Tempted as I am to break Western Month to cover the works of the departed Patrick Swayze, a man whose films I only just began to love, I am, like the gunslingers of the Wild West, honorbound to see my mission to the very end. This isn't the only way I'm like those men of yore, but since I promised my editor I wouldn't mention soiled doves again for the rest of the year, let's move on.

The title alone tickles the taste buds. Flint Lockwood is the geekiest of geeks, an inventor of a machine that makes food out of water. A slight snafu sends his machine into orbit above his Georgia island town of Swallow Falls. Pretty soon it's raining food and temporary meteorologist Sam Sparks is the hit of a weather channel.

SUNNYSIDE -- The second biggest city in Yakima County is gearing up for its second biggest community festival of the year.

Celebrate the end of summer and fall's arrival at the West Richland Harvest Festival.

The Pendleton Round-Up is called one of the toughest sports on dirt for good reason, even though some say it's more of a show than a sport.

Satisfy your craving for a brat at Christ the King's annual Sausage Fest.

Is irony at work here or what? Two controversial films based on excellent short features are released in the same year and both have the number nine in their titles. And both should have remained critically acclaimed short films because neither has enough substance to be a full-length motion picture.

The Battelle Film Festival launches its 2009 Fall Film Festival on Sept. 11 with the French film The Class.

If you swapped out the horses for cabs and the Stetsons for fedoras, a western becomes a crime noir pretty easily. They've both got bad dudes who drink straight from bottles, hold themselves to strict personal codes, and learn a thing or two about money along the way, like how fast people start dying for it once there's enough to fill a large burlap sack.

Hal Holbrook portraying Mark Twain in a one-man show -- titled Mark Twain Tonight -- is one of five productions the Toyota Center is bringing to the Tri-Cities for its 2009-10 Broadway Series.

The 13th annual Tumbleweed Festival, which is Sept. 5-6 at Howard Amon Park in Richland, will be bittersweet for Kennewick folk musician Micki Perry.

WALLA WALLA -- and Rory Feek are much more than one of the newest duets to come out of Nashville.

With 55 free concerts in six days, 42 food booths and three adult beverage gardens, there's plenty to enjoy at Spokane's Pig Out in the Park Festival.

Like all members of my generation, I only know if things exist if The Simpsons has made fun of it. I wouldn't have known there were parts of the world that weren't America if not for that episode where they go to that country where all the animals live in pouches.

Dolphins are intelligent, seem personable and are a big draw at water theme parks. Some places have tanks where you can plunk down wads of cash and swim with them for an hour or so. After a show or a swim you can hit the gift shop and pick up a cute dolphin stuffed animal.

Two friends fronting two alternative rock bands are putting on a collaborative concert before going their separate ways this fall.

You still have a chance to catch top name entertainment and scrumptious food at the Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo, at the Kennewick fairgrounds on 10th Avenue.

Bucky Covington is no ordinary country crooner. He never wears a cowboy hat or a belt buckle, and with his signature long blond locks, he looks more like a rock musician.

Watching the change in the local music scene from punk to hard-core, the guys from the Petey Puckett Band recognize the need for promoters for all types of music, including their grunge-blues type of sound.

There are few radio isteners unfamiliar with Night Ranger's ballad Sister Christian.

Dig out your cowboy boots and hat, the Horse Heaven Round-Up is rolling into town.

When it comes to fighting game fans, there are usually two camps: Those who enjoy the fast-paced, tactical, and beautifully balanced play of the Street Fighter series … and those that like Mortal Kombat.

Who among us has never trembled at the thought of organized frog armies hopping through our front doors to pillage our housefly supplies and stare into our deepest failings with their frowny frog faces? All right, hands down, entire population of the world. I get the point: more people are afraid of getting eaten by malfunctioning dryers than they are of frogs.

Heavy metal music isn't just deafening, the musicians who play it have been known to be a bit eccentric too.

Inglourious Basterds has no real focal point. It is an implausible series of coincidences searching for a climax. Brad Pitt is Lt. Aldo Raine, who leads a group of Jewish volunteers in an underground war in World War II Nazi-occupied Europe. They terrorize and kill Nazis. Their story is tenuously linked to those of other characters and they all end in an encounter with a nasty, opportunistic Nazi, Christoph Waltz's Col. Hans Landa.

Making a living as a musician can be tough, but not for enlisted men and women in the Air Force.

Some of the Tri-Cities most talented youths will have a free concert Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Battelle Auditorium in Richland.

Normally I wouldn't consider digging into Quarantine in this space, a zombie movie that released here just last year and which I missed for reasons that no doubt included hangovers or throwing stars.

In 2002 Julie Powell cooked and then wrote a blog about every recipe in Julia Child's best seller, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. That's 524 everything's-better-with-butter recipes in 365 days. In 2005 Powell's popular blog became a book and then was re-titled and turned into a paperback in 2006.

PROSSER -- The 28th annual Prosser Wine & Food Fair has changed locations, moving from a sun-baked stadium to cool, grassy grounds and shade trees a few miles outside Prosser.

Andrew Lloyd Webber made some historic musical contributions to Broadway and beyond.

WALLA WALLA -- Todd Telander's paintings spread through a variety of artistic genres.

The First Thursday Artwalk is from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 6 in downtown Kennewick.

There are rock operas and then there's Godspell the musical, which is loosely based on the gospels written by St. Matthew, but with a more modern flavor.

The three Seattle school teachers who are Recess Monkey return to the Tri-Cities with an album they say is part Magical Mystery Tour, part Mr. Rogers and part Muppet Show.

There are plays with twists and turns, and then there's playwright Steven Dietz's Private Eyes, which is a cleverly written stage show with a plot that, simply put, is a play within a play within a play.

For us showbiz types, the biggest threat we face is getting typecast. These days I can't break into Gerard Butler's office to steal a script without getting typed as the walking slab of brawn who gets all the exercise I need just throwing hysterical chicks away from me.

I got to thinking the other day (yes, I actually do think), and started compiling a list of my top 5 favorite video game vixens of all time. Like John Cusack in High Fidelity, I love to make lists...

Vera Farmiga's (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) Kate is a recovering alcoholic. While in a drunken stupor she did something to lose an unborn baby and permanently damage the hearing of her beautiful pre-school daughter Max. To atone, she and hubby John (Peter Sarsgaard) decide to adopt. That brings nine-year old Esther into the family.

For this Seattle band, there's no other place they'd rather be than Kennewick during Water Follies for their fourth annual concert.

There's no hotter place to whet your appetite for fast boats this summer than Water Follies.

In these hard times, one band is doing its part to supply music to the masses for free.

This sassy rapper has the chops to play with the big boys and will be releasing her debut album Bitter Sweet late this summer.

I know I haven't done a Big Awful Friday in a while, but I had a realization. That realization was I can't track down my favorite terrible movies without dropping $20-100 a pop.

Harry Potter is getting darker, angrier, distinctly more wicked. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth film in the beloved "children's" books series. It has an edge. Scary Potter?

Elbow elbow, wrist wrist.

PROSSER — Twenty-three children will take to the stage July 17 for two free performances of The Jungle Book at Central Christian Church in Prosser as part of the Prosser Conservatory of Theatre for Children's summer program.

From to rock to blues, the Seasons Outdoor Summer Concert Series will provide a mix of music.

Pasco's Memorial Park will be filled with rainbow flags and smiling faces July 18 and 19 for the third annual Mid-Columbia Pride Festival.

Cracker said it best in their '90s hit song Teen Angst: "What the world needs now is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head."