The Museum of Glass Slider Cook-Off Saturday night, with nine local restaurants competing for titles of best slider and people's choice, yielded big satisfaction for the winner of both awards, Boathouse 19. Their team, headed by chef Charles Dobbins, led the restaurant to victory in both categories with their bright, fresh interpretation of a slider - an intensely flavorful charbroiled house-cured salmon with rhubarb relish, wild arugula and mint yogurt on grilled ciabatta.

The 550 attendees of the sold-out event brought their appetites to the table. While Boathouse 19 swept the awards, each restaurant's slider showed creativity and demonstrated their unique perspectives. From Asado came a nicely spiced braised lamb slider with the flavors of Argentina. BITE Restaurant's chicken and waffle slider with bacon aioli embodied their playful spirit. A "Cubano roulado," a pork lover's dream with mustard and pickle relish from Maxwell's showed skill. Brix 25 demonstrated their ability to execute simple food well with a traditional grilled beef patty with gorgonzola sauce. A play on the banh mi sandwich from Dirty Oscars was light and fresh. Marrow's rich, savory beef cheek bulgogi with crispy tripe was one of the more creative options, and was well balanced with kimchi aioli. From the Social Bar and Grill came a pork belly slider topped with a quail egg and a kick of sambal chili. To finish it all off, Art House Café's dessert slider, an orange creamsicle spice cake concoction, finished things on a sweet note.

Will Boathouse 19's winning slider make it on their menu? We'll have to wait and see. If it does, I'll be the first in line.

Photo Credit: Steve Dunkelberger

PEOPLE DO THE CRAZIEST THINGS >>>

Every sports team needs super-fans -and that includes roller derby teams. The Dockyard Derby Dames opened its seventh season Saturday night at the Pierce College Health Education Building. A packed house watched the Hellbound Homewreckers beat the Femme Fianna in the first bout and last year's champion Marauding Mollys beat the Trampires in the final bout. All for teams brought their most rabid supporters - you know, the guys (and gals) who are willing to wear bodysuits, become pirates, wear hot pink leis and dress as a milkman in short shorts. Yeah, those guys.

Here, we present 10 Dockyard Derby Dames super-fans at the season seven opener. OK, we included a scary-faced Derby Dame, Jooley Heaps of Poison Apple and the guy doing the robot during halftime.

LINK: More Dockyard Derby Dames photos from the season seven opener

PHOTOS PHOTOS PHOTOS >>>

Friday night, I was privy to a personal tour of Shake Shake Shake, the 40-seat, retro-themed walk-up Tacoma Stadium District burger joint that owners Steve Naccarato and Robert Stocker as well as Chef Gordon Naccarato will soon(!) serve roadside diner style burgers, hot dogs, fries and local fruit shakes. Grabbing the apron strings of several restaurant industry folks, including Dirty Oscar's manager Jennifer Johnson, I poked around the joint with my camera, as well as sampled its burgers, fries, shakes and malts. Wow.

I'll let my camera do the talking.

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE, 124 N. TACOMA AVE., TACOMA, 253.507.4060

LINK: More Shake Shake Shake photos in our Photo Hot Spot

THE MONTH IN PHOTOS >>>

February 2013 was a month filled with parties, re-openings, music and notables from Olympia. Below are photos the Weekly Volcano snapped last month at such events as the Mardi Gras party at Jazzbones, Murray Morgan bridge re-opening, C.L.A.W.'s Real Life Comics event at King's Books and, of course, the 2012 Best of Olympia party.

KING SOLOMON'S REEF'S BEST SEAT: Photo by Winter Teems (below)

KELLI HASKINS TAKES OVER CAVANAUGH'S COFFEE: Photo by Pappi Swarner (below)

HOUSE OF DONUTS IN LAKEWOOD REOPENS: Photo by Amanda Aszman

MURRAY MORGAN BRIDGE REOPENING: Photo by Kate Swarner

KIM ARCHER AT JAZZBONES: Photo by Steve Dunkelberger (more)

MARDI GRAS PARTY AT JAZZBONES: Photo by Steve Dunkelberger (more)

COTTONWOOD CUTUPS AT C.I. SHENANIGANS: Photo by Steve Dunkelberger (more)

BIG BEER FESTIVAL: Photo by Pappi Swarner (more)

SURVIVAL KNIFE: Photo by Nikki McCoy

BEST OF OLYMPIA ISSUE: Photo by Winter Teems (more)

BEST OF OLYMPIA PARTY: Photo by Steve Dunkelberger (more)

TACOMA CITY BALLET MID-WINTER MASQUERADE BALL: Photo by Pappi Swarner

REAL LIFE COMICS: Photo by Steve Dunkelberger (more)

LINK: Photo Hot Spot

REAL LIFE COMICS >>>

Do you like secret handshakes, cackling with cartoonists and drawing pictures of superhero hotties life-modeling?

Dude, you totally missed it.

The Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians, or C.L.A.W. hosted its Real Life Comics sketch session last night at King's Books. The fez-wearing cartoonist and guests drew the lovely, local cosplay group Super Sirens as they role-played poses. Weekly Volcano intern Sean Contris has the deep background on the event here.

Weekly Volcano photographer Steve Dunkelberger shot a thousand photos of the event, including the ones below.

LINK: More C.L.A.W. Real Life Comics photos

BRING ON THE LUAUS >>>

Everybody, at some time or another, wants to escape from reality to a carefree paradise. For many Americans, Hawai‘i has served as the escape destination of choice, even if it's just a fantasy. It's been that way for well over a century now, ever since the Hawaiian Islands were made a part of the United States. For those dreamers who never made the actual trip, there have repeatedly been times when the craze or things Hawaiian brought a little piece of paradise home to Anytown, USA - Polynesian print sport shirts, Aloha (Casual) Fridays, Magnum P.I. and, of course, music.

Hawaiian music hit the American continent as early as the 1890s. A Hawaiian group playing a mixture of Western instruments (viola and flute) and Hawaiianized ones (‘ukulele and steel guitars) appeared at the Buffalo, N.Y. exposition, where they met famed composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa. In 1912, Broadway saw the successful run of a drama set in Hawai‘i called The Bird of Paradise, featuring authentic songs - most notably Queen Lili‘uokalani's already-classic "Aloha ‘Oe." The ragtime-Hawaiian fad really took off at the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition, a fair mounted on a grand, gilded scale to celebrate that imperial city's recovery from the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. June 11, 1915 was "Hawai‘i Day" at the exposition. The Philippine Constabulary Band played "Old Plantation" while native Hawaiians sang. From 1915 through 1919, there were nearly 150 Hawaiian songs published in the United States, the great majority of them written by people who had never been near the Islands. Decades of gyrating women clad in grass skirts shaking themselves around carnival sideshows and nightclub stages followed. At the same time, understandably, recordings of Hawaiian music (then produced on thick, breakable 78 rpm discs that were 10 inches in diameter) were huge sellers. Hawaiian music schools flourished into the 1940s, and a few stragglers even survived into the '90s.

(Cut to the chase)

Then, on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 Tacoma Cabana tiki lounge opened an adjoining space, adding a stage for live Hawaiian music, as well as a retail space, and upstairs lounge with a pool table and dedicated Mai Tai bar. The new space will be open Friday and Saturday nights. Below are some pictures from its opening night.

Aloha.

TACOMA CABANA, 4 P.M. TO CLOSE TUESDAY-SATURDAY, 728 PACIFIC AVE., TACOMA, 253.222.4184, TACOMACABANA.COM

Sure, you like beer - but have you ever worn it? Wrapped your entire being in it and then spent a day in a warehouse devoted to it? That's what the South Sound's most dedicated beer enthusiasts did at the Big Beer Festival, held at the Foss Waterway Seaport yesterday. Set in a more intimate environ than its larger summer Tacoma Craft Beer Festival counterpart, 20 small breweries poured 5.5-ounce shots of beers that contained a minimum of 6 percent alcohol by volume for 1,500 beer drinkers. By all accounts, it was a success.

What the Weekly Volcano also witnessed during the four-hour night session - the first session ran noon to 4 p.m. - was beer lovers know how to stagger in style, and many showed off just how crazy they could look. We also saw a few normal looking drinkers at the festival, which you will see below.

LINK: More photos from the Big Beer Festival in Tacoma

WE ATTEND SECRET CEREMONIES >>>

Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians, or C.L.A.W., held its ultra secret "Great Yearly Ceremony" at the Knights of the Pythias Temple in downtown Tacoma Monday, Jan. 21. The purpose behind the ceremony was a departing of its Eyes (officers) and the installation of its new Eyes, as well as the "Remembrance of the Declawed." During the ceremony the members praised the robot Overlords through songs and rites.

Oh, there was booze and funny hats. And of course, cake. There is always room for cake.

To learn more about C.L.A.W., check out its website. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

LINK: More photos from the C.L.A.W. ceremony

South Sound Sidekick series offers advice from experts living in the, well, South Sound. It posts every Friday. Today, Red Williamson of Newspin Photo has advice on how to pursue a hobby or career in creative photography.

Red Williamson writes,

If you're interested in pursuing a hobby or career in photography, it can be a challenge knowing where to begin. With the emergence of the digital age, I have watched the career field of photography make notable changes since I started my business, Newspin Photo, 9 years ago. When I am asked for photography advice, there are several points I always come back to, and now I would like to share with them you.

The first thing you should know is: You don't need a new camera! You may have heard this before but it's worth repeating. Chase Jarvis said, "The best camera is the one that's with you." This statement rings true now more than ever, since the rapid evolution of the smart phone. As for me, I have prime lenses and a professional, full-frame, 36-megapixel camera; I also have an iPhone 5. Which device do you think has taken the most pictures of my 17-month-old son? My phone. Easily. And I'm not the only one. Kevin Russ sells prints of photos he's taken all across America with his phone. Teru Kuwayama and Balazs Gardi are two war zone photographers who have captured images from Afghanistan using only iPhones.

Hopefully you see where I'm going with this. If you want to pursue a hobby or a career as a photographer, why wait another day? You don't need to buy a fancy camera. Odds are, you already have a great camera right in your pocket. Start shooting with what you have. Even a lousy camera can take beautiful pictures if you learn how to use it.

My second tip may seem like a no-brainer as well, but it's something I constantly have to remind myself. Never stop learning! There are a number of ways to learn about photography; undoubtedly, the most valuable resource we all have access to is the Internet. There are countless articles available to you, YouTube videos, tutorials and friends on Facebook that you can message. If you ever want to find out how a technique is done - just ask. I tell my mom to talk to "Lord Google" like it's a person. For example, I recently googled, "How do I get a press pass to shoot Lady Gaga at the Tacoma Dome?" The results were very informative. Then I asked a Facebook friend how he's gotten into shows, and now I have plenty of information I didn't have before. It's that simple.

And for now, my last piece of advice is: BREAK all the rules. My only formal education is a film class I took in high school. I'm so glad I learned the rules of photography, but I'm also glad I pushed back against every rule I was taught. If you are limited to what people before you have done, or what's currently "cool." or what you think will get you the most likes (duck faces, I'm looking at you) - then you've missed the boat. You have to approach photography like any form of artful expression. Show us the world how you see it, feel it, taste it and hear it. Show us something new - something true.

This may sound silly, but often times when I'm adding an image to my portfolio (or even my Instagram) I struggle with thoughts like, "Is this cool? Will I make money off this? Will this make me famous?" Instead, I choose to quiet these thoughts and remind myself that I'm doing this for me. I have to be true to that, first. Then whether the likes come or not, or whether the prints sell or not, I can ultimately say I'm at peace with the fact that I boldly shared a piece of myself with the world.

In the end, I believe that staying true to my own art and expression was one of the biggest reasons I found success in doing what I love for a living. Don't be afraid to release your creativity and think outside the box. You never know what might happen when you do.

BONUS: Red Williamson shot the Repeal Prohibition Day Celebration at the Capitol Theater

LINK: Get fit the Dungeons and Dragons way

LINK: Roommate advice

LINK: Marijuana smoking advice

LINK: How to harvest geoducks

LINK: Music business advice

LINK: First tattoo advice

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IT'S COOL TO BE KIND >>>

Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball Tour arrived at the Tacoma Dome Monday, Jan. 14 and with it, the debut of the Born Brave Bus tour. Hours before the concert, hundreds of fans thronged two tents adjacent to the colorful bus where they played games, made videos, and learned about social services.

The Born This Way Foundation, the non-profit co-founded by Gaga's Mother, Cynthia Germanotta, sponsored the bus tour. "This isn't an anti-bullying campaign," says Bobby Campbell, who oversees Gaga's global marketing. "We're about self-empowerment. We're here to help people be brave - brave enough to stand up against the crowd, to be oneself no matter who that is. We want to be a connector, to catalyze people into kindness and bravery, and to make a safe space for kids, although we've never had bullying at a Lady Gaga concert."

One connection is with Carl Wilson, who works with Tacoma's Comprehensive Life Services, which offers behavioral and mental health services. "We hope to reach kids by showing them how they can receive help; to help them become self-determined; to recognize strengths in themselves," says Wilson.

Born Brave Bus at the Tacoma Dome

Cynthia Germanotta in front of the Born Brave Bus at the Tacoma Dome

Lady Gaga gave small talk, group toasted, then Gaga smashed the  bottle on front of bus at the Tacoma Dome. 

John Anderson, a student at South Puget Sound Community College, danced, waiting for the crowds at the booth he manned, "Share your story."

"The message is, be brave," says Anderson. "How cool is that? Make a video, share your story. It's the coolest thing ever."

To the thrill of the "Little Monsters," fans who had camped out for up to three days, Lady Gaga arrived, hugging everyone within reach. With her Mother, Gaga toured the tents, and christened the Bus, braking open a bottle of champagne.

"I was so excited I thought the world was going to end before I got here," says Delia, a fan from Portland. "I think the bus tour is really important to inspire youth and bravery."

Little Monsters outside the Born Brave at the Tacoma Dome.

Bailey, left, and Samantha praised the Born Brave Bus as well as Lady Gaga's music outside the Tacoma Dome.

Little Monsters wouldn't crack a smile outside before the Lady Gaga concert at the Tacoma Dome.

"We want students to be brave for themselves as well as for others," says Hayley Thompson and Brittany Tyson, with the National Association of School Psychologists. "Sometimes being brave means being brave for someone other than yourself." It means, stopping someone from being picked on, no matter who they are.

As Tyson spoke, the whirr of an engine interrupted. A plane flew overhead with a banner by the Florida Family Association, "Not Born That Way." But nothing diminished the enthusiasm of Gaga's costumed fans who were, well, brave.  

Photography by Paul Murray/Murray Photos

LINK: More photos from the Born Brave Bus at Tacoma Dome