CRITICAL MASS >>>

Spew sifts through the Internets for local arts stories so you don't have to.

Over the weekend Weekly Volcano arts critic Alec Clayton reported Olympia painter Tom Anderson - "an institution in Olympia, and he may be the only contemporary abstract artist I know who has been able to support himself entirely from his art" - now shares a space with Olyphant Art Supply. Clayton reports the space is "a new happening place with exciting potential."

Weekly Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal sings in a choir. No, it's true. And he says, "Singing choral music isn't like crooning along with Bruno Mars on the radio. It requires a wider range, for one thing, and it helps if you can read musical notation. I can't." Carv better get into the zone quick as he's singing in the sixth annual "100 Voices" concert March 3 at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts.

Post Defiance wrote a piece on how Tacoma's Graffiti Garages redefine graffiti art, touching on the history and culture of graffiti. Post Defiance writer Ben Armstrong wrote, "The creation of the Garages has placed Tacoma in the forefront nationally as a city combating illegal graffiti by celebrating and promoting the art form through legal wall space.  A New York artist told his friend whom I interviewed that it was good to see a place for graffiti in the City, and that Tacoma was ahead of major cities including New York, one of graffiti's birthplaces." That's cool.

The new King of Style in Tacoma Camp 6 popped into artist Julian Peña's Tacoma space for a chat.

Over on the OlyBlog, Thad Curtz posts Kathleen Flenniken, the state's poet laureate for the next two years, has a blog called The Far Field.

And the only arts critic reviewing classical music, The Trib's Rosemary Ponnekanti, gave an 86 percent thumbs up to the Tacoma Symphony's Chopin, Barber and Mendelssohn concert over the weekend.

LINK: South Sound arts and entertainment calendar

MAKEUP ARTIST WILL DECORATE YOUR FILM >>>

Tacoma's freelance makeup artist Kari Baumann has her own business, and she calls it Decorate Your Face. I hear that name and immediately a mental movie begins playing of Baumann gleefully chucking handfuls of foundation and glitter (glitter?) at her clients' cheeks, with all the expressionistic exuberance of Jackson Pollock. Don't ask me why.

But Baumann's real-life work, though more subtle than this fantasy, functions equally effective. Since establishing her trade in 2005, local movie productions have mainly called upon Baumann's talents in decorating actors' faces in more naturalistic ways. Yet sometimes the end product can still shock, as it does in director Ron Lagman's short Tapat Sa Pangako (Committed) (which premiered in Tacoma last month and played this past weekend at Seattle's Post Alley Film Festival). Viewers won't easily shake off one of the movie's most striking images: the near-black bruises running across an abused woman's back, which Baumann created.

Baumann has already spent several months on the set of Rose Colored Shades, the debut feature-length drama from filmmaker Randy Sparks. The perk she revels in as a crew member is getting special access to places and spaces (and of course faces) she would never see in other lines of work. She says she loves to visit "all these cool behind-the-scenes locations that you were always curious about, like ‘What's behind that door?'"

Baumann may not have found treasure or even a good old-fashioned monster behind any of those doors she opened, but she's stumbled upon something better: "endless opportunities...(for) using a found space and creating another environment for it, and that's fascinating to me."

Find out more about Baumann on www.decorateyourface.com or her Facebook page.

SO ESOTERIC >>>

Have you ever fallen asleep while listening to someone tell you about his or her dream from last night? Apparently it's quite common.

Put your sleeping cap on ... Here are my three dreams from last night.

Mason Bates' Sirens

My first dream followed a vocal ensemble and I as we soared from cloud to cloud, encountering one seductive, mythical creature after another, as the ensemble sang Mason Bates' Sirens. On the first cloud were the characters from Homer's Odyssey, followed by the German Lorelei, 16th-century Italian goddess of the stars, and the Peruvian Sirinu in Quechua. The journey ended on a fishing boat listening to Christ's "siren" while the captain of the vessel read text from Homer's Odyssey.

Ted Hearne's Privilege

In my second dream, I was invisible at a social media meet-up. Everything was dark, dark, dark. The room became consumed with huge iPads. They throbbed and bounced down from the ceiling, nearly crushing me. THEN: I woke up screaming and went out to the antechamber, where my governess, Sylvie, was watching the BBC. I demanded that she go unplug the apple TV in the servants' upstairs kitchen, which backed up to my wall, and she obliged me. When she returned, she read poignant texts from Bill Moyers' 2009 interview with David Simon, the creator of the acclaimed television series The Wire while a vocal ensemble sang Ted Hearne's Privilege from the back of the room.

Paul Crabtree's Thirst

My third dream was super-vivid. I dreamed I was in the line at Met Market and Elvis was helping an old Samaritan women work the debit machine. It wasn't Young Elvis or Fat Elvis, but rather poet Fleda Brown's Elvis. All the while this was happening, the clerk read well-known Bible verses as a vocal ensemble sang Paul Crabtree's Thirst. It was so lifelike, that dream.

Weird, huh?

Even more weird was when I opened my email and found Seattle-based vocal ensemble The Esoterics' 19th season opener SIRENE follows, basically, my dream sequence from last night. Seriously.

[St John's Episcopal Church, Sunday, March 4, 3 p.m., $15-$20, 114 20th Ave. SE, Olympia, 360.888.5983]

Sure, one acoustic guitar is nice, but it's a whole new ballgame when three acoustic guitars come at you full force like a snorting caribou in the middle of the wild. Despite what you may have heard, in such a scenario, playing dead is not the best idea - unless you're looking to get sonically trampled. It's best to strap in and face the three-headed acoustic beast head-on.

Thursday at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Italy's Guitar Republic - more specifically Pino Forastiere, Stefano Barone, and Sergio Altamura - will arrive in town much like the aforementioned caribou (or something). According to hype, the three acoustic-guitar-wielding members of Guitar Republic were "united by a love of the guitar and a passion to explore new musical territory."

Faced with this performance, will you play dead or face the music head on?

You make the call. ...

[Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at SPSCC, 7:30 p.m., $13.50-$27, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia, 360.753.8585, olytix.org]

BENEFIT SHOW FOR REED RILEY >>>

National darling Vicci Martinez returns to her hometown of Tacoma Sunday to play a benefit show for her former manager, Reed Riley. Apparently, Riley needs triple bypass surgery and it's not a cheap procedure. Tickets are $25 and go on sale at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29 on Jazzbones' website. Riley posted a message of appreciation on his Facebook.

VICCI MARTINEZ HAS A HEART OF GOLD !!
I can't tell you how overwhelmed with emotion I am right now as I announce a special acoustic concert, on my behalf, by Vicci this Sunday night at Jazzbones in Tacoma. The purpose of this last minute show is to help raise funds to see me through open heart surgery which is tentatively scheduled for the coming weeks. Those of you who know me understand how precious my relationship is with Vicci. We are family and I have so many special memories of our time together since I first began representing Vicci when she was 16 years old. I hope to share some of those great times with you on Sunday night but I imagine none will compare with this once in a lifetime experience that Vicci is giving me on Sunday. The sacrifice she is making to interupt her busy work schedule in Los Angeles preparing for the upcoming release of her new album by Universal Republic, to be in Tacoma for me, is immense and heartfelt. Details are still being finalized but what we know at this point is that it's Sun, Mar 4, 7pm, tickets are $25 in advance and will go on sale tomorrow at 5pm on www.jazzbones.com. Check back on Jazzbones Facebook page in the coming days for updates on special guests. I sure hope to see your beautiful faces in attendance. And finally, my sincere gratitude to Vicci's manager, Beth Tallman, for putting this event together and making it happen. I love you, Beth.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 29, 2012 >>>

1. Join the Tacoma Convergence for its second Exchange from 7:30-9 p.m. at Embellish MultiSpace Salon. Here's how it works: Everyone has old books, CDs, clothes, knick-knacks, chotchkies, and other stuff that they don't need. You bring your stuff. Other folks bring their stuff. Then, you take the stuff what you want. Others take the stuff they want. And all the stuff is free.

2. STINK Cheese and Meat in Tacoma will host a blind tasting of five IPAs from 5-7 p.m. for $5.

3. A good man in a G-string is hard to find. Sure, it's reasonably easy to persuade someone to pose for a drawing, but even if an artist's friends and loved ones are willing to pose in the name of art, they'll soon find that it takes exceptional patience to remain frozen in place for hours on end. Life painting is one of art's most time-honored traditions, though, and there will always be a stream of aspiring Renoirs and Vermeers eager to give it a shot ... including tonight at The Mix. Artist Julian Peña has organized a live art session at 8:30 p.m. inside the gay-friendly bar in Tacoma's Triangle District. Expect local artists of all skill levels painting and sipping cocktails.

4. Beginning at 6 p.m. the bicycle-themed neighborhood joint The Hub serves $3 Sex On The Beach, Sex On the Bar and wells every Wednesday. Yes, those naughtily named cocktails, so beloved by bachelorettes, frat boys and others who are but a few years beyond drinking age, are tasty cheap.

5. Every Wednesday at 10 p.m. inside the The New Frontier Lounge, bingo players are treated to a rather boisterous evening of number-calling by the lovely Brooke. The music rocks, the prizes are craptastic and there's something very satisfying about yelling "It's not a tumor!" when B-9 is pulled from the hopper (Schwarzenegger anyone?). Sessions are free with $2 margaritas and $4 Cuervo Gold shots during bingo. Every Wednesday night is also Taco Night with $1 beef, $1 black bean and $2 chicken in soft or crunchy shells.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

They Must Have Taken It For A Spin: The Pierce County Council changed its mind and approved spending a whopping $730,000 for a new saltwater patrol and rescue boat for the Sheriff's Department. (News Tribune)

Senate Democratic Budget Plan: They'd like to spare public schools and universities from new spending cuts. (News Tribune)

Sucks To Be The Boss: The athletic director at Tacoma Community College will receive a two-week suspension without pay because his men's basketball coach is a bonehead. (News Tribune)

Moratoriums-O-Plenty: North Korea has agreed to back off at one of its key nuclear facility AND to knock off the long-range missile launches. (CNN)

Go To Your Room!: Rupert Murdoch's media empire, News Corporation, announced on Wednesday that his son James had stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary that is under scrutiny amid a phone-hacking scandal at the company's tabloids. (The New York Times)

Charlie Sheen: FX sets premiere date for his Anger Management. (Coming Soon)

Bring It: The Girl Scouts have hooked up with Nestle on a new candy bar. (Huffington Post)

The Lone Ranger Is Riding Again: Johnny Depp is in the saddle. (USA Today)

Lea Thompson Is 50: And the Los Angeles Times chatted with her. (Los Angeles Times)

They Did It! World record for human mattress dominoes shattered. (DVIce)

FRESH, CRISPY AND RIGHT FROM THE HEADLINES >>>

Almost exactly a year ago the Washington D.C. comedy troupe Capitol Steps descended on Olympia and the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, bringing with it a full bag of political humor and clever song parodies about things that rhyme with Scalia.

Major laughs ensued.

Thursday, March 8, the Steps return to our state capital, no doubt full of new material thanks to a whole year of new inspirations - from the seemingly endless Republican presidential candidate debates to the many sweater vests of Rick Santorum.

Last year the Capitol Steps' press secretary, Bill Hurd, told the Volcano, "The thing that rubs off on you here is that you're not supposed to take it as seriously as some people do. It's a very nice thing."

A year later that's likely still as true for the folks who make the Steps tick as it is the audience.

[Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Thursday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., $11-$42, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia, 360.753.8586]

THIS JUST IN >>>

Reggae fans and bands are nearly everywhere - even in Hawaii. It's not hard to understand the music's appeal. In addition to its infectious grooves, reggae lyrics typically present a fantasy life to listeners, one in which positivity and love always win out and smoking large amounts of pot is a good thing. The latter reason seems to be the key to why audiences for reggae and jam rock have largely merged into one baked body.

We don't know the baking habits of The Green, but we do know the Hawaiian reggae band takes the genre to a new level, incorporating R&B into its music, and adding energy to its shows.

We also know The Green is a last minute addition to Jazzbones' Friday night. The band will perform twice - an early all-ages show and a later 21 and older gig with local favorites Mighty High.

The Green won the iTunes' Reggae Album of the Year in 2010 for their self-titled debut album.

[Jazzbones, Friday, March 2, 4 p.m. doors all-ages show for $10, 7 p.m. doors 21+ show with Mighty High for $15, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169]

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment of the day comes from J Laboe in response to Steph DeRosa's Person, Place or Thing post on The Art of Crunch Biscotti will be famous. J Laboe isn't the first to claim Tacoman Ronda Hamlin's biscotti are already famous, but J Laboe is the most recent.

J Laboe writes,

Love the Cranberry. I don't dunk, but my husband does. I send it out at Christmas to friends all over the country. We get ask where we get it and I tell them. You will find it in KS, TN, AK and WA. Working on the rest of the states now. ...