Inlander 09/14/2023

EDITOR’S NOTE

We all know a little bit of wildlife in the Inland Northwest. Your friendly neighborhood squirrel that you shouldn’t give walnuts, but do anyway. The chirping marmots lining the riverbank. The occasional moose poking around town. Osprey clutching their catch high in the sky.

But Tim Connor, a local writer and photographer, has made unlikely friends with an animal that might symbolize our region better than any other non-human denizen: the redband trout.

He wrote about these relationships in an essay for this week’s cover — WILD REDBANDS, THE RIVER AND ME. It’s about more than just Tim’s patience making friends with a salmonid. It’s about the state of our Spokane River, a historically abused waterway that is coming back to life thanks to the hard work of the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tribes, the Spokane Riverkeeper, the Lands Council, the Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River chapter and the city, with its state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant. Not to mention the foresight of Expo ’74 nearly 50 years ago.

Those friends of Tim, those wild redbands — Oscar, Gordo and the rest — are a symbol of the river’s health. I don’t know any of them personally, but I wish them long and healthy lives in the Spokane River, a river that helped build this place we call home.

NICHOLAS DESHAIS, editor

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IF YOU WERE TO BE FRIENDS WITH ANY ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

JOSH GOERDT

I would pick the grizzly bear because they tend to be the king of our area and that would probably be a good friend in the woods. I’m also a big fan of salmon, so during salmon time that would be nice to get some fresh salmon.

SEAN SMITH

I want to be friends with a ragtag, threelegged rabid raccoon that has seen some shit. I don’t want to just be friends with a raccoon, I want someone who has been scrappy, who has fought for their life, who has earned everything they have and who probably has a robust social network because of it.

EMILY ANDREWS

100 percent a jungle cat. I don’t even care which cat — it could be a lion, it could be a cheetah, it could be a panther. I just want to be friends with one because they’re fast, strong, a little bit sneaky, goofy and cute.

CAMERON PRICE

I would choose a coyote because they are in that in-between space where they are being pushed out of wilder areas and into cities, and they are learning how to survive. I think I could learn a thing or two from them.

LOUISA SEVIER

Probably a wild mustang because I think that they would be spunky enough to keep up with my snarky sass, and they would never be boring. And, if you want to travel, then you have a travel buddy.

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Jockeying for Position

Although the race is a year away and sales pitches are still forming, candidates for Washington governor need to address Eastern Washington’s priorities

BY BILL BRYANT

As summer fades, many of us are focused on one more camping trip, settling kids back in school, washing the dog, anything other than next year’s governor’s race. But like it or not, that race is on, and what the candidates are and aren’t focused on could affect Spokane.

Eight Republicans, eight Democrats, two Constitution Party members and four others have legally declared their interest in running for governor in 2024. Only five have raised over $100,000.

Ranked by the amount they’ve raised in campaign contributions, those five are: Democrats Bob Ferguson, a lawyer, former King County Council member and current attorney general; Mark Mullet, a former banker, former Issaquah City Council member, business owner and current state senator; and Hilary Franz, a lawyer, former Bainbridge City Council member, former director of Futurewise and current commissioner of public lands; and Republicans Dave Reichert, a former Air Force reservist, former King County sheriff and former U.S. congressman; and Semi Bird, a leadership consultant and former Richland School Board member (recalled).

These five, if they are to be successful, need to connect with voters on local as well as statewide issues. That’s why I wanted to know if what’s important to Spokane is also important to them. But first I needed to confirm Spokane’s priorities. For that, who better to ask than those running for mayor? Current Mayor Nadine Woodward’s campaign told me crime, public safety, homelessness and housing were the issues

on top of Spokane voters’ minds. Challenger Lisa Brown said when she doorbells, people mostly “talk to me about our response to homelessness.” So Spokane’s three priorities appear to be homelessness, crime/public safety and housing.

These are not just Spokane’s priorities. Voters across Washington share these concerns. But do the five candidates for governor? I asked each, What are the two most important issues confronting our state?

Dave Reichert, citing two Spokane’s three priorities, responded that “public safety, including homelessness and domestic violence,” were among the most critical issues. Semi Bird listed restoring safety to our streets and the economy/tax relief. He also mentioned his plan for addressing homelessness.

The two Democrats mentioned housing among other priorities. Hilary Franz’s listed affordable housing and climate change. As Washington’s land and fire chief, she has been on the frontlines fighting climate-related wildfires and floods.

Bob Ferguson’s priorities include the economy and health care. Adding, “We must address the affordable housing crisis, lower the cost of living and create good-paying jobs” and ensure reproductive freedom.

The Mullet campaign did not respond.

The candidates (so far) for governor: Bob Ferguson, Mark Mullet, Hilary Franz, Dave Reichert and Semi Bird.

Fourteen months before the election, it’s enough to know what each candidate will focus on, but by the time 2024’s snow is melting and the campaign gets more attention, these candidates need to follow up their priorities with plans.

It will be interesting to learn what Reichert and Bird mean by public safety. Reichert could leverage his experience by offering voters a thoughtful plan for reducing crime. Franz has earned bipartisan accolades for her work improving forest resilience in an age of climate change. What more would she do as governor? People will want to know how Ferguson believes a governor can create jobs and lower prices. And, if he is intent on making abor tion rights a major part of his agenda, he should explain what more he would do in an already granite-hard, pro-choice state.

For now, just knowing the candidates’ priorities is useful, because a candidate’s priorities often reveal what motivates them to run. Alternatively, a lack of direction can betray a desire to be governor that supersedes any agenda. I have no patience for those who just want to be governor, who want to land on the next step ping stone. The candidates who interest me are those who want to do something and need to be governor to do it. What I wanted to know was whether such a candidate was running. So, I asked, If you could make one big change in your first term, what would that be

Only Hilary Franz presented a clear vision of what her first year would be like, saying she wants to tackle our statewide hous ing crisis “with the same sense of urgency, determination, critical investments and focus… I brought to building and implementing our state’s wildfire responses.” She believes affordable housing is critical to responding to homelessness, to meeting educational goals since unstably housed kids struggle to succeed in school, and is critical to providing economic opportunity since people need to live near “good-paying jobs without endless commutes.”

Ferguson replied, “If you want a governor who will only make one big change, look elsewhere. I will transform state government.” He did not outline what he would transform.

Personally, I want to know what it is about the Inslee administration Ferguson finds so dysfunctional that it needs transforming. Would Ferguson transform Washington’s approach to drugs and crime? Would he transform our state’s approach to homelessness? Education is the state’s paramount responsibility, yet public school enrollment is falling. Would he provide more school choice or squeeze Spokane’s five charter schools? Transforming state government is bold — and bold can be good — but without specifics, boldness risks being confused with bluster.

Ferguson was not alone in being vague. Reichert’s first term big change is bringing “our state together and stop pitting regions against regions, families against families, and generations against generations.” How he’d foster harmony is unknown. I wonder whether civility and the common good are weighty enough to draw people into his campaign.

If you were hoping for a more concrete vision from Bird, sorry. His big change would be restoring “trust in the leadership… by implementing policies that prioritize the well-being of the people over political interests.”

Ifind most of these responses disappointing. The most transformative governors are not those who want to do everything, but are those who understand how to leverage their influence to accomplish one or two big things that only a governor can do. Doing those one or two big things is what drives them to be governor. With the exception of Franz, the responses suggest most of the candidates want to be governor more than they are driven to accomplish one big thing.

But it’s early. Campaigns are refiners’ fires, and as these five walk through the flames, let’s hope why they are doing it will become clearer both to themselves and us. n

Bill Bryant, who served on the Seattle Port Commission from 2008-16, ran against Jay Inslee as the Republican nominee in the 2016 governor’s race. He is chairman emeritus of the company BCI, is a founding board member of the Nisqually River Foundation and was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to serve on the Puget Sound Partnership’s Eco-Systems Board. He lives in Winthrop, Washington.

MORE MORATORIUM

For years, residents in Latah Valley have been sounding the alarm about public safety hazards in their southwest Spokane neighborhoods, which straddle U.S. Route 195.

They’ve pointed to warnings from the Washington State Department of Transportation, which is concerned with increasing strains on the highway from new housing developments. With more people merging onto the busy road to get to the interstate and downtown, WSDOT has threatened to close highway crossings at some of the busiest intersections unless the city starts building other transportation routes, including public transit and pedestrian options.

But other safety concerns came to the forefront this summer, after wildfires threatened homes and neighborhoods on the edge of town, where the city abuts wildland. In May, two homes burned down in different parts of the valley. A 155-acre wildland fire prompted evacuation notices in July, and two significant fires in August

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Afterprompted evacuations again.

To address the concerns, Citizen Action for Latah Valley, or CALV, is calling for a moratorium on development until a better plan for that area is formulated and the city funds a permanent fire station in the area. (Spokane City Council approved a six-month moratorium on development in Latah Valley in September 2022 to work on updating fees related to infrastructure costs for new developments. That lapsed in March.)

“Our biggest ask right now is a moratorium, because we have a serious safety issue, multiple safety issues,” says Molly Marshall, who started CALV two years ago with her husband, Adam, and fellow Latah Valley resident, Kai Huschke. “After this fire season, I think the next biggest ask is a fire station.”

Already, the group has gotten support for the moratorium from some running to lead Spokane, including City Council candidate Paul Dillon, who would represent that area; Betsy Wilkerson, a current council member who is

running for council president; and Lisa Brown, who is challenging Mayor Nadine Woodward.

Dillon’s opponent, Katey Treloar, is opposed to another moratorium but says she supports the residents and wants to see a plan come together for that area. Meanwhile, the development community is already speaking out against the potential for another building pause.

TRAPPED

The Marshalls started CALV two years ago, following problems with a developer building near their home in the Grandview/Thorpe neighborhood. But this year, they experienced firsthand how cracks can appear in the public safety response.

On Aug. 3, an arsonist started a fire near South Rustle Street and the Sunset Highway, prompting evacuations north of the interstate.

last month’s fires threatened their homes, some Latah Valley residents are calling for another pause on development

Aerial support fought wildfires threatening homes and neighborhoods this summer in west Spokane. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

“MORE MORATORIUM,” CONTINUED...

A first responder began going through Grandview/ Thorpe, on the other side of the freeway, knocking on doors and telling people to evacuate to the south, Molly Marshall says. But the neighborhood is a maze of streets, and residents on 17th Avenue can’t go south to leave the neighborhood. They can take Garden Springs/Rustle (where the fire was actively burning), or a meandering route back to 16th to get on the highway, or Lindeke to get to a different part of Sunset. None of them are a direct route to safety.

“Our whole neighborhood’s trapped,” Molly Marshall says. “That’s a big issue.”

Their elderly neighbors later said they never got an alert about the fire.

Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer says the risk fire poses to that area of town is well established, and something he’s been warning against.

“I’m very concerned for southwest Spokane and the level of fire protection we can deliver based on the increasing danger from the wildland-urban interface, climate change, heat domes,” Schaeffer says. “This last fire season — we predicted this, and we’ve been talking about this for years. Now that it finally occurred in Spokane County, I think a lot of people have realized the reality we have been warning against is here.”

Southwest Spokane is served by Spokane Fire Department Station 5, which in 2015 was “temporarily” put in a former model home in the Eagle Ridge neighborhood. The plan was to build a permanent fire station near Cheney-Spokane Road and U.S. Route 195 within a few years. That station has yet to be funded.

During the summer, the department is able to keep a “Type 1” engine in a fenced area outside Station 5 that

is staffed with a paramedic and two other firefighters like other trucks that would respond throughout the city, Schaeffer says. But that truck can’t stay during the winter due to water storage on the vehicle.

The department is working with an outside firm to estimate what it would cost to design and replace Station 5 and other stations in the city. Schaeffer hopes to present the results to the council in October.

The fire department has included the new station in its budget requests for several years, but multiple mayors and iterations of the City Council have yet to pay for it. Meanwhile, the temporary station is what they have to work with.

“It’s not a permanent solution to what has become probably the largest growth area in Spokane,” Schaeffer says. “We need to have a more robust discussion on what a fire-adapted community means, and what measures are the responsibility of government, and what measures are the responsibility of developers, and what measures are the responsibility of property owners and occupants.”

CALV is calling on residents to ask the City Council to pass another building moratorium to allow the city to do just that.

A request for comment through the mayor’s spokesperson, Brian Coddington, wasn’t answered.

MORE PROBLEMS?

On Aug. 16, CALV held a meeting with state, city and county officials, and also invited candidates running for office this year. Among other issues, they talked about fire safety and called for a moratorium.

The next day, Brown, Wilkerson and Dillon issued a joint press release calling for another pause on devel-

opment in the area until public safety facilities could be planned for and funded. The day after that, the devastating Gray and Oregon fires destroyed hundreds of homes in Medical Lake and Elk, and burned more than 20,000 acres.

Dillon, who used to live in Grandview/Thorpe, says he knows well how difficult it can be crossing U.S. 195 to head toward other parts of the city. He’s also concerned with the limited routes out of the neighborhood.

“I don’t think that many people outside of Latah really understand what is happening here and what it’s like,” Dillon says. “You have this continuation of development happening without comprehensive planning, and already it’s stretched our resources so thin, from fire to police.”

Dillon supports another moratorium to allow six months to a year for the city to specifically identify upgrades and plan how to pay for them.

“Residents have been very clear that this is what they want,” Dillon says.

His opponent, Treloar, drove through the area last week, issuing a video and press release acknowledging the dead-end road issues and traffic safety concerns. But Treloar doesn’t support a moratorium.

Instead, she thinks the city should plan to pay for needed improvements without pausing development.

“One of the things I want to make very clear is I support the neighborhood and their needs. I understand they feel right now the moratorium is the only way for their voice to be heard,” Treloar says. “I’m sad they feel they had to get to this point, but I think we can help support these neighborhoods while at the same time getting the infrastructure in place.”

Treloar says the neighborhood needs a voice on the

council prioritizing their needs. Council could write a policy ensuring that the fees collected from developers in that area are invested back into Latah Valley, because that’s not guaranteed right now.

“If we’re going to collect those fees and use them for infrastructure, then we can’t limit building at the same time,” Treloar says. “There’s a way to help the Latah Valley without a moratorium. A moratorium is more of a social statement I think candidates are using just to get votes.”

That’s in line with the Spokane Association of Realtors, which opposed the moratorium a year ago. Association President Tom Hormel says the city would do better by those neighborhoods to ensure developer fees are invested in that area.

Ironically, he says a lot of the things that are lacking — parks, schools, public transportation — aren’t going to be possible until the population grows.

“What I’ve been told is they don’t have enough population right now to warrant a school or fire station, so the solution to that is actually to put in the homes,” Hormel says. “Just shutting down building isn’t the answer there.”

Hormel also says that a pause will put increased pressure on the housing market, which is already overpriced for many. He blames the city for not acting sooner.

“The city’s got to come to the table with money to help do this stuff, instead of telling developers or builders, ‘We need $10 million to do this new road, you have to pay for that,’” Hormel says. “That’s not fair either. These are city roads. We need a plan.”

Dillon says a moratorium would allow the city time to actually figure out how to pay for investments there, and says it’s not NIMBYism.

“This is not affordable housing to most people in Spokane, or low-income housing when we see these development proposals,” Dillon says. “And now, you have to live in fear of the constant threat of evacuation.” n

2013 - 2014

Ten years ago, the Inlander hit its 1,000th issue and moved its headquarters to an up-and-coming neighborhood called Kendall Yards. A young intern named Eli Francovich joined our team, who would go on to be the Spokesman-Review’s outdoors editor and, earlier this year, publish an entire book on wolves (see our review on page 27). By 2014, three couples had gotten married thanks to our “I Saw You” section, which made for a swoon-worthy, Hallmark-esque Valentine’s Day cover story. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl, and the state suffered the Carlton Complex Fire, one of the biggest wildfires in Washington history, burning more than 250,000 acres, destroying 350 homes and causing nearly $100 million in damage.

IN THE NEWS

On Feb. 6, 2014, staff writers Heidi Groover and Jacob Jones wrote the first installment of STATE OF MIND, a series that investigated mental health support in the Inland Northwest. They examined how the health care system, police, jails and schools tried to address the growing needs of mental illness in our community. Groover, who is now at The Seattle Times, wrote about the call to expand police training for responding to mentally ill offenders. Jones, the current investigations editor at Crosscut, wrote that the Spokane County Jail was now the second-largest mental health facility in the state. But mostly, Groover and Jones centered the stories of daughters, mothers, brothers and friends who needed help, but too often struggled to receive it. Even though a decade has passed, we’re still telling many of the same stories today.

CULTURE BEAT

Our culture writers were hobnobbing with celebrities 10 years ago. Not only did DAVID SEDARIS give a reading at Auntie’s and ROBIN WILLIAMS perform at the Fox, but Inlander freelancer Ed Symkus scored a Q&A with ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER about his first lead role in a decade, then followed it up a few months later with an interview with JIM CARREY. But the movie stars couldn’t always carry the big screen — in 2013, Spokane started saying goodbye to the IMAX in Riverfront Park, which was being outmaneuvered by a competing screen at the AMC theater in River Park Square.

ON THE COVER

In Pot We Trust. Even though voters approved Initiative 502 in 2012 to legalize weed, it wasn’t until July 2014 that the Washington State Liquor Control Board finally licensed 24 retail stores to sell recreational cannabis. The Inlander celebrated with lots of graphs, charts, gadget recommendations and grower profiles, creating a “Beginner’s Guide to Pot,” which included photos of the first customers at Spokane Green Leaf, the first retail shop to open in Spokane. George Washington graced the cover with the headline “GREEN LIGHT,” an American flag headband and sleepy, red eyes.

LOCAL FOLKS

“From Spokane’s South Hill to the top of the charts,” the subhead read. In 2013, then-freelancer Seth Sommerfeld recounted seeing surprise headliners Macklemore and RYAN LEWIS at the Sasquatch! Festival launch party. Their single “Thrift Shop” was the number one song in America, and Lewis was suddenly the golden child of Spokane. Sommerfeld, who returned to the Inlander ranks in 2021 as our Music and Screen editor, delved into Lewis’ upbringing in Young Life, his memorable trips to Manito Park and his first rock band in junior high. Lewis came back to Spokane two years later to film the music video for “Downtown,” another chart-topping hit. This October, Lewis returns home again when he and Macklemore headline the Spokane Arena.

— ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Understaffed and Overworked

The speedy push to regionalize homeless service was already “unrealistic” for the city department addressing homelessness — and things just got worse

BY NATE SANFORD

The push to regionalize Spokane’s homeless services and unite local jurisdictions under a single entity, generally, has broad interest.

But in recent months, details about the authority’s operations — like who is in charge, where the money comes from, and how it would impact the people already doing homeless services work — have proved increasingly thorny.

When they presented the idea in June, the volunteer former Spokane city staffers leading the regional efforts pushed to launch the authority by the end of the year.

Mayor Nadine Woodward was in support and signed an executive order pledging to share city staff and data with other local jurisdictions to help move things along.

But in late August, Spokane City Council members passed a resolution calling for a slowdown on the “unrealistic” timeline for the authority, citing a lack of clarity on funding, mission creep, proposed board structure and other concerns.

The resolution also voiced concern about how the mayor’s order would impact the city’s Community Housing and Human Services department, which has spent recent years trying to rebuild itself after an exodus of employees in 2021 left the department on the verge of collapse.

The CHHS department isn’t equipped to share data and staff because it is “understaffed and confronted with numerous existing challenges,” the resolution said.

Those hesitations were echoed by the Spokane Managerial and Professional Association, a union representing nearly 350 city employees, which filed a letter of grievance in August over the mayor’s executive order.

The department’s challenges have since grown. Early this month, Daniel Ramos, a senior data analyst with the department, left CHHS for a job at the King County Regional Homeless Authority. One week later, on Sept. 7, Jenn Cerecedes, the director of the department who was hired amid the turmoil in 2021, abruptly resigned.

An Aug. 24 letter from the CHHS board had described Cercedes as “highly competent” and working to turn around the “numerous challenges she inherited upon taking the job.”

Cerecedes didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Brian Coddington, the mayor’s spokesperson, says Cerecedes left to accept a job with another organization based out of state. Ramos says he left because the King County offer gave him a chance to continue his work and make an impact at a larger scale. Regardless of the reasons, the departures have some council members nervous about the future of the department.

Taking Back the City

Scholars at EWU put Spokane’s homelessness response under a critical lens

BY NATE SANFORD

Scroll through the comments section on NextDoor or Facebook, or listen to speeches by certain politicians, and you’ll likely hear something about how we need to “take back our city from the homeless.”

It’s a common sentiment that academic researchers have a word for: “revanchism.”

The word literally translates to “revenge” in French, but researchers in urban studies circles often use it while describing policies criminalizing homelessness that emerged in the 1990s.

It’s a “vengeful attitude,” says Matthew Anderson, director of the urban and regional planning program at Eastern Washington University. It’s “rhetoric that demonizes the homeless.”

“It has had so much turnover, and I thought we were finally getting our feet under us,” says Council President Lori Kinnear.

The CHHS board’s letter outlined a number of other concerns about the authority, including hesitation over a guiding principle in the draft proposal that said “detention remains a necessary accountability tool.” The line has proved especially troublesome for many service providers and advocates.

At a Spokane Homeless Coalition meeting last week, Gavin Cooley, a former city finance officer who has been leading regional efforts, told gathered service providers that the line about detention is being cut, along with all the other guiding principles.

“What we recognize is that by putting any principles out there at all, we got ahead of ourselves,” Cooley said.

Cooley also said they are considering lowering the number of board seats for elected officials from five to four, and adding a board seat for a tribal representative. That detail was met with applause. n

nates@inlander.com

This summer, Anderson and a group of political science students at EWU published a paper about revanchism in Spokane titled “(Com)passionate Revanchism and the Role of PrivateSector Coalitions in the Spatial Management of Houselessness,” in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.

The paper is notable not just for its searing critique of Spokane’s response to homelessness, but also because empirical research on homelessness policy in midsize cities like Spokane is relatively rare.

Anderson’s paper looks at the trend of businesses frustrated by local governments’ response to homelessness forming coalitions to “take matters into their own hands.” It also responds to previous research that argued cities were on the cusp of a “postrevanchist” era.

That prior research, Anderson says, drew on examples in larger cities, where political dynamics mean you “can’t really get away with overtly demonizing rhetoric anymore.”

“I read that and thought, ‘Well there it is,’” Anderson says. “Because it’s clearly not true in Spokane.”

Anderson’s paper cites rhetoric from local politicians like Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, who famously declared that “we make it too easy to be homeless” and who has aggressively pushed to enforce the city’s law against sitting or lying on public sidewalks.

The paper also compares two business coalitions formed in

Camp Hope before it was dismantled in June. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Council President Lori Kinnear. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

response to the growing homelessness crisis: Spokane’s Hello For Good, and Oregon Harbor of Hope in Portland.

Hello For Good is a coalition of businesses led by Washington Trust Bank that formed in 2021. The group brings in speakers for regular symposiums in an effort to study how leaders can better address homelessness.

The paper’s main critique of Hello For Good is that the coalition overemphasizes addiction and mental illness, while overlooking housing affordability issues, which numerous studies have identified as the primary cause of homelessness.

The paper argues that coalitions like Hello For Good aren’t actually focused on the larger problem of homelessness — they’re interested in the aspects of homelessness that impact businesses’ bottom line. The paper describes a spring 2022 Hello For Good symposium, which the authors attended, as displaying “revanchism cloaked in compassionate language.”

“Presumably, if unhoused individuals were not addicted to drugs or mentally ill, then [Hello For Good] would not have a reason for existing,” the paper argues.

Chris Patterson, who works for Washington Trust Bank and co-chairs Hello For Good, disagrees with this characterization. He says Hello For Good would still exist.

“I think it’s one-sided,” Patterson says of the paper. “We are for housing. But we also want to make sure that housing comes attached to services.”

Patterson, a former adviser to Woodward, argues that a thriving downtown business corridor is essential to addressing the crisis.

“Because capitalism is philanthropy,” Patterson says. “They go hand in hand. When you make money, you give money.”

individuals were not addicted to drugs or mentally ill, then [Hello For Good] would not have a reason for existing.”

The paper has been generating buzz in local homeless provider circles. Last week, an attendee at a Spokane Homeless Coalition meeting asked Gavin Cooley, a former city official who’s been leading efforts to regionalize Spokane’s homelessness services, whether he’d read it.

“I think it was a great paper,” Cooley said. “As it regards Hello For Good, I think it’s outdated. But it made good points.”

When Hello For Good formed, Cooley said the group “represented some political positions on homelessness that I think would be unpopular” with the service providers gathered for the coalition meeting. But Hello For Good has evolved, Cooley said, and its more recent symposiums reflect a shifting sensibility. (Anderson says the paper was submitted to the journal about a year ago.)

The featured speaker for Hello For Good’s upcoming Oct. 17 symposium is Ed Brady, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute.

“We’re going to be focusing on the challenges of building housing,” says Patterson.

Patterson says featured speakers come on a volunteer basis, and that money donated to Hello For Good goes toward food, event space and other symposium costs. He says he hasn’t tracked how much the organization has raised.

“We’re not out there seeking dollars,” Patterson says. “We know that the dollars that are given to us, they’re given to us for our symposiums.”

Washington Trust Bank, which launched Hello For Good, is politically active, and recently donated $30,000 to the Spokane Good Governance Alliance, a conservative political action committee. But Patterson says Hello For Good itself isn’t political.

“We’re not looking for people who are going to say, ‘Yes, I agree with you,’” Patterson says. “I’m actually looking for somebody who’s going to say, ‘I don’t agree with you at all.’ Because we want to be able to educate people from every angle.” n nates@inlander.com

“Presumably, if unhoused

Buzzwords

and Bibles

Anonymous “dog whistle” letters were sent to Spokane Valley churches regarding local schools’ gender-inclusive policies — including progressive pro-LGBTQ+ churches

BY COLTON RASANEN

Churches throughout Spokane Valley are playing a game of whodunnit after receiving anonymous letters regarding Central Valley School District’s gender-inclusive schools policy — a policy the letters claim is “centered in radical gender theory.”

The letters — which were mailed in late August — went on to claim that “every community member, especially followers of Christ, need to be aware of this policy and the impact it has on our school children.” It was signed “Fellow Concerned Member of the Body of Christ.”

The Rev. Gen Heywood, pastor at Veradale United Church of Christ, says this isn’t the first letter her church has received parroting right-wing talking points.

She says the letters are an attempt to provoke a reaction, and fear, in Spokane Valley churches. The gender-inclusive policy, which was adopted more than three years ago, says that “discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex, gender identity, or gender expression are prohibited within the district.”

Heywood says the letters have “dog whistles” — coded language in political messaging to garner support without provoking opposition — for people on the religious right. She pointed to the phrase “followers of Christ,” which Heywood says was used to make some Christians feel like they’re not religious enough.

“It’s my experience that the conservative white evangelist folks

are triggered by ‘radical, gender and theory’ because they all connect to things that these people are afraid of,” she says.

Other churches that received these letters shared similar sentiments.

Martha Sherwin, the parish administrator at Episcopal Church of Resurrection, says she didn’t pay much attention to the letter because she assumed it was from someone with a passionate perspective that differed from her church’s teaching.

However, she felt that the messaging indicated that people weren’t good Christians if they didn’t agree.

The school district policy has been challenged by some conservative organizations, including Citizens for CVSD Transparency — which has been heavily involved in this year’s Central Valley School Board elections.

The political action committee’s website has a section with school board documents, including a copy of the policy. The document the group posted has certain words and phrases highlighted, including “restroom and locker room use.” The policy that was sent out to these churches included an asterisk besides restroom and locker room accessibility.

In March 2022, the PAC sent out mailers warning against mask and vaccine mandates, critical race theory, and comprehensive sex education. As the Spokesman-Review reported then, the mailer was paid for as an in-kind donation from a Melbourne, Florida-based company.

Citizens for CVSD Transparency did not respond to a request for comment regarding the recent letters.

At first, Heywood didn’t even consider that the letters were related to the upcoming election, she just assumed it was someone trying to pick on a vulnerable community — LGBTQ+ folks — in Spokane Valley.

“That’s so nasty, it just puts a splinter in my eye,” she replied. No CVSD board members or candidates vying for a position on the board in this November’s general election were mentioned in the letters. However, these letters were sent between the primary and general elections. And if they are an attempt to sway opinions about the upcoming election, the sender is not acting in accordance with state Public Disclosure Commission rules governing political mailers, which require a “sponsored by” section saying who paid for them.

So far, the Public Disclosure Commission has not received any complaints about the letters. According to the commission, the PAC has raised about $10,000 since it was founded in 2021. n coltonr@inlander.com

The Rev. Gen Heywood, pastor at Veradale United Church of Christ. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

Fifteen years ago, when I was ready to escape the boredom and chlorinated air of indoor swimming pools, a friend introduced me to “The Big Eddy” in west Spokane. Surrounded by bare, dunelike hills to the west and pine-covered slopes to the south and east, the “Eddy” is a majestic opening in the river about a mile downstream of the T.J. Meenach Bridge.

I remember one of my first conversations on the bank. A woman with sunglasses saw me putting on my swim cap. “Iron man?” she called out.

“Tin man,” I replied.

I adjusted my goggles and dove in. My routine was to swim back and forth across the widest part of the bowl, peering into a dark abyss at one of the deepest parts of the river. As there are now, there were schools of mountain whitefish, osprey circling overhead and, along the shoreline, garter snakes preying on minnows and cedar waxwings fly-catching from the limbs of a hawthorn. It was a week or so before I saw my first redband trout, cruising against a rocky face not far from where I’d stashed my bike on the bank. Though the light was marginal I could see its colors and admire its hydrodynamic form.

To be clear, it’s hard to compare any northern aquatic adventure to the lush experience of diving on a healthy coral reef. I grew up in the tropics. There’s a dreamlike quality to submerging in Caribbean warmth, taking in the bold yellows and blues of the tangs and the surreal blends of colors emanating from wrasses and parrotfish. It can be so pleasant you may wonder if it’s legal.

My introduction to the realm of the wild redband (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdnerii) was not nearly so comfortable. The portal to a visit with redbands comes with an entry jolt from the frigid water that defines their habitat. It’s not for everybody but, at least for me, the beauty of this remarkable creature is irresistible. Its

colors are exotic, especially in sunlight — a brilliant, metallic-green body, with dark speckles from tail to snout, a Jackson Pollock splash of scarlet covering the gill plates and striping the flanks. That single experience — of getting close enough to this magnificent fish to admire its character and physique — began to change the way I thought about being in the river. I stopped swimming laps across the bowl and began swimming upstream to a staircase of rapids, where I knew I would see more trout. I started wearing flippers instead of water shoes, and eventually put away the goggles in favor of a mask and snorkel. I brought a waterproof camera that I could leash to my neck.

As with other variants of rainbow trout, redbands are among the fastest of the freshwater fishes. When they decide to go, they quickly reach speeds over 20 feet per second — five times faster than my best sprints as a former teenage swim racer. More importantly, they have grit and character poetically in sync with the force and flow of the upper Spokane, a river that was badly abused for most of a century before finally getting some much-needed love in the run-up to Expo ’74 and the half-century since. The river’s resurrection is arguably Spokane’s finest civic achievement. It’s fitting that a stable population of wild redband is the living symbol of the progress we’ve made.

That I could pursue an experience like this is a small miracle built upon a tragedy. It’s doubtful humans will ever again see the Spokane as it existed before the completion of Little Falls Dam in 1910. Before then, the river’s prolific chinook salmon runs provided vital sustenance for Native Americans throughout the Inland Northwest, and the Spokane Falls were a traditional gathering point in early summer. Redbands are salmonids, genetic descendants of the once-abundant steelhead prized by Native Americans and white pioneers. The dams providing electricity for the growing city put an end to the salmon runs and steelhead fishery, and the river deteriorated as an open sewer.

Swimming with the Spokane River’s signature fish — a living symbol of the river’s resurrection

ESSAY AND PHOTOS BY TIM CONNOR

FACING PAGE: Gordo, a preternaturally relaxed wild redband, appeared out of nowhere in August.

DEREK HARRISON PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

It wasn’t just the fish that took a beating from the pollution. In the early 1900s there were dozens of cases of typhoid due to people ingesting contaminated water. The city averted a larger public health crisis because it was able to quickly tap into its recently discovered aquifer. If there was a downside to that stroke of good fortune it was to dampen any sense of urgency to curtail the surface water pollution. In 1935 the state Health Department classified the river as “grossly polluted.”

How the redband and other fishes survived the trashing of the Spokane is a curiosity. I put the question to Chuck Lee, a biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife who grew up in Spokane and, like me, has spent hours snorkeling in the river and enjoying encounters with wild redbands. He now studies them as part of his job.

“When you think about salmonids in particular, you never think about how strong those fish are or how resilient they are,” Lee said. “They fight really hard, but once you get them out of water, they’re not super tough fish. Some fish, you throw them in your trunk for a day and a half, and you put them back in water, they start to swim away. Redband aren’t like that, but they have been resilient over the years as far as dealing with changes to the environment, degraded habitat and degraded water conditions.

Regardless of what we’ve done to them, they still persist here, which is pretty amazing.”

Genetically, Lee added, Spokane redbands retain their steelhead encoding despite losing their access to the ocean, and in spite of the introduction of hatchery spawned trout. It turns out these wild fish prefer to spawn with other wild fish. Thus, Lee said, their genetic profile is stable: “We don’t see a lot of introgression [hybridization].”

OSCAR THE TROUT

After living in Spokane for most of 30 years, the wild redband was a fish I wanted to get to know — not just glimpse, but actually swim with. As a rule, let’s just say this is not what wild trout have in mind when they encounter a human in the water. Most of the time, they bolt when being approached. But my early, chance encounter with the sauntering redband was a signal to be both patient and creative, something I’ve also had to learn in order to get close enough to photograph wild birds, rattlesnakes or badgers.

I met “Oscar” a year ago in August. He was in the best place I could hope to find a fish that would tolerate my presence — in the rapids. The fast-flowing water offers the most photogenic setting,

“Regardless of what we’ve done to them, they still persist here, which is pretty amazing.”

“WILD REDBANDS, THE RIVER AND ME,” CONTINUED...

Oscar was far less skittish than the other redbands that congregated to feed at the rapids, and had a puncture scar (almost certainly from a fishhook) on the right side of his face.

in part because the current scours the riverbed cobbles of algae, exposing their texture and colors. Redband don’t form schools, but they do congregate to feed. And as Lee noted, from his own experience swimming with redbands, they favor particular spots along the riverbed where — in the braids of the turbulence — they can better hold themselves against the current to hunt.

The complication for me is that I’m not a fish. Even with fins, I can only briefly hold my own in the teeth of a strong current before being swept backwards. The rapids upstream of the Big Eddy are tilted in such a way that the current shifts toward the north bank before straightening out into deeper water. This at least allows me to escape the full force of the current at a rocky ledge on the south side. From there I can observe the redbands lining up to feed to my left, illuminated by the afternoon sun on my right. When I sense an opportunity, I shove off into brunt of the current, finning as vigorously as I can, working to get parallel to a trout, for the one or two seconds it takes to line up the camera before the fish brusquely curls away, usually to circle back in a long loop to reassume its spot along the riverbed.

That’s the usual dance. But Oscar was different. He was far less skittish than the other redbands that congregated to feed at the rapids. By appearance, he was an older fish with a puncture scar (almost certainly from a fishhook) on the right side of his face. As often as not, he would let me swim alongside until I could no longer hold my position or my breath. I swam with him until mid-October, when my heightened risk of hypothermia became an issue. I doubted I would see him again. He was a bit underweight for his length, and when our eyes would meet I had the sense he’d seen it all; that while he was wary he was not afraid. He would sometimes drift away to my left, but never bolt.

ENTER GORDO

When I returned to the river this June, I did so without a camera at first. The river is always changing, and the power of the spring runoff often carries new hazards — one year it was a full-size shopping cart — that I have to recognize and avoid being swept into by the current. On my first swim up to the rapids I was encouraged to find a ragged chorus line of several surprisingly large and buff redbands hunting near the surface, swirling like flags in the wind. I was disheartened, though not surprised, that Oscar was not among them. I practiced my release from the rocks into the current to see how quickly I could get down to the river bottom, to see how the new fish would react to me. They all bolted.

By the end of July, I had only a couple photographs comparable to those I’d been able to get of Oscar the year before. And then Gordo appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, literally within a few yards of where I stow my water bottle while I swim. (As with Oscar, I use the male pronoun and names lightly, as it’s not easy to tell a male from a female without close examination. “Oscar” comes from The Odd Couple. “Gordo” from The Right Stuff.)

For eight of nine days in mid-August, I was able to find and swim with this preternaturally relaxed wild redband. Sometimes I’d see him right away, other days I’d have to circle the small cove for a few minutes before he would appear on the bottom, some 10 or more feet below me, seemingly out of nowhere. It is very unusual behavior for a redband to be so punctual, then to let a ...continued on next page

person swim so closely. Most of the time I was tailgating, trying to keep pace from behind, surfacing regularly to suck air through my snorkel, and patiently waiting for Gordo to turn so I could try to photograph at least one eye, the brilliant colors on his flanks and signature, whitetipped pelvic fins.

There are other wild things at the Big Eddy, including the other people who like to hang out in the amphitheater-like setting, sunshine and shade from the trees, the warm dry air above the biting cold water. It can be crowded on weekends, families with small children and camp chairs, tents and boom boxes. The current brings in parades of all sort of motorless watercraft. When I got out of the water on a recent Saturday I was greeted by five dogs. On quieter days, moose will sometimes take a soak nearby, sharing the space with cormorants and large broods of mergansers. Still, nothing is quite as wild as swimming with a redband trout.

The river in west Spokane gets colder and clearer as the summer progresses and the fraction of aquiferfed spring water increases. By late summer, the aquifer provides the dominant portion of the flow. But the low flows are a growing concern, one of many that people who work daily to monitor and care for the river’s health

are rightly concerned about. In short, the more water we draw from the aquifer to water our lawns, the less flow we have for the river.

The fish would want me to share that with you, as would Jerry White, the hardworking former Spokane Riverkeeper who sometimes joins me with a snorkel and a mask.

ONE MORE SWIM

I’ll turn 67 before the end of this year. One reason I swim in the river is I have rheumatoid arthritis. The cold water immersions are energizing and soothe the inflammation in my joints. Because of the physicality it requires to do photography in fast-flowing water, I don’t take next year’s swims for granted. When Oscar and I last looked each other in the eyes, a year ago, I sensed he could see my scars too, as one old swimmer to another.

I have a deep appreciation that this ephemeral miracle is enabled by the devotion of people who are as much in love with this river as I am. To cite but a few, it’s about the work of the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tribes, Jerry and the remarkable Spokane Riverkeeper team, the Lands Council, and the Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River chapter. I’ll add a final note of appreciation for my

late friend Mike Taylor, a venerable civic leader and engineer who guided the latest major effort to give the city its state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant.

It is an intergenerational effort by now to restore the river, to make it healthier for the redband to live in and for me and other creatures to swim in. It gives me hope that someday at least one of my grandchildren will swim not just with a descendant of Oscar or Gordo, but with an ocean-visiting steelhead or chinook. When that day comes, I hope she or he will write about it. n

Tim Connor is an award-winning journalist and nature photographer based in Spokane. His latest book is Beautiful Wounds

I have a deep appreciation that this ephemeral miracle is enabled by the devotion of people who are as much in love with this river as I am.

“WILD REDBANDS, THE RIVER AND ME,” CONTINUED...

The Spokane River was badly abused for most of a century before finally getting some much-needed love in the run-up to Expo ’74 and the half-century since, a resurrection that’s arguably Spokane’s finest civic achievement.

Digging Deep

BY CHEY SCOTT

In Minecraft, creativity is limitless… as long as you’re using chunky, six-sided blocks.

Which brings up a good question: What would it be like to go inside Minecraft’s mega-pixelated, geometric world? Fans of the best-selling video game of all time can teleport themselves inside — sort of like walking through a Nether portal — while spending a few hours exploring the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture’s latest marquee exhibit, on display through the end of the year.

At the entrance to “Minecraft: The Exhibition,” they’ll be greeted by player character Alex, who’s all suited up in her teal diamond armor with an arrow nocked in her bow, ready to explore a new biome or dig deep underground for treasure (don’t forget plenty of torches!). Outside the front door of a wood-andcobblestone house shaded by the leafy canopy of a stout tree stands a fluffy llama with a purple patchwork blanket draped over its back. Listen carefully, and you might even hear its goofy bleats or a spitting sound.

“That’s one of the cool things about this show, is that it’s built to scale as though you’re walking through Minecraft yourself,” says Kayla Tackett, director of the MAC’s exhibitions and collections.

“There’s a fun thing here,” she continues, pointing to another

feature. “How big is a Minecraft block, really? This is actually the scale of a Minecraft block, so you can see how enormous they are.”

The block she’s talking about — which an avatar in the game can effortlessly pick up in one hand and carry by the dozens in their inventory — is about waist high and looks very heavy.

Like this, along with Alex and her llama friend, the show is filled with game elements scaled up to human size. The best part? Visitors can pose for photos with and even touch all of them! (Of course, as tempting as it may be, climbing is strictly prohibited.)

Tackett says the exhibit features 15 of these full-scale “mobs,” the Minecraft term for non-playable characters, also known as NPCs in gamer parlance. But, watch out! A few aren’t known to be very friendly, including a creeper, a skeleton archer, a zombie, a zombie piglin and even a glowing-eyed enderman.

“It’s very interactive and full of fun little surprises,” Tackett says, adding that museum guests who can find all 15 characters will know they’ve explored every corner of the exhibit.

In one such area, visitors can test how well they know common Minecraft recipes with a life-size crafting table and a furnace, the latter used to turn raw ore found in the game’s cavernous mines into usable materials. Alex’s super-strong diamond chest-

MINECRAFT: THE EXHIBITION

Sept. 16-Dec. 31

Open Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm (third Thursdays until 8 pm)

$15-$20 (free for members)

Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org, 509-456-3931

New Minecraft exhibit at the MAC showcases the bestselling game’s global impact in a fully immersive setting

Minecraft’s zombies actually look kinda friendly in life-size.

plate, for example, can be made by placing eight rare diamonds onto a crafting table in a preset arrangement, known as a crafting recipe.

“There are a lot of things where you can play Minecraft on a controller or with a mouse and keyboard, but there are analog things you can do, too,” Tackett says.

“Minecraft: The Exhibition” is on loan from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). It was created in collaboration with the game’s developer, Mojang Studios (which Microsoft acquired in 2014) to celebrate Minecraft’s 10th anniversary in 2019. After leaving MoPOP in 2021, the exhibit went on tour to a few other U.S. museums. Its last stop before retiring is Spokane.

More than galleries filled with adorable and highly detailed characters and objects from Minecraft, the exhibition thoroughly explores the game’s massive global impact, both as entertainment and a learning tool. To date, the game has sold more than 238 million copies, and has over 140 million monthly, active players.

Standing in front of a large display imagining a Minecraftobsessed kid’s bedroom — dozens of stuffed animals, Legos and other licensed toys spill from a bookshelf — Tackett recalls her own memories playing the game with her now-12-year-old daughter, Elodie, and how often it’s used in schools as a teaching tool.

“We usually just play in creative mode and make things like statues of SpongeBob and Patrick, and we made a movie theater, an aquarium, a zoo, a ship and just whatever — anything we can come up with,” she says.

The myriad ways Minecraft can be used for good are highlighted in a section called “Building a Better World.” From initiatives on clean water, preserving coral reefs and making streets safer for girls to walk to school in Hanoi, Vietnam, Minecraft has played a role.

“Schools are using Minecraft to help teach kids about everything — engineering and history,” Tackett says. “Essentially it’s blocks, and you can do anything with blocks.”

By the time visitors have made it to this point in the exhibit, it’s highly likely they’re feeling eager and inspired to log on themselves and get to building, exploring and having fun. With this in mind, the next space is filled with gaming stations on iPads, PCs, and an Xbox set up for multiplayer mode.

“So you can play in a familiar way or you can try something you haven’t tried,” Tackett says. “It’ll be different environments that you can play in, like over here on the iPads, it’s mini games and mods, and this one is survival mode.”

A Minecraft mod, short for modification (and not to be confused with a Minecraft mob), is a user-created customization that alters the game, ranging from simple, cosmetic changes like surface textures to complex additions of new characters and items. Mods continue to contribute to the game’s massive success and appeal, and serve as a way for players of all ages to explore computer coding.

Through the end of the year, special programs tied to the show are also being offered. Visitors can find more info as these events are announced on the MAC’s website. On Dec. 9, Whitworth professor and game-based learning expert Tammie Schrader is giving a lecture titled “Games and Their Impact on Education.”

While the MAC’s regular exhibition slate often explores visual arts and history, shows like “Minecraft: The Exhibition” are an important part of its mission to engage guests through both learning and entertainment.

“It’s a really interesting show in the sense of, you know, it’s not a capital ‘A’ art show, but it does speak to things that a lot of people can relate to, like building with blocks and designing,” Tackett says. “I think it can be easy to say ‘Oh, Minecraft is just a game, why are you doing a show about a game?’ But the exhibition shows us pretty well that it’s really more than a game — it’s an avenue for creativity and problem-solving.”

What’s also special about the exhibit, she notes, is that it’s one of few opportunities at a traditional museum for kids to guide their family members.

“This will be a chance for kids to be the experts. We actually had one staff member say their kiddo was like, ‘If you need me to come explain what things are, I will come do that.’” n

Hemlock Grove was one of Netflix’s first original series.

FLASHBACK

BY BILL FROST

Remember 2013? Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term, Rush was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and there were only six Fast & Furious movies — good times. It was also the year when TV hits like Orange Is the New Black, Rick & Morty, and Bates Motel made their debuts. You know those, but you probably don’t recall these obscurities from 2013. I barely do, and I reviewed ’em back then.

BANSHEE (2013-16)

Before he became Homelander on The Boys, Antony Starr was Lucas Hood, a less psychotic (but still brutal) criminal hiding out in the Amish country town of Banshee. While he’s posing as the local sheriff, he discovers that his ex (Ivana Milicevic) is also ensconced in Banshee under a fake identity — what a coincidence! The hyper-violent, little-seen Banshee is a gritty, twisty crimenoir action thriller that would have exploded on HBO, but instead floundered for four seasons on Cinemax.

HEMLOCK GROVE (2013-15)

Speaking of Pennsylvania, there’s weirdness afoot in the rundown steel town of Hemlock Grove (with a lovely name like that?). Hemlock Grove was one of Netflix’s first originals, so it didn’t have to make much sense, it just had to look cool — and no one looked cooler than perpetually white-clad local heiress Olivia Godfrey (Famke Janssen) in 2013. The three-season series was a chaotic collision of science and the supernatural and probably best viewed with herbal enhancement.

ROGUE (2013-17)

After FX’s The Shield and AMC’s Mad Men, other cable networks jumped headlong on original programming looking for a hit — DirecTV even launched the exclusive channel Audience Network (narrator: There was no audience). A pre-Westworld Thandiwe Newton carried the hardboiled crime drama Rogue for three seasons, leading a sprawling cast of “hey, I know them” actors (including Yellowstone’s Cole Hauser). Rogue is The Wire for Dummies.

ORPHAN BLACK (2013-17)

It’s the show you’ve heard about for years but likely

have never watched: Orphan Black, the critically lauded sci-fi drama that should have made Tatiana Maslany a star but instead only earned her an Emmy and a consolation prize in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Over five seasons, Maslany played 14 distinct characters, “sister” clones who escaped from a covert eugenics operation. Orphan Black is a wild, emotional ride and a modern sci-fi milestone.

UNDER THE DOME (2013-15)

In the summer of 2013, CBS promised a one-seasonand-done thriller series in the form of Under the Dome, an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2009 novel. But then, the series about a small town trapped in a giant dome (obvs) became a hit, and CBS dragged it out for two more seasons. Greedy move, but Under the Dome is still a taut mystery early on, with excellent performances from Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) and even Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight).

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL (2013-19)

This is a drama-heavy list so far — time to lighten the hell up. Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell is an office comedy set in Hades, starring Henry Zebrowski (The Last Podcast on the Left) as a damned, khakis-clad soul working desperately to climb up the corporate underworld ladder… to what end? Why do any of us do it? Makes you think. Anyway: YPFIGTH is most notable for featuring the best Satan ever, Matt Servitto (of Banshee, coincidentally).

UP LATE WITH ALEC BALDWIN (2013)

At the height of his 30 Rock fame, MSNBC handed Alec Baldwin his own Friday late-night talk show in October 2013, Up Late. At the time, he said, “I’m going to do it for a year, then we’ll see what happens.” By November, MSNBC had canceled the show and fired Baldwin, much to the disappointment of his dozens of viewers. Also in 2013, MSNBC corporate cousin Syfy aired, and quickly canceled, a Joe Rogan conspiracy series — a real banner year for NBCUniversal. n

COUGS VS EVERYONE

Oh, WASHINGTON STATE didn’t get an invite to the Big 10 Conference? Well last Saturday night, Wazzu proved that the Big 10 might be beneath the Cougs. For the second year in a row, unranked WSU knocked off a ranked Wisconsin squad (the preseason favorite to win the Big 10’s Western division). This time the Cougs held court in Pullman, downing the Badgers 31-22 behind a strong performance from quarterback Cameron Ward. The glee in the stands as the Cougars put away the game was palpable. The program and its fans have a rightful chip on their shoulder, and perhaps it can lead WSU to a magical season. Even if it doesn’t, for at least one night this team sent a loud “COUG YOU!” to the college football world (though they may have used a different four-letter word…). (SETH SOMMERFELD)

TINY DESK, BIG OPPORTUNITY

Who knew performing behind a wooden desk in a cluttered room would become such a bucket-list item for musicians around the world? NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series is a staple of the organization and has featured names like The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, The 1975 and more. Last week, Spokane Public Radio announced its own inaugural TINY DESK CONTEST where Inland Northwest musicians can audition to perform in SPR’s Tiny Desk Concert this spring, have their songs and interviews aired on KPBX 91.1 FM, and receive high-quality recordings. To audition, submit three original audio recordings to tinydesk@kpbx.org and fill out the form at spokanepublicradio.org. Submissions are open Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. (MADISON PEARSON)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on Sept. 15.

MITSKI, THE LAND IS INHOSPITABLE AND SO ARE WE I’m willing to argue the case that Mitski is the best musician of the past decade. If you haven’t hopped on board yet… well, better late than never.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, END The kings of instrumental postrock look to wordlessly explore the concept of endings through seven new tracks of sweeping cinematic sound.

STAIND, CONFESSIONS OF THE FALLEN Stained hasn’t released an album in 12 years… or in other words… IT’S BEEN A WHILE. (I am so sorry.) (SETH SOMMERFELD)

The year 2013 saw the debut of many a classic TV series, but you may not remember these

Wolves of the West

Eli Francovich talks about his book, the state of wolf recovery, and the divide over an apex predator almost lost

BY SUMMER SANDSTROM

Just a few decades ago, wolves were on the brink of extinction.

Seen as wild and untamed creatures threatening livestock, wolves became the target of eradication efforts. Yet others, captivated by the wolves’ resilient and elusive nature, fought for the species’ reintroduction into the wild.

Today the gray wolf has made a shocking comeback, particularly in Washington state, yet the divide over the species’ future remains.

In The Return of Wolves, former Spokesman-Review journalist (and erstwhile Inlander intern) Eli Francovich brings to light the struggles ranchers face in protecting their livestock, advocacy to support wolves’ recovery, and stories of those working to protect both wolves and livestock.

The Inlander recently sat down with Francovich to discuss his book and the reintroduction of wolves in Washington state. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

INLANDER: When did you start covering wolves and their reintroduction at the Spokesman-Review?

Francovich: I became the Outdoors editor at the Spokesman in 2018, I believe it was. Wolf issues anywhere in the country, but particularly in the West and Washington, are very divisive, but also just a great frame for some of the political and social divides that we have going on.

When did you realize this issue was a bigger story deserving of a book?

Wolves have been written about a lot and written about really well, but a lot of that writing focuses on the biology, ecology or personal experiences with the animals. I hadn’t seen a whole lot that looked more at the social and political side of it. That angle of the story was always interesting to me.

I didn’t find the right narrative until later in 2019, which is when I met Daniel Curry, who’s sort of the main character in my book. It’s a nonfiction book, but his story holds it all together. He’s a range rider and has a very compelling personal story that connects to all of these various political and cultural things.

When you met Daniel Curry, was there something specific that you felt he or his work encapsulated better than some of the other sources or stories you’d reported on before?

The day I met him, I had spent the whole day with a biologist, a politician and a rancher, and they’re great, but they all have their talking points. I met Daniel at the end of that day, and he was just very direct and had this sincerity and integrity about him that was immediately sort of attractive from a storytelling point of view.

Why do you think conversations around wolf issues and reintroduction have become so divided and more of a political talking point?

There’s a ton of reasons, but a big one is just the geographic reality. Wolves in the West — and we can talk about Washington in particular — they naturally returned from populations that were introduced in Yellowstone, Idaho and Canada as well, and they came back. Most of those wolves live on the eastern side of the state just because of where they came from, and there’s just better habitat, there’s fewer people.

You have this geographic setup, the divide between the more urban and culturally liberal side of things that just happens to be a bit more prowolf recovery, and then you have the people who are actually living with animals and already feel a bit disenfranchised in terms of political and cultural power.

Do you feel like the divide on wolf recovery issues is continuing to widen?

I think Washington has done a really good job of narrowing that divide, but there’s still issues. I think it was last year, there were 12 wolves found poached in Washington, so that’s obviously not a great sign. And this is where I hope the book is relevant to people outside of Washington and really throughout the country, but Washington has done a pretty good job of trying to do this complicated balancing act.

What big misconceptions do you hope to teach readers about with the book?

Wolves are not a menace, they’re just another animal that’s trying to survive. I think that’s one of the misconceptions, that somehow they’re super dangerous. The flip side of that is that they’re some sort of dignified, cuddly animal that just wants to live in a pack, and that’s also not true.

What’s the main takeaway of The Return of Wolves?

I would hope that it’s a reminder to listen and to give people you may not agree with the benefit of the doubt and give them an honest hearing, and by that I mean listen first of all to what they’re saying, but then try to understand why it is they’re saying that and try to get into their headspace. n

Simply the Best

Naomi Rodgers discusses portraying icon Tina Turner in the new musical Tina

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

Tina Turner was a force of nature. The list of musical icons more dynamic than the R&B pop star is short or nonexistent.

So stepping into Tina’s shoes (let alone her dresses and wigs) is no easy task. But that’s exactly what Naomi Rodgers does in Tina — The Tina Turner Musical, which runs at Spokane’s First Interstate Center for the Arts from Sept. 19-24.

The jukebox musical tells Turner’s journey from teenage dynamo to 40-year-old superstar — including fame highs and abusive relationship lows — through hits like “I Don’t Wanna Fight,” “The Best” and “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” Portraying Tina is so demanding that the touring production double casts the lead so as to not completely wear out the musical’s star performers, Naomi Rodgers and Ari Groover.

We caught up with Rodgers to talk about her Tina Turner journey, Beyoncé and a Disney princess.

INLANDER: What’s the most fun part about portraying Tina Turner on stage?

RODGERS: The most fun part about doing this role

is wearing all the amazing costumes and wigs [laughs]. It just shows the journey of her life, and the journey of what she looked good in, and her age and her transitions from 17 all the way to 40.

Do you have a favorite outfit?

Right now, it is the iconic wig — the spiky blond one with the bangs.

Growing up, what was your first exposure to Turner?

Everybody knows the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It with Angela Bassett. I grew up off of that 100 percent. So I’m guilty to say that I only knew Tina Turner from the movie. But the music always stuck with me. “What’s Love Got to Do with It” was my favorite, obviously. It’s become my favorite now in the show.

The show delves into the abusive relationship between Ike and Tina Turner. How do you approach those physically and emotionally brutal scenes as an actor?

I think for a while I didn’t really understand how to tap into that in the right way. But recently I found a way

to feel a lot better in those moments, by understanding the love and the joy that those two did have for each other. You can’t take that away, that is the reality of their relationship. There was love, and there were those [abusive] moments.

What’s the most difficult aspect of the role?

The dancing and the stamina. I knew I was a fireball, but I think the dancing was something that was unexpected for me. And I was like, “OK, so I have to breathe and sing and dance.” The Tinas are singing 21 songs. So you just have to make sure that you are connected to your breath and connected to everything that your body needs you to do so that you can get through and tell the story 100 percent. That’s why they need the two of us. It is a lot of fun, and it’s a lotta work. And, honestly, that’s how Tina lived it.

The show has double-cast leads with you and Ari Groover trading off performances. How is it, being in that atypical theatrical arrangement?

It is, honestly, the smartest thing that they ever could’ve done for us, because I feel that the role needs to be given 100 percent. Always. This is a real person. So you have two of us, who are two different people with two different styles of thinking and two different outlooks on our Tinas. And I think it is an amazing thing. Other people get the opportunity to be on stage with two different types of Tinas. And also for the audience, people can come back and see the show twice. So that’s a lot of fun.

Has music beyond Tina’s influenced how you approach the role?

I am a huge, huge Beyoncé fan. So growing up, I used to watch [videos of] her concerts. I remember getting up and dancing, and trying to mimic the moves. That was my thing to the point where, I could listen to a Beyoncé song right now, and I know the dance moves from the concert. And Beyoncé was inspired by Tina Turner, that’s where some of her craziness and confidence comes from. So to have that embedded in my brain, and then to go into the room [for Tina] and have them tell me that the last five to 10 minutes of the show, we’re gonna do a concert for everybody? I just snap into what I know. It was easy when I learned Tina’s moves, because of the confidence that I felt from already knowing Beyoncé and how she moves [laughs].

What is your dream role?

I have been manifesting being Princess Tiana in the live-action The Princess and the Frog movie. It’s been a dream of mine, either doing whenever they put it on Broadway or the live-action movie that they’re talking about. I’ve been wanting to do that since it came out.

What do you want people to take away from Tina?

What makes this special is the story of someone who did exactly what they needed to do for themselves and succeeded and won. She was a woman who asked for nothing, and ended up having everything. That is so inspiring and so humbling. She found Buddhism and she found herself and she found the groundedness, and we put that in this musical. That was her safe space. She changed her life with the way that she thinks. People are going to leave with feeling like they can literally do anything that they want to do. n

Tina — The Tina Turner Musical • Sept. 19-24, TueSat at 7:30 pm, Sat at 2 pm, Sun at 1 and 6:30 pm

• $52-$100 • All ages (recommended for 14+) • First Interstate Center for the Arts • 334 W. Spokane Fall Blvd. • broadwayspokane.com

Becoming Tina takes a lot! MATTHEW MURPHY PHOTO

POP-UP

SCI-FI CHICKEN

Nerd

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Jordan Obermeyer is serving ice cream with his chicken and waffles. Reverse ice cream, that is — a Phantom Tollbooth-esque treat that melts as it cools and stiffens as it heats up. That’s just one of the fantastical surprises that awaits 50 very special guests. On Sept. 24 only, Chef “Obi,” as he’s affectionately called, is serving a five-course meal called “Fowl Play” at Bowery on Riverside Avenue, with help from Bowery chef Shaun Ratty. Each dish is inspired by poultry, reinvented by molecular gastronomy, and paired with a Lumberbeard brew.

The native Spokanite has helped invigorate the food scene in Spokane for the past five years from posts at Cochinito Taqueria and Durkin’s Liquor Bar, creating both unique pop-up events and regular menu items. Obermeyer is now headed to Austin, Texas, to start fresh and reconnect with old friends. But before he leaves, he’s creating one last whimsical experience for adventurous palates in the Inland Northwest.

Fowl Play starts with “Chicken N Waffles” topped by the aforementioned, mind-boggling ice cream and a chorizo chili crunch. Next, the “Oyster Shmaltzafeller” features shmaltz spent grain, “shmaltz” being rendered chicken fat and “spent grain,” the byproduct of brewing beer. The egg salad for the third course is curried and paired with a sparkling pale ale. The penultimate course moves on to quail, served with a North African sausage mousse and black cherries candied in a mustard-flavored syrup. And make sure you save room for dessert — a chocolate tart served with coconut, cherry and foie gras.

Wait, chocolate and foie gras? Trust Obi, young padawan. The master knows what he’s doing. He’s got it down to a science, in fact.

Molecular gastronomy is the study of food science, Obermeyer says, or “just the use of chemistry to manipulate the molecular structure of food.”

It kinda seems like a description of all cooking. But the term is shorthand for the ways that chefs push the boundaries of food, like Grant Achatz serving “truffle meringue concrete with carrot graffiti” at Alinea in Chicago, or Thomas Keller plating tiny, tweezered morsels of compressed melon at the French Laundry outside San Francisco.

Obermeyer lived with a roommate in LA who worked at this kind of fine dining restaurant — the dry ice, the tiny portions, the white plates. But it wasn’t until Obermeyer was back in Spokane, twiddling his thumbs during the pandemic, that he started getting excited about molecular manipulations.

He bought equipment from Spiceology and started experimenting for hours every day. He needed something to hyperfocus on, and not just because of the pandemic.

“When I was younger, although really for way too long, I had a problem with drugs and alcohol,” Obermeyer says. Mastering intricate new skills “cathartically made me stay out of trouble.”

Obermeyer is modest about his expertise. As if Fowl Play’s ingredient list wasn’t already complicated enough, co-chef Ratty previews more insane techniques on Instagram, promising “brass monkeys, meats inside of other meats, and unassuming spheres,” by which he means liquids manipulated into caviar-like solids.

Obermeyer combines his new scientific pursuits with a background in traditional Spanish cooking, which he learned under chef Kelly Wilson in Tacoma. Obermeyer is well-versed in rustic, Basque-style cooking. He likes modernizing European “peasant food,” dishes that rely on basic grains, vegetables, and sometimes livestock typically available to the working class.

Once he moved back to Spokane, Obermeyer learned how to do pop-up events while he worked at Cochinito with chef Travis Dickinson. Cochinito hosted Obermeyer’s first pop-up event in Spokane, which explored Moorish influence in Spain. Obermeyer served khobz, a traditional Moroccan bread, with lamb belly and chickpea fried green tomatoes.

“[It’s] just an example of me doing my style of cooking and expressing myself,” he says. “Doing something that’s unique and different and a little bit dangerous.”

...continued on next page

Egg salad meets curry and chemistry. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

CONECT WITH YOUR CRUSH

Since then, Obermeyer has done about a dozen popups with increasingly “dangerous” themes. Obermeyer’s food is humorous, often self-deprecating, and a little dark, which endears him to Spokanites and sets him apart from other fine dining chefs. His “White Trash” dinner featured red curried Spaghetti-Os served out of miniature garbage cans and dubbed “Hot Trash.” His most recent pop-up was “The Gnudi Bar,” with gnocchi-like gnudi dumplings, bikini sandwiches (Barcelona-style grilled cheese sandwiches), and drinks with names like “shit punch” and “grimace piss.”

Obermeyer prefers a grassroots approach to marketing and promotion. He mainly advertises his pop-ups on social media (including Spokane Food Finder on Facebook). Before learning to cook, Obermeyer managed hardcore rock bands touring the Northwest in the same low-key way.

“I think it builds a sense of community,” he says. “When you promote things that way, you build more of a close network. It’s more personal.”

It also means that if you’re not following any chefs on Instagram, you’re never going to know about special events like this. Or worse, you’ll find out the day after they happen, or hours after they sell out.

This is probably the conundrum people are facing when they say “there’s nothing happening” in Spokane’s food scene. Spokane chefs love to collaborate with their foodie friends and let the public tag along to give feedback in real time. Pop-ups are an important way that chefs throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks.

“Adam Hegsted [and] this place called The Wandering Table — that was originally a pop-up idea that expanded into a giant restaurant group that’s been super successful,” Obermeyer says, referring to the chef-restaurateur’s spot in Kendall Yards that rebranded as Baba.

The thing is, you’ve got to have the checkbook and social media algorithm to be a part of these exclusive dinners. But once you’re on the prowl for limited edition dining experiences, they’ll probably keep popping up. And that’s thanks, in part, to Chef Obi.

“I hope that a lot of people start doing pairing dinners in Spokane, and pop-ups, and creating a bigger scene than it already is here,” he says. “I’ve been all over the country, and Spokane has a really solid food scene for sure.”

Though no one can replace Obermeyer, he recommends keeping an eye on his co-host, Shaun Ratty.

“He works his ass off,” Obermeyer says. “I feel like he’s gonna be one of the best chefs that Spokane sees.” n

Fowl Play: A Pop-Up Beer Dinner • Sun, Sept. 24 from 5-8 pm (tickets on sale through Sept. 17) • $118

MORE POP-UPS!

Local chefs and restaurants to follow for info on future pop-ups and special events.

Chef Teague Tatsch @thesichuanreach

The chef at Dos Gordos specializes in Sichuan food, a cuisine from southwest China. He’s done special tastings at Nectar and Chowderhead with dumplings, noodles and crisp, spicy veggies. His next pop-up is at Dos Gordos on Sept. 25.

Hogwash Whiskey Den @hogwash_whiskey_den

Hogwash has hosted two anime dinners so far this year with dishes inspired by Spirited Away, Demon Slayer, Ponyo and other franchises. Follow the restaurant or chef Joseph O’Neal (@jochefoneal) for the next fun idea.

Inland Pacific Kitchen @inland_pacific_kitchen

IPK has served a Disney dinner and a multicourse meal paired with unique wines. It’s just upstairs from Hogwash, and the ideas flowing between the two is the hungry public’s gain. Check in with the restaurant or chef Chong Vang (@incv).

Isaac Houger @laceysburgers

The chef at Sandos and Peace Pie also does a smashburger pop-up called Lacey’s. It’s more frequent in the summer, but maybe hungry social media followers can pressure him into making it a year-round thing.

Iolite Lounge @iolite_lounge

Need some more cheese in your life? Iolite Lounge in Spokane Valley has hosted two Parmesan dinners — that’s right, a whole meal revolving around a wheel of cheese. If you’re not lactose intolerant, check back to see if they put it on again.

Gander & Ryegrass @gander_and_ryegrass

• Ages 21+

• Bowery • 230 W. Riverside Ave. • secretburger.com

If you want to experience a fixed menu but don’t want to hunt for an exclusive event, Gander & Ryegrass offers chef-crafted tasting menus every day.

“SCI-FI CHICKEN,” CONTINUED...

Chefs Jordan Obermeyer, left, and Shaun Ratty team up for one last hurrah. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Around Town

Brew Peddler brings craft coffee to the Spokane area via a pop-up catering cart

BY SUMMER SANDSTROM

Asimple cup of joe can aptly suffice as a morning kickstarter, but there’s something even more satisfying about sipping on a cup of carefully crafted coffee that balances and elevates the bean’s complex flavors and aromatic nature.

Andrew and Elizabeth Tye opened their popup coffee cart and catering business Brew Peddler in May 2022, using their culinary backgrounds to create a unique experience for other coffee lovers in the area.

“We’re able to essentially bring the craft coffee shop to you,” says Andrew Tye.

The pair worked in the culinary industry before opening Brew Peddler, with Elizabeth working at chef Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery and then as a barista at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco.

“[Ritual Coffee Roasters] took a lot of care on how they trained the people who were dialing in the espresso or steaming the milk,” Tye says. “We obviously modified our service a little bit from theirs, but learned a lot from that coffee shop.”

Tye, who’s always wanted to open a cafe, decided to attend the Culinary Institute of America and work in fine-dining restaurants for seven years to gain an extensive understanding of flavors and culinary techniques.

He still aims to open a brick-and-mortar location. In the meantime, Brew Peddler is a good starting point, allowing the couple to get their name out there and provide a unique craft menu.

“The cart is definitely not a way of getting out of the food world,” Tye says. “It was just a way that we could financially get into a business.”

Plus, he says it allows them to diversify their menu and services and spend more time finetuning their craft before opening a permanent location.

“The cool part about catering coffee is we can make all of our own syrups and just craft a fine coffee menu for people,” he says. “We can custom craft each menu for the service experience, which is a fun way to approach it.”

Brew Peddler rents space at a local commissary kitchen, where the Tyes make their own sauces, which include vanilla, hazelnut, chocolate and caramel, a rotating seasonal flavor and a couple syrups for Italian sodas.

Tye began roasting coffee beans at Swell Coffee Roasters in Spokane Valley last year, allowing him to create Brew Peddler’s own coffee blends. The pop-up often sells these roasts, such as the signature espresso blend “Fresh Off the Press,” at farmers markets and occasionally at catering events.

For Tye, the ability to roast his own beans increases the quality of the coffee that Brew Peddler serves.

“It helps us to be very in-tune with the product, even pouring the espresso,” he says. “The amount of care that goes into roasting, it affects the care that you’re going to use to pour the espresso.”

Brew Peddler regularly attends the South Perry Thursday Market and the Spokane Farmers Market in Browne’s Addition on Saturdays, while also catering a variety of gatherings such as business meetings and weddings.

Each Brew Peddler catering service includes an unlimited number of drinks for attendees, with rates starting at $325 for an hour (30 people or less) up to $550 for three hours (up to 75 guests).

The cafe serves its regular menu at catering events, but can also create custom menus with additional flavors and even mocktails.

“The idea behind the coffee catering service partly is to offer a craft beverage that’s not just alcohol based,” Tye says. “If somebody wants a nonalcoholic beverage service for their wedding that’s not just like lemonade or iced tea, we could offer a craft beverage, so we offer some different mocktail options as well.”

Tye has noticed coffee carts becoming more popular in the Spokane area, partly due to lower overhead and the ability to reach a wider audience.

“During a lot of our catering events it’s cool to see just how stoked people get off of a coffee service,” says Tye. “It just makes a lot of people’s day.” n

Brew Peddler • brewpeddlerpnw.com • 509724-0303

The Brew Peddler himself, Andrew Tye. COURTESY PHOTO

REVIEW

HalfCocked

BY CHASE HUTCHINSON

In 2009, the world was first exposed to the comedic masterpiece that is Black Dynamite. Starring a pitch-perfect Michael Jai White as the titular man himself, it was a parody of both style and substance that paid homage to the blaxploitation subgenre in every single delightful detail. Each line delivery, awkward zoom, musical sting and, yes, even rogue boom mic landed with expert precision to make for an energetic comedy that’s as sharp today as it was when it came out.

It was then exciting when it was announced in 2018 that White would be teaming up with his cowriter on that film (Byron Minns) to make another movie that poked fun at the genre. The result of that collaboration, Outlaw Johnny Black, could not look and feel more different than its predecessor. All of the style and flair that made Black Dynamite so memorable have been lost in a riff on the Western where any spark soon fades into a far more standardly shot comedy. There are moments of the familiar goofiness scattered throughout that will almost make you feel like it is getting somewhere more audacious and creative. But there’s not the wit and charm to make this another joke-aminute ride that will have staying power.

The story, which itself takes a while to really get going, is built around the trials and tribulations of the troubled loner Johnny Black. Played by White, who also directs this time around, he has vowed to get revenge on the man who killed his father years ago. This doesn’t go quite as planned, and he ends up having to hide out by pretending to be a preacher in a mining town that itself has its own share of problems. Over the course of the two-and-a-quarter-hour film that follows,

OUTLAW JOHNNY BLACK

Directed by Michael Jai White

Starring Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, Anika Noni Rose

At the Magic Lantern

the already hit-or-miss jokes are stretched far behind their breaking point.

The strangest thing about the film is that the proof of concept trailer released for a fundraising campaign more than five years ago is funnier in around three minutes than this entire feature. Even as there are some scenes that are built around the same premises and setups, the execution feels miles apart. It creates an unintentional case study of the importance of timing both in the delivery of jokes and the way they are all cut together. Even though there are a fair amount of bits in the full film that range from passable to playful, none of them has the same punchiness as that trailer.

More dishearteningly, all of the settings just look far too clean and polished. Everything looks and feels more like a set, whereas the proof of concept actually looked like it could have fit right alongside past gritty Westerns. That first look felt much more in the spirit of Black Dynamite

Not to belabor comparing the two, but there’s a reason the infamous “But Black Dynamite, I sell drugs to the community…” line sticks out in the mind from their prior film. Some of it is that it’s just more cleverly written and delivered, though it is also the way the joke is constructed. It comes in rapid response to a proclamation before lingering for a bit. There was an artistic vision that delicately teased out its cinematic reference points. Outlaw Johnny Black never comes close to that.

The only reason it is impossible to dismiss the film entirely is that White remains an unparalleled comedic performer. The movie around him is just assembled with far less dexterity and skill this time (which is unfortunate since he directs). Where Black Dynamite will forever remain one of the greatest American comedies, Outlaw Johnny Black is only occasionally amusing Even if you’re willing to saddle up, the film is far too bumpy of a ride. n

Outlaw Johnny Black is no Black Dynamite

This gunslinging Outlaw misses his mark.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL

MAGIC LANTERN THEATER

A MOVIE HAVE A BEER, BE COOL,

FRI 9/15 - THU 9/21

OPENING: OUTLAW JOHNNY BLACK NOW PLAYING: THEATER CAMP • OLDBOY JOYCE CAROL OATES: A BODY IN THE SERVICE OF MIND

FOR PRIVATE RESERVATIONS EMAIL: magiclanternevents@gmail.com

FOR SHOWTIMES: 509-209-2383 OR MAGICLANTERNONMAIN.COM

25 W Main Ave #125 • MagicLanternOnMain.com

An American Atrocity

Scout’s Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America exposes a decadeslong cover-up in shattering detail

BY CHASE HUTCHINSON

The modern art of documentary filmmaking has found itself in a bit of a crisis in the streaming era. In the continual push for creating more and more “content” as opposed to wellcrafted nonfiction cinema, much of what comes to these various platforms has become noticeably rushed as they are often shoddily constructed. Corners are being cut when it comes to the basics of the form to get out on streaming as quickly as possible in order to become the next bingeable hit, regardless of whether it does a disservice to the critically important subjects being explored. While not everything is going to be as comprehensive as a Frederick Wiseman documentary that spends many hours on a single area of interest, far too many films are falling far short of this.

Such context makes a documentary like Scout’s Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America a welcome reminder of how this work can and should be done. While even just competency would have set it apart from many of the other streaming offerings out there, longtime director Brian Knappenberger brings a greater degree of rigor to the subject. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen his past works, such as 2014’s The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz and 2017’s Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, as he consistently brings attention to detail to a critical stories about individuals as much as the broken systems.

In this case, it is the decadeslong coverup about child abuse in the nation’s largest youth group: the Boy Scouts of America. Such a subject requires striking a balance between delving into the horror of what happened and paying respect to the humanity of all those who were failed by the people meant to protect them. To shy away from the trauma and pain that each person we hear from is still carrying with them would be to let those who led the organization off the hook. Simultaneously, there remains a risk of being exploitative about one of the worst things they will ever experience in their life. Some occasionally unnecessary musical choices toward the end aside, Knappenberger

maintains meticulous care for doing this excruciating topic justice while also showing an abundant kindness for those he interviews.

SCOUT’S HONOR: THE SECRET FILES OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

Directed by Brian Knappenberger Streaming on Netflix

ALSO OPENING

CAMP HIDEOUT

When a mischievous teen steals tech from some bad guys, he decides to hide at a summer camp. While he’s resistant to camp life at first, he gets into hijinks and learns the power of friendship. Rated PG

A HAUNTING IN VENICE

Kenneth Branagh’s third cinematic Hercule Poirot mystery finds the retired detective called back into action to solve a murder at a Venetian séance. Rated PG

This ensures that, when the time comes to hold those responsible, the documentary doesn’t hesitate in showing just how broken everything was. It is the type of robust documentary filmmaking that moves beyond merely going back through what happened and delves into actively doing journalism — asking necessary questions of those who are somehow still shamelessly downplaying the crisis. The interview with Steve McGowan, who served as the Boy Scouts’ general counsel from 2013-2022, has already made headlines for a moment in the doc where he questions the staggering scope of the abuse before realizing how bad what he’s saying sounds and backtracking.

You only get revealing moments like this by being willing to ask follow-up question after follow-up question to the evasive people in power and having the full picture of what happened straight from the victims. While the mantra that journalism should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable is a familiar one, there is something to seeing it put into action here with one expertly complimenting the other. Though there are moments that occasionally feel glossed over and could have been explored in more depth, especially in regards to the way religious institutions become part of the cover-up, but Knappenberger is also efficient in covering quite a lot of ground on many adjacent subjects, including the disgraceful attempts by Boy Scouts leadership to scapegoat others rather than take action.

When we are brought to the present, we see how the Boy Scouts have now gone through bankruptcy proceedings. And yet, accountability is still in short supply. It is a closing reminder of the value of documentaries like this that shine a light on the sordid legacies of American institutions, ensuring they’ll be left unscrutinized no longer. n

Advocates like Michael Johnson have fought to hold the Boy Scouts accountable.

BOBBY PATTERSON & THE TWO TONES SEPT 15 • CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD

RECORDS

HOT SOUNDS FOR WHEN THE WEATHER COOLS DOWN

The best albums summer 2023 had to offer

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

THE DEATH OF RANDY FITZSIMMONS THE HIVES

When bands take big swings in the name of sonic evolution the results can often be tricky. Even if they nail the fresh sound that brings in new fans, they’ll probably shed some old fans who like the old stuff. The Hives have a novel solution to skirt this issue: Never change. While this tactic might seem like complacency, when your brand is unrelentingly energetic and wild garage rock, there’s really no need to shake things up. Coming 11 years after the Swedish band’s last LP, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons still buzzes thanks to singer Pelle Almqvist’s howls, blasts of catchy power chords and thumping drums. Don’t fix what ain’t broken.

GIRL WITH FISH

FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE

You know that disoriented childhood feeling of being spun around rapidly with a blindfold on before being set free to flail a stick at a piñata? That’s kinda how Girl with Fish feels. Take a few good whacks at the latest LP from

Pittsburgh band Feeble Little Horse, and the treats that gravity causes to tumble out taste vaguely of sweet vocal melodicism, salty indie rock and nutty shoegaze noise. The guitar-driven soundscape of songs like “Sweet” seem to spin around one’s head until everything feels like a dizzy, fuzzy bash that you might not remember in the morning. Girl with Fish gently knocks listeners off their feet, but keeps them wanting to get back up to make sure the party doesn’t die.

GODDESS ENERGY WHO IS SHE?

It can sometimes be frustrating the way people treat humorous music. If artists have the gall to be silly, most of the time folks just dismiss the music entirely as frivolous little ditties. But excluding laughter from your musical diet seems like a minimizing of the potential musical emotional spectrum. Seattle’s Who Is She? and the group’s new album Goddess Energy showcase the sonic warmth that silly music can provide. The Seattle scene supergroup featuring members of Chastity Belt, TacocaT and

Lisa Prank started as a joke band writing songs based on the Missed Connections section of The Stranger, and while the cheekiness of this friendship band is still present, Who is She? is hardly a joke. This LP packs in cheery pop punk songs about figuring out what would impress Shania Twain, how people are unfair to Anne Hathaway, the unsustainable business model of MoviePass and even a Seattle-focused revision of Le Tigre’s “My My Metrocard” (“My My Orca Card”) that got the ladies fired as the Kraken’s house band for being critical of Jeff Bezos. Who is She? manages to be both goofier and more punk than just about every other band out there.

MICHAEL KILLER MIKE

There might be no MC in hip-hop who casually conveys as much aggressive force on the mic as Killer Mike. After a decade of taking no prisoners as one half of Run the Jewels, the Atlanta rapper returns to his solo roots on Michael. (Not that it’s entirely solo as he enlists a cavalcade of ultra-talented pals including Andre 3000, 2 Chainz

and his RtJ brother El-P.) And for all of Mike’s bombast, the element that sticks out most on the new LP is his compassion. He’s unafraid to get emotionally vulnerable when lyrically navigating some of the more unseemly corners of his youth growing up in the ATL. Whether sorting through maternal grief (“Motherless”), treating his junkie aunt with humanity (“Something for the Junkies”) or a teenage love gone messily that turned into a supportive bond (“Slummer”), Killer Mike uplifts the women in his life with a touching reverence.

RABBIT RABBIT

SPEEDY ORTIZ

Sadie Dupuis isn’t skittish about brandishing her scars. The frontdemon of Speedy Ortiz still bears the hurt and vulnerability of the marks, but won’t let them rule her, instead spitting mouthfuls of bardic blood back at those who created them.

That giddy combativeness permeates Rabbit Rabbit. A shredder at heart, Dupuis guitar work on the new album is her best yet. While much love is often paid to her lyrical dexterity, she writes her guitar parts with poetic flair, dazzling with the precise placements of notes to accent rhythms, add tonal color and sonically emote. All the frenetic indie rock tracks buzz along with aplomb (“You S02,” “Ranch vs. Ranch,” “Ghostwriter”), while downshifts to more contemplative numbers (“Brace Thee,” “Cry Cry Cry,” “Who’s Afraid of the Bath”) showcase the wounds without giving them power.

RAT SAW GOD

WEDNESDAY

It’s probably all Lynyrd Skynyrd’s fault, but it’s weird that the term “Southern rock” has become synonymous with good ol’ boys and the type of stuff one might hear blaring from a pickup with overcompensating tires and a flag-draped bald eagle decal in the back window. Really, rock is a Southern creation at heart thanks to the Black blues players who invented the genre, and then most of the greatest Southern rock since the genre’s origins was made by endearing outsiders like R.E.M. and the B-52s. North Carolina’s Wednesday certainly fits in the latter category. Rat Saw God finds frontperson Karly Hartzman exploring sometimes unsavory autobiographical snapshots of her Carolinian youth in a blast of dirty, noisy Southern indie rock. You can practically hear the humidity as Hartzman recounts aimless days that sometimes end up in trouble. She sings not with her chest puffed out in hollow patriotic bluster, but lets her words barely escape her lips after letting them hibernate in her empathetic innards.

SPEAK NOW (TAYLOR’S VERSION)

TAYLOR SWIFT

Is it slightly cheating to put Taylor’s redux album on here? Kinda. But it seems right since this is the Summer of Swift, with her Eras Tour dominating the musical discussion. More importantly — hot take incoming — Speak Now is easily her best album. It’s Swift at her still country-tinged pop rock peak. It’s the album that best marries her wonderful dreamy hopeless romantic side (“Sparks Fly,” “Speak Now,” “Mine”) with her delightfully venomous spite targeted at the men who’ve wronged her (“Mean,” “Dear John,” “Better Than Revenge”). Is Taylor’s Version of Speak Now way, way too long? Of course! (Jeez, Seth, why

you gotta be so mean?) Tay Tay needs an editor to shorten all of her albums more than she needs an unproblematic, stable boyfriend, but when everybody’s lapping it up and the songs are mostly bangers, it’s hard to argue with her formula.

STRUGGLER GENESIS OWUSU

STRUGGLER is an album of aggressive resilience. Genre-blurring Ghanaian-Australian rapper Genesis Owusu’s 2021 debut album Smiling with No Teeth was a revelatory bomb dropped on the Aussie music scene. They say roaches might be the only things that survive nuclear war, so fittingly Owusu’s follow-up centers on a character named “The Roach” trying to deal mentally and emotionally with the fallout of the traumas we’ve all gone through the past few years. Owusu further proves that he actually does have teeth, and they bite sharp on tracks like the punkish opener “Leaving the Light,” the smoothly soulful “See Ya There,” the funky pop of “That’s Life (A Swamp)” or “The Old Man,” where he curses the “old man waiting in the sky just to f— my life up.” Musically, Genesis Owusu seems unkillable.

ALSO DON’T MISS…

The Answer Is Always Yes - Alex Lahey

Barbie: The Album - Various Artists

Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? - McKinley Dixon

Eye on the Bat - Palehound

The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte - Sparks

GENESIS - Whyte Fang

HELLMODE - Jeff Rosenstock

Homo Anxietaem - Shamir

Maps - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal

Sundial - Noname

SUN ARCS BLUE LAKE

I know what you’re thinking… *another* gorgeously layered instrumental album by a Texas-born Dane that’s structured around his unique 48-string zither? You might as well change the name of the Inlander to Zither Aficionado with how much space we devote to it! In all seriousness though, Sun Arcs by Blue Lake (aka Jason Dungan) is a stunningly inviting and enveloping exploration of ambient environs. Blue Lake has a knack for both minimalism and clustering his zither notes, so the album becomes partially an exploration of how space functions within music. Adding layers that mix jazz drum beats with dashes of drone make it all so serene. The music on Sun Arcs feels like water calmly running down stream to occasionally cascade over falls into a sort of misty bliss.

WITH A HAMMER

YAEJI

After making waves as a house music DJ and producer, Yaeji shows off an even deeper bag on With a Hammer. Her bilingual singing (English and Korean) rests delicately on top of the twitchy and engrossing electronic creations she infuses with hints of synth pop and jazz. While songs like “For Granted” might call to mind Grimes, the way Yaeji expresses her rage outwardly has a much more subtle and almost calming meditative touch. Considering this is Yaeji’s first LP after prior EPs and a mixtape, this will hopefully be only the first of many full-lengths forged with her potent heat and hammering. We welcome the pummeling. n

HIP-HOP LUDACRIS

Do you want your artistic endeavor to be a success? Drop the bag for Ludacris. The Atlanta rapper established himself as one of the most successful MCs of the early 2000s with singles like “Stand Up,” “Money Maker,” “Move Bitch” and “Area Codes,” plus eight Top 5 charting albums (four No. 1s). But Luda is also that special sauce to improve other people’s cooking. As an actor he’s become a key cog in the Fast & Furious franchise’s becoming a box office juggernaut, and he’s featured a myriad of smash hit songs by other stars like Usher’s “Yeah!,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” Fergie’s “Glamorous,” Ciara’s “Oh” and Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart.” The man simply makes hits.

Ludacris • Sat, Sept. 16 at 7:30 pm • $50-$210 • All ages • Northern Quest Resort & Casino • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • northernquest.com

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW

J = ALL AGES SHOW

Thursday, 9/14

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Summer Concert Series: Carli Osika

J THE BIG DIPPER, Brant Bjork, Kadabra, Children of Atom

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Kyle Richard and Friends

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Thursday Night Jam

CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds CRUISERS, Dangerous Type

THE DISTRICT BAR, Effin

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Dr. Don Goodwin

J PINE STREET PLAZA, Music on Main: Paradox

J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin

J THE FOX THEATER, Blackberry Smoke

THE STEAM PLANT, Bob Marlowe

ZOLA, The Night Mayors

Friday, 9/15

J THE BIG DIPPER, Trash Casket, Tomb Ripper, Blacktracks, Spooky, Bonemass

BIGFOOT PUB & EATERY, Into the Drift Duo

BOLO’S BAR & GRILL, Vern & The Volcanos

J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Caleb Ingersoll

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Bobby Patterson & the Two Tones

CHINOOK LOUNGE, Steve Livingston

CURLEY’S, Haze

POST-HARDCORE DAYSEEKER

You can be hardcore and still have a gentle soul. That’s certainly the case with Orange County rock band Dayseeker. While earlier Dayseeker albums were more firmly in the metalcore realm (with singer Rory Rodriguez occasionally dipping into growled scream vocals), the group has certainly trended more in a post-hardcore direction of late. That’s especially true on the 2022 album Dark Sun — which might even be considered more of a synth-pop record than metalcore — as Rodriguez’s clean and uplifting vocals counterbalance the harder rocking elements. Catch Dayseeker’s sonic blending as the band’s tour — which admirably is intentionally only stopping in smaller markets — swings into town.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Dayseeker, Silent Planet, Moxy the Band • Tue, Sept. 19 at 7:30 pm • $25 • All ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com

J THE GRAIN SHED, Open Mic at The Grain Shed

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Thomas Pletscher Trio

IRON HORSE (CDA), The Rub

LORD STANLEY’S, Third Frequency Fridays

MOOSE LOUNGE, Laketown Sound

NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE (CDA CASINO), Royale

PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Ian Newbill

THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Just Plain Darin

TERRA BLANCA WINERY, Jan Harrison Jazz Trio

ZOLA, Robot Love

Saturday, 9/16

BECK’S HARVEST HOUSE, Ed Shaw

J THE BIG DIPPER, College Radio, City of Ember, Thundergun Express, Lust For Glory

BIGFOOT PUB & EATERY, Into the Drift Duo

BOLO’S BAR & GRILL, Vern & The Volcanos

CHALICE BREWING CO., Wiebe Jammin’

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Rusty Jackson Band

CHINOOK LOUNGE, Steve Livingston

CURLEY’S, Haze

THE DISTRICT BAR, Moon Hooch

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Brent Edstrom Trio

IRON HORSE (CDA), The Rub

MOOSE LOUNGE, Laketown Sound

NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE (CDA CASINO), Royale

J J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, Ludacris

PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Paul Cataldo Duo

THE 1313 CLUB, Son of Brad

J JACKLIN ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER, Larsen Jazz & Kate Skinner Play Nancy Wilson & Cannonball

Adderly

ZOLA, Blake Braley

Sunday, 9/17

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Summer Concert Series: Diego Romero Band

J BECK’S HARVEST HOUSE, Rusty and Ginger

CURLEY’S, Steve Livingston & Triple Shot

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Michael Milham

HOGFISH, Open Mic

J KNITTING FACTORY, Matt Maeson

J SOUTH HILL GRILL, Just Plain Darin

Monday, 9/18

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

— SETH SOMMERFELD

J KNITTING FACTORY, Steel Pulse

Tuesday, 9/19

J J KNITTING FACTORY, Dayseeker, Silent Planet, Moxy the Band

LITZ’S PUB & EATERY, Shuffle Dawgs

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Ben Vogel

ZOLA, Jerry Lee and the Groove

Wednesday, 9/20

J D-MAC’S AT THE LAKE, Chuck Wasileski

THE DRAFT ZONE, The Draft Zone Open Mic

MILLIE’S, Keanu

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Kyle Swaffard

PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Jason Evans

RED ROOM LOUNGE, The Roomates

J THE FOX THEATER, Natalie Merchant

J TIMBERS ROADHOUSE, Cary Beare Presents

J ZEEKS PIZZA, Austin Carruthers

ZOLA, Brittany’s House

Coming Up

J J NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, The All-American Rejects, New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, The Get Up Kids, Sep. 25, 7:30 pm.

J J KNITTING FACTORY, Coheed and Cambria, Deafheaven, Sep. 29, 8 pm.

J J BING CROSBY THEATER, Jesse Cook, Oct. 4, 7:30 pm.

J THE DISTRICT BAR, The Halluci Nation, Oct. 4, 9 pm.

J J PAVILION AT RIVERFRONT, Maren Morris, Sammy Eubanks, Oct. 7, 4:15 pm.

J J KNITTING FACTORY, The Gaslight Anthem, Oct. 8, 7:30 pm.

J J THE FOX THEATER, The Mountain Goats, Mikaela Davis Oct. 9, 7:30 pm.

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Macklemore, Oct. 10, 7:30 pm.

J THE DISTRICT BAR, Mudhoney, Hooveriii, Oct. 13, 8 pm.

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Tool, Oct. 15, 7:30 pm.

J THE DISTRICT BAR, Death Chant, Oct. 27, 8 pm.

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Nov. 24, 7 pm.

MUSIC | VENUES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOX THEATER • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. •

509-624-1200

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEASONS OF COEUR

FESTIVAL EINS, ZWEI, G’SUFFA!

Raise a glass of cold, refreshing beer and say “Prost!” for Odessa’s annual Deutschesfest. Each year, the small Lincoln County town gathers numerous vendors serving authentic German foods such as bratwurst, kartoffel und klöss (potato dumplings) and kuchen (cake). Each day includes live music, a street fair and family-friendly activities. There are also bed races on Thursday evening and a fun run Saturday morning followed by a celebratory parade. Don’t forget the biergarten, which features a wide selection of beverages and German beers including brews from Rocky Coulee Brewing Co., based in Odessa and specializing in German-style ales like their Fireweed Honey Blonde and signature Dunkle.

— SUMMER SANDSTROM

Odessa Deutschesfest • Thu, Sep. 14-Sun, Sep. 17, times vary • $5-$20 • All Ages • Odessa, Washington • deutschesfest.net

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.

THEATER DO WHAT ADDAMS DO

Ahh, the intoxicating smell of a graveyard! The Spokane Civic Theatre is kicking off its 76th season with everyone’s ookiest, spookiest family… alive? The Addams Family! Set in their Central Park mansion, the musical follows this family of misfits as they navigate the process of their daughter, Wednesday, falling in love. When her boyfriend’s “normal” family comes to their super-spooky house, chaos ensues. There’s no better way to start Halloween season in Spokane than with music and lyrics by Broadway titan Andrew Lippa. “Pulled” will have you smiling from ear to ear while “Move Toward The Darkness” is a tear-jerkingly honest depiction of dealing with life’s hardships. So put on a witch’s shawl, grab a broomstick you can crawl onto and catch The Addams Family through Oct. 15.

— MADISON PEARSON

The Addams Family • Sept. 15-Oct. 15; Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm (Sat, Sept. 30 and Oct. 7 also at 2 pm) • $15-$38 • Spokane Civic Theatre • 1020 N. Howard St. • spokanecivctheatre.com • 509-325-2507

WORDS LOST IN THE WOODS

Looking for a book to add to your fall reading list? Look no further, because just as the seasons begin to turn, author and former National Park Service law enforcement ranger Andrea Lankford is coming to Spokane to talk about her new true-crime book, Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail. Detailing Lankford’s investigations into the disappearances of three hikers along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, Trail of the Lost offers tense mystery while exploring hiker culture and the natural world. So, no matter your interests — true crime, the outdoors or mysteries — this book has broad appeal. Lankford’s talk includes a discussion, an audience Q&A and a book signing to conclude the evening.

— AMELIA TRONCONE

Andrea Lankford: Trail of the Lost • Fri, Sept. 15 at 7 pm • Free

• Auntie’s Bookstore

• 402 W. Main Ave. • auntiesbooks.com • 509-838-0206

FESTIVAL SEPTEMBERFEST

Munich says Oktoberfest begins on Sept. 16 this year, and who are we to question? No need to catch a flight — you can join the centuries-old celebration of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Theresa right here in Spokane. No-Li Brewery is hosting two Oktoberfests, both this weekend and next. Just make sure to come on time, because the fest is limited to 500 people. Buy a boot of No-Li’s small-batch German lager or an imported Franziskaner Weissbier, dance to an oompah band, and immortalize your dirndl and lederhosen at the Electric Photoland booth. Entry is free, pints are $8, and a half-liter Das Boot souvenir mug is $12. An IPA will be on tap, too, because this is a beer fest in the Northwest, after all. So pick a Saturday, practice your polka, and ring in October — kind of?

— ELIZA BILLINGHAM

No-Li Oktoberfest • Sat, Sept. 16 and Sat, Sept. 23 from 11 am-3 pm • Free entry • 21+ • No-Li Brewhouse • 1003 E. Trent Ave. • nolibrewhouse.com/ oktoberfest • 509-242-2739

COMMUNITY ROCK THE BLOCK

After a successful turnout of folks to the lively, communal atmosphere it created in 2022, the Teleport Block Party is back for round two! Closing down a stretch of West Broadway between Monroe and Lincoln, the true-to-its-name event spills onto the street outside Teleport Vintage + Co. with vendors of all kinds, from retro threads to furniture, plus plants, jewelry, skin care, art and more. Live music throughout the day brings the good vibes, as does beer, cider and seltzer to sip as you shop. While many of the shop’s dozen-plus vendors are bringing tons more wares to display in booths set up along the street, vendors (both from here and afar) who don’t sell at Teleport have also been invited to join the party. While most of us aren’t ready to say “bye” to summer just yet, this event is a great excuse to start building your sustainable and stylish fall wardrobe.

— CHEY SCOTT

Teleport Block Party II

• Sat, Sept. 16 from 11 am-5 pm

• Free

All ages • Teleport Vintage + Co. • 917 W. Broadway Ave. • instagram.com/teleportvintageandco

•

I SAW YOU

FALL FEST-(9/3) You: Brunette, ski patroller by weekend at Schweitzer, nurse by week in Spokane. You were working on Saturday, pouring beer with a great smile and glow about you. Me: light brown hair, wearing a sky-blue T-shirt. We talked briefly a couple times. Would be great to have a beer (or drink of choice) together.

GREY HONDA ACCORD You drive a grey ‘07 Honda Accord; I’ve seen you wearing a German T-shirt sometimes too. Just wanted to say that I think you’re really cool, and I wouldn’t mind getting coffee sometime.

BEACON TOWERS VIEWS A windy but otherwise perfect Friday morning at the top of the trails on Beacon Hill... I was breathing hard, trying to ignore the pain in my legs after a long climb on my mountain bike. You were finishing a hike, beaming about the cooler temperatures and amazing views. You mentioned your healing ankle sprain and your “poser” running vest, I was nearly frozen by your magnetic smile, wishing I could see the eyes behind your sunglasses. You made my leg pain disappear without trying, hope you see this thank you for making my morning!

INCUBUS MAN WITH HIS MOM My friend (a mom of five) and I sat next to you, your mom & sisters(?). You seemed really kind and caught my attention, but I assumed one of the women you were with was a significant other. It wasn’t until we were walking away that my friend told me you were all family members. Me: long dark

hair, cuffed capris, black T-shirt. Coffee? If you happen to see this, reply to the “You Saw Me” section here :)

TRADER JOE’S HAND CART WORKOUT I saw you at Trader Joes in a lavender top, black yoga pants, and a dark hair ponytail with a beaming smile and an amazing laugh. You looked like you were lifting weights with a hand cart. I mentioned to you that you probably should have gotten a wheeled cart, and you laughed and agreed. I should have hit on you then, I’m hitting on you now.

CHEERS

TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO HOME In my many nights of walking with my road dog, Loki, I have never been afraid of you. I’ve seen a couple of Bro dance-offs that end in bro hugs. I feel that if they were allowed to sleep, there would be less sleep-deprived psychosis. And put out more garbage cans, but oh maybe that’s not cost-effective. I thank all of you.

OPEN A NEW CHINESE RESTAURANT The Valley has had a couple of great Chinese restaurants close in the past few years. Please... someone needs to step up and open another family dining in the area. Sorry, not another chain. A family sit-down experience please.

SUNRISE SPECTACULAR Thank you to Doug Nadvornick at KPBX for letting all of us know about the stunningly beautiful sunrise on Sept. 6, 2023. I jumped out of bed and got some glorious pictures of this passing beauty that we should all experience. After that I went back to sleep. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Spokane Public Radio.

CHEERS TO SYMPHONY AND ITS SUPPORTERS Thank you to the Spokane Symphony and its wonderful supporters for bringing Yo Yo Ma to Spokane. So many people got to enjoy this fantastic man’s talents — from the students who attended the rehearsal to the fans and families who attended the evenings blockbuster performance.

THANK YOU To the Inlander. You’re the SHIT. You have let me express my all. I believe in Spokane as you do. All’s well for the Children Of the Sun.

INLANDER ROCKS! Thank you editor, staff, contributors and distributors for

this continuing insightful, informative, educational, topical and entertaining publication. Your critics could not possibly provide an articulate paragraph fit to print

so very much of my youngest brother and paid for our little family’s dinner tonight, Monday July 31, at Moon Time in downtown CDA. That was so kind and unexpected —

for such quick action, I’m sure these lane markers will prevent several fender benders.

with as much worthy content. It’s amazing and admirable that you gather and create this fine local treasure once a week — and for FREE! Thank you for keeping print journalism and intelligent content alive! You are all a gift to our local region.

CITIZEN SALUTE Cheers and blessings to the kindly older gentleman who stopped on the Aug. 29 to check on me, stranded along the northbound lane of Addison. I saw you the first time, as you were one of the few who slowed down and moved over as you passed me. Despite being in a large truck with my hazard lights on in the no parking bike lane, most drivers were zooming over the speed limit, passing within inches of my side window, including trash and city utility trucks. You took your wife home and came back, genuinely concerned if I had my cellphone and was expecting help. To him and the few who did slow down and move over, I thank you! To the others, you have a long way to go, maybe a few more lifetimes, before you learn how to be Human Beings.

RE: DOGS OFF LEASH This is actually a cheers to the person who posted the “Dogs Off Leash” comment a few weeks ago. I really appreciated reading it! Yes, there is a county leash law, and yes, there are plenty of dog owners who think that they and their dogs are special and don’t need to follow the law. I’m so sick of off-leash dogs heading for me while their owners say things like “Oh, don’t worry — he’s friendly!” I’ve been attacked by off-leash dogs, bitten once, so I don’t care about your totally lame reasons for having your dog off leash. I don’t want your dog approaching me, sniffing at me, jumping on me, or trying to interact with me in any way, “friendly” or not. You aren’t special, your dog isn’t special — follow the law and keep your dog leashed!

MOON TIME - THE ITALIAN HOTEL Thank you to the incredible young man dining alone, reading a book, who reminded me

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

generous gestures like that are passed on by all of those involved, and you better believe that we can’t wait to pay it forward with our children! I’m lucky to always cross paths with so many wonderful people in life, and you, kind sir, I hope you see this message and know how much you touched my sad heart in this time of difficult growth and change I’m going through, so thank you!

THANK YOU FOR BEING NICE I was paddleboarding at the Plante’s Ferry area, and I got out after a long paddle, fully expecting to do everything by myself. I’m a single woman who’s 43, and I’m never looking for attention or help (just excersize and pleasure). I only ever hope to have a casual interaction with strangers (male or female) talking about whatever water body I am in. Today, a man (with his family) offered to help carry my board up a big hill. I didn’t know what to do. Tears came to my eyes just over this simple act of kindness. So many “men” nowadays have the mtfu stickers, and then they slam doors in my face. I feel the very opposite of chivalry with those “people.” I am just a woman going about my business, fully expecting to be treated like absolute shit from any “Christian, family man” because those “men” are just horrible people. I have no idea why this person helped me, but he was a family man with kids and a wife, and he must have felt I was a valid lady, too. Also, shout-out to his wife who saw the situation as it was. I shouldn’t be floored by the kindness, but I am. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am a woman, too, and it was amazing to have someone help just because of that and manners. I’m shook.

CHEERS TO SPOKANE STREET DEPARTMENT

Spokane’s Street Maintenance team really impressed me with their responsiveness recently. I called in about missing lane paint at a complicated intersection at Fourth and Walnut, and they responded within just a few days to repaint the lane markers. Thanks

JEERS

SPOKANE ROAD CONSTRUCTION So, Upriver Drive underneath the Greene Street Bridge was closed for a while during the summer so they could do some work related to the north-south freeway. After a few weeks, that was opened up but the patch work on the road was so poor that cars travelling east have to drive over uneven roads. It’s just a really poor job of patching the road after digging it up. Now, they have the access road to Upriver Drive closed off due to more construction, so cars are diverted north to another access road, which backs cars up significantly and even more so when there is a stalled car taking up a lane or an accident caused by too much congestion. Spokane never seems to think about these kinds of things in advance. The planning seems to be really bad and the road repair even worse. I sure hope that when the corridor is completed (someday) that it will be utilized and all this work now isn’t just a waste of money. In the meantime, can someone patch the road under the Greene Street Bridge so that it’s at least as good as it was prior to the work in July?

APOLOGY To the family I offended at the Fair Friday on Sept. 10 at around 3 pm. I apologize. 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.

“ I don’t want your dog approaching me, sniffing at me, jumping on me... ”

BENEFIT

AGE OF ELEGANCE REIMAGINED The weeklong event celebrates the Corbin House/Corbin Art Center’s 125th anniversary by showcasing decor honoring the home’s history. Furnishings available for purchase; tickets raise funds for the center’s upkeep. Through Sep. 17, daily from noon-7 pm. $10. Corbin Art Center, 507 W. Seventh Ave. spokanerec.org

EYE CONTACT A one-night event aiming to bring visibility to community members experiencing homelessness, with local artists, live music, a silent auction and performance art. Sep. 14, 5-8 pm. $20. Washington Cracker Co. Building, 304 W. Pacific. event.gives/eyecontact2023

SEQUINS & VELVET A benefit for Mujeres in Action to celebrate the resiliency of domestic abuse survivors. Includes salsa dancing, local chefs’ Latinx food, and culturally-inspired games. Sep. 15, 5:30-10 pm. $100-$135. Overbluff Cellars, 304 W. Pacific. miaspokane.org (509-599-5527)

CANCER CAN’T GALA Cancer Can’t hosts its 9th annual Black and White Gala to raise money for adult cancer patients in the Inland Northwest. Participate in silent/live auctions while enjoying dinner, drinks and live music from the Spinoffs. Sep. 16, 4:30-11:30 pm. $115. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. cancercant.com (509-731-3076)

COMBAT VET RIDERS POW/MIA RIDE

Registration at 9 am, kickstands up at 11 am for a 2- to 3-hour ride, dinner at 5 pm, plus silent and live auctions, door prizes and live music. Sep. 16, 9 am-5 pm. $25$30. Combat Vet Riders Outreach Center, 2405 N. Dick Rd. combatvetriders.org

DREAM BEYOND AUCTION This event features live/silent auctions, raffle, paddle raise and a rebrand reveal. Proceeds benefit Life Services. Ages 18+. Sep. 16, 4-7:30 pm. $100. Davenport Grand, 333 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. lifeservices.org

PARKINSON’S COMMUNITY WALK This fundraiser walk is a chance for people impacted by Parkinson’s to get more info, network and raise money for research. Sep. 16, 10 am. By donation. Deer Park High School, 800 S. Weber Rd. movingdaywalk.org/communitywalkdeerpark

STRIDES FOR STRONG BONES The 11th annual walk aims to teach participants about preventing falls, fractures and osteoporosis and benefits Strides for Strong Bones. Sep. 16, 10 am-noon. $5-$30. The Nest at Kendall Yards, 1335 Summit Pkwy. stridesforstrongbones.org

BRICK WEST TRIVIA FEST Twelve teams

battle to reach the Championship match at Brick West on Sept. 27. See website for full schedule. Proceeds benefit the Salvation Army’s Burst-A-Bus Fundraiser. Mon-Wed through Sep. 27. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave. brickwestbrewingco.com/trivia

COMEDY

DUSTY SLAY Dusty Slay has close to half a million TikTok followers, four late night appearances, a Comedy Central set and a Netflix special under his belt. Sep. 14, 7:30 pm, Sep. 15, 7:30 & 10:15 pm and Sep. 16, 7 & 9:45 pm. $15-$30. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com (509-318-9998)

THE REAL BLANKS OF BLANKVILLE An improvised show based on the audience’s favorite reality TV. Sept. 1-29, Fridays at 7:30 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com

IMPROV SHOW A series of sketches inspired by audience suggestions. Sep. 16. $10-$15. Lyfe Coffee Roasters & Public House, 116 E. Lakeside Ave., Coeur d’Alene. levitytheatre.com (208-771-7311)

KAT TIMPF In this 90-minute show, Timpf takes a deep dive into every aspect of her book, You Can’t Joke About That Sep. 16, 7:30 pm. $39-$100. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd. kroccda.org

SAFARI The Blue Door’s version of Whose Line, a fast-paced short-form improv show. Sep. 16, 23, and 30, 7:30-9 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com

COMMUNITY

ASIAPOP! SYMPOSIUM A festival celebrating manga, anime and other Japanese/Asian art forms through lectures and workshops. Times vary, see website for full schedule. Through Sep. 15. Free. University of Idaho, 709 S Deakin St. uidaho.edu/class/hias/asiapop

ODESSA DEUTCHESFEST This annual festival celebrates all things German with traditional food, beer, live music and dancing. Sept. 14-17. $5-$20. Odessa, Hwy 21 and Hwy 28. deutschesfest.net

SPOKANE COUNTY INTERSTATE FAIR

The 2023 interstate fair features carnival games, rides, livestock shows, live music and food vendors. See website for full schedule. Open daily through Sep. 17. $7$35. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. thespokanefair.com

WELCOMING WEEK The immigrant and non-immigrant communities are invited

to engage in dialogue, build new connections and enjoy an evening of fun in an inviting atmosphere. Sep. 14, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. YMCA Central Spokane, 930 N. Monroe St. ymcainw.org (509-777-9622)

LOGAN NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCK PARTY An evening encouraging all residents to build community, learn about important resources and have fun. Sep. 15, 4-7 pm. Free. Mission Park, 1208 E. Mission Ave. gonzaga.edu (625-6200)

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)

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS 101 Learn about carnivorous plants and how to care for them. Sep. 16, 11 am-noon. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com (509-467-5258)

CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE RE-DEDICATION Celebrate the anniversary of the 2004 mayor’s proclamation stating that Wallace is the center of the universe with toasts, music, reading of the proclamation and guest dignitaries. Enter a raffle to win prizes. Sep. 16, 4-7 pm. Free. Wallace. wallaceid.fun

DROP IN & RPG Stop by and explore the world of role playing games. First and third Saturdays of the month from 1-3:45 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299)

SURVIVE & THRIVE FAMILY PREPAREDNESS FAIR This community fair features escape rooms, kids activities and more Sep. 16, 10 am-1 pm. Free. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 401 W. Regina Ave. (509-953-2073)

PALOUSE DAYS A small-town community event featuring a fun run, pancake breakfast, parade, car show and more. Sep. 16. Free. Palouse, Wash. visitpalouse.com

PARADE OF HOMES Local home builders showcase their finest work to the public. Sept. 16-24, Fri-Sun from 11 am-6 pm. $10. Coeur d’Alene poh.nibca.com

SPOKANE RIVER CLEAN-UP Join 600 fellow volunteers to help preserve the beauty of the Spokane River. Sep. 16, 8 am-2 pm. Free. People’s Park, 25002834 W. Clarke Ave. landscouncil.org

TELEPORT BLOCK PARTY Teleport Vintage teams up with local vintage clothing, furniture and decor vendors to host a street party with live music and more. Sep. 16, 11 am-5 pm. Free. Teleport Vintage + Co., 917 W. Broadway. instagram. com/teleportvintageandco

WINES & VINES: TERRARIUM WORKSHOP The workshop includes instruction on how to build a terrarium and a glass of Helix wine. 21+. Sep. 16, 4-6 pm. $25. Helix Wines, 824 W. Sprague. fb.me/ e/4xjTnRLc2 (509-242-3190)

KIDS JUNIOR FIRE ACADEMY Kids are invited to learn about fire safety and become a junior firefighter. Sep. 17, 1-3 pm. Free. River Park Square, 808 W. Main Ave. downtownspokane.org (509-456-0580)

LIBERTY LAKE FALL FESTIVAL A vendor market featuring handmade items from small businesses around the Inland NW. Sep. 17, 9 am-4 pm. Free. Liberty Lake Farmers Market, 1421 N. Meadowwood Ln. instagram.com/libertylakefallfestival

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE PLANNING

PARTY Come learn all about how you can safely view the upcoming annular solar eclipse. Make your own pinhole eclipse viewer and explore concepts in Solar Science with a variety of fun activities. Sep. 18, 4-5 pm. Free. Moran Prairie Library, 6004 S. Regal St. scld.org (893-8340)

KAY O’ROURKE’S 80TH BIRTHDAY

Celebrate the birthday of Kay O’Rourke, the artist behind “The River Remembers: A Visual History of the Spokane River Gorge,” a mural inside Spark. Sep. 18, 6-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299)

YWCA RACIAL JUSTICE CHALLENGE

The Racial Justice Challenge was designed to help community members dedicate time and space to build more effective social justice habits. A new challenge is shared via email each week. See website to sign up. Through Sep. 29. Free. ywcaspokane/challenge

FREE THE VOTE MURAL EVENT Formerly incarcerated community members can engage, register to vote, and kick off the election season during an event that combines art, activism, and civic engagement. Sep. 19, 4-8 pm. Free. American Indian Community Center, 1025 W. Indiana Ave. freethevotewa.org/murals

STAR WARS MINIATURES GAME NIGHT

Play Star Wars: Legion, Star Wars Shatterpoint, Star Wars X-Wing and Star Wars Armada. Tuesdays from 6-9 pm. Free. Uncle’s Games, 404 W. Main Ave. unclesgames.com

FILM

THE HANDMAIDEN A woman is hired by a Japanese heiress, but secretly is involved in a plot to defraud her. Sep. 14, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main. kenworthy.org

BEST OF ENEMIES: A STAGE TO SCREEN

FILM In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others. Sep. 17, 2 pm. $20. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com

MOTHER A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a horrific murder. Sep. 20, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main. kenworthy.org

DR. STRANGELOVE An American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop. Sep. 21, 7 pm. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

THIRD THURSDAY MATINEE: THE SWIMMER This film follows the odyssey of an advertising executive who makes an eight-mile journey from a friend’s house to his home by swimming through the backyard pools of his well-off suburban neighbors. Sep. 21, 1-3 pm. $7. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

FOOD

OKTOBERFEST BEER CRUISE Tickets include a two-hour cruise, German buffet and German for purchase. Sep. 14, 4:30 & 7:30 pm. $50. The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdacruises.com

OKTOBERFEST Travel through downtown Coeur d’Alene and sample Oktoberfest style beers and ciders at participating businesses. Sept. 15-16. $28-$35. cdadowntown.com (208-415-0116)

DINNER WITH AN ARTIST Experience Alexandra Iosub’s art and the flavors she grew up with in Romania combined with chef Adam Hegsted’s cooking and techniques from around the world. Sep. 16, 6-9 pm. $125. Honey Eatery and Social Club, 317 Sherman Ave. emergecda.com

NO-LI OKTOBERFEST Celebrate with No-Li’s small-batch German lager, Fresh Hop IPA and Franziskaner Weissbier German Import. Sep. 16 and 23, 11 am-3 pm. No-Li Brewhouse, 1003 E. Trent. nolibrewhouse.com/oktoberfest

SALSA FIESTA Enjoy live music while tasting salsas, shopping vendor booths and more. Sep. 16, 12-5 pm. $10. China Bend Winery, 3751 Vineyard Way., Kettle Falls. chinabend.com (509-732-6123)

THAI COOKING Explore ingredients and commonly used cooking methods in Thai cuisine. Sep. 17, 4-6:30 pm and Sep. 18, 5:45-8:15 pm. $85. Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon. thekitchenengine.com

Dining Out

EVENTS | CALENDAR

FRENCH WINE & FOOD PAIRING Darin

Roberson and resident instructor Kristi Fountain present tasty and thoughtful food to accompany French wines. Sep. 19, 5:45-8:15 pm. $100. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com (509-328-3335)

MUSHROOM FORAGING FOR BEGINNERS Discuss common and soughtafter edible mushrooms that grow in the Inland Northwest. Sep. 20, 6-8 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org (893-8350)

MUSIC

SPOKANE SYMPHONY MASTERWORKS 1: A PLACE CALLED HOME A selection of songs that explore what it means to feel a sense of belonging (or not) from the homesickness of the immigrant Dvorák to a Salish language hymn via Copland’s Americana. Sep. 16, 7:30 pm and Sep. 17, 3 pm. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org (509-624-1200)

JAYDEAN LUDIKER & HER FIDDLE ORCHESTRA A program of hoedowns, waltzes and tunes to take you back to another time. Sep. 17, 2-3:45 pm. By donation. Harrington Opera House, 19 S. Third St. harringtonoperahouse.org

BEST OF BLUEGRASS: CUSTER’S GRASS BAND The band performs traditional bluegrass music along with tight vocal harmonies. Sep. 21, 7 pm. $20. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St. thejacklincenter.org

CELEBRATE DIVERSITY The Northwest BachFest continues its ongoing celebration of diverse artists, this time the Latinx ensemble, Catalyst Quartet. Sep. 22, 7-8:45 pm. Free. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

KING OF THE CAGE Watch multiple rounds of mixed martial arts fights. Sep. 14, 7-10 pm. $50-$70. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S. Nukwalqw, Worley. cdacasino.com

SCENIC CHAIRLIFT RIDES Ride the chairlift up and down the mountain with options to hike back down the mountain. Fri-Sun from 10 am-3:30 pm through Sep. 30. $9-$13. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0. skilookout.com

DOWNWARD DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

ROOFTOP YOGA A yoga class led by The Union Studios. Complimentary after-class drinks and bites included. Sep. 16, 10-11 am. $25. Historic Davenport Hotel, 10 S. Post St. davenporthotelcollection.com (509-455-8888)

FALL GARDEN CONTAINER Create a beautiful fall container garden for your patio with Ritters’ designer. Sep. 16, 3-4 pm. $75. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com (509 467-5258)

RIVERFRONT SKATE NIGHT A free skate night for rollerskaters of all ages and abilities. BYO skates or rent for $5. Sep. 16, 6-9:30 pm. Free. Numerica Skate Ribbon, 720 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. riverfrontspokane.com

FALL GARDEN CLEANUP Discuss the importance of fall cleanup in the garden and easy steps to get it all done. Presented by the Master Gardeners. Sep. 17, 2-3 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org

THEATER

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: Performances of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in rep Thu-Sun at 6:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm through Sept. 17. Performances in Manito Park, Riverfront Park and Sky-Praire Park on a rotating schedule, see website for information. Donations accepted. spokaneshakespearesociety.org

THE ADDAMS FAMILY Wednesday finds herself falling in love, but when she invites her new boyfriend over, chaos ensues. Sept. 15-Oct. 15; WedSat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. (Sat, Sept. 30 and Oct. 7 performances at 2 pm.)

$15-$38. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com

TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL

Featuring Tina Turner’s original songs, the musical tells the story of how Turner broke barriers in order to achieve a high level of fame in the music industry. Sept. 19-23; Tue-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat also at 2 pm, Sun at 1 pm and 6:30 pm. $52-$100. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. broadwayspokane.com (509-279-7000)

VISUAL ARTS

COZETTE PHILLIPS: EXERCISES IN FUTILITY A mixed-media exhibition in response to the affects of the climate crisis and the ongoing battle against climate change. Wed-Fri from 11 am-5 pm through Sep. 29. Free. Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams. tracksidestudio.net

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: WOMEN PRINTMAKERS OF WASHINGTON The first overview of women printmakers of Washington, active in the early to mid20th century. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Nov. 19. $15-$20. The MAC, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

FIVE CRITICAL DECADES OF ART: THE STEPHENS COLLECTION Selections collected by Spokane residents Les and Carolyn Stephens include 60s pop art, sculpture, environmental art, video art, abstraction, photorealism and more. Mon-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through Jan. 6. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/jundt

HANNAH KUHNS: TELEPHONE This show features abstract works and prints. Sept. 8-Oct. 7, Tue-Sat from 10 am-6 pm. Free. Emerge, 119 N. Second St., Coeur d’Alene. emergecda.com

IO PALMER & ANN CHRISTENSON: ENTANGLE The show features mixed media art consisting of fabric, ceramics and wire. By appt. only through Sep. 30. Free. Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. kolva.comcastbiz.net

JAMES ALLEN: EXCAVATING BOOKS

A book arts exhibition featuring books that have been carved out to tell new stories. Sept. 12-Oct. 26; Mon-Fri from 10 am-4:30 pm and Sat from 10 am-2 pm. Free. Bryan Oliver Gallery, Whitworth, 300 W. Hawthorne Ave. whitworth.edu (777-3258)

JEFFREY GIBSON: THEY TEACH LOVE

This exhibition combines various art mediums such as sculpture, painting and video with the artist’s American Indian cultural background by adorning objects with beadwork, jingles, fringe and sinew. Tue-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through March 9. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu (509-335-1910)

JUN OH: JAEMI The artist uses non-

traditional materials to create experimental paintings. Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm through Sep. 30. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe. terrainspokane.com

MARSHA MARCUSON & ROBBIN

MILLER Marcuson’s paintings portray nature scenes while Miller uses cold wax to create abstract paintings. WedSat from 11 am-4 pm through Sep. 30. Free. Avenue West Gallery, 907 W. Boone Ave. avenuewestgallery.com

POSIE KALIN: I AM WHO I AM BECOMING Kalin explores memory and identity through the use of found objects. Fri-Sat from 12-8 pm through Sep. 29. Free. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave. sapgallery.com

MINECRAFT: THE EXHIBITION The 3D world of Minecraft is explored in this wide-ranging exhibition, designed for players and non-players of all ages. Sept. 16-Dec. 31, Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Dec. 31. $15-$20. The MAC, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

SACRED SALMON PAINTING Annette Peone teaches painting with acrylics along with education on the traditional value of the Sacred Salmon. Sep. 16, 2-4 pm. $75. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S. Nukwalqw. cdacasino.com

GUIDED DISCUSSION WITH JEFFREY GIBSON A guided discussion exploring identity through choices of adornment. Moderated by Michael Holloman, Associate Professor with the Department of Art at WSU and also includes Nakia Williamson-Cloud, Cultural Resources Program Director of the Nimíipuu tribe. Sep. 19, 1:30-6 pm. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu

WORDS

EMMA CATHERINE PERRY & CHRIS DRANGLE Perry reads from her new poetry book, Blocks World. Visiting Assistant Professor of Nonfiction and Fiction Chris Drangle also reads. Sep. 14, 6:30-8 pm. Free. 1912 Center, 412 E. Third St. bookpeopleofmoscow.com

ENGINEERING A CAREER IN ANIME & VIDEO GAMES Anne Yatco, a FilipinoAmerican voice actor, discusses her experience in anime and video games. Sep. 14, 4-6 pm. Free. U of Idaho Student Union Building (ISUB), 875 S. Line St. uidaho.edu/class/hias/asiapop

WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER: THE RIVER WE REMEMBER Krueger discusses his third novel, about a murder in a small Minnesota town. Sep. 14, 7 pm. $25. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. wellreadmoose.com

ANDREA LANKFORD: TRAIL OF THE LOST This female-driven true crime adventure follows the author’s quest to find missing hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail. Sep. 15, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206)

COURAGEOUS & KIND Abbey monastics share some of the strategies that have made their lives better. Each session includes a short, guided meditation to relax, followed by a talk and a Q&A. Sept. 11-Oct. 30, Mon from 6:30-8pm. Free. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. sravastiabbey.org (503-749-5518)

ANNETTE PIMENTEL: BEFORE COLORS Pimentel’s new children’s book, Before Colors, aims to teach children about the physics of light and color. Sep. 23, 11 am. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org

The Dictionary Defines

Whether you call it pot, weed or grass, cannabis is cannabis — but what is hemp?

BY WILL MAUPIN

At my fantasy football draft earlier this month, a friend showed up with a can of CBD-infused sparkling water purchased from the grocery store.

There’s a good chance you’ve seen this or similar products for sale at your grocer’s. This specific product is stocked at my neighborhood grocery store in the same display as probiotic sodas and kombucha — the olive bar is right across the aisle, and frozen peas are around the corner — which is very much not the 21-and-over environment of a state-licensed dispensary.

If you can’t buy a joint at the grocery store, why can you buy what is essentially cannabis soda at the same place you purchase your pasta and produce?

The answer is, confusingly, because these products aren’t made from what’s legally defined as “cannabis.” They’re made from “hemp.”

In the United States, at the federal level, cannabis is illegal. Hemp, however, is not. Which is weird, considering they’re the same species of plant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hemp is defined as “any part of the cannabis sativa plant with no more than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the mind-altering substance in marijuana.”

Notice the definition says nothing about cannabidiol (CBD) or any chemical naturally occurring in cannabis, or “hemp” as they call it, besides THC.

The 2018 Farm Bill passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Trump legalized hemp (not cannabis) nationwide based upon that definition, paving the way for the explosion of “hemp-based” CBD products on store shelves even in states where recreational cannabis remains illegal.

Essentially, hemp is cannabis without the THC. It is cannabis that has been bred to limit THC concentration, similar to watermelons bred to produce a limited number of seeds.

Hemp has numerous industrial uses from biofuel to paper to cloth, which was a major impetus behind the federal legalization. But it also produces cannabinoids like CBD, a chemical people enjoy consuming, which can now legally be incorporated into trendy products like the aforementioned “weed” soda.

CBD products that you find for sale at a store that is not a state-licensed dispensary will be made with hemp, not cannabis.

A loophole that has brought cannabis — sorry, feds, that is the plant’s scientific name after all — into quasi-legality even where it isn’t. n

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.

NOTE TO READERS

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

ANNIVERSARY SALE

30% OFF THE ENTIRE SHOP

1325 N DIVISION ST SUITE 103 SPOKANE, WA

WARNING: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence 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.

GREEN ZONE

NOTE TO READERS

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.

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.

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this product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. there may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. for use only by adults twenty-one and older. keep out of the reach of children.

1. Place for a sleeve tattoo

4. New or golden follower

8. ____ kiss

14. Oolong, e.g.

15. “By ____!”

16. Lady Bird’s husband

17. Material for demolition

18. United ____ Emirates

19. Div. for the Mets and Marlins

20. It might sink your sub or tank your tank

23. Leave off a list

24. Moon goddess

25. Pet doc

28. Place to obtain silver and gold

33. Modern collectibles, in brief

34. 3,600 seconds

35. “Mind. Blown.”

39. Kate Winslet’s role in “Hamlet”

42. Overhead items?

43. Jessica of “Fantastic Four”

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44. “That deep fly ball ... I’ve got it!,” say

51. Paper towel layer

52. Patron saint of Norway

53. Thin batteries

55. [I’ve italicized these words because they’re worth noting] ... or this puzzle’s theme

59. “Rocky ____” (2006 Sylvester Stallone film)

62. ____ baby (celeb whose fame comes from having a famous parent)

63. Music genre from Jamaica

64. Unseen “Peanuts” characters

65. James of “Elf”

66. Coral reef swimmer

67. Arizona native

68. Discontinues

69. ____ Moines

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1. When one might have a late lunch

2. Change from “HBO Max” to “Max,” say

3. 1999 Best Visual Effects Oscar winner, with “The”

4. “Stronger than dirt” cleanser

5. Trail mix

6. Short critique?

7. Makes tighter, in a way

8. Cause of warming tropical seas

9. Wooded

10. What might be taken in protest

11. Ore-____ (Tater Tots brand)

12. Jan., Feb., Mar., etc.

13. Most populous Canadian prov.

21. And so on: Abbr.

22. Fashion designer Anna

26. Small sewing case

27. Giga

29. “Knives Out” star de Armas 30. Org. for former soldiers 31. Stopped fasting

36. Injure badly

37. Wee

38. Letters on a returned check

39. Estadio

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41. Is

43. Part

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45. Creature

46. City

48. Quarterback Newton

49. Like Braille characters 50. Bronx pro 54. Makes watertight, say 55. Ancient city near present-day Aleppo, Syria

56. 007 portrayer before Roger

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