The 21st annual Margaret K. Williams Arts Awards, sponsored by the Pierce County Arts Commission and the Pierce County Arts & Cultural Services Division, have been announced. The awards are presented in three categories, and will be presented 6:30 p.m. November 6 at Tacoma Art Museum.

Winner of the Arts Education award is Amelia Haller, a poet, writer and teacher. Haller has published eight books, taught at many local institutions, and published in various anthologies.

Winner of the Excellence in the Arts award is local dancer and choreographer Carla Barragan. Currently directing BQDance in Tacoma, Barragan has presented work around the Northwest, taught at various classes and teacher education programs, and connected local dance with arts from her native Ecuador, where she also presents work.

The award for Career Arts goes to sculptor Mardie Rees. Rees creates figurative work in bronze, and has shown throughout the Northwest and California. Her current work, a life-size bronze "Saint Anthony and Child," will be displayed in the lobby of St. Anthony's Hospital, under construction in Gig Harbor.

The award ceremony will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.

Who’s afraid of “Dracula”?
Not Tacoma City Ballet. The company is performing this original ballet tonight and tomorrow, to live orchestral music of Elgar and Smetana. Bring the family and wear costume. 7:30 p.m. tonight, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1. $25. Theatre on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org

Party with the Dead
Dia de los Muertos is this Sunday. Make sugar skulls and papel picado, and see a tapete and ofrendas at Tacoma Art Museum, then join with life-size skeletons in the 6th Avenue parade, with hot drinks after. 12-6 p.m. free community festival at Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-4258, www.tacomaartmuseum.org; 6 p.m. parade convenes at Masa, 2811 6th Ave., Tacoma. www.on6thave.com

Midwest Reflections at The Gallery at TCC
Pastel artist Melinda Liebers Cox and photographer Linda Staats teamed up for two road trips through the American Midwest: “Heartland Intersections” is the result. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays through Dec. 19. Free. The Gallery at Tacoma Community College, enter off S. 12th and Mildred Streets, Tacoma. 253-460-4306, www.tacomacc.edu/thegallery

“Beautiful Angle” at PLU
You’ve seen the posters around town: hand-printed, hand-pasted, original poetry, off-beat design. Now you can meet the guys behind them: Lance Kagey and Tom Llewellyn, a.k.a. Beautiful Angle, at the opening of their PLU gallery show. 5-7 p.m. Nov.5. Free. Ingram Hall, Pacific Lutheran University, 121st St. S. and Wheeler St. South, Tacoma. 253-535-7150, www.plu.edu/~artd/events.html

The annual Children’s Film Series at the Grand Cinema is on hiatus this week, says Philip Cowan, the Grand’s executive director. The series of high-quality children’s movies, shown on weekends from Oct. 3 through the end of November, is halfway through its run and will resume on Nov. 7 with the 2001 Oscar-winning anime hit, “Spirited Away.” That picture and all others in the series will be shown at 11 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The following weekend, Nov. 14-16, will bring “The Phantom Tollbooth,” a full-length animated fantasy by the late, great Chuck Jones who gave Bugs Bunny sophistication and sass. Bugs isn’t onboard in “Tollbooth,” but Mel Blanc, the man who gave the bunny his voice, lends his vocal talents to the picture.

The weekend of Nov. 21-23 will find John Sayles’ lyrical live-action 1995 Irish fable, “The Secret of Roan Inish,” playing at the theater. And the series will wrap up on the weekend of Nov. 28 with the Christmas-themed tearjerker “Prancer,” about a little girl who nurses an ailing reindeer back to health. She thinks he’s one of Santa’s sleigh-pullers. And who's to say he isn’t? Only a unbelieving grump, that’s who.

Taken a look at local bus backsides lately?

They're sporting the very cool design for Art at Work month, which for the whole of November celebrates local artists doing their thing in studio tours, art slams, workshops and more. Better still, when you get on board the bus, you can see some actual art: poems by local poets printed in letterpress broadsides by local small press printers.

The broadsides are a new feature of the annual Art at Work month, and a brainchild of the City of Tacoma's Arts Commission, which organizes the whole event. The Commission worked with six local poets and seven local letterpress artists to create seven broadsides (for the seventh anniversary of Art at Work month). The artists have created a limited edition of 40 for each, and reprints have been up on Pierce Transit buses for a few days now.

Participating poets/letterpress artists are Allen Braden/Chloe Scheffe, Crystal Hoffer/Chris Sharp, Kay Mullen/Isaac Solverson, Diane Toft-Knowles/Ric Matthies, Allen Braden/Beautiful Angle, Tim Sherry/Jessica Spring, and Kevin Miller/David Johnston.

And if you don't catch them in person on the bus, you can see the lot at tacomaculture.org/arts/AWbroadsides.asp

Art at Work month officially kicks off tonight with a free party at Tacoma Art Museum. There'll be live music by Pearl Django, poetry readings, hands-on art, hors d'oeuvres, a no-host bar and TAM's galleries. The City will be handing out its AMOCAT awards to the 2008 winners and honoring recipients of 2008 City grants. 6-9 p.m. tonight. 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-591-5191, www.tacomaculture.org

The "Contrasts" show at Museum of Glass. Photo Richard Nicol.

It's a first for Tacoma: a museum art exhibit of fragile glass that's actually meant to be touched.

The Museum of Glass has just launched its new "Contrasts Multi-sensory Experience," a complementary exhibition to "Contrasts - A Glass Primer." Up for over a year now, "Contrasts" is an informative (if simplistic) explanation of the different styles, techniques and aesthetics of glass art. The multisensory part involves an audio-descriptive tour with easily-navigated buttons, carefully-worded descriptions and gallery directions for the visually-impaired, plus six tactile stations with glass that can be touched as well as seen.

The touchable glass examples, made by MoG's Hot Shop team, match up with examples in "Contrasts" of glass properties like 'smooth,' 'rough' and so on. They're ideal, say MoG officials, not only for the visually-impaired but also for children, and pretty much anyone else who wonders what glass art actually feels like--without endangering expensive works of art like Richard Marquis' "Marquiscarpa," below.

Richard Marquis, "Marquiscarpa #99-16." Image courtesy of the artist.

“When people see or hear about glass art, they intuitively want to touch it,” says MoG education director Susan Warner. “Finally, we have a program that will allow them to do just that.”

It's a project that's been in the making for well over a year, now, in consultation with Joan Rabinowitz from Jack Straw Productions and Jesse Minkert of Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences, and Mark Adrian, Communications and Employer consultant for the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind.

"Contrasts" is up through Oct. 11, 2009.

The cast of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," at the Pantages Wednesday night. Photo Scott Suchman.

Rainier Family Opera: affordable, fun, friendly
Opera’s not scary, and Rainier Family Opera want to prove it. Their first family-friendly concert this season features non-costumed, narrated scenes from Mozart, Hoffman and Dvorak. 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at Spanaway Lutheran Church, 16001 A St. S., Spanaway; 7 p.m. Oct. 25 at First Lutheran Church, 524 S. I St., Tacoma. Suggested donation $10/family $25. 253-222-5463, rainierfamilyopera.blogspot.com

Tacoma Symphony heads to Old Russia
Opening their season with romantic Russian faves like Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony and Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto, the TSO shows you can’t have too much of a good thing. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25. Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma. $10-$75. 253-272-7264, www.tacomasymphony.org

Tacoma, can you spell E-N-T-E-R-T-A-I-N-I-N-G?
Tony Award-winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” hits Tacoma this week thanks to the Broadway Center. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29. Theater on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. $48,$58,$68,$80. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org

Art among the books at UPS library
Last week to see local book artist Holly Senn’s thoughtful show “(un) written,” inspired by botanical conservatories and museums. 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 31. Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, behind Kilworth Chapel at North 18th and North Warner Streets. Free. 253-879-3100, www.ups.edu/x4473.xml#October

Jacob Colby, son of Tacoma City Ballet teacher Melinda Colby. Photo Melinda Colby.

Tacoma City Ballet is holding its second Studio Gallery event Saturday night. If you went to the first one, you'll remember that the gilt-and-mirrored studio in the Merlino Building transforms beautifully into an art gallery, with sylph-like dancers wafting around and yummy hors d'oeuvres, cupcakes and champagne enticing you to stay. All art sales go completely to the artists (no commissions here) and profits from the $5 entry went to scholarships for students in the Tacoma City Ballet School.

The upcoming evening will be just as good, and for an even better cause. Jacob Colby is the four-year-old son of former TCB dancer and current teacher Melinda Colby. Conceived while Melinda was dancing in the 2003 "Nutcracker," Jacob's just been diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. DMD is the most common fatal genetic disorder in young boys, affecting 1 out of 3,500 worldwide. All proceeds from the Gallery entry fee and silent auction items will go via the Colbys to find a cure for the disease.

Artists include Mary Mann, the Elwit duo, Erin Stiner and TCB director Erin Ceragioli. There'll be food and champagne, and hot-club jazz from Northwest Sinfonietta director Christophe Chagnard with Pearl Django's Neil Anderson, both on guitar.

7-9:30 p.m. Oct. 25. 508 6th Ave, Tacoma. 253-272-4219, www.tacomacityballet.com

Call this a case of doggies redux. A canine comeback. A big wet sloppy cinematic pooch smooch.

It's the movie Tacoma can't seem to get enough of. It's "Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary," and it's returning the the Grand Cinema ... yet again.

The hilarious documentary about the peculiar world of professional dachshund racing was THE hit of the just-concluded Tacoma Film Festival, selling out two scheduled shows at the Grand Cinema and prompting the festival’s head honcho, Philip Cowan, to add yet another screening to accommodate the demand.

And now, even though the festival is finished, the demand hasn’t diminished. Cowan, the executive director of the Grand, says that two weeks after the festival wrapped up people are still coming up to him and asking if the movie will be brought back for a full-bore theatrical run. Well Grand fans, your wish is his command. The wieners will be returning on Oct. 31 for an open-ended run, Cowan announced today.

Looks like we haven’t seen the last of those low-slung pooches yet.

Philip Mazaud, "Women & Men." Image courtesy Artist Trust.

State funding body Artist Trust, in collaboration with the Washington State Arts Commission, has announced its 2008 Fellowship recipients--and they include two Pierce County artists. Philipe Mazuad (see above) now lives in Tacoma, but has shown his stark landscape black-and-white photographs in New York and Paris, as well as Rebecca V Gallery in Tacoma. Nicholas Nyland (see below) of Lakewood is quietly on the up-and-up in the Northwest, showing in local galleries as well as the Tacoma Art Museum's last Biennial.

Nicholas Nyland, "Untitled." Image courtesy Artist Trust.

Among the panelists was Qwalsius Shaun Peterson, is a Puyallup/Tulalip printmaker and carver, who's currently working on a pole for Tollefson Plaza.

Around the state, 21 recipients were chosen from 450 applicants for the fellowships, each of which award $7,500 in unrestricted cash.

More locally, the Pierce County Arts Commission has announced the winners of its 21st annual Margaret K. Williams Arts Awards: Amelia Haller for arts education, choreographer Carla Barragan for excellence in the arts, and Mardie Rees for arts career. Awards will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Tacoma Art Museum.

Rosalind Plowright (Klytämnestra), Kimberly Giordano (Confidante), and Dana Johnson (Trainbearer), with supernumeraries and actors in Seattle Opera's "Elektra." Photo Rozarii Lynch.

I went to the opening last night of Seattle Opera's "Elektra"--and it was worth every wait in the Seattle traffic.

Written by Richard Strauss, "Elektra" premiered in 1909, and though it had a hugely successful run it frightened a lot of people. It tells the tale of Elektra, daughter of King Agamemnon of Mycenae, who had been murdered by his wife Klytemnestra and her lover. Klytemnestra then banished her son Orest and spent 10 years beating and starving Elektra, who plots revenge--the point where the opera starts. It's a tale of obsession, insanity and murder, with music to match: stark dissonances and harsh brass convey Elektra's mania, unearthly effects hint at the looming presence of death.

Seattle Opera's production takes all this and drives it in to the hilt. Against a set as oppresive as a tomb (Wolfram Skalicki), the cast sing their 100 straight minutes of full-volume opera (there's no intermission) with a passion, led by the three main women. Soprano Janice Baird here makes her West Coast debut in a stunning fashion. Her Elektra is tragic and convincing, her voice sweet even at its most powerful. If there's a fault, it's that she's just too beautiful to be the crazy, rag-wearing hag that the text describes--maybe she needed a few more dreadlocks and dirt.

Janice Baird as Elektra. Photo Rozarii Lynch.

Mezzo Rosalind Plowright delivers a psychological masterpiece as Klytemnestra, agonized between killing and the ruin of her life. Costumer Melanie Taylor Burgess here creates a terrific wrap dress under the Queen's robes, which clings to her like a shriveled shroud. And as Elektra's sister, Irmgard Vilsmaier is the perfect example of someone who's retreated beyond reach into denial.

Rosalind Plowright (Klytämnestra) with Kimberly Giordano (Confidante) and Dana Johnson (Trainbearer). Photo Bill Mohn.

But the crowing glory of "Elektra"--and what sustains you through the interminable, action-less ranting, is Richard Strauss' score: big, demanding, difficult and disturbing. The orchestra's brass and expanded woodwind played cleanly and dramatically.

Baird returns next year as Brunhilde in SO's Ring Cycle--can't wait to see her then. Meanwhile, "Elektra" gives plenty of bang for the buck.

But wait, there's more! McCaw Hall just opened their new restaurant, Prelude. Be smart, and reserve way in advance (206-615-0404). I didn't, so I can't tell you much about it except that it looks more like German beer hall than fine dining. However, if you don't get a table you can still eat appetizers from the promenade level Barista cafe, sitting at nearby bar tables. The food's tasty-- our olives were piquant, the almonds brushed with oil, the Laura Chenel goat cheese excellent. The cheese platter was dry and rather similar-tasting, and the crostini a bit too crusty. Add in two glasses of tangy Fourteen Hands merlot, and you have a light meal for two for $40.

Other things on the menu are salami with apples and pumkin, albacore with egg and aioli, and pork rillettes with green tomato confiture. There's a good wine selection, and if you make it into Prelude there are six entrees (all meat) and five salads as well, plus dessert.

"Elektra" runs Oct. 22, 25, 26 (2 p.m.), 29 31 and Nov. 1, all evenings at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $25. 206-389-7676, 800-426-1619, www.seattleopera.org.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields will play at the Pantages tonight. Photo courtesy Tacoma Philharmonic.

“Cowgirls” ride in to Theatre on the Square
The stage adaption of Tom Robbins’ girl-love novel “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” is coming to Theatre on the Square, courtesy of Book-It Repertory Theatre. Opens 7:30 p.m tonight, then 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18, 23, 24, 25, and 3 p.m. Oct. 19 and 26. $34/$22. Theater on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org

Lush string chamber music at the Pantages
Thanks to Tacoma Philharmonic, renowned English ensemble The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields will play Dvorak (((NB acute on o, circonflex on r))) and Mendelssohn. 7:30 p.m. tonight. $32.50-$62.50 general/military, children half-price. Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.tacomaphilharmonic.org

Elegant early music at Annie Wright
Second City Chamber Series opens the season with Baroque and Rococo music on period instruments: J.S. Bach and son, Benda, Quantz and more. 7:30 p.m. tonight. $35 general/$30 seniors/$15 students. Great Hall, Annie Wright School, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org

Madera hosts Tacoma’s own recycled-art show
Artists from professionals to grade-schoolers show how trash becomes treasure at Gallery Madera’s first re-ART exhibition. Opening reception 3-7 p.m. Oct. 18, then noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, noon-8 p.m. third Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Saturdays through Nov. 29. Free. Gallery Madera, 2210 Court A, Tacoma. 253-572-1218, www.maderawoodworking.com

Re-ART features "untrashing America" by Mrs. Seberson's 3rd grade class at Washington-Hoyt school.

Americans create the most trash of any country on earth. We make up 5 percent of the world's people, and create 40 percent of the world's trash. That's around 1600 lbs of trash per person, per year.

So what to do about it?

Well, one solution is to turn it into art. Gallery Madera is opening Tacoma's first recycled art show this Saturday (though you can sneak-peek Thursday night at ArtWalk), and the show--"re-ART '08"--has attracted 130 works from 30 artists. Submissions were then juried by Julie Bennet (Urban Xchange), Paula Tutmarc-Johnson (Two Vaults Gallery) and Rick Semple (artist and architect.)

The 22 selected artists are mostly local, and range from regulars like Jennevieve Schlemmer and Alice di Certo to Blue Hesikx, who's more often seen dancing with Barefoot Studios. There are artists from Port Townsend and Seattle, and Olympian Diane Kurzyna aka the Bubble Wrap Lady.

Alice di Certo, "Recycling."

But maybe the most impressive work is a group effort: an American flag, made out of trash, by the kids in Mrs. Seberson's 3rd grade class at Washington-Hoyt Elementary School. (Bias disclaimer here: I'm a Wa-Hoyt parent, so be warned!)

As a class project, the students not only found out the startling details at the head of this post, but figured out ways to glue and hammer trash in red, white and blue onto a board that's close to full flag size. Bottle-caps, ribbons, paper--you name it, it's on there. Here's the video by parent and local ad maker Paul Blanchard about how they did it.

Says gallerist Carlos Taylor-Swanson:

“Our intent with re-ART is to bring about more public awareness regarding the masses of waste generated in our culture and to help foster a local community grounded in sustainability. If we can get folks to think more about all of the upstream waste generated to make our lives more convenient and to recycle everything possible, then this show will be a success!”

30% of all sales will benefit the Tacoma Food Co-op and the Sierra Club Zero Waste Committee.

Re-ART opens 3-7 p.m. Saturday at Gallery Madera, 2210 Court A, Tacoma. You can sneak a look from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, and thereafter see the show noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, noon-8 p.m. third Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Saturdays through Nov. 29. 253-572-1218, www.maderawoodworking.com

Dancers from Barefoot Collective in rehearsal. Photo courtesy Michael Hoover.

Things are getting busy for arts in Tacoma. This Friday alone I have four events that I could be (and wish I were) going to: "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" at Theater on the Square (which I *am* going to), the Second City chamber players, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at the Pantages, and the Barefoot Dance Collective.

Not that I'm too sorry about missing the last, because I'll be making it to their Sunday show, and they're running all next weekend as well. It's a new dance collective, born from the ashes (so to speak) of the former Barefoot Studio group when directors Paul and Jo Zmolek left town in May.

The new collective, made up of dancers from Tacoma and Seattle, is already doing great things: I saw their first show in September, and choreographers Katie Stricker and Stephanie Kriege explored alternative settings (dancing underneath paintings suspended from the roof) and themes for a really thoughtful and beautiful night of dance. The space is also unique: where else can you sit just inches away from the performers, hearing their breath and seeing their muscles? (The chartreuse/purple decor is also pretty cool.)

This weekend, some of the other collective members strut their stuff, exploring internal themes of personality with "Peeples." Michael Hoover, Marianne Gary, Amanda Hermann and Rosa Vissers will all contribute pieces, some multimedia (with film), and Stricker will dance another of hers. As is usual at Barefoot, dancers range in age from 14 to 65.

"Peeples" runs at 8 p.m. October 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26 at Barefoot Studios, 1604 Center St., Tacoma. Tickets are available online at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door: $15 general admission, $12 student/senior/military. Information: www.barefootcallous.org

Cat lovers will be saddened to learn that Harriet, one of the resident felines at King’s Books in Tacoma, has passed on to that great catnip patch in the sky. The store mascot, beloved by many readers, was unable to eat in her last weeks of life and declined rapidly.

Meanwhile Miko, the store’s other cat, has also been ailing. He’s been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, but has undergone treatment and is due back at King’s any minute now.

Local cowboy icon Fred Oldfield is rounding up Western artists and their fans this weekend for The Celebration of Western & Wildlife Art Show and Sale at the Expo Hall (Gold Gate) on the Puyallup Fairgrounds -- near 9th S.W. and Meridian Avenue.

In addition to the show, there'll be demonstrations, receptions, entertainment, wine and cheese -- and peanuts. All free. Even the parking. It looks like everything at this hoedown is free, except for the art.

Put on your boots, saddle up and head on over to Fred's spread for the most Western art you'll find corralled in these here parts.

I'll quit now with the cowboy references.

Srivani Jade, who'll be playing in the first Classical Tuesdays in Old Town concert on Tuesday night.

Tacoma Concert Band goes to Broadway
The TCB opens its season: hits from Broadway to blues to classical clarinet concerto, with soloist Lawrence Bradley. 7:30 p.m. tonight. $15-$30 ($5 discount senior/student/military.) Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.tacomaconcertband.org

Tracy Lang woodcuts at Kittredge
Seattle printmaker Lang’s woodcuts are more akin to abstract expressionist painting than traditional prints. Opens 4-6 p.m. Oct. 12; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, noon-5 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 17. Free. Kittredge Hall, University of Puget Sound, N. 15th and Lawrence Streets, Tacoma. 253-879-2806, www.ups.edu/kittredge.xml

Old Town series opens with Indian sitar music
Kirkland sitarist Srivani Jade began performing in India at five years old. To spice up the monthly Classical Tuesdays in Old Town, Jade will play traditional North Indian classical music, accompanied by tabla, harmonium and tanpura. 7 p.m. Oct. 14. Free. Slavonian Hall, 2306 N. 30th St., Tacoma. 253-752-2135, classicaltuesdays.blogspot.com

ArtWalk next Thursday
October seems to be gallery group show month: the Helm presents a juried show, Fulcrum shows five local glass artists, Impromptu has the usual array of co-op artists, Two Vaults opens their annual group Dia de los Muertos display. 5-9 p.m. Oct. 16. Various galleries and museums. www.thehelmgallery.com, fulcrum.oliverdoriss.com, www.impromptugallerytacoma.com, www.twovaults.com, www.artwalktacoma.com

“Wiener Take All: A Dogumentary” was the undisputed hit of this year’s Tacoma Film Festival, with two sold-out shows and a third, added, screening playing to a half-full auditorium at the Grand Cinema on Tuesday night. Nothing else in the weeklong event came close, said the Grand’s executive director, Philip Cowan.

The second most popular picture was the opening night film, “On Paper Wings.” It was a documentary about a little-known World War II episode in which the Japanese military tried to attack the U.S. with bombs attached to large paper balloons.

A program of comedy shorts attracted the third-largest audience of the fest, and a documentary titled “Crawford,” about the small town near President Bush’s Texas ranch, came in fourth. Another shorts program, this one made up of mini drama, was the fifth most popular offering.

Cowan said total festival attendance was around 1,700, a figure close to the number of tickets sold last year.

The festival wraps up Thursday with a 6:30 p.m. gala awards banquet at the Temple Theater, 47 St. Helens Ave. Awards will be handed out to films in four categories: documentary, local film, short and audience favorite.

Trinda Love, "Garbage Day on Court C."

Impromptu Gallery is holding an ekphrastic poetry contest--and you're invited.

Okay, I'm admitting it--I just had to look up "ekphrastic." I like writing poetry, so it seems a useful word to know, plus it might come in handy during the upcoming Kings Books spelling bee. So: the meaning is, a graphic description of a visual work of art. (It's from the Greek, to 'speak out.')

In other words, poetry interpreting art.

For the first two weeks of October, you're all invited to visit Impromptu and gaze at the art, writing down your thoughts in lines of poetry. All poems submitted by Oct. 12 will be juried by UWT associate professor and award-winning poet Philip Heldrich, with prizes including the winning $100. (Now that's incentive for you.)

The featured artist this month is Trinda Love (see above), who does thick impasto oils in a sort of Van Gogh style, but venturing past fields and stars into city streets and bottle-filled parks.

Here are the contest details:
Length: 50 lines or less
Format: Two copies of poem, one with all contact information at top left of page plus title of poem, artwork and artist; another copy for judging with titles but WITHOUT contact info.
Deadline: midnight Oct. 12, either hard copy at gallery or Word doc to poetry@grandimpromptugallery.com
Finalists posted: Oct. 20 at grandimpromptugallery.com
Fee: $5 for one poem, $1 for each additional poem, maximum three poems
Location: 608 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma (next to The Grand Cinema)
Finalist Reading: top 15 finalists will read their work at gallery reception 4-5:60 p.m. Oct. 25, being videotaped for web streaming and DVD (free for entrants.) Selected poems will be published and posted to grandimpromptugallery.com
Gallery hours: noon-4 p.m. Oct. 10, 4-9 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 2-9 p.m. Saturdays, 2-6 p.m. Sundays
Information: 253- 539-1551, trinda.love@grandimpromptugallery.com

The wiener dogs are hot, hot, hot.

Those would be the elongated canine stars of “Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary.” (And yes, I groaned as I typed that.) They’re the hit of the Tacoma Film Festival so far.

The hilarious documentary about the wild world of sanctioned dachshund racing sold out its first show Saturday at the Grand Cinema. Then it sold out a second scheduled show this evening at
6:45 p.m. A front-page story about the picture in Sunday’s News Tribune helped spur sales, festival programmer Philip Cowan announced today.

So in response to popular demand, Cowan added an encore screening at 8:40 tonight. “Come over after the debate,” he invited, “to lighten the mood."

Regardless of how your candidate does tonight, you’re sure to howl at the antics of the low-slung racers and their fanatical owners.

Lino Tagliapietra, "Endeavor." Photo: Greg R. Miller.

If you're a museum making your traveling exhibit debut, the Smithsonian is a pretty good place to step out on stage.

That's exactly where the Museum of Glass is this week: it's very first traveling show, "Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Italian Glass," opened at the Smithsonian Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery last Friday. Tacomans got to see it first, of course, as it was up from February through August this year--an enormous show filled with the Venetian master's signature curvy elegance, lacy murrine work and elongated goose-necked vessels.

It's an exciting thing for MoG, which until now has relied mostly on outside shows and curators. Now five years old, MoG's turning its attention to becoming a fully-realized museum with a full-time in-house curator, its own collection, and serious scholarship in the form of self-organized shows like "Lino."

Following the Renwick, Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect will travel to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA (April 8 – July 19, 2009); the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA (September 26 – December 27, 2009); and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (February 1 – May 31, 2010).

Here's what MoG says about it:

"Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect" is the first exhibition to look at Tagliapietra’s art and forty years of his career—from his years working in the glassmaking industry on the island of Murano, to his historical 1979 trip to Pilchuck Glass School to teach Italian glassmaking techniques to American glassmakers hungry to expand their technical knowledge and skills, to his legacy as the world’s greatest living glassblower and designer.
“To organize a traveling exhibition of this magnitude requires the collective commitment of Museum staff, the artists and the collectors,” comments Museum of Glass director Timothy Close. “The staff of the Museum of Glass is very proud that this show has been selected for exhibition by such prestigious institutions on both the east and west coasts. And this is just our first—we are currently preparing two additional shows for travel: Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire and Shadows and Kids Design Glass. Both of these exhibitions will open at the Museum of Glass in 2009 and begin traveling in 2010.”

Lit in Satanic red, the Northwest Sinfonietta played the stories of two deals with the Devil Saturday night in "Devil May Care": Michael Daugherty's "Dead Elvis" and Igor Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale." Written 70 years apart, they're very different--but each showed off the ensemble and solo playing of the seven Sinfonietta members.

"Dead Elvis" is the piece every bassoonist dreams of playing. Where else can you get up in front of an ensemble, shimmy your way through all the virtuosity your instrument can drum up, and dress up as a rock star at the same time? And Francine Peterson, principal bassoon of the Sinfonietta, didn't disappoint. Punctuated by fun Elvis gestures and garbed in that famous shiny gold-and-white pantsuit, the wigged and shaded Peterson took her bassoon through its paces. And she showed off considerable chops: gunshot doubletongueing for the opening four notes of the Dies Irae (Daugherty takes this medieval funeral chant as Elvis' ironic theme-tune), a wailing high E, some funky bopping during the '50s rock section. While Peterson made a more reserved than egotistic King, she totally nailed his solo.

Fine rhythmic work from bassist Todd Larsen and super-tight playing from the group added to the dynamic. A bit more high-note oomph from both Larsen on bass and Craig Rine on clarinet and the piece would have truly rocked.

After intermission came "The Soldier's Tale"--a morality piece about a soldier who does a deal with the Devil and regrets it. It's a tricky piece to do well. Stravinsky's colorful, narrative music can get irritatingly repetitive, and the text can be downright clunky. Narrator Jose Gonzales and his screenwriter wife Lisa Halpern did a good job of smoothing out the second problem. The text, thanks to their changes, was mostly elegant and flowing, though it could have done with many more contemporary allusions than the single joke allowed (the Devil's magic book ensured not just stock predictions but never having to be bailed out by Congress). Gonzales adroitly handled a sensitive amplification system, and created a silky-tongued Devil and an honest, perennially stupid Soldier. Yet a certain self-consciousness permeated, and took away from the magic.

Musically, however, the performance couldn't be faulted. Superbly together, the musicians blended and soloed intricately, a shining trumpet (Charles Butler) melting into wistful clarinet (Rine) and bassoon (Peterson) and down-to-earth bass (Larsen.) As the soldier's violin, James Garlick carried the evening, with personable lilting solos.

The addition of dancer Amy Weaver during the section where the soldier cures the ailing princess was a sweetly surreal addition to the imaginary story.

Saturday evening was, in sum, a stylish example of the kind of playing the Sinfonietta excels in, and the kind of imaginative programming they've set for the season.

Make that a “Weiner.”

The first sell-out of this year’s Tacoma Film Festival was “Weiner Takes All: A Dogumentary.” With a title like that, who could stay away?

Certainly not the 110 people who filled the auditorium of the Grand Cinema where the droll dogu-, ah, documentary played at 3 p.m. Saturday.

A very tongue-in-cheek look at the world of dachshund racing from director Shane MacDougall, “Weiner” featured competitors with names like Noodles, Peanut and Spike.

It’s a picture with backbiting. Or rather, butt-biting, where a well-timed nip to the hindquarters can turn a leader into a loser in the time it takes for a set of long jaws to snap shut and start a dogfight right there on the track.

It’s a picture that revealed that some competitors have attention spans as short as their stubby little legs, wandering sideways when the starting gate lifts, or in some cases refusing to come out of the gate at all while the rest of field dashes toward the finish line.

It’s a picture where one poor pooch comes dressed in a set of hot-dog buns with a squiggle of faux mustard on its back. I swear I could see critter turn hot-dog red with embarrassment.

“The dogs were awesome and the people who brought them were a little crazed,” said Sharon Anderson, a nurse from Tacoma who attended the screening with a girlfriend who owns a dachshund. Anderson was no doubt referring to a woman in the movie who put into perspective the relationship between dog and owner and the home they share when she said of her pooch,” She lets us live here.”

“Hysterical,” is how Annette Hockman of Gig Harbor described the movie.

The audience laughed throughout. And at the end they applauded heartily.

Want to know what all the guffawing was about? You’re in luck. “Weiner” screens again at the Grand at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Your mother always warned you not to take candy from strangers. Yet there was Angela Soper on Saturday, handing out caramels in Tacoma to people who didn’t know her from Adam. And you know something? Her mother surely would have approved.

That’s because Soper, a resident of Salt Lake City, is the co-producer of “Courthouse Girls of Farmland,” a documentary shown this weekend at the Tacoma Film Festival. Her mother, Eileen Herron, is one of its stars.

And the caramels? Made by Soper’s brother Jerome Herron and wrapped in brightly colored paper bearing the legend “The Treat’s on Us! Award-winning ‘Courthouse Girls of Farmland,’” they were sweet treats intended to tempt Tacomans to attend the Saturday afternoon showing of the movie.

From start to finish, “Courthouse Girls” has been a family affair. It’s the story of how Eileen Herron, an 86-year-old resident of the small Indiana town of Farmland and six other senior lady members of her bridge club – the youngest was 77, the oldest 94 – posed nude in 2005 as part of a campaign to save the town’s historic 19th-century county courthouse. The building was slated for demolition, and Mrs. Herron and and Jerome Soper and Jerome’s business partner Larry Francer wanted to derail the effort. Inspired the story of a group of middle-aged Englishwomen who took it all off in the late ‘90s to pose for a charity calendar (the 2003 movie “Calendar Girls” was based on the incident), the four decided that a similar calendar would be just the thing to draw attention to their crusade to save the courthouse.

Did it ever.

“It created such a ruckus in town that these women were posing provocatively,” said Soper. Actually, the photos were quite tasteful, with porcelain replicas of the courthouse placed in such a way as to conceal any naughty bits. Still, some folks got their backs up. Someone even called the whole thing “geriatric soft-core porn,” Soper said.

But the campaign rallied supporters and the courthouse was ultimately saved. Along the way, Soper, Jerome and Francer decided to produce a film about the brouhaha. They hired filmmaker Norman Klein to direct it.

When it was done, Jerome, the owner of a gift and candy store in Farmland, came up with the idea of making homemade caramels to be help promote the picture. The siblings taste-tested the idea earlier this year at a film festival in Breckenridge, Colo. They persuaded five of the calendar ladies to go forth and hand out the candies, and by the time they were done, the women had become local celebrities. And the picture wound up winning the festival’s top audience award.

Sweet!

“Washington Week” moderator Gwen Ifill, actresses Jada Pinkett Smith and Regina King and rapper Chuck D are on-camera commentators in the documentary “The Souls of Black Girls.”

The film will be screened at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 100 if Pacific Lutheran University’s Ingram Hall. Its topic is how media images of black women influence the young women who view them.

Filmmaker Daphne Valerius will be on hand to discuss the movie following the screening.

The screening is free of charge.

Tonight at the opening-night gala of the Tacoma Film Festival, the main attraction will be … the vice presidential debate starring Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

Months ago, when planners set Oct. 2 as the opening date for the city’s third annual indie film extravaganza, they had no idea that that would turn out to be an evening of high political drama. With what’s become the most eagerly anticipated vice presidential debate in history coincidentally scheduled for the same night, even some members of the board of directors of the Grand Cinema, the festival’s main venue, told festival organizer Philip Cowan that they might be late for the fete. The debate, they said, would keep them home in front of the tube, at least for a while.

Ticket sales for the opening were also soft. “I’m worried attendance will be down a bit tonight because our patrons are so politically active they’ll want to see the debate,” Cowan said this morning.

What to do? “We are going to actually show the debate,” Cowan said. He’d planned to show clips of festival films on a big-screen TV set up at the party site, the United Methodist Church of Tacoma at 621 Tacoma Ave. (just behind the Grand). That is still the plan, but first up will be the debate, which is set to start at 6 p.m., a half hour earlier than the originally scheduled beginning of the party.

Hey, it might be a lot more exciting than most of the movies in the festival. There’s nothing like live-action drama.

... er, fest.

That would be the Tacoma Film Festival, which starts tomorrow night.

Now in its third year, the weeklong treat for local film buffs boasts more than 80 indie offerings on a menu that is heavy with short films and documentaries. Among the latter, topics range from the whimsical – the title, "Weiner Takes All: A Dogumentary," says it all about a dachshund racing epic – to the grimly topical – "America Betrayed" alleges government mishandling of national disasters.

The balloon goes up at 8:15 p.m. tomorrow at the Grand Cinema with, appropriately enough, a movie about balloons. "On Paper Wings" sheds light on a little-known episode from World War II in which the Japanese military used giant paper balloons with bombs attached to try to attack the U.S. Carried across the Pacific by the jetstream, the balloon bombs fell all over the West but only one, which landed in Oregon, actually killed people.

The festival runs through Oct. 9. Read the full schedule.

Due to the Presidential Debate Thursday night, King's Books is rescheduling its Banned Film night (part of Banned Books Week activities.)

The new time is 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3. Films shown are "Freaks" and "Fahrenheit 451." At King's Books, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma.253-272-88001, www.kingsbookstore.com

Brian Nicholson, "Escape from Culture Crayon."

The fall installation is up at the Woolworth Windows and Tollbooth—and the social culture references come thick and fast.

The Tollbooth, that creative use of a former TV-Tacoma info-booth, is filled with a Brian Nicholson video. Nicholson’s “Escape from Culture Crayon,” strings together hand-done cartoons and homemade-style video footage in a montage of arch references. Bart Simpson morphs into Charlie Brown who morphs into a Spiderman thing: the drawings are clever and draw you into a lava of uncertainty. It’s followed by not-so-clever loops of a nerdy guy happily setting his T-shirt on fire—the frankly embarrassing college-y feel is mitigated by a funky soundtrack.

Over in the Windows, the allusions keep coming. Io Palmer's giant princess bed-curtain made of macramé, baubled and beaded and backed by a hair-bobble wall-paper, is presided over by a dressmaker’s dummy in black Dickies waitress outfit. In the next Window, the outfit is now for a ‘50s nurse, sweeping up the remains of the curtain which prove to be chopped-up hair braids (fake, hopefully.) It’s deliciously gross, a nightmare from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Then there’s a clothesline strung with random pages from magazine articles on cultural quirks, from Gregory Euclide. Finally, on the Broadway/S. 11th St corner, is one by Michelle Forsyth to make you laugh out loud: a mosaic of yellow-and-green dandelions, their fuzzy outlines beautifully and precisely pinpointed with a grid of tiny pushpins. The joke? Read the walltext: “On the morning of November 7, 1940, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge dramatically collapsed… This piece documents some dandelions growing near the site.”

You gotta love it.

The window down on Commerce St is filled up with a surreal installation by Nickolus Meisel. Plus, the TaCo folks seem to have figured out the condensation problem that used to add a mysterious fog to the art.

All artwork is on view 24/7 through November 8.