When a dive bar receives a facelift is it still a dive?
A week ago today, The Corner Bar, more commonly known as Hank's, closed its doors for some renovation - phase two to be precise. A few months ago, The Corner Bar added a shiny, wooden back bar and matching fireplace with mantle. These updates seemed just as out of place as its snazzy restrooms (fit for Vegas I tell ya) when accompanied by worn, stained carpets and rickety furnishings.
The Washington State Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is seeking to fill its state chair position. ESGR is a Department of Defense sponsored, all-volunteer organization comprised of business, community and military leaders dedicated to helping the nation field a strong, prepared and valued National Guard and Reserve force. Chairs are responsible for all aspects of state ESGR operations, including organizing, leading, directing, supervising and motivating members with various backgrounds, abilities and interests.
Party cloudy again at JBLM, this time with 0% chance of rain and a high of only 38. News team is quoting film "Jaws" in which "shark" is replaced by hairpiece." Hate news team. Lo: 22, yikes!
This Date in History: 1962
The first U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. It was one of 15 helicopters ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into battle near the village of Hong My in the Mekong Delta.
GRAB A CUP AND READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 2.4.14 >>>
This is a blog post about a stupid coffee cup that has been sitting on the curb at the intersection of Plum and I-5 in downtown Olympia. This McDonald's cup has been sitting through rain, wind and traffic for more than four weeks! I took my first picture of it Jan. 16 after a couple weeks of driving by it.
What's the cup's secret? How is it staying upright in such odds? I have taken pictures of it each time I pull up to the traffic light; amazed it's still there. I get its cylinder-shaped body helps resist wind and that it's wax-lined innards make it somewhat impervious to rain, allowing the paper to remain intact, but something else is moving me to find out how it's still there. ...
1. The Armstrong Lie is the latest from prolific, Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, (whose prior work includes We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and many others). The film chronicles professional charlatan/cyclist Lance Armstrong's fall from grace after the revelation that his superhuman athletic prowess owed to a level of pharmaceutical pseudoscience reminiscent of something out of a Michael Crichton novel. Read Jared Lovrak's review of The Armstrong Lie in the Music & Culture section, then check it out at 2:10 and 6:30 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.
2. Pour at Four wine bar in Tacoma's Proctor District hosts Ross Andrew Mickel of Ross Andrew Winery. Mickel has been heralded as one of the top winemakers in the state garnering great ratings and awards. Enjoy complimentary tastes of Ross wines from 5:30-8 p.m.
3. Best-selling author Marissa Meyer has captured our imaginations in the first two books of her Lunar series. She uses her craft to weave together classic fairy tales with science fiction suspense in Cinder, a cyborg princess adventure based on Cinderella, and Scarlet, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and her journey with a street fighter named Wolf. Book three of the series will introduce Meyer fans to Cress, a brilliant Rapunzel-type hacker and perhaps the world's last hope against an evil Queen. All three tales, though separate, share intertwining paths within the same futuristic universe. The release of Cress will be celebrated at 7 p.m. in the Karen Hill Phillips Center at Pacific Lutheran University. The author will be on hand to sign books and tell a fairy tale or two as only she can do. Read Jackie Fender's full feature on the Cress release party on our Walkie Talkie blog.
4. The ecstatic pulse of the tango: It moves with a painterly look, an exotic atmosphere and the irresistible and insinuating rhythms of the music. That said, the boundaries in tango are very strong. What was inappropriate 60 years ago in an Argentine form is still inappropriate today. Touching your partner on purpose below the solar plexus is not acceptable. There's no tummy-to-tummy contact. People connect with an embrace that is not sexual; it's a sensual embrace. And it lasts only as long as the music lasts. If that doesn't turn you off, BackStreet Tango teaches a beginner Argentine tango class on Tuesdays concentrating on the elements of the dance for relaxed free flowing movement. It's cool if you're single.
5. The 1230 Room probably has you at "$4 lemon drops," but you also may be interested in the downtown Olympia club's Tuesday deep, tech and progressive house night "Deep Tuesdays." It launches at 9 p.m. with drink specials, no cover and resident DJs Alex Bosi and Evan Mould.
SATURDAY, FEB. 8: CHRIS PERONDI'S STUNT DOG EXPERIENCE
OK, dear reader, there's no use in beating around the bush with this one. We'd just be fooling ourselves. The notion of the stunt animal live show is absolutely ridiculous. Dogs being made to dress in silly costumes and perform little sketches is such an old-timey bit of entertainment that has stretched so deeply into utter nerd-dom that it's miraculously come back around into something that I'm surprised has yet to be co-opted by irony.
Chris Perondi's Stunt Dog Experience is such a show. What's made to separate this stunt animal shows from others like it - despite, I suppose, the relative "talent" of the animals on display versus rival stunt animals, which is an argument that I would hate to have but would love to overhear - is that CPSDE (as those in the know like to call it) utilizes the performing abilities of rescue dogs. I imagine their rough-and-tumble upbringings tend to lend a little gravitas and the weight of experience to their performances, just like Danny Trejo.
While we're on the subject, here are some more circus things that hipsters would do well to appropriate: diving board-based physical comedy, unicycles (I mean, appropriate them again), and that thing where you would jump off a high diving board and land in a tiny little kiddie pool. That thing. 3 and 6:30 p.m., $12-$26, Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, $12-$26, 253.591.5890
THURSDAY, FEB. 13: HOLES AT THE MOORE LIBRARY
I remember seeing Shia LaBeouf years ago on Craig Kilborn's show, talking about how he started his career as a stand-up comedian when he was something like 10 years old. He said that, in order to get the attention of the comedy club crowd, his opener would go like this: "The first time I masturbated, confetti shot out of my penis."
At the time, I was charmed by LaBeouf. Now, I wonder who he stole the joke from.
In case you've been rightly avoiding entertainment news over the past month, LaBeouf has been embroiled in a controversy that began with him completely plagiarizing a Daniel Clowes comic called Justin M. Damiano for a short film he directed. Predictably, LaBeouf was immediately found out once he put the film online, and what has followed has been an exercise in lame, art-school-failure performance art, and acts of privilege and delusion so mind-boggling they'd make Justin Beiber wince.
Apology after apology were released by LaBeouf, each apology eventually being identified as having been plagiarized from other celebrity apologies. Finally, LaBeouf announced his retirement (utilizing stolen retirement speeches, of course), waited a couple weeks, then announced his next project. Daniel Clowes, meanwhile, realized the monster he was dealing with, and has now decided to sue the prick.
Interested in seeing a young, preciously untainted Shia LaBeouf? His adaptation of the beloved Louis Sachar novel, Holes, will be screened at the Moore Library. If you hiss every time his dumb face shows up on screen, though, you'll never make it through the movie. 3 p.m., Moore Public Library, 215 S. 56th St., Tacoma, free admission, 253.341.4848
While Atkins, South Beach, and other high-protein diets proved to be a bacon-scented flash in the pan, the vegetarian diet has existed for - well, for as long as we humans have been capable of putting food in our mouths. (Granted, some of us are still getting the hang of that.) Since it tends to be a personal diet - without best-selling how-to books and white-haired gurus - there are a few variations on "being vegetarian."
Some people who eat fish consider themselves vegetarians, as do folks who lapse into the occasional burger binge. "Lacto-ovo" vegetarians forswear meat but will eat eggs and dairy products. And then you have vegans, who just say no to dairy, eggs, and all animal-derived comestibles.
For the purposes of this story, I'd like to bring attention to the raw diet. Raw foodism has been around for more than a century in the United States. From what I can gather, it boils down to the belief that enzymes in plants that would otherwise be destroyed by heat during cooking are somehow beneficial to humans when ingested. Raw foodists obtain most of their calories from monounsaturated fats like avocado, young coconut, and olive and flax oils, instead of cooked grains and beans. Protein and minerals come from leafy greens, spirulina, bee pollen, seeds and nuts.
>>> AmeRAWcan Bistro's raw enchiladas
In Tacoma, AmeRAWcan Bistro (pronounced "American") is the go-to spot for raw foodies, although owners Darrin and Tina London do offer a tiny list of deli sandwiches made with fully cooked organic meats - the meats are kept at a distance from the raw materials. He of the Western Culinary Academy and she of Tacoma's London Couture, the dynamic raw duo's philosophy has one root planted vegan and the other uncooked.
AmeRAWcan has earned a solid reputation for sophisticated, raw food in an open, well-designed restaurant in Tacoma's Triangle District, next door to Club Silverstone's rainbow cheer. On one recent evening, I was treated to a big bowl of Earth. Cashews, celery, nori seaweed, lemon and garlic sang "We Are the World" in the delightful, cold "Earth Chowder" ($6.95), which somehow tasted like a spring morning hike on Mount Rainier. The raw enchiladas ($12.95), its most popular dish, looked like the Jolly Green Giant tossed its organic cookies on my white plate, but tasted extremely satisfying. The sweet cashew tortillas balanced the savory and spicy concoction of seasoned walnut taco meat (resembles the tiny meat nuggets found in a Taco Time soft taco), cabbage and sweet red pepper, topped with the London's "New Mexico Chili Sauce," chopped romaine, salsa fresca and cashew sour cream drizzle. This dish pops, and did so on my tongue for the next four hours.
Anyone who claims he wouldn't get full eating vegetables should have witnessed my food coma at the close of this two-dish feast.
AMERAWCAN BISTRO, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 253.327.1962
No animals were harmed or eaten in the writing of this article.
Senior Master Sgt. Mark Gosling, 36th Aerial Port Squadron air transportation operations center superintendent is pictured here with his wife Cindi at a recent ceremony at McChord Field. Courtesy photo
The U.S. Air Force's Key Spouse Program has nothing to do with helping military spouses retrieve keys inside locked cars or even unlocking the doors to the mainframe and end the war, thus freeing Zion. No, the program is an official unit/family program designed to enhance readiness and establish a sense of Air Force community. Key Spouses are trained volunteers that provide personal, peer-to-peer support for their squadron's families. It is a commander's program that promotes partnerships with unit leadership, volunteer Key Spouses appointed by the commander, families, the Airman & Family Readiness Center and other community and helping agencies.
At the 36th Aerial Port Squadron, part of the 446th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, its Key Spouse is about to face a challenge. Cindi Gosling, who has been able to hang out with her husband - Master Sgt. Mark Gosling, 36th Aerial Port Squadron air transportation operations center superintendent - for the first three years of their marriage is about to fac ea big challenge. The 36th APS has an upcoming deployment and Key Spouse Cindi has to set aside her anxieties and embraces her new role.
1st Lt. Lori Fiorello of the 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs recently chatted with Cindi.
"I know it's going to be hard because we're going to be apart for both of our birthdays, our anniversary, and my graduation this summer," said the master's in special education candidate who is expected to graduate from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minn. "But I'm used to it ... my dad deployed all the time when I was growing up."
A screen shot of the video that captured Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza thanking his family during the 7th Inf. Div. change of command ceremony Feb. 4 at JBLM.
It was announced Nov. 6, 2013, that Lt. Gen. Robert Brown, who assumed command of I Corps in July 2012, would be moving on to the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., which educates and develops Army leaders. Stepping into the I Corps command role would be Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, who would take command of I Corps. Lanza, a 33-year Army veteran, has been the commander of 7th Infantry Division since October 2012, when he worked with the Army to stand up the 7th ID, which is now in charge of seven of the 10 brigades stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and includes close to 23,000 soldiers.
In December, Maj. Gen. Terry Ferrell, whose decorations include the Silver and Bronze Star medals, was named as the new commander of the 7th ID at JBLM.
This afternoon, the 7th ID hosted the change of command ceremony where Ferrell assumed command of the 7th from the current commanding general, Lanza. Below is video of the ceremony, which was held inside due to snow.
Cold and sunny at JBLM today. News team leaves wind noises on my voice mail. Might add magic tricks to forecast. Hi only 34. Lo: na-na-na-19.
This Date in History: 1918
The Anchor line steamship Tuscania, traveling as part of a British convoy and transporting more than 2,000 American soldiers bound for Europe, is torpedoed and sinks off the coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-77.
GRAB A CUP AND READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 2.5.14 >>>
The Olympic torch arrived in Sochi, Russia, today, and most Americans aren't too thrilled - with that country, its anti-gay laws or its President Vladimir Putin.
>>> AmeRAWcan Bistro's raw enchiladas
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