WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22 2014 >>>

1. It's winter, and you're hankerin' for some good old-fashioned outdoor fun, but all you can do is sit by the fireplace and watch Aunt Tilly do the mendin'. Never fear, the Washington Sportsmen's Show is here, with all the fish catching, bow hunting and turkey calling seminars you can cram in to five days. Worried that your flies look like small curious animals? Check out a fly tying demonstration. Worried your kids will destroy exhibits with their new Legend of Hercules moves?  Drop them off at the kid's trout pond. Also expect one-of-a-kind indoor Steelhead River, more than 153 hours of free "how to" seminars, camp cooking demonstrations, Head & Horns competition, Cowboy Fast Draw show, wilderness survival and outdoor safety expert Peter Kummerfeldt and much more. The show opens today from noon to 8 p.m. at the Washington State Fair Events Center.

2. Artists from The Gallery at TCC's current "Global Perspectives" exhibit discuss issues related to the exhibit, moderated by TCC Instructor Wendi Fein at 4 p.m.

3. An opening reception for "I Like Rocks!" - an exhibition of recent work by UPS assistant professor of ceramics Chad Gunderson - will be held 5-7 p.m. in Kittredge Gallery.

4. Pour at Four hosts a Big Winter Reds tasting featuring big, bold and rich reds displaying beautiful fullness and finesse from 5:30-8 p.m.

5. Lyon Pride continues its Hempfest Tryouts Wednesday night series at Jazzbones with bands Insiege, Tyranny Theory, Sick Either Way, BlackBeatBlue and others at 7:30 p.m.

LINK: Wednesday, Jan. 22 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, JAN. 20 2014 >>>

1. Dr. Martin Luther King was propelled into the public limelight five days after civil rights activist Rosa Parks, on Dec. 5, 1955, refused to obey the Montgomery, Ala., law mandating that blacks sit in the back of the bus. A boycott of the city buses was declared, and King, as president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association, was chosen to lead the boycott. His house was bombed, and he was convicted along with other boycott leaders on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus company's operation. His courage and his impassioned speech led to the desegregation of Montgomery's buses in 1956 when the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional. Over the next 20 years, King emerged as a symbol and leader of the civil rights struggle, despite opposition from both inside and outside the movement. Civil rights opponents reviled him as being too radical, and a significant portion of civil rights activists reviled him as being too moderate, but his commitment to nonviolent means and his vision of an America in which all people will be judged on the content of their character, not on the color of their skin, have come to stand for everything that is good and just about America. We have listed Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in our News section.

2. In honor of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Washington State History Museum offers free admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3. As a popular poet once noted, "Makin' your way / in the world today / takes everything you've got." Yes, it's back to the coal mines, tired already from Seahawks celebrations. You need something to work off that beer, and MLKBallet will be celebrating MLK Day by offering a special Contemporary Master Class at 7 p.m. in the Urban Grace Church. 

4. Tonight at the Swiss drink beer and behold Dakota Bob & The Businessman Band, starting at 8 p.m. and featuring absolutely no cover charge.

5. Internationally ignored DJ No Pants and Mega Hit DJ Aaron Miggity Mack will spin jazz at O'Malley's Irish Pub beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Monday, Jan. 20 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, JAN. 18 2014 >>>

1. Looks like the Bettie Brigade, Dockyard Derby Dames have competition for the title of Fastest Wheels in the South Sound tonight. The National Speed Skating Circuit (NSC) holds its first event of the year at 7 p.m. in the Tacoma Armory.  Inline skaters will race around a wooden track at speeds of up to 30 mph, in both sprints and endurance challenges.

2. Let's Play! will fill the Tacoma Dome with more than 40 different local sports and fitness organizations from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Each fitness outfit on tap will offer up demonstrations or hands-on experiences so you can try your hand at everything from martial arts to lacrosse to ZUMBA to rock climbing. The event aims to get adults, families and especially local kids interested in being active. After all, how can you know if you love fencing or canoeing if you've never tried it?  

3. Do you know what Shodo is? How about Sumi-e? Tako? Ikebana? Well, you have to know origami - don't you? OK, quickly, in reverse order, they are: paper-folding, flower-arranging, kite-making, ink-painting and calligraphy. Confused? Excellent. Now you can go to the Oshogatsu in Olympia: Japanese New Year Celebration to get yourself straightened out. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Olympia Center, you cannot only learn the difference between all of these delicate arts, you can experience firsthand Japanese dance and music, taiko drumming, aikido and vocal performances. You'll walk away culturally educated and suddenly able to kill hours at work by folding all of your memos into little cranes and flowers. Oh, how you'll Odori it.

4. If you're a fan of Downton Abbey, and have craved receiving a fancy engraved invitation that reads, "Lord and Lady Hinklebottom request your company for dinner at Hinklebottom Manor in East Thrappingstock," then this is your lucky day. OK, "Hinklebottom Manor" is actually the Key Center Pierce County Library and "East Thrappingstock" is Lakebay, but it's still a fancy event. Food Historian Tames Alan discusses various aspects of British upper-class dining as it would've been eaten "upstairs" at Downton Abbey prior to the outbreak of World War I at 2 p.m. Manners, menu and accouterments of a full 12-course meal are on the table (figuratively speaking. They are not, we repeat not actually serving a full, 12-course meal). 

5. Waylon Jennings sang like he meant business. He didn't get fancy, and he didn't send his voice on missions it could not complete, but there was an urgency in his best songs that pounded them home. When he sang something, it stayed sung. The Outlaws will mosey on into Doyle's at 9 p.m. for a Jennings tribute. Pro tip: Find a parking spot early on St. Helens before the dusty pick-up trucks cranking AM radio arrive.

LINK: Saturday, Jan. 18 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, JAN. 12 2014 >>>

1. Today is the last day to bundle up, pinch your cheeks until they glow and strap on a pair of silver skates, Hans Brinker, for a glide across the frozen expanse at Tollefson Plaza. The Franciscan Polar Plaza, located on the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street, ends today. Hit the ice from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

2. Jeffry Steele performs works by three 19th-century guitar masters - Mertz, Sor and Tarrega - with Monica Steele on piano beginning at 3 p.m. at the Antique Sandwich Company.

3. The Blues Vespers inside the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in North Tacoma will feature long-time blues band Junkyard Jane beginning at 5 p.m.

4. Wikipedia says, "Sunday night blues is an acute condition, mostly affecting nine-to-five workers and students." Wikipedia is full of crap. Sunday night blues is an awesome condition, mostly affecting a graying crowd of music lovers. For as long as we can remember, The Spar in Old Town Tacoma has hosted blues bands every Sunday night. And it doesn't matter what band is shoved into the corner, the people arrive at 7 p.m. by rote. It's a beautiful thing. Tonight, the Boneyard Preachers perform their contemporary blues at The Spar.

5. The cranksets will be rattling tonight at 2nd Cycle on Hilltop Tacoma. The non-profit bicycle co-op — with a vast collection of used parts, frames, and complete bikes — will host an all-ages hip-hop show featuring Araless & QuiVive, Nocturnal, Smear, Awall aka 2piece, Rize-Berg, Makkk Hussein, Whikid Maticuless and Eeetree beginning at 8 p.m. 

LINK: Sunday, Jan. 12 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, JAN. 11 2014 >>>

1. More weed has been smoked, more babies have been conceived, and more fun has been had in the Volkswagen Bus than perhaps any vehicle ever made. When people see the Bus, it's almost impossible not to smile. It brings them back to a simpler time of no-worries partying. Lemay - America's Car Museum's cool and groovy "Vee Dub: Bohemian Beauties" exhibit opens today. Beginning at 10 a.m., you may gawk at classic bohemian beauties and, no doubt, hear an endless stream of VW stories from fellow museumgoers.

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SUNDAY, JAN. 5 2014 >>>

1. If you ever wondered what would happen if the Terminator had a love affair with Sarah Conner, then this show's for you. An offbeat comedic showdown titled "Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction" is pitting 10 comedians against each other in a battle for laughs, where they win points telling stories about steamy love affairs between popular film and television characters. Led by Bryan Cook, comedy writer for Joan Rivers' Fashion Police, the contest tasks professional comics to arrive with their own piece of erotic fan fiction on anything from Harry Potter to 60 Minutes, perform it, then quickly scribble and perform another story of the audience's choosing. A national hit on the comedy-festival circuit, the show drops in on the Tacoma Comedy Club at 8 p.m.

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SATURDAY, JAN. 4 2014 >>>

1. Franciscan Polar Plaza is on its third year of setting up an ice-skating rink decked out in wintery goodness at Tollefson Plaza, just across from Tacoma Art Museum. The Weekly Volcano has hosted live bands at Polar Plaza every Saturday from 7-9 p.m. on our Electric Salchow Stage. The last concert is tonight, featuring the lovely voice of Leah Tussing and the rockin' magical guitar work of Rafeal Tranquilino. Come listen the performance for free, or pay to ice skate and feel the music during your butterfly jumps, cherry-flips, and layback spins.

2. Violinist Maria Newman will perform with flutist Hal Ott, violinist, violist and conductor Scott Hosfeld, Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra soloists and members of Central Washington University's Flute Ensemble under the Capitol Rotunda's Dome from 2-3:30 p.m. 

3. Who doesn't like to sit in attendance while junkyard cars get smashed and toppled by massive, petrol-chugging monster trucks? That's like suggesting there are people out there who don't like nacho cheese or Michele Bachmann. Monster Jam consumes the Tacoma Dome with a 10 a.m. to noon party in the Monster Truck pits, then a show at 2 and 8 p.m. No matter where you're seated in the Tacoma Dome, you won't need binoculars: At eleven feet tall and weighing in at 9,000 pounds, monster trucks are easy to eyeball as they mash the motor, teeter, roll and auger in (monster-ese for a nosedive - as if you didn't know). Read Nikki McCoy's full feature on the Groth brothers in the Military Life section.

4. Just when you're convinced that Lures is just another in a long line of increasingly indistinguishable garage-psych bands, they reveal themselves as soulful purveyors of indie rock hiding beneath all of that hazy reverb. The pristine harmonies and chiming guitars remind me of the long-lost and much-loved Basemint, if that's the sort of thing that pricks up your ears. Catch the band with Hands In, Peter Tietjen and the Balloon Power Challenge and Week of Wonders at 8 p.m. in Bob's Java Jive.

LINK: Saturday, Jan. 4 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, JAN. 3 2014 >>>

1. Seattle's the Mama Rags are a group of Northerners taking on Southern rock with gleeful aplomb, combining the rousing barroom ditties of the Band with the streak of sweaty melancholy that colored Creedence Clearwater Revival (who themselves were the bayou by way of Berkeley, Calif.). While the Mama Rags are a very new band, it'll be exciting to watch them progress and anticipate their debut EP, which is supposedly forthcoming. Catch the band with Ice Teeth at 10 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

2. It's winter (duh!) and flower lovers have a bad case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. For these folks, artificial won't do; it's just a countdown to spring. Ah, but there are a few plants that flourish indoors during the cold months to keep you smiling - and they're not plastic. Green thumbs hanging out at the Puyallup Home & Garden Show today through Sunday know which plants flourish indoors. The show will feature displays and vendors, such as new furniture so you can gaze at your pathetic plants in comfort. If you're mad about keeping up with the Joneses, then this congregation of home and garden exhibitors from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. will inflame those covetous inclinations.

3. The Olympia Timberland Regional Library hostsListen Here: A Lunch Break Story Time for Adults from 12:10-12:50 p.m. at the Olympia Timberland Library. Corey Snow, a professional audiobook narrator and voice actor, will read two short story selections: The White Silence by Jack London, and Saki's The Music on the Hill.

4. The Tacoma Dome hosts the enormously popular diversion Monster Jam this weekend for a screeching, smashing round of vehicle-crunching monster-truck competitions featuring, among others, champion truck Gravedigger, and its amped-up mechanical opponents, such as: Northern Nightmare, Monster Mutt Dalmatian, Metal Mulisha, New Earth Authority, El Toro Loco and Captain USA and Double Trouble - driven by Gig Harbor brothers Travis and Tyler Groth, respectively. (Keep in mind that while the drivers are important, the trucks - gargantuan bundles of concentrated horsepower that can fly up to 25 feet in the air - are the real stars.) The action begins tonight at 8 p.m. Read Nikki McCoy's full feature on the Groth brothers in the Military Life section.

5. The Pig Bar has gained reputation as a solid music source in Olympia, providing quality, free music every weekend. This weekend is no exception with The Blackberry Bushes String Band tonight at 8:30 p.m. and The Pine Hearts Bluegrass Band Saturday at 9 p.m.

LINK: Friday, Jan.3 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1 2014 >>>

1. One glance into their eyes will tell you that winter weirdness has consumed them. While most folks snowshoe the backcountry around Mount Rainier, soak in hot springs or hibernate by the fire with a pile of unfinished books and a cupboard full of cocoa, a few freaks laugh at the Snow Meister's work and jump into icy-cold sea water. Consider this the Ultimate Hardass Competition. at 11:30 a.m., join them and take the plunge into the icy waters of Commencement Bay. Once you emerge  - and you will, though your skin might be slightly blue  - you can warm your bones next to a heater while sipping free hot drinks. Weirdo.

2. In the spirit of the new year, Washingtonians are encouraged to start 2014 with a healthy hike and connect with the diverse natural resources and recreation opportunities found at state parks across Washington today. Fifteen state parks are offering guided hikes ranging from interpretive strolls through military batteries and Puget Sound coastal forests, to snowshoe walks in the Selkirk and Cascade mountains.

3. If you have yet to check out the ice skating adventures in currently being offered in Tollefson Plaza, today might just be your chance to do so. The Franciscan Polar Plaza, located on the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street, is a covered outdoor rink is about half the size of a hockey rink. It sports real ice and holds about 150 skaters at a time. And it's pretty awesome. Skate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

4. Nursing a hangover? Find your way to The Grand Cinema in Tacoma for a great movie in a dark room. Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, Philomena and Saving Mr. Banks are currently playing. In Olympia, the place to hit is the Capitol Theater, where A Perfect Man and The Fifth Estate are playing.  

5. There's a ton of football on today. New Year's Day is synomous the pigskin. Browse our bar listings and find the perfect place to watch whatever game interests you.

LINK: Wednesday, Jan. 1 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, NOV. 7 2013 >>>

1. Let's all think about snow sports and drink beer together tonight at the Harmon Harmon Brewery & Eatery's annual Pray For Snow Party. As sure as it will snow in them hills, the Harmon will dole out gear and lift ticket giveaways and raffle prizes, screen snow sports movies and, of course, host the human jukebox Steve Stefanowicz who has performed at this party for as long as we can remember. Proceeds from the raffle benefit the YWCA of Pierce County.

2. Janice Arnold's "Palace Yurt" at the Smithsonian in 2009 was a contemporary take on ancient Mongolian palace yurts. Designed specifically for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's 2009 Fashioning Felt exhibition in New York, it was made to fit the arched ceiling of the museum's conservatory and filled the space like air in a balloon with elegantly crafted and draped sheets of handmade felt. Now Arnold has reconfigured the installation for the art gallery at The Evergreen State College. Working slowly with a team of assistants, it took Arnold most of the summer while the gallery was closed to complete the installation, which is one of the best gallery shows ever presented in that space. Check it out from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Read Alec Clayton's full review of "Palace Yurt: Deconstructed" in the Music and Culture section.

3. Historically speaking, you eat more food during the wintertime, go outside less often, and some of you even wear those jackets that look like sleeping bags. "It's not a fashion show out there," your mom yells at you, even though technically speaking it is a fashion show out there. So, it only makes sense to eat delicious happy hour food tonight, maybe enjoy a bottle of Guernoc Chardonnay or Cabernet and check Lynn Di Nino's wearable sweater art. The fashion show begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Social Bar and Grill. No, we don't know what you should wear. What are we, your mother?

4. Feather is in tribute to the local Native American history. Oar is symbolic of the European settlers who came to Tacoma. Feather & Oar is a men's clothing store in downtown Tacoma specializing in gentle used and vintage goods with a sense of timelessness. The chaps behind the suits not only know and wear their goods, they've woven themselves into the community to do good. Feather & Oar celebrates its one-year anniversary at 7 p.m., with popular hip-hop artist Rockwell Powers adding even more style to the affair.

5. After more than 1200 submissions, all 32 slots have been filled for the 34th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition. The first 16 comedians will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington Center.

LINK: Thursday, Nov. 7 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area