THINGS WE'VE FOUND TODAY >>>

A team of scientists has agreed that a giant asteroid killed off dinosaurs and a majority of other species on Earth more than 65 million years ago. We thought that this was old news?

Prince Mongo of the planet Zambodia hangs women's underwear and built mountains of sand at his house.

The FBI's Most Wanted List is turning 60: Thomas Holden, a bank robber and murderer was the first criminal to appear on the list on March 14, 1950.

The Church of Scientology has some members sign billion-year contracts.

In an exhausting long ceremony that snubbed Farrah Fawcett, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman director to receive a Best Picture Oscar for her film The Hurt Locker. The Hurt Locker and Bigelow beat out her ex-husband James Cameron's Avatar.

Shooting the shit is bad for your health.

WHAT WE FOUND TODAY >>>

40 computer display home office or secret missile launch center?

Breaking down the dysfunction: It's budget time in Olympia.

"It sucks," says an Internet movie critic, using the most common aesthetic reaction on the Web. Goodbye to smart film criticism.

Want to save Pierce County bus service? Buy a brownie.

Prudential Insurance of Britain announced that it will buy American International Group's life insurance company for an estimated $35.5 billon. Also, fuck you, AIG.

Dale Welch recently walked into a Starbucks in Virginia, handgun strapped to his waist, and ordered a banana Frappuccino with a cinnamon bun. Advocates for openly carrying guns have found a new friend in Starbucks as the gun caused no alarm.

Our brains become slower but shrewder with age.

THREE DAYS OF VOTING REMAINS >>>

With news of the Warehouse in downtown Tacoma closing down, all-ages music fans might want to take note of the follow press release from the Pepsi Refresh Project.

SOS! Mayday! Calling all supporters of all-ages music in every town!  We need your help NOW!

With only three days left in the Pepsi Refresh Project online voting competition to win $50,000, and after three weeks of sitting comfortably in the top ten spots, the All-Ages Movement Project (AMP) has fallen to the dreaded, and possibly fatal, 11^th position.  It is not too late, however, for AMP to surge late in the game and finish in the winning top 10.  All we need is for everyone who believes in the importance of all-ages music to vote once a day through the end of voting at 9pm EST on Sunday, February 28. AMP is asking music lovers everywhere to vote daily and deploy tweets, status updates, email blasts, blog posts, smoke signals and carrier pigeons to get word out to their friends to vote as well.  Pearl Jam and Blitzen Trapper leant their support to AMP's cause yesterday - now lend yours! 

Vote at www.allages.net/vote

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WHAT WE FOUND TODAY >>>

Teacher shot dead at Tacoma elementary school.

Tacoma drummer available.

California wants to declare the first week of March "a cuss free week."

Facebook secures patent for news feed.

A cruise ship returned to Charleston, South Carolina, after more than 400 passengers got sick during a trip to the Caribbean.

Fashion Futures scenarios explore fashion world of 2025.

Giving away free umbrellas in the middle of a rainstorm is not that easy.

Filming Of Congressional Reality Show Disrupts Committee Meeting

IT'S HAPPENING IN TACOMA >>>

Arts Advocacy Meeting

The Washington State Arts Alliance Foundation will host its next Arts Advocacy Meeting Wednesday, March 3 inside Visibility Center (ninth floor, 747 Market St.) in downtown Tacoma. On the agenda: Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland discusses arts and culture in Tacoma and Pierce County; reports by city/county/state and other municipal arts leaders; the latest statewide K-12 report by Lisa Jaret, program manager for the Washington State Arts Commission; and information on current status of arts-related bills during the 2010 session. 

Arts Leadership Lab

The Arts Leadership Lab Core Team is taking applications for its next 18-month professional development, peer learning and community building opportunity. According to the release, the Arts Leadership Lab "is a home for creative dialogue, learning, and networking opportunities for the emerging and current leadership of our arts and cultural sector. ALL produces regular public events that explore innovation, public issues, and best practices in the arts. The Core Team of 8-12 individuals acts as the governing body that collaborates to produce one of each of the following public events every quarter:

• Accountability and the Arts - Seminars in best practices for arts management
• Creative Conversations - Forums/panels on issues impacting arts and culture (e.g. space, technology, advocacy)
• S'PIKEd/ALL Out - Happy hour networking events

Beginning in 2010, the Core Team will also produce and host an "UnConference," a half-day of short presentations by innovators in cultural ecology."

Applications for the program are due Friday, March 5. To download the application, click here.

ARFS & CRAFTS

ARFS & CRAFTS, the annual benefit for the Prison Pet Partnership Program at the Women's Correctional Institute at Purdy and the Gig Harbor based Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound, will be held April 15-17, 2010 at The Art Stop in downtown Tacoma. The folks behind the event seek artist pet dishes for the art show with a focus on "function, fanciful, funky, fun and fabulous" states the press release. "Each year entries range from practical put-‘em-on-the-kitchen-floor pet dishes to exquisite and artsy works of fancy."

The Art Stop will, once again, hand out the Silver Biscuit Award. Hand-crafted of sterling silver by Tacoma artist Joan Joachims, the Silver Biscuit is awarded to the artist whose bowl is voted Best of Show by visitors to ARFS & CRAFTS. In addition, a panel of celebrity judges will select The Pick of the Litter from the entries.

The pet bowls are due at The Art Stop by April 10. For more information, call The Art Stop co-owner Phyllis Harrison at 253.274.1630.

FOUND THIS ON THE TACOMA ART LISTSERV >>>

Ruby Chambers, she of the Ruby Collection in Tacoma's Opera Alley, posted this on the TacomaArt listserv:

I am currently putting together a beautiful studio in downtown Tacoma, it will be 900 sq ft, cork floors and floor to ceiling windows, with 13 ft tall ceilings, exposed beams in a historical building. I will manage the space and rent the studio out by the hour, or day. Instructors can reserve space ahead of time to promote it and send schedules out to their students. It can be used for a multiple of workout uses, Pilates, yoga, karate, dance, etc. It is scheduled to open in May of this year. Please contact me if you are interested in using something like this. Please email me at rubychambers@gmail.com.

MICHAEL SWAN: YOU'VE BEEN WARNED >>>

Use of red light cameras - which advocates say promotes safety, but is really just another way of shaking down motorists for money - will grow in Tacoma tonight after the clock ticks past midnight.

The Tacoma Police Department sent us this warning:

The City of Tacoma's two new speed cameras are scheduled to go live at 12:01 A.M. on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009.  One of the cameras has been placed along the Bay Street curve (2900 E Bay St) in an area difficult to enforce by traditional means and with an above average number of accidents each year.  The second camera has been installed near the intersection of 26th and North Orchard Street in Tacoma's north end.  This is near Downing Elementary School and the camera will be used to assist with school zone enforcement when children are present.
 
After the cameras go live the first two weeks will be a warning period.  Owners of the offending vehicle will receive a letter in the mail but no fine.  Beginning December 2nd, 2009 owners of offending vehicles will receive a letter in the mail and a citation for $101.  The speeding citation will be treated the same as a parking ticket, just as the red light camera tickets have been.  These tickets do not go on your driving record.

MICHAEL SWAN: LET US BE THE FIRST TO CONGRATULATE THE TACOMA RADIO STATION >>>

College radio can be an uncut gem - a diamond in the rough. College towns throughout the nation have embraced the aura of this media outlet where students can uncover and share a whole world of music, opinion, and news with as many people as their signal towers can reach.

The "gem" tag certainly fits the University of Puget Sound radio station KUPS. Today, as the students behind the North Tacoma radio station were busy filing records and socking each other in the arm arguing over the best Elliott Smith song, an MTV cameraman burst into the studio and New York DJ Matt Pinfield slapped a big winner sticker on their microphone.

Yup, KUPS won the 2009 mtvU Radio Woodie.

According to a press release, "KUPS beat out about 300 of its peers as the top U.S. college radio station, after it garnered the most votes from college students nationwide. The award from MTV college television network mtvU recognizes college radio stations for their role in championing independent artists before they achieve mainstream success. Quite a number of artists who made their first breakthrough on college radio have later found national fame."

That's so snug. Congrats to the entire staff behind KUPS. Tune in to MTV on Friday, Dec. 4 to watch the students score the award.

Enjoy these links:  

LINK: Previously on Spew

LINK: What the hell is mtvU?

LINK: KUPS is boss

MICHAEL SWAN: DAILY BEAST RANKS US SEVENTH >>>

Are you smarter than a New Yorker? According to The Daily Beast, you are if you’re a Tacoman.

The online news aggregator's study ranked 55 metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people by criteria such as how many residents had bachelor’s and graduate degrees and the number of higher education institutions. Other criteria included the sales of nonfiction books and the percentage of eligible people to vote in the last presidential election.

Seattle/Tacoma ranked as the seventh smartest American city with an IQ score of 151 (tied with Washington, D.C.), while Raleigh-Durham, N.C., was at the top of the list with the highest score of 170. However, the Daily Beast’s reasoning centers on Seattle:

#7 (tie), SEATTLE-TACOMA
Metro Area Population: 3,344,813
Daily Beast IQ Score: 151

Gray skies and wet weather tend to lead to indoor pursuits: While the Seattle area has relatively few educational institutions, this city devours nonfiction at a rate  near the very top nationally. “It’s dark a lot of the time out of the year here, it’s rainy a lot of the time out of the year here, so book reading is taken pretty seriously,” says Alex Fryer, a spokesman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

The dumbest city? Fresno, Calif., with an IQ score of 3. Ah-ha.

MICHAEL SWAN: SNAPPED A COUPLE SHOTS THIS MORNING >>>

The Luzon demolition began Saturday. I dropped by the site to snap a few photos. I didn't stay long as the breeze blew asbestos into my soul.

LINK: More Luzon demolition photos on Photo Hot Spot