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. We're  always on the lookout for ways to shine a light on all the awesome creativity we see around us.

This week's Volcano arts section includes a feature on South Sound Academy Awards parties, a review of the Paul Gauguin exhibit at Seattle Art Museum and Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal's take on South Puget Sound Community College's production of ENRON.

Here's a look at the Volcano arts coverage waiting for you this week in print and online.

FEATURE: SOUTH SOUND OSCAR PARTIES

Oscar has quite the history (and for 84 he looks pretty good). So does The Capitol Theater. This year the Olympia Film Society continues its tradition of mixing cinema with live spectacle in a big way. For starters, guests at this year's Capitol Theater Oscar Party will walk down a real red carpet to the theater while two fashion shops, Yolli Shoes and Hot Toddy, pose as paparazzo. Your runway repartee then appears directly on the Capitol's gargantuan screen for all to see.

To entertain the crowd, OFS has brought in folks who know their way around a microphone - Mona Von Horne (aka The Belle of Berlin) and Josh Anderson. Last year the latter received his own local version of an Oscar, snagging Best Actor in the Volcano's Best of Olympia Readers' Picks. For this year's Oscar party, Anderson disappears under the beard and cheap suit of his popular persona, Saul Tannenbaum. ... -- CHristohper Wood

VISUAL EDGE: GAUGUIN IN SEATTLE

It's the biggest thing since the Picasso show. It's Gauguin and Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise at Seattle Art Museum. If that can't make Tacomans head north for an afternoon nothing can.

Paul Gauguin is one of the greatest and most romanticized artists of the modern era. His story - abandoning family and a successful business career to find a primitive paradise in Tahiti - is as romantic and far-fetched, yet mostly true, as the story of his good friend Vincent Van Gogh cutting off his ear. And like Van Gogh, Gauguin made paintings that were as revolutionary and exciting as anything yet seen in Europe. ... -- Alec Clayton

THEATER: ENRON

I feel guilty knocking this production, as I'm told it lost weeks of rehearsal to Snowpocalypse. It shows. The cast seems unprepared for each succeeding scene, and there are dozens. That having been said, when ENRON fails, it fails with ambition. The show employs vaudevillian touches (like stuffing the Lehman brothers into a single pair of pants) and upstage projections to keep the math understandable. Justin Smith has grown considerably as an actor, and he nails a closing monologue as Jeffrey Skilling. He can't play rage effectively yet, but that has to flow from a tempo the show never achieves. ... -- Christian Carvajal

LOCAL FILM BUZZ: ANNIE SING-ALONG

In time for a swell 30^th anniversary appearance, Annie returns to the silver screen this Saturday, Feb 18, at Olympia's Capitol Theater. But don't come looking for a 3-D reboot like some of these supposed "classics" Hollywood plans to dig up this year. (The Phantom Menace? Wow.) Instead, clear your throat, rehearse those pipes and get ready to belt out song after song from this feel-good musical, and all for a good cause. Every suggested $10.00 donation collected at the door benefits Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights. ... -- CW

PLUS: COMPREHENSIVE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

PLUS: MORE SOUTH SOUND THEATER COVERAGE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE

PLUS: RIDICULOUSNESS LIKE THIS