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I ride my bike to work just after sunrise. About a mile from home, past the fairgrounds and the cemetery, the street becomes a road and plunges into the rolling Palouse, skirting the Moscow city limits. Quail and pheasants spray from the ditches. Wooded hills rise to the north, south
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First the housing market, then Wall Street, then Detroit, and now this. The Little Holland Drive In? When will it end?The inevitable, sadly, has proved inescapable: on July 25, Tacoma’s best classic burger stand stood down. For years the tiny mom-and-pop restaurant defied the odds, going head to head with
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Some New Years feel like birthdays, while others feel like wakes. New Years 2010 in Tacoma is starting to feel a lot like a wake. And that, of course, is as it should be.The optimism that gripped us a few years ago is almost embarrassing to think about now as
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As the election map unfolded in the hours and days after the polls closed on Nov. 3, many in Pierce County were mortified to see what at first looked like a mistake. On the Secretary of State Web site, county after county in the Puget Sound region turned green in
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Most bands would kill to have a lead singer like Marian Ladenberg of the Tacoma indie-pop five-piece You Yell You Kick, who will release their debut EP this weekend at The Den. She can sing. She can write. She’s charismatic. And she looks the part too. So how did guitarist
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Twenty years ago this week massive crowds of East Germans flooded through the gates of the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the end of Soviet communism and the beginning of a new, better era. To celebrate the anniversary, artists and activists across the globe have staged tributes. In Berlin on Monday, 1,000
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It’s finally happening to me The thing I just had to believe It will be seven years in June I know my time is coming soon — Motopony, "June" A gray, blustery Tuesday afternoon. The Mad Hat Tea Company in downtown Tacoma is quiet, almost empty. When Daniel Blue
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On Friday night the sidewalk outside Doyle’s Public house will fill with bicycles. Many of them will be unusual bicycles. On Friday night the tables inside Doyle’s Public House will fill with people. Many of them will be unusual people. One of them will be TW (T-dub to
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On Friday night the sidewalk outside Doyle’s Public house will fill with bicycles. Many of them will be unusual bicycles. On Friday night the tables inside Doyle’s Public House will fill with people. Many of them will be unusual people. One of them will be TW (T-dub to
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On a recent late Tuesday night I found myself alone on the roof of a former methadone clinic, gazing down at the lights of Tacoma. Behind me, on Tacoma Avenue South at the edge of the Brewery District, a van caught fire. Flames. Smoke. Sirens. I thought of
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On a recent late Tuesday night I found myself alone on the roof of a former methadone clinic, gazing down at the lights of Tacoma. Behind me, on Tacoma Avenue South at the edge of the Brewery District, a van caught fire. Flames. Smoke. Sirens. I thought of
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Tarek Wegner just woke up. It’s five in the evening. Standing in a dirty alley, he holds a beer in a plastic bag. The alley is quiet and bright. No cars pass. He sits down on the concrete and leans against an overhead door. “There was a secret
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Ah, summer in the South Sound. A time for baseball, camping, riding bikes, climbing trees, cooking out. Time for walking beaches and hiking mountains. A time to eat bear stew in McCleary, race boats in Olympia and geek out to world music in Tacoma’s Wright Park. That’s right, it’s festival
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I’ve got some questions written out. The first one is this: “Where are you now? What are you doing right now?” I hate phone interviews. (“Phonies,” in the parlance.) They’re so awkward and, well, phony. No nuance. No mood. No raised eyebrows, smiles or furrowed foreheads. No waitress to tease. No
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The cover of Canon Canyon’s 10-inch vinyl release Sit Down and Listen (October, 2008) shows a torn, empty couch flanked on both sides by guitar amps. A picture of John Wayne hangs on the wall beside a stuffed, crazed-looking bear. A guitar, a small lamp, a model sailboat and a
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“If you can go to the darkest corners of things, you can see how the world really works.” — Kye Alfred Hillig, Destruction Island East of Bonney Lake on State Route 410 things begin to change. Traffic lightens. The tract homes dwindle. Mini malls and Starbucks disappear. You
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My wife drops me off at the curb, drives away. I stand on the sidewalk gazing across the street. I check the address in my hand. This block at the edge of downtown is empty. No traffic, no people, no movement anywhere. Weeds devour vacant lots. Buildings look abandoned. A
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In order to write the definitive all-Tacoma bowling guide, I visited six local alleys in a stretch of barely 24 hours, a weird and wondrous saga that showed me a new side of Tacoma and myself and from which I am still recovering. Next time we run into each other
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It’s a warm, bright Monday afternoon at The Swiss. The place is mostly empty. The doors are wide open, and a soft breeze shuffles in. Big trucks and Harleys rumble by outside. As a rule, if I can get Oly on tap, I do — so I do.
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At first glance, nothing seems strange. Just another Sunday at Jefferson Park. Kids running around. Guys throwing balls. Butts parked in lawn chairs. Flames leaping from a charcoal grill. But as you come closer, details emerge: tattoos, piercings, mohawks, a van with “Fart” rattle-canned on the side. This ain’t no
