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Tacoma will get a little food-friendlier on Friday. Since 2006, a group of dedicated locals has worked to establish a place where fresh, local, non-chemically raped food can be found. Better yet, they've been working to establish a place for the community to come together, connect and grow. It's called
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The problem with conceptual art is that it usually expresses a single idea, and once you get the idea there's not much left to look at. That is almost but not quite what happens with Parenthetically Speaking: It's Only a Figure of Speech, the new Museum of
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Mauritius is the story of a young woman's quest to sell a collection of rare stamps for an astronomical price, and how shady characters band together to keep that from happening. The young woman, Jackie, may not actually own these precious stamps; I'm no probate lawyer, but
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If you came of age, musically speaking, during a similar period in time as this hack writer, you're probably moderately familiar with the Marcy Playground story - or at least the band's "hit," the radio friendly "Sex and Candy." The song came from Marcy Playground's platinum
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Let's start with a truism. Bacon and gettin' it on are two of the best things ever invented. There shall be no more debate on this matter. So thank Zeus one band had the vision to combine a passion for both all-American pastimes into one undeniably awesome concept:
Travel
Missoula, Montana, turns into a winter wonderland during the colder months of the year. About an eight-hour drive from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, it makes a great base for winter fun. For some, snow means skiing and snowboarding, and just a short 12-mile drive northwest of Missoula is the Montana Snowbowl. The
Archives
Inside The Crystal Voyage, calming music plays as fountains burble. One west-facing fountain centered in a large window features three dolphins frolicking, spouting water. At a table, Matilda prepares to read tarot; the atmosphere in the space is conducive to that sort of thing. Underneath the shop at the Mystic Mocha Cafe,
Archives
Once upon a time Anthony Valenzuela collected black and white photos, the kind that were slid across the newspaper shop counter covertly wrapped in paper. These risqué, pre-Hustler, post-Betty Grable girlie photos made it into the trembling hands of their purchasers and then, years later, into Valenzuela’s. Not content with the
Cup Check
I'm ditching the format this week, folks. Going rogue. You betcha. Why? Because fantasy football drafts will be taking place all across our NFL-obsessed nation over the next week. That special time of year is upon us. It's worth a special edition of Cup Check. It doesn't matter that we haven't
Archives
Last week was filled with all kinds of dreamy thoughts about something you and I probably both love equally. Summer, summer, summertime! Even though I’m a devoted Washingtonian, and I really don’t mind the rain at all, there’s nothing quite like the first days of sunshine on those beautiful blue-sky breakthroughs. I love
Stage
Last Thursday, I drove to a theater, found my seat, waited for the lights to go down and experienced a play I knew nothing about. Call it the doldrums of August, but I hadn't done research of any kind. I didn't know what the play was about, who directed it,
Stage
The problem with conceptual art is that it usually expresses a single idea, and once you get the idea there's not much left to look at. That is almost but not quite what happens with Parenthetically Speaking: It's Only a Figure of Speech, the new Museum of Glass exhibition of
Arts
The Tacoma Murals Project returned in full force this summer. The result? Two new cool murals fighting blight one paintbrush stroke at a time. The Tacoma Murals Project began in 2010 as part of Tacoma's Safe and Clean effort. The project is designed to fight vandalism, working with community groups
Music
Let's start with a truism. Bacon and gettin' it on are two of the best things ever invented. There shall be no more debate on this matter. So thank Zeus one band had the vision to combine a passion for both all-American pastimes into one undeniably awesome concept: The Meat Sluts. The
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Some bands carry an intrinsic novelty - a freshness, a thrilling sense of invention - largely because there are very few similar bands in the South Sound. Arpeggiator has this advantage, as one of the few Tacoma-born math-rock bands around. That Arpeggiator does math-rock so well
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Olympia indie-rock trio Happy Noose bills itself as having, "a unique approach to indie infused punk rock music born out of a collective idea of musical resistance to dominant culture." Fuck yeah. Fight the man with this band ... or just get your '90s alt rock nostalgia
Music
STRANGE VINE >>> Thursday, Aug. 25 At first glance, Strange Vine is a typical rock 'n' roll two-piece. Consisting of Ian Blesse on drums and Toby Cordova on guitar, the really intriguing aspect of the band comes when Blesse - while still manning the percussion with his right hand
Scene It
Standing in line for beer atop Cheney Stadium's Tasty Terrace, I listen to a couple of guys discuss the perks of drinking the $2-a-cup beer served every Thursday night at the ballpark. "It's cheaper to drink here than it is to drink at home," says one of the guys. "I mean,
Music
So I'm turning 40 years old next week, and as I sit back and reflect on the Tacoma music scene over the last 20 or so years I notice something - it has always been cooler than most other cities! I attribute this mostly to one thing: heart. No, not
