Although February is a month of cold weather and hyper-awareness of being single (shout out to those celebrating Single appreciation Day on the 14th!), don't worry. There are six happs to keep you warm, keep you entertained and possibly hook you up in the South Sound.

THURSDAY, FEB. 6: SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Anyone who believes that Tacoma is still a blue-collar backwater town with few ties to the outside world had better stay away from the 12th annual Sister Cities International Film Festival running Feb. 6 through April 3.  The experience might just shatter everything that you poor souls hold to so misguidedly. Tacoma is an international city in every sense of the world. The city of Tacoma's Sister Cities program pulls together movies from each of its sister countries and offers nights of all things cultural. This year's run will showcase films from Kitakyushu, Japan; Kiryat-Motzkin, Israel; Biot, France; Fuzhou, China; Gunsan, South Korea; Taichung, Taiwan; Alesund, Norway; El Jadida, Morocco and Cienfuegos, Cuba. Films will play every Thursday in the Tahoma Room at Commencement Hall on the corner of North 13th and Lawrence streets, with the exception of Feb. 27, when the film will be held at the Kilworth Chapel. All films will run free of charge.

FRIDAY, FEB. 7-SATURDAY, FEB. 8: WALKING PAPERS

Pure blues rock 'n' roll, executed with the nimble fingers, creative minds and a sixth sense of boys who have been around the block, Walking Papers sold out its Feb. 7 at Jazzbones. No need to walk away. Jeff Angell, Duff McKagan, Barrett Martin and Benjamin Anderson have added a second show Feb. 8. So, if you enjoy a lyrical lean toward rock 'n' roll nostalgia and a seasoned view of the world, with advice and hindsight strung throughout with the occasional token bad-luck-with-women story, tickets are $15 advance and $20 at the door.

SATURDAY, FEB. 8: MARDI GRAS

If you haven't spent much time in Louisiana, you may not be too versed in Mardi gras, aside from those "Girls Gone Wild" videos. While the March 4 holiday is as far away as paved Tacoma streets, first annual Key Peninsula Mardi Gras Music Festival is on the books for Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Key Peninsula Civic Center in Vaughn. The festival will rock with Filé Gumbo, The Kim Archer Band, Gabriel and Merrilee Rush, whose song "Angel of the Morning" was a #1 hit in 1968. An authentic southern dinner provided by Murph's BBQ, best guest costume contest to crown of King and Queen of the parade, and signature Mardi Gras cocktails will keep everyone hopping until midnight. Tickets for the 21 and older event are $30 in advance or $35 at the door; your ticket price includes in/out entry and meal. 

TUESDAY, FEB. 11: POETRY MEETS MUSIC

Here comes Valentine's Day.  You're freaking. Clinicians have conclusively established that heart-shaped candy stamped with flaky messages causes dyslexia in lab rats.  Wasn't it Wordsworth who said poetry was "intensity recollected in tranquility"?  Get with it, Willy. Write your sweetheart a poem. First, go nourish your brain. William Kupinse, Tacoma's first Poet Laureate and associate professor of English at University of Puget Sound, and composer Greg Youtz, professor of music at Pacific Lutheran University, will host the performance Poetry Above the Roar: Erin Calata Sings Songs of Gregory Youtz. The free public event will run from 8-9:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 11, in the Mary Baker Russell Music Building, Room 306, at Pacific Lutheran University. Erin Calata, mezzo-soprano and 2008 alumna of PLU, will sing a cycle of 10 pieces of music composed by Youtz, with words from Kupinse's collection of poems Fallow (2009, Exquisite Disarray).

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12: SOUTH SOUND IMPROV COMEDY FESTIVAL

Some say much great improve comedy stems from unhappiness. Happy people may be fun, but they're not funny.  Consider this when you catch the first annual South Sound Comedy Festival, hosted by Harlequin Productions' new improve troupe Something Wicked. All the comedians in the show will be secretly very, very angry. Wacky improvisational antics and celebrity impersonations could so easily mutate into something darker, deeper and much more dangerous. You better laugh. But you probably will anyway, because according to pre-show hype, the night will feature "the best and brightest comedy troupes from around the sound in a comedy battle royale that will never be seen again (this year)! "Sweet! The hilarity happens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 at the Historic State Theater in downtown Olympia. Tickets are $10-$25 at 360.786.0151.

SUNDAY, FEB. 16: MILEY CYRUS

Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! We're going to see Miley Cyrus at the Tacoma Dome! Slapping pleasure zones! Restless Tongue Syndrome! Jiggle! Wobble! Shake! Oh my God!