Military Life
It's another week for us to stave off boredom while we all spend way too much time at home. To help figuratively keep you company, we've assembled a list of recommended entertainments. Most of these are free, and all of them will help take your mind off of the heavy
Stage
For a musical as chock-full of razzle-dazzle dance numbers and showstopping songs, A Chorus Line is a show that's utterly suffused with sadness. Yes, there are moments of humor, and the sheer thrill of seeing a stacked cast of dancers going all out is enough to keep the show from
Music
Welcome to another edition of Three Easy Pieces, where I look at a pocket of pop culture and see how it's developed, from its birth to today. This month, I'm once again dipping my toes into the murky waters of music subgenres, and this time I'm talking about alt-country. As
South Sound Cinema
Olympia is a city with a lot of things to be proud of, but one of its most invaluable institutions has to be the Olympia Film Society (OFS). Housed in the gorgeous Capitol Theater since 1990, the OFS has long been Thurston County's premier art house, but it's so much
South Sound Cinema
Welcome to another edition of Three Easy Pieces, where I look at a cul-de-sac of pop culture, from its birth to how it looks today. Since we're bracing for another Valentine's Day, I figured it was time to talk about anti-romantic comedies. Though what precisely defines an anti-romantic comedy can
Stage
Heathers was always destined to be a cult film, with its button-pushing story and pitch-black humor ensuring that an audience would eventually find it and love it, but the general public would stay away. Much like The Evil Dead before it, though, Heathers was a cult film that surprisingly ended
Stage
It's a rare treat to be able to see a world premiere play in our neck of the woods, which lends an air of special buzz around the staging of Shattering at Tacoma Little Theatre. After winning the AACT NewPlayFest, Shattering became one of six scripts chosen to be staged
Stage
It's hard to look at the 1988 film Heathers and imagine it becoming anything other than a cult hit. All of the hallmarks of a cult film are there: a campy aesthetic, a profoundly dark sense of humor, and a subject matter that might've once seemed fantastical, but has only
South Sound Cinema
Welcome to Three Easy Pieces, where I examine a piece of pop culture from its birth to today. This month, I'm acutely aware that the world's a nightmarish hellscape of suffering and dread. What type of entertainment pairs best with that? Nicecore! Coined by critic David Ehrlich, nicecore concerns a
Stage
There are few entertainments better than a cracking good murder mystery, and no one more synonymous with the genre than Sherlock Holmes -- a character that's been deconstructed and reinterpreted in a dizzyingly large number of ways. Holmes for the Holidays (or The Game's Afoot, depending on who you ask)
Stage
By far one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream -- as its name might suggest -- carries with it a loopy, humid feel, befitting its summer solstice setting. It's a bit of a treat, then, to see the Changing Scene Theatre Northwest stage this show as
South Sound Cinema
Welcome to another edition of Three Easy Pieces, where I explore a certain subsection of pop culture, from its birth to how it looks today. Since the holiday season is upon us -- bringing with it yet another remake of Black Christmas -- I thought I'd revisit a topic I
Stage
We've said it again and again how lucky we are to live in the South Sound, surrounded by a bevy of theater companies doing consistently amazing work. And while it's wonderful to have places like Tacoma Musical Playhouse, which frequently turn out lavish spectacles, it's important to give as much
Stage
Until I saw Dukesbay Theater's production of Proof, my only exposure to the play was its 2005 film adaptation. While the film had its admirers, it never clicked for me; I suspected that this material was ill-suited to making the jump to the big screen, a theory that was supported
South Sound Cinema
Welcome to another edition of Three Easy Pieces, where I look at a specific corner of pop culture, from its birth to how it looks today. Since we're smack dab in the middle of awards season, I thought we'd discuss the ignoble film sub-genre known as Oscar bait. Want to
Stage
The Evil Dead trilogy -- featuring, of course, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness -- became something of an unlikely success, creating an all-time great cult horror franchise, and ushering in the career of the great director Sam Raimi. I say that this was somewhat unlikely
Stage
What if William Shakespeare, rather than being a deified author of some of the greatest plays in history, were just a lovestruck doofus with a serious case of writer's block? This is the position taken by Shakespeare in Love, Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman's playful deconstruction of the Shakespeare mythos;
Attractions
Plenty of people use Halloween as an excuse to doll themselves up and hit the town in their best "sexy" get-up, whether that's as a sexy doctor, a sexy librarian, or a sexy Babadook. Being that you're a Weekly Volcano reader, though, we know you've spent the rest of the
South Sound Cinema
It's time, once again, for Three Easy Pieces, the column where I take you aside and gab about a particular corner of pop culture. First, we start at the beginning, and then take you on through to how it looks today. This month, I'm talking about one of my favorite
South Sound Cinema
At this point, we shouldn't really be surprised by the continued expansion in both quality and quantity of the Tacoma Film Festival's (TTF) lineup, but honestly: looking at the schedule, we are awestruck to see what the 14th annual TFF has to offer. Tacoma's preeminent celebration of movies, put on
