Inlander 06/08/2023

EDITOR’S NOTE

It’s been a year since 31 men with ties to the white supremacist hate group, Patriot Front, were arrested in Coeur d’Alene. They had traveled from 12 different states with ill intent, to allegedly riot at last year’s Pride event. They were found hiding inside a U-Haul truck.

Thankfully, this year’s Pride in the Park went as planned: neighbors, friends and family peacefully celebrating North Idaho’s LGBTQ+ community. We can all be grateful for that, but we should remain mindful and wary of those espousing hate and bigotry.

We’ve come a long way. In 2004, Republicans rode a wave of homophobia. GOP voters in 11 states passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. President George W. Bush called for a federal ban, saying marriage between anyone except for a man and a woman would weaken “the good influence of society.”

Then, in 2015, the Supreme Court struck down all bans on same-sex marriage, legalizing it in all 50 states. When the 5-4 ruling was made, the electorate was split, with about half of Americans saying LGBTQ+ couples should have the same rights as those in so-called traditional marriages. Now, 70 percent hold this opinion, and less than 30 percent of people want to restrict their rights.

Join me in celebrating our LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors this year, which we do in these very pages with our annual PRIDE ISSUE. Let’s keep things moving in the right direction and dismiss those who hate to the shadows of history.

— NICHOLAS DESHAIS, editor

THE INLANDER

COMMENT

STAFF DIRECTORY

PHONE: 509-325-0634

Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com)

PUBLISHER

Jer McGregor (x224)

GENERAL MANAGER

EDITORIAL

Nicholas Deshais (x239) EDITOR

Chey Scott (x225)

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Derek Harrison (x248)

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Seth Sommerfeld (x250)

MUSIC & SCREEN EDITOR

Samantha Wohlfeil (x234)

BREAKING NEWS EDITOR

Daniel Walters (x263)

SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

Madison Pearson (x218)

LISTINGS EDITOR

Eliza Billingham (x222), Nate Sanford (x282), Summer Sandstrom (x232)

STAFF WRITERS

Chris Frisella COPY CHIEF

Young Kwak, Erick Doxey

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Josh Bell, Chase Hutchinson, Megan Dhein, Will Maupin, Renée Sande

CONTRIBUTORS

ADVERTISING

Kristi Gotzian (x215)

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Carolyn Padgham (x214), Autumn Potts (x251)

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Stephanie Grinols (x216) , Tracy Menasco (x260), Claire Price (x217), Skip Mitchell (x247)

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Tamara McGregor (x233)

COMMUNICATION & EVENTS DIRECTOR

Kristina Smith (x223)

EVENT & SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

Colleen Bell-Craig (x212), Raja Bejjani (x242)

ADVERTISING ASSISTANTS

PRODUCTION

Tom Stover (x265)

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Ali Blackwood (x228)

CREATIVE LEAD & MARKETING MANAGER

Derrick King (x238)

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

OPERATIONS

Dee Ann Cook (x211)

BUSINESS MANAGER

Kristin Wagner (x210)

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

CIRCULATION

Frank DeCaro (x226)

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Travis Beck (x237)

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR

IF YOU WERE A DRAG PERFORMER, WHAT WOULD YOUR STAGE NAME BE?

MEGS HALEY

Asper A. Gus, just because it’s funny and I love asparagus.

Who’s your favorite local drag performer?

Freedom Rights. She’s incredible. She knows how to draw in a crowd, her lip syncing is always perfect, and she’s like six feet tall and can do a cartwheel off the stage in six inch heels. She performs here, she’s our resident drag queen.

SHERRY SANDERS

Icicle Lightning, because I run hot and cold.

Who’s your favorite local drag performer? Nova Kaine.

How are you celebrating Pride? Some friends, some drinks. Just dancing — definitely dancing.

ERICA JO NORRIS

I’m actually doing drag for the very first time tonight. I’ve wanted to do this my whole life, that’s why I come here. I don’t have a set stage name, but I’m thinking something like Electric Eric.

MICHALA WARREN

Probably Salty Mike. Because my name is the feminine version of Michael, which is my dad’s name.

Do you have a favorite local drag queen? I do. One of my really good friends growing up is actually an up-and-coming drag queen and he goes by Gingivitis. He’s out of Astoria, Oregon.

WHIT JESTER

Fruit Rollup.

How are you celebrating Pride?

I’m going to the Queer Art Walk, and I’m going to the Pride Festival. I’m on a panel.

What’s the panel about?

It’s for youth who want to come ask questions of somebody [in the queer community].

FAMILY LAW Divorce

Spousal Maintenance / Alimony

Child Support Modifications

Parenting Plans AUTO INJURY • CIVIL LITIGATION

Craig Mason

W. 1707 BROADWAY, SPOKANE, WA | 509443-3681

Over the years, the practice of pharmacy has changed in many ways. People have discovered the benefi ts of having customized medication available through prescription compounding.

Koru Pharmacy takes pride in meeting these changing needs of our customers and has become a leader in prescription compounding in the Spokane area. Our staff is expertly trained in the area of prescription compounding for you and your pets and are ready to serve you.

• Custom Compounding for People & Pets

• Bio-identical Hormones

• Free of Preservatives, Dyes & Allergens

• Hypoallergenic Formulations

• Alternative Dosage Forms

• Low Dose Naltrexone

• Hormone Consultations

• Nutritional Counseling

• Professional Grade Supplements

• Functional Medicine

• Pharmacist Formulated CBD

America: Built on Deals

Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy made a deal for the greater good — just as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton did in the 1790s

BY LAWRENCE B.A. HATTER

With the global economy on the precipice of a contrived financial disaster, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy succeeded in negotiating a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Moderates in both parties explained that neither side had gotten their way in the tortuous negotiations, which they argued was the hallmark of a fair deal.

The agreement, however, needed to pass votes in both the House and Senate before landing on Biden’s desk. And both the Democratic progressive caucus and the Republican “Freedom” caucus opposed the bill. For those on the left, the deal’s budget cuts will harm the most vulnerable Americans; for those on the right, the very idea of government debt is anathema, and no cuts could ever be deep enough. Thankfully, the House passed the measure in a bipartisan vote that nullified opposition from both the left and the right. But each time that politicians flirt with economic Armageddon in pursuit of their narrow partisan interests, we edge closer to the abyss.

Arguments over government debt are as old as party politics in U.S. history. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson

fought over the national debt during the 1790s as the nascent Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties began to coalesce around different visions for the future of the American Republic.

For Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, the national debt would serve as an engine of American economic development. Independence had cost the United States dearly in both blood and treasure. The inability of the Confederation Congress — denied the power of taxation — to service the national debt had convinced politicians in the 1780s of the need to frame a new constitution to create a more powerful central government.

In 1789, President George Washington charged Hamilton with developing a plan to manage the United States’ wartime debts (that amounted to around $50 million, about $82 billion in today’s money, but with a U.S. population of just under 4 million people to pay for it). While most politicians agreed that the government must maintain its credit with foreign lend-

Edging away from the abyss. ADAM SCHULTZ/OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO

ers, the government owed most of its wartime debt to private U.S. citizens. Speculators had bought up many of the original loans at bargain basement prices, and many politicians opposed paying them off at face value. Hamilton, however, argued that the national government needed to make nice with these entrepreneurs, who would help to finance the future rise of U.S. manufacturing and the banking industry.

Hamilton’s financial schemes reflected his commitment to the economic development of the United States into a banking and industrial powerhouse. He believed that the American Republic possessed resources that could transform the country into an economic juggernaut that would soon dwarf their erstwhile colonial master, Great Britain. Hamilton was convinced that this ambition could only be realized through the centralized planning of a strong national government. Consequently, he proposed that the U.S. government should assume the states’ wartime debts to concentrate economic power in the hands of the national government.

Thomas Jefferson, along with his protege James Madison, opposed Hamilton’s financial plans because they entertained a very different vision of U.S. economic and political development. Far from seeking to emulate Britain’s manufacturing and banking industries, Jefferson and Madison believed that the United States should avoid them at all costs. They believed that manufacturing threatened republican virtue — the ability of citizens to protect liberty through their political independence — by creating a class of dependent wage laborers. Manufacturing would concentrate power in the hands of a few, while undermining the ability of ordinary citizens to act as a check on the political corruption of their paymasters so long as they depended on them for their wages.

Jefferson and Madison embraced an agrarian vision for the future of the American Republic. They were not opposed to commerce. Indeed, the two Virginians believed that the commercial trade in agricultural commodities was essential to the survival of the Union by creating ties of mutual interest among the different states. But they believed that commercial agriculture was consistent with republican virtue because it nourished the economic and political independence of citizen-farmers, who would sniff out political corruption in government.

Despite the deep ideological chasm that divided U.S. politics in the 1790s, Hamilton and Jefferson struck a deal. Jefferson’s supporters would acquiesce to Hamilton’s plans for the U.S. government to assume the state debts in return for Hamilton agreeing to locate the new national capital city in the South, away from the financial centers of Philadelphia and New York. At no point in these negotiations did either side entertain the idea that the U.S. government would default on the payment of its debts.

The fight over the debt ceiling has become a grimly predictable fixture of political partisanship whenever a Democrat is in the White House and the GOP controls the House. Wheeling and dealing has always been part of the rough and tumble of party politics. Still, ideological polarization is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. While Hamilton and Jefferson despised one another personally and politically, both recognized that there had to be limits to political behavior if their experiment in republican government was to endure. Politicians must take government default off the table. If they don’t, it is only a matter of time before this irresponsible financial brinkmanship will lead to mutually assured destruction. n

Lawrence B.A. Hatter is an award-winning author and associate professor of early American history at Washington State University. These views are his own and do not reflect those of WSU.

The fight over the debt ceiling has become a grimly predictable fixture of political partisanship.

All Politics Are National

How a network of politicos tied to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers are pulling behind-the-scenes strings to tar up local liberals

Just weeks after Spokane City Council member Jonathan Bingle submitted an ethics complaint against former Council President Ben Stuckart last year, Bingle faced an ethical dilemma of his own.

In his May 4, 2022, press release announcing the complaint, Bingle condemned Stuckart for being involved in discussions about selecting a homeless shelter operator, when one of the candidates was proposing giving Stuckart a $150,000 job should it be selected.

“The citizens of Spokane deserve to know that the process to select a new shelter has integrity and that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being stewarded appropriately,” Bingle is quoted as saying in the press release.

But, back then, when the Inlander asked him if anyone else besides his council aide was involved in writing the ethics complaint and the subsequent press release, Bingle had to decide whether to tell the truth.

He didn’t. Instead, he argued, repeatedly, defensively, that no one else was involved. “The complaint, the press release, all of that is my language,” Bingle insisted, more than once.

Now, more than a year later, confronted with new evidence, Bingle admits that wasn’t true. Not for the complaint, not for the press release.

BY DANIEL WALTERS

“That is not something I wrote alone,” Bingle says.

To start with, he says, he had the help of Emily Strode, a consultant who’d worked on his 2021 campaign. Along with consulting for numerous political candidates, including Al French, she worked for five years under U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, most recently as the Republican congresswoman’s campaign manager in 2021.

Last week, thanks to a live link to a collaborative Google Docs file where Bingle’s press release was drafted, the Inlander was able to see that the involvement of Strode and other McMorris Rodgers veterans went far deeper: Bingle’s press release draft was reviewed and tweaked by Dawn Sugasa, Strode’s boss at the local consulting firm, Town Square Strategies, who had spent 14 years as the finance director for the McMorris Rodgers fundraising operation.

And the supposed quotes from Bingle about the importance of “hard-earned taxpayer dollars” being “stewarded appropriately” was language added by Patrick Bell, McMorris Rodgers’ current deputy chief of staff.

“I have occasionally provided thoughts or edits on documents relating to local government matters,” Bell says in a text message, after multiple requests for comment.

Strode did not return phone calls. Sugasa emailed

back to decline to answer questions about clients.

In fact, some of Strode and Bell’s drafts suggested Bingle go even further by filing an ethics complaint against his colleague, Council President Breean Beggs, with allegations he’d inappropriately distributed information about the proposed shelter. Bingle ultimately declined to do so.

It’s more evidence for the theory that Beggs and other progressive council members have been floating for a year: It’s all part of a political plot. In context, it looks like part of an organized salvo from professional political operatives to use ethics complaints, record requests and litigation to further muddy up the reputation of local leftleaning politicians, sometimes years before the election.

“I think the public deserves to know that all these random things that are popping up are not random,” Beggs says, when told of Strode and Bell’s involvement. “They’re part of a group effort by a small group of very wealthy people who have a political agenda.”

WHODUNNIT?

Beyond ghostwriting ethics complaints, Strode has been plenty active behind the scenes.

...continued on page 10

Progressives at Spokane City Hall are getting some unwanted attention by people tied to Eastern Washington’s congresswoman.

Journey Through the Senses

Spokane in Bloom

2023 GARDEN TOUR

Visit Six Lush P vate Gardens on South Hill

Saturday June 17 • 10am-5pm

FOR MORE INFO & TICKETS: tieg.org/spokane-in-bloom

She rallied support to get the Trent homeless shelter lease signed. She organized phone banking efforts to oppose a redistricting map designed by liberal Council member Zack Zappone. She recruited attendees to a press conference last summer supporting the mayor’s proposal to reform the city’s sit-lie policy.

“I never got notice of the press conference. We have communications people who usually do this,” Council member Karen Stratton said last year. “Who are these people, and what are they doing organizing a press conference with the mayor?”

The comically generic website for Town Square Strategies offers few insights. There’s no hint of political intent, just a quote about genius misattributed to Albert Einstein and jargon about building “relationships with key audiences and stakeholders.”

“That’s what we want to know,” Beggs says. “Who is paying Town Square?”

But Beggs’ thinks the identity of the person who the consultants did manage to find to file the ethics complaint against him is notable: Tom Bassler, a retired pathologist. Bassler, Beggs says, is the son-in-law of Jerry Dicker — a passionate City Council critic and owner of the Steam Plant, Hotel Ruby and the Bing.

“Perhaps our business leaders will speak up and express their opposition to the self-serving policies of Beggs, Kinnear, Wilkerson, et al,” Dicker wrote in an April email to other business owners about liberal council members.

But there are other contenders. Briefly, an anonymous user in the Google Docs press release had edited the draft to float a different last name to file the complaint: “Wendle.”

While Cindy Wendle had used Strode as a consultant during her run for City Council president in 2019, by 2022 she got a divorce and changed her last name. She says it wasn’t her.

But her ex-husband, Chud Wendle, has gone to considerable lengths to dig up dirt on the City Council. His 2021 records request for body camera footage of a police officer complaining about Council member Betsy Wilkerson’s reluctance to hand over surveillance footage has continued to reverberate across the City Council and mayor’s race, and called into question whether police Chief Craig Meidl shares privileged information to assist Wendle’s political crusade.

Wendle also spent two years as McMorris Rodgers’ district director.

In fact, the very same day that Strode began drafting the press releases, she and Chud Wendle were both at a City Council meeting, pushing back against council regulations that threatened to potentially delay the opening of the homeless shelter on Trent.

“I don’t feel safe in my city,” Strode said at the meeting, after signing in as a “citizen.” Then Wendle spoke, accusing the council of trying “to micromanage the administration with reactive policies.”

The Trent Shelter is owned by another Mayor Nadine Woodward supporter, developer Larry Stone. In 2021, Stone donated $50,000 to the Spokane Good Government Alliance, a PAC that’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in opposition to progressive City Council mem-

bers. (Today, the Spokane Good Government Alliance’s president, John Estey, is also McMorris Rodgers’ campaign director.)

Stone, Wendle, Dicker and Bassler have all been on an email list together for years, in which along with business owners like Sheldon Jackson, they have traded frustrations and lamentations about the state of homelessness and City Council leadership. In March of last year, a new name quietly began appearing on that list: Dawn Sugasa, the same one who runs Town Square Strategies.

Plenty of people on that list were furious about Stuckart — and ready to act on it.

“If you are not going to file an ethics complaint,” Jackson wrote to the city attorney last April, “we will find someone that will.”

MACHINE WARS

It isn’t, of course, just one side with a behind-thescenes political machine chugging along to try to influence ostensibly nonpartisan politics. Bothellbased attorney Mark Lamb proved that while suing to get the City Council’s recent redistricting decision overturned.

As Bell, McMorris Rodgers’ deputy chief of staff, watched the live courtroom feed from afar, Lamb referred to the multiple messages he’d uncovered during discovery from Zappone, the council member who submitted his own map for redistricting.

In one message, Zappone was gloating about how the map he designed would give liberal council candidates a small but significant bump in a tight district. The recipient of that message: Jim Dawson, campaign director of the progressive Fuse Washington, which is part of the Democratic political machine.

And yet Lamb is a piece of the Republican machine. He’s been an attorney for conservatives ranging from anti-tax crusader Tim Eyman to former state Rep. Matt Shea, who was accused of domestic terrorism by an investigator in 2019 due to his role in standoffs with federal officials.

For most of last year, Lamb was the registered agent for Town Square Strategies — all the legal mail went through him. During the same week that Strode and Bell were workshopping last year’s ethics complaints against Stuckart and Beggs, Lamb fired off 13 different sprawling records requests, against progressive council members and staffers, scrutinizing years of emails for phrases like “Defund the Police” and “All Cops Are Bastards.” After a year, the city sent over at least 25 gigabytes of records to Lamb and it’s barely scratched the surface of everything he’s asked for.

While Zappone’s map survived Lamb’s litigation, the material Lamb dug up during the lawsuit continues to make life difficult for the council members. Neil Muller, a local insurance

“ALL POLITICS ARE NATIONAL,” CONTINUED...

“If you are not going to file an ethics complaint, we will find someone that will.”

salesman, has used that information to submit ethics complaints against Zappone, Wilkerson and both their legislative aides.

Muller says he was not “put up to do this by other people” but says he did get a little bit of help from other parties. But like Bassler a year ago, he says he doesn’t want to say who assisted him.

“I don’t think they want to be on record,” Muller says. “This town is too small.”

Zappone thinks Muller’s push isn’t a coincidence. “It seems like a coordinated effort to try to drag me through the mud,” Zappone says.

Yet attorney Jeffry Finer, who defended the council’s sustainability initiatives manager against an ethics complaint last year, argues that copycatting is sometimes to blame for what looks like coordination.

“I think folks in some circles have been passing along new wisdom as to how to shove a drumstick into the spokes of municipal machinery,” says Finer.

Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner argues that wisdom is not even that new — he says it happened to Spokane Mayor David Condon nearly a decade ago.

“One of the main reasons that ethics complaints get filed is just to be a time suck in the middle of a campaign,” Baumgartner says. “It can really take a lot of resources.”

Bell and Sugasa know firsthand how grueling the process can be at the federal level: Both were put through the wringer in the 2010s by Congressional investigators when McMorris Rodgers was accused of improperly using government resources and staffers for political campaigns.

Though Bell’s work on the ethics complaint press releases in May 2022 occurred on a Tuesday and Thursday morning, Bell insists in a text message that such efforts only occur during his personal time.

If it seems like a lot of the local Republican apparatus comes from Cathy-world, Baumgartner says that’s because, on the state level, that’s a main source of where Republican power comes from. And increasingly, the partisan battles unfold on municipal boards and councils, not just in Congress or Olympia.

“When I first ran for office, it seemed like all politics was local,” says Baumgartner. “And now it very much is ‘All politics is national.’”

Plenty of people lament the intrusion of partisan politics. Even Jennifer Thomas, a member of the redistricting commission who was as outraged as anyone by Zappone’s redistricting map, has some misgivings about how calculated things can get behind the scenes.

Thomas says she was frustrated when she heard that Strode — along with the Spokane County GOP — were using phone banking to organize against Zappone’s map.

“I didn’t want there to be something on a non-political city issue that was so significant that could be characterized as game playing,” Thomas says.

But it’s hard to get away from politics. Thomas’s face appeared on billboards in 2018, part of the “Cathy Represents Us” campaign. So did the face of Kim Plese, who’s running for City Council president.

Yet Plese says she’s sick of the “partisan politics that got in the way of being a public servant in my opinion. … If this was a partisan position, I wouldn’t be running right now.”

She says some of her biggest support comes from frustrated business people, like hotelier and developer Dicker who picked up the phone to personally encourage her to run for council president.

She may get email lists and doorbelling strategies from Strode, she says, but that has nothing to do with partisan politics.

Underscoring the point, Plese puts “nonpartisan” on her campaign signs.

It’s the same label that Condon used on his signs to get elected mayor in 2011 — right after working for six years as the deputy chief of staff for McMorris Rodgers. n

danielw@inlander.com

Highball a Go Go

Investigating Meidl

BY INLANDER STAFF

NEW SHOW ON SALE!

Manhattan Transfer

50th Anniversary & Farewell Tour

Saturday, September 23 at 7:30pm

This legendary band has won 10 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Vocal Hall of Fame. They continue to bring jazz-infused vocals to audiences of all ages. Don’t miss this all new show backed by a big band.

COMING IN JUNE

SANFORD)

Last month, Spokane City Council members asked Mayor Nadine Woodward to order an investigation into “unusual and concerning communications” between police Chief Craig Meidl and a group of downtown property owners. She refused. This week, the Council introduced an emergency ordinance that would give Spokane’s Office of the Police Ombudsman authority to directly investigate the police chief. The ombudsman is tasked with investigating the police department, but city code says complaints against the chief need to go through the mayor. The city charter, however, says Spokane’s ombudsman shall investigate “any matter necessary” to fulfill its duty. “This just removes that language that seems to restrict the ombudsman’s powers that are under the charter,” says Council President Breean Beggs. The relationship between the chief and the property owners was uncovered as part of a recent ombudsman investigation into a separate matter. In a lengthy interview with the Inlander last week, Ombudsman Bart Logue said he would have liked to dig further. “If we had broader authority, we might follow that trail. Because maybe there’s nothing to see here,” Logue said. “But are there policy violations? I don’t know.” (NATE

SAYONARA SNOWPACK

While things in the world of water monitoring were starting to look positive in late April, with the state hitting 111 percent of normal snowpack, a hot May quickly spoiled that. Over 18 days of record-setting heat in May, Washington saw half of its snowpack melt, according to the state Department of Ecology. The Spokane River went from a rip-roaring 24,000 cubic-feet-persecond of water flowing on May 8 to a measly 4,300 cfs during the early morning hours of June 5, according to U.S. Geological Survey tracking. That’s far below the 6,500 cfs required by state law from mid-April to midJune to protect the aquifer and wildlife. Some creeks in the Spokane River watershed have already dried up, and some water rights holders on the Little Spokane River could be asked to stop using surface water this month, Ecology reports. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

I LIKE TO PARK MY BICYCLE

Cyclists may soon have more places to lock up, after the Spokane City Council voted on Monday to increase the number of bike parking spots developers can include in new buildings. Under the previous rules, up to 10 percent of the parking spaces required for new buildings could be swapped for bike parking at a rate of five bike parking spots per car parking spot. The new rules allow up to 25 percent of parking spaces to be substituted with bike parking. Developers can now swap out one auto parking spot with four short-term bike parking spots, like simple bike racks, or exchange a car parking space with one long-term bike parking space, which are more secure and can include indoor spaces, lockers or gated rooms. Existing car parking spots can also be converted under the new rules. In a recent survey of current or potential bike parking users, 72 percent of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed with the changes. (NATE SANFORD)

Get the latest on Inlander.com

#IMomSoHard

Saturday, June 10 at 7:30pm

The Steel Woods

Saturday, June 17 at 8pm

Summer Solstice at Brick West Brewing Co.

Wednesday, June 21 at 7:30pm All New Programming. Tickets $15

TICKETS: 509 624 1200

Spokane Symphony Plays

Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

Tuesday, June 27 at 7:30pm

Lawn Seats $25; Table Seats $55

Doors open early to enjoy food and wine.

FOXTHEATERSPOKANE.ORG

Spokane City Council seeks to give more authority to the ombudsman. Plus, our snowpack is melting fast; and better bike parking is coming.

Spokane Police Ombudsman Bart Logue. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

This is an 18 and over show

Seats at the Table

As Camp Hope closes, Spokane politicians inch closer to a regional response to homelessness

BY NATE SANFORD

Who should be in charge of addressing Spokane’s homeless crisis?

After three months and a mind-boggling amount of meetings, a trio of former city staffers think they may have found an answer: Eight experts and five local politicians. All united under a public development authority with access to millions of dollars in funding.

The proposal — if successful — could usher in a new chapter in Spokane’s never-ending quest to address homelessness. It would see local leaders from competing jurisdictions give up some authority and independence, pool their resources and come together under a single entity.

The details of the proposal are still tentative, says Gavin Cooley, Spokane’s former chief financial officer who has been leading efforts to regionalize a homeless response along with Theresa Sanders, a former Spokane city administrator, and Rick Romero, the city’s former public utilities director.

The group’s proposal stems from a 90-day “due diligence” period that aimed to bring community members and local jurisdictions together for a series of conversations about regionalizing Spokane’s homeless response.

Those 90 days are about to end, just as state and city officials agreed to close Camp Hope, which has stood for 18 months in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood as a visual symbol of the region’s homeless crisis.

LETTERS

Send comments to editor@inlander.com.

When local leaders signed on to the due diligence period back in February, Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs said he was optimistic about the discussions, but noted that it would “probably be a dicey day” when actual decisionmaking time came.

Ninety days later, Beggs says he’s still optimistic and sensing bipartisan interest in the idea. But the time for abstract conversation is ending. Leaders will soon have to decide between giving up some of their authority and committing to a regional effort — or continuing to face the crisis alone.

“It’s like everything, the devil is going to be in the details,” Beggs says.

The regional entity is inspired by similar models in places like Houston and Seattle’s King County.

One big lesson from Houston, Cooley says, is that decisions need to be guided by expertise — not politics.

“That means you end up with a governing board recommendation where the non-elected personnel on the board outnumber the elected personnel on the board,” Cooley says.

Cooley and his group are proposing a governing board of 13 people.

Eight seats would be reserved for experts selected from various sectors: housing, medical/behavioral health, public safety, business and philanthropy. There are also seats reserved for “workforce,” “lived experience” and the Continuum of Care Board chair.

Drone photos from Nov. 15, 2022 (above) and May 23 show Camp Hope shrinking. COURTESY OF WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Five seats would be for elected officials: A Spokane Valley City Council member, county commissioner, a small cities representative, the Spokane mayor or city administrator and the Spokane City Council president.

This, again, could all change. Spokane Valley “may or may not be ready to actually give up control of what they’re doing,” Cooley says, which could result in two seats going to the county commissioners.

Based on this year’s budgets, the group is proposing moving roughly $36 million of homelessness and affordable housing money from Spokane County and the City of Spokane to the regional entity.

After the recommendations are presented, each jurisdiction will solicit public feedback and likely suggest its own changes to the proposal. To move things along, the volunteers are proposing that the jurisdictions pass ordinances adopting the public development authority within 60 days.

“We knew there were going to be some challenges,” Romero says. “But so far so good. We feel pretty confident that we’re gonna actually get this over the finish line.”

The former city staffers plan to present their proposal to the public at the Spokane Convention Center on June 28. They’ll also present to local politicians, who will then decide whether or not to move forward.

Two days later — 4 pm on June 30 — Camp Hope will close.

The timing is incidental, but still carries symbolic weight.

“Camp Hope has been this galvanizing lightning rod for holding people’s attention around homelessness,” says Zeke Smith, who has been overseeing outreach work at the camp with the Empire Health Foundation. “I do wonder if it could provide some momentum in this moment around the regional homeless authority.”

The unsanctioned homeless encampment — which has dwindled from 600 campers to about a dozen — is slated to close under a court-ordered agreement between the City of Spokane and state of Washington.

Campers who are still there after the deadline could face arrest for trespassing, but Julie Garcia, who manages the camp with Jewels Helping Hands, is confident they’ll be able to get everyone moved out before then.

The camp’s closure may come as a relief to local leaders and the people who live and work nearby, but the region’s larger problem is far from solved. Roughly 200 of those who’ve left since November are still unaccounted for, Garcia says. And the city’s most recent point-in-time count found that Spokane County’s homeless population increased 36 percent since last year.

Smith says he’s hopeful about the prospect of a regional entity, but still waiting to see if the final proposal will address service providers’ concerns about diverse representation in the governance process.

“If this process just redefines how the three jurisdictions collaborate or engage around homelessness, I don’t think that goes far enough at all,” Smith says. “Our partners are telling us they want to see authentic and real seats at the table.”

If there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on, it’s that whatever we’re doing now isn’t working. Garcia says some sort of regional effort may be Spokane’s best — or only — shot at addressing the conditions that formed Camp Hope in the first place.

“That’s the scary part of all this,” Garcia says. “If this regional authority doesn’t work out, we stay on the same path that we’re on right now, which is functionally bankrupt.” n

nates@inlander.com

“Camp Hope has been this galvanizing lightning rod for holding people’s attention around homelessnes.”

Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium hopes to use federal grant money to clear the way for new homes

How many pieces of land remain unused each year because the owner either doesn’t want to find out if their property is polluted — and therefore a liability that could be impossible to sell — or can’t afford to clean up what they already know is there?

Leaders with the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium hope to help answer those scary unknowns

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

for some owners and clear the way for new housing with a $500,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields program.

Brownfields are typically places where there used to be an industry or business that could have contaminated the land, from an auto body shop that used to dump oil out back to major manufacturing.

The key is finding out whether the land is contaminated, and if it is, figuring out how to clean it up, both of which the federal brownfields technical assistance grants can help with.

Once the cleanup is done, big things can happen. One of Spokane’s most visible examples is Kendall Yards, which was once a polluted railyard and now boasts doz-

Spokane’s Kendall Yards, a former railyard seen here in 2009, is an example of a brownfield.

ens of businesses and hundreds of apartments and condos.

The grant was part of more than $4.5 million awarded around Washington state in late May, including $768,000 for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and $500,000 for the Port of Whitman County.

The housing consortium’s grant will allow the nonprofit to work with property owners in Northeast Spokane, as well as the West Central and East Central neighborhoods, to conduct testing and plan for cleanups where needed. The consortium is made of more than 30 nonprofit and public sector members that work to promote affordable housing.

Ben Stuckart, the consortium’s executive director and former Spokane City Council president, says they chose those areas because they each have community organizations that are already working to promote affordable housing.

“We thought it would be best to go in and offer our support versus trying to jumpstart something on our own,” Stuckart says.

Because the housing consortium has created a land bank, landowners who learn they have a liability on their hands could transfer ownership to the nonprofit, Stuckart says.

“If I buy a property and I don’t do my due diligence on that property and I find out it’s dirty later, I’m not eligible for cleanup funds from [the Washington state Department of] Ecology or the EPA,” Stuckart says.

But with testing done, the land bank could be eligible for more cleanup money from the state and federal government that could help prepare the land for development, Stuckart says.

Still, not every property needs to go through the land bank’s hands, he says. Some owners could agree to pursue low income housing in exchange for the free cleanup help.

“This brownfield thing is great because I can go in with the land bank’s EPA grant and clean their land up, and sign an agreement to get that process rolling,” Stuckart says. “Anything we can clean up and get to housing will be a win.” n samanthaw@inlander.com

METALLIC MENAGERIE

Way Out West is a delightful roadside attraction filled with retro spaceships, massive statues, signs and more

Head west on Interstate 90 and not far from downtown Spokane, near Exit 257, you’ll see what appears to be the dreamscape of a 10-year-old brain.

A 16-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex terrorizing a treehouse. Two equally tall roosters going head-to-head. Three cows in a boat, because why not? And, of course, a spaceship that looks like it teleported straight out of an episode of The Twilight Zone, from which two aliens are emerging to stretch their long, gangly limbs.

For first-timers driving by, these scenes surely make for a surreal moment, loaded with many understandable questions: What in the world?! Is that stuff for sale, or is it just some madman’s idea of yard art? If it is a business, how do I get there, and where’s the sign? I wonder if they’d let me sit in the spaceship?

The entire spectacle is the creation of a 10-yearold brain, it’s just trapped inside the body of long-time “junker” and Spokane businessman, Mike Ferguson.

“The front line is my sign,” Ferguson says of his stylized display of whimsical items at his junkyard of fun called Way Out West.

BY RENÉE SANDE

For many, happening upon this fantastical playground in the middle of a field is akin to a mirage they have to experience to believe, regardless the time of day.

However (hint-hint) there is a giant World War II-era submarine net float ball that swivels to say “open” or “closed.”

“If people want to stop and look, they do, no matter my hours,” Ferguson says, throwing up his hands.

But the good-natured, talkative Ferguson says he doesn’t mind. He lets photographers come shoot any time of day, as long as they let him know they’re coming. Senior portraits and prom pictures are common occurrences.

“If they want to climb on a dinosaur or giraffe, let ’em. It’s all for touch,” Ferguson says.

And, even more, it’s “all for sale,” with price tags ranging from under $100 to $35,000.

Growing up in Southern California, Ferguson got his start “trash-picking” around his neighborhood and going to the annual Saugus Swap Meet in Santa Clarita with his dad who was also a “junker.”

“I’d drag things home and sell them to the neighborhood kids,” Ferguson says. “I did get in trouble when I sold one of them an adult magazine… I made a killing off those.”

Even though he became a registered nurse 38 years ago, the thrill of junking remained a constant hobby.

“I never stopped buying and selling, regardless of what I was doing,” Ferguson says. “I didn’t miss a lot of yard sales.”

In 1991, he opened Ruby Street Antiques in Spokane, which morphed into an antique shop specializing in oversized statuary pieces. He took annual trips to Mexico, China and Indonesia, filling up shipping containers and semi-trucks with architectural oddities.

Many locals remember the two monstrous lions flanking the entrance of Ruby Street Antiques, drawing in curious visitors with the attractive absurdity of it all. The pair eventually sold for $40,000.

“You have to be willing to risk a lot of money, with little guarantee of finding the right buyer,” Ferguson says. “You have to think ‘This is so cool, everyone else will think it’s cool,’ right?”

Visitors from another galaxy relax at Way Out West. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

His purchases began getting bigger and bigger. Deciding he needed a “warehouse,” he bought the property off I-90.

“A phenomenon happened where people started stopping to look around, and they couldn’t be denied,” Ferguson says, so he moved the business west of town in 2004.

Business boomed exponentially in the three years that followed. But even with over $1 million in sales, Ferguson would put 100 percent right back into it.

“If I had to live off what I was making, I could never have built my inventory,” he says.

He was still buying bigger — and weirder — items. With the new location so visibly located along I-90, plus becoming more easily accessible and spread out in the open as opposed to a crowded store, it appealed to a lot of people. One of them was Nirvana exbassist Krist Novoselic, who bought a spaceship, and actor Adrien Brody, who put a “ton of items on hold, then never called back.”

“A lot of times, to keep famous people busy when in Spokane, we’ll show up on a list of interesting things for them to do,” Ferguson says.

However, when the recession hit at the end of 2007, “it was like a light shut off.”

That year, he says he’d purchased a “staggering amount of inventory,” including four semi-trucks from Mexico and 42 ocean containers from China. Often he would sell entire containers to his customers, but most of them wound up at Way Out West.

As a result, he hosted a huge auction (Ferguson has also owned several auction businesses throughout his career, including his current company, I-90 Auctions), liquidating most of his inventory to pay bills.

When sales began picking up again in 2010, spaceships costing $7,500 sounded reasonable once more.

Ferguson originally worked with a designer from China to manufacture nine total of his retro-futuristic spaceships.

“I said, ‘I need it to look like the ones when I was a kid,’” he recalls.

Just recently, he sold the last of those nine spaceships — the one perched on the little knoll at the west edge of his property for 15 years — the one thing he always said was never for sale.

“I heard from hundreds of people…‘What are you doing? Where did it go?’ They get comfortable and love a certain thing,” Ferguson says with a chuckle. “Everything is for sale, at the right price.”

WAY OUT WEST

11610 W. White Road, Spokane facebook.com/wayoutwestspokane

When a guy who stopped by Way Out West every year, each time bugging Ferguson to sell him the last spaceship, finally offered “a dumb amount of money,” Ferguson told him if he could get them manufactured again he’d sell him the one on the knoll.

Ferguson’s designer found the blueprints and made another load of nine spaceships, three of which have sold already.

“If you want your spaceship, the few we have left are probably it, as the profit margin was a lot smaller this time around,” he says.

The industry has changed. Ferguson recalls how he used to have his T-rexes manufactured at $750 a piece and then would sell them for $3,500.

“I couldn’t have them manufactured at $3,500 these days. There’s no room for profit,” he says.

When asked what the future holds for Way Out West, Ferguson isn’t sure. He and his brother Mark, who’s been the venture’s long-time manager “aren’t spring chickens any more.” And Ferguson’s son, who once ran his auction business with him, is currently interested in traveling the world, not in running his dad’s business.

But for now, Ferguson once again has headed down to Mexico for his annual buying trip to find more of the strange and outlandish.

As for what he’s looking to haul back home, it’s “proven winners” — stuff he knows is going to sell. And with that sale, comes his favorite part:

“It’s mostly about seeing the joy it brings out in people that makes it all worth it.” n

RULES FOR REPORTERS

Let my aged wisdom and accrued cynicism guide you, young reporter

BY DANIEL WALTERS

If you’re a rookie journalist trying to find your way in the world, take comfort in this: Thanks to social media, you have whole crowds of people happy to explain to you at length what Real Journalism actually is and how it just happens to support their politics.

But just in case you feel you can’t always trust the partisan mob, I thought I’d share a few tips and tricks I learned along the way. Like a GameFAQs page, but for journalism.

 Ignore the volume and anger level of online criticism being thrown your way. But seriously consider the substance.

 Some of the same people who yell “fake news” the loudest are the sort who reach out to you privately and politely ask for a correction if you actually got a fact wrong.

 The vast and powerful tools of investigative journalism are most frequently employed in trying to track down somebody’s phone number.

 Smart reporters get smart by asking many dumb questions.

 Reporters shouldn’t try to become the story. But if you have become the story, and you don’t write about it, you’re ignoring the story, and that’s even worse.

 The best time to request a public record was a year ago. The second best time was six months ago.

 Records clerks are lovely and beautiful people. Ask nicely if there’s anything you can do to narrow or prioritize your request to get it done faster. They are just waiting for you to ask.

 Any city hall reporter should, every year, request the following records: The salary, overtime pay, and names of every city employee; the names and dates of employees who’ve left the city; the calendars of the mayor, city administrator, and communications director; and the log of all other records requests.

 There’s a secret, ugly-ass document portal at publicdocs.spokanecity.org/cityclerkrecords that lets you pull up numerous contracts and other documents without needing to wait months or years for the records request. You can look up a whole host

of documents — including name changes — at the Washington State Digital Archives. You can find extra campaign finance info by typing “open data” into the PDC search bar.

 Both reporters and activists love to argue about what precise words to use for specific groups. That’s fine. But nobody has ever become more sympathetic to a homeless person merely because you refer to them as “houseless” or a “person experiencing homelessness.” But tell that person’s story, with all its messiness and humanity? That’s when readers actually care.

 “Access journalism” — soft-focus and friendly pieces — is fine, but the only access it grants is to more access journalism. By contrast, if you write a very critical but accurate piece about someone, they might reach out to you when they want to expose something they see wrong.

 Always read the bill. Don’t rely on what the activist says. Don’t rely on what other reporters have written. Read the bill. The text may surprise you.

 Don’t obsess about “reading the room.” If you do your job correctly, the room will read you

 The worst PR flacks were — as they will frequently remind you — previously journalists.

 When a flack tells you “end of story,” that’s your clue there’s much, much more to the story.

 Record every interview with a politician. This is especially true if they call you a [word beloved by Deadwood brothel owner Al Swearengen].

 It’s theoretically possible to conduct a valuable interview over email. But never with the sort who demands it.

 Sources lie very, very rarely. They misremember very, very frequently. Don’t confuse the two.

 Screenshot, screenshot, screenshot! The people demand proof. Better yet, pay for a tool like Gyazo, which logs the exact timestamp of when and where you captured the image.

 Reporters who opine the most about What Makes Great Journalism are rarely the ones doing great journalism themselves. n

SECOND VERSE

It’s never an enviable task to follow up a revolutionary classic. The visual revelation and multiverse storytelling that made Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse elite obviously wasn’t going to be aweinspiringly novel with the film’s new sequel, SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, but damn if it isn’t a stellar movie on its own merits. The film finds Miles Morales yearning for his Spider-Crush Gwen Stacy and the pair’s universes cross once again when Gwen joins an elite team of Spider-People who are intent on stopping Miles’ new Portal-esque nemesis, the Spot. What follows is a pure visual overload of animated creativity, hundreds of Spidey variations, a few delightful surprises and heartfelt moments of family connection and teenage love (Gwen and Miles sitting upside down melts my heart). It’s an overwhelming world of imagination that you can’t help but want to stay in as long as possible (which makes the film’s ending more than a tad frustrating). Still, I’m already counting down the days till Spider-Verse 3. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

SHORT STORY TIME

Bookworms rejoice! The featured title for SPOKANE IS READING, the region’s community reading initiative culminating every fall with a guest author talk, has been announced. Seattle-based author Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a short story collection that’s been hailed by reviewers as strange, wonderful, sly and provocative. Among the fantastical and creative tales within are stories that have been optioned for screen adaptations, and which also appear in the esteemed Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy anthology. Readers of Fu’s work can attend one of two free, public author talks on Oct. 26, both co-hosted by the Spokane is Reading consortium of Spokane Public Library, Spokane County Library District and Auntie’s Bookstore. Learn more at spokaneisreading.org. (CHEY SCOTT)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on June 9.

JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT, WEATHERVANES. The star

Americana singer-songwriter delivers a new batch of poetic explorations of weathered love before swinging into town for a concert at the Fox this July.

JANELLE MONAE, THE AGE OF PLEASURE. The R&B polymath returns with a new record on which she wrestles with creating space to move past anxiety, depression, and other hang-ups in order to find moments of pleasure.

FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE, GIRL WITH FISH. The Pittsburgh indie noise-pop band balances tender vocals from singer Lydia Solcum with distorted commotion to create an infectious sound worthy of buzzing about. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

Good journalism requires much more than tough questions.

Meet Me in Manito

The Manito Park Art Festival showcases local emerging artists inside Spokane’s gem of a park

BY MADISON PEARSON

There’s only one place to be when the sun begins to peek through Spokane’s springtime cloud cover: Manito Park.

At least, that’s what Kelly Brown thinks. Having moved to Spokane from Phoenix in 2015, Brown was quickly enamored with the 90-acre park on Spokane’s lower South Hill.

“In Phoenix, it’s just like, ‘Wow, that Home Depot sure looks great!’” Brown says. “But here, in Manito, it’s a whole new world.”

In an attempt to acclimate to her new community, Brown reached out to the Friends of Manito her first year here in search of volunteer opportunities and eventually became a board member. During one of her first meetings on the board, Brown heard talk of creating an art festival in the park, so she jumped in as its organizer. Brown immediately began navigating the ins and outs of creating an art festival. After learning that artists tend to schedule themselves out months in advance with little to no wiggle room most Saturdays, Brown tried to make the festival happen in 2020, but the pandemic got in the way.

Finally, in 2021, the Manito Park Art Festival celebrated its inaugural event. This year, the Manito Art Festival takes place on Saturday, June 10, and features more than 100 art vendors. But this isn’t your typical, run-of-the-mill art festival.

Sure, you’ll see the familiar faces of well-known Spokane artists and makers — Chris Bovey, Reinaldo Gil Zambrano (RGZprints) and LR Montgomery — but Brown says that the Manito Park Art Festival also aims to

foster creativity and awareness of up-and-coming artists.

The festival sees about 5,000 patrons over the course of the day — some come to Manito just for the art festival, while others are just passing through. Brown says that’s the beauty of the festival: stumbling upon something unexpected and magical.

“The reason we like to tailor this festival toward emerging artists is so they have a chance to share their work amidst Spokane’s huge art scene,” Brown says. “Art is so important to our culture, and specifically in Spokane with the emphasis that we put on it. It’s just this perfect marriage of art, community, beauty and nature. It’s the happiest day.”

Back in 2019, when Brown was still figuring out how to get the Manito Park Art Festival started, she got in contact with myriad artists in the area, one of whom was Spokane oil painter Neicy Frey.

“I can’t remember if Kelly reached out to me, or if I reached out to her,” Frey says. “I knew I wanted to be a part of the festival the second I heard it was in the works.”

Like most Spokanites, Frey has childhood memories of feeding the ducks at Manito’s pond and sledding down its many hills in winter. Her grandfather, Art Frey, was Manito’s park director for many years.

Frey’s journey as an artist has been nurtured while living in Spokane, having moved back to the area after spending most of her early adolescence in India and Malaysia.

“Spokane has been a great place for me to learn how to paint and develop my work while raising my two

kids,” she says. “My kids have helped me with my previous Manito art shows and, this year, my son, Boaz, is manning the booth next door to mine, Cutees Printshop, a new creative project we’ve been working on together.”

Frey has participated in the festival since its inaugural year and sees it as a chance to connect with her patrons in person as well as to meet new art collectors.

“Kelly and her team have curated a great group of artists, artisans and vendors that make it a lively and familyfriendly event,” she says. “I love the size of the festival, too, it feels quaint and neighborly. All of these things make it easy to keep saying yes. Manito is such a treasure.”

While not everyone has the same view of Manito Park as Brown or the festival’s participating artists, Brown hopes the event shows that anyone — not just residents of the surrounding historic neighborhood — are welcome there.

“[Manito] is our jewel,” she says. “It’s not just a South Hill park. It’s not a ‘rich person’ park. It’s a regional destination. I’m proud that we’re bringing art and culture here and sharing this place with the community. I’m so thankful to all of the artists that took a chance on a new event.”

Along with plenty of art available for purchase, the Manito Park Art Festival also features kids’ activities, flower displays from the Botanical Alchemists, activities funded by a grant from Spokane Arts and live music.

In 2021, the festival had one musician who performed all day. At this year’s event, multiple musicians perform on a rotating schedule, ensuring the event showcases even more creative endeavors.

The festival’s future, Brown says, doesn’t need to be extravagant.

“I think it’s parallel with Manito Park,” she says. “It’s timeless. It’s special. It’s classic. It’s beautiful, but it’s quiet. It doesn’t need to become Disneyland. My hope is that we continue to bring in new artists and new people wanting to find a space in the art world. I think it should stay special, just the way it is.” n

Manito Park Art Festival • Sat, June 10 from 10 am-6 pm • Free • All ages • Manito Park, Duncan Garden’s east lawn • 1702 E. Grand Blvd. • thefriendsofmanito.org

Shop from among dozens of local artists and makers at this year’s festival. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

GemsRare

A year after a hate group tried to disrupt Pride, these five drag performers inspire and entertain North Idaho

STORY BY MEGAN DHEIN | PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK

Victoria Sumerz St. James enters wearing a turquoise sequin number, performing “Como La Flor” by Selena. The crowd at Mik’s is small, but she gives the performance her all, something her husband, Philip Roberson-Wire, mentions with pride later in the night when nearly 100 people fill the downtown Coeur d'Alene nightclub.

Victoria weaves her way through the crowd, and for her, the performance is nostalgic. She tells the audience that Selena is a favorite, that her mom took her to a Selena concert in the '90s before the singer’s untimely death. The crowd is rapt.

Victoria’s opening number kicked off a new year for the local drag troupe North Idaho Gemstones, which performs frequently at Mik’s, a welcoming space for Coeur d’Alene LGBTQ+ community.

North Idaho’s LGBTQ+ community celebrated without incident last weekend at the annual Pride in the Park event. It was a peaceful anniversary. Last year, the event was targeted by 31 men associated with the white supremacist hate group Patriot Front, who were arrested before they could riot.

When the North Idaho Gemstones take to the stage, it’s counterpoint to this and other troubles. Like the woman who doctored images of a local drag queen to mislead the public into believing the queen had exposed herself in front of minors. Or the failed Idaho state law that would’ve banned drag queens from performing in public. And the general anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes fomenting in some corners of the country.

But the Gemstones aren’t here to perform in protest. They’re here to celebrate.

“For everybody out there who feels like they don’t have somewhere to go, Mik’s loves you,” Victoria tells the crowd, who respond with applause and cheers.

The show has three sets, and there’s a lot of ground to cover. It’s partly a birthday celebration for one performer, Jazmyn J. It also marks a late Cinco de Mayo, so many of the performers incorporate Spanish-language songs into their repertoire.

As the founder/owner of North Idaho Gemstones, Victoria — who was recently named Miss Gay Pride Spokane 2023 by PFLAG, the U.S.’s first and largest LGBTQ+ organization — produced the entire show.

Victoria’s crowd is there from the beginning. In addition to her husband of 10 years, her mother, stepdad, sisters and her sister’s fiancé are sitting at a high-top table at Mik’s in the front row, cheering her on.

“She was my safety net, she literally did everything for me,” Victoria says of her mom. “From the very first pageant that I ever entered — and won, mind you — my mother designed, created, sewed my dress. She did all of my wigs and hair for my shows back in the day. She’s the reason I believe I felt safe to do drag, because whenever my mom was there, I knew that I was supported, and I knew that I was safe.”

Victoria has come a long way during her 26 years of performing. She started when she was only 15, growing up in Canyon City, Colorado, which she describes as “a little red town in a big blue state.”

After coming out at 14, she attended her first Pride celebration in Colorado Springs, where she saw her future drag mother, Unique, perform. The song was “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” by Whitney Houston, and Unique wore a silver leotard, jumping off the stage into the splits.

“I literally remember this like it was yesterday, because when you are in the art form that I am, and you found a love for it, you’ll never forget your first time seeing it,” Victoria says.

Victoria first learned her craft because Hide N’ Seek, a club in Colorado Springs, allowed people 16 and up inside from 2 am to 5 am, and Victoria got a fake ID that said she was 16.

She approached Unique, who at 2 am had just finished her show, telling her how good she was at Pride, and asking for tips and tricks. Unique took Victoria under her wing.

“She would teach me makeup skills, give me wigs, teach me the whole trade,” Victoria says.

Victoria Sumerz St. James gives her all at Mik's in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Her proximity to Unique — who was already a known entity in the Colorado drag community — catapulted Victoria to performing several times a month early in her career. That, combined with attending cosmetology school following high school, gave her an early edge.

Victoria’s husband is from the area, and that was how they both ended up in North Idaho. Philip says he’s seen how far the region's come, and he’s so proud of what Victoria has created.

“It just brings a big smile to my face to see him so free,” Philip says of Bobby, Victoria’s non-drag name. “It brings joy to my heart to help him do that.”

JAZMYN J

The second act of the night is the birthday girl, Jazmyn J, who performs to “Proud Mary” as a tribute to the late Tina Turner, and with her curly hair, frilly dress, and frenetic dance moves, it’s a worthy homage.

“Her songs are always part of my repertoire,” Jazmyn says. “It’s Tina… you have to do it.”

Jazmyn’s name is a nod to her birthplace, the Philippines, where sampaguita, a variety of jasmine, is the national flower.

Jazmyn and her husband moved to Coeur d’Alene from Los Angeles in early 2019. Looking to make friends in their new home, they accepted an invitation to attend a drag show at the now-closed downtown Spokane venue, the Pin.

“That night was amateur night, and seeing the diversity of performers, it’s not the drag we see on TV,” Jazmyn says. “Seeing these performers here in Spokane — young, very creative, and voicing whatever they’re experiencing at that moment — was really an eye opener. And I said, ‘I’d like to do this. I’d like to do drag.’”

Jazmyn wants to be a drag performer with a purpose: to inspire everyone to express and be themselves. She particularly loves participating in events that are fundraisers helping to advance her community. The Imperial Sovereign Court of Spokane, a nonprofit that supports the LGBTQ+ community of Eastern Washington and

North Idaho, named her Miss Wrangler in 2021.

“Our role is to raise funds and advocate for the communities, so I like doing those because it’s intentional,” Jazmyn says.

Jazmyn also hopes people who encounter her see her as approachable and nurturing. She enjoys doing all-ages shows, as well, and recalls a specific experience performing at a Pride in the Park in Moscow.

“Children see a very glittery person that exudes for them to come up and dance on the stage,” Jazmyn says. “I have this mom, her boy was in front dancing with other kids. And I asked all of them to dance with me on the stage. To this day, the mom said that I have inspired him to do performances and be more outgoing.”

Drag performers adjust their performances for the audience. Of course, a 21+ show is different from a show for children.

At last year’s Pride in the Park in Coeur d’Alene, a woman doctored a photo of a performer, creating a blur effect on the photo, and spreading misinformation that the performer had exposed themselves during that allages performance. The City of Coeur d’Alene investigated the matter and concluded that the performer had not exposed themselves. The performer ended up suing the woman who doctored the photo for defamation, according to the Spokesman-Review

But Jazmyn says that even the logistics of what that person was claiming was ridiculous.

“I’m wearing four tights. Even if I’m wearing a gown, I’m wearing tights underneath that,” Jazymn says. “On top of the tights, I have my underwear, I have my corset. There’s no way, even if I open my legs so far, that it will break and show my hoo-ha, you know what I mean?”

But Jazmyn says this misinformation about drag performers fuels actions like Idaho House Bill 265, which would’ve restricted drag performances from public spaces where minors were present. (After passing the Idaho House, the bill didn’t receive a hearing in the Senate.)

“It doesn’t mean that we can rest on our laurels because they can always come back,” Jazmyn says. “Whenever we have this Pride event, even if it’s in a private

facility, or place, they will be outside and protesting about this. I’d like to invite them to see it for themselves.”

Tonight at Mik’s, Jazmyn’s performances are bittersweet: Victoria announces that Jazmyn is leaving the Gemstones.

She’ll still be performing, but has decided to go the independent route rather than be part of any one group. For her last song of the evening, she performs “Never Enough,” a song from the movie The Greatest Showman, with obvious emotion.

“‘Never enough’ is something that I’d like to give to the Mik’s audience,” Jazmyn says. “They’ve been very welcoming. They’ve been very supportive, especially here in North Idaho.”

When Rita Mikalatos opened Mik’s in 1997, she wanted it to be a non-discriminatory place for everyone. She’s thrilled with the North Idaho Gemstones.

“They always put on a high-energy show,” Mikalatos says. “It’s a lot of fun, and great crowd responses… A lot of support in the community from that.”

Those wanting to see Jazmyn perform won’t have to wait long, though. She’ll be part of CDA4Pride: Pride on the Runway, an event on June 29 hosted by North Idaho Pride Alliance.

DYLAN TANK PHOENIX ST. JAMES

The third act, Dylan Tank Phoenix St. James, sports a button-down shirt, jeans and cowboy boots while performing “Girl Crush” by Harry Styles, and his presence is that of a heartfelt crooner.

He moved to Spokane from California nine years ago, and a mutual friend connected him with his drag mother, Christina Phoenix St. James. (Drag names can derive from who taught the performer. However, St. James is one of those last names that many drag queens and kings claim to be descended from.)

He always wanted to do drag, he says, but never knew the right people in California.

“She’s been like a mom to me,” Dylan says of Christina. “We’ve had a great relationship.”

Dylan connected with Victoria through his drag mother, but this was Dylan’s first in-person performance with North Idaho Gemstones. While Dylan had participated in the virtual show Victoria put on during the pandemic, he had to take a break to have shoulder surgery.

This night was his return.

“As Dylan, I’ve done a lot more things and gone a lot more places than I would have as me,” he says.

Dylan is also a member of the Inland Empire Kings, a drag king group based in Spokane that had their first show at the Garland Drinkery on June 3.

He was named Mr. Spokane Pride by PFLAG for 2021-22, was an Imperial Crown Prince of the Imperial Sovereign Court of Spokane from 2019 to 2020, and was named Mr. Gay Spokane 2018-19, also by the Imperial Sovereign Court of Spokane.

“RARE GEMS,” CONTINUED...

The birthday girl, Jazmyn J, moved to Coeur d'Alene with her husband in 2019.

Dylan Tank Phoenix St. James was Mr. Spokane Pride in 2021-22.

We take PRIDE in our students. ALLGBTQ+ of our students.

The Community Colleges of Spokane are dedicated to ensuring all students have access to a high-quality education in a safe and welcoming environment.

We strive for a place that promotes equity and inclusion for all while fostering appreciation of diverse cultures and global perspectives. The PRIDE Center at Spokane Community College and LGBT+ Student Center at Spokane Falls Community College are safe spaces for all to be welcomed and empowered to be one's true and authentic self.

Every Body Smooth

DAISY DELUXE ANDREWS ST. JAMES

Following Dylan is Victoria’s drag sister, Daisy Deluxe Andrews St. James. When Victoria introduces her, she says Daisy’s been performing for 10 years.

“Eleven!” Daisy calls in sisterly fashion from behind the curtains. She appears in a pink dress with flowing blond hair — the perfect Barbie — and performs “Por Siempre Tú” by Christina Aguilera.

Daisy lives with her family in Colville. She grew up feeling that something was out of place, but it wasn’t until she was a teen that she learned she had a twin sister who died during her mother’s pregnancy.

“Doing drag makes me connect with my twin,” Daisy says. “This is what she would have looked like, this is how she would have acted. It keeps me humbled in that part of my life — it fills that empty hole that I’ve been missing all these years.”

When Daisy was growing up, her mother struggled with addiction, and so she was primarily raised by her father, who was homophobic and threatened to disown her if she came out. At 21, she came out and he did just that. Luckily, around the same time, her mother got clean.

“I am very, very proud of my mom for that,” Daisy says. “She has been in my life ever since, and I could not have asked for a better mom.”

For Daisy, coming out and becoming a drag queen happened nearly at once. She came out on social media and that day went shopping for shoes at Payless. There, she met a gay man who introduced her to local drag queens Nova Kaine and Beyonce Black St. James, and Daisy began learning to be a queen. Since then, Daisy has been a Miss Wrangler 35 for the Imperial Sovereign Court.

“When I’m Daisy it’s like the whole world is just my playground and I just want to explore it,” she says.

CAMILLA SUMERZ ST. JAMES

Last to the stage, but certainly not least, is Camilla Sumerz St. James, wearing a red feather

headpiece, a two-piece and animal print high heeled boots, performing “El Pañuelo” by Romeo Santos and Rosalía. Camilla has a distinctly flirtatious presence, and the audience eats it up.

Almost exactly a year ago, Camilla, who was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, attended Pride on the Runway at Mik’s with her mom and grandmother, who were volunteering. The people putting on the drag show ended up getting Camilla’s name and number, and Victoria got in contact, asking Camilla if she wanted to compete in a pageant to select a new Gemstone performer.

Camilla won, and was named Miss North Idaho Gemstone 2022-2023. North Idaho Gemstones is hosting the pageant again this summer, beginning their search for the next Gemstone on July 29 at Mik’s.

“I went through the pageant with all the ups and downs,” Camilla says. “I really didn’t expect what drag queens had to go through. I never understood how much went behind that.”

Camilla says the past year doing drag has opened her up to the gay community.

“I never was really the person to go up to another gay person a year ago,” Camilla says. “If I went out to the bar, and I saw someone I just kind of walked the other way, I didn’t really feel included. Now that I’m in drag, knowing that there are more people in the community that have lived the life that I’ve lived or are going to live the life that I’ve lived, it’s just really nice to know that I’m not alone.” n

Camilla Sumerz St. James was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene.

Daisy Deluxe Andrews St. James lives in Colville and has been performing for 11 years.

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY® and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:

 Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months, and may give you HBV medicine.

ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS.

Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:

 dofetilide

 rifampin

 any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY

Tell your healthcare provider if you:

 Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

 Have any other health problems.

 Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.

 Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

 Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

 BIKTARVY and other medicines may a ect each other. Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:

 Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.  Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fi ght infections that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.

 Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.

 Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

 Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

 The most common side e ects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%). These are not all the possible side e ects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.

You are encouraged to report negative side e ects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY

Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION

 This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

 Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5.

 If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

(bik-TAR-vee)

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and KEEP BEING YOU are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. © 2023 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. US-BVYC-0292 04/23

ELIAS SWITCHED TO BIKTARVY

No matter where life takes you, Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

Person featured takes BIKTARVY and is compensated by Gilead.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and at BIKTARVY.com.

The people behind Spokane's first Two-Spirit Powwow (from left): Cy Dowd, Roo Ramos, Alexis G. Tonasket Hoyt, Yusn Stanger and Aiyana Reid. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

The Beauty of Powwows

Spokane’s first Two-Spirit powwow celebrates inclusivity at the intersection of race and gender

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

When Alexis G. Tonasket Hoyt started learning their tribe’s language, they felt they finally found what they’d been “pulled towards” their entire life.

Tonasket Hoyt is half Irish, half Native, and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. As soon as they started studying Okanagan Salish, they learned that their language had more than two options for pronouns.

“It felt so liberating,” they say, “because it was naming parts of me that have always been there, but I didn’t have words for it yet.”

Tonasket Hoyt is a Two-Spirit person. Two-Spirit is a panIndigenous term that refers to someone who contains both male and female spirits.

This Friday, Spectrum Center Spokane is holding the city’s first Spokane Falls Two-Spirit Powwow in Riverfront Park, a ceremony honoring Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people who are often excluded from male- or female-only powwow dances. As part of Spokane Pride, the powwow kicks off a weekend of celebration. A Two-Spirit person is also leading the Spokane Pride parade on Saturday.

Roo Qallaq Ramos, who is Iñupiaq and a member of the traditional village of Kiana in Alaska, is Spectrum’s executive director. They have wanted to host a Two-Spirit powwow for years. Growing up as a Two-Spirit in Spokane, Ramos felt unable to fully express themselves with both non-Indigenous and Indigenous people. Despite an inclusive pronoun system, tribal cultures aren’t always welcoming to nonbinary people.

“Our communities are decimated from our cultural norms that we had before colonization,” Ramos says. “The first one to be impacted by that is, of course, trans identities or Two-Spirit identities.”

Colonial influences changed the way many Indigenous people thought, Ramos says. Christian values narrowed their worldview into a strict binary. But traditionally, Two-Spirit people had special roles and responsibilities in their communities. With their unique understanding of both genders, Ramos says Two-Spirits were often tasked with healing or decision-making for their communities.

When they joined Spectrum, one of Ramos’ goals was “to create a program and space for Two-Spirits to exist” that they didn’t have growing up.

The powwow, Ramos says, will be “an indication to the Indigenous communities that we are going to stand here and we’re going to be recognized and we are no longer going to be forgotten or left out.”

Powwows are typically divided into male and female categories, with specific dances and regalia for each. This makes it difficult for Two-Spirit people to feel welcomed and included.

In 2012, the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits organization held the first ever Two-Spirit powwow, where Two-Spirit people could perform in whatever dance and attire they preferred. Since then, this type of powwow has been growing in popularity all over the country.

...continued on next page

Spectrum Center Spokane provides financial assistance, direct support, and community care to our 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Eastern WA and North ID.

“THE BEAUTY OF POWWOWS,” CONTINUED...

“I think it’s just time,” Tonasket Hoyt says. “It seems like there’s a lot of shift happening right now with our culture — people like me who are stepping in and reconnecting and reclaiming and coming out and using these words for ourselves.”

Spokane’s Two-Spirit powwow will have a grand entry at 1 pm, followed by various dances, a dinner and a royal pageant. While some performances are reserved for performers in full

regalia, other inter-tribal dances will be open to everyone. Two masters of ceremony, Dustina Edmo Abrahamson and Drea Rose, will guide attendees through the event so everyone knows how to participate respectfully.

The emcees will also help attendees understand the history and significance of what they’re witnessing. Abrahamson holds a master’s degree in Indigenous nation studies and has traveled all

Spokane's first powwow celebrating Two Spirit and Indigiqueer people is this Friday in Riverfront Park. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

over the world to work with Indigenous peoples. But her education started as a young girl dancing in powwows across the U.S. with her family every summer.

“I’ve been dancing since I could walk,” Abrahamson says. “I love sharing the history or the background of the dance itself that comes out.”

Powwows are by nature a cross-cultural exchange, Abrahamson says. Historically, they brought different tribes together for trade, feasting and spiritual ceremonies. Today, powwows are also welcoming to non-Indigenous people who want to learn and join the celebration.

“So that’s the beauty of powwows,” Abrahamson says. “How everybody, all these different tribes and cultures, have shared, and how we celebrate who we are today in what we wear and how we dance.”

Spokane’s Two-Spirit powwow has other distinctions. Instead of competing for a top monetary prize, all dancers and drummers are being paid equally. Having a female emcee is also a unique feature, Abrahamson says.

The royalty pageant, an event typically held for women, is now open to any performer.

Ramos hopes that whoever is crowned is able to travel to other powwows this summer, spreading awareness of Two-Spirits and asking powwows to loosen some of their gendered boundaries.

“In order for our cultures to continue, that means that our relationships need to continue,” Tonasket Hoyt says.

“Our relationships with each other, within our own tribes [and] intertribal, our relationships with the land, our relationships with the water and the salmon — they’re all connected. By having a two-spirit powwow, we are re-inviting the Two-Spirit people into the community circle.” n

Spokane Falls Two-Spirit Powwow Fri, June 9 from 1-9 pm, Lilac Bowl in Riverfront Park, linktr.ee/SpokaneFalls2sPowwow

We believe in the freedom of every individual to read books that enrich the quality and diversity of thought and expression from all points of view without restriction.

We welcome everyone and provide equitable library services to our diverse communities.

Everyone has the right to choose what to read.

Revel in Pride

As June begins, so does the onslaught of Pride-themed corporate logo profile photos and rainbow capitalism. If you want to get offline and celebrate Pride with the local community and LGBTQ+ organizations, the Inland Northwest has plenty of events lined up to celebrate Pride Month in style.

From Pride Night at the baseball stadium to drag shows and more, there’s something for everyone to enjoy whether you’re a part of the LGBTQ+ community

or just looking to support your friends, family and neighbors as an ally.

And because the celebration of equality and love doesn’t cease to exist once the month is over, keep up with other Pride happenings by checking out our yearround community calendar at Inlander.com/events where you can keep up with local drag shows, queer comedy performances and much more. Happy Pride to all!

—MADISON PEARSON

Celebrate 31 years of Pride in the Inland Northwest. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

BIG GAY DANCE PARTY

Fri, June 9 from 9 pm-midnight, nYne Bar & Bistro, sannw.org

CDA4PRIDE TIE-DYE PARTY

Sat, June 10 from 9 am-noon, Human Rights Education Institute, nipridealliance.com

SPOKANE PRIDE PARADE & RAINBOW FESTIVAL

Sat, June 10 from noon-9 pm, Riverfront Park, spokanepride.org

LGBTQIA+ INCLUSIVE HEALTHCARE DISCUSSION

Wed, June 14 from 6-8 pm, Human Rights Education Institute, nipridealliance.com

SPOKANE INDIANS PRIDE NIGHT

Thu, June 15 at 6:35 pm, Avista Stadium, spokaneindians.com

COEUR D’ALENE LAKE PRIDE CRUISE

Sat, June 17 from 9 am-3 pm, meet at the Globe Bar & Kitchen, globespokane.com

PFLAG MOSCOW PRIDE PICNIC

Sat, June 17 at 1 pm, East City Park in Moscow, facebook.com/ moscowpflag

THE 44TH GAY SPOKANE PAGEANT

Sat, June 17 from 5-8 pm, nYne Bar & Bistro, nynebar.com

PRIDE BAR CRAWL

Sat, June 17 from 4 pm-midnight, Globe Bar & Kitchen, drinkwith.us

PRIDE RIDE

Sat, June 24 from 8-9:30 am, CycleBar CDA, cyclebar.com

PRIDE IN PERRY

Sat, June 24 from noon-5 pm, South Perry Business District, odysseyyouth.org

CDA4PRIDE 2023: PRIDE ON THE RUNWAY!

Thu, June 29 from 6-10:30 pm, Coeur d’Alene, nipridealliance.com

SPACE QUEERS: A PRIDE SPECTACULAR

Thu, June 29 at 8 pm, Lucky You Lounge, luckyyoulounge.com

SANDPOINT PRIDE FEST

July 14-15, Sandpoint Granary Arts District, sandpointpride.com

PALOUSE PRIDE

Sat, Aug. 26, East City Park in Moscow, inlandoasis.org n

ROUNDUP

Sugar High

BY INLANDER STAFF

In 1925, Rinaldo and Ezilda Torre immigrated from Lucca, Italy, to the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Tucked somewhere in their belongings were five handwritten recipes for flavored syrups: anisette, grenadine, lemon, orgeat and tamarindo.

The couple pitched their homemade concoctions to local grocers by serving them with sparkling water and ice, nicknaming them “Italian sodas.” Eventually, they founded Torani, which still produces the red-and-blue labeled bottles that bedeck bars and coffee shops across the country.

In the decades since, the humble, sometimes bitter “Italian” soda has been transformed by an onslaught of add-ins: first cream, then whipped cream, then Red Bull energy drinks.

Today, many coffee shop’s Instagram feeds feature a rainbow of neon, coffee-free drinks. Some actually glow in the dark, and others are topped with sprinkles, cookies, cotton candy or Sour Patch Kids. Torani syrups are still in the mix, while shots of Red Bull or Lotus add caffeine (as if the sugar rush wouldn’t be enough).

This week, several Inlander reporters disregarded our insulin levels (and better judgment?) to taste some of the most glitzy, glammy, do-it-for-the-Gram concoctions. Are these treats for the eyes worth the impending sugar crash?

ELIZA BILLINGHAM

We sent five writers to explore the coffee shop trend of super-sweet drinks and candy-crusted caffeine — they and their insulin-levels survived to tell the tale

Taste the sugar-filled rainbow with these sweet, fruity, summery drinks at Pavilion Coffee. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

PAVILION COFFEE

9921 E. Trent Ave., Spokane Valley; @pavilion_coffee

What we got: Hawaiian Punch Polar Blast, $6.50 (16 oz.)

Disclaimer: I take my espresso black, with some hot water if I feel like splurging. I am not the target audience for a tropical, whimsical — dare I say — exciting drink. This is probably more geared towards coffee-shy teenagers or savvy adults who’ve been around the block. I didn’t know that Hawaiian Punch even comes in blue.

The Hawaiian Punch Polar Blast is one of Pavilion’s specialty Lotus drinks, though I have trouble believing there’s anything plant-based in it. It tastes like a slush-ified blue raspberry Jolly Rancher. In its defense, blue raspberry was the coveted flavor when my third-grade teacher handed out hard candy to anyone who aced their multiplication tables. My first sip brought back that A+ rush.

The bright colors and sweet baristas were a welcome relief from a long stretch of asphalt shimmered with heat waves. By the third sip, I was riding an electric blue ripcurl of food dye and dopamine. I couldn’t tell if the pink whip tasted any different than regular whipped cream, but please blame my unrefined palate on the impending sugar coma. I even forgot to ask for the blue raspberry drizzle, which looks like a Smurf-colored Magic Shell. But that amount of fun would have certainly pushed me over the edge. I’ll leave Trent Avenue to the true sweet tooth who’s a better match for this island Willy Wonka. (ELIZA BILLINGHAM)

MUDSLINGERS OF SPOKANE

24 N. Freya St; Instagram: @spokanemudslingers

What we got: Passionfruit guava and blackberry huckleberry Red Bull Italian soda in a split cup with glitter; $8.25

Let it be known that I am a coffee lover through and through. I would even go as far as labeling myself a quasi-coffee snob. So, when I pull up to my drive-thru coffee stand of choice, I usually bypass the outrageously-colored energy drinks and Italian sodas and head straight for a sweet and creamy coffee-based drink to get my caffeine fix. But hey, don’t knock it till you try it, right?

Mudslingers of Spokane has a huge menu featuring a wide array of specialty drinks. There are brightly-colored fruit smoothies, blended frappes, edible glitter add-ins, and the thing that I was after: split cups. It’s exactly what you’re imagining, a cup split into two. The only caveat is that you can’t mix and match; both sides of the cup must contain the same drink type. These split cups are perfect for the indecisive crowd out there. Double the flavors, double the fun and less time spent deciding between two flavors. Essen-

tially, if you can dream it, Mudslingers can do it. When I roll up to the drive-thru I’m honest with the cheery baristas, telling them I want to try a drink that was 1.) in a fancy split cup 2.) aesthetically pleasing, and 3.) sickly sweet. And boy, did they deliver. The result is a split cup of Red Bull Italian soda with one chamber containing passionfruit and guava syrups and the other featuring blackberry and huckleberry. With one straw on each side of the cup, the flavors alone were mouthwatering; however, the innovative split cup design allows for the immaculate combining of both flavors. Drink from both straws to get the most out of this unique experience and enjoy the fruity jamboree that ensues.

(MADISON PEARSON)

THE BLISSFUL WHISK

1612 N. Barker Road Suite 101, Spokane Valley; @theblissfulwhiskspokane

What we got: Happy Days (Red Lotus with white peach, watermelon and dragon fruit) + unofficial bartender’s creation (Pink Lotus with sour gummy worm and guava); $3.90 each (12 oz.)

Those venturing to the outskirts of Spokane Valley can satiate their caffeine and sugar fixes in a variety of ways in the welcoming confines of the Blissful Whisk. The bakery and coffee shop nurtures a cozy vibe with its kitschy, home decor sign aesthetic accented by soft pastel colors. And while the display cases are loaded with plenty of fresh baked treats — cinnamon rolls, cakes, cookies, cruffins, and more — this journey was all about getting that liquid sweetness.

While Blissful Whisk’s Instagram showcases plenty of colorful frappuccinos, they actually don’t have a set menu for these blended treats. They do however have a boatload of sugary syrup, sauce and powder flavors to pep up any drink on their menu (including the frappes). These range from the fruity (Granny Smith apple, huckleberry, pineapple, etc.) to the purely dessert-y (cake batter, toasted marshmallow, blue cotton candy, Ghirardelli white chocolate, etc.) — and they can be blended together for wild combinations.

As a non-coffee person trying to get extremely buzzed right before lunch (they’re only open till noon Tuesday through Friday and to 2 pm Saturday), I dove into the shop’s robust array of blended drinks using Lotus all-natural energy drinks as the base.

I first had the barista make me her choice of Lotus concoction: Pink Lotus with guava and sour gummy worm flavor boosts. Coming out a translucent but bold shade of pink that would make Hello Kitty proud, the pink and guava combo felt akin to drinking a Starburst with the sour gummy worm addition adding a lip-puckering zest without overpowering the fruity blend.

...continued on next page

Additionally, a bit like a dirty Arnold Palmer, the Happy Days was a fruit-filled bonanza slightly equivalent to shoving a handful of Brightside Skittles into your mouth. That said, the flavors were still distinguishable rather than a homogenous sweetness, especially the blissful bursts of white peach and watermelon. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

WHITE DOG COFFEE

2909 E. 57th Ave. and other locations; @whitedogcoffee

What we got: Blended peach mango Zipfizz with watermelon syrup and Tajín; $5.25

As an unwavering coffee drinker, I love caffeine. Often I opt for subtly sweet lattes or black coffee with a dash of cream, and have only delved into the energy drink world a few times. Until now, I’d never tried one of the neon colored, sugary concoctions many local coffee stands offer, partly to avoid a sugar crash. Sometimes, though, one can’t resist a vibrant orange drink on a sunny day.

Before embarking to the stand, I scrolled through

White Dog Coffee’s Instagram and stumbled upon a Cinco de Mayo drink inspired by the popular sweet-andtangy snack of mangos and Tajín, which just so happens to be one of my favorites.

The resulting neon orange beverage is jam-packed with peach and mango, and a refreshing undercurrent of watermelon tying the flavors together. The bright red Tajín sprinkled on top infused the beverage with a slight salty tang as it swirled down to the bottom of the cup.

my middle school days in the early 2000s, heading to the mall with my best friend and feeling so cool after ordering Italian sodas from a kiosk. I guess the Lotus and Tiki flavored energy syrups — which, by the way, get their kick from coffee beans — so popular at the region’s many drive-thru stands are today’s version of those overly sweet, creamy sodas.

BLISS COFFEE CO.

SANDSTROM)

As Zipfizz is a low-sugar energy drink mix, this beverage wasn’t absurdly sweet. It’s a great pick-me-up to enjoy on a warm summer day while sparing your teeth from the unpleasant sensations that many cavity-inducing, overly sugary drinks often strike up. (SUMMER

Wanting to try something on the more “healthy” side, I initially decide on Bliss Coffee Co.’s beautiful ruby-white marbled, piña colada and huckleberry smoothie after seeing it posted on Instagram. While I admit piña colada isn’t a flavor I normally would pick, huckleberry definitely is. In hindsight, I sorta regret my choice, because after the huckleberry syrup was gone, the drink lost its appeal. My own fault, but I also doubt there was much actual fruit in this to begin with.

3118 E. Mission Ave. and other locations; @blissfulblends.spokane

What we got: Pina colada huckleberry smoothie ($5.50) and Pink Champagne ($5)

Like everyone else has already said, I, too, prefer my caffeine via espresso or drip (with maybe a little too much flavored creamer). But I have fond memories of

Differing from many of its coffee stand counterparts, Bliss Coffee Co. uses the Tiki Breeze brand of energy drink syrups instead of Lotus for its nonespresso “energy infusions.” The Pink Champagne is a concoction of the Pink Tiki (passion fruit), white peach, strawberry and lavender syrup, with the option to make it a mimosa with a splash of orange juice. I do like the effervescence of many Lotus/Tiki drinks, and the flavor profile of this drink was refreshing and summery, but I could only drink this a few sips at a time because of how sweet it is (one serving of Tiki, by the way, has 40 grams of sugar). After waiting for the ice to melt and water it down a little, I was left with mostly orange juice, which “floats” on top, making this pretty drink a sunset-hued, summer-in-a-cup experience.

Speaking on behalf of us all for the final verdict: Traditional coffee drinkers are obviously not the target audience for these super-sweet potions, and that’s OK.

(CHEY SCOTT) n

Five Year Fun

Heritage Bar & Kitchen celebrates its fifth anniversary and other dining news

BY CHEY SCOTT AND ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Tucked in the heart of downtown Spokane, the semi-basement level eatery Heritage Bar & Kitchen is celebrating its fifth birthday with a week’s worth of festivities.

For fans of its juicy pub-style burgers, the biggest incentive to celebrate may be the chance to win free burgers for a year. Yes, really. Any customer who orders one of Heritage’s burgers (including its smash burger

Wake Up Call took over locations previously owned by Black Rock Coffee Bar, which is no longer operating in the area. Each features Wake Up Call’s typical full-service espresso bars with the same food and community atmosphere Spokanites have come to know. And for anyone traveling this summer, go ahead and use your existing loyalty points and gift cards at any new location.

Wake Up Call — easily spotted with its cherry red, English telephone booth-shaped structures — was founded almost 20 years ago, and has been voted one of the region’s best coffee spots by Inlander readers in our annual Best Of poll.

A FUN MOVIE IN DISGUISE

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts finds the series making a resurgence thanks not to the strength of its robots, but of its humans

As a franchise trying to chart a new path, Transformers has fittingly been doing a bit of reinventing lately. It sounds like a fever dream to describe it now, but there was once a time when these movies ended with Peter Cullen’s iconic Optimus Prime giving a monologue set to Linkin Park while Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox would make out nearby on top of Bumblebee in car form. That was the now infamous closing to Michael Bay’s 2007 Transformers which, while notable for its integration of practical effects with its CGI creations, was undercut by everything else that came in between the action. Still, it spawned four sequels whose diminishing returns when it came to thrills were exacerbated by its characters. After all, it’s hard to care about any of what is going on when the films saddle you with humans you’d rather avoid.

Then, in 2018, the series was given new life with Bumblebee. Set in the 1980s, it brought in the new character of Charlie, played by a pitch-perfect Hailee Steinfeld, and became infinitely more fun by largely freeing itself from the franchise’s past baggage.

Though not quite as refreshing as that prior entry, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts continues down this path with charming new characters — at least when it comes to the humans — and manages to frequently settle into a fun groove. While more than a little familiar in terms of its premise, with yet another powerful item serving as the driving force of the story, this is a forgivable means to an end as it successfully taps into something sweet yet silly.

BY CHASE HUTCHINSON

Our new lead character this time is Noah Diaz, played by Anthony Ramos of In the Heights, who is having a hard time getting his feet underneath him in 1994 Brooklyn. A talented electronics expert, he is trying to find a job to support his family as his younger brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) needs medical treatment they can’t afford. Out of desperation, Noah gets roped into stealing a Porsche to get some money, only to discover it is actually a transforming Autobot in disguise. Following a brief yet inventive enough car chase, he learns that there are robot beings hiding in secret on our planet. The one he attempted to steal is Mirage, voiced by Pete Davidson essentially playing himself (once again), who convinces Prime (Cullen) they need Noah to get the aforementioned item back. This turns out to be something discovered by Elena Wallace, played by Dominique Fishback of the recent series Swarm, who is knowledgeable in her field yet is undervalued by her boss at the museum where she works. These characters must team up to find the item before nefarious forces do. They won’t be alone as they make new allies along the way as they head to Peru.

in this malaise, instead remaining light on its feet while letting the more multifaceted characters largely drive the story rather than the other way around. Though it teeters on the edge of repetition, some key sequences and a game cast hold it all together.

TRANSFORMERS: RISE

OF THE BEASTS

Rated PG-13

Directed by Steven Caple Jr. Starring Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Pete Davidson

In particular, the first car chase that has some enjoyable gags as Noah finds himself trapped in a vehicle hurting through traffic and a more unabashedly goofy sequence involving a leap from a plane at the movie’s close. Things can be a bit tiresome when it becomes a giant CGI smash fest in a numbingly drab and gray setting. However, the small parts within this greater whole ensure there are bursts of life to be found.

The particulars of this plot are rather pedestrian, making its lack of spark the film’s greatest detriment. We’ve seen all this before not just in past Transformers films, but basically any action blockbuster ever. What makes it work here is that it doesn’t get too bogged down

It isn’t a great movie by any means, but it is a good Transformers movie. This may sound like damning with faint praise, but it is truly the best way to encapsulate the experience. It is serviceable at worst and exciting at best, clearing space for characters to ground the chaos that is playing out around them. Ramos and Fishback give the film a beating heart to make you care about what would otherwise be empty apocalyptic stakes. Even an eye-rolling tease in the final scene can’t fully sour the goodwill the film had going for it, though its sacrifice to the banal hunger for more IP-driven franchises comes perilously close. n

The franchise’s recent transformation is a welcome one.

Flamin’ Out

Corporate biopic Flamin’ Hot delivers a questionably true story in familiar packaging

Richard Montañez almost certainly did not invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. That fabrication is at the core of Eva Longoria’s feel-good biopic about Montañez, Flamin’ Hot, and its fundamental insincerity is reflective of the movie’s tone, with plenty of platitudes about believing in yourself, working hard, and never giving up. As a fictional narrative, Flamin’ Hot is a lot like its junk-food subject: easy to consume but ultimately empty, with little lasting satisfaction. As a supposedly inspirational true story, it’s pure hokum.

Montañez’s claim to be the mastermind behind Flamin’ Hot Cheetos was debunked in an extensive Los Angeles Times investigation in 2021, although he still peddles his version of the story in books and speaking engagements, and now in this movie. It’s especially disappointing that he’s become such an apparent huckster, because the true details of Montañez’s life are still pretty remarkable.

As the movie depicts, he grew up in a rural community of migrant laborers in California, drifted into criminal activity, and spent time in prison, all before landing a job as a janitor at the Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in 1976. By the time he retired from Frito-Lay in 2019, he had risen to an executive position, spearheading the company’s marketing efforts to the Latino community.

BY JOSH BELL

Montañez adds to that story of outstanding achievement by crediting himself with the invention of the spicy flavor that became a snack-food sensation. The screenplay by Lewis Colick and Linda Yvette Chávez, based on Montañez’s own memoir, is relentlessly on-message about the Mexican-American identity that means so much to Richard (Jesse Garcia) and his family. As Richard recounts in his incessant, cloying narration, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were not just a new flavor variation for Frito-Lay; they were a distillation of their creator’s own upbringing and heritage, sourced from the traditional foods beloved by his friends and family and perfected in his own kitchen.

The movie’s version of Richard is a likable guy, with a positive attitude even in the face of poverty and discrimination. As soon as he starts working at Frito-Lay, he befriends veteran machinist Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert) and dedicates himself to learning everything he can about the factory’s operations. He’s a true company man, and when CEO Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub) puts out a video message to employees soliciting feedback, Richard is the only one at his workplace who pays attention. He calls Enrico’s office directly to pitch his idea for a new product that will appeal to the underserved Latino demographic.

Rated PG-13

Directed by Eva Longoria

Starring Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert Streaming on Hulu and Disney+

Regardless of which elements are true, Flamin’ Hot is always broad and predictable, with the obvious setbacks and obstacles as Richard attempts to improve his station in life and provide for his family, always supported by his upbeat wife Judy (Annie Gonzalez). As a director, Longoria has mostly worked in TV, and Flamin’ Hot often plays like a breezy sitcom, resolving every conflict within a scene or two in order to get to a moment of crowd-pleasing humor or sentiment. The one creative flourish Longoria brings to the storytelling — having Richard narrate his imagined version of corporate board meetings, with other actors miming along to his words — is remarkably similar to a fan-favorite bit from Marvel’s AntMan movies.

FLAMIN’ HOT

Shamelessly borrowing from the biggest franchise in Hollywood fits with Flamin’ Hot’s overall sense of phony goodwill, though. It’s presented as a celebration of Mexican-American ingenuity, but it really represents a different kind of American dream: Using exaggeration and manipulation to garner admiration and wealth, while projecting a wholesome image of integrity and perspicacity. Now that’s a subject worth making a movie about. n

Flamin’ Hot lacks the spice.

Lady of the Canyon

A reflection on Joni Mitchell’s musical transcendence

BY MADISON PEARSON

Everybody has a Joni Mitchell story.

She’s arcane and reckless, but over her 55-year career she’s penned a song to accompany all of life’s greatest moments and every bump in the road. Her poetic lyrics are infused with incredible vulnerability and openness, but there’s not a hint of fragility in her voice — not once does it falter.

Though I became a fan via the music that came out of the Laurel Canyon scene in the ’60s and ’70s, something about Mitchell sets her far apart from her contemporaries in my mind.

She was an innovator, devising her own unique sound and style of incredibly honest confessional songwriting. Her song structures and political critiques were just as mold-breaking as those of her male counterparts of the time — Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young among others — perhaps even more so given she was a woman in this male-dominated realm.

During the past two decades, Mitchell’s output has ceased entirely, but her influence has only grown with

modern confessional singer-songwriters citing her as a major inspiration for their own works. (Taylor Swift’s Red is, unsurprisingly, heavily influenced by Mitchell’s Blue.) Mitchell made a surprise return to the spotlight at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, a stage she had not graced since 1969. Shepherded by current Americana songwriting star Brandi Carlile, it was Mitchell’s first performance of any sort since 2000. On June 10, Mitchell is set to perform a sold out show with Carlile at the Gorge Amphitheater. It’s Mitchell’s first headlining gig in 20 years.

If you’re headed to the Gorge for the show, or you’re hoping to create your own Joni Mitchell story, these songs will put you on the path to understanding both her imposing presence and enigma.

WOODSTOCK

LADIES OF THE CANYON (1970)

Despite not having attended Woodstock ’69, Mitchell wrote “Woodstock,” which served as an anthem to that generation. At least four versions of the song were re-

leased in the same year as Mitchell’s original version, the most notable of which appeared on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s album Déjà Vu. The CSNY version is worth listening to, but you’ll never get the full story or magical feel without Mitchell’s soaring notes and her unique vocal inflections. Wrapped tight in the tapestry of her lyrics, I feel like I was there on the side of the road on my way to Yasgur’s farm for the legendary festival.

The opening piano riff of “Woodstock” is almost haunting, and not a sound that would usually be associated with the free love and peace movement of the late 1960s. But, if there’s one thing Mitchell does well it’s some good, old-fashioned sonic juxtaposition.

LITTLE GREEN

BLUE (1971)

Though the entirety of Blue is perfect from front to back, “Little Green” stands out as the most honest song in Mitchell’s discography. It’s the song that began my personal Joni Mitchell story.

Joni Mitchell’s discography is unparalleled and musically adventurous.

My usual music listening habits include modern Mitchell disciples Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo and Taylor Swift, so I was in shock when I found a song even more confessional than anything in my regular rotation.

Biographer and music critic David Yaffe, the author of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Michell, describes the song “a secret hiding in plain sight,” as Mitchell is “telling all but revealing nothing.” The secret? Mitchell had given her newborn daughter, Kelly Dale, up for adoption in 1965, a few years before her music took off.

“Child with a child pretending / Weary of lies you are sending home / So you sign all the papers in the family name / You’re sad and you’re sorry, but you’re not ashamed / Little Green, have a happy ending.”

It doesn’t get more vulnerable than that.

HARRY’S HOUSE / CENTERPIECE

THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS (1975)

Mitchell’s seventh studio album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, signified her turn to jazz music and away from the folk sound that defined her early work. It sounds like nothing she’d ever made prior to 1975. That’s the point.

It was Mitchell’s time to reinvent herself. The changes in her voice are evident, but the production on the tracks is entirely different and experimental. Part of being a Joni fan is rolling with the punches.

The reception of the album was initially horrible. To be honest, it wasn’t my cup of tea either… that is until I spun a vinyl copy on my record player for the first time and fell in love with the dual track “Harry’s House” / “Centerpiece.” (As did Harry Styles, who named his third studio album after the track.) Something about the slight tactile LP crackle through the speakers mixed with a more mature voice from Mitchell will turn you into a believer. And once you see the vision, you’ll feel bad for doubting Mitchell’s mastery ever again.

SHINY TOYS

DOG EAT DOG (1985)

On her 1985 album Dog Eat Dog, Mitchell does what every artist in the ’80s did: threw a ton of synths over every song they made. Somehow, this synth-fueled album works really well, making this a criminally underrated album (and one of my favorites) in her catalog.

This is in no small part due to the production team that featured British synthesist Thomas Dolby (of “She Blinded Me With Science” one-hit wonder fame), who had a knack for the synthpop feel that Dog Eat Dog delivers. The record’s vibe makes it stand out among her discography like a neon beacon of flashing club lights.

“Shiny Toys” in particular features an addicting groove with funky guitar sprinkled throughout and lets listeners know about Mitchell’s hot takes on consumer culture. A recipe for greatness, I think.

BOTH SIDES, NOW

CLOUDS (1969) & BOTH SIDES NOW (2000) Mitchell recorded “Both Sides, Now” twice throughout her discography, once on 1969’s Clouds and then again on her 2000 record Both Sides Now. (Mitchell drew the cover art for both of them.) The earlier recording features a 25-year-old Mitchell with her signature bright and bouncy vocal style while the later recording highlights Mitchell’s voice at 57, aged by time, wisdom and thousands of cigarettes.

Both recordings capture the same sentiment of the duality of life, but the 2000 version brings new, deeper meaning to the song with a much older Mitchell crooning the tender lyrics: “I’ve looked at life from both sides now / From win and lose and still somehow / It’s life’s illusions I recall / I really don’t know life at all.” n

DRONE METAL EARTH ROCK BEARTOOTH & TRIVIUM

Thursday, 6/8

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Kyle Richard and Friends

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Thursday Night Jam

CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds

J D-MAC’S AT THE LAKE, Steve Starkey

J THE GRAIN SHED, Joel Haugen

J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin

RED ROOM LOUNGE, Hip-Hop Night

J REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs

J STELLA’S ON THE HILL, Theresa and the Bobs

THE STEAM PLANT, Sean Kavanaugh

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Evan Denlinger

ZOLA, Mister Sister

Friday, 6/9

AK ASIAN RESTAURANT, Howie King

J THE BIG DIPPER, Craig Owens, Kurt Travis, Moxy

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO.,

DJ A1

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, The Kenny James Miller Band

CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA & SPIRITS, Echo Elysium

J THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT, AP Collective

THE DISTRICT BAR, Arrival of Autumn, InComing Days, False Visions

EICHARDT’S PUB, John Firshi

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Allison Russell

J THE GRAIN SHED, Open Mic

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Brent Edstrom Trio

THE HIVE, Laney Lou and The Bird Dogs

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Joshua Ray Walker

ONE TREE CIDER HOUSE, Son of Brad

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Bright Moments

RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs

THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Just Plain Darin

SPOKANE EAGLES LODGE, Stagecoach West

Saturday, 6/10

219 LOUNGE, Headwaters

There aren’t a lot of bands you can definitively point to as the creators of a subgenre, but Olympia’s Earth fits the bill. Led by guitarist Dylan Carlson, the group essentially asked the musical question: “What if instead of playing heavy metal riffs as quickly as possible, you just played the guitar and bass riffs over and over at a droning snail’s pace.” The resulting minimalist ambient barrage became known as drone metal, as perhaps best highlighted on the band’s (almost percussion-free) industry classic 1992 album, Earth 2 (which consists of three “songs” and stretches over 73 minutes). After a break in the late ’90s for Carlson to deal with his heroin addiction, Earth re-emerged in the early 2000s with a more eclectic droning sound that added elements of country, jazz and some actual drumming. If you’re looking to totally vibe out and lose any sense of time while also being hit by waves of heavy distorted noise, welcome to Earth.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Earth, Geist & The Sacred Ensemble • Sat, June 10 at 8 pm • $17-$20 • 21+ • Lucky You Lounge • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • luckyyoulounge.com

After working out the kinks during its first year hosting concerts, the Podium kicks off its 2023 concert slate with a coheadlining dose of heaviness. Beartooth attacks with a fangs-out edge, growling screamed vocals over hardcore punk that brings a ton of energy (the band is literally on Red Bull Records). Alongside acts like Slipknot and Lamb of God, Trivium helped define the new wave of heavy metal that began emerging in the early 2000s with its mix of trash, metalcore and melodicism. While the track at the Podium will be covered, this bill’s one-two punch is the perfect thing for those looking to get back into summer slam pit shape.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Beartooth, Trivium, Malevolence, Archetypes Collide • Wed, June 14 at 6:30 pm • $40-$80 • All ages • The Podium • 511 W. Dean Ave. • thepodiumusa.com

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Olivia Grabowski

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, The Barking Katz

CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA & SPIRITS, Echo Elysium

J THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT, Sean Kavanaugh

FOXHOLE BAR & GRILL, Son of Brad

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Joni Mitchell & The Joni Jam with Brandi Carlile

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom

Quartet

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Dr. Don Goodwin

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Earth, Geist & the Sacred Ensemble RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs

J SNOW EATER BREWING CO., Just Plain Darin

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Gil Rivas

ZOLA, Blake Braley

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW

J = ALL AGES SHOW

Sunday, 6/11

J THE BIG DIPPER, Secrets, Outline In Color, Of Virtue, Nerv

J THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT, AP Collective

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, The Highwomen, Tanya Tucker

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Paul Grove HOGFISH, Open Mic

J SOUTH HILL GRILL, Just Plain Darin

Monday, 6/12

J THE BAD SEED, The Imagine Collective

BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Live Karaoke

J EICHARDT’S PUB, Monday Night Blues Jam with John Firshi

MARYHILL WINERY SPOKANE, Kori Ailene

RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night

Tuesday, 6/13

J KNITTING FACTORY, OhGeesy

LITZ’S PUB & EATERY, Shuffle Dawgs

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Pamela Benton

ZOLA, The Night Mayors

Wednesday, 6/14

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Wednesday Night Jam

THE DRAFT ZONE, The Draft Zone Open Mic

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Son of Brad

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Bob Beadling

RED ROOM LOUNGE, The Roomates

J THE PODIUM, Beartooth, Trivium, Malevolence, Archetypes Collide

ZOLA, Brittany’s House

Coming Up ...

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Chris Stapleton, Marty Stuart, Allen Stone, June 15, 7 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, Yelawolf, Nicolas Alan, June 15, 8 pm.

THE HIVE, Tanner Usrey, June 16, 7-11:30 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Kung Fu Vinyl, Free Creatures, Calimossa, June 16, 8 pm.

KNITTING FACTORY, Milonga, June 16, 9 pm.

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Beyond Wonderland, June 17 and June 18.

J REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Thunder Honey: EP Release

Show, Kunda! Marimba, June 17, 7-10 pm.

J J THE FOX THEATER, The Steel Woods, Tanner Usrey, June 17, 8 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Night Moves, Good Doom, June 18, 8 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Arise Roots, June 23, 8 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, David Larson Group, June 24, 8 pm.

KNITTING FACTORY, Henny 3: King YDB, Liddy Mechele, Stone P, Buddha & Block 23, June 24, 8:30 pm.

THE DISTRICT BAR, G-REX, BANGRZ, Radikill, June 24, 9 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, The Polish Ambassador, Scott Nice, June 25, 8 pm.

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Josiah Johnson, June 25, 8 pm.

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Sera Cahoone, June 26, 8 pm.

J BING CROSBY THEATER, Railroad Earth, June 27, 8 pm.

J THE BIG DIPPER, Indubious, Northwest Breeze, June 30, 8 pm.

SPOKANE ARENA, Alabama, The Marshall Tucker Band, July 6, 7 pm.

J J THE FOX THEATER, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Deer Tick, July 6, 7:30 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, Zepparella, July 6, 8 pm.

J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Dead & Company, July 7 & 8, 7 pm

J J PANIDA THEATER, Graham Nash, July 7, 8 pm.

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Protomartyr, The Smokes, July 8, 8 pm.

J THE FOX THEATER, Old Crow Medicine Show, July 9, 7:30 pm.

J BING CROSBY THEATER, Toad the Wet Sproket, July 11, 8 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, The Disco Biscuits, July 12, 8 pm.

J THE BIG DIPPER, Vale of Pnath, False Visions, The Night We Died, Xenoplasm, July 13, 7:30 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, The Ballroom Thieves, July 13, 8 pm.

J J THE PODIUM, Jimmy Eat World, Manchester Orchestra, Middle Kids, July 14, 7 pm.

J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, The Avett Brothers, Calder Allen, July 14, 7:30 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, Rayland Baxter, Liz Cooper, July 14, 8 pm.

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Youth Lagoon, Nina Keith, July 14, 8 pm.

MUSIC | VENUES

219 LOUNGE • 219 N. First Ave., Sandpoint • 208-263-5673

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS • 4705 N. Fruit Hill Rd., Spokane Valley • 509-927-9463

BABY BAR • 827 W. First Ave. • 509-847-1234

BARRISTER WINERY • 1213 W. Railroad Ave. • 509-465-3591

BEE’S KNEES WHISKY BAR • 1324 W. Lancaster Rd.., Hayden • 208-758-0558

BERSERK • 125 S. Stevens St. • 509-315-5101

THE BIG DIPPER • 171 S. Washington St. • 509-863-8098

BIGFOOT PUB • 9115 N. Division St. • 509-467-9638

BING CROSBY THEATER • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-227-7638

BLACK DIAMOND • 9614 E. Sprague Ave. • 509891-8357

BOLO’S BAR & GRILL • 116 S. Best Rd., Spokane Valley • 509-891-8995

BOOMERS CLASSIC ROCK BAR • 18219 E. Appleway Ave., Spokane Valley • 509-368-9847

BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB • 201 S. Main St., Moscow • 208-596-0887

THE BULL HEAD • 10211 S. Electric St., Four Lakes • 509-838-9717

CHAN’S RED DRAGON • 1406 W. Third Ave. • 509-838-6688

COEUR D’ALENE CASINO • 37914 S. Nukwalqw St., Worley • 800-523-2464

COEUR D’ALENE CELLARS • 3890 N. Schreiber Way, Coeur d’Alene • 208-664-2336

CRUISERS BAR & GRILL • 6105 W Seltice Way, Post Falls • 208-446-7154

CURLEY’S HAUSER JUNCTION • 26433 W. Hwy. 53, Post Falls • 208-773-5816

EICHARDT’S PUB • 212 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-263-4005

FIRST INTERSTATE CENTER FOR THE ARTS • 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. • 509-279-7000

FOX THEATER • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-624-1200

IRON HORSE • 407 E. Sherman, Coeur d’Alene • 208-667-7314

IRON HORSE BAR & GRILL • 11105 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley • 509-926-8411

JOHN’S ALLEY • 114 E. Sixth St., Moscow • 208-883-7662

KNITTING FACTORY • 911 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-244-3279

LEFTBANK WINE BAR • 108 N. Washington St. • 509-315-8623

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • 509-474-0511

MARYHILL WINERY • 1303 W. Summit Pkwy. • 509-443-3832

THE MASON JAR • 101 F St., Cheney • 509-359-8052

MAX AT MIRABEAU • 1100 N. Sullivan Rd., Spokane Valley • 509-922-6252

MILLIE’S • 28441 Hwy 57, Priest Lake • 208-443-0510

MOOSE LOUNGE • 401 E. Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene • 208-664-7901

MOOTSY’S • 406 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-838-1570

NASHVILLE NORTH • 6361 W. Seltice Way, Post Falls • 208-457-9128

NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • 877-871-6772

NYNE BAR & BISTRO • 232 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-474-1621

PEND D’OREILLE WINERY • 301 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-265-8545

THE PODIUM • 511 W. Dean Ave. • 509-279-7000

POST FALLS BREWING CO. • 112 N. Spokane St., Post Falls • 208-773-7301

RAZZLE’S BAR & GRILL • 10325 N. Government Way, Hayden • 208-635-5874

RED ROOM LOUNGE • 521 W. Sprague Ave. • 509-838-7613

THE RIDLER PIANO BAR • 718 W. Riverside Ave. • 509-822-7938

SEASONS OF COEUR D’ALENE • 1004 S. Perry St. • 208-664-8008

COMEDY MOM JOKES

“I literally missed a kid’s school program just to go in for laser hair removal!” Kristin Hensley (left) and Jen Smedley are moms, best friends and human beings like the rest of us. The blonde and brunette duo that started on YouTube with videos like “I Spanx So Hard,” “I Swimsuit Season So Hard,” and “I Body Hair So Hard” is now a pair of New York Times bestselling authors, podcasters and stand-up comedians. Their comedy tour #IMOMSOHARD features the besties and their brutally honest reflections on keeping kids alive, as well as lying, sex after marriage, and everything else moms usually discuss after a few glasses of wine. Their hilarious transparency has allowed millions of moms and non-moms alike to fight shame and redefine how to be a good friend and at least an OK parent. Come ready for nipple jokes, junk food recs, and Ozempic-free body positivity. And see if Jen can remember all her kids’ names.

—ELIZA BILLINGHAM

#IMOMSOHARD Ladies Night • Sat, June 10 at 7:30 pm

•

COMMUNITY CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE

WORDS COMIC CLARITY

$50-$160

• 18+

• The Fox Theater

• 1001 W. Sprague Ave • foxtheaterspokane.org

• 509-624-1200

Join the community at the second annual Kalayaan Day event organized by the Filipino American Northwest Association, a nonprofit working to enrich the cultural identity and diversity present in the region. Filled with celebration and fun, the event features a number of diverse cultural performances along with music, food and a myriad of activities for all ages such as games and Zumba. Kalayaan is a Filipino word for freedom or liberty, and this year’s event occurs one day before the 124th anniversary of the Philippine Declaration of Independence, and it aims to honor the spirit and history of Philippine independence while building community and planning for a better future.

— SUMMER SANDSTROM

Philippines Independence Day Celebration

• Sun, June 11 from noon-5 pm

Whenever I pick up a newspaper’s daily comics page, there is one strip I always check out first… Garfield! (That lazy cat sure hates Mondays!) But after I get my dose of Garf, next up is Stephan Pastis’ always-irreverent Pearls Before Swine. Since launching in 2001, the strip’s cast of silly and sardonic animals (Pig, Rat, Goat and more) capture modern humor better than any other strip on the page. Whether offering joking commentary about modern problems like social media posts that don’t feel written by your parents, breaking the fourth wall (Pastis is a character in the strip as well) or engaging in extremely strained (self-aware) wordplay, the humor never gets stagnant and isn’t afraid to get mildly bleak and existential. To that end, Pastis visits town with his new annotated collection Pearls Seeks Enlightenment which lets readers into the cartoonist’s thought process as he was creating strips in the tumultuous times of 2020-21.

• Free

• All ages

• Riverfront Park Lilac Bowl • 507 N. Howard St. • filamnw.com • 509-590-6613

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Stephan Pastis: Pearls Before Swine • Tue, June 13 at 7 pm • $7$30 • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • bingcrosbytheater.com

GET LISTED!

Submit events online at Inlander.com/getlisted or email relevant details to getlisted@inlander.com. We need the details one week prior to our publication date.

OUTDOORS GET YOUR GOAT

Remember that time in, like, 2009 when we were all collectively obsessed with screaming goat videos? As you all left that random fixation in the past, I never let it go. Goats are now high up in the ranks of my favorite animals list and I will never scroll past a goat video on social media. If you, like me, can’t get enough of the goofy creatures, this Yoga with Goats class is going to bring you insurmountable joy and memories you’ll talk about for the rest of your life. Join Emily Carter from Lilac Lotus Yoga for an outdoor class featuring furry farm animals and, of course, cute baby goats. The class is great for beginners as it focuses on practicing gentle yoga while surrounded by nature. After getting your yoga on, relax further by spending some quality time with the baby goats. There’s gotta be a correlation between low stress levels and time spent with baby goats, right? Right? Spots fill up quickly, but don’t fret — more dates this summer will be available.

— MADISON PEARSON

Yoga with Goats • Sat-Sun, June 10-11 (sold out) and June 17-18 (see website for more dates) • $15, reservations required • Higher Ground Animal Sanctuary • 16602 N. Day Mt. Spokane Rd. • lilaclotusyoga.com

COMMUNITY TO THE ’CON

Nerds, geeks and gamers sure are living large these days, as everything once considered “uncool” is, well, really cool and even mainstream. (See: Dungeons & Dragons, Marvel, anime, cosplay, tabletop gaming, etc.) That’s all to say each of us has a few quirky interests among the many subsets of pop culture showcased each year at the Lilac City Comicon. Among this year’s celebrity guests are prolific voice actors, blockbuster film stunt performers, comic book artists, sci-fi authors, and even a former pro wrestler (Honky Tonk Man!). Besides perusing the exhibitor booths or getting an autograph from one of the aforementioned pros (see the full guest list at the link below), locals can show off their best cosplay looks in adult (Saturday) or kids contests (Sunday). There are some great prizes to be distributed, including gift certificates to the Comic Book Shop and, for the first place adult winner, a WWE-worthy championship belt.

— CHEY SCOTT

I SAW YOU

A KIND LETTER TO MY EX I saw you the other day. I know it was you. Because I saw the dragonfly tattoo on your neck and remember holding your hand while you got that tattoo. You looked so happy. I didn’t want to interrupt that. I don’t think you noticed me. It’s been a year and I imagine we have both grown a lot in that time. While our break up was hard it made me so happy to see you smiling again. I just want you to know that I want nothing but the best for you. You are a truly exceptional woman. I hope someday we can catch up as friends.

PLEASANT INTERACTION, 5/27 This is a long shot, but I’m really thinking I blew an opportunity to continue our conversation about beach-combing and ethnobotany. You stopped to ask if a cyclist needed any help and I was about to pass you on foot when another cyclist passed from behind and asked if I found anything, and you responded instead. Your name is Ashley, and we share a dislike groups. If you remember my name (starts with an ‘L’), and if you’d be interested in grabbing lunch and walking the trail again, you can likely find my FB profile in the Spokane NW Treasure Hunters Club group page, or the Spokane Rock Rollers page. Really wish I stopped to exchange numbers before waving bye.

5/7 You are, without a doubt, my most delicious and absolute favorite inappropriate thought.

HANDSOME MAN ON MY BUS Most mornings you are at my bus stop, towards the end

of the line on the 23. We both smile at each other, and you are always listening to something on your headphones. I asked you once what you listen to and you told me you like to listen to air traffic control. You always let me on first and stop to say, “hi” or “good morning” to the bus driver. I would love to get a drink sometime if you are interested.

GOD BLESS YOU I appreciate u guys. You both were old neighbors of mine who stayed cool the entire time I lived across from you. My son Matthew age 6 really truly lives seeing the both of you, and the dog too. I’m so happy u were able to walk them bushes out front, You both are an inspiration to me and all the positive energy u always have, It really helps. Thank you.

PARADE SPOTTING I saw you on the sidewalk in the home stretch of the Lilac/Armed Forces Torchlight parade. From my position in the formation of Fallen Heroes banners, even in your wheelchair you stood out in your impeccable black dress uniform, and though I didn’t catch your name or rank, I recognized the distinctive Trident of a Navy SEAL on your chest. You might be a Vietnamera veteran or more recent; perhaps the scars of battle have added years to your countenance. But you rendered a crisp salute and held it rock-steady as we, the faces and names of the fallen heroes of our era, walked slowly by, never wavering in your honor and respect for our patriotism and valor. Thank you for reminding our families and friends carrying our images that our sacrifice mattered and will not be forgotten. I salute you, sir, and the service you also willingly gave to carry the responsibility of freedom to the next generation.

YOU SAW ME

TAP HOUSE GUARDIAN ANGEL To the attractive long curly haired woman sitting with two other woman in the bar thanks once again for spotting my sunglasses under my barstool. I would love to chat again over coffee or a drink of your choice. Please respond if interested. Thanks.

CHEERS

CHEERS TO THE SUNDAY PAPER What a great, nearly-full-page article on Sunday’s front page! A new sidewalk in Athol, Idaho, the town with an unfortunate name. Population 755. I can just imagine the excitement in the news meeting when

that story was brought up. “Wow, there’s some news. everyone in Spokane wants to know!” Now if Athol decided to change their name, that would be interesting. But a sidewalk? Keeps getting weirder by the day at Monroe and Riverside.

JEERS

TO THOSE WHO SUPPORT EQUITY. Equity is a tenet of communism and is antithetical to the point of the founding of the United States.

is evident. The heartfelt Inlander article on Ryan Cook’s search for his son Seamus pained an earnest picture of the addict and impact on family. In that article there were at least seven times when Seamus’ actions impacted other people, from the small business owner to common citizens whose things were vandalized and/or stolen. While we look to the state for some lasting solutions to get people off the street and into treatment that can break the cycle of addiction, thank you for looking out for all the citizens of Spokane.

compliment: “Nice suit, but it would look better on me. Nice bow tie though.” I chose to ignore it. But let me give you a hint for your next shopping trip, that is, if you can afford it. Go see the Indochino Style Guy at Nordstrom and ask him for the Hampton Navy tuxedo. He’ll be happy to measure you up (and it is a process) and get you the suit features that you want. Next, be sure to get a David Donahue White French Cuff Dress Shirt, as well as a David Donahue bow tie and cummerbund and a set of David Donahue Formal Jewelry. You’ll be

You should move to Venezuela, China, Cuba, anywhere else. Don’t ruin this country.

DON’T TAKE MY FREEDOM AWAY We just celebrated Memorial Day and we rightly praised our vets for their service and blessed them for their sacrifice in protecting our freedoms. Why then are we so set on taking those same freedoms away? We are told that we can’t read certain books, we can’t support certain causes, we have no control over your own bodies, we and our children are not safe going to school or the mall, and we, as parents aren’t smart enough to make decisions for our own children without the help of the government. Is this the smaller less intrusive government I keep hearing so much about? Seems to me that all the government wants to do is make us afraid of anyone or anything that is different than they think it should be.

HOLY CRAP! Wait, what? The City of Spokane decided to spend a million and a half bucks to build indoor plumbing at the homeless shelter? Are you buying gold toilets? The money will be spent on a building the city doesn’t even own. Rational thinking has been flushed!

SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL While the City Council has proven, time and again, that they can admire an issue an criticize the actions of others, they just can’t seem to get past the discussion phase. You take action. Thank you for taking action to get the Trent Avenue shelter on line before winter set in. Thank you for championing sit and lie and illegal camping on public property. Thank you for taking a firm stance on drug use in public. Your love of this town

SOUND OFF 1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3. Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”

MS. MAYOR The Inlandar’s article on lack of communication in the Woodward administration is spot on. I too have emailed the mayor at least two dozen times with absolutely no response. I finally cc’d my council members who I know listened. They responded!

STARBUCKS CUTTER Jeers to the entitled man who blocked traffic and tried to wedge his car into the line in front of two women who had been waiting patiently in the drive-thru (on the side you’re SUPPOSED to line up on).

I know you’re old enough to know how lines work, and everyone learned in kindergarten that cutting is wrong. It would have been bad enough, but then you embarrassed yourself even more by screaming at them. Your wife looked humiliated. Be a better person than you have chosen to be.

CANNABIS USE DISORDER A recent Green Zone article critiques other media in his “Sensationalism Sells” article for failing to define “cannabis use disorder”... and then fails to define it!

THINK ABOUT THE COMPLIMENT YOU OFFER Me: Walking down Sprague Avenue to get the Goodyear Shoe Repair Shop. You: Walking the opposite way. I was trying to get to the shoe repair store to pick up some new laces for my Patent Leather Dress Shoes. I was wearing my new Hampton Navy Tuxedo-a Black Watch pattern, along with a black bow tie. I got to the intersection of Post and Sprague and you two came along and tossed me a

dropping $2,000 to get it all out the door. Mine fit me perfectly right out of the box, much to mine and the Style Guy’s surprise. I consider it lucky that I can get myself such a nice tuxedo. Can you make the same claim?

SHARE THE ROAD I ride a bike. I wear a helmet. I have bright lights and use hand signals (the ones from the driver’s guide that you were supposed to have read) as a courtesy to those around me. Every taxpayer foots the bill for road maintenance. Car tabs and taxes come nowhere close to covering the cost so I ride legally in the street. I approached a northside intersection heading south as you approached the side street heading west. I arrived long before you did, and I was to the right of you so I exercised my right of way (see driver’s guide) but that didn’t stop you from blaring your horn at me. You then chose to double back for me. You even reversed through an intersection so you could chase, harass and threaten me with your big white SUV. So screw your window. I hope it was expensive, psycho. n

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

“ You are, without a doubt, my most delicious and absolute favorite inappropriate thought. ”

BENEFIT

GLOBAL NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCK PARTY Enjoy food from Feast World Kitchen and beer from Brick West Brewing Co. (non-alcoholic options from PNW Hop Water), plus live music and games. June 8, 5:30-8 pm. $40. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave. global-neighborhood.org (509-868-0001)

OPC RUMMAGE SALE This sale features clothes, shows, furniture, collectables, electronics, books and more. A $2/bag sale starts Saturday at noon. Proceeds benefit Opportunity Presbyterian. June 9, 8 am-4 pm and June 10, 8 am-4 pm. Free. Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Rd. opportunitypresbyterian.org

FRIENDS OF LIBERTY LAKE MUNICIPAL LIBRARY BOOK SALE A two-day book sale with prices ranging from 10 cents to $2. Proceeds help to support workshops and programs at the library. Cash or check only. June 16, 12-6 pm and June 17, 9 am-3 pm. Liberty Lake Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave. libertylakefriends.org

BOURBON, BACON & BREWS A benefit dinner and beer tasting benefiting Teen and Kid Closet with live music by The Rising. June 17, 12-4 pm. $75-$100. Historic Flight Foundation, 5829 E. Rutter Ave. teenkidcloset.org (509-535-6000)

PARADE OF PAWS Walk 2-4 miles to raise funds in support of the animals at Spokane Humane Society. The event also includes live music, food and a vendor fair. Registration required. June 17, 9 am. Free. Spokane Humane Society, 6607 N. Havana St. spokanehumanesociety.org

SPOKANE AIDS NETWORK YARD SALE

A yard sale featuring household items, furniture and more benefitting the Spokane AIDS Network. Takes place at 1629 S. Royal St, Spokane. June 17, 8 am-3 pm. Free. Spokane, n/a. sannw.org

DRAG CHARITY BINGO In celebration of Pride Month, Ducky Loveless hosts drag performances and bingo. Proceeds support Odyssey Youth Movement. June 18, 4-6 pm. Free. The Grain Shed - Cedar Tap House, 111 S. Cedar St. thegrainshed.coop

COMEDY

CRAIG CONANT Craig Conant has been featured at the Just for Laughs comedy festival and MTV’s Greatest Party Story Ever Told. June 8, 7:30 pm. $15. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com (509-318-9998)

PAUL VIRZI Paul Virzi is best known for his Netflix special and two comedy

podcasts. Ages 18+. June 8, 8 pm. $25. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida. org (208-263-9191)

PINKY PATEL The PTA-mom-turnedcomedian got her start on TikTok making videos in her ‘glam cave’. June 8, 7 pm. $30-$55. Knitting Factory, 919 W. Sprague Ave. sp.knittingfactory.com

THE PUNDERGROUND: SUMMER SEMANTICS An improvised punning competition. Come to compete or to watch and enjoy. Concession snacks and drinks available for purchase. June 8, 7-9 pm. By donation. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com

BLUE DOORS & DRAGONS Improvised comedy celebrating table-top role-playing games, inspired by a roll of the dice. Fridays at 7:30 pm through June 30. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com (747-7045)

JEFF DYE Jeff Dye is an actor, comedy host and Bigfoot enthusiast recently featured on Last Comic Standing. June 9, 7:30 & 10:15 pm and June 10, 7 & 9:45 pm. $24-$32. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

IMOMSOHARD Best-selling authors and podcast hosts Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley discuss their fears, failures and successes as mothers and wives. June 10, 7:30 pm. $50-$160. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org

JEFF ALLEN Jeff Allen is an American comedian best known for his film Happy Wife, Happy Life, Revisited. June 11, 7 pm. $35-$45. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

SASS SQUATCH OPEN MIC Open mic comedy with host Blade Frank. 7:30-9:30 pm. Free. Special K Tavern & Eatery, 3817 N. Market St. fb.me/e/3nMTo8aEI

NEW TALENT TUESDAYS Watch comedians of all skill levels work out jokes together. Tuesdays at 7 pm (doors at 6 pm). Free. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

OPEN MIC STAND-UP Wednesdays at 7:30 pm. See website for details. Free. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

MATT BELLASSAI Matt Bellassai hosts the Unhappy Hour podcast and web series To Be Honest. He formerly starred in the BuzzFeed web series Wine About It. June 15, 7:30 pm. $25-$45. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com (509-318-9998)

LAUGH OUT LOUD COMEDY SHOW-

CASE A comedy show hosted by Colton Drake featuring comics Anthony Single-

ton, Chris Jessop, Josiah Carlson and more. June 16, 5-9 pm. $10. The Grain Shed - Cedar Tap House, 111 S. Cedar St. thegrainshed.coop (509-241-3853)

MARLON WAYANS Wayans is an actor, comedian, writer and producer who’s appeared in various comedies such as White Chicks and Scary Movie. June 16, 7:30 & 10:15 pm and June 17, 7 & 9:45 pm. $45-$60. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

CONNOR KING Connor King is a former America’s Got Talent contestant and has since opened up for comedians across the country. June 18, 7 pm. $22. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY SEW-IN Bring your current quilting project to socialize, get advice or whatever else you might need. Thursday from noon-3 pm through June 29. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org (208-769-2315)

HOMEBUYER EDUCATION SEMINAR In this free seminar, explore all of the major aspects of the home-buying process in an unbiased format with SNAP Spokane instructors certified by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. June 8, 6-8:30 pm. Free. Moran Prairie Library, 6004 S. Regal St. scld.org

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX!: JEOPARDY

PRIDE EDITION Play Pride-themed Jeopardy with topics including sexual health, STD protection and more. The event has free, on-site STD testing and is catered. Ages 16+. June 8, 6-8 pm. Free. Atomic Threads Boutique, 1905 N. Monroe St. fb.me/e/XLIpF4QS (509-280-9120)

A WALK WITH CITY COUNCILMEMBER-

JONATHAN BINGLE: DISTRICT 1 Take a stroll through District 1 with Councilmember Jonathan Bingle. Start at the newly re-opened Don Kardong Bridge and part of the Centennial Trail near Gonzaga. June 8, 9:30-10:30 am. FREE. Don Kardong Bridge, University District, Spokane, WA 99202. spokanelibrary.org

ANNUAL SPRING MARKET Shop for produce, food and handmade products, visit community resource booths and more. June 9, 3-8 pm. Free. Northeast Youth & Family Services, 19 E. Queen. neyfs.org

BIG GAY DANCE PARTY This party, hosted by Spokane Aids Network and nYne, includes Pride drink specials, prizes, dancing and more. June 9, 8-11:55 pm. $5. nYne Bar & Bistro, 232 W. Sprague Ave. sannw.org (509-474-1621)

FEED THE BUFFALO This tour includes the farm history, a brief talk on bison and a Q&A. Everyone gets an opportunity to meet, greet and hand-feed the bison. Fri-Sat from 12:30-1:30 pm through Sep. 2. $6-$7. Win-Tur Bison Farm, 4742 W. Highway 231. winturbisonfarm.com

ROLE-PLAYING GAME DROP IN Improve your RPG skills by watching and participating in games. Fridays from 4-8 pm and Saturdays from 1-5 pm. Free. RPG Community Center, 101 N. Stone Street. rpgcenter.org (509-608-7630)

SPOKANE FALLS TWO-SPIRIT POWWOW This powwow features two grand entries, dinner, an Indigiqueer showcase, vendors and more. See link for schedule. June 9, 1-9 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. linktr.ee/SpokaneFalls2sPowwow (347-269-1998)

A WALK WITH CITY COUNCILMEMBER

KAREN STRATTON DISTRICT 3 Stroll through District 3 with councilmember Karen Stratton. Start at People’s Park then see the site of the new American Indian Community Center. June 9, 10:3011:30 am. Free. People’s Park, 2500-2834 W. Clarke Ave. spokanelibrary.org

WHEATLAND BANK HORSE & CARRIAGE RIDES Enjoy an 8-minute loop through the scenic Riverfront Park and downtown Spokane. Fridays from 5-9 pm through July 28. Free. Downtown Spokane. downtownspokane.org

YMCA HEALTHY KIDS DAY This annual event features a variety of activities to encourage healthy kids, families and a healthy start to the summer. June 9, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. YMCA Spokane Valley, 2421 N. Discovery Pl. ymcainw.org

CAMP MOSCOWANNA A summer campthemed block party featuring themed activities for all ages, beer/wine/food vendors and a live music lineup. June 10, 4-8 pm. Moscow. facebook.com/campmoscowanna

CDA4PRIDE 2023: TIE-DYE PARTY A chance for LGBTQIA+ individuals, familiars and allies to come together to create art and socialize with others. Design a Pride-inspired tank top using tie-dye. June 10, 9 am-noon. $18. Human Rights Education Institute, 414 W. Fort Grounds Dr. nipridealliance.com (208-292-2359)

CFI SPRING HAMMER-IN Beginning blacksmithing instruction for newcomers or folks who need a refresher. June 10, 10 am-5 pm and June 11, 10 am-5 pm. $25$45. Columbia Fire & Iron Blacksmiths, 2403 E. Euclid Ave. columbiafireandiron. org

GAME OF CROWNS In this murder mys-

tery story, Queen Crestian Langstone has invited all royal families from the Ethos Realm to the Castle of Westerfell to join in celebration the night before her son’s wedding. June 10, 6 pm. $29-$39. Crime Scene Entertainment, 2775 N. Howard St. crimesceneentertainment.com

ITCH TO STITCH Learn basic knitting, crochet and other stitch craft skills. Spark Central furnishes yarn, bring your own hooks and needles. Tuesdays from 5-7 pm and Saturdays from 12-2 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299)

LILAC CITY COMICON The 2023 con features over 250+ exhibitor booths to browse, buy comics and related products as well as special guests and panels. See website for full schedule. June 10, 10 am-6 pm and June 11, 10 am-4 pm. $12$17. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. lilaccitycon.com

SPOKANE HOUSE INTERPRETIVE CENTER MURAL DEDICATION Washington State Parks, along with members of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and the Friends of Spokane House, formally dedicate new murals at the interpretive center. June 10, 1-2 pm. Free. Spokane House Interpretive Center, 13501 N. Nine Mile Rd. parks. wa.gov/573/Riverside

SANDPOINT RENAISSANCE FAIRE This annual renaissance faire includes jousting, live music, comedy, medieval fighting and demonstrations. This year, the faire includes the Tournament of the Inland Empire. Tickets available at the gate. June 10, 10 am-6 pm and June 11, 10 am-6 pm. $12-$16. Bonner County Fairgrounds, 4203 N. Boyer Rd. sandpointrenfaire.com

PALOUSE SECOND SATURDAYS An event featuring local culture, welcoming visitors to enjoy all that Palouse has to offer. Second Saturdays of the month from 10 am-4:30 pm through Sept. 10. Free. Palouse, Wash. visitpalouse.com

SPOKANE PRIDE PARADE & RAINBOW

FESTIVAL

The 31st annual Pride Parade starts downtown at noon, and is immediately followed by the Rainbow Festival at Riverfront Park with live entertainment, a resource and business fair and more. Main stage concert at 7 pm. All gender identities and sexual orientations are celebrated and welcome. June 10, 12-9 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. spokanepride.org (509-625-6600)

SPRING CRAFT & VENDOR FAIR A craft and vender fair featuring handmade gifts, Tupperware and Norwex vendors and more. June 10, 9 am-4 pm. Free. Cascade Mobile Home Community, 2311 W. 16th Ave. cascademhc.com

EVENTS | CALENDAR

SUMMERFEST A celebration of everything Colville has to offer including a road race, kids activities, games, local food options and live music at the beer garden. June 10, 7 am-9 pm. Free. Yep Kanum Park, 356 E. Dominion Ave. colvillerotary.org (509-684-3086)

A TASTE OF HARMONY WOODS Activities include speakers, meditation, tai chi, yoga, vendors and various raffles. June 10, 8 am-7 pm. $25. Harmony Woods Retreat Center, 11507 S. Keeney Rd. harmonywoods.org (509-993-2968)

TOUR DE FARMS: SOUTH SPOKANE

FARM CORRIDOR Visit Barn and Blossom along with nine small farms for a tour of the region’s growers. June 10, 9 am-4 pm. Free. Barn and Blossom, 4010 E Jamieson Rd. wheelsportbikes.com

CDA FLEA MARKET A market featuring 40+ curated vendors dealing vintage finds, handmade crafts, small-batch eats and drinks, and more. Second Sunday of the month, from 10 am-3 pm, May through October. Free. Roosevelt Inn, 105 E. Wallace. artsandculturecda.org

PHILIPPINES INDEPENDENCE DAY

CELEBRATION This celebration features cultural performances including traditional dances and music. At the Riverfront Lilac Bowl, behind the Convention Center. June 11, 12-5 pm. By donation. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. filamnw.com (509-590-6613)

RENAISSANCE FAIR This Renaissance Fair features food, beverages, music, comedy, skits and more. June 11, 12-6 pm. $5-$10. Saranac Commons, 19 W. Main. instagram.com/saranaccommons

CREATIVE ENTERPRISE PITCH PARTY

Thirteen local arts-based businesses participate by giving 3-minute presentations about their business ideas, followed by Q&A with a panel of local business experts. Registration required. June 13, 5-8:30 pm. Free. The Philanthropy Center, 1020 W. Riverside Ave. terrainspokane.com (509-315-1323)

LGBTQIA+ INCLUSIVE HEALTHCARE

Hear from six different speakers about what steps healthcare providers need to take when being inclusive and genderaffirming. Registration required. June 14, 6-8 pm. Free. Human Rights Education Institute, 414 W. Fort Grounds Dr. nipridealliance.com (208-292-2359)

CAMPBELL HOUSE DARK HISTORY:

SOCIETY SECRETS An after-hours tour that sheds light on strange details and unconventional stories from turn-of-thecentury Spokane. Third Thurs. of every month at 6 pm through Oct. 19. $3.50$6. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

GYRO DAYS This festival takes place in the center of Wallace and features barbecues, a radiothon, carnival rides and the Lead Creek Derby. June 15-18. Free. Wallace, Idaho. wallaceid.fun

THE LIBRARY CLUB Learn about all the perks of having a library card, play library-related games and get sneak peeks into how the library works. Earn badges along the way and become the ultimate “Library Lover” (for all-ages, but geared towards 10+). June 15-29, Thursdays from 4-5 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org

CAR D’LANE The largest classic car cruise and show in North Idaho. Fridayfeatures a car cruise while Saturday hosts a classic car show, poker walk, people’s choice voting and more. June 16, 6-9 pm and June 17, 8 am-4 pm. Free. Downtown Coeur d’Alene. cdadowntown.com

GAMERS’ GUILD Teens aged 12-19 are invited to play video or board games together in the library’s Teen Zone. June 16, June 23, and June 30, 4-5:30 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org (208-769-2315)

GREEN BLUFF GRANGE COMMUNITY

YARD SALE Spend the day in Green Bluff while perusing goods at multiple homes in the area. See website for address list. June 16, 9 am-3 pm, June 17, 9 am-3 pm and June 18, 9 am-noon. Free. Green Bluff Grange, 9809 Green Bluff Rd. fb.me/e/3fcsRXyNZ (979-2607)

MEDICAL LAKE FOUNDERS DAY This annual event features a market, parade, golf scramble, fireworks and other summer activities spread across Medical Lake. June 16, 10 am-7 pm and June 17, 10 am-7 pm. Free. medicallake.org

SPOKANE VALLEY SASQUATCH

ROUNDUP This one-day event features Sasquatch researchers and Bigfoot enthusiasts from throughout North America sharing their latest research, evidence and encounters. See website for schedule. June 17, 9 am-8:30 pm. $40-$100. Spokane Valley Event Center, 10514 E. Sprague Ave. exnorthwest.com

DROP IN & RPG Stop by and explore the world of role playing games. Build a shared narrative using cooperative problem solving, exploration, imagination and rich social interaction. First and third Saturdays of the month from 1-3:45 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299)

GENERAL STORE CAR SHOW This 16th annual event is a chance to show off your ride and see other local entries. The event includes music, T-shirts, door prizes and trophies. See link for exhibitor info. June 17, 9 am-2 pm. Free. The General Store, 2424 N. Division. fb.me/e/TAFKGVAN

METALINE FALLS BIGFOOT FESTIVAL

Listen to top Bigfoot researchers and shop vendors from all over the region. The event also includes a 5k race and a pancake breakfast. June 17-18; Sat from 8 am-6 pm, Sun from 8 am-3 pm. June 17, 8 am-6 pm and June 18, 8 am-3 pm. $35-$150. Metaline Falls. mfbigfoot.com

PFLAG MOSCOW PRIDE PICNIC Celebrate pride in the park by bringing a dish to share with the community. June 17, 1 pm. Free. East City Park, 900 E. Third St. facebook.com/moscowpflag

SILVERWOOD FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND Purchase tickets for your family online or at the front gate and dad gets in free. June 17-18. Free. Silverwood Theme Park, 27843 U.S. 95. silverwoodthemepark.com

SPOKANE IN BOOM GARDEN TOUR A tour of residential gardens on the west side of Spokane. See website for more info. Presented by the Inland Empire Gardeners. June 17, 10 am-5 pm. $15. tieg.org

SPOKANE VALLEY LIBRARY GRAND

OPENING A ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the newly constructed Spokane Valley Library. June 17, 9:30 am. Free. Spokane Valley Library, 22 N. Herald Rd. scld.org (509-893-8400)

FILM

TO THE END MOVIE Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, To the End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. June 10, 7-9 pm. Free ($5 suggested donation). Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W. Main. actionnetwork.org

EWU FILM A celebration of this year’s outstanding Eastern Washington University student filmmakers with a screening of short films produced by students. June 16, 7:30-9:30 pm. $10. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com (509-227-7638)

GOOD: A STAGE TO SCREEN FILM As the world faces its second World War, John Halder, a good, intelligent German professor, finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. June 18, 2 pm. $20. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague. bingcrosbytheater.com

FOOD & DRINK

BRING YOUR OWN VINYL NIGHT Bring your own vinyl to spin while sipping on craft cocktails and listening to music.

Thursdays from 3-10 pm. The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups, 17905 E. Appleway Ave, Ste A. sidehustlesyrups.com

AVOCADO AWESOMENESS This nutrition class discusses some of the amazing health benefits of avocados, presented by Katherine MacNair, Nutritional Health Coach, B.S., M.A. June 10, 1-1:30 pm. Free. Natural Grocers: South Hill, 2512 E. 29th Ave. naturalgrocers.com (509-503-1700)

DISNEY-INSPIRED DINNER A sevencourse meal inspired by food from various Disney movies. Optional wine and cocktail pairings available. June 13, 6 pm. $135. Inland Pacific Kitchen, 304 W. Pacific Ave. ipkspokane.com (509-464-6541)

RIVERFRONT EATS A food truck series on the orange Howard St. Bridge featuring live music. See website for list of food trucks. Tuesdays from 11 am-2 pm (except July 4). Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com

WINE DOWN WEDNESDAYS Beverly’s resident sommelier Justine Recor offers complimentary tastings of wine from around the globe as well as knowledge and conversations about their origins. Wednesdays from 4-9 pm. Free. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second St. beverlyscda.org

PAPPY VAN WINKLE BOURBON DINNER Enjoy various Pappy Van Winkle tastings and craft cocktails as well as the evening’s seven-course menu, crafted by sous chef Taylor Wolters. June 16, 6-9 pm. $500. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second St. bit. ly/3LWo0kz (208-292-5678)

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL The yearly strawberry festival includes u-pick strawberries, craft and food vendors and live music. June 16-July 27, daily from 12-6pm. Siemers Farm, 11125 E. Day-Mt. Spokane Rd. siemersfarm.com

BOOKS & BREWS Meet with local authors and get books signed. Winners of the Palouse Writers Guild annual writing contests are awarded at 6:30 pm. June 17, 5-8 pm. Free. 1912 Center, 412 E. Third St.. Moscow. palousewritersguild.org

MUSIC

THE DIVAS: WHAT SHE DID This show features seven female divas performing songs from six various decades. June 16-17, 7-9 pm. $30. Unity Spiritual Center Spokane, 2900 S. Bernard St. unityspokane.org (408-840-1301)

HANDBELL CONCERT: BELLACRISTO

The opening concert of the Handbell Musicians of America Biennial Conference. Spokane’s own BellaCristo presents original compositions and arrangements for handbells. June 16, 7:30-8:30 pm.

Free. CenterPlace Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place. handbellmusicians.org

HANDBELL CONCERT: RENDEVOUS ON THE SPOKANE CONFERENCE CHOIR

The Conference Choir performs original compositions and arrangements for handbells. June 17, 7:30-8:30 pm. Free.

CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. handbellmusicians.org

KPBX KIDS’ CONCERTS 30TH ANNIVERSARY This anniversary celebration features music, face painting, crafts, and the Musha Marimba band playing traditional music from Zimbabwe. June 17, 1 pm. Free. Shadle Park, 2005 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanepublicradio.org

NEW MOON SOUND BATH Experience a 90-minute sound meditation featuring sound bowls led by Mokeph Wildflower. Cash only at the door. June 17, 6-8 pm. $15-$35. Heart Space Yurt, 4248 E. 8th Ave. divineshinehealingcenter.com

HANDBELL CONCERT: RENDEVOUS ON THE SPOKANE CLOSING CONCERT The 80 participants of the Handbell Musicians of America Biennial Conference present the culmination of the weekend’s work in a closing concert. June 18, 4-5 pm. Free.

CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. handbellmusicians.org

SPOKANE SYMPHONY: SUMMER SOLSTICE Celebrate the beginning of summer with an all-new program performed by Spokane Symphony musicians. Add a meal on to your ticket for an extra $15.

June 21, 7:30 pm. $15-$30. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org (509-279-2982)

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

CREATIVE WALK & TALK: CONVERSATION, INSPIRATION & WATERFALLS

An opportunity for book lovers, creatives and community members to stretch their minds and legs on a low-key walk in Riverfront Park with novelist and Writing Education Specialist Sharma Shields.

June 8, 9:30-10:30 am. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main. spokanelibrary.org

EAST SIDE WALKING TOUR OF HISTORIC BROWNE’S ADDITION Hear tales of historic Browne’s Addition and stories from people who live there. June 8, 1-3 pm, June 27, 6-8 pm and July 21, 9:3011:30 am. $20. Browne’s Addition, West Spokane. FriendsOfCdAPark.org

RELENTLESS WRESTLING TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW Celebrate two years of Eastern Washington’s premier professional wrestling show. June 10, 6:30 pm. $33.24-$38.54. Trailbreaker Cider, 2204 N. Madison St. facebook.com/ RelentlessPNW (509-279-2159)

RIVERFRONT SKATE NIGHT A free skate night for rollerskaters of all ages and abilities. Bring your own skates or rent them for $5. June 10, July 8, Aug. 19, and Sept. 16, 6-9:30 pm. Free. Numerica Skate Ribbon, 720 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. riverfrontspokane.com (509-625-6600)

INCORPORATING ROSES INTO YOUR YARD Learn how to plan and incorporate roses into your garden, what supplies you need and more. June 10, 2-3 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com (509-467-5258)

STACHE DASH Choose between a 5k, 10k or a half marathon run to benefit Elevation Spokane, a nonprofit that supports children with special needs. A kids race option is also available. June 10, 8 am-2 pm. $10-$75. Plantes Ferry Sports Com-

plex, 12308 E. Upriver Dr. elevationsspokane.org/stache/ (509-385-2116)

STATE LAND FREE DAYS The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission invites visitors to enjoy a state park for free on select days each year. Visitors are not required to display the Discover Pass for day-use visits to a Washington state park or on lands managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) on these dates: June 10-11, June 19, Sep. 23, Oct. 10, Nov. 11, Nov. 24. parks.wa.gov

WSU SPOKANE COUNTY MASTER GARDENER PLANT CLINIC Ask experts about your plant issues and get advice about plant selection, maintenance, environmentally friendly practices, pest management, effective landscaping practices and more. June 3-Sept. 30, Saturdays from 11 am-3 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org

YOGA WITH GOATS This outdoor class includes visits with baby goats and other farm animals while practicing gentle yoga. Ages 7+. June 10-11 (sold out)June 17-18, 8:30-9:30 & 10-11 am. $15. Higher Ground Animal Sanctuary, 16602 N. Day Mt. Spokane Rd. lilaclotusyoga.com

SPOKANE INDIANS VS. EUGENE EMERALDS Promos during the six-game series include Bark in the Park Night (6/13), Pride Night (6/15), Fireworks Night (6/17) and Father’s Day Game (6/18). The Father’s Day game also features a meetand-greet with Craig T. Nelson. June 1315, 6:35 pm, June 16-17, 7:05 pm and June 18, 1:05 pm. $8-$22. Avista Stadium, 602 N. Havana St. spokaneindians.com

WATER-WISE GARDENING Learn ways to reduce your water bill and minimize your garden’s maintenance time. Presented by Master Gardener Kris Hendron and Kyle Merritt of SpokaneScape. Registration required. June 13, 6:30-7:30 pm. Free. Fairfield Library, 305 E. Main St. scld.org (893-8320)

COUPLES CHIP & SIP Develop your golf game as a couple using video analysis during this four-week course while enjoying a few drinks on the course. June 14-July 26; every other Wed from 5-8 pm. $300. Circling Raven Golf Course, 27068 S. Highway 95. cdacasino.com

HISTORICAL FEET CLUB A group walk with a tour guide. See link for specifics. June 14 and June 21, 9:15 am-noon. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org

OUR FAVORITE TREES Plant experts talk about what their favorite trees are and why. June 14, 4-5 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com (509-467-5258)

WEDNESDAYS IN THE WOODS: HOOT

SHOW Learn about birds of prey, their nocturnal habits, vison and auditory senses. June 14, 6:30-8 pm. Free. Riverside State Park, Bowl & Pitcher, 4427 N. Aubrey L. White Pkwy. riversidestateparkfoundation.org

WATER-WISE GARDENING Learn ways to reduce your water bill and minimize your garden’s maintenance time. Registration required. June 15, 6:30-7:30 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org

THEATER

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Young Charlie Bucket and four other golden ticket winners embark on a lifechanging journey through Wonka’s world

of pure imagination. Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm and Sun at 2 pm through June 18.

$10-$35. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com

BEAUTY & THE BEAST JR. Performed by My Turn Theater, an all-inclusive theater company casting adults with disabilities in all roles. Admission by donation at the box office, opening 90 minutes prior. Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through June 10. By donation. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. myturntheater. com/ (509-313-4776)

HUMAN ERROR When ideologies collide, can a baby save the day? Find out in this play by Eric Pfeffinger. June 9-25; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $20-$25. Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. stagelefttheater.org

PLAYWRIGHTS’ FORUM FESTIVAL

A showcase of new one-act plays by playwrights from across the region. Rotation A is performed Thu/Sat at 7:30 pm and Sun at 2 pm. Rotation B is performed Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat at 2 pm and Sun at 6 pm. June 15-18. $10-$15. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com (325-2507)

VISUAL ARTS

ANN AUSTIN & DIANNE MCDERMOTT

Mixed media artist Ann Austin uses found beauty and repeating patterns in the natural work in her collar work. Fiber artist Dianne McDermott uses her art background as an illustrator and graphic artist in her backpacks, purses and bags. June 1-30, daily from 11 am-7 pm. Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington St. potteryplaceplus.com

BACKWATER An exhibition of material and sound by Palouse-based artists

Sara St Clair, Abigail Hansel, Sister June and Rachel Svinth. Open by appointment through June 30. Free. KolvaSullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. kolvasullivangallery.com (509-551-4231)

TRACY POINDEXTER-CANTON: BEYOND THE PAGE, BEYOND THE CANVAS A collection of literary-inspired mixed media works. June 4-30; MonThu 9 am-7 pm, Fri-Sat 10 am-5 pm, Sun 12-4 pm. Free. Indian Trail Library, 4909 W. Barnes Rd. spokanelibrary.org

DANIEL LOPEZ: WORLD WAR ME Fine art paintings by local muralist and artist Daniel Lopez, aka Godffiti. JDaily from 10 am-6 pm through July 3, 10 am-6 pm. Free. Entropy, 101 N. Stevens St. explodingstars.com

DRAWN TO THE WALL VIII Mariah Boyle, Katie Creyts, Tobi Harvey and Rob McKirdie draw directly on to one of the Jundt’s Arcade Gallery walls. MonSat from 10 am-4 pm through Aug. 26. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/jundt

INSPIRED DESIGN This gallery show features works by Helen Parsons, Kathy Gale, Kate Fisher and others. Wed-Sun from 11 am-6 pm through June 25. Free. The Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman Ave. theartspiritgallery.com

MAKE FABRIC DOLLS FOR KIDS IN NEED Create handmade dolls for children in need by either helping cut, sew or stuff the fabric. June 8, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org

REUSE WORKSHOP Learn about creative reuse by getting hands-on and bring home your own craft. Free with admission to Mobius. Second Thurs. of every month, 10-11 am. Free. Mobius Discovery Center, 331 N. Post St. artsalvagespokane.com (509-321-7137)

THE WYETHS: THREE GENERATIONS

A collection of works by N.C. Wyeth, one of America’s finest illustrators; his son Andrew, an important realist painter; Andrew’s son Jamie, a popular portraitist; and extended family members.

Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Aug. 20. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)

YOU WERE ALWAYS HOME Blurring the boundaries between human and natural shapes, Kristen Morley examines the way we see and relate to our bodies, and our connection to the natural world. Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm through July 1. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe St. terrainspokane.com/gallery

MAKER OPEN HOURS Stop in to ask questions, receive instruction or work on your creative projects using The Lab’s equipment. Fri from 10 am-5 pm through Sep. 29. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org

PALOUSE ARTWALK This 18th annual event celebrates artists of the Palouse and downtown businesses. June 1-30; Fri from 1-5 pm, Sat from 11 am-6 pm, Sun from 12-3 pm. See website for full schedule. Free. Palouse, Wash., n/a. facebook.com/PalouseArtsCouncil

SKETCHBOOK CLUB FOR QUEER

TEENS Local artist Nanette Cloud helps queer teens develop their creative skillsets by guiding friendly peer feedback chats and offering supportive advice. Fridays from 6:30-8 pm. Ages 13-18. Free. Odyssey Youth Movement, 1121 S. Perry St. odysseyyouth.org

THRICE TOLD CULINARY TALES Louise Kodis, Wendy Zupan and Cheyn Kodis present handmade picture books about food, fairy tale menus, collages and paintings of desserts. Fri-Sat from 12-8 pm through June 24. Free. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main. sapgallery.com

MANITO PARK ART FESTIVAL Peruse artist booths, art displays, hear live music and more at this third annual event. Takes place in Duncan Gardens. June 10, 10 am-6 pm. Free. Manito Park, 1800 S. Grand Blvd. thefriendsofmanito.org

MAKE YOUR OWN PENDLETON MOCCASINS Create your own-style moccasins in this all-day workshop. June 11-6 pm. $150. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S. Nukwalqw. cdacasino.com

THE HIVE OPEN STUDIO Stop by to see what the Artists-In-Residence are up to and tour the building. Wednesdays from 4-7 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org

AN EVENING WITH VICTORIA

BROWNING WYETH Hear from Victoria Browning Wyeth about her family in relation to the ongoing Wyeth art exhibit. June 15, 6:30 pm. By donation. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

FRIDAY NIGHT PAINT Paint a vintagestyle travel poster with watercolor and pen of the Algarve region in Portugal. June 16, 7-9 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. spokanelibrary.org

POAC SANDPOINT ART WALK Local artisans, galleries, and business owners throughout downtown showcase local art throughout downtown Sandpoint. June 16-Sept. 5. artsinsandpoint.org

WORDS

INLAND NORTHWEST SPECIAL COLLECTIONS WRITING TOUR Novelist

Rebekah Anderson discusses how research shapes her fiction in this writing series at the library’s Inland Northwest Special Collections. June 8, 11 am-noon.

Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5336)

AUNTIE’S BOOK CLUB: NEW FICTION

Discuss the book Activities of Daily Living by Lisa Hslao Chen. June 8, 6-7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com

JAMES P. JOHNSON The author discusses the history of freshwater shark attacks in Spokane/Coeur d’Alene and shares from his new collection. RSVP online. June 9, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com

PINE HEART POETRY SLAM Bring in poetry to be read (original or not) and enjoy live music, food and connecting with the local artistic community. June 9, 5:30-9 pm. Free. The Pine Heart Café, 1507 E. Sprague Ave. facebook.com/ pineheartcafe

TELLING YOUR STORY: A PERSONAL ESSAY WORKSHOP In this interactive and generative writing workshop, Kristen Millares Young helps participants tell their own stories. June 9, 10-11 am. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)

YVONNE SWAN: A JOURNEY OF RESILIENCE & RESISTANCE Yvonne Swan is a member of the Sinixt (Arrow Lakes People) and Colville Confederated Tribes, and a once-convicted criminal. She’s dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of Indigenous people and raising awareness for issues that disproportionately affect Indigenous women. June 11, 2-3:30 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)

HOW DOES LANGUAGE SHAPE OUR THINKING AND RELATIONSHIPS? Examine the powerful role of language in shaping our identity, actions and thinking as you read and discuss Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist in its entirety and excerpts from Lawrence Weinstein’s Grammar for a Full Life. June 11, 2-4 pm. Pay what you can. Brick West Brewing, 1318 W. First Ave. premiseinstitute.com

PAWS TO READ Bring your young reader to the children’s library to read to a therapy dog in order to build reading confidence. June 12, 10:30 am-noon and June 26, 3:30-5 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org (208-769-2315)

NORTHWEST PASSAGES: STEPHAN PASTIS Cartoonist Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine, reflects on his career,. June 13, 7 pm. Free. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. spokesman.com/northwest-passages

BROKEN MIC Spokane Poetry Slam’s longest-running, weekly open mic. Wednesdays at 6:30 pm; sign-ups at 6 pm. Free. Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. bit.ly/2ZAbugD (509-847-1234)

POETRY AFTER DARK EWU MFA students lead discussions about craft elements, style and form in poetry. Second/fourth Wednesdays from 7-8 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org

STEPHEN THOMAS & DENNIS HELD: WHAT IS BETWEEN US An evening of poetry as the two authors reading from their works. June 15, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0260)

KATE LEBO: A WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD CELEBRATION Celebrate The Book of Difficult Fruit by Kate Lebo, winner of the 2022 WA State Book Award. Lebo reads alongside other local writers who helped shape this collection. June 15, 6-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300) n

baseball HAT NIGHT!

Tuesday, June 20th

at 6:35pm vs.

Hat Night is back! The first 1,000 fans and all STCU Gold Glove Members in attendance will receive a FREE Spokane Indians Baseball hat courtesy of Pepsi and The Inlander!

presented by:

New Directions

A new boss for Washington and a new market for the midwest

BY WILL MAUPIN

The future of recreational cannabis regulation came into clearer focus last week, with a new top state regulator for the first time since the legal market opened in Washington, and another state joining the legal club.

LCB HIRES NEW BOSS

Last week, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board announced the hiring of Will Lukela as the agency’s next director. Lukela’s first day on the job will be July 10.

Lukela’s most recent experience was with the Marijuana En forcement Division of Colorado’s Department of Finance. He has served as a deputy chief in that agency since 2018. In that role, Lukela oversaw departments such as licensing and compli ance with Colorado’s equivalent of the Washington LCB.

“I am very excited to join my new colleagues at the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board,” Lukela said in a statement. “As the two pioneer ing states in the legalization of adult-use cannabis, Washington and Colorado face similar challenges. I will continue to build on the impressive work of the agency across all regulated indus tries and pledge to work collaboratively with staff and stakeholders to build their trust and support through transparency.”

Lukela is replacing Rick Garza, who served as director for the past 10 years and helped guide Washington’s legal market over its first decade. Garza spent 38 years working for the state, including 25 at the LCB.

LAND OF 10,000 LAKES GOES GREEN

On May 30, Gov. Tim Walz signed into law a bill that makes Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize recreational cannabis. Possession will become legal in Minnesota on Aug. 1. The state’s legal market is expected to be operational within a year-and-a-half. Like other legal states, cannabis will be legal for purchase and possession by adults 21 years and older. Unlike in Washington, Minnesota will allow a dual public-private marketplace. Like in Washington, individuals can apply for a license to operate a cannabis business. Cities and counties can also operate their own government-operated

A novel aspect of the Minnesota law is that it will allow for events to apply for on-site cannabis consumption permits. Another difference between Minnesota’s law and Washington’s is that Minnesota will allow for cannabis delivery, which is an increasingly common feature of legal markets around the country. n

Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize recreational cannabis last month.

GREEN ZONE

BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.

YOUR TEEN ASKS WHY

IS LEGAL FOR YOU, BUT NOT HIM. AND YOU SAY?

Now that marijuana is legal for those 21 and over, it’s more important than ever to talk with your kids.

START TALKINGNOW.ORG

NOTE TO READERS

Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho. Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.

of “Days of Our Lives”

49. Dangerous place for a leak

order

hired hand

70. What’s left to cartographers?

DOWN

1. “If I may ...”

2. Placates

3. Bills are found in it

4. Kicks off 5. Is in the past?

6. Have the ____ for

7. How some popcorn is popped

8. Youngest of the Marx Brothers

9. Its airports include TPA and JAX

10. Practically forever

11. In online gaming, games with large numbers of players

12. Fared

13. Lets off the hook

18. 10% of DXXX

22. 35mm camera type

25. Rapper with a clock necklace,

familiarly

27. WNBA All-Star Rebecca

28. Words after break or shake

30. French name pronounced “eve”

34. Charged particle

35. Cozy

37. Bank holding

38. Crude-shipping grp.

39. Way up the slope

40. Purina partner replaced by Nestlé

41. Spicy fare?

42. Celebrity ... but just barely

44. Where to find “Yellow Submarine” on the album “Yellow Submarine”

45. Like some dungeon denizens 46. Iconic phrase in old “Dick and Jane” stories

for Penguins and Ducks

Play where the big winners play.

10 Winners of $2,500 Each Week!

SATURDAYS IN JUNE | 1 PM – 9 PM

Howdy partner, Lucky You is back! Giddy up and head on over to Coeur d’Alene Casino to lasso up some loot every Saturday in June. You could be one of ten lucky winners to receive $2,500 just for playing with your Coeur Rewards card!

Winners are electronically and randomly selected amongst the Coeur Rewards members actively playing any video gaming machine with their Coeur Rewards card inserted between 1 pm and 9 pm on Saturdays in June.

See the Coeur Rewards booth, CDA Casino app or cdacasino.com for promotional rules.

$40,000 Giveaway on Each Drawing Date!

FRIDAY, JUNE 9 TH | 7 PM | 30 WINNERS

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 TH | 7 PM | 30 WINNERS

Yippee-ki-yay! It’s time for the $80,000 Cowboy Up Giveaway. We’re giving away $40,000 on each drawing date. Join us on Friday, June 9TH and Friday, June 30TH to win one of 30 prizes of up to $4,000 cash on each giveaway date. Plus, five of the prize winners on June 9TH will pre-qualify into the June 30TH giveaway.

Earn entries starting June 1ST. Play your favorite video gaming machines with your Coeur Rewards card and get one entry for every 500 points earned.

See the Coeur Rewards booth, CDA Casino app or cdacasino.com for promotional rules.

SERIES