MONDAY, JUNE 9 2014 >>>

1. If you've ridden a motorcycle, you may be interested in the Marymount Motorcycle Week, which launches at 9 a.m. and runs through Sunday at the Marymount Event Center. The LeMay Family Collection Foundation, VME, PNW Museum of Motorcycling and the Tacoma Motorcycle Club offer an up-close-and-personal look at vintage and specialty street bikes, dirt bikes, sport bikes, cruisers, scooters, race bikes - more than 200 motorcycles including the heavy-hitter all-stars of motorcycle history such as BMW, BSA, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Triumph, Yamaha. An AHRMA-sanctioned vintage trials course will happen Saturday.

2. Today looks like an awesome day for a noon, free guided bird walk at the Adriana Hess Wetland Park. No experience necessary; binoculars are available to borrow. No RSVP required. 

3. James Coates performs original tunes and classic rock hits at 7 p.m. in the Steilacoom Pub & Grill. 

4. The Joe Mailhot Jazz Unit hits the Rhythm and Rye stage at 8 p.m. Featuring the music of composer/guitarist Joe Mailhot, with Scott Reed on tenor sax, bassist Eric Hahn, and new addition Dylan Johnson on drums, The JMJU draws from styles ranging among modern jazz, funk, soul, free and psychedelic.         

5. A new comedy open mic launches at 9 p.m. at The New Frontier Lounge. "Monday Madness Comedy Night With Puddin" offers you a stage for your best jokes, which can be recorded.

LINK: Monday, June 9 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 2014 >>>

1. You mooned Bus #37 outside Oakbrook Elementary School in 1978. You depantsed Sid at Lakes High School in 1981. You streaked down Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma in 1983. You skinny-dipped at Owen Beach in 1985. You went to law school in 1988. You have had a life-full of truth or dare games. May we suggest the Stand-up Truth or Dare game at 8 p.m. in the Tacoma Comedy Club. Jubal Flagg hosts five comedians who will perform stand-up, then spin the Wheel of Terror to find out their fate. The other comedians get to come up with questions and challenges, and the audience gets to decide what they have to do. It should be old school for you.

2. The huge Maritime Gig Festival in Gig Harbor continues. Today's activities include the traditional Blessing of the Fleet at 1 p.m. and the popular Wheel's on the Water Car Show from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Gig Harbor Farmers Market will also be featured at the Gig from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

3. Two worthy stage shows wrap it up this afternoon. Olympia Family Theater continues to make amazingly high quality family theater with 3 Tales with 8 Tails, a phenomenally fun show that has the actors singing, dancing and puppeteering. Catch its last show at 1 p.m. Tacoma Musical Playhouse presents its last La Cage aux Folles at 2 p.m.

4. Tacoma is a working-class town and the only success weekly music showcases in this town center around working-class music - blues. Today, Tacoma's blues musicians go to work. The Northwest's "Swampabilly" blues band Junkyard Jane play B Sharp Coffee House's 2 p.m. blues show. Tim Hall and his crew hosts the weekly Sunday night blues jam at 8 p.m. in Dawson's Bar and Grill. Legendary guitarist Jerry Miller is tonight's Sunday night blues concert series performer at 7 p.m. in The Spar in Old Town Tacoma. Across town in Spanaway, Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill hosts its Sunday Blues Jam at 7 p.m.

5. The popular Jazz LIVE at Marine View concert series wraps up today, taking the summer months off. Oh, but it is going out strong. The Mel Brown B3 Organ Group out of Portland will go off at 5 p.m. inside the Marine View Church. Mel Brown has been described as the "quintessential jazz drummer" of the day. Louis Pain is Portland's Boss of the B3.

LINK: Sunday, June 8 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 2014 >>>

1. It's become tradition in our area - a yearly blues-blowout local music fans look forward to for the quality it draws. And, like clockwork, it's back. From 2-10:30 p.m. at Jazzbones, the preliminary contest of this year's South Sound Blues Association sponsored Back to Beale Street 2014 Blues Competition goes down, offering a chance for competitors to earn their way to the heralded International Blues Challenge in Memphis in early 2015. Schedule to perform before three judges are Clover Creek, The Julie Duke Band, Phat Daddy and the Zone, Pacific Drive, Aaron Jones and the Way, Thai Barker Band, Rafael Tranquilino Band, Palmer Junction, The CD Woodbury Band, Blues County Sheriff and Brian Lee and the Orbiters. Those in the know recognize four of the bands represent the Puget Sound Music for Youth Association, which is cool. 

2. The Mother Earth News Fair returns to the Puyallup Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The family-oriented sustainable lifestyle event will features hands-on workshops and demonstrations from experts from the leading authorities on renewable energy, small-scale agriculture, gardening, green building, small-scale livestock, green transportation and natural health.

3. In 2001, wife-and-husband team Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen conducted interviews with more than 40 exonerated Death Row residents, then condensed some of those interviews into a direct-address theater piece, The Exonerated. Their play won numerous awards and was adapted into a star-studded telefilm that aired, appropriately enough, on Court TV. Director Don Welch has assembled an impressive cast of a dozen undergrads plus one soulful saxophonist (Sean Lindemeier) for a passionate, provocative, poetic 90 minutes of despair and redemption. It's terrific. And it ends today at 2 p.m. at the South Puget Sound Community College. Read Christian Carvajal's full review of The Exonerated in the Music and Culture section.

4. Rich Wetzel's Groovin Higher Orchestra will drop in on Stonegate Pizza to perform a rockin' big band jazz dinner show from 5-8pm.

5. Five of the best up and coming stand-up comedians - Aaron Kirby, Monica Nevi, Tyler Smith, Tyrone Hawkins, MC Mike Coletta - will perform for $5 at 8 p.m. in the Tacoma Comedy Club.

LINK: Sunday, June 1 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, MAY 29 2014 >>>

1. Jackie Kashian is funny, snarky, smart, Wisconsin-y, and, well a dork. Her podcast, The Dork Forest, is dense with her obsessions with video games, comic books and birdwatching. On The Dork Forest, Kashian interviews fellow comedians as well as non-celebrity guests, focusing the conversation around her guests' "dorkdoms" - special obsessions that may or may not fall within the bounds of traditional nerdiness. As a comedian, her act is sharp and warm, biting and personable. She talks about her Midwestern upbringing and salesman father; her marriage to a fellow dork and video game designer; and her current life in Los Angeles. All this comedic wonderfulness is going to be at the Tacoma Comedy Club at 8 p.m. 

2. The ParkWay Tavern hosts a Planned Parenthood fundraiser featuring Pike Brewing Company's Morning After Pale Ale beginning at 5 p.m. Expect a raffle. Expect a Randle.

3. Three Pacific Northwest writers - Sophia Pfaff-Shalmiyev, Cooper Lee Bombardier and Inga Muscio - will read from their works about gender, loss and racism at 7:30 p.m. in the Olympia Timberland Library.

4. Charley's Pub in Fircrest hosts "Real Chicago Blues Thursdays" featuring Richard Molina at 8 p.m.

5. Brewing a hot pot of shoegaze and Krautrock bubbled through a psych filter, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete knows how to ride the edge of groove and gently cut back to spacey atmospherics to superb effect. Catch the band with Billions & Billions at 9 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

LINK: Thursday, May 29 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

One of the more interesting, possibly sketchy things about the deluge of comic book movies we find ourselves inundated with, is the prospect of Marvel and DC expanding their reach to include B-list titles, such as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy adaptation. These production companies are so glut with profits that they now feel comfortable plumbing the depths to bring the moviegoing public characters they never knew they wanted to see.

One such property is the upcoming Ant-Man adaptation, which recently received a blow in the form of director Edgar Wright leaving the project. For many, the only reason anyone would even consider seeing an Ant-Man movie (despite the character being one of the original Avengers, back when the notion of "he's got all the powers of an ant!" seemed like a nifty idea) was the inclusion of the kinetic auteur, Wright, being involved. Wright's Cornetto Trilogy - Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End - along with his previous comic book adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, all seemed like indications that, if anyone could breathe goofy life into this middling superhero, it would be this man.

While no one has been announced to take the director's place, fellow nerd heroes Joss Whedon and James Gunn have taken to social media to mourn Wright's departure, which was reportedly amicable. The fate of Ant-Man, however, seems sealed - no one knew they wanted to see Ant-Man, and now most people should be assured that, in fact, they do not.

MAY 29-31: JACKIE KASHIAN

Jackie Kashian's recent comedy album's title serves as a nice litmus test to see if you're gonna be on Kashian's wavelength. It is titled This Will Make An Excellent Horcrux, and if that last word sounds like gibberish to you, then you're just not dorky enough.

As the host of The Dork Forest podcast, Kashian takes her nerdy obsessions seriously. Every episode finds her bringing another funny guest on to discuss what they nerd out over, and it can be a fascinating peek into areas of dorkdom that you possibly haven't given much thought to.

As a comedian, Kashian has a Midwestern charm that transcends the nerdier aspects of her material. With wordy jokes that are brimming with ideas and blink-and-you'll-miss-them mini-punchlines, Kashian can sometimes come across as a more affable Patton Oswalt. If you haven't seen her or heard her, you're really missing out.

JACKIE KASHIAN, 8 p.m. May 29, 8 and 10:30 p.m. May 30-31, Tacoma Comedy Club, $10-$15, 933 Market St., Tacoma, $10-$15, 253.282.7203

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 2014 >>>

1. Come gather ‘round, people, wherever you roam. Like many writers and critics who prophesize with our pens, we keep our eyes open for new books about Robert Zimmerman, better known as the one and only Mr. Bob Dylan. But The Dylanologists: Adventures in the Land of Bob isn't, strictly speaking, a tome about the Bard of Minneapolis, it's an insider's look at geeks like us who adore him. Author David Kinney will stop by the downtown Olympia library at 7:30 p.m. to promote it. And don't think twice, it's all right: he will have copies available for purchase.

2. Learn how artists have responded to the mountains, valleys, and vast plains of the western United States over time, influencing perceptions of the West, when Tacoma Art Museum Curator Laura Fry discusses "The Western Landscape in Art" at 11 a.m., as part of Tacoma Art Museum's Lunch & Learn series. The lecture is in conjunction with TAM's exhibit, "Northwest in the West: Exploring Our Roots."

3. It's Wednesday, which means Pour at Four pours complimentary tastes of its favorite wines. From 5:30-8 p.m., The Proctor District wine bar will showcase wines from Foris Vineyards and Winery in Southern Oregon. Expect Alsacean style whites and Pinot Noirs.

4. The Telephone Projects is Brennon Gage, of San Diego, a band that seems to mostly revolve around Gage and his Casiotone, churning out vaguely miserablist indie pop with a tongue-in-cheek attitude of carefree defiance. Catch the band with Gage's other band, the gothy Witch Prayer, plus Apollo Ried Sygmund, and Follies and Vices at 7 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

5. As the cliché goes, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." And such is the case with Margaret Cho, who somehow parlayed the poignant failures of her early career - namely, the cancellation of '90s sitcom All American Girl, a gig that, literally, almost killed her - into one of the most successful standup careers. At 8 p.m., Cho will bring her raunchy comedic stylings to The Evergreen State College's Recreation Center.

LINK: Wednesday, May 28 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, MAY 25 2014 >>>

1. Picture your perfect Sunday night: the drinks are flowing, the tunes are cranking and you and your friends are dancing it up, having a grand old time. Now picture that evening exactly the same except you are covered in foam. We are not talking about the type of foam that resembles squishy Nerf balls; this is foam that is caused by soap. Soapy foam! Jazzbones hosts Foam Fest 8 at 8 p.m., promising to be more foaming than Foam Fest 3. DJ Pedro will be spinning, which is nice. Beach attire is strongly encouraged. 

2. Comedian Mike Merryfield will records his Irrelevant Radio podcast live at 8 p.m. in the Tacoma Comedy Club. Expect part talk show, part stand up comedy.

3. Full Moon Radio rock out with sweet and sassy vocals, powerful instrumental, and pure indie rock vibe. Catch the Olympia quartet with The Falsies at 9 p.m. in The Brotherhood Lounge.

4. The truth is, not everyone in town has made a mass exodus this Memorial Day Weekend, and not every painted blue fan will be at the Gorge for Sasquatch! Facts are facts. And it's not as sad as it seems. You see, for those smart enough to be sticking around, The Swiss dropped a last minute bombshell that will totally make hanging around town worth it. The downtown Tacoma hangout will host DJ Switch tonight at 9 p.m. so switch up your plans.

5. A cracking drum machine provides the aggressive backbone of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, post-punkers Rhythm of Cruelty. That relentless beat is what propels these nervy tunes, accompanied by the reverb-engulfed vocals of bassist Brandi Strauss and the sharp guitar attack of Ian Rowley. Things are decidedly moody for Rhythm of Cruelty, but their self-assigned goth label is a little misleading. Sorrow isn't on the table for this band; rather, anger and twitchy outbursts are more their style. Catch the band with Criminal Code at 9:30 p.m. in Half Pint Pizza Pub.

LINK: Sunday, May 25 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, MAY 15 2014 >>>

1. Historic Tacoma throws a postcard party from 7-9 p.m. at 323 Puyallup Ave. by the Tacoma Dome. The organization asks you bring one or more 4x6 postcards, "handcrafted by you of a favorite or most unfavorite Tacoma building," affix a 34-cent stamp, leave room on the back for an address label. Upon entry each guest will fill in their name and address onto a label: the same number of labels as the cards they brought. After a two-hour display of the cards pinned to the walls, the Historic Tacoma board will randomly apply the labels to the accumulated cards and mail them to the attending guests. Besides a postcard, you must bring finger food and/or a beverage to get in. Fun!

2. Ride your bike to Tacoma Art Museum and enjoy an evening of bike-related art activities from 5-8 p.m. The city of Tacoma will be there to chat up Bike to Work Month. Artists will be there to chat up "Inky Spokes: A Traveling Exhibition of Bicycle Art." Thomas will be there because he works there. Admission is free as part of Third Thursday.

3. If you find yourself inexplicably irritated and anxious lately, maybe you need a time-out. By "time-out, " we don't mean standing in the corner or sacking out on the couch like some little munchkin.  We're talking about tonight's Tacoma Art Mingle, officially from 5-8 p.m. Step one: You can never experience too much art, and tonight businesses hang art in honor of the Mingle, museums allow free admission, and the galleries haul out the nibbles and sips.  Step two: Screw walking - take the Art Bus. Tacoma's Mayor of Hilltop, Rand Chiarovano, is the special host tonight. Nice. Click here for details, then meet in front of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel (1506 Pacific Ave.) at 5:4 5 p.m.

4. In its sixth season, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts' Comedy in the Box series presents comedians from the Seattle Comedy Competition in a cabaret setting. The laughs launch at 7:30 p.m.

5. Rebellious Celtic band Bog Hoppers join Tacoma's The Los Hermanos Brothers for a rowdy night at The Swiss Restaurant & Pub beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Thursday, May 15 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 2014 >>>

1. Kye Alfred Hillig has produced an incredible body of work over the past few years. At 7 p.m. in Urban Grace, he'll release his latest set of songs, on the Real Snow LP. On record, Hillig is a restless explorer of delicate melodies and grandiose styles, dipping his toe in electro-pop, U2-esque melodrama and dusky folk-rock. As a solo performer, Hillig frequently strips everything down to just him and a guitar, embracing the troubadour motif, and exposing his barebones songwriting in the process. Tonight's show will see him off as he takes to the road on a tour down the west coast.

2. Good news! Artist Yvette Endrijautzki's "CONSTELLATION - an Overture to the Zodiac," which features 40 local, national and international artists interpreting the 12 Zodiac signs via different media, has been extended to June 13 at Tacoma's Fulcrum Gallery. Check it out from noon to 6 p.m.

3. The "Root and Wing" exhibit fills The Evergreen State College Lab 1's lobby space with organisms that seem to grow from the ceiling and walls. Artist Sumi Wu used cast bronze, cast aluminum, and hand-blown glass to create lively, colorful, organic forms that embody the beauty and flow of nature while evoking natural processes of change, relationship, evolution, and adaptation. The installation, which was erected in December, will finally receive its dedication at 3 p.m. During the ceremony, Wu will dance to music by Benjamin Starshine, Anne Rutherford will tell stories and Paul Susi will bust out a monologue.

4. Two beer events will take place tonight — Pike Brewing tasting at STINK and 10 Barrel Brewing tasting at Puyallup River Alehouse. Check out the New Beer Column for details.

5. Oh sure you have your giant floating laughing lips and your hissing Mad Max-ish funny cars shooting flames 400 feet into the air and improvised kitchen-sink costumes and requisite body painting and sword fights and psychedelic light show like you're entering another planet, as if you have stepped out of reality as you know it and into a place where anything goes and usually does and no one really thinks much of it except that it's usually pretty relaxed and ridiculous and surreal and friendly and funny. This is pretty much a given. It's Harlequin Productions' Funderdome improv comedy show at 8 p.m.

LINK: Wednesday, May 14 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, MAY 12 2014 >>>

1. Red Green, who became famous for such things as duct tape, Possum Lodge and his own unique style of humor and wisdom on Canada's much funnier answer to Home Improvement, will throw on his suspenders and share his thoughts on "How To Do Everything" at 7 p.m. in the Rialto Theater. After establishing himself as one of the world's handiest men in 15 seasons of his enormously popular television show, far-north fixture of fix-it now demonstrates that there is no limit to his specialized knowledge and advice.

2. Lakewood Community Jazz Band, under the direction of Syd Potter, returns to the Rhythm and Rye at 8 p.m. for a jazz show you can dance to.

3. Guitarist Rafael Tranquilino incorporates blues, funk, rock, funk, ska, metal, reggae, Latin and jazz-fusion. As accomplished as he is varied, Tranquilino can be seen every Monday night as host of Stonegate Pizza's rockin' blues, if not experimental, jam at 8:30 p.m.

4. Alaska garage rock band Dead Language joins Otem Relick and Nighttime Schoolbus for a 9 p.m. show at Le Voyeur.

5. The New Frontier Lounge isn't The Five Spot on Cooper Square. Then again, it doesn't sit in the East Village of the 1950s either. But, grab the corner bar stool at 9 p.m. in The New Frontier, nurse a double bourbon, close your eyes and let pianist Nate Dybevik, bassist Arneson Cameron and drummer Peter Tietjen take you to the famous New York City jazz club over the din of the drinking Tacoma crowd. 

LINK: Monday, May 12 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area