THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010 >>>

1. A curio ostensibly from the former Soviet Union, the Red Elvises bills itself, collectively, as "the legendary legends of Siberian surf music and the highest-payed [sic] wedding band of the Kamchatka Peninsula." The L.A.-based band plays tunes like "Elvis and Bears," "Ballad of Elvis and Priscilla" and "Shooba-Doobah (Elvis' Vacation)" - you get the idea. We still say they should be called the "Red Elvii." The Czars of Rock n' Roll perform at 9 p.m. inside The Swiss.

2. The Tacoma Farmers Market Broadway will fill two downtown Tacoma blocks with local produce, flowers, food, vendors, activities for the whole family, and live bluegrass by Southern Skies from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

3. The Second City Chamber will take a Lakewold Gardens audience to musical shores familiar and foreign, known and undiscovered, in their "Flags of the World" concert beginning at 6:30 p.m. We suggest you bring a picnic basket full of ethnic foods.

4. Comedy Underground Presents Auggie Smith at 9 p.m. in the basement of Big Whisky Saloon in downtown Tacoma.

5. No Bullshit Battle Of The Bands begins at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010 >>>

1. The 2010 Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate Tammy Robacker will give her premiere reading since winning the title at 7 p.m. inside  the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch. The free event will also include readings by former Soul of the City Poet Laureates Antonio Edwards and William Kupinse, as well as three of this year's 2010 Poet Laureate contest candidates, Brittany Short, Deborah Renee Crespo, and Pamela McCauley.

2. Author James Clarkson explains why Roswell and UFOs in general are anything but case closed at 6 p.m. inside Orca Books in Olympia.

3. Second City Chamber Series kicks off its summer concerts at Lakewold Gardens with Russian music by Rachmanoninov and Shostakovich played by Brittany Boulding (violin), Julian Schwarz (cello) and Natalya Ageyeva (piano) during a picnic at 7:30 p.m.

4. Dreams Jaded, Rip Spacer, The Chelsea Speed Party, and The Endeavors play Hell's Kitchen at 9 p.m.

5. J-Fresh mixes hip-hop and Top 40 videos during ladies night at 10 p.m. inside The Gamers Lounge on South Hill Puyallup.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2010 >>>

1. The Swiss hosts a Gayl Bertagni Culinary Arts Scholarship Benefit show from 3-11 p.m. featuring by Rosati and the Lonely Guy, The Lillie Bros. featuring the Stoned Evergreen Traveller, Heidi Vladyka, Deborah Page, Troy Hill, Last Chance Romeos, and China Davis. There will also be a large raffle. Bertagni was a former Swiss co-owner who died tragically in May 2009

2. Concise History of Northwest Art, the exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum that explores major movements, important figures, and pivotal moments in the art history of the Northwest closes today. Catch it for the last time from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3. San Francisco Opera's Puccini's Madama Butterfly - the dramatic opera telling of colliding hearts and cultures set in nineteenth-century Japan - will be shown on the Washington Center's screen at 2 p.m.

4. Tacoma Community College Music Chair John Falskow leads Brass Unlimited, Sounds of Brass Players and trumpet soloist Tracy Hooker in Music from the Stage and Screen at 4 p.m. inside TCC Auditorium Building 3.

5. Holy Komodo and the Feelings pull off the impressive trick of feeling intrinsically Northwest while at the same time appealingly worldly. Their embrace of some of garage rock's tropes is cozy, while their subtle incorporation of things like Latin rhythms or zydeco flavor expands the music into something far more original. It's the kind of music you'd hope to hear at an all-night party by a bonfire, if anything that cool could ever happen around here. They perform with Palace of Buddies, Wisdom Teeth, and Girls From Mars at 10 p.m. inside Le Voyeur.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2010 >>>

1. The rain has thrown a wrench in the spokes of Bike Month in Pierce County. For example, The Red Hot intended to host an outdoor screening of the bike flick American Flyer tonight at 8:30 p.m. Everyone was encouraged to ride their bikes to the Sixth Avenue tavern, and the New Belgium Ranger IPA and Blue Paddle Pilsner was to flow like wine. After studying weather charts, Red Hot owner Chris "Trashcan" Miller decided to fold up the outdoor chairs and bring the party indoors - same Hot venue, same Hot time. 

2. Maurice The Fish Records musicians perform at 7 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge. Hopefully newly signed Maurice artist Kim Archer will perform, too.

3. The Tacoma Community College Chamber Orchestra performs Beethoven Symphony No. 7 and Bellini's Oboe Concerto in E-flat at 7:30 p.m. inside TCC Building 3.

4. The play Annie continues its run at the Capital Playhouse with a 7:30 p.m. staging. Read our review here.

5. Angela Reed performs an all-ages show at 7:30 p.m. inside A Rhapsody In Bloom Florist and Cafe Latte on Sixth Avenue.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Win a $200 dinner at El Gaucho Tacoma

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010 >>>

1. Little Bill & The Blue Notes holds a CD Release Party at 8 p.m. inside The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.

2. Food and entertainment from local groups representing Cambodia, India, Hawaii, Korea, Philippines, Samoa, Tonga, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan are a part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fircrest Community Center.

3. Join biologist and author Dr. Thor Hanson for pictures, music, and stories about his work with the mountain gorillas of Uganda and other rare African species at 2 p.m. inside the Tacoma Art Museum.

4. The Student Orchestra of Olympia - SOGO - is a pretty impressive outfit. Started in 2000, it takes high school kids from all over the South Sound and molds them into tight, impressive, non-traditional orchestra and ensemble performing badasses. Actually, the kids do it themselves, SOGO just makes it possible. Today at 4 p.m. SOGO throws down with Ives, Gershwin and Copland - for starters - inside the Washington Center.

5. Pacific Lutheran University Theater Department will stage Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Prof. Jeff A. Clapp, at 7:30 p.m. inside Eastvold Auditorium.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010 >>>

1. Tacoma historian Michael Sullivan presents an illustrated look at the winter Dashiell Hammett spend in prohibition Tacoma before penning The Maltese Falcon, the book Tacoma is reading together. Did Tacoma's dark times inspire Hammett to pen the novel? You decide at 7 p.m. inside the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library's downtown branch.

2. Josh Casey's pop-realism still life oil paintings hang below the Rosewood Café's giant cowboy cookie from 11:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

3. Danny Vernon's Illusions Of Elvis begins at 6:30 p.m. inside the Red Wind Casino.

4. Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub's Trivia Tuesday team competition begins at 7 p.m.

5. The PLU University Symphony Orchestra will perform at 8 p.m. inside the Lagerquist Concert Hall.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2010 >>>

1. It's Free Comic Book Day! As the name implies, this is a day when comic book stores and libraries around the world give away comics to people of all ages.  At the Puyallup Public Library, they'll be giving out comic books at the front of the library, and screening movies, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Comic Book Ink also opens at 10 a.m. and will feature Star Wars re-creationists, sketches by Jesse Munoz, costumes and the Dockyard Derby Dames (roller derby chicks love comics!).

2. Elected officials will serve breakfast during the Great Eggspectations 2010 breakfast from 9-11 a.m. at The Spar. During breakfast the 2010 Good Egg Award will be presented, as well as a raffle. Proceeds will go to the Democrat's Victory Fund - to help elect Democratic candidates.

3. Tacoma's Maurice the Fish recording company hosts its third Fish Food benefit concert from 6-9 p.m. inside  Westminster Presbyterian Church, 5236 E. B St., in Tacoma. Daniell Egnew, Raymond Hayden and the Dark Drive Home, Nick Sandy, Eric Montgomery, Savanna, Eric Montgomery and JNC Trio will perform with all proceeds benefiting Fish Food Banks of Pierce County.

4. The Tacoma Concert Band presents "A Russian-American Potpourri: Great Works from Both Sides" of the Pacific featuring guest soloist soprano Heidi Vanderford at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pantages Theater.

5. The Northwest Sinfonietta Jazz Ensemble performs "Music for Lovers" cabaret-style featuring Gypsy-jazz quartet (Sinfonietta artistic director Christophe Chagnard and members of Pearl Django) and Seattle vocalist Stephanie Porter at 7:30 p.m. inside the Merlino Arts Center at Sixth and Fawcett.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

CLARINET CLARITY >>>

I burned the midnight oil the other night in front of the 1956 The Benny Goodman Story flick on the boob tube. If it weren't for the music, it's a film to avoid. It's a bit stiff for me. Oh, but the music ... "Sing, Sing Sing," "Stompin' at the Savoy," "Memories of You" - I'm a sucker for swinging melodies and rhythms ... and the clarinet. From woody depths to light, fluffy heights, Goodman, Artie Shaw and Sidney Bechet mastered the "licorice stick" with fluid fingering.

The clarinet popped into my mind again after just learning that Tacoma's Alea Publishing just published "That's Life" for clarinet - new work by Tacoma composer Deborah Anderson.  According to the press release, "This three-movement piece is an excellent addition to the clarinet quartet repertoire. The work is melodic and cheerful, perhaps providing a nice contrast on a recital program. Additionally, ‘That's Life' is accessible enough for student performers to work well for a student recital or community music venue."

Details of Anderson's new work can be found on bassclarinet.org, including the option of purchasing the sheet music.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010 >>>

1. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot continues its 48 hours of Bard with free performances of Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3 at 3 p.m. and Richard III at 10 p.m. inside and outside the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative.

2. The Olympia Spring Arts Walk continues from noon to 7 p.m. with all sorts of awesomeness, plus the famed Procession of the Species at 4:30 p.m. - all in downtown Olympia.

3. Tacoma's own Dockyard Derby Dames are back in action with another knockdown, drag-out bout from 5-9 p.m. at Pierce College in Lakewood.

4. Tacoma poets Emilie Rommel Shimkus, Josh Rizeberg, Ariel Zimmer and others enhance their words using visual imagery, theater, dance, lighting and music as part of Mouths & Mics: Poetry in the 253 at 7 p.m. inside the Washington State History Museum.  Also, the poetic torch is passed to the 2010 Urban Grace Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate.

5. Soo Bae - born in Korea, but billed as "Canada's prize-topping young cellist" - will join the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz's classic, Symphonie Fantastique - which has been called "a musical journey through unrequited love, opium nightmares and witches' spells." Awesome. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pantages Theater.

LINK: More arts and entertainment happenings in the South Sound

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010 >>>

1. The Museum of Glass presents an exclusive screening of Trimpin: The Sound of Invention, a film created by Peter Esmonde about Timpin, a renowned artist, inventor, composer, engineer and recipient of the MacArthur Genus Award, at 6 p.m. A reception will follow.

2. The Hub restaurant and bar in Tacoma's Stadium District celebrates its second anniversary with live music from 6-9 p.m., DJ sets at 10 p.m. and happy hour prices all night long.

3. The University of Puget Sound's Jacobsen: Schumann Centennial concert will celebrate Robert Schumann's 200^th birthday, as well as pay tribute to cellist Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel who is retiring as Northwest Artist in Residence at UPS. The program - four works by German composers at 7:30 p.m. inside Schneebeck Concert Hall - includes Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano Op.70
.

4. If you've ever acted, directed or "teched" for a play (or even wanted to do any of those things), Tacoma Little Theatre's production of Noises Off is the play to see. In three acts, the audience watches as the cast attempts to rehearse and perform the play Nothing On. "Attempts" is the key word, you see, not because the cast isn't talented or rehearsed - but because the real play, Noises Off, is a farce about the theater. It's a play about putting on a play. And it hits the TLT stage at 7:30 p.m.

5. The Fucking Eagles play The Swiss at 9:30 p.m.

LINK: New movies open today including Date Night