WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11 2013 >>>

1. We all have touchstones that bring the simple spirit of Christmas to our harried, mall-besotted souls. For some, it's that first burst of multi-colored light when the last string is strung. For others, it could be a long-treasured card or the smell of baking cookies. For us, it's the music. Northwest jazz and blues singer Maia Santell and her backing band House Blend perform their annual holiday concert and dance at 7:30 p.m. in Jazzbones. House Blend instrumentalists feature Ted Dortch on tenor saxophone, Jeff Ziontz on guitar, Ted Enderle on bass and Tim Malland on drums. The band's repertoire includes jazz, blues, swing, Latin, rhythm and blues and holiday favorites such as "Merry Christmas Baby," "Please Come Home For Christmas," "Santa Baby," Nancy Wilson's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" and Mel Torme's holiday classic "The Christmas Song," to name a few. 

2. Chef Kyle Wnuk creates a different tasting menu every Wednesday night at Marrow Kitchen and Bar. For $25, you could taste the future as Wnuk's Wednesday night playground often results in permanent placement on a season's menu. One recent Wednesday included Spanish whitefish ceviche with red peppers topped with fish roe on toasted that didn't cut our mouth and popped with flavor, Moroccan lamb meatballs with yellow tomato chutney on a bed of quinoa was moist and spicy and the blue cheese and fig cheesecake with vanilla wafer crust, which was out of this world good.

3. Saxophonist Kareem Kandi's sound is virtually unrelated to the roomy traditions of soul saxes, honking saxes or deep-chested boudoir ballad saxes. It derives from the classic, free, often enthusiastic tradition of Joshua Redman as filtered through Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt, all of whose shadows can be traced-Redman in Kandi's funky organicism, Gordon in his dynamic harmonics, Stitt in the intensity that coats his every note with a Gritty City finish. Kandi has hosted an open jazz session for years, a backyard patio for his music school friends, fellow musicians and newbies to jam out standards - fresh, fiery and exciting. The jam now resides every second Wednesday at 7 p.m. in The Swiss.

4. Premiered in 1991 at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, whose artistic director Daniel Sullivan and resident company share credit for the play's authorship, Inspecting Carol tells of a third-rate regional theater riddled with severe financial and artistic deficits. Facing a 50 percent loss in subscriptions and the cutoff of its NEA grant, the Soapbox Playhouse's "founding members" anxiously rehearse their one reliable income producer: the yearly A Christmas Carol, noted for its traditionalism, sentimentality, and (by the low standards of the unnamed town where the play takes place) flashy special effects. The Pacific Lutheran University Theater Department opens its version of the play at 7:30 p.m.

5. Wednesdays, Rev. Colin hosts the best trivia in town at Meconi's Pub & Eatery beginning at 8 p.m. Best known as a legendary local karaoke host and curator for the Tacoma Cult Movie Club, Rev. Colin is a fount of knowledge, and his trivia nights are as challenging as they are wonderfully absurd. Even if the night didn't offer cash prizes for the top three competing teams, it would be worth it for the spirited gameplay and the left-field questions.

PLUS: Holiday Events Calendar

PLUS: South Sound Holiday Command Center

LINK: Wednesday, Dec. 11 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area