SATURDAY, SEPT. 17, 2011 >>>

1. O'Malley's Irish Pub will host the mini Sturgis of skateboarding, a day of ripping, beer and bands today with warm-ups beginning at noon. No giant contest money ($500), corporate sponsors or swooping ESPN camera cranes - just local hard-core skaters summoned by the scent of wood dust tossed above the vertical lip of the miniramp performing before drunks in the beer garden. There will be cash prizes for the competitiors and raffle prizes for everyone else. Wheelies, Revengers, City Hall and Overboard! perform at the after party at 8 p.m.

2. Historic Tacoma and the South Tacoma Business District Association host a walking tour of the buildings, history, and possible future of South Tacoma Way beginning at 10 a.m. in front of Heritage Bank at 5448 ... wait for it ... South Tacoma Way.

3. There have been many battles in Yelm - mostly during rush hour. Today, from 1-5 p.m. eight band swill battle it out in Yelm City Park to raise money for the Yelm Library.

4. When you think of artist Lynn Di Nino, you think sculpture. And crazy hair. But mainly sculpture. Do you know she creates jewelry? Check out her one-person show - "The New Mystery Jewelry" - at Sandpipper Gallery in Old Town Tacoma through Oct. 21. There's a preview party from 2-5 p.m.

Stadium District Art & Wine Walk is ostensibly about looking at art, but everyone knows it's much more about the wine. From 4-8 p.m. the district's businesses will showcase Washington state wine. More details can be found here.

PLUS: Talk Like A Pirate Day and the Tacoma Throwdown in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Saturday Nightlife It List

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Most sunny, hi 72, lo 51

Saturday: Sunny, hi 81, lo 54

Sunday: Iphone says still sunny, hi 84, lo 54

>>> SEPT. 2-4: OLYMPIA HARBOR DAYS

The Volcano's "Weekend Hustle" is synonymous with fun, so there's no way we would ever let Olympia's Harbor Days festival pass without trumpeting it. Why? Because we love the hell out of some tugboats. And if there's one thing Oly Harbor Days is synonymous with, it's tugboats. And history. And fun. Is there another way we could use the word synonymous in this blurb? Probably. But why push our luck. The important thing is that you head down to Oly's waterfront Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday and get in on a late-summer rite of passage. Of particular interest are the annual tugboat races, which go down Sunday at noon.

• Percival Landing & Port Plaza, 5-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday, free, 222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia, harbordays.com

>>> FRIDAY, SEPT. 2: 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

A few weeks ago we highly recommended a play about stamps (Mauritius). This week, we're back at it, throwing our weight behind The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a Tony award-winning musical taking to the Tacoma Little Theater stage three weeks starting this Friday. Billed as, "tender and sardonic," not to mention "hilarious," and irreverent," The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by Suzy Willhoft, should be totally excellent. Excellent: e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t. Excellent.

• Tacoma Little Theatre, through Sept. 26, $16.50-$26.50, 7:30 p.m. Friday -Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 210 N. I Street, Tacoma, 253.272.2481

>>> SEPT. 3-5: GET OUT OF THE RUT WEEKEND

Ahhh yeah! It's that time of year! Time for getting it on! That's why Northwest Trek invites you to its "Get Out of the Rut Weekend," your chance to play peeping Tom on the breeding habits of moose, elk, deer and even sheep. You see, the "rut," refers to the breeding habits of hooved animals - and we all know hooved animals are the hottest of all! According to hype, "Watch and listen as they grunt, snort, bugle and spar. From wild romance to turbulent action, you won't want to miss this three-day kickoff to the most dramatic time of year at Northwest Trek." So hot.

• Northwest Trek, 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., $9-$18, 2 and under free, Get Out of the Rut Weekend activities free with admission, 11610 Trek Dr E, Eatonville, nwtrek.org

>>> SATURDAY, SEPT. 3: PADDLES & PINTS

You've seen the Weekly Volcano's cover story this week. You know this weekend brings the third annual Tacoma Craft Beer Festival. Your mouth is already watering at the thought of it. But even better - this year you have an opportunity to do a little paddling before you pound the brews. In conjunction with Metro Parks, this Saturday at 10 a.m. the Paddles & Pints event offers kayak and beer enthusiasts of all skill levels the chance to do a little outdoor recreating before settling in at the Craft Beer Fest for a day full of awesome suds. Taking off at 10 a.m. from the Thea Foss boat launch, according to hype the paddling will offer, "a view of the city skyline while kayaking past the glass Museum and the marinas. ... Afterward  arrive at the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival to enjoy local craft beer, food and entertainment." Perfect pairing.

• Thea Foss boat launch, 10 a.m. $50 with kayak rental, $30 without, pre-registration required, 253.594.7847

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
It's Labor Day weekend, Biotch! There's a three-day live music event out in Elma I might check out - called Impressive Vibrations Tour, and dubbed "Woodstock of Olympia." There's also this private house party/concert on Monday out on the Sound that sounds rad. Oh yeah ... It's also my two-year-old's birthday party, so chocolate cake and make-believe dinosaurs are also in the cards.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Music and Film Writer
Friday, I'll be catching a last-minute show at The New Frontier with my favorite local band that I've never been able to cover: Derek Kelley and the Speedwobbles. (One of these days I'll be able to write about you, Speedwobbles! You will rue the day!) The rest of my weekend will be spent trying to get up the nerve to go to Bumbershoot. Lots of great comedy shows. I recommend the Comedy Bang Bang podcast tapings with Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins. Very funny people.

ALEC CLAYTON Volcano Visual Arts Critic
I'm going to learn how to spell and do lots of other fun stuff at the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Tacoma Little Theatre. Plus, I'm going to write the next chapter in the next great American novel.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer
Saturday: whitewater rafting, rodeo, dancing in cowboy boots. Sunday after church, it's my mother-lovin' birthday barbeque, shindig, potluck, soiree! I'm sure something will get lit on fire. Hopefully it isn't me this year.

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
Labor Day weekend = first weekend after the start of school. I'd like to say that I'll be loafing, but I'll probably spend some time thinking about lesson planning. The rest of the time will be spent hanging out with my little son and planning out his school day meals. Oh, on Sunday I'll be playing music at church. 

MATT DRISCOLL Editor
I'll be swinging by the Northwest Convergence Zone podcast Sunday to talk sports with Darrell and the gang. I'm sure Voxy can't wait. Fantasy football will no doubt come up. The rest of my weekend is a complete mystery at this point, even to me. Although I do know I'll be watching the kids for a good chunk of it while my uber-smart wife attends the annual American Political Science Association annual conference in Seattle.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
Our friends Chris and Heather are getting married (at long last), so we'll be merrily toasting their union.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SUNDAY, AUG. 14, 2011 >>>

1. Marked by Gothic manors, copious blood, busty wenches and color-drenched Gothics, Hammer Films set the vibe for British horror throughout the '60s. We're not sure what Hammer films the Tacoma Cult Movie Club will screen at 7 p.m. inside The Acme Grub Cage, but we pray its the mind-janglingly strange The Lost Continent, the only movie to locate the hidden linkage between the Spanish Inquisition, busty Christian women, man-eating weeds and Freud's "vagina dentata."

2. Journey back to the year 1855 when the Fur Brigades from east of the Cascades camped at Fort Nisqually. More 100 volunteers will recreate the arrival of the 1855 fur brigades to this Hudson's Bay Company post from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum at Point Defiance Park.

3. Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor stages Cinderella at 3 p.m. As Weekly Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal drove up to Paradise's rustic lot, a dozen junior "princesses" in ball gowns greeted him with squeals and enthusiastic waves. It was the perfect introduction to Fantasyland. He was charmed to see several young audience members in gowns as well. It's a story that encourages cosplay. To read Christiab Carvajal's review of Cinderella, click here.

4. Irish purist Noel Hill performs at 7 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater in Olympia.

5. After numerous format, manager and cuisine changes, the Gruv Lounge on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue has gone gay, which is the best idea for this spot this rag has heard yet. It's now MetroGruv with the same large dance floor, two VIP rooms with karaoke, stage and lounge area, but it's now gay-friendly. Burlesque takes over on Wednesdays. Thursdays offer karaoke with lasers and smoke. Friday and Saturday are clubs nights, with Omar spinning Friday. Today marks the grand re-opening week featuring the jazz funk sound of the Farko Collective at 8 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Many all-day happy hours

FROM A MOVEMENT TO A MUSEUM PIECE >>>

Remember when grunge was just everyday life? Flannel, long hair, not washing too often.

It seems like that was only a few weeks ago. (Right now, it's too warm for the flannel.)

The musical movement has now been relegated to history by the Experience Music Project, which is currently celebrating the gurus of grunge in an exhibit called Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses. The exhibit includes artifacts and videos, including this one with the band's former drummer Chad Channing.

Along with the EMP exhibit comes a visual history book, Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind.

Jacob McMurray, EMP's senior curator, will be at the Olympia Timberland Library Friday, Aug. 5, at 7:30 p.m. to talk about and sign the book, which includes images and stories by such musical icons as Henry Rollins, Mark Mothersbaugh and Olympia's own Calvin Johnson.

[Olympia Timberland Library, 313 Eighth Ave. S.E., Olympia, 360.352.0595 or www.trl.org]

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 3, 2011 >>>

1. Mighty High will lay down some reggae at Jazzbones tonight. Mid-week jam band action is so your style.

2.  The Steilacoom Summer Concert Series continues this evening at Pioneer Park, featuring Danny Vernon's "Illusions of Elvis." The fun is free, all ages and starts at 6:30 p.m.

3. Thanks to the Washington State History Museum kids have the chance to learn about the Oregon Trail this morning at Garfield Book Company. It's just one of many cool events at Garfield Book Company this summer.

4. Sometimes a little goofiness is just what the doctor ordered. Chalet Bowl in Tacoma's famed Proctor District has you covered with Wacky Wednesday - featuring all-you-can-bowl for two hours, lots of clean fun, and a mighty-fine mid-week cheap date opportunity.

5. The sun is out and it's time once again in Gig Harbor for the appropriately named Gig Harbor Green Farmers Market. Find info here.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight!

TUESDAY, AUG. 2, 2011 >>>

1. We'll be talking about Northern in Olympia a lot this week, as the completely awesome all-ages venue is scheduled to close after this coming weekend - with a reopening in a new space planned for September. Look for a cover story by Brett Cihon and Nikki Talotta coming this Thursday. Until then, check out Tara Jane O'Neil, Nikaido Kazumi and Mount Eerie tonight at Northern and celebrate all the space has to offer.

2. Perry Acker will be a part of the Ted Brown Music Outreach Guitar Clinic tonight at Jazzbones. The band has a lot of buzz right now - see why. Also, see if they show up driving a Ford Fiesta.

3. The Karpeles Manuscript Museum next to Wright Park in Tacoma is something of a hidden gem. Most have never dropped in on the amazing collection of original manuscripts housed in the ornate aging structure. That can change today. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Karpeles Manuscript Museum is showing a collection of Sigmund Freud's manuscripts through Aug. 31.

4. In Gig Harbor it's time once again for Summer Sounds at Skansie Brothers Park, this evening with Swing Reunion Orchestra.

5.On South Tacoma Way, the Rafael Tranquilino Band's "rockin' blues" have become a Stonegate Pizza staple.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight!

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 1, 2011 >>>

1. The music that Future Bass residency produces falls into the glitch-hop/indy electroclash/heavy electro dance music category, and they have the talent and the know-how to push glitch-hop further than we knew it could go. Electro poster boys DJ Broam, Bobby Galaxy and E.S. of Fab-5 will lay down squiggly squeaks, breaky beats, distorted hip-hop samples, wobbling bass lines, clean taps, eerie synthesized keys and more beginning at 9:30 p.m. - surrounded by projected video and live visuals - inside the Tempest Lounge. Bonus: $3.75 wells.

2. Speaking of eeriness and alcohol fun ... the Washington State History Museum's First Friday Pre-Pub Gallery Talk just so happens to be about the secrets of ancient beer making, as well as other mythological mysteries. Tied to the special exhibition Wrapped! The Search for the Essential Mummy, these 3:30 p.m. gallery talks are led by exhibit curator Stephanie Lile. And the treasure of the tomb? Special deals from fellow beer worshipers: The Harmon and Pyramid Ales, The Ram and The Swiss.

3. The Tacoma Mob Riders are hitting the streets - and booze - once again. Shoving off from The Goldfish Tavern at 7 p.m., the bicyclists will travel to North End Tacoma pubs and bars dressed in patriot garb. God bless America!

4. Tacoma Rainiers games are pretty exciting. We regularly blog this fact here. At 7 p.m. the excitement goes sky high as it's "Celebrate the Centennial of Naval Aviation" night at Cheney Stadium. This special night will feature a game against the Fresno Grizzlies, military activities, a special centennial tribute and fireworks.

5. Some people don't like to dance. They don't like sweaty dance floors, heavy bass and pumping fists. They don't like short skirts, flirty looks and grinding on strangers. They don't like to see men in skintight shirts belt out all the words to Lady Gaga, or women with dreaded hair hop up and down to the newest Too Short song. Yep, some people don't like to dance. We call them wimps. And you won't see them beginning at 9 p.m. for one of the best dance nights in Tacoma - gay-friendly Club Silverstone.

LINK: More arts and entertainment event sin the South Sound

LINK: Movies open!

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Annette Dawson in response to our cover story by Joshua Swainston about Ivan the Gorilla.

Dawson writes,

This week's Volcano article on Ivan made me cry a little and I'm usually a tough nut. Just seeing the big fella brought me right back to a warm, safe and fuzzy place of my childhood when I would go to the B&I with dad and mom, when the world was a much different place. I remember watching Ivan through thick glass walls and wondering what he was thinking and would he ever be let out of his concrete jungle. Thankfully he did make it out of there. I'm grateful to have been able to have met and known Ivan. His story reminds me that those who have been through the harshest conditions and survived have the potential to transform the madness of their lives. Thanks Volcano.

HISTORY! >>>

Metro Parks Tacoma is throwing a big birthday party today for Queen Victoria at the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum. Ah, that's nice.

Hey, wait a minute.

Victoria, daughter of Edward, the Duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, was born in Kensington Palace in London on May 24, 1819.  Metro Parks is throwing a huge birthday party on the wrong day!  The dancing, the songs, the re-enactors, the games - all on the wrong day! 

There's punch and cookies? 

Happy Birthday Victoria! 

Queen Victoria's Birthday

Saturday, May 21, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., $4-$6,
Fort Nisqually Living History Museum
Point Defiance Park, 5400 N. Pearl St., Tacoma
253.591-5339