Weekend Preview: have and have nots
One thing can be said about Tacoma. It has layers. There are the rich and the poor, the majority and the minority, and the decadent and the humble.
This weekend illustrates that latter.
Vanity Night Club, the new club to take over the former warehouse space at 56th street and Washington Street, opens tonight. The venue, formerly known as Station 56th and a handful of other names in recent years, wants to be the high-end dance spot of South Tacoma and a rival to downtown’s Encore. It will be a place where all the beautiful people come to play and celebrate the good life. Grand opening weekend should be interesting. Friday night brought Just Dirt to the stage. Saturday will have DJ Mauro’s Hot Latin Mix.
On the other side of the social spectrum, there will be the Empty Bowls annual fundraiser at the Life Center Campus on Saturday at 1pm. The gig will have bowls made by local artists that are then sold and filled with soups by local restaurants. The money benefits Emergency Food Network. Bowl prices start at $15. The need for food and supplies is on the rise as the weather gets colder and joblessness drags down the area.
If only everyone at the bar would donate the price of a drink to homeless assistance, that would be so Tacoma.
4 comments
J jbrader November 15, 2010
“One thing can be said about Tacoma. It has layers. There are the rich and the poor, the majority and the minority, and the decadent and the humble.”
Ooo! So insightful, so original. And not at all true of everywhere else people live either.
L low bar November 15, 2010
in the absence of great thinkers, tools rise to the positions best kept for those with highly developed sensibilities and understandings of high culture.
all the structures and institutions to make the community of tacoma a signature civilization are present. except, you’ve got cab drivers behind the wheel of your ferrari.
i know i am coming off as having an elitist tone, but ask yourself: if you had a daughter named tacoma, who desperately needed a life saving operation, would you want the very best, most practiced elite group of surgeons working on her? or would you go for the latter? or was it former? or latter? or former??
anyway. two things need to happen in the landscape of tacoma. actually three. one, run out all the hucksters.
then take harvard, the south harmon institute of technology, and a dash of evergreen tution fees. mixed that sht all up and inject it into UPS.
then, build a NXNW.
it’ll be like dropping a wrath of khan genesis bomb of utter awesomeness dead center in the peninsula.
C captiveyak November 15, 2010
I don’t consider myself to be a great thinker, and I’d have to spend a lot of time sitting with a therapist before I’d be willing to accept a “tool” designation. I guess I’m aiming for “reasonable” with this comment…
Steve’s taken a couple pot-shots in his articles lately, which is par for the course with blogging. But I think it also has something to do with the wide readership range here. People who enjoy Steve’s articles may not find mine as interesting, relevant or helpful – and the inverse is true. And then applied to the other writers here as well.
So, in theory, there is content here that drives people to at least view the page long enough to find the article they don’t appreciate. Some days, it’s mine. Some days, it’s Steve’s. I definitely appreciate criticism – but it’s certainly more fun to be criticised when the topic is one of substance, where some meaningful new conclusions might emerge.
I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to address an emerging issue.
T tom waits November 15, 2010
@3: only in tacoma would somebody think that these generic characteristics are unique. damn funny (if not a little sad).