Inlander 09/26/2024 by The Inlander

BOB & DAVE’S DEBATE

Two men vie to be Washington’s next governor PAGE 8

artist

Joe Feddersen’s new MAC show is a homage to his Colville ancestry and the earth

LAYERS OF THE LAND

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

page 16

EDITOR’S NOTE

WWe’re closer to a greener energy future when we all take steps to conserve. It’s why we teach customers how to save energy and offer money-saving rebates for energy-efficient home upgrades, like added insulation or new windows.

Learn more at myavista.com/getrebates

hen was the last time you visited the MAC? While plenty of my own visits over the years while covering arts and culture for the Inlander have been behind-the-scenes looks at exhibits, it had actually been awhile since I’d visited as a regular guest. This summer while family was visiting, however, we decided to make an afternoon of it, allowing me the chance to really slow down and take everything in. We even visited the Campbell House, which reminded me of my very first visit there on a school field trip in the late 1990s as we marveled at the mansion’s sheer opulence.

This fall is the perfect time for a visit like this, as the museum unveils a three-month exhibition of renowned Colville ARTIST JOE FEDDERSEN’S stunning career output. Spanning the breadth of his 45 years as an artist, “Earth, Water, Sky” is Feddersen’s homage to the land of his people. As arts writer Carrie Scozzaro describes in the story, “His work conveys its elk, fish and trees, but also its airplanes, traffic signs and high-voltage transmission towers, which Feddersen calls ‘energy thieves’ for the way in which the land of his ancestors was taken and exploited without consent.”

Read the full story starting on page 16, and then plan your next trip to the MAC.

— CHEY SCOTT, Editor

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WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU ATE DOWNTOWN?

JENNY SEIBERT

Just now. 20th of September, 2024.

And what are you eating?

This is a sausage, from the vendor. It’s got sauerkraut and hot mustard on it. Really good.

From what restaurant?

Oh, it’s the street vendor. Spokane Dogs.

DARIUS

MOORE

This is my first time in Spokane, and so today was my first time eating here.

And what did you have?

I had Mac Daddy’s — the Philly Mac. And it was delicious!

HELENA HARNED

We were at Anthony’s in June.

OK, do you remember what you had? Yes! They had a sunset special, so we snuck in there in time to get that. It was three courses. It was a good deal.

ZOIE COOPER

Pig Out in the Park.

Do you remember what you had? Ohhh. Those fries. Some fries. Those curly fries, and they were all stuck together.

SAVANNAH HOVDE

The Gilded Unicorn.

And what did you have there? We had the brisket mac and cheese.

Was it good?

Yes! It was amazing.

INTERVIEWED BY JOHN BERGIN 09/20/2024, RIVERFRONT PARK

Parenting

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Fighting Fire with (Controlled) Fire

Tradition and science go handin-hand as state federal agencies look at thinning forests to prevent out-of-control wildfires

BY ADAM GEBAUER

As U.S. Forest Service researcher Paul Hessburg says,

• Bio-Identical Hormones

Our Western forests have evolved with fire on the landscape. We need to understand this to both realize how we got into the wildfire crisis and how we can get out of it. We cannot log our way out of it.

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The wildfire crisis — the current age of more frequent, larger scale fires over a longer season — has been brought on by three main factors: fire suppression, past logging practices and climate change.

We have had a full-scale suppression of wildfires for over 150 years, making it illegal for tribes to conduct the cultural burning that they practiced for thousands of years. Subsequently, federal mandates required suppression of every wildfire, no matter how remote. Historic logging practices also targeted the largest, most financially valuable trees — the very trees that have survived countless fires. Both of these factors — fire suppression and logging practices — have led our forests to look drastically different.

“We have a tree problem.” Forests are overstocked, with too many smalldiameter trees per acre and a composition of species that are more susceptible to fire. The overcrowding of trees means that they are competing for resources, particularly space and water. These closely growing trees allow fire to spread more rapidly, leading to larger, more catastrophic wildfires. Overcrowded trees are also more susceptible to drought, and when trees are being stressed, they are more vulnerable to disease and insect outbreaks.

The biggest factor that is exacerbating the wildfire crisis, however, is climate change. Summers are hotter and drier. More of our precipitation falls as rain during the spring instead of snow throughout the winter. One might think that rain is good for wildfire prevention, but a deep, slow-melting mountain snowpack provides soil moisture well into the summer. Spring rains run off the landscape, quickly producing a flush of growth of grasses and annuals that can then dry out, providing easily ignitable fuel. Warmer winters have also led to increases in insect infestations.

Prescribed burns, as practiced for millennia by native tribes, are coming back as a strategy to fight wildfires.

All this explains that our forests have departed from their historic structure and are not ready for our warming climate. It is not the large, older trees — the trees that have survived countless fires — that are the issue.

So how do we manage our forest to reduce the wildfire risk? Well, Northeastern Washington is one of the best examples in the West of both an ecological and economical approach to the wildfire crisis.

Many regions throughout the West do not have the economic infrastructure to do the restoration required on our forest. The number of timber mills has drastically shrunk since the 1970s, and almost all of those shuttered mills were tooled for large diameter trees. Back in the 1990s, Vaagen Brothers Lumber saw the writing on the wall and retooled its mill in Colville to focus exclusively on small diameter logs. This was a heavy initial investment that has paid off — Vaagen Brothers is able to bid and receive Forest Service contracts to conduct small-diameter thinning projects. This, paired with the Avista biomass plant in Kettle Falls removing slash and noncommercial timber for energy production, further reduces the wildfire risk from timber projects.

“…our forests have departed from their historic structure…”

But thinning alone won’t solve the problem — we need to bring “good” fire back to the landscape. Tribes spent thousands of years learning how and when to harness fire, burning in the spring and fall when conditions were favorable. These cultural burns have a variety of purposes, from opening up a huckleberry patch to increasing forage for big game species. Tribes across the West are reengaging with their traditional practices. The Spokane Tribal Food Sovereignty Garden in partnership with the Washington Department of Natural Resources will be conducting its first cultural burn this fall and are creating networks with other tribes to relearn their traditional practices.

Prescribed fire is a tool that communities must embrace. These planned, permitted and controlled burns occur in spring and fall to reduce fuel loads and thin out young trees. But agencies, tribes and landowners need to increase the number of skilled practitioners across the West. Communities also need to accept short periods of smoke during these cooler months. This October wildfire practitioners from across the region will meet in Eastern Washington for the Selkirk TREX, also known as prescribed fire exchange. Since 2022, the Selkirk TREX has been increasing the education and capacity of tribal, state and local wildfire professionals to safely plan and conduct prescribed burns.

State and federal land managers are pouring resources into the wildlife crisis. In January 2022, the U.S. Forest Service launched the Wildfire Crisis Strategy to increase the pace and scale of treating the highest priority lands, including much of Northeastern Washington. The Colville National Forest has treated 30,000 acres this year alone and has recently received $50 million dollars to conduct work in Ferry County. DNR has a 20-year strategy to target high priority landscapes — areas that are particularly susceptible to burning and, if ignited, could cause damage to communities. The strategy for both agencies is to thin the forest as needed and then use prescribed and/or natural fire — where appropriate — as maintenance to reduce fuels and open the understory.

Combating the wildfire crisis needs to be a community approach. We need to incorporate traditional Indigenous knowledge with Western science and rural industries to conduct both economically viable and ecological-focused forest restoration across all land ownership. “All Hands, All Lands.” n

Adam Gebauer is a writer, the public lands program director for The Lands Council, and a board member for the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition. He has spent over 25 years working as a wildlife and plant ecologist and an advocate for public lands. He can be reached at agebauer@landscouncil.org

Bob and Dave

The candidates running to be Washington’s next governor have sound bites for Spokane — do they also have solutions?

BY NATE SANFORD

As Washington Gov. Jay Inslee prepares to leave office after more than a decade in the state’s top role, two longtime politicians are vying to take his place.

Inslee’s preferred heir is Bob Ferguson, 59, a Democrat who has served as Washington’s elected attorney general since 2013. Ferguson is being challenged by Republican Dave Reichert, 74, a former U.S. House representative and retired sheriff.

On Sept. 18, the two men took the stage in Spokane for a debate at the Fox Theater put on by the Association of Washington Business and Greater Spokane Inc.

As attendees waited for the debate to start, prominent Democrats and Republicans from across the state milled around in suits for a “cocktail hour and networking” event. Outside the theater, supporters of both candidates waved signs and chanted slogans. Passing cars honked

vigorously, but it wasn’t always clear who for. The sidewalk was a jumble of red and blue.

SAFETY AND BUSINESS

The Spokane debate came days after prominent local chef Chad White blamed the closure of his restaurant, Zona Blanca, on problems with crime and vagrancy.

When asked about Zona Blanca and the broader struggles facing small businesses in Washington, Reichert claimed there are “no consequences when people commit crime.”

“We’re not allowing cops to enforce the law,” Reichert said. “We have to support our police officers, we have to elect officials to support our police officers.”

Ferguson brought up his work with the Attorney General’s Office suing opioid manufacturers to win more than $1.1 billion, which was redirected to treatment ser-

vices that will “help address the situation we are seeing.”

Washington is ranked last in the nation for law enforcement officers per capita, and both candidates have pledged to hire more police. Ferguson said his first budget as governor will include $100 million to help local jurisdictions recruit more officers.

Reichert has said protecting police from lawsuits is important to help recruitment. It’s important to hold police officers accountable, he said, but it’s also necessary to ensure that “the Attorney General’s Office is not going to come after” police officers when they make a “life and death decision.”

One Spokane business leader submitted a question asking the candidates what they would do to ensure local companies aren’t disadvantaged by Washington’s regulatory environment when competing with businesses in nearby Idaho.

Reichert said he supports reducing regulations, streamlining permits and giving business leaders a “place at the table.”

Ferguson pointed to his experience creating a “small business initiative” in the state Attorney General’s Office and advocating for small businesses when they’re the target of scams. He said he also supports streamlining permitting with a “one-stop shop” for small businesses. On taxes, both candidates said they want to make sure businesses and families pay less. Ferguson said he supports maintaining the state’s working families tax credit and the capital gains tax, which only applies to around 4,000 of the state’s wealthiest residents.

Gubernatorial candidates Dave Reichert (left) and Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson debated at Spokane’s Fox Theater last week. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

A New AG

Voters will decide who should lead Washington’s Attorney General’s Office

BY VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ

Washington attorney general candidates Democrat

Nick Brown and Republican Pete Serrano offer two different visions for leading the state’s highest legal office.

Brown served as general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee from 2013 to 2017, later working as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington from October 2021 to June 2023. After resigning as U.S. attorney, Brown accepted a partner role at Pacifica Law Group.

Serrano is the current mayor of Pasco and previously served as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford from 2015 to 2019. He founded the conservative Silent Majority Foundation in 2021 and works as the legal nonprofit’s general counsel.

Last week, on Sept. 18, both candidates presented their plans for the role during a debate hosted by the Association of Washington Business in Spokane. Each candidate spoke briefly with the Inlander

ROLE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

SERRANO wants the attorney general to focus on advising the state and governor on legal issues, refrain from giving opinions on policy issues and advise regulatory agencies on their limitations.

“The Attorney General’s Office needs to focus back on what its mission constitutionally is,” Serrano said during the debate. “Get back to advising the regulatory agencies. Do not let them run amok. Do not let them expand their own powers. Confine them and constrain them to their actual obligations, liabilities and duties.”

BROWN believes the attorney general’s role is broad, and the foremost obligation of the office is to advocate for the people of Washington and focus on improving their lives.

“It is also to advise and defend the state government to make sure they are acting in the best interest of their client, agencies and the people,” Brown said at the debate. He would utilize the Consumer Protection Act to advocate for Washingtonians.

FENTANYL CRISIS

BROWN wants to focus on the root causes of the fentanyl crisis by going after cartels and those importing drugs. He stresses the need for the attorney general to partner with federal and state law enforcement, and emphasizes the need to treat addiction.

“A lot of the work is how do we address people’s addiction issues, provide support and help for them,” Brown says. “The attorney general has some really important work to do in that space — helping agencies and helping local governments provide better services.”

SERRANO visits Spokane for medical appointments and

says he has walked downtown and seen the crisis. He wants to provide extra prosecutors and defenders for the prosecution of drug charges. He would use the funding from opioid lawsuit settlements to help provide treatment and says current leadership is not doing enough. He wants to collaborate with law enforcement, providing additional policy training for officers, and is proud to have Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels’ endorsement.

“In Pasco … we’re taking that money from those settlements to make sure that folks have the ability for treatment,” Serrano says. “The attorney general has a whole lot of opportunity, again, making sure that there’s a settlement agreement and there’s money, and making sure that there’s adequate prosecution, working with federal and state and local law enforcement officers.”

SEAN FEUCHT V. SPOKANE

In June, right-wing evangelist Sean Feucht filed a lawsuit alleging that the Spokane City Council members violated his freedom of expression and religion when they passed a resolution in 2023 denouncing former Mayor Nadine Woodward for appearing with Feucht and former state Rep. Matt Shea at a religious event.

Shea was expelled from the state Republican caucus in 2019 after collaborating with those involved in the armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Touring to host Christian worship events, Feucht is an anti-COVID vaccine activist and has made derogatory remarks about the LGBTQ+ community. Serrano is Feucht’s attorney for the case through the Silent Majority Foundation.

SERRANO acknowledges the ethical obligation to be removed from the Feucht lawsuit if he is elected attorney general. His reasoning for representing the pastor is to protect individual rights to preach and to participate in a religious ceremony.

“The First Amendment not only protects your right to free speech, your right to worship, but also your right to congregate and be together, and in my opinion, the resolution that we’re challenging impacts not only Mr. Feucht’s ability to do so and preach here in Spokane, but those parishioners that would like to worship with him,” Serrano said.

BROWN believes Serrano chooses to take cases like Feucht’s because he has similar views. Brown says he is glad that the city of Spokane is “vigorously” defending itself in the lawsuit and thinks it’s another example of Serrano not being in step with the people of Washington, but catering to those with extreme viewpoints.

“His defense of that person and some of the extreme views that the person has, I think, is yet another example of the extremist views that Pete has, frankly,” Brown says. n victorc@inlander.com

“BOB AND DAVE,” CONTINUED...

Reichert attacked Ferguson for supporting the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which created a cap-and-invest program requiring major polluting industries to buy emission “allowances” at auctions. Reichert referred to the law as a “gas tax” because of its (somewhat disputed) role in increasing gas prices in Washington. Both the capital gains tax and the Climate Commitment Act are at risk of being repealed this year because of initiatives 2109 and 2117, which will both appear on the November ballot. Brian Heywood, the hedge fund manager who bankrolled both initiatives, was in the audience for the Spokane debate.

A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR?

Republicans tend to do well in Spokane County. In 2020, Inslee lost the county by 10 points to Republican challenger Loren Culp, a former police chief.

Culp’s victory in Spokane did little to help him in the larger race, however, as Washington’s heavily populated western counties are deep blue. Inslee sailed to an easy 13-point victory statewide. (Culp, echoing former President Donald Trump, refused to concede.)

Republicans like Culp and Reichert have long been at a disadvantage in statewide Washington elections. The last time Washington elected a Republican for governor was in 1981, and the state’s subsequent 39-year streak of Democratic governors is longer than any other state in the country.

Both Reichert and Ferguson are well aware of this. On the campaign trail, Reichert has tried to present himself as a moderate — a reasonable alternative for Washingtonians who dislike Trump but still have frustrations with Inslee’s handling of crime and drugs.

“I am asking you to believe that together we can make change in Washington state,” Reichert told the debate audience. “A Democrat House, Democrat Senate, working together with, yes, a Republican governor. A balanced government.”

Ferguson, for his part, has done everything in his power to remind people that Reichert belongs to the same party as Trump. He has attempted to tie Reichert to “MAGA extremists,” and frequently brings up audio clips from closed door meetings that he says show Reichert indicating support for Republican stances on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights that are unpopular in liberal Washington.

During a debate on Sept. 10, Ferguson chided Reichert for talking about public safety while also supporting a “convicted felon for president who, by the way, is also a convicted sexual abuser.”

Reichert responded by claiming that he does not plan to vote for Trump — or Kamala Harris. He denied previous reporting from the Seattle Times that said he had indicated support for Trump during a private GOP meeting.

When asked about LGBTQ+ equality, Reichert said he believes marriage is “between a man and a woman,” but would not impose that belief on the people of Washington.

During the debate in Spokane, Ferguson pointed to Reichert’s history of voting for a nationwide abortion ban while in Congress.

Reichert said he currently supports the abortion “laws that are on the books of Washington state,” and then he pivoted to talking about child care. The non-answer prompted laughter from the Democratic side of the audience, which Reichert responded to by directly addressing the skeptical Ferguson supporters in the theater.

“OK, you want to talk about access? I’m all for access,” Reichert said. “I’m absolutely in support of Gov. Inslee’s initiatives to supply abortions to people out of state.”

Reichert attempted to attack Ferguson by tying him to Inslee and other Washington Democrats’ failure to address the homelessness and fentanyl crisis.

“You’ve been there for 12 years, are you responsible?” Reichert said. “Who do we look to for leadership if no one takes responsibility?”

Ballots are due Nov. 5. n

nates@inlander.com

Attorney General candidates Nick Brown (left) and Pete Serrano (right) debated at the AWB Policy Summit in Spokane last week. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN MITTGE/AWB

Closed for Good

Washington closes its execution chamber. Plus, Spokane officials raise concerns over Hanford waste; and the city’s police oversight office is still struggling for independent authority.

BY INLANDER STAFF

The death penalty has been effectively barred in Washington since 2014 when Gov. Jay Inslee announced a moratorium on the practice.

But physical remnants of capital punishment remained. That is, until last week, when the Walla Walla State Penitentiary execution chamber was officially closed. There, 78 people were executed by hanging or lethal injection between 1904 and 2010. The closure marked the end of a decadelong legal process to abolish the death penalty in the state. In 2017, three years after Inslee’s moratorium, the Washington Supreme Court decided that the death penalty violated the state constitution because it had been disproportionately applied to Black defendants. The Legislature finally voted to outlaw the practice in 2023. “When people commit a heinous crime, sentencing shouldn’t be a fatal lottery based on zip code or race,” Inslee said at the closing ceremony last week. “This closure brings us one step closer to equal justice, for all.” (COLTON RASANEN)

TOXIC TRANSIT

The Spokane City Council voted 6-1 on Monday to send a letter drafted by Council member Zack Zappone to Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and leaders at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the federal Department of Energy addressing concerns about transporting radioactive waste through Spokane. Liquid hazardous waste is expected to be transported from the Hanford nuclear site through Spokane to treatment facilities in Texas and Utah in liquid form. The letter states the council “encourages you to seriously consider the potential ramifications of transporting liquid nuclear waste via Interstate 90 through highly populated and traveled regions of our state and city.” On Sept. 18, Mayor Lisa Brown sent a similar letter addressing fears about the potential for more liquid waste to move through the region without an environmental impact study. The initial planned route through Oregon was changed to a route through Washington, after Oregon officials voiced concerns. “I am extremely disappointed to learn that, following the expression of serious concerns by our friends from the State of Oregon and the CTUIR, your agencies shifted your planned route to go through Spokane,” Brown’s letter stated. (VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ)

OMBUDS UPDATE

Spokane’s Office of Police Ombuds is an independent civilian oversight agency that reviews internal affairs cases, provides policy recommendations and processes civilian complaints. But during an annual presentation to the City Council on Monday, ombuds Bart Logue, who leads the office, said that Spokane’s police watchdog agency is still struggling to achieve full independent authority more than a decade after it was created. Many challenges stem from terms in the Spokane Police Guild’s current contract with the city, which Logue said “set back civilian oversight in Spokane.” The contract limits the ombuds’ ability to access records and interview officers when conducting independent investigations. It also removes the office from the process of selecting a deputy police ombuds and places a number of restrictions on how closing reports are written. The last round of contract negotiations were “extremely frustrating,” Logue said. Council member Michael Cathcart noted that the ballot proposition to create the independent watchdog passed with 70% of the vote in 2013. “There’s still a long way to go to full implementation of what I think most of the voters expected,” Cathcart said. Thankfully, Logue said his office is making progress on community engagement and has a “pretty good working relationship with SPD.” Complaints against officers are on a downward trend. The ombuds office received 77 complaints in 2023 — the lowest number since 2019. (NATE SANFORD) n

Natural Gas Debate

Washington voters will decide whether to restrict government agencies from discouraging natural gas with I-2066

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

In light of recent regulatory changes that Initiative 2066 backers call a “de facto natural gas ban,” Washington voters will be asked whether they want to prevent state and local government bodies from even discouraging the use of gas, as well as make sweeping changes to how the state’s largest utility can plan for the future.

The initiative is one of three backed by the political action committee Let’s Go Washington that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. The committee is supported by a slew of building industry groups and was started by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood.

“I don’t think the state has any business dictating what form of energy people should be using to cook and heat their homes,” Heywood says.

Let’s Go Washington is promoting I-2066 with the slogan, “Stop the Gas Ban.”

The No on I-2066 campaign, launched this month, is backed by environmental groups, renewable energy companies, companies that design and build energy efficient homes, medical associations, and more. The “no” campaign says that I-2066 “would increase energy bills,” “attacks energy efficiency,” “is funded by powerful interest groups,” and “would stop towns, cities and counties from making decisions that work best for their communities.”

“They are talking about gas bans, and there’s simply no such thing,” says Leah Missik, the Washington deputy policy director for Climate Solutions, a nonprofit working to accelerate the clean energy transition. “If you live in a gas utility’s territory, and you want to be served, they have to serve you. That’s state law.”

WHAT IT WOULD DO

The initiative’s first line reads, “The people find that having access to natural gas enhances the safety, welfare, and standard of living of all people in Washington.”

It would create new sections in state law, and amend several existing sections, with the intent of promoting “energy choice, security, independence, and resilience throughout the state,” and acknowledging that natural gas “serves as a backup source

of energy during emergencies.”

I-2066 would make several changes to House Bill 1589, which passed on the last day of this year’s legislative session.

Heywood says in its original form, the bill would’ve outright banned new natural gas hookups for Western Washington customers, which was part of the impetus for writing the initiative with the Building Industry Association of Washington. As signed into law, 1589 changes the way that Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, plans for the future, requiring it to create one integrated system plan for both its electricity and natural gas sales. The utility needs to evaluate the lowest reasonable cost of decarbonization measures required by multiple state laws that require greenhouse gas emission reductions.

“To me, it was just Olympia flipping the bird to the voters saying, ‘We don’t give a crap what you guys think, or how this impacts you,’” Heywood says. “‘For this ideological agenda, we’re going to push this through and you can all take it and we’re gonna shove a cracker down your throat.’”

The initiative would prevent the Utilities and Transportation Commission from approving any integrated system plans that would involuntarily move customers off of natural gas by restricting access or making it cost prohibitive.

Missik says the initiative “strikes cost effective electrification planning for Puget Sound Energy,” and the passage of 1589 provided a method for the utility to holistically plan for its entire system under one document.

“They’re looking at the electric and gas side of their business in conjunction. It doesn’t make sense to view each of those things in a vacuum,” Missik says. “[The initiative] also jeopardizes federal funding that Washington could give to people who want to make energy efficient upgrades.”

Programs such as the state’s Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates, which has provided Spokane County nearly $1.6 million to help lowincome families upgrade to electric heating, could also be at risk if the initiative passes, says Gavin Tenold, owner and general contractor at Northwest Renewables in Spokane.

Natural gas regulation is on the ballot.

Tenold helps install electric heat pumps, and says they’re cost-effective, efficient appliances that save customers money. He is encouraging people to vote “no” on I-2066.

“I think it has very broad sweeping impacts across all sorts of very popular common sense policies and programs that are intended to in fact make energy more affordable,” Tenold says.

DON’T EVEN DISCOURAGE IT

Perhaps most significantly, I-2066 also would prevent the state building code council, cities, towns, counties and clean air agencies from restricting natural gas usage, adding language to state law for each of those authorities that says they “shall not in any way prohibit, penalize, or discourage the use of gas for any form of heating, or for uses related to any appliance or equipment, in any building.”

“We don’t care whether you say it’s a ban, whether you say it’s not a ban, whether it’s a hidden ban,” Heywood says. “We’re going to preemptively say you may not ban it.”

The state building code council’s latest changes require new construction to meet specific energy efficiency scores. Missik says the easiest and cheapest way to meet those standards is to install electric heat pumps for heating and cooling and forgo natural gas appliances. If a customer still wants natural gas, they must build in other efficiencies that may be more expensive, such as highly rated insulation materials.

“That means builders would have to comply with energy efficiency codes by using the most expensive envelope components,” Missik says. “If they’re concerned about energy efficiency being a driver of increased code costs, they did not address that.”

Kara Odegard who works as a consultant for Spokane-based company Measure Meant, helping tribes and other customers plan for energy efficiency — agrees and supports the “No on I-2066” campaign.

“2066 would roll back energy efficiency standards for the entire state, which are really important not only to keep consumer energy costs low, but also an important way for us to address the state’s contributions to climate pollution,” Odegard says.

She says the state is creating an integrated system plan for the largest utility, which could later be used by other utilities such as Avista, so that customers who can’t afford to get off of the less efficient system “aren’t going to be stuck on the old system and paying exorbitant prices.” She compares it to when many homeowners switched from oil heating to natural gas, noting that those who were the last to transition saw their costs increase.

“It feels like they’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist,” Odegard says of the initiative backers. “People don’t care what fuel is heating their home. They just care that it works and that it’s saving them money, and this effort is going to derail all of that.”

Heywood pushes back on the idea that there’s no plan to ban natural gas, or the idea that nothing in current code effectively bans it by making it more cost prohibitive.

“Ironically, on this one, the state is gaslighting about the ‘no desire to ban natural gas,’” Heywood says. “If there’s no plan to ban natural gas … they shouldn’t be worried.”

FINANCIAL INTERESTS

According to filings with the Public Disclosure Commission, Let’s Go Washington (which supported six initiatives this year) has raised more than $5.5 million. The political action committee has received $100,000 from Spokane developer Larry Stone, a combined $25,000 from Cowles Company President and Spokesman-Review publisher William Stacey Cowles and his wife Anne Cowles, $15,000 from William Bouten of Bouten Construction, and $10,000 from Washington Trust Bank. More than $1 million of the committee’s funding was from the “Main Street Matters to Washington” committee, which is supported by the National Association of Home Builders, Washington Realtors, Associated General Contractors of Washington BUILD PAC, Kaiser Aluminum and others.

The No on 2066 committee, according to PDC filings, has raised just less than $100,000, and received $34,000 (in-kind) from Washington, D.C.-based Rewiring America, Inc., $25,000 from the Washington Conservation Voters Action Fund, $10,000 from Washington Conservation Action and a variety of small donations. n samanthaw@inlander.com

HARRY POTTER AND OTHER

SHIRA

Back by Popular Demand! The magical sounds of Hogwarts and the wizarding world returns to The Fox! The Spokane Symphony conjures your favorite tunes from the Harry Potter films and many other Halloween favorites.

Come prepared to explore Diagon Alley, a selection of whimsical, fantastical, and magical shops from local witches, wizards, and muggles.

SATURDAY OCT 26 7:30 PM SUNDAY OCT 27 3:00 PM

Uncertain Future

Ahead of the September health board meeting, union members oppose the potential privatization of Spokane Regional Health District’s opioid treatment program

BY COLTON RASANEN

In April, the Spokane Regional Health District’s health board decided to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether the district’s opioid treatment program should become its own private entity.

At the time, district Administrative Officer Alicia Thompson argued that separating the program from the government entity could allow the program to operate nimbly outside the confines of slow-moving governmental processes.

The Spokane Regional Health District or SRHD has been running its opioid treatment services division for more than three decades. It started in 1990, before any other entity in Spokane offered methadone for opioid use disorder. Now it’s the largest single-site opioid treatment program in the state, serving about 1,000 clients for opioid and substance use disorder.

The first step of the feasibility study was to gather as much feedback as possible to understand how clients, employees and the community feel about privatizing the service. Thompson will present her findings at the Board of Health’s Sept. 26 meeting.

Last week, PROTEC17, the union representing a majority of the health care staff at SRHD, organized a “shaved ice social” in Manito Park to raise awareness of the potential privatization and to openly discourage the health board from moving forward with the second step of the feasibility study.

“We have a functioning, successful program

that actually saves lives,” PROTEC17 Union Representative Suzie Saunders says. “So, why would they want to fix something that isn’t broken? It just makes no sense.”

Saunders was joined by about 10 other union members who also work within SRHD’s treatment services division.

Due to the longevity of the program and its huge impact in the midst of an opioid crisis, some argue that privatization is just downright unnecessary.

“We’re dealing with an opioid crisis and yet, we’re talking about this huge seismic shift that’s completely unnecessary,” says Nick CastroLang, a PROTEC17 member who works in the district’s treatment services division. “People come to us for stability, but it feels like anything but that right now.”

CastroLang says that he and many of his coworkers are frustrated by the uncertainty this study has brought. If the program were to become its own entity, he says, many don’t know if they would keep their jobs or if the care they provide would change.

“We came [to SRHD] for the good benefits and the good pay. But, people stay because you get to care about clients and treat addiction as it is — a disease,” he says, arguing that a private treatment program would treat its clients as just numbers.

Shannon Warnken, a PROTEC17 member and a substance use counselor, says that she worked

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at a private opioid treatment program before beginning at SRHD in 2021. That change for her “was like going from hell to heaven,” she says. While there were many factors that changed, she says the biggest difference was that her larger caseload at the private program led to clients getting insufficient care from her. At SRHD she has 89 clients, but she says at her previous job, she had 130. (Warnken declined to name the private program that she previously worked for.)

“I thought I was going to retire here [at SRHD],” she says. “Now, I just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Thompson has hosted three virtual town halls, held numerous listening sessions, and sent out client and employee surveys. While the uncertainty that union members are feeling can be upsetting, Thompson says those feelings stem from the nature of the three-step feasibility study.

This first step has provided employees, clients and the rest of the community a chance to make their concerns known. But Thompson says that many of those concerns can only be addressed in the second step of the study.

If the study moves forward, Thompson will be tasked with analyzing treatment services’ financial situation and assessing the legal and regulatory framework that they must follow if they choose to privatize.

“A lot of fears and concerns that have been raised cannot be answered yet, because we have not made it to step two,” she says.

When Thompson presents her findings at the health board’s Thursday meeting, she’ll recommend two alternatives the board could take, she tells the Inlander

First, she believes that based on the information gathered, there’s good reason to end the feasibility study, leaving the opioid treatment program under SRHD, but also to make changes to the program’s oversight. She did not elaborate on what oversight changes she would recommend.

The second recommendation would be to continue the feasibility study and begin step two. She stresses that this is still an informationgathering stage, so it does not mean that the program would separate from SRHD or change in any way yet.

“Under no circumstances, no matter what happens, will we have a gap in services for our clients. Our treatment services are not at risk of closing, and we will not move locations,” she says. “This feasibility study is dedicated to finding a more efficient path to scaling this program. The opioid crisis is the reason we’re even doing the feasibility survey.” n

coltonr@inlander.com

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Union members discuss their opposition to the privatization of Spokane Regional Health District’s opioid treatment program. COLTON RASANEN PHOTO

Power

The MAC’s marquee fall exhibit features more than 100 pieces of art by lifelong artist Joe Feddersen.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

VISUAL ARTS

of

Place

The MAC’s latest exhibit explores sx̌ʷyʔiɬp artist Joe Feddersen’s lifelong journey with art

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

Whether dangling from a bracelet or hung around the neck like an amulet, charms suggest inherent power, even if it’s subtle. They’re also emblematic of other things — people, places, events. The word “charm” can suggest playful beguilement, but also being tricked out of something valuable, such as one’s land or possessions.

So which is it for sx̌ʷyʔiɬp (Colville) artist Joe Feddersen, who calls his flattened, fused glass symbols “charms?”

“Everybody’s interpretation is valid,” says Feddersen, quoting Skagit elder Vi Taqwseblu Hilbert, one of many friends and mentors who have shaped his lifetime journey with art. In the many interviews Feddersen has given over his 45-year career, he often mentions something else about Hilbert: She called Feddersen a storyteller.

Feddersen’s charms tell the story of his seven decades living and working in Omak and the greater Northwest. His work conveys its elk, fish and trees, but also its airplanes, traffic signs and high-voltage transmission towers, which Feddersen calls “energy thieves” for the way in which the land of his ancestors was taken and exploited without consent.

To display his charms, Feddersen often suspends the transparent images on columns of clear filament to form a glass curtain measuring upwards of 10 feet long.

One such work, “Charmed (Bestiary),” which was last shown at the venerable Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2023 Renwick Invitational, will be a prominent — and likely popular — feature of Feddersen’s three-month exhibition at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture.

Titled “Earth, Water, Sky,” the Feddersen retrospective

...continued on next page

VISUAL ARTS

exhibition opens Sept. 28 and showcases 120 works from the prolific artist’s range of media: printmaking, woven baskets, ceramics and glass. A hardcover book, Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky, accompanies the exhibition, which also features three videos produced by Spokane-based and Indigenous-owned Counting Coup Media.

Like many of Feddersen’s works, “Charmed (Bestiary)” can be read multiple ways. Bestiaries are allegorical tales of real and mythical animals popularized in the Middle Ages, while Feddersen’s charms suggest the entire spectrum and history of ideographic language, from Indigenous petroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphics to modern logos. At the same time, the charms’ cast shadows dance on the wall like an ever-changing animation.

So which is it?

“I think about how people read the horoscopes, and I like that horoscopes are vague enough, that it applies to a lot of people in a lot of

different ways,” Feddersen says.

“And all of the readings are right, you know? And that’s how, in a sense, kind of a way of looking at things that I like to have is that ambiguity in there to open it up.”

Even though there is a lot of ambiguity in how one might perceive Feddersen’s work, there are some constants: his heritage and the land.

Born in 1953 in Omak, Washington, a portion of which lies on the westernmost edge of the Colville Indian Reservation, Feddersen describes his heritage as Arrow Lakes and Okanagan.

Feddersen is also a “self-proclaimed landscape artist,” says Rachel Allen (Nimiipuu/Nez Perce), who co-curated the exhibition and co-wrote its companion publication with heather ahtone (Choctaw/Chickasaw Nation), the director of curatorial affairs at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.

“Drizzle,” 2016, a relief and stencil monoprint with collage, staples and spraypaint. DEAN DAVIS PHOTO

“POWER OF PLACE,” CONTINUED...

“We’re positioning him as an American landscape artist because that’s really important to have that conversation about that, even though Native art history and his Native history in general predates [traditional landscape painting] by a long shot,” Allen says.

Allen, who’s completing her doctorate in the history of art program at University of Delaware, offers this context: Oftentimes people envision a landscape artist in terms of 19th century Western art movements like the Hudson River School, whose artists Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt depicted the land as pristine, untouched, sublime.

When Joe looks at the land, he sees all of the layers of people and animals and ancestors walking over this land for millennia.

Those landscapes, however, “don’t have the connectedness that you have from a Native perspective, where when Joe looks at the land, he sees all of the layers of people and animals and ancestors walking over this land for millennia,” Allen says.

“It’s not a picture window on the world,” she continues. “It’s the complex layers of the land that we’re on, and those layers go into the water, and they go into the skies, and those places are active and storied as well. [Joe] sees the petroglyphs that his ancestors did thousands of years ago. He sees the tire tracks that were made yesterday. He sees it all, and he looks at it through these layers.”

Indeed, two words that come to mind when viewing

Feddersen’s “Echo 12,” a 2019 multimedia piece featuring petroglyph-like marks. DEAN DAVIS PHOTO

VISUAL ARTS

“POWER OF PLACE,” CONTINUED...

Feddersen’s work are layers and connectedness.

As the MAC retrospective illustrates, Feddersen employs related motifs across many media, as well as layering them within each media, from his charms and glass vessels, to his baskets and prints. The shapes from the glass charms, for example, were part of the evolution of a series of prints also called “Charmed,” which had a less-than-charming origin.

After tracing some of the charms onto prints he’d made in a process called monoprinting or single-edition printing, rather like a drawing, Feddersen stepped back to consider the results.

“I made like around 10 or so and I hated them, so I just put them in a drawer,” he says. “And then I brought them out later, and I thought, ‘I don’t have anything to lose,’” so he spray-painted them.

The juxtaposed layering of images that referenced his heritage with contemporary media and mark making was a hit with art collector Jordan D. Schnitzer. If the name sounds familiar, Schnitzer and his family’s foundation are the namesake of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University, and one of more than a dozen individuals or organizations to loan works to the MAC for the retrospective.

“He bought all of them,” Feddersen says.

Look for similar motifs in Feddersen’s baskets, a term he uses for both the textile forms he weaves using traditional materials like linen, wool, hide and fabric, as well as in his blown-glass vessels. Combined, the two artforms offer a study in Feddersen’s complementary ways of working: solitary and contemplative versus physical and equipment-driven, yet collaborative.

For example, after learning about 215 unmarked graves

...continued on page 22

MEET THE CURATOR

You never know what’s going to nudge you onto a new path. For Rachel Allen (Nimiipuu/Nez Perce), it was an atypical art exhibit at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. Allen was a high school student at the time, living in Great Falls, where “cowboy artist” Charles M. Russell and other artists of his time defined standards of depicting the American West, including Native Americans.

Although Allen’s parents had taken her to plenty of museums, the Holter show was different. It featured multimedia artist Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits,” which synthesized dance, sculpture, African art traditions, and fashion.

“I just finished my junior year, and I was like, ‘This is what art could be? This is amazing,’” Allen recalls.

She attended Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, then Cleveland Institute of Art, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking.

“I think art and museum work for me have always been on each side of the seesaw of my professional career and just sometimes one goes up, sometimes one goes down, sometimes they’re even,” says Allen, who is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware’s history of art program.

“It just sort of depends on what stage of life I’m in.”

While an undergrad, Allen continued exploring arts administration, including during an internship at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution. She noticed a stark contrast between Native representation in Montana and the West versus the Midwest.

“When I was growing up, it was still so obvious that Native people were here,” she says, yet she noticed that in Cleveland and the Great Lakes “that erasure [of Native Americans] was so much more apparent.”

So Allen went to her college library wondering: What was her art history?

“I was a maker, and I was like, ‘OK, who are my forebears?’” recalls Allen, who discovered Indigenous artists like James Luna (Luiseño) and Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith (French-Cree, Shoshone, and Salish) and Lucy Lippard, one of the first art critics to write about women and BIPOC art and artists.

Allen earned both a Master of Arts in printmaking and a Master of Fine Arts in arts and cultural management and museum studies from Michigan State University.

In graduate school, Allen also discovered Feddersen’s work.

“As I became more familiar with his work, I realized it was what I was looking for in some ways,” she says.

Feddersen’s pieces began to feel like old friends, and last year Allen relocated to Spokane to join the big team undertaking “Joe Feddersen: Earth Water Sky.”

After its Spokane premiere, the exhibit travels to High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, in September 2025. The following year, it’ll go on to Missoula Art Museum, whose curator Brandon Reintjes happened to curate the Nick Cave exhibition 20 years ago that so impacted a young Allen.

This year, she was able to close the loop, serving as guest juror for the Missoula Art Museum’s exhibition “We Stand With You,” addressing missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Allen recognizes how vital it is for institutions to provide access and representation to a broad spectrum, including people who have not necessarily been recognized. That’s one reason she was drawn to the MAC.

“The MAC has to do a lot of different things,” Allen says, “but of course one of our core missions is celebrating Plateau native art, contemporary and historic. And I love how we do these shows like Joe Feddersen’s to celebrate that.”

— CARRIE SCOZZARO

Rachel Allen, the MAC’s curator of special projects, co-curated Feddersen’s show. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

“Bestiary 7,” a 2021 relief and stencil monoprint with acrylic and collage.

DEAN DAVIS PHOTO

VISUAL ARTS

“POWER OF PLACE,” CONTINUED...

believed to be of Indigenous children that were discovered three years ago at Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Feddersen had much to contemplate and began a new series of baskets (not included in the retrospective).

“My grandparents survived that school,” Feddersen says. “They never talked about it.”

The artist responded to the horror of the Kamloops graves by weaving a basket with 215 skulls incorporated into the stitchery, one for each child.

“It’s kind of about understanding [what happened] because when you make something, you’re not supposed to be bitter or angry. And making the basket was like a labyrinth because it goes in a spiral,” says Feddersen, explaining that when walking in a spiral or labyrinth, you contemplate things, or maybe recite prayers.

“And making this basket was like that because you’re in the spiral and you’re weaving your way out and you’re working on the subject matter. So it’s contemplative and you think about what you’re doing, and you want it to be in a good way.”

In contrast, the glass vessels Feddersen learned to make after earning a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 require a collaborative approach, are much more physical, and necessitate the use of a lot of equipment.

In that way, says Feddersen, glassblowing is more akin to printmaking, which he first explored while attending Wenatchee Valley College. There, art instructors Robert Graves and Daryl Dietrich encouraged him to pursue art and became lifelong friends.

It’s kind of about understanding [what happened] because when you make something, you’re not supposed to be bitter or angry.

dersen feels most flexible and has certainly done the longest, but it wasn’t his first love.

“In the 1970s, my high school teacher liked rendering and didn’t like anything else,” he says.

So Feddersen turned to H. H. Hall’s ceramic studio in Omak to explore his artistic inclinations.

JOE FEDDERSEN: EARTH, WATER, SKY Sept. 28-Jan. 25, 2025

Open Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm, $8-$12 Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org, 509-456-3931

Feddersen says printmaking is central to his practice. He went on to major in it and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Washington in 1983.

“That’s where I feel more fluid,” he explains. “If I’m doing a proposal for anything, I’ll do monoprints as my drawings.”

Printmaking might be the artform with which Fed-

Although Feddersen was born into a family of makers — he has a vivid memory of his mother drawing at the family table in the early morning — the media that resonated most with him was clay.

“Ceramics was my first love,” he says.

His rarely exhibited, low-fired clay “Canoe Journey” sculptures are a highlight of the MAC retrospective. Coyote, a ubiquitous figure in many Indigenous stories, is the main character in the tableaux, and the artist says many of the sculptures have additional stories attached to them.

One “Canoe Journey” sculpture depicts a scene from

ABOVE: “Gathering Under the Stars,” 2010, waxed linen, wool, fabric and thread. LEFT: “Elk at Spotted Lake,” 2016, relief monoprint with spray paint,

TOP: “Canoe Journey,” 2019, sandblasted blown glass. ABOVE: “Canoe Journey: Coyote in Inner Tube,” 2016, low fire ceramic.

when a Maori artist visiting Feddersen’s studio lost the basket he was working on during a sojourn down the Mississippi River.

Another sculpture relates to artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, whose heritage is French-Cree, Shoshone and Salish, and who was part of a cadre of Indigenous artists whose friendship and mentorship have been integral during Feddersen’s 40-year art journey.

“I told her I was doing these canoes, and she sent me a picture of one of her drawings of the canoes,” Feddersen says.

He then made a sculpture incorporating Quick-to-See-Smith’s drawing.

“I think it’s of a rabbit with a skull,” he says.

There’s another layer to the “Canoe Journey” sculptures, one that loops back to the unifying theme in Feddersen’s work of connectedness.

“Canoe journeys are social events, not commercial events,” he explains. “So they’re about community building, and it’s both going on the journey and watching the ceremonies on the shore that I think I have more of a whimsical attitude towards the whole thing.”

At nearly every bend in the river of his journey, Feddersen encountered a guide. Some, like Preston Singletary, taught him specific techniques, like “translating his baskets into glass,” exhibition curator Allen says.

“Elizabeth Woody, the former poet laureate of Oregon, taught him how to basket weave,” she says.

Woody, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, of Yakama Nation descent, is also one of five contributing writers to the exhibition’s publication, Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky

The late artist and former curator of the National Museum of the American Indian, Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk), also had a big influence on Feddersen, who studied under Lowe at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lowe was instrumental in getting Feddersen to branch out into different media.

Lowe told Feddersen that he wasn’t just a printmaker, Allen says, but rather an artist, and he encouraged him to “try things that match the idea or match the impulse,” versus being limited to a specific medium.

“And so he tried glass casting, he tried digital media, he tried lots of things,” says Allen, whose obvious enthusiasm for Feddersen’s work originates from her own experiences in search of her forebears.

Some of Feddersen’s mentors influenced both his artmaking and his approach to life, like Glen Alps, his printmaking professor at UW.

“We used to sit and talk about how he would see the world and how he would perceive things much more than how to print things,” says Feddersen, who became a mentor himself when he joined the art teaching staff of Evergreen State College in 1989.

Later, when Feddersen was in the midst of what would be a 20-year teaching career, he invited Alps to speak to his students at Evergreen.

“And he spoke for two and a half hours on breathing naturally,” Feddersen says. “What he really was talking about was letting the artwork flow from you.” n

“High Voltage Tower,” 2004, sandblasted blown glass. DEAN DAVIS PHOTO

Fred Anderson Compass Construction President, Spokane Home Builders Association

Experience the Future of Home Building – Join us in touring a Variety of New Construction Homes

As the President and Executive Officer of the Spokane Home Builders Association, we are thrilled to extend a heartfelt invitation to prospective homebuyers and home enthusiasts to attend our highly anticipated 2024 Fall Festival of Homes! In its 20th year, this exciting event will showcase the best and newest in building techniques, materials, and craftsmanship, offering you an exclusive look into the future of home construction. Our scattered site show provides a unique opportunity to tour a diverse array of newly built homes from a variety of local builders. Each home will feature cuttingedge innovations and thoughtful design elements that highlight the extraordinary talent and creativity within our community.

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Whether you’re considering a new home, seeking inspiration for a renovation, or simply have a passion for exceptional design and construction, this event is a mustvisit. It’s a wonderful chance to interact with local builders, ask questions, and gain insights into what makes each home unique.

We also want to recognize all of our industry partners who make it possible to provide this home tour free of charge to the public. This year’s Presenting Sponsor

is again Fred’s Appliance. You will see many of the appliances you can purchase at one of their numerous area locations featured in the various homes. You will also see the work of many of our other member business partners showcased in this magazine with their products and services on display.

We are proud to present this event as a testament to the quality and innovation that define Spokane’s home building industry. Your attendance not only supports our talented builders but also celebrates the vibrant and growing community of Spokane.

Mark your calendar for September 27–29 and October 4–6 and join us for a tour that will provide you with opportunities for exploration and inspiration. We look forward to sharing the future of home building with you!

Please use this magazine and our website as a guide through your tour and a resource when you begin thinking about your next home purchase or remodel.

Additionally, we encourage you to reach out the Spokane Home Builders Association when you’re considering your next home purchase or renovation project. You can find our “Find a Pro” section on our website at, www.SHBA.com, or call us at (509) 532-4990.

The Spokane Home Builders Association exists to promote, protect and inform our members and the community on issues related to the residential construction industry. We believe access to quality housing should be attainable to all local families given the broad range of income levels in our community. We work daily to educate our fellow citizens on the value of homeownership and fight against the addition of unnecessary regulation and fees that drive up the cost of homes. We are proud to promote that our members are, “Building our community one home at a time.”

Thanks to the 2024 Committee Members!

Nate Klein, Hug Construction (Chair)

Sharla Jones, Greenstone

Nichole Kerns, River Marketing

Mickey Hough, Elk Canyon Construction

Nancy Humphries, California Closets

Tawny McKenzie & Taylor Clanagan, Spokane HBA

Denise Mai, Windermere

Caylin Novell, Windermere Manito

Brandie Overbay, Western Windows

Abbey Parsons, Coldwell Banker Tomlinson

Garth Trimble, KAYU-TV

Cyndee Wood, Idaho Central Credit Union

Joel White Spokane Home Builders Association Executive Officer

THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 FALL FESTIVAL OF HOMES SPONSORS! PREMIER SPONSOR

PARTNER SPONSORS

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FEATURED BUILDERS

SPOKANE VALLEY

NORTH

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bathrooms, a family room on each level plus an office/den on the main floor and a 3-car garage! This home is upgraded throughout, featuring LVP on the entire main floor, all bathrooms and in the laundry room. You will find quartz countertops throughout the house, as well as a fullheight quartz backsplash in the kitchen! Custom cabinets, lighting and a full appliance package are just a few of the other features! The home is fully landscaped front and back and fully fenced as well. Located across the street from Riverbend Elementary School, and close to the Centennial Trail! There are still opportunities to build in Sam’s Ranch by picking from our plans or designing a home custom to your wants and needs! We look forward to welcoming you at this year’s Fall Festival of Homes!

Gordon Finch Homes

Brian Offield p: (509) 926-7013

gordonfinchhomes.com www.gordon finchhomes.com REALTOR Avalon 24 Zac Scott p: (509) 868-5244 zac@avalontwofour.com

Tremendous Solitude, one-level home in Glennaire! A spacious design with a 946-squarefoot 4-car garage and enormous, nearly 500-square-foot, covered rear patio! 3 beds, 2 baths, and additional office! A large laundry room, which is connected to the primary suite. The primary bath includes a large walk-in closet/walk-in shower/large vanity with quartz counters. A superb kitchen with a large island/quartz counters/double-oven appliances. A fun wet bar off the kitchen with bar sink and beverage refrigerator. A great South Hill location and oversized lot! Price includes rear-yard landscaping!

Paras Homes

Kurt Paras p: (509) 535-8377 information@ parashomes.com www.parashomes.com

REALTOR

CB Coldwell Tomlinson

Shane Delaney p: (509) 879-2683 shanedelaney 73@gmail.com

10585 North Paiute Drive, Spokane

Builder Sponsor

The Meridian floorplan by Lennar is a spacious single-family residence that offers a smart layout across two-stories. On the first floor, a modern open design, a gourmet kitchen and dining area, a great room, and a flexible bedroom can be found. Upstairs, a bonus room provides more living space surrounded by four bedrooms, including a lavish owner’s suite.

BUILDER

Lennar

Stephanie Link p: (509) 746-8315

stephanie.link@lennar.com www.lennar.com/inwhomes REALTOR Lennar

Stephanie Link p: (509) 746-8315 lennarinw@lennar.com

STAGING Home Staging Works

4516 West Vel View Court, Spokane

Builder Sponsor

The Bainbridge Next Gen® floorplan design is a two-story home that is ideal for multigenerational households. The private attached suite features its own separate entrance, living room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry and kitchenette. In the main home, the open concept living and dining spaces occupy the first floor. Three bedrooms, a loft, and a tech space can be found on the second floor. This home offers all the essentials for those looking to work, live, and grow together all while having a sense of independence.

Lennar

Stephanie Link p: (509) 746-8315 stephanie.link@lennar.com www.lennar.com/inwhomes

1,574-square-foot Hudson is an efficiently designed, mid-sized single level home offering both space and comfort. The open kitchen is a chef’s dream, with counter space galore, plenty of cupboard storage and a breakfast bar. The expansive living room and adjoining dining area complete this eating and entertainment space. The spacious and private main suite boasts a dual vanity bathroom, optional separate shower and an enormous closet. The other two sizeable bedrooms, one of which may be converted into a den or office, share the second bathroom and round out this well-planned home.

REALTOR

Lennar

Stephanie Link p: (509) 746-8315 lennarinw@lennar.com STAGING Home Staging Works

Welcome to 13518 North Copper Canyon Lane located in Wandermere Estates. This home features 10-foot-high ceilings throughout, an elegant kitchen with oversized island, stainless appliances and butler’s pantry. The open concept flows from the kitchen into the great room, dining area, and covered patio. The primary bedroom is off the kitchen with a large en suite bathroom that has heated tile floors, no-step shower, and California Closets. Only seconds away from Wandermere Golf course, Centennial trail, restaurants and only minutes from Kalispel Country Club.

Welcome to the stunning “Big Timber”

14928 North Freya, Mead

Welcome to the stunning “Big Timber” floor plan, a custombuilt home with modern style in the heart of Mead, Washington. Offering 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a bonus room that also

style in the heart of Mead, Washington. Offering 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a bonus room that also

sink vanity, and a walk-in shower. Outside you’ll find an attached 2-car garage, covered back patio perfect for outdoor entertaining just off the kitchen, and a covered front porch perfect for enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings Hidden Timbers has to offer. This home comes with solar panels, stainless appliances, a high-efficiency furnace/heat pump/AC and a heat pump hot water tank.

accommodates a secondary option for an oversized primary bedroom or rec room! Step inside to find high vaulted ceilings, plenty of natural lighting and a cozy fireplace creating a warm and inviting ambiance. The gourmet kitchen is the entertainer’s dream, boasting a large hard surface island, spacious walk-in pantry providing ample storage and stunning LVT floors. The main floor living area features a spacious primary bedroom that includes a walk-in closet, private bathroom with double sink vanity, and a walk-in shower. Outside you’ll find an attached 2-car garage, covered back patio perfect for outdoor entertaining just off the kitchen, and a covered front porch perfect for enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings Hidden Timbers has to offer. This home comes with solar panels, stainless appliances, a high-efficiency furnace/heat pump/AC and a heat pump hot water tank.

BUILDER

Elk Canyon

Construction Company

Mickey Hough p: (509) 710-3642 mickey@htimbers.com www.htimbers.com

REALTOR Move & Co. Real Estate

Nichole Andreasen

STAGING

Feathers Home Staging & Design

STAGING Feathers Home Staging & Design

Feathers Home Staging & Design

& Kelly Hettinger p: (509) 998-0169 p: (509) 217-8118 nicholemovesme@live.com hettingerhomes@gmail.com

5,240 $2,190,000

The Green Bluff Farm is a luxurious retreat on 28 acres with stunning views. This 6-bedroom, 5-bathroom home features a grand great room with a fireplace and exposed box beams. The gourmet kitchen connects seamlessly to the living and dining areas. An additional 2,000 square feet of deck/patio space for indoor-outdoor living. The primary bedroom offers a spa-like experience with walk-in tub/shower, double sinks, and walkin closet. The daylight basement includes a family room, mini bar, fireplace and second primary suite, making it perfect for relaxation and entertainment.

bedroom offers a spa-like experience with walk-in tub/shower, double sinks, and walkin closet. The daylight basement includes a family room, mini bar, fireplace and second primary suite, making it perfect for relaxation and entertainment.

additional 2,000 square feet of deck/patio space for indoor-outdoor living. The primary bedroom offers a spa-like experience with walk-in tub/shower, double sinks, and walkin closet. The daylight basement includes a family room, mini bar, fireplace and second primary suite, making it perfect for relaxation and entertainment.

Brytech Construction

REALTOR 4salespokane

Tom Wilkes p: (509) 979-1333 tom@brytechco.com www.brytechco.com

Gregg Patterson p: (509) 468-2622

REALTOR 4salespokane Gregg Patterson p: (509) 468-2622

STAGING Home Staging Works

Gregg Patterson p: (509) 468-2622 STAGING Home Staging Works

double sinks and a beautiful tile shower. Main floor living is complimented with a bonus space up—offering an additional bedroom suite and gathering room. Complete with a 3-car garage and low maintenance landscaping, this home has it all!

The Trillium is the featured home in Bidwell Park community in North Spokane. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths—no-step entry. The award-winning floor plan features an open great room concept living area steeped in natural light with a chef’s kitchen boasting all the amenities. The lovely primary features walk in closet, double sinks and a beautiful tile shower. Main floor living is complimented with a bonus space up—offering an additional bedroom suite and gathering room. Complete with a 3-car garage and low maintenance landscaping, this home has it all!

Brytech Construction

Home Staging Works 1116 East Handy, Colbert room. Complete with a 3-car garage and low maintenance landscaping,

Brytech Construction

Tom Wilkes p: (509) 979-1333 tom@brytechco.com www.brytechco.com

REALTOR Coldwell Banker Luke Mischke P: (509) 499-0218

601 East Jim Darby Drive, Medical Lake

Introducing a

2,109-square-foot

Introducing a stunningly rebuilt residence in the heart of Medical Lake, Washington. This 2,109-square-foot home, reconstructed by Hug Construction after the Gray Fire of 2023, offers 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an office, and a media room. With a 369-square-foot garage, 100-square-foot front patio, and a spacious 324-square-foot back patio, this home seamlessly blends modern comfort with timeless elegance.

seamlessly blends modern comfort with timeless elegance.

BUILDER

Hug

Hug Construction

Titus Hug p: (509) 981-3275 info@hugconstruction.com www.hugconstruction.com

and peaceful surroundings.

This stunning zero-entry, 4-bed, 3-bath modern farm-style rancher with an attached 2-car garage is the epitome of contemporary living. The open-concept living space features a soaring 14-foothigh grand room ceiling and a spacious kitchen island, perfect for hosting guests. The split bedroom layout creates the perfect oasis of a master suite, while the hidden entrance pantry adds practicality to daily life. The spacious covered front and back patios provide ample outdoor living space for entertaining and relaxing, enjoying beautiful views and peaceful surroundings.

Hug Construction

Titus Hug p: (509) 981-3275 info@hugconstruction.com www.hugconstruction.com

Spokane local Erin LaVoie is this year’s international women’s timbersport champion

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

“Sover the loudspeaker. “3, 2, 1, GO!” Axes swing overhead, then crash into logs between each athlete’s feet. Whoever breaks the wood in half first wins. American Erin LaVoie and Canadian Stephanie Naud are chop-for-chop not only in this event, but the entire STIHL Timbersports International Women’s Cup.

LaVoie, a Spokane native, set the world record for the underhand chop in the STIHL U.S. Women’s Championship in July. With a time of 23.61 seconds, she shaved nearly five seconds off the previous record. If she can get close to that time again, she could edge out Naud for the world title.

Splinters and chips fly. Then two nearly simultaneous cracks. The results are in: Naud at 26.56 seconds, and LaVoie at 26.24.

The lifetime Spokanite is now, at least according to this August’s STIHL World Championships in Klingenthal, Germany, the best lumberjill in the world.

LaVoie started competing in timbersports during college and has now dedicated over two decades to the sport. In addition to competing professionally, LaVoie owns and operates Predation Crossfit in East Spokane, where she trains nearly every day she’s not chopping or hauling wood. She also owns a business that makes the

in case their ax or chainsaw misses its mark.

But timbersports have never been a lifelong dream for LaVoie.

“I remember when I was super young, I saw it on TV,” she says. “I was watching it, like, ‘What are those baboons doing? This looks so stupid.’ They were just big, burly, ugly dudes. And then, you know, fast forward seven years, and I’m like, ‘Mom, come on. I’m on TV.’”

What has been a constant in LaVoie’s life is drive, grit and relentless competition — with brothers, friends, athletes and herself. Mentally, she’s always in attack, too busy becoming the best at whatever’s in front of her to make a plan B.

Physically, she’s lean and agile, a far cry from the lumberjacks she saw on TV. But everything from baseball to gymnastics has taught her how to get maximum power and accuracy from her limited frame.

win. I think if you’re competitive in anything, you can be competitive in anything.”

Logging sports have been around just about as long as logging has.

“Everything you do in life at one point turns into competition,” LaVoie says. “I mean, even printing off copies, you’re probably like, ‘I can do this faster than my coworker,’ right? So these are old logging events, like actually chopping down or sawing down trees, that just turned into competition and became a little more cleaned up and put onto a bigger stage.”

“Everything you do in life at one point turns into competition.”

“You can’t just go and swing an ax,” she says. “There’s hip movement, shoulder drive — just how to move your body for the most amount of strength. Then,

In addition to chopping wood, classic logging sports typically include pole climbing and log rolling. But most STIHLsponsored competitions, which are the most prestigious of logging competitions, only include four events for women: stock saw, standing block chop, single buck and underhand chop.

...continued on next page

CULTURE | SPORTS

“WOMAN OF STIHL,” CONTINUED...

For stock saw, athletes use the same offthe-shelf chainsaw to cut two rounds, called cookies, off the end of a 40-centimeter diameter tree trunk. One cookie has to be cut downward and one has to be cut upward, but both have to be within a 10-centimeter section.

The standing block chop is probably what you think of when you think of lumberjacks. A vertical wood block has to be felled by powerful strokes from both sides.

The single buck uses a long, handheld cross-cut saw — LaVoie’s is 5 feet, 10 inches, which is longer than she is tall — to saw the end off a horizontal wood block.

And the underhand chop, LaVoie’s favorite and current world record, requires the athlete to stand on top of a fixed horizontal wood block and chop it in half from both sides, until the log splits and their foot hits the ground.

Crossfit helps train body coordination and power to some extent. But to practice cutting trees, you’ve got to, well, cut trees.

“My building owner let me build a stage out there,” LaVoie says, pointing through a window to a black platform behind her Crossfit gym where she trains for timbersport events.

But to train, LaVoie first has to have trees. To get trees, LaVoie has to fell them on a designated plot of Idaho forest, supervised by a professional logger. She cuts

down aspens and cottonwoods, hauls them two hours back to Spokane, and does a whole lot of loading and unloading at different storage locations.

“It’s very hard, kind of ugly work — I mean, not to me, I love it,” she says. “You run out into the woods and you find a tree, cut it down, and you chop it or you saw it into logs, load it in a truck, bring it home, you unload it, you peel it, you wrap it, load it back into a truck, move it somewhere else. And then, when it’s time to train, you unload it again, and then you set it in a stand and get it prepared, and then you chop it in half. So all of that is very, very manual labor. If you’re not interested in that, you’re not gonna make it what you see on stage, the 23 to 40 seconds of it that looks easy. When you’re good at your job, you make it look easy.”

But the biggest struggle for LaVoie, between Crossfit and training and hauling and competing, is holding back.

“I know that I have a long road ahead of me,” she says. “If I didn’t compete, I probably wouldn’t [focus on recovery]. I’d just turn and burn because I love it so much. But I know that I have to keep healthy, so I hold myself back sometimes. But I’ve always been moving. I’ve always been active. And when I don’t get that, I’m not a happy person. This is keeping me sane and happy. It feels like home to me.” n

Rates Are Falling—Time to Stop Stalling!

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Destiny’s Child

Hannah Shankman is stepping into the role of Fanny Brice on a national Broadway tour. Was it always meant to be?

BY E.J. IANNELLI

Having recently been cast in the lead role of Fanny Brice in the nationally touring production of Funny Girl, which comes to Spokane this weekend as part of the Best of Broadway lineup, Hannah Shankman describes the experience in ways that you might expect: “thrilling,” “incredible” and “crazy.” But she also uses another, less common word that’s much more revealing: beschert

Beschert is a Yiddish word that means “preordained” or “destined.” And for Shankman, there’s a sense that Fanny is the part she was always meant to play.

“As a child, I had the biggest crush on Omar Sharif,” she says. “I know that sounds random, but I loved watching his movies, and it’s sort of how I found Barbra Streisand,” who reprised her role in the Broadway musical to star with Sharif in the 1968 cinema adaptation of Funny Girl

“Watching her just create this absolutely, unapologetically vulnerable, humorous, confident woman was so inspiring as a child that I think it really helped propel me into the career that I wanted as an actor. When they first announced that Funny Girl was reviving on Broadway, I was so excited to be stepping into Fanny’s shoes after these iconic women like Barbra and Lea Michele.”

Fanny herself was a real-life figure and no less iconic. You could argue that she helped pave the way for later cross-media female entertainers like Streisand and Michele or, to cite two of Shankman’s examples, Joan Rivers and Sarah Silverman.

Born in 1891 into a Jewish immigrant household in New York’s Lower East Side, Brice made her way onto the burlesque circuit while still a teenager. That was soon followed by a long involvement with the Ziegfeld Follies, a showbiz platform that led Brice to additional fame in

music, film and Broadway revues. She was especially well known for her mischievous Baby Snooks character and the 1921 torch song “My Man,” which became an international hit.

The lines in “My Man” that run “But I love him / I don’t know why I should / He isn’t good, he isn’t true” could easily have been describing Brice’s second marriage to the grifter, philanderer and gambler Nicky Arnstein. Those years were tumultuous ones that saw her trying to maintain her entertainment career and young family while Arnstein was otherwise occupied in schemes, courthouses and jails.

That topsy-turvy relationship became a central feature in Funny Girl, albeit simplified for the sake of plot and pacing when the trio of Jule Styne, Bob Merrill and Isobel Lennart created the musical in the early 1960s. To gain a fuller understanding of her character beyond the musical, Shankman tucked into the ample biographical material on Brice.

“I learned a lot about her life, her upbringing, her relationship with Nicky Arnstein, her relationship with her mother. And I really allowed that to inform my springboard into the role,” she says.

It helped, she adds, that Harvey Fierstein’s revisions to the book for the 2022 Broadway revival removed “some of the things that were unnecessary, really [clarified] the plot and [strengthened] the relationship between Fanny and Nick.” The updated musical also adds two numbers, including the song “Temporary Arrangement” as sung by Nick.

“While the show is definitely a love letter to the theater, I actually think that at its core, it’s really a love story, not only just between Fanny and Nick Arnstein, but between Fanny and herself.”

These myriad — and sometimes competing — loves are at play in the act one closer, “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” perhaps the musical’s most famous number. “Don’t tell me not to live... Don’t tell me not to fly / I’ve simply got to,” Fanny sings to Nick, even as she agrees to make sacrifices to be with him.

“There really is this power switch that happens halfway through the show. It’s Fanny putting her foot down and saying, ‘This is what I want and I’m gonna get it.’ She does that with her career, and she does that in her relationships, sometimes to her detriment, but she really knows how to dig her heels in and ground herself and go after what she wants.”

And if the more than 20 costume changes weren’t enough to suggest the multifaceted qualities of Fanny Brice, there’s a side to her character that Shankman says is captured by yet another tune that transcends the musical. It’s “People,” a song that Streisand made famous and fought to have retained in the original score.

“It’s one of the few times where we really see Fanny strip away her tough side, her strength, and really be vulnerable. It just has such a special spot in my heart,” Shankman says.

She’s confident that even lifelong Funny Girl fans like her will discover new sides to Fanny in this production, too.

“You’re just going to see a completely different Funny Girl than the one from 1964 or in the movie,” she says. “It’s exciting for us, and it’s really exciting for the audiences.” n

Funny Girl • Oct. 1-5 at 7:30 pm; also Oct. 5 at 2 pm, Oct. 6 at 1 and 6:30 pm • $39.50-$94.50 • First Interstate Center for the Arts • 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. • broadwayspokane.com • 509-279-7000

Funny Girl’s Fanny Brice heads to Spokane. MATTHEW MURPHY PHOTO

‘NOT FOR SALE’

Meet Smudge, Global Neighborhood’s resident cat beloved by staff and the community

BY CHEY SCOTT

Atherapy animal, Instagram star, and product tester. A customer greeter who’s also been lovingly dubbed the laziest employee on staff. Global Neighborhood Thrift & Vintage’s resident cat Smudge has many roles.

For nearly all of his two years, the green-eyed, gray-and-white feline with a smudge of gray on his left cheek has been living quite a cushy life at the local nonprofit’s Logan neighborhood warehouse and store. Beloved by staff — many of whom are refugees hired through its job readiness program — and shoppers, Smudge is definitely a local celebri-cat.

Born on International Cat Day, Aug. 8, to a street cat mama prowling the South Perry District, Smudge and his littermates caught the attention of Global’s store manager, Julie Kimball-Bryant, a friend of the family who took the kittens in.

Smudge, along with his brother, Stripe (who sadly has since passed from an illness), became Global’s official store and warehouse cats once they were old enough, in fall 2022. Besides helping scare away any pesky rodents — a job Stripe was much better suited to, Kimball-Bryant says — the cats had the extra benefit of boosting morale among the entire team.

“We realized when we brought him in that animals are a global phenomenon, and a connector,” she says. “A lot of our employees had pets and beloved animals at home and were not able to bring them. We sometimes play a game of ‘How do you call for a cat in different languages?’ or ‘What sound does a cat make?’ because they’re all slightly different in other cultures.”

When he’s not snoozing on piles of donated textiles being sorted and graded in the massive warehouse attached to Global’s thrift and vintage shop off of Hamilton Street, Smudge is often spotted on the sales floor, staking claim to a sofa or armchair in the furniture department. In the mornings while staff are completing opening duties, he often perches on the front counter near the door. If it’s not time for his typical midday nap, lucky shoppers may spot him darting

under clothing racks on his way to and fro.

“We’ve had customers who thought he was like a fake glass cat, and we’re like, ‘No, this is very much a real cat,’” Kimball-Bryant says. “He’s very loved, and he wears a tag that says ‘Not for Sale’ because we’ve had people ask.”

Recently, Global employee Ani Peirson drew Smudge’s face with the phrase “not for sale” underneath for a set of special stickers sold at the front counter (they’ve sold out, but there are plans for a restock).

Peirson describes Smudge as a unifier.

“Even the grumpiest of employees here are like, ‘Oh, Smudge, oh!’” she says. “I think it’s the same for customers. I think it’s fun to have a living creature to care about in a place that you could just be like, head down, I have to get this project done. And you can always take a quick pause when there’s a cat around.”

“He’s a nice reminder to slow down,” Kimball-Bryant adds. “Take a break. Pet the cat. Have a cup of tea.”

While there’s an entire “cat care team” tasked with overseeing Smudge, Kimball-Bryant suspects his favorite person is a textile grader named Dan, who also happens to feed the cat each morning.

She notes that while Smudge has wandered outside his warehouse home once before — a three-day departure that made everyone worry — he since hasn’t shown any interest in going past the building’s many doors.

“Really, he is fully one of our team,” she says. “We’re a very tight, close group of people. We take care of each other and watch out for each other, and Smudge is, I think, everybody’s friend.”

Sometimes, the perfect cat-appropriate item is even donated by a community member. Like a faux fur pillow that Smudge is curled up on at the end of one of the textile bins while an employee next to him sorts through clothing and other goods. The staff have made sure to tell each other that under no circumstances should this particular pillow be moved — it’s Smudge’s current favorite naptime spot.

“The community loves this cat as much as we do,” Kimball-Bryant says. n

THE BUZZ BIN

MOVE OVER, MOO DENG

Baby animals are always a surefire way to ensure virality on the internet. Last week, the internet went wild over Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippo from Thailand. This week, it’s all about Pesto. And I’m not talking about pasta — I’m talking about the baby king penguin from Melbourne, Australia, who, at just 9 months old, already towers over his parents. The Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium says that as he loses his feathers, Pesto will slim down significantly but will most likely be one of the biggest penguins at the aquarium.

(MADISON PEARSON)

ACCOMPLISHED ARTISTS

On Saturday, Sept. 21, Spokane Arts hosted its annual arts awards gala, handing out awards in six categories that reflect the values of Spokane Arts: leadership, collaboration, imagination, inclusion, youth arts leadership and arts advocacy. The Leadership Award was handed to Spokane Falls Community College drama instructor Kemuel DeMoville. Spokane Sequential took home the Collaboration Award, while the Imagination Award went to the Live from Somewhere series. Sid Al-Thumali of the Wayward World Podcast won the Inclusion Award, and taking home the Youth Arts Award was the Youth Board of the Spokane Children’s Theatre. The Arts Advocacy Award went to local playwright and actor Dahveed Bullis (pictured). In addition to those six main categories, the Karen Mobley Arts Impact Award went to Spokane painter Lila Girvin. (MADISON PEARSON)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on Sept. 27: SOPHIE, SOPHIE. After the beloved trans dance pop producer’s tragic death in 2021, Sophie’s brother and collaborator Benny Long gathered her unreleased tracks to put together this final posthumous album

ALAN SPARHAWK, WHITE ROSES, MY GOD. After losing his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker to cancer in 2022, Low’s Alan Sparhawk sorts through the grief via experimental noise on his first proper solo album.

SERJ TANKIAN, FOUNDATIONS. The System of a Down singer’s latest EP shows that he hasn’t lost his knack for delivering biting criticism of political injustices. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

Smudge is a real cutie! PHOTOS COURTESY OF GLOBAL NEIGHBORHOOD

REGULAR BINGO SESSIONS*

Admissions opens 4 PM 11 AM

Session begins 6 PM 1 PM

MATINEE-STYLE BINGO SESSIONS*

Admissions opens 11 AM 4 PM

Session begins NOON 6 PM

OCTOBER 4TH — 7TH

FRI Regular Session – $5 Buy-in

(minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

SAT

Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

MON Monday Night Bingo

OCTOBER 11TH — 14TH

FRI Regular Session – Bite Me Bingo

Play Halloween-themed games for a chance to win EPC.

SAT

Regular Session

WELCOME

SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in

(minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

MON NO BINGO

OCTOBER 18TH — 21ST

FRI Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

SAT

All regular games pay $1,000.

Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

MON Monday Night Bingo

BITE ME BINGO! Halloween themed games for a chance to win EPC.

OCTOBER 25TH — 28TH

FRI Regular Session – Bite Me Bingo

Play Halloween-themed games for a chance to win EPC.

SAT

Regular Session

SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).

All regular games pay $1,000.

MON Monday Night Bingo

OCTOBER 31ST

THURS Special Session –Halloween Blacklight Bingo Costume contest with 3 cash prize winners. Buy-in required

Session 8 PM.

BUSINESS

WHAT’S EATING DOWNTOWN DINERS?

Zona Blanca’s closing brought heightened attention to public safety in downtown Spokane. But the true picture is complicated, as other restaurant owners weigh in.

BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM

Zona Blanca was packed on a Monday at lunchtime. But instead of people enjoying oysters and margaritas, a crowd gathered in front of lights and cameras. Chef Chad White had announced on social media a few days earlier that he was closing the ceviche restaurant at the end of September. Over 100 supporters now showed up for a last-minute press conference.

White’s Facebook post mentioned a few reasons for the decision, including financial health and the desire for more family time. It also mentioned that “increasing crime, visible drug use, and the damage to public and private property have made it harder and harder to maintain a safe environment for our team and partners who are like family to me, and for you, our valued guests.”

Restaurants in Spokane are facing a number of stressors, not the least of which are unprecedented costs of

goods and labor. Prohibition Gastropub on North Monroe closed at the end of August, citing decreased business due to parking and construction. Last year, downtown lost the Red Lion Pub and Crave bar to financial issues, though new restaurants have opened in both locations since. Spokane staple Suki Yaki Inn closed because its owners were retiring.

In February, Lauren D’Arienzo, owner of Soulful Soups on Howard Street, put her business up for sale because of both staffing and security issues. For restaurateurs like D’Arienzo and White, public safety is among top concerns. For others, however, it hasn’t been their biggest challenge.

White hosted the Sept. 9 press conference, but the cameras were pointed at Spokane City Council member Jonathan Bingle, who streamed the conference on the

council’s Facebook page.

“We have watched our city drift towards disorder, and for that I want to apologize,” Bingle said. Then he motioned to White. “If our most driven entrepreneurs can’t make it, what message does that send to the rest of us?”

Most of the community conversation about the closure of Zona Blanca has centered the idea that unchecked crime is making business untenable for downtown restaurants and other business owners. The closure was mentioned as an example of an unhealthy business climate by the host of the Washington state gubernatorial debate held in Spokane last week. It also prompted a Spokane County Republican Party press release on Sept. 20, which stated that “this closure was entirely avoidable, highlighting a profound failure in local governance.”

Perceptions of downtown from both restaurateurs

Wave Sushi owner Sarah Shore is concerned about public safety downtown. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

and the public vary based on location and personal experience. But those with successful bars and restaurants push back on the idea that the center of the city is dying.

“Downtown’s been very good to us,” says Deb Green, founder of Madeline’s Cafe and co-owner of Durkin’s Liquor Bar, both on Main Avenue. “We really like the vibe downtown. We like our neighbors. We like the foot traffic. We’re proud partners with the Downtown Spokane Partnership and the Business Improvement District. We like seeing the downtown ambassadors and the Clean Team. I think that everybody’s working really hard to continue to make it a better place to be.”

RISING COSTS AND COMPETITION

There are numerous factors that could influence a downtown restaurant to close. Most owners trace their current struggles back to 2020 and rising costs.

“COVID was really, really painful to all of us,” says Reema Shaver, owner of Bistango Martini Lounge on Post Street. “It’s still lingering downtown with the empty buildings — all the workers are working remotely so you don’t have all those people going out eating lunch, having happy hour.”

Shaver did, however, just renew her lease on Post Street for five more years.

Tony Brown, chef and owner of Ruins on Riverside, says that summer is Spokane’s slowest season for eating out, and buying supplies and ingredients is more expensive than ever.

“Cost of goods is up 20% from last year, which is insane,” Brown says.

Labor costs are also increasing rapidly. Minimum wage in Washington is currently $16.28 per hour, nearly 21% higher than the $13.50 minimum four years ago. Restaurants have been forced to either raise prices or trim already sliver-thin profit margins.

Adam Hegsted, chef-owner of Eat Good Group, which operates restaurants across Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, says that small-business loans given during the pandemic are now coming due, adding extra expenses while money is already tight.

“We are in a balance to survive,” Hegsted says. “Our customers only have enough tolerance to spend so much money on a meal. They go to fast food because it’s cheaper, or they only go out for anniversaries and special dinners. Some of those in-between dinners, which are the meals that get us through day-to-day, have been becoming less.”

While restaurants are forced to pay more for their ingredients, operators are often afraid to raise prices accordingly because they don’t want to scare away their customers, Shaver says.

Everyone’s feeling the pinch, White at Zona Blanca says, and guests are increasingly motivated by discounts.

“It becomes this battle of the deal,” White says. “The community starts to look towards deals, instead of supporting a business for what they’re offering. For us, we’ve always been quality over quantity.”

In an industry that’s already uber competitive, brickand-mortar restaurants have another kind of competition: the internet.

“We’re also living in the age of Uber Eats,” says Simon Moorby, bar manager at Hogwash Whiskey Den on Pacific Avenue. “How easy is it to just order on your phone?”

More online orders mean less in-person foot traffic, something that traditional restaurants and city centers typically rely on.

So as restaurant and bar owners are trying to balance the books, they’re forced to disregard typical budgeting advice. Both Zona Blanca and Ruins operate with food costs making up between 30% and 40% of their budget,

even though about 25% is common practice for most restaurants.

“Labor is also supposed to be 25% but that’s inflated now, so it’s hard to be under 30% for labor,” Brown says. “After 14 years of owning restaurants and accumulating all of this data — ever since COVID it’s just like, that one’s out the window, that one’s out the window. It’s all different.”

“When you’re not hearing anything positive, and all you’re getting is people’s bad experiences, it absolutely affects all of us.”

Even in a great business year, about 16% of restaurants in Spokane close or change ownership, according to the Washington Hospitality Association.

“When you fail, obviously, that doesn’t feel good,” Hegsted says. “So you’re always looking for a reason why that happened. It’s really difficult to look at these financial decisions you made. For example, when we started Gilded Unicorn, we went in there because the rent was cheap, but the place was not the best. It needed a ton of love and a ton of work to get it up. We were failing for maybe two years... If you can’t withstand that sort of wave, then it’s basically impossible.”

Hegsted is no longer involved with Gilded Unicorn, but the restaurant is still open and finally thriving.

‘PERCEPTION IS REALITY’

But maybe balancing food costs, employee wages, slow seasons and building renovations are exactly what you sign up for as a restaurant owner. That’s what Sarah Shore says she thought she was getting into when she bought Wave Sushi Island Grill on First Avenue two years ago.

“I never like to blame things I can’t control,” Shore says. “This is my business. I’m responsible for how it performs. We can manage our labor costs. We can manage our food costs. We can make sure our rent is paid. We can do all those things. But you start to feel a little bit helpless when I would do anything to make it safer down here — if I could hire the police to stand in front of my door, I would — but that’s not realistic.”

Shore says her restaurant has seen a year-over-year decrease in business, although nothing about her business model has changed. So when the only thing that has changed is the perceived level of safety downtown, it seems directly tied to a dramatic loss in business, she says.

“The influx of homeless people and drug users has really affected downtown, recently, more than ever,” Bistango’s Shaver says. “We’ve always had homeless [people], but the open drug use has been very impactful as well. It’s real and it’s perceived, right? We see it, but then when social media and the media speaks of it, people just perceive it even if they don’t see it. But it’s still impactful in their mind.”

Some business owners concerned about public drug use suggested making it an arrestable offense. In May 2023, Spokane reclassified public drug use as a misdemeanor. Police officers can arrest someone using drugs in public and take them to jail, or they can write them a citation for community court. As the Inlander previously reported, officers need to consider jail capacity — which is often maxed out — when deciding whether or not to arrest someone.

The other major safety concern cited by business owners is property crime. Zona Blanca reported two break-ins over Labor Day weekend.

Spokane Police Department statistics, however, show crime is lower in downtown than last year, a point that was brought up to Bingle at the press conference at Zona Blanca. The crowd immediately started murmuring disapprovingly.

“Someone mentioned that crime is down, which is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard,” Shore says. “If you’ve ever walked around down here, you know that that’s not true.”

Crime stats could be lower because people are calling the police less, but Shore says the numbers don’t reflect her experience.

“Perception is reality, right?” White says. “When a community as a whole is concerned about their safety or the safety of their valuables, especially in a time where our economy is struggling, they’re going to think twice before spending their dollar in an environment that they feel uncomfortable in.”

White says he’s received feedback from guests who say they won’t come downtown because they feel unsafe, especially because of the homeless population.

Brown and Moorby, who have both spent parts of their lives unhoused, push back against the idea that people without homes are inherently dangerous.

“What you’re afraid of is that poor people are going to take what you have and that’s their motive,” Moorby says. “Ultimately, I think their motive is to remain safe and survive.”

“There’s two separate camps, the people that are trying to get their lives back on track, and the people that aren’t,” Brown says. “But it makes it really difficult for the people that are trying to really get any sort of headway towards bettering their situation.”

Personal experiences of all kinds play into perceptions of downtown.

“Every business owner’s experience is different. Sometimes just a few blocks downtown makes a difference,” Green at Durkin’s says. “My restaurants are on an alley, so there’s foot traffic down there. Occasionally we’ll come to work in the morning and there’ll be drug paraphernalia out back or something. But I’ve only been broken into once in 17 years. It was 2015. And I can’t remember a time where I felt unsafe downtown.”

Green isn’t the only woman who feels at ease in the city.

“I don’t think we’ve lost any of our regulars over the years due to feeling unsafe,” says Erin Fasbender, the other bar manager at Hogwash, which is located a few blocks from the Greyhound bus station and both Catholic Charities’ Jacklin Family Haven and House of Charity housing facilities.

“Nobody was ever like, ‘Hey, we’re not going to come back in from here on out, because I just don’t want to come downtown anymore.’” she continues. “I think the people that are the loudest or the most vocal about not coming downtown are the people that would never come downtown anyway.”

“As someone who runs a business downtown Spokane, I feel like it’s on us to give the people a reason to want to come downtown,” Moorby adds. “If we’re not doing that, it’s a failure on our own part. If you build it, they will come.”

This year, Hogwash had the busiest summer it’s had since before the pandemic, albeit with its smallest staff ever.

“When you’re not hearing anything positive, and all you’re getting is people’s bad experiences, it absolutely affects all of us,” Fasbender says. “I just love downtown. I’m a downtown person. I love Spokane. I really do. I’m a fan.” n

ALSO OPENING

AZRAEL

In a post-rapture world where no one speaks, a woman (Samara Weaving) is captured by a religious sect in order to be sacrificed to a terrifying beast in the forest. She escapes, but that only begins her prolonged fight to survive.

Rated R

LEE

Kate Winslet plays the titular role of renowned model-turned-photographer Lee Miller, who headed to Europe to capture the horrors of World War II firsthand via her camera. Rated R

OLD ASS

On her 18th birthday, Elliott (Maisy Stella) takes mushrooms, and the 39-yearold version of herself (Aubrey Plaza) appears. They’re able to stay in touch, and the older Elliott attempts to warn the younger one of past mistakes in this comedic coming-of-age tale. Rated R

THE PRICE OF HUBRIS

Francis Ford Coppola’s ambition gets away from him in the messy Megalopolis

BY JOSH BELL

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis opens with an epigraph that addresses the fate of humankind in the form of a question, yet the onscreen text ends in a comma rather than a question mark. That apparent typo sets the stage for the movie to come: a grandiose epic with sweeping but muddled ideas that frequently loses sight of basic coherence. Coppola famously spent $120 million of his own money to produce the passion project that he’s had in mind since the 1970s, and it’s hard not to admire the ambition of a man in his 80s sticking to such an uncompromising vision.

That’s not the same thing as making a good movie, though. As the director of multiple all-time masterpieces — including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now — Coppola has earned his place in the filmmaking pantheon, but he’s equally known for unwieldy boondoggles like One From the Heart and The Cotton Club Megalopolis is 100 percent boondoggle, which makes it both fascinating and frustrating, often coming across like the ravings of a wealthy, entitled madman. For some viewers, that may be part of the appeal, but only the most adventurous rubberneckers should bother with this train wreck.

Rated R

Esposito). Like Coppola, Cesar has a grand yet misunderstood vision for a massive project, something he calls Megalopolis.

It’s basically high-tech gentrification, but the movie holds Cesar up as a benevolent overlord, with Frank and everyone else who opposes Cesar as misguided at best, corrupt at worst. Cesar is like a combination of Tony Stark and Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, although the movie more closely resembles the lowbudget right-wing trilogy based on Rand’s Atlas Shrugged Despite sparing no expense, Coppola still ends up with surprisingly chintzy-looking special effects, and the performances range from stilted to deranged, with each actor seemingly performing in an entirely different film.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Starring Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito

Coppola’s resources and reputation have allowed him to assemble an impressive, eclectic cast, starting with Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, a superstar architect in the semi-futuristic city of New Rome, an alternateuniverse version of New York City crossed with the latter days of the Roman Empire. Cesar is in charge of something called the Design Authority, which gives him domain over new construction in the city, and puts him in direct conflict with the mayor, Frank Cicero (Giancarlo

Rather than evoke Coppola’s classics, Megalopolis feels more like a $120 million Neil Breen movie, echoing the laughable self-importance of the cult bad-movie auteur. Laurence Fishburne narrates Megalopolis as Cesar’s right-hand man Fundi Romaine, delivering a lot of pompous pronouncements without saying much of anything. As Cesar’s jealous, conniving cousin Clodio Pulcher, Shia LaBeouf uses empty populist rhetoric to assemble an army of thugs in red baseball caps, but if there’s a specific political message, it gets lost in all the esoteric rambling. At one point, Cesar stops to deliver the entire “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet

free to take on his masculine pursuits of legacy-building. She’s a stand-in for the late wife who provides Cesar’s tragic backstory, in one of many subplots that ultimately amount to nothing. Although Emmanuel has nearly as much screen time as Driver, she mostly seems lost, and she’s consistently overshadowed by Aubrey Plaza as Cesar’s previous love interest, a social-climbing TV journalist with the improbable name of Wow Platinum.

At least Plaza seems to be having fun, playing up her character’s sexual gamesmanship like she’s in a campy soap opera — which she essentially is. It’s appropriate that Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman appears in a small role, since Megalopolis is often indistinguishable from a sketch-comedy parody of itself. Every glimpse of Cesar’s brilliant plan for the city makes it look more and more like a joke, yet the movie keeps doubling down on the idea that everyone in the city, from his rich and powerful rivals to the poor people his project would displace, should step aside and give Cesar free rein to remake New Rome in his image.

Shot mostly on soundstages in Georgia, Megalopolis has the hermetically sealed feel of the ersatz Las Vegas in One From the Heart, but it doesn’t give New York the same mythical quality that movie imparted to Vegas. Instead of creating an insightful hybrid version of NYC, Coppola mostly walls his characters off in confined spaces. Midway through the movie, there’s a nuclear satellite crash that destroys a substantial portion of the city, and it barely registers for either the characters or the audience. By that point, though, it’s hard to tell exactly what is meant to register, as Coppola lets the movie increasingly spin out of control. That’s still often more compelling to watch than a competent but soulless blockbuster — but then again, so are plenty of cinematic disasters. n Megalopolis

All of the confusing sci-fi elements (Cesar also has the ability to occasionally stop time, for some reason) and ponderous social commentary gets subsumed by a gooey, unconvincing love story between Cesar and Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who represents a kind of female purity that Cesar relies on so he can be

Ghost in the Machine

The Wild Robot boasts beautiful animation, great voice acting by Lupita Nyong’o, and a soaring score

BY CHASE HUTCHINSON

In 1999, the outstanding animated film The Iron Giant pondered whether we have the capacity for kindness in a world seemingly perpetually defined by distrust and the potential for conflict. Are we hardwired to behave in similar ways — carrying out tasks without much thought about who we really are — or can we resist such supposed programming to become who we choose to be? Are we all destined to be driven by our design or do we have the agency to take a different path?

These existential questions kept coming into my mind while watching the wondrous The Wild Robot, the latest from writer/director Chris Sanders, who previously made the joyous films Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. Based on Peter Brown’s beloved children’s book series, The Wild Robot is a film that leaps off the page to tell the story of a robot that washes ashore on a remote island and discovers a vibrant world of animals that’s far away from human interference. While The Wild Robot is not as insightful and patient as The Iron Giant, often falling back on familiar narrative beats, it still has plenty of heart, soul and just a bit more on its mind.

Rated PG

up is some of the more briefly clunky narrative contrivances around the film’s margins that take away from the compelling center. Namely, one conflict that arises early on between Roz and Brightbill only to soon be forgotten feels tacked on rather than thought out, and a few late developments don’t fully resonate as a result. While disappointing, there is so much to love in the overall experience that you forgive such momentary missteps.

The Wild Robot

Directed by Chris Sanders

Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor

This is all seen through the eyes of ROZZUM unit 7134 AKA Roz. Voiced with both great care and boundless charm by the perpetually underutilized Lupita Nyong’o, this intelligent robot initially only wants to find a task to complete so she can depart back to the world of the humans. However, she soon discovers there’s more to life when she begins caring for a baby goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor) alongside the feisty fox Fink (Pedro Pascal) and the community of animals that go from fearing her to defending their island home alongside her.

Originally premiering at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, the only thing that held it back from making my best of the fest round-

Not only does The Wild Robot all look quite beautiful, never once skimping on embracing the splendor and stunning color of every frame in a way that will wow adults as well as kids, but the spectacular score by Kris Bowers sweeps you up in the film that much more. The emotional triumphs stem from every meticulous facet of the gorgeous craft on display, making all those who painstakingly animated it as deserving of praise as Sanders. It’s in their hands that the film becomes something frequently breathtaking. Even as the story unabashedly tugs on the heartstrings, there is plenty of darker humor hidden throughout that keeps things balanced.

Similar to the other DreamWorks release from this year, Charlie Kaufman’s Orion and the Dark, The Wild Robot is an often more thoughtful, though still plenty sweet, animated family film that truly soars when it counts. For every more broad narrative beat that it stumbles through, there is a bittersweet emotional undercurrent that always draws you back in. It’s the internal struggle of one machine trying to choose who it is that she wants to be that most hits home. Nothing will ever be able to reach the heights of The Iron Giant, which will forever remain one of the great works of animation, but The Wild Robot finds a similar sense of soul hidden under its robotic shell. In every choice those who crafted it make, they create beauty within humble programming. n

The Wild Robot is chock full of beauty.

THREE (LONG OVERDUE) CHEERS

The Indigo Girls enjoy renewed interest after their music were featured in three recent films, including their own documentary

BY AZARIA PODPLESKY

Last year, summer belonged to “Barbenheimer,” the simultaneous theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

In a roundabout way then, thanks to the Barbie side of the equation, the summer also belonged to the Indigo Girls, the folk rock duo of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. “Closer to Fine,” the lead single off the duo’s 1989 eponymous second album, was prominently featured in the film, including the moment Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, decides to drive out of Barbieland and into the “real world.”

Turning on her car radio, Robbie starts singing along, ending in a heartfelt “Closer I am to fine!” before stowaway Ken (Ryan Gosling) pops up from the backseat, singing along himself and startling Barbie in the process.

Bringing even more attention to the song, the Barbie soundtrack featured a cover of “Closer to Fine” by Brandi and Catherine Carlile.

In an interview with Variety, Saliers says that having not grown up playing with Barbie dolls, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she and Ray were presented with a licensing agreement for “Closer to Fine.” After learning that Gerwig was set to direct though, the duo was put at ease.

“When the trailer came out, our listening audience lost their minds,” Saliers says. “As a fan of both Margot Robbie

and Ryan Gosling, to see and hear them singing a song I wrote was just mind-blowing. It was a surprise that fell out of the sky, like a gift from heaven, for sure.”

Saliers says she didn’t know when they signed off on the licensing agreement that Barbie would feature the song at three different occasions, but she calls it the “biggest honor.”

The inclusion of “Closer to Fine” in Barbie, the highestgrossing film of 2023, brought a new generation of fans to both the song and the Indigo Girls, nearly 40 years after the trailblazing duo’s debut. But that’s just one of three films behind the renewed interest in the Indigo Girls.

The duo’s music also soundtracks Glitter & Doom, a jukebox musical romance written by Cory Krueckeberg. The film stars Alan Cammish as serious musician Doom and Alex Diaz as carefree circus performer Glitter. Tom Gustafson directed the 2023 film, in which Ray and Saliers also appear as characters named the Doctor and the Dream, respectively.

Finally, and most revealing, is the documentary It’s Only Life After All, which takes its title from a lyric in “Closer to Fine.” Directed by Alexandria Bombach, the film features interviews with and archival footage of Ray and Saliers, as well as Indigo Girl fans.

Ray and Saliers wanted It’s Only Life After All to focus on community, in every sense of the word. There are the communities that have supported them from the beginning, like Little Five Points, the club in Atlanta where the duo got their start, and R.E.M., who asked the Indigo Girls to open for them on their 1989 “Green” tour.

The documentary also looks at the communities Ray and Saliers — who are coming to Spokane’s Fox Theater on Sept. 29 — have advocated for throughout their career, including animal, reproductive, LGBTQ+ and Indigenous environmental rights, as well as voter education.

“We don’t want it to be a vanity film,” Ray tells The Guardian. “We want it to be about the community, because that’s where we came from and that’s what we’re part of still. And it’s bigger than us, really.”

“Instead of feeling like, ‘Here’s a movie about y’all,’ it feels more like here’s a movie about the power of music and community,” Saliers says in an interview with Lavender magazine. “Especially for queer folks or people who don’t fit inside a box, for them to have an openness and expression. And for us to go through our hard times in life together.”

The trailer features a clip of actor Woody Harrelson introducing the pair to a crowd of screaming fans with “I’m in love with them, just like you are. Here they are, the Indigo Girls!” But as detailed in It’s Only Life After All, reception around the Indigo Girls from the music industry and media wasn’t always so exuberant.

“We were immediately drawn to each other,” Ray

The Indigo Girls: Amy Ray, left, and Emily Saliers. JEREMY COWART PHOTO

says in the film’s trailer. “When we started singing together, an explosion went off, and I was like ‘This is it.’ But something about how you had to be as a girl didn’t fit in with what we wanted to be as the Indigo Girls.”

In the trailer, Saliers says very few queer musicians were out during the early years of the Indigo Girls because they feared for their careers. Another clip shows Ray talking about the lack of coverage the Indigo Girls received from mainstream magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone

“I’m told the reason for our lack of press was our lack of radio play, but I know that it’s the fact that we’re political lesbians,” Ray says.

The documentary, an official selection of the Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca film festivals, also touches on Ray’s experiences with gender dysphoria, which she has spoken about in the past, and Saliers recovery from alcoholism, which she discusses for the first time.

Speaking with the Guardian, Saliers says the movie confirmed “the reality that we had gone through some things, that we faced pushback societally for being gay, and that we experienced sexism and homophobia, and we experienced self-homophobia as a result of all the forces.”

Because Ray and Saliers were brave enough to fight that pushback, they’ve built a decades-long career, making waves both with their earnest, from-the-heart music and intrepid activism.

Musically speaking, that career includes 16 studio albums, a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording for Indigo Girls and an induction into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. It all led to the duo’s latest album, 2020’s Look Long.

On Look Long, Ray and Saliers sing about prejudice and racism in the South (“Shit Kickin’”), gun violence (“Muster”), the quest for personal liberation for all (“Howl at the Moon”) and their families (“Favorite Flavor,” a call-and-response between Ray and her daughter, and “Sorrow and Joy,” an elegy for Saliers’ younger sister.)

On the title track, the pair sings about hope for the country. “There’s a reason, there’s a reason that they call it a Hail Mary / It’s all or nothing on a prayer / On the brink of loss we take our last shots / With my shaky faith, will you still be there.”

“It means let’s lament our limitations, but let’s also look beyond what’s right in front of us, take the long view of things and strive to do better,” Saliers says in a press release.

Looking at the long view of their career, Ray and Saliers are ready to get back into the studio after the pandemic and a very cinema-centric couple of years. They also took time away from the Indigo Girls as Ray toured behind her seventh solo album, 2022’s If It All Goes South, and Saliers worked on musical theater projects. Tours in support of Melissa Etheridge and Amos Lee also preceded the duo’s current headlining tour.

“There will be a next album, it’s just been such a busy time,” Saliers tells Lavender magazine.

New album or not, the duo has been playing to larger crowds thanks to the renewed interest from Barbie, Glitter & Doom and It’s Only Life After All, with fans bringing more energy and enthusiasm to their live shows, the pair says.

“People that had followed us for a long time, when they saw this stuff happening, they used it as a moment for them to influence their peers to take back up the idea of coming out to see us play,” Ray tells the Guardian

After decades of creating in spite of a system that worked to soften their voices, Ray and Saliers have finally started to receive the rewards from all their hard work and some very long-overdue praise. It’s something they’re both still getting used to.

“Going to Sundance and being in Tribeca [with It’s Only Life After All], that was thrilling, and then to have Barbie on the heels of that, or in the midst of it, it’s kind of like ‘Wow, I guess if you stick around long enough, something like this can happen to you.’ It does feel like a dream come true.” n

Indigo Girls, Stephanie Anne Johnson • Sun, Sept. 29 at 7:30 pm • $45-$65 • All ages • The Fox Theater • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • foxtheaterspokane.org

GIFTS THAT WILL MELT YOUR FACE OFF!

Annual Manual

222 & 232 N. HOWARD

• DOWNTOWN SPOKANE

LATIN GUITAR RODRIGO Y GABRIELLA

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW

J = ALL AGES SHOW

Thursday, 9/26

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Sydney Dale Band THE CHAMELEON, Derek Frank, Jason Perry Band

CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds GARDEN PARTY, KosMos the Afronaut J KNITTING FACTORY, Midnight Tyrannosaurus

J PONDEROSA BAR AND GRILL, Gil Rivas

J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin ZOLA, Homebrew String Band, Austin Miller Band

Friday, 9/27

AK ASIAN RESTAURANT, James Motley

J BARRELHOUSE PUB & PIZZA, Karaoke Fridays

BARRISTER WINERY, DJ Jeff Mancini

J THE BIG DIPPER, Serpentfoot, Screen Frogs BOLO’S BAR & GRILL, Heather King Band

J THE CHAMELEON, Amelia Day, The Bed Heads, The Holy Broke

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Rusty Jackson

CHINOOK STEAK, SEAFOOD & PASTA, Jojo

THE DISTRICT BAR, Tyrone Wells

J THE GRAIN SHED, Haywire

IRON HORSE (CDA), The Shift

MOOSE LOUNGE, Haze

J PANIDA THEATER, Lucas Stricagnoli

Something absolutely wild happened on the latest album from Mexican acoustic guitar masters Rodrigo y Gabriela… Rodrigo Sánchez plugged in his guitar. (//insert shocked emoji) But thankfully the electric guitar being added into the mix on 2023’s In Between Thoughts...A New World didn’t garner the fan backlash of Bob Dylan going electric back in the day. Sánchez and musical partner Gabriela Quintero still have an incredible knack for turning each instrumental track into an emotive journey and their always-engaging live show should still feature plenty of numbers with the old school dual acoustic flamenco nuevo attack.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Rodrigo y Gabriella • Sun, Sept. 29 at 8 pm • $70-$274 • All ages • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • bingcrosbytheater.com

FOLK ROCK AMELIA DAY

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Tom Catmull

SPOKANE VALLEY EAGLES, Stagecoach West

ZOLA, Austin Miller, The Buckley Storms

Saturday, 9/28

219 LOUNGE, B Radicals

J THE BIG DIPPER, Witch Mountain, Merlock

J BIG RED’S, 3H BOLO’S BAR & GRILL, Heather King Band

J CENTRAL LIBRARY, Get Loud in the Library

J THE CHAMELEON, JUL!ET, Surname, Justin Harden

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Tuck Foster, The Tumbling Dice

CHINOOK STEAK, SEAFOOD & PASTA, Jojo

J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Imagine Dragons

IRON HORSE (CDA), The Shift

J KNITTING FACTORY, The Movement, KBong & Johnny Cosmic, Aurorawave

MOOSE LOUNGE, Haze

NIGHT OWL, Priestess

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Nobody Famous

J PONDEROSA BAR AND GRILL, Austin Carruthers

J POST FALLS BREWING COMPANY, Just Plain Darin

J REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Aladdin Road

SPOKANE VALLEY EAGLES, Sharky and the Fins ZOLA, The Night Mayors

Sunday, 9/29

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Common Ground

J THE BIG DIPPER, Oceano, To The Grave, VCTMS, Half Me

J BING CROSBY THEATER, Rodrigo & Gabriela

J KNITTING FACTORY, Movement, Turnover, Queen of Jeans

J SOUTH HILL GRILL, Just Plain Darin

J J THE FOX THEATER, Indigo Girls

ZOLA, Sugar Bear Family Dinner

Monday, 9/30

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

J KNITTING FACTORY, Prof, Grip, Norman Sann, Willie Wonka RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night

Tuesday, 10/1

BIGFOOT PUB & EATERY,

Don’t let her stature deceive you. Though she only comes in a hair above 5 feet tall, Seattle-based queer folk rocker Amelia Day blows the roof off of any venue she enters with her infectious energy and powerful, jazzy vocals. Day’s 2023 EP Little One is a testament to her reflective songwriting abilities but also her knack for generating incredibly catchy choruses and bridges (see: “Therapist’s Wet Dream”). Day’s show at the Chameleon with local bands The Holy Broke and recent collaborators The Bed Heads is sure to get audiences dancing and smiling along as she infects the crowd with her genuine joy.

— MADISON PEARSON

Amelia Day, The Bed Heads, The Holy Broke • Fri, Sept. 27 at 7 pm • $10-$15 • 21+ • The Chameleon • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • chameleonspokane.com

Karaoke with DJ Sterling THE DISTRICT BAR, Mo Lowda & The Humble

J KNITTING FACTORY, Dylan Gossett

J OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Just Plain Darin

J SHINDIGS KITCHEN + SOCIAL, The Artist Stage Live Open Mic Night

SWING LOUNGE, Live Music Tuesdays ZOLA, The Zola All Star Jam

Wednesday, 10/2

BARRISTER WINERY, Wasted Genius

BIGFOOT PUB & EATERY, Karaoke with DJ Sterling

J BING CROSBY THEATER, ABRA Cadabra CRUISERS, Karaoke with Rich THE DRAFT ZONE, Open Mic

J KNITTING FACTORY, Mike Love & The Full Circle

Just Announced...

J BING CROSBY THEATER, Stone in Love, Nov. 30, 7:30 pm.

J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, “Weird Al” Yanokovic Puddles Pity Party, Aug. 12, 7:30 pm.

Coming Up ...

J BING CROSBY THEATER, Stayin Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees, Oct. 3, 7:30 pm.

THE CHAMELEON, Lost Ox, Jason Perry Band, Oct. 3, 8 pm.

J SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Soul Asylum, The Juliana Hatfield Three, Oct. 3, 8 pm.

J THE BIG DIPPER, Those Damn Kids: ‘Beautiful// Chaos’ Album Release Show with Rotting In Place, Day Shadow, Eva, Oct. 4, 7:30 pm.

BING CROSBY THEATER, No Quarter, Oct. 4, 7:30-9:30 pm.

THE DISTRICT BAR, Moon Hooch, Bon Panda Breaks, Oct. 4, 8 pm.

J GORGE AMPHITHEATER, Luke Combs, Parker McCollum, Wyatt Flores, Ray Fulcher, Oct. 4-5, 8 pm.

J THE CHAMELEON, Vika & the Velvets, General Mojo’s, The Jaws of Brooklyn, Oct. 5, 8 pm.

J SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Hell’s Belles, Oct. 5, 8 pm.

J HAMILTON STUDIO, Olivia Brownlee, Oct. 6, 6 pm.

J THE BIG DIPPER, Cancerslug, Absent Cardinal, Oct. 6, 7:30 pm.

J THE BIG DIPPER, Mexican Coke, Fentanyl, Asbestos, Psychic Death, Oct. 7, 7:30 pm.

J HAMILTON STUDIO, Ken Peplowski with Hot Club of Spokane, Oct. 8, 2 pm.

J HAMILTON STUDIO, Ken Peplowski, Zonky Jazz Band, Red Hot Kitten Stompers, Oct. 8, 7 pm.

THE DISTRICT BAR, Carbon Leaf, Oct. 8, 8 pm.

J KNITTING FACTORY, Terror Reid, Elizoe & Domsta, Oct. 8, 8 pm.

J DISTRICT BAR, Jade Bird, Oct. 8, 8 pm.

J FIRST INTERSTATE CENTER, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Live in Concert, Oct. 16, 7 pm.

J JAG ROOM AT CHAMELEON, MAITA, Hannah Siglin, Oct. 25, 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

THE CHAMELEON • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd.

CHECKERBOARD • 1716 E. Sprague Ave. • 509-443-4767

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

THE DISTRICT BAR • 916 W. 1st Ave. • 509-244-3279

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPOKANE ARENA • 720 W. Mallon Ave. • 509-279-7000

SPOKANE TRIBE RESORT & CASINO • 14300 US-2, Airway Heights • 877-786-9467

SOUTH PERRY LANTERN • 12303 E. Trent Ave., Spokane Valley • 509-473-9098

STORMIN’ NORMAN’S SHIPFACED SALOON • 12303 E. Trent Ave., Spokane Valley • 509-862-4852

TRANCHE • 705 Berney Dr., Wall Walla • 509-526-3500

ZOLA • 22 W.

COMMUNITY GREAT PUMPKIN SPOKANE

For three weekends this fall, thousands of pumpkins take over downtown Spokane’s West End. Join Brick West Brewing Co. for the Great Pumpkin Fest, an autumnal extravaganza benefiting Project ID, a nonprofit supporting adults with intellectual disabilities, and Love Your Neighbor Foundation, which aids neighbors in need. All you’ve got to do is head to the brewery and pick out your favorite pumpkin from Joshua Loera, aka the Pumpkin Cowboy. In addition to everyone’s favorite gourd, there will be furry friends from 2nd Chance Petting Zoo, free live music, line dancing and face painting (find the full schedule at the link below). Bust out the blanket scarves and beanies — oh, and maybe a beer or two, too — because the Pumpkin Cowboy is coming to town!

— ELIZA BILLINGHAM

The Great Pumpkin Fest • Fri-Sun, Sept. 27-29, Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13 from noon-10 pm • Free admission • All ages • Brick West Brewing Co. • 1318 W. First Ave. • brickwestbrewingco.com/pumpkin

VISUAL ARTS ART TOURIST

Artists rarely open up their studios to the public to peruse, but for 17 years the Little Spokane River Artist Studio tour has served as a glimpse inside the worlds of numerous local artists. This year’s studio hosts include Collista Krebs, Maggie Andersen, Gina Freuen and Jill Smith (visit the website below for studio location and a tour map). Each of the featured studio artists co-host multiple fellow artists to sell and showcase their paintings, pottery, jewelry, prints and more handmade goods. Keith Harrop, Gwyn Pevonka, Amber Wyckoff, Emma Sheldon and a plethora of others are set to be there, so don’t be square!

— MADISON PEARSON

Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour • Sat, Sept. 28 from 10 am-5 pm • Free • All ages • Locations vary • littlespokanestudios.com

COMMUNITY PUB POLITICS

City politics can be extremely boring, but our friends at RANGE media believe it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s why the media organization is hosting its PolitiCrawl, a pub crawl to a bar in each of the Spokane City Council’s districts. While most pub crawls are meant to be walkable — because, you know, safety — this one utilizes the Spokane Transit Authority’s invaluable bus system to get around town. City Council members are set to make appearances at bars in their districts to talk to attendees about pressing issues. The event begins at Illinois Avenue Bar and Grill and wraps up downtown at Berserk, where Mayor Lisa Brown makes an appearance.

— COLTON RASANEN

The PolitiCrawl • Fri, Sept. 27 from noon-11:30 pm •

rangemedia.co

SPORTS THE PUCK STARTS HERE

While the icy action inside Spokane Arena is always a hoot when the Spokane Chiefs skate onto the rink, turning that enthusiasm into wins has been tough sledding in recent years. The Chiefs haven’t won a playoff game since the 2018-19 season, so this offseason they went out and hired the coach with the highest winning percentage in Western Hockey League history: Brad Lauer. After two seasons as an assistant coach on the bench with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets, Lauer returns to the WHL where he’s won 74.2% of his games as a head coach, including capturing the Ed Chynoweth Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2022. If the preseason is any indication, things might already be turning around, as the Spokane boys have outscored their opponents 22-9 in warmup action. Now it’s time to light the Lilac City lamp, when the Tri-Cities Americans trek over for the Chiefs’ home opener. — SETH SOMMERFELD

Spokane Chiefs Home Opener vs. Tri-Cities Americans • Sat, Sept. 28 at 6:05 pm • $15-$40 • Spokane Arena • 720 W. Mallon Ave. • chl.ca/whl-chiefs

WORDS TED TIME

Through inspirational stories, heartfelt presentations and sage wisdom, TED talks have attracted global listeners and speakers for more than 30 years. Here in Spokane, The TEDx program features speakers within a local context, where they can speak to issues and experiences closer to home in order to spark deep discussion and connection. Since 2012, TEDxSpokane has invited locals to listen to community leaders speak about their ideas and philosophies. This Saturday, listen in person or virtually to 12 presenters as they discuss mental health in Spokane Public Schools, taking “the fun out of funeral,” how reading can save the world, turning data to music, destigmatizing menstruation and much more.

TEDxSpokane • Sat, Sept. 28 at 2 pm • $30-$35 • All ages • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • tedxspokane.com GET LISTED! Submit events online at Inlander.com/getlisted or email relevant details to getlisted@inlander.com. We need the details one week prior to our publication date.

— JOHN BERGIN

I SAW YOU

WEST CENTRAL TRAIL CUTIE Where did you go? I haven’t seen you and no one knows where you went? West Central lost a Trail Cutie this past week. Where can we find our 16 foot, 5 Ton Boris? The people of West Central demand answers!

IN MY DREAMS AGAIN It's the only place I can see you now. We get along, we laugh, we share moments, we love. Then I wake up and realize that we hate each other. That we never really got along, and that's why we had to go our separate ways. We were never really friends, but we tried living together as such. I hope to keep seeing you in my dreams. I'm friends with that person, and I enjoy being around them. I hope to never see you again except in my dreams.

TRAFFIC BLOCKERS Hey SPD and Spokane City Council. If this city is hard up for cash, I have a recommendation for a revenue generator. Camp out a SPD public servant at the intersection of Division and W Spokane Falls Blvd between the hours of 3 pm and 6 pm. I guarantee they will write enough tickets to close the financial gap from the people turning left onto N Browne St trying to beat the light and block traffic for the people trying to go straight on Spokane Falls Blvd. They literally push through the yellow thinking they can make the light, not knowing the light on Main is timed to be red at the same time, and block everyone else in the process. They are selfish and should be rewarded with a fine for this. And if you don’t have the public servant to spare to tackle this endeavor, install a camera. This city needs funds, and some people need to learn the hard way.

CHEERS

LADIES BOAT The inaugural ladies boat adventure was a trip to be remembered. Big thanks to the boss and the king for organizing and leading us. The participants left the trip feeling empowered and grateful. Thank you for a great trip filled with great food, plentiful beverages, and fabulous company! Cheers to the boss! Cheers to the king!

GREAT UPGRADE Ever since the city put in the roundabout by GU at Sharp and Cincinnati, it's been such a better intersection for everyone. Safer, easier to walk through, and looks much better too. Thank you for finally upgrading the intersection! Now, if we could get roundabouts to replace the stoplights on South Hill so traffic would flow eminently better, I'd be in heaven.

CHATBOTS A chatbot is a software application that replicates human conversation through text and voice interactions. They use artificial intelligence with deep learning and natural language processing. AI models tend to tell us what we want to hear. Chatbots tend to agree with the opinions of the person using them even if that person says they believe an objectively false statement.

Research shows this problem is getting worse, suggesting that AI outputs cannot be trusted. AI chatbots become more sycophantic as they get more advanced. A sycophant means insincere or artificial flattery, similar to a yes-man, spreading false tales.

GOOD DEAL I'm 68 and recently HAD to buy a car. Sitting in front of the dealership I told my son the price I wanted to pay, it was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the listed price and said if I can get that price I'd be a happy camper. Well I must say, they not only met the price but gave me a couple of perks as well. If I ever make a car purchase again, I'm going to FINDLAY DOWNTOWN HONDA! Thank you, Reve.

EXACTLY Re: Choice. You've GOT It!! It IS your choice. Your responsibility. None of my business, so...stop...screaming..at..me. It is ONLY your business, so do what you must, and take full responsibility for your choices, your actions, and the outcomes. It's NOT my business any more than you paying for my "way" is your responsibility, on any level. Be taught to fish, so you don't rely on others to "feed" you. Learn. Grow. Excel. However and whatever that means to you. Leave me out of it. Completely. Deal? I won't send you my "bills." I'll take care of it. Thanks! - "Karen"

JEERS

FULL CIRCLE Re: re: Choose: "..why is it always put on the woman to prevent pregnancy..?" ...Because: Simply: It. Is.YOUR body. YOUR choice. Embrace that power. Embrace that responsibility. Embrace your beautiful decisions. The ones that only YOU can make. Tothe one presenting the facts from the Guttmacher Institute: You are correct. Thank you. SO few pregnancies are due to rape and incest, and if THOSE issues were discussed, with youth, EARLY in life, the way to navigate, post rape/incest would be clear. It should be universal. ALL should learn to report those crimes immediately, so medical care can be administered, immediately... as soon as the victim has fled the scene. Immediately. THAT, is the medical help that is freely available, and always will be.

of Deaconess - Shriners and two Ronald McDonald Houses. The speed limit is 25 mph. The one car was going so fast that the car he struck is still in the intersection on the passenger side at 5 pm. The emergency response was 4 fire engines. Once again No Video. No Speed Camera. Nobody goes 25. Most of them by 5th Avenue are going in excess of 40. They are racing to get to the merge point at 8th Avenue.

WOOF WAG MORE-BARK LESS

SPD - AGAIN? Jeers, yet again, to the Spokane Police Department for another in a never-ending string of scandals. “Let’s Go Brandon” that euphemism for “F*** Joe Biden,” belongs on no patrol car. The jerk officer who displayed that bumper sticker verbally abused a citizen brave (foolish?) enough to object, & benefited from the corrupt SPD thin blue line of silence that

suck" was coming from a refrigerator and hot water heater. The bill was just under $100. Have the utility bills gone up that much in Spokane? Supposedly, energy costs are below average here. However, I've lived in several different cities and their costs were less. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind paying for basic necessities, but Avista seems out of line… Spokane needs to allow some competition instead of this monopoly. Imagine what bills will be this winter when heat is critical. Wow! Spokane - Near Nature. Near High Utility Bills.

WEST PLAINS WATER CONTAMINATION

Be blessed in our journies ladies. Lend those helping hands and hearts. BE there for victims of rape and incest. Phone the National Domestic Violence Hotline or 911, immediately. They will assist, each... step... of... the ...way. They will.

RE: RE: CHOOSE Interesting rhetoric; do you happen to support planned parenthood? They are one of the main organizations that provides the means and education to prevent abortions? Here’s to hoping you put your votes and your money where your mouth is.

RE: COMPULSION It is sad that a 30 year veteran doesn't remember the withdrawal from Vietnam. The crash of a C-5A with 78 fatherless orphans and 54 nurses. They forget and don't mention the 776 POWs, 114 who died in captivity. They forget the 300,000 wounded many of which killed themselves. They forget the 58,318 whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Not one of these families asked to have a draft dodger disrespect the hallowed ground of the A.N.C. Maybe it is not remembering, maybe it's ignorance.

4 PM SEPT. 19 Another "Accident" in a Hospital Zone. This time 5th and Monroe. You know the place. It's the intersection

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.”

makes every officer guilty of complicity. The quiet spells between SPD scandals seem to simply be times when they’re successfully hiding outrageous behaviors within their ranks. This has to stop. Police are city employees, hired to serve the public, and answer to the same city laws & criminal laws as other depts & citizens. They should act like it.

CREEP FACTOR 100 Jeers to the STA for requiring the Drivers to ask the age of youth riders without a school or STA Connect youth card, it's just creepy. If the individual is absolutely under the age of 18 (the free ride age limit), why ask them to state their age to all within earshot? Seriously it’s just not a thing they should be requiring. Especially with the fact that STA gets State funding for the Youth Ride for Free program. Just stop it!!

BASIC NEEDS TOO EXPENSIVE I was sure in for a surprise when I opened my recent Avista bill. For the period from Mid-August to Mid-September, I didn't use my dryer once. Rather, I air dried clothing. I didn't use the A/C once because it wasn't needed. I didn't use the heat for the same reason. Due to long days, I didn't use the lights much. So, as far as I can tell, the "energy

City of Spokane Council Members, As you know the City of Spokane Is 50% owner of the Spokane International Airport and President Wilkerson sits on the Spokane Airport Board. As such, you are just as liable and responsible for the PFOA water contamination that has contaminated hundreds of private water wells out here on the West Plains. I find it strange that the City of Spokane has been very quiet about all this? Yes this is also a County problem, but as 50% owners, it is also your problem. Why did it take a whistleblower to file a FOIA request to get the test results that were taken at the Airport back in 2017? Why has the Airport Board to include the City of Spokane continue to remain quiet? Why did it take the Washington Dept. of Ecology to file enforcement action against the Airport to bring this to light? It's time that both the City and County of Spokane to step up and start doing the right thing. The people of the West Plains affected by this deserve and demand answers. —Jerry Goertz, president of Deep Creek Ranchettes Water Association (DCRWA), member of Fairchild AFB Restoration Advisory Board n

Blue Moon Opening Night kicks off with games and drinks at 3pm, and player introductions at 4pm. Doors open at 5pm. First 3,000 fans receive a commemorative 40th Season “bang-a-banner.”

EVENTS | CALENDAR

BENEFIT

A NIGHT OF MUSICAL SPLENDOR

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s annual fundraiser featuring live musical performances, paintings, auctions, dinner, carnival games and a surprise broadway guest performer. Sep. 27, 12-8:30 pm. $100-$125. Best Western Coeur d’Alene, 506 W. Appleway Ave. cstidaho.com (208- 254-0504)

A NIGHT WITH THE STARS The Kenworthy’s annual fall fundraiser with a backstage dinner party and live music performed by Darin Schaffer. All proceeds support efforts to restore the Kenworthy marquee. Sep. 27, 7 pm. $100. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

SPIRIT OF SPOKANE CHORUS FUN -

DRAISING SALE Shop various items from the trunks of cars. Proceeds go toward funding the chorus’ trip to a competition in Ohio. Sep. 28, 9 am-1 pm. Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Rd. spiritofspokanechorus.org

SHAKESBEER: BREWS, BRATS AND THE BARD A fundraising event for Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene featuring live performances, beer, bratwurst and a sneak peek of the group’s upcoming show. Oct. 4, 6 pm. $25. The Innovation Den, 415 E. Lakeside Ave. shakespearecda.org (208-818-0654)

BEYOND PINK DESIGNER FASHION SHOW AND AUCTION The 15th annual fashion show benefitting Beyond Pink features a runway show, food, drinks, an auction and more. Oct. 5, 5:30-10:30 pm. $125. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls. beyondpink.net

HOEDOWN FOR HOPE A fundraising event for Spokane HOPE featuring raffles and auctions. Oct. 5. $100. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. spokanehope.org

RIVER’S WISH SANCTUARY HAPPY

HOUR & AUCTION A night of cocktails and savory bites to benefit River’s Wish Animal Sanctuary with silent and live auctions. Oct. 5, 4-7 pm. $75. Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave. riverswishanimalsanctuary.org

COMEDY

JOHN HEFFRON Heffron is known for his relatable style of comedy. Sep. 26, 7 pm, Sep. 27-28, 7 & 9:45 pm. $20-$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

BARPROV Blue Door performers create fun scenes and games on the spot, fueled by audience suggestions and the lively atmosphere. Sep. 27-28, 7:30 pm. $9. The Grain Shed - Cedar Tap House, 111 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.com

DAVID NIHILL Ireland-born comic David Nihill has been featured on Just for Laughs, Dry Bar and NPR among others. His online videos have gone viral amassing over 500 million views. Sep. 27, 8 pm. $25-$50. Knitting Factory, 919 W. Sprague Ave. sp.knittingfactory.com

SPACE QUEERS: A GAYLACTIC COME-

DY SHOW A showcase of local LGBTQ+ stand-up comedians, drag performers and more coming together to present a feeling of queer joy. Lineup includes Jared Lyons-Wolf, Wilma Anita Donut Dargen, Wyatt Colombo, Neva White, Kaley Alness, Adam Swensen and more. Ages 21+. Sep. 27, 8-10 pm. $15. The Q Lounge, 228 W. Sprague Ave. spacequeersshow@gmail.com

CACTUS TATE Cactus Tate rose to prominence through her TikTok comedy videos. Sep. 29, 7 pm. $25-$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com

FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY JOKE JOKE

JOKE A comedy experience combining stand-up, live sketches and other mixed-media bits with a rotating lineup of comedians. This month features Harry J. Riley, Chris Jessop and Samuel Mantsz. Hosted by Josiah Carlson. Oct. 3, 7:30-9 pm. $15. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org

BIG JAY OAKERSON Oakerson is a standup comedian, radio show host, podcaster and actor. Oct. 4-5, 7 & 9:45 pm. $25-$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub. com (509-318-9998)

DUNGEONS & DRAG QUEENS Three drag queens play the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons live while dungeon master and comedian Paul Curry and musician Carson Cutter guide them through. Oct. 5, 9 pm. $10. The District Bar, 916 W. First. sp.knittingfactory.com

COMMUNITY

BITCH ‘N’ STITCH Grab your crochet, knitting, embroidery, weaving, cross stitch, felting, looming, macrame, friendship bracelets and craft casually in the company of others. Every second and last Thursday at 6:30 pm. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Monroe St. facebook. com/Lunarium.Spokane

IT HAPPENED HERE: EXPO ‘74 FIFTY

YEARS LATER This 50th anniversary exhibition revisits the historical roots of Expo ’74’s legacy. It incorporates recognizable elements from Expo’s built environment with museum artifacts and archival materials. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Jan. 26. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

SMALL BUSINESS BINGO Pick up a bingo card at a participating business, get stamps and redeem bingos to win a prize. Through Sep. 30. Free. Page 42 Bookstore, 2174 N. Hamilton St. page42bookstore.com (509-202-2551)

CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY OF CENTRAL AMERICA Join Latinos en Spokane to honor the rich heritage of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua as we commemorate their independence from Spanish rule in 1821. Sep. 27, 5-8 pm. Free. Manito Park, 1800 S. Grand Blvd. latinosenspokane.org

FALL FESTIVAL OF HOMES The annual event is the largest new home construction showcase in the Inland Northwest, featuring 19 homes from Spokanearea builders located in neighborhoods throughout the greater Spokane area. Sept. 27-29 and Oct. 4-6 from 10 am-5 pm. Free. fallfestivalofhomes.com

THE GREAT PUMPKIN FEST A pumpkin patch with thousands to choose from, live music, good, raffles, face paining and a petting zoo. Proceeds benefit Project ID. Sept. 27-Oct. 13, Fri-Sun from noon-10 pm. Free. Brick West Brewing, 1318 W. First. brickwestbrewingco.com

HUB FAMILY FUN FESTIVALCelebrate the HUB’s 17th birthday with activities and games like cornhole, pickleball and batting cage practice. Sep. 27, 4-7 pm. Free. HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. hubsportscenter.org

THE POLITICRAWL A pub crawl to a

bar in each Spokane City Council district plus a bar downtown using the Spokane Transit Authority bus system. Hosted by the RANGE Media team in collaboration with Spokane’s local electeds, who will make appearances at the bar in their city council district to chat with attendees. Sep. 27, 12-11:30 pm. Free. Illinois Avenue Bar and Grill, 1403 E. Illinois Ave. rangemedia.co

SCARYWOOD HAUNTED NIGHTS

Scarywood is full of haunted attractions and roaming monsters, including five haunted attractions, 10 scare zones and the chance to ride most of Silverwood’s signature rides in the dark. Sept. 27Nov. 2, Fri-Sat from 7 pm-midnight. Not recommended for children under age 13. $54-$62. Silverwood Theme Park, 27843 U.S. 95. scarywoodhaunt.com

FALL HARVEST FESTIVAL This annual festival features a giant corn maze, live music, pumpkin patches and much more. Sat-Sun from 10 am-6 pm. Free. Beck’s Harvest House, 9919 E. Greenbluff Rd. becksharvesthouse.com

PROST! IN THE PARK A family friendly Oktoberfest celebration featuring local beer, kids activities, a German sausage meal, contests and more. Sep. 28, 12-7 pm. Free. Q’Emiln Park, 12201 W Parkway Dr. postfallsrotary.org

VINTAGE MARKET DAYS An upscale, open-air market featuring vintage and vintage inspired collections Oct. 4-6. Kootenai County Fairgrounds, 4056 N. Government Way. kcfairgrounds.com

CUSTER’S 49TH ANNUAL FALL ANTIQUE & VINTAGE SHOW A marketplace featuring antique, vintage and retro goods from local vendors. Oct. 5-6; Sat from 10 am-6 pm, Sun from 10 am-4 pm. $8-$10. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. custershows.com (509-477-1766)

HALLOWEEN X-SPO A Halloweenthemed convention featuring special guests from horror movies and vendors selling wares. Oct. 5, 10 am-6 pm and Oct. 6, 10 am-4 pm. $15-$35. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. halloweenxspo.com

HISTORIC HOME TOURS A tour of three historic homes in the Dayton area. Tickets can be purchased on the day of the event. Oct. 5, 1-4 pm. $20-$25. Dayton Historic Depot, 222 E. Commercial Ave. daytonhistoricdepot.org/eventsexhibits (509-382-2026)

HOLISTIC FESTIVAL Over 50 booths providing organic and natural products and remedies, body care, and pain relief. Also features panels and demonstrations. Oct. 5, 10 am-5 pm. $6. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. holisticfestivals.com

SPOKANE ARCHAEOLOGY DAY Join area archaeologists for an informative day of learning. Learn how to conduct an archaeological survey or a mock excavation, practice zooarchaeology and more. Oct. 5, 10 am-3 pm. Free. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. archaeologyinwashington.com (509-456-3931)

SPOKANE RENAISSANCE FAIRE A traditional renaissance festival featuring jousting, vendors, food and more. Oct. 5-6. $15-$35. Lazy K Ranch, 5906 E. Woodard Road. spokanerenfaire.com

WSECU FALL FEST Celebrate fall with a pumpkin patch, beer garden, live music, a petting zoo, artisan vendors, horse and carriage rides and more. Oct. 5, 11 am-5 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.org

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024 8:30 am - 2:00 pm

CenterPlace Regional Event Center

2426 N Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, WA 99216

Cost: Free - Breakfast included with registration

To register please visit our event website: www.eventleaf.com/e/2024CGConference

NAMI Spokane is here for all people and families affected by mental health conditions, free of charge, when and where they need it most.

FILM

ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES A 2022 war drama film directed by Paula Ortiz and adapted by Peter Flannery from the 1950 novel by Ernest Hemingway. Sep. 26, 7 pm. $5. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida.org

MANDI PRICE: HOLLYWOOD STORYTELLING Mandi Price, a television producer from Spokane with multiple Hollywood accolades, discusses the art of telling stories on screen. Sep. 26, 6-7 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org

MOUNTAINFILM ON TOUR A selection of culturally rich, adventure-packed and incredibly inspiring documentary films curated from the Mountainfilm festival in Telluride, Colorado. Sep. 26, 6:30 pm. $20. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu (509-313-4776)

PALOUSE CULT FILM REVIVAL: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA A roughand-tumble trucker and his sidekick face off with an ancient sorcerer in a supernatural battle beneath Chinatown. Sep. 28, 8:30-10:30 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org

MOVIE BOOK CLUB: MATILDA A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress. Sep. 29, 4-6 & 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

SEAHAWKS GAMES SCREENINGS

Chef Steven Swanson. Each course is paired with a Humble Abode beer presented by the beer maker and Nectar General Manager Jeff Domenichelli. Space is limited. Oct. 4, 7-9 pm. $75. Fête - A Nectar Co, 120 N. Stevens St. nectarcateringandevents.com

WHISKEY BARREL WEEKEND The Coeur d’Alene Resort partners with Maker’s Mark to celebrate the craftsmanship of whiskey through custom blends, tasting events, a golf match and more. Oct. 4, 6-8 pm and Oct. 5, 9:30 am-9 pm. The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdaresort.com

MUSIC

FACULTY ARTIST SERIES: MARTIN KING, HORN Martin D. King, and two of his students, perform a chronological series of pieces written in the 100 years before the first valved horns began to be performed. Sep. 27, 7:30 pm. Free. Bryan Hall Theatre (WSU), 605 Veterans Way. music.wsu.edu

NORTH IDAHO FLUTE FESTIVAL This festival features a flute masterclass with guest artist Gosia Szemelak, a flute competition and performances. Sep. 27, 3 pm and Sep. 28, 10 am-5 pm. $35. Music Conservatory of Sandpoint, 110 Main St. sandpointconservatory.org

sic has been combined with jazz. Oct. 5, 7:30 pm. $32-$42. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague. bingcrosbytheater.com

SPOKANE SYMPHONY MASTERWORKS 2: SCOTLAND THE BRAVE! The Symphony along with Julia Pyke perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony and Glisk by Aileen Sweeney. Oct. 5, 7:30 pm and Oct. 6, 3 pm. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. spokanesymphony.org

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

509 KICKOFF TO WINTER PARTY Kick off winter with giveaways, a video watch party, athlete meet-and-greets, games and more. Sep. 28, 4-8 pm. Free. 509 Xlab, 2818 N. Sullivan Rd. ride509. com (877-743-3509)

PLANT CLINIC WITH WSU SPOKANE COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS Get advice from WSU Spokane County Master Gardeners about plant selection, maintenance, environmentally friendly practices, pest management, effective landscaping practices and more. Sept. 28 from 11 am-3 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)

SPOKANE CHIEFS VS. TRI-CITY

AMERICANS The opening game of the 2024-25 season. Promos include a 40th anniversary limited edition Chiefs puck. Sep. 28, 6:05 pm. $19-$28. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanechiefs.com (509-279-7000)

Watch the Seahawks play on the big screen all season long. Sep. 30, 5:15 pm. Free. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org

MOSCOW FILM SOCIETY: SORCERER

SPOKANE SYMPHONY POPS 1: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD: LEGENDS OF NEW ORLEANS Byron Stripling performs a tribute to the musical legends of New Orleans featuring hits from Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and more. Sep. 28, 7:30 pm. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. spokanesymphony.org (509-624-1200)

YOGA FOR YOU A program for adults focused on stretching, strengthening and balance work. Mondays at 9:30 am. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org

Unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous Latin American jungle. Oct. 2, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

FOOD & DRINK

DUCKHORN VINEYARDS WINE DINNER A specially curated five-course menu designed to complement the distinct notes of Duckhorn’s signature wines. Food and wine pairings guided by the Beverly’s food and beverage team and winery representatives. Sep. 26, 6-9 pm. $175. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second. beverlyscda.com

HOPTOBERFEST FRESH HOP FESTIVAL Sample various fresh-hop beers. Sep. 27-28, 11:30 am. Perry Street Brewing, 1025 S. Perry St. perrystreetbrewing.com

PUNKTOBERFEST A celebration of all things German featuring stein holding competitions, German food, music and beer. Sept. 27-28, 1-10 pm. $25. Whistle Punk Brewing, 122 S. Monroe St. facebook.com/whistlepunkbeer

SOURDOUGH STARTER BASICS Learn how to keep and feed sourdough starter, how to properly measure and weigh ingredients, what to do with leftover starter, plus learn tricks and tips for using and sustaining a starter. Sep. 27, 121:30 pm. $65. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com

HUMBLE ABODE BEER MAKERS DINNER A five-course plated dinner by

JAZZ MASS Originally composed jazz mass by Dan Keberle, retired Whitworth jazz professor, a jazz band and St. Mark’s Chancel Choir. Sep. 29, 8:30 & 10:45 am. Free. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 E. 24th Ave. stmarks-spokane.org (509-747-6677)

WSU BRAZILIAN JAZZ FEST The festival features internationally acclaimed Brazilian and American artists, Três Mais and Nelson Faria. Oct. 1, 7:30 pm. Free. Kimbrough Music Building (WSU), WSU Pullman. music.wsu.edu

THE LOWEDOWN Spokane Symphony

Music Director James Lowe gives an indepth preview of the Masterworks concert he conducts. Oct. 3, 12-1 pm. Free. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

BIG BING THEORY FALL FAMILY

WEEKEND CONCERT Gonzaga’s a cappella group performs for fall family weekend. Oct. 4, 7-8:30 pm. Free. Gonzaga Cataldo Hall, Addison and Sharp. gonzaga.edu

OKTUBAFEST: CHRIS DICKEY Chris Dickey’s faculty recital featuring new music for tuba and euphonium by JaKobe Henry, Cait Nishimura, Barbara York, James Naigus, and a world premiere. Oct. 4, 7:30 pm. Free. Bryan Hall Theatre (WSU), 605 Veterans Way. music.wsu.edu (509-335-3477)

CELEBRATING OUR HOMELANDS

A Coeur d’Alene symphony concert featuring patriotic and Olympic favorites. Oct. 5. $15-$35. Schuler Performing Arts Center, 880 W. Garden Ave. cdasymphony.org

SPOKANE JAZZ ORCHESTRA: CLASSICAL MEETS JAZZ The season’s opening concert highlights the creative and interesting ways in which classical mu-

MONTHLY BIRD WALK Join a birding expert on a walk around Saltese Flats. These walks are aimed at identifying birds, teaching basic birding skills and taking a census of what is present at Saltese Flats. First Wed of each month from 8 am-noon Free. Doris Morrison Learning Center, 1330 S. Henry Rd. spokanecounty.org/5360/Doris-MorrisonLearning-Center-DMLC

SPOKANE CHIEFS VS. KELOWNA ROCKETS Regular season game. Promotional schedule TBA. Oct. 4, 7:05 pm. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanechiefs.com

THE FREEDOM 5K A 5k race raising awareness and funds for trafficking survivors. Oct. 5, 9 am-noon. $20-$70. Riverstone Park, 1800 Tilford Ln. safeharborforfreedom.com (208-514-2971)

SPOKANE CHIEFS VS. SEATTLE THUNDERBIRDS Regular season game. Promotional schedule TBA. Oct. 5, 6:05 pm. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanechiefs.com (509-279-7000)

SPOKANE RIVER ROLL A 7-mile roll on the Centennial Trail in Spokane. Bring your bike, roller skates, scooter or other human-powered wheels. Oct. 5, 1-4 pm. Free. No-Li Brewhouse, 1003 E. Trent Ave. 350spokane.org (509-242-2739)

TURNBULL ANNUAL COMMUNITY TREE PLANTING Volunteers of all ages and abilities are invited to help with trail maintenance and tree planting at Turnbull. RSVP at link. Oct. 5, 9 am-1 pm. Free. Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, 26010 S. Smith Rd. fws.gov/ refuge/turnbull

EVENTS | CALENDAR

THEATER & DANCE

CAROUSEL Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan fall in love, marry and have a stormy relationship that leads to tragedy. WedSat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through Oct. 13. $15-$41. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com

JEKYLL & HYDE Dr. Henry Jekyll is driven to find a breakthrough that can solve mankind’s most challenging medical dilemmas. He decides to make himself the subject of his own experiments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons. ThuSat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through Oct. 6. $27-$30. Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave. lakecityplayhouse.org

REFLECTING IN COLOR A dance concert featuring original works choreographed by Lexie Powell, Vincas Greene, Marta Berk, Anne Gyure, Lauren Hovik and Olga Loktev exploring human connection and playful movement. Sep. 27-28, 7:30 pm. $17-$38. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. vytalmovement.org

DANCE FLAVORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD A night of dinner and dancing to Latin and swing rhythms. Wear something that celebrates your personal cultural heritage. Sep. 28, 6-10 pm. $15$40. South Side Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. danceflavorsspokane.eventbrite.com (206-849-2473)

VENTRILOQUIST JERRY BREEDEN

Breeden performs various ventriloquy acts and finishes the evening by playing oldies on guitar. Sep. 29, 2 pm. $20-$25. Cutter Theatre, 302 Park St. cuttertheatre.com (509-446-4108)

FUNNY GIRL A musical based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, featuring her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Oct. 1-6; Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat also at 2 pm, Sun at 1 pm and 6:30 pm. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. broadwayspokane.com (509-279-7000)

SHIBARI IS THE WAY: BOUND BABES A night of performances focusing on bondage and other Shibari acts. Oct. 3, 7 pm. Free. The Chameleon, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. chameleonspokane.com

60X60 An annual concert featuring 60 dance works, each running 60 seconds long. All music is composed by Gonzaga students or faculty and the choreography is created by student, faculty and alumni. Oct. 4, 6-7 pm. $8-$10. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/dance (509-313-4776)

INTO THE WOODS A baker and his wife wish to have a child. When they learn that they cannot have a child because of a Witch’s curse, the two set off on a journey to break the curse. Oct. 4-13; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm. $23-$29. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd. aspirecda.com (208-667-1865)

MACBETH A brave Scottish general receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he’ll become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. Oct. 4-27; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $25-$30. Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. stagelefttheater.org

MANDATE FOR MURDER A political satire play about a murder that occurs during a mayoral candidate’s surprise birthday party on election night. Dinner served at 6:30 pm show at 7:30 pm. See

website for menu. Oct. 4-19; Fri-Sat at 6:30 pm. $12-$35. Northwoods Performing Arts Center, 3645 N. SR 211. northwoodsperformingarts.com

THE ONE AND ONLY SARAH STONELY Meet Sarah, an average 12-year-old girl, as she fights to save Earth after being “chosen” by a mysterious alien race to participate in the Great Galactic Games of Greatness. Oct. 4-6, times vary. $12-$16. Gonzaga University Magnuson Theatre, 502 E. Boone Ave. gonzaga.edu/theatre

VISUAL ARTS

1924: SOVEREIGNTY, LEADERSHIP AND THE INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT This exhibition commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act and centers on photographs of early local tribal leadership. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Feb. 2. $8-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

THE ART OF FOOD: FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF JORDAN D. SCHNITZER AND HIS FAMILY FOUNDATION A collection of work showcasing how prominent artists depict food beyond mere sustenance and how food connects us through shared experiences and societal issues. Tue-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through March 8. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson. museum.wsu.edu

BE AN ART: DERIVATIVES OF SOM: A group show in tribute of the late Isamu Jordan, curated by Rajah Bose, ThuyDzuong Nguyen, Justyn Priest and Caleb Jordan. Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm through Sep. 28. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe St. terrainspokane.com

BEN JOYCE: PLACES Abstract topographical art by Spokane-based artist Ben Joyce representing locales that have played major roles in his life. Mon-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through Jan. 4. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/jundt

BETWEEN BORDERS: FOLKLIFE THROUGH THE COEUR D’ALENES A traveling exhibit featuring folk and traditional works from artists across the Panhandle region, curated by the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Thu-Sun from 12-5 pm through Oct. 6. Free. Historic Jameson Hotel, 304 Sixth St. wallaceid. fun (208-556-5730)

DUNCAN CLARK MENZIES: WHAT DO YOU COVER? An innovative and immersive solo exhibition which transforms the gallery into a contemporary sacred art space, inviting visitors to engage in a collective exploration of the themes personal and communal covering. Tue-Sat from 10 am-6 pmthrough Oct. 5. Free. Emerge, 119 N. Second St. emergecda.com

LEELA FRANCIS & EMILY WENNER: EARTH MYSTERIES Paintings by Francis and Wenner embodying the healing power of trees and the magic of nature. Wed-Sat from 11 am-5 pm through Sep. 28. Free. New Moon Art Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague Ave. manicmoonandmore.com

ELLEN PICKEN: MESSAGES FROM THE LAMMERGEIER Paintings and mixed media works by local artist Ellen Picken. Daily from 11 am-6 pm through Sep. 30. Free. Entropy, 101 N. Stevens St. explodingstars.com (509-414-3226)

TERESA RANCOURT: NATURE, MY MUSE A collection of abstract mixed media works inspired by the natural beauty of Northern Idaho. Mon-Sat from 10 am-5 pm through Sep. 30. Free. Pend Oreille Arts Council Gallery, 313 N. Second Ave. artinsandpoint.org (208-263-6139)

THE GREAT NORTHWEST WOOD SHOW & SALE An open exhibition and retail event for both established and emerging wood artists. The show presents a range of wood pieces, from traditional to avantgarde, including wall art, turned bowls, kitchen utensils, furniture and decorative items. Thu-Sun from 10 am-6 pm through Sep. 29. Free. Dahmen Barn, 419 N. Park Way. artisanbarn.org (509-229-3414)

JOE FEDDERSEN: LANDSCAPE OF RELATIONS Joe Feddersen discusses his work and how it overlaps with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Corwin Clairmont and Neal Ambrose’s artwork. Registration is required to attend. Sep. 28, 2-3 pm. $5-$10. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)

RIVER RIDGE ASSOCIATION OF FINE ARTS: COLORS OF FALL Artworks by RRAFA members featuring rich, fall colors. Daily from 11 am-7 pm through Sep. 28, 11 am-7 pm. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington St. spokanelibertybuilding.com (509-327-6920)

MEET YOUR MAKER Meet the artists behind all of the items in From Here. Daily from 11 am-6 pm. See website for schedule. Free. From Here, 808 W. Main Ave. fromherespokane.com

PROVOCATIVE BEAUTY: SELECTIONS FROM THE ART COLLECTION OF DRS. DOROTHY AND GORDON CARLSON Whitworth alumni Gordon and Dorothy Carlson were instrumental in establishing Whitworth’s art collection. This show features several pieces from their contributions. Mon-Fri from 10 am-4:30 pm, Sat from 10 am-2 pm through Oct. 24. Free. Bryan Oliver Gallery, Whitworth, 300 W. Hawthorne Ave. whitworth.edu

RICK SINGER: PHOTOGRAPHY RETROSPECTIVE A collection of photographs by Rick Singer spanning his 43 year career. Mon-Fri from 8 am-5 pm through Oct. 25. Free. Chase Gallery, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. spokanearts.org (509-321-9416)

SALLY MACHLIS & DELPHINE KEIM Sally Machlis and Delphine Keim address social, political and environmental issues through large mixed-media works on paper and installations. Mon-Thu from 10 am-4 pm, Fri from 10 am-2:30 pm through Nov. 1. Free. Boswell Corner Gallery at NIC, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Building 22. nic.edu/cornergallery

VAN GOGH: THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE A digital art exhibition featuring the work of Vincent van Gogh. Thu-Mon from 10 am-7 pm through Sep. 30. $21$41. Exhibition Hub Spokane Art Center, 808 N. Ruby. vangoghexpo.com/spokane WOMAN, ARTIST, CATALYST: ART FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

Focusing on locally, nationally and internationally known women artists, this exhibition showcases the quality and varied focus of leading artists and art movements in the Inland and Pacific Northwest. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through March 9. $8-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)

YOUR COLLECTION: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS EXHIBITION An exhibition examining the museum’s evolution through a carefully curated selection from the permanent collection. Tue-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through Dec. 13. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu

HIROMI STRINGER: THE EXOTIC WEST: TIME TRAVELER UMEYAMA’S ACCIDENTAL OCCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES A solo exhibition by Hiromi Stringer featur-

ing drawings and paintings that combine her Japanese heritage with her life in America. Fri from 4-7 pm, Sat from 10 am-3 pm through Nov. 9. Free. Gonzaga University Urban Arts Center, 125 S. Stevens St. gonzaga.edu

INTERNATIONAL SURREALISM IN AMERICA Seventeen international artists are featured in this surrelist showcase including Spokane artists Roch Fautch and Dara Debast, along with Portugese artist Santiago Ribeiro. Fridays from 5-9 pm through Oct. 5. Free. Shotgun Studios, 1625 W. Water Ave. shotgunstudiosspokane.com (509-688-3757)

THE ART OF FOOD TOUR, PUBLIC SQUARE AND POP-UP MARKET Celebrate the museum’s 50th anniversary with an exclusive tour of the “Art of Food” exhibit, a public square discussion on food insecurity and a pop-up market. Sep. 27, 11 am-3 pm. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu

HEADS-UP PORTRAIT CLUB A series of 20-minute portrait-drawing sessions. Choose another member of the group to draw, while also being drawn by others. Every second and fourth Saturday of the month from 10 am-noon. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe St. headsup-portraitclub.com

JOE FEDDERSEN: EARTH, WATER, SKY

This exhibition showcases the breadth of Joe Feddersen’s 40-year career, including printmaking, glass, weaving and ceramics through over 100 works. Sept. 28-Jan. 5, Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm. $8$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org

LITTLE SPOKANE RIVER ARTIST STUDIO TOUR This 17th annual event features four studios and over 50 artists with a wide variety of artwork for sale across various mediums. See website for location information and map. Sep. 28, 10 am-5 pm. Free. littlespokanestudios.com

SARAH KNOBEL: WHAT REMAINS

TRANSPARENT Through evocative imagery, artist Sarah Knobel crafts liminal spaces, inviting viewers to contemplate the enigmatic nature of everyday objects and our waste. Oct. 3-Nov. 8, Mon-Fri from 9 am-5 pm. Free. EWU Gallery of Art, 140 Art Building. ewu.edu/cahss/ gallery (509-359-2494)

TERRAIN 15 An annual, one-night only, juried multimedia art and music event featuring all-local art. Preview night (Thu, Oct. 3) is a ticketed event, the main event (Fri, Oct. 4) is free. Takes place at 314 W. Riverside Ave. Oct. 3, 6-9 pm and Oct. 4, 5 pm-midnight. Free. Downtown Spokane. terrainspokane.com

ARCHIE BRAY RESIDENT SHOW A showcase of established and emerging contemporary ceramic artists from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana. Oct. 4-25, by appointment. Free. KolvaSullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. kolvasullivangallery.com (509-458-5517)

CHRIS KELSEY, MARK MOORE & GINA FREUEN Works by Trackside Studio owners Mark Moore and Chris Kelsey as well as exhibiting partner, Gina Freuen. Oct. 4-25; Wed-Fri from 11 am-5 pm. Free. Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams St. tracksidestudio.net (509-863-9904)

WORDS

DROP IN & WRITE Aspiring writers are invited to be a part of a supportive writers’ community. Bring works in progress to share, get inspired with creative prompts and spend some focused time

writing. Hosted by local writers Jenny Davis and Hannah Engel. Thursdays from 5:30-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org

THE FIRSTS: LATINA STRUGGLES IN THE UNITED STATES In a talk that draws from interviews of Latinas from across a wide range of professions, as well as from her own personal experiences, join Maria Chávez for an exploration of the complicated challenges Latina professionals face. Sep. 26, 6 pm. Free. Online, humanities.org

FISH WARS: TRIBAL RIGHTS, RESISTANCE, AND RESILIENCY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST In this talk, professor Kestrel A. Smith surveys the evidence and events before and after the Fish Wars, which rocked Washington State for decades. Sep. 26, 7 pm. Free. Online, humanities.org

HISTORY HOUR: THE EARLY DAYS OF COEUR D’ALENE John Wood discusses how the settlers dealt with problems to build along the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene and what major structures were added and then replaced to create the waterfront we have today. Sep. 26, 5:30 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org

LORA SENF & CLARE EDGE Author Lora Senf discusses her book The Loneliest Place and Clare Edge discusses her book Accidental Demons. Sep. 27, 6 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206)

WRITE TOGETHER: A COMMUNITY WRITING SESSION Bring your current writing project and your favorite writing tools (pens/pencils/notebooks/laptops) and prepare to hunker down and write with local novelist and Writing Education Specialist Sharma Shields. Sep. 27, 10:15 am-12:15 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org

FORAY FOR THE ARTS: PERRY STREET CRAWL Performances in the Perry District by Brandon Sullivan, Jared LyonsWolf, Maya Jewell Zeller, Paul Ligon and more. Sep. 28, 6-9 pm. Free. South Perry Business District. instagram.com/foray4thearts

TEDXSPOKANE TED Talks, video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. This year’s speakers include Caren Furbeyre, Casey Pilgeram, Elisabeth Kraus, Emily Torres and Sean Barrett and Suzanne Ostersmith among others. Sep. 28, 2 pm. $30-$35. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. tedxspokane.com

AYANA ELIZABETH: WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? Author Ayana Elizabeth discusses her book What If We Get It Right? Oct. 2, 7 pm. Admission is purchase of book. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206)

BROKEN MIC A weekly open mic reading series. Wednesdays at 6:30 pm; sign-ups at 6 pm. Free. Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. bit.ly/2ZAbugD (509-847-1234)

WHAT’S UNDER THE DRIVEWAY? Kris Hansen, a researcher and Cannon’s Addition resident, discusses the history of vacated 19th-century Spokane cemeteries on the lower South Hill. Oct. 2, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. spokanelibrary.org

ILLUMINATIONS: WITCHES This month’s showcase is a 1665 edition of The Discover of Witchcraft, Francisco de Goya’s “Caprichos” etchings, and much more. Participants can drop in any time. Oct. 3, 11 am-noon. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main. spokanelibrary.org n

SHOPPING

Bomb Bath Time

Spokane Valley’s Bath By Bex puts CBD in the spotlight with infused bath products

BY WILL MAUPIN

THC is the star of the show for most of the cannabis industry, but for Bex Kolb it’s not even a bit player.

Spokane Valley’s Bath by Bex has been manufacturing and selling CBDinfused personal care products since 2017, with a focus on bringing relief to users in the comfort of their home bathrooms. For Kolb, the work stems from personal experience.

“Medicinal marijuana can give me anxiety. Unfortunately, I’m one of the people that can have an adverse [reaction] to THC,” Kolb says. “So while THC rubs are nice, I just found CBD topicals to be a little longer lasting, a little more pain relieving for me.”

When Kolb started using CBD for pain relief back in 2014, there was little place for CBD-focused products in the nascent cannabis industry. It was an issue Kolb knew as well as anyone, as she was a budtender at the time.

With few options available to buy, Kolb decided to start making her own. What began as a small, online-only retailer with a small variety of offerings is now a storefront with dozens of products.

Despite expanding her inventory beyond bath bombs, Kolb still makes the products by hand.

...continued on page 46

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.

“BOMB BATH TIME,” CONTINUED...

“We have an array of skincare products now. And the bath bombs, because our balms have such real and natural ingredients in them, are also amazing for your skin,” Kolb says.

The impetus behind the business was pain relief, but Kolb has since embraced the wider uses of CBD topicals.

“We make them in doses that are perfect for grandma with her arthritis and her hip pain. If you are just stressed out, we make a dose for you,” Kolb says. “We even make kids’ bath bombs that are safe for kids to use because they’ve got severe anxiety or growing pains, bath bombs can truly be for everyone.”

When asked how to compare the feeling of CBD compared to THC, Kolb says it is more of a lack of feeling.

“It’s more of a sense of relief,” Kolb adds.

CBD has been touted as a panacea, but there are scientific studies showing the validity of some claims about the compound.

a wide range of

It shows real promise as a treatment for issues such as anxiety, pain and insomnia.

Or, it can be used simply to enhance a relaxing bath on these nights that are growing longer and colder by the day. n

greenhand

DAILY SPECIALS

811AM

Off (excludes all pre-rolls)

Off

WEDNESDAY 20% Off concentrates $20 or more

THURSDAY $1 off packs of 4

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.

AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g.,

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.

Bath By Bex offers

CBD body care items, from soap to balm. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

53. Nevada neighbor

host LeShan 36. Little help 37. Mario’s brother

39. Video games playable by large groups simultaneously 40. Happy tail movement 41. Bit of a cloud 42. American tennis star Stephens 44. *”Isn’t that true?” (not a type of mineral)

46. *Became a huge fan of (all tenses are now fair game)

47. “Oh yeah? ___ who?”

48. “The ___ Kid” (1950s Western)

49. Liquidation event

51. Oktoberfest ___ (website with an “O’Fest Essentials” category)

56. *Cranial attack in a fight (surprisingly, new to the list as one word)

58. *Subject-changing segue word (either spelling is new)

60. Java brewer

61. Multigenerational baseball surname

62. Sweetsop relatives

63. “Yup,” without the out-loud part

64. Forrest played by Tom Hanks

65. Malaria-carrying fly

DOWN

1. Lobby gp.

2. “Am ___ only one?”

Tzatziki,

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