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.
(Carlen Altman co-wrote and stars in "The Color Wheel", playing Nov. 17 at the Olympia Film Festival. Photo courtesy Sean Prince Williams)
The OFF looked deep into the past when building the 2011 festival, even inviting back a contributor to its own history. J.R. Baker finds himself in a sequel of sorts, back in the saddle again as OFF director after a 19-year absence. Baker compares his return to that other age-old travel metaphor: "It's like riding a bike. Once you get on ... after not riding it for awhile, you're good to go."
By now OFF's wheels turn so smoothly that Baker slipped into his former job without getting stuck in the gears.
Like Baker, other festival favorites have reappeared this year. Not only can visitors now cast their vote for the Audience Award, they also receive an extra day of movies. Usually the party ends on a good fright - that much-loved horror show All Freakin' Night - but this year the show goes on into Sunday, Nov. 20, with a Closing Night celebration.
"There are just so many wonderful films out there," says Baker, "that it's hard to pack them into nine days." ... -- Christopher Wood
THEATER: JAVA TACOMA: EPISODE 38
(Photo courtesy Jason Ganwich/Facebook)
The soap opera comedy utilizes a small ensemble cast and simple staging to tell a story of the "friends, neighbors and siblings" of Perky's coffee shop. Opening up the show, Kate (Betzy Miller) hit the stage with a PSA about Tacoma's atrocious neighbor to the north, Federal Way. Then the actors gave a whirlwind recap of Episode 37, and we learned that Perky's had lost its lease and the owners were forced to relocate.
The majority of the play was a pretty straight forward comedy, awash with references to all things Tacoma - the Murray Morgan Bridge, Tacoma Dome, Union Station, LeMay Car Museum, Point Defiance Zoo and Pho King included. There were moments of soap opera contrivances throughout Java Tacoma: Episode 38, but thankfully the actors were able to pull off the script and had the audience laughing throughout the hour-long performance. ... -- Joann Varnell
MOVIE BIZ BUZZ: SLAUGHTERHOUSE SQUARE
When I saw the big white ambulance with "Pierce County Asylum" engraved on its side, I knew I was close. Director Harry Tchinski had asked me to visit the closed set of his newest horror feature, Grimises Rising, buried somewhere deep in the bowels of Tacoma's Freighthouse Square. If you've walked through its multiple levels of seemingly endless hallways then you know its size, and I had only an inkling as to which entrance (FHS has lots) would get me on set. But like a gleaming arrow, the spooky vehicle pointed me in the right direction.
I knocked on a door painted crimson (REDRUM, my mind whispered), and after a few moments Tchinski stepped outside. ... -- Christopher Wood
There are moments in J. Edgar that approach parody of Oscar-baiting biopics. Let's take, for instance, the moment when J. Edgar Hoover has to think up a new signature when signing up for a line of credit at a clothing store. "But I've always signed my name John Edgar Hoover," he protests. Cue a curiously long and unintentionally hilarious zoom in on his new signature: "J. Edgar Hoover." This is a moment that rivals John C. Reilly's prolonged and emphatic (and intentionally funny) lead up to his utterance of the words "walk hard" in the film of the same name.
I reveled in these awkwardly funny moments in the sea of steadfast mediocrity that is Clint Eastwood's latest effort. ... -- Rev. Adam McKinney
PLUS: Comprehensive Arts & Entertainment Calendar
PLUS: Volcano Visual Arts Critic Alec Clayton's Visual Edge Column