MEET WRITER/DIRECTOR FREDERICK MARX >>>

Every so often, The Grand Cinema invites a filmmaker to town to share and discuss his or her work with audiences. This Thursday, June 9, the Oscar-nominated writer-director Frederick Marx visits Tacoma along with his 2010 documentary Journey from Zanskar.

"Though beings are innumerable, I vow to free them from all suffering." 

This Bodhisattva vow greets us in the film's opening title. Geshe Lobsang Yonten took this vow - and took it to heart - while becoming a Tibetan monk. He seeks to help his small, impoverished community of Zanskar, tucked away among the mountains of northern India. He desires his Tibetan culture to not die, but instead to live on in the youth there. To achieve this they must receive education in Manali, 180 miles away. So Yonten takes it upon himself to somehow safely guide these children across a harsh wilderness entirely on foot.

Richard Gere narrates this highly suspenseful trip as the group encounters the brutal cold and myriad dangers like rockslides, altitude sickness and snow blindness. In a strangely nonchalant way, Yonten admits early on that death can come at any time for him and his fellow travelers. This makes his interpretation of the above vow a curious one - he wants a better life and intellectual enlightenment for the young ones under his care, yet to do so he has no choice but to subject them to a physically grueling trial. Does the end justify the means?

Zanskar makes for a visceral viewing experience, so much so that I began feeling a bit guilty. There I am, cozy under a blanket on my couch while watching a movie about suffering kids - Christopher, you douche! But the lessons taken away go deeper than that. By unflinchingly showing the struggles of some of our fellow man, the director successfully takes us on a journey out of indifference, and into compassion.

[The Grand Cinema, Journey From Zanskar with writer/director Frederick Marx, Thursday, June 9, 6:45 p.m., $5-$8, 606 S Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

THE VOLCANO'S VISUAL ARTS CRITIC WEIGHS IN >>>

Here's the opening, slightly edited, of my Visual Edge for this week (see June 9 Weekly Volcano):

"Tacoma Art Museum tries to mount exhibitions that range from the traditional and historic to today's most revolutionary and idiosyncratic art. ... Just when I think they're on the verge of selling out ­ - oh god, another Chihuly, and this right after the blockbuster Norman Rockwell show - they do something gutsy like bringing in the highly controversial Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture."

While I was writing that my mind wandered to rock stars and visual artists. I decided that Norman Rockwell was to visual art what Frank Sinatra was to music in the '50s and early '60s, except that the whole Rat Pack scene was pretty damn risqué for the times, and also quite sexist. I don't associate Norman Rockwell with babes and boobs. But minus the babes and boobs Rockwell's talent and appeal was much like that of Sinatra. Ol' Blue Eyes was the king before Elvis, and Rockwell was king of a different kind of art, appealing to mass audiences at the same time Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were kings of the visual art elite (they were the John Coltrane of visual art, or maybe you could think of them as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles way ahead of their time).

So I got to wondering. If Rockwell was Frank Sinatra, who would Dale Chihuly be? I think he's Neil Diamond. Specifically the Neil Diamond of his heyday in the mid '80s - glitzy and smooth with huge appeal. Other rock stars who had the same kind of appeal were Tom Jones and the late-career Elvis Presley before Vegas and all those second-rate movies. (I would not dare compare any of these with the young Elvis from the Sun Records days. That Elvis was a giant, and the only painters who could be compared with him were Picasso and the afore-mentioned Pollock and de Kooning.)

One other big difference, which could shoot my hypothesis all to hell, is that Elvis and Tom Jones and Neil Diamond all had huge sex appeal. There was never anything sexy about Norman Rockwell. I associate him more with Sunday school and 4H clubs, and I can't imagine women chasing after him and tearing at his clothes. Chihuly, on the other hand, may have a kind of sex appeal, what with the eye patch.

After playing around with those ideas for a while I asked myself what visual artists could compare with Neil Young, and I thought of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. And then I began to search my mind for the art equivalent of Green Day and Eddie Vedder, and that's when my mind began to explode. Green Day? Maybe the German artist Anselm Keifer with all his rough, gritty and explosive paintings. But Vedder, he's a tough one. As contemporary and sometimes biting and unconventional as he can be, there's something classical and - dare I say it - sweet about him, and maybe the visual art equivalent would be someone like the great Edward Hopper or maybe Roy Lichtenstein.

So anyway, the Norman Rockwell show has gone away. It was a gigantic success. For a while it was like having Frank Sinatra perform at the Tacoma Dome. And now he's being replaced by Tacoma native and Northwest icon Dale Chihuly. The Chihuly show will probably draw big crowds and lots of oohs and aahs, and I will probably reluctantly admire some of his work just as I reluctantly admire Neil Diamond - but don't tell anybody.

TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011 >>>

1. Death By Steamship is playing the New Frontier Lounge in Tacoma tonight, a fine chance at some drunken art rock if ever there was one. Of course, you know that if you read Bobble Tiki's column this week.

2.Impressed by amazing voices? Venture out to Tacoma Community College tonight for a choral performance featuring the TCC Voices, TCC Singers and TCC Gospel Choir. The action starts at 7:30 p.m. Or, if that's not your musical cup of tea, check out the Volcano's extensive live local music listings for the South Sound here.

3. Every Tuesday at the State Capital Museum in Olympia writer Delores Nelson leads a memoir writing class. If you've always wanted to get your story on paper, this has the potential to be an invaluable tool. Or, perhaps if you're ambitions aren't as literary, find the Volcano's comprehensive South Sound arts and entertainment calendar here.

4. Tonight is a huge night for trivia around the South Sound. Drinking and question answering can be had at the Swiss, Farelli's in Tacoma and Sumner, Paddy Coyne's, the Hub ... and the list goes on.

5. Vote for Tacoma's best baristas, politicians, bloggers, bartenders and local businesses in the only 253 "Best Of" issue that matters. The Volcano's annual Best of Tacoma issue publishes July 28, and this year's readers' poll launched last week. Let your vote be heard now! Find all the details here.

WHEN IT ALL GOES SOUTH >>>

One of the shows I saw this weekend was Play On! at Olympia Little Theater, in which an amateur company bumbles through the disastrous opening-night performance of a not-so-great production. Tread the boards long enough and you, too, Gentle Reader, may know the joys of a nuclear-grade Pakistani clustermug. I don't mean "an actor went up on his lines" or "we had to cover a missing sound cue;" I mean a "where the hell are we," "oh my God, is there a doctor in the house," "the director is now on suicide watch" category EF5 shitstorm. It's been almost 20 years since my brush with Satan, and I still remember the event all too vividly.

The show was The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, a light whodunit comedy from 1987. Several undergrad friends and I were recruited into a community theater production that wasn't going especially well from day one. The resolution of the play depends entirely on the discovery of a secret notebook. Meanwhile, of course, there's a violent thunderstorm--this is, after all, a mystery, where such things are obligatory--and there's also a slasher on the loose in what's essentially a locked mansion. After a particularly deafening thunderclap, there's a brief blackout. During that blackout, my friend Arlan (aka "the Bull") careened into a table, inadvertently knocking that all-important notebook off the table into deep shadows. Within seconds we were light-years off the map.

I ad-libbed furiously, praying for a miracle. Perhaps a duplicate copy of the notebook might streak from the sky on a stray meteorite. Perhaps its contents would appear magically on a wall like the prophecy at Belshazzar's feast. My friend Marc moseyed to the lip of the stage, rested his chin in his hand, and stared into middle distance in what was self-evidently a state of mental hibernation. The old codger playing an undercover cop staggered onstage, brandished his prop gun at the audience, and bellowed, "Uh-oh, I guess I came out at the wrong scene!"

If you'd asked me at the time, I would have sworn on a stack of First Folios that we were in the weeds for at least 20 minutes. The stage manager said it was more like two. Either way, I can remember everything about that catastrophic meltdown except how we got out of it. Probably, the actress playing Nikki Crandall invoked psychic powers. However we got back in sync, the play concluded without the notebook or further crippling humiliation.

In the lobby after the show, audience members insisted they had no idea anything was wrong. This says little for the critical faculties of audience members, and it may in fact indicate they're born, brazen liars...for which I offer my sincerest gratitude.

MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2011 >>>

1. Catch purveyors of pop, Plateau, tonight at Le Voyeur in Olympia. Here's what the Volcano's Adam McKinney had to say about the band.

2. Monday night means one thing on Sixth Avenue in Tacoma - Rockaraoke at Jazzbones! It's the perfect opportunity to get your Jager bomb on! Find details here. Or, if Ed Hardy isn't your scene, peruse the Volcano's extensive South Sound live local music listings here.

3. Drop in on the Monday Meditation Meetup today at The Center in Lakewood. Find more info here. Find the Volcano's comprehensive South Sound arts and events calendar here for more awesome entertainment options.

4. Moon Daddy will rock The Swiss tonight. Just sayin'.

5. Vote for Tacoma's best baristas, politicians, bloggers, bartenders and local businesses in the only 253 "Best Of" issue that matters. The Volcano's annual Best of Tacoma issue publishes July 28, and this year's readers' poll launched last week. Let your vote be heard now! Find all the details here.

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2011 >>>

1. Performance art in the Tacoma bar scene has typically been one of two things: goldfish races or the awkward courting rituals at the end of a Kry show. Jazzbones will add a third category when it hosts Ten Tiny Dances at 6 p.m.  For those who haven't caught the buzz, Ten Tiny Dances is a stripped down format where 10 dance artists demonstrate astonishing inventiveness and variety on a 4-foot-by-4-foot stage - or about the size of a coffee table. Dinner and drinks will be served, but heckling and betting will not be allowed. All proceeds benefit MLK Ballet's tuition-free dance training.

2. The South Tacoma Farmers Market opens today at the corner of 56th and Washington streets in historic South Tacoma. Expect an array of locally produced and grown delicacies such as: Lamb, beef, pork, poultry, eggs, rabbit, seafood, flowers, vegetables, herbs, strawberries, cherries, baked goods, hot foods, natural skin care products and more from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday.  Gateway to India will be on site. Plus, the Lakewood Community Jazz Band and the Whateverly Brothers provide the soundtrack.

3. Pierce College Fort Steilacoom's music program presents 250 singers for a choral celebration of traditional church hymns at 7 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran University's Lagerquist Hall. The collaboration will feature the Pierce College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Tacoma Symphony Chorus, Lakes High School Concert Choir, McChord Field Chancel Choir, and Little Church on the Prairie Chancel Choir. In addition, guest singers will be included from Mount Cross Lutheran, Central Lutheran, First Lutheran, and other churches.

4. Northwest Repertory Singers ends its 10^th choral season with an afternoon concert featuring newly commissioned work by Donna Gartman Schultz, along with works by Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and John Corigliano. Expect special guest artists, NWRS alumni and several dignitaries for the 3 p.m. concert at Mason United Methodist Church.

5. Tacoma sludge-metal stalwarts Argonaut will help anchor the musical portion of a day-long no-limit poker tournament at Hell's Kitchen. Losing money has never been more rockin'. Hands of Toil, Lozen, Pioneers West and Thieves Hours join Argonaut at 7 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South sound

LINK: Happy hour!

TAKING MORE CHANCES >>>

Mavi Contemporary Art has a stable of about 20 artists whose works rotate from month to month. I may be wrong, but it seems like three of them, William Turner, Michael Croman and William Quinn, are in almost every show. These three are again featured in Mavi's latest show. To be more accurate, Turner is featured and Croman and Quinn have a strong presence.

Turner's paintings are his latest. I didn't make a note of the dates, but those I did notice were all done this year. As with his previous works, they are large, colorful abstract paintings that relate to landscape, with oddly shaped patches of color that clearly reflect the look of trees, water, mountains and sky. Where the new work differs from Turner's previous work is that these paintings are bigger and more energetic, and with more intense color.

To read Alec Clayton's full review click here.

[Mavi Contemporary Art, 2 - 7 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday, through June 12, 502 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6233]

SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2011 >>>

1. Marilyn Monroe was gorgeous and glorious, incandescently burning the candle with animal sensuality at one end and vulnerable innocence at the other. It's the former that caught the eye but the latter that drew us closer. There's been no one before or since possessing that perfect blend of guilelessness and carnality, and it was with her almost to the end. At 7 p.m. Pastiche wine bar throws a Marilyn Merlot party in honor of Monroe's June 1 birthday. The Sixth Avenue spot will host a male and female Monroe look-a-like contest, and pour Marilyn Merlot, which celebrates its 25^th anniversary.

2. The Mother Earth News Fair makes its West Coast debut this weekend at the Puyallup Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. It's a family-oriented sustainable lifestyle event that features dozens of practical, hands-on demonstrations and workshops from the leading authorities on renewable energy, small-scale agriculture, gardening, green building, green transportation and natural health.?You can also taste samples of organic beverages in our beer and wine garden (nice!),  participate in a silent auction, check out the latest alternative energy vehicles, experience small-space living and score deals from vendors hucking sustainable lifestyle products and services, including books, tools, seeds, crafts, organic foods, clothes, solar gadgets and more.

3. Revisiting craft projects culled from how-to books from the 1960s to the 1980s, the Telephone Room Gallery asked 16 artists to explore three randomly assigned projects taken from these books as part of the "Assignment Crafty" show, which opens with a reception from 5-9 p.m. Check out the contemporary perspectives on fish printing, bottle gardens, rock creatures, Ojos de Dios and more.

4. With just a few lyrical brush strokes, Lennon, McCartney, and their mates made us mourn the lonely death of Eleanor Rigby, taste the strange bittersweet kiss of the girl who came in through the bathroom window, and wonder what life would feel like were we living in a yellow submarine. Jo emery Ballet School will bring the Fab Four storytelling life in a Beatles-inspired contemporary piece as part of its annual showcase "Dances with Dancers" at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pantages Theater. Artistic Director Jo Emery will also lead her students and the Tacoma Performing Dance Company through in a Moulin Rouge production and Alice in Wonderland.

5. Tacoma's Urban Art Festival  - the free, all-ages event that showcases Tacoma musicians and artists - will be reaching new heights this year when it commences stretches it over two days - June 25-26 - and brings it back to downtown Tacoma, this time along the Thea Foss Waterway. Organizers are busy finalizing the arts and bands. However, they presently have fundraising on their minds, including the one at 9 p.m. inside The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.  Expect Ava D'Jor, Funny Face Fanny (singing on the bar as well as performing) and Polly Puckerup from the Gritty City Sirens burlesque troupe, as well as DJ Suga Jones spinning '80s New Wave.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Wine tastings!

FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2011 >>>

1. At some point on this blog during the last few years, we know we've made mention of this simple (if shameful) fact at least once before: There is nothing so wonderful and so free as riding your bike around this gritty city while shitfaced. Yes, it is irresponsible and it is dangerous. But so is anything else that is part of your birthright of fun. It is with this moral dilemma in mind that we remind the Tacoma MOB Riders host another one of their glorious Bicycle Booze Cruz rides at 7 p.m. in front of the Acme Grub Cage. Titled the "Spring Exposure Ride," these adventurous folks will bicycle hop from bar to bar with the vague notion that this is a game/group hug/whatever. And everyone is invited. Just don't forget to put your kickstand up. Ow.

UPDATE: We apologize, the Roy Rodeo is Saturday and Sunday. 2. The Roy Pioneer Rodeo is not just a rodeo - although it bills its cowboyin' competition as the "Daddy of ‘em all." With the gates opening at 1:30 p.m., the rodeo also features a beer garden, spaghetti feed, homemade bake sale, an Old West town and, at night, concerts.  But ultimately, RPR is the rodeo, complete with hokey jokes - "If Texas is so great, why are Texans always somewhere else?" - and clowns, as well as steer wrestling, barrel racing, saddle-bronc riding, and that PETA favorite, calf roping.

3. Speaking of wrapped up in alcohol fun ... the Washington State History Museum's First Friday Pre-Pub Gallery Talk just so happens to be about the secrets of ancient beer making, as well as other mythological mysteries. Tied to the special exhibition Wrapped! The Search for the Essential Mummy, these 3:30 p.m. gallery talks are led by exhibit curator Stephanie Lile. And the treasure of the tomb? Special deals from fellow beer worshipers: The Harmon and Pyramid Ales.

4. Dare we call it egg-citing news that Evergreen's Riot To Follow Productions is opening Honk: The Ugly Duckling Musical? If they don't quack up, readers will cluck at us for making such a fowl pun. Yet the 1993 British musical update of the Hans Christian Andersen classic is itself undeniably punny. The Olivier-winning musical should prove to be good fodder for Riot To Follow. The play will be staged in The Washington Center's Black Box theater at 7 p.m.

5. Composed for the death of Gabriel Urbain Fauré's parents (his mother died after he had started working on it), Requiem is like a long-spun lullaby, far removed from the terrors of the Berlioz and Verdi Requiems. The Tacoma Community Choir and Orchestra will perform this gentle piece at 7:30 p.m. inside TCC Building 3 Auditorium. Included on the program are two other works, Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor, and Troy Peters' (Tacoma represent!) "Between Hills Briefly Green."

PLUS: A Prefect Life Party and NWCZ Anniversary Bash details in The Weekend Hustle.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Movies open!

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Mostly sunny, hi 69, lo 48

Saturday: Sunny, hi 76, lo 53

Sunday: Still sunny!, hi 78, lo 53

>>> FRIDAY, JUNE 3: "A PERFECT LIFE" PARTY

Tacoma-loved filmmakers Scott Stone and Joe Rosati are two of the driving forces behind Chad Ruin's A Perfect Life, a film creating an impressive amount of buzz for itself screening at the Seattle True International Film Festival June 7. For Tacomans, there will be a pre-party for the film's STIFF screening Friday, June 3 at Doyle's Public House featuring the bands Looking For Lizards and Ten Miles of Bad Road. With Stone and Rosati having relocated to Park City, Utah, it will also be a chance for old friends to catch up. See our previous coverage of the film here, here and here.

• Doyle's Public House, with Looking For Lizards, Ten Miles of Bad Road, 208 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468

>>> FRIDAY, JUNE 3: NWCZ ANNIVERSARY

The NWCZ podcast -- which recently spawned the beast that is NWCZRadio.com -- is turning two, and to celebrate Darrell Fortune and Co. have the Firwood Rock Lounge, and bands High Noon Horizon, The Hardcount, Quickie and Perry Acker, lined up and ready to go. They've also talked Volcano editor Matt Driscoll into getting on stage, with a mic, and introducing one of the bands. This should be interesting to watch if for no other reason than Driscoll has a history of screwing situations like these up.

• Firwood Rock Lounge, with Perry Acker, High Noon Horizon, the Hardcount, Quickie, 9 p.m., 734 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.212.9717

>>> SATURDAY, JUNE 4: EDDIE SPAGHETTI

Times have changed for Eddie Spaghetti and the Supersuckers. Guitarist Rontrose is gone, as is longtime ‘Sucker Chris Neal. To an outside observer, it might seem like the wheels are finally falling off the "Best Rock Band in the World." Hell, it's about time, right? Wrong. I dare you to say the Supersuckers are on the downhill slide to Eddie Spaghetti, the band's legendary frontman, when he hits Doyle's for a solo  show on Saturday. He'll probably rock your face off - acoustic style. Check that. He'll probably rock your face off acoustic style one way or another; but if you bring up a rumored Supersuckers demise, he'll also probably look at you like you're dumb.

• Doyle's Public House, 9:30 p.m., 208 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468

>>> SATURDAY & SUNDAY: MARITIME GIG FESTIVAL

Nothing says good times like family fun and a whole crapload of pirate references. By the look of things, that's exactly what's in store for those headed to the 2011 Maritime Gig Festival in Gig Harbor. Expect wholesome treats like a fun run, a Kiwanis pancake feed, a "Grand Parade," and what's billed as the "Round Rock Contest." We have no idea what a "Round Rock Contest" is, but it sounds AWESOME! The festival stretches all weekend in downtown Gig Harbor, along Harborview Drive, between Pioneer and Rosedale, and along the waterfront near Jerisich Dock and Skansie Brother's Park. 

• Downtown Gig Harbor, free, all day, gigharborchamber.com
  

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
Plenty of bartending and sunshine is in the forecast this weekend. Hope to squeeze in a little Olympia Record Show, too.

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CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
The little lady and I (she loves it when I call her that) are headed out to Ocean Shores for a much deserved honeymoon. I'm looking forward to finally being able to make out with my wife without making the baby Jesus cry.

MATT DRISCOLL: Editor
As mentioned above, I will in fact be stopping by the 2nd Anniversary Party for the NWCZ party on Saturday at the Firwood Rock Lounge (or Furwood Cock Lounge, as my wife has taken to calling it for some reason ...), introducing the band High Noon Horizon at approximately 8:55 p.m. according to the itinerary I've been provided. You don't want to see my rider. It's ridiculous. 

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
My weekend will be spent recovering from putting my money where my mouth is. Thursday, 7 p.m., at the Jason Lee auditorium, my students will be presenting eight original short (five min. each) plays. It's free, so if you're inclined . . . 

ALEC CLAYTON Visual Arts Critic
Busy busy weekend for this guy. Friday night, Sweeny Todd at Lakewood Playhouse; Saturday, Play On at Olympia Little Theatre; Sunday, SAGE Brunch (SAGE is the new LGBT senior services agency that was recently founded in Olympia); Sunday night the second and final rehearsal for the reading of The Backside of Nowhere.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer 
Friday church dinner then TCC Choir and Orchestra followed by Doyle's for A Perfect Life pre-funk party with Chesty Meow and Stevie D. Saturday daytime I will attempt to finish unpacking and hang some art unless the sun is out and then I'm playing hooky from working and gonna ride my bike till my legs fall off. Saturday night is date night..woot woot! Sunday church service, potluck dinner and fireside with Elder Copeland.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Meat Market Photographer
Going to A Perfect Life prescreening party at Doyles on Friday and then shooting up the town, photographically speaking, for the boss man when I will be hitting Encore, Hell's Kitchen and the Firwood. Also going to Sweeney Todd at Lakewood with my munchin. Nothing says family time like a musical about a serial killer.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound