SUNDAY, OCT. 9, 4:48 P.M., COMMERCE STREET, TACOMA >>>

They don't have a name. They don't have a purpose. They just like to wear full-body, colored leotards and roam the street so Tacoma. Oh, sweet mother of Little Debbie, we hope those are their mothers' leotards. Damn. Now we have our doubts. It looks like another night of terror-driven sleeplessness for us. Stupid colorful roamers. Damn your entertaining and arty presence!

YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE 2011 TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

This afternoon inside the Pacific Grill Events Center awards for best films at the Tacoma Film Festival were handed out in front of a full room.

Well, technically, they handed out only one award. Kate Connor, director of the feature film Fort McCoy, was the only winning filmmaker in the room full of TFF staff, filmmakers, actors and the public. Connor grabbed the Audience Choice Award for her drama based on a true story about a Wisconsin family that lived next door to a Nazi POW camp.

The other winners were absent, which isn't a huge surprise since the festival screens films from around the world.

Emcee Warren Etheredge, one of the founding members of The Film School in Seattle, was thrilled he didn't have to accept another award from an absentee filmmaker.

"We are so honored and touched to win this award," Connor told the crowd. "We have had so much fun in Tacoma."

Here are the other winning films at the 6th Annual Tacoma Film Festival:

Best Feature Film: Sooney Kadouh's This Narrow Place, a drama about a young Palestinian man who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a lonely drug addict.

Best Animated Film: William Joyce and Bandon Oldenburg's The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which had Buster Keaton written all over it.

Best Regional Film: Connect To, a short by Sam Nuttmann about a hygiene obsessed man who accidentally stows away on a cross-country bus.

Best Documentary Film: Jeff and Michael Zibalist's The Two Escobars, the tragic story of the intertwined relationship between drug king Pablo Escobar and Columbia soccer star Andres Escobar.

Best Short Film: Julian A. Higgins's Thief, the haunting story of 12-year-old Mehdi who befriends young Saddam Hussein in 1959.

The Film School's Great American Storyteller Prize: John Henry Summerour's Sahkanga, the story of a tragic event seen through a teenager's eyes.

LINK: Opening Night Gala photos

LINK: Three stories behind the stories

LINK: Big stars at the Tacoma Film Festival 2011

LINK: Our Tacoma Film Festival preview

LINK: TFF Director Emily Alm's picks

LINK: TFF on twitter 

LINK: TFF website

MONDAY, OCT. 10, 2011 >>>

1. Over the years musician Rosco Wuestewald has set of groups of musicians in different regions to back him as a way to battle the high cost of touring. This indie-folk project, Onward, etc. hits the Mandolin Cafe at 6 p.m. Drop in and see who's in the band.

2. Drop in on Meditation Monday at the Lakewood Progressive Spiritual Center, or "The Center," to those in the know. The relaxation runs from 6-8 p.m. and will cost you $10. There is a punch card option.

3. Tuesday, A Perfect Life will screen at the Tacoma Film Festival. Tonight, from 8-11 p.m. at The Swiss, Joe Rosati, Heidi Vladyka and China Davis (the band responsible for A Perfect Life's soundtrack) will be at the Swiss to celebrate. Good times are guaranteed for all.

4. Are you ready for Toxic Karaoke? Not even sure what Toxic Karaoke is? Find out tonight at Lady Luck Cowgirl Up Steakhouse and Saloon.

5. The Royal Lounge Olympia hosts The Greta Jane Quartet for its last show celebration at 9:30 pm.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Freeloaders for the week

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Rainy Day Fund: Washington state legislators want it. (News Tribune)

Tacoma City Council Election: Hardy, Hill, Baker and ... Ibsen get the shaft from the News Tribune. (News Tribune)

Operation Fast & Furious: Here come the subpoenas. (CNN)

The Department of Homeland Security: It's going all Minority Report on your ass. (CBS news)

Better Than Walking Five Miles Barefoot In the Snow To School: World's oldest running car sells for more than $4 million. (Penn Live)

Saturday Night Live: Who vacuumed off Ben Stiller's face? (Videogum)

Tears For A Team: Witness a football fan as he rides a roller coaster of emotions. (TruTV)

Women Kick Ass: Five women who've been massively influential in traditionally male-dominated fields. (Flavorwire)

YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE 2011 TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

While the 6th Annual Tacoma Film Festival offers a huge range of art house films from all over the world, there's also a great selection of films by local filmmakers, providing an opportunity for them to showcase their work on the big screen. Today, four local films will fill The Grand Cinema's screen at 4:50 p.m. for 72 minutes.

Paint

Directed by Mick Flaaen, documentary (20 minutes)
Paint is a documentary-style study of the impact of graffiti in downtown Tacoma.

The FullCircle Project 

Directed by Aidan Haley, documentary (29 minutes)
The FullCircle Project is a group of three professional freeskiers and one professional telemark athlete with the desire to change the way they travel to and enjoy the snow they ski on in different countries. With service as the backbone of the trip, and the snows of the northern hemisphere melting, in July of 2010, they traveled to a small town near Concepcion, called Las Salinas, Chile. There they started a nine day service project to aid a community that had been displaced by the earthquake and tsunami of February 2010 before heading up to the mountains of the Biobio region of Chile.

It Came First

Directed by Jeff Axtman and Christopher Wood, comedy (5 minutes)
Two roommates must fight for their survival after one of them uses his superpower to bring an ornery egg to life. *Audience Choice award winner at The Grand Cinema's 2011 72 Hour Film Competition.

Magnificent Abstraction

Directed by Leonard Haggarty, documentary (18 minutes) Tacoma artist Teddy M. Haggarty explores his "abstract art form" in a narrative, culminating in the play, Magnificent Abstraction, revealing the descriptive inner-workings of his mind. The film ends with a avant-garde play that gives a visual look into the mind of this famous Tacoma artist. The soundtrack is all original music composed by The Ventures solely for this film.

Today's film recommendation

Tacoma Film Festival Director Emily Alm recommends you hit the following film today:

SPLINTERS(6 p.m., FREE, Rausch Auditorium at the University of Puget Sound): Like many other films on this list, Splinters snuck up and floored me. The seemingly innocent documentary about the introduction and development of surfing in Papua New Guinea has a lot more meat to it than you'd think. Sure, it's entertaining to watch the surfers practice and prepare for battle in the island nation's first-ever surfing competition. But it's ever more fascinating to get a peek into their culture and social dynamics.

Today's Highlights

Dancing on the Edge (6:30 p.m., The Grand Cinema): A coming of age story about a teenage girl's struggle with addiction and her dream of being a ballet dancer. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Washington and Happy Valley, Ore. The film was an official selection at the 2011 New York City International Film Festival.

Fantastic Confabulations (8:30 p.m., The Grand Cinema): When Wes's marriage dissolves, he moves in with his childhood best friend, Ray, but a sudden aneurysm puts Ray in a coma for weeks. Wes, despite himself, finds a sense of peace in the situation, but Ray's eventual return home strains their friendship as one friend clings to the past and the other focuses on the future. 

Film added today

Young Goethe In Love, which screens Friday night to a big Blue Mouse Theatre crowd, will screen again today at 1:45 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

For a complete list of today's films, click here.

LINK: 2011 TFF award winners

LINK: Opening Night Gala photos

LINK: Three stories behind the stories

LINK: Big stars at the Tacoma Film Festival 2011

LINK: Our Tacoma Film Festival preview

LINK: TFF Director Emily Alm's picks

LINK: TFF on twitter 

LINK: TFF website

TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION >>>

Sunday morning self-proclaimed Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones was arrested for pepper spraying a crowd in Seattle's Pioneer Square. The Seattle PI has the story here.

No doubt Phoenix Jones is upset that he'll miss the screening of Michael Barnett's Superheroes today at 2 p.m. as part of the 6th Annual Tacoma Film Festival. Barnett's 90-minute film uncovers the cultural phenomenon of real-life superheroes such as Jones.

You can certainly discover what inspires everyday citizens to take the law in to their own hands as they try to make the world a better and safer place for all.

[Rausch Auditorium, Monday, Oct. 10, 6 p.m., free admission, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner, Tacoma]

For a complete list of today's films, click here.

LINK: 2011 TFF award winners

LINK: Opening Night Gala photos

LINK: Three stories behind the stories

LINK: Big stars at the Tacoma Film Festival 2011

LINK: Our Tacoma Film Festival preview

LINK: TFF Director Emily Alm's picks

LINK: TFF on twitter 

LINK: TFF website

BEIR YO >>>

Saturday night's Maltoberfest was all things ghetto Bavarian at Bob's Java Jive with Tacoma's craziest people pounding Mickey's Ice and Old E Brass Monkeys (malt liquor and orange juice for those not in the know) to the musical stylings of DJ Melodica, Saucy Yoda and Crooked Smile.

It's a fine mash of ghetto culture spliced with lederhosen.

The annual Maltoberfest is ostensibly about drinking malt liquor, but everyone knows it's much more about eyeballing the party weirdoes at the party. Weekly Volcano photographer Steve Dunkelberger sojourned forth the crazy parade at the Jive to bring back these photos. It's fun to guess what's going on in them.

LINK: More photos from Maltoberfest 2011

ADMIRAL GREY NOTIFIED US >>>

What makes something pop? Is it melody? Memorable hooks? A killer name? Whatever it is that makes songs resonate, Brooklyn's I Feel Awesome takes it, turns it on its side, shakes it a few times, drops some pounding beats on top, then sprinkles in ethereal Casio keyboards. The result is the finely crafted breed of pop and dance that ricochets back into experimental territory.

I Feel Awesome is the newest music from Brooklyn multimedia artist Admiral Saint Grey. Formerly the bassist/vocalist for heavy post-punk band Drayton Sawyer Gang, her music dipped into lo-fi melodic territory with her solo project Duck and Swallow before bringing a big sound back to the scene with the otherworldly Glass Lamborghini.

I Feel Awesome will perform tonight in Le Voyeur's back room. Along with her new songs, she will play arrangements from Glass Lamborghini's EP Golden Elegance.

[Le Voyeur, I Feel awesome, Cult of Zir, Chains Isabella, Squrm, Monday, Oct. 10, 10 p.m., 4040 Fourth Ave., Olympia]

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Kirsten Howard in response to Rev. Adam McKinney's recent story on the band Roman Holiday.

Kirsten writes,

i own their newest album and i love it they are a awesome band even though they are from Seattle a wet place and nick howard from the desert a dry place they will always come to the middle

TUESDAY, OCT. 11, 2011 >>>

1. We have the Fourth of July, Mexico has Cinco de Mayo, and Ireland has St. Patrick's Day. When it came time for Germany to claim a holiday, they figured, why not just celebrate beer for a month? Touché, Germany. But since most of us can't make our way to Munich this year, bars and restaurants around the South Sound have been bringing Oktoberfest to us. Tonight, it's the Crown Bar's turn focusing all its beer energy on Tacoma's Burris Brewery. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., enjoy these local beers with currywurst and schnitzel sandwiches, raffle prizes and growlers to go. Prizes awarded for Lederhosen wearers!

2. This fall, Tacoma's favorite Victorian-style glass conservatory offers a botanical montage of madness, paralysis and death. The exhibit Wicked Plants: An Exhibit of the Deliciously Dark Side of the Plant Kingdom features deadly flora that would please a homicidal 19th-century botanist. The W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory exhibit is inspired by Amy Stewart's bestseller Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, a much-needed compendium of plants that rack up body counts. Go see it from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., if you dare.

3. Are you young? Are you professional? Yeah, neither are we, but that doesn't mean we can't tell you about a mixer hosted by the Young Professionals Network of Tacoma-Pierce County from 5:30-8 p.m. at The Hub Events Space. If you have a drive to succeed in business AND a passion for serving the community, this is your chance to meet your people.

4. In celebration of the new Chinese Reconciliation Park and Pavilion on the waterfront in Old Town Tacoma, the famous Classical Tuesdays series kicks off the season with the US China Music Ensemble. The night begins at 5:45 p.m. with a lion dance the Pavilion. Forty-five minutes later the dancers will escort the crowd to the Slavonian Hall where Warren Chang and the US China Music Ensemble will kick off the 7th season performing on traditional Chinese instruments including the pipa, erhu, dizi, and guzheng. 

5. The Washington Center hosts the National Geographic Live! speaker series featuring Kenny Broad discussing "Beyond the Invisible: Secrets of the Blue Holes" at 7:30 p.m.

PLUS: The Tacoma Science Café is tonight. Details in the Freeloaders.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound