Welcome to the first in a semi-recurring series of Spew blog entries devoted to all things nerdly. I myself am a Star Wars fan, mathlete, and spelling bee champion of long standing, so trust me: I grok whereof I speak.

Monday, April 2

Westeros hangover. Take it easy and drink plenty of fluids.

Tuesday, April 3

Technically issue #1 of Avengers Vs. X-Men doesn't street until Wednesday, but Nick Fury expects you to be better prepared. The Avengers movie is only a month away, so stifle your raging nerd boner by burying your nose in the glorious work of industry legends Brian Bendis and John Romita, Jr. Gabi's giving away free swag to early purchasers, so stick it to the Phoenix Force (and that smirking douche Cyclops) once and for all ... at least till issue #2.

• Gabi's Olympic Cards and Comics, Avengers Vs. X-Men Launch Party, free, 8 p.m., 4230 Pacific Ave., Lacey, 360.459.7721

I've never met a geek yet who didn't love a few hours of drunken trivia. Tuesday night is Quiz Night at The Swiss, and yes, that means cash prizes. The game room boasts foosball, an antique shuffleboard table, and an HD console hunting game called Big Buck Safari. Let's face it, fellow geeks: that's the closest we'll ever get to real danger. I still have PTSD from Atari Jungle Hunt.

• The Swiss, Quiz Night, free, 7 p.m., 1904 S. Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2821

Friday, April 6

Look, you can celebrate the vernal fertility rite however you want, but for my money, the Anglo-Saxon dawn goddess Eostre all but demands you join Lacey Parks & Rec at the Third Annual Adult Flashlight Egg Scramble. (My wife received the gift of an adult flashlight at her bachelorette party, and let me tell you, it enlivens any occasion.) The event boasts an over-40 field, a ladies-only field, and if things get crazy at the punch bowl, a clothing-optional field. Good Friday indeed!

• Regional Athletic Complex, Adult Flashlight Easter Scramble, $5, 9 p.m., 8345 Steilacoom Rd. SE, Olympia, 360.491.0857

On the other hand, I've seen Hell's Belles, the all-female AC/DC tribute band; and their guitarist, Adrian Conner, will blow your face bones clean out the back of your skull. This represents a Class Five "missing this event is not an option" type situation, so ... sorry, Jesus and Eostre. We'll catch back up with you on Sunday.

• Capitol Theater, Hell's Belles, $10-$15, 8:30 p.m., 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, 360.754.6670

Spoiler alert for next week: Radiohead plays Seattle next Monday. Why, yes, I can sing OK Computer from beginning to end from memory! ... which makes me even sadder than Thom Yorke.

SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2012 >>>

1. You can't help be jealous of letterpress artists. They both intelligence and creativity, and when they collaborate, you get a massive-shot of talent. A massive shot is exactly what will go down from 6-8 p.m. when King's Books hosts Wayz and Means: Letterpress Film Festival screening short films celebrating letterpress and book arts. Tickets are $20 and include popcorn, liquid refreshments, and - of course - cake. The event will raise funds for the Stadium District bookstore's annual Wayzgoose: Letterpress and Book Arts Festival. Apparently, filmgoers will also have the opportunity to purchase early Wayzgoose raffle tickets.

2. This morning we woke up in this house where we're dog-sitting, and the thought crossed our minds that if I were an O'Malley or an O'Reilly, we'd be an Irish sitter.  Other random ideas raced around our brains like a dog chasing its tail before we could unleash ourselves from the warm covers of this foreign bed. You see, Ted must be walked by 10 a.m. (Hey, it's Sunday!) Anyway, we're going to kill two birds with one stone. Pet Connection Magazine's 5th Annual Dog-Gone Easter Egg Hunt runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rainier Vista Park in Lacey. For $3, we can run the dog silly, and collect some food for an afternoon omelet. As a bonus, there's some sort of dog fashion show benefiting Old Dog Haven & Feline Friends.

3. Books are your friends. They are like theatric performances in your head. And the Bonney Lake branch of the Pierce County Library system is making it easier to see more mental plays, by holding book sale from 1-5 p.m. Expect crazy discounts on a great variety of materials for all ages and interests, including hardback and paperback fiction and nonfiction, children's books, cookbooks, reference books, audiobooks, music and movies.

4. Local fixture Dave Graham is at the center of a benefit show to aid in the cost of his cancer treatment beginning at 3 p.m. at The Swiss. Rev. Adam McKinney has the details here.

5. Some would argue that a dive bar like the China Clipper Club and Café is no place to party. But let us tell you something, friend: There's a little thing called class. Class is something you can't buy. Class is something inherited. Class is years and years of spilled drinks, double shots and drunken hookups. Class never goes away, no matter how dirty the carpet is or how dilapidated the karaoke stage becomes. Class makes drinking fun. And let us tell you, friends: the China Clipper oozes class. By the way, karaoke is nightly at 9 p.m.

PLUS: More awesome event suggestions in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 >>>

1. Ludwig Van Beethoven was a badass. The German composer and pianist smashed the keys hard enough to break the strings. He used vulgar language. Franz Schubert, on the other hand, was the Tom Hanks of classical composers: a shy workaholic with an amazing body of work. Schubert, nicknamed "Mushroom" by his friends for his retiring personality, wrote almost 1,000 works of music before he died of typhoid fever at 31. These included more than 600 songs, nine symphonies, operas, liturgical music, and chamber and solo piano music. At 7:30 p.m., University of Puget Sound's School of Music will give its own bow to Mushroom with the Jacobsen Series concert Schubertiade, featuring a small sampling of the Austrian composer's immense portfolio of work.

2. Have you seen them? Homeowners are replacing sod with vegetable beds and building chicken coops by their garages. The Joneses are becoming the McDonalds, converting their prime North End Tacoma real estate into a miniature farm. South Sounders are fighting for their right to raise hens, ducks, goats and honey bees. Want in? Local author Dave Toht will pull his tractor up to Orca Books at 7 p.m. and tell all your wannabe Farmers in the Dell how to turn your yard into a productive and wholesome "homestead," rich in fruits and vegetables, and livestock, including chickens, ducks, and goats. Toht knows. He wrote the book, Backyard Homesteading, in which he covers the laws and regulations of raising livestock in populated areas and demonstrates to readers how to use and preserve the bounty they produce. He'll also tell you what to do about angry neighbors who are hating on your rooster. 

3. The animal workers of Manor Farm stage a glorious revolution and drive away Mr. Jones, their despised human ruler. They institute a new democratic regime, but it turns out, as the famous line goes, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." The pigs, you see, can read and write, and they use these abilities to dominate the other species and (pardon the expression) hog the fruits of their labor. Olympia Family Theater's Animal Farm tracks the rise to power of a ruthless porker named Napoleon, and if you know your 20th-century history, you'll have no trouble recognizing him as a stand-in for Stalin. See it go down beginning at 7 p.m.

4. The Liberty Theater in Puyallup hosts comedians Jubal Flagg, Susan Rice and Travis Simmons at 8 p.m.

5. At 8 p.m. Obscure Robot, Four Dimensional Nightmare and Bagger288 burst out of the gate at the Tacoma Noise Rodeo inside Metronome Coffee on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue.

PLUS: More awesome event suggestions in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Rain, hi 52, lo 36

Saturday: Rain, hi 50, lo 37

Sunday: More mf-ing rain, hi 50, lo (our motivation)

>>> FRIDAY, MARCH 30: Edible Book Festival

The Weekly Volcano will eat anything. For instance, take Poppers Mini-Taquitos ... just not from us (bada boom). Sucking liquefied meat from an edible straw - a mere dream until recent advances in mini-taquito technology. Anyway, what we have never eaten are books. Why would we? Sure, we've eaten our words. And we've been in plenty of binds. But books? Well, people will eat books Friday at the University of Puget Sound. Collins Memorial Library at UPS dedicates itself to protecting books, but come Friday it will eat them at the University's sixth Edible Books Festival. What is an edible book? Duh. An edible book is made of food and inspired by literary titles, characters or authors - such as Lord of the Onion Rings.

• Collins Memorial Library, Friday, March 30, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 3:30 p.m. awards ceremony, no cover (get it!), North 18^th Street and North Warner Street, Tacoma, 253.879.3669

>>> FRIDAY, MARCH 30: Tacoma Noise Radio

The Weekly Volcano is not here to make this stuff up. Truth happens. Reality pinches, rides up, makes you start and shiver in utter amazement. The Tacoma Noise Rodeo returns to treat the denizens of Sixth Avenue to experimental electronic music. No, not guitar feedback synced with loud Ultimate Fighting DVDs the neighbor kids cranks in his basement Friday nights. Rather, glorious modular synthesizers, patch cables and Commodore 64 machines producing extremely loudly, wicked alchemical magic, meaty pulsing rhythms, monster drone and giant washes of sound, all making you want to run a marathon while eating raw meat, naked. Show producer Chris Lehfeldt will showcase his band Bagger 288 along with Obscure Robot and Four Dimensional Nightmare at Metronome Coffee on Sixth Avenue.

• Metronome Coffee, Friday, March 30, 7 p.m., all ages, no cover, 3518 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.301.2375

>>> FRIDAY, MARCH 30 & SUNDAY, APRIL 1: La Boheme

Tacoma Opera will stage the classic, much-loved opera La Boheme in its original Italian, although there will be English subtitles provided for the unwashed heathens in the audience who don't know the story of young love with a tragic ending - as all operas seem to have. Uncultured Gen Xers will better know the story as Rent, a high-quality blockbuster knockoff of the earlier Puccini work.

• Rialto Theater, Friday, March 30 8 p.m., Sunday, April 1 2 p.m., $25 an dup, 310 S. Ninth St., Tacoma, 253.627.7789

>>>SATURDAY, MARCH 30: Dockyard Derby Dames season opener 

Derailed, like many things, by snowmaggedon 2012, the Dockyard Derby Dames will officially kick off season six Saturday night inside the Pierce College Health Ed Center in Lakewood. The Dames open with hot roller debry action featuring the Marauding Mollys battling Season 5 champions The Trampires, followed by the Hellbound Homewreckers taking on the Femme Fianna. Bring the whole family, won't you?

• Pierce College Health ed Center, Saturday, March 31, 6 p.m., doors at 5 p.m., beer garden, $12 advance, 9401 Farwest Dr. SW, Lakewood, www.dockyardderbydames.com

>>> SUNDAY, APRIL 1: Wayz And Means: Letterpress Film Festival

You can't help be jealous of letterpress artists. They both intelligence and creativity, and when they collaborate, you get a massive-shot of talent. A massive shot is exactly what will go down Sunday when King's Books hosts Wayz and Means: Letterpress Film Festival screening short films celebrating letterpress and book arts. Tickets are $20 and include popcorn, liquid refreshments, and - of course - cake. The event will raise funds for the Stadium District bookstore's annual Wayzgoose: Letterpress and Book Arts Festival. Apparently, filmgoers will also have the opportunity to purchase early Wayzgoose raffle tickets.

• King's Books, Sunday, April 1, 6-8 p.m., $20, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.8801

WHAT SOME OF OUR STAFF MEMBERS ARE UP TO

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL Theater Critic
I need to devote quite a bit of time to opera rehearsals, but I'm also hoping to catch a performance of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me at Tacoma Little Theatre. I hear it's amazing.

ALEC CLAYTON Arts Critic
We're going to the Jazz Night Out fundraiser for Capital City Pride Saturday night. It's at the Urban Onion.

JENNI PRANGE BORAN Arts and Feature Writer
A bowling alley I walk by almost everyday reputedly has karaoke on the weekends. ... So the husband and I might be spending Friday night at Pacific Lanes revisiting '80s hits via cheap beer. Sunday will be spent, as April 1 is every year, thinking of ways to fool various family members.

NIKKI TALOTTA Music Writer
I'm slinging drinks for Friday happy hour then headed up to Hell's Kitchen to catch one of my fave bands of all time - Stone Axe! Saturday, the garden calls. And on Sunday, I plan to round off the weekend with a free aerialist show at the Brotherhood Lounge. Thank you Puget Sound for making my weekend stellar!

JOANN VARNELL Theater Critic
This weekend is the official start of my spring break! We'll kick it off with dinner with friends. Saturday morning will find us bleary-eyed and headed to SeaTac for an early flight to Colorado. Sunday we will pack up a car with the toddler and the in-laws for a 10 hour drive to South Dakota. Giant dogs and friends will hold down the home front until we return.

MOLLY GILMORE Arts and Feature Writer
I'm seeing Enchanted April at Harlequin Productions and Pina at
the Capitol Theater.

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Photographer
I have the kids through spring break, so the list of fun will include a trip to Gibson's for some fro-yo and then the Dave Graham love fest at The Swiss, followed by a movie or a walk around the waterfront.

JOSH RIZEBERG Music Columnist
This Friday at 6 p.m. I'll be teaching my Spoken-Word/Poetry class at the D.A.S.H. Center for the Arts. The class is available for students of all-ages to sign-up, drop-ins are also encouraged. After my class I'll hit-up the new Club In on 728 Pacific Ave. where I'll check-out the Reggae Rapfest, performing is D'Rocc and Second Family and others. It's $8 presale or $12 at the door. Saturday I'm keeping it local and hitting Hell's Kitchen for the "Working Class Artists Spring Tour" featuring AKA, Mike Drastic and The Krisis. This show starts at 9 and is only $5 to get in. On Sunday the Northwest M.C. League is getting-down on Ninth and Broadway at the Graffiti-Garages! This event is always free and always all-ages.

JOE IZENMAN Theater Critic
Beginning the most epic of all possible Risk campaigns with certain pillars of the Tacoma nerd community? Could be. Fishing for culture at Tacoma Symphony Chorus's presentation of Faure's Requiem? Might be. Trekking up to the geekstravaganza that is Emerald City Comic Con? Probably. Celebrating the commencement of Proctor Farmer's Market season? Definitely.

JOSHUA SWAINSTON Features Writer
Joshua Swainston will be dreaming of Tacoma while sailing around Prince
Williams Sound, Alaska. Oh ... and working on my next Volcano article, of
course.

LINK: Even more local events that we recommend

LINK: Comprehensive South Sound Arts & Entertainment Calendar

TACOMA'S NEW POP CULTURE COLLABORATION >>>

Very soon, a change will be upon downtown Tacoma. Box Top Vintage, a store we all know and love, will transform into something new. Something strange, and yet welcomed.

"It's all true. The rumors you've heard are true," says Jooley Heaps, owner of Box Top Vintage.

It will become a new store called Poison Apple, headed up by Heaps and Jason McKibbin, lead singer of I Defy and all around comic book guru. This dynamic duo is shaking up Tacoma's gift shop scene with Heaps's sense of novelty and McKibbin's knack for nerdiness.

"Poison Apple will be Tacoma's newest pop culture hotspot," says McKibbin.

The change will bring even more novelty retail, expanding Box Top's selection and augmenting it with vintage comics, toys, vinyl records, movie posters, out-of-print horror VHS, local music CDs, DVDs, and also gaming supplies.

"I will be bringing a whole new dimension in nerdom to the City of Destiny," says McKibbin.

But why change, faithful fans of Box Top may ask.

"I've sold vintage for about 17 years. Personally I'm just done with it," says Heaps. "If something stops being inspiring or fun or you're not super devoted to it anymore, change it. I've had fun novelties and retail for a while and I enjoy selling that more, so I wanted to branch out and go from there."

Heaps has plans to add more wacky products as Poison Apple really gets going, including everything from fun greeting cards to retro candy. Box Top already carried some Archie McPhee items, zombie stuff, and more - many of these items will be back in full force at Poison Apple.

While Box Top Vintage had occasional events, plans are in the works to have regular, scheduled events and perhaps something like a free comic book day each week. Scheduled events may include arts happenings, or writer or band signings.

Jason and I know a lot of people," says Heaps. "So say a band is coming to play Hell's Kitchen; we'll have them do a signing over here. There's so much we can do to really take advantage of our location."

"We are starting small, but plan on building Poison Apple into a giant corporation to be idolized by screaming throngs of rabid fanboys and girls," says McKibbin.

There is no specific date for Poison Apple's opening day yet, but keep an eye out for more details, coming soon to a Facebook fan page near you. Once a date is announced, soon after will follow an announcement for a grand opening party, and great celebrations punctuated by light refreshments will ensue.

The target date for this revelry is the beginning of April. The store may be closed for a few days before the grand opening.

"As we get closer to the opening time, we may butcher paper the windows for a few days until we get it all together - to build the excitement!" says Heaps.

Box Top Vintage Fan Page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Box-Top-Vintage/362018920891

Poison Apple Fan Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poison-Apple-Tacoma/112708192194186

FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2012 >>>

1. Every traveler has had that Moment. The Moment you know you will look back on six months (or a year, or 10 years) from now and laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh, just laugh hysterically that you could be so wrong about a flight time, or that performing street monkeys could have such light fingers. If you'd like to remember that Moment when the young French fella stole all your cash while you were kissing along the Seine, and laugh to yourself, the Second City Chamber Series continues its "Hallowed Halls" season of exploration in regards to music with a program entitled "Paris Conservatoire" featuring works for wind instruments from the French tradition. At 7:30 p.m. inside The Great Hall of Annie Wright School, the Principal Winds of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra (Mary Jensen, flute; Selena Greso, oboe; and John Ruze, bassoon) join pianist Oksana Ezhokina for compositions by French composers Jules Demersserman, Marin Marais, Francis Poulenc, and Alexandre Tansman, as well as by the Canadian/American composer, Bill Douglas. Go to expedite your transition to the laughing place. Just go.

2. Who serves the best Cloud Chowder in Tacoma? Tonight, the Mandolin Café does. The recently formed rockin' blues improv trio will explore the space at 6 p.m.

3. Metrosexual: (noun) "Of or pertaining to a straight, urban male who is eager to embrace and even show off his feminine side, especially when it comes to expensive haircuts, designer suits, and $40 face cream." At 7:30 p.m. inside Orca Books, poet Bill Kelly will sing the praises of th emetrosexual when he reads from Kindness Is In Me: Poems in Praise of Men. The poems in this book, and the photos accompanying them, offer a much needed corrective to the masculine images so prevalent in the media. All proceeds from the sale of the book at the event will go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound.

4. Jazzbones hosts the VetsMeetVets Military Appreciation Fundraiser with Cee Cee James, Voxxy Vallejo and Stacy Jones beginning at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds benefit VetsMeetVets.org, with 20 percent off bar and food tabs for those with military ID.

5. The Harmon Tap Room Underground continues to hone its new music room with an Automatic Theory and Bodybox show at 9 p.m.

MORE THINGS TO DO: The Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight in the region

LINK: South Sound happy hour food and drinks

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012 >>>

1. The Puget Sound is on the mat starring up at Climate Change in tights, mask and cape on the top turnbuckle and its going to receive a hard elbow. Then Over Population will raise Puget Sound above its head and throw it into a metal chair. In a full sprint from the dressing room Pollution will toss Puget Sound back onto the mat, then stomp, gouge and pin it. The Puget Sound is gonna go, well, there you are, I'm finished, sorry, and walk out. Today, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Puget Sound Science Panel will meet in the City of Tacoma's TAGRO office to review and discuss the scientific aspects of a regional plan to prevent Puget Sound from leaving. The meeting is open to the public. Bring your knee pads.

2. America's ineffectual government, led by an unpopular president, is helpless to combat meteorological catastrophe; meanwhile, avaricious bankers rape the working class. The insulated elite barricades itself behind gilded walls, while haggard masses wander aimlessly, scavenging the ravaged landscape. This isn't an allegory for The Walking Dead. It's the story of this country's Great Depression. The Washington State History Museum examines the era through The exhibit, Hope in Hard Times, and how ordinary people worked for change in their communities, pulling together to find ways to deal with the crisis. A billy club used during the 1934 "Battle of Smith Cove," WPA artifacts, and everyday items are among some of the objects showcased in this exhibition. The paintings and sketches of Ronald Debs Ginther, also featured in the exhibition, comprise one of the most complete visual records of the Great Depression. Take a walk through from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3. Despite the philosophic passages, introspective musings, pageantry, and Russian geography of Leo Tolstoy's supreme achievement in novel form, Anna Karenina is also a whopping good story whose characters are so finely drawn that one comes to love them as friends. So it's no wonder Tacoma's Classic Book Club - which has been meeting since 1994! - will tackle the novel at 7 p.m. inside King's Books.

4. The Harmon Tap Room Underground hosts an open mic from 7-9 p.m. It's a good opportunity to check out the remodeled music room.

5. There was a time when the Big Friction Jam at Jazzbones was THE place to be for Sunday night maxin', relaxin' and jammin'. Powered by the groove-heavy leanings of saxophonist Brett "Big Friction" Cummings, and aptly backed by a rhythm section the South Sound knows well - drummer Darin Watkins and bassist Jeff Leonard, of Vicci Martinez Band fame - the Big Friction house band took the stage, laid down the funk and groove, and magic ensued, with a cast of talented locals streaming through to take the stage and get down. At 8:30 p.m., under the increasingly-cool "Wednesday Sessions" header, Jazzbones welcomes back the Big Friction Jam for an evening that's sure to blow your usual Hump Day plans out of the proverbial water.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight in the region

LINK: South Sound happy hour food and drinks

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012 >>>

1. Finnish director and master of deadpan Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre follows Marcel Marx, a sleepy, aging bohemian whose amblings run him afoul of Idrissa, a young African boy trying to sneak to England to reunite with his mother. With little hesitation, Marx begins helping him, first by leaving him food, then by giving him shelter, then by getting his neighbors involved, all while evading a dogged inspector. Le Havre, without ever mussing its hair or upsetting the deadpan fun, offers a testament to the warmth of people at their most wonderful. Catch it at 2:15 and 6:45 p.m. as part of The Grand Cinema's Tuesday Film Series.

2. Drop by the Mystic Mocha in Graham from noon to 4 p.m. for Tarot Reading with Hank. Hank? Can you see a Hank in flowing robes, leaning over a small table in a candlelit room, foretelling impending doom? Hank's a real name. Hank's your buddy. Hank's the kind of guy you can trust, the kind of guy you can drink a beer with, the kind of guy who doesn't mind if you puke in his car, Hank! Well, that's not really what Tarot cards are about. In fact, they're not even really meant to tell your fortune or future. According to The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, "The most powerful sources of information come from within; the Tarot aids in coming in contact with one's Higher Self." See Hank.

3. An off-the-court fundraiser for the Tacoma Titans paralympic basketball team will be held from 5-9 p.m. inside Moctezuma's Restaurant. Fans can meet and greet the players, and eat a bunch of tacos. Moctezuma's will donate 20 percent of proceeds to the Titans. 

4. The Asia Pacific Cultural Center hosts a Japanese Tea Ceremony at 6:30 p.m. inside the Lakewood Library as part of the Pierce County READS program. Pierce County Library System selected Jamie Ford's best-seller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - the story of the Japanese American internment during World War II through the eyes and voice of a child as he matures through life.

5. One of the quickest ways to impress someone is with a show of skill. And one of the easiest ways to get close to an attractive stranger is to ask them to dance. Said invitation is more likely to be accepted if you've been showing off your moves on the dance floor; doing it well turns heads. OlySwing offers an introductory swing class at 7 p.m. followed by the OlySwing Swing Dance from 7:30-10:30 p.m. inside the Olympia Eagles Ballroom. Since no partner is needed, this type of instruction is great for those rolling solo.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight in the region

LINK: South Sound happy hour food and drinks

MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012 >>>

1. Every Monday, DJ Melodica and guests DJs spin a wide variety of tunes in between band sets during Showcase Mondays at Magoo's Annex in Tacoma, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m. If that wasn't enough, Melodica hosts a "Guess the TV Theme Songs" contest in which people guess the songs to win either a Jell-O shot or a mix disc compiled by Melodica. There are folks who show up just for this little game. All the while Magoo's shucks $3 beers and $2 mondo hot dogs. It's really quite fantastic. Tonight, guest DJ Das Prompt and band Rusty Cleavers are in the house.

2. In honor of Women's History Month, Dr. Susan Armitage, professor of History and Women's Studies, Emerita, Washington State University, will present "Connecting Women's Lives to Make a Women's History of the Great Pacific Northwest," the topic of her forth coming book on women in the Pacific Northwest, at noon inside the Washington State Capital Museum in Olympia.

3. Book clubs are one of the last vestiges we have of formally engaging conversations for groups of strangers. You can discover a lot about a person by learning their opinions on any piece of art, but books prove to be especially revealing. If you're into more non-traditional storytelling, King's Books hosts a Graphic Novel Book Club, which meets the second Monday of every month at 7 p.m. inside 1022 South on Hilltop Tacoma, the craft cocktail house. Tonight's book is Sleeper: Season One by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

4. Let's tally up the score for Jazzbones Rockaraoke, shall we? A chance to sing onstage with a live band? Yes. Cheap Miller High Life? Yes. A valid excuse to drink on a Monday (repeat, Monday) night? Yes, yes and, oh God, yes. Of course, the real entertainment isn't the Rockaraoke, it's the people-watching. Since most of the patrons are just a touch this side of 21, a look around the club is akin watching a "how to hookup" instructional video. It all goes down beginning at 9 p.m.

5. Cowardice, The Sheds and Trey The Ruler play an all-age show at 7 p.m. inside The Red Room in Tacoma.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs tonight in the region

LINK: South Sound happy hour food and drinks

TUESDAY, FEB. 28, 2012 >>>

1. The University of Puget Sound website describes Wycliffe Gordon as a "musical ambassador, master trombone player, and vocalist," who heads to the school's Schneebeck Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. for a performance with the school's Jazz Band in celebration of Black History Month. A former collaborator with Wynton Marsalis and pianist Billy Taylor, The Jazz Journalists Association named Gordon Trombonist of the Year in 2011 - which has to be getting a little fucking boring for him, seeing as he's earned the title five times in the last decade.

2. Influenced by classic to contemporary and folk to hip-hop Coast Ghosts will take you on a musical journey beginning at 6:45 p.m. inside Tacoma's Mandolin Café. The band's pianist, Glenn, and a few friends will set the tone at 6.

3. Rallying at the Tacoma Nature Center, gardeners of all shapes, sizes and persuasions will gather to trade seeds and stories. It probably isn't too far out of the realm of possibilities to expect a few "Easter Egg" radish seeds to be swapped for a handful of "Park's Razzelberry" pink tomato seeds. The Tacoma-Pierce County Community Garden "Seed Swap," which also includes a potluck, kicks off at 6:30 p.m., with all Tacoma and Pierce County residents invited.

4. There are a few occasions when vegans can feel at a loss. One of them is when they pass the bacon smell wafting out of Doyle's Public House as they make their way to neighboring King's Books for the 7 p.m. Vegan Book Club gathering. Besides that bacon smell, the group will discuss The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams.

5. There's a buttload of snow in the mountains. What does that means in terms of glorious winter hiking? Ask Craig Romano. No, not the all Jersey monotone guy. Author, hiker and trails advocate Craig Romano. He's at the REI in Olympia at 7 p.m. with a bunch of winter hiking tips, tricks and locations.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music tonight in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound Happy Hours