SATURDAY, SEPT. 28 2013 >>>
1. There are hundreds of opportunities for the amateur and the professional photogs to get some incredible shots at the annual Oceanic Lumins Festivus as it travels from Wright Park to Tacoma's Theater District beginning at 7:15 p.m. Flex your photojournalism muscle as costumed folks march a winding path, try your hand at an abstract camera toss using the lanterns as your light source, or test your skills in Instagram, Vine, or video with ... just about anything. Thousands of people doing hundreds of things: kids picking their noses; people dressed as fish running, sea urchins marching, mermaids singing; anything goes in this autumnal procession of lights in illuminated sea sculpture. Everywhere you look there's something to document, so you can't go wrong.
2. National Alpaca Farm Days is this weekend. Oh, did you not hear that? You've never heard of an alpaca? Alpacas resemble little Wookie-horses or miniature llamas. Unlike llamas, though, alpacas are not for carrying things; specifically, they are bred for their hair, which is a lot like sheep's wool. Alpaca wool is a silky and lustrous luxury. You should pet one. While these unique creatures hail from the Andean steppes, they seem to like Fife, as well. The Firwood Farm Alpacas in Fife celebrates National Alpaca Farm Days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Go learn about alpacas and pet one.
3. The Double Shot Festival gives playwrights, directors and actors a mere 24 hours to write, rehearse, and stage original plays. Not even George Bernard Shaw worked this fast. The plays unfold in a leisurely two hours, twice - at 7 and 9 p.m. in Broadway Center's Studio III - so you don't have to sweat, they do. The Double Shot Festival is a partnership between the Northwest Playwright Alliance and the Broadway Center's year-long Free For All focus, which means the Double Shot Festival is free to attend.
4. With The Evens, Amy Farina barrels on the drums, sometimes sounding as easy as morning fog rolling over settled water, other times sounding as sharp and heated as a first piercing. When she sings, she saturates with feminine power. Together with Ian MacKaye's sometimes plucking, often grinding guitar and hard-hitting vocals that evoke nostalgia for your first Fugazi or Minor Threat album but also wakes up little pieces of your heart that weren't there before, the duo makes a memorable sound. Catch The Evens at 7 p.m. in the Olympia Eagles Hall. Read Nikki McCoy's interview with Ian MacKaye in the Music and Culture section.
5. Music combined with atmosphere is one of the many aesthetics that The Warehouse production company aims for. Its Candle Lit series is another way to highlight the unique visions of these Tacoma creatives - music by candle light in a church. Headlinging the Candle Lit Show at 8 p.m. in Tacoma's Urban Grace Church are the trio You Are Plural, a band that make music for the kind of people that need a little more propulsion in their chamber pop. Made up of cello, Wurlitzer organ and drums, You Are Plural construct perfectly lovely tunes that benefit greatly from the sort of nervous percussion provided by not only the drums, but by the Wurlitzer. The Local Strangers, Spirits of the Red City and Bradford Loomis join in.
LINK: Saturday, Sept. 28 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area
