THURSDAY, JULY 17 2014 >>>

1. Emmet and Marque met online. They fell in love. She moved to Ireland and lived with Emmet for seven months. Then, she brought him to the States. They became Irish man and wife. Emmet began the process of immigration. After three years, he secured his green card. He performed Irish folk music for two years in the greater Phoenix area. Music is his life; it runs in his blood. Emmet's late uncle Tommy Makem was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. The couple decided to move to Olympia. Emmet's St. Patrick's Day shows completed the travel fund. Then, doctors found a cyst on one of Marque's ovaries. The travel fund was gone. After Marque healed, the duo launched a GoFundMe page. Emmet and Marque now live in Olympia. Emmet now goes by That Irish Guy. At 5:17 p.m. Doyle's Public House will hold its Guinness Pint Club award ceremony and new members recognition, as part of its monthly St. Practice Day party. At 7 p.m. That Irish Guy will perform Irish folk music. At 8 p.m. a Guinness Pint Club member will hug him.

A reception for Bill Colby's "Water and Rocks: A Journey" will be held from 4-6 p.m. in The Gallery at Tacoma Community College. A former art professor at the University of Puget Sound, Colby has been creating art for six decades, and his work has been widely displayed and collected.

It's the third Thursday of the month, which means we look at art in Tacoma. Spaceworks Tacoma hosts The Portal Pop-up Gallery from 5-9 p.m. in the Post Office Building, 1102 A St., in downtown Tacoma. In conjunction with the Post office's current exhibitions - "The Hole in Your Heart is a Portal to Another Dimension"by Erin Dengerink and "Invoke the Muse" by Jennifer Chushcoff - Dengerink invited a group of her artist colleagues and collaborators to pop in on the Pop-up and pop out their works, including Maureen Andrade, painter and executive director of the NorthBank Gallery in Vancouver, Wash.;Sarah Paul Ocampo, multi media artist and performer from Seattle; and Edward Trover, printmaker, painter and sculptor from Portland, Ore.

4. Sailor Jerry presents Tattoo Night at The Swiss from 6:30-10:30 p.m. The downtown Tacoma hangout will have an artist on site doing free Sailor Jerry tattoos (yes, real ones). Junk Parlor will rock it at 9 p.m. Drinks include $4.50 rum drinks and, of course, the shot wheel.

5. A doom-ish, heavy show is going down at the all-ages Northern venue in downtown Olympia featuring Dead To A Dying World, Uzala, Shadows and Burial Suit at 8 p.m.

LINK: Thursday, July 17 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area