THURSDAY, JAN. 12, 2012 >>>

1. Dick Dale created the surf guitar sound. This is a statement that is irrefutable (a rare commodity in music). As it's been documented and retold, Dick Dale began by playing the drums and then transferred this percussive quality to the electric guitar - the result being the breakneck strumming and picking that has become irrevocably associated with surf guitar. As a style, surf guitar as endured and informed generations of guitarists, from heavy metal to garage rock and every rock-minded station in between. Tonight Dale plays Hell's Kitchen with Girl Trouble, the Coloffs and Graceland 5.

2. Olympia's Christian Mistress, purveyors of old school metal of the purest and most potent kind, will release their sophomore LP, Possession, on Relapse Records Feb. 28. Expect it to be scorching, and like a literal flashback to the glorious 1980s. Anchored by the darkly feminine vocals of Christine Davis, Christian Mistress has built a name on authentic riffage and plodding power chords. A listen to "Haunted Hunted," the first available song from Possession, indicates more of the same is on its ways to the surely-thankful, devil-horn waving masses. Presented by Owl Lodge, catch the band at the Capitol Theater Backstage with Thou, The Body and Dreamdecay next week. Prepare to head bang. Tonight, Christian Mistress will rock the hell out of the Capitol Theater Backstage.

3. Comedian Chris Mata performs at the Tacoma Comedy Club. The show starts at 8 p.m. and will cost you $15 to get into.

4. Ian Moore will be across the bridge at Morso Wine Bar in Gig Harbor- promising to be a show not to miss.

5. As has become tradition, one of the South Sound's favorite blues musicians, Jerry Miller, will be in Spanaway tonight for Taco Thursday at Uncle Sam's American Bar and Grill.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11, 2012>>>

1. Join Charles Lambert tonight at the Timberland Regional Library in Olympia for a presentation on Martin Luther King Jr. that arrives just in time for the MLK holiday. According to hype, Lambert wil "bring Civil Rights history to life using images, lecture, and song. This presentation will cover the Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis along with music from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s." It starts at 7:30 p.m.

2. Play bingo with those not just killing time before the Grim Reaper calls their number. Every Wednesday at The New Frontier Lounge, players are treated to a rather boisterous evening of number-calling. The music rocks, the prizes are craptastic and there's something very satisfying about yelling "It's not a tumor!" when B-9 is pulled from the hopper (Schwarzenegger anyone?). Sessions are free with $2 margaritas and $4 Cuervo Gold shots during bingo. Every Wednesday night is also Taco Night with $1 beef, $1 black bean and $2 chicken in soft or crunchy shells.

3. Today South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia will unveil its Wish You Were Here postcard exhibit, the result of months of wading through submissions and the combined word of 75 local and regional artists who produced 250 works of art in a variety of mediums, from paintings, prints and drawings to photography, ceramics and sculpture. Running through March 2 in SPSCC's Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery, Wish You Were Here will celebrate an official opening reception Friday, Jan. 20 - kicking off a six-week silent auction, with all the works on display available for purchase.

4. Holy crap! Hump Day already? That must mean it's time again for Masa College Night. Expect flesh.

5. It's karaoke galore around the South Sound tonight. Check out the Volcano's live local music listings for the bevy of bars and clubs offering you a chance at the mic tonight. Hot spots include Backstage Bar & Grill, Club Silverstone, The Swiss and even Tillicum's Barbecue Inn.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

TUESDAY, JAN. 10, 2012 >>>

1. The Swiss Pub and science are synonymous. OK, so maybe they're not quite synonymous, but they do go together quite well -the monthly "Tacoma Science Café" at the Swiss proves it. Today, join the University of Puget Sound's Rand Worland, Ph.D. as he delves into "The Physics of Music: Using Light to Study Sound." As hype of the free event reminds us, music has vibration at its root. Worland will help attendees, "discover how he uses lasers to produce images of these vibrations and how differences in vibrations alter how we perceive sounds. The Tacoma Science Café kicks off at 6:30 p.m.

2. Get your Tuesday night on with the Joe Faker Band and Allen Alto at O'Callahan's Pub & Grill in Key Peninsula. If the music, which starts at 7 p.m., doesn't float your boat, just play pull-tabs. There's no cover.

3. Get your groove on tonight in Parkland. DJ Adam Ant spins during "Twisted Tuesday" at Lady Luck Cowgirl Up, offering Top 40 action and karaoke. The good times start at 9 p.m. Or, if you're looking for something more, peruse the Volcano's extensive live local music listings here.

4. Tacoma's Backstage Bar & Grill has stormed onto the scene - quickly becoming this town's go-to location for nostalgic drunken fun and devil horns. Tonight witness the awesomeness of a "DJ & Drummer Duo Battle," featuring DJ Switch and Chris Dahl. Magic starts at 9:30 p.m.

5. The Royal Lounge in Olympia offers a Comedy Lounge night every Tuesday, featuring an open-mic from 9-9:30 p.m. and headlining comics from 9:30 - 11 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

MONDAY, JAN. 9, 2012>>>

1. Every second Monday of the month Tacoma's Graphic Novel Book Club meets at the famed watering hole 1022 South to delve into another, well, graphic novel. Hence the name. Organized by King's Books, January's offering is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 by Tim Hamilton, which, like all Graphic Novel Book Club selections, is conveniently available at King's. Unfortunately for the kids, you have to be 21 or older to hang with this club at 1022 South. The good times roll at 7 p.m.

2. South Sound blues legend Jerry Miller plays The Swiss in Tacoma tonight --- the show kicks off at 8 p.m.

3. Drop in on Micro Monday with DJ Melodica at Magoo's Annex and expand your musical horizons and knowledge. Even better: Tonight the Volcano's own Rev. Adam McKinney (DJ Pocket Square to those in the know) will be on hand to help Melodica get the proverbial party started.

4. Mondays in Tacoma's Dome District equate to devil horns - at least since The New Frontier Lounge instituted Metal Mondays. Pet your handlebar mustache with likeminded folks tonight. Metal Monday gets going at 9 p.m.

5. Jake's on Fourth Avenue in Olympia offers one of the best gay-friendly karaoke experiences the region has to offer. If you consider yourself a karaoke person, and have yet to see it, it's time you got in the game.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

SUNDAY, JAN. 8, 2012 >>>

1. Blues vocalist Diunna Greenleaf and pianist Clay Swafford will make history with their first performance in the Northwest at 7 p.m. inside The Royal Lounge in Olympia when Greenleaf, a nominee for this year's Koko Taylor Award for Best Traditional Female Blues Vocalist and the Blues Music Award for Best Traditional Blues Album, joins Swafford, widely regarded as one of the best blues piano players in the world, will perform as a duo. The show will be taped so don't dress like a slob. Read Jake de Paul's full feature on the event here.

2. Today is the last day to bundle up, pinch your cheeks until they glow and strap on a pair of silver skates, Hans Brinker, for a glide across the frozen expanse at Tollefson Plaza. The Franciscan Polar Plaza, located on the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street ends today. Hit the ice from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. To read Paul Schrag's full feature on Polar Plaza, click here.

3. Photographer and downtown Tacoma resident Peter Serko loves the Museum of Glass. Loves it. Well, at least loves to shoot it. He's been capturing the many moods of the MOG since 2006. And MOG has been aware. Today is the last day to see Serko's Transformation: Art Changes a City at MOG. From noon to 5 p.m., see Serko's 18 photographs of both the Museum architecture and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass taken during different times of day throughout the seasons. Bonus: Peter Serko discusses the rebirth of Tacoma.

4. Born in Jackson, Miss., Patrick Lamb began paying his dues by playing roadhouse music as a teenager in the rural south when he heard the evocative sounds of James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Wilton Felder, of the Crusaders. At 5 p.m. inside the Marine View Church, Lamb will show Northeast Tacoma what he has learned over these many years, specifically awesome old school R&B soul tunes.

5. Funky blues band Bump Kitchen will perform at 7 p.m. inside The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: This week's freebies

SATURDAY, JAN. 7, 2012 >>>

1. The Auburn Performing Arts Center will be one giant party of bagpipes, whistle, fiddle and song when Celtic bands Mollys Revenge and The Town Pants go off at 7 p.m.

2. Today marks the first Saturday of the month, which means it's time again for the monthly Gig Harbor Art Walk from 1-5 p.m. For the uninitiated, the Gig Harbor Art Walk offers art lovers (or non art lovers, for that matter) a chance to take a free, self-guided tour of the many galleries along the Gig Harbor waterfront.

3. Seattle authors Dave O'Leary, Pam Summa and Destini Baxter will read their works from 2-5 p.m. at Mad Hat Tea Company in downtown Tacoma. "Dave O'Leary's debut novel, Horse Bite, offers a heartfelt and thoughtful meditation on love, sex (lots of it), and the ways in which we view the world - and ourselves - differently as we grow older," says Will Allison, author of the New York Times bestseller, Long Drive home.

4. Listen to traditional music from Mexico and learn about the cultural traditions from which it is derived. The group Trío Lucero del Norte, inspired by music from one of the largest and most diverse cultural areas of Mexico, will fill the Tacoma Art Museum with traditional Mexican music at 2 p.m.

5. DJs Broam, Bobby Galaxy and E.S. present "Future Bass" at 9:30 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: This week's freebies

FRIDAY, JAN. 6, 2012 >>>

1. Hammond organist Joe Doria expands definitions and embraces the musical past as a living thing, not just some retro curiosity frozen into easily marketed poses. Doria and crew put jazz's open-minded complexity beneath a heavy funk that's more real than the real thing. And by crew we mean saxophonist Cliff Colon, guitarist Andy Coe and drummer Tarik Abouzied. The free show hit Doyle's Public House at 9 p.m. You'll have to fight birthday boy Jesse Turcotte for the front row.

2. The Puyallup Home & Garden Show is a show designed for homeowners in all stages of remodeling, landscaping and decorating their homes – well, maybe not the stage where you hammer your thumb after discovering you're $50,000 over budget. Hang at the Puyallup Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and learn something.

3. Before you get your funky self down at Doyle's, head to King's Books. The Stadium District bookstore will screen the 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala -  which explores the events surrounding the 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that left two FBI agents dead - at 6 p.m.

4. The dance begins in the eyes of a man, searching from chair to chair. Some of the chairs will seem interested for a second, then break it off. Others don't even acknowledge him. But when his eyes land on the right piece of furniture, there's no confusing the look. He locks eyes with that chair; the two move toward the dance floor and meet there halfway in an embrace, the classic start of the tango. The lights are dim overhead, and the bottoms of his dance shoes caress the wooden floor as he leads his chosen chair into the tango song. While dancing a dime falls from underneath the chair's cushion. There's an awkward moment. He picks up the coin and continues the dance. "I am," he said too no one there. And no one heard it at all, except the chair. Possibly this dance but certainly many better ones like it will be performed as part of Tacoma Dance Collective The Furniture Series at 7:30 p.m. inside the Tacoma School of the Arts Theatre. A total of 13 pieces of furniture will be the muse of dancers Robin Jennings Jaecklein, Joel Myers, Hannah Crowley, Mary Tuttle, Danny Boulet, Faith Stevens and students from the Tacoma School of the Arts.

5. Hip-hop artist Sky Pilot will unplug it at 7 p.m. inside the Forza Coffee in University Place. How high can you fly?

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Nightlife It List

LINK: This week's freebies

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Gov. Gregoire: She supports same-sex marriage. (The Olympian)

New Puyallup City Council: It has a different agenda. (New Tribune)

Clay Huntington Way: It could be what you take to get to Cheney Stadium. (Tacoma Daily Index)

Final Chapter: Tacoma band Girl Trouble wins lawsuits against Ohio-based Gorilla Productions. (Weekly Volcano)

Iraq: Attackers killed at least 60 Shiites in strikes that renewed fears of sectarian violence. (CNN)

America's Classified X-37B Spaceplane: It's probably pointed at China. (BBC)

Stephen Colbert: How many are there? (The New York Times)

Nooooooo!: The Martha Stewart Show will be axed. (New York Post)

Oh Hell Yes This List Exists: TV's best mullets. (Huffington Post)

It Will Be Knocking On Your Door: New Girl Scout cookie. (Huffington Post)

Slideshow: A day in the life of Conan O'Brien. (Team Coco)

Supercut: Rapper spelling bee. (Slacktory)

A Milestone In Television History

THURSDAY, JAN. 5, 2012 >>>

1. Think running and drinking don't mix unless there's a K-9 unit involved? Not true. For more than a year the Tacoma Runners - a group of T-town pavement pounders -have gathered at Tacoma watering holes at 6:30 p.m. to jog a 3-mile loop, followed by multiple drinks at the launch point. It's been a smashing success. This week's Thursday Beer Run meets at the Top of Tacoma Bar and Cafe. The fact that's it's also Taco Thursday at the Top is a bonus.

2. Sips and Canvas is like a kids' painting party, but it's for adults and fueled by wine. Kerry Cole will teach a 90 to 120 minute painting class from 4-6 p.m. at her Blue Octopus gallery with wine provided by neighboring Abby's Wine Shop. All supplies included: Your own blank 9 by 12 canvas to take home, brushes, paint and an apron will be provided to use. Call 253.678.4776 to get in.

3. Kim Archer hosts the Tempest Lounge's all-ages open mic from 7-9 p.m.

4. The Young Evils are led by songwriter Troy Nelson and the female voice of Mackenzie Mercer that approaches the act of songwriting almost as a dare: How tight, bright and ebullient can you make each song while still maintaining the certain gobsmacking efficacy that comes with taking in a great pop song?Catch the band with Oh Dear! and Not From Brooklyn at 89 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge. To read Rev. Adam McKinney's full article on The Young Evils, click here.

5. Immaculate Flave presents a night of Northwest hip-hop featuring X-Kid, Dougie (Ur Dad), Sinoy Brown with King James and Mr. Twist, Kiing David, City Hall and DJ Slimrock at 9 p.m. inside The Royal Lounge.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Nightlife It List

LINK: This week's freebies

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, 2012 >>>

1. Cold Fusion, the second installation of a two-part exhibition series exploring contemporary artwork in a group show - featuring artists Todd Clark, Judy Hintz Cox, Jeff G. Mitchell and Scott Morgan - is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the B2 Fine Art Gallery in Tacoma's Triangle District. Read Weekly Volcano art critic Alec Clayton's review of the show here.

2. You can stop calling owners Bob and Jack at The Swiss. It worked. Wednesday nights "6 Wings, 6 Beers, $6 Bucks" is back on, beginning at 4 p.m.

3. Lakewood Pub and Grill has taken the bar term "meat market" literally with a meat raffle every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., when patrons drop $10 for 15 tickets to win premium cuts courtesy of Stewart's Meat Market ... or a $25 gas card. Choice wins include stacks of deli cut bacon and steaks, although the jerky packs are bonus. See the meat here.

4. The Red Room all-ages venue is just rocking it. It's the busiest joint in town with what seems to be a show every night. At 6 p.m. Placeholder, Four Minute Mile and Rookie Town bring it.

5. The Harmon Tap Room hosts an open jam from 7-9 p.m. featuring Chris Hyde and Kim Archer calling the shots. Shots? Yes this Stadium District brewpub can help you with that.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Nightlife It List

LINK: This week's freebies