5 Things To Do Today: Ballet in a bar, "Our Nixon," cultural unity chat, Buffalo Soldiers and more ...

By Volcano Staff on November 19, 2013

TUESDAY, NOV. 19 2013 >>>

1. Let's face it. Tacoma's gay-friendly bar The Mix has seen plenty of vibrating, undulating, circling and pulsing. At 7 p.m. patrons of the downtown Tacoma joint will experience all of that, only with even more tutus. Tonight's performance is part of The BareFoot Collective's modern dance series out of the black box. The group aims to take dance into public spaces around Tacoma. The road show will be 30 to 40 minutes long and will incorporate improvisation, contemporary, dance-theatre and hip-hop works.

2. Our Nixon is the latest from director Penny Lane. Consisting entirely of archival footage, this award-winning documentary chronicles the Nixon administration from the beginning all the way to its shameful end. Throughout Nixon's presidency, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, Domestic Affairs Adviser John Ehrlichman and Special Assistant Dwight Chapin obsessively recorded their experiences with the President on Super 8 home movie cameras. Their shared compulsion eventually spanned more than 500 reels of film; film which the FBI seized during the Watergate investigation and then subsequently kept hidden away from the public for 40 years. Catch the film at 2 and 6:30 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

3. Rivers have been widely regarded as the sustenance of life, forever renewing the fertility of land. Rivers are also more than a source of water. They are the start of cities and countries that bring people together. A river is thus a metaphor for all-embracing, merging of cultures from around the world. Gregory Wilson knows the power of rivers. He is the author of Dead Portraits in a Living Room, a collection of poems exploring the intersection of diverse cultures using a river and meeting of rivers as a metaphor. As part of its Caribbean Writer series: Dialogues on identity, Immigration, and Art, the University of Puget Sound hosts the poet and educator who grew up in Jamaica and graduated from The University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, for a discussion, exploring cultural unity in the Caribbean and central America at 5:30 p.m. in the Rasmussen Rotunda at the Wheelock Student Center.

4. Brian Johnson of Better Cocktails at Home concocts compelling potions and films it for youtube. It's awesome. From 6-8 p.m. Johnson will leave his home and sling cocktails at Tacoma Cabana. Grab your phone and film him making three original recipes including Bathysphere (gin, Benedictine, lime, tiki bitters), and two favorites including the Last Word (gin, green Chartreuse, lime, Maraschino), all ringing in at $8 a pop.

5. The Lakewood Historical Society celebrates its 15th anniversary with a lecture on the Legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers by Jackie Jones-Hook at 7 p.m. in St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

LINK: Tuesday, Nov. 19 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area