HILLTOPATOMIC >>>

The "artistic revival" of Hilltop is in full effect. If you haven't taken notice you're missing the boat. Tonight offers a chance to gather at Fulcrum Gallery for a reception featuring music, poetry and spoken word. 6 Deep the Messenger will go hard with the spoken word, Miz Floes will delve into the poetry, Makeup Monsters and Tallest Tree will dole out the indie rock, and Jalen, DJ Broam, E.S. and Chonie Diego will break out the electronic goodness. Earlier in the evening a year of Spaceworks Tacoma will be celebrated at surrounding venues.

[Fulcrum Gallery, 8-11 p.m., $7, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma. 253.250.0520]

BE SURE TO STAY HYDRATED >>>

It's the middle of August, which also means the end of summer is on the horizon, or something. In just a few short months we'll all be hunkering inside complaining about how cold it is, completely forgetting that just a few months prior we were doing the same thing, complaining about how hot it was. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts and stroll through galleries, museums and business tonight during Third Thursday Artwalk. From a councilman hosted bus ride to a party in a hair salon, plus a few glasses of cheap wine, and November seems a faraway land.

Officially running from 5-8 p.m. throughout downtown Tacoma, and these days beyond, Artwalk provides a few thrills, and a few chills, and without price of admission.

Oh, if you'd rather not walk, and have a guided tour, the Art Bus launches from the Tacoma Art Museum's sidewalk at 6 p.m. traveling to Viceroy Gallery, B2 Fine Art Gallery, Embellish Multispace Salon, Brick House Gallery, MLK Spaceworks, Jazzbones, Throwing Mud Gallery, 253 Collective and ending at The Swiss. Tacoma City Councilman David Boe will ride shotgun, pointing out architectural wonders, dropping history bombs and previewing each stop. Get in on the party here.

Here are a few spaces participating in tonight's art walk:

TACOMA ART MUSEUM: In conjunction with Dale Chihuly's Northwest TAM will host the free workshop "Caring for Collection" from 5-8 p.m. TAM will tell you if you're destroying your own art work (stop smoking next to your artwork!). You'll also learn the best ways to display your collections. At 6 p.m., Stoneweaver artist and native Linda Levier will discuss the significance of the Edward S. Curtis's North American Indian portfolio to local Native American groups. 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258

BKB & CO.: Deborah Bushinski from Minnetonka, Minn., has her tessoro jewelry on display. 1734 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.6884 

SPACEWORKS TACOMA: Spaceworks Tacoma gobbled up empty storefronts in downtown Tacoma spitting them back out full of dreams - art studios, film production houses, pop-up stores and theater spaces - in three to six month stints. It's brilliant, really. Spaceworks blows out one candle tonight with a bash featuring performances from the talented D.A.S.H. Center students, live music by Fritha Strand Davern, Nat Dybevik, Your are Plural and others, scenes and laughs from Toy Boat Theatre and hella cool break dancing and live painting from the Fab-5 team. 5-8 p.m., 1300 Block of MLK Way, Hilltop Tacoma

253 COLLECTIVE: Member photographer Kate Lynch shows off her images of eagles, hummingbirds, shorebirds, and songbirds juxtaposed with photographs and photo illustrations of trees under the title "For the Birds & the Trees." 6-8 p.m., 19th and South Jefferson, Tacoma

MOUSAI STUDIOS: Ballroom Instructors opened this dance studio in Tacoma's Triangle District. Tonight, there's a reception for local artist and 253 Collective member Megan Kilen as people dance about smartly. 5-8 p.m., 759 St Helens Ave., Tacoma

EMBELLISH MULTISPACE SALON: Mad Hat Tea Co. co-owner and artist Maureen McHugh will exhibit her Acrylic and the fabulous flow and words and splotches of India ink inside the downtown Tacoma hair salon. Bonus: Najamoniq Todd and Del Brown will DJing the party, which also happens to be a birthday celebration for Embellish owner Patricia Lecy-Davis. 6-9 p.m., 1121 Court D, Tacoma

BRICK HOUSE GALLERY: Photographs of Winston Swift Boyer and Ralff Somoff will hang in this small, but awesome space. The Brick House always has the best free food. 5-8 p.m., 1123 S. Fawcett, Tacoma

MAVI CONTEMPORARY ART: This fancy space next to The Grand Cinema celebrates its one-year anniversary tonight featuring the works of William Quinn and Michael Loos, with a solo installation by Elizabeth Ashe in the front vault. 5-8:30 p.m., 502 Sixth Ave., Tacoma

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SEE FOR YOURSELF TONIGHT >>>

What the hell are kids up to these days? Have computers and video games completely muddled their brains yet? It's easy to worry, bitch and moan about them, but the truth is, the kids seem OK.

The latest step in the empowering-youth-through-rock movement is Queer Rock Camp, happening this week in Olympia. It's the first ever do-it-yourself music camp for queer youth. Monday, 31 campers ages 12-21, some from as far away as the East Coast, were divided into eight bands. They took music lessons, wrote songs, practiced and picked names. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater, they'll make their stage debut, sharing the bill with singer-songwriter/indie inspiration Kimya Dawson. To read Molly Gilmore's full story, click here.

Koncrete Studios is meant to embody hip-hop, expressing and supporting all of the foundational elements of the culture. Koncrete offers many types of classes in various skill levels, ranging from hip-hop choreography to krumping, pop-locking, isolating and breakdancing. Besides teaching classes, Koncrete hosts events for urban artists to showcase their work to the community. For instance, tonight from 7-11 p.m., Koncrete will host a B-Boy Jam/Cypher including DJ-ing and rapping. To read Kimberly Lahn's full story, click here.

From DIY rock camp to hip-hop choreography, tonight will probably leave you thinking that at least these kids are more than just OK.

FRIDAY, AUG. 12, 2011 >>>

1. In the grand, and unusual, tradition of skinny English boys bopping about in even skinnier ties to American soul and jazz music, local DJs Bobby Galaxy and dAb offer a night of soul, funk, jazz and rare grooves under the tag Rare Groove at 9:30 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge. Back in the day, Brits loved obscure American soul records almost as much as they loved mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches. Galaxy and dAb celebrate this phenomenon by playing authentic, obscure soul, funk and jazz records. It's the kind of music that would have been heard at all-night parties in Manchester or Blackpool back in the day.

2. You will take the spotlight at 7 p.m. for the monthly Distinguished Writer Series gathering inside King's Books. After you demonstrate why you've been published on numerous refrigerator surfaces, the floor opens up for everyone to lay some words down.

3. The Happy Socks Club asks everyone to drop by Amocat Café at 7 p.m. with a pair or two of festive socks for the kids supported by Stand Up for Kids Tacoma.

4. Surreal Ultra Lounge is the full-service grocery store of Tacoma bars, its clientele and staff a fascinating mix of fresh meat, some discontinued items marked for quick sale, and some of the finest melons I've seen. At 9:30 p.m. the staff will step aside for a bikini and boardshorts contest with big money on the line - a sexy preliminary for the sexy final bikini and boardshort competition Sept. 9. Expect courageous girlies parading their perky tops and wedgied bottoms in front of a braying crowd. These are prelims for the finals on September 9th. Booze and copious amounts of skin - aren't we lucky to live in an area that has it all?  Thank you Surreal Ultra Lounge for recognizing the power of the booze, skin and Friday combo.

5. Tacoma garage rock is front and center at 9 p.m. when The Plastards and The Fuzz begin ripping it at The New Frontier Lounge.

PLUS: A couple of Friday events in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment today in the South Sound

LINK: Movies open today!

THURSDAY A DJ COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE >>>

DJ Aaron Mack grew up on the East Coast. He left Pittsburgh for Tacoma feeling right at home as Grit City has the same look and feel as the second-largest city in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Around 2007, gazing at his stacks and files of music, he jumped into the game spinning at Puget Sound Pizza. Today, he has a regular Thursday night gig at the Acme Tavern.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: Does your "Til Thursday" shows have a theme?

DJ AARON MACK: Yes, I lean heavily toward the post-punk music of the '80s. However, I do mix it up a bit with anything and everything that seems to come from that influence.

VOLCANO: We see you have invited DJ Melodica to join you Thursday.

MACK: Melodica plays music primarily from an era I really love, and as he puts it, he is also "all over the map" and he really makes it work. I am hoping to sit down with him and trade some music over a few beers in the near future.

VOLCANO: What does the Acme have up its gritty sleeve for the night?

MACK: I am not certain what drink specials Steve (owner and bartender of the Acme) is planning Thursday night. He always does something fun. I do know the Acme has some of the best wells on this end of town — ringing in at $3.50.

VOLCANO: Rumor is there's a secret password.

MACK: The secret word is for our Facebook friends. We have been having a little fun with it. One week everyone coming in would walk up to Steve and just say, "stripper pole" to get Acme's specials, which also set the mood for the night. Well ... I guess I can give you this week's word. Whisper to Steve, "I see dead people" and you're hooked up.

VOLCANO: We won't tell anyone. By the way, does the stripper pole see action?

MACK: Every week a few people try out the dancing pole. There is often a group of girls hovering around it and you just know they are working up the nerve. Of course, it's just a matter of a few rounds before they are on it. I am yet to see anyone on it that seems to be a professional.

Til Thursday

With DJs Aaron Mack and MelodicaThursday, Aug. 11, 9 p.m., no cover
Acme Tavern, 1310 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma
253.272.1892

MONDAY, AUG. 8, 2011 >>>

1. Photographer and downtown Tacoma resident Peter Serko loves the Museum of Glass. Loves it. Well, at least loves to shoot it. He's been capturing the many moods of the MOG since 2006. And MOG has been aware. The Museum hosts Transformation: Art Changes a City in which Serko presents 18 photographs of both the Museum architecture and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass taken during different times of day throughout the seasons. In conjunction with the exhibition, Serko invites the community to submit their best MOG photographs via Give Us Your Best Shot Flickr group, which will be included in a video montage displayed alongside his prints. Drop by today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a looksy.

2. Blood drives make the Weekly Volcano uncomfortable as there are too many people in these parts who dig the Twilight films. We don't need a closet vampire near our blood. If you feel comfortable, the Sea Mar Community Health Center in Lacey will be drawing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during their Community Health Fair, which runs through Aug. 12.

3. Magoo's Annex's Micro Mondays with DJ Melodica has become a habit for many, specifically those who enjoy punk, post punk, New Wave, early electronica and garage tunes while waiting for that one damn pool table. Get in on the party beginning at 8:30 p.m.

4. We don't want to cause a panic but Sevens Revenge have scheduled a short break from their Monday Open Stage night at O'Malley's Irish Pub beginning Aug. 22. You've been holding out waiting for some nerve to kick in. Now is the time, Sport. It begins at 8:30 p.m. This could be the first day of the rest of your life.

5. All Mondays don't suck. Red Hex, TRMRS, Guantanamo Baywatch and Si Si Si will rock The New Frontier Lounge beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Let's go to the movies!

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011 >>>

1. The Weekly Volcano's Super Best of Tacoma issue is on the street. In celebration, and to honor the winners, we are throwing a huge bash at the Varsity Grill beginning at 6 p.m. At this premier event, you'll enjoy a combination of ‘80s dance music spun by the famous DJ dAb, food and drink specials, a special Super Hero Drink, tests of strength orchestrated by Elev8 Fitness, super hero movies and cartoons, raffle prizes, trivia contests - all presented in a timely, theatrical way by emcee John Munn. The Weekly Volcano highly encourage everyone to dress as his or her favorite super hero or villain. Get creative, as we'll be handing our awards for Best Super Hero and Best Villain as well as Best Local Super Hero and Best Local Villain.

2. The Barleywine Revue will fill the Tacoma Farmers Market at Ninth and Broadway with fiddle music beginning around 11 a.m.

3. The Thursday Beer runners will meet at 6:30 p.m. in front of the Parkway Tavern for an easy 3-mile run. Upon returning to the Parkway, they'll discuss their run - and why the hell they're not at the Super Best of Tacoma Party - over beers.

4. Your popcorn buckets will fill with tears as your sit in the dark Century Theatre watching the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra live from Jerusalem featuring soprano Renée Fleming and tenor Joseph Calleja instead of pouding the special Superhero Drink and dancing to 80s tunes at the Super Best of Tacoma Party. Look what your life has become.

5. After the Super Best of Tacoma Party, get on your bad motor scooter and catch L.A. Lungs, Derek M Johnson and KnotPineBox at the all-ages venue Northern. L.A. Lungs' music is bracingly unique, unfiltered and hard to categorize. The show begins at 8 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Happy hours!

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011 >>>

1. The DJ Switch and drummer Wiggles battle it out with hip-hop, house and Top 40 tunes every Tuesday night at the Backstage Bar & Grill. Seventy-five cent beers bring you into the battle.

2. Abracadabra! Hocus-pocus! Rama-lama-ding-dong! Local magician Jeff Evans will teach kids important lessons at 11 a.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch. We're not going to guarantee you scantily clad assistants, but audience participation is enforced, so keep an eye on your watch - there's a fine line between David Copperfield and a pickpocket.

3. In the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch show Scott Hillstrand and Ryan Simpson risk life and limb for a boatload of Alaskan King that will end up piled high at Red Lobster's weekly crab fest. Of course the guys got paid. Where are they spending their money? At the Varsity Grill from 5-10 p.m. that's where. OK, the Discovery Channel probably has their back, but you can spend your hard-earned cash to hang with the fellas, throw back a few drinks and stare at the Jager girls. Bonus: The VG will screen a new episode of the Catch.

4. Chat up dragons and orcs while rolling multisided dice from 7-11 p.m. tonight at the Northern Pacific Coffee Co. If you don't know what that means you have no business being there.

5. The Never Never have the boy and girl vocals meet over a bed of guitars dynamic down pat. Check out the band's sweet harmonies with a classic alternative rock sensibility with Fifty Up North at 8 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Just a few days until the Super Best of Tacoma party!

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011 >>>

1. After disbanding the Los Angeles new wave/power pop group the Plimsouls , Peter Case launched a career as an important American singer/songwriter specializing in the flat-pick guitar style and semi-autobiographical stories of drifters delivered in a narrative style. Case performs at 8 p.m. inside Morso Wine Bar.

2. Gastropods in general are believed to have lost half of their original bilateral symmetry somewhere during the evolutionary process; so a snail's intestinal tract twists around and evacuates near its head, where the genitalia are also located. This physiological tidbit was probably not in artist Chris Thompson's mind when he linked his paintings to snails. Thompson's show, Trails - which also includes paintings of slugs - will open at the Telephone Room Gallery from 5-9 p.m.

3. Say you go to the Tacoma Cemetery at 48th and South Tacoma Way at 6 p.m. to do a little thinking and writing in your journal. As you sit there taking hits off a flask in the E.A. Poe-ness of the place, you're joined by a strange bunch of people. Their leader, a former Dungeons and Dragons freak, is decked out in a cape and carries a lantern. He's telling his suburban entourage that the graveyard where you're sitting is full off strange stories from Tacoma's past. You slowly realize that you're smack dab in the middle of the Third Annual Living History Cemetery Tour lead by the The Fort Nisqually Time Travelers, a select group of living history re-enactors. "Cool" you whisper under your breath. Later, after the crowd shuffles off, a homeless man plunks himself down across from you to root through his plastic bag of stuffed animals, and a kid speckled with metal studs and zits and wearing a Dead Boys T-shirt strides by, giving you the old hairy eyeball. Man, Tacoma is so great sometimes.

4. In a way the Tacoma Film Festival party never stops at The Grand Cinema. As TFF's founder and continuing planner, the theater's staff and volunteers work throughout the year on each new festival. And in 2011 they've figured out a way to share even more of the festival with us. TFF doesn't officially commence until Oct. 6, but who says we can't have fun now? Not the Grand; its first-ever Tacoma Film Festival Sneak Peek happens at the theater at 6:30 p.m. Let's pre-party! For the party details, click here.

5. DJs dAb, Suga Jones, Mr. Clean, Chris Savenetti and rotating guests spin New Wave, funk, pop, old school hip-hop and club classics from the 1980s as part of Beat Boxxx night at the Tempest Lounge beginning at 9:30 p.m.

LINK: See our Weekend Hustle for more events

LINK: More arts and entertainemtn events in the South Sound

LINK: Movies open!

FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011 >>>

1. The music of You Are Plural is so immediately, vibrantly engaging that it can be almost jarring. Tonight, the band plays Northern in Olympia, in what should be  a fine display of all-ages musical action.

2. Catch Rare Groove tonight at the Tempest Lounge on Hilltop - an evening of "intelligent soul, funk, jazz and (fittingly) rare grooves."

3. Amocat Cafe's live music night -- "Amocat Live!" -- goes down on the second Friday of every month. And, lo and behold - that's this week! Tonight catch Gabe Rhee, Sam Bogle, Steve Cairns, Karen Miller, Volkert Volkersz, Morgan Alexander & Kevin Freitas and Amocat Live! house band Les Collaborateurs.

4. Tonight would be the perfect time to drop in on the Open Contemporary Dance Class led by choreographer and all-around-talent Joel Myers, this evening from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Urban Grace Church in downtown Tacoma.

5. The Nuge. Or the Backstreet Boys and NKOTB. Or even the Monkees.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound