Inlander 06/15/2023

ACTIVITIES

FOR FOODIES,CONCERT-GOERS, LAKE LOVERS, KIDS & MORE!

M R R U U E E S S M M

GUIDE GUIDE

We figured out how to extend the weekend to all week by o ering brunch every day! This is all day brunching.

Baba restaurant is a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant in Kendall Yards featuring local seasonal ingredients and a great place to relax, inside the restaurant or out on the patio.

Gilded Unicorn features modern comfort food paired with craft cocktails in the oldest hotel in Downtown Spokane for an amazing and unique experience.

Experience Spanish-style cuisine and tapas, featuring local, seasonal ingredients in the heart of Downtown Spokane.

Francaise is a classic French bistro-inspired restaurant with a few modern twists, great wine list and hand crafted cocktails located in the historic Perry district on the South Hill.

Local craft beers paried with upscale pub food. This is truly a “Brewery to Table” experience.

Honey Eatery and Social Club features classic comfort foods using modern techniques partnered up with an amazing drink list and a patio right downtown Coeur d'Alene. Great for any time of day!

EDITOR’S NOTE

Ennui doesn’t visit us much these days, with our smartphones and smart homes and smart cars. Instead, we are distracted to the point of being way too busy. Boredom, it seems, is a curse of the past.

So, with all due respect to that piece of tech in your pocket that really hasn’t earned such affection, let’s think back to the old days of summer, when sunlight stretched on for countless hours and reruns of I Dream of Jeannie somehow still ran. Those were the days when we begged for a list of awesome things to do, a guide of some sort, bursting with ideas for activities big and small.

Well, my guess is that your phone isn’t that exciting. I’d bet you’d rather ride an alpine coaster down a mountain outside of Leavenworth or surf a giant wave in Chelan. Maybe you’d like getting rickshaw-ed around downtown Spokane or hike a temperate rainforest in north Idaho. Perhaps you’d like to tour a gold or silver mine, or solve a murder (not a real one…). Surely you’d rather go to a concert at the Pavilion, Northern Quest, or the Festival at Sandpoint.

My point is, we live in an enchanting place, filled with cultural and natural bounty. So here’s this year’s SUMMER GUIDE, with everything you need for an exciting, definitely not boring, summer. And if you think the advice from our 12 writers isn’t good enough, that’s OK. We talked to some people very involved in summer activities to give you even more tips on what to do and where to go. So put your phone down, get bored and go find something amazing to do.

— NICHOLAS DESHAIS, editor

SO LONG RIVERKEEPER PAGE 8 GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE PAGE 6

ANCIENT OVENS PAGE 20

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Make Memories This Summer

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WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SUMMERTIME ACTIVITY?

KATIE HORINE

Probably this right here — drinking outside.

What’s your favorite summer drink? Cider.

What place do you go to every summer?

This is only my second summer out here, so probably Lake Coeur d’Alene.

CHANCELER COLE

Mine would probably be golfing. Spokane has a really good golf scene.

What’s your favorite course around here? I’d have to say Latah Creek. Or Qualchan.

What place do you go to every summer? Probably dropping in at No-Li, hitting their patio.

SARAH COLE

I like floating the river, that’s my favorite.

Do you have a favorite river to float? We float a lot of the time here. So we just get on at Harvard [Road] and get off on Barker [Road].

What place do you go to every summer? I like the Kendall Yards Night Market. I try to do that in the summertime.

JARRETT LONG

Mine’s Coeur d’Alene Lake. We’ve got a cabin on the lake, and I spend as much time as I can out there.

What’s your favorite thing to do at the lake? Probably the boat more than anything. We’ve got kids, and my kids like to surf.

JON ABBEY Outdoors. Lakes. Boating. Family.

What place do you go to every summer? Laclede, Idaho. Pend Oreille River. Anything that’s reasonably close.

What’s your favorite lake activity? Get out on a boat… before my daughter sunk it.

SETH SOMMERFELD 6/2/2023, TRAILBREAKER CIDER

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Shift in Your Seat

Uncomfortable conversations hold the key to unraveling the biases entrenched in our language

BY CMARIE FUHRMAN

It’s a writing conference in a posh Idaho ski town. I know what, at least demographically, I am getting into. I’ll be honest, these venues make me nervous. My reading will not be exultant or easy. My class won’t ignore history or refuse to examine the difficulties of the present. I will make some people uncomfortable.

Case in point: Four weeks earlier, in Port Townsend, Washington, I read my poem “Land Acknowledgment,” which was first published in the Inlander on Oct. 7, 2021. An older white male in the audience shifts in his seat. Doesn’t applaud. I notice because I am watching for this. I am always interested in the ways listeners and readers respond to my work. I think about them as I am writing. When I am speaking. Their reaction lets me know if I’ve made my point, lost their interest, or, as in this case, hit a nerve.

The next morning, he is in my class and asks to speak to me. Alone. He tells me my poem made him uncomfortable, and he is tired of brown women’s anger. I asked if he was willing to sit with that discomfort, question it. He tells me he approached another brown woman, a classmate, and told her about his reaction and she

gave him the same advice. I said, “Maybe it would be easier if you sat with the reasons that compelled me to write the poem.”

Back in Idaho, I take my seat to listen to the keynote. The title of his talk leads me to believe he will be extolling the joys of reading. The speaker has a podcast, has interviewed hundreds of writers, is quite a celebrity in this town if the size of the crowd means anything. Ten minutes in, and I realize I am not his intended audience. The books he promotes reflect his audience. They are predominantly male, white authors with stories of bootstraps pulled and incredible presidencies. He is comfortable on the stage, he knows he has engaged his listeners, he sees himself in them. But his eyes never land on me. Not even when he starts talking about a writer whose radical stance on capitalism was so crazy that he, “thought he’d gone off the reservation!”

I shift in my seat.

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When I shared this story with a friend, he reminded me that the speaker was a former politician, president of a university, and how someone in those positions can easily read an audience, adapt their vernacular so as to speak in a way that makes them comfortable, makes them likely to be agreeable. Point taken. But check this out: The selection of books he was praising when he made the slur were books investigating the problems of colonization. And what his comment shows me has less to do with the speaker alone than with the pervasiveness of phrases such as “off the reservation” and its counterparts in everyday speech. If indeed his language adapted to gain approval by mirroring his audience, then that audience, many of whom laughed at the remark, is also complicit. Which points to a bigger problem that is less about the inherent meaning and more about the ease with which he passed the harmful phrase on.

If it’s so pervasive, perhaps it has lost its meaning. Why not let it slide? Add it to the even more innocuous phrase, “gone off his rocker.” The assumption that the later aphorism is unharmful notwithstanding, the implication of the former to a historically marginalized group is inaccurate, stereotypical and oppressive. It negates the message of the very topic he was investigating by re-colonizing fellow Americans. It points to a lack of critical thinking that is a problem in too many of our conversations. We fail to examine our language. We are not curious about the meaning of our words, only their ability to assuage and gain approval. And by continuing to use them, are we opening the door to even more damaging language?

When I am thinking about my audience, I am thinking about what they might not know. Part of writing’s job, as I see it, is to offer points of view that have, too often, gone unheard. Isn’t this, after all, the hope of literature? The reason we read? Not just to be validated, but to be aware? Rather than allowing the reader or listener to be comfortable with what they don’t know, ignoring the harmful discourse embroidered into the very language that oppresses and limits their thinking, I hope to encourage growth, and, at the very least, do my part to pull out the harmful language so deeply woven into the fabric of the dominant culture’s discourse.

I wonder how often I fail. I may have failed in Port Townsend. The man I made uncomfortable left the conference early. “You seemed so nice when I first met you,” he said when the class had finished. What could I do but thank him.

As for the keynote at the writing conference? After he finished speaking, I took my place in line behind the men offering hearty handshakes and thanks, then offered my own. I said, “My name is CMarie Fuhrman. I am a mixed-race Native woman. To hear you say ‘gone off the reservation’ implies Native people are crazy and they belong only on reservations. It seems that you want to do work to help decolonize and educate others and certainly not perpetuate colonialism, so I would like to ask you to remove that phrase from your lexicon.”

He took a step back. His smile faded. He apologized kindly, then reached for the next hand. Did I fail? I don’t think so. Discomfort, after all, is the beginning of growth. n

CMarie Fuhrman is the author of the collection of poems, Camped Beneath the Dam, and co-editor of two anthologies, Cascadia Field Guide and Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations. Fuhrman is the associate director of the graduate program in creative writing at Western Colorado University. She is the current Idaho Writer in Residence and resides in West Central Idaho. cmariefuhrman.com

I hope to encourage growth, and at the very least, do my part to pull out the harmful language so deeply woven into the fabric of the dominant culture’s discourse.

RIVERKEEPER RETROSPECTIVE

In a way, Spokane Riverkeeper Jerry White, Jr. has been drawn to the rivers of the Northwest his entire life. You might even say the rivers called him, offering inspiration at just the right moments.

After White graduated with an archaeology degree from Western Washington University in the 1980s, he went on to work for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in the early ’90s, expanding campgrounds, doing survey work, and offering tours to school children. The 60-year-old recalls that one specific tour near the Pend Oreille River at a former Kalispel tribal village site sparked his passion for teaching.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God. This is what I want to do,’ is just talk about this interesting subject of these gaps in cultural perspectives,” White says. “There’s all these different ways to look at the world.”

So he became a teacher. He taught middle school history, social studies and English for 15 years, weaving the connections between rivers and culture into his classes.

“It’s the relationship between people and rivers that’s fascinated me forever,” White says.

Somewhere in there his family moved to Spokane’s West Central neighborhood, and he got a daily view of

BY

the confluence of the Spokane River and Latah Creek, also known as Hangman Creek. White says he watched the river turn brown with polluting sediment year after year.

“It just, it almost physically hurt me,” White says. “And really, honestly, nobody was talking about it.”

So he went to work with conservation agencies, including Save Our Wild Salmon and Trout Unlimited. Then, in 2014, White got the chance to take his dream job: the Spokane Riverkeeper.

At the time, he was a one-man show, fighting for the river under the umbrella of the Center for Justice, which worked on civil legal issues. Over the years, more staff joined the Spokane Riverkeeper (part of an international network called the Waterkeeper Alliance) and when the Center for Justice closed its doors in 2020, Riverkeeper split off as its own nonprofit.

Last month, White announced he’ll be stepping down, but he’s staying on for a while to help with the transition as the board hires a new executive director.

We sat down on a recent sunny Friday, overlooking the river, to talk about his battles to save the river, his work with local tribes, and how he thinks your water bill

should probably be higher. White’s responses have been edited for clarity and length.

INLANDER: What are some of the biggest victories you’ve had as the Riverkeeper over the last nine-ish years?

WHITE: One of them I’m most proud of is the work that’s now going on on Hangman or Latah Creek. After moving to West Central in 1999, I saw it and realized how egregious and horrible this was.

We litigated against the [Environmental Protection Agency]. We basically said, “Look, your cleanup plan is just not very solid.” So that really lit a fire. And then we had the good fortune of having a really strong team over at [the state Department of] Ecology that was willing to say, “Awesome, let’s negotiate a settlement plan.” The combination of this powerful settlement, good teamwork, and a good team at Ecology has funneled millions now into the basin. It’s a high-priority watershed. I think we’re going to see the day when Hangman Creek really does turn the corner on recovery and begins to be functional habitat for salmon and trout.

As Jerry White prepares to pass the Spokane Riverkeeper torch to someone else, he reflects on the accomplishments of the last decade — and the work that remains

SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Jerry White: “I believe the river to be a sentient, living entity.”

ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

NEWS

“RIVERKEEPER RETROSPECTIVE,” CONTINUED...

Do you feel like you’re already seeing the changes in that watershed with less soil eroding and more planting going on?

If the work that’s going on up there and the cultural and financial momentum continues, we definitely are going to see a positive outcome. I’m not here to say it’s fixed. It will be generational. It took 150 years to get to where it’s at. But given the momentum, and the good folks on the team at Ecology, and the tribes working to recover salmon — who are huge players, sovereign nations — that’s big.

What’s another win you wanted to mention?

The Top Brass

Spokane’s police chief isn’t happy about a new law broadening the ombudsman’s power to investigate

BY NATE SANFORD

The ombudsman’s powers are expanding.

During a late Monday night meeting, Spokane City Council members voted 6-1 to give the civilian police watchdog power to directly investigate the chief of police.

The ombudsman already had authority to investigate officers, but city code required complaints against the chief to go to the mayor for potential investigation.

Council President Breean Beggs, who sponsored Monday’s ordinance and was a force behind Spokane’s civilian oversight of police, says the change aligns city code with the city charter language passed in 2013 when citizens voted to create the ombudsman’s office.

“It doesn’t say that the ombudsman has to investigate the chief,” Beggs says. “It kind of takes away an artificial thing that contradicts the charter.”

The change follows several months of scrutiny over Police Chief Craig Meidl’s close relationship with a group of downtown property owners, pressure from activists calling for the chief’s resignation and frustration from council members over Mayor Nadine Woodward’s refusal to authorize an outside investigation into Meidl’s conduct.

“This is about transparency, and there’s a lack of transparency right now,” said Council Member Zack Zappone, noting that Meidl donated $500 to Woodward’s reelection campaign in late March. “The mayor has a choice and could build community trust if she would just start an investigation.”

The chief’s communications with the property owners — which council members describe as “concerning and unusual” — were uncovered by an ombudsman investigation into a separate incident involving the release of an officer’s body camera video.

The ombudsman’s closing report, which was released in December 2022, kept most of its focus on the body camera footage but did mention the

chief’s emails with the politically active property owners group and potential concern about those property owners getting special access to police records and information.

Bart Logue, the ombudsman, said in a recent interview with the Inlander that his office tried to keep the investigation focused on the original complaint but that he might have kept digging into Meidl’s conduct if authorized to do so.

“Because maybe there’s nothing to see here,” Logue said. “Are there policy violations? I don’t know.”

Hours before the council vote, Meidl released a video saying the ombudsman should not have the power to investigate him because it would be a “significant change in working conditions” that could make it hard to recruit future police chiefs.

He described the ordinance as being pushed by a “false narrative” that he refused to cooperate with the ombudsman investigation.

Woodward has also voiced disapproval for the change and said calls for further investigation are an “organized attempt to disparage our police chief and police department.” Lisa Brown, who is running against Woodward for mayor, says she supports the new ordinance and an investigation.

There’s still a lot the ombudsman can’t do. Because of the Spokane Police Guild’s collective bargaining agreements with the city, the office can’t compel testimony, issue disciplinary recommendations or name officers in closing reports. Brown says she’d be open to the idea of negotiating with the Guild to change that.

On Monday, council members expressed interest in Council Member Michael Cathcart’s suggestion that the city look into creating some sort of inspector general position to oversee department heads across the city.

“We need something bigger than the ombudsman,” Cathcart said. “That is really truly how we are going to have independent investigations across the board.” n nates@inlander.com

The second win is very much a process win, and that’s our dialogue with tribal governments, tribal membership, and even tribal associations or groups. Tribes are not monolithic. They’re just like our city: Folks operating in multiple capacities with multiple perspectives. We’ve worked really hard to open dialogues and create trust and partnerships. I’ve been speaking with leadership in some cases, and they’re all very enthused to keep a partnership moving with Riverkeeper. Last year we did this long journey down the Spokane River, and we had the good fortune of linking up with some tribal canoe families. That was the most beautiful time spent just getting to know people, and slowly but surely finding common ground and having great conversations and building trust. Those folks are the riverkeepers and have been for millenia.

It’s nice that you get to do that work in such a beautiful setting.

It’s so true, and there’s actually something really huge to that. We’ve found when we get on the river with people, there’s just something magic that happens. I honestly believe it’s the river working through people.

You know, the other big legal victory we had was the Washington water quality standards for toxics. We prevailed in that in spite of a rollback, from industry petitions to EPA.

When you guys started that litigation wasn’t that still when the state of Washington was fighting against the more stringent standards, and then they got on board and fought against the EPA with you?

It was. It’s the convoluted piece that’s really tough to understand, but that was a really big victory.

There’s so many. I also think of the water conservation ordinance last year, I’m very proud of that even if it’s just a step in a journey of 1,000 steps. We’ve got to start conserving water.

It blows me away how we’re such high water users. [A 2021 study found that Spokane County residents use 235 gallons of water per day, which is higher than 97 percent of the rest of the country.]

It is wild and it kind of shows a value system that’s out of touch with the natural world. Even the way we price water here in Spokane kind of devalues the river at some level. I don’t think that’s malicious. I just think that’s honestly ignorance of the true connection between the aquifer and the river and our own consumption.

So the headline should be “Jerry White thinks your water bill should be higher”?

That would be great. [Laughs.] I mean that’s exactly the famous story of [former Spokane mayor] Mary Verner falling on that sword. We need to price that water in a way that actually recognizes the values. That would not translate over very well to this culture, but maybe it’s important.

What’s your take on the recent Supreme Court decision affecting the Clean Water Act, which could change how we’ve protected wetlands from development for the past few decades?

In Washington state we have a “waters of the state” rule. We’re somewhat insulated from that horrible decision. Many, many other states are not. It’s really a move to drag us back to the Dark Ages. To not recognize hydrologic connection is just

Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl and Police Ombudsman Bart Logue. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

misguided. To then give a greenlight to pollute one part of that connection, and not understand that it’s going to affect downstream or the other parts of that connection is really setting this country up for continued environmental degradation, which we can ill afford right now. It’s going to pit people against people.

What do you see as the big obstacles or projects ahead for the next Riverkeeper?

We had variances [to allow industrial users] to discharge PCBs [polychlorinated biphenyls] into our river. They shelved those applications. Those applications to me seem like they could become zombies and come back alive. That’s a very real risk, because they represent something much bigger than the end of each pipe. It’s a signal to everybody with a pipe in the river, or a pipe in the state’s waters or national waters that these EPA variances can be used to run around the end of regulation and just create another water quality standard. That’s the challenge for the next Riverkeeper potentially.

The other one is we’ve got a warming river. Lake Spokane [also known as Long Lake] is violating water quality standards behind Avista’s projects. How is the public gonna hold Avista responsible to maintain cold water behind those projects in a changing climate? That can be done one way that’s friendly to shareholders. Or it can be done another way that’s friendly to rivers and communities that love their rivers, and to fish and salmon.

LETTERS

Send comments to editor@inlander.com.

Finally, the real looming one here is the flow. There’s no easy answer to that. We had Marshall Creek go dry this year. It’s a trout-bearing stream. Totally dry in May. This year, we had 110 percent of normal snowpack in the high country, and we’re sitting here with a river that two days ago was at 6,200 cubic feet per second, when it normally flows at 16,000 cubic feet per second. That’s the next great challenge for anyone who’s trying to put their arms around being a voice for and caring for the river.

What’s next for you?

The organization is in great shape. The role of being an executive director is very challenging, in that you have to deal with a plethora of problems. Everything from, “Are there staples in this stapler?” to taking a call from the director of Ecology on vacation. There’s kind of a shelf life here and there’s somebody out there who’s going to bring a new energy I think the community deserves. I was blessed with getting to be a steward for a short time in the life of a river that’s ancient and do the best I could, and then hand that baton off. It feels really good for me now at this moment. I’m not done with river work, there’s no way. Yeah if you tell me you’re just going to retire and sit around and do nothing, I don’t believe that.

There’s no way. The next step is beginning to vision and — take this as you will, but it’s true — really interact with the river in a way so that it can help me understand how I can fit in. That, I think, is going to be focused. “Hey, here’s a project, take that on and do that really well.” I’m really excited about things that are maybe kind of far afield. Like “Rights of Nature.” What happens if we say the river, salmon, the aquifer deserve their own rights to exist? What does that look like? Who pushes that? What’s the legal science behind it?

Indigenous peoples from Europe to South America to North America to Asia to Africa have really thought in this way for millennia. The English legal system we work under sees it as new, but it’s not new. But we’re having to figure out how we can put this ancient way of thinking into legal terms.

I think if you spend enough time on the river, and I’ve had this experience personally, it works through you. I’m not afraid to say out loud now that I believe the river to be a sentient, living entity and the components of a living system. And that’s clearly in my future with whatever time I have left. So more to follow on that. n

samanthaw@inlander.com

The Underdogs

A yurt maker, a former firefighter and a pothole fixer: Meet the longshots running to be Spokane’s next mayor

BY NATE SANFORD

The race for Spokane’s next mayor has generated some big amounts of money.

Mayor Nadine Woodward, who is running for reelection, has raised $343,000. Lisa Brown, the former state Commerce Department director, has raised $174,000.

In a distant third place for fundraising is Tim Archer, who has reported $725 in contributions to the state Public Disclosure Commission. He says he has about another $1,000 that hasn’t been filed yet.

The other candidates — Patrick McKann and Kelly Stevens — have reported $0 to the PDC. (McKann has a GoFundMe with $530 that has yet to be deposited, and Stevens says she isn’t accepting donations.)

Sure, money isn’t everything in local politics. We get it. We live in a democracy. Anything can happen.

So, even with the greenbacks stacked against them, we wanted to hear from the underdogs — the dreamers taking on the political establishments of Brown and Woodward — and see what they have planned for the Lilac City.

PATRICK McKANN — THE YURT-BUILDER

McKann is standing at a panoramic overlook near Ben Burr Trail on Spokane’s east side, pointing to parks and drawing invisible lines that map out his vision for the future of Spokane’s greenspace.

“I want trails to go from Beacon Hill through Hillyard, Shiloh Hills, Whitman, Indian Trail, all the way there to connect with Riverside,” McKann says. “Just to make this big triangle of this network of trails with protected lands in it, also connected.”

The former wildlife biologist is running on two issues: traffic safety and greenspace preservation.

McKann, who currently builds yurts and sells them online, decided to run because of frustrations over the city’s traffic calming process. He lives in the South Hill’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood, on a residential street where cars often speed while coming off nearby arterials. He’s spent years asking the city to install more stop signs and speed bumps to no avail.

Central to McKann’s campaign is the “Spokane Moose Project,” a proposal for the city to connect moose populations separated by I-90 by buying and preserving undeveloped land across Spokane.

McKann is less concrete when it comes to the homelessness and public safety issues other candidates are focused on.

“I don’t know, I would have to talk to people,” he says when asked if Spokane needs more cops.

For homelessness, McKann points to his greenspace plan.

Most of the undeveloped land he wants the city to purchase — near places like Orchard Prairie, Bigelow Gulch and Glenrose — would be preserved as a natural area. About a quarter of each parcel, McKann says, could be set aside as trailer parks for formerly homeless people.

“It’s not like a Camp Hope. It’s a trailer park with rules and regulations,” McKann says. “The city will charge rent and actually make the money back.”

McKann hopes an open public process and the prospect of empty land preserved as a natural area could help convince skeptical neighbors.

“There’s no shortage of ideas for ending homelessness,” McKann says. “I think there’s just a shortage of acceptance that it could be near you.”

But neighborhood opposition can be fierce. McKann himself successfully led outraged neighbors against recent proposals to build a dog park in a park near his house.

In a later email, McKann clarifies that he supports the idea of a South Hill dog park — as long as it doesn’t destroy wildlife habitats. He adds that the Moose Project doesn’t need to be tied to the trailer parks idea.

“I don’t want the trailer park haters to be turned off from this conservation effort,” McKann says.

TIM ARCHER — THE FORMER FIREFIGHTER

Archer pulls up to our interview on a motorcycle. It fits his personality — or at least the version he’s pitching to voters. Aggressive. Brash. Confident. A tough leader ready to clean up the streets, preserve law and order, and fight for conservative values.

“If you want strong change to happen quickly, I’m the guy to do that,” Archer says.

Archer spent 20 years as a Spokane firefighter and took over as president of the fire union in 2019. He loved the work, but in 2021, Archer and 19 other firefighters were fired for not getting vaccinated against COVID.

Archer was devastated — and furious at Woodward for not standing up for him and his colleagues. That’s when he decided to run for mayor.

“Honestly, it started out visceral, I’ll admit that,” Archer says. “But then I cooled off… You need to be doing it for the right, constructive reasons.”

Archer paints Woodward as a weak, ineffective leader — a center-right moderate who backs down from fights. He thinks her administration’s reluctance to fight the state Legislature’s recent police reforms has “allowed Spokane to function in decay.”

As mayor, Archer says he would direct the city attorney to fight the Boise v. Martin appellate court decision that prevents cities from enforcing anti-camping ordinances without adequate shelter space.

Archer thinks his tough-on-crime approach would weed out Spokane’s “criminal element” and allow the city to concentrate resources on the “truly homeless.”

“There’s a large percentage of folks out there that need a consequence so they’ll straighten themselves out,” Archer says, adding that the uptick in arrests he proposes would require a new jail.

Archer, who is endorsed by the brash former Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, has a surprising level of admiration for Brown. She’s a progressive on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum, but Archer describes her as competent and effective — a worthy opponent.

“The other side needs a strong champion to run against her, and I am that,” Archer says. “You’d be a fool not to respect her.”

KELLY STEVENS — THE POTHOLE FIXER

Stevens just got off a long shift filling potholes with the city’s streets department. With pride, she notes that she’s still wearing her work clothes and covered in oil.

“My gloves will always be in my back pocket when I’m in office, ready to go,” Stevens says.

Stevens has thought about running for mayor for close to a decade. She’s running now because she wants to bring the dedication with which she attacks potholes to the city’s larger problems.

“I get so much satisfaction out of filling potholes,” Stevens says. “I’m helping with some of the most annoying things that we deal with. I guess a big part of my desire is to make a bigger impact.”

On homelessness, Stevens thinks Spokane needs to do a better job with a “housing first” approach that meets people where they’re at. The city probably needs more shelters, she says, but for now, the city should focus on making the shelters it has safer and more inviting.

Affordable housing is another big concern for Stevens. She describes almost losing her housing during the 2008 recession, and notes that she currently lives near Minnehaha Park — not the more affluent parts of town so many other politicians call home.

“I don’t remember the last time we had a mayor that lives in some of the rougher areas, or close to the rougher areas,” Stevens says.

Stevens stresses that she wants every city department to have what they need to be successful. She doesn’t name specifics when asked if there are areas where the city is spending too much or too little, but she says there are lots of inefficiencies she would “love to have an opportunity to look at.”

As a city streets employee, Stevens has on-the-ground experience with city operations that most politicians lack. With all that firsthand knowledge, is there anything Stevens thinks the city could be doing differently when it comes to streets?

“I’m not gonna talk about that,” Stevens says. “I don’t want to get myself in hot water if I say the wrong thing.” n nates@inlander.com

Church and City

Spokane City Council gets an earful from the Gospel of John. Plus, federal funds help build a bridge in Idaho; and a Washington group looks to clear records of old drug convictions.

Spokane City Council’s legislative session went off script(ure) Monday, as council members paused public comment to debate whether or not to allow far-right Caleb Collier and his associates to use open forum time to read from the Bible’s Gospel of John. Council rules give public commenters two minutes to talk about anything related to “affairs of the city.” Collier — a former Spokane Valley council member and close ally of fringe former state Rep. Matt Shea — put those rules to the test as he began reading. “Is this related to city business?” Council Member Zack Zappone asked, interrupting the second speaker. Council Member Jonathan Bingle argued that the speakers should continue. “This is a way that we help to determine our beliefs and views,” he said. After lengthy debate, council members decided to continue, with a plea that the speakers at least tangentially try to connect the readings to city business. All told, the Bible readings and debate ate up 20 minutes of public meeting time. (NATE SANFORD)

PLEASANT PRIZE

An interchange that’s been in the works for two decades is much closer to becoming a reality. The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded up to $36 million to Idaho’s Transportation Department to help build a bridge over the train tracks at Pleasant View Road to connect with State Highway 53 north of Post Falls. The project would eliminate the need to cross the busy train tracks near BNSF’s switching yard in Hauser in order to get to the highway. Three other at-grade crossings in the area will be closed once the interchange is finished. Idaho, BNSF and the Post Falls Highway District will contribute a 20 percent funding match for the project. The crossing sees 46 trains per day and an annual average of 6,000 vehicles per day, according to federal data. The project will expand and move the highway farther north of the tracks and will expand Pleasant View Road. The bridge work was slated to start in 2028, but the grant means it could start sooner. (SAMANTHA

WOHLFEIL)

FIGHTING OLD CONVICTIONS

In February 2021, Washington’s Supreme Court found the state’s drug possession law to be unconstitutional as it didn’t require prosecutors to prove someone “knowingly possessed” drugs. The state estimates more than 200,000 felony drug convictions could be vacated due to that ruling. Since 2017, the Seattle-based legal empowerment organization Living with Conviction has helped people get their court-mandated legal financial obligations (fees assessed for certain crimes) waived or reduced. Now the organization is helping people figure out if their drug possession felony can be vacated and if they can ask for refunds for those legal fees. People can call 206307-3028 for free guidance from formerly incarcerated peers who may refer people to attorneys or guide them on how to file their own request. “If they don’t have any other felonies on their record … it would make it much easier for them to get housing, employment, etc.,” says Deborah Espinosa, the organization’s executive director. “LFO refunds can be incredibly powerful. It’s the ability to get some more money back in their pockets, and I also think that it’s really holding the state accountable.” (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

Get the latest on Inlander.com

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Council Members Zack Zappone and Jonathan Bingle

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

What Matters Most

A

rtist Ric Gendron has plenty to look forward to this Father’s Day: three grown children, numerous grandchildren and two great grandchildren, plus seven siblings, and countless extended family members. That he’s around to celebrate at all is a big deal, but not one Gendron wants to dwell on.

Home for only a few weeks since the juggernaut of Western medicine snatched him back from rapid decline, tethered him to dialysis, and predicted a dire albeit short future, Gendron is instead focused on the present and forging his own way forward.

He’s pursuing “traditional medicines, a traditional [way] through ceremony,” says Gendron, a member of the Sinixt Band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Umatilla Tribe of Oregon.

And although details about his health issues have been widely reported, including in a new book produced by Marmot Art Space, Gendron would rather not give name — or power — to his ailments.

After hearing the oncologist’s dire prognosis, for example, Gendron told his kids, “That doctor’s full of shit.”

The new book’s title, Ric Gendron: Kwilstn (Sweat Lodge), was a natural choice, he says.

Kwilstn is pronounced close to “quilt-skin,” and comes from the word kwilstnm in the Okanagan Colville language (ns əlxcin), meaning to take a sweat bath.

“I attend sweat lodges every week and I’ve been doing it for over a half a century,” says the 68-year-old Gendron. “So my whole life is kind of based on beliefs and traditions of the sweat lodge and that just sort of trickles into my paintings.”

Kwilstn features 51 of Gendron’s paintings and a smattering of background information about the artist’s nearly four-decade career.

The new book is the impetus for our interview that takes place in the living room of Gendron’s home, located upriver from the dam at Grand Coulee, where he was born in 1954.

“They tore that hospital down,” says Gendron, setting up the punch line. “I think after I was born, they couldn’t do any better.”

However, like the Columbia River outside Gendron’s door, the conversation meanders.

Gendron remembers being eight years old at the home he shared with his parents and nine siblings and being struck by the view of the dam.

“I used to steal my oldest sister’s typing paper and use it as drawing paper,” Gendron recalls. “And I remember sitting down and drawing the entire skyline with all the power lines and sagebrush.”

When Gendron’s family relocated to Spokane and he began attending North Central High School, he could finally envision a future in art. Influenced by Creepy comic books and Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers illustrations, Gendron and his school chums created an underground comic they called “Hot Rats” after Frank Zappa’s 1969 album of the same name.

Gendron knew he wanted to be an artist, like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, whose Rat Fink illustrations are synonymous with California’s ’50s and ’60s hot rod craze.

“I was just blown away by the ’60s art,” he says, including posters for the Fillmore music club and Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.

“But then, you know how a lot of kids’ dreams get crushed?” Gendron asks.

Even now, people still ask him what he does for a “real job,” he says.

So if any of his grandkids or other family members said they wanted to do art, Gendron would respond: “Go for it.”

Artist Ric Gendron is optimistic after a health scare, with a new book promoting his art and more time spent with family and painting

Ric Gendron (pictured in 2015) told his younger family members interested in art to “go for it.”

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

That’s what Gendron did in 1983. A well-paying but dead-end job at Hewlett-Packard drove Gendron back to Spokane Falls Community College to pursue art.

“I always heard people saying, ‘God, I can’t wait till I retire so that I can do what I really want to do,’ like artwork or whatever,” Gendron recalls. “And I thought, ‘Why wait?’ Most people wait until they retire, then they live a few years and die, so I didn’t want to do that.”

Initially, Gendron attended SFCC for graphic design, but the emphasis on computers and some of the classes weren’t a good fit, he says. He switched into fine arts, thrived under instructors Jo Fyfe, Jeanette Kirishian and Dick Ibach and tried a variety of art media.

“I’m too lazy to sculpt because I don’t wanna haul heavy stuff around,” says Gendron, laughing. He also hates drawing, but likes printmaking, and was working with good friend and fellow artist Joe Feddersen “until the world stopped” during the pandemic.

And painting?

“I loved it,” says Gendron, especially acrylics. “I loved the vibrancy. I loved the quickness of it” compared to oil painting.

After SFCC, Gendron relocated to Seattle to earn a bachelor’s of arts from Cornish College of the Arts, but a difficult divorce sent him back to Spokane. He contemplated becoming an art teacher, but instead worked side jobs to support himself and his three kids while committing himself to painting.

Gendron has achieved considerable regional acclaim, with prestigious stints including an artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts and a solo traveling exhibition and accompanying book, Rattlebone. But there is another side to the so-called Western art genre he wants no part of.

“How many paintings, how many bronze sculptures, how many anything can you do of an elk, you know?” he asks rhetorically. “Or a cowboy on horseback or a Native family standing all stoic and beautiful, you know?”

It isn’t just the — to his mind — overpriced market for Western art that galls him, but also how the imagery plays into a larger narrative of ignorance about Native Americans.

“What bothers me is this is how we’re portrayed as people,” Gendron says. “I’ve still been asked questions — not long ago — ‘Do people still live in tipis?’ or I’ve heard ‘You don’t have to pay for anything because the government pays for everything, the government gives you money every month.’ It’s just crazy.”

In contrast, Gendron offers an authentic, often gritty version of what it’s like to be Indian in America. He’s also a role model for making it as an artist, neither because of nor in spite of being Native American, but just because he has never given up on his dream.

“I’m glad that I’m able to do that,” he says. “And I’m glad that I don’t have to work so hard at it,” he laughs.

“There was a time when I wanted to shake up the world, you know, and be as militant as I can,” he says.

Now, however, Gendron has mellowed. As we’re talking, the sun beats down, a car passes by outside, and the Columbia River rolls on.

“I mean, you should already know that racism sucks, that there’s so many things, so much out in the world that’s wrong,” Gendron says.

He still wants his kids and grandkids to do what’s right, he says, but no longer feels it’s his duty to try to teach people what they should already know.

“My job is to go into that little studio and create paintings,” Gendron says. “My job is to take care of my family. My job is to try to love people the best I can.” n

Visit marmotartspace.com for more information about Ric Gendron: Kwilstn (Sweat Lodge)

Blacklight Bingo

FRIDAY, JUNE 16 TH

STARTS AT 11 PM

Join us for a special session of glow in the dark bingo fun! Buy-in from $12.

See Bingo venue for full details.

Armed Forces Bingo

SATURDAY, JUNE 17 TH

All Veterans receive $10 off, must have ID. Offer valid for both bingo sessions.

See Bingo venue for full details.

Inside the Coop

In her new book, journalist Tove Danovich documents how she fell in love with chickens and uncovered the truth of commercial fowl farming

BY SUMMER SANDSTROM

Birds are known to be among the most intelligent creatures on the planet, yet one fowl is still waiting to cross the road and join the rest of the flock: the chicken.

In her new book Under the Henfluence, Tove Danovich strives to clear up misconceptions about chickens being simple-minded animals primarily raised as a source of food by illustrating the complexities of their behavior, their interactions with other animals, and their cultural significance.

“When we talk about chickens in particular, we usually just think of them as being dumb,” Danovich says. “Like ‘Walking around like a chicken with its head cut off,’ is a very common phrase that doesn’t speak very highly of them.”

Upon moving from New York City to Portland, Oregon, Danovich’s longtime dream of having her own chickens became reality, but she didn’t expect to fall so deeply in love with the birds.

“I knew I would like them enough to keep them alive and want to take on the responsibility of caring for them,” she says. “I was really surprised by how complex and interesting they are, but also how silly and charming and calming they are to be around.”

Instagram: @bestlittlehenhouse

Danovich began searching for a book chronicling the lives of chickens and their behavior but was unable to find anything that delved so deeply into the fowls’ internal worlds.

“I just wasn’t finding the thing I wanted to read,” she says. “I started taking a lot of notes and realized something was there.”

Danovich’s first trio of chicks arrived in a box, mailed from Ohio to her local post office. To learn more about the hatching companies raising and sending chicks all over the U.S., she decided

Tove Danovich was quickly captivated by chickens. JAMIE BOSWORTH PHOTO

to book a trip to visit the Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa.

While seeing coops filled to the brim with hens and roosters, Danovich realized how massive demand is for backyard chickens, and that hundreds of millions of roosters are culled each year in the U.S. Due to their loud crowing, keeping roosters is banned in many cities (including within Spokane city limits). And since many farms need a surplus of hens to meet egg production needs, roosters are less valuable commodities.

Additionally, certain chicken breeds are victims to whirlwind trends, making it difficult for hatcheries to predict future demands for certain breeds and resulting in the death of surplus chicks that aren’t widely desirable anymore.

Chickens also experience a variety of health complications as a result of domestication. Over the years, they’ve been bred to be larger than their ancestors and to produce significantly more eggs, a change aided by their reliance on humans for survival. All the energy hens once needed to spend roaming to find food now just goes into egg laying.

Along with that comes a variety of reproductive issues in many hens, shortening their lifespans. And because many veterinarians don’t research the health issues unique to chickens, it can be difficult to aid them when they get sick or to catch issues early on.

“Even if you catch these things ahead of time, often there really isn’t anything you can do, and it’s quite hard every time that happens,” Danovich says.

While chickens are viewed by many as food and nothing more, Danovich came across the Ohio National Poultry Show, an event people from around the country flock to to show off their feathered friends.

While attending the show, she witnessed the careful attention these chicken owners give to grooming their chickens, selecting unique breeds to display and the overall love they have for the fowl. In her research, Danovich discovered that chicken pageantry dates back to the mid-1800s, when Queen Victoria received seven captivating chickens, spurring a media frenzy and the beginning of poultry shows. The infatuation around collecting rare breeds of chickens soon died down, though, and chickens’ legacy as a populous, simple farm animal took center stage once more.

Danovich says the sheer number of chickens across the world contributes to our general tendency to overlook the species.

“Even though we have a lot of cows and pigs and other farm animals, they just really pale in comparison to the number of chickens that we raise and then kill for food,” she says.

While it’s easier to ignore the harsh realities of commercial farming to avoid guilt over eating chicken, eggs and other meat, Danovich believes it’s important to acknowledge it.

“The animals would be a lot better off if we allowed ourselves to know, and then fought for better conditions and for the animals in our care that we are relying on for food,” she says.

She hopes that Under the Henfluence shows readers a different side of chickens, one that she’s gained after fostering a deep connection with her birds and learning to interpret their at times expressionless interactions and behaviors.

“This book is about chickens, obviously, but I think any living creature, no matter how big or small, is more interesting and more complicated the longer you look at them,” she says. “Chickens are worthy of our curiosity.” n

Tove Danovich: Under the Henfluence • Sat, June 17 from 7-8 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave. • auntiesbooks.com • 509-838-0206

THE BUZZ BIN

WAYANS’ WORLD

A chat with comedian and actor Marlon Wayans ahead of his Spokane Comedy Club stop

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Marlon Wayans debuted on the big screen the same year that Public Enemy released their legendary hip hop album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Since then, Wayans has stopped at nothing, solidifying his place in Hollywood history alongside his older brothers by writing, producing, directing or acting in canonized comedies like In Living Color, The Wayan Bros., White Chicks, Scary Movie and A Haunted House

Versatile on screen and off, Wayans recently took dramatic roles in Air, Respect and the Fresh Prince rerun Bel-Air, while also returning to stand-up. He signed a deal with the streaming service Max, and his most recent special, God Loves Me, is a poignant reflection on life through the lens of the 2022 Oscars slap. Wayans now comes to the Spokane Comedy Club for a twonight special event June 16-17. We called him up to get a glimpse into his family, his skin care routine and defiance toward anything trying to hold him back.

INLANDER: You’re part of a family comedy empire. Is being funny genetic?

WAYANS: No, I think the point of view of learning to laugh at our situation — our hard situation — was infused in our DNA. It’s either you live a life of crime or you find the humor in it. That’s just the way we translated our experience. What’s funny about the worst thing ever?

You and your brothers get talked about a lot. Are the Wayans women funny, too?

Oh, my sisters are hilarious. My sisters are so funny, but they actually would be canceled. We know how to tell the joke the right way. Kim knows how, too. But my other sisters — they crazy.

You’re a writer — you’re an extremely prolific writer. How did you learn to write?

I just always had a passion for it. And I think it was out of necessity. If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t have worked. I’ve written the majority of movies that I’ve

been in. I’ve written and created because as an African American in the ’90s in this industry, there wasn’t a lot of roles. So we had to create them.

A lot of your comedy centers on race or the Black experience. Why?

I’m Black. And I wouldn’t say a lot of it [centers on race]. I’m an equal opportunity offender. In my world, everybody gets it and I try to be even about the distribution of that. But of course, the African American experience for me, being that I am African American, I’m gonna pull from that and find humor in it. Because the world, for my people — we need to see the humor so we’re not as angry. Sometimes comedy gives you the greatest lessons and greatest awareness of the dire things that are happening in the community, in a fun way. It’s more digestible. Sometimes it’s a lot louder. So for us, you know, you gotta speak your truth. I think Richard Pryor did it. I think we Wayans do it. I think Chappelle does it. Chris Rock. I think it’s important for us to speak about the experience because the one thing a laugh does is — what’s great about a great joke [is that] we could be on two completely different sides of the fence. But if I make you laugh, then you see my point of view and we agree on something.

Comedians are often fantastic in drama — you, Jordan Peele, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig. Why? What’s the throughline between comedy and drama? With comedy, you’re a fool at all times. There’s a vulnerability that comedians have. We tend to go all out. When it comes to drama, you just scale back on the funny and you go on an internal journey to allow yourself to open up and be vulnerable. I think that courage translates. Read more from our interview with Wayans at Inlander.com. n

Marlon Wayans • Fri, June 16 at 7:30 and 10:15 pm, Sat, June 17 at 7 and 9:45 pm

• $45-$60 • Spokane Comedy Club

• 315 W Sprague Ave. • spokanecomedyclub.com

• 509-318-9888

BLACK HISTORY GUIDE

A newly launched app from the Washington State Historical Society offers an engaging way to interact with and explore Black history. BLACK WASHINGTON has 50 entries (with plans to add more over time) each filled with text, photographs, maps, oral histories and other resources. Entries are broken into three categories: stories, landmarks and icons. Physical places in “landmarks” include Spokane’s Calvary Baptist Church and Carl Maxey Center. The “stories” section focuses on social movements and significant periods of Black history, such as Seattle’s Black Panther Party, enslavement in Washington Territory, the Civil Rights Movement and more. “Icons” contains profiles of prominent Black leaders from throughout Washington state history. Black Washington can be downloaded for free on Android and iOS devices, and is also accessible via browser at blackwashington.app. (CHEY SCOTT)

MOVING PIECES

Just about three decades ago, the idea of holding a simple video game in your hands was inconceivable to most people. Arcades were king, and some better-off homes might have had a gaming console like a Sega or Atari. But something like Nintendo’s Game Boy was mostly just a daydream until its release in 1989. In the new Apple TV+ movie TETRIS, filmmakers capture the thrill of 8-bit game development while simultaneously telling an absolutely insane story of what it took to share the Soviet-invented puzzle game with the world. With scenes cleverly blipping in and out of blocky, 8-bit cartoon animation, the creative take on the true story involves KGB spies, entrepreneurial bravery and high-stakes negotiating. Enjoy just how far things have come by watching the HD movie on a phone that evolved from similar daydreaming. (SAMANTHA

WOHLFEIL)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on June 16.

KILLER MIKE, MICHAEL. After absolutely killing it alongside El-P as Run the Jewels for the past decade, the Atlanta MC returns to the solo realm to prove he’s still got his verbal fastball.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, IN TIMES NEW ROMAN… The hard rock mainstay seems to still possess the same stoner grind edge on its first new album in six years.

YUSUF / CAT STEVENS, KING OF A LAND. Now 17 albums into his storied career, the singer-songwriter is still able to approach songwriting with a childlike wonder and levity on songs like “Take the World Apart.” (SETH SOMMERFELD)

“You gotta speak your truth,” Wayans says.

TASTE OF SUMMER

PACIFIC NORTHWEST SALMON SALAD | 18

Smoked salmon with couscous, roasted corn, tomatoes, pepitas, feta cheese, dried cranberries and pesto ranch.

spokanetribecasino.com

#YouJustWinHere

A TASTE OF THE PAST

Newly unearthed camas ovens at ancient Kalispel Tribe site help sweeten our understanding of prehistoric, Indigenous diets

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

When Curt Holmes was a child, he heard a story. It’s unverifiable, as the best stories usually are.

A group of Indigenous people search for a new home. As they crest a peak, they look below, hoping for a hospitable valley. Instead, they’re disappointed by a vast lake. But on second look, it’s not water. It’s a broad field of camas undulating in the wind, the tall stalks of blue-purple flowers rippling like the surface of an inland reservoir.

Centuries later, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians vice chairman and general manager of public and governmental affairs is helping coordinate an archaeological dig in a field perhaps similar to the one in the story. The Kalispels purchased land north of Newport to build new housing, but notified archaeologists after finding geological anomalies about a year and a half ago while preparing to dig foundations.

Researchers from Washington State University confirmed the land probably contains multiple pit ovens, which in this region are assumed to be camas ovens, ranging in age from 900 to maybe 5,000 years old. These could be some of the oldest ovens found

DEAN HARE/WSU PHOTO

Uncovering ancient food history, one layer of dust at a time.

in this area, used since prehistoric times to bake camas roots, an important part of an ancient Pacific Northwest diet. But excavators hope the ovens will reveal what else ancient people ate. Such continuous use of this location suggests that it was an important cooking site for generations of Indigenous peoples.

The dig at the corner of Le Clerc Road and Indian Creek Road is decidedly un-aquatic. It overlooks the Pend Oreille River to the south, and thick foliage promises a creek somewhere to the northwest, but the site itself is mostly brown and bare, sandy and exposed, the top layer of soil sun-baked into a pale, pervasive dust.

Wooden stakes and blue tape keep people away from the edges of the excavation, which are vulnerable to collapse. In the trench below, it’s not obvious what everyone’s excited about.

Earth ovens are typically dug into the earth and filled with fuel, nonflammable material, and food. Think of an underground bonfire with vent holes. (Watch your step!)

The archaeological remains of earth ovens are visually underwhelming — once the organic material decays (or is eaten), all that’s left is a bed of rocks that looks pretty similar to other rocks lying around, at least to the untrained eye.

This is one reason that archaeological sites in this area, and other parts of North America, can be overlooked. No one is stumbling onto Corinthian columns or gold-filled tombs.

“Indigenous history is really crowded over by other histories,” says Shae McCarron, a research assistant at WSU. “People love studying the classics. But now we’re starting to find that there is a serious importance in what we call traditional ecological knowledge.”

Excavation sites like this one are often kept out of the press to protect them from vandalism or theft. But Kalispel leaders decided this discovery was too important a chance to educate the public about Indigenous history and traditions, which are often intertwined with cooking techniques.

Construction crews were first tipped off to something special in the area when they found high concentrations of fire-cracked rock — stones with sharp edges and flat sides that suggest they were cracked in half by extreme heat.

If the layer of fire-cracked rock was consistent throughout the area, geologists would have chalked it up to an ancient wildfire. But the rocks were concentrated in specific areas, which suggests human activity.

Kalispel tribal leaders called Shannon Tushingham, an anthropological archaeologist at WSU. The tribe has partnered with the university for a century now, and Tushingham’s specific research often focuses on food security in hunter-gatherer communities, as well as how archaeological data can intersect with health and food needs in tribal communities today.

While excavating the ovens, Tushingham sends microscopic samples back to the lab to analyze what food may have been cooked here. She hopes to discover residues of other foods besides camas to flesh out the current understanding of prehistoric eating habits.

“I think in the past people have really been focused on just [camas], which is really important,” Tushingham says. “But there were probably lots of other foods that people were eating and that’s exactly what we’re trying to find out.”

Tushingham hopes this work, among other efforts, can bring attention to the need for nutrition studies on “first foods,” nutrition staples of ancient people that are still important to Indigenous identities and diets today. It’s pretty simple to find data on the protein and starch in a potato, but much more difficult for traditionally prepared bull trout or nodding onion. Tribal leaders are working to change that.

Studying food can also illuminate ancient climate and movement patterns. In ovens excavated around the same area, Kalispel Tribe archaeologist Kevin Lyons and his team previously found the blood proteins of a bighorn sheep on fire-cracked rock. It was a huge surprise.

“This is not their core habitat,” Lyons says. “Was this imported goods? Or was this the outer fringe of a herd that they were able to tap into? We don’t know yet.”

...continued on next page

TASTE OF THE PAST,” CONTINUED...

Maybe this was a central cooking location, like a communal kitchen, where hunters would bring kills from far away. Maybe this spot was a generational, intertribal tradepost. Maybe animals existed in this region that scientists didn’t know about before.

It’s next to impossible to know for certain, but interdisciplinary work helps drive the evidence forward.

“When you start putting physical context in with the verbal and the ethnographical context, then you get the whole story of 5,000 [or] 6,000 years ago — that’s kind of wild,” WSU’s McCarron says.

These newly unearthed ovens may hold valuable information about how nutrition changed as the region’s Indigenous tribes increased in population and density.

“People have been living in this valley at least 11,000-plus years,” Lyons says. “In that 11,000 years, the population shifted from small bands of about 25 people up to big villages of 250 to 1,000 people on occasion. To get to that kind of population density at one location, you had to develop a technology and a mental inventory of what’s food and what is shelf stable.”

Despite the excitement about what else may have been cooked and eaten here, one throughline remains.

“The local plant that is shelf stable, the one that everybody knows,” says Lyons, “is camas.”

Camas is a member of the asparagus family, though it’s more often mentioned in the same breath as the nodding onion, a wild member of the allium family. But camas looks the most like a spring flower. If you’ve driven from Cheney to Seattle this past May and paid attention to the ditches along I-90, you probably saw a “very purple, lily-like flower,” Lyons says. “That’s camas. Up in this valley, because of

different soil chemistry, ours is a little pale blue, and dark blue.”

Camas flowers grow from an enlarged root, often called a bulb and scientifically termed a “corm.” Somewhere between the size of a big clove of garlic and a small fingerling potato, camas was a needed source of starch for Indigenous diets across the Pacific Northwest. It’s generally tasteless unless slow roasted — really slow roasted, like two or three days. Depending on how it’s prepared, camas can transition from toasted hazelnut to deeply sweet caramel.

“In diets that were absolutely bereft of sugar other than huckleberry and serviceberry, this was really, really nice,” Lyons says.

Baking camas also makes it lighter and extremely shelf stable. Prehistoric chefs combined baked camas with huckleberries and bear fat and shaped them into cakes. These cakes could probably last three years in the right conditions, Lyons says. He describes ancient pantries, called cache sites, often between villages and hunting grounds, where tribespeople could dip into reserves in seasons of scarcity.

These starchy, fatty cakes were essential for the lifestyle of an ancient Indigenous person.

“They were athletes!” Lyons says. “Imagine you’re canoeing every day with a current that is eight miles an hour, and you’re going upstream. So these folks were yoked — they ate a lot of food. And one of the things that’s deficient in their diets is fat, contrary to my experiences,” he adds, holding his middle for emphasis.

Modern-day athletes may need anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day. Tushingham wonders if camas cakes might have helped natives carbo-load and stave off toxins released from overreliance on lean protein. Unfortunately, the necessary starch was also extremely labor intensive.

“Kevin took us out and we learned how

to harvest camas,” Tushingham says. “And I can tell you, it’s hard. It’s harder than — you read about it in books — but for students to try it out…”

Tushingham’s voice fades in awe, especially considering the amount of camas that gatherers would have needed to harvest to meet their caloric needs. Lyons estimates 60 percent of an Indigenous person’s calories would have come from root vegetable starches. That could mean that gatherers needed to harvest 300 pounds of camas in total during the few weeks it was available. But certainty is elusive.

“That’s just what we call SWAG — a scientific wild-ass guess,” Lyons says.

The oven excavations last four weeks total. In such a limited time, archaeologists dig out what they can, then return to labs and classrooms to digest what they’ve learned about camas and other food sources. The tribe’s housing need is urgent, and construction can’t start soon enough.

But camas and other first foods continue to be an important part of tribal flourishing. Kalispel leader Holmes says that tribal members teach daycare children how to harvest camas every spring. And when the new housing here does go up, there’s a good chance that camas will still be baked in modern ovens, just a few feet above the earthen pits that fed their ancestors for thousands of years. n

All that remains from ancient earth ovens are fire-cracked rocks, plus microscopic residue of plants and animals. ELIZA BILLINGHAM PHOTOS

Camas was likely ground by a mortar and pestle like this.

G G D ID I E E U U M M R R U U E E S S M M

2023

M M R R U U E E S S M M

SECTION EDITOR

Chey Scott

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Derek Harrison

After that long winter, after heat domes and the summers of smoke, after all those political debates, after inflation and recession, after COVID, after all of that, summer is finally here. And what a summer it promises to be.

The Inland Northwest is probably best enjoyed during these hot, sunny months, and we’re here for it. We’re here for those tried-and-true summer jams, like Hoopfest and Pig Out in the Park. We can’t wait for the string of concerts at venues big and small. We’re looking forward to going for a bike ride, or seeing a new exhibit at the MAC. The swimming. The barbecues. Our gardens ripening to delicious bliss. Chalking up the sidewalk. Getting behind the wheel to explore this beautiful region we call home.

It’s been a rough couple of years, but you know what? That’s in the rearview. Look at what lies ahead. It’s summer, and we’re in a place that is absolutely bursting with things to experience and see. We’re here to tell you all about it, in this guide of all guides for your summer pleasure. And, to help out even more, we’ve found some summer experts to give you guidance on how to get the most of our Spokane summer.

— NICHOLAS DESHAIS, editor

COPY EDITOR

Anne McGregor

LISTINGS

EDITOR

Madison Pearson

CONTRIBUTORS

Eliza Billingham

Nicholas Deshais

E.J. Iannelli

Will Maupin

Anne McGregor

Madison Perason

Summer Sandstrom

Nate Sanford

Seth Sommerfeld

Mary Stover

Nathan Weinbender

Samantha Wohlfeil

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:

There’s so much to do this summer, there’s no way to do it all — but you can try!

WAT E R WAT E R

Dive deep into aquatic recreation this summer across the Inland Northwest

BY SUMMER SANDSTROM

As invigorating as summer weather can be, sometimes the blistering sun can be suffocating. When the heat is too much, one thing that’s on the top of many peoples’ minds is an essential component of life: water.

Some are drawn to diving headfirst into a pool, while others take a liking to floating down the river with an ice cold drink in hand. With a myriad of rivers, lakes, pools and waterparks to choose from in the Inland Northwest, finding a way to cool off is no sweat. From exploring the Spokane River to road tripping to an adventurous destination, there’s an abundance of options perfect for everyone.

DRIFT ALONG THE SPOKANE RIVER

Looking for a relaxing way to cool off, hang out with friends and get some sun? Float the river!

Spokane Riverkeeper has created an extensive online guide on when and where to float the river, and recommends starting your journey at the west end of Water Avenue in Peaceful Valley, where a rocky beach leads directly to the water. Many opt to float for two hours to the TJ Meenach Bridge, which is directly before fierce rapids and rocky outcroppings at the Bowl and Pitcher in Riverside State Park.

You can get out of the river earlier, but you’ll want to park a second vehicle at your ending destination or take FLOW Adventures’ shuttle service, which picks floaters up at TJ Meenach Bridge to head back to Peaceful Valley, as well as providing tubes and lifejackets.

Floating season generally begins in late June or early July when the water is flowing at below 2,500 cubic feet per second. Check the current river flow on the U.S. Geological Survey’s website, waterdata.usgs.gov.

Cool off in the beautiful Spokane River. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

66TH ANNUAL

Saturday, August 5th • 9am-5:30pm

Spokane County Fair and Expo Center

Heavy Athletics, Bagpipe Bands, Highland Dancing, Celtic Entertainment, Celtic Vendors, Kids Games, and Scottish Historic Exhibits

SPOKANEHIGHLANDGAMES.NET

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RACE AROUND THE PANHANDLE

Let your hair down as you dart around the waterways of the Idaho Panhandle on a jet ski.

In Post Falls you can rent a jet ski from Fun Unlimited for $185 if you sign up for their two-hour early bird rental with a 10 am start time. If you want to spend all day exploring the vast waters around Lake Coeur d’Alene, an eight-hour rental is available for $700 if you book the 10 am early bird special, otherwise rentals are $215 for two hours or $430 for four hours, booked from 11 am on. Riders must be at least 18 years old, and reservations are available now through early fall at cdasports.com.

The journey starts at the marina behind Red Lion Hotel’s Templin’s on the River in Post Falls, where you can cruise down the Spokane River for about 9 miles to the vast waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene. From there, you can travel south to Harrison in an hour and dine at the Cycle Haus, One Shot Charlies, Rowan’s Island Grill, or other eateries at the marina. For a longer excursion, follow the Coeur d’Alene River at Harrison, which flows into a chain of lakes.

If you opt for the shorter reservation, there are numerous bays and hidden corners of Lake Coeur d’Alene that you can easily explore before docking your rental and departing from your high-speed adventure.

MAKE A SPLASH

It’s no secret that Spokane’s city pools offer numerous swimming classes and fitness programs throughout the day, but did you know anyone can swim in the pools for free with a SplashPass?

The cost-free SplashPass provides swimmers of all ages with access to the city’s six aquatic centers during open swim hours, Monday through Saturday from 1-4 pm, which begins on June 20 and ends Aug. 25.

Want to jump in the water after a long day at work?

The city pools also offer evening open swims from 6:30-8 pm at each location (excluding Witter Aquatic Center) on a rotating weekly schedule.

Each city pool boasts play features perfect for kids who are acclimating to the water or who want to dart down a winding water slide straight into the pool.

SplashPasses are digital, so staff simply search for your name in the city’s system rather than requiring you to carry a card or slip of paper with you to participate in open swim.

TOURING EASTERN WASHINGTON

Spokane Parks and Recreation offers a variety of unique and immersive kayaking, paddle boarding and canoeing experiences. You can choose from guided and self-guided tours, and each activity provides participants with equipment and transportation from their car to the drop-off locations.

COLBY ACUFF SATURDAY

Bri Bagwell

The Lowdown Drifters

Brandon Jackson Band

RODNEY ATKINS

War Hippies

Raelyn Nelson Band

Bryan Martin

Neon Union

Rob Leines

RIDE THE WAVE

THE CADILLAC THREE

Drake Milligan

Sean Stemaly

Jessica Lynn

Last Chance Band

Sept. 3, 12:15pm

BENEFITTING: Pastor Grayson Belleque and music by Carson Peters & Iron Mountain

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

FJ23 3.6"wide x 8.2"tall ad_051023_2.indd 1 5/25/23 1:51 PM

Surfing is intimidating with the potential dangers of unpredictable waves, riptides and rocky shorelines, not to mention the strength and balance needed to stay on your board.

Just under three hours west of Spokane, Slidewaters

Water Park in Chelan offers a unique surfing opportunity designed for beginners and advanced surfers alike. Lakeside Surf is the park’s deep pool that creates a 54-footwide, stationary wave reaching up to six feet tall.

A 45-minute session costs $40, with options for beginners who’ve never surfed before, as well as experienced surfers looking to improve their technique, get some extra practice, or learn some new tricks. Plus, Slidewaters offers vouchers, punch cards and memberships for those looking to surf for hours or days on end instead of only hitting the water for 45 minutes.

If you’re just looking to try Lakeside Surf without committing to a full lesson, Slidewaters offers free, 30-minute sessions from 10 am to noon. If you don’t plan to explore the water park, you can visit Lakeside Surf without paying the waterpark’s admission fee. Find out more at slidewaters.com.

While Spokane Parks offers a lot of opportunities in the Spokane area, you can also visit lakes and rivers a couple of hours away. On these guided tours, some of which include hikes — such as one excursion in July and August to the Pend Oreille River with a hike through Crawford State Park’s Gardner Cave — participants can expect to spend hours exploring the region’s stunning waterways and learn about the geology of the Inland Northwest. Find more and register at spokanerec.org.

HIKE TO THE WATER

Some cool summer days are perfect for a hike, especially one that leads you to a river or lake. Riverside State Park, Tubbs Hill in Coeur d’Alene and People’s Park are popular destinations, but the path doesn’t end there.

For a shorter hike that brings you to the Mirabeau Springs and the Spokane River, check out the paved Mirabeau Trailhead. While a soccer complex does reside at Plante’s Ferry, the Centennial Trail loops around it and brings you directly to the river and the Islands Swimming Area.

In Idaho, the paved Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes follows the Coeur d’Alene River, with multiple trailheads spurring off towards the river’s outflowing lakes. The Idaho Panhandle National Forest also has countless trails leading to Lake Pend Oreille, Priest Lake, the St. Joe River and more of the area’s alluring waterways. n

Dip your toes into fun at Slidewaters Water Park in Chelan.

HOW VISITOR SPENDING BENEFITS YOU

2022 TOURISM ECONOMIC IMPACT NUMBERS*

Brought to you by Visit Spokane

$1.4B VISITOR SPENDING

The $1.4 billion in visitor spending means that approximately $3.9 million was spent EVERY DAY on average by visitors in Spokane County.

16.6% INCREASE OVER 2021

17,426 TOTAL JOBS

The total number of jobs sustained by tourism including indirect and induced benefits, accounts for 5.3% of all jobs in Spokane County.

$219M STATE & LOCAL TAXES

The $219 million in state and local tax revenue received in 2022 would be enough to pay the salaries of over 3,500 elementary school teachers in Spokane.

$1,045

HOUSEHOLD TAX RELIEF

Each household in Spokane County would need to be taxed an additional $1,045 to replace the visitor-generated taxes received by state and local governments in 2022.

6.6% INCREASE OVER 2021

10.6% INCREASE OVER 2021

9.1% INCREASE OVER 2021 Visit

*Sources: Longwoods International, Tourism Economics

WAT ER WAT ER

SUMMER GUIDANCE

Josh Oakes

Spokane Parks and Recreation

Spokane Parks and Recreation wants to get people outside. Josh Oakes began working at the city five years ago, using his background in recreation and leisure studies to train staff, start new programs and maintain the city’s aquatic spaces.

(SUMMER SANDSTROM)

What is your favorite summertime activity?

Camping with my family. We’ll go fishing and bike riding and hiking, and just get out of town and enjoy each others’ company.

What place do you go to every summer?

We like to go to Steamboat Rock [on Banks Lake] when we go camping, so that’s one of our typical destinations. It’s our favorite because it’s got water, it’s got trails, it’s got the playground, it’s got a lot of stuff to do.

What’s a water sport or activity that you recommend people try out?

We have, at Spokane Aquatics, an AquaFit program

that is a lot of fun. It is low-impact so anybody could do it. We have a really fun instructor who makes it enjoyable and high energy. It’s a really fun program for anybody to participate in.

What’s a hidden gem for water recreation in the region that people should check out?

I would say Liberty [Park] Aquatics Center is a hidden gem. It’s got a vortex, which is a fun feature, it’s got a diving tank, it’s got a couple of water slides, it’s got a play feature with a zero-entry guest area. It’s by an amazing park right next to a brand new library.

I’ve seen articles in the past couple years about lifeguard shortages; is that something the city is struggling with now?

I see the same news articles that you see as well. Fortunately for us, we’re not experiencing that. At the height of our season we’ll have 200 employees, and we’ve already onboarded most of our employees for the summer. We’re going to overstaff a little bit, just knowing that people want to take vacations, and we may lose people because they might find other opportunities, but we’re sitting in a really good position right now for all six aquatic centers and needing 200 employees. n

A Summer of Kindness, Friendship & Unity

Track your summer reading & earn entries for a prize drawing. Sign up for Camp Read-a-Rama & enjoy stories, activities, crafts, music & games!

Plus, sing, dance & laugh along with streaming adventures & live performers.

Read. Explore. Have fun.

www.scld.org

The Grand Opening of the new Spokane Valley Library is Saturday, June 17. We hope to see you there this summer!

Sing the body aquatic at a splash pad with your SplashPass this summer. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

SPOKANE COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT

SP O R T S SP O R T S & RE C RE AT

IO

N & RE C RE AT IO N A

Whether you prefer the woods, the park or the ballpark, it’s all here this summer

BY WILL MAUPIN

Winter has skiing and the Zags, but summer has everything else when it comes to sports and recreation in the Inland Northwest. The mountains become a haven for hikers and campers while the hoopers bring their basketballs out onto the streets. Whether you’re in it for the team or more of an individual, there are events galore as a player or a fan.

HOOP & HOLLER

Spokane is once again the center of the basketball universe for the weekend of June 24 and 25 as tens of thousands of players and spectators descend on downtown for a heaping serving of hoops. Hoopfest is a showcase not only for the players, but for Spokane and its love of basketball. Get downtown early as the energy in the crowd is best before the late-afternoon heat sets in. Visit spokanehoopfest.net for more information.

When Hoopfest comes to town, the streets close down. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

SP OR T S SP OR T S P O & RECRE ATION & RECRE ATION R

PICKLE PADDLE

Laugh at the funny name all you want, but pickleball has been one of the hottest sports in the country in recent years. First played on Bainbridge Island in the 1960s, pickleball was named the official state sport of Washington in 2022. Combining elements of ping-pong, tennis and badminton, the sport has become a popular way for people of all ages to get in a good cardio workout that is low-impact on the body. For a casual game, all you need is a Wiffle-style ball, two to four people, wooden paddles and an open tennis court. If you want more, you can find local resources, courts and events at inwpc.com.

RUN FOR IT

Sure, you could go for a run all by yourself. It’s a great solitary activity, but who’s to say it’s not even better with some camaraderie. The Spokane area is home to numerous running clubs for enthusiasts of all ages and experience levels.

There are the more socially-inclined running clubs that use a bar as their home base. Spokane Valley Running Club meets Mondays at Monkey Bar. Flying Irish Running Club is a popular and centrally located group that meets Thursdays at Uprise Brewing. Run Perry Run Club scampers around the South Hill from its base at 10th and Perry.

The less-than-formal approach these clubs take allows participants to combine fitness and fun. After burning off some calories on a 3-to-5 mile jog, members can gather around a table with a pint or two to help undo the work they just put in — though working their social muscles after their physical ones brings a nice, healthy balance.

For the more serious runners of the world, membership-based groups like the nationally affiliated Bloomsday Road Runners Club put more of an emphasis on training and performance.

Each of these groups can be found on Facebook, where they are active and engaged with their communities.

GRAND SLAM

There is more than just baseball at Avista Stadium when the Spokane Indians come to play. Each of the 40 remaining home games on this season’s schedule features a little something extra, from bring-your-dog-to-theballpark nights to the budget-friendly family feasts or the frequent postgame fireworks. There’s something for everyone, baseball fan or not, at the old ball game. Single-game tickets start at just $9. Visit milb.com/ spokane for details.

OTTO the Spokanasaurus gives a hand to the Spokane Indians. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

SP OR T S SP OR T S & RECRE ATION & RECRE ATION A

HIKE THE INLAND RAINFOREST

It may not get the same buzz or rain as its counterpart on the Olympic Peninsula — it doesn’t get the traffic, either, which is a plus — but did you know we have a rainforest in our own backyard? The North American inland temperate rainforest stretches in patches along the windward slopes of the Columbia and Rocky Mountains for over 600 miles from British Columbia to the Clearwater River. It’s home to numerous vascular plant species typical of the coast ranges rather than the northern Rockies. The Settlers Grove of Ancient Cedars north of Wallace, Idaho, is a great starting point for hikers of all experience levels.

SOCCER FEVER

The US Women’s National Team is looking to win its third consecutive World Cup title in the land down under this summer, and local soccer organizations will be helping bring the action back home. The American Outlaws, the official supporters’ group for the national teams, hosts watch parties at Logan Tavern. USL Spokane, the organization bringing professional men’s and women’s soccer to town next year, has multiple events and watch parties in the works as well. The Women’s World Cup kicks off on July 20 and runs through Aug. 20. Find out more at uslspokane.com.

SPIT & STRIDE

Stretch your legs before this 4-mile run through the orchards of Green Bluff, but don’t forget to warm up your mouth muscles as well. The Cherry Picker’s Trot & Pit Spit is an annual tradition at the

fun, and of course the aforementioned cherry pit spitting contest. The festivities are set for July 20, with more information at the Cherry Picker’s Trot & Pit Spit Facebook page.

LAWN GAMES

You don’t need to fight the crowds or hike deep into the woods to have a sporting experience this summer, a lawn and some friends is all it takes. The equipment for games like cornhole and ladder toss can be made with a quick trip to the hardware store and some

looking for more of a workout, consider spikeball, the game where four players smash a ball into a miniature trampoline.

SPIKE IT

Spike & Dig, Spokane’s late summer celebration of volleyball, returns for its 31st year. The outdoor volleyball tournament takes place Aug. 5-6 at northwest Spokane’s Dwight Merkel Sports Complex. Teams of up to seven players compete to set and bump their way to the top of their bracket. Regular registration runs through

Get hyped for the Women’s World Cup. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

SUMMER GUIDANCE J Atkins & Phil Harrison USL

Spokane

JAtkins and Phil Harrison are part of the leadership team at USL Spokane, the group bringing men’s and women’s professional soccer teams to the new downtown stadium next year. There may not be any soccer there yet, but that doesn’t mean Atkins and Harrison aren’t busy preparing. When they’re off the clock, though, they have some plans to enjoy the Inland Northwest summer. (WILL MAUPIN)

What is your favorite summertime activity?

PH: Anything at the lake is always a great time.

JA: Anything outdoors. I love mountain biking and just being outside, so I would say that’s my number one. I also really enjoy golfing. My wife played professionally, so just trying to keep up with her, which is impossible.

The new downtown Spokane stadium will soon host women’s and men’s pro soccer teams.

What place or locale do you go to every summer?

JA: The Pend Oreille River. That’s where I got married at a tiny little golf course and vacation area. We go up there every single summer. Even when we lived in Portland we would travel up to ‘the dip’ which is how we lovingly refer to it.

PH: Big fan of Camp Reed in the summer. I did the [counselor in training], I was a counselor, I was the executive director for a few years.

What is your go-to summer recreation activity in the city for a weekday evening after work?

PH: A walk in the neighborhood with my dogs. Being out in the sun and getting a little exercise for both me

and the dogs is a great way to unwind for the day.

JA: Mountain biking. So many trails right out our back door and every time I get on my bike I can’t stop smiling.

What is an activity you would recommend that could help someone get into or excited about soccer?

JA: Supporting local establishments for watch parties and checking out South Hill FC for pick-up games. All levels welcome!

PH: Watch the World Cup. Being around fanatic soccer fans is pure fun and adrenaline. Whether it is your local club or your national team, there are not many better sports fans than soccer fans. n

Summer Calendar of Events

RACES AT FINDLAY STADIUM AT STATELINE SPEEDWAY Every Fri & Sat Night

• JUNE 23 Movie in Tullamore Park “Luca”

• JULY 1 Colt Ford Concert Findlay Stadium at Stateline Speedway

• JULY 7 Movie in Q’emiln Park “Aladdin”

• JULY 7-9 Post Falls Days Q’emiln Park

• JULY 8 Post Falls Parade 10am Seltice Avenue

• JULY 12 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• JULY 12 Jimmie Allen Concert at Findlay Stadium at Stateline Speedway

• JULY 19 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• JULY 22 Pickleball Tournament, Tullamore and Sportsman Park

• JULY 26 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• AUG 2 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• AUG 9 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• AUG 9 Josh Turner Concert at Findlay Stadium at Stateline Speedway

• AUG 6 Sprint Triathlon & Duathlon Q’emiln Park

• AUG 11 Movie in Sportsman Park “The Rookie”

• AUG 16 River City Market and Music 5:30-8:30

The Landing, adjacent to Falls Park

• SEPT 6 Easton Corbin Concert at Findlay Stadium at Stateline Speedway

• SEPT 30 Prost! In the Park, 10-7pm Q’emiln Park

• OCT 7 Shoes and Brews Race, Kiwanis Park

WHEEL SWHEEL S

The tunnels of the Hiawatha Trail are even cooler at night.

Ride on, it’s the Summer of Pedal-Powered Love

BY NICHOLAS DESHAIS

The bicycle was invented far too late. Even at birth, it was an anachronism. Think about it. The first bike — a simple machine without a motor — came a decade or so after the extremely complex and powerful steam locomotive. The internal combustion engine wasn’t far behind. So what took so long for the bike? After all, the know-how and materials needed for bike building had been around for hundreds of years. If the bike had been built on time, our world would look much different. Bikes and bikeways would’ve been codified in our culture. So, with all of this in mind, let this be the Summer of Wheels, where we mend our space-time fabric and take back our streets to make this a world of bicycles. Even if just for a season.

NIGHT WHEELS

The day is a perfectly fine time to ride a bike. The night, though, is something else entirely. Moon shadows play tricks on your eyes. Sounds from the dark get the heart pumping. Go nocturnal this summer by trying one, or all three, of these regional night rides.

The Hiawatha Trail Moonlight Rides are a good place to start. At just $40 — upgrade to $65 for a T-shirt — this guided ride along one of the Inland Northwest’s most lauded trails will let you rest secure knowing your adventure won’t devolve into a Donner Party scenario. The moonlight rides began in June, but there are still more, on July 3, Aug. 1 and Aug. 30. For more information, visit ridethehiawatha.com.

For a more urban, and shorter ride, check out the CDA Full Moon Ride, which takes place year-round in Coeur d’Alene. The ride typically ranges between two and four miles, and all ages and types of bikes are welcome. It all begins at 7 pm at a local restaurant or watering hole, and riding begins around 9 pm. Join the fun, and find out more at the CDA Full Moon Bike Ride Facebook group.

Lastly, for the hardest-cored among us, there’s the Midnight Century, a 100-mile gauntlet on trails and the unlit, dirt backroads of the Inland Northwest. It begins at midnight at the Elk Public House in Spokane’s Browne’s Addition and ends when either you finish the brutal course, or it finishes you. Visit midnightcentury.com for more details. If you dare.

WILL RIDE FOR ICE CREAM

The first time I rode the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes was a revelation. I’d parked at Heyburn State Park with nary an idea of what lay ahead. I crossed the Chatcolet Bridge and felt like I was riding over one of the Great Wonders of the World. My awe only widened as I rode along the banks of Lake Coeur d’Alene. About seven miles in, I thought, “This is a land of amazement and the only thing that would make it more magical is a cafe, with espresso, wine and ice cream.” A mile later, my wish was granted in the town of Harrison, Idaho, which has all of the above and more. To this day, I wonder if Harrison existed before I imagined it, or if it’s been a perfect wayside all along.

about date night? Or if you simply want to be toted around Spokane like some sort of ancient royal in a palanquin? Try the Trolley for Two. Same company, different vehicle, lower price. For $60, get rickshaw-ed around town for a one-hour private and personalized tour. If you see one of these little vehicles-that-could plying downtown Spokane, hail it and hitch a ride for $1 per minute.

Have bike, will camp with alpacas.

BIKEPACKING WITH HIPCAMP

The urge to get out of town is strong among we people of the Inland Northwest. The lake beckons. Campsites call. The woods want us. But all that driving, ugh. This year, try bikepacking. Strap all you need for a night or two under the stars to your bike, and go. But where? Check out , which is something like AirBnB for camping. Within easy riding from Spokane or Coeur d’Alene, there are places to pitch a tent at a former bison ranch, on Williams Lake, in the forest near Riverside State Park, along Idaho’s Finger Lakes south of I-90 and at an alpaca farm. What are you waiting for?!

THE HILL CHALLENGE

Summer’s fun and all, but all that lazing around in the sun can be such a bore. Up your summer by climbing the area’s steepest and longest hills on two wheels. Start with Tower Mountain, which isn’t far from the intersection of the Palouse Highway and 57th Avenue. There it is, in the yonder, with all the radio towers. Follow Ben Burr Road up and up, just three miles, until you hit the gate — and perhaps your limit. But the view, and your sense of being a badass, is worth it. And that’s just the beginning. Complete the challenge by riding White Road, the Freya Hill, Carnahan Hill, Eagle Ridge and, heck, Mt. Spokane, and your summer will be one to remember. n

“I think it’s a great service to our community!”

-

Neil, vehicle donor at UGM Motors.

WHEEL SWHEEL S SUMMER GUIDANCE Katherine Widing

Summer Parkways

Spokefest may be gone, but Summer Parkways is alive and well, thanks in no small part to Katherine Widing. She’s been leading the Summer Solstice event since 2010, including last year when it not only faced extinction, but saw its biggest turnout yet. Widing’s written bicycling guidebooks for Holland, France, Belgium and around Washington state. So, yeah, she knows a thing or two about wheels. This year’s event takes place Wednesday, June 21, from 6-9 pm, learn more at summerparkways.com. (NICHOLAS DESHAIS)

What’s your favorite summer activity?

Riding on all the fabulous trails in and around Spokane: the Centennial Trail, Fish Lake Trail, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. Just taking advantage of all the long distance rides we have around here.

Where do you have to go every summer?

I love camping on Lopez Island with its beautiful coastline. I love the San Juan islands. The beaches. The

serenity. Lopez is one of the best islands for cycling. It is the cycling island.

What is Summer Parkways?

Summer Parkways is Spokane’s biggest block party, with four miles of streets closed to motorized vehicles. We had 4,000 people last year. There’s lots of walking, dancing, jogging. And cycling, of course. Lots of activities for kids. Lots of vendors, like Crepe Cafe Sisters and Kona Ice. And the Park Bench Cafe will be open late for snacks and drinks along the route.

So it’s not just for bikes?

No it’s not. It’s more than cycling. Lots of people look at it as a cycling event, but it’s for pedestrians, scooters, skaters. Purely human-powered recreation. It’s four miles of car-free roads where you can do as much or as little as you want, at whatever pace you want. For kids, it’s

a great way to ride a bike and not worry about traffic. Same for adults.

What else will people see there?

There will be a bike rodeo up at Hart Field, with a slalom course, one with jumps, and other obstacles. It’s very popular. And the tango group! Grant Shipley — you might have seen him riding around town with a boombox — he also dances the tango. He gets a group of friends together. They stop on corners and dance for a few minutes, then they just jump on their bikes and stop again when they feel like it. They’re just fabulous.

Where did the idea for Parkways come from?

It came from Ciclovía, which originated in Bogotá, Colombia, which has closed some of its major streets every Sunday since the 1970s to do exactly what Summer Parkways does. n

Summer Parkways is for everyone, just leave your car at home. AARON SUSSELL PHOTO

SHOP , EAT & ENJOY

Embrace summertime by strolling the shops, unwinding on open patios with friends and family, indulging in delectable dishes from local eateries, walking along the Centennial Trail, and experiencing the beauty of the Spokane River while supporting the thriving community of homegrown businesses.

SHOPPING

Boutique Bleu

Fleet Feet

French Toast Mama & Mini

The Great PNW

Kendall Yards Night Market

Marmot Art Space

My Fresh Basket

Prairie Dog Mercantile

William Grant Gallery & Framing

DINING & DRINKS

3 Ninjas

Baba • BRGR House

Craftsman Cellars

Hello Sugar

Indaba Coffee Roasters

Maryhill Winery • Mole

Nectar Wine & Beer

New Love Coffee • Bean and Pie

The Scoop • The Hidden Bagel

The Tea Boba Bar

Umi Kitchen & Sushi Bar

Versalia Pizza • Sorella

Yards Bruncheon

SERVICES

Bloom Aesthetics

Core Pilates & Wellness

Inlander

Kaiser Permanente

Kendall Yards Welcome Center

Mom’s Custom Tattoo & Piercing

Movement Clinic

Providence Health & Services

The Regenerative Institute

Spark Central

Spokane Psychology & Neuropsychology

U District Physical Therapy

Windermere City Group

A R T S A R T S

BY MADISON PEARSON AND CHEY SCOTT

While some may think of art as an indoor-only activity, relegated to museums, classrooms and studios, the myriad media and forms that fall under this vast umbrella of a word are actually quite conducive to warm weather. Consider the proliferation of outdoor art festivals and markets, for example, or the worry-free setting of doing extra messy projects under a sunny sky or a shady tree. Or the cool, calm reprieve that a museum or fine art gallery can offer to sweaty tourists and those of us living without the luxury of air conditioning. You see, art doesn’t really have a season, but if it did, summer would always be our first choice.

STAY CLASSY

Looking to try your hand at a specific art medium this summer? Chances are you can find a local artist willing to share their expert knowledge with you through one of many classes offered in the area.

For the aspiring artist that lives in all of us, Spokane Art School has a plethora of options to try out. Watercolor painting with Andi Keating (June 26-30) aims to unlock your inner whimsy, and Tom Quinn is ready to prepare you for some serious art crash courses as he teaches portraiture

From quiet galleries to outdoor art making, get ready to be inspired or get hands-on this summer

Keep

and leads a lecture series all about the history of art (both sessions are July 4-Aug. 8). See what else you can learn at spokaneartschool.net.

How cool would it be to create a masterpiece with your own hands this summer? At Spokane Print & Publishing Center you can do just that. Create a Lego-printed Zine with local bookbinder Mel Antuna Hewitt (June 22), carve your own wood block prints with Reinaldo Gil Zambrano (June 24) or, if you’re feeling adventurous, take an Advanced Letterpress class to learn how to make your own prints using these fascinating machines (July 22). Check out SPPC’s other class offerings at spokaneprint.org.

For a true array of topics to try out, look no further than the public library system. This summer, the Spokane Public Library is offering various classes such as a sketchbook workshop with Amalia Fisch for the creatives looking to keep all of their ideas in one place, and an Indian folk art class led by Devika Gates (July 9). For more information head to spokanelibrary.org.

For even more summertime art classes, check out the calendars of Emerge in Coeur d’Alene, Art Salvage Spokane, and the Corbin Art Center operated by Spokane Parks and Recreation.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

A R T S A R T S

MOMENTS AT THE MUSEUM

When temperatures rise to unbearable levels and heading to the nearest lake isn’t an option, stay cool indoors and spend a relaxing afternoon at one of the region’s esteemed art museums.

Through Aug. 20, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture is displaying the marquee touring exhibit, “The Wyeths: Three Generations,” part of the Bank of America Collection’s Art in Our Communities Program. Among the 66 paintings featured are the sweeping coastal scenes of N.C. Wyeth alongside art by his son Andrew, grandson Jamie, and other members of the prolifically talented family of American painters. While you’re at the MAC, also stop in to see “Frank S. Matsura: Portraits From the Borderland,” featuring images by the Washington-based, Japanese photographer. Matsura’s photos of Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest were captured during the dawn of the 20th century, a time of great social transformation. Finally, Pakistan-born artist Humaira Abid’s “Searching for Home” is up through Aug. 6, showcasing intricately detailed wood carvings offering commentary on the plight of women and children forced to flee their homes as refugees. Find hours, admission and more at northwestmuseum.org.

While Gonzaga University’s campus tends to empty out for the summer months, that doesn’t mean its Jundt Art Museum goes into holiday hibernation. Quite the opposite, in fact, and this summer marks the eighth iteration of its Drawn to the Wall series. Every three years, the Jundt invites a handful of regional artists to draw or paint directly onto the Arcade Gallery’s walls for a temporary installation that’s painted over after the show’s closure, this year on Aug. 26. This summer’s featured artists for “Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations” are Mariah Boyle, Katie Creyts, Tobi Harvey and Rob McKirdie, who are building multimedia installations inside gallery display cases. The Jundt also hosts the “Inland Northwest Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition” through Aug. 24, a showcase of contemporary textiles. More at gonzaga.edu/jundt.

WHEN: Friday, June 23

TIME: 10am - 3pm

WHERE: Spokane Public Library's Central Library: 906 W. Main Ave.

WHAT: Apply for the Working Families Tax Credit while you enjoy fun, festive activities for the kids and access other resources!

Down on the Palouse, Washington State University’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU is another cool sanctuary for quiet contemplation. Before the end of June, catch the tail end of “What Was Always Yours and Never Lost,” a showcase of video art and experimental documentaries by nine Indigenous artists, curated by MacArthur Fellow Sky Hopinka. Opening at the end of summer, just as students return to the Pullman campus, the

museum unveils two new exhibitions on Aug. 22. In “They Teach Love,” Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson combines traditional materials evoking American Indian culture with ordinary objects. “Here in a Homemade Forest,” meanwhile, complements WSU’s 2023-23 Common Reading title Braiding Sweetgrass, highlighting themes from the book via fine art prints, cultural artifacts and other objects. More at museum.wsu.edu.

WHEN: Friday, June 30

TIME: 11am - 3pm

WHERE: Mission Park: 1208 E. Mission Ave., Spokane.

WHAT: Resource Carnival with, fun, food, access to resources, and help with Working Families Tax Credit!

N.C. Wyeth’s Untitled Landscape (1923) is on display alongside art by his son and grandson at the MAC through Aug. 20.

LANDMARK VISIONS

This new art program is perfect for people who love living in Spokane and want to dip their toes into the world of creating art. Led by art journaling aficionado Robyn Smith, participants of Art in the Park create paintings inspired by the scenery in Riverfront Park. Each session ($25) focuses on a different theme starting with the Red Wagon on July 12. Other sessions feature the Numerica SkyRide on July 19, everyone’s favorite park-inhabitant, the Garbage Goat, on July 26 and end with a painting of the Pavilion on Aug. 2. Get details at robynsmithartadventures.com.

FEELING FESTIVE

Open-air markets of all kinds are a summer must-do for many, so mark your calendars if you haven’t yet for the return of these three annual art happenings. Up first is Terrain’s Bazaar (June 17), which boasts thousands of handmade items (most pieces are $100 or less) from 142 regional makers, artists and art-based businesses in the heart of downtown Spokane along Main Avenue. For a full weekend in early August, Art on the Green (Aug. 4-6) transforms the pine tree-shaded grounds of North Idaho

College in Coeur d’Alene to a creative mecca for the 55th year. Artists, musicians, performers, food trucks and much more descend onto the grass for all ages to enjoy. The following weekend, Arbor Crest Wine Cellar’s historic, clifftop grounds play host to Art & Glass Fest (Aug. 12-13, ages 21+), showcasing a range of artists working with glass, jewelry, metal, paint, wood and more.

SOLID GROUND

At any given moment, there’s no shortage of incredible locally made art to see in galleries, museums and other public spaces across the Inland Northwest. If you’re looking for a small, more intimate gallery experience, Terrain’s fine art gallery just north of the Monroe Street Bridge is always a treat for the senses.

Starting off its summer calendar and on display through June is Kristen Morley’s “You Were Always Home,” a body of work directly informed by the artists’ own conflicted and complicated relationships with their physical, human body. (Through July 1)

After Morley’s art departs, Spokane artist Hannah Charlton shows her illuminated manuscript-style art for “The Illuminated Book of the City of Ladies,” an ongoing project to depict the historical and mythical female figures from a 15th century book of the same name by Christine de Pizan, a feminist who was thinking way ahead of her time. (July 7-29)

Up next is Chance Lucy for “Consumer Culture,” which reimagines popular brands and everyday product logos as art. (Aug. 4-26)

Finally, before the chill of fall sets in, Terrain hosts a dual showcase of watercolors by Aleeta Renee Jones in “Ancient Dreams” alongside the paintings of Jun Oh in “JAEMI.” (Sept. 1-30) More at terrainspokane.com. n

Buy local art, or try making your own. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

A R T S A R T S

SUMMER GUIDANCE

Jeni Hegsted Emerge

Tucked just a block away from downtown Coeur d’Alene’s bustling Sherman Avenue sits an oasis of art education. Yes, Emerge is a gallery space; however, it’s also a space for learning and exploring the vast world of art. Jeni Hegsted founded Emerge in 2015 and her goal back then is the same as it is today: To engage community members in creative outlets while offering a platform for emerging artists.

(MADISON PEARSON)

What is your favorite summertime activity?

Outside of attending all of the fun art events, anything that has to do with being at the lake. Swimming, paddle boarding, boating. Just generally being in the water as much as possible.

What place/locale do you go to every summer?

My husband and I have a cabin on Hayden Lake, but we also spend time with friends on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

What art-related activities do you look forward to every summer?

Definitely, at the top of the list, is the annual Emerge Block Party [on July 14]. It’s Coeur d’Alene’s biggest art party featuring over 100 artists, the party has its own exhibit, and we have 30 different performance groups from musicians to fire throwers.

What does Emerge have planned for the summer of ’23?

In addition to the Block Party, we have some really

fun summer camps for youth. The projects are so cool, however, we keep getting requests to schedule adult summer camps. So we’ll have to look into that for next year.

How can art education impact our community?

I think that arts education is one of the most vital tools to help people see things from other perspectives and viewpoints. Art is a powerful catalyst for change, for progress, for building diverse communities. It’s one of the things that we look forward to the most when people visit our events or galley space. n

Coeur d’Alene’s Emerge is more than a gallery — it also holds art classes and community events.

MUS I C MUS I C

The line up of shows this summer at the Pavilion promise to pack the house, like at last July’s Zach Bryan show.

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

Perhaps no artistic medium is more tied to summer than music. We all have memories of songs we’d blast during teenage years, favorite concerts, and maybe even some memories of learning to play music in the summer. Summers fade to fall, but summer music lasts forever.

RIVERFRONT ROW

Last year’s underwhelming lineup left plenty of people grumbling about Spokane Pavilion Concerts, but they’ve rebounded with a more robust lineup in 2023. It leans heavily on the rock end of the spectrum with the like of Incubus (July 22), Billy Idol (Aug. 28), The Head and the Heart and Father John Misty (Aug. 6), Goose (Sept. 23), and the triple-bill of Modest Mouse, Pixies and Cat Power (Sept. 6).

For those seeking different flavors, there’s a loaded lineup of jazz, reggae, soul and R&B featuring Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Ziggy Marley, Mavis Staples and Robert Randolph and the Family Band on July 26, plus pop singer-songwriter Noah Khan (Aug. 18) and reggae rock from Rebelution (Aug. 24). Get tickets at spokanepavilion.com.

HAVE A (MOS)COW, MAN

Does the frenzy of music festivals freak you out, but you still like the quality of a day chock-full of great tuneage? Perhaps the Moscow Mountain Music Fest is for you. Held off-the-beaten-path at Latah County Fairgrounds, the Idaho event doesn’t overgrow its britches, with a delightful collection of indie, folk, and Ameriana acts including Portland standouts Blitzen Trapper and MAITA, plus Inland Northwest talents like Matt Mitchell Music Co. and Blaine Andrew Ross. If you’re looking for a reason to take a summer day trip to Moscow, you’re not gonna find a better reason than this one-day (Aug. 12) musical shindig.

FILLING OUT YOUR PLAYLISTS

It wouldn’t be a proper summer season without some fresh new tunes, and plenty of superstars and less heralded gems are ready to meet the supply for your sonic demands with new albums. On the pop hitmaker side of the spectrum American Idol-turned-TV-host Kelly Clarkson drops her divorce album Chemistry (June 23), Taylor Swift delivers another remake of one of her classics — Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) — on July 7. Portugal. The Man tires to recapture the funky rock highs of “Feel It Still” on Chris Black Changed My Life (June 23), Britpop titans Blur return with The Ballad of Darren (July 21), tattoo aficionado Post Malone delivers Austin (July 28), and the soundtrack for Barbie (July 21) features the likes of Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice and Tame Impala. Those looking for more under the radar rock finds should check out Skating Polly’s Chaos County Line (June 23), Who Is She?’s Goddess Energy (Aug. 15), Speedy Ortiz’s Rabbit Rabbit (Sept. 1) and the returns of PJ Harvey with I Inside the Old Year Dying (July 7) and The Hives with The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (Aug. 11).

SPOKANE PARKS & RECREATION PHOTO

MUSIC MUSIC

BOYS DO CRY

In the time since I saw Boygenius put on one of my favorite concerts ever on their first tour in 2018, the trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus have gone from hidden indie rock favs to cover of Rolling Stone level stars. The new Boygenius record… umm… The Record perfectly encapsulates the ladies’ unreal natural chemistry and songwriting acumen. Hearing their harmonies drift down into the cavernous backdrop of The Gorge on July 29 is sure to be one of summer’s highlights.

IN THE MIDDLE, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK

If you’re a fan of emotive 2000s alt-rock, have I got a double-bill for you. While Jimmy Eat World will always be best known for their Bleed American hit-making heyday, the veteran melodic rockers still deliver solid albums and a great live show. Manchester Orchestra meanwhile has grown from making heady indie rock to heavy alt-rock to more arty atmospheric creations on their new EP The Valley of Vision. The combination of the two bands should make for a night full of fist-pumping sing-alongs on July 14 at the Podium.

I DO LIKE SAND

Few concert locales feel as summer-y as Festival at Sandpoint’s stage on the banks of the Pend Oreille River. While technically more of a concert series than a festival, the communal vibe is great for all ages. This year’s slate, which runs July 27-Aug. 6, includes a varied lineup featuring Train, REO Speedwagon, Gary Clark Jr., Michael Franti & Spearhead, Ashley McBryde, The String Cheese Incident and a live-orchestrated screening of The Princess Bride. Get tickets at festivalatsandpoint.com.

THIS ONE TIME, AT BAND CAMP…

Being able to play music opens up new worlds of creative possibilities in young minds, which is why summer music camps will always carry an importance.

For young ones just getting started, Able to Play Music Academy offers multiple week-long piano and drum classes for beginners. Holy Names Music Center offers Music Explorer’s Summer Camp to expose kids to music from across the globe and Voices Together Summer camp as an intro to choral singing (both July 17-21), plus a three-day jazz camp (Aug. 3-5).

More experienced high school instrumentalists and vocalists can head to Whitworth for Spokane Youth Symphony’s Sensational Summer Camp (July 24-28). SYS also offers a day camp for younger music students on Aug. 25-26.

For the kiddos who lean a bit more melodramatic, musical theater camp is a great option. Spokane Valley Summer Theater runs a music theater masterclass for high schoolers (July 10-14), NBC Camps hosts its own musical theater camps for various ages from July 10-13, while Spokane’s Christian Youth Theater still has openings in their teen camp (July 10-14) and mini camp (July 24-28).

THE ISBELL TOLLS FOR THEE

The Americana songwriting grace of Jason Isbell makes the case for finding strength through tenderness. His unvarnished storytelling has made him one of the genre’s modern standouts, and his fearlessness as a social critic (especially of some of the political nonsense in his home state of Tennessee) add even further conviction to the words he sings. Expect plenty of razor sharp observations from his new record Weathervanes when Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit come to the Fox Theater on July 6.

IT’S TIMES LIKE THESE YOU LEARN TO LIVE AGAIN

Everyone grieves in their own way. For artists, it’s often done via their creative outlets. That’s certainly the case for Foo Fighters on their new album But Here We Are, the group’s first record since the passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Expect some emotional moments when the Washington-founded band swings into Spokane Arena for a sold-out show on Aug. 4. As AC/DC once proclaimed, rock n roll will never die. n

The many faces of this summer’s concerts.

MUSIC MUSIC

SUMMER GUIDANCE

Matt Gibson

Northern Quest Resort & Casino

There’s a reason Inlander readers voted Northern Quest Resort & Casino’s BECU Live as the area’s best concert venue. With 20 shows announced for the summer 2023 slate at time of publication, Northern Quest has become the hottest spot for outdoor shows. (From Jason Mraz to the Beach Boys to Ludacris, check out the full lineup at northernquest.com.)

Director of Vibe Matt Gibson (no, really, that’s his job title) told us about what it takes to put together a summer concert lineup.

(SETH SOMMERFELD)

What are the first steps when you’re putting together a summer concert lineup?

It really has to do with supply and demand: who’s going out that year, who’s not and what your market likes to enjoy in terms of the genres of music. This year we’re partnering up with Live Nation to book the content. And we work together to discuss bands and personalities that would make sense for Spokane.

The bands that we had lined up to begin with really had the same kind of flavor — this artsy folksy bent to them. That’s great, but Spokane really likes their classic rock and country, so we should probably get some of that in there, too. And the more we talked about it, the more things shifted around, and we started getting different acts like Young the Giant and Lindsey Stirling, which is completely different than what we’ve traditionally booked there.

What’s the hardest part of the booking process?

The toughest part about the whole thing is the routing — figuring out which acts are going to go to which venues at what time, and getting that schedule put together. It’s about the most difficult math problem that you could ever take on.

What benefits are there to the Live Nation partnership?

The most important thing that we’re gaining from this is the ability to be part of that tour routing for all of these amphitheaters: Auburn, Bend, Boise, us. So as next year and the years following, you’re gonna see names that you know, wouldn’t necessarily be at Quest. Because a lot of what we did was fly-in dates, where you book a band and they would fly in specifically for Northern Quest. And what we’re getting now are more touring productions. A lot of expenses are going to go down because of it, as well as [increased] access to some of the talent that we might not have had luck with because they were on a tour.

It seems like y’all are trying to do away with the idea of “casino concert” being a punchline to describe past-their-prime acts.

Yeah, that whole stigma is going away real quick. I mean, 10 to 15 years ago that was definitely the case with casinos. And that’s not the case anymore. You’ve got a lot of tribal properties around the country that know what they’re doing, and are playing at a professional level. And Quest is definitely one of those places.

What is your favorite summertime activity?

I’m away from home so much because of the event industry and around so many crowds that when I take time, I greatly enjoy simply crashing at home. I’ll work in the mornings to take care of the yard or build a project, then enjoy a beverage and grill some food with my family outside while watching some baseball.

What place/locale do you always go to every summer?

The last thing I want to do on a rare day off is go to any sort of event! n

Vibin’ out at Quest, thanks to Quest’s vibe director. NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO PHOTO

GATHER. RELAX. EXPLO R E.

More than a place to shop, NoLL is a central hub for both locals and visitors to enjoy locally sourced food, products and services. Located west of Harvard Road in Liberty Lake, NoLL is already home to several local based businesses with many more on the way!

3

SC REE N S C REE N

From blockbusters to classics under the stars, summer time is movie time

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

When the weather begins creeping into the triple digits, there are people who make a beeline for a backyard barbecue or a body of water. Then there are those of us whose favorite summertime sanctuary is the dark, air-conditioned cocoon of our local movie theater. Summer has long been synonymous with Hollywood’s most expensive crowd-pleasers, but the Inland Northwest’s film landscape offers plenty of cinematic diversity, from classics to cult films to kid-friendly delights.

SUMMER

BLOCKBUSTERS

Who are we kidding? Summer movie season has been in full swing for at least a month already, with a Marvel sequel, a huge Disney remake and a Fast & Furious installment

released in May alone. But the area’s big screens will be dominated by even bigger spectacle for the next few months, so get ready for explosions, CGI and a whole lot of recognizable intellectual property.

Everyone’s favorite archaeologist swashbuckler returns for his fifth adventure in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (opens June 30), with Harrison Ford once again donning his fedora for director James Mangold. Superspy Ethan Hunt drives a motorcycle off a cliff and lands in multiplexes on July 12 with Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, allegedly the second-to-last film in the globetrotting series.

In what has the potential to be one of the wildest double features imaginable, Christopher Nolan’s brooding historical epic Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s plastic-

fantastic comedy Barbie both open on July 21. The big question is: Which do you see first?

It wouldn’t be summer without even more superheroes. The DC universe expands with both The Flash on June 16 and Blue Beetle on Aug. 18, while the heroes in a halfshell return with the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem on Aug. 4. If you need a reprieve from all that comic book bombast, there are a couple R-rated comedy options: No Hard Feelings (June 23), starring Jennifer Lawrence, and Strays (Aug. 18), starring some foul-mouthed dogs voiced by Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx.

The season closes on Labor Day weekend with The Equalizer 3 (Sept. 1), with Denzel Washington reprising his role as a very serious assassin.

10%

Drop a bomb on Barbie and see the wildest double feature with Oppenheimer.

FILMS UNDER THE STARS

So maybe you don’t need to stay indoors to get swept up in some movie magic. The Pavilion at Riverfront Park will be screening free outdoor movies on Wednesday and Saturday nights throughout the summer. It kicks off with Pixar’s Up (July 12) and continues with Night at the Museum (July 19), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Aug. 2), Top Gun: Maverick (Aug. 9), The Greatest Showman (Aug. 16) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Aug. 26). Movies start at 8:30. The Olmsted Brothers Green in

Kendall Yards will also be hosting free outdoor films once a month: The Princess Bride (July 15), The Goonies (Aug. 26) and Top Gun: Maverick on Sept. 9. And if you happen to be up on Schweitzer Mountain, they’ll be showing family-friendly movies every Friday in August starting at 8 pm.

MOVIES IN MOSCOW

Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre is a true filmgoing destination, and to call its early summer schedule eclectic would

be an understatement. You can see Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking queer romance The Watermelon Woman on June 19, followed by the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train on June 20. Or the timeless screwball classic Some Like It Hot on June 22, followed by the John Waters shocker Pink Flamingos on June 23. The Moscow Film Society is also showing some animated curiosities at the Kenworthy, including Coraline (June 21) and a double whammy of traumatizing ’70s cartoons Watership Down and The Plague Dogs (June 27). Visit kenworthy.org to keep an eye on their growing schedule.

AT THE DRIVE-IN

Ready for a throwback? Head to Colville, where the Auto-Vue Drive-In has been screening movies since 1953. Get comfy in your car, dial into the sound through your radio, and enjoy the only operational drive-in theater in the area. The Auto-Vue typically shows double features, and titles on their docket include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Pixar’s Elemental. Movies start at dusk.

YOUR OWN PERSONAL THEATER

The Magic Lantern Theatre is a Spokane institution, having screened international and independent films off and on since the 1970s. Its current location in the Community Building at 25 W. Main Ave. has two screens, and you can actually rent them out on select days. Bring your own DVD and a small group of friends and enjoy. Inquire about rentals at magiclanternonmain.com.

FOR THE KIDS

If you want to get the kids out of the house while sticking to a budget, the Garland Theater is once again offering free kids’ movies each morning throughout the summer. Titles include Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, The Secret Life of Pets, How to Train Your Dragon and more. These weekday screenings start at 9:30 am. See garlandtheater.com for a full schedule.

30 YEARS SINCE BENNY MET JOON

Three decades ago, a Hollywood film crew came to Spokane for several months to shoot a quirky romantic comedy. That film, Benny & Joon, starred Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson as social outcasts who find love, and with all its Inland Northwest locations, it’s practically a documentary for what our city looked like back in 1993.

To mark the film’s 30th anniversary, Benny & Joon is screening July 15 at the Garland Theater, mere blocks away from one of the movie’s locations, Ferguson’s Cafe. The event also includes a short documentary looking back on the film’s production here, plus a live Q&A with locals who got to see its making firsthand, or even be part of the action. Other activities to mark the anniversary include a commemorative Benny & Joon exhibit at the MAC, specials at local businesses like Ferguson’s and more. For tickets and event information, visit linktr.ee/bennyandjoonspokane. n

Head to the Garland for free kids’ movies every summer morning. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

SC REEN SC REEN

Don Hamilton Hamilton

Studios

Thirty years ago, Don Hamilton appeared in Benny & Joon in the small role of a UPS driver. To mark the Spokanefilmed movie’s 30th anniversary this July, Hamilton is helping coordinate a special screening and other commemorative events. When he’s not working on passion projects like this — or camping and fishing — Hamilton leads a creative team at Hamilton Studios, his full-service production studio in West Central Spokane. (NATHAN

Are there any movies you associate with summer?

I remember standing outside in the hot summer to see Jaws in Orange County, California. That was the beginning of all summer movies. And it did not disappoint.

Talk about the upcoming Benny & Joon event. What can people expect?

WEINBENDER)

What’s your favorite summertime activity?

I like to go camping, and I like to go fishing when I’m camping. The beauty of Spokane is there are so many lakes within such a short radius. It’s Spokane summer at its best.

Is there a specific lake you visit every summer?

We like to get up to Waitts Lake, because that’s a place where you can actually kill fish. Some people do catch and release. We do catch and fillet.

Ashley Graham [with Live Nation] reached out saying, “Hey, it’s been 30 years. Does anybody have any stories?” And of course, when you talk to me, oh, yeah, I’ve got stories. We started doing these interviews with people, and the more I interview people, the more you hear the truth from the different perspectives of the people that came to visit and the people that were here. We’re going to have some sort of a little documentary that we’re going to screen after the movie that will show some of these reminiscences.

Beyond actually appearing in the movie, do you have any memories of the production in Spokane?

The original script [ended] with Joon setting the

house on fire. There was a soundstage built off Hamilton where they took all the interiors and burned them, you know and made them look like there’s a house fire. And then there was this incredible scene down in Peaceful Valley one night where they had it totally rigged with pyrotechnics. I heard the number was $1 million, but they flushed it because they didn’t think they could tell that story.

What do you think makes Spokane a good movie location?

It’s a beautiful location with variety. Downtown can double as New York City depending on where you set it up. And L.A. people love coming to our little place because it’s not like shooting in Tarzana, where people say, “Get off my lawn.”

[The filming of Benny & Joon] really is a hell of a story, when a big company from L.A. came to our magnificent little American city. And it was just a love fest, for the people that came and the people that were already here. n

Hamilton played a UPS driver in Benny & Joon, which came out 30 years ago.

Straw Maze

T HE AT E R T HE AT E R

Whether you like musicals or tragedies, improv or classics, summer theater options abound

BY E.J. IANNELLI

If “summer theater” conjures images of actors holding skulls aloft and waxing existential in a park, you’re in luck. Because this summer’s offerings both meet and defy those expectations. You can certainly catch Hamlet or Measure for Measure performed en plein air by Shakespeare pros, but you also have the option of kicking back in an air-conditioned theater and watching big-name Broadway musicals, original plays or quick-witted improv skits.

SKIP THE PLANE, TAKE THE BUS

You don’t have to book an expensive flight to London to catch award-winning theater featuring some of Britain’s top actors. Instead, catch the bus downtown to the Bing for the Stage to Screen series of special performance films. On June 18, David Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) stars in a 2022 staging of Good, C.P. Taylor’s acclaimed drama about the psychology of Nazism. And on Aug. 20, Katherine Parkinson (Doc Martin, The IT Crowd) and John Heffernan (The Crown, Dracula) take the lead roles of Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing from a 2022 National Theatre run directed by Simon Godwin. Details and tickets ($20) are at bingcrosbytheater.com.

FROM A TO B

Back for its 33rd year, the Spokane Civic Theatre’s Bryan Harnetiaux Playwrights’ Forum Festival (June 15-18) is a showcase of one-acts from playwrights across the Inland and Pacific Northwest. There are two different sets of five plays each, called Rotation A and B, and they’re performed in an alternating fashion over the four-day run. This year, Rotation A has a total of three Spokane playwrights and titles like The 19 1/2 Deaths of Dung Beetle-Man and Inevitable Pandemic Play: Day 182. Rotation B, on the other hand, features plays like Maid/ Man and When the Chaos Started from writers nearer the coast. It’s just $15 per rotation; times and details are at spokanecivictheatre.com.

BEHIND THE BLUE DOOR

The Blue Door Theatre mixes up their Friday night improv theme each month throughout the summer. In June, it’s the dice-rolling comic roleplay of Blue Doors & Dragons. Come July, Ink Blot prompts a selfreflective Rorschach test. Things get amusingly clairvoyant in August with Medium-at-Large, and September skewers reality TV with The Real _(Blanks)_ of _(Blank)_-ville. The comedy is aimed at general audiences, and tickets are only $9. More info at bluedoortheatre.com.

IMPROV & IMPROVEMENT

If you’re looking to dabble in improv, head to the Pend Oreille Playhouse at 5 pm on the first and last Thursday of every month. It’s an all-ages, open-invite event that welcomes curious beginners and seasoned practitioners alike. For kids (ages 6-12) and teens (ages 13-18) who want to hone their acting chops instead, the Pend Oreille Playhouse offers a Youth Theatre Camp during the week of July 7-14. It culminates in a performance on July 15 after they’ve learned theater skills and etiquette. Check out pendoreilleplayers.com for costs and event info.

David Tennant comes to the big Bing screen in Good on June 18. JOHAN PERSSONPHOTO

THE ATER THE ATER

SUMMER FLINGS

Grease (June 16–July 2) is the word for the start of Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s 2023 season. It’s 1959, and straight-laced Sandy Olsson transfers to Rydell High for her senior year. The move brings her face to face with her summer fling, greaser Danny Zuko. Danny has a toughguy image to maintain among his classmates, however, and Sandy has to negotiate the rivalries and jealousies of the Pink Ladies as she struggles to fit in. On the road to realizing true love, there are classic songs like “Greased Lightnin’,” “Summer Nights” and “Beauty School Dropout.”

Almost immediately after that is the regional premiere of Bright Star (July 14-23), the 2015 musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. The show grew out of their joint 2013 bluegrass album, Love Has Come for You, and in particular the song “Sarah Jane and the Iron Mountain Baby,” which inspired Bright Star’s story of a mother who longs to be reunited with the son she put up for adoption. The folk-style instrumentation — the score calls for fiddle and banjo — and interwoven storylines make for a musical that breaks the conventional mold.

Then it’s time to Escape to Margaritaville (Aug. 4-20). This feel-good jukebox musical is a hit parade of classic Jimmy Buffet tunes like “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Margaritaville” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” Writers Greg Garcia and Mike O’Malley constructed a comedy narrative that connects those musical waypoints like a Buffet fever dream. As you might expect, there’s plenty of romance, drunken revelry and laid-back island philosophizing — not to mention buried treasure and an active volcano to up the stakes. Visit svsummertheatre.com to purchase tickets.

THE POWER OF MUSIC

Music can unite families in trying times, transform small towns and even breathe new life into classic works of literature — and that versatile power is on display with Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s 2023 lineup. It opens with The Sound of Music (June 30-July 9) and continues with a musical version of Footloose (July 21-30) before wrapping up with a recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, Pride & Prejudice, A New Musical (Aug. 11-12). Their new website at cstidaho.com has the lowdown plus ticket purchasing info.

AXE ME NO QUESTIONS

Were folk tales and tabloid headlines to be believed, Lizzie Borden brutally applied both sides of a hatchet to her father and stepmother one August morning in 1892. The 32-year-old Borden, who hailed from a wealthy New England family that was now smaller by two, was later acquitted, even though suspicion remained on her for the rest of her life. As the follow-up to their inaugural production of Lord of the Flies, Bright Comet Theatre is staging Lizzie, a rock retelling of the sensational murder mystery, with Elizabeth Theriault in the title role. Keep an eye on brightcomettheatre.com for venue and performance dates in July.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS

Back in mid-July of 2019, the Spokane Civic Theatre staged Spring Awakening as a summertime main stage show. Four years and one pandemic later, co-directors Sarah Junette Dahmen and Jake Schaefer have reunited to put on another midsummer musical by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, the very same creative team behind Spring Awakening. Called Alice by Heart (July 14-23), it’s a fantastical return to Wonderland set amid the chaos and tragedy of the London Blitz during WWII. Tickets ($35) and more info are at spokanecivictheatre.com.

2B OR NOT 2B WITH S3

Between July 20 and Aug. 6, the Spokane Shakespeare Society performs Hamlet one evening, followed the next evening by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard’s absurdist comedy about two minor characters in that very tragedy — played by the same actors, no less. A second repertory run will be held Aug. 31 to Sept. 17. Admission is free, and the setting is outdoors in various Spokane parks; spokaneshakespearesociety.org has details on showtimes and locations.

RAIN MUST FALL

Normally musicals go from stage to screen, but Singin’ in the Rain was such a hit that it reversed the order. This West End (and later Broadway) version was adapted by the film’s original screenwriters, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and cleaves closely to the plot and music of the beloved 1952 Hollywood musical starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Yet the key question remains: How will Aspire Community Theatre handle the showery title number? Only one way to find out. Showtimes and tickets ($22-$28) for the Aug. 4-13 run can be found via aspirecda.com.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

You might’ve heard of Spokane Playwrights Laboratory, which helps develop scripts by local writers. But what happens to those scripts once they’re done being workshopped? Well, one outcome is that they get turned into full-fledged productions, as is the case with An Aviary for Birds of Sadness (Aug. 11-27). This dark comedy by Spokane playwright Tristen Canfield is about the support of a found family as individuals work through mental illness. Lisa Edwards directs this production for Stage Left Theater. For showtimes and tickets, visit stagelefttheater.org.

MEASURES & MUSKETS

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks isn’t all about Shakespeare. Sure, the itinerant troupe is performing the Bard’s dramedy Measure for Measure at Lakeview Park in Sandpoint on Aug. 19. But the following night the same actors perform Robert Kauzlaric’s adaptation of the swashbuckling epic The Three Musketeers in Liberty Lake’s Pavillion Park. Performances are free; shakespeareintheparks.org has the full schedule. n

Spokane Playwrights Laboratory founders Dahveed Bullis (left) and Scott Doughty (right) with playwright Tristen Canfield. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

A NEW WAY TO ROCK

THE ATER THE ATER

What’s your favorite summertime activity?

Outdoor entertainment, both theatrical and musical. Shakespeare in the amphitheater at the MAC or music at Manito are two great examples.

What place do you always go to every summer?

At least once or twice, we go to Lake Coeur d’Alene and spend the day swimming, picnicking and hanging around the park. We’ve traditionally ended the day with a performance at Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre or by making a visit to Art on the Green at North Idaho College.

Is there an underrated spot for experiencing summer entertainment?

I like to listen to the musicians at the Park Bench, the little café in Manito Park near the entrance to Duncan Garden. In the summer, they perform there on Friday nights. It’s all different kinds of bands and musicians from different genres. One of the groups I’ve enjoyed seeing there is Donnie and Nancy Emerson’s band. They’re having a kind of renaissance with that new biopic, Dreamin’ Wild, coming out nationally.

Do you feel like there’s more variety in regional live theater than there used to be during the summer?

SUMMER GUIDANCE Kimberly Roberts

Ignite! Community Theatre and Spokane Civic Theatre

As a longtime volunteer for community theater in Spokane, Kimberly Roberts can usually be found backstage as a lighting designer, but she’s been known to direct entire shows, and take on a few performance roles as well. While Ignite! Community Theatre is currently on hiatus as it looks for a new home base, the Civic has several summer season offerings. (E.J.

IANNELLI)

Absolutely. There are so many new groups on the scene these days. There’s Spokane Ensemble Theatre, Spokane Shakespeare Society, Bright Comet Theatre and the Upstart Players. And you’ve got Spokane Playwrights Laboratory doing summer readings as well as venues like Stage Left and Spokane Civic Theatre doing summer shows, including more Civic Academy productions. I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch, but the fact that I can’t name them all off the top of my head just shows how much choice we have these days. n

From backstage to summertime outdoor entertainment. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

Chewelah washington

Mountain Market on Main Everything Good Under One Roof

McCunn

From home decor, boutique clothing shops, crafts and antique shops, and more, Chewelah is ready for your shopping experience! And when you're ready to eat, choose from locally brewed ales, cafes and bistros, woodfired pizza as well as gourmet level food!

Chewelah's award-winning Farmers Market in the Park draws folks from all over Eastern Washington. The Market features the freshest produce, local artisans’ wares, great food and live music! Young and old enjoy Fridays at Chewelah Farmers Market!

The Chewelah Creative District is home to as much art & culture as you want! Art galleries, live music, a performing arts center, a walking mural tour, and more! You won't want to miss our First Thursday Art Walk each month, featuring local and visiting artists!

Chewelah has an abundance of outdoor activities for you to enjoy! Golfing, hiking, swimming, and of course, skiing at 49 Degrees North! Don't forget to bring your mountain bike this summer, as new trails are ready for you to ride, with more on the way!

To learn more about Chewelah, please visit Chewelah .org or these organizations!

R OA D T RIP S R OA D T RIP S

Sled down Washington’s Bavarian alps at Leavenworth Adventure Park. LEAVENWORTH ADVENTURE PARK PHOTO

From deep canyons to alpine roller coasters, adventure awaits on your next PNW road trip

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Summer’s here and that, for many of us, means there’s a growing itch to get away from home, if only for a day or so. In the Pacific Northwest, our many mountains, rivers and valleys offer a literal and metaphorical smorgasbord of destinations, food and events to check out just a few hours outside of our well-traveled routes. From visiting the continent’s deepest river gorge to planning fun activities in the mountains, here are some of the great places to map out for your trips this season.

ALPINE COASTER

This summer, visitors to Leavenworth have a new way to experience the Bavarian village at Leavenworth Adventure Park, which features the state’s first alpine roller coaster, along with a climbing wall, bungee trampoline and a mining sluice. About a three-and-a-half hour drive from Spokane, the park’s new alpine coaster is open to riders age 3 and older (who meet height requirements and have someone old and tall enough riding with them). Riders can control their sled with hand brakes to slow it down or speed down the track at more than 25 mph. Adventure ticket packs offer access to the various attractions and range from $37 to $69 per person, or a single ride on the coaster is $5 to $20 depending on the rider’s age. Reservations are highly recommended and booking online saves you 12 percent. While you’re in the area, check out some of the hiking (the Icicle Gorge Nature Loop is an easy place to start) and local shops (leavenworth.org has a list of ideas for where to eat, drink and shop).

WATCH EXPERT HORSEPLAY IN OMAK

Always held during the second weekend in August, the Omak Stampede, a rodeo featuring the world famous suicide race, takes place this year from Aug. 10-13. Tickets run $13 to $28 per day, and the event includes a family friendly carnival, Indian Encampment and Pow Wow, a Western and Native art show, rodeo dances and vendors. The suicide race, run since 1935, sees riders take their horses 225 feet down a bluff, across the Okanogan River, and then they dash 500 yards to the center of the Stampede Arena. Other rodeo events include bull riding, barrel racing and more. The arena is a little under three hours driving from Spokane, but the events run late and dry lot camping is available ($15 a night for tent camping, $20 a night for RVs) as are hotels and RV parks in the area.

FRESH PRODUCE & FLIGHT IN CENTRAL WASHINGTON

Whether you want to gather for some aerial spectacles or simply enjoy fresh produce, Wenatchee offers a bounty of options for your trips this summer. Less than three hours away, the Wenatchee Valley boasts a wealth of apple, pear and cherry orchards, along with lots of other tasty produce. Annie’s Fun Farm at Grant Road and South Mary Avenue in East Wenatchee offers some u-pick mixed vegetables during the summer (think tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.) and transitions to pumpkins in August and September. For those seeking something fun to do while they visit, Pangborn’s Festival of Flight takes place on July 8 this year at Pangborn Airport in East Wenatchee. The event commemorates the first trans-Pacific flight, which left from Japan and crash-landed near East Wenatchee in 1931. The free event includes the chance to see neat planes, grab a bite to eat from food vendors, and participate in Japanese cultural activities. Other places to stop for family-friendly sight-seeing include the Ohme Gardens ($4-$8 per person) or the Rocky Reach Dam and Discovery Center, which has free exhibits and a playground.

PEND OREILLE

COUNT Y FAIR

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HIT THE SUMMER SLOPES

It doesn’t have to be winter for families to enjoy Schweitzer Mountain near Sandpoint in North Idaho. With a series of family-friendly activities, the resort offers plenty to see and do during the hottest months of the year. Schweitzer’s Ultimate Fun Pass ($35 for kids age 7 and younger, $45 for 8 and older) gets guests unlimited access to the foot traffic chairlift, unlimited jumps on the trampoline jumper, unlimited access to the climbing wall, and unlimited rides on the 700-foot-long zipline (only for those 8 and older). Or, each attraction can be purchased a la carte, depending on your interests. Guests can also hike, play tennis or pickleball, go geocaching, play lawn games and more. Only one-and-a-half hours from Spokane, the mountain awaits.

GO TREASURE HUNTING

For rockhounders, few things are as exciting as the chance to search for treasure where others have already found something rare and unique. At the Rock ‘n’ Tomahawk Ranch near Ellensburg, which Bernice and Bob Best purchased 30 years ago, the elusive stone that draws visitors from near and far is the Ellensburg Blue Agate. For $5 a person ($2.50 for kids age 5 to 10 and free for those under 5), people who bring their own buckets and screwdrivers (no shovels/digging allowed) can roam the 172-acre property in hopes of striking it big. There’s no limit on how much you can take home if you’re one of the lucky few to find a special blue agate, though the owners warn that there’s no guarantee you’ll find one. They ask that you call 509-962-2403 at least a

day in advance to make your reservation and make sure you close any gates on the property that you need to walk through as they do have goats and sheep. The ranch is about three to four hours from Spokane. Whether you leave newly rock-rich or empty handed, try to stop near Vantage at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park (Discover Pass required) on your way back to ensure you’ll see some cool geological wonders.

GORGE-OUS DAY TRIP

North America’s deepest river gorge isn’t the Grand Canyon — it’s the Snake River-carved Hells Canyon right in our backyard. Drive roughly two hours south of Spokane to Lewiston, Idaho, and you’ll find the beginnings (or endings) of the gorge and some beautiful trail and river access options. Word to the wise for the very hot Lewis Clark Valley: bring plenty of extra water if you’re out recreating, and do NOT leave bear spray or a similar aerosol in your parked vehicle — it could explode, which is a hazardous surprise to find at the end of a day out hiking. Half-day boat tours leaving from Lewiston can be reserved from Snake River Adventures for $50 to $165 per person. For the extra adventurous who are up for a much longer drive, some of the most spectacular views of the canyon are found in Oregon, at various spurs off the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. The Buckhorn Overlook, Hat Point Overlook and Hells Canyon Overlook all offer views of the awe-inspiring gorge, but at several hours away by car, they’re best paired with plans to camp or stay overnight in the area. Some campsites are run by the U.S. Forest Service on a first-come, first-served basis for $15 a night, with strict fire restrictions. n

Schweitzer’s 700-foot zipline almost reaches Lake Pend Oreille. SCHWEITZER PHOTO

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It’s a gorgeous drive along Kootenay Lake and then you get to take the ferry as well. The ferry is free, so it’s a great adventure.

Is the border crossing usually pretty easy?

Any tips?

It’s back to pre-COVID guidelines so all of those restrictions have been lifted. You just need your passport. Plan on not having food in the car with you, is probably a good tip, like no fruits or vegetables. They frown on that.

SUMMER GUIDANCE

Stephanie Sims

North Idaho Tourism Alliance and International Selkirk Loop

Stephanie Sims has worked for a decade to guide visitors to the International Selkirk Loop, North America’s only international scenic byway. The loop is one of many such routes designed to take drivers to some of the most beautiful locations in the country, and in this case, also Canada! (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

What’s your favorite summertime activity? For my family, it’s hiking.

Where do you like to go?

We like to do some old favorites and seek out new ones as well. We enjoy waterfalls. Copper Creek Falls and Snow Creek Falls are probably our top favorites. They’re just south of the Canadian border in Idaho.

What places do you usually like to visit in the summer if you’re taking a road trip?

We love to head up to both Nelson, B.C. and Kaslo.

What are some other spots you tell people new to the area they should visit?

There are some great views and overlooks along the Washington section of the Selkirk Loop. There’s an overlook for Box Canyon Dam that’s a great stop and a very easy spot to get to. And there is a brand new road so that you can see Peewee Falls from across the river. It used to be that you could only see the falls from the river itself, you had to kayak to it. Now, there is a new road where you can view it.

Any good food stops?

I like Owen’s Grocery in Newport, Washington. They have an old-fashioned ice cream bar so you can go get ice cream sundaes and banana splits. It’s great for summer. n

Box Canyon Dam near Ione is a great wayside.

FO ODFO OD

Recipes for a sweet and savory summer

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Few things pair better than food and sunshine. Fruits and veggies ripened on the vine. A long bike ride and a cold ice cream cone. Chefs whipping up special events for tourists and locals alike. But you don’t have to bite into your savings — it’s also easy to create delicious dishes at home without cranking up your A/C. So go ahead, play with your food!

DINING IN

This summer, see how many meals you can make without heating up the kitchen. Newfangled inventions like solar ovens take full advantage of the July sun, but with hefty price tags (REI has one for $360, but they can also be found online for $120-$450 at sites like Cantina West or Sun Oven), they’re a considerable investment.

If you want a special gadget without the commitment, head to a thrift store for a secondhand ice cream maker or waffle iron. Kitchen appliances are usually tested before sold, and for a few dollars, it’s probably okay if you only use it once. Spend a day creating new ice cream flavors. Or spend your summer asking, will it waffle? (Turns out cookies, sandwiches, pizza, omelets, cinnamon rolls, muffins, hash browns, apples and doughnuts are all a resounding yes.)

If you’re into farm produce, learn to quick pickle cukes, radishes, onions, turnips and other fresh produce. Quick pickling helps your veggies last longer

and adds that extra punch to your picnic spreads. Or extend the lives of your garden greens with your food processor — experiment with salsas, chutneys and pestos, or blitz up entire meals like gazpacho. If you want even more nutrients, grow microgreens on your window sill all summer. A packet of seeds is half the price of this superfood at the grocer, and it’s usually ready to harvest within a week. If you like growing your own food, try making your own kombucha — gut health and dopamine are a SCOBY away.

FOODIE FESTIVALS

Forget music festivals — food festivals feed body and soul. Crave! Northwest (July 13-15, $15-$224) is one of the biggest summertime culinary events in the Spokane area. This year it’s showcasing big-name chefs from the region and the nation. Pig Out in the Park (Aug. 30-Sept. 4) is six days of music, gluttony and glee in Riverfront Park, offering 225+ menu items to choose from. If that’s 224 too many, pick your favorite food and there’s probably a festival dedicated to it, like Siemers Farms’ month-long Strawberry Festival (June 16-July 27), the Wallace Huckleberry Festival (Aug. 19-20), Pullman’s Lentil Festival (Aug. 19), and the Tacos y Tequila Festival (Aug. 26-27), downtown Spokane’s official Latino community block party.

Dive into a world - class vacation

Play a floating golf green. Explore a massive theme park. Stay in amazing accommodations. Visit luxurious spas. Take a lake cruise. Shop the downt own. Relax in a park. Ski epic powder. Play in a casino. Eat like a king. Zipline. Wake surf. Sail. Hike. Ice skate. Fish. Dance. Visit.

coeurdalene.org

Channel your inner glutton at Pig Out. CHIANA McINELLY PHOTO

MOSCOW MOUNTAIN MUSIC FEST

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Featuring

Blitzen Trapper

Tickets on sale now!

$25 General Admission

Children 12 and under free

moscowmountainmusicfest.com

FOOD TRUCK FINDER

Food from a truck just tastes better. And they’re everywhere, so follow your favorites on social media to check their exact locations. This summer, Riverfront Eats hosts local food trucks on the

park’s Howard Street Promenade every Tuesday from 11 am to 2 pm. Also check out El Mercadito, Kendall Yards Night Market, Liberty Lake Farmers Market, Perry Street’s Thursday Market and Post

Falls Pavilion. You may just find four wheels full of tacos, falafel, banh mi and more.

CLASSY COOKS

If you like the kitchen but want some extra direction, consider a summer cooking class. The Spokane County Library District offers free classes on cupcake decorating, gardening and mushroom foraging for beginners. See the full slate of offerings at scld.org. The Kitchen at Second Harvest also offers free cooking classes for people facing hunger as well as public classes open to everyone for $25; register at secondharvestkitchen.org. Participants learn basic techniques and tips on eating seasonally. If you’re looking for more advanced instruction, check out courses at The Culinary Stone in Coeur d’Alene. For $60 you can study (and then eat!) international dishes with professional chefs. Find out more at culinarystone.com.

U-PICK, U-LOVE

If you want to get more in touch with your food, try picking fresh produce by hand. Green Bluff is a wellknown collection of orchards and gardens just north of Spokane. Closer to the Washington-Idaho state line in Newman Lake, help harvest at Carver Farms. If you need a moment to slow down and smell the roses, head out to Garden Gate Lavender Farms near Airway Heights to learn about flowers, chickens, miniature cows and self-care. Or, increase your farming knowledge by volunteering at Vinegar Flats Farm, Spokane’s urban regenerative no-till farm that invites volunteers every Saturday morning.

SHARE A MEAL

Plenty of food pantries and nonprofits have ongoing vol-

unteer needs that are a great way to spend a free summer day. Check out volunteer boards at Second Harvest, Feed Spokane, or Spokane Valley Partners for city-scale efforts. For more local initiatives, get in touch with River City Youth Ops, Women & Children’s Free Restaurant & Community Kitchen or Growing Neighbors, which has urban gardens, educational programs and food deliveries via bicycle. In North Idaho, check in with the Idaho Foodbank and Bonner Community Food Center.

NEW TABLE SETTINGS

Eating somewhere unexpected adds a whole new dimension to food. Check out the Commellini Estate for its free weeknight series Scampagnata: Movies al Fresco, where outdoor movie goers can purchase food inspired by classic Italian films on the big screen. Hungry for more culture? Listen to the Spokane Symphony while wining and dining at Arbor Crest (June 27, $25-$55). Stroll through the forest while tasting local wine and fare during Sandpoint’s Pairing in the Pines (July 6, $125). For something a little more risque, head to Nova Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret and Drag Brunch at Northern Quest’s Highball bar on the first or third Sunday of every month. If your idea of fun is a porch swing and a good book, check out Iced Tea & Porch Reads, a free series at various Spokane County Library District branches that suggest the best tea pairing for your favorite novel. n

FO ODFO OD

2023 Farmers Market Guide

MONDAY

HILLYARD FARMERS MARKET

3-7 pm through Oct. 2. Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St., Spokane. fb.com/hillyardfarmersmarket

WEST END MARKET

5-9 pm through Sept. 25. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave., Spokane. fb.com/SpokaneWestEndMarket

TUESDAY

FAIRWOOD FARMERS MARKET

3-7 pm through Oct. 10. Fairwood Shopping Center, 319 W. Hastings Rd., Spokane. fairwoodfarmersmarket.org

MOSCOW TUESDAYS MARKET

4-7 pm through Oct. 17 (except July 4 and Sept. 12). Latah County Fairgrounds, 1021 Harold St. fb.com/tuesdaycommunitymarket

WEDNESDAY

5TH STREET FARMERS MARKET

4-7 pm through Sept. 4. Fifth and Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene. cdadowntown.com/5thstreetmarket

KENDALL YARDS NIGHT MARKET

5-8 pm through Sept. 20. West Summit Parkway between Cedar and Adams Alley, Spokane. kendallnightmarket.org

KOOTENAI FARMERS MARKET

4-7 pm through Sept. 27. Riverstone, 2151 N. Main St., Coeur d’Alene. kootenaifarmersmarkets.org

MILLWOOD FARMERS MARKET

3-7 pm through Oct. 11. Millwood Park, 9103 E. Frederick Ave. farmersmarket. millwoodnow.org

N.E.W. FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. 121 E. Astor St., Colville. newfarmersmarket.org

PULLMAN FARMERS MARKET

3:30-6 pm through Oct. 11. Brelsford WSU Visitors Center, 150 E. Spring St. fb.com/pullmanfarmersmarket

SANDPOINT FARMERS MARKET

3-5:30 pm through Oct. 14. Farmin Park, Third and Main. sandpointfarmersmarket.com

SPOKANE FARMERS MARKET

8 am-1 pm through Oct. 25. Coeur d’Alene Park, 300 S. Chestnut St. spokanefarmersmarket.org

WEST CENTRAL FARMERS MARKET

4-7 pm through Sept. 20. West Central Abbey, 1832 W. Dean Ave., Spokane. westcentralabbey.org

THURSDAY

GARLAND SUMMER MARKET

3:30-7:30 pm through Aug. 31. 733 W. Garland Ave., Spokane. fb.com/garlandsummermarket

PERRY STREET THURSDAY MARKET

3-7 pm through Oct. 26. Perry and Tenth, Spokane. thursdaymarket.org

FRIDAY

ATHOL FARMERS MARKET

2-6 pm through Sept. 29. 30230 Second St. fb.com/Atholfarmersmarket

CHEWELAH FARMERS MARKET

11 am-3:30 pm through Oct. 13. Chewelah City Park. chewelahfarmersmarket.com

EMERSON-GARFIELD FARMERS MARKET

3-7 pm through Sept. 29. IEL Adult Education Center, 2310 N. Monroe St., Spokane. market.emersongarfield.org

THE WAVY BUNCH NIGHT MARKET & STREET FAIR

Second Fridays from 5-9 pm through Oct. 13. Runge Furniture, 303 E. Spokane Ave., Coeur d’Alene. thewavybunch.com

SPOKANE VALLEY FARMERS MARKET

4-8 pm through Sept. 15. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place. spokanevalleyfarmersmarket.org

SATURDAY

AIRWAY HEIGHTS SUMMER MARKET

Second Sat. from 9 am-3 pm through Sept. 9. The Hub, 12703 W. 14th Ave. fb.com/AirwayHeightsSummerMarket

BONNERS FERRY FARMERS MARKET

8 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. Highway 95 and Kootenai St. bonnersferryfarmersmarket.org

THE DEER PARK MARKET

First Sat. from 9 am-3 pm through Oct. 7. Perrins Field, 14 Arnim Ave. thedeerparkmarket.com

KOOTENAI FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1:30 pm through Oct. 21. Highway 95 and Prairie, Hayden. kootenaifarmersmarkets.org

LIBERTY LAKE FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1 pm through Oct. 14. Town Square Park, 1421 N. Meadowwood Ln. llfarmersmarket.com

MEDICAL LAKE FARMERS MARKET

First/third Sat. 8 am-noon through Oct. 7. Cela’s Creative Learning Academy, 111 S. Lefevre St. instagram.com/ medicallakefarmersmarket

MOSCOW FARMERS MARKET

8 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. Friendship Square, Fourth and Main. fb.com/MoscowFarmersMarket

N.E.W. FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. 121 E. Astor St., Colville. newfarmersmarket.org

NEWPORT FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. 236 S. Union Ave. Facebook: newportfarmersmarket.org

RATHDRUM FARMERS MARKET

9 am-2 pm through Sept. 30. Rathdrum Lions Club, 16114 N. Meyer Rd. rathdrumcraftandfarmersmarket.blogspot.com

SANDPOINT FARMERS MARKET

9 am-1 pm through Oct. 14. Farmin Park, Third and Main. sandpointfarmersmarket.com

SPOKANE FARMERS MARKET

8 am-1 pm through Oct. 28. Coeur d’Alene Park, 300 S. Chestnut St. spokanefarmersmarket.org

WONDER SATURDAY MARKET

10 am-2 pm through Sept. 2. Wonder Building, 835 N. Post St., Spokane. fb.com/wonderspokane

SUNDAY

CLAYTON FARMERS MARKET

11 am-4 pm through Sept. 24 (except during the county fair). Clayton Fairgrounds, 4616 Wallbridge Rd. Facebook: Clayton Farmers Market and Small Farm Animals

— COMPILED BY MADISON PEARSON

Spokane Farmers Market is one of the many farmers markets in the Inland Northwest. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

HAPPY HOUR DAILY 3-5

LIGHT BITES & LIBATIONS

SERIOUS STEAKS | HANDCRAFTED COCKTAILS

Lorem Ipsum

FO ODFO OD L

SUMMER GUIDANCE Lupe Camargo Tacos Carmago

ooking for ways to spice up or cool off your summer? Here’s some advice from Lupe Camargo, owner of two local food trucks: Tacos Camargo and Camargo’s Shaved Ice. (ELIZA BILLINGHAM)

What is your favorite summertime activity?

Probably going to the park in the sun and barbecuing. We always go to Riverfront Park or to Mission Park.

What is your favorite food to eat when you’re hot?

Carne Asada! It’s Mexican-style skirt steak on the grill. It’s pretty refreshing. You have that with some nice cold homemade horchata and it’s delicious.

Why is food out of a truck so much more fun than food in a restaurant?

I think it’s just because the choices are fresh — it’s fresh because it’s got to be made that day. So, you know, it’s good quality. We know that for sure. And then just, I don’t know why, but people enjoy standing in line and choosing what they want and getting it from us. It’s quick and usually it’s in a park or somewhere nice where they can sit under a nice tree, enjoy the fresh air and just eat their food.

Is spicy food still good when it’s hot outside?

It is! I mean, a nice little kick and then a nice big gulp of ice cold horchata or ice cold Mexican Coca-Cola. It’s still delicious. It’s like a good wine with a good meal. You pair it and it’s delicious.

And is Mexican Coca-Cola better than American Coke?

It is, because it’s made with real sugar. It’s 100 percent real sugar. It’s really catching on in the United States. A lot of my customers actually usually ask us more for Mexican Coke than American Coke. n

Eat spicy food and drink horchata to cool down this summer. ELIZA BILLINGHAM PHOTO

Members Michael F., Matt N., & Christa S.

D RINK S D RINK S

This summer, get out of the house, get thirsty and get curious

BY MARY STOVER

Summer is a time for escaping the everyday for new adventures, visits to the lake with friends and family, backyard barbecues, camping with beer pong, road trips with pit stops for childhood snacks and sodas, and other sunny fun-time shenanigans. For your 2023 summer holiday, enjoy oodles of flights without ever stepping foot in the airport, support a good cause, meet new people, and learn something new.

LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT

There are countless beverage flights in the Inland Northwest, literally something for everyone — all ages, all tastes, in various price ranges and baggage and reservations are not required. This is just a sampling of what’s available in the Inland Northwest. Grab a notebook, a favorite pen, then hit the road to relish and recollect your favorite tastes and treats.

If you fancy trying a new wine, or if you’re new to wine altogether, check out Nectar Wine and Beer or Maryhill Winery in Kendall Yards. Not a fan of wine, but like fruity drinks? Check

out the cider flights ($10 on Tuesdays) at One Tree Hard Cider downtown; this summer they’re bringing back their famous cider floats — float flight, anyone?

If your tastes favor treats from south of the border, try a tequila or margarita flight ($22-$24) at DeLeon’s Taco & Bar. Nearby No-Li Brewhouse offers seltzer flights ($15) and Bark, A Rescue Pub serves up mimosa flights ($15). If beer is your thing, head to Mountain Lakes Brewing Co. for a local beer flight ($11). Or, for something stronger, try a spirit flight ($5 for three 1/3-ounce pours) at Dry Fly Distilling or a whiskey flight ($15-$21) at Purgatory Craft Beer and Whiskey Bar.

If you have kids or teetotalers in your party, check out Revival Tea Company downtown with their tea, coffee or hot chocolate flights ($12). Yes, please! In North Idaho, you can enjoy a flight of coffee with a seasonal latte flight ($12) at Vault Coffee.

After a few of these flights, try some at home! Grab a few small mini bottles of your favorite cocktail mixers, wine, or sodas, invite over some friends, light up the patio fire pit, and see which bevvy

gets the most “likes.” And remember, this fun can be shared with the kids, too — make floats, mocktails, and concocted soda mixes!

LET’S GET PHYSICAL!

Area drinkeries have stepped up their game this summer. Natural 20 Brewing Co. said “Let’s not not have a beer pong tournament…” and went with a water pong tournament. It’s on June 24 and there will be prizes.

Three different events include yoga and a bevvy while another asks you to get on the water. Yoga + Wine ($20) is at Liberty Lake Wine Cellars on June 24 — BYO yoga mat. On July 16 and Aug. 20, Genus Brewing is offering Yoga + Beer ($20), and throughout the summer, you can book a Yoga + Mimosa cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene, which is offered every Thursday morning in July and August for $35 per person (tickets at cdacruises.com). My DIY “yoga and…” event will include yoga + nap + whiskey sour. What will your “yoga and…” activity include?

Three glasses are always better than one, so try a flight next time. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

DRINK SDRINK S

DO SOME GOOD

You say charity event, I say “Is this a commemorative glass?” Dozens of events will raise money for local charities this summer, but here are a few that also promise a good time, good food, a great cause, and a tipple or two. Before June 17, grab a ticket ($75) for Bourbon, Bacon, and Brews benefiting Teen & Kid Closet in Spokane.

The inaugural Post Falls Lions Brewfest is making its debut on June 24. Tickets ($25) get you unlimited tasting from 10 local breweries, and proceeds benefit the American Legion-affiliated club.

Ales for the Trail on Saturday, Aug. 19 benefits the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation and features oodles of local beers, wines, and ciders. Tickets are $35 through June 30, and go up to $45 after or at the door. Get yours at nictf.org/ales.

If you are looking to declutter and donate this summer, don’t miss Fresh Wine Bar’s Sip & Swap on June 30 in Coeur d’Alene. A $19 ticket gets you a drink, trips to the charcuterie buffet, and free stuff! All leftover items (housewares only, no clothing) will be donated to local thrift shops. This might be another DIY for my summer schedule — gather friends, swap items you intend to donate, and share a cocktail or pie. That or a lemonade stand.

MEET NEW PEOPLE

If you’re new to the area or haven’t been out much since the pandemic, it’s time to get out and meet new people. These awesome events are suitable for dates, fun with friends, or peoplewatching.

On Aug. 13, the Spokane Indians baseball team plays Oregon’s Hillsboro Hops and are also celebrating with Augtoberfest. Grab a ticket ($25) and join the fun!

Coeur d’Alene hosts two community beer fests, the Downtown Coeur d’Alene Brewfest in McEuen Park on July 8 and its early fall Oktoberfest on Sept. 15-16. Tickets for both events go fast, so act quickly (visit cdadowntown.com for details).

In downtown Spokane, don’t miss the third annual Tacos Y Tequila Festival block party Aug. 26-27, which benefits the Hispanic Business/Professional Association of Spokane and its Nuestras Raíces community center. No ticket is required, just show up, purchase some tacos and a drink, and enjoy the ambiance of live music.

You can even step inside the Central Library nearby and check out a great book on winning friends and influencing people! Who knows, it could lead to a beautiful friendship.

LEARN SOMETHING

Summer is the time to pick up a new hobby or learn a new skill. Life slows down a little and allows us a few moments for our favorite pastimes, passions, and hobbies. Why not take a class about coffee, wine, or cocktails?

Doma Coffee in Post Falls hosts coffee education/brewing classes in July — your inner barista will thank you later. Pend Oreille Winery in Sandpoint hosts a sushi and wine class on June 20, and tickets ($100) include food, wine, training, and live music. It’s a great opportunity to learn from a professional sushi chef and take your newfound knowledge home to impress the neighbors.

Take advantage of the expertise of local cocktail historian Renée Cebula of Raising the Bar and Hogwash Whiskey Den’s master mixologist Simon Moorby when they team up to host three Camp Cocktail courses this summer. You choose your class based on a location of interest: London (June 18), Paris (July 9) or Havana (Aug. 6). Tickets ($75 per session) include three crafted drinks, mixology and history lessons, appetizers, and a cocktail recipe booklet. Get me to London! Register at raisingthebarnw.com.

Whatever your summer plans, you can include some fresh and flavorful bevvies at home, around the campfire or out with friends. n

Brewfest is the first of two beer parties in Coeur d’Alene this summer.

SUMMER GUIDANCE Patrick Donovan

Dry Fly Distilling

Some of our favorite summer drinks now come in an easy-to-cool-and-carry can. Dry Fly Distilling has seasonal and year-round drinks available in single and multi-packs. Lead Distiller Patrick Donovan

is ready for the flavors and fun that come with all things summer. (MARY STOVER)

What’s your favorite summertime activity?

We love camping, hiking, typical Spokane stuff. We head outside, to the woods or the lake.

What place/locale do you go to every summer?

We have two little kids, so we take the trailer up to Farragut [State Park in Athol, Idaho] for frisbee golf and all kinds of fun summer stuff. It’s super easy to get the trailer and head up.

You’re making a pitcher of drinks for summer company, what’s in it?

Oooh, this is a tough one. It depends on the food. We love a good paloma, so grapefruit juice and jalapeño with tequila — our new Dry Fly summer cocktail uses habañero — or a nice Southside with gin, herbs, and berries. n

RIDES

7 INCREDICBLE ZIP LINES

TREEHOUSE LUNCH TOURS

2 SKY BRIDGES & LAKE VIEWS

The Dry Fly brass works that make your drink work the way it should. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

REASONS

They create local job

They add character to our community

They use fresh, quality

Local tastes delicious

IND O OR S IND O OR S T HE G R E AT T HE G R E AT

How to have fun inside when the smoke blocks out the sun

BY NATE SANFORD

Last week, New Yorkers learned a lesson we in the Inland Northwest have been long familiar with: wildfire smoke sucks.

It’s irritating, ugly and sometimes dangerous. It’s a dark cloud that hangs over the summer. Worst of all, the smoke forces us back indoors — stealing those limited days of sun that might have otherwise been spent outdoors, basking in the summer air.

Thankfully, it’s still possible to have fun indoors this summer. Think of the smoke as a chance to finally dive into that creative project you’ve been putting off. Pick up an instrument or start putting that novel idea on paper. Put your imagination to the test with a murder mystery party or a round of Dungeons & Dragons. The smoke may move summer fun indoors, but it doesn’t have to stop it.

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AT THE LIBRARY

Writing is the perfect indoor activity. Four walls, zero distractions and a maddening sense of isolation have fueled countless great literary works. For beginners and experts alike, Spokane Public Library offers a series of workshops this summer that can help get the creative ball rolling.

On June 22, check out the Shadle Park Library for “Avoiding the Mistakes that Tag You as an Amateur Writer,” a workshop hosted by author Nora Profit from 1:30 to 3 pm. The interactive workshop focuses on writing exercises and discussions focused on common writing errors as well as structures that fuel great prose.

Once you’ve got the basics down, head to the South Hill Library for a July 12 workshop titled “Bittersweet, A Writing Workshop” with Sarah Conover. The two-hour workshop starts at 1 pm, and explores theories and prompts for unlocking the raw, tender terrain of grief through writing. “A grief story is a love story,” Conover says.

The next day, July 13, the Shadle Park Library is hosting “What’s Your Story?” — a writing workshop on the art and craft of memoir writing hosted by local writer Jenny Davis. Through a series of prompts and discussion, participants learn how to access their memories and turn their lives into a compelling literary experience.

EXPLORE D&D

Your body may be stuck indoors, but your imagination is free to wander. The Gamer’s Haven just north of Kendall Yards hosts regular open sessions where new and experienced Dungeons & Dragons players can drop in, join a game and invent characters to explore vast fantasy worlds. You can find similar events at Merlyn’s Comics and Games and Natural 20 Brewing Co. If you want to take the experience to an even higher, and more fabulous level, check out Dungeons & Drag Queens — a Seattle-based drag comedy show that’s coming to the Bing Crosby Theater on June 24, from 8 to 10 pm.

Roll a natural 20 and your summer will be smoke-free.

IND O OR S IND O OR S

T HE GR E AT T HE GR E AT CATCH UP ON GOOD TV — WHILE YOU STILL CAN

The Writers Guild of America is on strike for better pay and working conditions. If their demands aren’t met soon, it could spell disaster for television and usher in a new era of bloated, unscripted reality TV. So next time the sun forces you inside, consider a guilt-free day of binge watching the good stuff that’s still out there. The second season of The Bear — a funny and surprisingly heartfelt series centered on a Chicago restaurant kitchen — premieres June 22. The sixth season of the hilariously-weird vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows premieres July 13. On Aug. 2, you can follow the exploits of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma with the third season of Reservation Dogs. There’s so much good stuff coming soon — stay inside and enjoy it!

SOLVE A MURDER

Okay, not a real one. In Coeur d’Alene, Crime Scene Entertainment has a series of murder mystery parties lined up almost every weekend this summer. Put your detective skills to the test as you and other attendees work to piece together and find the killer. The events are fully interactive and have themes like the Wild West, Game of Thrones and Alice in Wonderland. Costumes are encouraged — real murders are not.

REDECORATE WITH A MAXIMALIST AESTHETIC

Summer is often seen as a time of cleaning and thinning — a fresh start, a blank page and an empty, eggshell white room converted into a desolate Apple Store purged of anything resembling clutter. But what if Marie Kondo was wrong? Why should every single

possession spark joy? This summer, experiment with maximalism Go to the thrift store and buy the first three paintings you see. Buy books you’ll never read and stack them on the shelves. All those boxes taking up space in the basement? Unpack them and scatter the contents about. Embrace the chaos.

LEARN AN INSTRUMENT

Bored at home? Why not finally pick up that guitar that’s been sit-

ting in the corner, gathering dust and begging to be played. Hoffman Music has six sound-treated lesson studios and a big roster of local musicians. They teach the usual stuff — guitar, violin and saxophone — but also accordion, bagpipes, banjo and euphonium. For piano, check out Music City Spokane If you’re interested in a heavier, rocking style of music, check out Learn to Burn School of Music for lessons on electric guitar, drums and bass. Remember: practice (eventually) makes perfect. n

Gorge on an Italian beef sandwich after binging The Bear

SUMMER

GUIDANCE

Sarah Conover Author

Sarah Conover has taught writing at Community Colleges of Spokane and Spokane Valley High School. Her new book, Set Adrift: My Family’s Disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle, a Mystery and Memoir comes out in late June. On July 12, she’s leading a writing workshop centered on grief at the South Hill library.

(NATE SANFORD)

What benefits do people get from learning to write in groups?

I think writing is about 90 percent momentum. It’s very hard to write on your own. And when you have to read your writing aloud, you hear it differently. And people see gems that you would have completely dismissed. It’s the momentum, it’s the bonding. One of the reasons we write is to connect with other people in ways that matter.

For instance, this morning I was teaching and we did quote-unquote free-write to begin with. People, when they read them aloud they’re like, “Oh this is no

good.” And honest to God, everyone’s like, “Shut up, that was so good.”

Your upcoming writing workshop is focused on grief — how do you encourage people and make them comfortable exploring that part of themselves in writing? You have to be pretty careful — I think a grief story is a love story also. It’s one of the few certainties in life. I’m going to try to make it a very safe space. People don’t have to share unless they want to. But you know, part of the added sorrow of grief is that you’re so isolated.

YEARS

What advice would you have for someone who has never been to a writing workshop before?

You know, people’s writing improves so quickly it’s jaw-dropping sometimes.

What’s your favorite summertime activity? Swimming in big lakes.

Is there a place you try to go every summer?

I married into a family that has had a place for 50 years on Hayden [Lake]. Hard not to go there. n

Write that book that’s been kicking around in your head.

• Lake Pend Oreille is the largest lake in Idaho at 43 miles long, and up to 1,150 feet deep — making it the fifth-deepest in the nation.

• The southern tip is home to Farragut State Park, formerly the Farragut Naval Training Station during World War II, of which a small part is still active and conducts U.S. Navy acoustic underwater submarine research.

K ID S K ID S I

There’s a whole new world of things for the kiddos to do this summer, like seeing Aladdin on the stage.

Fun for the younger set, and their occasionally weary (but always cheerful!) caregivers

BY ANNE McGREGOR

Summer days are looooong, which is mostly wonderful but also occasionally daunting for parents. For kids, learning to navigate languid days without hovering adult attention is a skill! It’s okay to be bored for a while — that’s when imagination strikes. So don’t feel guilty if the kids’ schedules look a little empty. Still, it’s essential to have some ideas ready to implement when boredom — or, worse, the dreaded spiraling of sibling rivalry — kicks in. Even better if those activities are actually fun for the whole family.

SPECIAL EVENTS

It’s a splurge but the Broadway musical Aladdin is something the whole family can absolutely enjoy together. Disney first released its version of Aladdin as a movie in 1992 — more than 30 years ago. The musical actually had its world premiere at Seattle’s The 5th Avenue Theatre in 2011 before opening on Broadway in 2014, where it garnered nine Tony award nominations and is still running today. But from June 27 to July 2, audiences at Spokane’s First Interstate Center for the Arts can bask in the magic as Aladdin and Jasmine dream of “A Whole New World” on their magic carpet ride. Suitable for kids 6 and up, and their parents — who probably grew up watching the movie on old-fashioned VHS tapes.

ANYTIME ADVENTURES

Here’s an activity that can last all summer — heck, all the way into October. Take part in the Greater Spokane Parks Challenge to see how many Spokane County parks you can check out between now and October. It’s all tracked for you on a free app called OuterSpatial.

“We have all of the parks, conservation lands, trails, pools, splash pads — they’re all listed in one place,” says Spokane Parks Foundation Executive Director Yvonne Trudeau, noting there may be locations nearby that you haven’t even heard of. Ten visits gets you a water bottle sticker, while 20 lets you enter a raffle.

There’s no better way to learn about mining and its impact on our region’s history than by journeying down, down, down to see how a mine actually works. At the Sierra Silver Mine Tour in Wallace, you’ll descend underground under the guidance of a retired miner. In Kellogg, the Crystal Gold Mine offers a rare glimpse of an 1880s operation and at the end of the tour, you’re invited to give panning for gold a try.

The thrill of discovering something that’s never seen the light of day is hard to beat. At Stonerose Fossils, kids can pry open rocks to reveal 50 million year old fossils of leaves, insects, fish and even birds. There are two settings to explore: the Stonerose Interpretive Center and Gift Shop is free and in a new location right in downtown Republic; actual digging takes place nearby at the Boot Hill fossil site. Admission for digging starts at $5 for 5 to 17 year olds ($35 for a family with two kids). Bring your own tools to save a few bucks on rental — a medium, half-inch cold chisel is best, but screwdrivers and putty knives also work and a hammer is helpful. Wear clothes and shoes suitable for climbing on hot rocks on the sunny slope, and don’t forget water.

Lake Chelan Arts Festival

Riverwalk

June

#visitharringtonwa

UPCOMING EVENTS

Harrington Vintage Country Fair

June 17th

Harrington Fall Fest

September 23rd

Hometown Christmas

December 2nd

HOMEGROWN FUN

A bucket of colorful chalk and an expanse of sidewalk or driveway can keep kids occupied for hours. For younger kids, chalk drawing can help with learning colors and shapes — practice drawing circles and then try hopping from color to color. Older kids can enjoy creating more elaborate designs like mandalas or even “stained glass windows.” Here’s how: Use masking tape to make a large rectangle, tape off smaller geometric shapes and then color in the shapes. Remove the tape and step back to behold the creation. Drawing a set of giant butterfly wings teaches symmetry. Have your child lie down for a fun photo op and a good way to remember a summer day.

Loading up a mountain of gear and hitting the road for a family camping trip has its benefits — new scenery and adventures await! However, it can also be fun —  and a lot easier to find a campsite — to camp in the backyard For the real experience, go all-in and pretend like the house isn’t there (though use that indoor plumbing as needed). Sleeping bags, flashlights and a cooler add to the fun. Grab some long pointy sticks for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows around a backyard fire pit. Then enjoy stargazing and telling ghost stories until it’s time for bed. Sleep well, knowing that for once “getting home” is just a matter of a few steps.

WHY NOT LEARN SOMETHING?

Of course, Spokane Parks and Recreation offers swimming lessons, as do the local YMCAs, but did you know there’s a school just for swimming lessons in Post Falls? At Kay’s Dancing Waters Swim School, lessons are taught on a four-semester basis, year round, with an emphasis on coaches fostering a connection with students. Just one class is in the pool at a time, though there are about 500 students per session.

Along with developing refined swimming skills, “We find that confidence is one of the most important things to instill in the students around the water because that’s the thing that’s going to combat a dangerous situation,” says instructor Rowan Endres, founder Kay Finkle’s granddaughter.

Encourage creativity and let someone else take care of the supplies and clean-up at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture’s “Get Messy!” art camps. Kids will explore printing, painting and clay molding at three days of camps (July 26-28 from 9 am to 2 pm). Sign up for one or more days. In August, other MAC camps include Video Game-Inspired Pixel Art (Aug. 2), Rube Goldberg’s Marvelous Machines (Aug. 3), and Unplugged Coding (Aug. 4). All camps are $45 for museum members, $50 for everyone else.

With the goal of helping people of all ages “find the path to their best future,” Spark Central is an excellent place to find enriching activities for kids of all ages. On the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, bring 3-6 year olds for a free class including a story and an optional craft. Second through fifth graders can take part in Lego Robotics Club, while kids in grades 3 to 8 might enjoy Minecraft Club. Check the website spark-central.org for days and times. But anytime is a good time to stop in to Spark Central and try a “creative kit,” exploring everything from DIY computers to origami, quilling and robot repair.

STEM CENTRAL

Looking for a summer bargain? $160 buys you a family membership to Mobius Discovery Center with unlimited family visits for a whole year! Top reasons for a trip to Mobius on a summer day? Kids can safely explore within the center’s confines and exercising their critical thinking and problemsolving skills may help prevent the “summer slide” of learning loss. Find out more at mobiusdiscoverycenter.org. n

Forget Zelda — break out the chalk and hit the sidewalk.

SUMMER GUIDANCE

Keeth Apgar

Harmonica Pocket

With seven albums filled with songs sometimes silly and sometimes sweet, but always musically delightful, Harmonica Pocket performs 10 free concerts at multiple Spokane County Library District branches from July 10-14. Band founder, and currently solo performer, Keeth Apgar, who lives “on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest,” chatted by phone as he walked his dog in the park about how he got his start playing music for kids, what kids’ music is all about, and what he’s looking forward to this summer.

(ANNE McGREGOR)

So tell me about “kindie rock”?

That’s kind of a term that was coined a number of years ago… I don’t fully identify with it, but it is a useful term.

I really enjoy your music. And I don’t want to be mean about kids music or anything, but sometimes it has such a frenetic feel.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, kindie rock is a very large umbrella. And there’s a lot of different styles and approaches underneath that umbrella. And, for me, it’s really important to never talk down to kids… So I just want to, like, kind of get on my belly and lay in the grass and roll around and take a kid’s eye view of the world and share what I see. And I’m trying to bring a little magic into their lives with the songs.

How did you decide to target kids with your music?

I’ve been a musician since I was a teenager — I started playing guitar when I was 13. And started writing songs shortly thereafter.

In my 30s, I went to a neighbor’s house to borrow a tool for the garden. And she was hav-

ing tea… So I sat down with these three women, and one of them was the director of a preschool… The director just had a cancellation at her preschool and needed a performer to sub for her. And so she said, “Would you come and play music for the kids?... I’m gonna pay you.”

So I just went home and I told my performance partner, “Hey, we got a gig. It’s for three year olds.” And she’s like, “Alright, let’s do it.”

So we prepared and we put together a 60-minute show. We just came up with some stuff that we thought would be cool for kids and pulled out a didgeridoo and a funky piano called the mbira from Zimbabwe and just brought together some songs.

Anyway at the end of the show, at the end of the hour, the directors said, “That was amazing! The kids have never sat still for an hour. You guys are incredible.” So that’s how it started. And you know, that was in 2000. It was truly an accident… We started pursuing opportunities, and the doors just started opening.

What do you like to do in the summertime?

If I have a day off, and like a sunny day off, I love being in the garden or out in nature, spending time in the woods. I usually bring a small instrument with me. A ukulele or harmonica or something, just to play some tunes along the way.

Where do you like to go in the summer?

Well, I live on a little island. And so my wife and son and I, we have a special beach that we hit. And a lot of our neighbors and local friends show up there on sunny days… And we see people there that we don’t see any other time of the year. It’s a little hub… That’s one of our favorite spots. n

Guitar, didgeridoo, mbira, ukulele and harmonica — the tools of kindie rock.

M M R R U U E E S S M M CALENDAR CALENDAR

Fill up your schedule with these regional events from June to September

Welcome to summer, everyone! Are you ready to soak up the long-awaited sun and have the best summer ever? This year, there are plenty of summer activities to attend here in the Inland Northwest and absolutely no shortage of good times ahead. (Really, though, this calendar has close to 1,000 unique events!) If you’re a foodie, we’ve got you (and your rumbling stomach) covered. If you’re a music lover, don’t fret. There are plenty of concerts to attend all summer long. Want to see what local artists have been up to? Well, get out there, don’t wait up! Whether you plan on spending

the summer inside to avoid a gnarly sunburn, or you want to soak up that PNW summer sun while it’s still around, peruse our 14-week calendar and get to planning ASAP. Look for the huge annual events we all know and love, exciting new happenings, old favorites and much, much more in the following pages. Whatever you decide to do this summer, do it with a smile on your face, sunscreen on your skin and the goal of making some memories that will last a lifetime.

— MADISON PEARSON, Summer Guide Calendar Editor

JUNE 15-21

COMEDY

6/15 J Matt Bellassai, Spokane

Comedy Club

6/16 Laugh Out Loud, The Grain Shed (Cedar)

6/16-17 Marlon Wayans, Spokane

Comedy Club

6/16 J Blue Doors & Dragons, Blue Door Theatre

6/17 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

6/18 Connor King, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

6/17 J Parade of Paws, Spokane

Humane Society

6/17 Bourbon, Bacon & Brews, Historic Flight Foundation

6/18 J Drag Charity Bingo, The Grain Shed (Cedar)

6/15-18 Gyro Days, Wallace, Idaho

6/15 Campbell House Dark History: Society Secrets, The MAC

6/16-18 Green Bluff Community Yard Sale, Green Bluff Grange

6/16-17 J Medical Lake Founders Day

6/16 Gamers’ Guild, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

6/16 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

6/16-17 J Car d’Lane, Downtown Coeur d’Alene

6/17-18 Father’s Day Weekend, Silverwood Theme Park

6/17-18 J Metaline Falls Bigfoot Fest

6/17 Car Show, The General Store

6/17 J Sasquatch Roundup, Spokane Valley Event Center

6/17 J Coeur d’Alene Pride Cruise

6/17 Spokane Valley Library Grand Opening

6/17 Spokane In Boom Garden Tour

6/17 J Juneteenth Celebration, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center

6/17-20 J Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

6/17 PFLAG Moscow Pride Picnic, East City Park

FILM

6/16 EWU Film, Bing Crosby Theater

6/17 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

6/17 J Grease 45th Anniversary SingA-Long, Garland Theater

6/17 Rocky Horror Picture Show, Garland Theater

6/18 Juneteenth: A Celebration of Resistance, The MAC

6/18 J Good: A Stage to Screen Film, Bing Crosby Theater

6/18 NT Live: GOOD, The Kenworthy

6/19-21 Free Kids Movies: Despicable Me, Garland Theater

6/20 Strangers on a Train, Kenworthy

6/21 J Coraline, The Kenworthy

FOOD & DRINK

6/16-21 Strawberry Fest, Siemers Farm

6/16 Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Dinner, Beverly’s

6/17 J Pride Bar Crawl, The Globe

6/17 Books & Brews, 1912 Center

6/17 Tour & Supper Club, Commellini Estate

6/17 Savage Beercats Beer Pairing, Cutter Theatre

6/18 Nova Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret & Drag Brunch, Highball

6/18 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

6/20 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

6/21 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

6/21 J 5 Star Cellars Dinner, Gander & Ryegrass

MUSIC

6/15 J Chris Stapleton, Marty Stuart, Allen Stone, Spokane Arena

6/15 Sean Kavanaugh, Arbor Crest

6/15 Yelawolf, Nicolas Alan, Knitting Factory

6/16 Kung fu Vinyl, Free Creatures, Calimossa, Lucky You Lounge

6/16 Victress Voice Music Collective, The Big Dipper

6/17 J KPBX Kids’ Concerts 30th Anniversary, Shadle Park

6/17 J The Steel Woods, Tanner Usrey, The Fox Theater

6/18 J Night Moves, Good Doom, Lucky You Lounge

6/19 Best of Bluegrass: Nick Dumas & Branchline, The Jacklin

6/21 J Spokane Symphony: Summer Solstice, Brick West Brewing

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

6/15-21 J Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

6/15 Water-Wise Gardening, North Spokane Library

6/15-18 Spokane Indians vs. Eugene Emeralds, Avista Stadium

6/16 Basic Yoga, Finch Arboretum

6/17-18 J Yoga with Goats, Higher Ground Animal Sanctuary

6/17-18 Mountain Magic Trail Run, Mt. Spokane State Park

6/17 WSU Spokane County Master

Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Park Library

6/17 Trailblazer Triathlon, Duathlon, 5K, Coney Island Park

6/19 WA State Land Free Days

6/19 Yoga for You!, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

6/20-21 Spokane Indians vs. Tri-City Dust Devils, Avista Stadium

6/21 J Summer Parkways, Comstock Park

6/21 J Browne’s Addition Walking Tours, Coeur d’Alene Park

6/21 Wednesdays in the Woods: Bats, Beautiful Bats!, Riverside State Park Bowl & Pitcher

6/21 Riverfront Moves: Summer Solstice Yoga with the Union, Riverfront Park

THEATER

6/15-18 Human Error, Stage Left Theater

6/15-18 J Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Spokane Civic Theatre

6/15-18 J 2023 Playwrights’ Forum

Festival, Spokane Civic Theatre

6/16-21 Grease, University High School

6/17-18 Radio Show, Pend Oreille

Playhouse

VISUAL ARTS

6/15-21 Backwater, Kolva-Sullivan Gallery

6/15 3rd Thursday Artwalk Season

Finale, Third Street Gallery

6/15-21 J Sacred Spirits, Eastern Washington University

6/15-21 J Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

6/15-21 J Tracy Poindexter-Canton:

J

Beyond the Page, Beyond the Canvas, Indian Trail Library

6/15-21 Inland NW Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum

6/15-21 J Willow Tree & Gabriel Lee Greene: nervus., Emerge

6/15-21 Humaira Abid: Searching for Home, The MAC

6/15-21 J Daniel Lopez: World War Me, Entropy

6/15-21 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

6/15-21 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

6/15-21 What Was Always Yours And Never Lost, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

6/15-17 J You Were Always Home, Terrain Gallery

6/16-21 POAC Sandpoint Art Walk

6/16-17 J Thrice Told Culinary Tales, Saranac Art Projects

6/16-18 Artwalk, Palouse, Wash.

6/16 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

6/17 J Bazaar, Downtown Spokane

6/17 J Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour, The MAC

WORDS

6/15 Timothy Connor: Beautiful Wounds, BookPeople of Moscow

6/15 J Kate Lebo: A Washington State Book Award Celebration, Liberty Park Library

6/15 Stephen Thomas & Dennis Held: What Is Between Us, Auntie’s

6/17 Palouse Writers Fest, 1912 Center

6/17 J Tove Danovich: Under the Henfluence, Auntie’s Bookstore

COMEDY

6/22-24 Steph Tolev, Spokane Comedy Club

6/23 J Blue Doors & Dragons, Blue Door Theatre

6/24 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

6/26 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K

6/27 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

6/22 J Community Sew-In, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

6/22 The Library Club, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

6/23 4th Fridays, Colville, Wash.

6/23 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

6/24-25 Beer & Browse Vendor Fair, Dave Smith Motors Smelterville

Spokane Herbal Faire, West

Central Episcopal Mission

6/24-25 Fairy Festa, Spokane Gallery and Framing 6/24 J El Mercadito, A.M. Cannon Park

J Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

in Perry, South Perry

Spokane, Atomic

Boutique

6/22-23 J Free Kids Movies: Despicable Me, Garland Theater

& Panel: American Hospitals, Central Library

6/24 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

6/24 Teen Make-It + A Movie Matinee, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

6/26-28 Free Kids Movies: How To Train Your Dragon, Garland Theater

6/27 J Watership Down / The Plague Dogs, The Kenworthy

6/28 Full Draw Film Tour, Panida Theater

FOOD & DRINK

6/22-28 Strawberry Fest, Siemers Farm

6/22 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

6/24 Burger Dock & Tractor Beverage Co. Summer Kickoff Party, The Burger Dock - CDA

6/25 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

6/27 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

6/27 Teen Cupcake Decorating, Fairfield Library

6/28 Teen Cupcake Decorating, Deer Park Library

MUSIC

6/22 Music on Main: Leslie Sena and Mozi Jones, Pine Street Plaza

6/22 The Lone Bellow Trio, Knitting Factory

6/23 Andre Feriante: String Stories, The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center

6/23 Arise Roots, Lucky You Lounge

6/24 Alcohol & Feelings, David Larson Group, Lucky You Lounge

6/24 Henny 3: King YDB, Liddy Mechele, Stone P, Buddha & Block 23, Knitting Factory

6/24 G-REX, BNGRZ, Radikill, The District Bar

6/25 J Josiah Johnson, Lucky You

6/26 J Sera Cahoone, Lucky You

6/27 Railroad Earth, Bing Crosby Theater

6/27 Spokane Symphony, Arbor Crest

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

6/22-28 J Spokane Parks Challenge

6/22-25 Spokane Indians vs. Tri-City Dust Devils, Avista Stadium

6/23-24 Silver Kings Hard Enduro, Silver Mountain Resort

6/23 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

6/24-25 J Hoopfest, Downtown Spokane

6/24-25 Race the Wolf, Schweitzer

6/24 PRIDE Ride, CycleBar CDA

6/24 Paw-louse 5k Fun Run & Walk, Moscow Intermodal Transit Center

6/24 Yoga & Wine, Liberty Lake Wine Cellars

6/24 Rose Mastery Series, Ritters

6/25 J Ironman Coeur d’Alene

6/26 Yoga for You!, CdA Library

6/27 Walking Tour of Historic Browne’s Addition

6/27 Riverfront Moves: Yoga with Beyoutiful Hot Yoga, Pavilion

6/28 Wednesdays in the Woods: Moose, Cougars, and Bears, Oh My!, Riverside State Park

THEATER

6/22-25 Human Error, Stage Left Theater

6/22-28 J Grease, University High School

6/27 J Aladdin, First Interstate Center for the Arts

VISUAL ARTS

6/22-28 J Daniel Lopez, Entropy

6/22-28 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

6/22-28 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

6/22-28 J Leela Francis: Abstracts and Landscapes, Gordy’s Sichuan

6/22-25 Inspired Design, Art Spirit

6/22 J Book Arts: Lego Printed Zine, SP&PC

6/24 Maker Meet-Up, Art Salvage

6/24 Just for Fun Centennial Art Fair, Manito United Methodist Church

6/24 J Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

6/24 Sketchbook Workshop with Amalia Fisch, The Hive

6/26 Art, Animals & Garden, Spokane Art School

6/26 Whimsy: Watercolor Illustration, Spokane Art School

6/28 Dinosaur Slab Relief with Collista Krebs, Spokane Art School

6/28 The Window Gallery Project, Shadle Library

WORDS

6/25 Spokane Civics Salon: Why Not Socialism?, Central Library

6/26 Buzzy Bees & Pollination, Indian Trail Library

6/26 J Paws to Read, CdA Library

6/28 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

6/28 Poetry After Dark, Spark Central

6/28 J Riverside Chats: An Evening with Denise Neujahr, Central Library

Don’t miss Daniel Lopez’s solo show at Entropy, through July 3. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

JUNE 29-JULY

COMEDY

6/29 The Matt Baker Comedy & Stunt Show, East City Park (Moscow)

6/29-7/1 J Alonzo Bodden, Spokane Comedy Club

6/29 J Space Queers: A Pride Spectacular, Lucky You Lounge

6/30 J Blue Doors & Dragons, Blue Door Theatre

7/1 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

7/2 Carl Lee, Spokane Comedy Club

7/3 Steve Hofstetter, Spokane Comedy Club

7/3 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K

COMMUNITY

6/29 J CDA4Pride 2023: Pride on the Runway!, Coeur d’Alene

6/29-7/1 Silver Valley Jeep Jamboree, Mullan, Idaho

6/30-7/1 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

6/30 J Spokane Magickal Moot Trivia Night, Atomic Threads Boutique

6/30 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

7/1-2 J Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area

7/3 J Statehood Parade, Wallace

7/4 J Grand Coulee Dam Festival of America

7/4 J Sandpoint 4th of July Celebration

7/4 J Lakeside 4th Fest, The Coeur d’Alene Resort

7/4 J Liberty Lake 4th of July Concert & Fireworks

7/4 J Coeur d’Alene 4th of July Fireworks

7/4 J Spokane 4th of July Fireworks, Riverfront Park

FILM

6/29-30 Free Kids Movies: How To Train Your Dragon, Garland Theater

7/1 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

7/3-5 Free Kids Movies: Kung Fu Panda, Garland Theater

FOOD & DRINK

6/29 Chef Collaboration Dinner, Lodgepole

6/29-7/5 J Strawberry Festival, Siemers Farm

6/29 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

6/29 J Kitchen Cooking Class: HandFormed Pasta, Commellini Estate

6/30 Teen Cupcake Decorating Basics, Moran Prairie Library

6/30 J Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain

6/30 Kitchen Cooking Class: HandFormed Pasta, Commellini Estate

7/2 Nova Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret & Drag Brunch, Highball

7/2 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone.

7/5 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

6/29 Kyle Richard & Friends, Brick West

6/29 John Hewitt, Arbor Crest

6/29 Wiebe Jammin’, Steam Plant

6/29 Music on Main: Jon & Rand Band, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

6/29 MAC Band, East City Park

6/29 J Lucas Brookbank, The Grain Shed - Cedar Tap House

6/30 JoJo Dodge, The CdA Resort

6/30 Chris Lynch & Lauren Kerschner, Pend d’Oreille Winery

6/30 J Just Plain Darin, The Ridler

6/30 Indubious, Northwest Breeze, The Big Dipper

6/30 Stagecoach West, Barrister Winery

6/30-7/1 Keanu, Chinook at CdA Casino

7/1 Christy Lee & Luke Yates, Beck’s Harvest House

7/1 J Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

7/2 Red Books Trio, The CdA Resort

7/2 Grand Avenue, Arbor Crest

7/4 J Spokane Symphony: Patriotic Pops, Pavilion at Riverfront

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

6/29 Yoga with Beyoutiful Hot Yoga, Riverfront Park

artsandculturecda.org

event

6/30 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

7/2 J Full Moon Ride, Coeur d’Alene

7/3 J Hiawatha Full Moon Night Ride, Lookout Pass

7/4-5 J Spokane Indians vs. Everett AquaSox, Avista Stadium

THEATER

6/29 J Improv, Pend Oreille Playhouse

6/29-7/2 J Grease, University High School

6/30-7/2 J The Sound of Music, Schuler Performing Arts Center

7/1 Teen Improv Workshop, Blue Door Theatre

7/1-2 J Aladdin, First Interstate Center for the Arts

VISUAL ARTS

6/29-7/5 POAC Sandpoint Art Walk

6/29-30 Sacred Spirits, EWU Gallery

6/29-7/5 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

6/29-7/5 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

6/29-7/1 J You Were Always Home, Terrain Gallery

6/30 Artwalk, Palouse, Wash.

7/1-5 J Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

7/3 J Art, Animals & Garden, River’s Wish Animal Sanctuary

WORDS

6/29 Entertainment in the Park: Storytime, East City Park

6/29 J The Changing Face of Journalism: A Dialogue Across Generations, Central Library

6/30 Buzzy Bees & Pollination, South Hill Library

2023 Concert Season

Nu Jack City

FUNK/SOUL/BLUES/ MOTOWN

Opener: Pat D’Angelo

Macey Gard Band

ROCK/POP/SOUL/ATTITUDE

Opener: Riley Christian Anderson

Craig Catlett Big Band

SWING JAZZ

Opener: Weddle Twins

Pamela BentonStringzOnFire

JAZZ/ORIGINALS

Opener: Angelica Rose

Working Spliffs

REGGAE, SKA, R&B

Opener: Dag Zaggenz

What About Bob

FOLK ROCK/BLUES/COUNTRY

Opener: Renei Yarrow

Soul Proprietor

FUNK/SOUL/BLUES/MOTOWN

Opener: Sean Kavanaugh

Justin James Band

COUNTRY/ROCK/SOUL

Opener: Sydney Dale

CDA Symphony

CLASSICAL

Opener: Aspire Community Theatre “Singin in the Rain”

Radio

5

COMEDY

7/6-9 Gabriel Rutledge, Spokane Comedy Club

7/7 J Ink Blot, Blue Door Theatre

7/8 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

7/10 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K

7/11 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

7/12 Open Mic Stand-up, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

7/6 Tween Library Carnival, North Spokane Library

7/6 The Reptile Lady, East City Park

7/6 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Otis Orchards Library

7/7-9 J Post Falls Festival, Q’Emiln Park

7/7-9 J KuroNekoCon, DoubleTree by Hilton City Center

7/7-8 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

7/7 J Star Fest, Unitarian Universalist

7/7 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

7/8 Second Saturdays, Palouse, Wash.

7/8 J Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

7/8 Murder at the Poe’s Raven Party, Crime Scene Entertainment

7/9 CDA Flea Market, Roosevelt Inn

7/9 Learn to Play TCG Games, The Comic Book Shop (NorthTown)

7/10 Tween Library Carnival, Deer Park Library

7/11 Building with Books: LEGO Challenge, Cheney Library

7/12 Coffee & Conversation, Central Library

7/12 KERNEL, Spark Central

7/12 J Experience VR: Beat Saber, North Spokane Library

FILM

7/6-7 Free Kids Movies: Kung Fu Panda, Garland Theater

7/8 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

7/10-12 Free Kids Movies: The Bad Guys, Garland Theater

7/12 J Surprise Summer Film Series, Panida Theater

7/12 J Movies at the Pavilion: Up!, Pavilion at Riverfront

FOOD & DRINK

7/6-12 Strawberry Fest, Siemers Farm

7/6 J Pairings in the Pines, Pine Street Woods (Sandpoint)

7/6 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

7/7 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain Resort

7/8 Coeur d’Alene Brewfest, McEuen Park

7/9 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

7/11 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

7/12 Iced Tea & Porch Reads, Deer Park Library

7/12 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

7/12 A Taste of Italy Cooking Class, Second Harvest

MUSIC

7/6 J Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Deer Tick, The Fox Theater

7/6 Ed Shaw, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

7/6 Music on Main: Morgan Brothers Band, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

7/6 Paul Busch, East City Park

7/6 Hardwood Heart, The Nest at Kendall Yards

7/6 Alabama, The Marshall Tucker Band, Spokane Arena

7/6 Nu Jack City, Pat D’Angelo, Riverstone Park

7/6 Zepparella, Knitting Factory

7/7-8 J Wallace Blues Festival

7/7 Just Plain Darin, The Ridler

7/7 J Graham Nash, Panida Theater

7/7 JoJo Dodge, The CdA Resort

7/7-8 Dead & Company, Gorge Amphitheater

7/8 Sean Kavanaugh, The CdA Resort

7/8 Blake Braley, Zola

7/8 Music on Main, Ritzville

7/8 Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

7/8 J Protomartyr, The Smokes, Lucky You Lounge

7/8 Bohemian Queen, Bing Crosby Theater

7/8 Talmadge + Kassandra, Huckleberry’s Natural Market

7/8 Dallas Kay, Beck’s Harvest House

7/8 Low Class Bluegrass, Rocket Market

7/9 Sidewalk Sunday: The Black Jack Band, Jimmy’s Down the Street

7/9 One Street Over, Arbor Crest

7/9 Red Books Trio, The CdA Resort

7/9 The Teccas, Beck’s Harvest House

7/9 J Old Crow Medicine Show, The Fox Theater

7/10 Kori Ailene, Maryhill Winery

7/10 The Imagine Collective, Bad Seed

7/11 Toad the Wet Sproket, Bing Crosby Theater

7/11 POP Summer Concert: Ben Klein as Elvis, Prince of Peace Lutheran

7/11-12 Girls Rock Lab, Central Library

JULY

7/11 Sean Kavanaugh, Rocket Market.

7/12 Jake Rozier, Beck’s Harvest House

7/12 The Disco Biscuits, Knitting Factory

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

7/6-12 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

7/6 Riverfront Moves: Shala Flow with Shala Living Yoga, Riverfront Park

7/6-9 J Spokane Indians vs. Everett AquaSox, Avista Stadium

7/7-9 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass

7/8 Kan Trail Race, Mt. Spokane State Park

7/8-9 The Shootout, Silver Mountain

7/8 J Spokatopia, Camp Sekani

7/8 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Library

7/8 Skate Night, Numerica Skate Ribbon

7/9 Coeur d’Alene Garden Tour

7/9 Coeur Climbing Grand Opening,

7/11 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

7/11 Riverfront Moves: Vinyasa with Rare Wellness, Riverfront Pavilion

THEATER

7/6 Improv, Pend Oreille Playhouse

7/6-9 J The Sound of Music, Schuler Performing Arts Center

7/7-9 My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, The Forge Theater

7/9 J Inland Northwest Opera: Elixir of Love, Coeur d’Alene

VISUAL ARTS

7/6-12 POAC Sandpoint Art Walk

7/6-12 J Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

7/6-12 J Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

7/6-12 Inland NW Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum

7/6-12 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

7/6 Kindness Rocks, Airway Heights Library

7/7 J First Friday, Spokane

7/7-8 J Hannah Charlton: The Illuminated Book of the City of Ladies, Terrain Gallery

7/9 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

7/9 Figure/Life Drawing with Tim Bovey, Spokane Art School

7/10 Just Add Color, CdA Public Library

7/11 Create an Eco-Printed Scarf, Otis Orchards Library

7/12 J Art In The Park, Riverfront Park

7/12 Adult and Child Imagination Station, Spokane Art School

7/12 J Open Studio, The Hive

7/12 Pastel Workshop with T Kurtz, Spokane Art School

WORDS

7/6-7 The Scoop from Space, Spark Central

7/6 Storytime, East City Park

7/7 J 3 Minute Mic, Auntie’s Bookstore

7/10 Scribbler’s Society Writing Club, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

7/11 Family Storytime in the Park, Edgecliff Park

7/11 Drop In & Write, Spark Central

7/12 Family Storytime in the Park, Terrace View Park

7/12 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

7/12 Poetry After Dark, Spark Central

JULY 16 TH 9AM TO 5PM

7/13-15 Pete Lee, Spokane Comedy Club 7/14 Ink Blot, Blue Door Theatre 7/15 Safari, Blue Door Theatre 7/16 J Bored Teachers Comedy Tour, The Fox Theater

7/18 Kevin James Thornton, Spokane Comedy Club

7/13 Tween Library Carnival, Airway Heights Library

7/13-13 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Argonne Library

7/14-15 J Sandpoint Pride Fest

7/14-15 Warehouse Book Sale, Deer Park Auto Freight

7/14 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

7/15-16 J U-Pick Lavender Festival, Evening Light Lavender Farm

7/15 Experience VR: Epic Roller Coasters, North Spokane Library

7/15 Mistequa Casino Hotel Bike Show, Mistequa Casino Hotel (Chewelah)

7/16 Sharing the Dharma Day, Sravasti Abbey (Newport)

7/13-14 Free Kids Movies: The Bad Guys, Garland Theater

7/15 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

7/15 J Movies in the Park: The Princess Bride, Olmsted Brothers Green

7/15 J Benny & Joon 30th Anniversary, Garland Theater

7/16 Jack Absolute Flies Again, Bing Crosby Theater

7/17-19 Free Kids Movies: Sing 2, Garland Theater

7/19 J Movies at the Pavilion: Night at the Museum, Riverfront Park

FOOD & DRINK

7/13-15 Strawberry Fest, Siemers Farm

7/13 BBQ & Bands: The Ronaldos, The Culinary Stone

7/13-15 J Crave! Northwest, CenterPlace Event Center

7/14 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain

7/15-16 Northwest Winefest, Schweitzer

7/15 J Scoops & Bowls, Manito Park

7/16 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

7/18 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

7/19 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

7/13-19 Girls Rock Lab, Central Library

7/13 Swing Set, Arbor Crest

7/13 Macey Gard Band, Riley Christian Anderson, Riverstone Park

7/13 Nu Jack City, Coeur d’Alene Park

7/13 Milonga, The Nest at Kendall Yards

7/13 Vale of Pnath, False Visions, The Night We Died, The Big Dipper

7/13 The Ballroom Thieves, Lucky You

7/14 J Jimmy Eat World, Manchester Orchestra, Middle Kids, Podium

7/14 J The Avett Brothers, Calder Allen, Northern Quest

7/14 Youth Lagoon, Nina Keith, Lucky You Lounge

7/14 Rayland Baxter, Liz Cooper, Knitting Factory

7/15 Imagine Collective, Lucky You

7/15 Enterprise Earth, Fallujah, The Big Dipper

7/15 J Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Northern Quest

7/16 Atomic Jive Band, Arbor Crest

7/16 Kat Hasty, Lucky You Lounge

7/16 J Boog, Knitting Factory

7/17 Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Animals as Leaders, First Interstate Center for the Arts

7/17 J Jason Mraz & His Superband, Celisse, Northern Quest

7/17 Gogol Bordello, Knitting Factory

7/18 Steve Earle, Bing Crosby Theater

7/19 Charles Wesley Godwin, Wyatt Flores, Knitting Factory

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

7/14-16 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass

7/14-16 J Sandpoint Antique & Classic Boat Show

7/15 8 Lakes Leg Aches Bike Ride, Lutheran Community Services

7/15 Tiger-Tri Tiger-Du, Colville, Wash.

7/16 J Yoga & Beer, Genus Brewing

7/18 Yoga at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

7/18 Riverfront Moves: Power Vinyasa with Rare Wellness, Pavilion

7/18-19 Spokane Indians vs. Vancouver Canadians, Avista Stadium

THEATER

7/14-19 J Alice By Heart, Spokane Civic Theatre

7/15-19 J Steve Martin’s Bright Star, University High School

VISUAL ARTS

7/13-19 J Drawn to the Wall VIII, Jundt

7/13 Reuse Workshop, Mobius

7/13-19 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

7/13-14 All About AI: Creating Stories & Images, Spokane Valley Library

7/13-15 J Hannah Charlton, Terrain Gallery

7/13 J Book Arts: Suminagashi, SP&PC

7/14 Second Friday Artwalk, Downtown Coeur d’Alene

7/14 J Emerge Block Party, Emerge

7/16 Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

7/19 J Art In The Park, Riverfront Park

7/19 Open Studio, The Hive

Blues Traveler (pictured) performs with Big Head Todd & the Monsters on July 15 at Northern Quest’s BECU Live outdoor venue.

COMEDY

FOOD & DRINK

7/20 Teen Cupcake Decorating Basics, Airway Heights Library

7/20 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

7/20 BBQ & Bands: Jake Rozier and the Implication, The Culinary Stone

7/21 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain Resort

7/22 J Pilsner Picnic, Brick West Brewing Co.

COMMUNITY

7/23 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

7/25 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

7/26 Teen Cupcake Decorating Basics, North Spokane Library

7/26 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

7/20 Inland Empire Blues Society

Monthly Boogie, Bolo’s Bar & Grill.

7/20 Robert Vaughn, Arbor Crest

7/20 Craig Catlett Big Band, Weddle Twins, Riverstone Park

7/20 Villa Blues ‘N Jazz, Coeur d’Alene Park (Spokane)

7/20 Music on Main: Dan Maher, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

7/20 Zonkey, The Nest at Kendall Yards

7/20-21 Girls Rock Lab, Central Library

7/21 J Charley Crockett, The Fox

7/21 Stagecoach West, Spokane Valley Eagles

7/21 JoJo Dodge, The CdA Resort

7/21 Sway Wild, Republic Brewing Co.

7/21 Plastic Picnic, Lucky You Lounge

7/22 J Incubus, Bad Flower, Paris Jackson, Pavilion at Riverfront

7/22 Just Plain Darin, Beck’s Harvest House

7/22 Circle Jerks, Negative Approach, Scowl, Knitting Factory

7/22 Kekoa, Rocket Market

7/22 Morgan Wade, The Fox Theater

7/22 Daniel Hall, Huckleberry’s Market

7/23 Rusty Jackson Trio, Beck’s Harvest House

7/23 Volbeat, Halestorm, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

7/23 Summer Salt, The Rare Occasions, Addison Grace, Knitting Factory

7/23 Mo Troper, Lucky You Lounge

7/23 Soul Proprietor, Arbor Crest

7/23 Summer Serenade, Music Conservatory of Sandpoint

7/24 Falling In Reverse, Ice Nine Kills, Spiritbox, Catch Your Breath, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

7/24 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, Spokane Valley Library

7/24 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, Argonne Library

7/25 Sanguisugabogg, Kruelty, Vomit Forth, Gates to Hell, The District Bar

7/25 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, Deer Park Library

7/25 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, North Spokane Library

7/25 POP Summer Concert: Soul Proprietor, Prince of Peace Lutheran

7/26 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, Medical Lake Library

7/26 Red Yarn Music & Puppet Show, Airway Heights Library.

7/26 Best of Bluegrass: Dave Adkins, The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center

7/26 J Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Ziggy Marley, Mavis

JULY 20-26

Staples, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Pavilion at Riverfront

7/26 J Jeff Tweedy, Le Ren, Panida Theater

7/26 Sam Leyde, Beck’s Harvest House

7/26 Kori Ailene, Highball

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

7/20-26 2023 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

7/20 J Cherry Picker’s Trot & Pit Spit, Green Bluff Growers

7/20-23 Spokane Indians vs. Vancouver

Canadians, Avista Stadium

7/21-22 J Spokane to Sandpoint Relay

7/21-23 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area

7/21-22 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

7/21 J Historic Browne’s Addition Walking Tours, Coeur d’Alene Park

7/21 East Side Walking Tour of Historic Browne’s Addition

7/22 SpoKenya, LifeCenter Church

7/22 J Hike: Iller Creek, Iller Creek Conservation Area

7/22 Wig Fun Motorcycle Run, Cruisers

7/22 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Library

7/24 Yoga for You!, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

7/25 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

THEATER

7/20-23 J Shakespeare in the Park, Spokane (locations vary)

7/20-23 J Alice By Heart, Spokane Civic Theatre

7/20-23 J Steve Martin’s Bright Star, University High School

7/21-26 Treasure Island, Spokane Civic Theatre

7/21-23 J Footloose, Schuler Performing Arts Center

7/21-23 Constellations, The Forge Theater (U of Idaho)

7/22 Mermaids Revenge: The Curse of Maelstrom, Crime Scene Entertainment

VISUAL ARTS

7/20-26 POAC Sandpoint Art Walk

7/20-26 J Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

7/20-26 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

7/20 Painting: Kindness Rocks, Fairfield Library

7/20-22 J Hannah Charlton, Terrain Gallery

7/22 Advanced Letterpress: Production Presses, SP&PC

7/23 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

7/24 Just Add Color, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

7/25 Pottery with Liz Bishop, Spokane Art School

7/26 J Art In The Park, Riverfront Park

7/26 J Wizard Hats with Collista Krebs, Spokane Art School

7/26 Open Studio, The Hive

7/26 Drop In & Draw, Spark Central

COMEDY

7/27 J Jeff Foxworthy, CdA Casino

7/27-29 Chris Porter, Spokane Comedy Club

7/28 Ink Blot, Blue Door Theatre

7/29 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

7/30 Spokane Comedy Club Auditions

8/1 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

8/2 Open Mic Stand-up, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

7/28-29 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

7/28-28 Spy Challenge Escape Room, Cheney Library

7/28-28 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Deer Park Library

7/28 4th Fridays, Colville, Wash.

7/28 Wheatland Bank Horse & Carriage Rides, Downtown Spokane

7/29 J Glass on Grass Corvette Car Show, Mirabeau Park Meadows

7/29 J El Mercadito, A.M. Cannon Park

7/29-8/1 Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

7/29 Acceptance Spokane, Atomic Threads Boutique

7/30 Learn to Play TCG Games, The Comic Book Shop (NorthTown)

8/1-1 Spy Challenge Escape Room, North Spokane Library

8/1 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Cheney Library

8/2 KERNEL, Spark Central

FILM

7/29 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

7/31-8/2 Free Kids Movies: The Secret Life of Pets, Garland Theater

8/2 Movies at the Pavilion: Pirates of the Caribbean, Riverfront Park

FOOD & DRINK

7/27 Teen Cupcake Decorating Basics, Otis Orchards Library

7/27 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

7/27 BBQ & Bands: Zoramena, The Culinary Stone

7/28 J Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain

7/30 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

8/1 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

8/2 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

7/27 Kyle Richard & Friends, Brick West Brewing Co.

7/27 Just Plain Darin, QQ Sushi

7/27 Christy Lee, Arbor Crest

7/27 Festival at Sandpoint: Brit Floyd, War Memorial Field

7/27 Tango Volcado, Coeur d’Alene Park

7/27 Music on Main: The Cherry Sisters, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

7/27 Soul Proprietor, The Nest at Kendall Yards

7/27 J 3 Doors Down, Candlebox, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

7/28 Stagecoach West, Spokane Eagles

7/28 The FABBA Show, The Fox Theater

7/28 James McMurtry, Bettysoo, Lucky You Lounge

7/28 Leo Kottke, Bing Crosby Theater

7/28 J Festival at Sandpoint: Gary Clark Jr., War Memorial Field

7/29 J Cicada Sessions: Heat Speak, Emerge

7/29 J Boygenius, Carly Rae Jepsen, Illuminati Hotties, The Gorge

7/29 J Festival at Sandpoint: Train with Better Than Ezra, War Memorial Field

7/29 Courtney Patton, James Coates, Kory Quinn, Republic Brewing

7/29 Zella Day, Lucky You Lounge

7/29 Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

7/30 Just Plain Darin, South Hill Grill

7/30 Festival at Sandpoint: The String Cheese Incident, War Memorial Field

7/30 J David Raitt and Baja Boogie Band, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/1 Arlo Mckinley, Lucky You Lounge

8/1 The Night Mayors, Zola

8/2 Wednesday Night Jam, Chan’s Red Dragon on Third

8/2 The Roomates, Red Room Lounge

8/2 Brittany’s House, Zola

8/2 Jovie and the Honeychuckle, Beck’s Harvest House

8/2 High Vis, Lucky You Lounge

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

7/27-29 J The Showcase, The Coeur d’Alene Resort

7/27-8/2 2023 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge, Spokane

7/28 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

7/28-30 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area

7/29 J Run for Youth Fun Fest, Manito Park

7/29 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Library

7/30 J Spokane Valley Cycle Celebration, Mirabeau Point Park

7/31 Yoga for You!, CdA Public Library

8/1 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

8/1 CDA Full Moon Ride, Coeur d’Alene

8/1 J Hiawatha Full Moon Night Ride, Lookout Pass

THEATER

7/27 Improv, Pend Oreille Playhouse

7/27-30 J Shakespeare in the Park, Manito, Riverfront and Sky-Prairie Parks, Spokane

7/27-29 Treasure Island, Spokane Civic Theatre

7/27-30 J Footloose, Schuler Performing Arts Center

7/28-30 Constellations, The Forge Theater (U of Idaho)

7/29 Salem Witches Murder Mystery, Crime Scene Entertainment

7/29 Murder in Wonderland, Crime Scene Entertainment

VISUAL ARTS

7/27-31 POAC Sandpoint Art Walk

7/27-8/2 J Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

7/27-8/2 Inland NW Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum

7/27-8/2 Humaira Abid: Searching for Home, The MAC

7/27-8/2 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum J

7/27-8/2 J Frank S. Matsura: Native American Portraits from a Northwest Borderland, The MAC

7/27-8/2 J Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

7/27-8/2 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

7/27-8/1 Cecile Grace Charles: Rainbows, Mom’s Custom Tattoo

7/27 Painting: Kindness Rocks, Argonne Library

7/27-29 J Hannah Charlton: The Illuminated Book of the City of Ladies, Terrain Gallery

7/28 Maker Open Hours, North Spokane Library

7/28 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

7/29 Slab Relief with Collista Krebs, Spokane Art School

7/29 Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

7/29 J Printing with Lego, Brick Buy Brick

7/30 J 33 Artists Market, The Wonder Building

7/30 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

8/1 Painting: Kindness Rocks, Moran Prairie Library

8/2 J Art In The Park, Riverfront Park

8/2 Painting: Kindness Rocks, Spokane Valley Library

8/2 Open Studio, The Hive

8/2 Drop In & Draw, Spark Central

WORDS

8/1 Family Storytime in the Park, Edgecliff Park

8/1 Drop In & Write, Spark Central

8/2 Family Storytime in the Park, Terrace View Park

8/2 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

COMEDY

8/3 J Don McMillan, Spokane Comedy Club

8/4 Medium-At-Large,

FOOD & DRINK

8/3 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups 8/3 BBQ & Bands: Vinyl Instinct, The Culinary Stone

MUSIC

8/3

8/5 J Festival at Sandpoint: Ashley McBryde

8/5 AP Collective, The CdA Resort

8/5 J Ghost, Amon Amarth, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

8/6 J Festival at Sandpoint: The Princess Bride in Concert

8/6 J The Head and the Heart, Father John Misty, Miya Folick, Pavilion at Riverfront

8/8 J Courtney Marie Andrews, Lucky You Lounge

8/8 Sean Kavanaugh, Rocket Market

8/8 J Young the Giant, Milky Chance, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

8/8-9 Camp Mixtape, Spark Central

8/9 J Buddy Guy, Eric Gales, First Interstate Center for the Arts

8/9 Soulja Boy, Knitting Factory

8/9 Richard Thompson, Panida Theater

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

8/3-9 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

8/4 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

8/4-6 J Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass

8/5-6 J Spike & Dig, Dwight Merkel Sports Complex

8/5 Huckleberry Hike, Mt. Spokane State Park

8/5 J Lilac City Roller Derby Double Header, EWU

8/8 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Medical Lake Library

8/3-6 J Shakespeare in the Park, Spokane (locations vary)

8/4-6 J Singin’ in the Rain, Kroc Center

8/5 Teen Improv Workshop, Blue Door Theatre

8/5-9 Escape To Margaritaville, University High School

VISUAL ARTS

8/3-9 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

8/3 J Create a Zine, North Spokane Library

8/3 Painting: Kindness Rocks, Otis Orchards Library

8/4 J First Friday, Spokane

8/4 Maker Open Hours, North Spokane Library

8/4-6 J 55th Annual Art on the Green, North Idaho College

8/4 J Create a Zine, Spokane Valley Library

8/4-5 J Chance Lucy: Consumer Culture, Terrain Gallery

8/4 First Fridays with POAC, Sandpoint

8/4 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

8/5 Tea Pots with Collista Krebs, Spokane Art School

8/5 Malleable: Claymation Stop-Motion, Spokane Art School

8/6 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

WORDS

Festival at Sandpoint: REO Speedwagon

8/4 Just Plain Darin, The Ridler

8/5 Blake Braley, Zola

8/8-9 Spokane Indians vs. Hillsboro Hops, Avista Stadium

THEATER

8/3 Improv, Pend Oreille Playhouse

8/3 Family Storytime in the Park, Valley Mission Park

8/4 3 Minute Mic, Auntie’s Bookstore.

8/8 Drop In & Write, Spark Central

8/9 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

COMEDY

8/10-12 J Chris Kattan, Spokane Comedy Club

8/11 Sebastian Maniscalco, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

8/11 Medium-At-Large, Blue Door Theatre

8/12 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

8/14 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K

8/15 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

8/16 Martin Amini, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

8/10-12 Experience VR: Nature Treks, North Spokane Library

8/10 Tween Library Carnival, Fairfield Library

8/11-12 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

8/11 J Late Night Nerf, North Spokane Library

8/11 J FitKids Day, Shaw Middle School

8/12 J Summer Sidewalk Sale, The Bohemian North

8/12 Second Saturdays, Palouse, Wash.

8/12 J Educator’s Day, Art Salvage

8/12-15 Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

8/12 Murder at the Gravestone Saloon, Crime Scene Entertainment

8/13 CDA Flea Market, Roosevelt Inn

8/13 Learn to Play TCG Games, The Comic Book Shop (NorthTown)

8/15-16 Grant County Fair, Moses Lake

8/15 J Tween Library Carnival, Spokane Valley Library

8/16-16 Spy Challenge Escape Room, Moran Prairie Library

8/16-16 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Medical Lake Library

8/16 KERNEL, Spark Central

FILM

8/10-11 J Free Kids Movies: The Land Before Time, Garland Theater

8/11 Movies on the Mountain, Schweitzer

8/12 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

8/14-16 Free Kids Movies: The Boss Baby: Family Business, Garland Theater

8/16 J Surprise Summer Film Series, Panida Theater

8/16 Movies at the Park: The Greatest Showman, Pavilion at Riverfront

FOOD & DRINK

8/10 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

8/10 BBQ & Bands: Jackson Roltgen Trio, The Culinary Stone

8/11 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain Resort

8/12 J Silver Mountain Brewsfest

8/13 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

8/15 Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

8/16 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

8/10 Ron Greene, Arbor Crest

8/10 What About Bob, Renei Yarrow, Riverstone Park

8/10 Stagecoach West, Coeur d’Alene Park (Spokane)

8/10 Music on Main: Snake River Six, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

8/10 Spilt Milk, Nest at Kendall Yards

8/10 Camp Mixtape, Spark Central

8/11 J W.A.S.P., Armored Saint, The Podium

8/12 J Moscow Mountain Music Fest,

Latah County Fairgrounds

8/12 Band-Maid, Bing Crosby Theater

8/12 The National Parks, Knitting Factory

8/12-14 Carly Rogers, Beck’s Harvest House

8/12 Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

8/13 Sidewalk Sunday: The Black Jack Band, Jimmy’s Down the Street

8/13 J Jinkx Monsoon: Everything at Stake, The Fox Theater

8/13 Sara Brown Band, Arbor Crest

8/14 Imagine Collective, The Bad Seed

8/16 Steve Vai, Knitting Factory

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

8/10-16 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

8/10 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Cheney Library

8/10-13 J Spokane Indians vs. Hillsboro Hops, Avista Stadium

8/11 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

8/11-13 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area

8/12 Coeur d’Alene Triathlon & Duathlon

8/12 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Park Library

8/16 Spokane Indians vs. Tri-City Dust Devils, Avista Stadium

THEATER

8/10-13 Singin’ in the Rain, Kroc Center

8/10-16 J Escape To Margaritaville, University High School

8/11-13 J An Aviary for Birds of Sadness, Stage Left Theater

8/11-13 J Disney’s Descendants, Spokane Children’s Theatre

8/11-16 The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spokane Civic Theatre

8/11-13 J Pride & Prejudice, Schuler Performing Arts Center

VISUAL ARTS

8/10-16 Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

8/10-16 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

8/10-16 Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

8/10-16 Frank S. Matsura: Native American Portraits from a Northwest Borderland, The MAC

8/10 Reuse Workshop, Mobius

8/10-16 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

8/10-12 J Chance Lucy: Consumer Culture, Terrain Gallery

8/11 Second Friday Artwalk, Coeur d’Alene

8/12-13 J POAC Arts & Crafts Fair, Downtown Sandpoint

8/12-13 J Art & Glass Fest, Arbor Crest

8/12 Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

8/13 Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

8/14 Just Add Color, CdA Library

WORDS

8/14 Scribbler’s Society Writing Club, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

8/15-16 Origin Stories, Spark Central

8/16 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

WELCOME TO THE HUCKLEBERRY FESTIVAL! An event that showcases handmade craft and artisan items. You will surely find something unique and special from our many wonderful vendors. The Festival also includes a variety of fun events, activities and entertainment for everyone.

Head to Kellogg, Idaho on Aug. 12 for the Silver Mountain Brewsfest. SILVER MOUNTAIN RESORT PHOTO

COMEDY

8/17-19 J Natalie Cuomo & Dan LaMorte, Spokane Comedy Club

8/18 J Medium-At-Large, Blue Door Theatre

8/19 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

8/21 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K Tavern & Eatery

8/22 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

8/23 Open Mic Stand-up, Spokane Comedy Club

8/23 Rafi Bastos, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

8/17-20 J Pend Oreille County Fair, Pend Oreille County Fairgrounds

8/17-19 Grant County Fair, Moses Lake

8/17 Campbell House Dark History: Society Secrets, The MAC

8/18-23 J North Idaho State Fair, Kootenai County Fair Grounds

8/19 J Unity in the Community, Riverfront Park

8/19-22 Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

8/21 Tween Carnival, Cheney Library

8/22 Experience VR: BRINK Traveler, North Spokane Library

8/22-22 Spy Challenge Escape Room, Otis Orchards Library

8/23 KERNEL, Spark Central

FILM

8/17-18 Free Kids Movies: The Boss Baby: Family Business, Garland Theater

8/18 J Movies on the Mountain, Schweitzer

8/19 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

8/20 J Much Ado About Nothing: A Stage to Screen Film, Bing Crosby Theater

8/21-23 Free Kids Movies: Puss in Boots, Garland Theater

FOOD & DRINK

8/17 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

8/18 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain

8/19-20 J Wallace Huckleberry Festival

8/19 J 33rd Annual National Lentil Festival, Reaney Park, Pullman

8/19 J Mushroom Foraging for Beginners, Moran Prairie Library

8/20 Nova Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret & Drag Brunch, Highball

8/20 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

8/22 J Riverfront Eats, Riverfront Park

8/23 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

8/23 Iced Tea & Porch Reads, Moran Prairie Library

MUSIC

8/17 Inland Empire Blues Society Monthly Boogie, Bolo’s Bar & Grill

8/17 J MAITA, Matt Mitchell Music Co., Lucky You Lounge

8/17 Current Flow, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/17 Soul Proprietor, Sean Kavanaugh, Riverstone Park

8/17 Music on Main: Eric E., Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

8/17 Snacks at Midnight, The Nest at Kendall Yards

8/18 J Noah Kahan, Joy Oladokun, Pavilion at Riverfront

8/18 SUSTO, Ether Rose, Lucky You Lounge

8/18 JoJo Dodge, The CdA Resort

8/19 Mark Ward, Rocket Market

8/19 Imagine Collective, Lucky You Lounge

8/19 J Boyz II Men, Northern Quest Resort & Casino

8/19 Jesse Quandt Band, Beck’s Harvest House

8/19 J The Motown Band with Garfield Fleming, Bing Crosby Theater

8/19 Gipsy Kings, The Fox Theater

8/20 Red Books Trio, The CdA Resort

8/20 Tamarack Ridge Band, Beck’s Harvest House

8/20 Soul Proprietor, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/21 Carly Pearce, Kootenai County Fairgrounds

8/22 J Flogging Molly, The Bronx, Knitting Factory

8/22 Starlite Motel, Rocket Market

8/22 Chase Rice, Kootenai County Fairgrounds

8/23 J Lil Jon, Kootenai Fairgrounds

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

8/17-23 2023 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge, Spokane

8/17 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Argonne Library

8/18 Basic Yoga Class, Finch Arboretum

8/18 J Trojan Golf Classic, Links Golf Club

8/18 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Moran Prairie Library

8/18-19 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

8/18-19 J Spokane Indians vs. Tri-City Dust Devils, Avista Stadium

8/18-20 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass

8/19 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Park Library

8/19 J Riverfront Skate Night, Numerica Skate Ribbon

8/20 J Yoga & Beer, Genus Brewing

8/21-23 J Circling Raven Championship, Circling Raven Golf Course at the Coeur d’Alene Resort

8/23 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Airway Heights Library

THEATER

8/17-20 J An Aviary for Birds of Sadness, Stage Left Theater

8/17-20 Escape To Margaritaville, University High School

8/17 J The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spokane Civic Theatre

8/19 J Montana Shakespeare in the Parks: Measure for Measure, Lakeview Park

8/20 J Montana Shakespeare in the Parks: The Three Musketeers, Pavillion Park (Liberty Lake)

VISUAL ARTS

8/17-23 J Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

8/17-23 Inland Northwest Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum

8/17-23 Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

8/17-23 Frank S. Matsura: Native American Portraits from a Northwest Borderland, The MAC

8/17-20 J The Wyeths: Three Generations, The MAC

8/17-23 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

8/17-19 J Chance Lucy: Consumer Culture, Terrain Gallery

8/18 Maker Open Hours, North Spokane Library

8/18 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

8/19 J Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

8/19 J Book Arts: Collage Zines, Spokane Print & Publishing Center

8/20 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

8/22-23 J Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/22-23 Here in a Homemade Forest: Common Reading Connections Exhibition, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/23 Open Studio, The Hive

8/23 Drop In & Draw, Spark Central

WORDS

8/17-18 Origin Stories, Spark Central.

8/22 Drop In & Write, Spark Central

8/23 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

8/23 Poetry After Dark, Spark Central

COMEDY

8/24-26 Samuel J. Comroe, Spokane Comedy Club

8/25 Medium-At-Large, Blue Door Theatre

8/26 Safari, Blue Door Theatre

8/27 Nurse Blake, The Fox Theater

8/28 Sass Squatch Open Mic, Special K Tavern & Eatery

8/29 New Talent Tuesdays, Spokane Comedy Club

8/30 Open Mic Stand-up, Spokane Comedy Club

COMMUNITY

8/24-27 J North Idaho State Fair, Kootenai County Fair Grounds

8/24-24 World Traveler Teen Escape Room, Spokane Valley Library

8/25-26 River City Roots Festival, Missoula

8/25-26 Feed the Buffalo, Win-Tur Bison Farm

8/25-25 Spy Challenge Escape Room, Argonne Library

8/25-26 Role-Playing Game Drop In, RPG Community Center

8/25 Colville 4th Fridays, Colville, Wash

8/26 J Palouse Pride, East City Park

8/26 J El Mercadito, A.M. Cannon Park

8/26-29 Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

8/26 Experience VR: BRINK Traveler, North Spokane Library

8/26 J Acceptance Spokane, Atomic Threads Boutique

8/27 Learn to Play TCG Games, The Comic Book Shop (NorthTown)

8/30 Coffee & Conversation, Central Library

FILM

8/24-25 Free Kids Movies: Puss in Boots, Garland Theater

8/25 Movies on the Mountain, Schweitzer

8/26-27 J The Root Experience Festival, Central Library

8/26 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy

8/26 J Movies in the Park: The Goonies, Olmsted Brothers Green

8/26 J Movies at the Park: Super Mario Movie, Pavilion at Riverfront

8/28-30 Free Kids Movies: Minions The Rise of Gru, Garland Theater

FOOD & DRINK

8/24 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

8/24 BBQ & Bands: Zoramena, The Culinary Stone

8/25 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain

8/26-27 J Tacos y Tequila Festival, Central Library

8/27 Salmon Barbecue Dinner Picnic, Western Dance Center

8/27 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone.

8/30 J Pig Out in the Park, Riverfront Park

8/30 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

8/24 Kyle Richard and Friends, Brick West Brewing Co.

8/24 Just Plain Darin, QQ Sushi

8/24 Weathered Shepherds, Checkerboard Taproom

8/24 Mister Sister, Zola

8/24 The Bootstrap Band, The Secret Beach, The Nest at Kendall Yards

8/24 Browne’s Addition Summer Concert: Soul Proprietor, Coeur d’Alene Park

8/24 J Rebelution, Iration, The Expendables, Passafire, DJ Mackle, Pavilion at Riverfront

8/24 Pamela Benton, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/24 Justin James Band, Sydney Dale, Riverstone Park

8/24 Music on Main: Soulstice, Pine Street Plaza

8/24 J Spoon, White Reaper, Knitting Factory

8/25 Just Plain Darin, The Ridler

8/25 Fridays at the Clock, Bryan Hall Theatre (WSU)

8/25 The Travelin’ McCourys, Panida Theater

8/26 Sean Kavanaugh, The Coeur d’Alene Resort

8/26 Blake Braley, Zola

8/26 Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

8/26 Kekoa, Rocket Market

8/26 SledFest, Pine Street Sled Hill

8/26 Daniel Hall, Beck’s Harvest House

8/26 Sweet Water, Purusa, Lucky You Lounge

8/26-27 Introduction to Himalayan Singing Bowls, Heart Space Yurt

8/27 Joey Anderson, Beck’s Harvest House

8/27 Red Books Trio, The Coeur d’Alene Resort

8/27 Summer Concert Series: Side Step, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/27 Dierks Bentley, Kameron Marlowe,

Northern Quest Resort & Casino

8/27 Noah Cyrus, Knitting Factory

8/28 J Billy Idol, Pavilion at Riverfront

8/28 J The Beach Boys, Northern Quest

8/29 Spirit of Spokane Chorus Rehearsal, Opportunity Presbyterian Church

8/29 J Lindsey Stirling, Walk off the Earth, Northern Quest Resort

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

8/24-27 J Circling Raven Championship, Circling Raven Golf Course

8/24-30 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

8/24-27 J Gem State Stampede, Kootenai County Fair Grounds

8/25-27 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area

8/25 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Deer Park Library

8/26 WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Park Library

8/29-30 J Spokane Indians vs. Everett AquaSox, Avista Stadium

8/30 Black Lodge Running Club, Black Lodge Brewing

8/30 J Hiawatha Full Moon Night Ride, Lookout Pass

THEATER

8/24-27 J An Aviary for Birds of Sadness, Stage Left Theater

VISUAL ARTS

8/24-30 J Moscow: Fashion Through

the Decades, McConnell Mansion

8/24-26 Inland NW Modern Quilt Juried Exhibition, Jundt Art Museum

8/24-26 J Drawn to the Wall VIII: Installations, Jundt Art Museum

8/24-25 J Tanden Launder: Cowboy Says Wow!, The MAC

8/24-30 Frank S. Matsura: Native American Portraits from a Northwest Borderland, The MAC

8/24-30 J Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/24-30 Here in a Homemade Forest: Common Reading Connections Exhibition, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/24-26 J Chance Lucy: Consumer Culture, Terrain Gallery

8/25 Maker Open Hours, North Spokane Library

8/25 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

8/26 J Ink Print Rally, Emerge

8/26-27 J Coeur d’Alene Artist Studio Tour

8/26 Maker Meet-Up, Art Salvage

8/26 Create an Eco-Printed Scarf, Airway Heights Library

8/26 J Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

8/27 J Sunday Art Mart, Downtown Spokane

8/28 Just Add Color, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

8/30 Glass Comes Alive in Pullman, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/30 Open Studio, The Hive

8/30 Drop In & Draw, Spark Central

Sponsored in part by:

GESA Credit Union,

COMEDY

8/31 Maddy Smith, Spokane Comedy Club

9/1 J The Real Blanks of Blankville, Blue Door Theatre

9/1-2 J Kevin Nealon, Spokane Comedy Club

Safari, Blue Door Theatre

8/31 Colville 4th Fridays, Colville, Wash.

J Fall Fest, Schweitzer

9/2-4 J Under the Freeway Flea Market, Northern Pacific Depot Railroad Museum 9/2-5 Itch to Stitch, Spark Central

Drop In & RPG, Spark Central

9/3 Learn to Play TCG Games, The Comic Book Shop (NorthTown)

9/6 J Learn to Square Dance with the Model Ts, North Spokane Dance Center

8/31-9/1 Free Kids Movies: Minions The Rise of Gru, Garland Theater 9/2 Cartoons at the Farmers Market, The Kenworthy 9/2 Audio-Visual Club, Spokane Valley Library

VALLEY FEST

FOOD & DRINK

8/31-9/4 J Pig Out in the Park, Riverfront Park

8/31 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night, The Boneyard - Side Hustle Syrups

8/31 BBQ & Bands: Jackson Roltgen Trio, The Culinary Stone

9/1 Ride & Dine, Silver Mountain Resort

9/3 J Nova Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret & Drag Brunch, Highball

9/3 Wine Tasting, The Culinary Stone

9/6 Wine Down Wednesdays, Beverly’s

MUSIC

8/31 KŌSH, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

8/31 Music on Main: Smith & Reilly, Pine Street Plaza (Pullman)

8/31 J Coeur d’Alene Symphony,

Join us for three fun-filled and festive days. Enjoy a parade, car show, live entertainment, vendor booths, beer and wine, science and technology, multi-sport Sunday, and multicultural events.

SEPTEMBER 22–24, 2023

Riverstone Park

8/31 Mo Lowda & The Humble, Trash Panda, Lucky You Lounge

9/1-3 J Dave Matthews Band, Gorge Amphitheater

9/1-3 Tumbleweed Music Festival, Richland

9/1-3 J FarmJam, Colville, Wash.

9/2 J Boris, Melvins, Knitting Factory

9/2 Lud Cramer Memorial Concert ft. the Spokane Symphony, Pavillion Park (Liberty Lake)

9/2 Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet, Historic Davenport Hotel

9/3 Macey Gard Band, Arbor Crest

9/3 Bay Ledges, Lucky You Lounge

9/4 J Band of Horses, Knitting Factory

9/5 Spirit of Spokane Chorus Rehearsal, Opportunity Presbyterian Church

9/6 J Modest Mouse, Pixies, Cat Power, Pavilion at Riverfront

9/6 J Bonnie Raitt, First Interstate Center for the Arts

9/6 J Yo-Yo Ma, The Fox Theater

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

8/31-9/6 Greater Spokane Parks Challenge

8/31 After-Hours Miniature Golf, Otis Orchards Library

8/31-9/3 Spokane Indians vs. Everett AquaSox, Avista Stadium

8/31 J CDA Full Moon Ride, Coeur

d’Alene

9/1-3 Scenic Chairlift Rides, Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area 9/1

Gardener Plant Clinic, Shadle Park Library

THEATER

8/31 Improv, Pend Oreille Playhouse

8/31-9/3 J Shakespeare in the Park, Spokane (locations vary)

9/2 Teen Improv Workshop, Blue Door Theatre

VISUAL ARTS

8/31-9/1 Moscow: Fashion Through the Decades, McConnell Mansion

8/31-9/6 Frank S. Matsura: Native American Portraits from a Northwest Borderland, The MAC

8/31-9/2 J Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

8/31-9/2 J Here in a Homemade Forest, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU

9/1 J First Friday, Spokane

9/1 Maker Open Hours, North Spokane Library

9/1-2 J Aleeta Renee Jones: Ancient Dreams, Terrain Gallery

9/1 First Friday, Pend Oreille Arts Council Gallery

9/1 Sketchbook Club for Queer Teens, Odyssey Youth Movement

9/2 J Campbell House 125th Anniversary Tour Series, The MAC

9/6 The Hive Open Studio, The Hive

9/6 Drop In & Draw, Spark Central

WORDS

9/1 3 Minute Mic, Auntie’s Bookstore

9/5 Drop In & Write, Spark Central 9/6 J Broken Mic, Neato Burrito

SEPTEMBER 1-3

VALLEYFEST.ORG

Yo-Yo Ma teams up with the Spokane Symphony for a special Sept. 6 concert at the Fox. JASON BELL PHOTO

COMEDY

Bands: The Buckley Storms, The Culinary Stone

Kaine’s Don’t Tell Mama

MUSIC

J The Inlander recommends this event

SPORTS

Airway Heights Parks & Rec, airwayheightsparksandrec.org

Arbor Crest Wine Cellars, arborcrest.com, 509-927-9463

Art on the Green, artonthegreen.org, 208-667-9346

Auntie’s Bookstore, auntiesbooks.com, 509-838-0206

Bing Crosby Theater, bingcrosbytheater.com, 509-227-7638

Blue Door Theater, bluedoortheatre.com, 509-747-7045

Bonner County Fairgrounds, bonnercountyfair.com, 208-263-8414

Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association, cdadowntown.com, 208-667-5986

City of Palouse, visitpalouse.com

Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission, artsandculturecda.org, 208-292-1629

Coeur d’Alene Casino, cdacasino.com, 800-523-2464

Coeur d’Alene Resort, cdaresort.com, 208-765-4000

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, cstidaho.com, 208-660-2958

Coeur d’Alene Triathlon & Duathlon, cdatriathlon.com

Commellini Estate, commellini.com

Crave! Northwest Food Festival, cravenw.com, 509-621-0125

Emerge, emergecda.com, 208-930-1876

Evening Light Lavender Farm, eveninglightlavender.com, 509-724-1618

The Fox Theater, foxtheaterspokane.com, 509-624-1200

Garland Theater, garlandtheater.com

Gorge Amphitheatre, livenation.com

Green Bluff Growers, greenbluffgrowers.com

Hillyard Festival, hillyardfestival.com, 509-270-1569

Hoopfest, spokanehoopfest.net

Inland Northwest Opera, inlandnwopera.com, 800-418-1485

Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center, thejacklincenter.org

VISUAL ARTS

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, museum.wsu.edu, 509-335-1910

Jundt Art Museum, gonzaga.edu/ jundt, 509-313-6611

Kaniksu Land Trust, kaniksu.org, 208263-9471

Kendall Yards, kendallyards.com

Knitting Factory, sp.knittingfactory.com

Kootenai County Fairgrounds, kcfairgrounds.com, 208-7654969

Lilac City Roller Derby, lilaccityrollerderby.com

Lookout Pass, skilookout.com

Lucky You Lounge, luckyyoulounge.com, 509-474-0511

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, fb.com/mlkspokane

Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, northwestmuseum.org, 509-456-3931

Panida Theater, panida.org, 208-263-9191

Pend Oreille Arts Council, artinsandpoint.org

Pend Oreille County Fairgrounds, pocfair.com

Pend Oreille Playhouse, pendoreilleplayers.com, 509-447-9900

Pig Out in the Park, spokanepigout.com

Post Falls Fest, postfallsidaho.org

Pullman Chamber of Commerce, pullmanchamber.com, 509-334-3565

Riverfront Park, spokaneriverfrontpark.com, 509-625-6600

Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, sandpointchamber.org

Sandpoint Pride, sandpointpride.com

Schweitzer, schweitzer.com, 208-263-9555

Silver Mountain Resort, silvermt.com, 866-344-2675

Silverwood Theme Park , silverwoodthemepark.com, 208-683-3400

Spark Central, spark-central.org, 509-279-0299

Spike & Dig, spikeanddig.com

Spokane Arena, spokanearena.com, 509-279-7000

Spokane Art School, spokaneartschool.net, 509-325-1500

Spokane Arts, spokanearts.org

Spokane Children’s Theater, spokanechildrenstheatre.org, 509-328-4886

Spokane Civic Theatre, spokanecivictheatre.com, 509-325-2507

Spokane Comedy Club, spokanecomedyclub.com, 509-318-9998

Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, spokanecounty.org, 509-477-1766

Spokane Highland Games, spokanehighlandgames.net

Spokane Humane Society, spokanehumanesociety.org

Spokane Indians, spokaneindians.com

Spokane Midnight Century, midnightcentury.com

Spokane Parks & Rec, spokanerec.org, 509-625-6200

Spokane Shakespeare Society, spokaneshakespearesociety.org

Spokane Symphony, spokanesymphony.org, 509-624-1200

Spokane Valley Parks & Rec, spokanevalley.org/parksandrec

Spokane Valley Summer Theatre, svsummertheatre.com

Spokatopia Outdoor Adventure Festival, spokatopia.com

Summer Parkways, summerparkways.com

Terrain, terrainspokane.org

FOOD & DRINK

WORDS

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, shakespeareintheparks.org

Moscow Chamber of Commerce, moscowchamber.com, 208-882-1800

Northern Quest Resort & Casino, northernquest.com, 509-242-7000

The Comic Book Shop, thecomicbookshop.net

The Culinary Stone, culinarystone. com, 208-277-4116

Unity in the Community, nwunity.org

Wallace Chamber of Commerce, wallaceid.fun

Zola, zolainspokane.com

Neato Burrito’s long-running Broken Mic reading series happens every Wednesday night – all summer, all year. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Play where the big winners play.

Happy Father’s Day!

SUNDAY, JUNE 18 TH

Dads, we want to celebrate you! Please stop by the Coeur Rewards booth during booth hours to receive your $15 Extra Play Cash.

See cdacasino.com for details.

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

Rib Dinner

ALL FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND

11:30 AM – CLOSE FULL $29.95 | HALF $21.95

Pork spare ribs tossed in amber barbeque sauce. Served with a potato salad and baked beans.

MICHAEL CHAMBLISS

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

Multiverse of Mediocrity

The much-delayed

The movie featuring DC Comics superhero the Flash and directed by It ’s Andy Muschietti spent so long in development that by the time of its release this week it’s already been lapped by several other multiverse-focused movies, including Sony’s recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The continuity of DC’s superhero movies, which are set to receive another reboot after this year, has been scattered and inconsistent, and a story about exploring those narrative intricacies feels like it’s always on the verge of falling apart. While the SpiderVerse movies use a cavalcade of alternate versions of their main character to intelligently explore themes of identity and destiny, The Flash eventually devolves into a series of meaningless cameos that have no relevance to the life of its main character.

It also doesn’t help that the main character is often the least interesting person on screen. There are actually two versions of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) running around for most of the movie, after the original Barry incites chaos following a trip back in time. Miller’s Barry has only had a substantial role in one past DC movie, 2017’s Justice League, but The Flash treats him like a longestablished presence, opening with his gripes about being regarded as a second-class member of the superheroic

The Flash struggles to play superhero movie catch-up

BY JOSH BELL

Justice League as he’s ordered around by Batman (Ben Affleck, also reprising his Justice League role).

That opening action sequence, as Batman chases down a terrorist carrying deadly pathogens while the Flash rescues babies from a collapsing hospital, demonstrates the surprisingly shoddy special effects that will come to define the movie and somehow only get worse as it progresses. Later, when Barry uses his connection to the so-called Speed Force to enter a sort of time vortex that shows him alternate versions of the past and future, the distorted effects look so terrible that it’s hard to imagine where the massive budget and resources for this movie actually went.

THE FLASH

Rated PG-13

Directed by Andy Muschietti

Starring Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle

Barry messes with the time-space continuum so he can travel back and save his mother (Maribel Verdú) from being murdered and his father (Ron Livingston) from being falsely accused of the crime. Of course, changing one thing in the past has significant ripple effects, and Barry finds himself in an alternate timeline where he meets an immature, slightly younger version of himself who has yet to receive superpowers. In this timeline, Batman is now retired, living quietly as his billionaire

alter ego Bruce Wayne and played by Michael Keaton, returning from Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns. Keaton is the highlight of The Flash, bringing an appealing sense of both weariness and mischief to his version of Batman, and when he and the two Flashes team up, the movie briefly sparks to life. Unfortunately, they’re then saddled with re-enacting the plot from 2013’s Man of Steel, whose villain, the Kryptonian warlord Zod (Michael Shannon), has arrived to destroy Earth. Instead of Henry Cavill’s Superman, Zod is now after Supergirl (Sasha Calle), whom Batman and the Flashes must free from a secret prison.

That’s only a fraction of the convoluted yet mostly inert plot, in which the main villain barely shows up on screen and characters spend most of the time explaining various continuity points to each other. Calle makes a striking debut as a new Supergirl, and she and Keaton carry the movie while Miller banters back and forth in two variations on an irritating motormouth. The fan-service cameos that dominate the third act are mostly just ugly digital blips, and the action climax is repetitive and underwhelming. In spending so much time exploring and resetting minutiae from the past, director Muschietti neglects to tell an engaging story in the present. n

The Flash can’t outrun its underwhelming lead character.

All the Feels

Pixar’s Elemental mixes sweet romance with an uneven immigration allegory

BY JOSH BELL

There’s a meme that has been making the rounds online for nearly a decade, boiling down the formula for the majority of Pixar’s animated movies to “What if X had feelings?,” in which X could be cars (Cars), toys (Toy Story) or feelings themselves (Inside Out). Pixar’s new movie Elemental sticks a little too close to that meme, with a story that could be pitched as “What if elements had feelings?” It may come across as Pixar Lite, then, but there’s still plenty to enjoy in the gorgeously animated Elemental, even if the story is a little thin.

The elements do indeed have feelings, and they don’t hesitate to express them. Embodiments of the four classical elements — earth, water, air, fire — live together in semi-harmony in the bustling Element City. All four emigrated from their original homelands, and the latest arrivals are the fire elements, who are still mostly confined to a neighborhood known as Fire Town and are subjected to a sanitized version of racial prejudice. Elemental is a somewhat belabored allegory for the immigrant experience in the United States, with a metaphor for ethnic groups that recalls the structure of Disney’s Zootopia Director and co-writer Peter Sohn previously helmed 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, one of Pixar’s least successful movies, and he comes up with a similarly muddled story here, mushing together various immigrant cultures to create the background for the fire elements. Rather than any specific real-world nationality or ethnicity, Elemental is mainly about the shared experience of the generation gap between hard-working immigrant parents and their American-raised children.

Rated PG

Ember doesn’t seem cut out for retail. When city inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a water element, literally bursts into the store one day via a broken pipe, Ember starts to form a connection that her parents and the larger element society may not understand.

ALSO OPENING

THE BLACKENING

The horror genre’s racism and tropes get lampooned in this comedy where a group of Black friends head to a cabin in the woods for Juneteenth only to have a killer loop them into a deadly game. Rated R

ELEMENTAL

Directed by Peter Sohn

Starring Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen

There’s a rather haphazard subplot about municipal services that initially brings Ember and Wade together, but Elemental is mostly a love story, with a familiar star-crossed romance between two people whose families and communities might prefer to keep them apart. Bernie is on the verge of retirement and making a big show of handing the store over to Ember, while Wade comes from a supportive if slightly clueless upperclass family. Elemental offers a fairly superficial exploration of the complex issues it raises, and the deep-seated societal injustices behind the minor conflicts between Ember and Wade mostly get hand-waved away.

Still, Elemental is pleasant and easy to watch, with a pair of likable lead characters whose wide-eyed enthusiasm is infectious. Element City is an artistic wonder, a mix of design styles reflecting its four distinct residential groups. The world-building occasionally threatens to overwhelm the narrative, and some of the strained analogs for equivalent human products and institutions invite unfortunate comparisons to last year’s clumsy Apple TV+ animated movie Luck, from former Pixar boss John Lasseter.

IT AIN’T OVER

The colorful life of Yankee catching legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra is chronicled in this new documentary, which argues his sporting legacy is actually un

As one of the earliest arrivals in Element City from Fire Land, Bernie Lumen (Ronnie del Carmen) takes pride in the business he and his wife, Cinder (Shila Ommi), built from the ground up, a corner store catering to other Fire Town residents. Bernie’s greatest hope is for his daughter Ember (Leah Lewis) to take over the store one day, but

Elemental is more imaginative and emotionally engaging than Luck, but it still has a tendency to lose sight of its characters amid the background de tails. Those background details are always dazzling, and when they serve the story rather than pushing it aside, Elemental evokes a more subdued version of the feelings that made its Pixar predecessors con nect so strongly with audiences. n

While its visuals shine, Elemental is missing some... elements.

Songs of the ‘Summer’

Causally ranking 100 songs with “summer” actually in the title

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

While every year brings a new crop of pop tunes vying to be the song of the summer, most of them frankly aren’t literalist enough for my taste. With that in mind, I decided to deep dive into the season’s sonic options by trying to find the best songs with the word “summer” in the title. I listened to 100 songs for this exercise and ranked them by a completely arbitrary system (as one must with a list this expansive). You can check out the full rankings via our Spotify playlist at sptfy.com/InlanderSummerSongs (we simply don’t have space to print ‘em all!).

Has binge listening to that many summer songs melted my brain like a popsicle left on the sizzling asphalt? Absolutely! Let’s do this!

100. “ALL SUMMER LONG” - KID ROCK

The chorus rhymes “things” with “things.” I rest my case, your honor.

95. “SEX IN THE SUMMER” - PRINCE Prince was a musical genius, but let’s just say he wasn’t always a lyrical genius…

89. “SUMMER DAYS” - MARTIN GARRIX FEAT. PATRICK STUMP AND MACKLEMORE

Because we are all so desperate for more EDM/emo/ pop rap crossovers.

86. “GIRLS IN THEIR SUMMER CLOTHES”BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Just because you’re a rock icon, it doesn’t mean your “summer” songs are A+ material.

85. “ITALIAN SUMMER” - STEVIE NICKS (See blurb above.)

84. “SUMMER ’68” - PINK FLOYD (Do I need to say it a third time?)

75. “SUMMER’S END” - FOO FIGHTERS

The Foos are headed to Spokane this summer! Even with the band’s marathon concerts, we’d be OK with this middling album cut not making the set list.

59. “SUMMER GIRLS” - LFO

The D-list preppy boy band’s one hit is so unabashedly dumb that it loops around to being kinda catchy. This is the best ad campaign Abercrombie & Fitch ever had.

52. “THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS” - JONI MITCHELL

Did Joni play this at her big comeback concert at the Gorge last week? No. But she did cover No. 3 on this list…

35. “SUMMERTIME IN THE 509” - II REAL

I’m pretty sure I’d be kicked out of town if I didn’t include this Spokane summer hip-hop anthem.

20. “IN THE SUMMERTIME” - MUNGO JERRY

An undeniable summer classic, but tailoring your dates based on the wealth of a woman’s “daddy” seems slightly sketch.

19. “THIS AIN’T THE SUMMER OF LOVE” - BLUE OYSTER CULT

This dark rock jam serves as a friendly reminder that Blue Oyster Cult rocks and shouldn’t be thought of only as the “more cowbell” band.

18. “SUMMERTIME BLUES” - EDDIE COCHRAN

Rock and roll’s first youthful “summer” classic has so much more swing than the popular Alan Jackson cover version.

17. “FEEL GOOD HIT OF THE SUMMER”QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Is this song just Josh Homme listing drugs over heavy riffs? Yes. Does it f’n rock? Also yes

16. “SUMMER IN THE CITY” - REGINA SPEKTOR

15. “BLOOD RED SUMMER” - COHEED AND CAMBRIA

14. “IN SUMMER” - JOSH GAD (FROM FROZEN)

The beloved Disney’s musical introduction to the snowman Olaf finds him obliviously dreaming of what it’s like for snow to soak in the summer sun.

13. “SUMMER CANNIBALS” - PATTI SMITH

12. “SUMMER ’79” - THE ATARIS

While the pop punk band is famous for a cover of another “summer” song (we’ll get there soon), their best contribution to the micro-subgenre is this purely joyful dose of teenage nostalgia packed with roller rinks, drive-ins, sing-alongs and hopeless crushes.

11. “SUMMER SKIN” - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

10. “SUMMER BABE (WINTER VERSION)” - PAVEMENT

The first track off Pavement’s classic debut album Slanted and Enchanted offers up a perfect initial dose of the band’s slacker indie rock aesthetic. Ramshackle guitar noise and Stephen Malkmus’ deadpan sardonic delivery is buoyed by a melodic underpinning. It’s messy summer ecstasy for those who scoff at pop radio behind a cheap pair of disposable sunglasses. ...continued on next page

MUSIC | SEASONAL

9. “OPIATE SUMMER” - VENDETTA RED

If a screamo band was ever to cross over to mainstream radio, it would’ve been Vendetta Red with its 2003 album Between the Never and the Now. With razor sharp production and an undeniable pop sensibility, “Opiate Summer” captures the angst of summer love being just out of reach with sing-along bombast.

8. “SUMMER NIGHTS” - JOHN TRAVOLTA AND OLIVA NEWTON-JOHN (FROM GREASE)

Recounting one’s summer flings is a high school tradition, and it has never been distilled better than in this music theater classic where Danny and Sandy recount their versions of summer lovin’ at the beach. “Tell me more! Tell me more!” … No, just go listen to it.

7. “SUMMER IN THE CITY” - THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL

Damn if this ditty ain’t peppy as all get out. On the band’s lone No. 1 hit, the folk rockers turned up the edge and got frenetic as heck while musing about the overheated and exhausting frenzy of summer days and the contrasting glory of summer nights.

6. “I DIDN’T HAVE ANY SUMMER ROMANCE” - CAROLE KING

You know what’s more heartbreaking than a summer romance that fades? Being the lonely person who never has a summer romance in the first place. (Can confirm.) King’s words fall soft but cut oh so deep on this dreamy little gutpunch.

5. “SUMMER OF ’69” - BRYAN ADAMS nice

4. “BOYS OF SUMMER” - DADDY ISSUES

Don Henley’s original “Boys of Summer” is a bit too ’80s synth soft. The Ataris’ improved on it with a beefier pop punk cover. But the best version comes via female grunge pop group Daddy Issues on Deep Dream (one of my favorite summer albums ever). The trio takes the tune in a heavy, smoldering, slow-creeping direction that better emphasizes the song’s inherent lovesick nostalgia.

3. “SUMMERTIME” - ELLA FITZGERALD AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG (FROM PORGY AND BESS)

No song has ever captured the weighty feel of an oppressively hot and humid summer day. This operatic jazz aria sets the table for Porgy and Bess’ underclass tragedy by lyrically and sonically alluding to the more sinister side of the season without being blunt. In terms of pure musical talent it’s hard to top a George Gershwinpenned song performed by Fitzgerald and Armstrong at the peak of their powers. Completely justifiable if this is anyone’s No. 1 summer song.

2. “INDIAN SUMMER” - PEDRO THE LION

Catching Pedro the Lion at its absolute expansive rocking out pinnacle, “Indian Summer” is a captivating chapter in the superb concept album that is Control. David Bazan’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics drip with a melted ice cream cynicism as he expresses dismay in capitalism’s rotting effects on the magic of childhood innocence before the choruses explode in heavy riff bliss.

1. “CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMER” - THE HOLD STEADY

While summer tropes often focus on things like the weather and vacations, the real magic of summer — the thing we actually remember — is the people. It’s the camaraderie that exists between you and your buds through both the eventful and aimless warm evenings. The Hold Steady distills this perfectly while ripping full throttle through “Constructive Summer.” Craig Finn encapsulates the dreaming, youthful, almost spiritual hope that a summer represents: “Me and my friends are like / the drums on ‘Lust for Life’ / We pound it out on floor toms / Our psalms are sing-along songs.” A sweaty summer of working construction and drinking on top of water towers comes to life in vivid detail. “Let this be my annual reminder that we could all be something bigger,” Finn yelps. Raise a toast to that sentiment forever. n

“SONGS OF THE ‘SUMMER’,” CONTINUED...

EDM BEYOND WONDERLAND COUNTRY THE STEEL WOODS

Thursday, 06/15

J ADELO’S PIZZA, PASTA & PINTS, Brassless Chaps

BOLO’S BAR & GRILL, Inland Empire Blues Society Monthly Boogie

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Kyle Richard and Friends

THE BUNKER BAR, Wiebe Jammin’

J D-MAC’S AT THE LAKE, Gil Rivas

J THE GRAIN SHED - CEDAR TAP HOUSE, Mason Van Stone

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Kate Skinner

J KNITTING FACTORY, Yelawolf, Nicolas Alan

J NW MUSEUM OF ARTS & CULTURE, The Walleye

J PINE STREET PLAZA, Eric Jessup

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Chris Stapleton, Allen Stone

J STELLA’S ON THE HILL, The Ronaldos

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Carli Osika

ZOLA, Mister Sister

Friday, 06/16

AK ASIAN RESTAURANT, Jessica Haffner

BACKWOODS WHISKEY BAR, Son of Brad

J THE BIG DIPPER, Victress Voice Music Collective

THE CAPTAIN’S WHEEL RESORT, Allison Joy Williams

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, The Usual Suspects

CHINOOK LOUNGE, Wiebe Jammin’

THE HIVE, Tanner Usrey

KNITTING FACTORY, Milonga

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Kung fu

Vinyl, Free Creatures, Calimossa

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Truck Mills and Carl Rey

Saturday, 06/17

BECK’S HARVEST HOUSE, Heather and John

BIG BARN BREWING CO., The Walleye

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Jimmy Nuge

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Bobby Patterson & the Two Tones

J THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT, James Earl Berkley

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Beyond Wonderland

J NORTH HILL ON GARLAND, Just Plain Darin

J ONE SHOT CHARLIE’S, Current Flow

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY,

Mike Wagoner Trio

J PONDEROSA BAR AND GRILL, Rhythmic Collective Duo

J REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Thunder Honey: EP Release Show RIVAURA, Son of Brad

ROCKET MARKET, Kekoa

STEAMBOAT GRILL, Bill Bozly

TEKOA EVENT CENTER, JamShack

J J THE FOX THEATER, The Steel Woods, Tanner Usrey

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Howie King

ZOLA, Blake Braley

Sunday, 06/18

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Tuxedo Junction

BECK’S HARVEST HOUSE, Carli Osika

J THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT, Red Books Trio

Whether you’re stumbling down the rabbit hole for the first or third time at the Gorge, Beyond Wonderland is sure to tickle your EDM fancy. With three stages dedicated to different sounds, you can bop to house (check out Malaa or Wax Motif), headbang to heavy bass (like Ray Volpe and Jessica Audiffred), or dance to a variety of some of the largest names in electronic music at the main stage (look forward to the likes of Dillon Francis, Marshmello, Subtronics and Kx5 — a.k.a. Kaskade and Deadmau5). Event runner Insomniac sprinkles the Alice in Wonderland theme throughout the festival grounds, with elaborately-costumed dancers and over-the-top photo stops. Hop on one of the carnival rides, enjoy some food from the vendors, or wander from one sparkly, shiny distraction to the next as you spend two days of fun together at the Gorge.

— SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Beyond Wonderland • Sat-Sun, June 17-18 at 3 pm • $150-$440 • 18+ • Gorge Amphitheatre • 754 Silica Rd. NW, George • pnw.beyondwonderland.com

One of the best compliments you can give The Steel Woods is that the Nashvillebased band sounds appropriately dusty. Led by frontman and Alabama native Wes Bayliss, the group blends good ol’ Southern rock with country western stylings and lyrical iconography. The result is shitkicker country rock that calls to mind Waylon Jennings, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jamey Johnson — tunes about roughnecks that take no guff. So grab your most authentically worn-out jeans (no predistressed cityslicker nonsense) and the biggest belt buckle ya got, then mosey into The Fox for an evening of hootin’ and hollerin’.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

The Steel Woods, Tanner Usrey • Sat, June 17 at 8 pm • $25-$30 • All ages • The Fox Theater • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • foxtheaterspokane.org

J J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Beyond Wonderland

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Michael Milham

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Night Moves, Good Doom

Monday, 06/19

J STELLA’S ON THE HILL, Steve Starkey

Tuesday, 06/20

J D-MAC’S AT THE LAKE, Jake Rozier

DAHMEN BARN, Joseph Allen Beltram

LITZ’S PUB & EATERY, Shuffle Dawgs

J OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Wiebe Jammin’

J RIVERFRONT PARK, Just Plain Darin

ROCKET MARKET, Indy

SULLIVAN SCOREBOARD, Steve Starkey Duo

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Dallas Kay

J TWIGS BISTRO, Howie King ZOLA, The Night Mayors

Wednesday, 06/21

J D-MAC’S AT THE LAKE, Chuck Wasileski

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Echo Elysium

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Peter Lucht

J PONDEROSA BAR AND GRILL, Jessica Haffner

RED ROOM LOUNGE, The Roomates

J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Gil Rivas

ZOLA, Brittany’s House

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW J = ALL AGES SHOW

FESTIVAL ’SQUATCH WATCH

Scooch over CoinBase, there’s a new crypto in town. Cryptozoology, that is. Join Bigfoot researchers and enthusiasts alike at the third annual Spokane Valley Sasquatch Roundup hosted by Extreme Expeditions Northwest. Listen to the latest research from paranormal investigators, authors and digital creators, plus Idaho State University anatomy and anthropology professor Jeff Meldrum, who gives a keynote address. During a town hall hour, share your own evidence of the elusive cryptid with other lucky souls who allege to have encountered him. Tickets are available at the door, but seating is limited so early registration is encouraged. Brent Thomas, host of the podcast Paranormal Portal, keeps the event moving, including a prize drawing every hour. One attendee will win a helicopter flight, presumably to search for aerial evidence of the hairy woodsman. Don’t miss the chance to convince your friends once and for all that Bigfoot definitely, scientifically exists.

—ELIZA BILLINGHAM

MUSIC KIDDIE TUNES

WORDS SATURDAY WRITE LIVE

Spokane Valley Sasquatch Roundup

• $40-$100

• Spokane Valley Event Center •

• Sat, June 17 from 9 am-8:30 pm

10514 E. Sprague Ave. • extremeexpeditionsnorthwest.com • 509-593-3234

It’s a bit of a mind trip to realize that the kids who attended the first KPBX Kids’ Concerts might now be bringing their own kids to the family-friendly musical gatherings. For three decades, Spokane’s public radio station has hosted free all-ages concerts at local parks, bringing eclectic sounds from around the globe to little ones’ ears: jazz, funk, Celtic, classical and much more. The casual vibe makes it ideal for a kiddie’s first concert. To celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary, KPBX heads to Shadle Park and welcomes the vibrant African sounds of Bryant School’s high school marimba group, Musha Marimba (pictured). The afternoon concert should make for some ideal ambiance if you pack your family a picnic and decide to make a summery day of it.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

KPBX Kids’ Concerts 30th Anniversary: Musha Marimba • Sat, June 17 at

2005 W. Wellesley Ave. • spokanepublicradio.org

Writing essays in high school and college was a dreaded assignment for most, but for others it was a chance to organize thoughts, expand on ideas and challenge your held beliefs. If writing brings a smile to your face and gets you a little bit excited, then I implore you to attend the Palouse Writers Festival. The fourth annual event celebrates local writers, authors, bookworms and word-lovers with a workshop and a couple of panel discussions. This year, attendees can expect workshops about crowdfunding and panel discussions about inclusion for deaf authors and young adult fiction. After a long day of learning, attend the festival’s annual Books & Brews event where you can meet authors in a festive, all-ages book fair environment with the brews provided by Moscow Brewing Company.

— MADISON PEARSON

Palouse Writers Festival • Sat, June 17 from 11 am-8 pm • $40 • 1912 Center • 412 E. Third St., Moscow • palousewritersguild.org

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.

COMMUNITY FANTASTIC FLORA

People take pride in their gardens, sprucing them up with extravagant new plants and using pots, rocks and sculptures to enhance the beauty of their beloved foliage. At this annual event hosted by the Inland Empire Gardners, locals can tour six of the finest gardens in Spokane. The tour also features live music and local garden and art vendors along the route. Whether you enjoy seeing the hard-earned efforts of people with some really green thumbs or seek inspiration for your own backyard sanctuary, Spokane in Bloom offers plenty of reasons for anyone to attend. Tickets can be purchased online or at five local nurseries including Blue Moon Nursery and Northwest Seed & Pet. An event map is on the Inland Empire Gardeners’ website, but as this is a self-guided tour, you can go to whichever destinations you desire at your own pace.

— SUMMER SANDSTROM

Spokane in Bloom Garden Tour • Sat, June 18 from 10 am-5 pm • $15 • All ages • West Spokane, event map at tieg.org

Last month’s Superhero for Kids event at Providence Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital raised more than $55,000 to help our region’s ill and injured children.

COMMUNITY ML IS SWELL!

Just about 20 minutes southeast of Spokane sits a town called Medical Lake. Now, Medical Lake may not be special to you, but it’s special to me! Having spent 13 years of my life living in the tiny town, I can absolutely attest to the fun-filled weekend that is Medical Lake Founders Day. Take in the small town lifestyle and experience the charm of Medical Lake for a weekend starting with BBQ in the Park on Friday featuring classic ML activities like a corn hole tournment at Waterfront Park. Then the real fun begins. Weekend activities include a round of golf with Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper at Fairways, a parade featuring some gorgeous floats, a kids’ play zone, a huge lineup of main stage bands and more.

—

MADISON PEARSON

Medical Lake Founders Day • Fri, June 16 and Sat, June 17 from 10 am-4 pm • Free • Medical Lake • medicallake.org/founders-day

I SAW YOU

GENERAL STORE PURPLE TOYOTA TRUCK

GIRL We were chatting. I’m in red Toyota truck. Driver behind you hurried you off before I could ask if you want to meet up somewhere. Love to hear from yo U.

TO THE BEAUTY ON HER BIRTHDAY June 9. To the gorgeous blonde who stopped for gas before going down to the Globe for your birthday celebration. I hope you had a blast of a birthday bash. You looked absolutely stunning in black and meeting you was the best part of my night. Remember, if you need anything else, you know where to find me

SPILLED NOODLES AT YOKES OK, our eyes locked a couple times and I’m pretty sure there was a mutual connection there, though you had your kids with you and that seemed rude to hit on you in front of them. Either way, you’re blonde, and we were at Indian Trail Yokes 11:30 or so. I saw you a couple times when we were shopping at the store, but we made it to the register at the same time. I smiled about the spilled macaroni noodles. You looked super concerned and very attractive. I’d love to meet you for coffee? beck757@gmail.com

CHEERS

YETI SIGHTING June 5. Cheers to the person(s) that found and placed my black Yeti water bottle w/multiple stickers on the curb at Signal and Mission. I lost during a

mowing operation near there. The day was HOT! Thanks again. May the Supreme Yeti watch over you.

TURTLE HERO! Thank you to the lady who stopped on Buckeye Tuesday afternoon to move a turtle off to the side of the road so it didn’t get crushed by a car. We applauded you. We took him over to the riverside of the road and made sure he was safely on his way to the river. You are a wonderful human.

VILLAGE VALUES Thumbs down to the north side thrift shop without changing rooms. You’ve outdone yourself. The cost of clothes shouldn’t be more than 10 percent of retail. A $50 pair of jeans shouldn’t be more than $5 used, yet the average is $12 at your store. Replacing cashiers with self checkout was a shrewd move, but it comes with the risk of loss. No matter how much your ppl meddle with customers doing “self” service, you’re still gonna get theft and tag swaps. Serves you right.

HAPPY KIDNEYS Thanks to Spokane Valley for addressing road divots, which I jeered in a recent Inlander. Specifically the previous crevasse on Broadway east of Mullan. My kidneys appreciate your fine work...thank you!!

THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN I get it. It’s great to ride a motorcycle really fast and thinking you are Tom Cruise in Top Gun but, guess what, you are not. We live near Felts Field. And after seeing a couple motorcycles going down Upriver Drive at 80 mph+ in a clearly posted 30 zone. I called my son and asked him if he ever rode that fast. He told me he had on on a rural road out in the country. OK, I get right now you think that this guy hates motorcycles, but I don’t. There are people who are responsible. So next time when you’re speeding around a blind corner, think about what could happen and how your family is going to be very sad. The life you save might be your own

JEERS

MITSUBISHI MANIAC Take a chill enema, Spokane! We recently had a road rage incident near the intersection of Southeast Boulevard and South Perry. After pulling up to the intersection at the same time as the driver on my right, I waited, properly, to allow him to turn first. I went next, and then a third car on my left headed north on

Perry. Then, like some meth-enfused bat out of hell, this wild, gray-haired harridan in a giant white and black trimmed Mitsubishi SUV, with a blue handicapped tag swinging off her mirror no less, roared after us, tailgating, honking like some stuck goose, and giving us the double finger with both

all the discrimination (by some) on trans people using public or school restrooms. Frequently when I am in a public restroom, mothers bring 9, 10 and 11 year old boys into the women’s restrooms. No one seems to have a problem with that and yes, of course I know they do it to keep their sons safe.

Equity is best explained like this: Three people of different heights all stand on a box to see a baseball game over a fence. The shortest can’t see, so the tallest gives up his box and can still watch the game with his two short friends. I get it. You’re all for yourself, screw everyone else. But we’re

hands off the wheel. I just hope she wasn’t late for her anger management class. My advice: Calm down, Brunhilde, you’re not Odin’s daughter.

WHY NO DRAG QUEEN STORYTIME? Of all the years for Spokane Public Library NOT to host a drag queen storytime, this Pride month leaves me scratching my head. With anti-drag rhetoric inflaming discourse throughout the country and, even more ridiculously, anti-drag legislation making the rounds, it’s more important than ever to send a clear signal to the community at large that drag isn’t dangerous, does have considerable artistic merit and cultural value, and is something to spotlight and uplift, not cover up. Please do better next year, SPL!

POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS To the employee at the meat counter on East Sprague, I have a bit of advice. Don’t say to another employee while customers are listening “Go ahead and go on your break. Customers can wait. Who cares? Breaks are important!” While I philosophically agree with you, but it doesn’t show respect for your customers. I doubt very seriously that the owner would appreciate hearing it said in front of customers. Perhaps reserve those conversations for when you don’t have half a dozen people waiting and listening. As one who had been waiting for some time for service, I didn’t find it to be polite. From your attitude at the store, I’m sure your response if you read this will be “who cares?” and based on that I don’t need to return to the store. So, consider me “one and done.” I can get everything I need where they act like they actually enjoy helping customers.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEGATIVE ON TRANS IN RESTROOMS So, I was just thinking about

No one can see into your stall, just as you cannot see into a trans person’s stall. So, what is the problem here? Could it just be hate of anyone who is different? Trans kids are born that way. That is just a fact!

REHAB COMPASSION You are assuming a rehab will increase crime rates and police presence. People who go to rehab are seeking help. I promise they don’t want to be addicts. You say we should have rehabs, but not in your neighborhood. Not near your kids. Where should they be then? In the Borah school district (traditionally low income)? You have a close-minded take. What would Jesus do? He’d help the least of his children.

ILLEGAL CARS Jeers to the people who live in Spokane, drive on Spokane streets, and park their cars at their residences in Spokane without legal plates. Why do the rest of us have to pay for new tabs every year when you drive with expired tabs or no license plates at all down city streets? How can these people do this for such long periods of time without being pulled over? Jeers also to the apartment complex managers and/or owners who also allow the behavior despite having leases that indicate cars parked at complexes must have legal plates. Drive through any complex on any given weekend and you’ll find all kinds of cars with expired plates or none at all on them. Do any casual observation and you’ll notice the cars don’t actually stay in one spot but do drive on the roads. The same can be said for many houses with illegal cars in the driveway or along the road in front of the house. It’s just amazing that nobody seems to really care about this. Spokane: Near Nature, Near Illegal Driving. What a (garbage) city!

RE: TO THOSE WHO SUPPORT EQUITY

trying to move on from that barbarism.

SUICIDE LANES Alas, so many suicide lanes, so few drivers who know how to access and use them...sigh...waiting endlessly behind you, hoping you’ll figure it out...

LIME SCOOTERS/BIKES Please, please, PLEASE stop leaving these things in the middle of the sidewalks and on disability ramps. I am a wheelchair user, and you know what I can’t do? Get up and move the scooter/bike you were too lazy to put to the side so people could get by them. I love that the city has them for others to enjoy, I do, but I do not like how people can’t be bothered to think of others regarding them. I’ve seen people dismount them and leave them in the middle of the sidewalk. Sometimes I can’t just “go around.” It’s hard enough trying to find a way to function as a wheelchair user in a world that struggles to provide accessibility; please don’t add to the struggle by leaving these things in the middle of the sidewalk. I’m not asking for you to change the world, just your behaviour. 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.

EVENTS

CALENDAR BENEFIT

FRIENDS OF LIBERTY LAKE LIBRARY

BOOK SALE A two-day sale with prices ranging from 10 cents to $2. Proceeds support library workshops and programs. Cash or check only. June 16, 12-6 pm and June 17, 9 am-3 pm. Free. Liberty Lake Library, 23123 E. Mission Ave. libertylakefriends.org (232-2510)

BOURBON, BACON & BREWS A benefit dinner and beer tasting to benefit 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 Spokane Humane Society. The event also includes live music, food and a vendor fair. Crowdfriendly pets permitted. Registration required. June 17, 9 am. Free. Spokane Humane Society, 6607 N. Havana St. spokanehumanesociety.org (509-467-5235)

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. 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

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)

BLUE DOORS & DRAGONS Improvised comedy celebrating table-top role-playing games, inspired by a roll of the dice. May 26-June 20, Fri at 7 pm. 7:30 pm through June 30. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland. bluedoortheatre.com

LAUGH OUT LOUD COMEDY SHOWCASE Hosted by Colton Drake and featuring Anthony Singleton, Chris Jessop, Josiah Carlson and more. June 16, 5-9 pm.

$10. The Grain Shed - Cedar Tap House, 111 S. Cedar St. thegrainshed.coop

MARLON WAYANS Wayans is an actor, comedian, writer and producer who has appeared in comedy movies 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

SAFARI The Blue Door’s version of Whose Line, a fast-paced short-form improv show. June 17, 7:30-8:45 pm and June 24, 7:30-8:45 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bludoortheatre.com (509-747-7045)

CONNOR KING Connor King is a former America’s Got Talent contestant and has since opened up for stand up comedians across the country. June 18, 7 pm. $22. 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

COMMUNITY

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 Thursdays of every month at 6 pm. $3.50-$6. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

COMMUNITY SEW-IN Bring your current quilting project to socialize, get advice or whatever else you might need. Thursdays from 12-3 pm through June 29. Free.

Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org (208-769-2315)

GYRO DAYS This festival takes place in the center of Wallace, and features barbecues, a radiothon, a carnival 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. June 15-29, Thursdays from 4-5 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org (208-769-2315)

2023 PILLAR AWARDS: A BLACK CARPET EVENT This event aims to celebrate, honor and recognize the individuals, nonprofits and organizations that have helped Spokane’s Black community. June 16, 6-9 pm. Free. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. inwjc.org (509-624-1200)

CAR D’LANE The largest classic car cruise and show in North Idaho. Friday features a car cruise while Saturday has 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

FEED THE BUFFALO This tour includes the farm history, a brief talk on bison and a question and answer session. Everyone gets an opportunity to meet, greet and hand-feed the bison. Fri-Sat from 12:301:30 pm through Sep. 2. $6-$7. Win-Tur Bison Farm, 4742 W. Highway 231. winturbisonfarm.com (509-258-6717)

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 the goods at multiple homes in the area. June 16, 9 am-3 pm, June 17, 9 am-3 pm and June 18, 9 amnoon. Free. Green Bluff Grange, 9809 Green Bluff Rd. fb.me/e/3fcsRXyNZ

MEDICAL LAKE FOUNDERS DAY This annual event features a market, a parade, a 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

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)

WHEATLAND BANK HORSE & CARRIAGE RIDES Enjoy an 8-minute loop through the scenic Riverfront Park and downtown Spokane. Fridays from 5-9 pm. (Except June 23 due to Hoopfest) through July 28. Free. Downtown Spokane. downtownspokane.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. June 17, 9 am-8:30 pm. $40-$100. Spokane Valley Event Center, 10514 E. Sprague Ave. exnorthwest.com

GENERAL STORE CAR SHOW This 16th annual event is the chance to show off your ride and see other local entriesyourself. Includes music, door prizes and trophies. June 17, 9 am-2 pm. Free. The General Store, 2424 N. Division. fb.me/e/ TAFKGVAN (509-444-8005)

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)

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION A celebration of Juneteenth featuring live music, food, giveaways, games and more. June 17, 11 am-3 pm. Free. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 500 S. Stone St. facebook.com/mlkspokane

METALINE FALLS BIGFOOT FESTIVAL

Listen to top Bigfoot researchers and shop vendors from around the region. The event also includes a 5k race and a pancake breakfast. June 17, 8 am-6 pm and June 18, 8 am-3 pm. $35-$150. Metaline Falls. mfbigfoot.com (844-767-8287)

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., Moscow. facebook.com/moscowpflag

SILVERWOOD FATHER’S DAY WEEK-

END 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 (208-683-3400)

SPOKANE IN BOOM GARDEN TOUR A tour of residential gardens on the west side of Spokane, presented by the Inland Empire Gardeners. June 17, 10 am-5 pm. $15. Visit tieg.org for map/address list.

SPOKANE VALLEY LIBRARY GRAND

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

RIVERKEEPER CLEAN UP Join the Brick West Run Club on a run to a clean up location in Peaceful Valley. After, run back to enjoy beers. June 20, 6-8 pm. Free. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave. fb.me/e/1dooF7TGS

COFFEE & CONVERSATION This event aims to help people feel seen and heard within the community. The conversation is free form and includes low-key activities like coloring, puzzles and more. Every Wednesday from 10:30 am-noon. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5336)

KERNEL Come to Spark during the Kendall Yards Night Market to earn a voucher to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables by completing activities related to nutrition, gardening and exercise. For youth under 18. June 21-Aug. 23, Wednesday from 5-8 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org

POLLINATOR WEEK Learn about pollinator gardens with presentations from master gardeners and beekeepers. June 21, 10 am-3 pm. Free. Cutter Theatre, 302 Park St., Metaline Falls. cuttertheatre.org

SPOKANE FOLKLORE SOCIETY CON -

TRA DANCE Each dance features a local folk music band as well as a caller who teaches easy-to-learn folk-style dances called contras. Sessions begin with a newcomer hour followed by a two-hour general dance. Proof of COVID-19 vaccinations is required. First and third Wednesdays from 7:15-9:30 pm. $7-$10.

Woman’s Club of Spokane, 1428 W. Ninth. spokanefolklore.org (509-838-2160)

WORLD TRAVELER TEEN ESCAPE

ROOM Practice teamwork by solving puzzles, riddles and conundrums to escape the room. Ages 13–18; max of 8 people/group. Registration required. June 21, 11 am-noon, 2-3 & 3:30-4:30 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org (893-8350)

FILM

THIRD THURSDAY MATINEE: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Directors

Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle took Shakespeare’s magical comedy to new heights with this star-studded cast. June 15, 1-3:30 pm. $7. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

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

AMERICA’S HIDDEN STORIES: THE BLACK WILD WEST Celebrate Juneteenth and Black history with two free screenings of this 50-minute film from the Smithsonian Institution that chronicles the untold stories of Black settlers who journeyed to the Wild West in search of freedom and opportunity. June 17, 11 am-noon & 1-2 pm. Free. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

CARTOONS AT THE FARMERS MARKET

A selection of kid-friendly animated shorts that run during the farmers market. Saturday from 9 am-noon through Oct. 28. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

GREASE 45TH ANNIVERSARY SINGA-LONG Celebrate with a sing-a-long showing of the film, a Q&A with Ellen Travolta and a classic car show. Proceeds benefit Safety Net Spokane. June 17, 6 pm. $10. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.com

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW A newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter with Dr. Frank-n-Furter. June 17, 11:59 pm. $8. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.com

GOOD: A STAGE TO SCREEN FILM As the world faces WWII, German professor finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. June 18, 2 pm. $20. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com

JUNETEENTH: A CELEBRATION OF RESISTANCE This 30-minute film highlights the historic date of June 19, 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger informed enslaved African Americans of the end of the Civil War. June 18, 10:30 am-5 pm. $7$12. The MAC, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

NT LIVE: GOOD As the world faces WWII, John Halder, a German professor, finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. June 18, 4-7 pm. $10. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

FREE KIDS MOVIES: DESPICABLE ME

An animated comedy about a supervil-

lain and his yellow Minions. June 19-23, daily at 9:30 am. Free. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland. garlandtheater.com

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder. June 20, 7-9 pm. $7. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy. org (208-882-4127)

CORALINE An adventurous 11-year-old girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets. June 21, 7-9 pm. $7. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

DOCUMENTARY SCREENING & PANEL: AMERICAN HOSPITALS An exclusive screening of the new documentary followed by a panel with local healthcare professionals. June 22, 6:30-9 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)

FOOD & DRINK

PAPPY VAN WINKLE BOURBON DINNER Enjoy whiskey tastings and craft cocktails as well as the evening’s sevencourse menu, crafted by sous chef Taylor Wolters. June 16, 6-9 pm. $500. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second St. bit.ly/3LWo0kz

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL The yearly strawberry festival includes u-pick strawberries, craft and food vendors and live music. June 16-July 27, daily from 126pm. Free. 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. palousewritersguild.org (208-669-2249)

COMMELLINI ESTATE TOUR & SUPPER

CLUB A guided tour of the histori estate followed by a family-style Italian meal. June 17, 6 pm. $85. Commellini Estate, 14715 N. Dartford Dr. commellini.com

FATHER’S DAY FEAST

Hosted by the Inland Northwest Juneteenth Coalition, this feast honors fathers, male mentors and father figures who play an important role in their children’s lives. June 17, 4:30 pm. Free. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. inwjc.org (533-7000)

PRIDE BAR CRAWL Stop at downtown bars Fast Eddies, the Globe, Nyne and more. See link for full schedule. June 17, 4 pm-midnight. $15-$20. The Globe, 204 N. Division. fb.me/e/WYuaofr0

SAVAGE BEERCATS BEER PAIRING A five-course meal paired with Savage Home Brews beer. June 17, 6 pm. $40$42. Cutter Theatre, 302 Park St., Metaline Falls. cuttertheatre.org

NOVA KAINE’S DON’T TELL MAMA

CABARET & DRAG BRUNCH Inland

Northwest drag performers perform pieces choreographed by Troy Nickerson. First/third Sundays at 11 am. Free. Highball, 100 N. Hayford. northernquest.com

WINE TASTING Taste various regional wines. Buy two bottles and receive your tasting for free. June 11-Sept. 3, every Sunday from 2-4 pm. $10. The Culinary Stone, 2129 N. Main St. culinarystone.com

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). through Aug. 22. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. riverfrontspokane.com

EVENTS | CALENDAR

5 STAR CELLARS DINNER A five-course meal paired with wines from 5 Star Cellars. June 21, 5-9 pm. $150. Gander & Ryegrass, 404 W. Main Ave. ganderandryegrass.com (509-315-4613)

WINE DOWN WEDNESDAYS Beverly’s resident sommelier Justine Recor offers complimentary tastings of wine from around the globe along with knowledge about their origins. Wednesdays from 4-9 pm. Free. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second St. beverlyscda.org (208-765-4000)

MUSIC

THE DIVAS: WHAT SHE DID This show features seven female divas performing songs from six various decades. June 1617, 7 pm. $30. Unity Spiritual Center Spokane, 2900 S. Bernard. unityspokane.org

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 Pl. 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 ANNI -

VERSARY This celebration features performances of various music styles, face painting, crafts, and the Musha Marimba band playing music from Zimbabwe. June 17, 1 pm. Free. Shadle Park, 2005 W. Wellesley. 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. June 18, 4-5 pm. Free. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. handbellmusicians.org

BEST OF BLUEGRASS: NICK DUMAS & BRANCHLINE Washington native Nick Dumas performs bluegrass selections and plays mandolin along with Branchline, his latest band. June 19, 7 pm. $25. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St. thejacklincenter.org

SPOKANE SYMPHONY: SUMMER SOLSTICE Celebrate the beginning of summer with an all-new program 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

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

RIVERFRONT MOVES: STRETCH & SHIMMY WITH COIL STUDIO This 45-minute yoga and dance session is designed for levels. June 15, 6-7 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com (509-625-6600)

SPOKANE INDIANS VS. EUGENE EMERALDS Promotional events 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 meet and greet with Craig T. Nelson prior to the start of the game. June 15-17, 7:05 pm and June 18, 1:05 pm.

$8-$22. Avista Stadium, 602 N. Havana St. spokaneindians.com (535-2922)

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 (893-8350)

BASIC YOGA Strengthen, stretch and release muscle tension while doing beginner toga with instructor Robin Marks. Fridays from 9-10 am through July 7. $67. John A. Finch Arboretum, 3404 W. Woodland Blvd. spokanerec.org

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS 101 Learn what a carnivorous plant is, how to care for one and how to make your own bog. June 17, 3-4 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com

COEUR D’ALENE RIDE TO DEFEAT ALS

A 64, 40, 20 or 10-mile bike ride to fundraise for ALS research. June 17, 7:30 am4:30 pm. $10-$65. Tedder Industries, 4411 Riverbend Ave. als.org

MOUNTAIN MAGIC TRAIL RUN Choose from a 5k, 10k or 25k run on open roads and trails through Mt. Spokane State Park. June 17, 9 am-noon and June 18, 9 am-2 pm. $37-$85. Mt. Spokane State Park, 26107 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mountainmagicrun.com

PRUNING & ROSE MAINTENANCE This class teaches participants how to prune rose bushes to ensure the most abundant blooms. June 17, 2-3 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.

com (509-467-5258)

SPOKANE GARRY: A HISTORICAL EXPEDITION David Beine, Dean of the College of Global Engagement at Spokane’s Great Northern University, guides an expedition to historical sites around the Spokane region related to Spokane Garry. Pre-registration required. June 17, 9 am-1 pm. $50. Spokane Parks and Recreation Operations Division, 2304 E. Mallon St. my.spokanecity.org/parksrec

TRAILBLAZER TRIATHLON, DUATHLON, 5K This is an athlete-friendly race with a point-to-point open water swim with bike and run portions on paved trails. June 17, 1-3 pm. $25-$75. Coney Island Park, 200 E. Lake St. medicallake. ziplinestaging.com/trailblazer

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

GARDENING IN NORTH SPOKANE Learn how to care for a successful garden in North Spokane and how to protect plants that need shelter from the cold. June 18, 2-3 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com

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 DNR or WDFW on June 19, Sep. 23, Oct. 10, Nov. 11 and Nov. 24. parks.wa.gov

THEATER

PLAYWRIGHTS’ FORUM FESTIVAL A showcase of new one-act plays by playwrights from across the region. See website for details. June 17, 2 & 7:30 pm and June 18, 2 & 6 pm. $10-$15. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com (509-325-2507)

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Confectionary wizard Willy Wonka is opening the gates to his mysterious factory, only to a lucky few. 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

HUMAN ERROR When ideologies collide, can a baby save the day? Find out in thisp play by Eric Pfeffinger. Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm through June 25. $20-$25.

Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. stagelefttheater.org

GREASE After a whirlwind summer romance, leather-clad greaser Danny and girl-next-door Sandy are unexpectedly reunited. June 16-July 2; Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $25-$40. University High School, 12320 E. 32nd Ave. svsummertheatre.com

RADIO SHOW A performance of 194050s radio theater adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and The Meanest Man in the World. June 17-18, 7 pm. Pend Oreille Playhouse, 236 S. Union Ave. pendoreilleplayers.com (509-447-9900)

LILAC CITY DINNER THEATER: WOMEN

PLAYING HAMLET Hamlet’s a challenge for any actor, but when Jessica is cast as the titular character in a New York production, it sends her into an existential tailspin. Ticket include a catered meal by Charley’s. June 22-23, 6:30 pm. $50. Charley’s Catering & Event Center, 801 N. Monroe. lilaccitydinnertheater.square.site

VISUAL ARTS

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

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

SACRED SPIRITS A collection of pieces from the Secrist collection curated by Dr. Secrist, Annie Cunningham and Joshua Hobson. Mon-Fri from 7:30 am-10 pm through June 30 in the JFK Library. Free. Eastern Washington University, 526 Fifth St. ewu.edu/art (509-259-2241)

TIMESCAPE(S) This exhibition features artists reflecting on time/temporality through different artistic forms, media, and perspectives. June 15-Sept. 30; TueFri from 12-5 pm, Sat from 10 am-3 pm. Free. Moscow Contemporary, 414 S. Main St. moscowcontemporary.org

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. The MAC 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)

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

PALOUSE ARTWALK This 18th annual event celebrates artists of the Palouse and downtown Palouse 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. facebook.com/PalouseArtsCouncil

BAZAAR Spokane’s largest, all-local art market featuring 142 booths of handcrafted goods including visual art, jewelry, ceramics, home goods and more. June 17, 11 am-8 pm. Free. Downtown Spokane. terrainspokane.com

PIECING IT TOGETHER: AN ARTIST

TALK WITH JULIE SMETANA The artistdiscusses her residency at The Hive, the struggles and successes of her creative process. June 20, 5:30-7 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)

WORDS

STEPHEN THOMAS & DENNIS HELD: WHAT IS BETWEEN US An evening of poetry with the two authors. June 15, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com

KATE LEBO: A WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD CELEBRATION Celebrate

The Book of Difficult Fruit, winner of the 2022 WA State Book Award. Lebo reads alongside other local writers. June 15, 6-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org

OPEN MIC NITE All singers, songwriters, musicians, spoken word artists and poets are welcome. No prior sign-up required. Hosted by Bailey Allan Baker. June 15, 7 pm. Free. Emerge, 119 N. Second St. emergecda.com (208-930-1876)

TIMOTHY CONNOR: BEAUTIFUL WOUNDS Connor shows his book, Beautiful Wounds, a photographic collection and narrative of the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington. June 15, 4 pm. Free. BookPeople of Moscow, 521 S. Main St. bookpeopleofmoscow.com

TOVE DANOVICH: UNDER THE HENFLUENCE An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and culture reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock. June 17, 7-8 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-8380206) n

STRAINS

Flower Power

Three sativa-leaning products to toke all summer long

The long days of summer are upon us and with them come opportunities galore. If you want to take in everything the season has to offer, and do so with a bit of a buzz, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got the proper stuff. This is not the time for catching couch-lock from a heavy indica. Here are three sativaleaning strains perfect for the active summer lifestyle.

DURBAN POISON

Named for South Africa’s third-largest city, where the strain is said to originate, Durban Poison is a sativa in every sense of the word. It is a stimulating strain that is perfect for people wanting to take full advantage of the long days of summer or to catch a midafternoon buzz without any crash before the sun goes down.

One of the more common strains available on the market today, Durban Poison is widely available as

NOTE TO READERS

BY WILL MAUPIN

flower or in pre-roll form but also a popular choice for concentrates. While the concentrate versions will obviously contain high levels of THC, the flower is a relative middleweight landing around 20 percent THC. Which makes this strain ideal for all-day use without much risk of overdoing it.

GELATO RUNTZ

This hybrid strain is meant to ride the line between a typical indica and sativa. An energizing strain but not too overpowering, it’s perfect for socializing. If you have an afternoon barbecue or an evening walk around the farmers market, Gelato Runtz will bring a pleasant buzz that makes you want to get up and be active.

On the other hand, it won’t overpower with manic energy. In today’s era of exceptionally potent cannabis, this strain lands in the Goldilocks zone when it comes to

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.

THC content. Artizen’s version of Gelato Runtz clocks in at 19.2 percent THC and has become a personal favorite of mine.

HARLEQUIN

As a CBD-dominant strain, Harlequin is perfect for those looking for the more medicinal effects of cannabis without much of the buzz. It’s not THC-free, though, so don’t be fooled. Like the trickster from which the strain takes its name, Harlequin can sneak up on unsuspecting users who consume too much.

At the right dosage, it is an ideal relaxation strain for those looking to relax after a long and eventful day. The CBD is great for active types looking to alleviate muscle pain, and the low-THC content means users can smoke before bed without much risk of waking up with any lingering effects. n

Get high in the sun, and laze in the shade.

Blue Roots

This summer, don't settle for ordinary experiences. Choose Blue Roots Cannabis and elevate every moment with our exceptional range of products. From our disposable and premium cartridges to our ower, pre-rolls, and cannatelas, we've got everything you need to make this summer your best one yet.

WARNING: This product has intoxicating e ects and may be habit forming. Cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the in uence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of the reach of children.

Disposable Cartridges

Our convenient disposable cartridges are the perfect companion for your outdoor activities. With a wide range of strains to choose from, you can elevate your hiking or biking experience to new heights. Take a pu and let the captivating aromas and smooth hits transport you to a whole new world of relaxation.

Flower

Experience the epitome of top-quality indoor cannabis this summer. Whether you're ring up the grill in the backyard or camping under the stars, our high terpene cannabis enhances every moment. Immerse yourself in the nest avors and aromas, carefully crafted for your enjoyment.

Cannatela

Meticulously handcrafted, each Cannatela is a masterpiece of relaxation. Infused with strain-speci c sugar crystals and high terpene extract, delicately wrapped in a Cordia leaf, this luxurious blend delivers the smoothest smoking experience imaginable. After your long summer adventures, let our Cannatelas be your passport to pure tranquility, melting away the stresses of the day and leaving you in a state of blissful rejuvenation.

Preinum Cartridges

Whether you're chilling at home or embarking on a summer adventure, our discreet cartridges allow you to take Blue Roots with you wherever you go. Crafted with exceptionally clean and pure distillate, each cartridge is infused with all-natural avorings or our own cannabis-derived terpenes, resulting in an incredibly smooth vaping experience. With a 510 thread that's compatible with a variety of batteries, you have the freedom to choose the one that suits your preference. Elevate your summer with the smoothest and tastiest carts on the market.

Pre Rolls

Ready to set the stage for an unforgettable concert or a lively gathering? Our pre-rolls are the perfect way to kick-start the festivities. Expertly rolled with care, each pre-roll is lled with premium ower and delivers a smooth, avorful smoke. Ignite the good vibes with our pre-rolls and take your summer celebration to new heights.

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.

1. Darth Vader’s boyhood nickname

4. “____ la vista!”

9. Big name in transmission repair

14. Eggy seasonal drink

15. Infotainment program once co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest

16. Spin, as a baton

17. Pair of contacts? (SNOW + SLEET)

19. Thrown for a loop

20. “I’ve had ____ to here with you!”

21. Try, as a case

23. Scott in an 1857 case

24. Maritime first responder: Abbr.

25. “I’m such a ding-dong!”

27. Orthodontist’s org.

28. Sound of a sly chuckle

29. Seed covering

33. “____ away” (“RuPaul’s Drag Race” catchphrase)

35. With 43-Across, what a worried game show contestant might

PHONE:(509)444-7355

E-MAIL:BulletinBoard@Inlander.com

INPERSON: 1227WestSummitParkway Spokane,WA 99201

to advertise: 444-SELL Available

do? (SNOW + FREEZING RAIN)

37. Makes use (of)

38. Why a person might choose skim milk over whole milk? (RAIN + SLEET) 40. P.R. liability

43. See 35-Across

47. Counsel 48. Shutter part

49. “Look at THAT!” 50. Drug that’s dropped 51. Poli ____

53. Be insufferably sweet

54. Spencer of “Good Morning America”

56. Arduous journey

59. Fleischer and Onassis

60. Prayer opening

62. January weather forecast, perhaps ... or this puzzle’s theme

65. Where Hercules completed his

first labor

66. “____ these mean streets like a villain”: Patti Smith

67. Ristorante suffix

68. Writing contest entry, maybe

69. Meshlike

70. ____ Fridays

DOWN

1. Carpenter ____

2. “Ah, makes sense”

3. “Ah, makes sense”

4. Dickens villain Uriah

5. ____ Arbor, Michigan

6. Meeting, informally

7. Cute, cutely

8. Syrian strongman Bashar al-____

9. Justice Dept. division

10. Make ____ (earn big bucks)

11. Fashion designer and judge on

“Project Runway All Stars”

12. Guided by a statement of faith

13. “Good” times?

18. Haul

22. 1982 Grammy winner for Record of the Year

24. 1989 “Weird Al” Yankovic movie

about TV

26. “____ Got Time for the Pain” (1974 hit)

29. Montezuma’s people

30. 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic

31. Happening offline, to a texter

32. “Thank you for coming to ____!

Sit back and relax! Enjoy the show!” (old theater chain jingle)

34. It’s a wrap in Bollywood

36. “Work” singer, to her fans 39. Suffer

40. Start of an intentional walk

41. How Google and Facebook make their money

42. Certain optical storage discs 44. Hold ‘em variety 45. Prodding into action 46. Short (of)

52. “Crocodile Hunter” Steve 53. Weep 55. Calculus calculation

57. Ireland, to the Irish 58. Pretzel feature 59. Private employer? 61. It’ll dawn on you

Blinds & Draperies Solar Shades

An Evening with Night Ranger

THURSD AY, AUGUST 24 TH | 7 PM | $60 & UP

Heavy hitting rock legends, Night Ranger have sold over 17 million albums worldwide, performed across more than 4,000 stages, and captivated a radio audience that exceeds 1 billion. Night Ranger’s popularity is fueled by a number of instantly recognizable hit singles and signature album tracks, such as “Sister Christian” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.”