No one asked me what my opinion of the latest American version of Godzilla was, but it was largely the same as everyone else's: eh. Not enough Bryan Cranston, the lead actor might as well have been that cardboard cutout in the background of Three Men and a Baby, and I was uncomfortable with the expressiveness of Godzilla's face. Still, it was inarguably better than Roland Emmerich's 1998 monstrosity, which means that it was a step in the right direction for healing to begin.

Even with the relatively good quality of Our American Godzilla (which is a spinoff that I'd like to copyright and pitch to the This American Life people), the fine people over at Japan's Toho Studios have decided to return to their radioactive creation, a decade after their Godzilla: Final Wars SKREEONKed onto screens. Toho has brought together a wonder team of executives and directors - a team they've dubbed the Godzilla Strategic Conference, or Godzi-con. With a release date set for 2016, Toho's Godzilla should arrive two years before our Godzilla 2 hits theaters.

SKREEONK, indeed.

Friday, Dec. 12-Saturday, Dec. 13: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

The one Christmas tradition that I can totally back is The Grand Cinema's annual showings of the delightfully demented Finnish film, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. The new holiday classic is a pulpy, darkly comic take on what is essentially the Krampus mythology, where Santa isn't so jolly and children are dirty little urchins that deserve to be punished. The horror comedy is a gorgeously shot descent into yuletide madness, and it is a wonder to see on The Grand's (relatively) big screens. It's only shown in Tacoma two days a year, so see it while you can. It'll make you rethink candy canes.

Tuesday, Dec. 16: A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking has recently expressed interest in playing a Bond villain. That's it. Just wanted to tell you that.

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch, because everything has been coming up Hawking this year. The physicist was a guest vocalist on Pink Floyd's latest album, and the story of his life, The Theory of Everything, is the Oscar bait the world needs, not the one it deserves. In conjunction with his biopic playing at The Grand Cinema, the theater has decided to screen the 1991 Hawking documentary, A Brief History of Time, for its Tuesday Film Series. Directed by the great documentarian Errol Morris, the film is an exploration of the man and his work, with presumably a little more accuracy than The Theory of Everything.

There are two screenings on Tuesday, but the 6:45 one will be followed by a discussion of both the documentary and the biopic. The discussion will be led by ... David Gilmour? It can't possibly be that David Gilmour, but you never know. Stephen Hawking and Pink Floyd are apparently tight.

I guess every kid goes through waves of fascination. Some are mere passing phases; I doubt I've composed a sonnet or drawn a comic strip in years. Some endure. I'm as interested in astronomy and visual effects now as I was at age 12. Decades after my addiction to Land of the Lost (the show, not the godawful movie), I remain a shameless dinosaur geek. There's a majesty and mystery to those tyrants of the Age of Reptiles, before the six-mile-wide Chicxulub impactor smashed into the Yucatan peninsula and launched debris as far as the orbit of Jupiter. So when you inform me there's an arena show in which species from infant Plateosauri (a late Triassic herbivore) to mighty T. rex, eater of goats and corporate attorneys, make up the cast, well, you have my full attention. It's the type of show for which I'd love to get a behind-the-scene glimpse of how the magic is done - hint hint, Tacoma Dome! I've resorted to begging!

Of course, it'd be just as much fun to watch this show through the wide, ecstatic eyes of a preschooler. The creatures in Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular are so lifelike, it's easy for young viewers to imagine John Hammond and those mad scientists at InGen have been at it for real. But these aren't the modified movie monsters of Jurassic Park, these are puppets and animatronic actors that have been updated to keep pace with scientific discoveries. Instead of shooting 'roids into a featherless Deinonychus and calling it a Velociraptor, this show (with input from BBC Worldwide Ltd) gives us the ostrich-like (but still predatory) Utahraptor. In lieu of Tyrannosaurus duking it out with Stegosaurus -two species separated by almost 90 million years - Walking With Dinosaurs pits the plated herbivore against its contemporary foe, Allosaurus. The aim here is to educate as much as to entertain, so kids get a better idea how dinosaurs actually lived and died. They may even grasp paleontologists' current view of present-day birds as the direct descendants of Mesozoic dinosaurs. Yeah, that's right, folks: Big Bird has more in common with Grumpy from Land of the Lost than he does with Mr. Snuffleupagus.

Some experts believe we humans project ourselves into the juggernaut strides of tyrannosaurs. They think pretending to be dinosaurs allows kids a parent-like feeling of power over their lives and environment. I don't know about all that; I just think maybe it's fun to roar and stomp and kick over sand castles. What I do know is this: when a Brachiosaurus, a species that weighed 30 to 60 tons and was able to reach foliage 30 feet off the ground, lumbers into a sports arena before our very eyes, there's a part of even the most jaded adult that turns 5 years old all over again. And that, my friends, is spectacular indeed.

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS-THE ARENA SPECTACULAR, 7 p.m. Dec. 17, 19, and 20, 11 a.m. Dec. 19-20, 3 p.m. Dec. 20, 1 and 5 p.m. Dec. 21, Tacoma Dome, 2727 E. D St., Tacoma, $27.50-$85.50, 253.272.3663

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10 2014 >>>

1. Northwest jazz and blues singer Maia Santell and her backing band House Blend perform their annual holiday concert and dance at 7:30 p.m. in Jazzbones. Santell is a descendant of Seattle's Jackson Street era of jazz and swing. House Blend instrumentalists include John Beach on tenor saxophone, Jeff Ziontz on guitar, Mike Slivka on drums and presenting the newest addition to the band, bassist Derick Polk, from Chicago. The band's repertoire includes jazz, blues, swing, Latin, rhythm and blues and holiday favorites such as Charles Brown's "Merry Christmas Baby" and "Please Come Home For Christmas," Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby," Nancy Wilson's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" and Mel Torme's classic, "The Christmas Song," to name a few.

2. Apologize: This happens Friday, Dec. 12: Azarra Salon & Wine hosts its biggest wine tasting of the year - the Holiday Sparkling Wine Tasting at 5:30 p.m. Bring your friends and celebrate the holidays at the salon/wine shop while picking the perfect bubbles for your own celebrations in December.

3. The ParkWay Tavern will host Drinking for Conservation's "Drinks for Lynx" night. Fifty cents of every beer, cider and wine sold between 6 and 10 p.m. at the will go to help Conservation Northwest protect the lynx. DFC donates to organizations with missions the committee believes in - helping animals and the environment.

4. Apologize: This happens Friday, Dec. 12: Something about this time of year - it makes plaid cool. It makes bagpipes cool. Pale, hairy, muscular men in skirts with no underwear? Too far? Because tonight is the annual Magical Strings Celtic Yuletide Concert, reuniting the Boulding and Raney families' three generations of musicians and dancers. Hear (and see) the pipes, drums and whistles; see (and hear) the dancing of the Tara Academy Irish Dancers, not to mention the incredible voices these two families have honed over the years. It goes down at 7:30 p.m. inside the Urban Grace Church.

5. University of Puget Sound Theater Department matches scenes from six plays with student directors and actors in its Directors' Lab series at 7:30 p.m. in the Norton Clapp Theatre in Jones Hall. Six scenes run the gamut from dramatic to absurd. There is classic mythology involving dangerous street kids, a slice-of-life set in the Russian countryside at the end of the 19th century, a man worries his wife is becoming a bag lady, an exploration of unknowability of love and the mysteries of science, a husband brings his wife to meet the family for the first time, and a moral play that takes an honest look at the issues of commitment and fidelity in today's world. It's a festival of scenes.

LINK: Wednesday, Dec. 10 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

TUESDAY, DEC. 9 2014 >>>

1. Done on a budget of $434, spanning 23 trips over eight months up and down the Puyallup River - from Mount Rainier to Commencement Bay - you are eager to show the public your film at the Puyallup River Film Festival from 6-9 p.m. at the University of Washington-Tacoma. Using shots of spiritual rituals, inspirational landscapes and devastating destruction, and interweaving them with a score combining bluegrass, you have expressed ideas about the interconnectedness of humans and the river, and the transcendence of evolution. With a generous grant from The Russell Family Foundation, the University of Washington Tacoma will host the second annual film festival focused on the Puyallup River Watershed. Community members, students and non-profit organizations located in or working in the watershed submitted two- to three-minute videos related to issues affecting the Puyallup River and its tributaries. Of all the judged categories - open, middle school, high school, college/university, non-profit and government - you are confident your film will walk away with at least one award. You have to win; you invited all your friends, even that one guy who skinny-dips in the river.

2. Whether you want to channel your inner Winter Olympics sports nerd, capture the magic of the season in a vibrant urban venue or just have a wintery and sporty adventure, break out the ice skates, people, because the Franciscan Polar Plaza, in partnership with the Tacoma Art Museum, is open from 4-9 p.m. Bring family and friends to Tacoma's holiday ice rink for holiday fun and a good time right in the heart of downtown Tacoma.

3. Ron Bates has performed '40s tunes since the '80s. He knows Sinatra's songbook inside and out. Catch him at 6:30 p.m. for a Supper with Sinatra show at the Red Wind Casino.

4. This year's Classical Tuesdays Wine & Song Benefit in Old Town Tacoma will feature Neapolitan songs and standard Italian opera hits by tenor Gino Lucchetti. Baritone Charles Robert Stephens will sing romantic songs from the 1940s and 1950s. The two singers will also perform duets. Equally important, the night will feature lovely wines by neighboring Ginkgo Forest Winery, which kicks off at 7 p.m. inside the Connelly Law Offices. This annual event benefits the free Classical Tuesdays in Old Town chamber music series. So bring $25.

5. Bobby Meader's music is not technically complicated, or particularly unusual by any means. But it's heartfelt, a broken man with the raspy voice of an old punk turned soft, who strums like a early Bob Dylan or a John Denver, supporting himself on harmonica. It's the kind of music that makes you think of bad breakups and that trip to the woods you were supposed to make months ago. Catch Meader at 7 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

LINK: Tuesday, Dec. 9 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, DEC. 8 2014 >>>

1. After his girlfriend is murdered, suspicion falls on Ig (Daniel Radcliffe). He claims he didn't do it, and sets out to prove it. Along the way, he gets drunk a lot and grows a set of devil horns (!), which prove to be a useful detecting tool. Alexandre Aja's dark-comedy-mystery hybrid Horns is adapted from Joe Hill's novel, and finds the Harry Potter actor taking yet another step away from his iconic kiddie role for darker adult fare. Catch the film at 6:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater.

2. The South Hill Book Discussion Group will discuss Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran - the story of mouthwatering recipes that add enchantment to the warmth radiating from an Iranian family in Ireland and their big-hearted Italian landlady - at 7 p.m. in the South Hill Library.

3. University of Puget Sound Theater Department matches scenes from six plays with student directors and actors in its Directors' Lab series at 7:30 p.m. in the Norton Clapp Theatre in Jones Hall. Six scenes run the gamut from dramatic to absurd. There is classic mythology involving dangerous street kids, a slice-of-life set in the Russian countryside at the end of the 19th century, a man worries his wife is becoming a bag lady, an exploration of unknowability of love and the mysteries of science, a husband brings his wife to meet the family for the first time, and a moral play that takes an honest look at the issues of commitment and fidelity in today's world. It's a festival of scenes.

4. Drummer Glenn Hummel, guitarist Brian Olver and bassist Rick Robinson are Audio Elixir, an R&B band playing The Swiss at 8 p.m.

5. Intimate interpretations of jazz standards and blues featuring Derek Nelson on tenor and bari saxes, Phil Lawson on jazz guitar, Steve Luceno on upright bass and Dave Snodgrass on drums as the Derek Nelson Quartet performs at 8 p.m. in Rhythm and Rye. The group will slip in some jazz interpretations of holiday tunes for the season.

LINK: Monday, Dec. 8 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Saturday night in downtown Tacoma children and adults danced on ice to "Field Sobriety Test." Rest assured, the Weekly Volcano isn't clever enough to be making this up. It happened. The crowd also danced to "Hopeless Love," "If Jesus Had A Gun" and chants of "Amphetamines." The band performing the songs, Shotgun Kitchen, crammed onto the stage of the Franciscan Polar Plaza outdoor ice rink for a weekly music series the Weekly Volcano likes to call "Rhythm & Ice: Down Home Holiday Hoedown." 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. In conjunction with the "Art of the American West" exhibit across the street at the Tacoma Art Museum, we have booked seven Saturday nights of bluegrass, country rock and old-timey bands.

Saturday night, Tacoma's white trash soul band Shotgun Kitchen provided an awesome ice-skating soundtrack about white-trash-living and country-road-dying - performed with appealingly outlaw country-ish instrumentation and vocals. It was exciting music for butterfly jumps, cherry-flips and layback spins - but the music also inspired acrobatic moves such as the unstable skating, the fall, the skid and the mixed-gender collision. It was a hoot.

A big, thank you to Shotgun Kitchen and all who came out to watch the band and ice skate.

The Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink at Tollefson Plaza hosts public ice skating sessions across the street from the Tacoma Art Museum daily through Jan. 11.

Tacoma punkgrass band The Rusty Cleavers is up next at the ice rink, performing 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos and a video (above) from Saturday's down home holiday hoedown with Shotgun Kitchen.

SEE ALSO

Words, photos and video from SweetKiss Momma's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and a video from The Cottonwood Cutups' live performance at the Polar Plaza ice rink

The backstory and band schedule for the Weekly Volcano's Rhythm & Ice music series at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink

SUNDAY, DEC. 7 2014 >>>

1. Tacoma Concert Band will present its annual Holiday Traditions, but it's not the same old music you'll hear on the radio and in every store and elevator, but sprinkled among the usual chestnuts will be fascinating new variations on familiar holiday themes. KIRO's Dave Ross will read The Night Before Christmas as reimagined by composer Randol Bass. Also featured will be vocalist Melanie Vail, composers Leroy Anderson, Serge Prokofiev, Victor Herbert, and Percy Grainger, among others, plus several arrangements in the style of Mannheim Steamroller. The lion's share of this bounty isn't simply good holiday fare; it's good music, period. Talk about a Christmas miracle. Check it out at 2:30 p.m. in the Rialto Theater.

2. Like many oratorios, George Handel's 1741 masterpiece Messiah uses a technique called text painting, in which the score reinforces individual lyrics. That's why the line "Ev'ry valley shall be exalted," for example, sounds so ... exalted. Christ Lutheran Church's 2 p.m. production will be conducted by Anne Lyman and highlights professional soloists and instrumentalists. Oh, and it's a sing-a-long. Rejoice greatly!

3. We've given Rich Wetzel a lot of love over the years, not only because he's a groovy guy, but because he's always playing a gig worth mentioning. This weekend is no exception as Wetzel and his Groovin' Higher Jazz Orchestra brought their annual jazzy holiday to Tacoma Community College last night. Trumpeter Wetzel set up chairs for what seemed like 59 musicians for a night of swinging renditions of Christmas classics. From 5-8 p.m. at the Stonegate Pizza & Rum Bar, Wetzel sets up fewer chairs, BUT special holiday drinks loaded with rum make up for the missing flugelhorn.

4. From Mexico, by way of Venezuela, the psych-hardcore outfit Cardiel make an ungodly racket that belies their status as a two-piece. Even if it's never quite said explicitly, there's a feeling of revolution that permeates their music. Every song seems to be violently pushing back against anything that threatens to hold Cardiel in one place or to one designation. Catch the band with Blanco Bronco and DJ Quan Fi at 5 p.m. in The Valley.

5. Hailing from Columbia, South Carolina, the reggae-rock group The Movement was formed in 2004 by a trio of Sublime and Pixies fans. Joshua Swain, Jordan Miller, and John Ruff, aka DJ Riggles, launched The Movement with their alternative reggae debut album, On Your Feet. Since then, the band has worked with Philadelphia-based producer Chris DiBeneditto, gone through the standard line-up changes, included adding scratch master DJ Alific to the mix. The Movement brings its watery-dub guitar, bouncy-swaying beats, airy keys and verses delivered in sing-song rhymes to Jazzbones at 8 p.m. Publish The Quest and Positive Rising open.

LINK: Sunday, Dec. 7 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, DEC. 6 2014

1. An almost too obvious entry point for the kind of satirical Americana of Shotgun Kitchen would be their spiritual forefather, John Prine. Expect stories about white-trash-living and country-road-dying performed with appealingly outlaw country-ish instrumentation and vocals while ice skating to the band's live performance at the Polar Plaza ice rink in downtown Tacoma from 7-9 p.m. The music is free; it's $4-$8 to ice skate.

2. Five acclaimed Puget Sound regional writers of mysteries, thrillers and chillers will sneak in the downtown Tacoma Main Library's back door at 1 p.m. to discuss about their books, the art of crime writing and their favorite authors. The authors include William Dietrich, Elizabeth George, Bharti Kirchner, Mike Lawson and Bernadette Pajer. The five authors are all members of the Seattle 7 Writers - a nonprofit collective of Pacific Northwest authors whose mission is to foster and support a passion for the written word. 

3. There's no doubt that the annual Beautiful Angle Holiday Party and Poster Sale is an event Tacoma has come to know and love. Going down at 7 p.m. in the Diane Hansen Studio (747 Fawcett Street, Suite B), the event will be a, well, beautiful exposition of everything Tacoma's underground-legend guerilla arts project is all about. If you're not on the Beautiful Angle train yet, see what you've been missing. Sporty Lee will be providing the music. Expect Grit City Beer. And you'll have the opportunity to buy a poster or two while meeting BA artists Lance Kagey and Tom Llewellyn. All the proceeds of this year’s poster sale go to "Tacoma Warhol" to help get the Andy Warhol flower on the Tacoma Dome. It's a win-win.

4. We've given Rich Wetzel a lot of love over the years, not only because he's a groovy guy, but because he's always playing a gig worth mentioning. Tonight is no exception as Wetzel and his Groovin' Higher Jazz Orchestra bring their annual jazzy holiday to Tacoma Community College at 7:30 p.m. Trumpeter Wetzel sets up chairs for what seems like 59 musicians for a night of swinging renditions of Christmas classics, featuring singers Steve Stefanowicz and Sunny Jo Loudin.

5. True, blue Tacomans likely already have the date circled on their calendar, or programmed into their smart phone, or scrawled on the back of their hand in sharpie. The Valley Pub celebrates its "hard opening" Saturday with CFA, Sun Giants, Stereo Creep and Infinite Flux. Cody Foster, bassist and singer with the high octane CFA, put the show together, welcoming new and improved Valley Pub to the Tacoma Dome neighborhood, and offering a chance for CFA guitarist Dave Takata to show off his new fashion. Foster says this will be the last CFA show of the year as the band needs to hammer down on the new album, although a new song will blast into tonight's show, as well as a cover of Fear's sentimental Christmas song. The free celebratory show is certain to scare the Dickens of out those waiting to board an Amtrak train down the street.

LINK: Saturday, Dec. 6 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, DEC. 5 2014 >>>

1. With a blues soul and a rock & roll recklessness, Janis Joplin was the ultimate female rock figure. Probably it was the mingling of substances that opened her up so fully, but she poured her emotions through her music and every cracking sob and stomped-on feeling is audible. Even when she's howling, she's vulnerable, her deep-bottom voice is the true sound of a woman in pain. Sherrie Voxx Minter, the voice behind the old school rock band Voxxy Vallejo, doesn't have the pain, but has performed many times before folks who whispered, "She sounds like Janis Joplin." At 7 p.m., "Ah-ha!" will fill Jazzbones as Voxxy fronts the Joplin tribute band Janis Lives, sponsored by her other gig, NWCZ.com radio.

2. Tacoma artist Kellë McLaughlin's "Bestial Mirrors" is meant to give something back as a tribute to all the people who have supported her as an artist. The pieces in the show are animal heads on human bodies, and each is representative of a member of the Tacoma community. Each animal is a "reflection" of the person depicted in the piece. The show is a mix of traditional Japanese woodcut prints and ceramic sculptures, heavily skewed toward the former. That's a change for McLaughlin, who considers herself primarily a ceramic artist. But she's been doing woodcuts and prints for years. Mostly she did them just for fun, but when she started selling prints and T-shirts, they became popular in Tacoma. Read Kevin Knodell's full feature on Kellë McLaughlin in the Music & Culture section., then attend the opening reception from 5 to 9 p.m. at Fulcrum Gallery.

3. Over a year ago, local punk bands took off their shirts and trashed about The New Frontier Lounge. Nestled in between the snarls, Tacoma filmmaker Isaac Olsen screened his German expressionist film, Ich Hunger, while Tacoma dance troupe BareFoot Collective translated the film's imagery into free-form dance. Es war sehr gut! As the film flickered that night, an idea flickered in his head. "What if I could convince the Tacoma Arts Commission to help me take this to the Broadway Center?" Auf geht's! The spectacle, as Olsen calls it, will hit Broadway. Olsen's tale of a creature-boy roaming the German wilderness and devouring the village's hapless tourists will, once again, pair with the BareFoot Collective's elegant performance, this time in Studio 3 at the Broadway Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

4. You know the story: Ebenezer Scrooge is a miser who couldn't give a fig about his fellow man. He's dismissive toward his nephew, his only remaining family member; abusive toward his impoverished employee, Bob Cratchit; and just a miserable wretch in general. In the days leading up to Christmas 1843, Scrooge is haunted by his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. This is not a social call. Marley - doomed to forever walk the earth alone, in death as he did in life - warns Scrooge that he has one chance to mend his wicked ways, and so Scrooge will be visited by three ghosts who will teach him the lessons of Christmas. Tacoma Little Theatre presents the holiday classic Scrooge! The Musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusseat at 7:30 p.m.

5. At Bob's Java Jive, there's a recurring event called "Pirate Karaoke," where you're not only encouraged to sing like a pirate; you can dress like one, too. Imagine, if you will, Lucky the Shoulder Parrot joining you in a stirring round of "Come As You ARRRR!" in the same dive where Kurt Cobain himself used to put away brewskis. Your host Bowan the Black offers a library of 100,000 songs including Styx's "Come Sail Away" and Selena Gomez's "Lubber in Me." (Sorry.) If you're lucky, you'll enjoy the company of rowdy cosplayers The Black Bank, Criminal Dawn, The Feisty Felines or House Madrasa. If not, your rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" will earn you a stroll down the plank. The song pillage begins at 9 p.m.

LINK: Friday, Dec. 5 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, DEC. 4 2014 >>>

1. Did you know Seattle boasts one of the largest community choruses in America? Did you know that justly revered group is making its way south to Tacoma this week? Better recognize! The Seattle Men's Chorus is celebrating its 35th season, so all 300-plus members are dressed up with someplace to go - 8 p.m. at the Pantages Theater. Read Christian Carvajal's full feature on ...Our Gay Apparel in the Music and Culture section, then go see their holiday show tonight.

2. The city of Lacey invites the community to join in the 19th annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree along with the additional lighting of Huntamer Park at 6 p.m. The old-fashioned tree lighting ceremony will feature caroling by the Komachin Middle School United Voices choir, with more than 100 children led by Marci Ellefritz. Free popcorn and hot cocoa will be provided, along with a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus aboard the Santa Mobile from the Lacey Fire Department. River Ridge Jazz Ensemble will also perform.

3. Let's talk Tacoma Runners, cause you know we love them ... from a safe distance at the donut counter. As it does every Thursday, the running group will gather at 6:30 p.m. outside a venue, stretch a bit, listen to Rob McNair-Huff describe the 3-mile route, then hit the pavement. What started as seven people running to justify post beers has turned into a giant mass of people running ... to justify post beers and to be social. Speaking of social, that's exactly where Thursday's run starts and ends - at The Social Bar and Grill. Why not run the Museum of Glass stairs and really feel good about the Social Manhattan.

4. On a beautiful day in 1963, the brilliant intern Dr. Bill Cortner and his fiancé, Jan, are involved in an auto accident, in which Jan is decapitated. Using his new experimental serum, Bill manages to keep Jan alive. In a race against the clock Bill begins a search for the perfect body for his darling Jan. Discover what happen next at 8 p.m. in The Midnight Sun Performance Space when Theater Artists Olympia stage a new adaptation of the classic B movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die ... the all-original musical The Head! That Wouldn't Die!

5. Brian James is an accomplished singer/songwriter and instrumentalist who was hired in 2008 as the head staff writer at Sure-Fire Music Publishing in Nashville where he wrote hit songs for four years, before starting his own publishing/management company, Brick Hit House Music. He wrote the theme song for the Discovery Channel's American Farmer, as well as songs for Taylor Hicks, Donny Anderson and Tonya Kennedy. Catch him at 8 p.m. in The Swiss.

LINK: Thursday, Dec. 4 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area