THE EXHIBIT

Bigfoot spotted in Olympia

Fact meets fiction and then rubs noses with history, Native American lore and modern science as the story of Bigfoot plays out in displays at the new exhibit “Giants in the Mountains: The Search for Sasquatch” at the State Capital Museum in Olympia.

This exploration of the Sasquatch story here in the Pacific Northwest focuses on why the geography and heritage found in this area of the globe feeds into the Bigfoot legend.



The exhibits around the museum look at all aspects of the legends of a big hairy apelike being walking around the forests of the Pacific Northwest and draws no conclusions.

The floor-level exhibit hall looks at the aerial photos used by some researchers to spot strange Wookie-like apes in action as they stroll about the woods. The upper floors look at the Native American art inspired by the legends, and then there’s the modern evidence used to prove those legends are real. Included in the exhibit are a handful of plaster castings of footprints reportedly made by Bigfoot through the years.



The exhibit is neither sensational nor blandly scientific. It covers snippets of fact and art and science. This year-long exhibit includes examples of hoaxes as well as some of the popular cultural interpretations of Bigfoot.



Children will like the hands-on exhibits, while adults will like the science and art. Hangers-on will enjoy the way the legend of Bigfoot has morphed into a cultural icon of its own. — Steve Dunkelberger

[State Capital Museum, through September 2008, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, $1-$2, 211 21st Ave. S.W., six blocks south of the Capitol Building, Olympia, 360.753.2580, or visit www.washingtonhistory.org]

THE NOSTAGLIA

“The Wonder Bread Years”

It has been said that if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there. There are various subcategories, including those who can’t remember because they really weren’t there, those who think they may remember something but aren’t really sure what, and those who voted for Nixon — but basically, this statement opens up the decade of grooviness to either a lot of nostalgia or a lot of mocking. No one is quite sure what actually occurred. Well, comedian Pat Hazell is.



Hazell takes baby-boomer Americana that recalls the genuinely funny observations of our collective youth: sugar-highs, milk money, the kid’s table, pop rocks, the ice cream truck, and those long distance trips in the wayback of the Country Squire Wagon in his one-man show, “The Wonder Bread Years.”  It will hit the stage Friday night in Olympia and Nov. 2-3 in Tacoma. — Suzy Stump

[Washington Center, Friday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$31.50, 512 Washington St. S.E., Olympia, 360.753.8585]

THE FESTIVAL

Pagan Pride Day

If you’ve stood atop the mountain and screamed your naked desires to the universe and had your share of hallucinations of the pagan goddesses in the sweat lodge and opened your heart and eaten the vegan bean sprout salads and cleansed your colon and detoxed in the tub ten thousand times and marinated your soul in the juices of desire and forgiveness and pain and love and felt the mystery swirl, then you might enjoy the South Puget Sound Pagan Pride Day Saturday. It’s a day for pagans to meet and greet and a chance for everyone else interested in the belief system to connect. Drums and singing are encouraged. — Bobble Tiki

[Olympia Center, Saturday, Oct. 13, noon to 4 p.m., free, 222 Columbia St, Olympia, 360.339.5235]

THE STAGE

Live Theater Week

Live theater just got more affordable — at least for a week, anyway.

A handful of South Sound stages are offering theater events Oct. 15-21 as part of a national effort to celebrate the dramatic arts.



Capital Playhouse will offer a free performance of “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17.



The theater’s rival down the street, Harlequin Productions, is staging its masterful “Macbeth” at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18. And Olympia Little Theater will offer a discussion about theater as well as host a streamlined version of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” courtesy of Harlequin.



Federal Way’s Centerstage Theater will offer a free reading Thursday, Oct. 18, of “Baby,” at the Knutzen Family Theatre. This fast-paced play looks at the world through the eyes of a newborn until he turns 1 year old.



Lakewood Playhouse has a special presentation of “Holes” Oct. 18 lined up for the cause while theaters up and down the Sound have things planned.



More information about the events can be found at seattleperforms.com. — Steve Dunkelberger

THE ART

Thursday Art Walk

If it seems like it has been far too long since you sported your beret, parked the SUV and pulled the stret-cred ‘66 Bonneville out of the garage and did a downtown art crawl, you would be right: The gap between Third Thursdays has been a lengthy five weeks, but that only means this month’s will be that much better, what with all that bottled-up creativity and such.



The Weekly Volcano recommends you stop by the Clothesline Project at the Tacoma Art Museum as part of your Third Thursday Art Walk night. In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Pierce County Commission Against Domestic Violence and its partners have organized the Clothesline Project, a visual display that includes T-shirts designed by abuse survivors, those who have lost loves ones, and others affected by abuse. The Clothesline Project will be on display from 10 am to 8 pm. From 4:30 to 6:30 pm, visitors are invited to create their own T-shirt to add to the clothesline. — Suzy Stump

[Tacoma Art Museum, Thursday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Art Walk is 5-8 p.m. in downtown Tacoma), free, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4181]