SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010 >>>

1. Little Bill & The Blue Notes holds a CD Release Party at 8 p.m. inside The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.

2. Food and entertainment from local groups representing Cambodia, India, Hawaii, Korea, Philippines, Samoa, Tonga, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan are a part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fircrest Community Center.

3. Join biologist and author Dr. Thor Hanson for pictures, music, and stories about his work with the mountain gorillas of Uganda and other rare African species at 2 p.m. inside the Tacoma Art Museum.

4. The Student Orchestra of Olympia - SOGO - is a pretty impressive outfit. Started in 2000, it takes high school kids from all over the South Sound and molds them into tight, impressive, non-traditional orchestra and ensemble performing badasses. Actually, the kids do it themselves, SOGO just makes it possible. Today at 4 p.m. SOGO throws down with Ives, Gershwin and Copland - for starters - inside the Washington Center.

5. Pacific Lutheran University Theater Department will stage Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Prof. Jeff A. Clapp, at 7:30 p.m. inside Eastvold Auditorium.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2010 >>>

1. The Vinyl Tribe DJs hosts a "Funky Cat Hat Party" featuring dubstep and house music beginning at 10 p.m. inside the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative.

2. Local artists and chalkheads will gather in Frost Park and Ninth and Commerce in downtown Tacoma at noon and draw works of art with chalk for an hour. As always, chalk will be available for free.

3. King's Books hosts another Distinguished Writer Series featuring poet Tony Barnstone at 7 p.m. followed by an open mic.

4. Israel Horovitz's Six Hotels, currently making its West Coast premiere at Harlequin Productions in Olympia at 8 p.m., is a disparate collection of one-act plays.  If this anthology has any single uniting theme, it's the exposure of clandestine desires, motivations and major malfunctions. Read a full review here.

5. Flamenco song and dance is - pretty much - sexier than you'll ever be (even if you grow your hair out like Antonio Banderas). It's a bummer. Luckily, like an un-sexy sponge, you can sop up the sexy sweat Flamenco exudes and use it to your advantage. Flamenco Arte Y Paz will hit The Vault in Olympia at 8 p.m.

LINK: New movies open today

SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2010 >>>

1. This month's installment of the Tacoma Cult Movie Club centers around "stop (the presses) motion animation" featuring films by Ray Harryhausen - including his last film, Clash of the Titans (1981) - beginning at 7 p.m. inside the Acme Grub Cage at 13th and Tacoma Avenue South.  As always, the club will also screen its usual array of trailers, shorts, the ongoing Batman serial, and the always-random raffle.

2. Glass artist Gabe Feenan, who has been a gaffer and designer with the Museum of Glass Hot Shop team since 2002, will nestle up to the microphone for a 2 p.m. "Conversation With The Artist" event inside the museum. Meet Feenan and learn more about his work including slides of his artwork. Rumor has it that he will also share his original poetry.

3. Paradise Theatre will close its production of The Importance of Being Earnest with a final 3 p.m. show today.

4. Mandolin Café's all-ages open mic, hosted by Billy Farmer, has rapidly become one of the best in the South Sound. See why when it kicks off at 6 p.m.

5. Athens, Ga., band The Winter Sounds are beyond slick, as recorded. Layers and layers of churchly harmonies, chiming guitars and driving rhythms, dominate the band's songs, which can be heard, along with Parachute Musical and Ron Hexagon, at 10 p.m. inside Le Voyeur in Olympia.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

INSIDE TODAY'S WEEKLY VOLCANO >>>

Lord of storytelling: Elizabeth Lord, set to take the stage in Crazy and a Half, is a queen of all trades by Nikki Talotta

Mecca Normal: Political artists from Vancouver, B.C. at Northern in Olympia by Alec Clayton

One fun weekend: Reviews of Little Shop of Horrors and Inherit the Wind by Christian Carvajal

Space camp: The Brain from Planet X delivers plenty of kitsch by Christian Carvajal

LINK: Arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010 >>>

1. The Grit City Fab Follies will take you on a musical journey through Tacoma's dark side at 7 p.m. inside the Tacoma Musical Playhouse. More details here. 

2. In 1964, Susan Sontag recognized that homosexuals "constitute the vanguard - and most articulate audience - of Camp," and that it often includes purposely "bad art or kitsch." Camp = kitsch + gay. And boy, howdy, there are plenty of each in Theater Artists Olympia's production of The Brain from Planet X - a musical so campy it makes Glee look like the Expendables trailer - which shows at 8 p.m. inside the Black Box theater at the Washington Center. Read the full review here.

3. The shops and restaurants in Tacoma's Proctor District are "Puttin' on the Pink" from 5-9 p.m. offering discounts, plus hosting fashion shows, in-store demonstrations, raffles, pampering, drink specials and more to benefit the Breast Cancer Resource Center. The cost is $10.

4. The Human jukebox Steve Stefanowicz plays a 6 p.m. show at The Ale House.

5. Big Wheel Stunt Show, Dirty Change-Up, and Vile Red Falcons perform at 9 p.m. inside The Swiss.

6. Adrian & The Sickness, Loose Cannon, Astrovan, and One Nation Undereducated will rock Hell's Kitchen beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2010 >>>

1. On the heels of the über-successful Third Annual Spring Fairy Festival - which reportedly drew upward of 15 fairies - Crescent Moon Gifts is back today with a Beltaine celebration and May Day celebration all wrapped into one. Beltaine, for those unaccustomed to Gaelic ways, is both the Gaelic word for "May," and an annual Celtic festival celebrating springtime hope and the coming harvest. It's totally pagan, yo. May Day, of course, is, well, May Day. Both are typically celebrated on the first day of May, but apparently Crescent Moon Gifts is throwing pagan convention to the wind. Expect floral wreaths, maypoles, and some fairy fun - as well as a pagan potluck from 4-6 p.m.

2. The Den @ urbanXchange hosts a grand opening celebration for its Tea Bar from noon to 9 p.m. with a sidewalk sale, free tea pours, an art show, Gypsy jazz, trip-hop from Tacoman Ess One and more.

3. We've come a long way. If you need proof, know that we just we wrote that while Skyping in a pizza order, text-messaging my grandma and Tweeting about our last bowel movement. However, sometimes it is nice to look back - as James Venturini and the Lakewood Playhouse will help us do at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., when they present The Maltese Falcon and The Red Wind in classic, old time radio form at King's Books. The classic mysteries - in old school radio form - should hold audiences captive, if not completely Twitter-free.

4. The Music Giving Back folks presents its annual BreastFest, a salute to mothers with a huge pre-Mother's Day bash at The Swiss to help raise money for breast cancer research. The music lineup includes Deborah Page, China Davis, Heidi Vladyka, and Rosati and The Lonely Guys. The B-Fest runs from 6-10 p.m.

5. Humble Cub, Fat Beavers and ICK perform at 9 p.m. inside The New Frontier Lounge.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

INSIDE TODAY'S WEEKLY VOLCANO >>>

Retrogarde: Go backward with Saturn at the party of the year, which is a fundraiser for the Urban Art Festival by Heather Thomas Loepp

Reassurance of Being Earnest: Oscar Wilde's classical is theatrical comfort food by Christian Carvajal

True Grit: Outsider artist Tyrone Patkoski at Tacoma Art Supply by Alec Clayton

Slouching Toward Utopia: The state of art and usury in Tacoma by Joe Malik

LINK: South Sound arts and entertainment calendar

FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

We've come a long way. If you need proof, know that I just I wrote that while Skyping in a pizza order, text-messaging my grandma and Tweeting about my last bowel movement.

However, sometimes it is nice to look back - as James Venturini and the Lakewood Players will help us do Sunday, May 2 when they present The Maltese Falcon and The Red Wind in classic, old time radio form at King's Books. The classic mysteries - in old school radio form - should hold audiences captive, if not completely Twitter-free.

[King's Books, 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., free, registration required call 253.591.5666, 218 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.8801]

LINK: Reserve space online

LINK: Tacoma Reads Together The Maltese Falcon

TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010 >>>

1. Sacramento's Not An Airplane will fill the Mandolin Café with Americana pop at 7 p.m.

2. It's crime chat with Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist at 11:30 a.m. inside Tacoma Community College's Student Center.

3. Northwest poet Dan Peters will be reading selections from his newest book, Down the Road the Children Go at 7 p.m. for an adult audience inside the Gig Harbor/Peninsula Library.

4. So Many Things To Do Yet: The saga of Thea Foss, a one-woman living history performance by storyteller Karen Hass, begins at 7 p.m. inside the Scandinavian Cultural Center.

5. Blessed By A Broken Heart plays an all-ages show at 6 p.m. inside the Viaduct.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

A SEND UP OF ALL THINGS TACOMA >>>

Fabulous Tacoman Doug Mackey has retool his Fab Four-themed variety show that he staged at the City Club of Tacoma's 25th Anniversary Gala last October and will present it for the general public Thursday, May 6 at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse.  Accompanied by keyboardist Terry O'Hara and a chorus of talented young singers/performers, Mackey ­- sporting a Beatles accent and wig - will take the audience on a musical journey through Tacoma's dark side. Mackey has reworked famous Beatles songs changing the lyrics to poke fun at the Luzon building, Frank Russell, The proposed spire, Tollefson Plaza, Bicentennial Pavilion, downtown condos, LeMay Car Museum, Rep. Norm Dicks, potholes, and unfortunately for Tacoma, much more.

Here's a sneak peek:

"ALL YOU NEED IS CASH" (sung to the Beatles' "All You Need is Love")

There's nothing you can do that can't be done

No museum downtown that can't be funded

A four hundred foot spire built at the bottom of a hill?

It's easy

Read more...