Who remembers the '60s or wishes they did? I'm not talking about all those who claimed to be at Woodstock but never were - but yes, I guess them too, because what I'm talking about here is nostalgia for an era, the art and the music and the way of life.

More than almost anyone else I know, Olympia artist Tom Anderson was a child of the hippie era, and he still reveres the music and art of that period. His downtown Olympia studio, above Olyphant Art Supply, is filled with psychedelic poster art from his large collection.

Anderson said he was recently brainstorming with Olyphant owners Nick and J.B. Baldridge about how to more effectively use the space in their shop that was not used for retail and suggested that since they were trying to get their framing business going it made sense to show work that highlighted that service and options. "Framing to me too often appears as an afterthought in art or a necessary evil with little if any creative vision to it," he said.

The work he had in mind was from his own poster collection. "I have been thinking of thinning out my collection for a couple years, so I offered it to them to select which works they could envision for the space. It was fun to hear and see fresh eyes look at these posters for the first time. I grew up with them so I have a different history, but for the younger artists this is new and relevant."

Anderson got his first posters from the original singer of the Jefferson Airplane, Signe Anderson, when he was 15. Signe and her husband, Jerry, an original member of Ken Keseys' Merry Pranksters, were friends of Tom's parents. That was the beginning of a collection that has become quite impressive.

There will be approximately 20-25 posters and 8-10 handbills in the show featuring renown poster artists Rick Griffin, Moscoso, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, David Singer, Wes Wilson, all from 1966-1969. Most but not all are originals. The bands represented include Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother And The Holding Company, 13th Floor Elevator, Moby Grape, Steve Miller, Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Daily Flash and more. Most of the posters are from concerts held at the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms in San Francisco.

"In the last several years more museums have hosted shows of '60s psychedelic posters, some of which will be in this exhibit," Anderson says.

The exhibit and sale will open on Arts Walk Friday, April 26, and be up for a month.

OLYPHANT ART SUPPLY, 11 A.M. TO 7 P.M. MONDAY-SATURDAY, 117 WASHINGTON ST., OLYMPIA, 360.352.6348

MONDAY, MARCH 18 2013 >>>

The Artesian Rumble Arkestra - the large orchestra of musicians specializing in jazz, Balkan brass, Brazilian samba and Bollywood film music - will perform at 8 p.m. inside The Royal Lounge.

Lynne Iglitzin tells the story of Margaret Bourke-White, noted LIFE magazine photographer, whose remarkable work documented many of the extraordinary events of the 20th century at noon inside the State Capital Coach House.

3. The day after St. Patrick's Day is typically a black hole for nightlife, especially on a Monday. Sure, if you run a sports bar, you'll do well during the World Series or football season, but for most eating and drinking establishments, it's just dead, dead, dead. There's a darn good reason why so many bars are empty on Mondays. So how do those that remain open find ways to fill barstools on this, the most dreadful evening of the workweek? The folks at The Swiss seem to have found a solution and, oddly enough, it's one that has been the bane of many other venues: live music. Since the beginning of time, The Swiss has hosted live blues every Monday at 8 p.m. Tonight, The Matison Avenue Band will be in the house.

4. Hey! Guess what? Rafael Tranquilino hosts an experimental jam at Stonegate Pizza every Monday night! Get in on the rockin' action tonight.

5. Beginning at 9 p.m. every Monday Jazzbones is packed to the brim with college kids. Party types. The type that wear tight shirts and trucker hats. Throngs of Chad Fratguys and Sarah Sororitysisters swarm the bar, line up for the bathroom and dance to the Rockaraoke - live band karaoke. The Rockaraoke band is skilled, too. Expect $2 PBR drafts, $3 Sinfire shots and $4 Smirnoff flavor vodka bombs.

LINK: Monday, March 18 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Up until 2003, trains pounded the historic Prairie Line rail corridor from the Thea Foss Waterway to the Brewery District, passing rickety warehouses and dens of iniquity - before UW-Tacoma rang its school bell for its first on-site freshman class.

In the fall of 2011, some $5.83 million was earmarked to turn the half-mile Prairie Trail corridor into a living and breathing interpretive trail connecting the waterfront with downtown Tacoma, which will also include a storm water purification system for the polluted runoff from Hilltop. There was excitement. There were plans for fancy seating. In celebration, the Tacoma Art Commission turned the corridor into a temporary art installation complete with exhibits titled TacomaBall, Rogue Rhizomes and Ghost Prairie.

Then reality hit. The University of Washington brain trust recoiled over the fancy design and costs of its portion of the corridor, as well as the loss of a bike-friendly path through campus.

Today, a new set of plans rest on Chancellor Debra Friedman's desk. The storm water filtration ponds are now subtle. The pedestrian and bike paths are more functional. Historic elements have been saved and incorporated into the public gathering places and public art installations. And best of all, the price tag rings in at $4 million with construction to be complete by this fall.

Now it's the city of Tacoma's turn to fall in line. It's segments of the Prairie Line - south of campus into the Brewery District and north as it crosses Pacific Avenue and heads toward the Thea Foss Waterway, the end of the line for the transcontinental railroad of yesteryear - needs to meld with UWT's design. The city has plans for a pedestrian/bike trail and linear park through the city - plans and engineering it intendeds to carry out now that it has received a $465,000 grant from the Puget Sound Regional Council.

What will the city do about the railing running through BNSF's private property?

Discover the answer and see the city's proposed designs for its portion of the Prairie Line Tail at an open forum from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14 at the Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Avenue. Yes, open forum. You may chime in with your own design thoughts. Would you like to see a taco truck every 20 feet? Chime in. Do you think it would be cool to have outdoor tap hits through the Brewery District? Who wouldn't?

For more on the Prairie Line Trail visit www.cityoftacoma.org/planning or download the pdf of the Prairie Line Trail presentation from February 4, 2013.

MONDAY, MARCH 11 2013 >>>

1. Jazz and blues band Maia Santell & House Blend will be by Jho Blenis on guitar and special guests Jumpin' Josh Violette on guitar and Bob McCluskey on harmonica at 8 p.m. inside The Swiss.

2. Joe McGuire of Tahoma Audubon leads monthly walks from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Adriana Hess Wetland Park in University Place, which is home to dozens and dozens of bird species. McGuire digs it when people join him. No registration needed.

3. George Mills '68, M.S.'72 and John Finney '67 provide an overview of the University of Puget Sound's 125-year history with an illustrated presentation at 4 p.m. inside the Trimble Hall Forum on the Campus of the University of Puget Sound. Present day tea and cookies will be served.

4. Standup comedy hasn't evolved much since the glory days of ventriloquist and puppet. Every so often, there's a Gallagher smashing watermelons or a musical funnyman like Jack Black, but for the most part, comedy is a dude on a stage with a microphone, plodding through a joke-punchline-new-joke routine. You're funny. You need to change the course of comedy forever. Every Monday the Grit City Comedy Club opens its stage at 8 p.m. to the public for a comedy open mic. Explore the space. Head for space.

5. Lowmen Markos, Shadows and Vanguard play an all-ages show at 9 p.m. inside Northern in downtown Olympia. Lowmen Markos rock lengthy songs at ear-blasting levels.

LINK: Monday, March 11 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FROM HIBERNIANS TO THE FUCKING EAGLES >>>

St. Patrick's Day and Tacoma go way, way back - all the way back to Tacoma's very earliest days when loggers, sailors and at least one bear (no really) roamed the city streets. The Tacoma Daily Ledger mentioned the old traditions of wearing jaunty green ribbons and shamrocks to show Irish heritage or citizenship as far back as the 1890s. As the years crawled on, St. Paddy's remained a to-do in T-town, but whether the to-do was confined to high mass or bars or spilled revelry into the streets depends on the year.

In the early 1900s, St. Patrick's Day most often included a catholic mass, but the local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians - a fraternal organization made up of Irish descendants and immigrants - also had a major role in festivities. Papers throughout the 1910s and 20s mentioned the Hibernians annual play, often telling the story of intrepid Irish men and women overcoming difficulty. In 1921, the Tacoma Daily Ledger also highlighted the Hibernians raising money to help the starving population of Ireland. As anyone who watches Downton Abbey knows, the plight of the Irish was a big deal in the early 1900s.

By 1935, though, St. Patrick's Day seems to have become old hat. The Tacoma Daily Ledger on March 17, 1935, says, "In the olden days, there were services in the churches of commemoration, but the sons and daughters of Erin were also wont to make it a day of celebration. There were parades in which the green flag was proudly borne, there was the picnic where Irishmen and their descendants made merry, and then the festivities were prolonged well into the night. Like so many old-time customs, the celebration of St. Patrick's Day has quieted down - almost allowed to lapse."

And, in fact, other than church and school dances and other wee events, St. Patrick's Day seems to have taken a good long break.

Not until the 1960s did the holiday really get cookin' again. A Tacoma News Tribune in 1975 mentions Honan's (now Club Silverstone on St. Helen's Ave.) as St. Paddy's central. Starting in the '60s, Honan's discovered there was another Honan's in Ennis, Ireland. Each year after that discovery, Honan's Tacoma would call Honan's Ennis. The two pubs came to regard each other as sister saloons.

The 1980s brought a parade. In 1982, The Trib called the parade the first official St. Paddy's celebration in 50 years. The parade gathered in front of the Pantages, marched down Broadway, and ended at the Bicentennial Pavilion where the entire pavilion was made into a giant "pub" with music, singing and dancing. Sadly, the parade didn't do very well. Only about 300 people showed, largely due to nearby pubs. Honan's was offering two drinks for $5 and Ceccanti's Restaurant (38th and Pacific Ave.) charged $7.50 for unlimited food and drink. Who could say no to that?

Today, Tacoma doesn't see too many parades. Instead, Tacomans do as they always have done - gather in pubs and toss back mass quantities of beer and whiskey.

Doyle's Public House in the Stadium District, which is so serious about its St. Patrick's Day that it holds 11 practice sessions throughout the year, throwing a shindig on the 17th of every month. This year, because St. Paddy's is on a Sunday, Doyle's will stretch out it's St. Patrick's Day celebration over four days, March 14-17, erecting a 4,000-square-foot tent in the adjacent parking lot. Expect copious amounts of beer, and live music by the Bog Hoppers and punctuated by The Fucking Eagles and others.

"The best year was about three years ago," says Doyle's co-owner Russ Heaton. "Everybody seemed to be in good spirits even though the economy was in the grips of an abject free fall. It was the first year we had the Pierce County Firefighter bagpipers come through. When they started up around the corner, the entire place went dead silent quiet as soon as the first note was hit. To quiet down a crowd of this size was amazing. The bagpiper hit his note and literally - silence. The ability of the bagpipes to do that - and they do it still - but that first time it happened is still one of those times where I was like: Holy Cow!"

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Yesterday's comment of the day comes from Donovan Wilson in regards to Joshua Swainston's feature story Tacoma: The Divide of Division Avenue, which discusses how Tacoma still adheres to arbitrary divisions set up by its city founders.

Wilson writes,

Great work! I always cringe when I'm reminded of the original plan for Tacoma because it sounds so great. But lost opportunity should stop defining this town. This article is great because it makes us think about the affects of urban planning on society. The challenge now is how to work within a rigid framework to create a great city. Lets not forget how connected our city actually is. You can walk from Stadium High right to Lincoln High!

MONDAY, FEB. 25 2013 >>>

1. Dave Randel and Arne play an acoustic show at 7 p.m. inside Le Voyeur in downtown Olympia.

2. In celebration of South Puget Sound Community College's 50th anniversary, the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery will feature works past and present from South Puget Sound art alumni. "Then and Now" opens today and will feature the work of former South Puget Sound arts students. Artists featured are Lea Mitchell, Max Stolkin, Kensuke Yamada, Jeff Hulme, Christine Auvil, David Wall, Anne St. Jean, Pat Mclain, Erin Oly, Robin Ewing, Aimee Biggerstaff and Tim Kenny. See the exhibit from noon to 4 p.m. www.spscc.ctc.edu/community-and-business/entertainment/gallery

3. The second TEDxTheEvergreenStateCollege conference is planned to inspire community members through ideas worth spreading about local innovations for a changing world from 4-7 p.m. in the Seminar 2 Building. This event will highlight innovative activities that address the needs of our community now and in the future.  Topics include electric vehicle tourism, ocean acidification, GRuB's Food Justice High, the Sustainability in Prisons Project, and energy efficient homes.

4. Some facts from U.S. prison studies: Today more African American men are in prison than in college. One in every 100 adults in this country is currently behind bars. The booming U.S. prison system calculates its future space requirements by checking how many kids are doing poorly in third grade. Thelma Jackson, education consultant to five Washington governors, and Paul Rucker, acclaimed artist and musician, will give presentations and invite audience participation at the "Education, Race, and Criminal Justice" lecture at 7 p.m. inside Schneebeck Concert Hall on the University of Puget Sound campus.

5. The Royal Lounge presents a night filled with South Sound songbirds. At 8 p.m. Jessica Blinn, Danielle Westbrook, Lizzy Boyer, Susan Tuzzolino and Betsy Perkins will take to the stage with Lorree Gardener on bass, Maria Joyner on drums, Brian Kinsella on piano, Ninee Wolff on sax and flute, and Ariel Calabria on guitar.

LINK: Monday, feb. 25 arts and entertainment events in the greater TAcoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, FEB. 15 2013 >>>

1. On any given morning, after eating her daily oatmeal, and feeding her several dogs, legendary musician Roberta Flack gets busy in her New York City home - busy rehearsing, busy planning, busy listening to or writing music. "I'm a busy person. I have a busy personality," Flack says over the phone. "I have ongoing commitments constantly. ... And now with the Internet slapping you in the face, there's really no excuse. You gotta be motivated to move and make something." All this gusto from a woman who has enchanted the jazz, soul and R&B scene with her singing, songwriting and piano skills since the late '60s, earning two consecutive Grammy awards in '73 and '74 with chart-toppers, "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song," respectively. See her perform at 7:30 p.m. inside the Pantages Theater. Read Nikki McCoy's interview with Roberta Flack in the Weekly Volcano's Music section.

2. After six long years of closure due to safety issues, the Murray Morgan Bridge saw the dawn of a new era Friday, Feb. 1. The bridge reopened to car traffic - as well as bicycle and foot traffic via new pathways - just in time for its 100th birthday celebration today. This past week downtown businesses offered discounts and Harmon Brewery distributed Eleventh Street IPA in celebration of the old steel bridge over the Thea Foss Waterway reconnecting the Port of Tacoma with downtown Tacoma. An official dedication ceremony with local dignitaries will be held at 10 a.m. The event will take place near the bridge at the intersection of 11th and A streets.

3. Stroll through the W.W. Seymour Conservatory sipping on wine or champagne and indulge on handmade chocolates or chocolate covered strawberries from French Hen Bistro while Andy Carlson fills the space with melodies from 5:30-7 p.m. Be present at 6:30 for a drawing of a Hilltop Artist's glass piece.

4. These are digital days, and they're thick with artists - artists who push the technological boundaries of expression further with every bend of a circuit, every twitch of a knob, every densely packed recontextualization of what's come before. The cartoonland of Mark Monlux; the extremes of Ryan Loiselle's weird humor; the virtual tablet painting of John Carlton: This is not some graying curator's business as usual. This is not the sort of art, of creative industry, that's regularly encompassed by a city's more old-school contingent of galleries and exhibitions. You want to bust these ghosts out of the machine, so to speak? Who you gonna call? Lynn di Nino and her monthly TRIPOD Slide Show. See three slideshows on digital art and how these three artists make it from 7-8:30 p.m. at Madera Furniture Company a couple blocks from El Gaucho.

5. Drag show troupe New Queens on the Block has produced shows at the Urban Onion since September, dropping a themed show on Olympia every third Friday of the month. In December, the New Queens added holiday flair to its fabulous affair. In March, the show will geek out to a Comicon theme. Tonight at 9 p.m., Valentine's Day is front an dcenter with "The Lupanara: A Burlesque Themed Drag Variety Show" at the Onion. Read Nikki McCoy's full feature on New Queens on the Block.

LINK: Friday, Feb. 14 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

RESTAURANT TAKES IT TO AN 11 >>>

What makes dining at a bar awesome? Is it the drinks themselves, coming fast and fresh and teetering on a long communal bar? The ease of eavesdropping or starting a conversation with the women by your side? Dining under twinkly lights with live music in the background? Is it dining where the bartender knows "your" drink?

Yes, all of those factors are worthy. What truly makes eating at a bar awesome is when it's the fanciest bar in town and the prices have been hacked because a bridge reopened!

El Gaucho Tacoma has introduced a Murray Morgan Bridge Week menu in celebration of the bridge's 100 anniversary and reopening. Because the bridge used to be known as the 11th Street Bridge, El Gaucho has 11 items on sale for $11. And if you know anything about El Gaucho, $11 is a steal. Check it out below.

EL GAUCHO TACOMA, 2119 PACIFIC AVE., TACOMA, 253.272.1510

Who are the important artists today? Someone posed that question on Facebook (Actually she said painters, not artists, but I don't follow instructions well).

Hardy anybody responded and those who did said things like nobody younger than 60 is important. One person listed a whole bunch of people who are dead and gone. The most frequent names put forth were Gerhardt Richter, who is 81, and British graffiti artists Banksy, who is the only artist of any international importance I can think of who is younger than 40. The only other artists I can think of offhand who is still doing important work is sculptor Richard Serra, another old dude - born in 1939. Oh, and Martin Puryear, born in '41 but a late bloomer who did not come into prominence until the '90s.

And I guess we have to include Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, two young artists who will undoubtedly go down in history as important figures. I have my doubts about Hirst but have to admit I do not know his work well enough to make an informed judgment. Koons, on the other hand, I find fascinating even though he's done little if anything that Warhol and Duchamp didn't do long before him.

Either there's a dirge of exciting young artists at work today or I am totally out of touch with what's happening.

It's not an exciting time in art. It's not like when I was in college. That was an exciting time (about the time Damien Hirst was born). Pop Art was in its heyday. There was minimalism, hard edge abstraction, happenings and environmental art. There was something new almost every day. I still think the most important artists of the modern and post-modern era were the Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists. Everyone since has just recycled what de Kooning and Pollock and Warhol and Frank Stella did with some comic art thrown into the mix.

But then the question - who is important begs another question: What is meant by important? I think to be truly important an artist needs to affect change in the world or in the history of art. Picasso and Braque certainly shaped the history of modern art with the invention of Cubism. Kandinsky has to be considered important as the first abstract painter. And Pollock, ironically, not so much for his paintings - which are marvelous - but for opening the doors to multi-media happenings and performance art. By painting on unstretched canvases on the floor and famously walking around and literally being in his painting he turned the art of painting into something larger that metaphorically and, in some cases literally, became something larger than life or something that obscured the boundaries between art and life - the act of painting became as important as the painting that resulted, which was just a kind of archival record of the act.

Throughout the history of modern art many people have declared painting dead. Perhaps Pollock killed it, but if he did, out of the ashes rose the phoenix of a new kind of art loosely termed post-modernist, which now encompasses everything that has come since. To extend the irony of Pollock, in the last years of his life he begin to make paintings that gave hints he might be reverting back to traditional easel painting. Since he died so tragically and so young we will never know.

Painting is dead; long live painting.

LINK: Alec Clayton's Visual Edge column