A while back I wrote about the Dead Gentlemen, Tacoma filmmakers whose comedy "The Gamers" has won several major geek awards since its release in 2002. The team will attend the Penny Arcade Expo for a screening of the sequel, "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising," this Friday night in Seattle. And they'll sign autographs and chat up the crowd at 2 p.m. Sunday at Comic Book Ink in Tacoma.

Also, be sure to read EJ's Sunday Soundlife story in which we catch up with the Gentlemen.

On a side note, one of my most regrettable Epic Fails was, eh, failing to accept a most gracious invitation from the Gentlemen to join a new weekly D&D game. I was simply too busy, what with working full time and cracking the proverbial whip in the direction of my teenager. I'm not sure if the game ever got up and running, but I'm sorry I had to miss out.

Please excuse the camera-phone pic, but I had to share the cool new sign hanging at Satellite Coffee. Gotta dig the curlicue font and tattoo-like style.

It's by Chris Sharp, of course. You've seen his work at the Rosewood Cafe and Corina Bakery and other places I'm forgetting. This June, he won Tacoma's first "Foundation of Art" award. Our arts writer Rosemary talks about that here.

I'm no art critic, but the thing I like about his work is that you can see it's made my human hands. There's a warmth and a timeless quality to hand-painted signs. Like they've been there forever. That warmth is a simple thing, but one that's woefully lacking in so many things.

Now, I can't paint, but I can make pizza dough. And to paraphrase my favorite (and only) Zen baking teacher, Hands are happiest when being hands.

I've got a bag of flour calling my name. So tell me, what have you guys been working on?

Today's Wall Street Journal has a story about Tacoma native Dale Chihuly.

Some of the quotes from the review include "nauseated by the grotesque, gleaming, pointless excess" and "Disney-like."

While one San Francisco art critic dismissed Chihuly as an interior decorator, this reviewer says: "I wouldn't go that far. Team Chihuly decorates exterior spaces as well."

Ouch.

News Tribune photo by Peter Haley

I think it's fair to measure a town's vibrancy by the number of fliers hanging around on telephone poles and bulletin boards. And lately, I see amazing street art popping up everywhere.

I've spied some concert posters that look like the precise pen-and-ink handiwork of Sean Alexander from the Helm.

And even an illustrated yard sale poster at Satellite Coffee that I would've hung on my wall. (Alas, I didn't make it to the sale.)

Today at Blackwater, I picked up a couple of fliers that got cosmically intertwined in my head.

The first is for a zine-making event at King's Books this Friday night from 4 to 6 p.m. It's free. Donations accepted.

Which makes me think of my favorite zine artist, Nicole J. Georges of Portland, a rad gal who shares my love of secretary eyeglasses and animals. (That's her work down below.) You can find her collections – I recommend "Invincible Summer" – and some other artwork on buyolympia.com. She's also queer. Read her witty blog here.

Which brings me to the other flier, advertising what could be Tacoma's first weekly get-together for queer 20-somethings. It's this Thursday at 7. Read more about it here.

Art! Acceptance! Rosy, indeed.

With the interns coming in from wherever we are all from, I am reminded of a few instances regarding Tacoma's location.

A week or two ago I was sitting next to a person (I won't identify them for safety's sake) while they were talking to their family about the recent move to Tacoma, and he told his family he was in "Seattle." (We were definitely in Tacoma at the time)

Yeah, the cities are close and Seattle is more well known across the nation and blah blah blah, but does this deserve a swift smack in the face?

How do you handle the Seattle-Tacoma difference with out-of-towners?

We've got a heart-warming story in the paper tomorrow about efforts to preserve some imperiled Washington state wildlife on land at Fort Lewis. Read it on our home page.

One of the critters was the Western or Mazama Pocket Gopher. (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

If that's not a contender for best new euphemism, I don't know what is.

And, I'm not making this up, one of the other species was the Streaked Horned Lark.

Who says conservation isn't sexy? Reduce, reuse, recycle, people.

I hate cutting and pasting news releases, but this seemed interesting and might save us all some money:

Tacoma Art Museum offers free admission to Bank of America credit, check and ATM cardholders on the first Saturday and Sunday of every month. The offer is valid through May 2009.

There's a party from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday to celebrate the Tacoma Art Museum's fifth birthday in its new building.

Word is there'll be one cake made of tin, one made from bubble wrap, and one knitted cake.

That sounds like some kind of Tacoma allegory, but I'm not sure what it means.

Here's the official proclamation from the deputy mayor (so THAT'S what a deputy mayor does) ...

=> Read more!

Instant human, just add espresso!

(beat)

The fact that I just wrote that unironically is evidence of the overdose of vitamin D I'm enjoying via my office windows.

No, I'm not out cart-wheeling down Sixth Avenue. Yet.

But I'm rather excited at the happenings around town tonight.

My evening is shaping up thusly:

• Pizza at the Harmon Hub (?!). This just occurred to me, but seems meant to be.
• Open mike at Kings Books, featuring this nice poet fellow from Spokane.

OR:

• CD release party at the Helm for Tree Roots in the Basement, starring my Blackwater regular coffee pal, Colin. When last we spoke about music over coffee, he said he was very excited about his new full-length album. I believe that may be a direct quote.

Both of these shindigs start at 7. The first is free, the second only 5 meagerly exchange-rated USD.

The world is at our feet, and fingertips. Go forth and conquer.

They mowed the grass in front of my building today for the first time this year.

Ah, spring.

Anyone doing anything especially seasonal this weekend? There's an arts walk Saturday down Alder Street beginning at 6:30 p.m. Here's the schedule:

6:30 open mic
806 N. Alder

8 p.m. acoustic set
3114 N. 12th St.
featuring: Ellen Wondra, Molly Hamilton, Allan Boothe, Eleanor

10 p.m. electric set
3120 N. 8th St.
featuring: Flock, Kusickia, Happy Birthday Secret Weapon, Nextdoor Neighbors, Banners

See art! See music! Dip your toes in the grass!

It's hard to believe the Tacomic is already a year old. It seems like just yesterday, if yesterday were 366 days ago (leap year!), that R.R. Anderson's brilliant and relevant sketches took root in Tacoma's thriving virtual landscape.

To celebrate the event, I sat down to interview one of his first characters, who was kidnapped right out of my own Chihuly-glass-bearing office: Little Fatboy Tribnet.

R.R. served as translator, since it's hard to understand what the little guy is saying through his generous and gravy-stained jowls.

Cole: How are they treating you in Tacomic Land?

Chubby Tacomicharacter: Good. I'm making friends with Tacoma's other, smaller newspaper cartoon metaphors. I get goofed on 'cause my weight and 'cause my family is a bit more well-to-do, but I'm used to it.

Cole: When you are transferred from R.R.'s brain, through the pencil, to the paper, does it hurt?

Chubby Tacomicharacter: As a two-dimensional character the experience is quite exhilarating … kinda feels like licking a 9-volt battery but throughout your whole body, which just turns out to be lines of graphite. Some drawings like to heap all kinds of metaphysical explanations on this, but I like to stay objective.

Cole: What do you miss the most about living at The News Tribune?

Chubby Tacomicharacter: I miss the routine. I miss the glamour. I miss the influence. I miss riding that big escalator each morning. I miss all the Mariners tip-ins. Most of all I miss the paper tricorn hat lunch parties.

Cole: You get to come out in public once a year for your birthday party, but what are you doing the rest of the time?

Chubby Tacomicharacter: Sometimes I get invited to Rotary Club luncheons.

Cole: Which famous cartoon character would you most like to have two-dimensional sexual relations with?

Chubby Tacomicharacter: The Baroness or Æon Flux.

Cole: Me too.

What: Tacomic's 1st birthday party, with R.R. Anderson's creations on display and for sale.
When: 3-5 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Helm, 760 S. Broadway, Tacoma

The 100th Monkey gathering is from 7:30 to 9:30 tonight at Jazzbones.

The 100th Turtle gathering is also tonight, at a random time and secret location of your choosing.

Which one will you be attending?

Funniest thing I've read all month:

What is "The Hundredth Turtle?"

Scientists studying box turtle behavior on an island observed that the turtles had virtually no interaction with each other (the exception being sex) and yet the colony flourished.

The scientists noticed that if you placed 100 turtles together in a pen, the turtles would stop at nothing to try and escape the company of the other turtles.

– Holistic Forge Works