LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

4th Ave Tavern Olympia - Downtown. AKA and The Heart Hurt Goods, Elbow Coulee and Armed With Legs. 9 pm. $5.

• AKA and The Heart Hurt Goods is a hodge-podge of instrumental musicians honing everything from violin-play to drums, bass guitar and many more. With a funk/rock/hip-hop capability, The Heart Hurt Goods is led by frontman and former veteran of the Olympia MC-battle circuit, AKA. AKA's story is too lengthy for this short preview to respectfully explain, but what is not difficult is the act of participating and enjoying he and his band's music. They were selected at The Olympia Music Awards as Best Solo (AKA) and Best Hip-Hop Act of The Year and have received excellent reviews following performances up and down I-5 and the Puget Sound.  Here's the fun part: AKA and The Heart Hurt Goods is rocking this Saturday night at Olympia's 4th Ave Tavern. Joining them are Elbow Coulee and Armed With Legs, which makes for a full night of live award-winning music right in your vicinity. - Jose Gutierrez Jr.
  

502 Downtown Tacoma - Downtown. Weekend Of Jazz, featuring Deems Tsutakawa, Pete Kirkland. 8 pm.

Cork! A Wine Bar Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Kurt Lindsay. 8 pm.

Doyle's Public House Tacoma - Stadium District. Mighty High. 9:30 pm. NC.

Eagles Club Olympia - Downtown. The Evens. All Ages. 7 pm. $7.

• 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. Read Nikki McCoy's interview with Ian MacKaye in the Music and Culture section.

Harmon Tap Room Tacoma - Stadium District. Death By Stars, The West, Not From Brooklyn, Ever So Android. 9 pm.

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Zepparella (Led Zeppelin tribute). 8 pm.

• "DUN DUN." You already know what's happening. "DUN DUN." A cavalcade of snares and cymbals rupture. A whale of a drummer pounds. Two fair-haired boys and a skinny guitar wizard feel the rush of thousands cheering as the quartet launches in "Good Times Bad Times." Sorry, Led Zeppelin fans, but the song does not remain the same. Say hello to Zepparella, an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band that is eager to give a whole lotta love to Tacoma Saturday. These ladies take Zep's sweaty man-rock and give it a kick in the groin. Zepparella, which has been together since 2004, creates its own individuality by improvising within the framework of the original songs. Roberta Plant, Page Jimmy, Joan-Paula Jones and Johanna Bonham should be their stage names. The band is that good. - Weekly Volcano
  

La Gitana Olympia - Downtown. The Greta Jane Quartet. 6:30 pm.

Le Voyeur Café and Lounge Olympia - Downtown. Moose Portrait, A Volcano, Ah God. 9 pm.

• I guess we should've seen it coming, ever since lo-fi recording became its own modest movement, that some people would take that ethic to its natural ending point. And so, we must say, the genre dubiously dubbed "shitgaze" was an inevitability. Testing the limits of tolerable listening conditions, bands like Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit found their audience, meaning that a whole cavalcade of murky bands would lurch forward. Ah God, from Portland, is such a band. Sounding like they were recorded in an underwater tin can, Ah God's music is actually quite compelling and deftly assembled, once you wipe away all the grime and peer through the proverbial greasy windshield. Embracing washes of reverb and prickly distortion, Ah God make psychedelic pop that even sometimes appears to have catchy choruses and canny hooks. The digging through the muck proves a worthwhile endeavor. - Rev. Adam mcKinney
  

Red Wind Casino Yelm. Jonathan Harris. 8:30 pm. NC.

The Spar Tacoma - Old Town. Billy Wilson & The Bayou Blast. 8 pm.

Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill Spanaway. Vigilante Justice. 9 pm.

Urban Grace Church Tacoma - Downtown. The Warehouse Presents a Candle Lit Show with The Local Strangers, Spirits of the Red City, Bradford Loomis, You Are Plural. All Ages. 7 pm. $7 advance, $10 door.

• The trio of You Are Plural 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 organ furiously pulses in tandem with the drums, lending movement to the otherwise humbly beautiful songs. In recent years, as evidenced by their entrancing new single, "Rabbit Rabbit," You Are Plural have moved in a gently anthemic direction. Highlighted by the affecting vocal harmonies of Jen Grady and Ephriam Nagler, "Rabbit Rabbit" steadily pushes toward a crescendo that, though it may not quite be of a fist-pumping variety, still gets your blood going better than your average cello and organ outfit might suggest. - Rev. AM
  

LINK: More live music Saturday, Sept. 28 in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, SEPT. 29 1023 >>>

1. The South Sound Blues Association will send The Randy Oxford Band and pianist Arthur Migliazza to rep the Northwest at the International Blues Challenge next year. The SSBA hosts its annual Back to Beale Street Blues 2014 Fundraiser to help pay costs and to provide the South Sound with one hell of a blue concert. The event will take place from 4-10 p.m. at The Swiss. Click here for the line-up.

2. Everyone loves the antics of sea otters, those impossibly cute marine mammals that lie on their backs in the water as they feast on their dinners. From 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium will shine the spotlight on sea otters with special Sea Otter Awareness Day activities. The otters will get special enrichments like toys to play with and treats to eat. The humans will learn about these interesting creatures and why they're crucial to the world's ecosystems.

4. Olympia Little Theatre closes its run of Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers at 1:55 p.m. It's set in December 1969, the same month the play opened on Broadway, and it follows the adventures of Barney, a middle-aged husband, as he attempts to cheat on his wife with three different women. What keeps this nebbish from being despicable is his amorous ineptitude - no spoilers, but his fourth time's the charm - and the fact that he really just wants to learn what's so fantastic about the Sexual Revolution. Read Christian Carvajal's full review of Last of the Red Hot Lovers in the Music and Culture section.

The Lord Franzannian Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show closes its run at the Midnight Sun Performance Space with a 4 p.m. show. Working in the tradition of vaudeville shows from the early part of the 20th century, this fast-paced variety show promises a little something for everyone: dance, music, comedy, storytelling, juggling, even feats of amazement.

5. Top of Tacoma Bar and Cafe is hosting an "Aww Shucks" oyster bake at 5 p.m. The Top will feature Pacific oysters baked three ways: Rockefeller style with creamed spinach, bacon and panko; with a lemon basil butter; and with tobiko and asumac herb butter (each priced at 5 for $8). Also available will be a pan-fried oyster plate with remoulade and cocktail sauce or a po' boy on a delectable Macrina Bakery baguette ($8). If you like 'em on the half shell, you can partake in Shigoku or Kusshi with a Tabasco mignonette ($2 each or six for $10). Festivities also include local brews on tap from 7 Seas Brewing and entertainment provided by local rockers Blanco Bronco. 

LINK: Sunday, Sept. 29 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

502 Downtown Tacoma - Downtown. Pete Kirkland hosts Sunday night jazz. 8 pm.

Charlie's Restaurant Puyallup. Acoustic Jam Night open mic format with Pam Carter from Classic Case as the host. 6-9 pm. NC.

Le Voyeur Café and Lounge Olympia - Downtown. Steel Cranes, Full Moon Radio, The Redwood Plan, All Ages, 7 pm; Bogg, Aubrey Debauchery, Human Jukebox, 21+, 9 pm.

• The style of dance-rock perpetuated by The Redwood Plan tends to defer to the sort of pulsing synths that you imagine might have scored a speedboat chase on Miami Vice. Everything is forward motion, punctuated by surprisingly lovely melodies, as on the appropriately titled "The Scenery and the Melody," which hums with the kind of chiming synth lines that you might see in the climax of a John Hughes movie. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's full feature on The Redwood Plan in the Music and Culture section

• Finding local music is a process. You might stumble across a show, maybe it's recommended by a friend, or perhaps you read it in the Volcano. However you discover your music; whichever bands stick in your memory, whose songs you'll actually download, whose shows you'll really go see, whose music should get you fucking excited and happy - that's the beauty of hunting for music. For me, and hopefully for you, Full Moon Radio is one of those bands. Their grunge/pop/punk rock with crystal clear lyrics that are moving and edgy are executed with the feminism and integrity of three superbly powerful women. Before they head back into the studio and take a few months off from playing shows, make sure you catch Full Moon Radio at an all-ages show at Le Voyeur in Olympia Sunday. - Nikki McCoy

The Spar Tacoma - Old Town. The Mark Dufresne Band. 7 pm. NC.

The Swiss Tacoma - Downtown. Back To Beale Street Blues 2014 Fundraiser, with The Rafael Tranquilino Band, Blues County Sheriff, Blenis/Ehly Band with Thai Barker, Mark Riley Trio, Arthur Migliazza, Randy Oxford Band. 4 pm. $8-$12.

Traditions Cafe and World Folk Art Olympia - Downtown. Sylvia Herold, Chuck Ervin. All Ages. 7 pm. $10-$15.

Top of Tacoma Bar and Cafe Tacoma - Eastside. Blanco Bronco. Part of the Aww Shucks oyster barbecue. 5 pm. NC.

LINK: More live music tonight in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, SEPT. 30 2013 >>>

1. Look! Over in the corner! It's some drunks! It's some trash movie buffs! It's a bunch of cheesy movies! Actually, it's all of those things. The Tacoma Cult Movie Club gathers at 7 p.m. in the Acme Grub Cage bar to watch cheesy superhero movies. As always, admission is free, popcorn is free, drinks are delicious and raffle participation is appreciated and fun.

2. It's a rainy Monday in Tacoma, but inside The New Frontier Lounge, the night is hot. Pianist Nate D., bassist Cameron and drummer Peter T. have launch the city's newest jazz jam inviting talent to sit in as the house trio explores straight ahead, funk and space. Not all gigs qualify as a hang, but this one has the precise alchemy that could draw the area's best players: a high level of musicianship, a relaxed atmosphere and a sympathetic intergenerational crowd. Ask any working jazz musician, and the hang is what it's all about. It kicks off at 8 p.m.

3. In the same way that sharks must keep swimming to keep breathing, it seems guitarist Rafael Tranquilino must fuse genres across various musical projects in order to stay afloat. His arrangements incorporate blues, funk, rock, funk, ska, metal, reggae, Latin and jazz-fusion. As accomplished as he is varied, Tranquilino can be seen every Monday night as host of Stonegate Pizza's rockin' blues, if not experimental, jam at 8 p.m.

4. O'Malley's "Mondays For The Damned" is your typical above ground underground new wave, synth pop, goth, industrial and post-punk haven, and, if you're into it, it's one of the best places to find yourself in the company of the city's goth and industrial scene. Night Shift (Nicole and Aaron) and guest DJs will spin, while Rich Sumner screens videos and movies. Get dark over $3.25 micro brew pints and a pound of wings for $5.50.

5. Want to feel like a rock star without all the pain and annoyance of having to be a  fire-breathing demon that bleeds from the mouth? Then hit Jazzbones Monday nights for Rockaraoke at 9 p.m., where you can belt out songs like the Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again," Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" and enough INXS tunes to make you feel like you're on a reality show, and other hits from the days when you made mixtapes by recording the radio, all backed by a live band. Expect a college crowd enjoying $2 PBR drafts, $3 Sinfire shots and $4 Smirnoff Flavor Vodka Bombs.

LINK: Monday, Sept. 30 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Like a lead singer with a side solo project, Ginkgo Forest Winery located on the Wahluke Slope AVA in Mattawa along the Columbia River opened a tasting room across the Cascades in Old Town Tacoma. Because owner/winemaker Mike Thiede - a scientist by training and a farmer by choice - has a noted Washington-based brand, growing apples, 900 ginkgo trees and 15 different grape varietals, including impressive Sangiovese and Barbera wine, a surprisingly tasty Pinot Noir, and plenty of gold medals, he has earned the right to open a mini Ginkgo in tiny Old Town. Then again, Thiede and his wife, Lois, received a big push by Puyallup residents Sonie and Doc Hansen to open the tasting room. The Hansens, who began as huge Ginkgo Forest Winery fans, reached "associate" status after encouraging the Thiedes to enter several wine competitions, which ended with a first place in the 2008 Ray's Boathouse Retrospective in Seattle.  Soon, the Hansen were pouring Ginkgo wines at festivals. Sonie convinced the Thiedes the Old Town Tacoma location would be a winning venture. "The drive to Old Town is much easier then back and forth over the Cascades," Sonie said with a laugh.

The Ginkgo Forest Winery Tasting Room held its grand opening celebration Saturday, pouring all 15 varietals, pairing each wine with a nibble such as animal crackers, blue cheese, Parmesan popcorn and amazing Raspberry Champagne truffle, which pairs marvelously with Gingko's Raspberry Sensation port. The tasting room, located in the former Sandpiper Gallery space, is handsome with marble tabletops, olive colors, hardwood flooring and art by local renowned artist Bill Colby.

Read more...

When caffeine alone cannot fuel the day's endeavors, substance is key. The Tacoma area doesn't have a shortage of grubbin' breakfast establishments, especially come time for the weekend. Whether nursing remnants of the evil little nymphs of a hangover or simply looking to start my day, a favorite joint of mine to indulge in breakfast that isn't Captain Crunch, I mainline it to Masa.

One Masa breakfast dish calls my name - the chilaquiles ($8.99). It's incredible. This behemoth is a mound of deliciousness. Corn tortilla strips are simmered and evenly coated in flavorful red enchilada sauce then tossed with crumbly cotija cheese, cilantro and choice of chicken or steak. Masa then tops it with two eggs (any style) and garnishes it with a little bite from fried jalapeño strips and drizzled crema. The matrimony of flavors and textures makes my taste buds bust out in the "Macarena." It's hearty with a little kick, just the kind of thing I like to roll out of bed to.

The chilaquiles is easily shareable (pictured above is a half order as I split it with my husband) and pairs phenomenally with its Stumptown cup of joe or house special jalapeño Bloody Mary.

Chilaquiles is ultimate in Mexican hangover breakfasts. (Well, it may be a toss-up between these and huevos rancheros. I'll let you be the judge.)

MASA, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Monday-Friday, weekend breakfast 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, 2811 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.254.0560

See Also

South Sound Restaurant Guide

Are you a social media butterfly? Can't live without your smartphone?

Or would you prefer to have nothing to do with it?

Love or loathe it, digital communication technology has dramatically changed the personal communication and interpersonal interaction landscape and it is here for the long haul.

And as the technology continues to grow, some are taking pause. What are the current and future human impacts and implications of cell phones, social media, and the Internet?

Documentary filmmaker, director, and Pacific Northwest native Dominic H. White asks these questions and more in his new eye-opening documentary, DSKNECTD, which screens Tuesday, Oct. 8 as part of the 2013 Tacoma Film Festival. The documentary delves into how mobile devices; virtual worlds, social media and the Internet are reshaping human interactions. Looking at the good, bad, and the ugly, White leaves the viewer in the end pondering their own personal connections to technology.

Now, South Sound residents will have the opportunity to put these questions to the test, too.

A special screening will be held at the University of Washington of Tacoma's Carwein Auditorium. Sponsored by UWT, White will be on hand for a Q&A session after the screening.

DSKNECTD, 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 8, Carwein Auditorium, University of Washington of Tacoma, 1754 Commerce St., Tacoma, free, tacomafilmfestival.com

As you know the Tacoma City Ballet is in the midst of a yearlong scavenger hunt for Golden Krakatuk Nuts. The nuts tie into the company's highly anticipated Dec. 7, 2013 performance, Prequel to The Nutcracker.

Here's a refresher: TCB hides hand-painted Golden Krakatuk Nuts inside jewel boxes around Tacoma; inside the boxes is a scroll with prize details, such as gift certificates, merchandise or tickets to Tacoma City Ballet's World Premier of said Nutcracker in December. Each month through the year, Golden Krakatuk Nuts will be hidden at businesses throughout Tacoma. To find the nuts, decipher the poetic clues, which will be posted at Tacoma City Ballet's website, Facebook page, as well as this blog. You find the Golden Krakatuk Nuts and great riches will be heaped upon you! For complete on the contest and Nutcracker performance, click here.

The October Golden Krakatuk Nut clue dropped this morning. This clue will guide you to a restaurant, shop or other business at which the nuts may be in plain sight or may be behind the counter.

Read more...

A quick aside before we dive into the ludicrous Runner Runner: When I worked at The Grand Cinema, I had a friend and coworker who made the majority of his income in two ways, neither of which had anything to do with working at a movie theater. The more fanciful of the methods was that he would spend hours playing World of Warcraft, collecting in-game items that he would then sell to other gamers for real-life money. One man allegedly paid him $1,500, which he had to do in installations so his wife wouldn't notice.

The rest of his money was made in online poker. Needless to say, my friend's continued work at an art house theater should be an indication that online poker is, generally, not nearly as sexy and dangerous as Runner Runner says.

Starring Justin Timberlake in yet another role that comes nowhere close to matching the promise he showed in The Social Network and Alpha Dog, Runner Runner quickly raises its banner as the spiritual sequel to the equally ridiculous fake-poker classic, Rounders. Timberlake needs to raise funds for tuition, so he starts playing online poker (three tables at a time, which my friend also did), and almost wins the jackpot before being cheated by a mysterious opponent.

Soon enough, we're off to Costa Rica where Timberlake is seduced by Ben Affleck and the promise of endless riches as a professional poker dude (technical term). Brief glimpses of Deadmau5 and bikini-clad women follow, hammering home the point that it's pretty great to be rich and in Costa Rica. Ah, but the law catches up to Timberlake, turning him against Ben Affleck - who, it must be said, is chewing the scenery with even more voracity than that of the crocodiles he keeps in his super-villain backyard.

Poker on film is notoriously difficult to make exciting, which should explain why Runner Runner has made the choice to instead focus on people yelling at each other in a tropical locale.

Of interest to fans of Comedy Bang! Bang! and Parks and Recreation is the presence of Ben Schwartz, which just might make the experience of watching Runner Runner worth it. But probably not.