SOUTH SOUND ARTS COVERAGE IN TODAY'S WEEKLY VOLCANO >>>

Twists and turns: A review of Tacoma Little Theatre's Sleuth, without giving too much away by Joe Izenman

The minds of Henry Jekyll: We contain multitudes, and the monster inside us may be lurking down the next fog-bound alley by Christian Carvajal

Impersonal portraits: Matthew M Johnson shows at Fulcrum Gallery by Alec Clayton

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

FRIDAY, AUG. 27, 2010 >>>

1. Masa is in for a treat during its Latin America Meets North America night, which begins at 9 p.m.. House DJ Deejay Sessions is bringing in NYC friend DJ Eloy, a chap who's spun at the Big Apple's hottest clubs, SNL cast parties, and even for Ludacris and Busta Rhymes. Triggering music video samples from DVD, keeping time with layered audio backbeats, and introducing wax-based polyrhythms with the skill of a scratch master, Eloy will introduce his multimedia mash-ups to T-town.

2. It's Freak Friday at Tacoma's 12,000 square foot urban Airsoft facility Tacoma Tactical, which means its just $5 for two hours. That's a freaking good deal!

3. Stella Haloulani hosts Free Ya Mind Open Mic from 7-9 p.m. inside Tully's Coffee at the Bostwick Building.

4. The Tacoma Little Theatre kicks off its new season with Sleuth, the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse played out in a cozy English country house owned by celebrated mystery writer - at 7:30 p.m.

5. Christian Mistress, The Guild, Morgan & The Organ Donors play an 8 p.m. all-ages show at Northern in Olympia.

LINK: More recommended events in The Weekend Hustle

LINK: New movies open today

LINK: Concert go on sale today

ARTS COVERAGE IN THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO >>>

Kids playing with fire: The Hilltop Artists program teaches glass blowing and life by Kristin Kendle

Something for everyone, even your pooka: A preview of the Olympia 2010-11 theater season by Christian Carvajal

Outstanding opening: William Quinn's European Odyssey at Mavi Contemporary Art by Alec Clayton

PLUS: Today's the last day of the 25 New Faces in Independent Film festival at The Grand. We reviewed Solitary/Release and Putty Hill, both playing today.

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LIFE IMITATES ART ONCE AGAIN >>>

Yesterday's Lady Gaga flash mob in Tollefson Plaza was preceded with a press release claiming that the "special event ... will have approximately 300 flashmob participants." The event even had a Tacoma permit number: 10-118.

At approximately 7 p.m. considerably less participants than predicted began to dance in Tacoma's cement space, orchestrated by Vik Chopra, president of DNF Media & Management. They performed to a mega mix of Lady Gaga's hits "Bad Romance," "Poker Face," "Telephone" and "Just Dance."

The Weekly Volcano dispatched photographer Ariane Michelle of AMK Photography to capture the mob. Check out more of her photos in our Photo Hot Spot.

FRIDAY, AUG. 20, 2010 >>>

1. This year's 25 New Faces, as chosen by Filmaker Magazine, will be showcased at The Grand Cinema, beginning today at 2, 4:15, 6:45 and 8:30, in what is apparently the first film festival modeled after the magazine's list.

"It's kind of a built-in festival, if you wanted to put it together, but I was curious if anyone had ever tried to do that," says Philip Cowan, executive director of The Grand Cinema. "I assumed someone probably had, but I got in touch with Filmmaker Magazine, and nobody had ever done that. They had talked about it, but nobody had ever tried to pull it together. So they were on board."

The idea is to assemble the work of these 25 New Faces - or most of it, anyway - and there you have a festival. Most of these filmmakers are young, innovative people whose daring projects impressed early on. Read the full story here.

2. Billed appropriately as a "Countryside Freak-out! (in the gentlest of ways)," the annual Helsing Junction Sleepover happens this weekend in rural Thurston County. One of the best ideas K Records has probably ever had - which is saying something - the Sleepover is a multi-day music fest partnering purveyors of local, free-range, organic music (K Records), with purveyors of local organic sustenance (the Helsing Junction organic farm). It kicks off today with Gary May, Human Skab, The Maxines, Angelo Spencer, The Curious Mystery, Japanther, Arrington De Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa and a bunch of films from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

3. Is anyone else just a wee bit sick and tired of hearing about how AWESOME Portland is? Every time you turn around someone is talking about Portland and something the Rose City is doing right, or something Tacoma is trying to copy in one way or another. Of course, PDX (Damn! It even has a nifty abbreviation thingy!) is pretty cool, but let's not let the facts interrupt a good anti-Portland rant! It smells like Kombucha down there! At 7 p.m., Sustainable Tacoma Pierce, in conjunction with its Tacoma Permaculture Design Course, will host a discussion at King's Books featuring Matt Bibeau talking about "Inspiration from Portland's City Repair Project." Portland's City Repair Project spawned a nationwide movement of "placemaking" - a kind of DIY urban beautification. You see potholes. Bibeau sees community gardens.

4. Spoken word open mic Mouths & Mics hosted by the 2009 Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate and Speak Your Soul Poet Antonio Edwards runs 7-9 p.m. inside Café Messina on Market Street.

5. The Best of Musical Broadway, or BOMB - a musical revue of Broadway hits performed by students of Lakewood Playhouse's Youth Theatre program - hits the stage at 8 p.m.

More suggestions in The Weekend Hustle.

LINK: New movies open today

LINK: Concerts go on sale today

ARTS COVERAGE IN THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO >>>

New faces in indie film: The Grand's Philip Cowan believes the 25 New Faces of Independent Film festival can put Tacoma on the map by Rev. Adam McKinney

Tacoma Metal Arts Center meets Black Sabbath's Paranoid: Amy Reeves rocks out while crafting works of art by Ron Swarner

The Switch: It helps that there are some moments of inspiration here and there, but in the end it's a goddamn rom-com by Rev. Adam McKinney

Sleuth to Seuss: A look at theater in Tacoma for 2010-2011 by Christian Carvajal

Broadway's open-air art gallery: More intriguing Spaceworks Tacoma installations on Pacific Avenue by Alec Clayton

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18, 2010 >>>

1. Popular guitarist Vince Brown fills Swing Wine Bar & Cafe in Olympia with jazz beginning at 9 p.m.

2. Have you heard of this Twitter thing? Yeah, we hadn't either. Apparently, though, a whole bunch of people are into it, and it's supposed to be the next big thing ... or something. We're not sure. We don't really get it. Once we learned about Twitter, we discovered a whole bunch of people giving monotonous 140-character descriptions of nothing (trips to the grocery store and shit). What's that all about? Like we said, we're not sure. That's why we'll be attending the 1 p.m. "Intro to Twitter" class at the Tacoma Public Library main branch. We'll be the guy sitting between the man that just woke up from a 15-year coma and the dude that lives under a rock.

3. An aging wooden lifeguard chair stands sentinel as Tollefson Plaza turns into a beach for A K Mimi Allin's Seaside Opera, a performance art pieces that lasts for 15 minutes from 2-7 p.m. on the every half-hour. The artist performs to a mesmerizing audio of ocean-inspired operas and carnival sounds. Viewers may be enticed to participate by the toy-strewn water pools.

4. King's Books hosts a "Bad Poetry" edition of Scrabble Rousers, where beginner, intermediate, or expert Scrabble players battle it out on the board - with the option to stand up and read some very bad poetry. Entrance fee is $10 per person with proceeds directly benefiting the Tacoma Community House Student Scholarship Fund. The words start flowing at 6:30 p.m.

5. Plague Ships, Devils Of Loudon and Helles rock Hell's Kitchen beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

NO DAY AT THE BEACH >>>

1:20 p.m.: I arrive on Pacific Avenue, relieved to find a space in one-hour parking. I'm here for Seaside Opera, a performance art piece by A K Mimi Allin, aka ThePoetessAtGreenLake.blogspot.com. She promises a 10-15 minute celebration of "sea-inspired operas" in Tollefson Plaza. Aha, I think: Idomeneo. I sang "Placido è il mar" back in college choir. Andiamo! Seaside Opera is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.  Allin puts the finishing touches on a rickety lifeguard station. It's 90 degrees but feels hotter.

1:30 p.m.: I stroll through James Sinding's installation Letters, which consists of hundreds of wooden, multicolored alphabetic letters distributed on the plaza steps. The artist encourages us to arrange these letters into meaningful phrases.  Thus far the height of our ingenuity appears to be first names, "LOVE YOU MOM," and "PANTS ON THE GROUND."

1:45 p.m.: Allin puts on an LP of tango music as played on the accordion. She finishes arranging her space and drives away to change clothes. The lifeguard station stands empty, ringed by beach paraphernalia including floaties and plastic lobsters.

1:50 p.m.: Two pubescent sk8er bois commence flipping 360s just as loud as they possibly can five feet from Allin's set.

2:05 p.m.: Allin returns to gaze at the skaters, willing them, it seems, to take up residence elsewhere. They're not very good, and a botched move launches a skateboard at our photographer's leg. I retrieve the board and approach the skaters. "Hey, there," I smile, "how ‘bout you give her fifteen minutes of silence so I don't have to throw your board into traffic?  Cool?" The skater is taken aback by this and reconvenes with his buddy at a nearby table.

2:08 p.m.: Mindful of expensive parking infractions, I introduce myself to Allin and ask if she'll be starting soon. "At 2," she assures me. "It's 2 o'clock now." It isn't. I'm looking at my cell phone. It's 2:08.  I shrug and back away.

2:09 p.m.: Allin loads water pistols from a pail.  She waves lazily at the skaters, then aims a spritz at my notebook and me. She misses.

2:10 p.m.: She approaches the skaters and hands them loaded water pistols.  They're delighted by this and immediately faux-murder each other. Allin chases them around the plaza, sometimes threatening to splash them with the remnants in the pail. Are they plants? I can't tell. They seem as confused by her behavior as I am, but hey: Free weapons.

2:13 p.m.: Allin climbs the plaza steps, changes the LP to "Ride of the Valkyries," and dances about like a contestant on So You Think You're a Ballerina.  "Theme music!" cry the skaters, who continue to pester and shoot her.

2:17 p.m.: "Ride of the Valkyries" repeats. This Wagnerian scene, by the way, is set on a mountain, not a beach. Allin salutes the horizon. She somehow accomplishes this without appearing touched in the head.

2:20 p.m.: Allin retrieves her pail of water and schleps away. I don't know if the skaters were part of the act. I'm not convinced the act is over. I'm not 100 percent sure it's begun. But I am about to get a ticket, so I run for my car.

This is the part where I'm told I don't get performance art.  Still, what might be dismissed as "flyweight" and/or "masturbatory" can become "unpolished" or "charmingly goofy" when it's free.

Seaside Opera

Through Aug. 21, every half hour on the half-hour, 2-7 p.m., Free
Tollefson Plaza, Pacific Ave. at South 17^th Street, Tacoma
part of Spaceworks Tacoma

LINK: More Seaside Opera photos in our Photo Hot Spot

LINK: Spaceworks in the windows

MONDAY, AUG. 16, 2010 >>>

1. Phil Berkowitz and The Dirty Cats fill The Swiss with blues beginning at 8 p.m.

2. A.K. Mimi Allin's 15-minute Seaside Opera was actually inspired by Tollefson Plaza. No joke. As Allin says of her poetic opera - now set to be performed daily 2-7 p.m. every half hour through Aug. 21 in the place that inspired it - "I can smell the water from Tollefson and long for it. ... I wanted to capitalize on the water element of the park. How wonderful, I thought, to bring the beach right up into town!" Hell, the beach is better than nothing.

3. Amy Pennington - organic gardener, urban cook and food enthusiast - will share valuable tips for growing greens, aromatic herbs and edible flowers, including small batch preserving and canning tips, at 6 p.m. at the Bayview School of Cooking.

4. Cropsey is a documentary examining the concept of the bogeyman - as legend, as reality and as a combination of the two. On Staten Island in the '70s and '80s, a story was passed around by local children about a man who lived in the woods. This man was often known as Cropsey, and according to the story he roamed at night, snatching children. The legend of Cropsey became all too real with the 1987 disappearance of a young girl. Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio's film investigates at 6:30 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater.

5. Kamel Toe Bar and Grill's Karaoke Idol Qualifying Round begins at 9 p.m.

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

ARTS COVERAGE IN THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO >>>

Stuck In Actors' Purgatory: The pros and cons of typecasting in theater by Christian Carvajal

Slouching Toward Utopia: Tacoma is showing signs of life by Joe Malik

A Crime Scene Revisited: South Puget Sound Community College presents the unpolished but affecting The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later by Christian Carvajal

Concealed And Revealed: The fairer sex by Donald Cole and Francie Allen by Alec Clayton

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: It's the closest replication to the experience of reading a graphic novel I've ever encountered by Rev. Adam McKinney

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound