The 4^th Annual Pig Run Car and Bike Show cruises this Saturday in Olympia as part of Cruz for the Cure to support Mary Bridge in Tacoma.  

South Bay Dickerson's BBQ (the pig bar) at 619 Legion Way is hosting the event. There will be live music, barbeque, and of course, streets lined with smokin hot cars and bikes. Festivities start at noon and the entry fee is $10, no pre-registration required.

"I look forward to it because it's a wonderful way to get the locals to come out and enjoy great cars, bikes, music, dancing, food and drinks," says Amanda Warren, event organizer, "All while raising money for a great cause."

Cruz for the Cure (CFTC) is a local nonprofit that raises money each year for a different charity within a 100 mile cruise. This year's beneficiary is The Mary Bridge Tree House, a housing facility for the families of children who are in care at Mary Bridge's Children's Hospital in Tacoma.

Music starts at 1:30 pm with The Brown Edition. 4 p.m. with Black Top Demon and 8 p.m. with The Dave Bensam Trio. There will also be raffle to win a BBQ or a $100 gift certificate for South Bay Dickerson's BBQ.  All raffles sales will go towards CFTC.

For more info, https://www.facebook.com/mobileprotection#!/events/291380707622063/

No need to feel fat in your bikini this Summer when Crystal light has made it possible to be a skinny lush. Crystal light is back for the summer with their Mocktail Packets available in three low calorie flavors: margarita, appletini, and mojito. Each packet, at a slimming 5 calories, can easily be mixed with alcohol of choice.

We understand the urge to bust out those short shorts.

A large-national underground artist, by way of Strong Arm Steady, is coming to our town, Saturday, June 16. I'm speaking of none other than Mitchy Slick, the slick-talking street-spitter from California. Slick already had a stellar underground Hip-Hop career, and then a few years ago he hooked-up with Talib Kweli, Phil Da Agony, and Chrondon to make the ultra-cool Hip-Hop group, Strong Arm Steady.

S.A.S. is the perfect balance of Hip-Hop culture and California Gang-Culture. Mitchy Slick exemplifies this mixture. He's definitely a street-dude - but it's clear that when he's making music, he's repping Hip-Hop first and then his set second. If all lyrical-wordplay is a little nerdy for you, and if played-out close-minded, one-style G-music is not good enough for you - then Mitchy Slick and S.A.S. is your answer. 

The show is at Club Vanity in Tacoma. It is $20 at the door or $35 will get ya an exclusive V.I.P. ticket, which includes a meet and greet with Mitchy himself. This show is brought to us by Yea Dat Ent and Mun-E Makin Ent. DJ Fresh and DJ Hov will be spinning - making sure yo butts aren't glued to yo seats! So get a new fit and come be seen!

The king wasn't lying when he said you could have it your way! 
If a southern menu with a bacon sundae is your way, your in luck today. Bk 
introduced their new southern menu, including the anticipated bacon sundae. Of 
course I had to try one, and wasn't disappointed when the sweet salty combo hit the spot. 
Bk takes the traditional vanilla soft serve and  smothers it in Carmel and chocolate 
sauce, topping it off with bacon crumbles and half a slice on top. 
This could be dangerous to my health. 
Other new menu items include: a Memphis pulled pork sandwich, Carolina BBQ 
Whopper, and sweet potato fries.  

June is national candy month. In my book, candy is anything sweet and delicious; chocolates, cookies, cakes, pies.

When I was a little kid and did something good, I was rewarded with a slice of homemade bread and sweet raspberry jam.  When I got hurt, I was handed a cookie to soothe me. If I was bad and behaving poorly, it was "No dessert for you!" Growing up this way has turned me into an adult that views eating certain foods, particularly sweets, as a reward system. I think in terms of "I did a great job at work today, I deserve some candy" or "I didn't go to the gym, no sugar for me".

Advancements in natural sugar substitutes and healthy sweetening options mean those sweet treats I crave don't have to turn into extra pounds or guilty feelings.

The quinoa cookies at Corina Bakery (602 South Fawcett, Tacoma) are dubbed "bird seed cookies" for their appearance, but taste far from that. Subtly sweet with a nice nuttiness, the cookies have a wonderful crunchy texture and are truly a healthy snack that just pretends to be a sugared cookie. I tried making these at home and though the taste was fairly close, mine were not nearly as pretty and didn't hold together very well. I'm sure I skimped on the flax or granola and probably added too much brown sugar.

Speaking of home-baked, University Place resident Melinda Huish has been baking for decades. Cookbooks hold her recipes; the taste of her desserts, cookies and breads is legend in certain circles. Her secret is to use quality ingredients, follow the recipe exactly and exercise patience. "You can't rush a recipe, if it says let the dough rise for an hour that's what you need to do."

Her advice and recipes have made my own baked products the recipient of thankful smiles and murmurs of approval.

More handmade items can be found at Johnson's Candy Company (924 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma). Vanilla ice cream bars are on the large size. Dipped in dark chocolate or milk chocolate and then rolled in crushed almond is the way to go. Fun, summery fruit slices in watermelon, lemon, orange, raspberry and lime are made from gelatin and are more fruity than sugary sweet. Fudges, caramel nut logs, peanut brittle and other winter holiday treats are now offered year-round.

Though they don't handle warm weather well, hand-dipped truffles at Affairs Chocolate and Desserts in University Place (2811 Bridgeport Way West) provide a definite fix for chocolate cravings. With summer almost upon us, my need for fruit and summery foods increases. Grand Marnier truffles have a nice orange flavor paired dark chocolate. Affairs also offers from-scratch pies, cheesecakes and traditional cakes.

Want to get up close and personal and see how decadent candies and sweets are made? Aunt Kate's Chocolates in historic Tenino (296 Sussex Ave West) offers tours of the facilities and a chocolate tasting. Sold by the ounce, Aunt Kate has triple layer peanut butter fudge, rocky road fudge, coconut clusters, sugar free chocolates, raspberry chocolate truffles, seashell shaped chocolates and more. Those wanting a salty sweet fix will swoon over crunchy chocolate dipped potato chips and w3hite chocolate caramels with Hawaiian black lava sea salt. For Father's Day, Aunt Kate is offering a chocolate tasting and fondue for two experience.

Taking the salty sweet fixation to a whole new level is Kris Blondin's compost cookie. Wacky name, great flavors all in one tasty package; Blondin combines chocolate, pretzels, peanut butter, potato chips, bacon pieces and more in this cookie at STINK (628 St Helens Ave), her downtown Tacoma cheese and meat deli that doubles as a café with beer and wine. Part midday snack and part sugar fix, the compost cookie seriously satisfies and has much less guilt associated with it than other cookie options.

Just days after the summer solstice, Olympia's Own Tush Burlesque is teaming up with Seattle's Stripped Screw for a night of steamy, hot strip-tease. At the historic Capitol Theater in Olympia this Saturday, the troupes will be telling their stories through dance, props and music. The theme for the night is Nymph - o - Mania! Enchanted Forest Follies! Imagine tassels, sparkles, fishnets and creative costumes on all types of lovely bodies.

"The audience should expect a rainbow of fantasy delights with fairies, unicorns, centaurs, and forest creatures come to life on stage before their eyes," said Bettie Beelzebub, Tush performer. "Summer is a time of dreams come true, and with the Nymph-O-Mania show we are excited to celebrate with you this season of imagination."

There will be a raffle with prizes from local favorites like Spa Aneity, Oly Vegan, and Old School Pizzeria, plus many others.

Doors open at 8 p.m., Show at 9 p.m. Advance tickets are $15, and they are available at Rainy Day Records and online at brownpapertickets.com. Box office day of show $20. Mature audience, 18+. Beer garden 21+.

CAPITOL THEATER, 206 5th AVENUE SE, OLYMPIA, 360.754.6670

In a time before movies, DVDs, and Netflix, there were magic lantern shows. Far from instant streaming, magic lanterns combined projected images with live narration, audience participation, and music for a rollicking good time. This weekend, you can get in on the Victorian-era entertainment at the Washington State History Museum's Magic Lantern Show, Saturday, June 23, at 7:30 p.m.

The Magic Lantern Show is presented by American Magic-Lantern Show, the only touring company in the U.S. that does these kinds of shows. The presentation will be narrated by Terry Borton, who is impressively a fourth-generation lanternist. The lantern itself is much like a slide projector, but the one at WSHM on Saturday evening is from the 1890s.

The program includes a mixture of song and narration, with several hand-painted slides for each song. The audience is often welcome to join in, whether this means helping with sound effects or a sing-a-long.

Tickets are available at the museum the night of the show for $12.

If lantern shows particularly tickle your fancy, the show will happen in conjunction with the 15^th International Magic Lantern Convention, held at the Tacoma Dome Best Western. The convention costs $20 per day for presentations and entertainment.  For more information, click here.

Not familiar with handbell music, I began an online search and stumbled across a rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love." I was sold on the unique sound and style of handbells. The dings and dongs were able to envelop the chords and harmonies with the precise movement and stopping of bells. Awesome.

While the two handbell groups that are coming to the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center this weekend don't cover any Queen songs, they do rock a mean bell.

Vivace, a handbell group from Puerto Rico, will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Vivace means "lively" and "vivid," and that's exactly what type of show spectators should expect to see. The group incorporates the unique sound of handbells with percussion and guitar to create an engaging, energetic live performance. The ensemble consists of about 20 people, all between the ages of 14 and 22, with a minimum 10 years experience.

"The energy and precision of these young people is incredible," said Phyllis Tincher, a member of the Handbell Musicians of America' s Board of Directors for Area 10, which includes the Pacific Northwest. The organization is dedicated to advancing the musical art of handbell and handchime ringing through education, community and communication.

"I'm very excited that we are able to bring them (to Tacoma)," Tincher said.

Tincher has been involved with the group for 14 years.

"I was drawn to the beautiful, mellow sound of the bells," she said.

Handbell Musicians of America - Area 10 will perform a free show at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Dennis Dell, a member of the Area 10 group, has been ringing since 1986.

"I love to ring," he said. "It's mentally stimulating because it is unusual."

This group of nearly 400 musicians hails from a five-state radius and will play using a variety of techniques, including the use of mallets. There will be soloists as well, Dell said.

Handbells have used since the turn of the 18^th century as a way to practice the patterned peals of larger bells. They are considered a percussion instrument and can range in weight from 7 ounces to 18 pounds.

The crowd this weekend will be in for a treat, as these two great ensembles will be sure to delight audiences of all ages with their unique sound and visual appeal.

For more information, visit www.handbellmusicans.org

The underground movement to bring the glories of the ukulele to the masses has added yet another sleeper cell in the South Sound.

Riding the wave of Eddie Vedder's "Ukulele Songs" CD last year and the recent sellout show at the Rialto by ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro (who is known as the Jimi Hendrix of the four-string), Ted Brown Music is now playing host to "Uke ‘an Jam" song circle at 6:30 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday.

On about a week's notice, the first circle strum drew about 20 people, from mom-and-son duos to retirees, remembering their ill-spent youth on the beaches of Hawaii or California. Everyone seems to have a "ukulele story."

Robert "Joey" Stofle, for example, leads the group and started playing the uke about 10 years ago as a way to celebrate his stepchildren's Hawaiian heritage.

"It's important to keep that language and the culture alive," he said.

While Stofle also teaches mandolin, banjo, guitar and "everything that is fretted and stringed," he has seen a recent spike in ukulele students. That rise prompted Ted Brown to host the free ukulele song circle in much the same way it has done for drummers for more than 10 years.

"They really want to connect with the community and bring people together," Stofle said.

Few things connect people like strumming a ukulele.

(Ted Brown Music, 6228 Tacoma Mall Boulevard, Tacoma, www.tedbrownmusic.com, 800.562.8938)

Other ukulele circles

Ukulele Ohana meets at 5:30 p.m. every Monday at the Queens' Closet, 9614 40th Ave SW in Lakewood. While the first hour is instructional, the rest of the night is a song circle and potluck that draws between 20 and 40 people of all ages and abilities from around the South Sound.

Washington Association of South Sound Ukulele Players meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in Tacoma at Point Defiance Village, (6414 North Park Way. All are welcome watch, join in and learn or just hang around and enjoy all things ukulele.

We sure do love us a good prequel, the party before the party. Friday night's "Sneak Peek" event at The Grand Cinema was the Prometheus to its here-before-you-know-it Tacoma Film Festival (October 4-11), except it actually made sense and involved a lot less alien goo. Attendees answered trivia about the fest (which turns 7 this year) and won prizes, while Rachel Marecle and TFF director Emily Alm launched T-shirts into the crowd.

But besides scoring some free merch, we all really came for the movies. To whet our appetites for October's celebration, the theater ran four entertaining shorts that appeared in past years at TFF, with one 2012 debut. The idea of escape seemed to link these very different films together - from the gripping drama Ana's Playground (2010's Best Short), about a girl who uses soccer to survive in her war-torn neighborhood, to the whimsical The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (last year's Best Animated Film), with its reading-is-magic! moral. (Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adzywe9xeIU)  

Even the tumbleweed in the 2012 entry Tumbleweed! wants to explore new vistas, or at least another county in Texas. Tacoma's Andrew Finnigan said his own escape into filmmaking began when he saw Superman at age 10 at the Blue Mouse Theatre. About his craft, this two-time TFF winner for Audience Choice told the audience, "It's an escape for us (moviemakers)...going into another world and living there for awhile." Finnigan's picked for his latest "vacation" the post-apocalyptic Koinonia, a feature currently in post-production. (http://www.facebook.com/koinoniamovie)

We avid moviegoers, who prefer living on the other side of the screen, duck into theaters not simply to leave our world, but to reenter it with recharged imaginations and a renewed appreciation for it. The 2012 Tacoma Film Festival should offer 8 days of chances to do exactly that.