Live & CD Reviews
A few weeks ago I wrote a bit on Green Apple Quick Step, and the place they occupied in my own musical development. Living in a very similar place is Sweet Water. As yet another Seattle band signed to a major label in 1992-Nirvana's Nevermind was released in late
Arts
Aaron J. Schmookler wants Tacoma to be a theater town. "Tacoma, I think, is having trouble in the theater realm. It always seems to be teetering on the brink of success or failure, as a place to do and see theater," he tells me. "I have this deep-seated sense, that I feel
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"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness... It's the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don't
Stage
"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness ... It's the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don't
Arts
Imagine it's 1879, and the American Civil War refuses to end. Imagine the technological advancement that comes from protracted wartime, the same thing that produced the first iron-plated battleships, stretching 15 years longer than our own history allowed. Imagine an industrial mining experiment gone terribly awry, releasing a mysterious undead
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Newly nominated for the 2010 Hugo Award - among the top honors in the sci-fi/fantasy industry - Cherie Priest's novel, Boneshaker, takes on a Washington trapped in territorial limbo as the government deals with a war that will not end, a Pacific Northwest cut off by the decision to route
Live & CD Reviews
I have this weird association in my brain. OK, I have many, but only one that's relevant today, wherein I connect Green Apple Quick Step with Green Day. I know, I know, they sound nothing alike. But that's why it's a weird association, and not just a normal one. Indirectly,
Stage
Pacific Lutheran University's production of the bizarre Irish play The Cripple of Inishmaan begins with promise. From line one, Clare Edgerton and Anne Olsen are thoroughly amusing as a pair of tut-tutting shop owners, Eileen and Kate. Travis Tingvall is instantly irksome as the local crier of consistently boring news
Live & CD Reviews
The first concert I ever attended was blues guitarists Johnny Lang and Buddy Guy at the Pier in Seattle. The second was The Who, on their final three-member tour-bassist Jon Entwistle passed a few days before their next attempt to play the Gorge on the band's subsequent jaunt. The third concert
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The puns, oh god, the puns. If you can think of a pun that involves marine life, courtroom procedure, or marine life enacting courtroom procedure, you can bet it will be found somewhere in the Bryan Willis script of The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy - the tale of
Stage
The puns, oh god, the puns. If you can think of a pun that involves marine life, courtroom procedure, or marine life enacting courtroom procedure, you can bet it will be found somewhere in the Bryan Willis script of The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy - the tale
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When do you give up on what you want to do, and turn to what is profitable and popular? At what point are dreams of art and integrity laid to rest at the altar of commercial whoredom? That is the question posed in the new film Bestsellers, by Tacoma
Live & CD Reviews
I have pondered and considered, and I have determined that what this city needs - OK, one thing of many that this city needs - is more bitchin'-ass slide guitarists. Bitchin'-ass. It's a technical term. It means "bitchin'-ass." I came to this realization Saturday night watching Ten Miles Of Bad Road
Live & CD Reviews
You know what's lame? In multiple senses of the word? Lower back and hip pain. My point being that I wasn't able to stay at Hell's Kitchen as long as I ought Saturday night, and only managed to see Seattle's Otherwise. And that my brain is fairly disconnected this morning,
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You Can't Take It With You is one of my favorite plays. It wasn't a week ago, which should tell you something about the current Lakewood Playhouse production. It is a show full of characters. Not the way most plays are, but more in the, "He's quite a character" vein. A
Stage
You Can't Take It With You is one of my favorite plays. It wasn't a week ago, which should tell you something about the current Lakewood Playhouse production. It is a show full of characters. Not the way most plays are, but more in the, "He's quite a character" vein. A
Live & CD Reviews
Have you ever sat in a bar, by yourself, and watched a large group of friends show up, slowly, for a night out? First, one guy shows up, walks to the other side of the room and sits down at a table way too big for him. Then, one
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Saturday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m., a couple guys will sit down, backs to an East Tacoma shop window. A dozen people at any given time will stand in line with paper for them to scribble upon They'll linger, read, run into friends, talk about the geekiest things anyone not attending
Arts
Saturday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m., a couple guys will sit down, backs to an East Tacoma shop window. A dozen people at any given time will stand in line with paper for them to scribble upon They'll linger, read, run into friends, talk about the geekiest things anyone not attending
Live & CD Reviews
I like this job. It makes me do stuff that I want to do, but never get around to without a kick in the pants. I started a blog of my own a few years ago, and said to myself, "OK, now you've got a reason to get off your
