SUNDAY, MAY 19 2013 >>>

1. Germany's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language film, Barbara paints a picture through its striking cinematography and tension-building plot. The film tells the story of a woman named Barbara during the height of the Cold War in Germany in 1980. Barbara is a doctor who is punished for applying for an exit visa and forced to work in an East German hospital where she remains under intense scrutiny.  Winner of Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, Christian Petzold creates an incredible amount of tension that leaves the viewer on edge. The artistic opening shots are well composed and full of purpose. Each shot is beautiful in a different way than the previous one. Read Cassady Coulter's full feature on Barbara in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section. See the film at 1:55 and 6:45 p.m. in The Grand Cinema.

2. Over the years the Lacey Spring Fun Fair has grown into a great weekend. There are much bigger festivals — Taste of Tacoma, Harbor Days, Freedom Fair — and much smaller neighborhood fairs, bu the Lacey Spring Fun FAir is just the right size, every inch and minute packed with entertainment, car shows, the wacky Kid's World and tons of food. Spring into it from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Martin's University.

3, What started as Paul Manuel's outgrowth of monthly youth jams at Jazzbones on Sixth Avenue has turned into something much more involved; kids of all ages are forming bands, learning to play new instruments, performing and competing through their affiliation with the Puget Sound Music For Youth Association. See it in all its glory at 3 p.m. when Puget Sound Music For Youth Youth-A-Palooza hits The Swiss.

4. Seattle jazz vibraphonist Susan Pascal has taken her music through four tours of Singapore and concerts, workshops and clinics across the United States. Add the Live Jazz @ Marine View show to the list as she performs at Marine View Prebyterian Chuch at 5 p.m.

5. The Lloyd Jones Struggle will showcase their latest original R&B and swingin' blues at their CD Release Show in The Spar at 7 p.m.

LINK: Sunday, May 19 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, MAY 18 2013 >>>

1. "Since the earliest days of our Union, America has been blessed with an unbroken chain of patriots willing to give of themselves so their fellow citizens might live free. Whenever our Nation has come under attack, courageous men and women in uniform have risen to her defense. Whenever our liberties have come under assault, our service members have responded with resolve. Time and again, these heroes have sacrificed to sustain that powerful promise that we hold so dear - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And on Armed Forces Day, we honor those who serve bravely and sacrifice selflessly in our name," said Pres. Barack Obama in his Armed Forces Day proclamation. So, let's celebrate.

2. Get your Gilligan from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. when the Port of Olympia resurrects the Swantown Boatswap and Chowder Challenge. Boat connoisseurs will be able to peruse boats listed for sale, pick up parts and accessories all while enjoying a little bit of live music and chowder from Thurston County eateries. The chowder contest starts promptly at 12:30 p.m. when 12 local restaurants - including Fish Tale Brew Pub, The Sidewalk Café, Tugboat Annies and Lucky Eagle Casino - will serve their finest clam chowder and compete for "best chowder" honors, voted buy the eating public.

3. The Olympia Youth Chorus is one of those organizations you just can't help but feel good about supporting. With an end goal of nurturing an appreciation for music and choral art in kids as young as kindergarten age, the Olympia Youth Chorus has been going strong for over 16 years. At 4 p.m. in the Westwood Baptist Church, the chorus presents "Bach to Rock" - billed as "a sampling of choral music from J.S. Bach and Hildegard von Bingen to Sister Act's 'Joyful, Joyful.'"

4. Weekly Volcano music critic Rev. Adam McKinney says there's vocal similarities between Bodybox frontman Kurt Lindsay and late cult singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley.  The Rev. says, "Lindsay's voice, like Buckley's (though, of course, no one can truly touch Jeff Buckley, vocally), is simultaneously full of bravado and wounded timidity. It quivers with feeling, though it might be noted that Lindsay's voice often comes across as more lost, searching, which adds a nice element to what is largely music that errs toward modern rock, with some detours to friendly mixers like R&B and folk." See for yourself over a glass or three of wine at 8 p.m. in Cork Wine Bar. 

5. There's a full, complicated backstory of the mARMITs, involving an "inter-dimensional long shoreman/neon harvester named Wildcat," of which the mARMITs are captives. The rest of the narrative we'll leave for them to describe at 10 p.m. in Le Voyeur, but what we will mention is the music, which is a delirious concoction that calls to mind other insane innovators like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, with a distinctively populist bent (music-wise) in search of artistic abstraction.

LINK: Saturday, May 18 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, MAY 17 2013 >>>

1. Talented artists command the Madera Architectural Elements Showroom semi-monthly, illuminating their work and creativity with the visually aided enhancement implied by the name of the series, TRIPOD Slide Shows. Created by Tacoma artist Lynn Di Nino, the night of digital slides features three artists and one creative theme.  The next TRIPOD Slide Show slides into Madera tonight from 7-8:30 p.m. featuring 15-minute slide shows by Mady Murrey will show slides of art hidden at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, nationally syndicated political cartoonist Chris Britt and Oregon’s "Barbie Lady" LaVonne Sallee.

2. The annual Military Retiree Appreciation Day event runs from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hangar 9, building #1166, on JBLM-McChord Field. Event officials are expecting approximately 2,000 military beneficiaries to attend, who will enjoy the Madigan Healthcare System Health Fair, ID card issuance and replacement opportunities, the Legal Assistance Station, Vehicle registration fun, the VA Compensation Review Station and the Veterans Information Expo.

3. Grit City Comedy Club will be closed for three weeks while Malarkey’s Pool & Brew hosts the APA League Championship for Pierce County May 17-June 1. Winners will move onto the Nationals in Las Vegas.

4. Paula McLain wrote The Paris Wife, a novel that captures the love affair between Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. McLain paints a real sense of their daily life - Hemingway's charisma, genius, stinginess and cruelty that apparently could erupt with no warning - and the citizens of Pierce County know this. For the past two months, thousands have been reading the book as part of the Pierce County READS program. At 7 p.m., McLain will drop in on the McGavick Conference Center to discuss the book, and the life of the famous couple.

5. Local Internet NWCZ Radio knows music. It's not only obvious from their daily shows, but also in the live shows they produce — as in the case of the 9 p.m. presentation of Ben Union, Perry Acker and The Furniture Girls at the Harmon Tap Room in Tacoma.

LINK: Friday, May 17 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

THURSDAY, MAY 16 2013 >>>

1. Rose Windows evokes the sounds of American and British psychedelia of the late '60s, while also incorporating elements of proto-metal acts like the Gun and Black Sabbath, even managing to emulate those earlier psych bands' cannibalizing of world music. Catch the band at 8 p.m. with La Luz and Happy Noose at Northern in downtown Olympia.

2. It's bike night at the Tacoma Art Museum. Ride your bike to Tacoma Art Museum and enjoy an evening of art activities that you can combine to your bike. Learn about Bike to Work Month and see a collection of photos as part of 253bike. Enjoy free admission to the Tacoma art Museum from 5 to 8 p.m. and receive a free Eric Carle bookmark at the Admissions Desk.

3. At 5:45 p.m., Tacoma Deputy Mayor Marty Campbell will jump on the Tacoma ART BUS as its celebrity tour guide. It's Campbell's second or third tour as host. He knows the routine. He knows jokes. And he knows the city like the back of his hand, so if something happens to the bus driver, Campbell could drive the bus to the designated stops: Rampart, Art Stop, FabLab, Bleach, Mica, 253 Collective and The Social. Reserve your spot here.

4. Film reviewer Robert Horton will pull up a bale of hay at 7:30 p.m. in the Olympia Timberland Library. Horton will explain how the Western movie was America's bedrock mythology for the first 70s years of film history, but during the hippie era the genre the "revisionist" Western took up a fiercely critical argument with the past: In the disillusioned age of the counterculture and Vietnam, you could no longer distinguish heroes from villains by the color of their hats. Horton thinks because of the dramatic changes seen in Westerns, the genre forces us to look critically at our own myths: Why do we need the clarity of "good guys" and "bad guys" at certain times? Why do we sometimes embrace a more ambiguous view of human nature? How do these movies challenge us - and what happens when a movie forces us to question our long-cherished beliefs? Will Horton hear from you?

5. The Twang Junkies will fill The Swiss with rockin' country tunes beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Thursday, May 16 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15 2013 >>>

1. Why go on a beer run when you can participate in a beer walk. We don't know what that means, but we do know this: Downtown On the Go's Walk Tacoma tours are awesome, and at 5:15 p.m. local historian Michael Sullivan will lead the tour through Tacoma's Brewery District. For 45 minutes Sullivan will point out interesting buildings in the downtown Tacoma historic district, drop Tacoma historical facts and drink Tacoma beer with the group at the post walk party at Harmon Brewery & Eatery. The walk, sponsored by Union Bank, begins at the top of the University of Washington Tacoma stairs at South 19th and Jefferson then weaves through the district like a person drunk on beer.

2. Australian artist Nick Mount with American artist Richard Marquis will be inaugurating the 2013 Visiting Artists Summer Series in the Hot Shop at Museum of Glass today through Sunday, May 19. Since working amongst the pioneers of hot glass in Australia in the early 1970s, Mount has been one of that country's pre-eminent glass artists. His work combines virtuoso technique with a keen instinct for design. He has exhibited in Europe, South America, the United States and Japan and is recognised internationally for his exhibition work, commissions and teaching. He's kind of a big deal.

3. The "World War II" exhibit is on display at Karpeles Manuscript Museum housing the Japanese flag captured at the Battle of Okinawa and the navigator's flight log of the Enola Gay Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber at the time of its dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It's open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

4. Held every Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Dorky's Arcade, Trivia for Dorks is a free, all-ages affair with such prizes as gift certificates to Dorky's. Sure, prizes are nice, but even better is dropping your win at your next round table D & D discussion. Teams can earn bonus points for correctly identifying the night's theme.

5. Little Wings, aka Kyle Field, is an instantly engaging performer. Whether it is huddled under a blanket softly singing to a small handful of listeners, or bellowing out his caterwaul warbled yelp in small theaters, there is a striking intimacy in his approach. At 8 p.m., Little Wings takes his roadshow to the "guesthouse" with guests Lee Baggett and Globelamp. It is a house show, so be polite, double check the Facebook invite for more information and most of all enjoy the experience.

LINK: Wednesday, May 15 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

TUESDAY, MAY 14 2013 >>>

1. At 12, Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is living in a small, poor village, when she is captured by guerrilla fighters and conscripted into their army of child soldiers. The first act demanded of her is that she kill her parents. Sobbing, she complies, and the initiation is complete: "You are now a rebel of the Great Tiger." In Kim Nguyen's fictionalized account of this African child soldier, War Witch, Komona shares her story, explaining to her baby - and us - how her short life has already arrived at such a fraught place. Komona finds hope for survival in protective, ghost-like visions, and in a tender relationship with a fellow soldier named Magician. Together, they manage to escape the rebels' clutches, and a normal life finally seems within reach. But after their freedom proves short-lived, Komona realizes she must find a way to bury the ghosts of her past. War Witch, an award-winning film - including a nominee for Best Foreign Film at this year's Academy Awards - will screen at 2:15 and 6:40 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

2.Holocaust survivor Edith Eger will lecture on discarding limitations, discovering powers of self-renewal and achieving things previously thought unattainable at 2:30 p.m. at Tacoma Community College as part of its Student Life Artist & Lecture Series. In May 1944, at the age of 16, Eger was a classically trained ballerina and aspiring gymnast. Her dreams were crushed when she and her family were taken from their home in Kassa, Hungary, and sent to Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp. Rescued by an American soldier in 1945, she eventually moved to the United States and became an acclaimed clinical psychologist and lecturer.

3. Did you know that bicyclists helped to pave the way for Tacoma's first roads? Or that Tacoma was once the cycling capitol of the Pacific Northwest? Yes, we do know. Tacoma's Active Transportation Coordinator Diane Wiatr told on two occasions. Her presentation on Tacoma's bicycle history is worth hearing. Catch it at 6 p.m. in the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma. Stick around afterward to enjoy a free screening of the Academy Award nominated, animated film The Triplets of Belleville.

4. Usually when you go to the casino you just lose money - but tonight could be different. Danny Vernon's Illusions of Elvis will be at the Red Wind Casino this evening. Travel out to Yelm and have a great time with the King's likeness, starting at 6:30 p.m.

5. If hearing the sound of your own cackling voice echoing off the walls of your shower stall has you craving the sound of something a bit more harmonious, check out the local songbirds and storytellers at Victory Music Open Mic at the Antique Sandwich Co. It's guaranteed to be jam-packed with gorgeous sounds and humbling verses, as the South Sound's greatest up-and-coming acoustic musicians bare their souls impromptu-style beginning at 7 p.m.

LINK: Tuesday, May 14 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, MAY 13 2013 >>>

1. Remember back in the day when you were in your first apartment and spent a memorable Saturday night with your friends just blaring the record player and singing along to random selections from your album collection? Toss in a pitcher of PBR and extreme lighting and that is karaoke at Bob's Java Jive. Sunday through Tuesday at 9 p.m. has Nikki Weatherhead on the mic. The spunky Tacoman never seems to lack energy or a smile even if the sign up sheet is less than full.

2. A lot of us have fantasized about ways we might be able to talk our way out of jury duty. Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero and her guest, Judge Christopher Wickham, have a thing or two to say about that issue and the inner workings of Superior Court at their coffee and conversation event at 9:30 a.m. at Rainier City Hall, 11 a.m. at Tacos Gaby in Yelm (no, it's true) and 2 p.m. Olympic Crest Coffee in Lacey.

3. Former Coast Guard Alexis Courneen has a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and crushed nerves in her right arm; (ret.) Army gunner Sue Downes came home a double-amputee after her tour in Afghanistan; Iraq war veteran Layla Mansberger is a Military Sexual Trauma (MST) survivor who suffers with Post Traumatic Stress-Disorder (PTSD). A new documentary funded by the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) entitled, SERVICE: When Women Come Marching Home, followed these Servicemembers and five other female veterans after they redeployed with mental and physical injuries suffered in combat.A free film screening and panel discussion will be hosted by the University of Washington Tacoma from 6-8 p.m.

4. Whether you know The Dukes of Swing are back or not - they're back - you might want to know they're the offical stage band of Elks Lodge No. 593 in Aberdeen and are performing at 8 p.m. in The Royal Lounge.

5. Dean Reickard will fill The Swiss with blues beginning at 8 p.m.

LINK: Monday, May 13 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, MAY 11 2013 >>>

1. Hey moms! Bikes are cool and they make you butt look great. They are the best things to hit Tacoma since craft beer in cans. On this Mother's Day join CycloFemme and the global women's cycling movement for a spin around and around and around the Point Defiance's Five Mile Drive. Tour Defiance launches at 10 a.m. from the Antique Sandwich Company. Bring your helmets. Mother's Day dinner from a hospital would suck.

2. Yesterday's weather was nice, but you could barely enjoy it since all you could think about was the sad state of your closet. You want flirty skirts and kitten heels in the freshest colors and styles for spring, yet your warm wool trousers and cashmere sweaters are still taking up prime real estate in your closet. You better believe that after today's Mother/Daughter Fashion Show at Sonja - Clothes To Live In, you'll be singing a happier tune. Sonja Silver has been dressing women for many years, and since moving her boutique behind her Proctor Frozen Yogurt, she and Craig Fite have been keeping Tacoma smiling since last summer. at 3 p.m., three sets of three generations will model Silver's spring/summer fashion. So, before heading outside to soak up the spring weather, check in with Silver so you can really enjoy the season in style.

3. Jazzbones hosts a "A Very Special Day with Sinatra: A Night at the Sands," a long title but cool nonetheless. Joey Jewell will be in the house to sing the Sinatra hits with Jim Kerl's SWingin' '60s Orchestra backing. Ten bucks gets you in to the 6:30 p.m. show.

4. Chris Stevens & The Surf Monkeys will will be joined by Jay Mabin and his harmonica for a free show at 7 p.m. in The Spar. 

5. The Tacoma Comedy Club presents Comics Under The Influence where five comics perform a set each sober, and then while the other comics are performing they pound booze and return to the stage wasted to do another set. Jubal Flagg from Movin 95.5 FM tries to keep the thing flowing, beginning at 8 p.m.

LINK: Sunday, May 12 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SATURDAY, MAY 11 2013 >>>

1. The common interpretation of composer Susan Botti's Cosmosis is it tells the story of a science experiment. The PLU University Wind Ensemble and University Singers set the science-theme poetry of May Swenson to music, answering the question: Can a spider spin a web in space? The multi-discipline, three-part performance depicts the struggles of a spider trying to construct a web without the assistance of gravity. However, if you analyze deeper, you'll discover Botti's baton actually symbolizes an alien construct, left behind by an ancient and advanced race. The baton can accelerate development of less-evolved lifeforms, as it did with the Rococo movement in France, and signal the arrival of advanced races, which happens, 263 years later, when Botti picks it up at 8 p.m. in Lagerquist Concert Hall. Oh, and Botti will be reborn as an alien. PLU science professors Brett Underwood and Justin Lytle will confirm this theory in a post-concert presentation.

2. Hilltop Artists is a nonprofit glass arts program created by the iconic Dale Chihuly designed to use "glass art to connect young people from diverse cultural and economic background to better futures." The program boasts more than 500 students a year, and each year its Spring Glass Sale acts as both a great opportunity to make its mission known, and offer chances at top-notch work to one and all. In fact, the Hilltop Artists Spring Glass Sale has become so popular that attendees are asked to start showing up at 9 a.m. to take a number, with entry starting at 10 a.m. in the order that people arrived. All proceeds go directly back to the program.

3. The Foss Waterway Seaport reopens at 11 a.m. after 18 months of closure for remodeling. The Seaport will kick off its summer season with fun family activities such as sack races, sea shanty performances and cannon fire every hour. When you're not covering your ears, check out the new awesome 55-foot high glass front wall and exhibits, which include artifacts and pictures that portray the story of the famous "Mosquito Fleet" that plied the waters of Commencement Bay. Special reduced admission pricing will be offered May 11 and 12 in honor of the opening weekend.

4. Michael Hoover, co-director at The BareFoot Collective, has created a dance piece to his love of punk music, and in particular Tacoma's Girl Trouble, the garage-punk band that has its sights on a 30th anniversary next year. As part of BareFoot's Ides of May performance May 11 at the Theatre of the Square, Hoover will describe the rockers through the motion of local dancers. In addition to Hoover's punk maneuvers, The Ides of May dance concert will include the music of Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount and Nathaniel Dybevik, original work from Serendip Dance Brigade, the choreography of Carla Baragan of BQDanza, Serena River and dancers from PLU at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at Theatre on the Square.

5. Team "Future Bass" - DJ Broam, Bobby Galaxy, Mr. Melanin (happy birthday!), Del Brown and Najamoniq - will lay down squiggly squeaks, breaky beats, distorted hip-hop samples, wobbling bass lines, clean taps, eerie synthesized keys and some badass soul beginning at 9:30 p.m. - surrounded by projected video and live visuals - at 9:30 p.m. in The New Frontier Lounge. Bonus: The night is dedicated to Monique LeTourneau who's moving to Colorado to do Teach For America.

LINK: Saturday, May 11 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, MAY 10 2013 >>>

1. Tonight at Jazzbones, Midnight Salvage Co. will be playing their last official show - and releasing their sophomore album, Neon Lights. A year ago, the band holed up at Seattle's Egg studios with veteran producer Conrad Uno (Mudhoney, Presidents of the United States of America, Young Fresh Fellows), unbeknownst to the band members that a year later guitarist Brason Alexander would be blazing to sunny Cali, bassist Dustin Lau would be headed to The Big Apple and their University Place practice space would meet a wrecking ball. Drop by Jazzbones at 8 p.m., enjoy opener China Davis, take it Midnight Salvage's shot of whiskey infused roadhouse Springsteen and grab yourself a piece of musical history.

2. 72 hours is not a long time. The teams competing in this year's Grand Cinema 72 Hour Film Festival - a yearly Tacoma institution - know this all too well. Recently, frenzied packs of Tacoma filmmakers dashed around T-town, hurriedly capturing on film all the entries that will make up this year's manic, competitive filmmaking celebration - set to go down at 7 p.m. inside the Rialto Theater. Who will win? How will all the "mandatory elements" - including the use of a superstition, a flashlight, the writing or sending of a letter or message and the line "That wasn't what I was expecting" - be worked into all of the entries? Find out tonight. Read Cassady Coulter's full feature on the 72 Hour Film Festival in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section.

3. Distinguished writers, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and people who scribble on cocktail napkins will step up to the mic from 7-9 p.m. as part of the Distinguished Writer Series and Open Mic at King's Books. Aging hippie poet Risa Deneberg, author of The Lives You Touch Publications, will take lead.

4. Ballet Northwest’s production of The Sleeping Beauty includes professional sets, lavish costumes, 75 local dancers and guest artist Iyun Harrison, formerly of Dance Theater of Harlem. See the twirls at 7:30 p.m. inside The Washington Center.

5. There's a kind of gauzy, depressive Americana that began spreading around in the '90s, spearheaded by the likes of Bill Callahan and Lambchop - these masters and practitioners of the slow-burning, baritone-voiced folk music that reveled in cynical humor as much as poignantly expressive dirges. The Super 8 are instantly evocative of these touchstones, the vocals pointedly reminiscent of Kurt Wagner's distinctive croak and Callahan's defeated mumble, and the guitars mournfully spilling deceptively beautiful melodies from deep within that hollow body. Check them out at 8 p.m. with Gary Alan May and the Hinges inside Northern.

LINK: Friday, May 10 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area