WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29 2014 >>>

1. Northwest music scene break-out since 2004, High Ceiling plays alongside some of the biggest names in jam-rock-reggae: John Brown's Body, Rubblebucket, Clinton Fearon, Kyle Hollingsworth, Junior Reid and many others. Roots reggae, world, trance and jazz sounds are infused with improvisation, defining High Ceiling's unique presence in the Northwest music and eclectic arts scenes. Catch the band with IWayne and Black Am I at 8 p.m. in Jazzbones.

2. Between 10-11 a.m., Red Wind Casino will cut the ribbon for its new 600-space parking garage. After the ribbon cutting, head inside for a $6 Sloppy Joe and fries meal in The Medicine Creek Deli. Then, hit the Craps table.

3. Today is the last day you can grab shigoku oysters at Salty's at Redondo Beach. For the uninitiated, the shigoku oyster has a light, clean taste of cucumber and salt with a finish of water chestnut and Jerusalem artichoke. Salty's tops each oyster with local huckleberries poached in champagne and then finish with a lemon thyme-infused verjus mignonette. It's the perfect balance of sweet and tangy flavors.

4. The rich get richer, the poor get the picture, as noted U.S. policy experts Midnight Oil once said. The gap in the U.S. between the rich and the poor has never been wider. As we learn in the film Inequality for All, earnings for the "1 percent" have doubled in the last 35 years, while wages for workers have diminished dramatically. The film features Robert Reich -professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member - as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy. Catch the film at 6:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater, then stick around for a post-film discussion.

5. Barbara Ehrenreich's 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is about her cross-country odyssey as a voluntary member of the working poor. Ehrenreich believes that even as poverty rates - and income inequality - climb, it's only getting harder to be poor. Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland has selected Ehrenreich's groundbreaking study of our nation's working poor for the 2014 Tacoma Reads community reading program.Throughout the month of October, the Tacoma Public Library has been hosting book discussions in various forms, covering topics such as income inequality, the death of the American Dream, the destruction of the middle class and certainly the battle to raise the minimum wage. What is the impact of raising the minimum wage on workers and businesses? Will it substantively address rising inequality and the broad decline of the middle class or, as some assert, result in more youth unemployment, higher prices and increased automation? Discuss it at 7 p.m. at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma.

LINK: Wednesday, Oct. 29 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

I can't and won't profess to be a country music aficionado. Luckily for our purposes, however, I do know someone who can lay fair claim to being an expert: my father-in-law, Greg Stevens. Now in radio ad sales (and occasional jingle writing), he spent decades singing and playing guitar for a touring country band called The Wichita Linemen. When I learned Charlie Daniels was playing the Lucky Eagle Casino, I contacted Greg immediately, as I knew he'd played with Daniels on numerous occasions.

It may surprise you to learn Daniels began his career as a session musician who played with Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and wrote an album cut for Elvis. There's no question Charlie Daniels has established himself since then as one of the greatest crossover artists in the history of country and Southern rock. I asked Greg how he met the Grand Ole Opry inductee and North Carolina icon. "Charlie Daniels is a very benevolent fellow," Greg began with no hesitation. "I worked a fundraiser, and (Daniels) offers his services to various charities." In his home state, for example, Daniels produces annual Volunteer Jam concerts, which began in 1974 and continue to this day. "We had a place (in Wichita) called the Starkey (Supervised Living Program), which provides housing for people with developmental disabilities...Charlie got involved about 1988, and he came, and we had this big dinner and auction fundraiser on a Sunday night. The Wichita Linemen were playing, and he got up and did ‘The South's Gonna Do It Again' and ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia' and all his stuff that was in our repertoire. People just went crazy, so they had big plans: ‘Next year we're gonna do this big concert! Charlie's gonna play.' It's expensive to bring his whole band in. Our band was already there, so he would just send us a list of songs he's gonna do, and we'd perform those songs on the show. He'd close out the show...We did that for approximately ten years ... (The charity) made several million dollars out of that activity."

"For Y2K, New Year's Eve," Greg continued, "we opened for him at the Museum of the Horse in Ruidoso, New Mexico. After he got done performing and took it right up to midnight, his band and our band jammed together till two o'clock in the morning. ... There is no finer human being on the face of the earth," Greg concluded with obvious sincerity. "He's charitable, he's giving. He never ceases to amaze me as far as helping new country acts get into the business. He's extremely supportive of the troops. He's been to Iraq, I think twice. He's just a phenomenal human being."

Not to mention one hell of a fiddle player. Don't believe me? Ask a certain Lord of the Flies.

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND, 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, Lucky Eagle Casino & Hotel, 12888 188th Ave. SW, Rochester, $30-$70, 800.720.1788

LINK: Live bluegrass and country bands will perform at the Polar Plaza ice rink in downtown Tacoma

Time is nigh for the opening of the new wing at Tacoma Art Museum. The Haub Family Collection catalog, Art of the American West: The Haub Family Collection at Tacoma Art Museum, is now available for purchase in the TAM Store ($45, soft cover). The catalog includes color images for all 295 works in the Haub collection. Get it now for a marvelous preview of the collection and treasure it forever.

Also available is the museum's newest mascot, Cody, a cute plush bison toy ($24.50). Cody was named after the first bison brought to the Haub family's ranch. Also available is a Pendleton Saxony Hills blanket robe ($250). The Saxony Hills blanket references the changing landscape of Navajo weaving in the 1800s when yarns from merino sheep produced in the Saxony area of Germany were introduced. The blanket incorporates traditional, geometric Navajo motifs.

The museum has posted the schedules for grand opening events on the website. Check www.TacomaArtMuseum.org under the Calendar and Events tab for details about the Go West Gala and Go West Grand Opening. Tickets are still available for the evening social and members' party featuring live music by The Tallboys and TAM's new signature Tacoma New West CDA from Harmon Brewing Co. and Tacoma New West Bourbon Whiskey from Heritage Distilling Co.

TACOMA ART MUSEUM, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. third Thursday, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, $8-$10, 5 and younger free, 253.627.6031

MORE HAUB WING UPDATES

Secret sculture, Haub wing beer and boubon, TAM Store opens

Cherokee Nation, Go West Gala, bluegrass coming to Tacoma Art Museum

Painted walls, "Big Red," Celebrity Cake Studio and metal coming to Tacoma Art Museum

Sellen Construction dangles the keys

Checking in with the Tacoma Art Museum

Colors, video, improved store at Tacoma Art Museum

THURSDAY, OCT. 30 2014 >>>

1. During the American occupation of Japan at the end of World War II, more than 100,000 native Japanese women married American soldiers. Between 1946 and 1960, they came to the United States with their husbands and were settled at remote Army posts around the country, one of which, Fort Riley, in Kansas, is the setting for Velina Hasu Houston's born-in-anger play, TEA, opens at Tacoma theater company Dukesby Productions at 7:30 p.m. The story revolves around five Japanese women who are supposed to become a part of the great American melting pot. But when one of them shoots herself, the others are drawn to the traditional Japanese teapot.

2. New works by some old favorites in pen and pencil, metal and dirt can be seen for the last time as "Metal & Paint: New Work by Jeremiah Maddock, Kyle Dillehay and Quinn Honan" closes today at Moss + Mineral.

3. The Tacoma Runners will summon their inner ghoul for tonight's Night Before Halloween Run. That's right, the Runners will don costumes for their weekly 3-mile run, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at The New Frontier Lounge in Tacoma's Dome District. We're talking running zombies people!

4. A Pre-Halloween Extravaganza featuring The Oly Mountain Boys, The Pine Hearts and Br'er Rabbit hits the McLane Grange Hall in Olympia at 8 p.m. The all-ages show is $5, but only $3 if you bring a carved pumpkin. 

5. The Sixth Avenue Mexican restaurant turned dance club at night Masa hosts two Halloween parties: DJ Niros and a costume contest tonight at 10 p.m., and another costume contest and DJ Sessions upstairs and DJ Derdee downstairs Halloween night. Cash prizes for best costumes and drink specials are on the dockets.

LINK: Thursday, Oct. 30 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Well, here's a rarity for Judging by the Trailer: a movie I've actually seen! Yes, it's Saw, the movie that inspired a decade of tedious and disgusting American, mainstream torture-porn. Thankfully, this appears to be a genre that is dying out with the glut of haunted house pictures that we're currently experiencing, but I'll never pass over an opportunity to express my displeasure with Saw and its ilk, so let's begin.

In addition to inspiring Saw imitators, Saw also inspired a fanbase that would frantically argue with you if you dared to call into question the inherent morality that the franchise hinges upon. You see, the hero of the Saw movies is the murderer himself, known as Jigsaw - but even saying that could get you in trouble. Fans of the series will point out that Jigsaw actually does no killing. Rather, he puts victims into impossible circumstances with elaborate contraptions that effectively force them to kill or maim themselves. Fans will tell you all about the turgid, insincere backstory of Jigsaw (that he is a man dying of cancer who punishes people for not appreciating the wonders of life) and completely ignore the nightmare machines that rip people appendages off or poke their eyes out or whatever.

I can't say for certain, but I'm willing to bet that my first encounter with such a fan was with my brother. There's an impenetrable boundary when it comes to explaining to such people that Jigsaw could be dying of 10 different cancers, and that still doesn't justify putting someone in a device that explodes their head like a watermelon. Luckily, the series seems to have finally died out, so these conversations don't happen anymore. But, with the 10^th anniversary re-release, I would advise steering clear of anyone that's seen more than one of these. They are not someone you'd like to have corner you at the bar.

Little ghouls and goblins can welcome the witching hour Friday in a zillion ways, and not all of them require knocking on doors and begging for food. Here's one cool idea.

Chalie Hill - the man behind the scary decorations at The Spar in Old Town Tacoma and Laura Eklund - the woman behind many gorgeous party and concert set designs - have created a haunte house for kids at the Old Town Music Society building in Old Town Tacoma. Hill says it has a Blair Witch Project feel to it.

All the money raised will help to upgrade the (Music Society) ceiling for better acoustics," says Hill.

"Ohhhh it looks AMAZING!! TELL YOUR FRIENDS!! This is a total kid friendly spooky haunt! Treats for the kids ... If they make it through mua ha ha ha!" screams DJ Suga Jones, a longtime employee at The Spar.

It's a one night, kid-friendly scary affair.

THE OLD TOWN HAUNTING, 5 p.m. to midnight, Friday, Oct. 31, Old Town Music Society, 2101 N. 30^th St., Tacoma, $3 kids, $5 adults, Facebook

FRIDAY, OCT. 31 2014 >>>

1. The frights are upon us once again, and there are, as always, plenty of ways to spend the Devil's holiday. The Weekly Volcanois your source for South Sound parties, theater performances, haunted houses and live music - it's up to you to decide where you'll go, and, of course, what you'll wear. Click here for a list of adult Halloween parties. Click here for South Sound live music and parties. Click here to read about a scary haunted house in Tacoma.

2. The Magic Flute is set in an unnamed fantasyland, but this production benefits from local stylistic influences. Tacoma Opera drew inspiration from the art and culture of Pacific Northwest Salish tribes, with valuable assistance from the Puyallup tribe in particular. The event's web page notes the indigenous culture's "impish sense of humor and ... immense respect for nature, all of which blend perfectly with the transcendent music." It'll be interesting to note how these tribal elements are woven into set and costume designs, as The Magic Flute's expansive, episodic structure demands a unifying aesthetic perspective. Read Christian Carvajal's full feature on The Magic Flute in the Music & Culture section, then enjoy the opera at 7:30 p.m. in the Rialto Theater.

3. Tacoma Little Theatre's staging of the classic tale of crime and betrayal, Dial "M" for Murder, draws your eye chiefly to three things: a telephone positioned on a desk by a window, an apartment's front door looming in the background and a green handbag resting on a davenport. These three ingredients, coordinated in symphony, are the most powerful chess pieces in a play that is less a "whodunit," as the program notes, and more of an exploration of what happens after "it" has been done. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's full review of Dial "M" for Murder in the Music & Culture section, then see the play at 7:30 p.m.

4. Most musicians first get their feet wet by aping their favorite bands for hours in front of their mirrors, so it makes perfect sense that bands would dress up as their favorite acts for Halloween. To wit, Night of the Living Tribute Bands features Olympia's musicians and artists forming one-off bands to pay tribute to some of the greatest acts in music history. While it may be a one night event, some of these thrown together tribute acts practice for months in advance. Read Christian Carvajal's full feature story on Night of the Living Tribute Bands in the Music & Culture section, then head to the Capitol Theater at 8 p.m.

5. Vampires, alien invasion, monsters and Frankenstein: these are the things of which Misfits songs are made. It's appropriate punkgrass band The Rusty Cleavers will perform seven Misfits songs as part of their distilled rootsy meets punchy punk set Halloween night. Also on the bill is Shotgun Kitchen, with stories about white-trash-living and country-road-dying. Remember sexy costumes are to Halloween what ketchup is to french fries. Speaking of french fries, there is nothing sexier than dressing up as an artery-clogging fast food item. Catch the bands at 9 p.m. at The Valley.

LINK: Friday, Oct. 31 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, NOV. 1 2014 >>>

1. You've had the mustache for a year now, and have been contemplating jumping from amateur to pro. Grab some friends, bearded or not, and head to O'Malley's Irish Pub at 7 p.m. in Tacoma for a 'stache-ogling Movember Kick Off Party in honor of whiskers. On the other hand, if you're competitive, there are prizes for "Best 'Stache" for male and female. Expect a raffle. Expect prizes for the Guess The Famous 'Stache trivia game. And expect to drop donations into a jar. After all, Aussie blokes conceived Movember in 1999 as a way of publicizing men's health issues, especially prostate cancer and depression. The Movember Foundation, which refers to participating dudes as "Mo Bros," says the purpose of those autumn mustaches is to "change the face of men's health."

2. They'll be there with their buckskins, their powderhorns and their tinware. Folks in period dress with monikers such as Chauncey, Jededian, Booshway, Eleanor, Bear Legs, Prudence and Huck will demonstrate blacksmithing, cooking, spinning, basket weaving and woodworking, along with a variety of music. All but Huck are re-enactor artisans assuming 19th century pioneer names as they share their talents and creations, such as intricate needlework and forged metalwork at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum during Arts of the Fur Trade from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Huck will try to score pelts to make a vest for his high school post-punk revival band, James Buchanan Side Shave.

3. Tacoma Brewing Co. celebrates its second anniversary from 2-9 p.m. Founder Morgan Alexander will have several anniversary stouts on the "Specials" board: sour stout, bourbon barrel-aged stout, licorice stout, vanilla stout and a coffee stout. On the IPA side, expect Fresh Mosaic Hop IPA, Fresh Citra Hop Broken Window IPA and Penalty Kick Triple IPA. "I will also have a fresh batch of Dr. Alexander's Hard Ginger Ale," says Alexander. "This will be the first batch that will be sold in local stores starting this week." The party will include hourly giveaways, and Finnwick's Food Truck will be parked outside from 4-8 p.m.

4. Sandwiched between Hilltop Loans and Pho Bac Cafe sits the quintessential neighborhood bar, Eleven Eleven. The Hilltop Tacoma sandwich and booze parlor carries a lovely selection of brewskis on tap. Tonight kicks off the 1111 Fest, featuring events, specials and giveaways every night through Nov. 11. Tonight, DJ Marcus will spin during the 1111 Fest Kickoff Party featuring Silver City Brewery and limited edition Heaven Eeven Cask Brew. A different brewery will be in the house every night until 11-11.

5. Formed by longtime Tacoma music fixture Justin Tamminga and his two children, Dahlia and Lucien, Pig Snout is a testament to the joy and universality of rock 'n' roll. If it can be believed, Dahlia and Lucien are 6 and 9, respectively, and they just started learning their instruments in earnest earlier this year. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's full feature on Pig Snout in the Music & Culture section, then catch the band with Hell's Belles and Clear Chaos for a 5 p.m. all-ages show at Jazzbones. Hell's Belles plays a 21+ version at 9 p.m.

LINK: Saturday, Nov. 1 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area