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OKTOBERFEST TACOMA IN PHOTOS >>> For a full month leading up to Oktoberfest Tacoma, organizer Morgan Alexander kept telling us, over and over, it's more about the beer than German tradition. Yesterday, just as the weather turned for the better, Oktoberfest Tacoma consumed Opera Alley. And, surprise, it was all about the
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IT"S ON! >>> The 24 Hour Comics Day doesn't involved Save The Sonics Guy, expensive drinks and hecklers. It's not a standup comedy competition. Rather it's an all-day drawing bash where South Sound's finest sketchers - including members of the Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians - go eye-to-eye and
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OKTOBERFEST TACOMA >>> Beer! Pretzels! Beer! Pumpkin carving! Beer! Pie-eating contest! Beer! Yo-Yo Man! Beer! Tomorrow's Oktoberfest Tacoma has all of these fine things, but, most importantly, it has beer. Lots of beer. For a complete list of beers, check out our earlier blog post on the event. I dropped by Amocat
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LET'S DRINK SOME BEER SATURDAY >>> October hits Saturday, carrying fall along with it. So, what does that tell you? Yes, that's right, it's beer season. What, you may ask, does this time of year, specifically, have to do with beer? The venerable Oktoberfests, of course. The summer heat is dying
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FALL HARVEST FARM TOUR IS SATURDAY >>> Summer, or what the South Sound saw of it this year, is in the past. The bounties of autumn await. In celebration of the changing seasons and the local harvest, the Washington State University Extension program invites the community to its annual free Fall Harvest
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PICKING WITH A PURPOSE >>> The South Sound's fall harvest is on. That means volunteers with The Pierce County Gleaning Project will be descending on local produce fields to gather fresh vegetables for distribution to hunger-relief agencies. According to a PCGP, a whopping 40 to 50 percent of commercially grown food goes to
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GOING BIG >> It's not unusual, of course, for an artist to try to make the audience feel special. And I'm sure some in the half-filled Puyallup Fair Grandstand thought it was a little presumptuous of The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to declare his show to be the greatest Puyallup
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MUFFIN MAMA >>> There is a ubiquitous muffin in the South Sound seen at most every coffee shop: The oversized mushroom-shaped cakelike pastry that isn't necessarily bad, but gets a bit repetitive. You won't find that kind of muffin at the Mama's Bakery, which is a wholesale business with a storefront.
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SLIDE & A WITH LYNN DI NINO >>> Art is perplexing. Artists are enigmatic and weird. Does this sound like anyone you know? Does it sound like you? If so, let the TRIPOD Slide Show be the equivalent of a SkillPath financial seminar for the bankruptcy of your artistic knowledge. Talented
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WEEKLY PUB QUIZ WITH A TWIST >>> Tuesdays seem to be the hottest night for the overeducated South Sound masses to prove their intellectual worth. And where do such brainiacs head? Glad you asked. The GEEKS head to Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub. The Tacoma watering hole is the site of John Dicker's Geeks
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NOT WALKING DURING THIRD THURSDAY ARTWALK >>> Thursday, the Art Bus pushed off from the Tacoma Art Museum for another tour of Tacoma galleries, schools and businesses during the Third Thursday Artwalk. The guest tour guide was local author and Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist. He led Art Bus patrons through
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30 YEARS OF AWESOMENESS >>> The puppy chewed up your shoe again, didn't he? Now he's in there gnawing on your kitchen table leg. Oh, he will pay. He will pay dear. You'll fix him, heh, heh. You'll SUPER FIX him. It won't cost you that much, and it will solve
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SO. EFFING. TASTY. >>> Doing excellent bread is tough; it takes some funny chemistry to make the stuff come out just right. But Chef William and Shannon Mueller at Babblin' Babs Bistro have the knack, and not just for making bread. Their real contribution was figuring out what to do with
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THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>> WEATHER REPORT Friday: Sunny to partly cloudy, hi 64, lo 44 Saturday: A couple of showers possible, hi 64, lo 51 Sunday: A couple of showers possible, hi 65, lo 52 >>> THURSDAY, SEPT. 15: PRINCESS BRIDE OUTDOORS If there is one thing that binds
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MUSICAL GOODNESS IN STORE IN PRINT & ONLINE >>> Amidst Tacoma School District children running around like maniacs, the U.S. poverty rate at a 52-year high, Michelle Bachmann claims HPV vaccine causes mental retardation (must resist joke), Season Nine of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, and stupid shit like this, we
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AMERICANA MUSIC SERIES HOST TAKES THE STAGE SATURDAY >>> Great songwriters are storytellers. Through song they voice their ideas, their characters, their feelings and their thoughts. Songwriters have a need to not only explore these universalities of the human experience, but serve them up in an out-loud voice in front of
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DANDY >>> Tacoma artist/filmmaker/teacher Larry Huffines has been selected as one of 20 Americans to compete on season two of HGTV's All American Handyman show, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m. Huffines, a teacher at Annie Wright School, has proven he's worthy, and now will hammer on his fellow contestants before
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I'M TIRED >>> For the past week and a half I've been designing the official program for the 2011 Tacoma Film Festival, which will be held at multiple Tacoma venues Oct. 6-13. I've read all the film bios, discovered all the filmmakers who will be in town, know which films are
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FIGHTING FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES >>> Never assume Central Tacoma folks are less passionate about the city of Tacoma's special character than North and South Tacoma neighborhoods. Tacoma's Central Neighborhood Council has done themselves activist-proud the past year, rapidly mobilizing a passionate and intelligent public outcry against the digital billboards and abandoned
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WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>> For The Kids: Tacoma Police fire up their start-of-school enforcement plan. (News Tribune) Tacoma Elks Pooh-Bah Chimes In: Don't mess with our Wal-Mart. (News Tribune) No Growth In August?: There goes the stock market. (CNN) Dumb Idea: Only rich, dumb jerks want to be cryogenically frozen. (TruTV) Reaching: New
