant step forward. And it's only going to get better, because these guys aren't quitting. And I'm not quitting."

We viewers can join the effort and endorse this burgeoning art.

So this Sunday, let's go to church.

[Sixth Avenue, Art on the Ave., Sunday, July 10, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sixth Avenue between Cedar Street and Trafton Street, Tacoma, onsixthave.com]

[Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Local Filmmakers Showcase, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., 2520 Sixth Ave., Tacoma]

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Reylan Fernandez of the Tacoma band the Dignitaries. He responds to a string of commentary by regular website commenter low bar.

Mr McCausland. I will immortalize you in a shitty song I will write. The title is "Low Brow didn't get enough attention playing his type of music (if he even plays music) so he must hate on Motopony, The Nightgowns, The Dignitaries and the Rev." Yeah it's a little long, but It' will have a snappy beat and a catchy chorus... Low Brow, Low Brow you are a -10 Troll and a plus five Hater. I bet you are a +10 Masturbater !!! Well something like that... It will suck to your liking Mr. McCausland. Also, I'm sorry our Creed shirts and Teva sandals were in the wash for the photo shoot ...