Yes, the headline is out of the mouth of one Jeff Spicoli, but it applies to Raise the Hammer, group of Hamilton, Ontario citizens who believe in making their city more vibrant, livable, and an attractive place to live and work, just like Tacoma, according to their Web site.

All they need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and Tacoma vision. â€" Suzy Stump

Thursday, Feb. 8, Cutters Point Coffee in downtown Tacoma will play host to Tacoma’s only public forum and discussion group, Coffee & Rhetoric, hosted by local fashionista, musician, and badass Josh Carter.

Self-described “politically incorrect” for Tacoma, last week’s repartee swirled around the Theatre District’s new LID construction project and its effects on local retailers. Up for discussion this week is how building developers function in a community and how the community’s voice is heard above the din of construction, featuring special guest Paul Sparks of the Urban Leadership Collaborative.

With special musical guest Edisons Invention. â€" Michael Stasiak

[Cutters Point Coffee, Thursday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m., no cover, 1936 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, www.myspace.com/coffeeandrhetoric]

Anyone who thinks the Olympic ice skating competitions are wholesome family fun have never looked at them through the eyes of a horn-dog.

Welcome to my world.

There are men in tight leather pants and vests, and don't even get me started on the ladies in short skirts who can flip and swivel and twirl like Christina Applegate at a a Pussycat Dolls show. Good times.

Expect family fun and smirks all wrapped up in a single night of fun this weekend.

Olympic Bronze medalist Jozef Sabovcik is the featured performer for "Reflections on Ice," Pierce County Parks and Recreation's annual ice show at Sprinker Recreation Center.  The 2007 show's theme is "Skating Abroad."  Austin Powers makes an appearance, too.  Yeah, baby. Yeah!

The show runs at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Ticket prices are $15 for on-ice seating and $10 for balcony. Ticket information can be obtained at 253.798.4000. â€" Steve Dunkelberger

Yesterday Benjii Bittle sent the Weekly Volcano a proud note regarding his new position at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts.

• Note via e-mail from Benjii Bittle: Yesterday morning I accepted the position of Deputy Director of the Broadway Center for Performing Arts. It has been joyful and meaningful work for me to do "the people's business" at the City of Tacoma for the last 7.5 years. I have learned a tremendous amount about the community and myself, and made friendships and connections that I know will last a lifetime. I love my current job and colleagues, so this announcement is bittersweet for me.

This press release hit the Weekly Volcano in box today:  Tacoma , WA â€" Executive Director David Fischer and the Board of Trustees of the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA) announced they have hired Benjii Bittle as the new Deputy Executive Director. Bittle, currently the Administrator for the Private Capital Division for the City of Tacoma's Economic Development Department, will join the BCPA on March 1, 2007.

Congrats Benjii! â€" Ron Swarner

It's official.  Marty Campbell announced he's running for Tacoma City Council, a fact many of us have known for a while.  Campbell truly cares about this city, especially the arts.  Good luck Marty. â€" Ron Swarner 

Via press release: Marty Campbell, Tacoma Community leader, entrepreneur, and Arts Advocate, announced his candidacy for Tacoma City Council today. 

"I want to talk to every Tacoman about their concerns and how the City can improve its service to each of its citizens. We need a leader to drive this conversation towards results. I have the experience and leadership to engage community partners and citizens toward solutions" Campbell said. 

With his unique experience in business, non-profit and neighborhood organizations Campbell understands the high level of commitment needed to serve on the Council. As the owner of two successful neighborhood businesses for over a decade, Stadium Video and Buzzard's Discs, Campbell will be the voice for small business and economic development on the City Council. 

Campbell is running for position eight, the city-wide seat which will be vacated by fellow small business owner Bill Evans, whose term will expire in 2008.

Coffee and conversation are set to flow for the first ever Coffee and Rhetoric tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Cutters Point in downtown Tacoma.

Episode one will be “Save the Retailer, Save the World” and will examine the Local Improvement District project set to begin soon.

On paper, the LID project seeks to improve the Theatre District, but in implementation it might create some havoc for retailers sitting in the middle of the construction.

One of the retailers whose business will be affected is Rebecca Dashow, owner of Dame Lola (711 St. Helens).

Dashow will be one side of the evening’s “rhetoric” and hopefully will get some long-awaited answers from the city of Tacoma via a public works representative, set to sip his java in the hot seat.

Don’t expect this to be just any old public forum, though. Josh Carter will bring his upstart attitude to the table, and Edison’s Invention will strum a few bars to keep the rhetoric from overpowering the coffee.

You can go to add your two cents about why the plan is great â€" or notâ€" or you can go to just hang out in a casual, cool, smart, caffeinated space with people who care about community building just as much as you do.

Add ideas for future shows or just get more information about Coffee and Rhetoric at their MySpace site. â€" Jessica Corey Butler

[Cutters Point, Thursday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m., no cover, 1936 Pacific Ave., downtown Tacoma, 253.272.7101]

Thank you Jesus and Al Gore for inventing the Internet.  Now I can receive my dose of Tacoma Actors Guild by the minute.  Hurrah!

Have you been Tagged yet? â€" Suzy Stump

As a matter of fact, the "Rock and Roll Craft Show" is not the latest thrash-punk, power-pop musical sensation to wander out of a condemned Tacoma garage.  According to York Sandifer, one of the founding godfathers of the "testosterone driven craft experience," the concept is simple: "It's Martha Stewart meets Iron Maiden." 

It also can be described, mathematically, as Martha Stewart plus Conan O'Brian divided by alcohol, multiplied by nicotine in an encapsulated 30-minute TV show format.

Check out their story here. â€" Jessica Corey Butler

Link MySpace

Link Rock And Roll Craft Show

You hear about “Critical Mass” a lot at 100th Monkey parties in Tacoma.  There’s the story about critical mass, monkeys teaching one hundred monkeys to peel yams, pretty soon all the monkeys are doing it. Mike Hathaway, host of the party and publisher of City Arts, explained the concept to the crowd last night, and explained how he came by the “lucky” 100th tile at the last event, hosted at the Sanford & Son shops last year: “I saw people lining up to buy a tile.  I thought that’d be fun!”

By all appearances last night, it appears that that same critical mass model is happening with the 100th Monkey parties.  A huge crush of people, some who were dressed like Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera, brought old friends and met new ones as the evening progressed, engulfing both the art and the artists present.  Which was a shame for guitarist Travis Hartnett, whose music was overpowered by the roar of hundreds of individual conversations.

Not that the conversations themselves weren’t great, at least what I was hearing.  There were people promoting, sipping wine, reuniting, and even one thrash-metal pioneer recognized by the mother of a teen whose son had just learned about the history of thrash metal.

While it does a heart good to see a huge, diverse community of people getting together to intermingle, with the express goal of meeting three new people, the size of the crowd made more than a few wonder: how long can this keep growing?

The next event, in March, will be hosted by lucky tile recipient Laura Eklund, and it’s rumored that the event will happen at the Varsity Grill. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

Stealing the tag line from this season's run of the "Heroes" television series about mystical people with super powers, Tacoma Actors Guild has sent out a mass e-mailing wondering if you are "on the list?" and directs select recipients to visit www.thehitlist.org.

As you would expect, the e-mail asks for money, but it does so in a clever way.

It goes on to say that the recently cash-strapped theater isn't bouncing checks again, but it would still like 1,000 "close friends" in the South Sound to chip in $100 each (that's $100,000 if you do the math) to go toward the further financial stability of the theater. It's a cute idea that might just work, so I'll give them kudos for innovation. But it just seems odd that the theater is all set to expand programs just months after being able to pay its light bill again.

Baby steps, TAG, baby steps. â€" Steve Dunkelberger