FRIDAY, MAY 10 2013 >>>

1. Tonight at Jazzbones, Midnight Salvage Co. will be playing their last official show - and releasing their sophomore album, Neon Lights. A year ago, the band holed up at Seattle's Egg studios with veteran producer Conrad Uno (Mudhoney, Presidents of the United States of America, Young Fresh Fellows), unbeknownst to the band members that a year later guitarist Brason Alexander would be blazing to sunny Cali, bassist Dustin Lau would be headed to The Big Apple and their University Place practice space would meet a wrecking ball. Drop by Jazzbones at 8 p.m., enjoy opener China Davis, take it Midnight Salvage's shot of whiskey infused roadhouse Springsteen and grab yourself a piece of musical history.

2. 72 hours is not a long time. The teams competing in this year's Grand Cinema 72 Hour Film Festival - a yearly Tacoma institution - know this all too well. Recently, frenzied packs of Tacoma filmmakers dashed around T-town, hurriedly capturing on film all the entries that will make up this year's manic, competitive filmmaking celebration - set to go down at 7 p.m. inside the Rialto Theater. Who will win? How will all the "mandatory elements" - including the use of a superstition, a flashlight, the writing or sending of a letter or message and the line "That wasn't what I was expecting" - be worked into all of the entries? Find out tonight. Read Cassady Coulter's full feature on the 72 Hour Film Festival in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section.

3. Distinguished writers, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and people who scribble on cocktail napkins will step up to the mic from 7-9 p.m. as part of the Distinguished Writer Series and Open Mic at King's Books. Aging hippie poet Risa Deneberg, author of The Lives You Touch Publications, will take lead.

4. Ballet Northwest’s production of The Sleeping Beauty includes professional sets, lavish costumes, 75 local dancers and guest artist Iyun Harrison, formerly of Dance Theater of Harlem. See the twirls at 7:30 p.m. inside The Washington Center.

5. There's a kind of gauzy, depressive Americana that began spreading around in the '90s, spearheaded by the likes of Bill Callahan and Lambchop - these masters and practitioners of the slow-burning, baritone-voiced folk music that reveled in cynical humor as much as poignantly expressive dirges. The Super 8 are instantly evocative of these touchstones, the vocals pointedly reminiscent of Kurt Wagner's distinctive croak and Callahan's defeated mumble, and the guitars mournfully spilling deceptively beautiful melodies from deep within that hollow body. Check them out at 8 p.m. with Gary Alan May and the Hinges inside Northern.

LINK: Friday, May 10 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area