When was the last time you got in the water around Tacoma? I don’t mean a ferry ride to Vashon Island, I mean leaving the shoreline with a paddle in your hand or, better yet, with nothing but your own body. For most of us, it’s either been a long time or it’s never actually…
Read More
Head over to Top of Tacoma and just outside you’ll find a message of love. We recently passed by on a drizzly day to find a vibrant work-in-progress being chalked on the sidewalk. No artist was to be found. An hour and a few beers later we returned to find Henry Barbosa knelt over his…
Read More
Hit up The Airport Tavern on South Tacoma Way on any given night and you’re likely to spot a beard or two. Happen by when the Grit City Society of Beards (Grit City SOBS) is putting on a competition and you’re in for a show. We stopped in to check out the Tacomans representing Washington…
Read More
Tacoma has museums, photo archives at the library, and many websites dedicated to preserving its history. However, a truly invaluable way of learning about the history of a city you love is talking to someone who actually lived it. One such person in Tacoma is Bob Piatt. Bob is a charming 81 year old man…
Read More
When I walked into Victoria Woodards’ office on her 61st day on the job, she looked up sheepishly from her sandwich. She asked if I minded if she finished her lunch. I said no, and as she thanked me, she checked her phone, the back of which read in gold letters, “Glitter is my favorite…
Read More
Spend any longer than a few minutes with the guys from the Grit City Society Of Beards and you’re bound to learn a thing or two about beards. They’re passionate dudes, full of knowledge on mutton chops, whalers, whiskerinas and beyond. After photographing the crew taking home a handful of trophies at Odd Otter’s beard…
Read More
Sitting a block down from one of Tacoma’s busiest intersections at Sprague and 7th Ave. sits a 105 year old building that, for the last decade, has sat vacant and largely ignored by passersby. Given its prominence and ideal location, it’s hard to believe it’s sat empty for so long. Once you get a look…
Read More
Tacoma Metro Parks’ Goal Ball team competed in their first Division 1 tournament last month in Vancouver, WA. Goalball is a sport for the blind or visually impaired, and the Division 1 is the upper level of US Goalball competition. The Tacoma Typhoon team started in 2011, after Metro Parks Tacoma received a grant to…
Read More
For Jonathan Hanks, art isn’t just about beauty—it’s about representation. The Tacoma native, who has been making art for years, is taking his UWT social work degree and putting it to good use. He is pairing it with his creative skills to create beautiful portraits of Tacoma’s immigrant and refugee community, and telling their stories…
Read More
Think of this as your handy guide to getting started in the Tacoma podcast scene. Rather than direct you to pages all willy nilly, we’ve asked podcast network Channel 253 to curate not only a list of great podcasts, but the very best episodes they’ve heard from each. Should you like one of the episodes…
Read More
What’s the best Christmas present you ever received? For Job Carr, it was probably finding the 138 acres that would become the city of Tacoma, which he claimed on Christmas Day of 1864. Job Carr was not the first resident of the Tacoma area—the Puyallup Tribe had been living in the South Sound for thousands…
Read More
Let’s be honest, nowadays, with our smartphones, we are all basically amateur photographers. Of course our phone pictures are no replacement for professional portraits, but that doesn’t mean they can’t look good! One of the keys to making even your phone photos look fabulous is finding great looking backgrounds. Luckily for us Tacomans, there are…
Read More