Weekly Volcano Blogs: Walkie Talkie Blog

Posts made in: August, 2011 (204) Currently Viewing: 61 - 70 of 204

August 11, 2011 at 9:45am

MORNING SPEW: Fun with state paycheck numbers, top sci-fi novels, Bacon on HBO and more...

King of the books

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

This Isn't Necessarily a Bad Thing: Washington state government spending has grown in real terms in the last four decades. (Crosscut)

Let's Look At Paychecks: College coaches make way more than state governors. (News Tribune)

Could Be The Hair: Rick Perry hasn't even announced he's running, but a poll has the Texas governor near the top of the list for the GOP presidential nomination. (CNN)

Precious: Top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels. (NPR)

Watercooler Talk: George Lopez's talk show went bye-bye. (USA Today)

HBO has ordered a comedy script that could star the guy from Footloose. (Hollywood Reporter)

Filed under: Morning Spew, Politics, Screens, Books,

August 11, 2011 at 10:54am

TALKING SHOP: When you are in the market for something dark

GET YOUR GOTH ON >>>

If viewed from a helicopter, the night crowd in front of the Backstage Bar & Grill during metal shows would look like a giant bruise. The thick knot of folks, clad mostly in black and sporting coifs that are almost unanimously dyed maroon, will swell slowly, beginning to elicit stares of both horror and amusement from drivers trying to park at the Cloverleaf Tavern. Vague smiles playing about the black painted lips and the cavernous silences are all the passersbys will receive.  They won't get it. 

Julia Jones gets it. She dressed the part growing up ... and still proudly wears Gothic-inspired clothing. In fact, she designs and finds Gothic fashion, jewelry, home décor and gifts for her store at the Middle Floor Merchants inside Sanford and Son Antiques. The store, A Little Touch of Magick, mainly focuses on mid-price romantic Gothic wear for women.

Jones didn't just jump into the Goth game. She was already successful.

"I was getting married on Halloween in Vegas and needed something for the theme," explains Jones. "I couldn't find an adult dark princess dress anywhere. I thought to myself, ‘I can't be the only adult who still wants to dress Goth."

She created a website - alittletouchofmagick.com - selling what she currently carries in the store. It grew into a successful business.

If she didn't happen to host a fashion shoot near Sanford and Son, and fall in love with the three-story rambling antique and vintage shop, she'd still be behind the computer - wearing a vested steampunk hat and laced fingerless gloves, of course.

Instead, she opened the store on Black Friday last year, selling bat pencil skirts, red dragon corsets, deconstructor jackets and formal Goth dresses.

The very people who lambaste Goth for being gloomy would likely be floored by its soaring, tragic beauty, its dependence upon small orchestras, its odd grace and almost classical posture. It becomes quickly apparent that the people most given to derision are those who have never heard a note of the music.  

A Little Touch of Magick

Middle Floor Merchants
Noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday
743 Broadway, Tacoma
425.502.2156

Filed under: Fashion, Tacoma,

August 11, 2011 at 11:34am

Today in OMG!

Adorable!

YES, OMG >>>

The star of the Disney Channel's original series Shake It Up is coming to South Hill Mall in Puyallup. Bella Thorne will hang in the Center Court from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20. And the great news is autographs and photos are absolutely free.

In other unconfirmed news, later the same day the stars of Disney's The Suite Life on Deck will dance and sing at the Sperry Ocean Dock along Schuster Parkway in Tacoma ... until the neighborhood along the bluff above pummels them with tomatoes.

Filed under: Culture, Screens, Puyallup,

August 11, 2011 at 11:44am

VOLCANO MUSIC: AKA, J.Bre, John Craig & the Weekend, Koncrete Studios and more …

GOODNESS COMING AT YOU IN PRINT & ONLINE >>>

What's more exciting: the start of the Tarvaris Jackson Era tonight for the Seattle Seahawks or this week's Volcano Music Section?

If you answered Tarvaris, well, you're just the kind of optimist the Volcano appreciates.

That said, the second option is a far safer bet.

Here's a look at the music goodness coming your way this week in print and online ...

WHAT'S THE WORD: AKA, J.BRE & MORE

One of the major local releases to drop this summer is AKA's debut album, Resurgence. AKA celebrated the release a few weeks ago with a jumping party at the Surreal Ultra Lounge. AKA stays pretty busy doing shows and promoting his music. He keeps his nose to his own grind and doesn't get into the politics and bullshit of the local scene. I appreciate this about him. It's refreshing to see an artist doing it for the right reasons, and not worried about the local bogus pecking order of hip-hop. - Josh Rizeberg

JOHN CRAIG & THE WEEKEND

On John Craig & the Weekend's forthcoming full-length, Numbers, all 13 songs listed on the inside cover feature a parenthesized time stamp. Take, for instance, the disc's second track, "Wear Are Whatever (friday night!)," or the 12th tune, "Morning Birds (sunday morning ...)."  It's all part of a much grander conceptualized package from Craig, who released a debut solo effort in 2009, and has since found a band to backup his electro-pop meanderings. - Matt Driscoll

KONCRETE STUDIOS

It's very rare these days to find a dance studio dedicated to only hip-hop. Fortunately for Tacoma, such a studio exists. Koncrete Studios relocated to Tacoma from Olympia about a month ago. Dancers from around Tacoma come to Koncrete not only to practice but to train. Owners Jason Wickett and Cierra Lauren believe all dancers have a chance to improve and grow, no matter how skilled they are.

The studio is meant to embody hip-hop, expressing and supporting all of the foundational elements of the culture. ... -- Kimberly Lanh

BETTER LIVING THROUGH MUSIC: $krilla's B-Day Bash, Fucking Eagles, Phasers on Kill

PLUS: Concert Alert

PLUS: Comprehensive South Sound Live Local Music Listings

PLUS: Unrealistically Hopeful Nonsense Like This

Filed under: Music, Tacoma, Olympia,

August 11, 2011 at 12:22pm

VOLCANO ART: Queer Rock Camp, Capital Playhouse's resurgence, "Cinderella," "Dakota's Belly, Wyoming," Mark Bennion and more ...

ARTS COVERAGE TO END ALL ARTS COVERAGE >>>

At this point it goes without saying. If you're looking for coverage of local arts in Tacoma, Olympia, and all points in between, the Weekly Volcano is THE place to find it. Our goal is to consistently provide the best local arts coverage possible to our fantastic readers -- always be on the lookout for ways to shine a light on all the awesome creativity we see around us.

Here's a look at the Volcano arts coverage waiting for you this week in print and online.

FEATURE: Queer Rock Camp in Olympia

KIMYA DAWSON: Saturday she’ll share a stage with Olympia’s Queer Rock Camp. Courtesy Michael Elvin

The latest step in the empowering-youth-through-rock movement is Queer Rock Camp, happening this week in Olympia. It's the first ever do-it-yourself music camp for queer youth.

"It really is not a music camp," says organizer Molly Fischer of Olympia. "The goal of the camp is empowerment and providing this vessel for people to express themselves and take up space.

"As a young queer person, you're pushed to the sidelines or not heard." ... -- Molly Gilmore

FEATURE: How Capital Playhouse rebounded

Capital Playhouse has held telethons to raise money. Photo credit: Facebook

"I don't think I've ever seen an arts organization make a more swift and dramatic turnaround than Capital Playhouse. Is it weird to say I'm proud of them?"

That was how I began my review of Capital Playhouse's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and oh, what a pleasure it was for me to write. So when board secretary Ned Hayes asked us to promote CP's summer season of Kids at Play, I made him a counteroffer. I wanted to talk about how a theater company turns a near-fatal corner amid all too public growing pains and a national recession. It's a model other troupes would do well to study. ... -- Christian Carvajal

THEATER: Cinderella at Paradise Theatre

"CINDERELLA": The Paradise Theatre version is a hoot. Facebook photo

Let's face it - we already know the plot. The King of Memphis is outside holding court when an eagle drops a shoe in his lap. It turns out the shoe belongs to Rhodopsis, "Rosycheeks," a Greco-Egyptian slave girl living in Naucratis ... Wait. That's the earlier Greek version of the story. In the Disneyfied Franco-Germa-pean version, the evil stepsisters are blinded by birds in the gory finale ... no, that's "Aschenputtel," the Grimm brothers' version from the 18-teens. A Philippine variant includes a dead mom reincarnated as a crab.

Clearly, there's room for any number of takes on our cherished Cinderella story.
The longer I do this job, the faster I can tell when I'm in capable hands. This time it took seconds. - Christian Carvajal

THEATER REVIEW: Toy Boat Theatre's Dakota's Belly, Wyoming

"Dakota's Belly, Wyoming": Steamy / Courtesy photo

Fledgling Toy Boat Theatre's mission statement promises, "good acting in a humble house," and thanks to director Marilyn Bennett and the cast of Dakota's Belly, Wyoming, it delivers. I admired Bennett's production of Cradle Will Rock for University of Puget Sound, and this shorter play is similarly micromanaged. As for the humility of the house (provided by Spaceworks Tacoma), it was uncomfortably warm opening night but fits beautifully otherwise into Hilltop's revitalized atmosphere. This play's pretty steamy, to be sure, so the sweat on actors' faces felt apropos. ... -- Christian Carvajal

VISUAL EDGE: Mark Bennion at Traver Gallery

MARK BENNION’S FRESCOES: Difficult to write about, but not difficult to enjoy. Courtesy William Traver Gallery

It may be difficult to write about Mark Bennion's frescoes at Traver Gallery, but they're not difficult at all to enjoy. That is if you're willing to give them the long and concentrated attention they deserve.

They're hard to write about because they're so minimal and there's so little variety. The frescoes are all very subtle variations on a simple theme: a flat surface in monotone divided into sections that look like flat stones or concrete blocks with scratched and drawn marks and, in many of them, smaller blocks or rectangles of a contrasting color. They look like sections of plaster or stone walls from an archeological find from a buried city like Pompeii-whose walls were decorated with fresco, Bennion's media of choice and a media rarely used by modern artists. The combination of modern abstraction and media seldom used since the Renaissance lends to Bennion's paintings a timeless quality. - Alec Clayton

PLUS: Extensive Arts & Entertainment Calendar

Filed under: Arts, Tacoma, Olympia,

August 11, 2011 at 2:11pm

THE WEEKEND HUSTLE: Pierce County Fair, Motley Crue, B-Boy Jam & Cypher plus the boring lives of our writers ...

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

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Mostly sunny, hi 77, lo 55

Saturday: Partly sunny, hi 72, lo 54

Sunday: Iphone says still partly sunny, hi 70, lo 55

>>> AUG. 11-14: Pierce County Fair

The promotional tagline for the 64th annual Pierce County Fair is blatant: "You Gotta Go To Graham!" And it's true. If you want to experience this yearly Pierce County tradition of celebrating, "celebration of rural life, agriculture and good old family values," you do, indeed, need to head to Graham. Where else would you go, really, to do all that? The action goes down all weekend at Frontier Park.

  • Frontier Park, 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Thurs-Sat, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sun, $5, 21800 Meridian South, Graham, piercecountyfair.com

>>> FRIDAY, AUG. 12: Motley Crue, et al.

We probably don't need to tell you that Motley Crue, Poison and New York Dolls will be at the Tacoma Dome Friday. You probably already have tickets. You've probably been waiting for this for months. You've probably already read our prediction of the concert, and it's probably already pissed you off. Feel free to burn out in front of our house in your Camaro. We deserve it. Rock on.

  • Tacoma Dome, 7 p.m. $25-$95, 2727 E. D St., Tacoma, 253.272.3663 

>>> AUG. 12- 13: Dakota's Belly, Wyoming

Fledgling Toy Boat Theatre's mission statement promises "good acting in a humble house," and thanks to director Marilyn Bennett and the cast of Dakota's Belly, Wyoming, it delivers. As for the humility of the house (provided by Spaceworks Tacoma), it was uncomfortably warm opening night but fits beautifully otherwise into Hilltop's revitalized atmosphere. This play's pretty steamy, to be sure, so the sweat on actors' faces felt apropos. Read our full review online here.

  • Toy Boat Theatre, $12, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1314 Martin Luther King Way, Tacoma, 253.879.3330

>>> SATURDAY, AUG. 13: B-Boy Jam/Cypher at Koncrete Studios

This week marked the first week of collaboration between LION - an experimental arts journalism project run by youth from all around Pierce County in partnership with FAB-5 - and the Weekly Volcano. Really, LION is doing all the work, and we're just blessed to provide a platform for them. This week the LION's Kimberly Lanh introduced Koncrete Studios, a "studio is meant to embody hip-hop, expressing and supporting all of the foundational elements of the culture." Saturday, Koncrete hosts a B-Boy Jam and Cypher that's sure to be dope.

  • Koncrete Studios, 7-11 p.m., 1828 112th St. E., Tacoma, 360.350.2965

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
This Saturday is our official house warming party! Lots of friends and family, kids running wild in the yard, BBQ smoking with the smell of ribs, cold beers, and good spirits (both kinds!) Later in the evening the little kids are going to the grandparents, so the big kids can stay up and play - which also means we get to sleep in Sunday morning. Love it!

BRETT CHIHON Meat Market Correspondent/Features Writer
After last weekend, I really need some time to dry out. I'm headed to Applini's Two Clean and Sober Club in Puyallup.

.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
My lovely wife Amanda and I will attend Oly the Lonely: Songs About Fucking at the Urban Onion. And no, we aren't lonely; and yes, we like songs about things. I have no further comment.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
My son's wedding in Seattle.

.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer
Annual Girls Weekend at the Coast. Running the "Run to the Light' 5K in Westport Saturday.

.

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
Doe Bay! Hurray! Thursday we are taking our very full car across the ferry to Orcas Island for the Doe Bay Music Fest for a weekend full of music, camping and friends with our nearly walking one year old!

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Photographer
Getting me some Vince " mo fo" Neil sugar at Backstage Friday after hitting the Crown Bar and Surreal Lounge lovin.... Yeah, that is a lot of Diet Coke drinking. Doing a wedding at Dorky's Saturday and then Tacoma Cult Film Club Sunday at the Acme.

STEPH DEROSA Features Writer
Once again time for our annual Girl's Weekend in Westport!  The house will be filled with the aroma of rich, wholesome foods while crazy drinks are concocted by our very own Bandito Betty.  Kate Swarner, Kris Blondin, Jennifer Johnson, Liesl Diesel and Melanie Manista-Rushforth and myself will also be in attendance.  The Weekly Volcano World headquarters has already set up an office pool as to who passes out first, gets swept away by a tidal wave, and who has the worst gas.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

August 11, 2011 at 2:29pm

PHOTO: Stairs of the Day

Tollefson Plaza, South 17th Street and Commerce Street, Tacoma

Filed under: Photo of the Day, Tacoma,

August 11, 2011 at 6:17pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A caddie? We’re talking ‘bout a caddie?

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Richard in response to Volcano editor Matt Driscoll's latest Cup Check column, in which caddie Steve Williams, Ochocinco, Tim Tebow and two pot-smuggling mechanics all get clowned on.

Richard writes,

steve williams hasn't won any of the last 145 tournaments, he's simply the goffer caddie.

Filed under: Comment of the Day, Sports,

August 12, 2011 at 9:29am

5 Things To Do Today: Rare Groove, bikini contest, Distinguished Writers Series, garage rock and more ...

DJ Bobby Galaxy spins rare funk and soul tonight at the Tempest Lounge.

FRIDAY, AUG. 12, 2011 >>>

1. In the grand, and unusual, tradition of skinny English boys bopping about in even skinnier ties to American soul and jazz music, local DJs Bobby Galaxy and dAb offer a night of soul, funk, jazz and rare grooves under the tag Rare Groove at 9:30 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge. Back in the day, Brits loved obscure American soul records almost as much as they loved mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches. Galaxy and dAb celebrate this phenomenon by playing authentic, obscure soul, funk and jazz records. It's the kind of music that would have been heard at all-night parties in Manchester or Blackpool back in the day.

2. You will take the spotlight at 7 p.m. for the monthly Distinguished Writer Series gathering inside King's Books. After you demonstrate why you've been published on numerous refrigerator surfaces, the floor opens up for everyone to lay some words down.

3. The Happy Socks Club asks everyone to drop by Amocat Café at 7 p.m. with a pair or two of festive socks for the kids supported by Stand Up for Kids Tacoma.

4. Surreal Ultra Lounge is the full-service grocery store of Tacoma bars, its clientele and staff a fascinating mix of fresh meat, some discontinued items marked for quick sale, and some of the finest melons I've seen. At 9:30 p.m. the staff will step aside for a bikini and boardshorts contest with big money on the line - a sexy preliminary for the sexy final bikini and boardshort competition Sept. 9. Expect courageous girlies parading their perky tops and wedgied bottoms in front of a braying crowd. These are prelims for the finals on September 9th. Booze and copious amounts of skin - aren't we lucky to live in an area that has it all?  Thank you Surreal Ultra Lounge for recognizing the power of the booze, skin and Friday combo.

5. Tacoma garage rock is front and center at 9 p.m. when The Plastards and The Fuzz begin ripping it at The New Frontier Lounge.

PLUS: A couple of Friday events in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment today in the South Sound

LINK: Movies open today!

August 12, 2011 at 10:00am

MORNING SPEW: Banning Twitter, Rudi Stein for Congress, Neko Case and more ...

Vote for Rudi!

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Scumbag Alert: Washington State Patrol released a sketch of a man suspected of shooting and injuring two teenagers during a road-rage incident earlier this week on state Route 167. (News Tribune)

Ban Like An Egyptian: British Prime Minister David Cameron may censor social networking sites due to their use in organizing the recent riots. (CNN)

Pissing Away Your Dreams: Drunk 18-year-old Robert "Sandy" Vietz peed on a bratty 11-year-old girl on a JetBlue flight yesterday. Vietze was on the U.S. Ski Team with hopes of attending the 2014 Winter Games in Russia. (NY Post)

Bad News?: Rudi Stein is running for Congress. (Huffington Post)

Tender Love Is Blind: Neko Case covers "Islands in the Stream." (YouTube)

Ho Ho Oh No!: Harold & Kumar deck the halls

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News and entertainment from Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s most awesome weekly newspapers - The Ranger, Northwest Airlifter and Weekly Volcano.

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