1. Did you know Wednesday doesn't need to be a bummer of a night? Did you realize the Sammy Steele Band plays Lady Luck Cowgirl Up every Wednesday night? Get learned, bubba. Starting tonight.
2. Always wanted to meet Vanna White? Always wanted to pick letters so expertly it wipes that smug look right off Pat Sajak's face? Well, Vanna and Pat wont be at the Emerald Queen Casino tonight, but a Wheel of Fortune auditions show will be - kicking off at 5 p.m. Find more info on the Emerald Queen Casino website.
3. DJ Iceman spins tonight at 54th St. Sports Bar and Grill in South Tacoma. If he tells you he doesn't like you because you're dangerous, prove his ass wrong on the dance floor ... or playing beach volleyball. Honestly, the dance floor scenario is much more applicable to this event.
4. Tonight marks the "Pay What You Can" performance of Harlequin's The Love List, which Christian Carvajal reviews in tomorrow's Volcano. Yes, he likes it. In fact, he says it's better than TV. The show starts at 8 p.m. at the State Theater in downtown Olympia.
5. Musicians John Phillips and Gary Crooks will be at Pastiche Wine Bar on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue tonight.
Ever noticed how tiresome co-workers can sour Hump Day drinks? Skip the bar and head instead to Uncorked Canvas's Wednesday night wine and painting get-together. Beginning at 6 p.m., you'll complete a simple painting project with an instructor while tasting wines and munching on food.
Awesome, huh?
As a change of pace, Gig's Harbor's Uncorked Canvas will head off-site hosting tonight's event at Cork Wine Bar in Tacoma. The $40 all-inclusive price costs less than a round for your bosses, plus you'll have something to show for your efforts. Recent Uncork Canvas projects included paintings of poppies and the Narrows Bridge, we imagine both of which still look great to the artists after the wine buzz wore off.
Can you say the same for that guy in marketing?
Register for tonight's event here. If we were you, we'd call 253.432.4052 to make sure there's space.
MELISSA LEO & PETER GERETY IN THE SEA IS ALL I KNOW >>>
I feel your fear. The Tacoma Film Festival starts Thursday, Oct. 6, and it scares you. You think, "So many movies, and not one recognizable face in any of them." The star is our buoy, our anchor in a confusing sea of anonymity. An A-Lister's presence, just their reassuring smile, can sometimes carry us through even the most excruciating picture.
But if you think TFF lacks any celeb cred, think again. Tucked away in Saturday's Drama Shorts package (4:15 p.m., Grand Cinema) lies The Sea Is All I Know, which boasts not one but two of those Hollywood folks you may know. Melissa Leo most notably won the Best Actress Oscar earlier this year for her work in The Fighter, and character actor Peter Gerety has, over three decades, appeared in numerous TV shows and movies. (I personally relished his world-weary police captain in Inside Man.)
Known for his supporting roles, Gerety finds himself front and center in The Sea, playing Sonny, a New England fisherman married to Sara (Leo). They have a terminally-ill daughter, Angelina (Kelly Hutchinson), who asks Mom and Dad to help her in performing euthanasia. Together and in private these parents agonize over their final decision, wavering unsteadily between mercy and what Sonny calls "natural law."
Right away the script calls out to Gerety's roots. Says the Providence native, "I grew up near the ocean, and I just loved the idea of being in that kind of fishing environment."
Of The Sea's many tender moments, one has Sonny crooning an old-fashioned ditty to his daughter. Carried by Gerety's beautiful voice, the tune feels ancient, so it surprised me to learn writer-director Jordan Bayne also wrote the lyrics, and Gerety's nephew, Timothy Hill, composed its music.
Gerety also connected to his character's Catholicism and the religious iconography that abounds in the film. Raised in the faith, Gerety says, "It was not hard for me to tap into Sonny's feeling of fear (towards assisted suicide)." While mainstream cinema typically depicts the devout as dolts or demons in disguise, Bayne just shows us two confused people grappling with their beliefs while trying to ease a child's suffering.
Bayne's work has graced our community before; her earlier short, Argo, screened at the 2006 Tacoma Film Festival. Bayne seems to like placing weak and emotionally frail humans inside an epic, primal landscape, with The Sea replacing Argo's endless deserts with mysterious waters.Bayne says the idea for The Sea came partly from observing relatives' various reactions to her grandmother's passing. She recalls their behavior as "very selfish, loving ... it was all over the spectrum."
With Bayne's subtle, assured direction and powerful performances from Leo and Gerety, you won't want to turn your back on The Sea.
WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO POST. QUICK — THROW UP SOMETHING ABOUT THE WEATHER >>>
Now that autumn is here, let's skip the season entirely and look ahead to winter. (Not that we don't like autumn, but from our perspective, snowstorms are way more interesting than mostly cloudy with a chance of rain.)
The folks at AccuWeather just sent us its winter forecast. Enjoy:
The 2011-12 Winter Pre-Season Forecast AccuWeather.com reports that apart from the Southwest, people across the western United States can expect large swings in weather conditions throughout the winter, according to the AccuWeather.com Long-Range Forecasting Team.?? December is likely to feature above-normal warmth across much of the entire West. However, from late December into January, the team expects a transition where cold fronts will drop farther south along the West Coast, reaching northern and central California. This transition should bring temperatures back near normal, away from the interior Southwest.?? The famed "Pineapple Express," a phenomenon that occurs when a strong, persistent flow of tropical moisture sets up from the Hawaiian Islands to the West Coast of the U.S., could develop for a time this winter. This phenomenon often leads to excessive rain and incredible snow events.
For some reason, society expects people under 21 to attend horrible, melodramatic poetry readings and open-mic nights where people dwell on their pathetic lives by reading their journal entries to an audience that doesn't care. And like it. While this phenomenon can't be explained, there are ways around the harsh reality of it.
Add Mike Coucoules.
The funny and talented Tacoma musician, who can be seen playing bass in the Malcolm Clark Band, will host a new Thursday night acoustic open mic in the spot where sold amps for seven years - the former Sluggo Music building. Now called Medi's Pizza & Pasta - which serves awesome Italian grub at reasonable prices - the Sixth Avenue joint has found something to occupy its tiny corner stage below the old Sluggo Music sign.
Thanks to Mike Coucoules.
Coucoules will host the lively all-ages open mic for acoustic musicians and spoken wordsmiths every Thursday beginning at 8:30 p.m. Expect many one-liners from the host.
I threw a couple of questions at Coucoules.
WEEKLY VOLCANO: Do you miss working at Sluggo?
MIKE COUCOULES: I do - very much. I miss working with musicians, learning from them, as well as teaching them the things I've learned from years of being in bands and selling gear, which I did for nearly 20 years in a number of music stores.
VOLCANO: It's said everyone in the local music scene shopped at Sluggo.
COUCOULES: It was my analog Facebook. Everyone came into Sluggo sooner or latter. It was a pro shop, with full support to our costumers. Giving them service, beyond just the sale. I loaded the amps in and out of cars. We repaired items at cost if it came from the store.
VOLCANO: Sounds as if you were a full-service shop.
COUCOULES: And then some. I had a list of musicians' phone numbers. I' d give them out to bands looking for players.
VOLCANO: Did you shop at Sluggo?
COUCOULES: I bought my first bass from the owner Jack in the early '70s when he worked for Plaza Music in Lakewood, and depended on him all the 34 years he had Sluggo.
[Medi's Pizza & Pasta, Thursday acoustic open mic, 8:30-11:30 p.m., all ages until 10 p.m., no cover, hand drums are cool, 2710 Sixth Ave., Tacoma]
Today's comment comes from the Volcano's own Christian Carvajal, in response to his theater review of Olympia Family Theater's Bunnicula.
Carvajal writes,
I've since been informed that warning signs about the strobe lights were, in fact, posted, though neither I nor my wife saw them on Sunday. It's possible they were blocked by patrons' bodies in the smallish, crowded lobby. Not OFT's fault, though!
1. In 2006, musician David Nichols released his first album as Tex, The Angels Came to Take Me Home. A certain gloom hangs over the record in shrouds, as each song takes on either a sad-sack resignation or a bitterly stubborn stomp. When the clouds part and a sunny hook pops through, there's still a sadness looming in the lyrics. Tex didn't release another album until just last year. Tonight the Nichols and Tex make a return to the stage, playing The New Frontier with Canon Canyon, Library and Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray.
2. OMFG! The Tacoma Film Fest kicks off today. But you know this already because you've already read the Volcano's extensive preview coverage of this year's cinema extravaganza. Find something to go see today here.
4. Boom! Mike Coucoules hosts the new Thursday Acoustic Open Mic at Medi'a Pizza & Pasta in Tacoma tonight from 8:30 - 11:30 p.m. It's all ages until 10 p.m.
5. It's "Ladies Night," in Lacey at The Play Pen. And hell yes DJ Kewlaid will be in the house!
The Tacoma Film Festival 2011 kicks off tonight with a screening of “Natural Selection,” a film starring Rachel Harris and Matt O'Leary, which grabbed seven trophies, including the audience and jury prize, at the SXSW Film Festival.
YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE 2011 TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>
The Tacoma Film Festival is shaping up to be everything a good film fest should be. There are movies from around the world, flicks in a variety of languages, screenings exploring the margins of different societies, and films from the comedy, drama, and short film categories and local ditties. Yes, this festival hosted by The Grand Cinema packs quite the cinematic wallop.
An opening night party with a screening of Natural Selection kicks off the festival tonight. Film enthusiasts will first gather in Annie Wright's Great Hall to scarf down Jonz Catering's finger foods and tip a Stella or two. Then TFF Executive Director Philip Cowan will hold our hands down to Kemper Theater for the screening of said film that tells the story of a dutiful, albeit barren Christian housewife (SNL’s Rachael Harris) who discovers her devout husband has suffered a stroke at a sperm bank where he’s been secretly donating his seed for the past 25 years. She decides to leave her sheltered world and start off on a journey to find his eldest biological son. The film won SEVEN awards at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival including: Audience and Grand Jury Awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Score/Music, Best Editing and Breakthrough Performance (Rachael Harris & Matt O’Leary).
Bonus: Natural Selection star Matt O'Leary will attend the screening.
Stuff to know about tonight: 6:30 p.m., film at 7:30 p.m., Annie Wright Kemper Theater, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., $15 Grand Cinema members, $20 non-members, $11 movie only, buy tickets here.
Sure, it was a little harder than usual to concentrate this week around Weekly Volcano World Headquarters, what, with the publication of this week's Volcano Restaurant Guide. Deliciousness abounded. Pictures of doughnuts and bacon French toast and all sort of delectable treats floated around the office. To be truthful, it was sweet torture.
But, lucky for you, the highly trained monkeys tasked with producing the Volcano's music section each week soldiered on, pumping out another fine example of music-oriented literary awesomeness that hits streets today, inside the tastiest looking Volcano in some time.
Here's a peek at the musical goodness waiting for you in print and online ...
All across the world, but particularly in the Pacific Northwest-and especially in Tacoma-the influence is still felt. The impact of certain bands called the Sonics, the Wailers, the Ventures and others still reverberates. These were groundbreaking bands in the late '50s and early '60s that helped pave the way for punk, grunge and everything generally loud that came to follow. The Sonics poked holes in their amps to attain that sweet level of distortion, and out of those holes burst decades of garage rock spirit and punk rock attitude.
Sunday, the Tacoma Historical Society will gather for its 5th Annual Destiny Dinner, although this time the focus will rest on the rock 'n' roll pioneers of the Pacific Northwest.
"Part of what makes Tacomans Tacomans is our respect for our cultural heritage, and rock 'n' roll is a part of that," says Owen Atkins, member of the F***ing Eagles, as well as a Tacoma Historical Society member. ... -- Rev. Adam McKinney
NoMeansNo, Canada's Prime Ministers of Thinking Man's Punk, sure do rock for three guys old enough to be MY dad! With so many LP's under their belt, the band's 90-plus-minute set Friday night ebbed and flowed with sing-along brilliance and tongue twisting perfection, spanning nearly three decades of off kilter jazz punk. One onlooker stuck outside in the cold peered in on the throbbing scene and said, "It's like the Grateful Dead, Primus and the Dead Kennedy's all had a baby!" ... (Ha!)
After a steamy set the band signed tons of autographs, and I was lucky enough to get in one question.
"What is your favorite memory of any Tacoma show you've played over the years?" I asked.
They sat there for a bit, throwing out stories of the Community World Theater and even the original Sixth Avenue Hell's Kitchen. But, after reflection, one show stood out for the band.
"Playing the Tacoma Cone with My Name," they all answered. It made me chuckle, as it's one of my favorites too. The Tacoma Cone was actually The Rotunda at the University of Puget Sound back in the late 1980s. It WAS an incredible gig, and makes me wonder why more shows don't happen there. ... -- Jason McKibbin
2011 has been a huge year for 253 hip-hop. One of the busiest artists this year has been Todd Sykes. He's dropped three albums! That's major grind. Sykes' latest is Out of the Blue - a fuller hip-hop album than his previous two releases. (His first two were mostly hip-hop/jazzy/soul instrumental delights.) This current album is full of Sykes rhyming over his own beats. I guess it's his first full release with vocals, but it's not much different than his first two albums. Todd has a vibe and its classic smooth hip-hop. His voice has the same effect as his beats: mellow and easy. Sykes' topics are also safe, basic and cool. If you're a hip-hop purist you're going to dig Todd Sykes. Go treat yourself to his whole catalogue, free at wearecityhall.com. ... -- Josh Rizeberg
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