MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2012 >>>

1. Willkommen. Welcome to the Kamikaze Queens. The Berlin punk cabaret exploring the bacchanalian club atmosphere of '20s Germany is coming to Tacoma tonight. "Musically their style ranges from early punk rock and soulful garage to dirty jazz and punkabilly, smothered in reverb, topped off with Spooky Waltzes, and served up with burlesque and cabaret," according to hype. "Fronted by two dazzling American female singers, Trinity Sarratt and Mad Kate take turns at being sweet & sour, dancing, kicking, and playing percussion. We love the local ladies of punk rock, with their vicious glares and sexy snarls. Best of all is when the fists are pumping and the vocal chords are shredding, front and center stage. Of course, we love the boys who back the ladies of punk, too. What better way to start your week than with a good, old-fashioned punk-rock cabaret party tonight with The Hot Roddin' Romeo's, Blacktop Deceiver, Darkhorse High at the Backstage Bar and Grill beginning at 8 p.m.

2. Join the Port of Tacoma and City of Tacoma to celebrate the opening of the Lincoln Avenue corridor from 2-2:30 p.m. at the Gog-le-hi-te Wetland, near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Stewart Street. For those not familiar with this vital link between downtown Tacoma and the Port, it allows traffic flow on Lincoln Avenue over the Tacoma Rail tracks serving the Port of Tacoma's congested North and South Intermodal Yards. It's a bid deal. Check out the speakers list: Port of Tacoma Commissioner Dick Marzano; City of Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland; Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Executive Director Board Karen Schmidt; Washington State Department of Transportation Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond; and United States Senator Honorable Patty Murray (tentative).

3. Wouldn't you love to know if your spouse was cheating? Or find out what Fido has been doing in Heaven all these years? Thank Goddess for psychics, and thank your lucky stars for the Psychic Buffet, from 5-9 p.m. every first Monday at the Urban Onion Restaurant in downtown Olympia. See your future a little more clearly thanks to area clairvoyants and mediums, Tarot card readers and energy healers. Plug into the area's collective unconscious.

4. Every April, the Academy of American Poets commands us to pay attention to poetry, with National Poetry Month. Which is troublesome, because most poets spend their lifetimes trying just to figure out what poetry is. How is the layperson supposed to do it in a month? Appropriately, the Striped Water Poets kicks off a new poetry series tonight from 7-9 p.m. at the Station Bistro in the Auburn transit center. Before MC Christopher J. Jarmick announces the poetry open mic session, two poets will take the stage: Woodinville's Peggy Barnett and Tacoma-based writer and actress Emilie Rommel Shimkus.

5. Let's tally up the score for Jazzbones's 9 p.m. Monday night Rockaraoke, shall we? A chance to sing onstage with a live band? Yes. Cheap Miller High Life? Yes. A valid excuse to drink on a Monday (repeat, Monday) night? Yes, yes and, oh God, yes.

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