So you wonder â€" as I do â€" how the Tacoma Art Museum will trump its community celebration, Glitter, Glisten, and Gleam, held several weeks ago.

First in the equation, leave the kids at home.  Next, add drag diva Sylvia O’Stayformore and DJ Vodka Twist. Add the band Lushy, performing with go-go dancing troupe Tangerine Tonic. Then throw in the Dockyard Derby Dames roller derby team Femme Fianna and let them roll in the museum plaza. How about a couple of artists painting live body builders? How about food and booze? Maybe even a specially-designed martini glass created by M Space.

And presto!

Twinkle! Pop-Crush-Fizz, an enchanted evening of grown-up art and culture takes place tonight at 8 p.m.

See full story here. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

About two years ago a group of friends were talking about some ideas they’d all been incubating for a number of years. These ideas for Mark, Jennifer, Pamela, and Paul, and two others who weren’t present as we met eventually coalesced into the form of anarchism.

The like-thinking group of people talked about the idea of opening the Pitch Pipe Infoshop, but the idea didn’t quite materialize during that first wave of discussions.

Then, as they revived the conversations, held meetings and discussed philosophies, “it happened immediately,” with its grand opening held on July 31.

The four speak through agreement; as anarchists they work and communicate collectively. The term “collective” is used a lot; there’s the collective of housemates who live in the home, which has some crossover to the Infoshop collective. “Not all are in both.”

I pose a general anarchy question from the standpoint of ignorance: my first and main experience with anarchy, maybe 25 years ago, was hearing on the news about the angry, violent punk anarchist mobs rebelling in England.

But the four before me are peace-loving, with some of them being involved in the Tacoma organization Food not Bombs. They commute by bikes and organize the fourth-Friday Critical Mass bike ride. The four in front of me are Tacoma anarchists, hoping to disseminate information that illuminates the ideas behind anarchism.

Pamela explains the concept by breaking down the word to its Greek roots, “An archy, not hierarchical. We don’t use authoritrianism.”

She adds, “We don’t have a president at Infoshop. We do have rules, but everyone decides on them.”

In terms of living daily as anarchists, the concept of “living within certain constraints” is repeated often. They obey laws, particularly those that involve common sense. Most have jobs. Paul explains, “One of the big challenges is trying to live differently; it seems like a lot of anarchists aren’t living differently. We’re paying rent, buying food. It’s difficult not to.”

What they try to do differently is live critically, asking questions like, “What is this rule? Who is benefiting from it? What are the options?”

Paul adds, “It’s not enough to live independent of the system, but to change the system.”

The Infoshop will try to do just that at their space on 617 S. 17th St., free for the public use during regular hours Friday noon to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 4-7 p.m., as well as during special events like workshops, skill-building sessions, movie nights and more.

“We could potentially serve as a meeting space; we’re pretty much open to anything that serves the community,” says Mark.

Contact them by e-mail, or go to the Pitchpipe Infoshop MySpace page for more information. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

The Weekly Volcano has update its Web Site replacing its Louiefest cover story with a look at the Tacoma Community House.

Still going strong since it began offering services to community newcomers in 1910, Tacoma Community House, 1314 S. “L” St. in Tacoma’s Hilltop district, offers, under one roof, a broad menu of programs and services in basic education, life skills development, employment assistance, multi-lingual assistance and immigration help.  It provides those services to clients who have come to Tacoma from countries around the world.

See full story here. â€" Bill Timnick

What the Glass Roots Arts Festival lacked in crowd size yesterday, it made up in heart, with an intimate setting that belied the size of the area (Court D, between 11th and 13th streets) and the wide range of activity that took place there.

I was most impressed with the 2FtCrew’s work on the Embellish building â€" not quite so purple anymore! â€" and the musical stylings on the stage â€" not so loud as to overpower the conversations, but nice to listen to.

It actually worked out as the perfect all-family event, and I was happy to see Volcano scribe Angela Jossy and her not so little kid on stage, Trish Lecy-Davis’ daughter and her entourage, as well as Lisa and Abby McDermott, book lovers about the town.  Of course it was also fun to see my Hogbot friends and Tim Kapler, as well as a few of the usual art-festival suspects (Hey Houston, Hey Ann!), but then it was cool also to see faces I didn’t have names for, with pugs and babies in backpacks.

I like perusing the booths, ranging in wares from cultural art to spray-can canvases, glass ware from Tacoma Glassblowing, jewelry, and even metal art as décor.

Fun community, fun festival! â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

Who the heck knew a Prom could be so much freaking fun?

I sure didn’t. 

I was expecting a good time, of course, since I know those Sanford & Son Middle Floor Merchants throw a great party.

But “great party” doesn’t even begin to cover the extent of the fun that I had at “One Night in Bangkok” last night. I got my socks rocked off, laughed my ass off, chatted my mouth tired, and danced my legs down to the knees (sorry to steal your words, Morrissey, but they just fit).

Highlights were too numerous to mention in entirety, fabulous friends many and varied, and fun moments and conversational snippets plentiful, but here’s a short list of my favorites of each:

Oh my God, Girl Trouble kicks ass.  Their garage infused, hard charging, straight ahead, good times, tightly woven rock and roll made my jaw drop, and they’re my new crush. And then, there was the “Wow, Wow, Wow, The Fucking Eagles Fucking Rock” factor. I had heard all kinds of rumors about how great both bands were, and I kind of smiled and nodded because, typically, I’m not a real live-music loving girl (I tend to be the whiner at the back going, “it’s so loud,”), but today as I woke up with my ears ringing I just had to smile and say, Yeah, baby.

DJ Tony Rice injected infectious grooves between band sets and into the wee hours.  Thanks for the '70s soul grooves DJ Rice! 

Melanie and Ebony outfitted some of the best dressed of the evening, Jenny Fab, Tracy Marie, Megan Underground, KAke: you..look…marvelous! Of course my own pink confection ripped out at the zipper but, meh, I got what I paid for ($9.99, Bargain World). Mindy Barker had my original dress choice (and she wore it very well, I have to say) Now I know what I must do for future events and wardrobe pieces that will make my heart sing and make me the envy of fashionista friends: Vanity, oh Vanity. And Ebony, are you opening a new shop soon? Please!

Though there were no chaperones for the evening, there were several hipster parents healthily enjoying themselves, among whom were Renee’s, Gretchen’s mom, and Mindy and Carrie Barker’s mom.

The punch was, by all accounts, lethal.  I stuck to a secret red wine (mmm, Petite Syrah, a nice one!) stashed away for me by Amazing Mike from Stadium Bistro; the Petes were also in the house, with Chef Pete smiling his happy smile and being just all kinds of Prom crush-worthy.

Did you hear that? There was some baby-talking in the air.  Whee! Babies are fun!

Did you hear that? The Prom King and Queen â€" Cheryl And Alan Gorscuh â€" might have been a rigged thing, but hey â€" if you can coordinate boutonniere, classic car, footwear and gown, you deserve to be royalty.  I heard rumblings that the sentimental favorites for king and Queen were the KAke and the robin’s-egg blue man on her arm (so sorry I spilled red wine on your white trousers and white and blue shoes, dude).

Did you hear that? Oh, wait that’s just my ears ringing.

I think I’ll go back to bed smiling, remembering the best prom ever. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Tacoma Art Museum throws a great party.

Last night’s Glitter, Glisten, and Gleam event didn’t disappoint, with a plethora of activities and things to see (my favorite was seeing the bling-ed out participants and visitors) as well as a firm emphasis on fun. 

The Iron Artist competition was a crowd pleaser, with the watching crowd so dense it freaked the wee one out.

She preferred the upstairs fun and games (mom liked the champagne there, too).  I especially liked that we could get creative while while waiting to get creativity applied to out persons by the beauty artists from Chemel Salon.  The kid’s butterfly was a thing of beauty though she was not amused with me when I told her we’d have to wash it off later. Cotton candy helped to mollify her, though. And then walking outside to the Tollefson Plaza and seeing people actually sitting on the steps, enjoying the square (triangle?)  and seeing the Showcase crowd enjoying the city, warmed my heart.

What really strikes me about the free community events that the museum has put on â€" like the Frida Birthday Party, and Dia de los Muertos, as well as last night’s Glittery fun â€" is that they really do open up a diverse cultural experience to a diverse crowd of people who might ordinarily consider museums a stuffy place. 

The timing of this event might have opened up more people to the museum, due to the amount of people milling about Showcase, and that’s the kind of community-building thing that just gets me excited. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

Tacoma artist Teddy Haggarty recently painted a Picasso-like mural on the south exterior wall of JJ's Pub & Grub (formerly the Cat Box Lounge and Cloud 9) at 5431 South Tacoma Way.  While the paint dried Haggarty hopped a plane to Houston for business reasons.  Upon his return Thursday afternoon, he found his work of art tagged with spray paint.

"In a weird way, I'm not mad," says Haggarty via phone.  "There's a golden lining around that cloud somewhere."

There's nothing cuter than a big ol' wet dog. Well, OK, cats wearing sunglasses are pretty cute. A baby with creamed corn on his face, cute too. Pig in a tutu â€" check. And an iguana in a sombrero? Dios mio â€" the cute-o-meter is gonna blow!

But big ol' wet dogs are still up there. And Saturday’s McKinley Street Festival is gonna serve up a fat, stanky plate of canine cute as it hosts the Dugan Foundations’s Animalocity Pet Parade where dogs, cats, birds and other cuteness parade down McKinley Avenue around 3:30 p.m.

The festival will feature a kiddie carnival (cute), a school supply giveaway, food, and music by Larger Than Life Band, Stacey Jones and the Wulff Tones, Angela Jossy and Sammy Barrett.

What about the wet dogs?

A art auction titled Drink will be held to raise funds for the Dugan Foundation and the street festival.  Donated, hand-decorated doggie drinking bowls will go to the highest bidders.  And the Weekly Volcano has money on water added to those bowls immediately for the dogs in the parade.  After all, parading is hard work.

Oh, and leave Cujo at home: All aggressive dogs will be banned immediately.

One more thing. Don’t let your dog drive a motorized parade float. Not even if they're wearing sombreros! â€" Suzy Stump

[McKinley Street Festival, Saturday, Aug. 11, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free, 35th and McKinley, Tacoma, www.myspace.com/topoftacoma]

Everything the Weekly Volcano really needed to know we learned from the Ramones. In "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" they warned us about the unspeakable horrors that lurk there. In "I Don't Care" they extolled the joy of apathy. In "We're a Happy Family" they suggested how you could be happy in your family even if it were, say, wildly dysfunctional. In "Somebody Put Something in My Drink" they sang "Tanqueray and tonic is my favorite drink/ I don't drink nothin' colored or pink."

Yeah! we said.

Now, we must reconsider.

The Tacoma Art Museum’s Glitter, Glisten, and Gleam! party will serve sparkling drinks. Well, that’s cool, as are the steel drummers, Iron Artist competition and sparklers. The museum asks everyone to dress in their best sequins, tinsel and glittery attire. Hell, that’s how the Weekly Volcano rolls. â€" Suzy Stump

[Tacoma Art Museum, Friday, Aug. 10, 6-8:30 p.m., free admission, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

Local choreographer and dancer Joel Myers wants to move you. Along with a cadre of professional body-movers, he will do just that when he presents “The Joel Show II” at the Annie Wright Theater Saturday.

For those wondering, “The Joel Show II” is all about its creator, Joel Myers. Well, sort of. The seven-piece dance extravaganza features his choreographic creations and two individual works by the man himself. But the rest find their expression in a crowd of local movers, including two performances by Myers’s students. The first, entitled “Drop,” is a beautiful, frantic joke at the expense of those giddy pep-squad queens we all remember from high-school. The second, “Where Hope Begins,” requires Myers’ students to sync body, mind and soul, and express that unity in movement.

“I’ve seen it a million times, and every time, it moves me,” he says.

“The Joel Show II” kicks off MLKBallet’s “Move” series of summer performances, which will help raise funds for the organization’s tuition-free dance program. It was organizations like MLK that helped Myers start dancing, he says. â€" Paul Schrag

[Annie Wright Theater, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2 and 7 p.m., $14, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, www.brownpapertickets.com]