WHAT TO DO >>>

Today marks the Pierce County Primary election, dagnabbit, and it's fascinating - not because it's supposed to be but because ... OK, it's supposed to be. Tacomans will vote on one City Council seat and two School Board positions. Throughout the county, we're looking at a battle for Milton mayor; races for council positions in Orting, Puyallup, University Place and Tacoma City Council Position 1; contests for Puyallup School District No. 3 and Tacoma School District No. 10; four people battling for Fire Protection District No. 22 and a race for Peniinsula Metropolitan Park District Commissioner Position 5. The Pierce County Audiot's website has the scoop.

You should consider yourself lucky: All you've got to do to get in on the action is vote today.

But how?

This is a vote-by-mail-only election. Ballots must be postmarked by midnight or dropped off at a designated collection spot by 8 p.m. For secure drop box locations, click here.

Remember to rip out the "I Voted" sticker from your nifty Voter's Pamphlet and wear it proud.

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Vote: Today.

Honored: Flags will be lowered today in honor of Tacoman Sgt. Alexander J. Bennett who was killed in Afghanistan. (News Tribune) 

Rick Perry: Bill Clinton thinks he's a good looking rascal. (Politicker)

One Step Closer: Those nutty Portland residents want to share their bicycles. (The Oregonian)

The Most Sensational Inspirational Celebrational Muppetational Album: Andrew Bird, OK Go, Weezer, My Morning Jacket and others cover The Muppets. (NPR)

Awesome: The Real Housewives are going on tour. (TVGuide)

Next Step: The first concert to use only mobile ticketing. (Denver Post)

For Gawd's Sake Don't Let Her Drive Alone!

TUESDAY, AUG. 16, 2011 >>>

1. Watching good movies that you've never seen before and that you otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to see in the area is fun. The Grand Cinema in Tacoma is hip this fact - and it's just one of the reason's the indie film house's new Tuesday Film Series is such a kickass idea. The plan is to offer an awesome film (new or classic) every Tuesday for a year, with two screenings each Tuesday - afternoon and evening. This week catch Certified Copy.

2. Wanna see dude's dressed like Elvis? Who doesn't? Lucky for everyone "The King's Memorial featuring Danny Vernon's Illusions of Elvis" goes down tonight at Emerald Queen Casino.

3. Catch the Fun Addicts at Skansie Brothers Park tonight at 6 p.m., part of the Gig Harbor Summer Sounds at Skansie Park series.

4. Drop in on live, traditional Irish music tonight at O'Blarney's on the edge of Olympia. It goes by the heading Irish Sessions, and it happens every Wednesday at the green-tinted watering hole.

5. Like to drink? Think you know stuff? Test your skills tonight at Paddy Coyne's when Quizmaster Holland Hume leads the troops through Geeks Who Drink Quiz Night. The fun starts at 8 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight!

A SUMMER DAY ON HILLTOP TACOMA >>>

Now in its third year, Tacoma's annual outdoor throwdown Hip-Hop in the Park is quickly becoming a beloved summer tradition round here. The freeness, the community, the music, the good vibes - It's one big fun family outing. This year's version went down Saturday in People's Park. D.A.S.H. Center students, Reality Check Dance Team, Breaklites, Josh Rizeburg, Illaphant, Violet, and many more filled the Hilltop Tacoma park with the word. Nestled between scheduled performers were several rounds of the Freestyle MC Battle. Photographer Gene Torres caught the action. 

LINK: More Hip-Hop in the Park photos

PEACH-O-RAMA >>>

Metropolitan Market has peaches - big, juicy, slurpalicious mothas so fabulous that they have their own month. Since 1996, Metropolitan Market has collected the peach bounty from Pence Orchards in Wapato, Wash. and organic growers Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, Calif. And every August, Diamond Princess, O'Henry, Summerset and several other peach varieties receive the royal treatment from Met Market's produce managers.

In conjunction with the sweet orbs, Met Market has created peach drinks. You may find the following drinks and descriptions at the Met Market in Tacoma's Proctor District:

Peach Smoothie: Your choice of non-fat yogurt or ice cream base. This Fresh Peach Puree is blended with ice and your choice of base for a delicious blissfully summer treat!

White Peach: A white chocolate mocha with Peach syrup all topped off with whipped cream. Try this one iced!

Peaches & Cream: An iced latte with Peach syrup topped with whipped cream.

Peach Iced Tea: Harney & Sons Peach tea is made from black tea. Served over ice this is a delightful beverage.  Ask for vanilla syrup (40 cents more) for your sweet tooth!

Peach Italian Soda: This fruit flavor filled beverage can be made for you with cream or not just let the Barista know how you want her to make it.

Gelatiamo Peach Gelato: Made with your own Peach-O-Rama Peaches in Seattle! Local & Fresh

Peach Yogurt Cups (Mini): Made in our deli with fresh Greek yogurt & Peach-O-Rama Peaches. Grab a spoon!

LINK: Met Market described our Grocery Stories column

WELCOME TO PACIFICA >>>

Many times when I set out to make a short film I wind up with a script that crams in too many scenes and too many events, thereby abusing the purpose of the whole "short" concept. So for inspiration I look to filmmakers whose works succeed, because to me they seem to follow a "less is more" approach. These stories give viewers a brief but vivid outline of characters and their world, yet leave enough details unexplained to keep us wondering.

Pacifica: The Biggest Stick by Olympia's Mutually Assured Productions adopts this minimalist technique effectively. A simple visual effect in the film's first shots immediately grounds us in a timeframe: the future, and possibly a dystopian one on the order of Blade Runner. Two men (Rob Taylor and Kurtis Bissell) drive a van carrying some illegal cargo across a dark landscape called Pacifica. We quickly discover they are revolutionaries, about to receive a hard lesson on the true nature of power.

The rendering of Pacifica's dismal world feels complete in only nine minutes, yet writer and first-time director Charles Chadwick doesn't rush the pacing. Facts and information reveal themselves quietly through ambience, music and dialogue. The cast and crew shot nearly everything outdoors during four bleak December days last year. The unsettling, pervasive score (comprised of cello and industrial sounds) comes courtesy of Bert Stanton (Chadwick's pseudonym) and Ken Carlson, who also directed photography and worked as co-editor.

Carlson tells me he would have had Pacifica completed much sooner after shooting wrapped, but he and his Mutually Assured cohorts spent the spring putting together the first-ever Olympia Awesome Film Festival. Carlson began shaping his vision of a futuristic society gone wrong after watching a documentary about, of all places, North Korea. The film, he says, "really got me thinking, ‘How far do people have to be pushed before they actually rise up?'"

Chadwick ran with that question and produced a script that enacts its own rebellion against audience expectations. Offerings to this genre typically cast big government as the villain, but Pacifica suggests a more nuanced view. "I wanted to give the government not necessarily sympathy," he says, "but (to) give them some edge" and add confusion to the insurgents' rigid morals.

Pacifica also reverses conventional gender roles, placing the female prominently in the drama and making the character more volatile and action-oriented than her brothers in arms. While on set, actor Ember Cossette displayed some motherly affection for the AK-47 she brandishes in the movie, dubbing it Vera. She recalls, "just holding her, and then one day she looked up at me and said, ‘My name's Vera!'"

Some important guy said something once about speaking softly and carrying a big stick when it comes to power. Pacifica works its own power through quiet pacing and questions with no easy answers.

COME AND GET IT >>>

Bobble Tiki has been alive many years; he's been a male for all of them, and Bobble Tiki therefore doesn't roller-skate.  Granted, back when he was a tiny tiki - before he knew what the hell a dance was, let alone Farrah Fawcett, back when boys received their introductions to the sweet delicacies of girls at skating rinks - Bobble Tiki gave it a try.  To no avail, Bobble Tiki was the nerd tiki who inched along the rink with his hands fastened to the wall the whole damn way, usually with a Tootsie Pop dangling from his hair.  And because women back then didn't dig tikis who couldn't skate to Badfinger, or tikis with springs for that matter, Bobble Tiki was hopeless.

Since Bobble Tiki already had entered his lifelong enslavement to the allure of the opposite sex, he took it upon himself to learn the whole evil business of roller-skating, even if it killed him.  After five months, encouraged by his tyrannical hormones, Bobble Tiki made it through all of "Day After Day" without grabbing someone's headgear.

Unfortunately, by the time Bobble Tiki learned to skate, it was considered gay for dudes.

As the ‘70s rolled along, even women gave it up.  They traded in their skates at an earlier age than their mothers had, in favor of shopping, Peter Frampton and makeup, or whatever. Even the roller derby out of Portland Bobble Tiki used to watch on the tube faded away.

In 2004, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association emerged, establishing itself as the governing body over the confederation of leagues and independent teams around the nation, including Tacoma and Olympia.  The sport has attracted women of various backgrounds looking for an escape from the culture of shopping, Matthew McConaughey, makeup, or whatever. The Weekly Volcano has followed the action in Tacoma and Olympia since its inception in 2006.

And here we are today. Tacoma's original roller derby league - Dockyard Derby Dames - will roll onto the track for their final bout of their fifth season Saturday at Pierce College. First up, Tacoma's Dockyard Derby Dames Undertow battles it out against Joint Base Lewis-McChord Bettie Brigade. Then, Dockyard's All-Star team, Wave of Mutilation, take on a mixed team from around the Pacific Northwest - skaters from Bellingham Roller Betties, Jet City, Rat City, Rose City, Emerald City and Cherry City.

Bobble Tiki will attend the last Dames bout of the season, just as long as no one plays Badfinger on the loudspeaker. If Bobble Tiki hears "No Matter What," he'll instinctively head toward the wall. No one wants to see that.

Dockyard Derby Dames Final Bout

Saturday, Aug. 20, 6 p.m., $12 advance, $15 door
Pierce College Health Ed Center
9401 Farwest Dr. SW, Lakewood
website

VOTE NOW >>>

You remember Joshua Adams. The Atlanta resident arrived in Tacoma courtesy of the U.S. Navy, worked on subs in Bremerton. He spent his free time performing at the Mocha Moo, Shakabrah, Rhapsody in Bloom and Panamonica's, often with best buds Jerin Falkner and Victor Prinson. Adams, in his trademark baseball cap and puka shells, captured attention with his amazing percussive guitar work and looping skills in the mid-2000s.

Remember? Awesome guy. It was sad when he high-tailed it back to Atlanta.

Adams is a top 10 finalist in the search for a new theme song for HLN's "Morning Express" show with Robin Meade.

Let's vote for him here. He'd do the same for you. Oh, you could win a prize.

Yo Ho Ho >>>

When bursting into the area's largest rum bar on National Rum Day, I expected to run into Captain Morgan, obnoxious men in Hawaiian shirt, or at least a parrot or two. Instead, I ran into Stonegate Pizza owner Jeff Call - one of the nicest and most enthusiastic business owners I've met. Call has a passion for what he does.

Selling rum. And pizza.

Call runs the Stonegate Pizza and Rock Club, which houses the largest rum bar in the city. This South Tacoma Way hotspot has been slinging rum since Oct. 22. Decorated with eye-catching art and filled with friendly people, I'm a little surprise Captain Morgan isn't twirling his moustache front and center. Ah, but the night is young.

Call gave me the rum tour. His favorite rum, Ron Zacapa, is a Guatemalan drink. Whenever someone drinks the last shot out of this bottle, their name is written on it and the bottle is placed on a wall – which means they are entered into a drawing for a cruise.

The bar also offers live music six days a week. Tonight at 9 p.m. guitarist Rafael Tranquilino, along with his fellow band members Bennet Pollen and Glenn Hummel, host an open jam.

Before leaving the bar, I asked Jeff if there was anything he would like to add. He thought for a few seconds and then said with a smile, "Time flies when you're having rum."

Stonegate Pizza and Rock Club

$1 tacos and $2 tequilas on Tuesdays
5421 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma
253.473.2255

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Jim Christina in response to our story on the closing of Sluggo Music on Tacoma's Sixth Ave., which published back in March.

Christina writes,

Holy cow! I just found this. I have known Jack Dolan since he opened Sluggo Music a hundred years ago...when we were all playing bass guitar and busy in the Tacoma music scene, what there was at any rate...the Engine House No 9, wow, good times. Tacoma will truly miss this gentleman and his dynamite business.