IT'S ABOUT THE MUSIC >>>

In a career spanning five decades and including more than 40 films, documentary filmmaker Les Blank shines a yielding but revealing light on people and cultures far outside the American mainstream, contrasting sharply with the heavily staged, agenda-driven documentaries popular today.

Blank will attend tonight's screenings of his work as part of the Olympia Film Festival. The programs offer a chance to see some of Blank's art - focusing on music in the South. The program includes Blank's 1969 classic The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins about the great Texas bluesman, Always For Pleasure, Les Blank's vivid 1978 portrait of New Orleans and Sprout Wings and Fly, about Appalachian fiddler Tommy Jarrell.

The films screen tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theater. For more information on the Olympia Film Festival, and today's film schedule, go here.

For a sneak peek at Always For Pleasure, check the trailer below ...

ALL HAIL SPACEWORKS!

The synthesizer is a powerful tool that has suffered much abuse since its entrance into the pop world. Cheese-doodling, lipstick-wearing hairspray bands of the '80s are to blame for the synth's lowly place among "real" instruments like guitars and snare drums.

Tonight, bands Iceborg, Operation ID and Porch Grapes will reclaimed the keyboard's unique ability to create otherworldly audio ... for motion pictures by video artist Mitchell Zollinger. It will be an electronic, synthesized film night you can dance to.

Iceborg is actually Brian Kinsella playing film music with a bunch of synths.

Operation ID is a bionic synth-pop band, and will be performing a free improv set.

Porch Grapes says it's a dance explosion.

Bluebeard Coffee will drop by with treats such as espresso floats.

Entertain your brain when the band performs tonight at 7 p.m.

[Nate Dybevik's piano restoration Spaceworks Tacoma space, Saturday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m., 1310 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma]

LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

4th Ave Ale House Olympia - Downtown. The Jupiter Order, Tinman, Voxxy Vallejo. 9 pm.

Art House Designs Olympia - Eastside. Pearl Django, with special guest Vince Brown. All Ages. 8 pm.

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. The Ellis Armor, From Heroes To Legends, Spare Me Poseidon, They Charge Like Warriors, Vices. 6 pm.

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Nearly Dan (Steely Dan tribute). 8 pm. $10-$13. Violin Vs. Vinyl, with Kytami, The PhonoGraff, Jay Tablet. 12 pm. $5.

Mandolin Cafe Tacoma - Central. Graham Crackers. All Ages. 8 pm.

Midnight Sun Olympia. Downtown. Meowtain, Maxines, Basemint, Monster Trap, 8 pm. $5.

• Meowtain is a restlessly churning ball of jittery exuberance. The band's music seems to benefit from an overabundance of ideas and whims - each member racing to bring them to the fore. Shouts emerge, breathless, from behind a wall of crackling guitars, the occasional trumpet and vigorously shuddering tambourines. It sounds, in a word, very much like Olympia. This lo-fi, homespun punk sound that has been steadily produced in the city for many years seems almost bred into the music of Meowtain. What Meowtain brings to the table is a kind of boundless energy, which I think you will find positively infectious. This is the second Olympia All Ages Project-produced show to be held at the Midnight Sun, while the Northern seeks out a permanent residence elsewhere. - Rev. Adam McKinney

Nate Dybevik's piano restoration Spaceworks Tacoma space Tacoma - Hilltop. Iceborg, Operation ID, Porch Grapes. All Ages. 7 pm. More details here.

The New Frontier Lounge Tacoma - Dome District. Helms Alee, Hot Victory, Extralone, Argonaut. 9 pm. $5.

• Hot Victory might be ambient if it weren't for all of those drums. A three-piece made up of two drummers and a guy on keys, the tones being produced are cold, futuristic and drawn out. They are accompanied by a two-person assault of primal, pounding drums - a stampede of sound, offset by a steady drone. It's a lot to take in, all at once. Hot Victory means to be overwhelming, I'm sure, and the band succeeds in spades. When they hit those breakdowns, where the drums start to sound more scattershot and disconnected, and the synths begin to pulse and stab, it's fascinating to watch them find the beat of the next song into which they'll go careening. All of this order and chaos, sharing space - one pushing the other, the other always resisting. - Rev. AM

The Spar Tacoma - Old Town. New Orleans Jazz Cafe Quintet. This is trad jazz,a bit like Dixieland. All Ages. 8-11 pm. NC.

Traditions Cafe and World Folk Art Olympia - Downtown. Reilly & Maloney. All Ages. 8 pm. $12-$17.

Urban Grace Church Tacoma - Downtown. Frank Fairfield with members of Sons of Warren Oates and Ravenna Woods. The Warehouse presents this shindig. All Ages. 7:30 pm. $8 at brownpapertickets.com, $10 door.

• You've got to give it to the folks over at The Warehouse. At this point a production company (of sorts) specializing in bringing intimate, artistic and artist-friendly shows to Tacoma, The Warehouse looks to have hit pay dirt again with tonight's performance by Frank Fairfield, an old school (and I mean ooold school) gee-tar, fiddle and banjo player who many fell in love last summer at Doe Bay Fest. "His music immediately transports you to a dusty trail stop and a crackling fire. He is well versed in early American music and fits the part perfectly. Trust me, you have to see it to believe it," says The Warehouse's Adam Ydstie in email. "We at The Warehouse have worked hard to create a special evening for a small audience to experience Frank Fairfield as well as a host of other amazing musicians from the area. This performance will be on the stage at Urban Grace sans any amplification and lit primarily by candles. We will have chairs and pillows on the stage for the audience to sit back, relax, and enjoy the music."  The show will also include members of Sons of Warren Oates and Ravenna Woods. - Matt Driscoll

LINK: Move live music in the South Sound

SUNDAY, NOV. 13, 2011 >>>

1. If you haven't heard of Pierced Arrows, you're in the dark. Born out of the ashes of seminal garage rock band Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows boasts Fred and Toody Cole - both of Dead Moon fame. Rounded out by drummer Kelly Halliburton, Pierced Arrows have been receiving positive comparisons to the famous band they succeeded, and winning smiles and applause from those who cursed the day Dead Moon broke up. The Brotherhood Lounge in Olympia hosts the band at 9 p.m. Missing out would be foolish.

2. There's something wonderfully odd and mysterious about the mind of the miniaturist; it takes a certain kind of person to spend so much time around small things, to appreciate the exacting elegance of a tiny table or an itty-bitty bed. Whether it's a simple dollhouse or an extravagant diorama, creating a good miniature world is a matter of scale, a fastidious craft that requires patience, an artist's eye - and lots and lots of time. Gallery Three in Puyallup celebrates those dedicated folks with a wine reception for its Miniature Art Show from 12:30-2 p.m.

3. Dr. Lorraine McConaghy, author of New Land, North of the Columbia: Historic Documents that Tell the Story of Washington State from Territory to Today will discuss her book at 2 p.m. inside the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma. She's traversed the state and sifted through the files of three dozen archives to cull the 400-plus documents that bring to life Washington's last 150 years.

4. Puget Sound Youth Wind Ensemble launches its eighth season at 7 p.m. inside the Schneebeck Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Puget Sound.

5. More than a dozen local and national comedians will come together at 8 p.m. inside Jazzbones to make you laugh and raise money for Tacoma comedy veteran Debbie Wooten-Williams, who has recently had set some health setbacks. Hosted by Ralph Porter, tonight's   "Comedy for a Cause" lineup includes comics Jerry Percio, Travis Simmons, Susan Jones, Cari Tillery, Shawn Lawrence, Rodney Sherwood, Mike Wally Walter, Tony Daniel, Rico the Comedian and Mr. Mookie.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Get the Foodcaching foodie app

LET'S GET WEIRD TONIGHT >>>

As a roommate, I have done some horrible things in my day. But the worst thing, without a doubt, was when I was in a hurry to tape a movie on TV - surely you remember videotape - and I taped over2001: A Space Odyssey. This was indefensible, even more so when you consider what I taped: On Golden Pond.

Really.

I have no idea why I did this, because HAL9000 is one of my favorite computers in all of filmland (yeah, I'm old-school), and I just loved the big chill that Stanley Kubrick enveloped me in.

I never watched On Golden Pond. It just sat there gathering dust as testament to my inexplicable idiocy.

Tonight, The Olympia Film Festival screens another film that would be a crime if taped over: the dystopic sci-fi epic World on a Wire.

This flick is German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder's superbly cracked, boundlessly inventive take on future paranoia. With dashes of my beloved Kubrick, but a flavor entirely his own, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of reluctant action hero, Fred Stiller, a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate and governmental conspiracy.

What's at risk?

Our total (virtual) reality as we know it. This long hidden three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the weird world of tomorrow from one of cinema's kinkiest geniuses.

The film screen tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theater. For more information on the Olympia Film Festival, and today's film schedule, go here.

For a sneak peek at World on a Wire, check the trailer below ...

Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line - an awesome temporary public art exhibit that celebrates the important transformation of the Prairie Line Trail from rail to linear park - opened Saturday, Nov. 12 in downtown Tacoma. On the rainy opening afternoon, the Tacoma Arts Commission, staff from the University of Washington-Tacoma and the artist teams behind the eight installations guided approximately 60 people through the outdoor exhibition, which traverses downtown from South 25th Street to the Thea Foss Waterway.

The exhibition features amazing sculptural work by Austin-based national design team, Thoughtbarn (composed of Lucy Begg and Robert Gay), as well as a who's who from the Tacoma arts scene: Jennifer Renee Adams, Kyle Dillehay, Kristin Giordano, Jeremy N. Gregory, Diane Hansen, Christopher Jordan, Lance Kagey, Lisa Kinoshita, Ed Kroupa, Bret Lyon, Janet Marcavage, Maria Olga Meneses, Nicholas Nyland, Chandler O'Leary, Elise Richman, Claudia Riedener, Holly A. Senn, Chris Sharp, James Grayson Sinding and Kenji Stoll.

The City of Tacoma received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to give the historic rail line a facelift, shining an artistic light on the line the Northern Pacific Railroad built in 1873. Temporal Terminus - in partnership with the City of Tacoma's PA:ID (Public Art In Depth) multi-faceted program and the University of Washington-Tacoma - is the inaugural installation, with Philadelphia-based award-winning urban designer Todd Bressi and the team Thoughtbarn wearing the conductor hats. Up until 2003, trains pounded the historic rail corridor from the Thea Foss Waterway to the Brewery District, passing rickety warehouses and dens of iniquity before UW-Tacoma rang the school bell. Today, feet and bikes traverse the line, passing installations titled TacomaBall, Rogue Rhizomes and Ghost Prairie. When all said and done, some $5.83 million will be pumped into the half-mile Prairie Trail Line, creating a living and breathing interpretive trail connecting the waterfront with downtown Tacoma, which will also include a storm water purification system for the polluted runoff from Hilltop.

Below are a few photos of Temporal Terminus I snapped during yesterday's rainy afternoon tour. Due to the City of Tacoma's budget cuts to the Megaphone Department, and my frozen hands, I'm forced to add descriptive paragraphs written by the Tacoma Arts Commission. I have no idea what McBirde and the artist said through that crappy megaphone.

Dock Street: Zero Down

From a series of "footprints" that occupy the grassy area, colorful shadows extend. The images are rendered in temporary paint and continued in chalk; the forms span the grass and onto the concrete morphing into forms human and imagined. Each brightly colored shadow represents the diversity and complexities of humans' personalities. Artists: Chris Jordan, Chandler O'Leary, Claudia Riedener

15th Street Overpass: TacomaBall

The curve of this overpass is the inspiration for TacomaBall, a monumental, temporarily interactive pinball style game. Balls are bowled down the curve interacting with various obstacles depicting various national and local icons. Racing stripes and imagery reminiscent of the game will remain on the ramp through the course of the exhibit making every pedestrian a player in the game. Artists: Kyle Dillehay, Lisa Kinoshita

Under I-705: Wild Wilderness

This work comments on the diminishing open spaces in our world and that impact on animal habitat. In addition, it calls attention to the wild spaces that exist within our urban midst. A variety of animals that would be hard pressed to co-exist inhabit this newly created environment. Artists: Jennifer Adams, Kristin Giordano, Kenji Stoll

Hood Street: Rogue Rhizomes

This section of the Prairie Line Trail is a ragged remnant of an industrial heritage that has witnessed dynamic transformation all around, while remaining itself, virtually unchanged over the last 100 years. The fringes of this space are a competition between structured plantings and wildness trying to reinsert itself into the landscape. This installation explores the rogue elements of organic invasiveness, between city and wildness. Using brightly colored markers and a three-dimensional letterform the eye is drawn from a distance and evoke ideas of giant flora. Organic patterns around the base of each light pole emanate outwards over time making use of positive and negative space and ‘invade' the surrounding area. Artists: Chris Sharp, Lance Kagey, James Sinding

Tollefson: Link

"Link" makes visible the connection between the rail lines and highlights how the Prairie Line Trail linked Tacoma to the communities of Tenino, McIntosh, Wetico, Rainier, Yelm, Roy, Hillhurst, Lakeview, and South Tacoma. Floating yellow orbs, iconic of the yellow and black railroad signs will re-enact the stops along the line that connected with these communities. Artists: Bret Lyon, Janet Marcavage, Holly Senn

UW-T Campus: Ghost Prairie

Thoughtbarn installation speaks to the railroad line's namesake. Inspired by the mysterious Mima mounds located in southern Washington and the plight of the prairie, our public art installation introduces a piece of ‘artificial prairie' along the rails of the Prairie Line Trail in downtown Tacoma. It is a playful referral to both the railroad's history and its new landscape-driven future as a bike and pedestrian path through the city. For its duration the colorful, intriguing object(s) will catch the eye of local pedestrians and drivers. They will draw attention to the oft-overlooked railroad that nonetheless defines Tacoma's history. Those most curious can get up close to run their hands along the "grasses," which will also glow at night. Artists: Thoughtbarn (Lucy Begg, Robert Gay) with help from Tacoma School of the Arts students

UW-T Pedestrian Bridge: Envision

Gigantic eyes look down on the campus from the pedestrian bridge. Are they benevolent? Visionary? Judging? That depends. The eyes are those of Abraham Lincoln, the visionary whose dream it was to complete a transcontinental rail that would meet the Pacific. Is he overlooking his accomplishment or wondering about this particular routes demise and our crazy modern lives? Walking over the ped bridge, one experiences a different viewpoint and inspiration for the endurance of vision. Artists: Jeremy Gregory, Diane Hansen, Ed Kroupa

UW-T Grassy Areas: Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was a phrase that justified the territorial expansion of the United States as if it were a divine sanction. A series of markers reminiscent of the Northern Pacific Railroad signs act as a historical timeline of Tacoma, starting in 1870, three years before Tacoma was designated as the western terminus for the transcontinental railroad. A stepping-stone begins the journey and the subsequent signs track the growing population of the city over 140 years at intervals that represent the largest jumps in population. Artists: Maria Meneses, Nicholas Nyland, Elise Richman

Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line temporary public art exhibit will dot the downtown Tacoma landscape through Nov. 30, 2011. A map of the public art exhibit can be found here.

LINK: More Temporal Terminus opening day photos

THIS WEEK'S FREEBIES NOV. 14-20 >>>

Contrary to popular perception, writing is actual work. No matter the frivolity of the piece, even if it be a mere Freeloaders column, you can rest assured true blood, sweat and beers were spilled during its composition. Perhaps not as much blood, sweat, etc, in a Freeloaders column, as say in a novel, or a poem, or an essay, or a radio jingle, but. ... This is not the point. The point is that now it's time for you to meet the men and women behind the magic, and learn about the craft. The following are FREE opportunities to learn about the craft, discuss it or actually participate in it.

MONDAY, NOV. 14: New to the graphic novel game? An old pro? It really doesn't matter - Tacoma's Graphic Novel Book Club, which meets on the second Monday of every Month at 1022 South, has something for everyone. And guess what!?! It's the second Monday of the month! The GNBC dives into Y The Last Man: Book One by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and José Marzán, Jr., the gripping saga of Yorick Brown, an unemployed and unmotivated slacker who discovers that he is the only male left in the world after a plague of unknown origin instantly kills every mammal with a Y chromosome. Y, this club is perfect for U.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15: The queer Banned Book Club meets at 7 p.m. to discuss banned books, why the books are banned and specifically, the club's November read, Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez over cocktails inside the Tempest Lounge. The book follows the lives of three gay high school seniors, each with their own struggles. The story addresses very real, and very serious issues that many gay teens face: suicide, friendship, coming to terms with one's own sexuality, coming out, HIV, family, and homophobia.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16: While it takes some English professors an entire semester to analyze one Robert Frost poem, Doug and Anne Hoppper will cover Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in about 90 minutes. What Bobble Tiki calls Cliff's Notes for Christians, First Presbyterian Church's "Great Truths from Great Books" explores the spiritual meaning of some of the world's greatest books. This week, it's all about mercy, intolerance, and revenge in the South Chapel at 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, NOV. 17: Tacoma's Poet Laureate Josie Turner summoned Tacoma poets to converge on the Proctor Art Gallery and go dactyl, enjambment and free verse on what they saw. The poetry is on display by the art that inspired it in what the gallery calls "Poetry in Response to Art." It runs through Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

FRIDAY, NOV. 18: At midnight on Nov. 1, 250,000 people around the world set out to become novelists in a month with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The Yelm Timberland Library, an official NaNoWriMo participant site, will provide support, hosting a 7 p.m. to midnight write-in. Refreshments and additional support will be provided. Go NaNoWriMo!

SATURDAY, NOV. 19: Writing good nonfiction isn't something that comes naturally to everyone. Maybe there's help: the Pacific Northwest chapter of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981 meets at 11 a.m. inside King's Books. Both members and non-members are welcome to attend. Writers are invited to bring two pages of double-spaced copy to read, or you can listen and be part of the critique process.  Nonfiction writers of history, politics, economics, biography or family history are especially encouraged to attend, but those who write about kittens are welcome. Bill Johnston says you better pre-register with him, or else he'll write something about you.

SUNDAY, NOV. 20: While major publishing houses are suffering sliding scales and have axed jobs, e-books have been a perennial Next Big Thing - except to authors without name recognition or comfy advances. But you don't care. You just want to know how to work the damn thing. The Summit Pierce County Library will offer a free 1:30 p.m. class on how to operate e-readers and other devices compatible with Pierce County Library's e-book resources and download and install the software needed to get started.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Free Tacoma restaurant app

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Don And Mary Awesome: Williams leave $15 million to Pierce County. (News Tribune)

Energy Drama: Columbia Generating Station has sued Energy Northwest. (News Tribune)

So Uncomfortable: American Airlines slapped with $900,000 fine for dilly-dallying. (CBS NEWS)

The U.S. Supreme Court: It will hear a challenge to President Barack Obama's sweeping health care reform law. (CNN)

This Is Awesome: Was it Survivor, or was it the presidential debate? (NPR)

So George Costanza: A dude is suing a spa for kicking him out after he complained about its crappy breakfast. (NY Daily News)

Pages That Keep On Turning: You are probably interested in the history of time-travel in literature. (Flavorwire)

Brad Pitt's Hair: Stop messing with it dude. (Lainey Gossip)

MONDAY, NOV. 14, 2011 >>>

1. We all know Elmo. Even if you don't have kids, will never have kids, in fact hate kids and everything about them, and have never even been a kid yourself, you know who Elmo is ... or at least you think you do. Elmo, of course, is the hug-giving, furry little red dude from Sesame Street - a staple of the last 25 years. In real life, however, Elmo is puppeteer Kevin Clash, who has portrayed Elmo on TV since 1985 and created the character we've come to know and love. This week the award-winning documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteers Journey will screen at The Grand, allowing the old and young alike a chance to meet the man behind the puppet. Catch Being Elmo today at the Grand Cinema.

2. Tap into "Tap Room Trivia" tonight at the Harmon Tap Room in Tacoma from 6- 8 p.m. Not convinced? Did we mention the $50 cash prize for the winner of each round?

3. The venerable DJ Melodica spins punk, post punk, New Wave, early electronica, garage and more tonight starting at 8:30 p.m. at Magoo's Annex in Tacoma.

4. Did you get a chance to check out Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line when it opened Saturday? We speak, of course, of the new temporary public art exhibit along Tacoma's Prairie Line Trail that celebrates the important transformation of the trail from rail to linear park. It's awesome. Find more info here, then go out and see it for yourself.

5. Mosey on in to the Play Pen in Lacey for tonight's karaoke contest. The fun times and competition starts at 8 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound
LINK: Live music tonight

LINK: This week's freebies!

LOTS OF FIRE >>>

Rammstein's motto is, "Do your own thing, and overdo it." And that "thing" begins and ends with fire.

Weekly Volcano scribe Ernest A. Jasmin was 30 yards from the stage for most of the band's show at the Tacoma Dome this past May. Jasmin says. "it felt like being blasted in the face with a blow dryer as huge, flaming geysers erupted from the stage throughout." You may read his full review here.

"We're not talking some stock Motley Crue bullshit. We're talking best use of fire - ever," Jasmin wrote.

The Berlin-based band announced it has included a Tacoma Dome show on its 2012 North Americna Tour, bringing the fire to Tacoma May 14.

Tickets will go on sale through Ticketmaster outlets Saturday, Dec. 3. Prices haven't been announced.

LINK: Rammstein's Tacoma Dome May 15 set list