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

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Sunny to partly cloudy, hi 64, lo 44

Saturday: A couple of showers possible, hi 64, lo 51

Sunday: A couple of showers possible, hi 65, lo 52

>>> THURSDAY, SEPT. 15: PRINCESS BRIDE OUTDOORS

If there is one thing that binds people together in this tumultuous world, it's that everyone who has ever seen The Princess Bride has loved it. I'm sure you can dig up some nihilist psycho to disagree, or a three-toothed Andy Dick cousin who "plum don't get it." Nonetheless, you love it and are stoked Go Local, The Grand Cinema and Click! Network will screen the classic on a giant screen in the middle of Tollefson Plaza. And if you stand up suddenly in the Plaza and announce, "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die," with an exaggerated Castilian accent, they will not ask you to leave.

• Tollefson Plaza, dusk, free, 17th and Pacific Avenue, downtown Tacoma

>>> FRIDAY, SEPT. 16: (PARK)ING DAY

The Weekly Volcano will transform a street-level parking space along Pacific Avenue in Tacoma's Museum District into a mini Woodstock festival. Titled PARK(stock), our hippie happening is part of national PARK(ing) Day, the annual global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into "PARK(ing)" spaces: temporary public places. Drop by our park Friday with your tambourine, you dig?

• Downtown Tacoma, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., free, 19th Street and Pacific Avenue

>>> SATURDAY, SEPT. 17: 2ND ANNUAL TACOMA THROWDOWN

The staff at the Weekly Volcano has a very strict exercise regime.  Find an old, beaten-up chair. Slouch in it for several hours. At around 3 p.m., begin to get stressed out about the 5 p.m. press deadline. Walk - slowly - to the honor candy box, and steal something bad for us. Complain a bit, then go back to slouching. Climbers might follow a different exercise regime. A bunch of climbers will descend upon the Vertical World Climbing Gym Saturday to compete in several categories, including beginners, for cash prizes. The public is encouraged to watch them climb walls. We'll be there ... with our beaten-up chairs.

• Vertical World Climbing Gym, 9 a.m., 102 S. 24th St., Tacoma, 253.683.4791 

>>> SATURDAY, SEPT. 17: TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY

The staff at the Weekly Volcano has a very strict exercise regime.  Find an old, beaten-up chair. Slouch in it for several hours. At around 3 p.m., begin to get stressed out about the 5 p.m. press deadline. Walk - slowly - to the honor candy box, and steal something bad for us. Complain a bit, then go back to slouching. Climbers might follow a different exercise regime. A bunch of climbers will descend upon the Vertical World Climbing Gym Saturday to compete in several categories, including beginners, for cash prizes. The public is encouraged to watch them climb walls. We'll be there ... with our beaten-up chairs.

• Foss Waterway Seaport, noon to 5 p.m., 705 Dock St., Tacoma, 253.272.2750 

>>> SUNDAY, SEPT. 18: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE EVENT

Bad-mouth peace? Who could? There is no solid argument against it. In our heart of hearts, we all want to work together, coexist quietly and get on with what's really important in life. And even in a world as cynical as this one we live in, peace is something worth working for. That's the fundamental base for Sunday's International Day of Peace Event in Olympia. Singing bowls, music, kite making, meditative walk around Capitol Lake, and more for individuals and families - all in the name of peace.

• Heritage Park, 2-5 p.m., free, Fifth and Water Street, Olympia, 360.701.5980 

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Music/Film Critic
Friday, I'll be checking out The New Frontier, featuring a rare performance from John Walker (of the defunct Hitchhikers). Saturday, I'll be at Dorky's nerdtastic anniversary show.

ALEC CLAYTON Visual Arts Critic
It's going to be an awesome weekend indeed. Dinner with good friends Saturday night. Sunday night will be the first workshop of my play, The Backside of Nowhere, directed by the awesome Elliot Wiener with actors Scott C. Brown (the great homeless guy in A Perfect Life), Jennie Jenks, Jenifer Rifenberry, Alex Smith, Syra Beth Puett and Mark Peterson.

JENNIFER JOHNSON Food and Lifestyles Writer
I'm at the North Tacoma yard sale this weekend. Come buy some most awesome stuff: 45s of local bands from the '90s, never released demos, art. Contact me here.

BRETT CIHON Meat Market Correspondent/Features Writer
I'm checking out the all-new Big Whisky Saloon in Olympia on Friday
night. It's the grand opening, so I'm sure to be in for a yee-hawing
ruckus of a good time.

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
This weekend is the first rainy weekend in quite some time, therefore granting me the pass to be lazy, drunk and boring. Of course, I will still be an attentive parent, and I will still sling drinks with glory and vigor, just all the while knowing that bed covers, long books, and glasses of wine are really where it's at.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Meat Market Photographer
Frankly, I have no idea what we will be doing other than geocaching around Fort Steilacoom or Chambers Bay. Maybe I'll head over to the Fair for a nose-to-nose discussion with a pig. Maybe I won't.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
This is a big weekend for Amanda and I, because we're celebrating our wedding! - three months after the fact, sure, but awesome all the same. And then we're going to the Sci Fi Musuem, Pike Place Market, and Dorky's Arcade! Plus there'll be ice cream.

JOE IZENMAN: Theater/Music Critic
Jam. So much jam. Farmers market junkies that we are, the wife and I have been stockpiling berries all season, and now the time has come to make ALL THE JAM. After going to the Proctor Farmers Market, of course. As long as it's all done in time to watch the Seahawks dominate the Steelers on NFL Sunday. So ... 2014 sometime?

JOANN VARNELL: Theater Critic
Saturday night, my husband and I will be helping a friend write a song. (Don't snicker; we're actually quite qualified.) Possibly, we'll take our little son to the Puyallup Fair to check out all the animals in the petting zoo. Other than that, not much is planned. We are that awesome.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound 

LINK: Happy hours!

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