The fashionisti at Nordstrom know a lot about retail. Reports are rolling in that they also know a thing or two about how to party. Just a few days ago, Nordstrom reopened at the Tacoma Mall, adding 4,000 square feet to its already-huge retail space. And to celebrate, they threw a gala benefit for the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass. Worthy causes, both. And now those two institutions have $85,000 that they didn’t have before. If you weren’t there, you can see how the festivities went by checking out the Weekly Volcano’s Flickr page.
Live theater has had a bit of a struggle in Tacoma these last few years. It was a sad day last year when the lights went out for good on the Tacoma Actors Guild troupe. As usual, money was the issue. But now, the new Theatre Northwest has taken the stage – this time, with the help of Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. According to the News Tribune’s blog, sees itself as a production partner, providing incubating services for the fledgling theater company in the form of “administration costs, stage labor, and rent of performance venue, Theatre on the Square,” until it can stand on its own. Let’s hope they can make it. Better yet, let’s support live theater in this town by including it in our entertainment choices. We’ll be glad we did – and we’ll be doing our part to ensure its success.
Mindy Barker just opened a new show called “Slice,” at Fulcrum Gallery. The show, which ranges from a large painted glass installation to other, smaller, works has been described as having a uniquely archaeological feel, while, in the Weekly Volcano, Alec Clayton suggested something more geological, that the photographic transfers and collage images are sandwiched into “rocklike forms” and “cave like openings.” I like that. The glass paintings remind me, though, of giant microscope slides, bearing images that are like brief (i.e. microscopic) moments in the artist’s life – at once concrete and abstract, revealing a part of the story, but never, ever, the full plot. Fulcrum gallery is at 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and “Slice” runs through September 14.
Tacoma is, of course, an old railroad town. No wonder the movers and shakers at City Hall are doing their part to keep the dream alive that our fair city will remain a railroad town. Some ideas stick, while others don’t quite make it out of the gate. So it goes with visionary plans. The latest incarnation of that dream is Train to Trek. The idea is simple. Hop the train at Freighthouse Square and ride to Eatonville. From there you’ll make a transfer to Northwest Trek, the Metro Parks animal sanctuary, where you can ride a tram that will take you within arms’ reach of caribou, bison, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and other animals. Take a video tour here. And then mark your calendar for the next Train to Trek excursion on September 27.
If you’re the type of person who tends to beat the contestants to the buzzer on “Wheel of Fortune” or who, while watching “Jeopardy!”, says, “Pshhh, I could do that,” well here’s your chance. Three pubs around town offer Trivia Night on Wednesdays, with a chance to win cash and prizes. No word, though, on whether they offer a home version of their games.
Ale House Pub @ University Place. Trivia Night with a “Wheel of Goodness” + cash prizes 7 pm.
The Grand Cinema wants you to take a shot at designing this year’s Tacoma Film Festival poster.The winning poster will receive $350, two festival passes to the Tacoma Film Festival and a joint membership to the non-profit Grand Cinema. Runners-up receive four passes to any movie at the Grand Cinema. Oh, and the winner will also get his or her poster stapled all over telephone poles and scotch taped to coffeehouse windows all over the city. Entries due by July 31.
A puffer fish looms behind an installation of blown glass, perhaps imagining how he would blow glass if he could. A school of predatory lion fish slither among museum-quality glass sculptures. Has global warming caused the Puget Sound to inundate our lobby? Nope. This is Oddwater, the new summer exhibit at the Oregon Coast Museum, in Newport, Oregon. Colorful blown art glass, created by artists at The Edge Art Gallery in South Beach, Oregon, are inside all of the displays, complementing the strange creatures of Oddwater. According the aquarium website, “The glass art was created specifically for each display based on the actual habitat structures and the requirements of the animals.” The result? A unique fusion of art and aquaria. I may have to leave the comfy confines of this hotel for trip to Newport!
Just last year, our friend Josh posted his nostalgic memories of Point Defiance Park’s Never Never Land. At the time, a few structures, including the well-known statue of Humpty himself remained. But since then, even that has disappeared. As Kathleen Merryman reported in her News Tribune column, almost all of the final remaining structures have been demolished.
Kerryman writes, “All that’s left standing of the original attraction are the Old Woman’s Shoe and a pile of giant concrete books. If I had a dozer, I’d put them out of their misery.” So much for sentimentality. By her own admission, the columnist isn’t from these parts. No kidding.
A few photos from the park’s best years are posted online. Go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page for a slide show. And if you want to see what the storybook scenes looked like just prior to their annihilation, you’ll do no better than to drop by Tacoma Gnome’s blog.
Once upon a time, at the historic bebop jam sessions in New York and New Orleans of the 1930s and ‘40s, you could see greats like sax legend Charlie Parker swinging alongside newcomers, old-timers, has-beens and never wases. That was the beauty of those jams. You never knew where the next surprising talent would come from. That’s what the Tacoma Urban Arts Festival is like. It’s free, it’s all ages, and it gives artists specially discounted booths to encourage them to make the leap from talented amateur to pro. The music line-up also gives an inside track to newer musicians.
Date: June 29
Time: 12 p.m. to dusk
Where: Fireman’s Park at 803 ‘A’ St.
Although the website was unavailable last time I checked, try clicking here for more info.
Not too long ago, Wright park went by another nickname. The park, which had fallen to neglect and incursions from unsavory characters, was known as Fright Park. Now, a multimillion dollar restoration project has turned all that around, and this public space is a real jewel. Here are a few of the improvements, noted at Tacoma Daily Index:
– Refurbishing the iconic maiden and lion statues donated to the park by Clinton Ferry in 1891 and prominently placing them at the park’s entry ways
– Initiating Master Plan designs to re-establish the long view corridor which historically ran through the center of the park
– Relocating the basketball court from the center of park to a more visible location for improved safety
– Adding 97 trees and rerouting pathways to protect the root system the park’s Champion Sugar Maple
– Renovating the 1930’s brick restroom constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA); retaining the historic exterior of the building while modernizing the interior for safety and efficiency
– Renovating the Bowling Green and horse shoe pits that have been part of the park for nearly 80 years
