MARIO LOPEZ IS COMING >>>

With no discernable positive qualities other than dimples and rock-hard abs, Mario Lopez, who still manages to live a life of D-List celebrity, will  appear Saturday at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup for a meet and greet with fans from 1 - 3 p.m. Lopez will be joined by his wife, Courtney Mazza, which makes a lot of sense since she's the by-default co-star of Mario's new VH1 reality series "Saved by the Baby."

Get it? Because he used to be A.C. Slater? Get it?

Anyway, here's a YouTube clip from Lopez in his prime. We'll be doing this all week, if for no other reason than we think it's funny and it gives us a good excuse to search for "Saved by the Bell" clips on the clock.

Enjoy ...

MARIO LOPEZ IS COMING >>>

With no discernable positive qualities other than dimples and rock-hard abs, Mario Lopez, who still manages to live a life of D-List celebrity, will  appear Saturday at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup for a meet and greet with fans from 1 - 3 p.m. Lopez will be joined by his wife, Courtney Mazza, which makes a lot of sense since she's the by-default co-star of Mario's new VH1 reality series "Saved by the Baby."

Get it? Because he used to be A.C. Slater? Get it?

Anyway, here's a YouTube clip from Lopez in his prime. We'll be doing this all week, if for no other reason than we think it's funny and it gives us a good excuse to search for "Saved by the Bell" clips on the clock.

Enjoy ...

MARIO LOPEZ IS COMING >>>

With no discernable positive qualities other than dimples and rock-hard abs, Mario Lopez, who still manages to live a life of D-List celebrity, will  appear Saturday at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup for a meet and greet with fans from 1 - 3 p.m. Lopez will be joined by his wife, Courtney Mazza, which makes a lot of sense since she's the by-default co-star of Mario's new VH1 reality series "Saved by the Baby."

Get it? Because he used to be A.C. Slater? Get it?

Anyway, here's a YouTube clip from Lopez in his prime. We'll be doing this all week, if for no other reason than we think it's funny and it gives us a good excuse to search for "Saved by the Bell" clips on the clock.

Enjoy ...

FRIDAY AT JAZZBONES IN TACOMA >>>

Puyallup legends SweetKiss Momma (yeah, I called 'em legends) will be at Jazzbones in Tacoma Friday with Guns of Nevada and Midnight Salvage Co. The show - besides being sure to rock - is a celebration of sorts for local podcaster Darrell Fortune and his South Sound centered show, the Northwest Convergence Zone. Fortune and the Zone recently took home fifth place in King 5's Best of Western Washington poll - which is a pretty impressive feat for a weekly podcast produced in Fortune's garage (in fairness, it's a fucking awesome garage).

SweetKiss Momma lead singer Jeff Hamel tells me the last time the band was at Jazzbones they sold the place out - by over 100 people. While I'm not sure what the fire marshall would have to say about that, what fans of Southern-tinged rock would holler is, "hell-fucking-yeah."

Catch SweetKiss Momma along with Guns of Nevada and Midnight Salvage Co. Friday at Jazzbones.

But first, watch this ...

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

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Mostly cloudy, hi 58, lo 38

Saturday: Mostly sunny, hi 57, lo 39

Sunday: Mostly sunny, hi 54, lo 41

>>> FRIDAY, OCT. 15-SUNDAY, OCT. 17: GIG HARBOR FILM FESTIVAL

This weekend the third annual Gig Harbor Film Festival will prove once again there's plenty of life across the Narrows by welcoming a variety of locally-made films, independents, documentaries, shorts and more to the Galaxy Theatres Uptown. Upping the ante, special guests scheduled to appear at the Gig Harbor Film Fest include Hal Linden, Karen Black and an unnamed special mystery guest that's not Hal Linden or Karen Black. Awesome!

• Galaxy Theatres Uptown, click here for times and prices, 4649 Point Fosdick Dr. NW, Gig Harbor, 253.851.3456
  

>>> SATURDAY, OCT. 16-SUNDAY, OCT. 17: REPTILE EXPO

Oh, you said herpetology? Whew. Hundreds of reptile enthusiasts gather for a series of seminars and demonstrations containing homages to cold-blooded creatures this weekend. Snakes, spiders, lizards and much more featured in more than 100 exhibits, and a variety of books and supplies, slither into the Puyallup Fairgrounds for this annual event. The main attractions, however, are the giant boa constrictors. After all, who doesn't love a good cuddle at night?

• Puyallup Fairgrounds Expo Hall, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, $7, Ninth and Meridian, Puyallup

>>> SATURDAY, OCT. 16: DONKEY CREEK CHUM FESTIVAL

For far too long, this country's notion of the fruits of the sea began and ended with fish sticks, or, far worse, Red Lobster.  But if you live in the Northwest and don't know your fellow salmon, shame on you.  You need a little schooling.  You need Donkey Creek Chum Festival.  The mature salmon are finding their way back to Donkey Creek so local environmental groups and fish enthusiasts will join together for a day of everything salmon, plus kayak races and art.  

• Donkey Creek Chum Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free, 8714 N. Harborview Dr., Gig Harbor

>>> SUNDAY, OCT. 17: LUTEFISK DINNER & BAZAAR

The Weekly Volcano will join all those who worship Thor, Odin and other Norse gods Sunday at the Sons of Norway's annual Lutefisk Dinner & Bazaar.  While loaded with crafts, games and music, we really attend the festival for the food.  We will dive in to some big slabs of yummy jellied pressed fish called Lutefisk while reading from the Rigsbula: The Lay of Rig from the Poetic Edda. Afterward, we'll take a nap and dream of large sledgehammers and cute pointy helmets and enormous women shaped like huge pomegranates belting out Wagner.

• Normanna Hall, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., $9-$18, 1106 S. 15th St., Tacoma, 253.752.8686
  

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

MATT DRISCOLL Editor and Longtime Weekend Hustle Procrastinator
Honestly, I'm not sold people care what the hell I'm doing this weekend. Also, I'm one hundred percent certain what I do on the weekend is far less glamorous or exciting than people probably assume. Does laundry excite you? Hell yeah! I have some of that shit on tap this weekend! Do trips to Target make you hot? Damn straight! I go to Target AT LEAST TWICE every weekend! Is it intriguing to you that, much like Seahawks fans, I have nearly every Sunday of the fall and winter ruined by an inept football team and its failings, only my team is called the Broncos? Well hot shit! It just happens to be true!

Also, if you really must know, there's talk in the Driscoll household of finally checking out the Gig Harbor Film Festival this year, and spending Saturday making fun of the Gaither Homecoming Tour stopped at the T-Dome. Happy now?

PAUL SCHRAG Senior Contributor
I am furiously editing the final draft of The Suppressed History of America, available in June from Inner Traditions/Bear&Co.; going dancing at an as-yet undecided Seattle spot; and interviewing people for a couple of potentially awesome Weekly Volcano cover stories. I will be listening to Nate Dogg and Lamb of God the entire time.

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
This weekend I am in the holiday spirit. Decorating the house with cobwebs and candles, pumpkin carving, (or in my son's case, bumkin carving, 'cause he found one that totally looks like it has butt cheeks!) and my favorite - roasting pumpkin seeds. Yum! By the way, if anyone has any roasting recipes, I'd love to try something new. ...

JOE IZENMAN Music/Theater Critic
If you're looking for me or any of my co-workers on Friday evening after work, I suggest you try Dorky's Arcade. Possibly around the pinball or Ms. Pac-Man machines. Saturday night we might be found at the Creative Education Experiences auction in the Primo Grill event space. Sunday? Probably in a basement somewhere eating chips and playing Dungeons & Dragons with other assorted pillars of the community. It seems like something we'd do.

KRIS BLONDIN Food/Wine Writer
Heading to The Office (downtown Tacoma) for their official grand opening, and then to Seattle Saturday night for dinner at Peso's Kitchen. Sunday, nursing the hangover I'm sure.

JENNIFER JOHNSON: Lifestyle/Leisure Writer
Possibly attend a fashion designer's birthday soiree before Zombie Prom on Friday night - yay for fake blood! Saturday morning 16-mile bike ride (please no rain) followed by huge brunch at The Office Grand Opening party, then swing by Tacoma Harvest Fair at Sanford & Sons in the afternoon. Watch Reefer Madness at a Burien theater to end the night. Sunday, I will attempt to sleep in before going to church.

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
It's a Saturday night party hopper. First up - birthday dinner with a bacon wrapped sausage roll filled with bacon. Second - a vegan murder mystery dinner party circa 1950.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Features Writer
Friday, if I'm finally over this cold/flu/whatever, I'm going to head down to The New Frontier and try not to breathe on people so much. Tarek Wegner and Spencer Kelly (plus others?) will be DJ'ing, so that ought to be fun. Saturday, regardless of whether I'm healthy, I will be carving pumpkins with my friends before going to see Sugar Sugar Sugar at The New Frontier. Missed them the first time they came around, so I don't want to make that mistake again. You should pick up their album, Can't Get Enough. It's great.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
Having ventured Into the Woods at Capital Playhouse, I'm ready to spend one final weekend in The Midnight Sun, where I'm currently demonstrating the Meisner acting technique's indistinguishability from making shit up.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Meat Market Correspondent
Well, I will be out and about for Joe's Diner at Tacoma Little Theatre and then Voxxy's birthday at Jazzbones on Friday. Saturday might bring dinner at a benefit auction to aid a young East Pierce County girl with Dravet Syndrome. The benefit at the Buckley Eagles lodge will have a special performance by Aces Up! I'll end the night at the soft opening show of the Tacoma Comedy Club.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
I'm going to a Pride open house shindig.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

TUESDAY, OCT. 12, 2010 >>>

1. Classical Tuesdays in Old Town presents a free concert tonight of Native American Flute performed by Gary Stroutsos, whose music was showcased in the Ken Burns PBS documentary, Lewis and Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Stroutsos will perform at 7 p.m. inside the Slavonian Hall in Tacoma.

2. The public is invited to dine at Joeseppi's Italian Ristornate from 4-8 p.m. and support the Tacoma Concert Band at no additional cost as a portion of the proceeds will be donated by Joeseppi's to the TCB. There will be food, a silent auction, bucket raffle, music and more.

3. Leave it to liberals to use the economic collapse to point out there might be a better way of doing things than the capitalist orgy and TV dinners we've grown up on. Award-winning political cartoonist Ted Rall is just such a whacko, and his new book, The Anti-American Manifesto, is as pinko and commie as it sounds. Rall will discuss his work at 7 p.m. inside King's Books in Tacoma.

4. Volcano editor Matt Driscoll never saw Titanic, on pure principle, despite months of begging from his then girlfriend. Thankfully, Driscoll ditched that bag for a hip eventual wife who's never seen Titanic either, meaning the Driscoll household as a whole is completely unfamiliar with the cinematic vehicle that launched Gaelic Storm, perhaps the most famous Irish pub band-turned-Celtic music superstars. All of this is OK, since Gaelic Storm will be at the Puyallup Fairgrounds at 7 p.m..

5. Maroon 5 plays the Tacoma Dome at 7:30 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SATURDAY, OCT. 9, 2010 >>>

1. Stadium Thriftway hosts its infamous Lobster Drop beginning at 10 a.m. The bad boys of the ocean floor will be on sale for $9.99 a pound - cooked or live - while supplies last.

2. Tacoma Art Place celebrates Arts Crush will a full day of free visual art workshops for adults and children in a variety of media and techniques; members work for sale, refreshments, and a raffle of artwork, services and TAP membership from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

3. Speaking of Arts Crush, Madera Architectural Elements opens up its showroom from 6-9 p.m. for the area arts festival hosting the free-ambient, roots and nujazz music of the Gnostic Scribblers.

4. Freighthouse Square's Black Lake Haunted Asylum has made it into its third year of operation with a twisted re-enactment of an old Black Lake Asylum legend.  As you slowly traipse through the asylum's dark maze, following closely behind a zombified escort, anticipation can almost overwhelm you.  Check it out from 6-11 p.m.

5. DJ Mauro ups the fog machine, hypes the crowd in Spanish and spins his unique mix of Latin-infused music beginning at 9 p.m. inside the South Hill Mazatlan restaurant.

LINK: More suggestions in our Weekend Hustle and Prefunk

LINK: Tacoma Film festival is on!

LINK: New concerts go on sale today

LINK: Taste wine

SUNDAY, OCT. 3, 2010 >>>

1. Picha Farm's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 6502 52^nd St. E. in Puyallup. Wander the fields and pick your perfect pumpkin. Stroll through their five-acre corn maze. Find all five answers to five trivia questions hidden throughout the maze and win a prize. Try your hand at the best pumpkin slingshot in the Puyallup Valley. If you hit the target you'll win a free 15-pound pumpkin. Or you could just stay home and eat pumpkin pie out of a can.

2. The annual Ashford Rainier Arts Festival continues today from noon to 4 p.m. with tons of art, oil painting, jewelry and pottery workshops and music by Maia Santell and House Blend at 2 p.m.

3. We dig the annual Tacoma Greek Festival. We dig the dancing, the fine food; hell, we even dig yelling "Opa!" for no apparent reason. But let's be real. For us, the entire festival is just a complicated set dressing for a baklava-delivery system. We can't get enough of the flakey sweet dessert. Drop by Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. and score some.

4. The Tacoma Art Museum presents a lecture offering an introduction to the iconography, materials, and history of early Japanese Buddhist sculpture at 1:30 p.m.

5. Black & Blue Sundays Thanksgiving Comedy Benefit Show features Death Before Decaf at 8 p.m. inside Jazzbones.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 2010 >>>

1. It's community arts appreciation day at the Tacoma Farmers Market on Broadway from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tacoma musician Deborah Page will perform at 10:30 a.m.

2. Megan Peters leads a group knitting sessions from 5-8 p.m. at Tacoma Art Place. Group knitting is always free for members and those with a day pass. First time visitors also can join once for free. You can be a beginner or expert, just as long as you're not one of those roughian sewers.

3. King's Books presents an engaging presentation on the history of banned books with Laura Ferri from Seattle's Book-It Repertory Theatre at 7 p.m. as part of Banned Books Week. Puyallup Public Library encourages folks to drop by between 6:30 to 7:30 and read excerpts from their favorite banned book.

4. The Thursday Beer Runners will kick off a 3-mile jog from the West End Pub & Grill at 6:30 p.m. only to return to the joint and put the calories back on with endless pints of beer.

5. DJ Toner spins vintage rock and soul beginning at 8 p.m. inside The Brotherhood Lounge in downtown Olympia.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

CAST YOUR COCKTAIL VOTE TONIGHT >>>

How's this for mixing it up on a Wednesday night? Toscanos Café and Wine Bar in Puyallup needs your help finalizing their fall cocktail menu. They invite the public to sample their new drinks tonight from 5-9 p.m., then mark your favorites on a ballot. At last, your vote really matters. Help Toscanos bring democracy to drinking.

LINK: Happy hours!