TUESDAY, FEB. 15, 2011 >>>

Photojournalist and documentarian Melanie Burford was a member of The Dallas Morning News photo team that won a Pulitzer for its 2006 coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She returned last spring to document the human cost of the BP disaster, and next week she's taking a break from her teaching gig at Columbia University to bring these stories to the University of Puget Sound. Her 6:30 p.m. lecture in the Rasmussen Rotunda will consider the topic, "The Monster Under the Water: Delacroix Island Fishermen Defend Their Marsh Against the BP Oil Spill." Her second lecture, tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m., will be in Kilworth Chapel and cover the "Eyes of the Storm: The Photographic Story of Hurricane Katrina From the Photographers at The Dallas Morning News." Both presentations are free, and the general public is encouraged to attend. Read the full story here.

2. The 8th annual Middle East Film Festival kicks off today screening 30 films through Feb. 23 at The Evergreen State College (Tacoma and Olympia) and Capitol Theater. The films range in length from short documentaries to feature-length productions. The festival will also feature 10 or 11 different speakers. Admission is free to see all films and speakers. Read the full story here.

3. The Banned Book Club will discuss Jay Asher's Th1rteen R3asons Why at 7 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge. Half-price appetizers for all book club participants are the norm.

4. Poet, scholar and teacher J. P. Newell will discuss Celtic spirituality at 7 p.m. inside the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at North Ninth and J Street in Tacoma. Formerly warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland, Newell is currently Companion Theologian for the American Spirituality Centre of Casa del Sol in the high desert of New Mexico.

5. You've seen the photos. Now experience the Harmon Tap Room's goldfish Races for yourself beginning at 8:30 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

HEART DAY, FEB. 14, 2011 >>>

1. Today is Valentine's Day, the most romantic and stressful time of year for men. Poor guys. We don't envy you. This is the day you dread all year. Trying to figure out what to do, what not to say, how to dress and where to go. We suggest you take her to see Olympia's aerial sweethearts from the Tallhouse Arts Consortium hang above The Brotherhood Lounge beginning at 8 p.m.  The aerial artists will be joined by jugglers, magicians, and contortionists. That should take the attention off you, you poor bastard.

2. Ryan Karlson, the Interpretive Program manager of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, will lecture on the Civilian Conservation Corps at noon inside the Washington State Capital Museum. His lecture will highlight the accomplishments of the CCC and the lasting benefits of their work, including local examples such as Millersylvania State Park.

3. The Seattle Guitar Orchestra will serenade folks inside St. John's Episopal Church in Gig Harbor beginning at 7 p.m.

4. Northern's Dory and Devon present a monthly anthology of short animations and experimental films, which they call "Northern Flickers." This month brings a special Valentine's Day edition, which promises "blue movies for lovers and asexuals alike" from 7-9 p.m. Um, what? The invite implies we'll be seeing what are essentially porno clips of cats, ferns, Christmas tree ornaments and classic cartoon characters. Oh, and somehow, like all other Northern events, it's all-ages. But "there will be chocolate," so we guess that makes it all OK.

5. Harmon Brewery and Restaurant offers a special Valentine's Day dinner for two menu with the added bonus of Maia Santell and House Blend singing jazz and blues love songs beginning at 8 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

MANY SHUVS AND ZUULS WILL KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE ROASTED IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SLOR TONIGHT WE CAN TELL YOU! >>>

Remember the days when fantasy/role-playing games were on par with heavy metal in the juvenile-delinquency pantheon? Raving mothers claimed that their kids were somehow worshipping the devil; yet inferring an association with the occult couldn't have done more to spread the games' popularity. And though now most are loath to admit it, any man who owned Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil in junior high dabbled in D&D. Those who acquired more experience points than they'd care to part with moved on to bigger and better things, such as the Puget Sound-based comedy-fantasy webseries, JourneyQuest.

Lifted from the JourneyQuest website:

Following a group of dysfunctional adventurers on a quest to discover and destroy the mythical Sword of Fighting, JOURNEYQUEST is a comedic adventure through the fantasy world of Fartherall, where intellectual orcs, incompetent wizards, and holy zombies form the living (and not-so-living) backdrop to an epic story of unrequited love, burning passions, and severely reluctant heroism. And running away. Lots of running away...

The folks behind JourneyQuest are throwing down cash to create this impressive series. And they rely on donations from fans to keep it going, which we imagine they appreciate. Tonight, the cast and creative crew would like to thank their fans with a free screening their first season on Tacoma Little Theatre's big screen over drinks at happy hour prices. Also unleashed at the party will be the premiere of The Making of JourneyQuest.

Drop that multisided dice and get your drink on with a bunch of Orcs.

An Evening with JourneyQuest

Saturday, Feb. 12, 6 p.m. door, 8 p.m. screenings, free admission
Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma
253.272.2281

FRIDAY, FEB. 11, 2011 >>>

1. So much music, so little time! From Tacoma to Olympia, you've got the Cave Singers, E-40 and Guttermouth to choose from. Gander the Weekly Volcano's comprehensive live local music listings (the best in the South Sound!) here.

2. Today is the Oly Arts Walk XLII registration deadline. Find info here and here.

3. Juno What!? considers itself, "a shameless dance party," according to the band's Facebook page. "Formed in 2008, the band has quickly become the leading practitioner of high-energy disco booty jams, and live electro-funk." From Denver, the band will celebrate a CD release show at Jazzbones tonight - something they've been doing all over our area. Ballsy. But who can deny disco booty jams?

4. This evening in the Oly area catch the third episode of Olympia Winter Nights. According to the website, "This week we welcome Derek M. Johnson and local band Vradiazei. Be sure to tune in at 8pm PST to TCTV Channel 77, Kaos 89.3 FM, or right here to the blog for a live stream of the concert."

5. See My Bloody Valentine tonight at the Grand as part of the Late Night Horror Series.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

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

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Cloudy, hi 53, lo 45

Saturday: Showers, hi 48, lo 42

Sunday: More mutha fuckin' rain, hi 49, lo 46

>>> FRIDAY, FEB. 11: THE EROICA TRIO

Every once in a while the It List likes to extract its good suit from a plastic dry cleaning bag and take in some high culture. In a one-two punch of elegant hoity-toitiness, the Pantages presents the Tacoma Philharmonic, together with the Grammy-nominated The Eroica Trio, in a program fittingly entitled American Romantic. The lineup includes "Gershwin, Bernstein, and the Man in Black," and as if that weren't enough, every member of the trio is a fabulous babe.

• Pantages Theater, American Romantic, $19-$52, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.272.0809

>>> SATURDAY, FEB. 12: MISSIONARY POSITION

Mixing a dirty, Motown-esque vibe with an eight-ball of sex and the classic gritty songwriting of Jeff Angell, The Missionary Position is not to fuck with. The song "Let's Start a Fire" alone proves it. While The Missionary Position's brand of guilty guitar grooves aren't balls to the wall, all the time like Angell's locally more well known band - the sporadic and infamous Post Stardom Depression - there's still something very gripping about the way Angell writhes, as always. The true definition of a workingman's rocker, Angell and The Missionary Position are a nice fit for Doyle's. - Bobble Tiki

• Hell's Kitchen, with High Noon Horizon, Jobe Himself, The Material, Solar, $9, $5, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma 253.759.6003

>>> SATURDAY, FEB. 12: MUD BAY JUGGLERS

It's three, three, three times the fun: The Mud Bay Jugglers, the Tune Stranglers and the Juggling Jollies will all defy gravity to rock the Washington Center, a benefit for Encore Arts. Encore Arts is a nonprofit organization that provides South Sound kids with arts opportunities, which explains why there are discount postcards distributed throughout Olympia that allow kids in at a rate of two-for-one. This show celebrates the Mud Bay Jugglers' 30th anniversary.

• Washington Center for the Performing Arts 7 p.m., $10-$25,512 Washington St., Olympia, 360.753.8585

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>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

MATT DRISCOLL Editor and Self-made Hundredaire
It's Best of Oly vs. New Baby Driscoll -- who will be done first? If this kid knows what's good for him he'll stay safe and warm inside mom until next week's epic Best of Oly issue is officiall put to bed.

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
All work and no play for this scribe. Lots of bartending and lots of house cleaning, especially laundry...mismatched socks and skidded little boy undies are no fun.  But, come Valentine's Day, the lobster my honey plans to cook me will taste that much sweeter.

Brett Cihon Meat Market Correspondent/Features Writer
I have some friends in Seattle throwing a Valentine's party on Friday night. I'll probably head north for some good Valentimes. By Saturday I'll cruise back to town and check out a prospective meat market. Gotta love the meat.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
I'm seeing Parallel Lives in the Midnight Sun and catching up on some spring cleaning. Also, I may be interviewing a certain well-known public figure this afternoon. I'll give you a hint: It's either Keith Olbermann, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, or Jack in the Box.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
 Going to see "Parallel Lives" at the Midnight Sun in Oly Friday night and a PFLAG-Olympia meeting Sunday afternoon.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer
Chocolate tasting at BBC Thursday. Girls night Friday- "We gonna chill the heck out". Saturday early morning workout, volunteer at the Empowerment Center, celebrate the end of a 30-Day Clean Eating Challenge through CrossFit Tacoma with a potluck dinner. Woo Hoo! Sunday- get some serious rest after church and family dinner.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Nightlife Correspondent
Friday, I am taking my out-of-town brother to the Gruv Lounge for bacon goodness, hit the Tacoma Comedy Club and end the night at Puget Sound Pizza for karaoke. Saturday, after my Tacoma Art Place board meeting, it's dodgeball at Franklin Park. Sunday is open at this point, but that will change by Friday.

STEPH DEROSA Features Writer
After recouping from a mild overdose of chocolate, thanks to the Weekly Volcano's Nosh League,  I will be holing up with two of my besties - Jenny Fab and The KAke on Friday night for a little pillow fight/gossip session.   After I knock the living shit out of them with my extra firm pillow, we'll most likely spoon in front of the fire while watching whatever atrocious movie we regretfully rent on pay-per-view.  Saturday is all about kiddos and birthday parties while Sunday we go to pick up our GIRL SCOUT COOKIES (call me if you get the munchies, I have a ton of Thin Mints and Samoas).  Sunday evening the DeRosa clan will gather 'round a makeshift stage at Imperial Dragon while we watch my kick-ass nephew's band play ... only to want more live music an hour later.

JOE IZENMAN Theater and Music Writer
Things that seem likely: band practice Thursday, a Dorky's Sandwich and The Cave Singers @ New Frontier on Friday, Proctor Farmer's Market and poker night on Saturday, remembering there's no football to watch and registering for wedding presents on Sunday. Interwoven songwriting, recording, watching West Wing, and other nonsense.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

CIAO, RICARDO! >>>

Rick Dupea has called the Tacoma-Parkland area home since 1964, but you won't find many of his clients in this neighborhood. As owner of CRE8TV Media Group (you can pronounce it "creative" or "create TV"), Rick over the years has, like many of us, commuted north for work, producing video in Seattle for independent studios and broadcast stations.

Now Dupea gears up for possibly his farthest assignment from home. Destination: Naples! No, not Florida, but good guess.

Go East. That's West, come back! MY East. Go over the Atlantic...further...I know it's far, so shut up and keep flyin'! You want me to turn this imaginary globetrot around?

Okay, we've arrived - Naples, Italy. BAH-DAH-da-DAAAAAH! (James Bond theme)...

So anyway, while poking around this exotic locale three years ago, Dupea ran into a Protestant congregation trying to erect their church, a not-so-simple task in Catholic Country. "[In Italy] there's still a big divide between the two styles of worship," Dupea notes.

This self-labelled "generic evangelical" decided to volunteer his artistic talents, and in a few weeks, under the non-profit banner Arts Renaissance, he will commence work on a fundraising film for the group. Throughout the hectic shooting schedule he will also offer to train several Italian artists in production technique.

And did I mention Dupea won't get a single Euro out of this gig?

"You don't do something like this because you're going to make money," Dupea tells me. "But you do it because it's a rare opportunity to do something really powerful with the skills...God has provided, and you want to put them back into service somewhere else."

Giving so much in an economy like ours is damn near miraculous. Ciao, Ricardo!

To follow Rick's journey visit www.cre8tvmg.com and click on the "Italy2011" or "Arts Renaissance" links on the home page.

BIG MUSCULAR MEN DANCING LIKE LITTLE GIRLS>>>

You've probably seen the classic "Super Bowl Shuffle." But what you may not have seen are the hilarious spoofs of the video that have been created since the '80s original debuted. There are hundreds of "Shuffle" remakes, but two that take the cake.

Please enjoy and go Packers!

THE ORIGINAL:

"The Super Broker Shuffle": (Proving once again that white men can't rap)

"The Sex Offender Shuffle":

SUNDAY, FEB. 6, 2011 >>>

We're practically counting down the hours until the Super Bowl kickoff, but not for the obvious reasons of gorging on bowls of clam dip and getting pie-eyed on cheap beer. Nope, we love Super Bowl Sunday because while folks are cloistered away screaming at their TV sets, the South Sound is the Weekly Volcano's oyster. Instead of watching a bunch of galumphing dudes in oversize shoulder pads, we raise Cain all around the South Sound during the big game, and no one is around to see the damage.

1. Midwestern lo-fi popsters Sleeping In The Aviary perform at 9 p.m. in Le Voyeur's music room.

2. The Midwest comes to the Pacific Northwest when the Oly Rollers Cosa Nostra Donnas take on the roller derby ladies of Motor City, the Detroit Derby Girls travel team at 10 a.m. at Skateland in Olympia.

3. To find the great American folk dance, you don't need to travel to some dark mountain hollow or backwoods firehouse. Just head for the heart of downtown Olympia. An all-ages square dance will go hoedown between 1-4 p.m. at The Loft on Cherry to raise funds for the Oly Old Time Fest. Dance music will be provided by Seattle's The Onlies. All the dances will be taught  by local callers Billie Burlock, Anne Marie Schaefer, and Maggie Neatherlin.  The Grizzle Grazzle Tune Snugglers will get you struttin' your stuff in a cakewalk.  And, making their debut performance will be The Bowpullers.

4. Prepare to be shaken at 2 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater during the special screening of END:CIV, followed by what's sure to be an insightful and poignant question and answer period with Director Franklin Lopez. Based (at least in part) on Derrick Jensen's Endgame, according to pre-event promotions END:CIV asks, "If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?" Well, would you?

5. Tacoma Little Theatre's 2 p.m. production of Frost/Nixon will be suitably sparse. As with the interviews themselves, the centerpiece throughout the bulk of the show will be simply a pair of chairs set up for a television interview. In lieu of a backdrop there will be a series of screens which project, in turns, actual news clips and a live feed of the interview conducted on stage. Read our full review of the show here.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Movie times!

INSIDE GINNY RUFFNER'S WORLD >>>

A few minutes into the documentary A Not So Still Life, a nameless woman peers into the camera, her features massive on the screen. We, the unseen voyeurs shielded by a lens, have momentarily become the observed. But the woman can't see us, only a thick layer of reflective glass. Apparently she misunderstood the "Look In Here" sign posted out of frame, mistaking the camera for a viewfinder, expecting an image but unaware she is the recorded image. Its makers intended that posting for interviewees; so, put another way, the woman interpreted an instruction as an invitation.

By the same token, Still Life, which plays at 2 p.m.. Sunday, Feb. 6 at the Tacoma Art Museum, resembles an old friend's colorful invitation you discover one afternoon in your mailbox. The film's subject, the prodigiously talented Seattle artist Ginny Ruffner, warmly welcomes you into her world, her life, her head. Fittingly, the documentary opens on streams of guests (not unlike a movie theater train) arriving at Ginny's home for a party. The interior buzzes with laughter (much from the older hostess herself, who emanates a wonderful laugh), but also with the multihued painting and glass creations scattered everywhere. For Ginny, home really is where the art is.

Amadeus remains my first pick in the genius-bio genre. Besides the obvious reasons for its enduring popularity (um, the soundtrack?), the film wisely avoids lofty explanations of its hero's talent. Nature simply (or not so simply, I guess) hardwired music into Mozart. Still Life operates under the same principle; with the introductory party scene, director and head editor Karen Stanton very quickly erases the traditional lines between Ginny's studio and home, work and play, art and "everything else." Once we remove the brackets that distance Ginny-artist from Ginny-individual, we find these two identities radiate from the furnace of a single soul.

Stanton adhered to this directorial approach from the outset, when producer Tom Gorai (Outsourced) and executive producer David Skinner (Smoke Signals), both representing ShadowCatcher Entertainment, first suggested she helm the project. Her "core goal and target for the film," she told me, "was that when someone saw it they would feel that they had spent time with her and actually knew her, in a very authentic way." A gulf between artist and public always persists in some form, but A Not So Still Life (a title of one of Ginny's works) gives depth to a larger-than-life figure emblazoned on a two-dimensional screen. Notice the way I refer to her in this article - not by the more objective and journalistic "Ruffner," but by her first name. Who doesn't call the most exalted classical composer "Wolfie" after watching his film?

Just as Mozart's impish antics "lower" him to a commoner's level, so Still Life portrays its subject as a genius of, and not above, the people. Some docs give a living artist minimal screen time, and the mirror into their lives stays curtained. In contrast, we experience Ginny a great deal through archived footage and candid testimonials. You'll laugh with this southern belle through moments of endearing self-deprecation, as when she dismisses the imposed moniker "glass artist" because it implies an artist blown from glass.

Like the "Look In Here" incident, characters in Still Life engage in wordplay, a casual and sometimes comical spin on traditional phrases and appearances. If I walked past Ginny on the street before knowing her story, I would have had no idea of the tornado swirl of energy and creativity behind those blonde curls. We must peer ever deeper into our individual and collective stores of potential, for as the film's bookend song says, "You only live once/So you better think twice."

If you happen to miss the Tacoma Art Museum screening, the film plays again on Feb. 18 at Seattle's Henry Art Gallery.                 

[Tacoma Art Museum, A Not So Still Life, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2 p.m., $5-$15, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

LINK HUB

LINK: Our interview with A Not So Still Life director Karen Stanton

TODAY IN ONLINE TALK >>>

Today's comment comes from Altwin Hawksford in regard to our recent story about Cody Jones and his love of VHS tapes.

Hawksford writes,

"To Cody Jones...I too am an avid VHS collector. About 1000 titles. My shelves are my wallpaper adorned by them (and cassettes and vinyl). Directors (Kurosawa, Wes Anderson. Steve Buscemi.....Actor(Clint Eastwood outside western, Harry Dean Stanton...), B-horror and sci fi, big horror & sci-fi, foreign, classics, 80's, westerns, Troma shelf, blaxploitation shelf, Bruce Campbell shelf(this is where the different covers are cool), Twin Peaks shelf...Yeah, it's something to be proud of. It's an art and it's space limiting. But it's the ultimate library when it's all said and done. I too have paid good money for a rare film that was never put on DVD like Ludia Lunch's "This Gun Is Loaded" or The Evil Dead Lunchbox that comes with the VHS tape inside. It's a good love to have. Good to know I'm not alone."