VIDEO: See you at First Night

So much fun, so much to do.

Here's a video that shows a bit about what last year was like.



My favorite discovery last year: Local band Deborah Page. Last year Deborah and her partner Paul Uhl played Sanford & Son and the Pythian Temple, this year you can catch them on the main stage (outdoors on Broadway, across from LeRoy's Jeweler) at 6 p.m. Deborah's lyrics and vocals are haunting and range from heartfelt ballad to total rockout and a bit o' fun with the children's rhyme "Mary Mack."

Here's a few clips of one of their last year's First Night performances.



Of course, that's just the beginning. There's Valentine's Performing Pigs, Motopony, Girltrouble, Steve the Good Enough, firedancers, pipe bands, ethnic bands, art, Lynn DiNino's "Hi Jack" art experience at 8 p.m. at 9th & Broadway and so much more.

Come out, come about and enjoy!

WHAT: First Night Tacoma-Pierce County
WHERE: Downtown Tacoma's Theater District (along Broadway, approx. between S. 7th & S. 11th)
WHEN: Dec. 31, 2008 (downtown fun begins at 6 p.m., museums free to button holders all day)
HOW MUCH: $10 gets you into museums all day, all the stages and more. 7 & younger are free.
MORE INFO: www.firstnighttacoma.org

It's a Triple Threat of Poster Fabulousness: Beautiful Angle, Pearl Jam and Victory Gardens ... oh my!

If you enjoy interesting and artsy posters, this is your week! See some greats, get some goods, and enjoy an art form that seems so simple -- until you see the pros in action ....

1. Pearl Jam vs. Ames Brothers: 13 years of Tour Posters. The Tacoma Public Library kicks off this exhibition at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at the Main Library's Handforth Gallery. The show features 82 posters designed by the Ames Bros, Barry Ament and Coby Schultz, who will be onhand to sign copies of their book, a compendium of the band's 1995-2007 gig posters by the two artists and Brad Klausen, Pearl Jam's exclusive print-designers.



2. Beautiful Angle Holiday Party & Benefit Poster Sale: Come join the fun at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at Black Water Cafe. Tacoma's underground postermakers combine words and images as they challenge notions about Tacoma, religion, and the way we think. Get to see all the lovely letterpess in one place, sit back and listen to the music -- and if you're one of the first 50 folks to bring in a cash donation of at least $5, you'll get a commemorative Beautiful Angle poster. (Donations benefit the Layla House, an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.)



3. "Victory Garden," featuring Eleanor Roosevelt. The gals behind Anagram Press and Springtide Press team up again for a second poster, which they're half-jokingly referring to as part of their "Dead Feminists Set." This broadside poster is in honor of the recent election and the timeliness of sustainability issues, and features a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Get 'em while they're here! Only 76 were printed, and they're already half gone. The duo's first collaboration, "Come, My Conservative Friend" are already sold out.

Overdue: Showcase Tacoma chalkwork

Once upon a time, there was this thing called Showcase Tacoma where newcomers and chalking fanatics alike got together amid the fun to lay down some color on the gray streetscape. Let me start out with the hands down best piece in the place ...

by unknown fabulous chalker


I don't know who he was, but this guy knew what he was doing. He had gloves and sponges for spreading. He laid down that color thick, and he had The Boy entranced. We could have stood there for hours watching. Even in the rain. Yes, sadly, the day the Frost Park Chalkers & Friends came over to the Tollefson Plaza to participate in Showcase Tacoma -- it rained. Not the best for chalking, but some impressive pieces came out nonetheless. Though not all my pictures turned out -- sigh. But here's a few!

by The Boy (who delighted in showing off his piece to the above fabulous chalker -- especially since they both use similar strategies of randomness and deep color)


By Adam The Alien (duh)


Diva Daughter in action (note she bravely uses her hands to make special chalk-effects)


Diva Daughter's final solo piece


Mostly this is the boy's picture again, but it caught pieces of some of the other fun that my camera did not apparently capture -- including the Mt. Fuji on the left, and KF's amoeba toward the top.


By Joel413 (guess where he works)


And in honor of the rain, Team Chickadee decided to have fun and sketch out this ray of sunshine ...


For more chalking fun, check out Frost Park Friday action from 12-1 every Friday. Click here for this week's details!

Diva Daughter hulas happily to Deborah Page

You can't see it because it's spinning so fast, but there's a hula hoop in that thar picture of Diva Daughter dancing to Deborah Page at Sanford & Son during tonight's Art Walk. Look closely and you'll see a mere ghost of the hoop ...





You go girl!

I bought one, have you? (Support The Helm)

The little gallery with a big heart is selling limited edition Tacoma art posters as a fundraiser to help Peter & Sean continue their mission of providing a fabulous downtown Tacoma venue for artists and art-lovers. Peter and Sean have poured their hearts into this place, and it's added great flavor to Tacoma's increasing number of art options.

Never been? Check out the Helm at 760 S. Broadway (just a few doors down from the triangle Tully's). Their next show, Vanessa La Valle's "Fire, Fire", runs July 17-19. Check it out!

And I can't wait to pick up my poster tomorrow ...

Broadway (street) bound! But are we ready?

Looks like the recently empty space on Broadway, a couple doors down from Tully's, won't be empty for long. A South Sound native son has big ideas for that site -- and hopes we're ready for them. I hope we are, too.

The plan is for a gallery. And yes, we are lucky to have several running through downtown and throughout the city. But this young man has set his sights high and wants to rival New York or San Francisco galleries with big names, big opportunities and eclectic sensibilities. And he'd be in good company. At this pace, I won't have to wonder much longer what's going to happen when the antiques on Antique Row are a thing of the past ... it's quickly turning into a neighborhood of quality, yet accessible boutique shops -- and galleries.

This local boy is making good.

Will we do right by him?

Paper Angels

Strangely, I am about to write in a paperless world about the wonder of – paper.

This March 31 at King's Books is their now officially annual Wayzgoose event. (It's been three years, which makes it not a one-time event or a fluke, but an official annual event -- yippee!)

By definition, according to the Yale University library, a "wayzgoose" is a long-standing tradition in the history of printing, generally a dinner where printers gather to talk about the art they love.

While any eats at the King's Books event will likely be those you consume (and/or imbibe) before or after at the nearby Doyle's, Stadium Bistro, or St. Helen's Cafe, the event will be an interesting gathering and showcase of local letterpress printers and book artists that should pique the interest of Tacoma's growing nerdy/artsy population.

I went to the first one at King's Books, and was treated with a roomful of folks who love the look, the feel, the smell, the art that is paper. They are the reason paper will always be, no matter how much the Internet impedes upon the "printed word" world.

This year features a wide range of pulp enthusiasts ... from underground poster artists and cult-following-favorites Beautiful Angle, to Guinea Pig Press' 6-year-old emerging artist prodigy Abby McDermott (yes, her dad works at the bookstore, and that's probably how she got the spot -- but as the mom of a different 6-year-old Abby, I'm smitten).

And that's just the beginning. Be prepared for art, for information, for a chance to purchase some really cool cards and other paper arts -- and to mingle with those who are nearly as nerdy as you.

Celebrate pulp fact; go interact.

In Tacoma.