SUNDAY, OCT. 20 2013 >>>

1. The Tacoma Cult Movie Club hosts another 7 p.m. screening at Tacoma's Acme Grub Cage. Appropriately, this month's theme is vampires. While Rev. Colin doesn't release the titles of the gems he'll screen, if we know Rev. Colin, he'll bust out the British Vampyres, the story of a lesbian pair that battles when one of them falls for a man they've kidnapped while hitchhiking. Next, we suspect he'll turn more European, with Daughters of Darkness finding another femme fatale duo (led by French New Wave dame Delphine Seyrig) that welcomes the wife of their latest kill into the fold. It's a crapshoot really, except the popcorn and zany prizes. You can always count on the popcorn and raffle.

2. In your desperation to design your Walter and Jesse Halloween costumes, you might overlook Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead, Nov. 3, is seen by many as Mexico's most important holiday, a time to honor family members, friends and mentors who have passed on in a loving, respectful way. However, it is not too early to appease your indignant kin. Centro Latino leads community groups and Stadium High School students in the installation of several ornate ofrendas (altars) commemorating the deceased at the Tacoma Art Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The altars will be laden with offerings of food and drink to honor loved ones. Local artist Fulgencio Lazo and his team of professionals and volunteers fill the Marie A. Helmer Lobby with a colorful tapete (large sand painting). 

3. The Weekly Volcano will join all those who worship Thor, Odin and other Norse gods from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the Sons of Norway's annual Lutefisk Dinner hits Normanna Hall. While loaded with vendors selling clogs, sweaters, Sigvat jewelry, Viking ships in bottles, ABBA records, pewter Norse gods and Kongetinn wine goblets, we attend the festival for the food.  We will dive in to some big slabs of yummy jellied pressed Lutefisk, meatballs and baked goods while reading from the Rigsbula: The Lay of Rig from the Poetic Edda. Afterward, we'll take a nap and dream of large sledgehammers and cute pointy helmets and enormous women shaped like huge pomegranates belting out Wagner.

4. Head over to see Tacoma City Ballet performance of Haunted Theatre: Backstage Tour and Eerie Dances at 3 p.m. inside the Merlino Arts Center. Walk behind the scenes in an old ballet studio and see what kind of chills, thrills, and arabesques lurk as Tacoma City Ballet dancers perform spooky Halloween ballets complete with bats, marionettes, ghosts, monsters, mummified Egyptian cats, pumpkins, skeletons and witches.

5. Guitarist Jeffrey Hamilton Steele and pianist Monica Steele will perform pieces from Bach, Rodrigo and Barrios at 3 p.m. in the Antique Sandwich Company.

LINK: Sunday, Oct. 20 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area