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Tacoma Musical Playhouse is staging one of the most expensive gambles in the theater’s history. Everything about producing Disney’s stage version of “Beauty and the Beast” comes at a price. The royalties are costly. The costumes are pricey. The staging requirements are substantial. But any theater willing to stage the show
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THE JAZZ Moonlight rhapsody Pacific Lutheran University, home to the stellar jazz and NPR station KPLU, takes the rhythms to the outside hosting Jazz Under The Stars — an outdoor concert series in the Mary Baker Russell Amphitheater. The shows are free, and so is the Starbucks coffee — sweet. The fun
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Let me start by saying I really picked a great week to take off of work. I decided that on this vacation I didn’t need to go anywhere because I’m having too much fun discovering and re-discovering everything that’s fun about funkadelic Tacoma. Most of my vacation was spent doing things that
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This week I’m going to draw your attention away from just one establishment so you can have a look-see at the bigger picture. There’s a new Scene of the Crime that’s been emerging ever since I became a loyal Tacoma socialite, and it’s now requiring me to switch gears because this
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She goes by the name “Tree” and her story unfolds on the Enlighten Me Free site (www.enlightenmefree.com), arguably the first to publicly criticize the Royal School of Enlightenment. It’s apparent that she is a strong, independent-minded, intelligent woman who has gone through some brutally trying times. She was drawn to Yelm
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So how does it work that you’re in business for two years and then you have a grand opening? Deidre Norris, runs such a business, a shop selling funky quirky indoor/outdoor decor with Paige Williams. She’s also spearheading the Sanford & Son Middle Floor Merchants’ Grand Opening all day Saturday,
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If you were a geek in high school — whether in the ‘70s or ‘80s — and still dream of lost days of glory, Sanford and Son and The Middle Floor Merchants could put you into a school daze of your very own with The Prom - One Night in
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It’s been said that the world can never have too many beers. OK, the Weekly Volcano said that. But it’s true. So we’re thrilled by the launch of the Tacoma Beer Society. The organization hosts its first gathering Wednesday, July 11, at Stadium Bistro. We sat down with TBS co-founder
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I love the title of Laura Sharp-Wilson’s show at The Black Front Gallery: “You Are in the Weave Whether You Like It or Not.” That title fits beautifully with the look of Sharp-Wilson’s paintings — or the look of her paintings as seen in reproduction on the gallery Web site
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Sunday’s well-organized Art on the Ave festival drew sunny skies and large crowds for nine blocks of musical, artsy, community fun and games with food and drink offerings for every palate. Serving as the center point of the event, Lynn Di Nino’s “CHAOS into Order” temporary tower-creating performance art featured nuns
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Friday, July 6 BLUEGRASS picket range bluegrass band Wikipedia says Picket Range is a small, extremely rugged subrange of the North Cascades in the northwestern part of the American state of Washington. MySpace says it’s a bluegrass band from, of all places, Seattle. So, I get it, bluegrass is considered to be
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Nine years ago, a newbie Tacoma resident ventured onto Sixth Avenue to see what “Art on the Ave” was all about. “I saw, like, four tables and a couple of people walking around,” recalls Claudia Riedener with a chuckle. This year, as she pokes her head out onto Sixth Ave, she’s likely
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Jason Gutz, sporting the latest in runway-chic summer fashion for resident aliens, pauses outside the garage “set” of the movie “The Obituary Writer.” His coat, a military surplus find, would have gone well with the cavalry gaiters he almost wore (which didn’t fit over his black boots), the car-manifold chest piece
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There is something about dinosaurs that makes people turn their heads and stare. It could be their massive teeth and their scale-covered skin. Or it could be their bubbly personalities and live-and-let-live lifestyle. Dinosaurs always draw a crowd. A gathering of more than a dozen of the prehistoric loafers will be
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“Now I have fans who say, ‘We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck, but we love you.’” That’s what the director of “Transformers” told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (“Pearl Harbor,” “Armageddon”), but I
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Theater Artists Olympia takes pride in being the quirky theater that even the liberal, artsy folks of the state capital would consider a bit out there. It can talk the talk because it certainly walks the walk, staging shows — and its own revisions of works — that carry TAO’s
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You can find Tab Benoit’s CDs in the blues section of your local record shop. Not sure why. To me, blues means shuffles and slow blues, which Benoit rarely performs, and akin to country, blues has a very distinct sound. So where would I stock his records? I’d probably give him his
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“Dames at Sea” “Dames At Sea,” a version of the long-running, off-Broadway musical homage to the classic Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, follows the story of a bumpkin girl who finds her way to the big city. [Paradise Cabaret Theatre, through July 8, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday, $15-$20, 9911
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Festival season is upon us, and that means sunshine on your shoulder, cold drink in your hand and people around who are feeling, well, festive! There’s just something magical about the sound of music echoing down a car-less street or billowing across a grassy field. We’ve already whet our musical palates
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iRetarded. iEmbarrassing. If you take an honest look at the iPhone phenomena — you know the one, it’s been endlessly reported on, talked about, blogged about, and generally forced down our throats since the iPhone was released last week — how can you not hang your head in shame? Driving around Tacoma
