AROUND AND AROUND >>>

The Weekly Volcano fired up its Electric Salchow Stage Saturday night for the last time this season, hosting local rock band SweetKiss Momma for a night of Southern rock and couples skates. That's right. Besides rocking the Franciscan Polar Plaza louder than the previous five bands, SweetKiss Momma called for two couples skates, one funky skate and actually reversed the flow of the skaters during its two-hour set at the downtown Tacoma ice rink, which ended its run Sunday.

SweetKiss Momma will release its sophomore album in March — an album recorded in Nashville with accomplished producer Ken Coomer. SweetKiss lead singer Jeff Hamel smiles ear to ear when discussing the finished product. A record release show will happened, but it's not on the books yet.

Below are pictures and videos from the SweetKiss Momma performance.

Note: Apologies to BODYBOX, the band that rocked the Polar Plaza Dec. 29. I'll post photos and videos from that show if I can figure out how to open my locked hard drive.

LINK: More SweetKiss Momma on Ice photos

ELECTRIC SALCHOW STAGE >>>

Saturday night in downtown Tacoma adults and children danced on ice to "Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf. Rest assured, the Weekly Volcano isn't clever enough to be making this up. It happened. The crowd also danced to songs by Michael Jackson, The B-52s, Aerosmith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stray Cats, Adele and many others. The band performing the songs - Igneous Rocks - crammed into a corner of the Franciscan Polar Plaza outdoor ice rink in a space the Weekly Volcano likes to call the Electric Salchow Stage. Yes, it's named after a figure skating jump Brian Boitano might perform to the music of Five for Fighting on the Today show. We can name it whatever we want. The Tacoma Art Museum asked us to produce the live music stage at the rink every Saturday night during its run. And Igneous Rocks kicked it off Saturday night in fine fashion, providing an awesome soundtrack for butterfly jumps, cherry-flips, layback spins - but mostly moves such as the unstable skating, the fall, the skid and the mixed-gender collision. It was a fun night, indeed.

Here's the Electric Salchow Stage band schedule:

Saturday, Dec. 8: Kim Archer

Saturday, Dec. 15: Champagne Sunday

Saturday, Dec. 22: Monday Ukulele Ohana Holiday Show

Saturday, Dec. 29: BODYBOX

Saturday, Jan. 5: Sweetkiss Momma

The bands perform two sets from 7-9 p.m. with a couple of breaks during surface repair sessions.

It was cool to see many familiar faces Saturday. Folks actually look good precariously balanced on steel blades.

[Tollefson Plaza, through Jan. 6, 4-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, $8, $1 off active duty military and family, $2 skate rental, Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street, Tacoma, website]

LINK: More photos from Igenous Rock's performance at Polar Plaza

LINK: Ten reasons why the Franciscan Polar Plaza is so awesome

WE SCENE IT >>>

Tipsy chicks with press-on mustaches and $2 wells makes for a standard November Rockaraoke night at Jazzbones. Of course, the live house band cranking Sublime, Gwen Stefani and other dorm room-type music for karaoke singers is standard, too.

Last week, however, Jazzbones tossed in a twist - adding a Pray For Snow Party element to the booze fest. Yes, it was $2 Jagers when a karaoke singer belted out a suicide song. Yes, raffle giveaways and Jell-o shots were doled out. Yes, some dude sang "Beat it."

Of course, the real entertainment isn't the Rockaraoke, it's the people-watching. Photographer Steve Dunkelberger captured a few on film.

What will happen tonight?

JAZZBONES RESTAURANT AND NIGHTCLUB, ROCKARAOKE LIVE BAND KARAOKE, EVERY MONDAY, 9 P.M., NO COVER LADIES, $3 MEN, 2803 SIXTH AVE., TACOMA, 253.396.9169

LINK: More Rockaraoke Pary For Snow Party photos

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 10:30 a.m., corner of Seventh and Pacific Avenue, downtown Tacoma.

SOUTH SOUND SEXY >>>

Movemeber - that cute portmanteau of mustache and November - is in full swing, promoting men's health awareness around the world.

The emphasis is prostate cancer, which, according to cancer.org, affected more than 2, 300,000 men in the United States in 2008 - more than thyroid, colon and kidney cancers combined. Women diagnosed with breast cancer totaled near 2,600,000 that same year.

Founded in 2004, the Movember Foundation has been launching health awareness campaigns across New Zealand and Australia, and by 2007, across the globe, most notably by encouraging "Mo Bros" to grow mustaches.

The pink ribbon has been around since 1991, it's high time men have an international symbol that gains momentum - Snickers and Foster's beer have both launched Movember ads. The mustache encompasses both manliness and playfulness, acting as the perfect catalyst for a sometimes heavy, taboo topic. 

Men (and women) are praising, and growing mustaches of all types - from the Burt Reynolds to Ringo Starr - to bring attention to other men's health issues as well, including early detection, treatment, diagnosis, awareness of family history and a move toward healthier lifestyles. 

Dudes, the Weekly Volcano wants to see your Movember ‘stache. Women and children: send in whatever - fake mustaches, drawn mustaches, paper mustaches, grandma mustaches! Send a photo of your mustache to feedback@weeklyvolcano.com.

Last week we cruised the streets of Olympia with our Mustache Cam. We posted a few below. For more photos, check out our 2012 South Sound Movember Picture Gallery.

BONUS: Lakewood Playhouse has a mustache for you

WE SCENE IT >>>

Last night the spirit of Halloween took over Olympia with bar parties, lots of live music and a flash mob marching band!

The Olympia Artesian Rumble Arkestra Band - decked out in marching band costume, or their instruments and clothing lined in glowsticks - came rolling through the streets in downtown Oly into The Brotherhood Lounge where unsuspecting patrons were distracted from their conversations and drinks as the band astounded everyone with their glorious noise.

The opening song was the classic, "When the Saints Go Marching In," followed by a break where a small lady with a big loudspeaker announced the band's name and encouraged enjoyment, before the band pounded, blew and shook their way into a rendition of the Ghostbuster's theme song.

Totally. Awesome.

The crowd burst into cheers as the band marched their way out the front door, playing a tune I didn't recognize, leaving the bar smiling and chatting about how great it is to live in Olympia.

LINK: Saturday, Oct. 27 live music in the South Sound

HERE COMES A CAMPAIGN >>>

Priceless cars and a simple but elegant LeMay America's Car Museum set the mood for one of Columbia Bank's Blue Couch tapings, in which real customers kick back on the bank's iconic blue couch as tell it how it is.

"It's unscripted," commented Stacia Allen, a spokeswoman for GreenRubino, the bank's advertising agency, during yesterday's taping at LeMay.

Columbia Bank senior vice president of marketing, David Devine nodded his head in agreement.

"Simple, beautiful, well-crafted," he added.

The focus of the Blue Couch taping was the museum's CEO David Madeira and COO Paul Miller. The Blue Couch campaign launches next month.

As employees for NorthXNorthwest set up lights, cameras and sound equipment for the commercial, the chemistry between the museum's leaders was clear and simple.

The taping went smoothly and crisply - both Madeira and Miller clearly had fun.

"This was great, just great," commented Devine.

LINK: More photos from the shoot

WE SCENE IT >>>

Easter Sunday, the venerable Tacoma Cult Film Club marked its third anniversary with hallmarks of American film.

Not.

In keeping with tradition, the films screened were bad, bad, bad, bad. Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard wept from the back of the house.

The Rev. Colin quipped, "These films are not inept. There is nothing ept about them."

The third anniversary program featured "overlooked films" from the past' year's bi-monthly TCFC gathering at its permanent home, The Acme Grub Cage. Rev. Colin smiled as she screened Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, an environmental tome shot in 2011 set in the Everglades starring '80s pop stars Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Spoiler alert: Gibson is a very tone string bean; Tiffany is ... well, not.

Another film selection was Birdemic: Shock and Terror, which is basically a modern version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but without the cool special effects, solid acting, artistic camera angles or quality production.

Toss in a potluck of pork products and it was a great Zombie Jesus day at the movies.

LINK: Rev. Colin's other job

WE SCENE IT >>>

The Tacoma music and arts community turned out Sunday, April 1 to support longtime music scene supporter and friend Dave Graham, who is battling Stage 4 Melanoma. Hosted by The Swiss, the benefit featured sets James Hilborne and the Painkillers, Snak Pak, Bandolier, Mr. Blackwatch and China Davis. Interspersed amongst the day's activities were raffles of prizes from a huge assortment of Tacoma donors.

"Dave Graham has quite a background in music; he had a music store called Room 220 for a while, and he was around back in the '80s, he actually hung out with the guys in Nirvana and Courtney Love, and a lot of those people," says Randy Sparks, one of the organizers of the benefit. "He's always been an inspiration to me, especially when I started filming movies. He's just a great guy to talk to about art and music. He's out there. I think a lot of people could see a lot of really good things about him and how he's been involved in the community."

Read Rev. Adam McKinney's feature story on the Dave Graham benefit Show in the Music section on weeklyvolcano.com.

Weekly Volcano Photographer Steve Dunkelberger and Publisher Pappi Swarner snapped a few photos. ...

Photo Credit: Steve Dunkelberger

Photo Credit: Steve Dunkelberger

Photo Credit: Steve Dunkelberger

Photo Credit: Pappi Swarner

Photo Credit: Pappi Swarner

Photo Credit: Pappi Swarner

Photo Credit: Pappi Swarner

LINK: More photos of the benefit

WE SCENE IT >>>

A year ago Amocat Café owner Morgan Alexander set aside his espresso duties, home-brew batch and Tacoma street car crusade to come up with a plan to offer live music one a month in the upper room in his backward spelling coffee house in Tacoma's Triangle District.

Friday, his Amocat Live show celebrated its first anniversary to a full house.

"This town is loaded with talented musicians," says Alexander. "I'm so happy they drop by once a month to perform acoustic folk-rock, pop, bluegrass and country."

So happy is Alexander that he's pondering adding a second live music night each month.

"It's a shame each musicians can only play three to four songs during the night. They deserve more stage time."

Be on the lookout for Amocat Cafe's second birthday party in June.

In the meantime, enjoy these shots of the Amocat Live party snapped by Weekly Volcano photographer Steve Dunkelberger.

LINK: More Amocat Live one-year anniversary show shots