THE WEEK OF DEC. 27, 2012 - JAN. 2, 2013 >>>

In this week's issue of the Weekly Volcano ...

What did you get accomplished in 2012? Some of you graduated from high school/college, some welcomed a bouncing baby boy/girl into the world, still others found/lost that perfect job. (My condolences to the latter.) As for Weekly Volcano film critic Christopher Wood, just another typical year fighting his future self while rising to save Gotham from a wheezy tyrant. Then he found myself in a little skirmish on the high seas involving aliens and battleships, but that story seems to bore folks. There he goes again, confusing reality with the movies he saw this year. Instead of picking the best movies of 2012, Wood enlisted the help of a few good men, local filmmakers who personally know a thing about crafting silver screen magic.

Humble Cub's last album, back in 2010, concerned itself with the beach, Five Mile Drive, and the sensation of hanging onto youth and relationships in long car rides and buzzed hikes. Telegram From Your Future Life,the band's latest, is conversely all about living, working and playing music in downtown Tacoma - an urban wood not entirely dissimilar from the beach that so enamored frontman Allan Boothe back in 2010. Weekly Volcano music critic Rev. Adam McKinney reviews the new CD before Humble Cub takes the stage twice this weekend.

Picking up an album and examining the cover is the first step when shopping for, listening to or contemplating music. Sometimes gazing at the cover, studying the inside jackets and analyzing the art is half the fun. Nikki McCoy asked Weekly Volcano arts critic Alec Clayton to give his impression of a handful of recently released Olympia-based album cover art.

It's a given many folk had major kitchen fails this holiday season. Weekly Volcano food writer Jackie Fender is a darn good cook, yet she cannot for the life of her make gravy that isn't lumpy. To avoid the glaring eyes, polite decline for seconds and giggles, Fender presents a few South Sound cooking classes. 

We're getting a little misty-eyed here at Weekly Volcano World Headquarters, where 12 months of 2012 have passed like a speeding coal train through Tacoma. Those of us whose careers depend on newsy doings owe the year 2012 a major professional debt. The Weekly Volcano presents the top South Sound stories of 2012.

PLUS: Music critics' picks of the week

PLUS: New work by Devin Reynolds at Fulcrum Gallery

PLUS: Josh Rizeberg's hip-hop column

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