Rep. Derek Kilmer(D) loves Washington state's 6th District, the region he represents in the other Washington. And, boy oh boy, he has professed his love for its beautiful scenery and awesome people. Unfortunately, he's pretty much used up all the words in the English language professing his love for the district, so he's hosting a photo contest of the region - on his Facebook. Below is a release with details:
Representative Derek Kilmer today announced his first Facebook Cover Photo contest for residents of Washington's 6th District. All residents are encouraged to enter an original, high-quality photograph of the region for an opportunity for it to appear as the cover photo on Representative Kilmer's Facebook page.
The evening air is getting a little cooler, and the countdown to Labor Day is on. How better to celebrate the last days of summer than with a childhood throwback ... with a twist. Toscanos Café and Wine Bar in Puyallup is serving up adult snow cones every Wednesday after 5 p.m. in August.
What constitutes an adult snow cone? Choose from raspberry, peach, mango, pina colada or pomegranate and add your favorite premium spirit for $9.95. Think raspberry shaved ice with vodka, or mango and tequila.
"My favorite Toscanos shaved ice has to be pina colada because it gives you that Hawaii beach feel with an added bonus of a buzz," says bartender Lee Zander-Conn.
Toscanos being the classy place it is, the boozy snow cones are served in a martini glass.
Since this is the last week of August, no pressure - that means it's your last chance this Wednesday to sit at a bar and eat a cocktail with a spoon. I can assure you, this is the only case that would be appropriate.
TOSCANOS CAFÉ AND WINE BAR, 437 29th St. NE, Puyallup, 253.864.8600
All right, look: I realize that, by even saying anything about One Direction: This is Us, I'm creeping up on cranky old man territory. And yes, yes, old people be hatin', but can we just talk about that title?
One Direction: This is Us. This is us? In the pantheon of rock documentaries, we have The Last Waltz, Don't Look Back, Stop Making Sense, Gimme Shelter and, uh, This is Us? They've managed to come up with a title with even less personality than the actual, homogenous boy band itself.
But back to the trailer. ... We're treated to childhood photos of One Direction (read: photos taken 10 years ago), while identical narrators muse remembrances like, "In school, I was always the guy that made people laugh," and "I used to get kicked out of class for singing Irish traditional songs." Somehow this is all supposed to justify how they're now "number one in 37 countries."
And now, an exploration of fame and what it means to be in a boy band 15 years after the initial craze died out. How are One Direction working to separate themselves from the rabble? By not choreographing their dances, we're told. Then, it's a race to the bottom for each member to establish themselves as the "funny one," taking turns doing bland recreations of bits from A Hard Day's Night, if they even know what that is.
Finally, we're made to look at sad shots of middle-aged women crying with delight at the sight of these hairless boys.
It's worth pointing out two things about this trailer. First, very little of One Direction's music is featured, validly giving the impression that this is much more a cult of personality than an actual band. Oddly honest, I think.
Second, this movie is directed by former agit-doc director Morgan Spurlock - which is certainly a relief, as this seems to suggest that there is no more change to be made in the world if this guy's getting off Ronald McDonald's back long enough to follow some lithe British boys around for a while. Rejoice!
Hosting exchange students is a wonderful, rewarding experience. Hailing from countries as varied as Korea, Brazil, China, England and Japan, international students bring their own rich stories and cultural backgrounds to the community while enjoying an American immersion experience. As you fill out the exchange application, thoughts of family excursions with the new family member to Washington state attractions and historical museums dance in your head. "It's going to be a great tourist opportunity for the whole family," you think to yourself as you apply White Out to the application.
Then, life piles on, and weekends are full of job obligations, extended homework sessions and the exchange student's "new American girlfriend" dates.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman knows life can present its challenges. Wyman's Legacy Washington team created the "Grand Coulee to Grunge" exhibit, focusing on the eight stories from Washington state that changed the world. In one visit to the State Capitol, the exchange student and your family can learn how awesome the state is in terms of business, science, technology and music.
Below is the press release announcing the new, free exhibit, which opens Wednesday, Sept. 4 - exactly when your exchange student starts the school then later complains he can't smoke in the classroom.
1. Blessed with a voice that made even his most obtuse musings to the press sound like gospel, Martin Luther King Jr. might have been taken for the Messiah. It's hard to know how Washington's or Lincoln's speeches might have carried to their contemporaries, but thanks to the magic of film, the good pastor will remain forever a man as well as a monument. King helped broadcast the conditions of the Jim Crow South by attracting film crews to the lawns where crosses were being burned or the lunch counters where protesters were being attacked. The Baptist preacher provided iconic imagery in front of the camera, delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and marching arm-in-arm across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Beginning with Harry Belafonte's somber introduction, the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis captures all the key moments of King's career - the Montgomery boycott, the Birmingham movement (including the church bombing that took the lives of four little girls), the March on Washington, King's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Selma march, the Northern campaign in Chicago, King's increasingly outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, and on to Memphis. The Grand Cinema screens the film at 8 p.m. on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
2. A thought-provoking discussion about food justice issues and how these relate to race, class and sustainability will fill King's Book's at 7 p.m. when the Food Justice Book Club picks apart the book, Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability by Alison Hope Alkon and Julian Agyeman.
3. Singer-songwriter Alyse Black brings her sultry voice and indie pop melodies to Metronome Coffee at 8 p.m.
4. Rick Gonzalez and Ike Sutton will perform an unplugged two hour show with guitar and percussion playing a bunch of classic rock from the late '50s through the '80s at The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.
5. Dannica Lowery is a soul-singing, songwriting, story-telling songbird from the South. Americana runs hot in her veins. Her father came from a long line of bluegrass musicians, and her mother was a poet, so the universe had already dealt her the singer/songwriter cards. Lowery joins locals Jeanlizabeth and Travis Barker for the 8 p.m. "Acoustic Sound Session Volume 1" show at Jazzbones. DJ Headline follows.
The event takes place noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, and includes a potluck, school supplies giveaway, free haircuts, DJs, breakdancers, a graffiti wall, markers, paint and paper and an open mic.
"School supplies are expensive and many families could use help obtaining these items," says Josh Rizeberg, event coordinator. "The list of school-supplies has grown since I was a kid and they just need so much stuff nowadays. They need a lot more than just paper, pens, pencils, and a binder. We'll hopefully have flash-drives to give-out to the older students."
1. Musical performances during openings at B2 Fine Art Gallery are nothing new, but the gallery is branching out into music in a big way with the first of a two-part series of art celebrating music. SPIN 1: American Vinyl Exhibition is the first of two shows with portraits of musicians in photography and paint augmented with vinyl records to buy, sell and trade; gallery talks and musical performances throughout the duration of the exhibition. This first show focuses on gospel, blues, country and folk, and includes art and photography celebrating giants of music from Woody Gutherie and Robert Johnson to Dylan. Check it out from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Read Alec Clayton's full feature on the show in the Music and Culture section.
2. We got a fever, and the only prescription is more ukulele. Olympia's biggest ukulele band, Uke Oyster Cult, will perform Americana, hapa-haole and sing-alongs from 7:30-9 p.m. at the Olympia Timberline Library.
3. The Kareem Kandi Band will fill the lobby of the Hotel Murano with jazz from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m.
4. Remember how excited you were when you learned the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival was moving to Cheney Stadium? Weekly Volcano food scribe Jackie Fender has the scoop on the Sept. 7 event in our Bars & Clubs section. Also damn exciting is the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival kickoff show featuring The Jilly Rizzo and The Brownsville Rhythm Combo performing at 8 p.m. in The Swiss.
5. Pre Funk Thursdays hip-hop show features SIC ILL, Don P, Awall, Shorte Ru and JUI at 9 p.m. in El Potrero on Tacoma's Eastside.
1. If you're a geek of a certain age or, for that matter, anyone who loves cinematic comedy, you know exactly what happens when someone says the name "Frau Blücher." You know how to bring home the chorus of "Puttin' on the Ritz." You know who made a yummy sound, and you suspect Mel Brooks's 1974 masterpiece Young Frankenstein may be one of the greatest comedies in American cinema history. Whether you've seen it or not, we insist you follow your grentfadda's footshtops to the Washington State Capital Museum, at 9 p.m. where "Movies at the Mansion" presents an outdoor screening of the film. If it's brisk that night, some varm milk, perhaps?
2. The Weekly Volcano is synonymous with fun, so there's no way we would ever let Olympia Harbor Days festival pass without trumpeting it. Why? Because we love the hell out of some tugboats. And if there's one thing Oly Harbor Days is synonymous with, it's tugboats. And history. And fun. Is there another way we could use the word synonymous in this blurb? Probably. But why push our luck. The important thing is that you head down to Oly's waterfront 5-8 p.m. as well as Saturday and/or Sunday and get in on a late-summer rite of passage. Of particular interest are the annual tugboat races, which go down Sunday at noon.
3. The Odd Life is a Very Special Movie about a Very Special Boy who has Very Special Leaves growing out of his legs, and who helps a Very Special Town save its Very Special Pencil Factory. This Special Film screens at dusk - after a Special Performance by jazz guitarist Michael Powers, which begins at 5 p.m. at Point Defiance Park. Special.
4. "I'm on a boat!" Any bets if that's an artwork title at the 11th Annual Open Juried Art Show at the Harbor History Museum, which opens today? The museum nestles the water in downtown Gig Harbor. You can't walk the length of a plank without stumbling into a nautical reference. It seems like a safe bet for at least one of the 150 works by the 90 artists the Peninsula Art League curated would have a sense of humor. The show represents the second component of the 2013 Museum Art Series and follows the Maritime Art Exhibit which closed Aug. 25. An artists reception will go down 6-8 p.m. Why not be on a boat when you arrive?
5. No one ever accused the Night Beats of being a lazy band, and their most recent activity has been no different. With the release of their wild-eyed music video for their song, "The Seven Poison Wonders," off of their upcoming LP, Sonic Bloom, the psych-rockers have kept themselves very busy. Their show tonight at The New Frontier will be their last in these parts before the road warriors take off on yet another extended tour of the U.S. and Europe in support of their new album. Hang with MILK, Bath Party and the Night Beats beginning at 9 p.m.
Every week in the Weekly Volcano print edition, we highlight a national food holiday in the Buzz-o-Meter. It's ridiculous, really - the food/drink holidays, that is. No government agency has officially recognized most of them. Industry folks say they have no clue how national food days are determined. Yet, someone, somewhere has declared a day of recognition for every edible imaginable; there's National Tempura Day, National Rhubarb Pie Day, National Crabmeat Day, National Beans 'n' Franks Day, and, of course, National Leftovers Day the day after Thanksgiving. There's a national food holiday every day of the year.
Yesterday, apparently, was National Cabernet Day.
While it's easy to dismiss this "Day" as just another excuse to tie one on, in truth it's a good reason to learn more about "The King of Red Wine Grapes." Cabernet Sauvignon reigns as one of the world's most popular grapes, showing up as the main variety in some of the most renowned (read: expensive) wines on the planet. According to Bob Kinnaman, co-owner of the Wine Bank & Beer Vault in University Place, Cabernet Sauvignon is, "one of the most widely planted varieties on the planet - particularly in California - where pricey Napa Valley lays claim to nearly a quarter of the state's total Cab crop." The grape actually is a cross between two grapes: Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.
Primo Grill has been serving up delightful, date night worthy Mediterranean dishes while maintaining an unpretentious, swanky appeal since the late l'90s. Did you know they also host cooking courses? The Tacoma restaurant's fall class schedule dropped today. Classes are $65, which includes recipes, instruction with your lunch and a glass of wine.
The Cuisine of Tuscany: Saturday, Oct. 12
The Cuisine of Spain: Oct. 19
Making Fresh Pasta: Nov. 2
The Cuisine of Northern Italy: Nov. 9
A NW Holiday Feast: Nov. 16
Call Jacqueline at 253.383.7000 to reserve your spot.
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