Last October, Rockwell Powers and DJ Phinisey released the album, Build. It received rave reviews, and was accompanied by a kickass release party at Grit City GrindHouse in Tacoma.

"It's clear that this is an album that strives to be more than just another album of blustering and posturing," wrote Weekly Volcano music critic Rev. Adam McKinney, in a feature story that graced the Volcano's cover. "Accompanied by the reading of a poem by Jesse Ann Fouts, opening track "BuildxPoem1" explores the compellingly picturesque idea of a city built of bones and flesh, flanked by seas of fear and longing.

"It's an entrancing image with which to open one's album, and Powers follows through on this promise, delivering an album that splits its time between melancholy ruminations about insecurity and spellbinding indictments of the state of music, arts and city. All of these themes are played out over a bed of tastefully restrained beats and washes of electronics."

The momentum for Build continues. A music video centered around the album's release has been, er, released.

"Directed by Portland-based filmmaker Yusuf Word, this video offers a look inside our preparation and execution of last fall's album release show at Grit City Grindhouse in downtown Tacoma," says Powers.

Check it out. ...

Powers and Phinisey will release two more videos this summer, directed by Tacoma's Laura Marshall and Peter Berkley, respectively.

Happy Wednesday! Enjoy!

Ready to rock and roll?

You can help support JBLM's roller derby teams - Bettie Brigade and its junior varsity squad JBLM Bratz - by attending this Saturday's double-header, then staying to celebrate with live and local rock bands.

The team, who have recently moved their headquarters off base to the "Bettie Bunker" in Lacey, need to raise money to support their new home - meaning they need to add bathrooms and emergency exits. Currently, port-a-potties are set up outside the front door.

"Being a non-profit organization,we depend on our fundraising events, skater dues, as well as donations to make improvements to our practice space," said Melissa Garibay, aka Miley Virus, skater with Bettie Brigade.

So what better way to throw a fundraiser then with live music? Mach Society, Buffalo Skies and Mosquito Hawk will rock for the rollers in an after-bout party that includes a meet and greet with the skaters, food and drinks.

Costumes are encouraged to support your favorite era: '80s neon or l'90s grunge.

Tickets are $10 from your favorite Bettie or through Brown Paper Tickets, or $12 at the door. Kids 8 and younger are free.

The concert is $5, or free with attendance to the bout.

JBLM BETTIE BRIGADE MAY-HEM INTERLEAGUE BOUT, doors open at 5 p.m., wheels roll at 6 p.m., music starts at 9 p.m., Saturdfay, may 24, Bettie Bunker, 5700 Lacey Blvd, Lacey, $5-$12, website

LINK: Words and photos from a previous Bettie Brigade bout

A great local resource is getting ready for another summer. The Live it OutLoud program, which offers aspiring 12 to 18-year-old non-professional rock musicians a true feel for the rock and entertainment industry, will start its 2014 season in early June.

"I've been involved in the music business almost my whole life ... and my love of music coupled with the fact that kids don't have a place to play anymore is my motivation," said Live it OutLoud director Joe Wilson. "It's amazing what the kids do. I will never stop doing this."

Live it OutLoud's music summer school program began in 2011 and since then it has helped hundreds of area kids learn about rock music and real-life rock band experiences, including stage performances, studio management and video creation.

The cost is $325 per student, but there are a limited amount of need-based scholarships available. Registration can be completed online at any time but the last chance to sign-up for the upcoming Live it OutLoud season is June 5. The sign up, as well as an introductory meeting for parents, will occur at 6 p.m. at Ted Brown Music, 6228 Tacoma Mall Blvd., that day.

Evaluations for all participants will be held June 6-9 at two area locations so that professional musicians can assemble the best possible bands for the kids in order to foster the most growth.

Professional musicians and special guests pair up and mentor the newly formed bands throughout the eight-week program. For example, Pamela Moore, from Queensryche's critically acclaimed platinum album ‘Operation Mindcrime' has already signed on for the 2014 session. She will share her experiences of 30 years teaching, singing and recording rock music internationally.

There will also be clinics held on a variety of helpful topics, from songwriting and vocals to more targeted instrument clinics and even one on how to best brand your band.

The final concert is scheduled for Aug. 9at the Rialto Theatre, 310 S 9th St. The three best bands, as determined by an all-star panel of rock experts during the final concert, will be invited to play at Roger Fisher's Moonfest festival in late August. Fisher, who was a 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, was the original guitar player in the popular band Heart and was creator of the iconic beginning to their hit song ‘Barracuda.'

LiveitoutLoud-Tacoma is produced by the city's own Ted Brown Music Outreach, a nonprofit organization that funds educational and musical programs for young adults. The group believes that music enhances quality of life by improving learning abilities, relieves stress and provides a chance to change lives.

For more information and to view the most updated activity calendar, visit www.liveitoutloud-tacoma.com or www.facebook.com/LiveItOutLoudTacoma.

It's my distinct pleasure to share with you yet another presumed tax write-off from the good folks at Happy Madison. Adam Sandler has spent the past decade, or so, creating a tidy cottage industry of tricking movie studios into giving him money to take his friends on vacations, and Blended sees him pull this scheme with his frequent costar, Drew Barrymore.

As an onscreen couple, Sandler and Barrymore created two of Sandler's most warmhearted efforts, with The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. It's discouraging, then, to be confronted with the trailer for Blended, which literally begins with Barrymore spewing French onion soup all over the place. The soup-spewing moment caps off a disastrous first date between our two leads, and simultaneously caps off any desire I might have had to continue watching this preview. Being the intrepid journalist I am, however, I soldiered on.

Explaining how these two single parents both find themselves and their children on the same African vacation may require some kind of flow chart, but let it be said that it seems to involve a mutual friend of theirs apprently having EIGHT plane tickets that he suddenly couldn't use. What fresh Groupon bullshit is this?

And now, we find ourselves in Adam Sandler's comfort zone: shaky racial politics, deadeningly unfunny slapstick and cloyingly maudlin melodrama. Any illusions that might have remained that Sandler is, in some way, superior to Tyler Perry, should be summarily stricken from the record. At least Perry writes and directs that garbage; Sandler just breeze through in basketball shorts on his way to the bank.

I'd rather watch a million trailers for shitty found-footage horror schlock than site through the entirety of Blended. To make one man feel so gross in two minutes is, in some way, a laudable achievement, but not one to be celebrated. Blended is like the invention of weaponized chlorine gas: I guess it's neat that you managed to create it, but did society really need it?

The Ranger and Northwest Airlifter newspapers, with cover the Army and Air Force at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, are shipped off to the press every Wednesday around this time. It also happens to be the time Joint Base Lewis-McChord Public Affairs Office sends us news releases. This week, the PAO alerts us to JBLM's involvement on Memorial Day. Let's take a look. ...

Joint Base Lewis-McChord will honor the memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of the United States with a Memorial Day ceremony Monday, May 26, at 11:30 a.m. at the base cemetery, the Fort Lewis Cemetery.

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Defense bill amendment to restrict wartime funding usage.

Thailand's army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha took control of the government in a coup saying the army had to restore order and push through reforms. 

North Korean artillery fired at least one shot which landed near a South Korean navy patrol ship south of the two sides' disputed maritime border.

The U.S. has deployed a Predator drone team of 80 military personnel - mostly airmen - to Chad to help find nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in neighboring Nigeria.

UAV platforms begin to mature.

Air Force security failed nuke test.

A U.S. Senate subcommittee has backed the Pentagon's plans to curb military pay raises and housing allowances next year.

Spurred by allegations of mismanagement and scandal at numerous Veterans Affairs facilities, House members overwhelmingly approved a measure giving the department's secretary more power to fire underperforming employees.

Navy chief Adm. Jonathan Greenert says the Navy needs 11 aircraft carriers to meet security demands despite the Pentagon's plan to retire one and bring the count down to 10 to meet caps on defense spending.

The House passed by voice vote an amendment to the 2015 defense authorization bill that takes the Obama administration to task over the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The first launch of an anti-ballistic missile from a new shore-based version of the classic Aegis missile system was successfully carried in Hawaii.

This incredible Russian dash cam footage shows a car driving through a forest fire while the drivers wonder if they are going to die or not.

18 places you should ride your bike before you die.

Song premiere: Peter Murphy's "Eliza."

Rolling Stone's new cover story is an interview with Jack White.

Watch the new trailer for the Roger Ebert doc, Life Itself.

Cool creature alert: Video from the Star Wars set.

It's gonna be a beautiful day, Walkie Talkie readers. So take Bert and Zachary Levi's advice: GO OUT AND PLAY.

LINK: Original photo by Lance Cpl. Charles Santamaria

THURSDAY, MAY 22 2014 >>>

1. Lights! Camera! Acne! Here is a unique film event for local cinephiles to support. This could be your chance to meet the next Scorsese, or at least DePalma. The Tacoma School of the Arts seniors Dylan and Dustin Rich will produce the Tacoma High School Film Festival, in partnership with the Tacoma Film Festival and The Grand Cinema. The program will include the screening of a collection of original short films by filmmakers who are students at local high schools followed by a film discussion with the filmmakers in The Grand's lower lobby. Our words of advice: Remember these kids' names - chances are you'll be seeing them again soon enough. The Grand turns on the projector at 6:45 p.m.

2. King's Books hosts a special reading from the new anthology Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out at 7 p.m. The U.S. editor, Leah Stenson, will read selections from, and talk about, this important new collection about the horrors of the century's first nuclear disaster and the empathy required to heal our communities.

3. We're not certain if they'll be school hazing inside Tacoma Community College Building 2 Auditorium, be we're certain awesome music will be performed when the TCC Symphonic Band and Jazz Band host the Eastern Washington University Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Code Red (pep band) for a 7 p.m. concert.

4. What happens when you fuse spoken word with deep, funny, tender, raucous Broadway tunes? Claudette Evans, an alumnus of AMDA College and Conservatory of New York City, brings her heavenly powerhouse voice to the B Sharp Coffee House in collaboration with Tacoma poet Lucas Smiraldo, beginning at 7 p.m. "Being Alive" explores the life of one lonely soul in the aftermath of the 911 attacks. 

5. Oregon-based folky Alice DiMicele will drop by Traditions Café at 8 p.m. to bust out a soothing blend of acoustic-soul and folk-rock. She's shared the stage with some of music's best, including Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, JJ Cale, David Grisman, Arlo Guthrie and Steve Winwood. Don't screw up.

LINK: Thursday, May 22 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

The four plastic yellow jugs with the red tops have fuses running out of them.

Leaning next to the jugs was a canister full of nuts and bolts.

These were bombs of the homemade variety, and they all had to be defused.

"It's going to be a long day for the team that has to work this cache," said Staff Sgt. Michael Frechette, 3rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion, as we stood in an underground bunker on Range 101.

"And if they make one mistake a buzzer will sound, meaning they made a mistake."

If the bombs were real, the mistake would be fatal.

"These teams have to be very careful and thorough," explained 1st Lt. Aaron Stutts as we left the bunker.

"It's what makes this competition as intense as it is."

Over the past several days, the 3rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion has been conducting an intensive ordnance disposal and military skills competition.

The battalion is assigned to the 71st Ordnance Group at Fort Carson, Colo.

>>> Four simulated bombs wait for a three-soldier team to defuse during the EOD Team of the Year Competition. Photo credit: J.M. Simpson

Over the past several months, the battalion has been conducting team and individual-level military training to prepare for the competition.

The competition's events include a physical fitness test, a 10-mile ruck march, a casualty evacuation from a minefield, an improvised explosive land, an unexploded chemical ordnance lane, a suicide vest situation and weapons marksmanship.

"It is intense, no doubt about it," commented 1st Lt. Kurt Peterson, the battalion's public affairs officer.

"These soldiers are repeatedly put to the test."

Three teams of three soldiers faced one different problem after another.  On each challenge their skills were judged and points tallied.

The team with the most points would win the competition and move on to Fort Carson to compete in the 71st Group competition.

"The team that goes on to represent JBLM on the national level, and that speaks of us," Stutts said.

Last August, Lifelong friends and Olympia business partners Clint Morgan and Rob Hill threw a little shindig. OK, it wasn't little. Those who attended their DB Cooper Music Festival last August demanded the duo bring it back. And so it will be. The festival - which is named after our favorite regional outlaw who in 1971 hijacked a Boeing 747 in the airspace between Portland and Seattle and parachuted into history with $200,000 - will land at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds in Centralia Aug. 2, 2014, for a day of world class music on three stages, plus drinkies.

Main stage performers include 2013 Blues Musician of the Year Curtis Salgado, six-time Grammy nominee Maria Muldaur, The Voice finalist Vicci Martinez, Tacoma funk masters Bump Kitchen, blues pioneer Alice Stuart and 2013 Independent Music Award winners the Brown Edition. Also in the house will be SweetKiss Momma, Mudcat, Pine Hearts, Sour Owl, Brittany Kingery and others.

Yes, we said "drinkies." And where there are drinkies, there are no kids. It's a 21 and older festival.

For those who buy tickets before May 31 can get inside for $25.

To receive a $5 per ticket discount, click on the promo tab and type in "volcano". You can save yet another buck by sharing your purchase in social media.

DB COOPER MUSIC FESTIVAL, 11 a.m. gates, Saturday, Aug. 2, Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, 2555 N. National Ave., Centralia, $25-$40, dbcoopermusicfest.com.

GRAB A CUP AND READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 5.23.14 >>>

Armed pro-Russian separatists clashed with Ukrainian self-defense fighters near the eastern city of Donetsk today, two days before the presidential election, and at least two people were killed.

The Kremlin's crazy shock troops.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki issued a message to veterans defending his leadership and promising to fix delays in care that have rocked his agency and the Obama administration in recent days.

The House approved a measure that would authorize just over $600 billion in 2015 U.S. defense spending, while blocking A-10 retirement plans and ordering an independent group to study the Army's future.

The House passed legislation that tacitly approves a 1.8 percent pay raise for military service members next year, and includes a number of other pay, benefits and workforce provisions.

The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee unveiled a $514 billion defense bill that differs in several ways from the version approved by the House.

The Senate Armed Services committee wants to put $320 million saved from cutting personnel to pay for flying the A-10 another year.

The Navy has dispatched a cruiser to the Black Sea in the latest sign that Washington is ramping up pressure on the Kremlin's power play in Ukraine ahead of a disputed referendum.

The intelligence community is on the verge of "revolutionary" technical advances.

DARPA has invented a device that gives soldiers Terminator vision.

The 10 algorithms that dominate our world.

Here comes the Headfoams.

Veruca Salt played for the first time in 18 years on Conan.

Watch the big drum-off between Will Ferrell and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith.

See a trailer for the new season of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Finally: This lengthy piece explores the history of Don and Peggy's relationship on Mad Men.

Suddenly American idol is much better ...

LINK: Original photo by Cpl. Emmanuel Ramos