Spew

5 Things To Do: Friday

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, NOV. 13, 2009 >>>

1. The Sound We Make and Whiteout, the greatest plays ever written by Nick Stokes, will be staged inside Old City Hall at 8 p.m.

2. The Blue Mouse Theatre celebrates its 86th anniversary by going green with popcorn in eco-friendly bags, a screening of the silent flick Green Goddess and, of course, salad with Green Goddess dressing, at 7 p.m.

3. The City of Tacoma and Puget Sound Poetry Connection presents the Distinguished Writer Series featuring reader and poet Brian Desmond followed by an open mic at 7 p.m. inside King’s Books.

4. Artifakt Presents Friday The 13th Bogeyman Art Party with Mad Rad, Nasty Left, DJ Darwin, DJ Hannibal, plus art by James Hume, Jeremy Gregory, Brook Pawlicki, James Bender, Grym, Ann Koi, AcidTest, Laura Eklund, Matthew Scott, Ryan Loiselle at 9 p.m. inside Jazzbones.

5. Seven Deadly Sins: The Musical, written and directed by Pierce College’s own Fred Metzger at 7 p.m. inside the college’s theater.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Tacoma underground party shut down

JOE MALIK: SLOUCHING TOWARD UTOPIA >>>

I heard last week that the Liquor Control Board (LCB) and Tacoma PD worked together to shut down a party thrown by a group of under/overground show organizers. These folks throw some of the best arts events in Tacoma — consistently and proudly.

From a legal standpoint, it sounds like everything happened by the books. The proverbial state knows what it can and can’t get away with. There probably won’t be a lawsuit. And there will probably be more underground shows like the one that got shut down.

Let’s just move on, shall we?

No.

Art At Work: The Proclamation

ART: THAT AIN'T WORKING >>>

I’m the janitor at the Weekly Volcano World Headquarters. It’s a shitty job. These people are slobs, but the benefits are nice and I steal nickels from the honor candy box every night.

Anyway, for the entire month of November, they asked me to review their office art as well as office art around Tacoma for some “brilliant” art blog series. I get it. My name is Art. They think they’re so clever. It’s a crap idea, but I could use the extra $7.50 a week.

I’ll start with some leaf art thing here at the Volcano office that I’m forced to look at every night. Hell if I’m driving across town in the rain to review some other piece of art.

LEAF THING: It's a nice design with a good use of muted, value-keyed color utilizing pairings of complimentary colors or, more technically, probably what's called split complements. It's not very exciting but not bad.

Oh yeah, the guy with the pile of empty coleslaw containers in his top drawer wanted me to paste something below. Can you believe I’m the one posting this stuff? They gave me the password! — weeklyvolcano. Einsteins — all of them.
 
Art at Work Month

November 2009 marks the eighth anniversary of Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month. There is something for everyone to enjoy throughout the month: lectures, music, dance performances, readings, workshops, theater performances, visual art exhibits and more.

Here is today’s highlight:

Mayor Baarsma proclaims November to be "Art at Work Month" in Tacoma at 5 p.m. on the first floor inside the Tacoma Municipal Building.

For a complete Art at Work schedule, click here.

Bicycle Prom tonight

MARK THOMAS DEMING: PUT ON SOME TAFFETA >>>

The party, which will benefit the Boots ‘n Breeches therapeutic horsemanship charity, will begin at Doyle’s tonight at 6 p.m.

After a round or two, everyone will jump on their bikes and ride to the Robert Daniel Gallery.

Big Al Brewing will provide the beer.

Cycles Gladiator, a bike-themed cabernet sauvignon, will be the vino.

The Fucking Eagles, James Hillborne and the Painkillers, and Naked Bacon will provide the tunes.

Volunteer chefs will deliver the food.

Organizer TW will deliver the calendar girls.

Read the full story here.

[Doyle’s Public House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m., 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468]

[Robert Daniel Gallery, The Fucking Eagles, James Hillborne and the Painkillers, Naked Bacon, Saturday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m., $15 (includes show and food), 2501 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.227.1407]

Excellent Fulcrum Gallery show

ALEC CLAYTON: EXCITING MODERN PAINTINGS STEEPED IN HISTORY AND MYTH >>>

Painter Jethaniel Peterka shows a deft touch and a fertile mind in his paintings and assemblages at Fulcrum Gallery. The show is called Losses and Longings, and it presents a record of how Peterka’s work is evolving and how individual works come into being. Paintings over a period of time showing an evolution of style are paired with preliminary studies to give a snapshot of works in progress.

Read my review of the show on the Weekly Volcano Web site here. Then go see it tonight during Third Thursday ArtWalk.

5 Things To Do: Wednesday

MICHAEL SWAN: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16, 2009 >>>

1. Time is running out to see Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden at
Tacoma Art Museum. It closes Sunday. Get in their today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and check out the scholarly examination internationally renowned Northwest jewelry artist.

2. At 5:30, 6:15 and 7 p.m. the Sixth Avenue Progressive Dinner whirls through Six Olives, Crown Bar, Sax on 6th before ending back up at Studio 6 Ballroom for live music by Maia Santell & House Blend.

3. Learn about the Artspace, its projects and processes at a community meeting at 6 p.m. inside the Washington Center in Olympia.

4. It’s a Hump Day party with DJ J-Fresh beginning at 7 p.m. at The Hub.

5. China Davis and Joe Rosati play an 8 p.m. show at The Swiss.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Pecha Kucha Night #2

SUZY STUMP: GET READY FOR ANOTHER SLIDE SLAM >>>

If you can't say it in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, don't say it at all. That's the theory behind Pecha Kucha, a sort of mini lecture series that started in 2003 when Tokyo architects invented it to make their PowerPoint presentations less dreadful. Pech Kucha (pronounced "peh chak cha") is the Japanese word for chit-chat. It’s now the new rage in more than 200 cities — drawing creative types from all walks of life to show off their knowledge and mad presentation skills.

A Tacoma version packed The New Frontier Lounge back in June. The big turnout, plus the great speakers, reflects the strength of Tacoma's growing cultural community.

Each presenter is allowed to present 20 slides, at 20 seconds each. It's a fast-paced, exciting way to learn about our local artistic community.

Pecha Kucha Tacoma #2 moves into the Robert Daniel Gallery Wednesday featuring an “Identity” theme with presentations by Jason Ramay (Architectural Identity), Erik Hanberg (Online Identity), sweet pea (Gender Identity/Genderfuck); Derek Lunde (Branding Identity), Brandon Sherry (Identity Theft), Nori Kimura (Cultural Identity), Michael Soddard (Place, Name, & Identity), Nancy Worden (Jewelry & Identity) and Joeski (Graffiti Identity).

Expect the presenters to expound upon their private worlds, credos, outlooks or whatever in this visual quickie with strict restraints.

[The Robert Daniel Gallery, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m., no cover, 2501 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, pecha-kucha.org/cities/tacoma]

5 Things To Do: Friday

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, AUG. 21, 2009 >>>

1. UrbanXchange Records opens today offering cash for old CDs, tapes and vinyl or 30 percent more in store credit that you can use throughout the UrbanXchange clothing store.

2. As part of a national tour, Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser will be at the Pantages Theater from 9-11 a.m. to present Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative.

3. Blue Mouse Theater hosts a fundraiser featuring a Filipino dinner and a screening of Gawad Kalinga at 6:30 p.m.

4. The Le Cabaret Noir Variety Show featuring Fuchsia Foxxx, Sydni Deveraux, Ernie Von Schmaltz, Indigo Blu, Jenny Penny, Inga Ingenue, Lou Henry Hoover, MC Harlot O Scara performs before an all-ages crowd at 8 p.m. inside the Capitol Theater.

5. Hotter Than A Crotch, Dusty Santamaria & The Singing Knives, and Retox play in Le Voyeur's back room at 9 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

Yo, this is how T-town rolls

MARK THOMAS DEMING: DOCKYARD DERBY DAMES RECAP >>>

I had no idea...

Tough babes on skates — that’s what I expected.  And, yes, there were plenty of tough babes on skates in The Soccer Center last night for bout two of the 2009 Dockyard Derby Dames home season. But there was also a Celtic drum corps.  And calypso dancers. And a crazy speed-freak announcer. And a beer garden.  And a bunch of cowboy bouncers keeping things under wraps. And lots and lots of people.

This is what I love about Tacoma: Weird shit goes on. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the place, just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you stumble upon something that blows it all to hell. You find some unknown enclave of fanatics. You meet some insane genius. You walk into a building you’ve driven past dozens of times and find a scene from a late-night TBS ‘70s B-flick. The gloomy, rickety old barn is shaking. You half-expect to find a dogfight, or maybe an old-school bare-knuckles match. But instead you find this: Tough babes on skates on a makeshift track. Wearing fishnets. Grunting. Slashing. Crashing. Then the bagpipes start. You see a beer and tray of nachos in your future.  Somehow — just like that — you too have become this. 

New machine

PAUL SCHRAG: FIVE IDEAS THAT WILL CHANGE OUR WORLD >>>

There’s a lot of talk about hope and change these days. And let’s be honest, things are changing faster than most of us can follow. Alvin Toffler called it future shock — the inability to cope with the pace of change that’s emerged in response to technological and social evolution. Too much information, too much awareness, too fast. Now we’re left with a limp, increasingly undifferentiated mental landscape where the only defense against the flood becomes cheap distraction, frivolous extremes, ruthless consumption, and willful ignorance.

There are five million theories and concepts that try to explain the change we’re experiencing. But we have room to explore only five. If you’re not into futurism, feminism, pluralism, humanism, globalism or localism, you best not click here. That's were it gets real thick.