WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010 >>>

1. It's St. Patrick's Day. Time to party.

2. The Pierce County Arts and Cultural Planning Community Forum will gather opinions at 4:30 p.m. inside the Soundview Building. Go help plan the arts.

3. Screw green beer; let's climb a wall at 5:30 p.m. inside the Centre at Norpoint.

4. The Sixth Avenue Progressive Dinner visits 6 Olives, Origin 23 and Studio 6 Ballroom at 5:30, 6:15 and 7 p.m. Dance to jazz and blues by Maia Santell & House Blend from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at Studio 6. Reserve your spot here. 

5. The Fort Steilacoom Choir and Olympic College Chamber Choir joins the Pierce College Concert Band in Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" and Smith's "Don Quixote Symphony #3" at 7:30 p.m. inside the Lagerquist Concert Hall at PLU.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

THIRD THURSDAY ARTWALK ON A BUS >>>

Every Third Thursday ArtWalk participant has had that Moment. The Moment you know you will look back on six months (or a year, or 10 years) from now and laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh, just laugh hysterically that you couldn't find the Tollbooth Gallery, or that you got lost on one of the 14 floors inside Sanford and Son, or that you had to lie down on the sidewalk due to fatigue halfway up to the Fulcrum Gallery on Hilltop.

Or maybe you don't laugh. Maybe you're an ArtWalk hatter because of the Moment.

Angela Jossy of the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative wants to eliminate the Moment. She wants to make it easier for you to enjoy the Walk.

She has a bus.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: So you have an ArtWalk Bus.

ANGELA JOSSY: Yup, I'm organizing an ArtWalk tour via bus Thursday night beginning at 6 p.m. at the Speakeasy. The "Art Bus" will hit Embellish Multispace Salon, Tacoma Art Place, Fulcrum Gallery, 253 Collective and Mad Hat Tea Company before dropping everyone off at the Rialto Theater at 8 p.m. Next month we will add more stops, make two round trips and have it running three or four hours instead of two. I want to start with a more modest plan on this first attempt.

VOLCANO: Steph DeRosa isn't driving, is she?

Read more...

MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2010 >>>

1. The Dana Lupinacci Band performs blues at 8 p.m. inside The Swiss.

2. Carolyn Burt's Boogie, Blues and all that Jazz paintings are on display at the Proctor Art Gallery from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

3. The Lakewood Big Band will perform music to dance to from 7-9 p.m. inside The Royale Lounge in Olympia. Jazz singer LaVon Hardison will perform after.

4. The movie FRESH - which celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system - will screen for free at 7 p.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library's Main Branch.

5. DJ Jason Diamond now spins roots reggae every Monday at 9 p.m. inside O'Malley's Irish Pub.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010 >>>

1. The Mob Ride presents "The Great Leprechaun Hunt" - its fourth bicycle booze cruz - pushing off from The Acme Grub Cage at 7:30 p.m. If the past three rides have been any indication you can expect 30-plus riders on a wide variety of bike models visiting four pubs/bars with a traveling distance of 1.5 miles between drinks.

2. The non-profit Tacoma Art Place invites the community in for free art classes from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. During their Community Free Day you may learn about pottery wheels, photography, sewing, making ripped paper collage paintings and much more.  A list of the free art classes can be found here.

3. MOVE! #16 features dancers from Seattle's Spectrum Dance Company, MLKBallet company, Tacoma City Ballet members, and guests Josephine's Echopraxia and the Maureen White Dance Company at 2 and 7 p.m. inside the SOTA Theater. Local musicians Goldfinch, Olivia de la Cruz and Travis Barker and the Black Sails will perform live to several pieces for MLKBallet.

4. Jazzbones presents "A Night With DJ Donald Glaude" with DJs dAb and Haaps beginning at 9 p.m.

5. The Revengers and The Fucking Eagles perform at 9 p.m. inside Doyle's Public House.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 >>>

1. Tacoma poet Tammy Robacker reads from her book The Vicissitudes at 8 p.m. inside Vinum Coffee & Wine Lounge. There will be an open mic following her reading. Readers, poets, and spoken word artists are encouraged to come share poetry that addresses topics of Women, Women's History, Women's Issues, Women's Roles, or challenges that face women.

2. Speaking of poetry, the Puget Sound Poetry Connection and Tacoma Arts Commission bring in poet Allen Braden for the Distinguished Writers Series at 7 p.m. inside King's Books. An open mic follows Braden's performance.

3. Banff Mountain Film Festival selections that explore environmental, adventure or adventure-related themes - including BASE-jumping, snowboarding and mountain climbing - will screen at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theater.

4. Brooklyn Pool, James & The Giant Bitch, Santee, and The Moo play a 9 p.m. show at Bob's Java Jive.

5. The Missionary Position and Where Sails Meet Rails perform a free show inside Doyle's Public House at 9 p.m.

LINK: A bunch of movies open today

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 >>>

1. The crafty group Tacoma Is For Lovers hosts another Craft Night, this time welcoming Tacoma artist Chris Sharp who will introduce collage using a 1980s book on break dancing as source material at 7 p.m. inside King's Books.

2. Artists Sarah Utter, Karen Utter and Lynne Farren's Animal Abecedary opens at 6 p.m. with an artist reception at the Handforth Gallery.

3. The first Academy Award winner for Best Picture Sunrise will screen at 7 p.m. inside the Washington Center.

4. Fulcrum Gallery presents Ambient Night featuring rising stars in barbaric harmony Going Shopping and Humble Cub at 8 p.m.

5. Big Wheel Stunt Show, Paris Spleen, Handlebar Mustangs, and Brotherhood Of The Black Squirrel perform at 9 p.m. inside Hell's Kitchen.

LINK: Movie showtimes in the South Sound

NEW SHOW OPENS AT HANDFORTH GALLERY TOMORROW >>>

You might have notice that there are letters everywhere. You're reading some right now, in fact. But when was the last time you really thought about them? Not the sentence you're reading, or the concepts conveyed - just the individual letters.

Olympia artist and musician Sarah Utter (Bangs, Western Hymn) thought about letters. So did her mother, Karen. And their friend Lynne Ferren.

And then they painted them - kind of.

The two Utters and Ferren will open their show Animal Abecedary tomorrow night at Handforth Gallery inside the Tacoma Public Library's Main Branch in downtown Tacoma. All the paintings - 26 of them - are new works, each a vibrant animal correlating to a different letter of the alphabet.

"I've always wanted to do a collaborative show with my mom, as she was the one who got me into art as a kid," explains Sarah.

Both Utters are self-proclaimed library nerds so they felt the Handforth fit them to a T.

"On the flipside, the gallery is HUGE and we both felt a little overwhelmed with filling it by ourselves," adds Sarah. "So my mom got in touch with an amazingly creative and prolific artist named Lynne Ferren - who happens to focus primarily on animals in her paintings, too."

To tie-in with the library they settled on a letter theme.

"It all came together naturally, though we each have a different take on our assigned letters. I went with scientific names: Uncia Uncia, Vulpes Vulpes, etc.," Sarah says.

Sarah's library nerdiness can also be found on her wares - shirts, stickers, mugs - she sells on buyolympia.com. Her most popular items are tagged with "reading is sexy".

The artist will be at the show's opening Thursday, March 11 at 6 p.m. Karen Utter has baked cupcakes for the event.

"All the work is really bright and crazy," says Sarah. "This is definitely the kind of show that kids as well as adults might be stoked on."

Stoked with a capital S.

[Handforth Library, Animal Abecedary, March 11-April 16, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5661]

FUN WITH FRANCES >>>

Some people just make you curious. You want to see how their minds work, what their thought processes are. You want to go through their stuff. Now's your chance. Beginning the first Monday in April, Puyallup artist Frances Buckmaster will open her downtown Puyallup artist's studio/gallery for local artists to work together on a regular basis. Space will be available by subscription. A one-session fee will be $15 for three hours of studio time. Those making a prior purchase of 12 sessions will receive a 10 percent discount.

For more details, call Buckmaster at 253.831.6005.

WHAT WE'VE FOUND TODAY >>>

Nerd Alert! Whatever happened to the cast of Revenge of the Nerds?

RIP: Cory Haim

Rosemary Ponnekanti reports that MLKBallet founding director Kate Monthy will move after MOVE! #16.

The Weekly Volcano's jetpacks are ready.

X Sigma Partners LLC introduced a new iPhone app 'Tiger Text," inspired by the Tiger Woods scandal, which allows users to permanently delete texts that have already been sent.

Fuhgeddaboudit being mayor. Mayor Pringle of Belmar, N.J., announces that he will not run for re-election this November after 20 years of office, after he made fun of Jersey Shore guidos in his blog.

Bank of America is ending overdraft fees on debit cards. Really?

Seriously? Halpert from The Office is playing Captain America?

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND BE HAPPY >>>

Your mother and I just want you to be happy. Not unreasonably, irrationally happy, but moderately content. Why can't you play miniature golf with the other teenagers? And why do you refuse to wear pastel?

What do you mean by "hanging out with other artists"?

I don't know about this Tacoma Art Place and their crazy ideas about letting you learn about pottery wheels, photography, sewing, and making ripped paper collage paintings. (And why do I speak so stiffly?) Spinning clay on a wheel and playing with photos in the dark? Oh, this all sounds very strange. Why can't you just paint flowers?

What? The non-profit art center is hosting Community Free Day? Did you say free? Oh, very well.

[Tacoma Art Place, Saturday, March 13, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., list of free classes here, 1116 S. 11th St., Tacoma, 253.238.1006]