Asian-Americans have long streamed to America, sometimes to seek prosperity, at other times to escape oppression from their home countries, only to find that life here brings a new set of challenges. The Asia Pacific Cultural Center is presenting an Asian Film Festival that explores some of those issues in what it hopes to be its First Annual event. Screenings are free!

Dale

What’s not to love about independent film? Aspiring film makers calling in every favor from every friend to donate their acting or camera-lugging skills, going for broke (literally) as they max out every credit card in their wallet…. Indie filmmakers might just be the last of the barnstormers. In celebration, over 70 films will be screened from October 4-11 at the Second Annual Tacoma Film Festival. Better load up on salad now, because, Spartans, tonight we dine on hot buttered popcorn! The festival will take place at three venues:

The Grand Cinema (Event putter-oner and primary venue)

School of the Arts (SOTA) Theater

Tacoma Art Museum

Dale

Just in case you haven’t heard, a national sport has evolved called dock dogs, of which Tacoma has their own chapter with the Puget Sound Dock Dogs. The concept is pretty simple. Get a bunch of dogs and their owners together wherever there’s a body of water (hint: the swimming pool at Mill Creek Town Center works great) and let them take turns diving into the pool. When your dog’s number comes up, toss its favorite chew toy into the water, yell “Fetch!” and watch the aerial ballet begin. Naturally enough, kids are more than welcome. But it’s the canines’ turn to bark “Last one in is a rotten egg!” Next event is September 29th and 20th at Northwest Club Challenge and Fun Jump in Lacey.

-Dale

Sometimes it feels like a part-time job, explaining to my out-of-town friends that Tacoma is heading in a new vibrant direction. It’s a city in transition, where its blue-collar origins mingle vibrantly with the upscale economy of urban revitalization. For an artist’s take on this scene, drop by the windows of the Woolworth Building at Broadway and 11th Street for its current series, featuring Patrick Grenier, Paul McKee, Margot Myers, Heather Joy & Matthew Olds and David Traylor. These pieces have been touted in the press as depicting the contradictory nature of a city in transition. Okayyyy. I’ll have to run down there and take a peek before the show ends November 3.

Cheers,

Josh

I’ve always experienced Tacoma as a beer town. A place where you could always get a good pork chop and a pitcher of beer. Here are a couple of places where you can celebrate the magic of the hops this harvest season:

Harmon Brewery Beer Dinner

For its 10th Anniversary, Harmon Brewery will roll out a few barrels of Killerbrew, its Oktoberfest Lager for a five-course dinner, in which each course is matched with a special beer.

Where: Harmon Brewery, 1938 Pacific Avenue
When: September 26

Cost: $30

Info and reservations: 253.383.2739

Third Annual Oktoberfest Northwest
At this traditional Munich-style festival, you can get your bratwurst on, your schnitzel schnapped and , well, you get the picture. Kids wilkommen.

Where: Puyallup fairgrounds

When: October 5 through 7

Prost!

Dale

Around our house, now’s the time to begin planning your Halloween. The gals over at Tacoma Mama think so too. They’re starting a special section called The Halloween Pages, which will include family-friendly Halloween happenings. They’re compiling the list right now, so if you have an event that could be included, drop by the site and let them know about it.

Dale

You’re making the annual pilgrimage to corn dogs, elephant ears and just about anything that will fit in a deep fryer, right? And then you’ll be stepping onto a ride that measures its value in degrees of centrifugal force, right? I’m talking, of course, about the Puyallup Fair, September 7 - 23. You may go for the food and carnival rides, but I’ll be there to watch the wax artists dip flowers, body parts and whatever else you want (as long as it doesn’t entail breaking the law) in their vat of epoxy and memorialize it forever as either a mummified or cast sculpture. Something tells me I won’t see any students from the Pilchuck Glass School taking notes.

Josh

I’m just back from the glass show at Travers Gallery. If you’re expecting traditional Muranese glass, such as strings of kaleidoscopic beads or shelves filled with fancy vases, you would be in the wrong place. These pieces are abstract and purely decorative. Four or five artists were represented. Here are my thoughts on two of them:

Lino Tagliapietra is well known in these parts. Breaking with Muranese tradition, he moved here to the Northwest and started revealing the secrets of the craft at Dale Chihuly’s Pilchuck Glass School. You can see his influence on the scene; like much of Chihuly’s work, his pieces at the Travers Gallery seem inspired by exotic creatures that might be found under the sea or under a microscope.

Another artist whose work fascinated me was Silvano Rubino. Rubino works with master glass sculptors in Murano who blow the glass, which he subsequently carves. This collection’s black and tan pieces have been engraved with geometric designs that remind me of Native American pottery. I have no idea where he gets his ideas, but if Rubino has spent time on a New Mexican pueblo, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Be sure to get down to gallery to catch this show soon. It ends September 9.

Josh

Speaking of parks, did you know that the Tacoma Park system just turned 100? In fact, the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma is Washington State’s first independent park agency. Now that’s something to be proud of. Tacoma Weekly did a nice write-up on the occasion. So, if you made it to the Ben Stiller movie over the weekend, I hope you raised a glass to the founders of the park and their visionary ideas.

Brian

Let’s say you’re recently home from your vacation. If you’re like me that means you’re broke. Nevertheless, you’ve still got a few weeks of sun and freedom before school starts. What do you do? You go looking for free entertainment. That’s what you do. Fortunately, in Tacoma your tax dollars are at work, helping to solve that very problem. I’m talking here about the free Saturday night shows happening in various parks around town. If you’re in town Saturday, August 25, head down to the South End Recreation Area of Point Defiance Park and catch the Latin and Caribbean grooves of Bochinche, followed by an outdoor screening of “Night at the Museum.” I’m only a marginal fan of Ben Stiller, but I am a big fan of free.

UPDATE: Thank you to reader Jen for keeping me accurate. In her comment she pointed out that if you went to Point Defiance Park you would miss the free party. So you should actually just go straight to the South End Recreational Area just off of South 56th Street.

_

Josh