DANIEL BLUE: MEET MATT EKLUND >>>

Matt Eklund should have his own brand of sandals. There has never been a more chill person born on this earth, everything about this man is as laid back as a futon. Even with the stress of being the only masculine presence in the Urban Art Festival board of directors, Eklund demonstrates the patience of a monk and the demeanor of another monk sitting next to the first one in morning meditation time.

During the day, our beloved festival powerhouse works at the ever campy REI, but at night you may find him in a milieu of psychedelic situations from guitar playing to reggae dancing.

When I first met him at the old Rampart Antique's Third Thursday celebrations, I began to refer to him lovingly as "papa bear" because you could count on him for a large bear hug upon every greeting.

In every bustling enclave there must be a backbone like Matt and his wife, Laura, holding everything together and pinching nerves now and again when things need attention. Sometimes I am shocked at the amount of work that goes into planning and throwing events and happenings, if there ever was someone who could organize the kind of people power that is needed to get those balls rolling, it would be Papa Bear.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET CODY JONES >>>

Cody Jones is a master of textersation. I have no idea how old he is or how long he has lived in this town, but legend has it that he started the whole "artist loft" movement back in the '40s when Tacoma was the rum running capitol of the world.

Cody Jones plays keyboard for a band called the Elephants, and is the leader of a Chest Hair Club for Men (of which I am a proud member). Being a sensitive type, it is difficult for me to get Cody to pose for pictures. I think I got this one because he was deep in the tunnels of texted woe. "Benji the Hunted" is what they call him on certain social networking Web sites, and if you've seen the girls line up at the tour bus, you wont ask why.

Cody cares for Tacoma, he has worked hard to maintain a music scene worth attending and participating in. He is careful with his relationships and always extremely encouraging of people's efforts, artistic or otherwise. It is difficult to measure the impact that a Tacoma band has on Tacoma when they begin to succeed in the wider world, some musicians pretend like they have never been here, Cody will bite your arms off if you talk crap.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: FRESH IDEAS>>>

Centerstage Theatre, the rising star of the South Sound theater world, has proposed to the Federal Way Arts Commission that the Federal Way-based  nonprofit theatre company take over the management of the city-owned Knutzen Family Theatre. The theatre is where Centerstage performs its shows as the anchor tenant of the facility that also offers other arts classes and programs.

In his proposal, Centerstage Artistic Director Alan Bryce suggested that such an arrangement could benefit both Centerstage and the City of Federal Way. Centerstage has proposed that the city pay a management fee of $75,000 to operate the building, saving the taxpayer $50,000. In turn, Centerstage would save the $40,000 rental and labor costs at the Knutzen plus the $8,000 rental on its current office space, plus whatever revenues it could generate through rentals and other presentations. 

“This financial cushion is also beneficial to other performing arts organizations and to the taxpayer, because, if Centerstage continues to operate as frugally as it has in the past four years, there will be no need to go back to the arts commission, or to the city manager and ask for supplemental funding,” said Centerstage Artistic Director Alan Bryce.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET NICK BUTLER >>>

This striking young gentleman is Nick Butler. Since he moved to Parkland two years ago he has been coming downtown to explore the offerings of a larger social community.

"I have dogs," he says in response to unaired inquiries about the choice to live in such a strange place outside of where he obviously wants to be. I guess they don't allow dogs in Tacoma anymore. I was unaware of this because I am a cat person.

Butler is an artist in the most technical sense of the word. His figurative work is breathtaking and sometimes even titillating. There are few artists circling downtown who understand the human form as well as this friendly chap.

Currently he is renting studio space around the corner from the Monsoon Room on South 11th and J Street. 

I met Butler outside of the UW Tacoma on my way to work one morning, he stopped me and asked me a lot of questions about the arts in Tacoma, and I learned that he had an obsession with the creation of comic books. The next time I ran into him was several months later in the form of his work, which hung for a long time at the One Heart Café on South Sixth and Fawcett.

Butler is a must see and must meet. The quality of his work is bested only by the sincerity of his smile.

STEPH DEROSA: DRINKING ON A BOAT >>>

I had the fortunate opportunity to be a part of the www.myspace.com/lovetacoma ">Love Tacoma cruise that the charming Roxanne Murphy and Love Tacoma recently set up for our amazing Tacoma citizens.  The three-hour free cruise took us through Commencement Bay and into Gig Harbor.

Our favorite Doyle’s bartenders were on hand to serve the masses drinks, and people from Sunrise Rotary raffled off an El Gaucho dinner.  I met many awesome folks from Sunrise Rotary, Pierce County, BCRA and the Young Professionals Network. 

Every minute was enjoyable, the night was perfect, and the company aboard the chartered vessel made making new friends and meeting great people extremely easy.

Seeing as how it was a “three-hour tour”, I took it upon myself to find the cast from Gilligan’s Island right there on the boat.  These fine ladies and gentlemen will be this week’s Dinner with DeRosa guests. 

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a beautiful trip
That started from this Tacoma port
Aboard this tiny ship.

Roxanne was a mighty one with plan,
The skipper brave and sure.
Fifty passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather was oh-never rough,
The sun stayed out all eve,
If not for the courage of Love Tacomans
This cruise would not be free, this cruise would not be free.

The bartenders brought it up from Doyle’s, to get us all tipsy
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Love Tacoma cruise.

Playing the part of Gilligan is this guy.  I have to admit, I never got his name, but I did witness him getting silly drunk and then spilling an entire glass of wine (my glass) all over the skipper’s logbook.

The skipper as himself.

Thurston Howell III and Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell were played by real life husband and wife Erin and Matthew Janiga.

Ginger Grant and Mary Ann Summers were easily represented by Bett Simpson of YPN and her friend Lauren.

At first I thought Steve Buchanan from Institutional Investors Consulting Company was a shoo-in for Gilligan, but being the incredible mathlete that he is, I’m adopting him as The Professor.

Mangiamo!

DANIEL BLUE: MEET DOUG KNUDSON >>>

Doug Knudson is a man of warm presence and friendly poise. His dog Charlie the poodle is the most personable animal I have encountered, I pretty much regard him as one of us people. You can tell a lot about a man from his poodle.

I met Knudson at a Monday night dinner at Sandy's house that inspired many Monday night dinners in different parts of the city. Jack Jennings introduced us, and Knudson made me feel right at home in the nicest backyard garden he has ever designed. He owns a company called Arrow that does everything from Sandy's backyard to your den remodel, and has fingers in pies that always end up tasting good.

I asked him if he has lived in Tacoma his whole life and he said, "I haven't lived anywhere my whole life yet." He grew up in Seattle and moved to Tacoma in 1999.

Doug is a constant supporter of the arts in Tacoma. He owns several local artists' paintings and has shared his shops and garages with artists such as the increasingly famous Chris Sharp.

Knudson's warmth and friendly nature are the kinds of things that really bind a community together, we are strong when we lift each other up.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET AMY >>>

Amy never told me her last name, but I met her while tooling around the Lincoln District when I stumbled in to Asia Gift and Aquarium, a hybrid store with more Feng Shui coursing through the fabric of my energy field than the time I put my finger in the light socket. She answered all of my dumb questions about the various idols that were hanging out on her shelves. She was very nice to me and appreciated my interest in the stories behind the images. The most memorable of these was about "the man of justice" who was a character in the story of the three kingdoms. I've heard about this dude before, but what I didn't know is that many gangsters worship him, because he is not a god.

Amy and her husband Nghia, have been in that location for 18 years, selling fish and statues to the fine people of Tacoma.

"My husband bought some fish tanks and some fish and all of the sudden had so many fish to sell, we took them to the supplier and they would not buy them, so we decided to sell the fish ourselves."

At some point the lucrative import market expanded to the maze of visual delights that It is now; Amy is a delight and an anchor to Tacoma's international district.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET BRIDGETTE QUAIFE >>>

Bridgette Quaife has only been in Tacoma for one month, but somehow she belongs here, knows this, and can be found highly involved downtown on a regular basis. 

Working for a short time at the new Maxwell's, she is now reverse commuting to Seattle to bartend at Ruins. When I asked her what she "does" she said she couldn't tell me, but most of the time people say that when they want you to be curious. I waited a while, and naturally she began to tell me all about it. Volunteering at Fulcrum Gallery seemed to bring her an incredible amount of joy, I keep meeting more and more people who are exited about community and art.

"Nonprofits are eligible for eight gambling events a year, I'm learning to manage nonprofit organizations", she says, when she was rudely interrupted by an Amy Winehouse song that turned out to be her cell phone ringing.

No one has ever tried to make Quaife go to rehab, she drank Coke while Oliver Doriss and I drank malt liquor.

Look to find Miss Quaife snapping photos around downtown and generally chilling out and acting all cool.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET OLIVER DORISS >>>

The Artist formerly known as the glassblower Oliver Doriss is currently known as the Viceroy of Hilltop for a reason (somewhere in the background several voices are whispering the word "timeless").

"I was born in Davenport, Iowa, but I'm from Massachusetts," says the local gallery tycoon who purchased a building on 13th and MLK Jr. Way last September, renovated it himself (with the help of some choice friends) and opened the Fulcrum Gallery by December. Doriss has been blowing glass, teaching glassblowing, and rocking the hot shop for longer than I've been doing anything. His work has been featured, praised and sold on both coasts, and despite the gallery he still blows two or three times a week and teaches at the M-Space hot shop downtown.

When he's not wearing the hat of a gallery director or glassblower, you can catch him under the needle as DJ Broam, usually accompanied by a dance floor full of wild sweaty abandon. This innovative artist/businessman hybrid says when he grows up, "I want to get paid to be exactly who I am."

When I grow up, I want to be Oliver Doriss.

MATT DRISCOLL: A BRIEF BRIEF >>>

On Mondays City Manager Eric Anderson sends out his weekly briefs to members of Tacoma’s City Council. On Tuesdays, these briefs usually reach press types like me. And by Wednesday, if I haven’t spent the night high on legal hallucinogens, I typically pass these briefs along to you.

Mr. Anderson was short and sweet this week. Here’s a look at the heads up the City Manager gave Baarsma and Co:

- Representatives from the paving industry (bet they have awesome Christmas parties) met with Mr. Anderson last week to discuss the City owned asphalt plant that’s operated by the Public Works Department.  After the meeting, Anderson asked Internal Auditor Scottie Nix to find an independent auditor with skills in financial and performance auditing to take a closer look at the City’s asphalt plant and to examine “production and delivery and then make cost comparisons with other alternative sources of asphalt.”

- Anderson spoke last week at a Pierce County Law and Justice Counsel meeting, discussing his highly touted Safe and Clean effort â€" you know, the one designed to eliminate crime and blight in Tacoma by 50% over 14 months. According Anderson’s brief, “I had a good informational exchange with those attending from across Pierce County.”

- And finally, Anderson attended a CEO Transportation Forum last week along with many executives from Tacoma. Apparently, the head honchos talked about “transportation issues, alternatives, commute trip reduction and other topics.” No word on whether Anderson drove a scooter to the forum.