WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Better Remove Your "WSDOT Sucks" Bumpersticker: The Washington State Department of Transportation announced it will begin photo tolling on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Saturday. (News Tribune)

Happy Friday News: Nearly a third of all Tacoma-area homeowners with a mortgage owe more than their property is worth. (News Tribune)

Unemployment Rate: It fell to 8.6 percent after employers added 120,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department reports. The jobless rate in October had been 9 percent. (CNN)

Lacey City Council: Not huge with pot smokers. (News Tribune)

For Those Who Don't Drink Beer: Forza now the official coffee of the Tacoma Rainiers. (News Tribune)

Not So Christmasy: Don't wear a Frosty mask. (WCTI12)

Freaky: Daniel Day Lewis IS Abraham Lincoln. (The Superficial)

Just In Time For Christmas: There's an Angry Bids cookbook. (walyou)

Cookie Cottages Have Come A Long Way: Lights, camera, gingerbread (Flavorwire)

MONDAY, NOV. 28, 2011 >>>

1. Today in Olympia the legislature's special session kicks off - with lawmakers in town to grapple with the ominous budget shortfall. Swaths of education supporters organized by the Washington Education Association will also be in Oly for "Standing Strong. Standing Together" - a rally at the West Capital Campus against cuts to education funding. The rally runs from noon to 12:45 p.m., though those attending the rally are encouraged to arrive by 11:30 a.m.

2. The University of Puget Sound invites one and all to a "Fossil Fuel Forum" tonight from 5 - 6 p.m. in Trimble Forum. Including four UPS professors, the forum aims to educate students and community members about coal, all other fossil fuels and their alternatives.

3. Hip Bone hits the stage at 8 p.m. tonight at The Swiss. Blues on a Monday is very fitting. Get in on the action.

4. Stuck in Lacey on a Monday night with nothing to do? We've all been there. Try Team Trivia Night, kicking off at 7 p.m. at Farrelli's Gourmet Wood Fire Pizza. Yes, you can totally win prizes.

5. In Tacoma, hot trivia action can be found at the Mandolin Café, hosted by Jeff Ross. It's all ages, gets going at 6 p.m. and is totally free to get in on (though we do recommend buying a coffee ... because coffee is delicious).

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight

The Weekly Volcano and Spew would like to wish you a Happy Turkey Day! We hope you and a few others huddle around what little warmth there is in a increasingly cold and uncaring universe, sipping, supping, and supporting one another - because there is nothing else worth doing.

Love each other.

Then go find some karaoke.

EAT A TON OF PIZZA ALL DAY AND NIGHT >>>

When it comes right down to it, just about everything rests in a name. Case in point - the fundraiser today being held for breast cancer research by pizzerias around the nation. What did its inspired organizers call it? SLICE FOR HOPE. Wow. If you don't feel like a bastard for not supporting, well, maybe you should. It's for hope, man, hope. Hope is all we have. Plus, while the hope in the title may be figurative, the slice is not.

Locally, Farrelli's Wood Fire Pizza will donate 10 percent of its sales today to the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation, a national charity based in Seattle. It's estimated 40,000 women will die from the disease this year.

"There isn't a person in this country who hasn't felt the effects of breast cancer in some way," says Farrelli's owner John Farrell in a release. "Farrelli's wants to do something to help end this disease."

Farrell goers on to say that besides donating 10 percent today, he's also created a pizza called the "Tasty Cancer Fighter" for the month of October and will be donating $6 for every 12-inch and $10 for every 16-inch of that pizza sold to the Karen Mullen Foundation.

So eat pizza. Support hope.

For the nearest Farrelli's, click here.

THURSDAY, OCT. 6, 2011 >>>

1. In 2006, musician David Nichols released his first album as Tex, The Angels Came to Take Me Home. A certain gloom hangs over the record in shrouds, as each song takes on either a sad-sack resignation or a bitterly stubborn stomp. When the clouds part and a sunny hook pops through, there's still a sadness looming in the lyrics. Tex didn't release another album until just last year. Tonight the Nichols and Tex make a return to the stage, playing The New Frontier with Canon Canyon, Library and Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray.

2. OMFG! The Tacoma Film Fest kicks off today. But you know this already because you've already read the Volcano's extensive preview coverage of this year's cinema extravaganza. Find something to go see today here.

3. This morning at 11 a.m. head to the Tacoma Art Museum to learn exactly how museums determine what art they collect. A museum curator will lead the presentation.

4. Boom! Mike Coucoules hosts the new Thursday Acoustic Open Mic at Medi'a Pizza & Pasta in Tacoma tonight from 8:30 - 11:30 p.m. It's all ages until 10 p.m.

5. It's "Ladies Night," in Lacey at The Play Pen. And hell yes DJ Kewlaid will be in the house!

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight

SOUTH SOUND DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND SIPS >>>

Proctor Farmers Market: FairWinds winery joins the vendors offering wine samples while Chuck Wayne and Kristen Mellis perform.

Grand Opening: Inferno's Brick Oven Pizza in Lacey is having its Grand Opening today. Expect prizes, food and drink specials and a raffle at 8825 Tallon Lane just past Costco on Martin way East.

Beer Tasting: 99 Bottles in Federal Way will pour Alaskan Brewing Co. beers - including the limited-release Perseverance Stout, brewed with birch syrup and fireweed honey - from 4-6 p.m. today.

Wine Tasting: Abby's On Broadway will pour tastes of Hip Chicks Do Wine Winery's 2009 Pinot Gris, Drop Dead Red, Wine Bunny Rouge, 2007 Whole Berry Cabernet Sauvignon and Vin Nombril from 4-8 p.m. today.

Video: Gritty City Food does Valhalla Coffee here.

LINK: Wine tastings today in the South Sound

MONDAY, AUG. 15, 2011 >>>

1. Few things are more blue than a Monday. Luckily, Hipbone will be doling out the blues tonight at the Swiss. It's very appropriate.

2. Get your devil horns and exclamation points ready!!! It's Metal Monday at the New Frontier!! As McKibbin would say, "Support the scene!!"

3. Let's tally up the score for Jazzbones Rockaraoke, shall we? A chance to sing on stage with a live band? Yes. Cheap Miller High Life? Yes. A valid excuse to drink on a Monday (repeat, Monday) night? Yes, yes and, oh God, yes.

4. Not only is it a good night for rockaraoke at Jazzbones - it's a good night for karaoake throughout the South Sound. Lady Luck's Cowgirl Up Steakhouse hosts "Toxic Karaoke," Jake's on Fourth Avenue in Olympia hosts gay-friendly karaoke, the Play Pen in Lacey busts out a karaoke contest and the Bull Market Bar and Grill offers karaoke in a bowling alley. The possibilities are endless.

5. Saddle up to some "Bar Bingo," at Willoughby's Restaurant and Lounge in Yelm.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight!

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011 >>>

1. Want to celebrate Tacoma legend Dave Takata's birthday? Get to the New Frontier Lounge tonight, where Mahnhammer, Goldteeth and CFA will get the party started.

2. The City of Lacey is featuring a sing-along version of the 1978 film Grease as part of its free summer movie series tonight at Huntamer Park. That means there'll be words on screen ... as if you needed them.

3. If you're going to be strung out, you may as well be strung out on twang. Enter the Twang Junkies, who perform tonight at Bud's Bar & Grill in Milton.

4. It's a big night for comedy in Tacoma as Bobby Slayton, Toby Roberts and Alysia Wood will all bring the laughs.

5. Getting drunk at Jazzbones is easy. Tonight, it'll be even a little easier as the the Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Launch Party offers up SweetKiss Momma and Aces Up.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

SING-ALONG THIS SATURDAY IN LACEY >>>

There's something about "Grease," at least for the romantic. It's a story as old as time: Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. Girl gets boy back via makeup, hair products, tight clothes and high heels.

It's kind of like Romeo and Juliet, except instead of drinking poison because his true love appears to be dead, Romeo is bummed that she's a prude in a poodle skirt, so he goes drag racing and listens to advice from friends who are, it seems, even stupider than he is.

In any case, the '50s seem to continue to hold a weird fascination as the last time that anyone believed life was simple or that anyone was playing by the rules. And pop-culture cred of the 1978 film and 1971 theatrical musical continues, with revivals and tours and even songs featured on "Glee."

Why this walk down memory lane?

The City of Lacey is featuring a sing-along version of the 1978 film as part of its free summer movie series. That means there'll be words on screen - not that I'd need them, because I know every word. The film screens Saturday, July 23 at dusk.

Ready? Here goes:

"I got chills, they're multiplyin', and I'm losin' control, ‘cause the power you're supplyin', it's electrifyin'."

[Huntamer Park, dusk, free, 618 Woodland Square Loop SE, Lacey, 360.491.0857]

WE'RE A BIG BOY NOW >>>

The Weekly Volcano's "personal" Facebook page is closing in on FB's 5,000 friends limit. Holy wow is right. We've started a "fan" page, which will allow us to compile as many friends/fans as technologically possible. If you're on FB and dig the Volcano's posts, quips, discoveries and news breaks – as well as content that doesn't appear either online or in print – go to facebook.com/weeklyvolcanofanpage and please "like" us.

Bonus: To make you really "like" us, we will enter those who "like" us before 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 8 into a random drawing for a free one night stay for two in a King Deluxe Room at the Hotel Murano. You will need to redeem the room before June 30, 2011.

The new Weekly Volcano Facebook page will also be your guide to exclusive Weekly Volcano events, promotions, blogs and photos.

Thank you!

LINK: Like us