FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

When I was 10 years old, Bach was the bane of my existence. During childhood piano lessons, time spent struggling with the German composer's Inventions 1 through 5 forced me to miss out on crucial bike-riding time and numerous episodes of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.  But if anyone can help me overcome my aversion to the music of Johann Sebastian, it's the Northwest Sinfonietta.  Director Christophe Chagnard and company present "Back To The Future" Saturday night featuring Bach's Suite No. 2 and the immortal Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, as well as Georg Philipp Telemann's Don Quichotte and Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9. Telemann was a contemporary of Bach.A lover of Bach's music, Villa-Lobos paid the ultimate musical compliment to a past master with his series of nine "Bachianas Brasileiras" - works that weld Bach's baroque forms to 20th century Brazilian rhythms and melodies. His "Bachiana Brasileira No. 9," a prelude and fugue, is arresting music with sultry Brazilian inflections.

"No matter how often we play his music, it is always humbling and awe-inspiring," the Sinfonietta states on the Broadway Center's Web site. The Sinfonietta accomplishes something that I never could - they, in the words of my piano teacher, "make zeee music come aliiiive, dahling!" 

[Rialto Theater, Saturday, March 27, 7:30 p.m., $19-$49, 310 S. Ninth St., Tacoma, 253.591.5894]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010 >>>

1. It's St. Patrick's Day. Time to party.

2. The Pierce County Arts and Cultural Planning Community Forum will gather opinions at 4:30 p.m. inside the Soundview Building. Go help plan the arts.

3. Screw green beer; let's climb a wall at 5:30 p.m. inside the Centre at Norpoint.

4. The Sixth Avenue Progressive Dinner visits 6 Olives, Origin 23 and Studio 6 Ballroom at 5:30, 6:15 and 7 p.m. Dance to jazz and blues by Maia Santell & House Blend from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at Studio 6. Reserve your spot here. 

5. The Fort Steilacoom Choir and Olympic College Chamber Choir joins the Pierce College Concert Band in Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" and Smith's "Don Quixote Symphony #3" at 7:30 p.m. inside the Lagerquist Concert Hall at PLU.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

WHAT WE'VE FOUND TODAY >>>

Climate change makes birds smaller.

Classical music has become too solemn.

Obama's not leaving the country until the House can get its health care legislation passed.

Man sues airline for not looking at his scrotum.

The growing popularity of e-books has raised a difficult question in the publishing marketplace that used to have an easy answer: What's a book worth?

FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010 >>>

1. Dance on television! Head on over to TCTV Studio A on Olympia's Westside for Dance Oly Dance featuring DJ PhilosoBitch's bumpin' set from 8-9 p.m.

2. The Society of Composers presents a free concert of modern chamber music at 10 a.m. inside the Schneebeck Concert Hall.

3. The Tacoma Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - sung in Italian with projected English translation - at 8 p.m.

4. The Tom Brooks' Ad hoc Jazz Committee will fill Woody's on the Water with jazz beginning at 7 p.m.

5. Steven Dietz's Last of the Boys about Vietnam vets coming to terms will be staged at 9:30 p.m. at Tacoma Little Theatre.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 >>>

1. The Speakeasy Arts Cooperative hosts a potluck dinner from 6-9 p.m. The theme is Mexican. There will also be an open mic for musicians.

2. The Chair Affair Auction benefiting Northwest Furniture Bank runs 6-9 p.m. inside the Tacoma Art Museum.

3. The Pacific Lutheran University Literary Spotlight Series focuses on author Langdon Cook and his book, Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21^st Century Forager at 7 p.m. inside the Garfield Book Company.  Cook, who was once a senior book editor at Amazon, left the corporate life behind to live off the land.

4. The Tacoma Community College Symphonic Band under the direction of John Falskow presents "Style in History," an exploration of the different ways composers from different times have sought out expression in sound, at 7:30 p.m. inside TCC Building 3 Auditorium. 

5. Skerdio, the dynamic duo of emcee/boomboxer Radio Active and saxophonist Skerik, perform at 9 p.m. inside the Eastside Club Tavern in Olympia.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010 >>>

1. Western Ghost House is yet another band that straddles the middle ground between indie rock and country, enriching and expanding both. Catch them at 8 p.m. with Crooks at The New Frontier Lounge.

2. The W.W. Seymour Conservatory opens a new monthly display featuring shamrocks, hydrangeas, and flowering spring bulb plants from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

3. Author Ken Miller reads from his novel Langata Rules and then discusses piracy and terrorism, under-development, the business of books and the writing process beginning at 7:30 p.m. inside the University Bookstore at the University of Washington-Tacoma.

4. The Camas Wind Quintet will perform pieces by Gustav Mahler, Paul Taffanel, Amy Beach and Andre Jolivet from 8-10 p.m. in Lagerquist Concert Hall. 

5. Sok and the Faggots' songs generally err on the side of doing terrible things to corpses, the wonder of substance abuse, and what a slut your mother is. If you attend their show tonight at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen, you're bound to get some sort of fluid thrown at you. You've been warned.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

WELL, MAYBE NOT A 1,000 BUT CERTAINLY A LOT >>>

Forget less is more. As far as we're concerned, more is more - which is why the more composers the better.

Confused?

It's simple: The University of Puget Sound will be hosting classical music composers from around the world (OK, our nation plus Canada) Friday and Saturday as part of the Society of Composers 2010 Region VIII Conference — and it includes free concerts for the public.

Yup, highlighting the conference will be seven concerts - free and open to the public - that showcase the diverse work of the attending composers. According to conference host Robert Hutchinson from the UPS School of Music, the concerts will lean toward modern classical music, also known as Western art music or contemporary music.

"Some music is very accessible, borrowing harmonies and rhythms from pop music, whereas other pieces will be dissonant and challenging," Hutchinson states in a press release.

Hutchinson's own work, Jeux d'Enfants for orchestra, will have its premier performance in a new version for band.

The event will also include a lecture by guest composer Carter Pann titled, "The Confidence to Be a Tonalist." No doubt that lecture will tonally rock.

Details for the free performances:

Friday, March 5

10 a.m.: Chamber Music Concert 1, Schneebeck Concert Hall

1:30 p.m.: Percussion Ensemble and Electro-Acoustic Concert

3 p.m.: Carter Pann's Lecture, Music Room L6

7:30 p.m.: Symphony Orchestra, Schneebeck Concert Hall

Saturday, March 6

9 a.m.: Chamber Music Concert 2, Schneebeck Concert Hall

11 a.m.: Voice and Choral Concert, Schneebeck Concert Hall

2 p.m.: Brave New Works String Quartet Concert, Schneebeck Concert Hall

7:30 p.m.: Wind Ensemble, Schneebeck Concert Hall

Click here for directions and a map of the UPS campus.

FRIDAY, FEB. 26, 2010 >>>

1. There's beauty in simplicity - the Presidents of the U.S.A. proved it. Think "Peaches," and "Lump." These days, among other things, Chris Ballew of the Presidents spends his time going by Caspar Babypants - dishing out goofy kids' music for ages 2-5. This morning at 10:30 a.m. he'll hit the Moore Library.

2. Tacoma's biggest city-wide talent show SHOWTIME @ THE DASH CENTER begins at 7:30 p.m. inside the Mt. Tahoma High School.

3. Sheer Virtuosity: A Jacobsen Concert for All Music Lovers will feature Johannes Brahms' Sonata #2 in A Major for Piano and Violin; Evan Chambers' The Firehose Reel; selections from Pablo de Sarasate's Spanish Dances; George Frideric Handel's Sonata IV in D major for Violin and Harpsichord; and Moritz Moszkowski's Suite for Two Violins and Piano at 7:30 p.m. inside Schneebeck Concert Hall at UPS.

4. I Defy, Koz Of Konfusion, Machina Mageddon and Thee Punch Drunks rock Malarkey's Pool and Brew beginning at 8 p.m.

5. Janiva Magness sings the blues at 8 p.m. inside Jazzbones.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

FRIDAY, JAN. 29, 2010 >>>

1. To celebrate Dance Theatre of Harlem's 40th Anniversary a 14-member ensemble of young dancers trained in the DTH style has been touring the country for a year. They will perform in Tacoma tonight at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pantages Theater.

2. The Jacobsen Concert Series will present classic favorites on two pianos, featuring pianists Ilana Vered, Duane Hulbert, and Tanya Stambuk at 7:30 p.m., inside the Schneebeck Concert Hall on the campus of University of Puget Sound. The evening will feature An American in Paris, an orchestral composition written by George Gershwin that was part of the Academy Award-winning musical score in the 1951 film of the same name, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.

3. Traditions Café in Olympia hosts a Brazilian benefit concert featuring Eduardo Mondonca at 7 p.m.

4. Joshua Adams Band, Dave Hannon, and Gina Belliveau perform at 9 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge. Joshua Adams can perform amazing loops with the pedals.

5. Hardcore punk rock Divide The Day joins Seasons After and the Atomic Outlaws at 9 p.m. inside Station 56.

MONDAY, JAN. 25 2010 >>>

1. Barefoot Collective's 8@8 event gives performance artists eight minutes to showcase their work before an audience at 8 p.m. inside the Tacoma City Ballet Studio B at the Merlino Arts Building.

2. Historian Todd Smith discusses how Washington state's national parks changed during The Great Depression and World War II from noon to 1 p.m. inside the State Capital Museum.

3. The PLU University Orchestra will perform repertoire from their January 2010 Alaskan tour from 4-6 p.m. inside Lagerquist Concert Hall.

4. The Swing Reunion Orchestra featuring Melanie Vail will perform "A Celebration of Swing" at 7 p.m. inside the Imperial Dragon restaurant.

5. Billy Roy Danger & the Rectifiers perform at 8 p.m. inside The Swiss.

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound