Walkie Talkie Blog - Weekly Volcano - The alternative newsweekly for Tacoma and Olympia

These days, I don't watch the morning news that often, preferring to scroll through Twitter or Flipbook to grab the news in 15 minutes. That said, the chance of boring weather updates is 100 percent online. When I need weather, and the beloved Futurecast, I turn to King 5's Rich Marriott - especially for mountain reports. I need his U.S. Forest Service Northwest Mountain Weather and Avalanche Forecast Center experience to plan my snowboard outings.

Yesterday, during Fall Wind Storm 2013, it was comforting to have Rich Marriott along as I bounced around (literally) on the Art Bus through the first day of Art at Work's Tacoma Studio Tour. Marriott - dressed in his signature King 5 yellow parka over a fleece jacket - was the celebrity tour guide on the Bus organized by Angela Jossy and Jackie Casella. Along the way, Marriott forecasted the studios, chatted weather and dropped jokes: "Home Depot gets nervous when I come in and buy bags of salt. How do they not know I'm hosting a margarita party?"

While the Tacoma Studio Tour, which continues today, involves 39 artist and cooperative art spaces, yesterday's Art Bus tour pulled up to the Hilltop Artists studio, Throwing Mud Gallery, Dorothy and John McCuistion's studio, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry and Elayne Vogel's studio, Manitou Art Center and the Jet City Cooperative. The Art Bus was an enjoyable way to tour the culturally turbocharged two-day event complete with demonstrations, discussions, DIY opportunities and artists' markets.

Below are a few scenes from yesterday's Art Bus ride on the Tacoma Studio Tour.