Under orders from my editor, I, Keegan Patterson, stalwart intern that I am, ventured haphazardly through the perilous and labyrinthine concrete forest of downtown Tacoma to arrive at my destination, the intersection of 11th and Broadway. My mission? To watch and review the video currently playing at the newly resurrected The Tollbooth Gallery. After being out of service for a while, TTG was recently put back in action as a part of the Spaceworks Tacoma initiative, which is "designed to activate empty storefronts and vacant space," as stated by its website.

On Broadway, like a miniature religious site awaiting its pilgrims, The Tollbooth Gallery stood - a multicolored monolith playing its video on repeat. So eye-catching was the booth that I quickly found myself captivated by the monitor fixed to its center. I was enthralled, transfixed and before I felt I had experienced the installation fully, I had watched the video five times.

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SUNDAY, MAY 19 2013 >>>

1. Germany's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language film, Barbara paints a picture through its striking cinematography and tension-building plot. The film tells the story of a woman named Barbara during the height of the Cold War in Germany in 1980. Barbara is a doctor who is punished for applying for an exit visa and forced to work in an East German hospital where she remains under intense scrutiny.  Winner of Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, Christian Petzold creates an incredible amount of tension that leaves the viewer on edge. The artistic opening shots are well composed and full of purpose. Each shot is beautiful in a different way than the previous one. Read Cassady Coulter's full feature on Barbara in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section. See the film at 1:55 and 6:45 p.m. in The Grand Cinema.

2. Over the years the Lacey Spring Fun Fair has grown into a great weekend. There are much bigger festivals — Taste of Tacoma, Harbor Days, Freedom Fair — and much smaller neighborhood fairs, bu the Lacey Spring Fun FAir is just the right size, every inch and minute packed with entertainment, car shows, the wacky Kid's World and tons of food. Spring into it from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Martin's University.

3, What started as Paul Manuel's outgrowth of monthly youth jams at Jazzbones on Sixth Avenue has turned into something much more involved; kids of all ages are forming bands, learning to play new instruments, performing and competing through their affiliation with the Puget Sound Music For Youth Association. See it in all its glory at 3 p.m. when Puget Sound Music For Youth Youth-A-Palooza hits The Swiss.

4. Seattle jazz vibraphonist Susan Pascal has taken her music through four tours of Singapore and concerts, workshops and clinics across the United States. Add the Live Jazz @ Marine View show to the list as she performs at Marine View Prebyterian Chuch at 5 p.m.

5. The Lloyd Jones Struggle will showcase their latest original R&B and swingin' blues at their CD Release Show in The Spar at 7 p.m.

LINK: Sunday, May 19 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, MAY 16 2013 >>>

1. Rose Windows evokes the sounds of American and British psychedelia of the late '60s, while also incorporating elements of proto-metal acts like the Gun and Black Sabbath, even managing to emulate those earlier psych bands' cannibalizing of world music. Catch the band at 8 p.m. with La Luz and Happy Noose at Northern in downtown Olympia.

2. It's bike night at the Tacoma Art Museum. Ride your bike to Tacoma Art Museum and enjoy an evening of art activities that you can combine to your bike. Learn about Bike to Work Month and see a collection of photos as part of 253bike. Enjoy free admission to the Tacoma art Museum from 5 to 8 p.m. and receive a free Eric Carle bookmark at the Admissions Desk.

3. At 5:45 p.m., Tacoma Deputy Mayor Marty Campbell will jump on the Tacoma ART BUS as its celebrity tour guide. It's Campbell's second or third tour as host. He knows the routine. He knows jokes. And he knows the city like the back of his hand, so if something happens to the bus driver, Campbell could drive the bus to the designated stops: Rampart, Art Stop, FabLab, Bleach, Mica, 253 Collective and The Social. Reserve your spot here.

4. Film reviewer Robert Horton will pull up a bale of hay at 7:30 p.m. in the Olympia Timberland Library. Horton will explain how the Western movie was America's bedrock mythology for the first 70s years of film history, but during the hippie era the genre the "revisionist" Western took up a fiercely critical argument with the past: In the disillusioned age of the counterculture and Vietnam, you could no longer distinguish heroes from villains by the color of their hats. Horton thinks because of the dramatic changes seen in Westerns, the genre forces us to look critically at our own myths: Why do we need the clarity of "good guys" and "bad guys" at certain times? Why do we sometimes embrace a more ambiguous view of human nature? How do these movies challenge us - and what happens when a movie forces us to question our long-cherished beliefs? Will Horton hear from you?

5. The Twang Junkies will fill The Swiss with rockin' country tunes beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Thursday, May 16 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Watch E.T. croak out "Ell-i-ot" and fly across the moon in his iconic bicycle basket at Olympia's historic Capitol Theater tomorrow, then head out and scope Sigourney's bald head on the big screen in the classic creeper Alien from the comfort of your car at Shelton's historic Skyline Drive-In Theater.

ET shows 6:30 p.m. and Alien shows at 9 p.m.

Both screenings are a benefit to raise money to convert to digital cinema equipment -essential in keeping the theaters alive. Well, technically Skyline Theater just met their goal of $40,000 through a kickstarter campaign, but the show must go on.

"By the end of 2013, most Hollywood film studios will stop making 35mm film and convert entirely to digital distribution," reads the event hype. "This conversion will save billions for studios, which no longer need to make and distribute film prints, but has left historic theaters scrambling to finance equipment in excess of $60,000-$80,000."

Since 1964, Skyline has provided a place for families to enjoy first-run Hollywood movies from the backs of their pickups or with driver seats reclined. This special event includes a beer and wine garden for those older than 21 and a "special treat" for those that attend both screenings.

The Capitol Theater has been at the heart of the Olympia community since its incarnation in 1924 and Olympia Film Society, owners of the theater, have been a beacon in the film community since 1980.

Proceeds will be split between the two groups.

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 16, Capitol theater, 206 Fifth Ave., Olympia, $8, website

ALIEN, 9 p.m., Thursday, May 16, Skyline Drive-In, 180 SE Brewer Road, Shelton, website

TUESDAY, MAY 14 2013 >>>

1. At 12, Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is living in a small, poor village, when she is captured by guerrilla fighters and conscripted into their army of child soldiers. The first act demanded of her is that she kill her parents. Sobbing, she complies, and the initiation is complete: "You are now a rebel of the Great Tiger." In Kim Nguyen's fictionalized account of this African child soldier, War Witch, Komona shares her story, explaining to her baby - and us - how her short life has already arrived at such a fraught place. Komona finds hope for survival in protective, ghost-like visions, and in a tender relationship with a fellow soldier named Magician. Together, they manage to escape the rebels' clutches, and a normal life finally seems within reach. But after their freedom proves short-lived, Komona realizes she must find a way to bury the ghosts of her past. War Witch, an award-winning film - including a nominee for Best Foreign Film at this year's Academy Awards - will screen at 2:15 and 6:40 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

2.Holocaust survivor Edith Eger will lecture on discarding limitations, discovering powers of self-renewal and achieving things previously thought unattainable at 2:30 p.m. at Tacoma Community College as part of its Student Life Artist & Lecture Series. In May 1944, at the age of 16, Eger was a classically trained ballerina and aspiring gymnast. Her dreams were crushed when she and her family were taken from their home in Kassa, Hungary, and sent to Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp. Rescued by an American soldier in 1945, she eventually moved to the United States and became an acclaimed clinical psychologist and lecturer.

3. Did you know that bicyclists helped to pave the way for Tacoma's first roads? Or that Tacoma was once the cycling capitol of the Pacific Northwest? Yes, we do know. Tacoma's Active Transportation Coordinator Diane Wiatr told on two occasions. Her presentation on Tacoma's bicycle history is worth hearing. Catch it at 6 p.m. in the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma. Stick around afterward to enjoy a free screening of the Academy Award nominated, animated film The Triplets of Belleville.

4. Usually when you go to the casino you just lose money - but tonight could be different. Danny Vernon's Illusions of Elvis will be at the Red Wind Casino this evening. Travel out to Yelm and have a great time with the King's likeness, starting at 6:30 p.m.

5. If hearing the sound of your own cackling voice echoing off the walls of your shower stall has you craving the sound of something a bit more harmonious, check out the local songbirds and storytellers at Victory Music Open Mic at the Antique Sandwich Co. It's guaranteed to be jam-packed with gorgeous sounds and humbling verses, as the South Sound's greatest up-and-coming acoustic musicians bare their souls impromptu-style beginning at 7 p.m.

LINK: Tuesday, May 14 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, MAY 13 2013 >>>

1. Remember back in the day when you were in your first apartment and spent a memorable Saturday night with your friends just blaring the record player and singing along to random selections from your album collection? Toss in a pitcher of PBR and extreme lighting and that is karaoke at Bob's Java Jive. Sunday through Tuesday at 9 p.m. has Nikki Weatherhead on the mic. The spunky Tacoman never seems to lack energy or a smile even if the sign up sheet is less than full.

2. A lot of us have fantasized about ways we might be able to talk our way out of jury duty. Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero and her guest, Judge Christopher Wickham, have a thing or two to say about that issue and the inner workings of Superior Court at their coffee and conversation event at 9:30 a.m. at Rainier City Hall, 11 a.m. at Tacos Gaby in Yelm (no, it's true) and 2 p.m. Olympic Crest Coffee in Lacey.

3. Former Coast Guard Alexis Courneen has a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and crushed nerves in her right arm; (ret.) Army gunner Sue Downes came home a double-amputee after her tour in Afghanistan; Iraq war veteran Layla Mansberger is a Military Sexual Trauma (MST) survivor who suffers with Post Traumatic Stress-Disorder (PTSD). A new documentary funded by the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) entitled, SERVICE: When Women Come Marching Home, followed these Servicemembers and five other female veterans after they redeployed with mental and physical injuries suffered in combat.A free film screening and panel discussion will be hosted by the University of Washington Tacoma from 6-8 p.m.

4. Whether you know The Dukes of Swing are back or not - they're back - you might want to know they're the offical stage band of Elks Lodge No. 593 in Aberdeen and are performing at 8 p.m. in The Royal Lounge.

5. Dean Reickard will fill The Swiss with blues beginning at 8 p.m.

LINK: Monday, May 13 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, MAY 10 2013 >>>

1. Tonight at Jazzbones, Midnight Salvage Co. will be playing their last official show - and releasing their sophomore album, Neon Lights. A year ago, the band holed up at Seattle's Egg studios with veteran producer Conrad Uno (Mudhoney, Presidents of the United States of America, Young Fresh Fellows), unbeknownst to the band members that a year later guitarist Brason Alexander would be blazing to sunny Cali, bassist Dustin Lau would be headed to The Big Apple and their University Place practice space would meet a wrecking ball. Drop by Jazzbones at 8 p.m., enjoy opener China Davis, take it Midnight Salvage's shot of whiskey infused roadhouse Springsteen and grab yourself a piece of musical history.

2. 72 hours is not a long time. The teams competing in this year's Grand Cinema 72 Hour Film Festival - a yearly Tacoma institution - know this all too well. Recently, frenzied packs of Tacoma filmmakers dashed around T-town, hurriedly capturing on film all the entries that will make up this year's manic, competitive filmmaking celebration - set to go down at 7 p.m. inside the Rialto Theater. Who will win? How will all the "mandatory elements" - including the use of a superstition, a flashlight, the writing or sending of a letter or message and the line "That wasn't what I was expecting" - be worked into all of the entries? Find out tonight. Read Cassady Coulter's full feature on the 72 Hour Film Festival in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section.

3. Distinguished writers, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and people who scribble on cocktail napkins will step up to the mic from 7-9 p.m. as part of the Distinguished Writer Series and Open Mic at King's Books. Aging hippie poet Risa Deneberg, author of The Lives You Touch Publications, will take lead.

4. Ballet Northwest’s production of The Sleeping Beauty includes professional sets, lavish costumes, 75 local dancers and guest artist Iyun Harrison, formerly of Dance Theater of Harlem. See the twirls at 7:30 p.m. inside The Washington Center.

5. There's a kind of gauzy, depressive Americana that began spreading around in the '90s, spearheaded by the likes of Bill Callahan and Lambchop - these masters and practitioners of the slow-burning, baritone-voiced folk music that reveled in cynical humor as much as poignantly expressive dirges. The Super 8 are instantly evocative of these touchstones, the vocals pointedly reminiscent of Kurt Wagner's distinctive croak and Callahan's defeated mumble, and the guitars mournfully spilling deceptively beautiful melodies from deep within that hollow body. Check them out at 8 p.m. with Gary Alan May and the Hinges inside Northern.

LINK: Friday, May 10 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

TUESDAY, MAY 7 2013 >>>

1. For those green-thumb-challenged folk who haven't quite got growing seasons down, the 6th Ave Farmers Market opens today at 3:30 p.m. Learn to grow a secret garden of your own and see it blossom. Not a gardener? Well then just visit the world's most productive gardener, the farmer, and pick up a bunch of their "fruits of labor" until 7 p.m. at Sixth and Pine in Tacoma.

2. The Grand Cinema continues its Tuesday Film Series with screenings of The Silence, the story of 13-year-old Sinikka who vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.See it at 1:40 and 6:55 p.m.

3. Sidney Rittenberg toured China during WWII, witnessed the birth of the People's Republic of China, got to know the Republic's founding fathers, and subsequently spent 16 years in solitary confinement. His documentary, The Revolutionary, screens at 3 p.m. in Tacoma Community College's Building 2 Auditorium, followed by a presentation at 4:30.

4. "My father's mother, Abuela Evila, liked to scare us with stories of La Llorona, the weeping woman who roams the canal and steals children away. She would say that if we didn't behave, La Llorona would take us far away where we would never see our parents again.My other grandmother, Abuelita Chinta, would tell us not to be afraid of La Llorona: that if we prayed, God, La Virgen and the saints would protect us from her. Neither of my grandmothers told us that there is something more powerful than La Llorona - a power that takes away parents, not children. It is called the United States." ... So begins the prologue of The Distance Between Us, as Reyna Grande, a 4-year-old with a fractured heart, says goodbye to her mother in Iguala, Mexico. Tonight, author Grande will discusses her immigration memoir, The Distance Between Us, at 7 p.m.inside the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in Downtown Tacoma.

5. On any night of the week at 9 p.m., one can meander past the main bar in Olympia's China Clipper Club Cafe, to the back room where a disco ball, stage, stellar PA system, extensive song list, savvy DJ and lively, often tipsy, crowd scribbles on tiny, colorful paper then waits ... for Clipper Karaoke.

LINK: Tuesday, May 7 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

TUESDAY, APRIL 23 2013 >>>

1. Tacoma Community College has joined forces with The Grand Cinema for a third year to celebrate its Diversity Film Festival. The DFF runs until April 25, and seems particularly bent on revealing beauty in the unlikeliest of places. Haven't seen Rome in awhile? You haven't seen it like this - Caesar Must Die transports viewers to lovely Rebibbia Prison, where criminals quoth the Bard at 2 and 6:15 p.m. 

2. Former Tacoma Community College Librarian Mark Bieraugel's chosen art form is embroidery, but his creations diverge wildly from the classic flower-patterned throw pillow. Check out his embroidery work during an opening reception of his exhibit from 5-7 p.m. at the TCC Gig Harbor campus.

3. Tacoma Arts Commission and current Tacoma Poet Laureate Josie Emmons Turner officially introduce the new, 2013-15 Tacoma Poet Laureate Lucas Smiraldo at 6 p.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch. Former Tacoma Poet Laureates Bill Kupinse and Tammy Robacker also will read. Light refreshments following in the library's Handforth Gallery.

4. You are getting sleepy, v-e-r-y sleepy. Now, go see the hypnotist show at 8 p.m. inside the Red Wind Casino. Whether a skeptic or believer, the show will be sure to entertain with its comedy, rock and roll and outrageous hypnosis, like people sneezing and having orgasms(!) when Ron Stubbs, the man behind the magic, utters the word "pepper."

5. Loves It, Manzanita Falls and Scatter Gather rock Le Voyeur at 9 p.m.

LINK: Tuesday, April 23 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, APRIL 22 2013 >>>

1. Guy Fieri visited Puyallup when he blasted through the South Sound in November. His show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, filmed at six popular locations, including Darby's Cafe, Fish Tale Brew Pub, Crockett's Public House and Crown Bar — all of which have aired on Fieri's Food Network show. Tonight, Dirty Oscar's Annex receives the spotlight with the episode screening at 7 p.m. In celebration, Dirty Oscar's Annex invites everyone to join them at 6 p.m. to watch the show and enjoy lots of specials — drinks, food and giveaways.

2. Standup comedy hasn't evolved much since the glory days of ventriloquist and puppet. Every so often, there's a Gallagher smashing watermelons or a musical funnyman like Jack Black, but for the most part, comedy is a dude on a stage with a microphone, plodding through a joke-punchline-new-joke routine. You're funny. You need to change the course of comedy forever. Every Monday at 8 p.m. the Grit City Comedy Club opens its stage to the public for a comedy open mic. Explore the space. Head for space.

3. Soulful viscereal blues singer Linda Myers  and her band will perform at 8 p.m. inside The Swiss.

4. Every Monday Jazzbones is packed to the brim with college kids at 9 p.m. Party types. The type that wear tight shirts and trucker hats. Throngs of Chad Fratguys and Sarah Sororitysisters swarm the bar, line up for the bathroom and dance to the Rockaraoke - live band karaoke. The Rockaraoke band is skilled, too. Expect $2 PBR drafts, $3 Sinfire shots, $4 Smirnoff flavor vodka bombs.

5. The Carrions, Little War Twins and White Fang will rock Le Voyeur at 9 p.m.

LINK: Monday, April 22 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area