Inlander 10/24/2013 by The Inlander

2 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

INSIDE

20th Anniversary

Spokane Cork & Keg Festival A Wine and Microbrew Tasting

OCTOBER 24-30, 2013 | VOL. 21, NO. 1

COMMENT NEWS 20 YEARS CULTURE FOOD FILM

5 13 24 67 74 80

MUSIC EVENTS BULLETIN BOARD WELLNESS I SAW YOU LAST WORD

85 90 98 99 100 103

Saturday, November 9th • 7:00 - 10:00 pm • Mirabeau Park Hotel $45 per person ($50 at the Door) • Must be 21 to attend. Taste hundreds of great wines and microbrews! Enjoy incredible hors d’oeuvres prepared by the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy. Live music by the Martini Brothers!

Tickets and more information available online: SpokaneCorkandKeg.com

ON THE COVER | CHRIS BOVEY ILLUSTRATION

ONLINE

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LAST WORD

Celebrating all the people who’ve contributed to the Inlander over the past two decades PAGE 103

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COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com) PUBLISHER

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WHAT WERE YOU DOING 20 YEARS AGO? KSENIA LUKONINA

I was in school, the second grade probably. Around second grade. Maybe the first? Can’t really tell. What were you studying? Everything, like every other little girl in school. Like, I don’t know, Russian language? What was your favorite subject? Singing in the choir.

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I would say learning how to ride a bike. How did the biking go? Did you crash? I did crash a few times, but eventually I learned how to ride.

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Probably playing in my backyard in California. What were you playing? Riding a scooter around on the sidewalk.

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COMMENT | IN MEMORIAM

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If more of our current politicians would look to the life and political career of Tom Foley, we’d all be better off BY CHRIS CARLSON

owards the end of his fine novel Citizen Vince, Spokane journalist-turned-best-selling novelist Jess Walter describes Vince’s encounter with an Irish politician in a bar on Sprague Avenue inside a well-known downtown Spokane hotel. It’s the day before the 1980 election, and Vince, a felon placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program, has been debating for a week whether to vote, given his new identity and a clean slate. He strides into the lounge, sits at the bar and asks the bartender if he can switch the TV above the booze to the news for just 10 minutes, even though Monday Night Football is about to begin. The bartender politely points out that the five other patrons at the bar want the football game, but tells Vince if he can get one other patron to second his request, he’ll switch for 10 minutes. Vince surveys the lounge, recognizing that none of those at the bar will give him a second. However, there are two gray suits sitting at a table having highballs and eating a steak. Anyone familiar with Spokane immediately recognizes the Ridpath Hotel. The Irish politician is also recognizable — it’s Tom Foley, the only person subsequently to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from the vast area west of Texas. Vince recognizes that the larger of the two suits, a bearish but friendly-looking guy, is the local congressman — he knows his name begins with “F”. Vince asks if the congressman will second his motion. As only a writer with a novelist’s eye can, Walter captures the puckish humor of the late Speaker: He stands, raises a draft beer, and covers his heart. “Esteemed colleagues, the representative from Table Six in the great state of Washington — home of glorious wheat fields and aluminum plants, cool, clear rivers and snowcapped mountains, and the finest bar patrons in this great country, proudly casts his vote in favor of 10 minutes of misery and heartache courtesy of the national news.” The guys at the bar raise their glasses in confused reverie as the bartender reaches up to turn the channel.

nyone who ever knew Speaker Foley can easily envision this fictional scene. It captures the quintessential Tom Foley — his humor, wit, intelligence, compassion, perspicacity, all in one brief vignette. The Ridpath, once the hotel of choice for labor as the only “union” hotel in Spokane, has been shuttered for years. And Tom Foley passed away at the age of 84 this past week. Foley deservedly will live on in the hearts and minds of the many people who he and his capable staff, led by his wife Heather Strachan, helped during his distinguished 30-year career of public service. When all of us directly touched by this most decent of officeholders have ourselves passed on,

6 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Tom Foley will live on in the pages of Walter’s novel and in the records that chronicle this gentle giant’s accomplishments ensconced at Washington State University in the Tom Foley Institute of Public Policy. As a rookie Washington, D.C., correspondent covering the capital for several Northwest and Alaskan newspapers in 1971 and 1972, Foley’s office was a stop on my beat because the Lewiston Tribune had subscribers in the Fifth District. Even though it was early in Foley’s remarkable three-decade tenure, he already possessed qualities that stood him apart from the rest of his colleagues. He personified civility. He was always courteous and solicitous. He possessed a great ability to tell illustrative stories and a wonderful sense of humor. There wasn’t an arrogant or pretentious bone in his body, and he displayed great patience both with his less intellectually gifted colleagues and young reporters asking uninformed questions. He had a marvelous ability to explain, clearly and concisely, arcane elements of a farm bill or ancient rules of the House. As Speaker he was noted for his absolute fairness, his judicious demeanor. Some of the best tributes on his passing have come from Republicans like former Senator Slade Gorton, who pointed out Foley had many opponents over the years, but no real enemies. The reason for this was explicated nowhere better than Minority Leader Robert Michel’s Washington Post tribute. The former Illinois congressman cited the sine qua non of personal politics — Foley was a man of his word¸ his word was his bond, and they trusted each other.

thers will chronicle all that Foley accomplished for his district, the state and the nation. It is indeed a fine record of public service by a true public servant. Here’s hoping, though, that future generations recognize his sense of history and his belief in the critical role the House of Representatives serves in our democratic system of government. He loved the House, and as Jeff Biggs noted so well in his biography of the Speaker, he brought honor to the House. One doubts we will ever see his likes again.  Chris Carlson worked for Cecil Andrus when he was governor of Idaho and when he was Secretary of the Interior. He later co-founded the Gallatin Group. Today he lives and writes from his home on Cave Lake in North Idaho.

COMMENT | PUBLISHER’S NOTE

One Big, Happy Family BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.

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er, my brother of 43 years and business partner for the past 20, keeps a corkboard in his office with the picture of every employee who has ever worked here. When you look at it, the memories flood in. There’s the sales rep who turned his truck into an office. Brilliant! Oh, and remember her? The woman who just kind of left one day? “If she ever comes back,” I remember somebody saying, “I guess we should let her go.” And there’s the Gonzaga student intern from India who we promoted to be our business manager; she married a guy from Scotland. Only in America! The people are the real story here, and it starts with our own family. But our staff has become family, too. I remember being assigned a desk at my newspaper in Boston. The guy next to me was Andy Strickman, who later took me up on my offer to come west to help us start the Inlander. His willingness to jump in somehow made it all seem not quite so crazy. Andy now lives in LAST WORD San Francisco and works at Yahoo!. I remember Jer and I interviewing a woman just about our ages; in fact, she had it together to the point where it kind of seemed like she should be hiring us. From that moment, we all just connected with Faces of the Inlander Tami Linane-Booey, who left us this summer after 15 years to follow her dream to teach high school. And I remember a young journalist who See all the people showed up at our door 10 years ago, back who’ve worked for the home from his job at the New York Times to Inlander on page 103. be with his mom, who was sick. He wrote a couple stories for us, then left for a newspaper job in Florida. But I finally convinced him to come back. Today he’s our editor — Jacob Fries — and his passion for journalism is making a big impact on the Inlander and the region. All of them and so many more have left — and continue to leave — a lasting impact on the Inlander. In our very first issue 20 years ago, I wrote that “we hope to play a small part in creating a better society here in our region.” I think we’ve done that, but only because so many great people bought into the idea that is the Inlander — and worked hard, week after week, to make it happen.  Many of the people who’ve made the Inlander go for the last 20 years INLANDER STAFF • 1993 - 2013

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COMMENT | DIGEST ON OUR FACEBOOK

How do you think Spokane has changed in the past two decades? 225 E. 3rd Ave., Spokane, WA

JEANNIE KIVETT MORS: Not much, just more gang activity. BART MIHAILOVICH: In my time here I will say that despite what some say, younger people do actually stay in Spokane now. DAVE KOCH: It’s gotten bigger, it has gotten poorer, but unfortunately it has also gotten more poor people with less hope financially and politically.

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INLANDER ENDORSEMENTS

Council Seats and Crash Zones 11107 E. 21st Ave Ext. 2309 South 2324 E. 6th Ave Ext. 2109 2508 S. Rebecca St Ext. 2409 20 W. Sumner Ave #406 Ext. 2439 508 W. 24th Ave Ext. 2449 1722 S. Stevens St Ext. 2239 2527 E. 5th Ave Ext. 2289 3027 S. Winthrop Ln. Unit D Ext. 2389 North 3509 E. Courtland Ave Ext. 2299 2817 W. Houston Ave Ext. 2399 1622 W. Kedlin Ln Ext. 2189 2127 E. South Crescent Ave Ext. 2999 Nine Mile Falls 13509 W. Meadowview Ln Ext. 2369 Chattaroy 7621 E. Hamilton Rd Ext. 2339 7623 E. Hamilton Rd Ext. 2349 Lake 12515 S. Clear Lake Rd Ext. 2229 Spokane Valley 2011 N. Center Rd Ext. 2379 8120 E. 1st Ave #54 Ext. 2429 11107 E. 21st Ave Ext. 2309 Airway Heights 12617 W. Tower Ave Ext. 2259 Deer Park 5270 Scotts Valley Rd Ext. 2359

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8 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL, DISTRICTS 2 AND 3  JON SNYDER, CANDACE MUMM

couple of factors have come together to turn what used to be routine races around here into big-money fights. First, we created the Strong Mayor system, which is by definition more political. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — presidents lobby for their favorites, and our mayors will, too. But the second factor is the fact that Washington’s GOP is lost in the political wilderness — they won just one relatively minor statewide race in 2012, and now their national brand is in tatters. So they are concentrating their fire on races they think they can win, like the officially nonpartisan Spokane City Council. Then perhaps, they believe, they can test out their mostly dead-end austerity ideas and climb back into relevance. And they just can’t seem to kick their nasty habits, which is why we see ominous TV ads claiming incumbent City Councilman Jon Snyder and candidate Candace Mumm are “bought and paid for.” These are the tactics we’ve seen nationally, creating the winnertake-all politics that nearly sent the nation over an economic cliff this month. So it’s left to city voters to decide if Tea Party politics are something they want to encourage here. It’s kind of sad, really, that Mumm’s opponent Michael Cannon is being introduced to the community under such circumstances. He seems to have a lot to offer, but with friends like his you have to wonder who that “bought and paid for” charge really applies to. And in the other race, John Ahern is a known quantity: For 10 years he served in the State House without much to show for it. There’s no reason to believe he will suddenly get more effective as he enters his ninth decade. Jon Snyder has been a great advocate for the kind of dynamic community we all want Spokane to become — he is an energetic leader who brings people together to solve problems. And Candace Mumm has an impressive list of community volunteering, neighborhood activism and professional experience that makes her a

safe bet. She would follow Nancy McLaughlin’s lead in staying close to the concerns of residents of northwest Spokane.

SPOKANE COUNTY PROPOSITION 1  NO

he most irritating thing about Proposition 1 is that it feels like a vote against Fairchild if you don’t support it. That is not the case. All of Spokane is united in keeping Fairchild right where it is, but this is a $20 million ask with more questions than answers. When the idea of buying up low-income housing in the crash zone outside Fairchild first came up, it was coupled with a plan to build more low-income housing, so those displaced would have a place to go. The state did not fund that, and local nonprofits involved in low-income housing have warned there is not enough capacity to guarantee homes for the displaced. Will Proposition 1 just add to our homeless problem? At its root, this is designed to make sure Fairchild survives the next time the Pentagon closes bases. But there’s no proof that encroachment on crash zones is even a factor. Is it worth $20 million to address crashzone issues because they might be a factor in future base closure decisions? And if you look at the potential of losing human life in the event of a crash, Proposition 1 would actually call for locating light industrial uses on those same properties. So it’s OK if 50 people die, but it’s not OK if 200 die? That’s a cold calculation. And keep in mind, these are the best flight crews on the planet, so how real is the threat of a crash? Is it worth $20 million to only partially eliminate that threat? We are all for creating the best case for keeping Fairchild in the Inland Northwest, but there are limits — in cash and common sense. Yes, we do need to address the crash-zone issue, but this proposal needs to go back into the oven to get fully baked. 

JENNIFER VINCENT: A lot more rear end accidents from stupid texters, a lot more property crimes, a lot more drug activity, and never ending street closures that make commuting miserable. I want my city back! BRIE EDWARDS: It has died and revived and died and revived. A few steps forward and a few steps back in constant rotation.

What are your hopes for the Inland Northwest in the next 20 years? LINDSAY HOWELL: Less douche-baggery! Oh, and public art. I’d like that. REBECCA BLANKINSHIP: I hope we can retain our conservative, laid back, lovely place to live without being invaded by Seattle people, or California people. ANTHONY GILL: Light rail, transitoriented development, neighborhood revitalizations, the completion of the North Spokane Corridor, the completion of the University District, the completion of Kendall Yards, continued infill development, a gradual expansion of downtown Spokane across the river, a great new vision for Spokane Riverfront Park, and more! BLAINE MATTHEW: I’d like to see a more open, diverse community with more opportunities for everyone. I’d like to see better paying jobs brought into our area to lift more people from poverty. Also, better streets. 

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 9

COMMENT | SATIRE

The Dream Lives On A BY ANDY BOROWITZ

cknowledging that the government shutdown was coming to an end, an emotional Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took to the Senate floor last week to make an impassioned speech, telling his colleagues, “The dream of keeping poor people from seeing a doctor must never die.” His eyes welling with tears, Cruz said, “I embarked on this crusade with a simple goal: to keep affordable health care out of the reach of ordinary, hard-working Americans. And while this battle was lost, that dream — that precious, cherished dream — will live on.” Reflecting on the government shutdown and near-default that almost touched off a global financial apocalypse, Sen. Cruz said, “We’ll give it another try in a few weeks.” Sen. Cruz’s closest ally, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also spoke reverently of the shutdown, calling it “the most expensive Civil War reenactment in history.” “Unfortunately, once again,

the wrong side won,” he said. Over in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) congratulated his colleagues on the deal to resolve the shutdown, telling reporters, “This proves that when we work together, we can come up with a totally unsatisfactory solution to a completely unnecessary crisis.” Elsewhere, the NSA leaker Edward Snowden reached out to the United States government, offering to fix its troubled healthcare.gov Web site in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia, Mr. Snowden said he hacked the Web site over the weekend and thinks he is “pretty sure what the problem is.” n For more fake news from Andy Borowitz, visit borowitzreport.com.

COMMENT | JOBS

Under Their Noses BY JIM HIGHTOWER

ow’s this for irony? Ronald Reagan — who is worshipped as the supreme deity by small-government, anti-spending zealots — not only has a government office building in Washington named for him, but it’s the biggest and costliest one ever built. The only face-saving factor in this sardonic incongruity is that managers of the Reagan Building have embraced a right-wing, laissez-faire concept that the Gipper enthusiastically championed: Privatization of government jobs. However, that hasn’t worked out to be a positive for his legacy, since Reagan’s edifice now stands as a model of private profiteering on the backs of workers. In effect, corporate contractors are using privatization and our tax dollars to transform America into a low-wage nation of gross inequality. The building is public property, but its food concessions have been turned over to multibillion-dollar fast-food chains. Not only do they pay low wages with no benefits, but they’re also being charged with “serious, willful and chronic” wage

theft. In particular, workers in the food court have filed formal complaints with the Labor Department, documenting that while workweeks of 60, 70 and even 80 hours are common, they’re “never paid overtime.” Not only is this a rank violation of our Fair Labor laws, but the practice also means they are being paid less than minimum wage. Come on — even Reagan favored at least a minimal level of decency, fairness and respect for workers. Where’s the morality in CEOs grabbing tax dollars to help subsidize their lavish executive pay packages, then turning around and stiffing their own workers in our name? To help counter this despicable corporate conversion of government into a force for poverty jobs, contact Good Jobs Nation at goodjobsnation.org. n For more from America’s populist, check out jimhightower.com.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 11

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Fits and Starts

The rise of the Davenport is just one chapter in downtown’s history.

A retrospective on the region — looking back at our police, our politics and our downtowns HOTEL REBIRTHS AND A HIP STRIP

Driving down First Avenue, the sun spilling through high-rises and onto the ornate entrance to the Davenport Hotel, the letters emerge ahead: “RIDPATH.” The proximity of the two to each other serves as a reminder of downtown Spokane’s tumultuous history: the one that was shuttered nearly 30 years ago now fluttering with activity; the other, once a stay-over for Elvis, now covered in cracked glass and urine stains. While the revitalization of the Davenport has helped tell the story of downtown Spokane for the past 10 years, the Ridpath could dominate the next 10. Developer Ron Wells’ plans to renovate the dilapidated hotel into micro-apartments, planting people right in the heart of downtown, has the city talking about potential. More

Spokanites living downtown could help finish the revival that the Davenport and River Park Square began. “I think the Ridpath is honestly one of the last major buildings that is a significant problem, and when it’s renovated and repopulated, it will certainly be a big boost to the neighborhood,” Wells told the Inlander late last month. A few blocks farther east, a massive hole in the ground marks the latest project from Walt Worthy, the developer who restored the Davenport: a 700-room brand-name hotel across the street from the Convention Center. That project, Worthy and supporters say, will attract more conventions (and therefore convention goers and their dollars) to the city. The projects, paired with the shimmering rebirth of River Park Square and expansion

STEPHEN SCHLANGE PHOTO

of the Convention Center itself, have brought a new kind of hope to downtown, where lawmakers, developers and shoppers see a bustling commercial and entertainment district. Also breathing new life into downtown are small-business hubs like the block of West Main Avenue between Browne and Division streets. The block, once home to unsightly buildings and businesses, now offers bar/ restaurants Zola and Saranac, thrift stores, the local-foodfocused Main Market, the Community Building housing progressive nonprofits, vegan bakery and lounge Boots, and science fiction store Merlyn’s. “I think people have always wanted this,” says Merlyn’s owner John Waite of the area. “We would go to Seattle or go to Portland and see these neat neighborhoods. … I don’t think anyone understood what it would take to make that happen, and frankly I don’t think anyone was trying. [Then] we got lucky to have the right bunch of people and bunch of businesses here.” Waite himself lives on the strip, as does artist and developer Dan Spalding, and it’s that kind of “skin in the game” Waite credits for reviving the area. “It’s not corporate in any way. It has that local vibe,” Waite says. “We have all done this out of our own pockets. It’s how we want it.” — HEIDI GROOVER ...continued on next page

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 13

NEWS | 20TH ANNIVERSARY “FITS AND STARTS,” CONTINUED...

ECHOES OF POLICE REFORMS PAST Equipped with in-car laptops, Tasers and soon officer-mounted body cameras, Spokane Police officers will have more tools than ever to prevent and investigate crime. While law enforcement technology has advanced considerably throughout the past 20 years, a department’s success still largely depends on how its officers perform out on the street. Looking back at the past two decades, the Spokane Police Department has never had an easy job. But it’s striking how many modern disputes reflect age-old frustrations and how many newly introduced reforms seem to echo previous efforts.

served as the catalyst for hiring Police Ombudsman Tim Burns to review investigations into officer conduct. Burns says he remains encouraged by some of the recent steps to revise department policies and strengthen disciplinary protocols. He sees many years of frustration coming to fruition. “We’ve had some measurable results and some clear successes,” he says. “It’s clear to me that we’re still not where we need to be … [but] I do believe there are better days ahead.” Some things change. Some things don’t. In 1993, Mangan won praise for rolling out a grassroots community policing program to embed officers and volunteers in specific neighborhoods throughout the city. Earlier this week, Straub announced new “police service areas” that would include captains and officers assigned to specific neighborhoods. — JACOB JONES

THOSE DIVERSE REPUBLICAN NORTH IDAHOANS

We will never forget Otto Zehm.

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14 20 ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013 TH

Tim Connor, a police accountability advocate with the nonprofit Center for Justice, has reported on Spokane law enforcement since 1981. Historically, the SPD has struggled with excessive force complaints, and Connor watched as city officials tried to establish a Civilian Review Board in 1992. Facing opposition from then-Police Chief Terry Mangan, the board dissolved in 1994. Repeated attempts to revive the board since have also failed. As the city continues to debate the introduction of new independent oversight with Proposition 1, passed in February, Connor says he hopes the community will get the police accountability it deserves. “We had a number of strong police chiefs who were just not, frankly, interested in civilian oversight,” Connor says, adding. “This is a huge chapter.” In 2001, amid local perceptions of racial profiling, Police Chief Roger Bragdon pledged to start collecting information on the race of citizens stopped by Spokane officers. It’s unclear, however, if the department ever followed through on that effort, which was to be dependent on funding availability. “Without trust we are nothing,” Bragdon said, according to the Spokesman-Review. “We are a bunch of people with guns.” Current Police Chief Frank Straub announced in August that the department would start collecting and analyzing racial data on citizen stops next year in accordance with state law and recommendations from the Use of Force Commission. That commission and many other ongoing reform efforts trace their origins back to the death of Otto Zehm in 2006, which sparked a new push for police accountability. The case

There’s no question North Idaho has changed. Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint have exploded from mining communities to thriving tourist towns in the past two decades. “It’s gone from a sleepy-type town to a fairly robust small city,” city councilman Mike Kennedy says about Coeur d’Alene. “Fifteen years ago I would drive pretty regularly to go to Costco in Spokane Valley. We have our own Costco now.” Yet it’s grown in a way that confounds stereotypes, becoming a lot more tolerant, a lot more diverse — just as it’s become a lot more Republican. In the mid-’90s, race after race between Republicans and Democrats ended in tight, narrowly fought contests. But something in North Idaho quickly shifted, and it wasn’t just the Republican revolution of 1994. As California became increasingly liberal and suffered all kinds of disasters that sent residents fleeing, an exodus of conservative Southern Californians migrated to North Idaho. By 2002, USA Today quoted one of Kootenai County’s few surviving Democrats as saying, “This is the most Republican county in the most Republican state in the country.” The ideology of national and statewide contests even seeped down into the local nonpartisan races — as school board elections and city council seats became targets of political groups like the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans. There were momentary exceptions to the red wave. Amid a national enthusiasm over Barack Obama, western Idaho elected moderate Walt Minnick — a Democrat — as their representative. But it didn’t last long. Two years later, the Tea Party arose, furious about “Obamacare,” bailouts and the national debt. Idaho voters passed over the establishment’s choice, instead choosing Raul Labrador, who easily unseated Minnick. Today, he’s considered one of the House’s most conservative members. That growth has also led to a different sort of change. North Idaho, fairly or unfairly, had a reputation of being very white, deeply intolerant and even racist. Across the country, people knew that Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler and neo-Nazis had a compound in Hayden Lake.

But North Idaho has responded. When Butler marched, the community protested, raising money for human rights organizations. In 2000, a $6.3 million lawsuit judgment took away Butler’s compound. He died in 2004. Recently, Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene have passed ordinances to prevent local businesses from discriminating on the basis of the sexual discrimination — unthinkable 20 years ago. While books like Searching for Whitopia have made a lot of the still-homogeneous composition of North Idaho, they may miss the bigger trend: Idaho’s a lot more diverse. “There’s been a tremendous change in the demographics [from 2000 to 2010]… Kootenai County had the fastest growth of the minority population in the nation,” says Tony Stewart, founder of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. “When Richard Butler came here in 1973, his comment was that this would always be a white population. He was trying to discourage diversity. He failed.” — DANIEL WALTERS

SPOKANE’S STRONG MAYOR ERA

Looking at the region from a certain altitude, it can seem Spokane politics haven’t changed much in the past two decades. Since voting for former President Bill Clinton in 1992 and ‘96, Spokane County has maintained its shade of mostly reddish-purple during the Inlander’s lifespan. George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney all had the support of county voters, and the 5th District U.S. House seat has been held by a Republican since Tom Foley lost to George Nethercutt in 1994. The 6th Legislative District, wrapping around the western edge of downtown Spokane, has mostly been a Republican stronghold, while the seats representing the city’s downtown have been held by Democrats. (The city’s core helped pass marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage last year, while the outskirts largely voted against both.) But look closer. Big things have changed. A mayor was recalled, mentions of the River Park Square controversy have all but vanished, and the way city leadership governs looks wholly different than it did when we put out our first issue. In the days before today’s strong mayor model, the “mayor” title would better be described as “glorified city councilmember.” In those days, the person elected mayor made more money than his or her counterparts, but didn’t have the powers of the mayor today: appointing department heads, vetoing legislation, proposing her own budget. The initiative, passed in November 1999, modeled the city’s legislative and executive branches after those in the federal government, with city councilmembers representing districts across the city and the council president elected at large by the whole city. The margin of victory was narrow — less than 2 percent — leaving a lingering taste of the divisions that led to unhappiness with the previous system. “When you come into that, literally half the folks in the community already have their arms crossed, saying, ‘I didn’t want this form of government,” John Powers, the first man to hold the new job, tells the Inlander. Powers didn’t support the change before it passed and lost his bid for re-election, but he believes the model turned out to be successful in creating “one desk in City Hall where the buck would stop” and paving the way for leadership on big initiatives like the University District and wooing aerospace companies to the region. Alongside structural change, Powers says he believes diversity in thought is spreading in Spokane as more and different people get involved. “The influence within the leadership of the community in city hall, institutions, chamber of commerce and others was pretty focused right around the heart of the city, the downtown,” he says. “There wasn’t as broad of participation and input as I think there has been over the last decade. Community activism and some grassroots initiatives have come to the forefront in the last 10 or 15 years. I think that’s a good thing for the community.” — HEIDI GROOVER

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 15

NEWS | DIGEST

NEED TO KNOW

The Big News of the Past Week

PHOTO EYE A TASTE OF FALL

Former House Speaker Tom Foley, a Spokane native who rose to become the city’s most prominent political figure as third in line to the presidency, died last week at his home in Washington, D.C.

Silverwood Theme Park faces a newly filed lawsuit alleging its Halloween-themed “Scarywood” got too scary in 2011, when a costumed employee jumped out and startled a woman in the parking lot. The Benton County woman has sued for medical costs and lost wages after she fell and hit her head.

The Department of Defense has announced it will close its Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, where many Fairchild refueling operations have been based in recent years. Officials indicated operations would shift to other bases, but the impact on Fairchild remains unclear.

Elayna Burrows-Gust, 5, died Friday after being hit by a car while crossing Monroe Street with her mother and 7-year-old brother Evan, who both suffered serious injuries. Hospital tests have since indicated the mother had used methamphetamine prior to the incident. SARAH WURTZ PHOTO

Every October, the smell of spiced pumpkin pastries and apple orchards beckon visitors to Green Bluff. There are animals to be pet, tractor rides to be taken, as well as the annual search for the perfect carving pumpkin, like the one 6-year-old Nate found over the weekend at the Rickey Ranch.

DIGITS

billion

Estimated amount of money taken out of the U.S. economy as a result of the government shutdown, according to an analysis from the Standard & Poor’s rating agency.

ON INLANDER.com Number of states now recognizing same-sex marriages after New Jersey started allowing ceremonies Monday following a long legal battle on the issue. The District of Columbia also recognizes same-sex marriage.

. . COMING 11 1 12 2 13 16 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

After 16 days of uncertainty, Congress approved a temporary agreement to reopen the federal government. President Obama quickly approved the deal last Thursday, ending the first government shutdown since 1996.

What’s Creating Buzz

PHOTOS: Check out the “Slideshows” section of our website for extras from our story about Spokane’s (supposedly) haunted places and our covers throughout the years.

NEWS | BRIEFS

Raining Money Big bucks flowing in the Spokane City Council campaigns; plus, another inmate dies on the job POLITICAL WINDFALL Two races for the SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL with the potential to change the body’s conservative bent are getting costly. The four candidates have raised more than $240,000 between them and interested PACs have spent $70,000 on airtime to run ads attacking or praising them. Liberal Candace Mumm and conservative Michael Cannon are vying for the seat representing northwest Spokane being vacated by Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin. Incumbent Jon Snyder is facing a challenge from former Republican State Rep. John Ahern for his seat representing the South Hill, Browne’s Addition and downtown. Both races are the subject of a dramatic, $50,000 run of TV spots criticizing Snyder’s and Mumm’s support from unions and paid for by the political action committee Jobs and Prosperity for Spokane. (The PAC is funded by homebuilders and contractors groups and Eastern Washington PAC, for which Mayor David Condon helps fundraise.) Another group, Citizens for Honest Government, has shot back with $30,000 in ads and mailers praising Mumm and Snyder. A pro-Snyder mailer blasts Ahern as an “absentee leader,” stamping “FAILED LEADERSHIP” over his photo.

Read more about the candidates and who’s paying their way on Inlander.com. — HEIDI GROOVER

FATAL CONSEQUENCES

Almost exactly one year after a similar fatal workplace incident resulted in fines and new safety protocols, a second Airway Heights Corrections Center inmate died last week while serving on a Department of Natural Resources work crew in Stevens County. DANIEL J. HALL, 47, died last Thursday while clearing DNR-owned timberland south of Springdale. Investigators say Hall was struck by a falling snag. He becomes the second person to suffer a fatal injury in the history of the state’s prison work program. Another Airway Heights inmate, 22-year-old Danny Bergeson of Sedro-Wooley, became the program’s first fatality when he was electrocuted on Oct. 15, 2012. In the wake of Bergeson’s death, officials with the Department of Labor & Industries cited the DNR with five safety and training violations. DNR also paid a $25,100 fine. DNR officials reported they had introduced new pro-

tocols to identify and avoid hazards before each inmate work project. Spokesman Peter Lavallee could not comment on the precautions in place prior to Hall’s death. — JACOB JONES

MEETING IN SECRET

Along with a GROWTH MANAGEMENT Hearings Board challenge and gubernatorial skepticism, Spokane County’s land-use expansion has resulted in yet another hurdle for the county: An open meeting act violation complaint before Spokane Superior Court. Some of the same land-use groups that have long objected to the expansion allege that on May 13, 2013, the County Commissioners met with Department of Commerce employee Leonard Bauer to discuss the expansion. But that meeting, the Center for Justice argues in a complaint filed last Friday, was “held in executive session with no public allowed to attend and no meeting notes, audio recording, or transcript available for the public.” And with that, the complaint alleges, the county broke state law. The Center for Justice argues that by having a member of the Department of Commerce there, the exemption for discussions with legal counsel didn’t apply. That’s where the county differs. Commissioner Todd Mielke argues the law allows the county to seek advice from outside groups during executive session when there’s proposed and potential litigation. They had a possible lawsuit looming during that meeting, he says, from the same group that’s suing now. The Center for Justice not only wants the court to assess a minor fine — $100 per commissioner per incident — it wants any decisions made during that meeting to be reversed. Center for Justice Executive Director Rick Eichstaedt says he isn’t sure what that will mean for the county because, well, the meeting happened behind closed doors. — DANIEL WALTERS

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 17

NEWS | ELECTION 2013

FROM LEFT: Mary Souza, Steve Widmyer, Joe Kunka

Would-Be Healers All three mayoral candidates claim they can repair the division that’s defined Coeur d’Alene BY DANIEL WALTERS

W Friday Evening, November 8, 2013

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18 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

hen mayoral candidate Mary Souza “We won’t allow name-calling,” Souza said at launched her campaign, she chose the launch. “We will not allow juvenile behavior. the spot that perhaps represented the And when citizens get up to speak, they’ll be single biggest source of controversy in Coeur listened to, and they’ll be treated well.” d’Alene: the McEuen Third Street boat launch. But on her campaign website, Souza links The possibility that the boat launch would be to older columns where she dubbed long-haired removed in the McEuen Field remodel sparked a Woody McEvers a “hippy dippy councilman,” surge of public outcry, demands for a vote on the dismissed letters opposing a public vote for field, even a failed recall attempt to remove the McEuen Field as “from cronies of the Mayor,” mayor and three city councilmembers. and criticized councilwoman Deanna GoodlandSouza’s been at the forefront of all of it. On er’s mid-meeting coughing spells as “disruptive her blog, in Coeur d’Alene Press columns and in her and unfair to anyone trying to give testimony.” weekly newsletter, she’s long been a fiery critic of Repeated attempts to schedule a phone or inthe city. She’s blasted the city council’s behavior, person interview with Souza over the past week the high salaries and “golden” benefits of city emwere unsuccessful. ployees, and most of all, the Lake City Some supporters, like CouncilDevelopment Corporation, the entity man Dan Gookin, have found Souza’s that provides incentives to spur develcritical rhetoric refreshing. “She doesn’t Send comments to opment. Beyond McEuen, she’s been sugarcoat it,” Gookin says. Like editor@inlander.com. skeptical of plans for the Kroc Center, Gookin, she earned the endorsement of Person Field, downtown high-rises, the the Kootenai County Reagan RepubliEducation Corridor, the park in Riverstone, the cans, who also endorsed council candidates Chris new library and the Cherry Hill baseball facility. Fillios, Sharon Hebert and Noel Adam. But as she announced her candidacy, her Gookin is another frequent critic of the Lake focus was on bringing the city to a less tempestuCity Development Corporation, believing urban ous future: She promised to hold public votes renewal has fixed downtown but has done little on major projects, use taxpayer money wisely, to improve the rest of the city. While Souza restore trust and return the city to civility. doesn’t plan to eliminate the LCDC entirely, she With the city still reeling from one of the wants to broadly reform it. By exposing how the most heated stretches in recent history, all three urban renewal agency was spending taxpayer candidates promise to heal the rift that’s divided money, Gookin says, she drew the ire of the “rulCoeur d’Alene. ing class.”

LETTERS

“In the city of Coeur d’Alene, being honest is a crime,” says Gookin. “You don’t tell people the truth. When you do tell people the truth, they get angry.” But Souza’s critics view that same brashness as a serious problem if she were to be elected. This is the city council, after all, where a big dust-up this year stemmed from the city attorney calling a councilmember an “ignorant shit.” “I ran against Mary eight years ago. She came in third in a three-way race. And she’s never gotten over it,” says Mike Kennedy, one of the councilmembers Souza attempted to recall. “Mary will be as divisive a force as we’ve ever seen in local politics. … We’re still too small of a town to use these scorched-earth tactics.”

ennedy says he’s more impressed by one of her opponents, Steve Widmyer. “He would call me up and say you’re just flat-out wrong with this, and here’s why,” Kennedy says, who adds that Widmyer did so in a respectful matter. Widmyer, endorsed by the Balance North Idaho PAC, also says he wants to repair Coeur d’Alene. He peppers his statements with the word “positive” — positive attitude, positive direction, positive leader. His strength, he argues, is that he has business and finance experience, but without ties to controversial past battles. “There’s been some bad blood that goes back and forth. A lot of that stems from the recall,” Widmyer says. “I don’t bring any of that with me. If my opponent was elected, she brings all of that with her.”

“There’s been some bad blood that goes back and forth. ... I don’t bring any of that with me.” Most of his positions seem to split the difference between the two traditional camps in Coeur d’Alene. He isn’t as critical of the LCDC as Souza, but says the agency could be better at bringing jobs to Coeur d’Alene. Though he thinks the McEuen Park update will help the whole town and that public advisory votes should be rare, he says he could have supported a public advisory vote on the plan. Widmyer and Souza both say the city should partner more closely with the economic development corporation Jobs Plus to boost employment. Souza’s supporters, however, tar Widmyer as too connected to downtown interests, too likely to perpetuate the status quo.

he third choice for mayor, perennial candidate Joe Kunka, doesn’t have a PAC backing him and lists few specifics. But his platform has many similarities to Souza’s. Like Souza, he believes Coeur d’Alene should hold public votes before embarking on particularly pricey projects. Like Souza, he hammers the city for not listening to its citizens. Like Souza, he hasn’t expressed support for the city’s new anti-discrimination ordinance. But Kunka says there’s a major difference between the two of them. “I’m not divisive. I don’t run around talking bad about everything and say everything needs to change. … I didn’t run around and start a recall effort,” Kunka says. “Every decision the city makes, she seems to want to turn into a controversy and turn into an argument.” To truly ensure that people feel listened to, he says he would go citizen-by-citizen. “There are 44,000-plus people in Coeur d’Alene. I want to meet every one of them,” Kunka says. “I’ll set a day aside [each week]. People can sit down with me face to face and talk about issues that concern them.” n danielw@inlander.com

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 19

NEWS | TRANSPORTATION

THE WORLD IS COMING TO SPOKANE. ARE YOU GOING? 2013 AAA CRUISE SHOW Saturday, November 2 10 am - 2 pm (Doors open 9:30 am) Center Place

Highway to Nowhere The North-South Freeway may finally get finished — if Republicans and Democrats can negotiate a transportation bill BY DEANNA PAN

f you’re not convinced that Spokane could use a high-speed roadway linking downtown to the North Side, take a spin along Division Street during rush hour. SHOW SPECIALS: JUST A FEW MORE REASONS TO GO. More than 43,000 vehicles a day lumber • Reserve your cruise with only a through stop-and-go traffic on Division between * $10 deposit per person Euclid and Francis Avenues. It’s the city’s most * • Get up to $100 onboard spending credit crowded north-south arterial. Washington State • Receive a AAA ShopSmart discount card for Department of Transportation officials say the 15% – 25% off travel gear* long-planned North-South Freeway would not only create jobs, cut travel time and reduce air • Earn 3% cash back when you book travel with pollution, it would also relieve some of that AAA Member Rewards Visa® card* damned congestion, too. • Free admission & parking It’s high time, say business advocates and lawmakers, to finish the freeway, and it looks RSVP: (509) 358-7039 like they may finally have their chance to see the project to fruition. On Oct. 29, Gov. Jay Inslee AAAwa.com/GoShows/RSVP and leaders from the House and Senate will meet in Olympia to hammer out a transportation revenue bill that would include funding for the freeway. Inslee is hoping to call a special session of the Legislature this November to pass a transALL THE INFO YOU NEED portation package. TO KNOW TO GO. “I am most eager to get this job done by the Apple Cup,” Inslee said, referring to the Washington-Washington State football game on Nov. 29, before a roundtable of business and community leaders at the downtown Spokane library last week. “There are no excuses for inaction here. None.” Progress toward finishing the freeway has been tortuously slow. The idea for a 60-mph highway, hurtling commuters and freight northward and southward through Spokane, was conceived almost 70 years ago. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that the first phase of the corridor *$10 per person cruise deposit and up to $100 per person onboard spending credit (applies to first two finally broke ground. Now, more than a decade full-fare passengers only) valid on select sailings only. $10 per person cruise deposit is nonrefundable. later, the northern half of the Offers valid day of show only. AAA does not charge service fees on the purchase of cruises and tours. Other service fees may apply for items such as airline tickets, passports, fees imposed by other companies freeway — 5.7 miles stretching or gov’t entities, etc. AAA Member Rewards Visa: must be AAA member to qualify. Restrictions and from U.S. Highway 395 at limitations apply per product. Ask AAA for details. Agency #178-018-521 #9738.05 Send comments to Wandermere to Freya Street editor@inlander.com. north of Francis Avenue — is finished and open for traffic. Since 1998, the North Spokane Corridor, as WSDOT calls it, has received $615 million in state and federal money. The corAAA Washington Travel Ad for: INLANDER ridor currently needs $1.3 billion for completion, Run Dates : 10/18/13 & 10/25/13 Ad Size: 6 UNITS V (3.6” X 8.2”)including $750 million for an interim connection to I-90, the department’s current emphasis. File created by: Heather Tilstra “For lack of better words, it’s cash flow,” says Wojo Works congratulates The Inlander Al Gilson, communications manager for WSIf you have any questions please contact: DOT’s Eastern Region, regarding the corridor’s on 20 outstandingORyears! lder: StacieHolder@aaawin.com Heather Tilstra: HeatherTilstra@aaawin.com biggest hurdle. “If it takes 20 years to get that amount of funding, it’ll take 20 years to build it.” Earlier this year, House Democrats pushed through a $10 billion transportation package that included a 10.5 cents-per-gallon gas tax increase to finance road improvements and allocated $480 million to North-South Freeway. But the bill was Downtown • 824 W Sprague Avenue • 509-340-2800 • www.wojoworks.net never brought to a vote in the Senate. Inslee 2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley

LETTERS

20 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Gov. Jay Inslee was in Spokane last week talking about future transportation projects. was disappointed at the time; this time around, however, he says lawmakers will start with a “blank slate.” “We’re back to Square One trying to design this package and get votes for it,” he said. Designing a package that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, of course, is easier said than done. In the House, for example, only one Republican, Rep. Hans Zeiger of Puyallup, voted for the transportation package. “If we don’t have any bipartisan support, we’ll miss a chance that won’t come around for a long time to get this corridor complete,” says Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, a member of the House Transportation Committee. “A couple folks on the other side of the aisle are going to have to take a tough vote.” The consensus among Democrats is that funding transportation projects will require a new revenue stream. “While imperfect,” Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, says the gas tax “is the best funding system we have at the moment.” But conservative Republicans bristle against the idea of implementing a new tax. They also want to see transportation funding and policy reforms before they’ll consider new revenue. “My priority first is to fix it before we fund it,” says Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane. “Right now, it costs more to build a mile of road in Washington state than it does in almost any other state in the country because we self-impose some very high costs. I think if we reform how we spend on our transportation dollars first, we can have a lot more funding.” n

NEWS | ELECTION 2013

The Final Stretch The races for Spokane school board, Valley city council and Post Falls mayor

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TOP JOB IN POST FALLS As longtime Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin steps down this year, two experienced city councilmembers — bank executive Ron Jacobson and retired newspaper publisher Kerri Thoreson — now face off for the top position at City Hall. Jacobson, 57, a senior vice president of Inland Northwest Bank, has spent 14 years on the Post Falls City Council. He now serves as council president as well as a board member for the North Idaho College Foundation. As council president, Jacobson has previously stood in for the mayor during vacations or illness, giving him a taste of the job. He says a mayor is more than a “figurehead.” He or she must demonstrate strong leadership, rally support and keep the city on track. “I won’t have any learning curve,” Jacobson says, adding, “I feel I’m the best, most qualified candidate.” With 35 years in banking, Jacobson says he wants to control spending and partner with the business community on strengthening economic development. He also hopes to focus on public safety and expand veterans programs. Thoreson, 61, now works as an independent writer-photographer after previously working as publisher of the Post Falls Tribune and executive director of the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce. She joined the city council in 2008. She has also served on several local committees for economic development, parks, social and veterans services. With a focus on job creation, Thoreson says she plans to foster communication and support between city officials and business owners. She also hopes to meet with every city employee to solicit suggestions for efficiencies or programs. Above all, she says she wants to promote a “responsive and respectful” government that delivers the assistance and support citizens deserve. Both candidates expressed a desire to improve the city’s tax structure, which currently draws 89 percent of property taxes from residents and 11 percent from commercial entities. Thoreson and Jacobson both indicated they would like to even out that balance and broaden revenues. — JACOB JONES

SALLY’S BACK

This isn’t the first time Sally Fullmer has taken on the Spokane School Board. In 2011, she unsuccessfully ran against newcomer Deana Brower. Now, Fullmer is back, this time running against incumbent school board director Bob Douthitt. “We all know what’s wrong with our schools,” writes Fullmer, whose tagline is “Less Bureaucracy. More Results,” on her website. She’s critical about the Common Core standards, the “failed math curriculum” and what she sees as the board’s lack of transparency. She wants to start televising meetings and slash the length of board terms from six to four years. Douthitt, on the other hand, is proud of where the schools are, pointing to his record over

the past six years: improvements in graduation rates and AP scores, cutbacks in the size of administration and implementation of full-day kindergarten. He says he supports providing more options to families, like charter schools. He wants to focus on post-secondary education. And he wants to increase the emphasis on science, technology, math and engineering courses. He’s racked up a long list of endorsements, including former Rep. George Nethercutt, State Sen. Andy Billig, developer Walt Worthy, business owner Mike Senske, and City Council President Ben Stuckart. Already, the race seems lopsided. According to campaign records, Douthitt has raised nearly $17,000 from groups like the League of Education Voters and the progressive Inland Northwest Leadership PAC. Fullmer hasn’t raised a cent. — DANIEL WALTERS

WHO’S MOST CONSERVATIVE OF THEM ALL?

With the controversial Sprague Appleway Revitalization Project long since eliminated, it might be easy to think the “Positive Change” group and its backers would matter less when it came to the Spokane Valley City Council. But there’s at least one race where that phrase still has punch. Incumbent Gary Schimmels was once a member of the Positive Change group, but his former backers have since turned against him, arguing that the even more conservative Ed Pace is the true heir to the Positive Change throne. With more than $15,000, Pace’s fundraising far outpaces every other candidate. (Schimmels hasn’t raised anything.) While Pace’s rhetoric in favor of cutting spending and keeping taxes low is slightly stronger than Schimmels’ statements in interviews and debates, the views expressed by each of the eight candidates vying for four seats have been fairly similar. Chuck Hafner, who led the Positive Change group from behind the scenes in 2009, leads substantially in fundraising against 28-year-old financial advisor Donald Morgan Jr. In a debate, both candidates said they would look to cuts first to balance the budget, but would be open to raising taxes if it came to that. Linda Thompson, executive director of the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council, lost a coin toss to Rod Higgins in the competition to be appointed to fill a council seat in February. Both have expressed frustration at Spokane Valley’s nearly nude barista stands. Mayor Tom Towey isn’t running for re-election, but his half-brother, planning commission director Bill Bates, is running to replace him. He faces off against Fred Beaulac, another planning commissioner. Beaulac has raised funds from the city employees union and former councilman Bill Gothmann, while Bates has raised money from Positive Change supporters and the Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s Association. — DANIEL WALTERS

FACTORY OUTLET STORE 4005 E. Main · (509) 532-7445

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 21

NEWS | ONLINE

The New Inlander.com The new vision of the Inlander online BY LISA WAANANEN, INLANDER WEB EDITOR » Daily updates Yes, your favorite weekly is producing something new every day. It’s now easier to see the latest in every category each time you visit the site. » What’s going on Whether you’re looking for something to do right now or planning ahead for the weekend, browse our comprehensive events calendar and music listings. Search by date or category, and see extended descriptions of our staff picks, a feature previously available only in print. You can also “favorite” events or send yourself a reminder for things you don’t want to miss. And if you know about an event we don’t have listed yet, send us the details through our new online submission form.

» Better browsing Sometimes you’re looking for a specific story. Sometimes you just want something good to read. There are new ways to find and discover content, from lists of “most popular” and “most comments” stories to well-organized section pages that make it clear what’s new this week. Each story ends with a list of related content, often handpicked by us, so you always know how to find out more. And we’ll also feature essays and long reads from the archives on our homepage so you know what we recommend.

» Big images The Inlander’s award-winning photography deserves prominent placement, and now you can click any photo on the site to see it full-size. » Uncluttered design When we redesigned the print edition last year, we introduced more white space so content and ads have space to breathe. Now we’re carrying that over to the web, where more content doesn’t need to look overwhelming. » Improved fonts It used to be common knowledge that people don’t read on the web. Fortunately, that’s changing — and we’re making the experience better by using easy-to-read fonts in larger sizes, with bold headlines that make it easier to find what you want at a glance. » Easier sharing Whether you’re the type who likes to Like, tweet, pin or go old-school with email, each story has buttons at the top to help you share what interests you.

» Looking back Remember that one story you started reading a while back, maybe last month? You can find everything from our print issues through the issue archives, organized by cover with links to all the content from that week. There’s also an e-paper replica of each issue. Browse by month or year, and look back on special guides like Cheap Eats and Fall Arts Preview.

22 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

» Always free No monthly limits or paywalls here. All the content you can manage to read or view is always just as free as the print edition.

OUR PREVIOUS SITES

LAUNCHED IN 2000



» Everywhere you are, on all your devices One of the biggest changes is a very important one — you can now visit Inlander.com on your phone and enjoy it. The mobile site has all the content of the regular site, but compresses the homepage into the latest headlines you’re looking for on the go. Check movie times, look for nearby restaurants and search events with just a couple of taps. (If you like seeing the regular site on your phone, you can do that, too.) And the new site looks great on a tablet, if you’re a tablet user. Check out how you can swipe through different categories on the homepage. » Inlander publications, all in one place Stories from InHealth, our bimonthly health magazine, now have a home alongside all our other content. Along with the profiles, tips and news about the region’s health care, look for extra photos and wellness events integrated with the rest of our content. Also search for special guides, like the ongoing Snowlander series and Annual Manual. » I’ve already got the print version, so why would I look at the website? We post new content on the web every day, along with videos and additional photos that couldn’t fit on the limited number of print pages. It’s also where you can find old stories or search for a specific issue more easily. And if you’re out and about, the mobile version will help you find nearby restaurants and events in a way the print issue just can’t. » Why so different from the old site? The web changes quickly, and all modern websites have to be a constant work in progress to keep up with technology and the way we use it. When we launched the previous version, we were proud of the Flash slider at the top of the page… but then Apple came along with the iPhone and said it wouldn’t support Flash, and suddenly Flash became hopelessly passé. We don’t know all the trends of the future, but this site gives us a solid structure with plenty of room for growth and updates as changes come along. » Why no responsive design? A major trend in recent web design is to make sites “responsive” — they scale and reconfigure themselves depending on what size screen you’re using. It’s still a challenge to do this well for news sites that depend on using standard sizes for advertisements, but we’re definitely keeping an eye on the large publications that are making it work. For now, the site has been designed to work well on your various devices.



» Who made it? We’re working with a content management company called Foundation, which focuses on alt-weeklies and also powers the sites for the Portland Mercury, the Boise Weekly, the Missoula Independent, Seattle’s Stranger and the Source in Bend, Ore., among many others. The back-end system driving our site is similar to theirs, but the finished design you see is entirely designed and customized by the Inlander’s editorial staff.  Got additional questions or comments? Find broken links or bugs? Send us a message at lisaw@inlander.com

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 23

THEN AND NOW 1993: Spokane’s urban landscape had only one way to go, with a shuttered Davenport Hotel, a broken-down Coliseum (aka “The Boone Street Barn”) and a periphery littered with old broken bottles of fortified wine. 2013: Walt Worthy reopened the Davenport and is now working on another hotel, Bon Jovi and Pearl Jam play the Veterans Memorial Arena and the region is littered with breweries, coffee roasters, wineries and distilleries. 1993: The price of Apple stock was $28, Amazon was a river in Brazil and Google was something your toddler would say. Gasoline was $1.10 a gallon. 2013: Powered by iPhones, iPads and iPods, the price of Apple is around $500 per share, and Google recently topped $1,000. Gas has been pushing $4 all year. 1993: Movies released in the fall of 1993 include Schindler’s List and Ernest Rides Again; on TV that year, David Letterman moved to CBS, while comedians Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart both made their debuts; in music, Liz Phair and Pearl Jam were out with new records. 2013: Notable movies this fall include Gravity and Bad Grandpa; on TV, American Idol copycats rule prime time, while Jon Stewart is more popular than ever; in music, Miley Cyrus and Pearl Jam are out with new records. 1993: Bill Clinton announced he and his wife Hillary would tackle reforming the nation’s health care system. Republicans took over the House because of it. 2013: Barack Obama reformed the nation’s health care system. Republicans shut down the government because of it. 1993: The Inlander debuted with 28 pages and an average press run of 13,000 newspapers per week. 2013: The Inlander published a 128page Summer Guide — not to mention our 246-page Annual Manual. Today we print 51,000 papers a week and distribute them to our more than 1,000 free racks, reaching more than 200,000 local readers every month. 

24 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

THEY JUST KEEP COMING

Over these past 20 years, we’ve produced 1,040 weekly issues — and that doesn’t count our InHealths, Annual Manuals, Bloomsday Results Booklets and all the other various publications we’ve launched. By comparison, The Simpsons — the longest running sitcom on TV — has produced 532 episodes. Oh, and thank you for always recycling your Inlander after you’re done with it!

BRUSHES WITH FAME

Back in 2005, North by Northwest took over Inlander HQ to shoot scenes for their film End Game. Angie Harmon played an investigative reporter, and our newsroom became her office. Then in 2012, in HBO’s The Newsroom, the second episode kicked off with: “There’s an alternative weekly in Spokane, called the Pacific Northwest Insider, that published an article about immigration…” Insider? Seriously? Worst of all, we made Jay Leno’s “Headlines” back in the ’90s with a restaurant ad we built featuring “crap cakes.” Our bad!

SO WHERE DID THE INLANDER COME FROM? BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.

INLANDER SOLD!

hat’s a question I get all the time. There are a lot of answers. You could say it started when my great-grandfather Dominic got off the train in Spokane back in 1905, a long way from home back in Italy. Or when I started writing stories about the adventures of Secret Agent Toothpaste as a third grader at Roosevelt Elementary up on the South Hill. Or when I mailed my paper-thin résumé to Seattle Weekly — no cover letter — and actually landed an internship. Or when I went to work for Wally Turner at the New York Times Seattle bureau and he advised me to go to his old school, the University of Missouri, to learn about journalism. Or when I met my wife Anne there in Missouri; she always wanted me to start a weekly paper in Spokane. Or you could say it started when I convinced my brother Jer to go into business with me — and we tapped our grandmother Alice and our mom Jeanne to pitch in, too. The Inlander came from all those places and more, but it was simpler than that, too. Like a lot of things in this world, it was mostly Ted in ’95 work — hard work with no guarantee of success. I guess it’s your garden-variety American Dream.

When publication day lands on April Fool’s Day, you can’t help but think of something devious. Usually we don’t follow through, but in 1998 we ran a “special report” that the Spokesperson-Review had just up and bought us out. We got some laughs — and calls that went on for a decade about why we sold out to the Cowles family. It was a joke, people!

WE GOT (SOME) GAME

Not only have we written about Hoopfest for all 20 years, we’ve played the game. In fact, Team Inlander took home two Media Division “Golden Brick” titles — led one memorable year by Crazy Joe Mueller, who played the final game with a bandage wrapped around his bloodied head like a deranged Civil War general. Weird, but nobody really wanted to guard him.

Our new home at Kendall Yards YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

ut actually publishing a newspaper and not just talking about it started in earnest in July of 1993, in our first house up on East 18th. We’d just moved back from Boston, where Anne was in grad school and I worked at a weekly newspaper. I hadn’t lived in Spokane for a decade. Hopefully there would be enough going on to fill a newspaper, I remember thinking one sleepless night. Over our dining room table, we’d ...continued on next page

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 25

THE INLANDER: A TIMELINE

“SO WHERE DID THE INLANDER COME FROM?,” CONTINUED...

1990

Ted McGregor earns his master’s in journalism by writing a business plan for the INLANDER. Then it gathers dust on a shelf for three years…

…until he, his brother Jer and mom Jeanne launch their weekly newspaper on an unsuspecting Spokane public on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

The INLANDER launches three of its most enduring special sections — the Best of the Inland Northwest, Fall Arts Preview and Summer Guide.

1993

1994

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1996

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(x229) egor Jr. ISHER Ted S. McGr & PUBL EDITOR (x224) McGregor GER J. Jeremy

Our first Fiction Contest is won by Bekka Rauve. Artists like Dan Spalding, Ken Spiering (pictured) and Melissa Cole are featured, too.

MANA GENERAL

l (x205) Editoria Demarest

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Since more than half of all new businesses fail within the first five years, the INLANDER’s fifth anniversary marks a turning point. Whew!

Joining the Internet revolution, we flip the switch on Inlander.com. We publish our first Local Music issue and add On the Street to our weekly roster.

1998

2000

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Thursday ns ed every ER is publish than 700 locatio THE INLAND le free at more est. Also on the Web x210. and is availabthe Inland Northw ptions, call For a subscri extra copies $1 throughout lander.com. per week; sed for $1. at www.in purcha by mail or free per person One copy issues can also be either each. Back ER welcomes letters THE INLAND ditor@inlander.com).ual extensions : Individ ATION: e-mail (tothee US BY PHONE above. CIRCUL444-SELL; names REACHING ADS: next to the CLASSIFIED : x223; are listed BILLING x211. ISING: AR: x249; e-mail by using x223; ADVERT via x205; CALEND EDITORIAL: : You can reach staffname and the first BY E-MAILname, or their first @inlander.com in front of are their first last name, newspaper letter of theirAll contents of this Inc. 2007. r tions, COPYRIGHT © Inland Publica and is a membe copyrighted ER is locally owned Newsweeklies. tive THE INLAND tion of Alterna 1993. of the Associa : Oct. 20, First edition

In our first redesign, Bodoni is out as the INLANDER’s logo font, replaced by Interstate. We publish our first Philanthropy Issue, now known as the Give Guide.

5 INLANDER

2001

2007 JANUARY 25,

2002

F E B R U A R Y 2 1 — 2 7, 2 0 0 8 n F R E E

[From are very Of all People here be helpful. city wants to to, this everyone nals I’ve goneus. Also, it’s a the natio . embraced has really so everything’s close small city,

Four days after 9/11, we publish our first and only “Extra” edition. A month later, the INLANDER moves to the Civic Building on Riverside — home for 10 years.

SPECIAL PULLOUT NEWS Spokane’s ongoing struggle with potholes 11

We spin INHEALTH out of the INLANDER and into a standalone glossy publication. We also partner up with the Lilac Bloomsday Association to publish their race results.

Our once-a-year glossy compendium of all things INLANDER takes its place in our family of pubs; it hits the streets just before Labor Day — you know, annually.

2004

2005

We convert our newspaper into 100 percent full color. Procrastinators rejoice as we add the I Saw U/Cheers and Jeers section as a feature.

SECTION

FILM Predicting what Oscar may have in store 19

EVENTS Robert Hass 44 and Paula Poundstone 40

Our first Nightlife section details the local scene, from comfy dives to swanky lounges, with every local winery and brewery in between.

2007

2008

Our second redesign drops the Interstate font for Gotham — the typeface that got Obama elected. We also eliminate “Pacific Northwest” from the masthead.

In February, in partnership with Visit Spokane, we launch Restaurant Week. In July, we move into our new headquarters in Kendall Yards.

PULL OUT AND SAVE

G R E AT

ts r even winte ays • getaw ple • in peo ounta ES • m & NOT NEWS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE INLANDER

M U S I C … 1 ER 201 OCTOB

OurFfirst annual live music showcase, Volume, features up-and-coming local bands. The year-long Injustice Project shines a light on our criminal justice system.

2010

Naturally!

E N J O Y

Five bands, belly dancers, a burlesque troupe and a marching band. Awesome! or the second year in a row, we’re hosting a show to celebrate our annual Local Music Issue. But this year, it’s more than just a show: we’re calling it an extravaganza. Doesn’t that sound fun? Yeah, we think so, too. Volume: The Inlander’s Local Music Extravaganza will be held next Thursday, May 27, at the Knitting Factory. Doors are at 7 pm, and the fun will kick off right around 8 pm. That’s when the PJAMRS Marching Band will rally the troops with a march around the block and up on the Knitting Factory stage. Their name stands for the Peace and Justice Activist Musical Rascals of Spokane, and they like getting people riled up. So feel free to join in on their hootin’ and hollerin’ as they march around. Once things get rolling, all five of our Bands To Watch — Matthew Winters, Space Opera 77, Jaeda, Ze Krau and FAUS — will take the stage. In between sets, the ladies of Koreshakti Tribal Fusion (a local tribal dance group) and Pasties & Paddles (a team of saucy burlesque mavens) will perform. Lastly, the Knit’s crackerjack bartending team will be pouring $3 Volume drinks. They’re yellow and sweet and get the job done for all you 21-plus-ers. The show’s all-ages and free. You can grab a ticket at The Inlander office, 1020 W. Riverside Ave., during the week or at any local showcase coming up at the Knit’s box office. And in the days leading up to the show, be sure to check out the videos we’ve made on each of the Bands To Watch at Inlander.com. See you at the show. — LEAH SOTTILE, Music Editor

THEFESTIVAL SANDPOINT AUGUST 5 - 15, 2010 OCTOBER 2011 SNOWLANDER 1

INFO AND TICKETS: 888.265.4554 or order online visit us at: www.FestivalAtSandpoint.com

After years of publishing Snow News, we create a new pub just for winter sports, SNOWLANDER — also the name of our annual Expo and Sale.

Music Under the Stars, On the Lake in

2011

SANDPOINT, IDAHO… Thursday, augusT 5

sunday, augusT 8

with Tennis 7:30pm • $34.95

with The Spokane Youth Orchestra Gates open 4:30pm • $5.00

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cd

Brandi Carlile 26 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013 Friday, augusT 6

with Ian McFeron 7:30pm • $34.95

cd Super BlueS saTurday, augusT 7

Keb’ Mo’

Starring with special guest

Family Concert

cd Thursday, augusT 12

Natalie MacMaster

with The Turtle Duhks 7:30pm • $29.95 Free Microbrew Tasting @ 6pm

cd Friday, augusT 13

Kristina Train

Michael Franti and

6:30pm • $44.95

Spearhead

with the pimps of Joytime

DANCE CONCERT 7:30pm – $44.95

Super Country saTurday, augusT 14 Starring

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with special guests

Crooked Still 6:30pm • $39.95

cd sunday, augusT 15

Grand Finale: russian Masterpieces featuring the Spokane Symphony Conducted by Gary Sheldon with Special Guest Piano Soloist,

Archie Chen 7:30pm • $34.95 Complimentary Wine Tasting @ 4:30pm

2012

2013

plot out that first issue and pore over our five-year financial plan. Soon we rented office space near KXLY and hired our first employee — Jennifer Ranney. Then we made the announcement: A new kind of newspaper would be hitting the streets of Spokane on Oct. 20, 1993. I was 28, Jer was 23 and just out of college — we barely knew enough to be dangerous. And in our case, ignorance was more than bliss — it was a requirement. If we had known what was coming, there would have been some serious cold feet going around. My coworker from Boston, Andy Strickman, moved to Spokane, lending us some much-needed journalism chops, and that first issue started to take shape. Tony Duarte pitched a story on a crazy new shop downtown by the name of Boo Radley’s. An adjunct professor at Whitworth, Nick Heil, filed a story about the latest show at Interplayers. Ed Symkus, who Andy and I worked with in Boston, reviewed Rudy. Anne dug

…our success reflects the vitality of our city and region. into her radio journalism roots and wrote a news story using her maiden name as a byline — we didn’t want it to look like nothing but McGregors! Mike Corrigan pulled through with a CD review, and Andy wrote the Inlander’s very first Last Word, along with a story about Pearl Jam getting even more popular. I used lyrics from the Dire Straits’ song “Telegraph Road” to punctuate the cover story I wrote, “Growth… Boon or Bust?” To make things even more complicated, we sent a photographer up with our friend and pilot Tom Shanks to get an aerial shot for that very first cover. Meanwhile, our ad sales staff was out pounding the pavement, and it was not easy going — our first sales manager quit amid a flood of tears before our first issue ever came out. Still, a few brave clients lent us their support — Global Federal Credit Union, Boo Radley’s, Chapter Eleven, KXLY, Camp BMW, Conoco, Hospice of Spokane, Shadle Center and the Bon Marché. Many more cheerfully told us they’d wait and see how things went for us before advertising. Clearly, we had a lot to prove. Getting that first issue from our frontal lobes onto newsprint was quite painful. The truth is we didn’t know what we were doing, but we faked it hoping we’d make it. Our debut issue was supposed to be done Tuesday night, but there we were out at Spokane Print and Mail, on the morning of Wednesday the 20th, watching the papers come off the presses — an event I managed to capture on video. Jer and I, so very young, were all smiles that day — a moment of triumph on the verge of all that was yet to come. Then the video shows friends, family and staffers grabbing bundles of papers as they came off the conveyor, filling up their vehicles alongside the racks they were taking out at the same time. As all those jam-packed cars and trucks took off into the afternoon light, departing Hillyard for all corners of the region, a newspaper was born. The next morning, we all straggled back into the office, flipping through our little pride and joy. Soon the reality hit us. Right there in the title, we were calling this outfit a weekly newspaper. That meant we had another one to produce — only this time we wouldn’t

509-624-1200

spokanesymphony.org all performances at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox

December 5, 6, 7 & 8

WITH LIVE LIVE MUSIC MUSIC BY BY THE THE SPOKANE SPOKANE SYMPHONY! SYMPHONY! WITH

Tickets start at $12.50 for children featuring

sponsored by

b, Conducto

CONGRATULATIONS! From your friends at the Spokane Symphony

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 27

93 For our first cover story (10/20), with the Spokane housing market booming, we wrote about GROWTH. Planners were freaking out that a fix for Western Washington — the Growth Management Act — was being imposed on Spokane. “We’re busting at the seams,” John Mercer, the GMA coordinator for Spokane County told us. Also in that first issue, we covered a cool new district called CARNEGIE SQUARE, a hip new shop by the name of BOO RADLEY’S and even reviewed Pearl Jam’s latest record, VS. We described the tough spot TOM FOLEY was finding himself in back in D.C. (11/10), torn between his own political goals and the goals of the president, Bill Clinton. Obviously, this problem would get worse for him, culminating with his ouster — the only Speaker of the House tossed in, like, forever. We devoted a cover to possibly the worst local theater production in history (11/17). Audacious Sandpoint musician Scott Haynes rented the Opera House, wrote, scored and unleashed ATLANTIS on the Inland Northwest. We gave Haynes a cassette recorder to document his process leading up to the premiere. “I couldn’t imagine that people wouldn’t just jump onto this thing, because in my mind it’s just an awesome show,” Haynes said. “But … Conveying it to someone else is a different story.” Downtown booster Karen Valvano’s dream for a DAVENPORT ARTS DISTRICT merited a cover story (12/1). “It will give all of us somewhere fun to go, a renewed interest in downtown and a feeling of pride,” Arts Commissioner Sue Ellen Heflin told us about rehabbing the neighborhood of the then-shuttered Davenport Hotel. THREE MEN AND A SANDWICH debuted (12/15), with Jer McGregor, Jim Cortner and Andrew Strickman testing the Elk and a joint called Hans and Marianne’s Backerei and Kaffee Stube. “So how do closet oenophiles go about educating themselves?” our Nick Heil asked (12/29). “Why, at the source, of course.” We pointed readers to a small-but-growing business sector — WINEMAKING. Then only practiced by eight local wineries, we shared the apparently obscure fact that you could visit them and, you know, taste their stuff. — TED S. McGREGOR JR.

28 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

TOM QUINN ILLUSTRATION

PUBLISHED 10/20/93

NEW KID IN TOWN First impressions of Spokane from our very first arts editor BY ANDREW STRICKMAN Well you get up every morning, and you see it’s still the same… — Bob Mould, Husker Du

“A

re you depressed? asked one friend. “Did you do the right thing?” asked another. “What are the people like out there?” “Do you want to kill yourself?” It all happened so fast. I got home from vacation August 3. Within a week I had been offered a job, and flown to Spokane to check out the city which was soon to become my home. By the end of the month, I had watched my stuff drive away in a moving van, my friends had thrown me a going away party, and I began the 3,000-mile trek out West. Many of my friends thought me a tad batty. Why would I leave a successful, high-profile job in Boston, one of the largest arts markets in the country, to move to the middle of nowhere — scratch that — the perceived middle of nowhere? In fact, upon arrival I was greeted with the same puzzlement from people who live here. The decision was actually one of the easiest I’ve ever made. It is rooted in the fact that my motivation to better my lot has always superseded by a few points my common sense. Nonetheless, any move is an emotional roller coaster ride, and this has not been without its moments. But I’ve made the right decision. I have determined that Spokane will be good for me. This is not to say that I’ll fit into the mainstream. The pervading conservatism which blankets the city is not conducive to creativity, free expression and a willingness to appreciate and understand new ideas. But I am happy to see the glimmering undercurrent of openness, which any large city should have, expose itself in many ways since I arrived a month ago. One discovery I’ve made is Spokane residents’ quickly uttered misnomer the first time you speak to them about the

“city”: that Spokane is the largest urban area between Seattle and Minneapolis. If we’re talking population or sprawl, that seems correct, but “urban” this city is not. Any city where the downtown area rolls up its streets at 9 pm is not urban. But raise a red flag. A move is underway to develop an “arts district” which stretches the entire length of downtown. Do you realize how important that is, not only for the communal artistic atmosphere it will bring to this city, but the vibrancy and life it will bring to a downtown that many believe is not far from needing life support? Every major city in this country has a similar area where restaurants, galleries, music clubs, movie theaters and boutiques line the streets, and people fill the sidewalks. Why not in Spokane? So here I sit, excited for the launch of a new paper, fascinated by a city so unlike any place I’ve ever seen, and absolutely, completely frustrated by my lack of a social life. Yes, you thought this piece would be a reflection on what some outsider thinks is wrong with Spokane, while all along the crux of the column is self pity. I don’t exactly sit home and mope… l have met a number of terrific friends who have shown me the evening sights of Spokane — the bars, the clubs… the movie theaters. Meeting people, I have come to realize since leaving behind my East Coast life, is a bit different than when we were growing up, when making new friends was no more difñcult than asking “You wanna come over and play?” If I said that to a woman in a club I’d probably get slapped. Oct. 27, 1993 Soooo… anyone looking for a pretty cool, relatively stylish, remarkably fun guy to hang out with, contact me, care of the Inlander. Wait a sec. This essay has digressed into an awfully long personal ad. We have a section for that. Maybe that’s where I should open my heart up for all to see. But then, that sounds like a topic that deserves a column of its own. By the way what the hell is tire siping? 

OUR FAVORITE COVER

PUBLISHED 8/24/94

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

With his writing career taking off, Sherman Alexie contributed a poem BY SHERMAN ALEXIE I prepare the last meal for the Indian man to be executed but this killer doesn’t want much: salad baked potato, tall glass of ice water. (I am not a witness) You know, it’s mostly the dark ones who are made to sit in the chair especialiy when white people get dead. It’s true, you can look it up and this Indian killer pushed his fists all the way down a white man’s throat, just to win a bet about the size of their hearts. Those Indians are always gambling. Still, I season this last meal with all I have. I don’t have much but I send it down the line with the handsome guard who has fallen in love with the Indian killer, they say. I don’t care who loves who. (I am not a witness) I don’t care if I add too much salt or pepper to the warden’s stew. He can eat what I put in front of him. I just cook and cook for the boss but l cook and cook just right for the Indian man to be executed. The temperature is the thing. I once heard a story about a black man who was electrocuted in that chair and ‘lived to tell about it

IVAN MUNK ILLUSTRATION

and remember it too clearly like it was your first kiss or the first hard kick to your groin. It’s all the same when I am huddled down here trying not to look at the clock look at the clock, no, don’t look at the clock, when all of it stops making sense; a salad, a potato a drink of water all taste like heat. (I am not a witness) I want you to know I tasted a little of that last meal before I sent it away. It’s the cook’s job, to make sure and I was sure I ate from the same plate

OUR FAVORITE COVER

I have an extra sandwich hidden away in the back of the refrigerator

because the whole damn prison dims when that chair is switched on. You can watch a light bulb flicker on a night like this

to the thesaurus. America keeps filling its thesaurus. America is the only country with a thesaurus, with a thesaurus like this: write down kill and everybody in the audience shouts out exactly how they spell it, what it means to them and all of those answers are taken down by the pollsters and the secretaries who take care of the small details. Time of death, pulse rate, press release.

1 death + 1 death = 2 deaths Let’s throw the killers in one grave

(I am not a witness)

I turn off the kitchen lights and sit down alone in the dark

meaning, when they kill him, kiIl and add another definition of the word

what they saw there. What did they expect? All the stories should be simple.

and gets hungry while he waits for the engineers to debate the flaws.

Tonight, I’m just the last one left after that handsome guard takes the meal away.

l sit here in the dark kitchen, when they, I’m alone, when they do it

from the condemned’s head, so they could look into his eyes and tell their readers

in case this Indian killer survives that first slow flip of the switch

That’s how l learned to cook by lasting longer than any of the others.

(I am not a witness)

I heard a story once about some reporters at a hanging who wanted the hood removed

before the court decided to sit him back down an hour later and kill him all over again.

I prepare the last meal for free just like I signed up for the last war.

from his joints, wispy flames decorating the crown of his head, the balls of his feet.

March 23, 1994 and used the same exact fork and spoon that the Indian killer would use later in his cell. Maybe a little bit of me lodged in his stomach, wedged between his front teeth, his incisors, his molars when he chewed down on the bit and his body arched like modern art and his body curved organically, smoke rising

and victims in the other, let’s form sides and have two separate feasts. (I am a witness) I prepared the last meal for the Indian man who was executed and have learned this: if any of us stood for days on top of a barren hill during an electrical storm then lightning would eventually strike us and we’d have no idea for which of our sins we were reduced to headlines and ash. n

“Follow the Microchip Road” (2/2) marked the first of many stories we would write alerting the Inland Northwest to the growing popularity of something called THE INTERNET. We seemed to nail it when we wrote, “The Tablet will be a consumer appliance as easy to use as your microwave oven.” The late, great Gonzaga Coach DAN FITZGERALD crowed about his homecourt advantage (2/9), saying “Anybody who doesn’t like the Kennel Club can get Symphony tickets.” Still makes sense. We published our first HEALTHY LIVING issue (3/2), which continues under the Inlander brand in the evolved form of the glossy InHealth magazine. The concept of a readers poll debuted in Eastern Washington in the form of our BEST OF THE INLAND NORTHWEST issue (4/6). It marks the only time Tom Sherry has ever lost in the Best Weathercaster category. (KXLY’s Steve Mumm was the fave.) Some things never change, though, as readers voted the North-South Freeway as the Best Thing the Inland Northwest Doesn’t Have Yet. In “The Perot of North Idaho,” we profiled the late rabble-rouser RON RANKIN (4/13), who was changing the political landscape of Coeur d’Alene — and Boise. “I think it is ridiculous to let someone like Ron Rankin set the state agenda,” thenState Sen. Mary Lou Reed (and current Inlander columnist) told us. ROBERT HEROLD joined the team; his first column (4/20) criticized the city for not paying enough attention to the most local of concerns: “Neighborhood groups must be invited to participate,” he wrote. In the first of many stories on the topic, we dug into the chances the DAVENPORT HOTEL could be reopened (12/7), as a visiting urban expert had recently advised. With an oil spill discovered in the vicinity, it wasn’t looking good. At the peak of their popularity, Coeur d’Alene’s eight-piece funk-rock band, BLACK HAPPY, called it quits (12/14). “We all want to do some new things,” guitarist Paul Hemenway told us, “so it’s time to move on.” One of their last local gigs was New Year’s at Playfair. The group reunited for a short tour of Spokane and Seattle in 2010. — TED S. McGREGOR JR.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 29

95 In “The Building Behind the Big Fuss” (2/1), we described the Spokane Transit Authority’s controversial plan to build a $20 MILLION BUS STATION in the middle of downtown. “In the end,” STA Executive Director Robert Allen Schweim told us, “it will have been worth every penny.” The MICROBREW REVOLUTION is nothing new around here; we detailed the growing industry in our “Microbrew Mania” cover story (2/15). The names have changed, however, as the breweries we featured included Hale’s Ales, Fort Spokane, T.W. Fisher’s and the Birkebeiner. POST FALLS was sprawling so fast, we took a closer look with “Growing Pains” (3/15). “As Californians and Easterners arrive en masse, the landscape is changing,” we wrote. “Bluegrass fields become strip malls. Luxurious homes sprout up around lakes where trees once stood. Suddenly there’s a rush hour.” We profiled local author SHERMAN ALEXIE on the occasion of his Reservation Blues being published (4/26). At 29, with a profile in Esquire and awards rolling in, he told us, “I think I’ve outlasted any flavor of the day … at least I hope so.” We devoted our cover story to legendary local artist HAROLD BALAZS in “An Artist for All Seasons” (5/31). From his days selling his jewelry at Joel, he talked about how he landed a couple commissions to make metalwork — which, he says, he could “sort of fake” as his father ran a sheet metal business. “I’m a veteran eclectic,” Balazs concluded. The notoriously dated Boone Street Barn was no more, replaced by the new SPOKANE ARENA. In “Arena of Dreams” (9/6), we wrote, “Those with weak bladders can rejoice; there will be 257 toilet fixtures to supplant the needs of those who consume the 4,288 gallons of beer products that will be available…” Local journalist JESS WALTER was getting strong notices for his new book Every Knee Shall Bow, which detailed the Ruby Ridge standoff. In “Author Under Seige” (11/8), we asked him about his newfound fame. “It’s been pretty heartwarming to see how quickly I could fade back into obscurity,” he told us. Sorry, Jess, but obscurity just wasn’t in the cards. — TED S. McGREGOR JR.

30 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

TOM BOWMAN ILLUSTRATION PUBLISHED 8/23/95

WELCOME TO LOSERVILLE We take on Spokane’s stubborn inferiority complex BY NICK HEIL

umors began last spring. Outside magazine had selected Spokane as one of seven “dream towns,” a place where citified outdoor sports zealots could live their lives of quiet desperation a little closer to a decent restaurant and a blue ribbon trout stream. “Where to Find It All,” the cover exclaimed when the issue hit newsstands in June, “A Real Job. A Real Life. And the Big Outdoors.’’ Despite the unabashed praise writer Mike Steere lauded on Spokane (“... a refuge the whole weary and frightened world is looking for... “), the one-page profile is tinged with a few other stinging observations. The prices of life in our inland paradise, according to the author? “True alternativeniks may shrivel in this essentially big small town. Stridently festive parks and public buildings don’t quite revive a tired central business district.” Ouch. But the comment that cut to the bone? The gestalt poured in the wound? “The city seems to have a deep, very ‘90s problem: low self-esteem, brought on by an old rap labeling it an inter-mountain toad on the wrong side of the state.” Whether acknowledged or not, the widespread attitude that Seattle is Washington’s favored son and Spokane its redheaded, bastard stepchild has stuck tenaciously. In response to Outside’s claim that Seattlites are quietly slipping away from the city and relocating in Spokane, a Seattle Weekly writer recently commented on the Outside piece that he was “dubious, having met too many refugees from The Can who came to Seattle and stayed.’’ Never mind that this is the second largest city in the state, it’s still regarded as, I once heard a young man in Missoula say, the City of the Living Dead. When I left Seattle to move here two years ago, I was sent off with sympathy. “You’ll be back,” said one friend shaking his head sadly. “I give you six months.” “Spokane,” said another “Why not just move to Oklahoma?” I couldn’t quite muster up the courage to tell them I was actually excited for the move to a place with seasons — where it snows in the winter and grows hot in the summer; where a short (sans traffic) drive brings you to all the mountains, lakes and rivers you could ever hope for; where a person living a few cents above poverty level could still afford a decent apartment, and those making a decent living could live like kings. Spokane held the promise of both independence and op-

portunity; a place where you could make things happen for yourself, not simply assume a spot in line. I arrived with the same feeling that investors must get when they know they’ve picked up a good stock. And I still feel it. Not, as Outside would suggest, that I can have it all — but that l can have enough. Count me, then, among the alternativeniks who have come here and not shriveled. Well, at least not entirely. I have been known to threaten napalm strikes on North Division and East Sprague so that we might wipe out the entire garish sprawl and start over. Occasionally, I succumb to fits of frustration and come dangerously close to grabbing store clerks by their lapels and saying. ‘’No, I do not want you to special order that, I want you to carry it.” I mope around each summer when the Gonzaga University students go home and KAGUFM — the only city-wide source of alternative radio available for 300 miles — goes off the air. And sometimes I stand and throw pennies into Riverfront Park’s big red wagon, wishing with varying degrees of desperation that 10,000 young people would march into downtown and erect a sign: “We Have Come. Will You Build It?”

he collective image of a place is no easy beast to catch. Ask anyone who’s lived here more than a week if there is a certain “Spokane Mentality” — if they think Spokane suffers from low self-esteem — and long-winded opinions are sure to follow. Over mochas at Java City Espresso downtown, I put the question to owner Joe Nollette, 28, and one of his customers, a recent GU grad who is enjoying a leisurely summer before she begins an accounting job in town next month. “How much time do I have?” Nollette wants to know, laughing. By the time we’re sucking the syrup from the bottom of our drinks, the conversation’s just beginning to cook. “There’s the perception that there’s a very conservative culture here, but it’s not really that bad,” Nollette says, “I know a lot of people who have taken off and tried to make money elsewhere, but now they’re back. I think things are starting to change here.’’ “I kept thinking I wanted to move to Portland,” adds his customer, “but I had three job offers in town. I couldn’t really turn that down. And I kind of like Spokane.’’

A few blocks away, in the heart of the business district, another entrepreneur is banking on Spokane’s changing face. Jim Franey, whose burrito joint Big Mamu opened on North Howard just six weeks ago, says he sees everything from suits and ties to dreadlocked teens in his shop. A one-time car salesman, Franey’s a friendly, bongo-playing cynic with a buzz cut and salt-and-pepper goatee. He spent years living in Boston and California’s Bay Area, and the urban influence is obvious in his restaurant. Patrons can browse the latest editions of the Village Voice or The Rocket, listen to reggae, and dine on a very, very large burrito. It’s shops like his, Franey thinks, that will bring salvation-by-way-of-people to downtown. “We need more places like this, more diversity” says the owner. “I’m optimistic. A lot of people come in and see what we’ve done here, and it inspires them.’’ Franey’s own inspiration came partly from seeing his next door neighbor, David’s Pizza, do well. The block is a promising sight. Big Mamu has joined David’s, a hip gift shop called Moon Shadow, and Brewhaha Espresso in an entrepreneurial block eager to bring some variety to the heart of downtown. “Spokane seemed ready for a place like [Big Mamu]. A generation has left and returned, and I think they’ve brought back a more cosmopolitan sensibility.”

hy are they coming back? Outside’s writer discovered the South Hill, and judging by his response, nearly stayed. “Get used to it, Spokane — you’re a babe ... Go up toward Manito Park and there it is,” he writes, “an architecturally significant cutie-house reaching from the front yard with mature tree boughs and cooing, ‘Come on in, honey.’ The response, even if you’ve never been here before, is to fall down, weep, and swear you’ll never leave.” Real estate agent Kathy Bixler sells these homes to the new arrivals — many from California, but a good handful from Seattle — who are arriving in Spokane in steadily increasing numbers. “I tell them they’re 15 minutes from the airport and 10 from downtown, and that it’s still in their price range. They stare at me in disbelief.” Bixler herself came here from Seattle in the ‘70s, long before the Emerald City became the destination for the terminally hip. She thought she wouldn’t last a year. “Now I love it. I keep telling my kids to move back here.” What she’s seen over the last decade doesn’t surprise her. “Back in 1985, people were leaving the area and moving to big cities. Now, I see the exact opposite. Everyone’s coming back.” Between 1970 and 1990, Spokane’s population grew from 170,516 to 177,196, or about 4 percent. Region-wide, this was a relatively slow influx of people. Eugene, Ore., for example, grew 40 percent over the same time span; Boise almost 50 percent. But in 1994, Spokane counted within its limits 185,600 heads, claiming in four years the amount of net growth it had seen in the last 20. I can see it right out my window. From my duplex on the lower South Hill, I have views to the west and Northwest. Summer evenings, my girlfriend and I sit on the balcony and watch the sunlight fade behind the Selkirk foothills, while our hearts leap after it. Our neighborhood is a mix of low and middle-income housing — it’s populated mainly by young working adults and students. All but one of the buildings are turn-of-thecentury homes now renovated into apartments or shared housing. By foot, we are 10 minutes from downtown, five to the neighborhood espresso shop or supermarket. Next door, a sign is advertising a vacant one-bedroom apartment for $280. In Seattle, l paid the same amount to share a house with five others. From my bedroom, I had views of the highway and our neighbor’s cement patio. My primary source of income came from refereeing soccer games, and I once had to hock my ski equipment to make rent.

titudes: An Atlas of American Tastes, Trends, Politics, and Passions, Michael J. Weiss describes Spokane this way, “You won’t find the yuppified tastes of cities like Seattle here in Eastern Washington: Spokane residents have relatively little interest in the arts, travel, health food, and high-tech electronics ... it is by no means a liberal bastion.” Compare this assessment with that of Seattle’s, “Locals have the money to enjoy ‘the good life’: traveling abroad, enjoying gourmet cuisine — especially espresso ... The high concentration of young singles has even created a thriving grunge music scene, as well as busy jogging trails, fitness clubs, and nearby ski slopes.” And Portland’s: “This is one of the nation’s best markets for cultural sophisticates who enjoy photography, books, art, and theater ... everyone seems concerned about environmental threats, like nuclear waste and ozone depletion ... one of the nation’s best cities for healthy skin.” Weiss’ profiles are based on extensive survey’s of media and product tastes — consumer maps, he calls them. This is the real America, Weiss claims in his introduction, a portrait of the country based on its most revealing behavior: consumption patterns. Recently, the Spokesman-Review ran a brief story on the decision by Barnes and Noble (one of the country’s largest booksellers) not to locate a new superstore in Spokane. The story failed to report what the decision was based on, but it’s only natural to assume that market researchers for Barnes and Noble found that Spokane wouldn’t support a store of that nature. True? Who knows. But Spokane’s “reputation” may have something to do with these kinds of decisions. What’s often so difficult to accept about surveys like Weiss’, and about market research in general, is that it tends to be self-perpetuating. A survey conducted in Hillyard may yield greatly different responses than one in Mead. What’s real in American cities depends entirely upon which street corner you’re standing on. Take a look around. Chat with your neighbors. There is curious — maybe I should say conspicuous — evidence that Spokane is far from the buck-toothed, backwater place our coastal brethren (and some outside analysts) make it out to be. Counted the number of espresso huts around lately? Taken in a show at the Met, the Opera House, the Big Dipper or the Magic Lantern in the last month? Browsed the stacks at Auntie’s? Seen a play? Ralph Busch, outreach coordinator for the Spokane Arts Commission stresses the far-reaching importance of these places and activities. “The arts are like an octopus,” he says. “They reach into all different aspects of our lives — social, political. economic.” He also offers some very persuasive statistics on the level of interest and growth. An economic impact study of non-profit arts organizations in Spokane County conducted this year found about $6.5 million was pumped into the economy in 1990 from arts-related activity. By 1994, that figure had increased to almost $32 million. Our skin may be dry, but contrary to the consumer maps, our cache of arts is not.

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elf-esteem, that sense of personal worth and respect in any given society, derives from a miasma of forces, but mostly it comes from what people say about you. In Latitudes and At-

ot too long ago, I paid a visit to the west side. My girlfriend and I had been Jan. 25, 1995 whining about the lack of live music in Spokane and went with the specific intent of seeing a band play at a club called Moe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district. We arrived to find about a hundred people milling near the doorway, several of whom came up to us to ask if we had tickets to sell. We didn’t even have tickets for ourselves, nor did we ever get them. We spent the evening in a crowded bar across the street, looking out the window forlornly at the club. On a similar evening in downtown Spokane, I see our cultural forces at work. A visiting guitarist has been playing at the El Toreador restaurant on Riverside. She’s good — part Melissa Etheridge, part Indigo Girls. After her set, she is cornered by a man, a local, who forces her to listen to his demo tape. He tries to persuade her to sing backup on some project he’s dreamt up. She’s clearly uncomfortable with his perseverance, and eventually manages to slip away from the table and duck out of the restaurant. Visit Inlander.com to read the rest of this article.

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96 Things were changing in 1996, and this newspaper did a lot of wondering what was next. Nothing signaled this more than a cover story (2/14) investigating the notion that perhaps this whole world wide information super INTERNET highway web was everything it was cracked up to be. The story pointed out that twice as many Americans bought the latest HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH album as were using the Internet. Sources in the piece wrongly predicted that people wouldn’t flock to the web to buy things, yet correctly foresaw the future of online pornography. Locally, the paper was diving headfirst into the sort of topics that some might prefer to sweep under the rug. The Inlander contemplated serious issues in its pages, among them SUBURBAN SPRAWL (9/25), POVERTY (5/15) and RACISM (1/17), and penned several stories about TEENS and how the community had used them as scapegoats for some of the city’s woes. Sound familiar? We profiled longtime Gonzaga University President BERNARD COUGHLIN, S.J. (5/22) as he stepped down after 22 years, and wrote about the school’s head basketball coach DAN FITZGERALD (11/20 — story on this page), who was entering his final season, having paved the way for a program that was about to explode onto the national stage. We continually asked if RIVER PARK SQUARE would ever become anything other than architectural drawings (11/27), then wondered if the world was coming to an end when ICE STORM gave the region a mighty slap, leaving some without power for more than a week (11/27). On the cultural front, the tide of the early 1990s Seattle rock explosion led SPOKANE MUSIC LOVERS to wonder if perhaps big-time success could come to one of their beloved local bands. Several music stories excitedly speculated that major labels might be looking to sign bands like SHOVELJERK (a variation of the by-then-defunct Black Happy) and HIGH LONESOME. At the same time, a column proposed the question IS LIVE MUSIC DEAD?, mourning the loss of the Big Dipper and other rock venues. Our political coverage was prescient, too, as it turns out. The fall election preview (9/11) introduced us to a long-shot gubernatorial candidate named JAY INSLEE, while the 20 Under 40 section (3/13) profiled a young guy named ANDY BILLIG, who was working for the Spokane Indians. You can’t predict the future, but damned if we didn’t try back in 1996. — MIKE BOOKEY

32 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

DARREN BALCH PHOTOS

PUBLISHED 11/20/96

FACES OF FITZ We profiled Dan Fitzgerald, the late, great coach who helped put Gonzaga on the basketball map BY TONY C. DUARTE

an Fitzgerald wears his many hats comfortably. He’s Gonzaga University’s head men’s basketball coach and the school’s athletic director. If you’re one of his players, he’s your mentor, your role model and your worst nightmare… “You won’t be in the goddamn game long enough to get five fouls if you don’t play defense!” Fitzgerald bellows, as he prowls the sideline observing his team run a one-on-one drill in the third official practice of the 1996-97 season — his last as head coach. Yet it’s not all sailor-style tongue lashings. Like any good motivational speaker worth his adjectives, he has a decibel level for every occasion. A few minutes after his verbal scorching, he takes the skinny, walk-on freshman aside to give him some tips. These are tips from a man who has been intimately involved with the game of basketball for about 44 of his 54 years. The freshman listens intently, then it’s a slap on the back and he’s back into the fray — very likely to be vociferously carved up in the next practice by the man known in basketball circles throughout the Western hemisphere simply as “Fitz.”

abruptly left, and the job was offered to Fitzgerald. “They said I could do both, and I said ‘There’s no way.’ Things were just a mess; we didn’t have this building [Martin Centre], we had $2,400 for women’s athletics and financial aid,” remembers Fitz, who will stay on as full-time athletic director after this season. “Our players got only $4 a day for meal money — I’m not exaggerating — and they said we’re a lot better trying to straighten this out ourselves than trying to bring somebody in. We were going seven days a week, 16-18 hours a day. It was incredible.” So in his first years as GU’s athletic director, Fitz was almost exclusively working damage control. He remembers some particularly colorful advice he received from Washington State University’s AD, Sam Jankovich, who was at WSU from 1976-83. “One time Sam told me, ‘I want to show you what an AD is,’” Fitz recalls with a laugh. “He draws this circle with a dot in the middle, and he points to the dot and says, ‘Fitz, you’re in the middle here and there are a bunch of ropes all tied to your balls,’ and he draws lines to the outside of the circle. This is who has the ropes — the Oct. 30, 1995 coaches, the alumni and the faculty — and they’re all pulling.’ “ Being tossed into the AD frying pan was hard enough during those first years, so it was a virtual miracle (something a small Catholic school can appreciate) that the team was successful in those early years. “Twenty-five years ago, the AD was a former coach who was a good alumni guy who had put in a lot of time and then probably had a few beers and smoked cigars with the guys downtown — and that was the extent of

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t hasn’t always been that way. When Fitz came to Spokane from an assistant coaching job at Santa Clara University in 1978, he was as unknown as the school’s basketball program. All that would change (of course, it didn’t hurt that a guy named John Stockton played there from 1979-83), but not for a while. After a mere four months on the job as the new basketball head coach, then-athletic director Larry Koentopp

what the hell he did,” says Fitz, who is one of only four men in the NCAA to handle both AD and head coaching duties. “At that time [‘78], we didn’t have time to define what the position was, we had too much work to do. Now you’re just the lifeline of a million things — everything from AIDS education of your athletes to insurance to fundraising.” The toll of getting GU’s athletic ship in shape was too much even for the energetic Fitz, so for a three-year period, from 1982-85, he concentrated solely on his AD duties, turning over the basketball helm to Jay Hillock. But when Hillock wanted out, there was Fitz.

hose days seem far away as Fitz talks to Nada Stockton; John’s wife, about her new baby girl on his office phone. Fitz’s office looks like that of anybody who holds two jobs. His desk is in disarray, awash in a sea of paper; articles of clothing are scuttled off into nooks and crannies, there’s a couch for sleeping and assorted awards of recognition plastered on the walls. Since one of his jobs is basketball coach, he also gets a window overlooking the gymnasium floor. There are now five little Stocktons — a starting five — running around Salt Lake City. Fitzgerald is quickly on the phone to tell Darleen — his wife of 34 years. He is able to communicate all the details in about 40 seconds, along with squeezing in approximately 15 excited sentences — some of them complete, some not. Stockton’s kid is “healthy,” Fitz stresses, a fact not lost between the two since Darleen lost two pregnancies before having their only child, Kelly, 27 years ago. Then it’s out of the office and off on the whirlwind “John Stockton’s New Baby Announcement Tour.” Fitz is all smiles and laughter as he tells everybody in the office, hallways and adjacent parking lots. Finally, the members of the current team, just before practice is scheduled to begin, are informed that the school’s most famous living grad has spawned more offspring. Some of the older team members have comments: “Another one?” “What’s that make, 27?”

itz keeps track of a lot of people. The road from 1978 to now (which has led him into the National Invitation Tournament twice and to the “Big Dance” — the NCAA Tournament — once in 1995) has brought him into contact with lots of “basketball people.” Seattle Supersonics Coach George Karl dines with him, Nike founder Phil Knight has installed him in his company’s Hall of Fame (some guy named “Mike” is in there, too), Bobby Cremins, head coach of perennial powerhouse Georgia Tech, sends him personal notes. And the list goes on. So it’s a wonder that he’s stayed here in little old Spokane, right? Ask his daughter, Kelly Fitzgerald, now a law clerk in Tacoma. “There was a chance for him to go to Loyola Marymount [in L.A.],” reveals Kelly, “but it was my senior year in high school, and I was not going to move.” The Loyola job in 1987 was just one of dozens that have been offered up to the Fitz altar. Just this year, he received a call from Cal-Berkeley to gauge his interest in the vacancy left by Todd Bozeman. Fitz has said it would be foolish to say “never” to any future offers, but he would only consider a situation if it was “special.” The

Cal situation he termed only “interesting.” But Kelly thinks he’s done the right thing in staying. “I see people all the time with GU shirts on, and it makes me laugh because when we moved there, it just didn’t happen. I think that epitomizes his success at GU.” There have also been pro assistant jobs. “I had a hard time turning down one pro job,” Fitz confesses. “We flew there, and my daughter was of an age where I could’ve gone. They wanted a college guy. I had dinner with the owner, and I had the deal. “So we started walking back to the hotel, and my wife says, ‘I really like it here,’ and I said, ‘Hey, hold it a minute, we aren’t getting a house — we’re going to get an apartment and hope six months from now we’re not in another place.’” As with most families, it’s always been a Fitzgerald family decision when it comes to considering a professional career move. “From the day I moved here, I just fell in love with Spokane and really did consider it to be my home,” says Darleen Fitzgerald. “So when something would come up, I think I was probably the one who would say ‘no’ right away — that I wanted to stay.” “You’d have to be an absolute moron to think that you’re not going to get fired in the pros,” says Dan Fitzgerald. “But if you talk to basketball people, they would tell you that [GU] is one of the toughest jobs in the West. I think I’ve stayed because of how tough it is.” Fitz also credits his relationship with former GU President Bernard Coughlin as an incentive to stay. Coughlin’s longevity and integrity were “the reasons I knew I could stay and be myself,” he says.

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n practice, Fitz is 100 percent himself as he presides over drills that resemble playground games, except that instead of laughing children, the games are played by tired, sweaty young adults. In the “21” drill, Fitz intentionally misses a shot at the basket and commands the three players to fight for the rebound, then sink the shot. Uh-oh, a sophomore takes an outside shot. “The only time we want to see your pretty jump shot is in the alumni game three years from now,” hollers Fitz before the ball even has time to reach the hoop. Next year, assistant coach Dan Monson will be the drill sergeant as he will succeed Fitz. Since the program chose to make a preemptive strike and disclose the decision two years early, this news carries as much impact as the weather report in Tahiti. But this transition, orchestrated by Fitz, couldn’t have been made any smoother for Monson. “As I have progressed as a coach, he’s given me more and more responsibility with the program,” says Monson, whose father, Don, was the head coach at both Idaho and Oregon. In fact, Monson’s biggest challenge next year will probably be knowing what to do with all the free advice he’s bound to receive from his AD, his dad and one of his dad’s best friends, Jud Heathcote, retired Michigan State head coach and a GU season ticket holder. “Once I get Fitz up there, it’s gonna be the Grumpy Old Men. I’m going to have more suggestions than I’m going to know what to do with,” quips Monson. Visit Inlander.com to finish this article.

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 33

PUBLISHED 2/19/97

97 The Inlander charged along in 1997, as did the Inland Northwest. DOWNTOWN SPOKANE (5/14) development was beginning to pick up, the LINCOLN STREET BRIDGE (see story) debate surged, and all the while we had to worry about the impending arrival of EL NINO (10/15), which a cover exposé warned would be the weather event of the century. For whatever reason, ’97 featured no shortage of weirdness in our pages. There’s a glowing profile of TIMOTHY TREADWELL (3/26), who spent his summer living with grizzly bears in Alaska. Those bears killed him six years later. Herpes must have been rampant, judging from a three-page ad for VALTREX (4/30), as were fad diets, which is why we outlined the dangers of FEN-PHEN (9/17). Hell, things were weird enough that CARROT TOP earned himself a multi-page profile (9/10). Our FALL ARTS PREVIEW (9/19) clocked in at 60 pages — massive in those days — and looked into the state of arts in Spokane at that time, especially the struggles to fund galleries and theaters. On the political front, MEDICAL MARIJUANA made its first appearance in the paper (10/15) as we talked to both sides involved in a debate that would rage until the initiative was voted into law a year later. Then there was the statewide battle over a new proposed stadium for the SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (3/26), which would have a financial impact on this side of the mountains, as we detailed in a cover story. Eight years later, the Seahawks won the NFC championship in that eventually realized stadium. In other sports news, of which there was plenty in ’97, our BLOOMSDAY preview featured race tips by BLOOMSDAY BOY (4/30), a reckless race participant who encouraged runners to, among other things, do the MACARENA — remember the Macarena? — as often as possible. We ran a small piece about a scrappy GONZAGA basketball team that had just beaten No. 5 Clemson, then devoted an entire cover package to WSU GOING TO THE ROSE BOWL (12/24) for the first time in 67 years behind the powerful arm of then-quarterback, now-recovering drug addict RYAN LEAF. The Cougs lost that one to Michigan. — MIKE BOOKEY

34 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

PICKETT’S CHARGE… AGAIN? We started asking questions about a bridge being planned to span Spokane Falls; it never got built BY ROBERT HEROLD

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ake the time to walk down Lincoln Street — to the corner of Lincoln and Main. Look to the north, and imagine: Instead of the slow moving cars that wind past Spokane Falls Boulevard toward Monroe, imagine four lanes, full of cars that speed along, just the way they do on Division/Ruby. The Lincoln Street Bridge will become a one-way heading north, and Monroe will become a one-way heading south. Imagine that thoroughfare, visualize the new traffic pattern, and ask yourself the obvious question: Have the members of the City Council who brought this bridge to life lost their marbles? Take the time to look over the computer-generated renderings of what the designers are calling the “Legacy Bridge” — what city officials are claiming will protect the view of the falls for decades to come. Then walk to the library and check out Orwell’s 1984 and read all about doublespeak. And while you’re walking to the library, ask yourself another question: When this version of Division/Ruby is up and running, will anyone be able to walk safely to the library again?

hroughout this tangled debate over downtown, I have tried — seriously tried — to remain open-minded to the solutions that have been cooked up for downtown Spokane. I continue to give our officials the benefit of the doubt. Yes, they say the want to “save downtown,” and I believe them. I believe them when they say that we need the Cowles-Nordstrom project, and that we need the parking garage. Are we getting a good deal? Even a decent deal? I give them the benefit of the doubt, but my skepticism is starting to come through. It comes through loudest when I stand out on Lincoln, looking north. I consider all the lofty public pronouncements and imagine the consequences of a freeway through downtown. Who’s kidding who? It’s hard not to agree with the cynics, who say that our officials, their public pronouncements about creating a “special” place downtown to the contrary, just want to ensure that we create a mall atmosphere downtown (SouthTown?), complete with easy access via wide, fast streets. This is what the cynics say, and this is what I don’t want to believe. I don’t want to believe that this is all about private aggrandizement. But then I remember the old saw about never ascribing to conspiracy something explainable by stupidity — that’s what I tell myself. Over and over again. And this one’s easy; it simply is the case that our elected officials don’t know how to ask questions that take the discussion beyond the logic and arguments made by the all-powerful traffic engineers. I tell myself that they simply never thought to have the proposal critiqued by the likes of a preservationist such as Donovon Rypkema, or an urban architect of the stature of a Daniel Solomon, or a nationally know urban critic such as James Kunstler. I try to remain convinced that they simply

never thought to consult with those leaders in downtown Portland (where pedestrians are at the top of the list of priorities for any urban project). I think that any of the above critics would have reservations, at the very least, about such a project as the Lincoln Street Bridge and how it could change downtown Spokane. I try to believe that our elected leaders simply lack the know-how necessary to bring to bear the kind of criticism successful urban designers thrive on. Now we deal with inertia. The design’s been drawn, the money’s in the bank and the bureaucrats are counting the days. It’s a done deal, and there’s no way to change it.

he scenario reminds me of another time, another place and another decision — another pivotal decision, the sort that the Spokane City Council faces. There are examples of inertia and the damage it can do throughout American history. A memorable one began early on the morning of July 3, 1863, when General James Longstreet peered out over an open field to a low ridge a mile away. Once again, one last time, he urged General Robert E. Lee not order his three divisions out across that field. But Lee wouldn’t reconsider; it was a done deal. The Army of Northern Virginia had fought for two days and achieved its objective. Lee would not leave things that way. He was propelled by inertia, and, perhaps, by more than a small amount of stubborn ego. Later that afternoon, at 3 pm, General George Edward Pickett carried out Lee’s order and his three divisions enter the history books — but not in the way they had hoped. Rather than turn the tide of the Civil War for the South, they were routed. The decision to send them to fight at Cemetery Ridge outside Gettysburg has gone down as the Civil War’s turning point. Just as Pickett’s Charge has gone down as an example of how the best intentions aren’t always enough, so too will the Lincoln Street Bridge enter our history Jan. 22, 1997 books. Here, the historians will write, is where Spokane bought the farm. Once this damnable eyesore went up and the cars began to speed through, the downtown never recovered. Unless, of course, the cynics have been right all along, and it’s all according to plan. Then our historians will write something else. Either way, the results for downtown Spokane will be the same. Rest assured, the damage caused by an overpriced parking garage, even when combined with what could turn out to be a badly designed commercial project, will pale compared to the damage to urban life that will result if this monument to the automobile is built. . Division/Ruby West. That’s what we will have done to our downtown. Go stand down on Lincoln, look to the north, and remember General Longstreet’s advice. This is no drill. This is not melodrama. It’s about 2 pm in our civic afternoon. And 3 pm, the time to charge into the future, is only a few minutes away. Are we, too, being overwhelmed by inertia? 

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 35

98 Beanie Babies, Y2K and vampires all made the cover of the Inlander in our fifth year of publication. A special investigative report in March, called “Burned” (3/4), explored how the SPOKANE WASTE-TOENERGY PLANT imported garbage from Canada and incinerated questionable substances without proper safeguards. As Spokane serial killer ROBERT LEE YATES still stalked the streets, not yet identified or imprisoned in April of ’98, the Inlander focused on how investigators had tracked other killers and the psychology behind their horrendous crimes. “It’s a screwed-up society that produces serial killers,” true crime author Jack Olsen says, adding, “In a society that’s spinning faster and faster and faster, every once in a while somebody spins off the edge.” We started the Y2K fretting early with “Day of Reckoning” (7/15) on the potential impact of the MILLENNIUM BUG. In that same issue, we took on the ARYAN NATION’s plans to march in Coeur d’Alene, and the community debate over whether to counter-protest or simply ignore such white power marches. In “Pill Popper Nation” (7/22), the Inlander dove into the country’s increased dependence on and marketing of PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. We also looked at what the introduction of VIAGRA might mean for pharmaceutical profits. By October, the Inlander reached its fifth birthday (10/14). Looking back, publisher Ted McGregor wrote about the RISE OF ALTERNATIVE WEEKLIES: “I attribute this popularity to trust. People can distinguish between being fed a line and being told the truth.” For our Halloween issue (10/28), the Inlander explored VAMPIRES and the scary world of CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS. “There’s the sexuality and the seductiveness. That it’s attractive is just part of human nature.” We’ll let you guess which subject that quote applied to. Our 1998 coverage wrapped up with the transition from Washington Water Power to AVISTA as the local utility looked to expand (12/16). “We need to do whatever it takes to be successful,” utility vice president Rob Fukai said. “If you don’t in this industry, then you’re going to disappear.” — JACOB JONES

36 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

PUBLISHED 6/17/98

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF BILLY TIPTON Billy Tipton lived a long life in Spokane as a man; when he turned out to really be a she, one Spokane native wrote a book about it BY KATHRYN ROBINSON

“I

kept trying to figure out what she was,” says Diane Wood Middlebrook, author of Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, from her home in San Francisco. “We have a lot of questions in 1998 that didn’t exist in Billy’s time. They didn’t have the terms ‘transgenderist,’ or even ‘crossdresser,’ or hardly even ‘lesbian’!” The absence of such categories no doubt made it easier for Billy Tipton, the jazz musician/entertainer born Dorothy Lucille Tipton in 1914, to pass as a man from age 19 until her death in Spokane in 1989. But it made it no picnic for her biographer. “This was a very hard book to write,” Middlebrook confesses. Her foremost problem was the dearth of material Tipton left behind. Middlebrook’s first biography, of the poet Anne Sexton, was uncommonly source-rich. Anne Sexton: A Biography whipped up a firestorm of controversy in 1991 when Sexton’s therapist availed Middlebrook of tapes of Sexton’s therapy sessions. By contrast, Tipton left her biographer next to nothing, with the exception of a few snippets of revealing showbizzy punning that Tipton wrote for stage routines. (Straight man: “How many sexes are there?” Tipton: “The male sex, the female sex and the insects.”) The lack of material was part of Tipton’s brilliance at diverting attention away from himself. “When I found those stage routines, I was elated,” says Middlebrook, who grew up in Spokane. “Here I’d been in the interview trenches for three years, thinking, ‘Where is this guy? How can I lay my hands on this person?’ Finally the answer began to form, very slowly, around the notion that Billy’s character is the character of the actor.” His deflective talent included an uncanny ability to surround himself with uniquely unobservant people. “The biggest surprise for me was discovering how most of the people who knew Billy — including the five women he called his wives — could supply so little detail about him.” Perhaps this explains why the four of his wives who believed he was a man — one a stripper, one a former call-girl — could be so monumentally duped. “One of his wives said to me, ‘Honey, I can’t wait to read your book — I thought it was a penis!”’ MiddleJuly 29, 1998 brook laughs. “I think these women had a lot at stake in being taken care of, in going along with the way of life Billy offered. He was a glamorous guy, they met him on a bandstand, he had the charisma of a star. As his fourth wife Mary Ann said to me, people insist on a certain level of privacy, and if you love them, you respect that. What kind of concessions do we make in intimate life to keep our own secrets, and to provide our lovers with space? Many people don’t like to be looked at, many

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people don’t want to be touched, many people like sex in the dark. Once that’s a given, it becomes normal. Because normal is a pretty broad band.” Though Tipton’s story resonates at times as almost unutterably sad, Middlebrook came away uplifted. “The thing I liked about Billy from beginning to end was that she found a way to be happy,” Middlebrook says. “There was a jauntiness to Tipton’s ruse; a hearty sense of play that expressed itself in jokes, like the stage routines; she could enjoy with herself alone. “One of the many young musicians Billy mentored late in his life recalled Billy advising him to cut his hair, saying, ‘I used to have long hair, but I didn’t get any work until I cut it.’ I think these jokes with himself kept him going,” Middlebrook explains. “He was always playing with the role he was in. I think the actual deception fascinated him.” Middlebrook, a poet and literary critic who teaches English at Stanford, brought to the project her feminist assumption that all gender behavior is a mask. “I wanted to make it very clear the degree to which your own gender is a construct, and how much your identity reinforces it, how all your cues are designed to show that you are a woman or a man, and that the world will generally accept whatever cues you give off,” she says. And Middlebrook found her non-essentialist gender theory borne out by Billy Tipton’s triumphant hoax — mostly. “But there’s a question behind it that Billy’s life raises,” Middlebrook muses. “Why would a woman want to be a man? It’s not enough to say, ‘Because men were the ones who played the saxophone,’ though that’s a good start. No, Billy had a real yearning to be taken as a man. Is there something fundamental in that, something essentialist in that? I just don’t know.’’ n

PUBLISHED 10/6/99

PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY

As the 20th century ended, we enlisted local historians to compile a list of the most important Inland Northwesterners of the past 100 years BY ROBERT CARRIKER, NANCY GALE COMPAU, JOHN FAHEY, HENRY MATTHEWS, TED S. McGREGOR JR., IVAN MUNK, JACK NISBET, WILLIAM STIMSON AND J. WILLIAM T. YOUNGS LEADERS: Son of a prominent local attorney (who later became a judge), TOM FOLEY was more or less casting about for a direction in life when he settled on what must have seemed a flight of fancy. He decided to run for Congress in 1964 — against Republican Walt Horan, who had served the district since the 1940s. Foley barely got his registration fee to Olympia (he ran out of gas on the way), but he defeated Horan and started one of the great political careers in Northwest history. As a junior congressman, Foley learned the ropes and became valued in the party as a good negotiator. As time when by, he continued to be returned to office by a largely Republican district, which he served by supporting agricultural issues, helping expand Fairchild Air force Base and by championing higher education. Foley rose through the ranks in D.C., too, becoming chairman of the Agriculture Committee — a boon for his district — and finally, after the controversial departure of Jim Wright, he became the first Speaker of the House from the West — third in command of the nation behind the vice president. As Speaker, Foley was able to work effectively with Republican President George H.W. Bush, starting the ball rolling on reducing the federal deficit. Foley has said that his years in Congress proved to him that compromise, not single-mindedness, is what makes the institution work — politics, he argues in his recent biography Honor in the House, should mean engaging the other party, not trying to embarrass it. Foley and the Democratic majority he led were swept out of Washington in 1994, but Foley and his wife Heather, who served as his chief of staff for years, landed on their feet. After a few years with a D.C. law firm, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Ambassador to Japan. (Editor’s Note: Tom Foley passed away this past week at the age of 84.) The other LEADERS chosen: C.C. Dill, Clarence Martin, Lewis B. Schwellenbach, Joseph Garry, Eric and Ina Johnston, Eleanor and Jim Chase, Mary Lou and Scott Reed, Benjamin H. Kizer, Julia Davis Stuart, King Cole, Luke Williams Jr., Fr. Bernard Coughlin, John Osborn, Vivian Winston, Rod Clefton, Leonard Funk, Neal Fosseen, Margaret Leonard and John Roskelley.

Tom Foley, who passed away last week, was one of our People of the Century. dedication and loyalty was perhaps reflected best at his funeral when more than 50 people served as honorary pallbearers. The other EMPIRE BUILDERS chosen: Sister Peter Claver, W.H. Cowles, D.W. Twohy, Robert B. Paterson, D.C. Corbin, E.H. Stanton, George Washington Fuller, Henry J. Kaiser, Paul Sandifur Sr., Aubrey L. White, Fr. Wilfred P. Schoenberg, Louis Wasmer, Raymond A. Hanson, Merton Rosauer, W.H. Cowles 3rd, Ralph Berg, Duane Hagadone, Dennis and Ann Pence and Don Barbieri. ARTISTS AND ENTERTAINERS: One of the great opera singing careers of the 1940s and ’50s was launched at the Spokane Conservatory of Music in 1935. That was when PATRICE MUNSEL, then 12, started taking voice lessons from Charlotte Granis Lange. Five years later, she became the youngest member of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City. While Munsel’s career, which spanned three decades, kept her away from Spokane, she always voiced her pride over her hometown, and she returned to sing frequently. The other ARTISTS AND ENTERTAINERS chosen: Bing Crosby, Patrick McManus, Vachel Lindsay, Stoddard King, Harold Balazs, Mourning Dove, Sherman Alexie, John Fahey, Ken Brooks, Kirtland Cutter, Harold C. Whitehouse, Charles Libby Sr., Jane Baldwin, Leno Prestini, Thomas Hampson, Bruce Ferden, Mike Kobluk, Firth Chew, Bob and Joan Welch.

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EMPIRE BUILDERS: Remembered as the namesake of Albi Stadium, which helped build, JOE ALBI was a sports supporter in Spokane from his earliest days. He helped found the Athletic Round Table (ART) in 1920 and served as its president until his death in 1962. Under his direction, the group gave about $1 million to local causes, along the way creating the first women’s golf championships in the U.S., building Esmerelda Golf Course and, of course, the stadium. Albi’s life of

NORTHWEST ORIGINALS: Although he got his start in the 19th century, famously running a waffle house out of a tent after the Great Fire of 1889, LOUIS Mar. 3, 1999 DAVENPORT really came into his own with the construction of his hotel. Although it came in phases, when completed in 1914, it was among the finest hotels in all the West, and visitors came from all over the globe to sample its hospitality. The sumptuous interiors, designed by Kirtland Cutter, transported visitors to China, Venice and Versailles; ice water was on tap 24 hours a day from the hotel’s own spring; and the change that was given out was always freshly polished. But Davenport was much more than just a hotelier; he was the city’s arbiter of style — a much-needed function as Spokane still had plenty of rough edges in those days. The other NORTHWEST ORIGINALS chosen: May Arkwright Hutton, Willie Willey, Louis Vogel, Mary Gaiser, J Harlen Bretz, Henry Hart, David Guilbert, Sonora Smart Dodd, Carl Maxey, Ed Tsutakawa, Jay J. Kalez, Albert Commelini, Billy Tipton, Fred Murphy, Pauline Flett and Lawrence Nicodemus, Frances and Clarence Freeman, Don Kardong, Bobby Brett and John Stockton.  Visit Inlander.com to read profiles on all of the Inlander’s People of the Century.

Partying like it was 1999 seems to have involved a lot of strong mayor city government, River Park Square squabbles and more Y2K jokes. The Inlander started the year with an analysis of the region’s HOME BUILDING RATES, asking if construction had outpaced growth (1/20). We profiled Gonzaga basketball coach DAN MONSON in “Coaching Karma” (2/24) as the Bulldogs made their historic run to the ELITE EIGHT in the NCAA tournament. They ended the season with a 28-7 record. In April (4/14), the Inlander wrote about both abstinence-based SEX EDUCATION and the dangers of the PROFESSIONAL BULL-RIDING circuit. “[It’s] not a safe sport, not by any stretch of the imagination. If you want something safe, you can play golf.” Again, we’ll let you guess what story that quote goes with. Downtown Spokane got an economic shot in the arm with the opening of RIVER PARK SQUARE in August. In “Yes, We’re Open” (8/18), we covered the last-minute construction work and talked to nearby retailers about their hopes for some new energy in downtown. As longtime writer Nick Heil prepared to leave in September, he wrote about his love-hate relationship with Spokane. “I still don’t know quite what it is that makes one place seem desirable to live,” he writes. “My guess is … at some point, it’s the desire to simply stay put and make a place better. To recognize the potential of a place and to set about realizing it.” Local politics took over much of the fall. We covered the initiative vote to establish $30 VEHICLE TABS (9/1) and the move toward a “strong mayor” government. The STRONG MAYOR issue took over our cover in October (10/27) with a call for bolder leadership at City Hall. The Inlander ended the year with helpful tips for the LAST NEW YEAR’S EVE of the 1900s (12/1), offering suggestions on buying the right champagne, finding the best parties, and surviving a week without electricity. Just in case. — JACOB JONES

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 37

00 The new millennium started off with a cover story (1/5) looking toward the year’s BIG ELECTION and the prediction that 2000 would be the “Goliath of all money-in-politics years.” We wrote about the popularity of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and praised Scream 3 as a “satisfying conclusion” to the trilogy. (“There will be no Scream 4,” director Wes Craven said firmly.) We turned a skeptical eye toward important issues of the day, such as e-medicine, e-dating, eBay, Napster, Palm Pilot etiquette, the Sacagawea dollar, Meg Ryan’s hairdo and the ubiquitous Whasssuuup?! But we were full of hope for “THE NEW INTERNET,” featured on the cover in July with a full explanation of how cable and DSL would totally change the way we surf (7/20). “Think of it: always connected, yet with your phone line free to accept vital incoming calls.” In March, a story called “Inside the Ballot Box” gave Spokane a crash course in the perils of HANGING CHADS following the previous year’s very close vote on the strong mayor system (3/1). “Few Spokane County voters realize that the outcome of an election hinges upon gnat-sized pieces of cardboard,” the story began. Of course, that all changed by the end of the year when the presidential election between AL GORE AND GEORGE W. BUSH turned into a drawn-out Florida recount ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. Locally, former Congresswoman MARIA CANTWELL narrowly beat incumbent Slade Gorton to join Patty Murray in the Senate, and “political newcomer” JOHN POWERS was elected to Spokane’s new top spot as strong mayor. But the biggest local issue of the year turned out to be the RIVER PARK SQUARE fight, with the public-private project deemed a “failure” just seven months after the mall opened. With parking garage revenue far below expectations, a story in February (2/17) detailed the flawed study, inflated estimates and rumblings about the city seeking ways to get out of the deal. Meanwhile, NorthTown Mall built a new parking structure. The large ads boasted: “Now open with FREE PARKING…” — LISA WAANANEN

38 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Jimmy Marks, who died in 2007. MAREK ZARANSKI PHOTO PUBLISHED 2/3/00

INDELIBLE MARKS On the occasion of a film about his life and struggles, we took a closer look at the one-of-a-kind Jimmy Marks BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.

pokane Gypsy Jimmy Marks has been a lot of things to a lot of people. To his own culture, he has been known as a senator, a king in waiting and, lately, an outcast. To the city and county of Spokane, he has been seen as a criminal and a major pain in the backside for more than a decade. In his own thinking, he has gone from scrappy businessman to a transitional figure in the history of his people; Marks says he is to the Gypsy culture what Rosa Parks was to AfricanAmericans. Now you can add another title to his long list: film star. When the Spokane Northwest Film Festival opens its second annual run on Friday at The Met, the lead film, American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody’s Land, will feature none other than Jimmy Marks. And while the documentary goes well beyond the personal story of Marks, his life and struggle with local authorities provide the narrative thread that holds the film together. Filmmaker Jasmine Dellal first conceived of doing a film on Gypsy culture in the early ’90s as a graduate student in journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. “In Berkeley, I became aware of one ethnic group that didn’t seem to be protected by the politically correct police,” says Dellal from New York City. “The same people who would say, ‘Don’t say black, say African-American,’ would turn around and say, ‘Don’t get gypped by the Gypsies.’ ” Dellal, who will be in Spokane for the screening of her film, has another, more personal connection to Gypsies. As

both Jewish and Indian growing up in England, she felt some sympathy for minorities of any kind. And Gypsies were found to be the ethnic group held in the lowest regard of all ethnic groups by a survey of The New York Times (even lower than a fake ethnic group they threw into the mix). But what finally cemented her interest was a journalist’s desire to shine a light on a culture that has been cast in shadow for more than a millennium. “I started paying more attention to Gypsies, investigating it further,” Dellal recalls. “I did a Nexis search for ‘Gypsy’ and only 45 references came up. If you type in ‘Jew,’ they tell you there are too many references to list.” After she decided to make a documentary on Gypsy culture, she started looking for a person or family to use as the centerpiece of her film. One of the first things she learned about gypsy culture was that the members of Romany culture, as they call it, didn’t want anyone to learn its secrets. She was hung up on repeatedly, and nobody would even return her phone calls. Until Jimmy Marks. Here was a person who claims to have dedicated his life to helping promote understanding of Gypsy culture. What Dellal found out, however, was that Marks had a huge ax to grind about his ongoing case against the city and Feb. 13, 2000 county of Spokane for a police raid in his home in 1986. When Dellal first met Marks in 1993, she laid out some ground rules to keep her work from slipping toward propaganda: she wouldn’t promise that there would be anything in

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the final film about his case; if there was something in it about the case, she couldn’t promise it would be in his favor; and he couldn’t tell her what to put in the film or take out of it. Marks agreed, Dellal started filming in 1994 and five years later, American Gypsy was completed. So far, the film has been extremely well received, says Dellal. She first screened it last year at a Gypsy caravan in Austin, Texas. She was nervous, since most in attendance were predisposed to not like any intrusion into their culture. She was pleased, however, as it was warmly embraced and led to some lively discussion with those in attendance. Next, the film was booked into the prestigious Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York City, home to tens of thousands of Gypsies (estimates put the nation’s Gypsy population at around 1 million). The first night, the film sold out. The next night, the film was moved to a bigger theater, which was also packed with a standing room only crowd. It’s a strong response for a first film, and Dellal, who plans to continue making documentaries, reports that PBS is scheduling a nationwide broadcast of the film sometime this year. As for Marks, he and his family screened it privately the night before the Austin showing. Marks, who simply says he trusted Dellal to tell his story based on a “gut feeling,” only complained that the film “wasn’t long enough.” In the end, the 80-minute film did come to tell quite a lot about the Marks controversy that has dominated local headlines from time to time over the past decade-and-a-half. But Marks clearly relishes the notoriety that comes with being up on the big screen. He reports with obvious glee that a screening in Romania, homeland of his ancestors, inspired one local Gypsy to tell an interviewer: “I wanna be Jimmy Marks! I wanna sue America, too!” Visit Inlander.com to read the rest of this article.

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For Spokane, change seemed like a positive thing in 2001. Sure, the country was still reeling from the bizarre 2000 election — one columnist complained that Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing was ruined now that George W. Bush was in office (2/22) — but Spokane was all about renewal and progress. We devoted three covers to the impressive reopening of the restored DAVENPORT HOTEL and hope for the FOX THEATER, and later featured the reopened MAC (11/29). We wrote brief-but-prescient stories about plans for SOUTH PERRY DISTRICT revitalization (2/15) and the rebirth of the COMMUNITY BUILDING as a hub for progressive nonprofits (1/18). JESS WALTER appeared on the cover (1/11) for his first novel, Over Tumbled Graves, and later we went on a downtown tour of cocktail revival with renowned mixologist Paul Harrington, now a co-owner of Clover. “Currently, I would rank Spokane as a city with aboveaverage bars,” he said after visits to Cavallino Lounge, Quinn’s and Ankeny’s at the top of the Ridpath (3/15). We also took an honest look at tough problems, with cover stories about the METH EPIDEMIC (4/12) and the deadly effects of the ASBESTOS MINE (3/1) in Libby, Mont. We wrote a cover story about the ambivalence of BEING YOUNG IN SPOKANE (8/30), and local musicians weighed in on why Spokane was having so much trouble supporting live music venues. We reported on the SpokesmanReview’s reportedly first-ever NEWSROOM LAYOFFS (7/12). “It has never happened in the newsroom before,” bargaining unit president Karen Dorn Steele said at the time. “We didn’t even have a methodology in our contracts that said how this should be done.” The River Park Square revenue issue continued, with the city’s bond rating taking a hit and bondholders heading to court. The year’s back-and-forth culminated in a cover story styled after a very popular books series: “River Park Square Garage Litigation for Dummies” (12/13). Of course, on the morning of SEPT. 11, the world changed. We published an eight-page special issue on Sept. 15, a Saturday — the only time in Inlander history we distributed two issues in one week — with a story beginning on the cover headlined “The End of the Innocence,” published here. In the following months, life continued with movie reviews and holiday season guides, but with an undercurrent of uncertainty about what to expect from the new year. — LISA WAANANEN

40 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Two New Yorkers at the wall of prayers after 9/11.

PUBLISHED 9/15/01

THE END OF THE INNOCENCE Four days after 9/11, people were looking for answers, so we put out our first-ever “Extra” edition, anchored by this media analysis BY DAN KENNEDY

t’s over. The easiest, sleaziest, richest, most meaningless decade we’ve yet known has come to an end, buried beneath the rubble and ashes and dust of the World Trade Center. Officially, the 1990s died at 8:45 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower — thereby setting off a day of horror unlike anything we have seen before. In truth, though, the patient had been sick for some time. Almost precisely 10 years ago, the fall of the Soviet Union ushered in an unprecedented period of social and cultural frivolity. With the threat of nuclear annihilation diminished and the need for military spending reduced, the ’90s were a time of wealth, fun, and disengagement from public life. No institution was more affected by this new decadence than the media, which — to oversimplify — devolved from the heroism of Vietnam and Watergate to the hedonism of celebrity scandal. From O.J. to Princess Diana, from JonBenét Ramsey to Monica Lewinsky, the media elevated the trivial over the serious, exalting pop culture to the detriment of the public interest. Our national symbol was Bill Clinton, who may have been a policy wonk at heart, but whose wandering penis was always more interesting than his tedious 10-point proposals. Yes, there were terrible moments, such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the various school shootings. Yet even these were subsumed by the media beast. They came to seem more like made-for-television dramas than like actual events. But you could tell that the ’90s — which no doubt will be remembered as a wondrous interlude — were running out of steam when the media horde closed in on Gary Condit. There was something old, tired, perfunctory about it. It’s not that Condit was caught up in something more awful and therefore less entertaining than the deeds that had ensnared his media predecessors. After all, no matter what may have happened to Chandra Levy, it was surely no worse than the fate that befell Nicole Brown Simpson. Rather, it was that the cultural moment had passed, even if we hadn’t yet realized it. We realized it this week, when the ’90s finally, emphatically, sickeningly came to a close. And we entered, blindly, a terrifying new century.

t is impossible to describe the experience of watching it all unfold Tuesday except to say this: There has never been a day like it. As television events go, neither the assassination of John F. Kennedy nor the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan comes close. Nor does the Oklahoma City bombing, which was similar in nature, but — hard as it is to

believe — much smaller in scale. In historical terms, the comparisons are mind-boggling. Tuesday’s terrorist attacks were the first significant foreign incursions on American soil since the British burned down the Capitol in the War of 1812. Senator Chuck Hagel, echoing the thoughts of many others, compared the attacks to Pearl Harbor; yet what happened this week dwarfs what took place on December 7, 1941. We heard and saw things we’ve never heard or seen before. Think about this: a good chunk of the Pentagon was blown up by an airliner commandeered by foreign terrorists. As I write this, the networks are reporting that some 800 people may have died. And it’s being treated as the sidebar, because the attack on Manhattan was so much bigger and more deadly. Yet if the Pentagon attack were all that had happened on Tuesday, it would have qualified by itself as the worst act of terrorism in the country’s history. Or consider the air shuttle on which George W. Bush embarked. For the first time ever (a phrase that can’t help but be used over and over again), the president of the United States was deliberately kept away from the White House because of fear for his safety. During the afternoon, there was a surreal moment when CNN’s John King, who was traveling with the president, actually declined to reveal where he was, citing national-security concerns. And when Bush finally did decide to return, government officials reportedly refused to confirm it, or even to reveal what time he would speak to the nation, until still more time had passed. Surely it was the first time that giving a speech from the Oval Office amounted to an act of presidential courage.

n an increasingly fragmented culture, television can still be a unifying force in times of crisis. Around 11 pm, ABC’s Peter Jennings, wiped out and semi-coherent, called television “the national campfire.” He was right, even if stress and overwork were taking their toll. Overall, the media did a solid, respectable job under incredibly difficult circumstances. After the initial attacks, very little information was getting out, leaving commentators to speculate — always a dangerous proposition. Yet even though international terrorist Osama bin Laden’s organization emerged early as a logical suspect, the talking heads were careful to note that there was no way of knowing for sure. MSNBC has rightly been sneered at for its emphasis on young, attractive personalities and elaborate sets — epitomized by Ashleigh Banfield, the smiling blonde with the famous titanium glasses, who rose to prominence during the Florida recount. But Banfield proved on Tuesday that she can be

en years ago, the fall of communism was preceded by another major news event: the Gulf War, which put CNN on the map and which, arguably, set off the 24/7 culture that the news media have become. The war was something of a triumph for the media, but it also marked a big step on its journey from attack dog to lapdog. News executives, with few complaints, went along with onerous logistical restrictions, allowing US forces to carry out the ground campaign virtually unobserved. Yet it was the military, not the media, that won the approval of the public. A memorable Saturday Night Live skit even mocked news organizations by depicting clueless reporters asking officers to tell them exactly where American troops were located, thus opening them up to Iraqi attack. The danger now, as the media shift their focus from the silly to the serious, is that the public won’t get the tough scrutiny of government that it needs and deserves. This is, after all, an emotional moment: We’ve been attacked by foreign forces, and we want our leaders to do something about it. Who needs pesky reporters getting in the way? “You can’t be too dispassionate about this, at least as far as I’m concerned,” says Alex Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, at Harvard’s Kennedy School. “This is a moment of war, and I’ve got a feeling that’s where we’re headed.”

Still, Jones believes it’s essential for the media to counter the “hysteria” that’s bound to break out in the coming weeks, and not to get caught up in anti-democratic rhetoric to justify measures that erode privacy and free-speech rights. Adds Bob Steele, a media-ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, via e-mail: “News organizations must honor the principle of independence during these difficult times. We should not be swept up in the patriotism nor the criticism. We should be professional and dispassionate in our reporting even when we have strong personal feelings.” Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum, is worried that the battle against terrorism will be used as an excuse to erode the media’s constitutional protections. “There no doubt will be some serious discussion about limiting civil liberties, including speech and press,” he said in an e-mail. “Already, we’re hearing some rumblings about leaks and aggressive/sloppy coverage of national-defense issues by the press as aiding and abetting terrorists.” (McMasters, by the way, came close to getting killed on Tuesday: he was sitting in the Pentagon parking lot, listening to a radio account of the World Trade Center attacks, when the Pentagon itself was wiped out.)

n a sad and eloquent essay in Slate on Tuesday, New Yorker drama critic John Lahr, writing from London, compared the Tuesday attacks with Pearl Harbor, the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War, and even the death, at birth, of his twin sons, in the “existential sense that life can change on a dime.” He added: “I feel now like I did then — something has instantly and inexorably changed in American life. And there is no going back. What is being lost ... is — not an innocence (that’s longlost) — but a sense of containment and invincibility. Fear will now be our daily bread; and hatred has been given new license. I fear the hysteria and the distortion and the violence which will soon be acted out in all quarters.” The ’90s are over. Welcome to a new decade. Welcome to a new century. The era of disengagement and decadence has ended. Can the media — accustomed as they have become to celebrity trials and semen-stained dresses — return to the infinitely more Sept. 20, 2001 difficult task of providing the information a self-governing people need? After years of sex and scandal, of shuttered foreign bureaus, of downsizing and profit-mongering, it’s not going to be easy. Yet this is a time of crisis, and that crisis is not going to be solved next week, next month, or even next year. We require a media that can report on our frightening new world accurately and thoroughly, neither playing into public hysteria nor serving as a conveyor belt for government propaganda. In other words, the media, like the rest of us, are going to have to change. 

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more than just another pretty face. She set up shop on a sidewalk in Lower Manhattan early in the day and stuck around well into the night, even after the late-afternoon implosion of a third tower threatened to sweep her away. She was back on duty early Wednesday morning, looking only slightly less disheveled and sooty than she had the night before. And the always-odd Dan Rather was oddly reassuring, cautioning his CBS viewers, “Nobody knows who’s responsible for this.” When his colleague Bob Schieffer began talking about the “rage” being expressed on the streets of Washington, Rather retorted, “It’s one thing to have that rage. It’s another to know where to direct that rage.” If anything, the most inflammatory comments were delivered not by anyone in the media but by veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who popped up on several outlets virtually daring the White House to go after Afghanistan, whose Taliban government harbors bin Laden. Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and a veteran Republican strategist, appearing on PBS’s The NewsHour, urged Bush to consider a declaration of war, even though Kristol inconveniently did not appear to have a particular target in mind. It was actually the bombastic Chris Matthews, on MSNBC, who sounded a welcome note of caution, reminding anchor Brian Williams that we are no more likely to be successful fighting terrorism than Israel has been. “The problem with retaliation is that you play into your enemy’s hands. You radicalize your enemies,” Matthews said. “Retaliation is part of the terrorism.”

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 41

42 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

A poem by Sherman Alexie AMY SINISTERRA ART

PUBLISHED 7/4/02

READING THE REGION Is there such a thing as a literature of the Inland Northwest? We took a shot at answering that question BY SHERI BOGGS

f there were such a thing as a school of Inland Northwest writing, what would it be? The South has lyric, langorous prose to recommend it: the language of Faulkner and Welty. Montana has its share of grizzled, outdoorsy writers: Rick Bass, Ivan Doig, William Kittredge. But what is the mark of an Inland Northwest book? “I think if you asked someone in New York, or a Plains Indian for that matter, about what constitutes the literature of this region, they’d probably say Sherman Alexie,” says Jack Nisbet, regional nonfiction writer and author of Purple Flat Top. “He writes of this area in a really organic way. He writes without apology about the way life is on the reservations.” As we browsed through a large stack of novels set in the region, some similarities began KEB’ to appear. First, there’s the natural world. It’s MO’ nearly impossible to set a book in the Inland Northwest and not talk about the thunder and spray of the Spokane River, the basalt cliffs to the southwest, the thick pine forests to the north and the undulating sea of Palouse wheat to the south. Second, there’s the weirdness factor. Just as you’d expect from a place that spawned David Lynch (the director of Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive grew up in Spokane and Sandpoint), these are not always stories about the pretty, happy side Spokane would like to present. Bad things go on in nice houses. People drink too much. Violence simmers quietly under the surface of so-called normal life. Third, Inland Northwest writing is often funny. Most of the books we looked at employed a deft handling of humor. Maybe it’s the aridity of the climate, perhaps it’s simply that you have to develop a sick sense of humor just to live here, but we appreciate the sometimes dry, sometimes compassionate irreverence to be found in many an Inland Northwest novel. Finally, resilience. There’s something subtly gritty about stories set here. Spokane is not the place you set a breezy comedy of manners (Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City), nor is it the place where your characters are likely to experience anything glamorous. The Inland Northwest, it seems,

is where you plant your story if you want your people to struggle a little, to deal with poverty, memories of childhood abuse, alienation and racism. These are stories of survival, of making the best of a bad situation, of finding solace in friends, nature or even basketball. The following list is by no means comprehensive (that would literally take up an entire issue or two), but we think it provides a good start for an Inland Northwest Book Club.

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With our nation at war, we collected a series of essays under the heading “HAVE WE WON YET?” (1/24). The question would be answered resoundingly over the next decade. We hyped up the SEGA DREAMCAST in our video game column (1/24) and, in the same issue, covered SKA SENSATION 10 Minutes Down’s odd choice to open for heavy metal band Blue Oyster Cult. In our IS SPOKANE BAD FOR YOU? cover story, we fretted about the region’s apparently high rate of multiple sclerosis (1/31). Nine years later, we questioned those claims with a story titled, “Misdiagnosed: Why Spokane’s infamously high MS rates may be nothing more than a self-fulfilling myth.” We looked at how century-old wounds from forced relocation continued to affect the NEZ PERCE tribe (9/5) in Idaho. And as the Internet began increasingly affecting the everyday lives of Spokanites, we examined the growth of identity theft with a cover story called THE NAME GAME (8/3) ( “It’s not murder, but identity theft can be just as scary.”) Later, we looked at the risky world of ONLINE DATING (5/30), where an online relationship between an underage Eastern Washington girl and an older man ended in marriage for them — and a sex offender label for him. It was a year of theatrical censorship. First Gonzaga wouldn’t allow the VAGINA MONOLOGUES to be performed on campus (2/21). Next, THE LARAMIE PROJECT, about the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard got a little too controversial for Lewis and Clark School. The principal worried that a play about the dangers of homophobia used the word “faggot” too much and canceled the performance (8/10). In May, residents of Spokane Valley voted to officially become the CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY (5/9). “They look like a city, they act like a city, they just need to draw a line around it and become a city,” said Dennis Scott, campaign director for the incorporation effort. Years of debate over what Spokane Valley could do to seem more like a city followed. And in the city of Spokane, the grand DAVENPORT HOTEL opened (7/10), even as the other major force of downtown revitalization, RIVER PARK SQUARE, continued to be swamped in litigation (8/8). — DANIEL WALTERS

Salt Dancers by Ursula Hegi

The Grammy-winning bluesman headlines the 20th annual Festival at Sandpoint 18

SPECIAL REPORT: Experts Weigh in on the Economy 12

Plot Summary: After being away for 23 years, Julia, 41 years old, unmarried and pregnant, returns to her native Spokane. Wanting to sort out her past before the arrival of her baby, Julia delves into the mysteries of her own youth, particularly her troubled relationship with her abusive father. Regional Ties: Hegi moved Aug. 1, 2002 from Vermont to the Inland Northwest to take a teaching position at EWU in the early 1980s * Lived in several houses on the lower South Hill before settling into a small neighborhood on the north bank of the Spokane River * Her new home, several hours north of New York City, she says, is also near a river. Her Inland Northwest: If Hegi ever wrote a literary love letter to Spokane, this is it. She maps Spokane with an insider’s specificity, moving her characters from long talks at Lindaman’s to solitary rambles around Cannon Hill and Manito parks. But underneath the surface of charming locales and local hangouts is a disturbing sense of the hidden: abuse, betrayal and woundedness. A woman at a reading once told Hegi, “You write about things that most of us don’t dare look at” — a sentiment Hegi has gladly claimed as her own.

Following In Lewis and Clark’s Footsteps — on a Bicycle 21

Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix Get Spooked in Signs 29

Buffalo Coat by Carol Ryrie Brink

Plot Summary: A young woman falls in love with a much older, married physician in the tiny frontier town of

Opportunity (Moscow), Idaho. But that’s only one of the story lines in this extravagantly plotted 1944 novel. The book was bestseller in its day but went out of print for years before being rescued by WSU Press, which rereleased it in 1993. Regional Ties: Brink graduated from the University of Idaho in 1917 * Her grandmother, the inspiration for the 1936 Newbery Award winning Caddie Woodlawn, is buried in Moscow, along with most of Brink’s family * Brink set many of her novels in Moscow but almost always changed its name. Her Inland Northwest: Brink’s at her best when describing the terrain of the Palouse, painting the roll of the hillsides, the slightly disturbing proximity of the mountains and the sense of limitless possibility. Brink’s Inland Northwest is also surprisingly unromantic: although she recognizes the beauty of the landscape, she also reveals the violence, loneliness and harshness of life on the frontier.

Moody Gets the Blues

by Steve Oliver Plot Summary: Three months out of a psychiatric hospital, Vietnam vet Scott Moody takes a job driving cab in Spokane in the late 1970s. A hallucination involving Humphrey Bogart convinces him to take up private investigator work; his first gig involves an ex-girlfriend. Regional Ties: Worked at the Spokesman-Review before leaving to work at Microsoft in Seattle * Opened and ran Dark City Books for about a year and a half * Still lives in Spokane His Inland Northwest: Moody inhabits a Spokane that consists of bad apartments, desolate 4 am streets riddled with potholes and off-kilter characters walking around in sincerely ugly 1970s fashions. Although Oliver has often said that he’s not out to write literary novels, his dry sense of humor contributes to some particularly deft turns of phrase. Visit Inlander.com to read the rest of this article, with reviews of books by Sherman Alexie, Jess Walter, Nance Van Winckel, Chris Crutcher and Dashiell Hammett, among others.

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Inlander! OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 43

44 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

KEN PERKINS ILLUSTRATION

PUBLISHED 6/5/03

RIVER SCENES We look at the health, history and future of the Spokane River in a package of stories BY JACK NISBET

t was a warm day, after a series of relatively warm days, like the Acme Concrete gravel diggings, where a visitor can about 15,000 years ago. The glaciers of the late Pleistoponder the tilts, rhythmic lines and overlain sediments left cene Age had reached their stage of maximum advance, behind by an event of almost incomprehensible scale. Geolowith a great mass of ice pushing south from the Purcell gists have written scholarly papers about the course of the Trench to cover what is now Pend Oreille Lake. One lobe Lake Missoula Floods by studying the sand pit on Barker of that glacier followed the present course of the Clark Fork Road and the bluffs above Latah Creek. River east almost to the Montana line, forming a natural These Ice Age floods, with their incredible erosive force, dam that backed up the waters of Glacial Lake Missoula. laid open the earlier geology of the Spokane River. They Similar lobes to the west impounded Glacial Lake Columexposed Miocene clays full of fossil plants that speak of lush bia, and although its elevation was considerably lower deciduous forest where ponderosa pines grow today. They than that of Lake Missoula, the entire carved a line between the Columbia Spokane area lay under water. Basin basalt flows to the south, with On this particular day, the great their grand columns and swirling cliff ice dam on the lower Clark Fork was faces, and older Precambrian rocks melting fast, pouring water into its that slump and curve beyond the north vast glacial lake. When the water level bank of the river. And perhaps most reached about 90 percent of the way to significantly, they set the scene for the top of the blocking ice, the dam itself human settlement by redirecting the floated upward in exactly the same way Spokane River to the course we see that ice cubes float to the top of a drink. it in today, and carving the falls that Then the dam began to break apart, in a form the center of the city. Many of the THE slow powerful burst of icebergs, boulders place names that we use to define the and grimy brown sediment. Water TWO landscape around us, from Upper Falls rushed west, then south, a moving wall to the Bowl and Pitcher, from Coyote TOWERS that overpowered much of the estabRocks to Little Falls, look like they do lished landscape in its path. As the Ice because of a few warm days long ago. Age stuttered to a close, the scene would INSIDE: MULTIMEDIA GIFT GUIDE 32 have been repeated, in varying degrees Dec. 8, 2003 As archaeologists push back the dates of violence, several dozen times. of human habitation in North America, There are still many details to sort it seems more and more likely that out about this basic scenario of the Lake there may have been people here to watch the last of those Missoula Floods. Geologists disagree on how many of floods. In the millenia since, successive waves of inhabitants them took place, and their timing. Similar deluges are being developed one strand of what anthropologists call Columbia described from Russia and Sweden, so that our local event Plateau Culture; they coalesced into the Spokane Tribe. For may no longer even claim the title of the World’s Largest many generations, three major tribal groups lived along the Flood. But for now it is by far the best documented, and river, beginning with the Lower Spokanes at its connection there is no question that the place we live, and the landwith the Columbia River. Their language and lifeways were scape we see every day, was shaped in large part by those allied with people to the west such as San Poil, Nespelem remarkable bursts. All around us lie geologic monuments and Columbia Salish. Middle and Upper Spokanes had closof timeless importance, and there is a growing movement to er ties, both linguistically and culturally, to tribes from the preserve them. north and east: Kalispel, Pend Oreille, Flathead, Chewelah The floods dumped hundreds of feet gravel into the and Coeur d’Alene. Coeur d’Alene people frequented the areas around Rathdrum Prairie, blocking the former flow upper Spokane River, sharing territory according to season lanes of many local bodies of water, so that today the outlets and need and naming sites that extended downstream to of Hayden, Hauser, Spirit and Twin lakes disappear unSpokane Falls. derground as they reach for the Spokane River. This flood These native peoples moved fluidly through a broad gravel is the heart and substance of the Spokane Aquifer, the landscape, making use of all it had to offer. Lilies, onions, single most valuable natural asset of the settled valley where biscuitroot, camas, bitterroot and other native roots were we live. The structure of the aquifer is revealed in places

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DECEMBER 18 - 24, 2003 FREE

A decade before Obamacare launched, the Inlander hammered away at the HEALTH CARE system, investigating the cost of medical malpractice lawsuits (4/10), expensive hospital expansions (5/29), the sprawling number of uninsured in Washington state (11/6) and the tangled bureaucracy that made navigating the medical system a nightmare (5/15). We were ahead of the times in another way as well: A book review of INFECTIOUS GREED (5/8) got all paranoid about the dangers of “interest rate swaps, collateralized mortgage obligations, derivatives of every shape and color” and predicted that economic busts like the dot-com bubble were “part of a larger story of out-of-control speculation that has yet to reach its final chapter.” A retrospective on Spokane’s century-old campaign to fight prostitution and VICE (7/10) marked one of those rare times we put a completely naked woman on our cover, naughty bits covered by red “1910” text. Like this year, we examined GMOs (7/17) but with a lot more good old-fashioned SCAREMONGERING — the cover featured a syringe of green liquid injected into a tomato and teased: “There’s a giant experiment underway on creating genetically modified foods and — surprise! — you’re the guinea pig.” We covered a five-way MAYORAL RACE (8/14) that included hapless incumbent John Powers, local newsman Tom Grant and future scandal-maker Jim West, as well as a proposal to do away with the strong mayor system entirely. In a world racked by war, our Ann Colford visited a place to get away from it all (3/20), just south of Lewiston in Cottonwood, Idaho — the ST. GERTRUDE’S MONASTERY, where Benedictine sisters have been welcoming pilgrims since 1907. As the year closed, a piece called THE TWO TOWERS (12/18) surveyed the war between the forces of the Cowles family, owners of the Spokesman-Review and River Park Square, and the forces led by the wealthy Sandifur family, represented by the Metropolitan Mortgage building. In that same issue, our theater critic explored the crisis of low-ticket sales, financial woes, and board turnover at the INTERPLAYERS Theatre. John Deen, board president at the time, gave a quote that could just as well apply to Spokane’s theater crises this year: “And as for the personalities, well, let’s just say, you know theater people — they tend to be a little dramatic.” — DANIEL WALTERS

J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Religion and Middle-Earth 26 Return of the King Review 45

Tom Bailie on the “death mile” near Hanford, where 27 of 28 local families have suffered cancer, thyroid problems or birth defects

making sense of spokane’s civil war page 14

TRIBAL LIFE

gathered, roasted and stored in cool ice caves, relics of the glacial past, right beside the river. A dozen or more different kinds of berries, carefully dried or mixed into cakes, provided essential vitamins. Ice Age flood gravels lining local streambeds provided ideal spawning grounds for salmon, steelhead and trout; many other tribes traveled long distances to share in their capture. There was one important fishery at Little Falls, and another below Nine Mile Falls that included a weir or fish trap in the Little Spokane River, which the tribes named for its productive steelhead run. Spokane Falls hosted a later six-week season, and smaller tributaries such as Latah and Douglas Creek had their own runs and trapping methods. Spokane people used their short, beautifully engineered yew wood bows to hunt members of the deer family and all manner of birds. They also walked across the Rocky Mountains to hunt buffalo, carrying trade goods such as camas and dried salmon with them. When European horses arrived around the mid-1700s, the pace of travel and the effectiveness of hunting quickly expanded. But in the early 1780s — at least two decades before any Europeans arrived in person — a devastating epidemic of smallpox drastically reduced the numbers of all Plateau peoples, and the Spokanes shared in this terrible grief. For some Spokanes, the first actual sighting of the coming wave may well have been two French-Canadian furmen named Le Blanc and La Gasse, who accompanied a traveling band of Kootenais over the Continental Divide in the year 1800, beating Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the south of Spokane country by five years. North West Company agent David Thompson sent the voyageurs to the Columbia drainage to explore, and tribal accounts describe a pair of odd-looking white men, one of them bald-headed with a beard, being passed from band to band around that time. Neither was very adept at taking care of himself, but they brought a few trade goods and the message that more white men would follow them in time. Visit Inlander.com to finish this article and read essays about the Spokane River.

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 45

04 Nationwide, 2004 was a year of IRAQ WAR skepticism and presidential campaigning, and that was no different in Spokane. We covered the early ramifications of the war and the race between GEORGE W. BUSH and JOHN KERRY. We dove into the existence (or not) of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (2/12) and pondered whether CYBER VOTING was the wave of the future (2/19). When Bush visited that summer, we covered the protests (6/24). As the year wore on, the RIVER PARK SQUARE controversy of the previous few years still grabbed headlines. Gas prices of the day, hovering around $2 a gallon, would be “only the beginning of the real pain,” we predicted. Early that year, the state created a PICK-APARTY PRIMARY, where voters could only vote for candidates from one party during the primary. But later in the year, voters approved an initiative reversing that and installing the top-two primary we see now (9/9). The fall also brought the closest-ever gubernatorial race (according to the Washington Secretary of State’s office) between Republican DINO ROSSI and Democrat CHRISTINE GREGOIRE (11/4), who won by 133 votes after two recounts. It was big news when the city got free Wi-Fi with the nowdead DOWNTOWN HOT ZONE (12/23), but we had the same inferiority complex you’ll see today: We ran a cover package asking, “Is Boise Better?” (12/16) and one of our on-the-street questions was, “What’s the real reason you live in Spokane?” (9/30). “Maniacal” GEORGE YARNO coached the WSU football team’s offensive line (9/2) and the massive SPORTS USA SPORTS COMPLEX (now the HUB) opened in the Valley (1/28). We loved the novel idea of a COMMUNITY GARDEN (4/1), swooned over the city’s growing JAZZ scene (3/11), interviewed LUDACRIS (2/12) and tried the ATKINS DIET (1/29). The year was also the birth of INHEALTH, then a pullout section that has since become a full-fledged glossy magazine that comes out every other month (9/30). There was one trend we couldn’t quite get behind: AEROBIC STRIPTEASE VHS tapes courtesy of Carmen Electra (1/29). — HEIDI GROOVER

46 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Officer John Gately was the lead negotiator during a school shooting at Lewis and Clark High School. AMY SINISTERRA PHOTO PUBLISHED 3/4/04

A KID, A COP AND A GUN For the first time, the shooter, his parents and the police negotiator talk publicly about the school shooting at Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High BY JACOB H. FRIES

ome days, Spokane Police Officer John Gately has to look for trouble; other days, trouble finds him. The morning of Sept. 22, 2003, was shaping up like another slow day for the 13-year veteran of the force, but then a call came over his radio: Disturbance at a local high school. A police dispatcher ordered one patrol car to respond. Gately, who had been on his way to help serve a search warrant, decided to turn around and began racing toward Lewis and Clark High School in downtown Spokane. It was 11:10. “That warrant can wait,” Gately recalls thinking as he pointed his cruiser toward the school, sirens blaring. For the first time, over 10 hours of interviews, Gately has reconstructed that day and its aftermath. He wanted to be among the first to arrive at the school. He knew that the responding officers had received SWAT training, which would dictate their tactics: Rush in, swiftly confront the source of disturbance and corral it, by force if necessary. But as an experienced crisis negotiator, Gately hoped to intervene and defuse the situation before anyone got hurt. There was no way Gately could have anticipated what he would encounter. He had never heard the name Sean Fitzpatrick. Nor did he know that the 16-year-old boy had left a long note at home bidding farewell to his family and to his dog, Knight. It seemed no one was aware of Sean’s torment. As the 37-year-old negotiator hurried west toward the school, the voice of another police officer came over the radio.

It sounded incredulous, Gately thought. Simply to know that his ears had not deceived him, the officer asked the dispatcher to repeat the previous alert. So once again over the air, to every police officer with a radio turned on, the dispatcher related the few known details of the emergency: Boy with a gun. Shots fired. Possible hostages.

ean gave no sign that anything was wrong on the night before, say his parents, Angel Fitzpatrick and Linda Schearing, in their first interviews since the incident. They say Sean went to sleep early and at one point rose to go to the bathroom. Before returning to bed, he visited his parents’ room. They were still awake, and he kissed them goodnight. “It’s not like there was a lot of warning,” his mother says. The following morning — his father’s 52nd birthday — Sean woke and packed his lunch. Unbeknownst to his parents, he also placed two letters in his bedroom next to a pile of cash. It was allowance money Sean had squirreled away, one of the letters explained, and the boy hoped it would cover the expense of burying his body. In his backpack, he carried a loaded pistol that belonged to the family, according to the police April 8, 2004 investigation. Sean then secretly swallowed 30 over-thecounter pain pills and hopped in a car with his father, who drove him to school. The trip from the family’s farmhouse in Fairfield, south of Spokane, took 45 minutes. He arrived on time and went to class. Later that morning, at 11 o’clock, Sean entered Room 307, a third-floor science classroom, and instructed Marjan Khoee,

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a student teacher, to “get out.” He showed her the gun and she reluctantly obeyed. Three students remained in the room, unaware of what had transpired. They sat at a table eating their lunches and doing homework through the break period. Among them was Kayla Fields, 17, a junior. Sean approached the students and in a calm, quiet whisper, directed his instructions to a boy sitting near her, Fields recalls. She stopped eating her submarine sandwich and could just make out the conversation: “Leave.” “Why? What are you talking about?” the boy asked. Sean then revealed the gun. “What’s that?” Sean repeated the order and when the boy did not comply, he drew the gun and fired a single bullet, Fields says. It harmlessly struck a cabinet. “Man, why did you have to go and do that?” said the boy, who stood up and strode toward the door. Fields remembers thinking that it must be a prank, that it must be only a powerful cap gun because she never heard a bullet casing clink against the tile floor. That incongruity stuck in her mind. “I’m going to kick your butt,” she thought. “You’re stupid for bringing that to school.” Finally the gravity of the situation hit. “Maybe I’m a hostage now,” she considered. With that, a teacher entered through a side door that connected to an adjacent classroom. Sean trained the gun on the teacher, Fields says, and she and the other student started for the hall. The teacher closed the side door and retreated, too. Looking over her shoulder, Sean appeared at ease, Fields recalls: “He was just sitting — really calm, really laid-back, really casually lounging. He didn’t look angry or sad or upset. He was smart. He knew what he was doing.” As Fields escaped into the hallway, the door swung shut behind her.

fficer Gately pulled up in front of the school about five minutes later, right as the first two-officer unit arrived. From the trunk, he promptly grabbed a ballistic helmet, a 12-gauge shotgun with beanbag rounds and a Colt AR-15, a semiautomatic version of the M-16 rifle used in the Army. “Just in case,” he recalls thinking. Students were streaming out of the school and onto the sidewalk and streets. The fire alarm was ringing. Gately can still see their faces, creased with confusion, fear welling in the teens’ eyes. “They see what you put on, and they kind of go, ‘Whoa,’” recalls Gately. Gately strode up the front steps with the other officers. There were five of them now inside the vestibule. Officer Kevin Keller, a trained SWAT member, talked with the school security officer and Principal Jon Swett. Keller learned of Sean’s name and his approximate location, somewhere among two or three rooms on the third floor. Gately appointed the other officers a position in a diamond formation: Keller at the front, Officer Alan Edwards to the left, Gately to the right and Officers Stephanie Kennedy and Nate Spiering covering the rear point. Just as they had trained for such an event, the team moved out as one. The five officers marched through the hallways shouting at lingering students to get out of the building. They ascended the stairs while dozens of other officers combed through the lower floors. At the crest of the third flight of stairs, Gately cried out, “Sean, Sean.” Within seconds, the door to Room 307 creaked outward into the hallway. It was 11:23. Just inside the threshold stood a small, waist-high barricade consisting of a filing cabinet and short bookshelf, Gately says. And beyond that, framed by the open door, was Sean Fitzpatrick. He wore cargo pants and a black T-shirt with some sort of face printed on it. In his right hand, clearly visible to Gately, was a 9-millimeter handgun — a model often carried by law enforcement. Sean stood about 15 feet away. “He said we got there too fast,” Gately recalls. “We interrupted him. What he meant by that, I still don’t know.” Visit Inlander.com to read the rest of this article.

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 47

We started 2005 with an ambitious package: “THINK BIG” (1/20). We searched out big ideas for our region, including consolidating Spokane and Spokane Valley’s governments, renovating the Fox Theater, building a downtown science center, attracting a new art house theater and independent record store downtown, and getting high-speed rail. So we’ve made a little progress. When news broke of then-Mayor JIM WEST’s unsavory browsing history from his City Hall office, we analyzed the Spokesman-Review’s tactics in breaking the story, editorialized that West should leave office (5/12) and published a Q&A with him about the recall effort (6/23). By the end of the year, West was out and Dennis Hession was in. HURRICANE KATRINA made landfall and the controversial WASL TEST’s downfall had begun (12/1). By the time snow fell, Coeur d’Alene had been rocked by the brutal JOSEPH DUNCAN murder case and rescue of SHASTA GROENE, the 8-year-old girl he kidnapped after killing her family (7/7). Then there were the stories we’re still grappling with: expansion of the URBAN GROWTH AREA (6/23), how to revitalize RIVERFRONT PARK (6/23) and the industrialization of AGRICULTURE (8/4). We took note that women held three major positions in Coeur d’Alene — mayor, city administrator and police chief — and in a story called “COEUR D’ALENE’S ANGELS” posed them for a photo like Charlie’s Angels, declaring that “most people like the results” (12/15). In the arts, we wrote about the Civic Theatre’s down-to-earth new artistic director YVONNE JOHNSON (2/10) and pointed readers toward record stores in town, urging them to “BUY LOCAL” (11/24). A story called “To Live and Shoot in Spokane” explored the local filmmaking scene and the very exciting news that parts of End Game, a new film starring CUBA GOODING JR., were being shot at Gonzaga (3/10). We devoted 16 pages to the visit of Broadway’s The Lion King (10/27) and followed a day in the life of the city, from a birth at Sacred Heart to 1 am at Dempsey’s (8/11). “Bills are flying, and a few guys lose their shirts,” Leah Sottile wrote from the now-closed drag-show hot spot. “The last note hits, she collects more bills and blows the crowd a kiss. They freak. Anywhere else, she might be a guy in a dress; here, she’s fabulous.” — HEIDI GROOVER

48 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

The late Jim West

Former Spokesman editor Steven Smith CHRIS BOVEY PHOTO

PUBLISHED 11/17/05

WEST V. SMITH The Jim West saga had many storylines and here we cast him opposite Spokesman-Review editor Steven Smith BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.

n the fight for his political life, Jim West has settled on a simple strategy: deflect attention away from himself onto someone or something even less popular than he is these days. Hello, Spokesman-Review. While recent polling suggests the strategy may not be working well enough to save his job from voters angry over allegations and revelations printed by the daily newspaper, he has succeeded in turning the recall election into something more than just a referendum on him. The Review’s reporting is on the ballot, too. Ever since the first stories appeared about the mayor’s secret life, Steve Smith has been the face of the newspaper’s efforts, appearing on national TV and in local forums defending their unusual reporting tactics. West has taken the cue, and along with trumpeting his two-year record, he is blaming Smith for orchestrating an overzealous witch-hunt. “[Smith] has launched a full-scale attack on the Spokane community and its trusted institutions,” West wrote in a somewhat futile letter aimed to raise funds to help him keep his job, “but to what purpose? Are Steven Smith and the SpokesmanReview the ultimate authority in Spokane or is it the people? The choice is ours.” Smith says voters should not be confused by the mayor’s strategy. “The mayor has done a very good job of taking what some would call a moral and ethical problem and politicizing it,” says Smith. “In the end, the recall is about the mayor. It’s not about us.” He’s probably right, but we’re suckers for a tidy storyline, so we’ll take the mayor’s bait and frame this debate on his terms. Who is making the more convincing case, Steve Smith or Jim West? To answer that question, let’s start by meeting our contestants.

WHO IS STEVE SMITH?

It was a tough time to be hired as editor of the Spokesman-Review. Morale was low as layoffs were underway back in 2002; Smith replaced Chris Peck, who was blamed for failing to push for tougher coverage of the River Park Square debacle, a creation of the newspaper’s owners, the Cowles family. Smith says it wasn’t part of his job description, but he took it upon himself

to attempt to repair the paper’s damaged credibility. Taking on Mayor West certainly fits the bill. “We had to recover whatever credibility we could from River Park Square, which was in many ways a failure of our newsroom leadership — not our rank and file, but our leadership — to do our job aggressively and well,” says Smith. “The message [from] this project and other work we’ve done this year is that we’re not going to recognize sacred cows, and we’re going to go where the story takes us.” A native of Portland and Eugene, Smith had a long career already behind him, having worked for chains like KnightRidder and Gannett at nine papers in eight cities. In Colorado Springs, he oversaw a redesign that changed the paper’s identity from the Gazette to, simply, the G. A few weeks after the redesign, Smith was quietly gone. The Independent, Colorado Springs’ weekly, reported in January 2000 that many employees felt the newspaper was weakened under Smith, with dropping circulation (in one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions) and veteran reporters replaced by recent grads. Next stop, Salem – where Smith took the reins of the Statesman-Journal, a Gannett-owned paper. After some trepidation over the stories flowing out of Colorado Springs, the staff came to embrace his nose for news, says reporter Alan Gustafson. “He was aggressive in terms of pursuing in-depth project reporting,” says Gustafson. “He was very interested in pursuing stories about the methamphetamine problem in Salem. I think he has a real good sense of hard-hitting news, and he goes after it hard.” “[Smith] was always a strong supporter of aggressive state government coverage,” adds reporter Peter Wong. “I don’t think he ever really second-guessed us, in terms of what we chose to cover or not cover.” Wong says he got the sense that Smith left because he felt too constrained by Gannett’s notorious sense of thrift — and he’s right. Smith says he is very happy to be in Spokane, with local owners invested in the community. No former Review staffers would talk on the record for our story, but the general grumblings (these are former staffers, after all) are that in Spokane, Smith has brought in his own team and fostered a with-him-or-against-him dynamic.

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Despite the layoffs, Smith says the Review is well above national averages for papers its size when it comes to staffing levels. He has about 138 full-time equivalents, he says (compared to 161 at Peck’s high point). At a similar-sized Gannett paper, he says it would be more like 105. “My view is that we have given up what works best for newspapers — aggressive watchdog reporting and strong basic community news,” Smith says of papers that settle for smaller staffs. “I’m the antithesis of the fluffy features. Nobody can do what we do. The Mayor West coverage was not going to come from any other medium in our community.” In fact, he says the bill for the West stories will likely come to an additional $200,000 — proving the newspaper is willing to invest in stories it deems important. But just as in Colorado Springs, the Review’s circulation continues to decline. According to Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers and publisher’s statements released by ABC, the Review’s weekday circulation has dropped from 112,904 as of June 30, 1999, to 93,708 (not including Wednesdays) as of March 31, 2005. Sunday circulation has remained stronger (nearly 125,000 as of March 31, 2005), but has also dropped (by about 5,000 since 1999). But good journalism may just have a negative correlation to circulation these days, as both the Washington Post and New York Times have experienced marked drops in circulation this year. Despite those numbers, Smith says the paper’s renewed sense of mission has boosted the staff’s morale. And he also says the staff recognizes that it has a duty to help the city come IDE through this crisis to a brighter future. “We tend to tear down institutions,” says Smith. “We tend to not be skilled at building them back up. We have to learn how to engage in that half of the equation. We can’t always be throwing rocks. We have to help patch things up, too.” And if you think April 7, 2005 Spokane is just another stop on Smith’s tour of America’s newsrooms, he says he has finally found a place to call home. “I will be retiring in 10 years or so and don’t aspire to much more,” he told an interviewer earlier this year. “I have come to love this community and figure I’ll stick around if they’ll have me.” INS

APRIL 7 - 13, 2005 n FREE

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WHO IS JIM WEST?

Then there’s Jim West, one of the most well-known public figures in all of Washington state. At least we thought we knew him, back before May 5. Turns out, there are two Jim Wests — the public and the private. “What you see is what you get,” he says without a hint of irony. Really? There are things we know and things we don’t know about West. Among the things that seem genuine is that the mayor is in his dream job. And there’s no disputing that this is one tough bastard. He continues to fight off cancer, even as it has forced him back into chemotherapy this year. And he exhibits a Clintonian ability to deal with pressure — simply showing up for work on May 6 offered an impressive display of courage. But what’s behind all that? When such a secret life is revealed, you have to throw out everything you thought you knew. Was the new, happy Jim West, who finally won the office of mayor, a concoction from his political laboratory? Could a pedophile lurk behind all that devotion to the public good? He’s quite a bit more complicated than he’ll admit.

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HAPPY 20TH INLANDER!

u t l a ations r g n o C to the McGregor Family

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 49

50 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

PHOTO COURTESTY OF KORY TURNBOW PUBLISHED 5/25/06

POSTCARDS FROM HELL Stories from North Idaho soldiers fighting in Iraq BY KEVIN TAYLOR 1.2.05 Taza, Iraq: Where bombers spin brodies and a sheep is slaughtered It was mid-morning on the first Sunday of 2005, and Capt. Kory Turnbow, new to Iraq, already had his hands full. He’d been assigned to live at an Iraqi army barracks even though he spoke no Arabic. On this day, he was taking a brigade-level staffer on a meet-and-greet, driving a sluggish Toyota Land Cruiser — top heavy with protective glass — through a scrungey industrial neighborhood in an unfamiliar city and was trying to keep control of his four-rig convoy via walkietalkie because there was no radio in the car. And then there was the lowboy coming the other way, carrying a massive load and crowding the decayed asphalt street. So much had changed. Turnbow was studying law at the University of Idaho when the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Brigade Combat Team was mobilized for active duty in 2004. The 29-yearold, trim and bespectacled with receding hair, had arrived in Iraq by Christmas as the eager commander of Bravo Company, made up of 96 soldiers, from teens to gray-hairs; people who are teachers, grocers, farmers, firefighters, painters, students and cops from Moscow, Orofino and Grangeville. Once in Iraq, though, the company was broken up and its platoons scat-

tered to several different bases. Most wound up “behind the wire” at FOBs (forward operating bases) isolated by blast walls and razor wire throughout northern Iraq — or southern Kurdistan as the locally dominant Kurds insist it be called. Turnbow himself was detailed to a special missions team and was sent “outside the wire” to an Iraqi Army barracks of 15 soldiers in Taza, a city of 30,000 just south of Kirkuk. In a rare circumstance among American soldiers, he was immersed in a fuller version of life in Iraq. Like much of the country where Americans don’t live, the Iraqi barracks typically went without electricity for 18 hours a day and was a place where soldiers would “turn on the tap and hope something good came out,” Turnbow says. He was still adjusting to his first week at Taza and had driven up to the main American base at Kirkuk that morning to pick up his first sergeant, PAGE 22 Guy VonBargen, and the brigade’s master sergeant. Their mission was to meet some local contractors and eyeball potential reconstruction sites in the nearby cities of Daquq and Laylan. Sept. 28, 2006 “It was supposed to be an easy one,” Turnbow says. He was on his way back through Taza after picking up his passengers when everything changed.

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At the end of this year, the Inlander called 2006 a “non-year … full of slow, quiet, indeterminate transitions,” and it really was. It seems change was coming to the Inland Northwest, yet clues were few as to what and when. Early in the year, South Hill residents vehemently protested the unsightly presence of a WALMART SUPERCENTER (1/26) on an empty plot at South Regal and 44th Avenue. DOWNTOWN CONDO developments made lots of headlines, too, while a February cover story touted the vision of developer MARSHALL CHESROWN, who dreamed of turning KENDALL YARDS into a mixed-use urban development (2/23). We also discussed the great economic potential of LIGHT RAIL in the Inland Northwest (1/5, 10/26). Meanwhile, the future of the historic JENSEN-BYRD building looked dismal when then-owner WSU said it wasn’t financially worth saving (11/9). In mid-spring, details began to surface in what has become one of the biggest local stories of the past decade: the death of developmentally disabled janitor OTTO ZEHM, who died after a violent confrontation with SPOKANE POLICE, including OFFICER KARL THOMPSON, on March 18. Not long after that, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department welcomed new SHERIFF OZZIE KNEZOVICH (4/13), and the SPD hired a new police chief, ANNE KIRKPATRICK, in September. The IRAQ WAR was still far from winding down, and a couple of stories featured Capt. Kory Turnbow of the Idaho National Guard, who wrote “I never knew who my enemy was” (9/28). In the midterm election that November, the DEMOCRATS regained control of both the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years. It was a year of many milestones for GONZAGA MEN’S BASKETBALL and high-scoring standout ADAM MORRISON. The fifth-ranked Zags made it to the Sweet Sixteen (4/23), only to go through heartbreak after a loss to UCLA in the final seconds. SKATEBOARDING (6/15) was dubbed the comeback sport of the mid-aughts, and a summer feature debunked the myth that it was “a destructive, antisocial, borderline-outlaw activity.” We also wrote about CYCLING’S rising popularity, and asked why Spokane hadn’t done much to promote itself as a bike-friendly city (7/27). The Inlander also got its moment in the limelight, when the paper’s old Riverside Avenue office was used for scenes in the straight-to-DVD film END GAME (8/3). Things looked a little sour for the local music scene, as the go-to downtown concert house FAT TUESDAY’S announced its closure (6/26), and popular all-ages spot ROCK COFFEE (now home of the District Bar) was forced to stop hosting live music (8/2). The silver lining was when a historic downtown performance venue got a new name, and with it, the BING CROSBY THEATER’s future started looking brighter (12/7). — CHEY SCOTT

ELECTION 2006 Proposition One in Idaho and I-937 in Washington 11 JOURNEY TO WELLNESS Trying massage and St. John’s wort 16

MUSIC Doc Severinsen and the battle of the late-night bandleaders 45

uVisit Inlander.com to read the rest of this article.

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PRIMARY CARE: Airway Heights Clinic: 10414 W. Hwy. 2, Ste. 10 / 509.342.3380 Cheney Clinic: 19 N. Seventh St. / 509.235.6151 Deer Park Clinic: 20 E. J St. / 509.755.5424 Liberty Lake Clinic: 1326 N. Stanford Ln. / 509.755.6760 Main Clinic: 400 E. Fifth Ave. / 509.838.2531 Medical Lake Clinic: 725 N. Stanley St., Ste. D / 509.299.5145

Moran Prairie Family Medicine: 3016 E. 57th / 509.724.4150 North Clinic: 9001 N. Country Homes Blvd. / 509.755.5340 Northpointe Specialty Center: 605 E. Holland, Ste. 200 / 509.342.3010 Quail Run Clinic: 2214 E. 29th Ave. / 509.755.5250 Valley Clinic: 14408 E. Sprague Ave. / 509.755.5710

PEDIATRICS: Liberty Lake Clinic: 1326 N. Stanford Ln. / 509.755.6760 Main Clinic: 400 E. Fifth Ave. / 509.342.3150 North Clinic: 9001 N. Country Homes Blvd. / 509.755.5340

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URGENT CARE: Argonne: 2713 N. Argonne Rd. / 509.342.3980 Downtown Spokane: 400 E. Fifth Ave. / 509.342.3100 Liberty Lake: 1431 N. Liberty Lake Rd., Ste. B / 509.342.3990

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Working together for a healthier life.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE INLANDER ON 20 GREAT YEARS! OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 51

52 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

RALPH CRANE PHOTO PUBLISHED 12/13/07

THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN IDOL We say goodbye to Evel Knievel BY MIKE CORRIGAN

vel Knievel, this planet’s most celebrated motorcycle daredevil, who inspired a generation of boys to climb upon their own two-wheelers and damn near kill themselves, died last month at the age of 69. Knievel was laid to rest in Butte on Monday following a massive public send-off officiated by — of all people — the Rev. Robert Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral megachurch of Orange County. If you didn’t quite get that last bit to square up in your brain, you’re not alone. Yet, apparently, it’s true. Just last April, Evel proclaimed himself born again. I confess that I was more disappointed by this news than I was (as a kid) about Knievel’s disastrous Snake River Canyon jump in 1974. Where, in his final days, was the man who the once laughed at fear, defied nature’s physical laws and taunted death? Where was the swaggering, boasting master risk-taker whose records for spans jumped and bones shattered are splashed across the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records? Missing in action. Or was he? I sought the advice of those possessing more insight: Those who had crossed the gossamer fan/celebrity barrier to actually meet, greet and even gather signatures from this All-American legend.

ne group that reputedly followed Knievel’s career with the keenest of interest — as fellow daredevils and as enthusiasts of large, heavy, American-made motorcycles — were the Hell’s Angels. A conversation immediately after Knievel’s demise with a noted West Coast Hell’s Angels (whose identity I’m not at liberty to divulge) revealed a deep appreciation among club members for the raw guts and steely nerve it took to perform trick motorcycle riding — especially highflying jumps — in the early 1960s when Knievel got his start as lead performer of “Evil Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils.” This was long before stunt riders (like his son, Robbie, who today is following in his famous father’s tire tracks) could afford to pay teams of engineers to work out every last detail of ramp design, payload, bike alteration, wind speed and aerodynamics. “He didn’t know anything about 16 aerodynamics,” the Angel laughs. “Evel would dream up those jumps on his May 10, 2007 own. He’d just throw a ramp together, jump on his bike and do it. In the early days, he didn’t even use a landing ramp.” Knievel never strapped himself in, either. Nor did he use stunt bikes — stripped-down and lightened up with replacement parts for efficiency. Most of the bikes he used for

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The Inlander ushered in the start of 2007 with a bang: Every issue henceforth would be in FULL COLOR. We celebrated this with a cover photo of former staffer Luke Baumgarten doing bicycle crunches in neon ’80s workout gear for his big New Year’s Resolution series on “Getting Physical” (1/11). In the year’s first months, news headlines announced victory for the SPOKANE TRIBE OF INDIANS in a long-fought battle with the state to obtain a gaming compact, with eventual plans to open a casino complex near Airway Heights (1/18). Then the CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF SPOKANE agreed to settle its clergy sex abuse scandal to the tune of $48 million (1/25). The U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS took over the city in late January; just in time for the event, the new DAVENPORT HOTEL TOWER opened (1/25). We called out handful of local developers on their seemingly false promises for several new DOWNTOWN CONDO projects (2/22), the talk of the town a year before. Part of that “condo craze” meant the eviction of hundreds of low-income tenants at the NEW MADISON APARTMENTS and the OTIS HOTEL on West First (7/19). In local politics, the mayoral race between incumbent DENNIS HESSION and city councilwoman MARY VERNER was a hot one (10/18) — Hession’s campaign outspent Verner’s by a wide margin, and voters were almost evenly split between candidates, yet the underdog Verner prevailed. In late spring, we also wrote about the results of a big multi-year study on the SPOKANE-RATHDRUM PRAIRIE AQUIFER (5/10). Findings eased fears the resource was shrinking, yet sparked debate that not enough was being done to conserve it. Remember when a gallon of gas was under $3? A May cover story said we probably wouldn’t see that again, addressing the national fear of GAS PRICE GOUGING by oil companies (5/17). Looking back, it was surely a sign of things to come when DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS for gay couples became legal in Washington after Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the legislation into law in April (4/26). It was a good year — the best year, really — for the WSU MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM under new, firsttime head coach TONY BENNETT. The team made it to the NCAA TOURNAMENT for the first time in 13 years, and at one point was also ranked 13th in the national polls (3/15). In 2007, the local arts scene had several reasons to celebrate. After a decade-long hiatus, the MAGIC LANTERN THEATRE reopened in the newly renovated, uber-green SARANAC HOTEL BUILDING (8/16). Just in time for the holiday season, a huge project to renovate and completely restore the Art Deco masterpiece that is the FOX THEATER was completed (11/15). — CHEY SCOTT

COMMENTARY Are Spokane’s parks being neglected? 6

SPORTS The Spokane Shock embraces Arena chaos 37

FOOD Nosworthy’s serves up breakfast, North Idaho style 44

jumping were burly American and British brands. And he rode them more or less “stock.” “There aren’t any fancy aluminum or plastic parts on those bikes,” explains the Angel. “He made those jumps with Harleys and Triumphs and Nortons. All of which are really heavy bikes. That’s why we’ve always had a lot of respect for the guy. He was fearless.”

ike millions of other impressionable kids across America in the late ’60s, growing up in the shadow of the world’s greatest living stuntman, Spokane resident Dave Johnson idolized Knievel. Like so many kids, he followed Knievel’s exploits from the safe confines of his suburban Spokane home, watched his jumps on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, kept track of how many cars he had successfully cleared, and held vigils for him whenever he’d be laid up in the hospital for weeks (sometimes months) following many a spectacular and often life-threatening crash. Knievel’s wipeouts were typically broadcast coast-to-coast on live television. Think about that for a second: Where amid the hundreds of alldigital, Super-HD channels accessible to modern eyeballs can you find that kind of heart-stopping entertainment? Knievel’s breathtaking and eminently perilous motorcycle jumps had more in common with the gladiatorial combat of ancient Rome than with anything that touts itself as “dangerous” today. X-Games? Pro wrestling? Not even close. If you want to witness real, palpable, spinetingling danger as it was once televised during the Knievel Golden Era, run the tape of his infamous attempt over the fountains outside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve, 1967, before a live crowd of 25,000 and dozens of live cameras. Now that was entertainment — aching, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking entertainment. Because with Knievel, it was all real. And frequently, it ended in grisly disaster. In the case of Caesar’s Palace, he cleared the fountain — only to be undone by a problematic landing. Today you can see it over and over again on YouTube — the spectacle of a human being taking the spill that almost snuffed out his life. Johnson winces as he recalls the unforgettable imagery of his boyhood hero’s body hurtling over the handlebars of his bike, landing on his head, flopping over lifelessly as a rag doll, getting run over by his own bike and finally sliding unconscious into a retaining wall. Knievel was in a coma for 29 days after that one. But when he came out of it, he discovered that the entire world — including nearly every kid in Spokane — had been keeping close tabs on his recovery. Suddenly, he was an international sensation — a Superstar. That very spring, he was back on the road, capitalizing on his newfound fame and building upon his reputation as a consummate showman.

nievel’s travels (particularly after his retirement from stunt riding in 1980) would frequently bring him into Spokane — if only to tie one on at a local drinking establishment and mingle with his fans, whom he always seemed to enjoy. Johnson had his first Spokane Knievel experience at the old Flaherty’s Tavern on West Sprague in 1989. “We recognized him instantly as he came in,” relates Johnson. “He was tanked! But he was so gracious. He shook my hand and signed a napkin for me.”

It was the standard Knievel fan greeting: “Happy Landings. Evel Knievel.” But the crown jewel of Johnson’s Knievel memorabilia collection is the vintage Evel Knievel Aladdin steel lunch box commemorating the daredevil’s fateful 1974 Snake River Canyon jump and featuring his legendary X-2 rocketpowered SkyCycle. After meeting Knievel the first time, Johnson drove around with that lunchbox wedged under the seat of his 1966 Plymouth Fury for a year and a half, hoping for another encounter. Next time, he obsessed, the lunchbox would be signed. In 2004, the stars were once again aligned in his favor as Johnson got wind of another Spokane Knievel sighting — this time, out at the local Harley-Davidson dealership. The rest is a blur. All Johnson recalls is walking away, the Knievelsigned lunchbox in his respectful mitts.

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hen I told Dave Johnson about Knievel’s recent conversion, Johnson looked puzzled. “Really?” he asked incredulously. “Wow. I wish you hadn’t told me that.” Indeed. The last thing those of us who revered Knievel as the greatest risk-taker of this or of any other universe wanted to hear was that the incorrigible, hard-drinking, desperate-living Stunt King who had inspired all of us and millions more to reach for our own meager bicycle stunt glories had made the decision to betray his bare-knuckled heritage and his glorious devil-may care legacy for the fleeting thrills of Christianity. Why couldn’t he have gone out with guns and tailpipes blazing as did another fiercely independent, freethinking, red-blooded American icon, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson? (Thompson, you’ll recall, was unrepentant to the end and had his ashes shot out of a very large, very loud cannon.) It’s so totally out of character, I can’t help but be suspicious of his real motives. The fact is, Knievel was anything but subtle. The extremes of his personality exemplified the very best and, at times, the worst of humanity. On the positive side of the ledger, Knievel was courageous (though many would argue, foolhardy), fearless, generous, hard-working and loyal. He never discarded his past, never forgot from whence he came. In fact, Knievel took great pride in his Butte heritage, frequently mentioning his beloved hometown in interviews and before internationally televised stunts. All this is in stark contrast to his equally vibrant dark side, which was violent, quicktempered, unscrupulous and vain. His recent conversion notwithstanding, Knievel left this world without fully resolving his lifelong struggle between the opposing forces within his nature. As with so many things connected to King of the Daredevils, clear, concise answers are so lost in a fog of exaggeration, innuendo and mythology, that the truth may never be fully revealed. Yeah, when it comes to anecdotes about Evel Knievel, you’re much better off making up your own version of the truth — and stick to it no matter what they throw at you. That’s the way Knievel himself always worked it. And so I shall henceforth regard his 11thhour conversion to Super-Sized Christianity as his last stunt — a typically erratic, typically Evel jump into eternity. Happy landings, Evel. And watch out for that last bus. 

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08 This year didn’t start easy. Spokane and Coeur d’Alene REAL ESTATE (1/10) slowed down considerably, but weren’t hit as hard as other cities across the nation. We took a comprehensive look at the five-year anniversary of the IRAQ WAR (3/13). An Inlander editorial board meeting with Gov. Chris Gregoire quoted her as saying she didn’t want to lose the SONICS (3/27). In that same issue, the “MONEY MELTDOWN” cover story showed that local businesses were persevering, where national ones were faltering. Trash talkin’ was rampant in our preview of HOOPFEST (6/26). It had been three years since the Inlander had fielded a team in the media bracket of the annual outdoor 3-on-3 basketball tournament, but our players’ mouths more than made up for it. “We’re talking to you, KREM, You too, KHQ. The Spokesman-Review? We’re going to beat you so bad you bleed ink,” we said. According to official results, the Inlander did not take the bracket. In trying to learn more aboutSARAH PALIN (9/11), the Sandpointborn woman who had recently been named the Republican vice-presidential candidate, we looked into North Idaho College and the University of Idaho, where she graduated in 1987 with a communications degree. Unfortunately, not too many people remembered her. It then came as no surprise when we backed a winner and endorsed BARACK OBAMA for president of the United States (10/23); we already had endorsed him in the state’s Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton. The first TWILIGHT movie was reviewed as being terrible, but we managed to remind everyone that it was still a wonderful life even in a RECESSION (11/27), with an article about how to do the holidays on the cheap. The piece also included an “It’s Still A Wonderful Life” drinking board game. For the second time that year, Spokane got a huge dump of snow. It was dubbed the STORM OF THE CENTURY (12/25); a January blizzard had been as well. — LAURA JOHNSON

54 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO PUBLISHED 11/6/08

HOUSE OF HAROLD We explore the creative genius of Harold Balazs as he turns 80 BY MICHAEL BOWEN

arold Balazs is crazy. If “crazy” means hanging onto a childlike sense of wonder, if it means allowing curiosity to triumph over deadening habit, then crazy is what Harold Balazs is. Drive down a twisty dirt road well off the Newport Highway and suddenly you cross a little bridge over an idyllic stream — two Balazs-style rock towers guard the entrance — and you emerge into a glade surrounded by towering trees. There’s the house, with the workshop across the way and the yard strewn with chunks of Balazs’ trademark curlicue sculptures, the bric-a-brac of an artist who’s still generating ideas at age 80: an aesthetic amusement park. Sculpture Land. Harold Balazs’ Amazing Artopia! Balazs sticks out his catcher’s mitt of a hand in welcome, then leads you into his workshop, where he’s brushing colored glass powder off a Mylar stencil. The kiln nearby looks

flat and unimposing, but “1,400 degrees” gets my attention. Several brightly colored abstract pieces catch the eye. Balazs leans over, flips through them the way file clerks flip through stacks of folders. To me, these abstract patterns — carefully prepared and then fired into permanence — constitute art. To Balazs, they’re just “my stuff.” “My career has been kind of convoluted,” he says as he works. “I can’t see where I left off one thing and got into another … I’m kind of eclectic. Whatever interests me, I just go with it. “I don’t understand these artists who choose just one medium and stay with it. Steve Adams [referring to the Spokane glass artist] — he’s a good friend of mine, but sometimes I wonder if he’s just simple.” Balazs is eclectic in his conversation too. In an hour-long chat — mostly unprompted by questions as he putters July 31, 2008 around — he fires off allusions to his wide-ranging experience and reading, one after another: John Kenneth Galbraith, Buddhist monks, Ken

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Follett, that guy who wrote Three Cups of Tea [Greg Mortenson]: “He packed up and went to Pakistan, climbed K2 [but failed], then went back there and built schools.” Or Edward Gorey: “He always had titles like ‘The Young Lady Lost in the Swamp of Despair While Wearing the Galoshes of Despondency.’ I like that. So that’s what I call this thing …” at which point Balazs goes to sit inside a kind of sculpted grotto that he’s made, rattling off its Gorey-style title and explaining that wisdom is conferred on anyone who sits within it, “though I haven’t yet worked out the problem of retention.” He laughs, then emerges and starts rambling about Benoit Mandelbrot and fractal geometry, then compares his little curlicues to “grace notes”: “Do you listen to Tom Waits? He’s a master at that. He’ll just throw in [whistles a four-note phrase], just like that.” He explains a detail in another sculpture out in his yard — a pipe with what looks like a fishtail emerging out of it — with references to Henri Magritte and the walking sticks of tribal elders “in the Horn of Africa.” He tells an off-color joke about the Caves of Lescaux. He drops references to Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck, to Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, to Darth Vader. Balazs is playful but learned — crazy, but only if your perspective’s limited. “People have this view of artists as shamans — they want to believe that artists have a lot of awbie-goobie power,” he says. “But that’s the last thing I want.” He just wants people to buy his stuff. At his crammedfull show at Tinman (opening Friday), he’s going to stack his paintings “frame to frame, floor to ceiling — I’d like to stack ’em two deep, so somebody has to buy the painting in front before anybody gets to see the one behind. I want to fill it with so much stuff that they’ll only be able to let in two or three people at a time … and we won’t let ’em out until they buy something,” he says, then lets loose with one of those barrel-chested Harold Balazs guffaws. They’re items to be sold so he can finance the making of more stuff, so the childlike impulse to stay creative can be maintained. He doesn’t do 9-to-5 propriety or worry what the other guy thinks. Harold Balazs isn’t crazy at all. 

Next Month - No Shave November contest

Performing … OCTOBER 25, 26 “COYOTE ROSE BAND” OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 1, 2 “RYAN LARSEN BAND”

October 26th and 31st Tickets - $2.00 at the door

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 55

56 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

RAJAH BOSE PHOTO PUBLISHED 9/10/09

JESS WALTER JUST RUINED SOMEONE’S LIFE We profile local author Jess Walter, as his book The Financial Lives of the Poets hits it big BY LUKE BAUMGARTEN

wo men walk into a 7-Eleven. (Stop me if you’ve — are rummaging around the snack food aisle. High as hell, heard this one.) making an incredible racket. Because they’re out of milk, and because their Both of these men were once respected newspaper journalchildren will want milk in the morning, and because it’s too ists. Each is now, admittedly, a mediocre poet. With their damn late to get milk anywhere else — keen, reportorial eyes for detail and their two men walk into a 7-Eleven. bush-league ears for meter, they spin the Both have left their stately, hundredscene into a herky free-verse poem that year-old homes, bought at relative begins: bargains because they sit on lots at the Here they are again — the bent boys, baked brink of a steep real-estate precipice and buzzed boys, wasted, red-eyed, dry-mouth SPECIAL SNOW NEWS PULLOUT CULTURE BYRNE RETURNS called the “transitional neighborhood.” high boys, coursing narrow bright aisles FOOD WINES FOR VALENTINE’S The men have left their beautiful wives hunting food as fried as they are … and their sleeping children. They’ve And then the paths of the two men slalomed down that metaphorical black diverge. diamond called the American dream The first, a guy named Matt Prior, in late-model Nissan Maximas, making is offered a hit from a glass hash pipe. the descent from upper-middle-class He declines at first, but gets hustled into neighborhood to near-ghetto in four city driving the bangers to a party. On the blocks. Flat. way, he yields to their advances, getting They’ve gone out looking for 2%, ripped on weed that is orders-of-magnitude SOLO MISSION A LOCAL MAN’S RACE AGAINST TIME, FROSTBITE AND INSANITY and one or two more esoteric things, but more potent than the nut-brown shake he 18 we’ll get to those later. What matters remembers smoking as a youth. Feb. 12, 2009 right now is this: As the men enter the Over the course of — how many hours convenience store, they are shocked and again? 24? 36? — half to completely high maybe a little frightened, but also inefthe whole time, Prior convinces himself fably drawn to the spectacle they find. that all the problems in his life, numerous and suffocating, A group of ruffians, burnouts — gang bangers, maybe can be solved by buying this plant-derived, hydroponically

OUR FAVORITE COVER

FEBRUARY 12 — 18, 2009  FREE

The year began much as the previous one had, with much talk of the RECESSION and building/housing woes, including the stalling of KENDALL YARDS (1/1), later to become the Inlander’s new home. We enlightened readers by finding 10 local JOBS that were thriving because others were not (3/5). They included repo man, goldmonger and arms dealer. SPOKANE VALLEY’S sixth birthday offered plenty of food for thought; we discussed in a cover story (2/26) how it would like to become a more “vibrant, walkable city.” In another community, we reported on the Kalispel tribe’s fight to rescue their native language, SALISH (5/28). In music, BEN FOLDS turned his songs into “big, fat sound explosions” thanks to a collaboration with the Spokane Symphony at the Fox (10/15). MICHAEL JACKSON’S death had a profound effect on us, even if he wasn’t a hometown son (7/2). We also met the mothers, accountants and medical students behind the (still popular) PASTIES AND PADDLES burlesque troupe (5/28). The SUMMER GUIDE that year (6/11) went DIY, teaching folks how to make Slip ‘n Slides, hold backyard garden parties and build their own guitars. For those not wanting to go DIY, Silverwood Theme Park opened a screamin’ new ROLLER COASTER called Aftershock that had us in an uproar. Because of lean times, more people tapped into a renewable resource — their own PLASMA (10/22). On the subject of needles, the SWINE FLU (H1N1) vaccine arrived in Spokane in late October (10/29), but some people were still fearful of it. Sen. Maria Cantwell spoke with us (6/18) about how to change HEALTH CARE in our state after President Obama’s “landmark speech on reform.” The EMPYREAN, a popular downtown coffeehouse and arts venue, made steps to move to another location, thanks to a new statewide building code requiring it to put in sprinklers (11/26). It would never quite recover. Closing out the year, we described FACIAL HAIR (on men) as being “cool again,” encouraging every male physically able to “free the beard” (12/24). — LAURA JOHNSON

enhanced euphoria and selling it to other similarly sad middleaged f---ups. His old boss. His financial advisor. His kids’ friends’ parents maybe. Not the kids themselves, though, obviously. He has some humanity left. And since all his other can’t-miss schemes have missed badly — every single one of them — and because he feels himself close enough to the bottom of this whirlpool of debt and failed promise that he doesn’t think he can reach the surface without a chemical propellant of some kind, this guy, Matt Prior, he cashes out his pension and sets about buying some of this too-good-to-be-true, get-you-high-for-days Frankenweed. The second man, meanwhile, turned his back on the bangers loitering at that store, probably with a wry little triangle smile peeking from the left side of his mouth — the kind he gets whenever the world surprises him, either with its beauty or its stupidity. This man got in his crappy old Maxima and went home to his beautiful wife and children, to his beloved dog and his tolerated cat. Happy and financially diverse and artistically content, he left the memory of those fading kids and that 24-hour store alone in a corner of his mind to incubate. Eventually, when it looked as though America as a whole was about to tumble off its own real-estate precipice, his mind drifted back to the 7-Eleven. He began thinking of friends who were losing their jobs, and of the homeless couple who had just come to live on a bus bench outside his house. He began trying to imagine what it’d be like to be in the middle of it all. What kind of human train wreck would go off with a group of listless stoners? Under what completely insane circumstances could someone convince himself that the solution to his problems is selling pot to the head of human resources or to his realtor? That second man’s name is Jess Walter, a novelist of some repute. Matt Prior is his guinea pig. It’s 7 am on a Friday in August, the new book, The Financial Lives of the Poets, is at the printer, getting hardbound and ensconced in its delightfully retro sherbet-and-white dust jacket (veryMad Men), and Jess Walter has gotten a late start on the morning. He stands in his recently (and tastefully) remodeled kitchen, very slightly hunched over a small black espresso machine, pulling shots for his wife Anne’s morning coffee. He wears checked Bermuda shorts, worn Asics and a black T-shirt that reads, “Movies: killing books since 1920.” The irony of this shirt is that Walter has recently taken an interest in writing blockbuster comedies for general audiences. He hopes, with his screenwriting partner Mark Steilen, to pen the next Caddyshack. Walter walks his wife’s latte to the foot of the stairs and calls up to her, “I’m leaving your coffee on the stairs.” There’s an inaudible reply. “You want me to bring it up?” Dutifully, he disappears, returning to the espresso machine armed with a dishrag. “This thing is leaking…” Before making the second latte, he carefully cleans every inch of machine and counter. Only two things in Walter’s life are even a little messy: the very slightly graying mop of dark brown hair stowed under his baseball hat and the dorm-room tornado of his work office. These are testaments to the freedom that writers require, a room and a lifestyle and a headspace of one’s own. The order of everything else is a testament also to realizing that indulgences are to be indulged, but only so long as the work is flowing. Once it stops, it’s time to hunker down. But we haven’t gotten to work yet. In his conspicuously clean home, the 44-year-old Walter is casually meticulous about the things he does. He makes the coffee and then cleans the machine, grabs his breakfast, a homemade bar modeled on his favorite treat from the Rocket Bakery. If she’s in the house, Jess gives Anne a delicate, comforting peck of stalwart marital partnership. He says, “I love you.” “You going to work?” “Yep, going to work.” Then he slings his messenger bag over his shoulder and walks out the door, across the back lawn, 30 yards or so, to his office.

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Survivors from the Attack on Pearl Harbor visit with author Carol Hipperson!

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 57

58 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Carrie Collette and her children were featured in the Injustice Project.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

PUBLISHED 10/28/10

UNFORGIVEN In 2010, we published a five-part series called the Injustice Project, including this installment looking at felons trying to re-enter society BY LEAH SOTTILE

ome people’s lives change forever in a single moment, and for Carol, it happened 22 years ago. Before she tells her story, she prints a “do not disturb” sign and tapes it to her office door. Her past life still isn’t one she likes many people to know about. At age 26, Carol was dying. Years of booze and drugs had turned her skin gray. Her bones stuck out from her thin frame. Friend after friend died around her. And then it happened: She got arrested. A cop pulled her over and found cocaine and a gun in her car. Carol spent the next 30 days in a county jail, sick with drug withdrawal. “I really believe those people saved my life,” says Carol, now 48. “They really nursed me back to health.” She ended up in court-ordered rehab in Spokane, and there she began putting her life back together. She wanted to be a better mother. She wanted to go to school. Start a career. Maybe even start her own business. She studied to be an insurance agent. But when it came time to be certified, Carol’s old arrest popped up. “I went and took the test and passed it with flying colors. I had a job with an insurance company,” she says. “But after my

test results came back, the insurance commission said, ‘We’re not going to give you your license.’” So Carol decided to go into nursing, and before she started, she told Spokane Community College that she had a criminal record. “They said it wouldn’t be a problem,” Carol says. “I spent a year and half doing the prerequisites for the program.” Then she found out that — again — she wouldn’t be able to get a license. A felon can’t be a nurse. “This is already after I put a year and artfest/elkfest! a half of money into it,” she says. “I started this big circle of chasing my tail.” Carol may have left her past behind, but it kept coming back to haunt her. It was as if she had been marked with a scarlet letter. Like society had decided that she could not be anything but a felon. “You keep getting told what you are,” she says. “And what happens is you have Local chefs seeking to revitalize food are also redefining the restaurant this identity of being a felon.” Her story is hardly unique. From 1970 June 3, 2010 to 2000, the United States’ rate of incarceration jumped by more than 500 percent. Today 2.3 million people live behind bars, and an estimated 13 million Americans have felony convictions on their records. While half are violent offenders, half are like Carol —

OUR FAVORITE COVER

june 3 — 9, 2010 n free

The beginning of 2010 was marked by tragedy: A catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated HAITI, killing tens of thousands and displacing more than a million people. We a dedicated a cover (2/11) to the ways in which local volunteers — like Spokane surgeon Dr. Mathew Rawlins, who set up a clinic in Port-au-Prince — were working to rebuild the nation. Perhaps the biggest local story of 2010 was the shooting death of an elderly pastor named WAYNE SCOTT CREACH. A sheriff’s deputy killed Creach in August, leaving his family searching for answers (11/11). Following his death, five more civilians were shot by local law enforcement, three of whom died. Our reporters dug into these officer-involved shootings in a lengthy cover story, culminating our yearlong INJUSTICE PROJECT, in which we examined our criminal justice system from multiple angles: At the beginning of the year, Jacob H. Fries wrote about three Spokane Valley men who were found guilty of robbery, after a snitch framed them to protect the real bad guys (2/18) — their charges were finally dismissed this summer. Nick Deshais wrote about EXCESSIVE FORCE (7/1), Kevin Taylor showed how “tough on crime” laws are ruining the lives of JUVENILE OFFENDERS (9/9), and Leah Sottile wrote about the millions of people who are branded by their FELONY RECORDS (10/28). In April, we examined the TEA PARTY’S growing influence in Eastern Washington (4/8). The story foreshadowed the beating Democrats suffered at the polls state- and nationwide in the midterm elections: State Sen. CHRIS MARR fell to newcomer MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER and Reprsentative CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS, a John Boehner ally, pummeled former TV weatherman DARYL ROMEYN; the only Democrat to win a countywide race was auditor VICKY DALTON (11/11). 2010 was also the first year we hosted VOLUME, our awesome annual summer music festival (5/20). — DEANNA PAN

page 27

Bite Size BY LUKE BAUMGARTEN

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people with drug offenses or property crimes. And long after their sentences are served, debts paid, rehabilitation completed and lessons learned, they’re still branded as felons. Felons are, perhaps, the last group that can be legally discriminated against: A felony can automatically disqualify someone from a job, from getting a safe place to live, from being eligible to vote. Many felons end up living in poor neighborhoods and raising children in crime-riddled areas — where their children get caught up in the same traps. Elliott Bronstein, who works with the City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights, says reformed felons like Carol who regret their crimes and want to change can’t. And that’s something everyone should care about, if for no other reason than money: Housing a person in prison for a year costs more than $25,000. “If we set up a system so that when somebody gets out of jail, it is practically impossible for them to find a place to live or find a job,” Bronstein says, “then that doesn’t just impact them — it impacts me. Because if you can’t find a job and you can’t find a place to live, there’s a chance you’re going to be driven to other measures.” Todd Clear, one of the nation’s most prominent scholars of criminology, says it is impossible for someone like Carol to get a fresh start. The system is not only set up to make felons fail, but to keep them coming back to prison. “We want to make it really hard for them to live normal lives,” says Clear, dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. “It’s a completely counterproductive argument.” But some people, like Carol, never go back to jail. That month behind bars was enough for her. Yet more than 20 years later, she still lives with the shame of her crime. She feels like a lesser citizen: someone who broke the law. Even today — employed, a homeowner, a grandmother, a college graduate with her criminal record expunged — she worries that her felony will yank the bottom out from under her. For that reason, she asked The Inlander to not publish her last name. She fears she could lose her job. “How long does a person get to pay for their sin?” she says. “I have paid a desperate price for my sins, and so have my children. “I am a dirty felon.”

OTHER STORIES IN THE INJUSTICE PROJECT

Visit Inlander.com to finish this article and read the rest of the Injustice Project series.

SHOT AND KILLED By Jacob H. Fries, Kevin Taylor and Nicholas Deshais, 12/16/10

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Fall Compost Fair & Leaf Festival

STRONG ARM OF THE LAW By Nicholas Deshais, 7/1/10

Saturday, October 26, 2013 11 am-2 pm John A. Finch Arboretum Spokane County residents who complete the activities may take home a free compost bin. Limit one per household. Bins provided by the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System and the Washington State Department of Ecology. Please arrive no later than 1:30 pm and bring proof of residency.

december 16 — 22, 2010 n free

KID CRIME, ADULT TIME By Kevin Taylor, 9/9/10

fir sS ro

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multimedia

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guide pa g e 32

For more information call the Recycling Information Line 625-6800 or go to www.solidwaste.org Partial funding provided by WA State Dept of Ecology.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 59

60 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

PUBLISHED 7/14/11

BREAKING BAD Our resident TV critic gives three reasons for why the AMC show is the best TV drama ever BY DANIEL WALTERS

s pure premise, Breaking Bad seems like standard cable sneering contortion of grief, rage and self-destruction. fare. A chemistry teacher with cancer starts cooking The daring structure — “Nothing ever changes” is the meth. Not so different from “suburban housewife sells mantra of TV. No matter how many times Dexter in Dexter marijuana” or “gym teacher becomes prostitute.” almost gets caught, we know that he’ll stab his way back to But in practice, it’s gloriously differthe status quo. Not so here. ent. In Season Two, the show became In Breaking Bad, the structure bends to the best drama on TV. And in Season the story. Instead of immediately sending Three, Breaking Bad took yet another Walter White back to the meth lab, the impossible leap, justifying an even more first half of Season Three concentrated on grandiose claim: best drama ever on the collapse of a marriage — one far more of ar t page 31 television. brutal and painful to watch than any gory Breaking Bad is powered by pure action scene. An entire episode became a DROPOUT CRISIS character, pure story. It’s the TV equivaone-act play about trying to swat a fly — lent of a hit of meth, in all its illuminatcaptivating in its symbolism, its character ing, invigorating, addicting, destructive illumination and its intensity. glory. Here are three reasons why. Choices, not circumstances, produce The transformative acting — Enough consequences — The good-man-drivenpraise has been heaped upon Bryan to-terrible-things story has been told too Cranston (formerly the dad on Malcolm often. Real tragedy isn’t about “I had no in the Middle), who can communicate choice,” it’s about “I had a choice, but my entire chapters of internal, silent monoflawed morality made the wrong one.” logue with a single horrified stupor. Every horrible result in Breaking Bad is a March 10, 2011 (He won three Emmys in a row for a consequence of a small moral failing — reason.) But a truly great show doesn’t pride, pettiness, paranoia — amplified by just have great actors: It creates them. Last year, Aaron Paul’s surroundings. Jesse Pinkman went from saggy-pantsed cliché, dropping painIn other words, the only way to watch Breaking Bad is with ful “gangster” dialogue, to one of TV’s best characters — a knuckles white and mouth agape. 

OUR FAVORITE COVER

March 10 — 16, 2011 n free

At the start of the new year, Washington state faced a looming BUDGET DEFICIT (1/6) to the tune of $4.6 billion. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Spokane’s newest state senator, freshman MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER, received no doubt his greatest honor: With his “distinguished salt-and-pepper hair and a smile that could blind enemy insurgents,” we named him among the Inland Northwest’s SEXIEST PEOPLE (2/10). Besides cobbling together a spending plan and making us swoon, our leaders in Olympia also pondered the legalization of MARIJUANA — both the medical and recreational kind (2/3). When former GOV. CHRIS GREGOIRE gutted a bill outlining rules for medical cannabis, 40 Spokane County dispensaries closed and we wondered — prematurely — if the medical pot industry was dead (5/12). But then INITIATIVE 502 came along (11/24) and the rest, as they say, is history. Spokane made national headlines in January when a white supremacist, later identified as KEVIN HARPHAM, left a backpack full of explosives and poison on the route of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Parade. His case went to trial in September (9/15), and he was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Later that fall, former Spokane police officer KARL THOMPSON was convicted of lying to investigators and using excessive force for his role in the 2006 violent beating death of OTTO ZEHM. Our cover story (10/13) revealing former Assistant City Attorney ROCKY TREPPIEDI’s controversial role in the case was a finalist for the prestigious Livingston Award. In the fallout from Thompson’s trial, MARY VERNER lost her mayoral re-election bid to DAVID CONDON. “It’s a new age in Spokane city politics. Again,” we wrote, as other fiscally minded conservatives moved into City Hall (11/17). In December, the IRAQ WAR officially ended, a few months after DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL was repealed, and we wrote about veterans who had returned home but were still reeling from the brutality of war (11/3). “It seems like a different world,” a former Fort Lewis-based soldier told us. “One day you are fighting for your life, and 3,000 miles away someone is watching Dancing With The Stars.” — DEANNA PAN

8sins

WHY SO FEW SPOKANE STUDENTS MAKE IT THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

BY DANIEL WALTERS PAGE 20

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 61

12 The year began at the Inlander with a cover story about a local boy making a name for himself as a first-rate ELVIS IMPERSONATOR (1/2), but it wouldn’t be long before 2012 proved to be a year of controversies. The following week (1/9), we kicked off the first installment in our HUMAN RACE SERIES, which examined issues of race in the Inland Northwest, first through the lives of Bill and Bevan Maxey, sons of groundbreaking civilrights leader Carl Maxey. We also marked the 25th anniversary of Spokane’s BEST OF BROADWAY series (1/19) with a look back at some of its notable shows like Cats (1987), Phantom of the Opera (2000) and Wicked (2012). Then we launched a page-by-page REDESIGN of the paper (2/16), with a cleaner layout, an updated headline font (design geeks: it’s Gotham) and expanded news and food coverage. In what would become of one of the more hotly debated covers of 2012, we devoted the front of the paper to the growing ranks of ATHEISTS (3/1). Before the week was out, upset readers were pulling copies from newsstands and distribution boxes. Two weeks later (3/16) we published an in-depth examination of the COAL TRAINS running through the region; their future is still being fought across the state. DRONES had been drawing fire from people critical of President Obama’s lethal use of them abroad, but we looked more at their quiet expansion inside America’s borders, with local law enforcement wanting to get in on the action (7/5). And while science and technology have changed the landscape of AIDS, we explored in a special report (10/4) how our laws haven’t kept pace with such developments. In advance of the election, we examined Referendum 74 (10/18), which, when passed, legalized GAY MARRIAGE in Washington. (Oh yeah, pot was legalized in that election too.) Then it was back to religion (11/1) and the Vatican’s chastising of American nuns for promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” (Of course, this was before Pope Francis and his own radical views of compassion.) — JACOB H. FRIES

62 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

JONATHAN HILL ILLUSTRATION PUBLISHED 4/19/12

CRASH COURSE Our culture editor riffs on 50 things he learned in his first 84 days as a Spokanite BY MIKE BOOKEY 1. If you drive a U-Haul up the South Hill in a snowstorm after a 12-hour odyssey from your former home in Oregon, an old man will stand on the side of the road and nod disapprovingly as you spin your rented tires. 2. A pizza box? You can’t recycle a pizza box. 3. Basketball is Spokane’s official religion. 4. I have gladly joined this hoops congregation. 5. Strangers say hello to each other on the sidewalk. 6. People correctly call it “pop” here. 7. Jeans with the sparkly butts are popular right now. 8. These jeans apparently come with the purchase of an oversized SUV. 9. I’ve taken to calling people who wear said jeans “Sparkle Butts.” 10. The phrase “Sparkle Butt” has yet to catch on. 11. Not shoveling your sidewalk is the Spokane winter equivalent of parking a car on your lawn. 12. Arena football is a sport. 13. This sport is shockingly entertaining. 14. And easy to make puns about. 15. Empty beer cans are not worth 5 cents here, making drinking less rewarding. 16. People aren’t as used to the rain as you’d think they’d be and even as a Seattle native, neither am I. 17. Don’t even think of recycling that booklet of worthless coupons, either. 18. The Insane Clown Posse has made impressive inroads in this market. 19. There sure are a lot of Chinese restaurants on Division. 20. And tanning salons. 21. And places that sell discounted energy drinks. 22. If you find yourself at a Gonzaga game wearing a Loyola Marymount hat because that’s your alma mater, Zag fans will be suspiciously kind to you. 23. This is probably because they know you’re going to lose. 24. If you think you can recycle tin foil, you are wrong again. 25. People actually wear bicycle helmets here. 26. People ride bikes here, too. 27. Spokane is either overwhelming Irish or overly eager to get drunk on St. Patrick’s Day.

28. The escalators at River Park Square are slightly terrifying when used in the company of hundreds of Hunger Games fans. 29. Don’t try to recycle that jar, either. 30. Country music is everywhere. 31. Getting in your first car accident at age 29 is a bummer. 32. It’s even more of a bummer when the other car drives away. 33. Passersby, however, are surprisingly ready to volunteer as witnesses and offer sympathy for damaged fenders. 34. Sixty-two degrees is the temperature at which shorts become acceptable apparel. 35. Seventy is probably a more acceptable threshold. HEALTH OBAMACARE SURVIVES WHISKERS MEET THE BEARD CLUB 36. I’m not planning on running BloomsFILM SPIDER-MAN IS AMAZING! day. 37. People ask about your Bloomsday plans a lot. 38. The Wonder Years could have been set here. 39. The closer one gets to the Idaho state line on I-90, the more acceptable it is to drive 85 mph while talking on a cellphone. 40. Some people add a dog in their lap to the equation. Because, ya know, hey, it’s almost Idaho. 41. Don’t make jokes about Nickelback at bars in north Spokane. July 5, 2012 42. There are people here who take Nickelback seriously. 43. The parking availability downtown is not that bad, so please stop complaining. 44. If you are downtown and cannot readily see a drinking establishment, you’re probably not downtown. 45. The word “bagel” is, by and large, correctly pronounced here. 46. I have grown fond of the local beer offerings, because I’m generally fond of beer. 47. You can’t recycle that yogurt lid. 48. Contrary to what you may have heard, the Spokane Valley was not created by the flow of I-90 over the years. 49. Kids play in their front yards here, a sign that our future is not totally screwed. 50. Spokanites enjoy lists. Or at least I hope so. 

OUR FAVORITE COVER JULY 5-11, 2012 | FREE | ORWELL WAS RIGHT

AS THE WARS ABROAD WIND DOWN, DRONES ARE BEING PUT TO WORK IN AMERICA BY JOE O’SULLIVAN

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 63

13 Sometimes to start fresh, you need not push away your demons, but rather spotlight them in your own mind so as to render them powerless. That was the thinking behind devoting the first issue of the year to FEAR (1/3), in which we asked local thinkers about what scares them and the role fear plays in their lives. Then it was onto something that truly scares many of us: America’s GUN, the AR-15 (1/17), a weapon favored by sportsmen and murderers alike. We then turned to a wedge issue that some politicians use to scare us — IMMIGRATION — but in our story (2/7), we focused on a woman who crossed the border as a child and went on to graduate from WSU. As March arrived, the gods shined down on us as the ZAGS surged to the No. 1 spot in college basketball, just as we examined the phenomenon of Zag Nation in a cover story (3/7). Back to demons… as we dug into the issue of BULLYING (4/11), and how modern technology allows jerks to follow you home and torment you with a click of a button, publicly, on social media. After all that, it was time for a drink. Luckily, we had a lot of sampling to do for our BEER issue (4/25) that charted the rise of local craft brewing. As is often the case, drinking made us nostalgic, and we wanted to know more about our family, where we came from and how technology had changed the field of GENEALOGY (5/9). Which made us recall the good old days at the DRIVE-IN THEATER, which we soon discovered were ending (7/4). But did that mean the end of the film industry? No, in our story “State of Play” (8/15), we learned that FILM in Washington state, while not as robust as some, was still chugging along despite a hiccup in tax incentives for the industry. More recently, we explored the bogeyman of downtown, Spokane’s STREET KIDS (10/3), who rule the night and shut down good businesses. At least that’s what other media would have you believe. — JACOB H. FRIES

64 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Debi Hammel’s daughter, Lorissa, died at age 16.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

PUBLISHED 3/28/13

ONE LOVE A look at organ donation and how a local teen’s life didn’t end with her death BY HEIDI GROOVER

itting at the foot of a hospital bed at Sacred Heart, the sky cold and black outside, Debi Hammel looked at her 16-year-old daughter and the machines and monitors that surrounded her. Under a pink fleece blanket the family had brought from home, Lorissa’s bruises were starting to fade. Her swelling was going down, and the cut under her left eye was healing. Hammel had taped a photo from the homecoming dance to Lorissa’s IV pole and painted her fingernails and toenails bubblegum pink. She didn’t look dead. But Hammel knew without all these machines, Lorissa would be gone. Hammel thought of all the things she wanted to say. She thought about who Lorissa had been and who she was now — her brain dead, the rest of her body in waiting. So many people would never know her. They would never see her smile. With a blue pen, Hammel scribbled a note, but crumpled it up. Then another. When the words finally came, they were simple. “My name is Debi,” she wrote, “and I want to tell you about my daughter and how lucky I feel about her helping so many people.” Hammel knew her life wouldn’t be the same without Lorissa. A part of herself was dying in that hospital bed. But she couldn’t have imagined the journey she was about to take. In death, Lorissa saved or improved the lives of at least 17 people — some through live organs, like the heart and lungs, others through tissue and bone — and in the four years since, Hammel has tried to track down those touched by her daughter. She’s also lobbied lawmakers to fix the intersection where Lorissa was killed, given speeches about her daughter’s impact and comforted people on both sides of organ donation.

To find the good in the bad, Hammel says, is the only way to heal. “Love my daughter as I have and know she is in a peaceful place,” she wrote in that letter from Lorissa’s hospital room. “Dream for her, laugh for her, live.”

orissa was a 16-year-old fully immersed in being 16. Pretty and popular, she loved shopping and driving. She was learning to snowboard with her older sister Lexie. Lorissa never went anywhere without her cellphone, which she used to take hundreds of photos, mostly of herself. She made sure her pale blue eyes were lined with dark eyeliner, her blonde hair was straight and smooth and her nails were painted — usually pink. Sometimes she wore a pair of hot-pink plastic glasses, even though she didn’t need a prescription. She called them “attitude glasses.” She snuck out her bedroom window at night to meet up with boys and hid Victoria’s Secret lingerie in the back of her closet. When she was having a bad day, she’d sit on the floor in front of her mom and ask her to brush her hair while they watched American Idol. In school, Lorissa did well, barely missing the straight-A goal her mom set, promising Lorissa $100 if she reached it. In the afternoons, she worked at the childcare center Sept. 5, 2013 Hammel owns, spending time with specialneeds kids. She made snow angels with her younger brothers and sisters and borrowed her older sisters’ clothes without asking. She taught her brother all the moves to the “Soulja Boy Dance.” “She loved life,” Hammel wrote in that first letter to the people receiving Lorissa’s organs, “and really was a very sassy, spunky, fun kid.”

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Twenty Stories A year-by-year look at two decades of impactful, inspiring and just plain weird stories BY INLANDER STAFF 1993: The Dec. 1 issue of the Inlander investigates a proposed Davenport Arts District in the core of downtown Spokane. Here’s how the lead of that story, penned by Andrew Strickman, envisioned this downtown utopia: “It’s 7:30 pm on a Friday night. Jillian Gaines is stressed about what to wear. It really depends on where she’s headed downtown. Will it be the Avalon Ballroom for a night of hot and heavy dancing, the Underground for a poetry slam or Avenue One for a homecoming show by Warner Bros. recording artists Black Happy ... Around the same time, Jillian’s parents are getting ready to go out to eat. They’re planning to drop their daughter at Hale’s, at the corner of First and Madison. Who knows, maybe they’ll even stop by the Davenport Ballroom for a little heel kicking with the visiting Duke

Ellington Orchestra.... Is this Spokane? Not yet, but it’s on its way.” 1994: Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home of a self-inflicted gunshot. Reverberations were felt all the way here in Spokane. “Kurt Cobain fashioned a career out of pain; his songs not only spoke to a generation looking for a spokesman, they were therapy,” wrote Strickman in the April 13 issue. 1995: The craft brewing boom happened in Spokane once already, as you could learn from Mike Corrigan’s Feb. 15 article entitled “Think Globally, Drink Locally” about an influx in local breweries. The story featured Fort Spokane Brewery and Birkebeiner Brewery, neither

Sherman Alexie has been no stranger to our pages over the years. of which remain in existence. Also featured was Mark Irvin of the Northern Lights Brewery, now called No-Li Brewhouse. 1996: The pages of our culture section have been soaked with the name Jess Walter over the past few years, as the Spokane writer has become one of the nation’s finest. But back on March 27, 1996, we wrote about a very different Jess Walter. He had just coauthored In Contempt with Christopher Darden, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. 1997: Did you know that Napoleon Dynamite isn’t the only movie ever made in Idaho? If you go back to 1997, you’d remember that the Inlander went over to Wallace to check out production of Dante’s Peak. It was about a volcano, and if you lived around here back then you probably saw it. 1998: Sherman Alexie had already been in our pages a few times, and his literary star was very much on the rise by the time our July 1 issue featured a review of Smoke Signals, a film written and produced by Alexie. Reviewing the film, Ray Pride wrote: “Alexie calls Smoke Signals ‘our Great Train Robbery,’ meaning he thinks the film could be the first gasp-inducing, made-by-Native Americans movie, having similar impact to the 1903 Edwin S. Porter short, ...continued on next page

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 67

CULTURE | 20TH ANNIVERSARY “TWENTY STORIES,” CONTINUED... which is considered the one of the first narratives in filmmaking history.” 1999: We profile the odd saga of Don Emerson, a Spokane singer-songwriter who had somehow become one of the biggest names in European country music. It’s an interesting read that became more interesting after we profiled him again in 2012, after an album he recorded with his brother back in 1979 in their parents’ home in rural Fruitland, Wash., was rediscovered and became a hit with hipsters. 2000: The Blue Door Theatre opened in June on Monroe Avenue in downtown Spokane and the Inlander emphasized the importance of the troupe finding a semi-permanent home. The theatre would later move to the Garland District. 2001: Hosting a Bonnie Raitt concert to raise money for local river and lake protection, Sherman Alexie told us: “It’s so easy to call somebody who’s politically committed angry; it’s just shorthand. I’m committed to social change, and if people want to call that angry — fine. But it’s just a label. And I do it through any number of ways: through anger, through iambic pentameter, through punchline, through movies and poems and stories. I’m a much more diverse voice than somebody that can be called just angry. The people who are going to be turned off by the politics in my work would be turned off by me.” 2002: Film reviewer Ed Symkus says that Signs is M. Night Shyamalan’s best film to date. 2003: This story will sound familiar to local theater fans. Faced with a serious need to upgrade its facilities, the fate of Interplayers Theatre was on shaky ground, unless it could find the necessary $200,000-plus to revamp its safety infrastructure. Much of the labor was donated, as was a load of cash from theatergoers, and the show went on.

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2004: In a profile by Sheri Boggs, we found Christine Crawford, author of Mommie Dearest — which detailed a tumultuous childhood as the adopted daughter of Joan Crawford — living in rural North Idaho and doing promotional work for the Coeur d’Alene Casino. 2005: Longtime contributor Carrie Scozzaro got us reacquainted with Sister Paula Mary Turnbull, a nun best known for creating the garbage-eating goat in Riverfront Park. She still had blowtorch in hand, hard at work on a new project. ...continued on page 70

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CULTURE | SPORTS

Two Decades in the Game How sports became part of the Inland Northwest identity over the past 20 years

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ost weekly papers don’t bother covering sports. They figure the daily rag has that market cornered. That’s never been the case at the Inlander. For the past 20 years, the paper has never featured a “sports section” per se, but we’ve always had our eyes on the region’s teams, mining the college squads and minor league clubs for fascinating stories. The past two decades have been a transformative time for sports in the Inland Northwest, and at least one of our region’s teams helped the nation realize that the “a” in Spokane is not a long vowel. It began in the Nov. 17, 1993 issue of the paper, when we previewed the Apple Cup, which the Cougars would go on to lose. We kept our eye on the Cougars, printing for years the insight of Tony C. Duarte — the “C” stood for Coug, editors joked — as he profiled some amazing years of WSU football. That included contributing to a cover package on Dec. 24, 1997, when the Cougs made their first Rose Bowl appearance in 67 years behind Ryan Leaf’s cannon-like arm. When WSU rose back to prominence in the early 2000s, we featured coverage of Jason Gesser as a star quarterback, and also wrote about him when he was a coach at Idaho. It wasn’t just the Cougs in our pages, though. In 2010, we wrote about an Eastern Washington University football team that won the FCS national championship. The Inlander was familiar with Gonzaga basketball in the paper’s earlier years, but in the March 17, 1999 issue, publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. summed it all up when he wrote that the weekend to follow would be the biggest in Gonzaga basketball history. You know the story — the day after publication, the Zags beat Florida and went to the Elite Eight. Since then, we’ve profiled a long list of Gonzaga players as the team became a national powerhouse. Howie Stalwick laughed with Ronny Turiaf and got serious with Blake Stepp in the mid-2000s, then talked with the nation’s leading scorer, Adam Morrison, for

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a Jan. 11, 2006 profile. In March of this year, we detailed the rise of the Zags in a cover story when the team was ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time. Gonzaga’s women’s team also got some much-deserved ink, as they’ve risen to become a perennial West Coast Conference force. All the while, we’ve written up the Spokane Indians as they’ve rolled long-shot rookies and major league prospects alike through Avista Stadium. We even sent Luke Baumgarten on the road with the team during the 2008 season. When the Spokane Chiefs won the Western Hockey League championship in 2008, we were there. In an August 9, 2006 story, we did our best to explain the seemingly inexplicable phenomenon that is the Spokane Shock, a then-minor league arena football team that was selling out the Spokane Arena. Five years later, the Shock were on the cover of the July 7, 2011 issue, a season after winning the ArenaBowl. Yeah, we cover the symphony and rock bands and review local plays, but we’re not too cool to ignore what happens on the field, the court and the ice — and we never will be. 

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CULTURE | 20TH ANNIVERSARY “TWENTY STORIES,” CONTINUED... 2006: Writing in the March 22 issue of the Inlander, local historian William Stimson suggested that Spokane should name something after native son Bing Crosby. He suggested that thing should be the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center (The Met). In 2006, the building’s new owner, Mitch Silver, took him up on that offer. “I do remember writing an article saying Spokane needed some sort of monument to Bing Crosby. I guess I also said it would be nice if the Met Theater could be renamed the Bing Crosby Theater. Then Mitch Silver, the man who owns the theater, wrote to the Inlander and said, ‘OK,’” wrote Stimson. 2007: People lined up at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (The MAC) for a glimpse of a TRex. It wasn’t real, of course, but rather Sue, a traveling, 90-percent intact T-Rex fossil. We “interviewed” the dinosaur, of course asking her what she thought of Jurassic Park. She said, “I had only been out of the dirt three years when that movie came out. I was rooting for the reptiles the whole time. Great stuff.” 2008: We celebrated 15 years in publication and catalogued cultural moments from those years, which included a lot of our staffers making fun of themselves. 2009: The cover story of the Nov. 9 issue featured an in-depth take on The Lion King, the musical which was about to land — to rave reviews — in Spokane as part of the Best of Broadway series. Michael Bowen told the story of how two South African actors came to be part of the show, which had been touring the country for nearly three years. 2010: Writer Carey Jackson previewed the Lilac City Tattoo Expo in the May 12 issue with a piece that opened, “That’s the ass cheek of a 75-year-old woman.” 2011: The Empyrean, which had served as a cornerstone of the live music scene, closed its doors. “I think at one time, we counted in one year like 400-and-something concerts, 47 poetry readings, 12 dance shows,” said co-owner Chrisy Riddle in an article previewing its last weekend of shows. 2012: This was a year in which staff writer Leah Sottile profiled a number of the region’s savviest visual artists. One of those was then-79-year-old Mel McCuddin, who gave us a look into the creative process that has made him one of the region’s most beloved painters: “I just put a bunch of paint on a blank canvas. I sit back and look at these things. Eventually something appears in the paint —

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Interplayers Theatre’s financial woes (and eventual rescues) were documented in both 2003 and 2013. DON HAMILTON PHOTO

A scene from Mary Poppins, one of the last Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre productions. kind of just looking at the clouds and something just appears. That’s the way they start. That’s the way the ideas come,” McCuddin says. 2013: It was a tough year for theater groups in the region. In April, resident theater critic E.J. Iannelli detailed the struggles faced by Interplayers Theatre, which made an urgent plea to the public for $150,000 in order to open the 2013-14 season. They got the money and continued with what’s been a well-executed season thus far. Across town, the Spokane Civic Theatre fired executive artistic director Yvonne A.K. Johnson in July, which was followed by a

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groundswell of controversy, mostly surrounding the still-undisclosed reason for her termination. Johnson filed a lawsuit against the theatre and briefly attempted to shutter the Civic’s production of Les Misérables. That production went on to become one of the theatre’s most successful ever, selling out each performance. There was no happy ending in Coeur d’Alene, though. The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, which had staged professional productions since 1967, asked its supporters for a cash infusion prior to its last musical of the season. But a few weeks later, the board voted to disband the theatre and the curtain went down on an Inland Northwest institution. n

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CULTURE | DIGEST

ODDITY BORIS BORZUM

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YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

is name is Boris Borzum and he weighs five tons. He’s 16 feet tall, not counting his granite platform, and in the three-plus years he’s been standing in a yard at College Avenue and Summit Boulevard at the far western edge of Spokane’s West Central neighborhood, at least 20 people have stopped daily to take a picture with him. The statue, constructed in 1974 for about $4,000, was used as a promotional tool for Empire Horizontal Boring, says Kay Howard, whose yard serves as Boris’ home. Company owner Wally Taylor named him Boris Borzum after the alias he had printed in the phone book to shield him from telemarketers. After Taylor’s death and the company’s eventual closing, Boris moved to an employee’s yard before eventually heading over to his present location. “The Big Man,” as some have come to know him, is missing a hand — it once held a pipe for the boring company — and Howard would like to replace that with an airplane to honor the planes that trace paths over Boris’ head en route to the airport. If you’ve got one, let her know. Just don’t jump over the fence to touch Boris. He doesn’t like that. — MIKE BOOKEY

For Your Consideration BY KATELYN SMITH

72 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

BLOG | The gluten-free craze has nixed so many things we hold dear: beer, fresh sourdough, cake. Trying to cook for that lifestyle can be daunting — until THE URBAN POSER (urbanposer.blogspot.com) came along. Jenni Hulet, the badass explorative force behind the blog, has learned a lot since her diagnosis of celiac disase in 2010. Born with a compassionate heart and love of all things culinary, she created The Urban Poser to share her talented treat-making with gluten-intolerants out there who still want cake. But it doesn’t stop there. Her treats range from pumpkin chiffon cups to homemade marshmallows, kale chip nachos to thyme cashew gravy, all gluten/grain/dairy/refined-sugar free. Look for her self-titled book out soon and grab a taste.

APP | Finding the perfect song that pertains to mood can be a challenge. Let’s face it, shuffle doesn’t cut it, and skipping songs until Pandora won’t let you anymore is frustrating. That’s where STEREOMOOD comes in. Stressed? There’s a playlist for that. Sleepy? There’s one for that, too, and tons more for almost any human emotion. It also has playlists for activities, like “Cooking” or “Just woke up”. Not only does the app let you skip, repeat and go back and forth as much as you want, it’s totally free and unlimited. Each playlist is updated daily with new, interesting songs you probably haven’t heard before. It’s awesome — just listen.

MUSIC | Move over, Western Hemisphere, there are other parts of the world pumping out good indie music. Take some tambourines, choral harmonies and folky guitar riffs, and you have a flavorful five-man group from Sydney, Australia, called BOY & BEAR. Four of the members had already fronted their own bands, but became friends and realized their jam sessions were too good not to share. They recently released their second album Harlequin Dream, but only in Australia. This week, the album and its lead single “Southern Sun” will be available in the U.S. Imagine a combination of Mumford & Sons and Band of Horses — Boy & Bear’s tunes induce a sort of headbobbing trance.

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Scheduling a mammogram is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we’ve got you covered. One out of every eight women will develop breast cancer. But statistics show more women survive this diagnosis when it is detected and treated early. According to the American Cancer Society, mammograms remain one of the most effective methods for early detection. If you are 40 or older, or are considered to be at risk, Rockwood Health System encourages you to have a mammogram once a year – starting now. Schedule your mammogram at one of our four convenient locations. Rockwood Imaging Center Deaconess Hospital Breast Evaluation Center 400 E. Fifth Avenue • 509-342-3555 800 West Fifth Avenue • 509-473-7777 Valley Hospital Women’s Imaging Center Rockwood Breast Health Center RockwoodHealthSystem.com 12606 E. Mission Avenue • 509-473-5483 12410 East Sinto Avenue, Suite 105 • 509-342-3555 Appointments are on a first-come, first-served basis. A physician order is not required but the patient must provide a physician’s name when an appointment is made. If the patient does not have a physician, a list will be provided for the patient’s selection. All mammogram reports will be sent to the physician and follow-ups are the responsibility of the patient.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 73 71952_DMC_Mammo_9_3x5_4c.indd 1

9/18/13 6:26 PM

David Blaine, owner and chef of Central Food, started his career opening cans of peaches.

The Cooks are All Right Three culinary stalwarts tell us what’s changed since 1993 BY ANNEMARIE C. FROHNHOEFER AND CHEY SCOTT

ver the past 20 years, Spokane diners and culinary workers have seen industrialized food products drift off the table to be replaced by locally produced food items. As customers become more aware of the political and environmental contexts of the food they consume, restaurants and their staff have had

74 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

to adapt to seasonal ingredients and create ever-evolving menus. Several longtime industry workers have noticed higher levels of professionalism, knowledge and skill in today’s culinary teams. We asked a few of them to tell us what they’ve seen change since 1993.

DAVID BLAINE

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Owner/Chef, Central Food “My first job was in 1985 at Playfair Race Track. It was a horse-racing track [in the Valley] back in the day, and it was a full-time job opening up cans. They had these big racks that hold number 10 cans, so you would be loading canned peaches into cottage cheese, because that was a very cost-effective way to do things and the market hadn’t really evolved, but the next wave of this is really about preservation. We want to be able to provide people with local peaches in January. And the solution to that is really simple. When [the local crop is harvested] we throw them in a can, we throw them in a freezer. I would say it was all canned in the beginning and it will all be canned in the end, only now it’s all about shrinking down the scale [of production].” (ACF)

Pumpkin Taps at 6 pm. Each night starting at 6 pm enjoy a different beer tapped and poured from one of our 3 toasted pumpkins. Pours until pumpkin is empty. From October 24 - 26th. Pumpkin Beer Line Up TAMMY MARSHALL PHOTO

STEVE HILL

Co-owner, Hill’s Restaurant, opened in 1993 “We opened in 1993, the same year as [the Inlander] started, and it has changed dramatically. Some of the things we did when we first opened were kind of unheard-of back in that day. I remember when we opened I wanted to do wines by the glass, and the distributor said I was crazy. Now everyone has that… The microbrew industry has blossomed in the last 20 years; we used to have to fight with the distributors to get a hefe or pale ale from a brewery in Seattle or Portland because they didn’t want a huge inventory, they were content with mass-produced beers everyone had on tap. Now, the distributors ask us what beers we want from a particular brewery. There’s been an increase in the caliber of students graduating from culinary programs in town that has created a huge employee pool of people who have skills and who know how to cook and plate food nicely, and it makes it easier to hire quality cooks. That has been a huge benefit to the restaurants. Also the variety [of restaurants] we have now compared to back then. It’s great for all of us. There’s also a more educated clientele, with the Food Network shows and people who realize what good food is.” (CS)

Ace Pumpkin Cider Southern Tier Pumking Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Elysian Night Owl Elysian Great Pumpkin Elysian Dark O’ The Moon Pikes Harlot’s Harvest Woodchuck Pumpkin Cider Dogfish Head Pumpkin

Local Steam Plant Pumpkin RiverCity Pumpkin YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

JULIA POSTLEWAIT

Co-owner, Rocket Bakery, opened in 1992 “We’ve always been a from-scratch bakery, we deal in cookies and banana bread so we haven’t seen as much change in our menu as restaurants have, but customers definitely have become much more aware of ingredients over the years. When the Atkins diet was popular, that wasn’t good for the pastry world. But after that there was interest in vegetarian and vegan items. Now people are concerned about gluten-free options. Gluten-free has become a bigger [consideration] when developing new recipes. We offer peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies and brownies that are gluten-free… There have been a lot of changes, but it has been exciting to see the focus on locally grown and produced food, as well as the increase in customers’ awareness of where their food comes from, and how that relates to health and creates a positive impact on the community.” (ACF)

Orlison Clems Pumpkin Paradise Creek Pumpkin Iron Goat Pumpkin

Downtown Spokane • 1 N Post St. • 509 789 6900 • poststreetalehouse.com

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 75

FOOD | OPENING

1403 N DIVISION ST

For all the Games

LARGE 2 TOPPING PIZZA & ORDER OF TRICKY STIX

DINE-IN, CARRY OUT OR DELIVERY The bar at the newly reopened Geno’s. SARAH WURTZ PHOTO

New But Familiar

PIZZAPIPELINE.COM

NEW!

BREAKFAST Sunrise Special Mon-Fri 7am-8:30am One egg, choice of either two slices of bacon, one sausage link or patty, and your choice of side!

SIDE CHOICES Half order Biscuit & Gravy Potatoes & Toast Half Belgium Waffle French Toast 1 piece 1 Hot Cake 1 Strawberry Crepe German Potato Cake

fire in June brought an abrupt end to the previous Geno’s era. But as of this month the restaurant is back up and running, now as part of the group of local restaurants that includes the Elk Public House in Browne’s Addition and its sister pubs. Aside from the name, little remains of previous incarnations of Geno’s. Gone are the pizzas and the eclectic tables and chairs. Gone is the circus tent fabric on the walls. Diners who frequented the spot before the fire will find some familiar touches, but make no mistake: Geno’s is now very much a Logan-area outpost of the Elk tradition. “We just cleaned it up a bit and put our spin on it,” says general manager Marshall Powell. In the Gonzaga part of town, the casualneighborhood-hangout concept manifests in a prominently placed flat-screen TV and menu items — wings, anyone? — geared toward the game-watching crowd. It’s easy to imagine fans packed into the large booths and dim bar to intently watch the game come basketball season. Connected to main dining area with a glass garage door, the inviting patio will be a draw during the warm months. The menu will look familiar to anyone who’s

recently dined at the owners’ other restaurants, with traditional pub fare elevated by eclectic flavors — the aforementioned wings, exclusively at Geno’s, are marinated and tossed in a Vietnamese-style garlic sauce with curry dipping sauce ($10). Other new items include the BBQ turkey dip ($9.25) and Korean pork sandwich ($10.50). Vegetarians and those in search of a lighter meal will find plenty of options, like the orange miso spinach salad topped with quinoa, edamame, dried cranberries and toasted pumpkin seeds ($8.50 whole). In response to diners who liked the gluten-free options at the previous Geno’s, the menu points out that any sandwich can be made with a gluten-free bun — an option available but not promoted at the other restaurants since earlier this year. With only eight taps, Geno’s can’t match the Elk for draft beer selection. But those eight rotating options are wisely allocated to regional microbrews — it turns out you don’t actually have to carry Budweiser — and supplemented by an extensive, rotating list of craft beers in cans.  Geno’s • 1414 N. Hamilton St. • Open Thu-Sat 11 am-midnight, Sun-Wed 11 am to 11 pm • 368-9087 • wedonthaveone.com

WHITESTONE 100% Local, Estate Wine

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice And Espresso Bar!

FallWine Tasting Vineyard to Barrel

Learn, Taste & Discover How Wine is Made 7640 N. Division • North Spokane

517 N. Pines • Spokane Valley

oldeuropeanbreakfast.com 509.467.5987

littleeurorestaurant.com 509.891.7662

Serving Breakfast and Lunch Daily Hours: Mon-Sat 7am-2pm • Sun 7am-3pm

76 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

Nov 2nd 10-4 | $10 tickets (mention the INLANDER for 50% off) Located on the shores of Lake Roosevelt, 1hr west of Spokane, North of Hwy 2.

Cabernet Franc won “Gold” at the

2013 San Francisco International Wine Competition

Best Breakfast

42399 Jump Canyon Creston, WA 509.981.6479

FOOD | MOBILE

At The Crossroads Big Red’s Chicago cuisine fits the west side BY ANNEMARIE C. FROHNHOEFER

n a snappy autumn day, when color bursts out of Finch Arboretum and freight trains make cacophonous progress across the bridge above the interstate, it’s tempting to sit at a picnic table in a church parking lot and stuff your mouth with sauerkraut and caramelized onions while cradling a warm bun. On this particular day, the autumnal temptation for sausage and mustard smothered in sour cabbage and sweet onions would most likely not exist were it not for Big Red’s Chicago Style Cuisine. The white (not red) food truck is parked at the bottom of Sunset Hill — amid the motels, nurseries, bridges, trailheads, and railroad tracks that all seem to converge at the intersection of Government Way — where its black letters proclaim the existence of Chicago cuisine: Polish dogs, Italian sausage, Italian beef (all $5-$6), pepper steak, cheese steak ($8), garlic fries and sweet potato fries ($4). This really is destination dining, and the food fits the scene — flavorful and substantive. Even though this working-man’s food is meant for big bites and hearty appetites, the cheese steak’s beef is surprisingly tender. Chopped in small pieces, mixed with chunks of mushrooms and sitting in a bed of white American cheese, the steak steams inside its foot-long white bun. You can bring it straight up to your mouth, but in the end you’ll most likely require a fork and possibly a wet nap. It’s huge, tasty and doesn’t have an ounce of phony flavor. The Polish dog, nestled in a bun just as large as the cheese steak, fills it from end to end. Blackened to the right degree of crisp, the dog is buried in tart, fresh sauerkraut, caramelized onion and spicy mustard. Owner and cook Curtis Bytnar explains that the sauerkraut comes from a cold pack, meaning that it never touches heat until he allows it to. The all-beef Polish kielbasa arrive direct from Chicago and the buns are from Philadelphia. All of that goodness meets in your belly, and you can wash it down with a Big Red, that delightful sparkling beverage that tastes of bubble gum and Twizzlers.  Big Red’s Chicago Style Cuisine • southeast corner of Sunset Blvd. and Government Way • Open Mon, 11 am-3 pm; TueSat, 11 am-5 pm • 991-2359

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 77

FOOD | UPDATE

ON NOW THRU OCTOBER!

SARANAC PUBLIC HOUSE

Saranac’s menu is always solid, but keep an eye out for their specials.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

21 W. Main Ave. | 473-9455

nother reason to like Facebook: media-savvy places like Saranac Public House announce their weekly specials online. This week? Bacon Sampler (like bacon could get any better). Five portions made in-house, including maple cured and smoked back. For duck fans, there’s cold smoked duck bacon — drizzle with coffee sauce, maple gastrique or plum jam. Add a tall, frosty pint like Mac & Jack’s African Amber or any of the other 10 beers cur-

rently on tap, and you’re in hog heaven. Elsewhere on the menu: salads, burgers, plenty of appetizers, happy hour specials — try hearty pretzels or Chinese lacquered pork — and comforting entrées like meatloaf. This gastropub offers gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan as a matter of course in a laid-back environment, with abundant seating indoors and out. — CARRIE SCOZZARO

FICTION CONTEST THE INLANDER’S 2013

Let’s create something today.

ALL HOME FURNISHINGS ON SALE NOW SELECT SAMPLES UP TO 60% OFF

Submit original, previously unshared stories of less than 2,000 words. Stories should reflect or reference the theme “BRIDGES,” however the writer wishes to interpret it.

1727 E Sprague Ave 509-535-1111 Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm Sunday 11am - 4pm

401 W 1st Ave 509-413-1185 Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm

INTERIOR DESIGN ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE In your home or in the showroom.

Send your stories to jacobj@inlander.com by Nov. 22. Put “Fiction Contest Entry” in the subject line. We will publish the best stories in our Dec. 26 issue.

www.TheHanleyCollection.com 78 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013 47422-10 Oct 17-Fall Gathering-8V.indd 1

10/16/13 10:39 AM

FOOD | SAMPLER

EVENT GOERS READ

snuggle up with a book or groove to some tunes in the cold weather. In the summer, you’ll want to be in the garden among the blossoming sunflowers.

CAFE ATTICUS COFFEE 222 N. Howard St. | 747-0336 Right beside the iconic Boo Radley’s is the appropriately named Atticus. This heavenly scented wonder brews delicious coffee drinks that make every taste bud tingle and makes sandwiches inspired by the flavors of France, all wrapped up in a setting that would satisfy any To Kill a Mockingbird fan. BOOTS BAKERY & LOUNGE 24 W. Main Ave. | 703-7223 High ceilings, exposed brick walls and artsy murals make this one of the prettiest spots in downtown. But it’s the creative and artfully executed

vegan and vegetarian bistro fare that create such a buzz. And yes, the vegan carrot cake cupcakes are that good. COMMON KNOWLEDGE 823 Main St. | Sandpoint 208-263-0509 You can’t get much more down-toearth. The food is organic and fresh, some of it grown out back in the garden. You’ll find inexpensive breakfast and lunch, chock-full of veggies with many lactose- and wheat-free options, along with a mellow vibe. There are lots of esoteric teas, Doma organic espressos, and healthful elixirs and juices. It’s a cozy place to

THE FLYING PIG 1822 E. Sprague Ave. | 863-9591 Don’t let the cute, cozy interior of this International District restaurant fool you — its menu is full of seriously good sandwiches, most of the pork variety. While saving the tradition of turkey for Thanksgiving, you can still have that leftover-Thanksgiving-sandwich-that-you-craveall-year taste with the Flying Pig sandwich, layered with roasted pork, cranberry sauce and onions. Neither the Hercules Mega-Pig sandwich nor the Georgia BBQ are for the wimpy — napkins will be necessary. MADELEINE’S CAFE AND PATISSERIE 707 W. Main Ave. | 624-2253 Offering a “window to France in downtown Spokane.” In addition to serving delicious coffee and pastries, Madeleine’s also dishes up some hearty breakfasts. Pancakes, quiches and omelets make up the menu. With a cool vibe, good food and a corner spot downtown, this taste of France is always a good choice. 

GET LISTED.

Ana Hopkins Photography

3318 W Northwest Blvd 509-327-8277 www.theﬂyinggoat.com FlyingGoatPub The Flying Goat

Send us your info at GETLISTED@INLANDER.COM and we’ll help connect you to the right people.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 79

The Old Man and the Sea

radio antenna — every action is loaded with life-or-death significance that requires no external emphasis. All Is Lost maintains its intensity simply through following one man who understands that methodical action is his only hope. If “methodical action” sounds far from thrilling, perhaps it’s hard to convey what Redford brings to this role. He’s never been the most versatile actor, but his nearly wordless performance here is almost perfect, and not just because his sun-weathered look makes him an ideal fit for a character who needs to seem as though he’s been at sea his entire life. Without dialogue to let us into his head, Redford has to convey a combination of experience and in the middle of nowhere? Chandor refuses to waste time intelligent resourcefulness; every brainstorm or neceson such frills, allowing Redford’s status as iconic figure to sary deviation emerges through a shift of the eyes, or a do much of the heavy lifting. The result is a kind of pure tightening of the jaw. For all the physical turmoil of this visual cinema that tramples the listlessness of other films man dealing with a capsized craft in a fierce storm, the that call themselves “action movies.” most gripping moments come from watching There’s no ironically fitting accident that ALL IS LOST Redford figure out how to make it through sets Redford’s character on his life-threatRated PG-13 one more day with the few physical tools ening course. He’s merely sleeping in his Directed by J.C. Chandor he’s got left. drifting 39-foot boat, more than a thousand Starring Robert Redford Near the end of All Is Lost, the story miles from land in the middle of the Indian reaches the chronological point from which Ocean, when it collides with a derelict shipRedford’s character narrated that farewell ping container, tearing a hole in the hull. By the time he letter in the film’s prologue. We watch him, at a moment awakens and gets to work sealing up the breach, salt wawhen he’s feeling the emotions that give the film its title, ter has caused damage to his engine’s batteries and radio scratch out those likely final words — but we don’t hear equipment. And by the time he’s ready to sail to safety, them again. Chandor is confident enough, and trusts his an oncoming storm threatens even more catastrophe. audience enough, to know that we’ll understand what Chandor underplays the drama of the situation we’re seeing. As much as All Is Lost is about survival, it is throughout, confident enough in the inherent intensity of also, brilliantly, about presence — the need to strip away the hero’s plight that he can reserve use of Alex Ebert’s everything extraneous so you can get from this moment score for select moments. While superficially it might feel to the next. Like he does with his protagonist, Chandor like a film composed largely of mundane physical tasks hands us nothing, forcing us to focus similarly on the — Redford’s character manually pumps the water out of events unfolding and demanding attention right now.  the boat, gathers supplies, climbs the mast to work on his

All Is Lost showcases a quiet, primal struggle for survival BY SCOTT RENSHAW

e never learn the name of the grizzled yachtsman (Robert Redford) whose eight-day fight to survive on the open sea is chronicled in J.C. Chandor’s magnificently primal All Is Lost. At the outset, in a prologue set before we flash back eight days, we hear the content of a resigned letter written to family members, referring obliquely to the regrettable faults and mistakes of his life. But we never know anything more about the nature of those mistakes, or his relationships with his family, or anything beyond the day-to-day, moment-to-moment needs of finding a way to keep his head above water. For all practical purposes, Redford is playing Man — the human animal, a flawed but ferociously determined creature whose primary evolutionary advantage in the face of disaster is the ability to think, and improvise, and figure out a plan D when plans A, B and C have already failed. It’s a risky strategy for a film audience accustomed to “backstory” as a fundamental component of narrative cinema. After all, how in the world are we supposed to sympathize with our soggy protagonist if we don’t know details about a rift with his daughter, or a childhood trauma he needs to overcome, or even why he’s sailing alone

80 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

FILM | SHORTS

OPENING FILMS

INEQUALITY FOR ALL

This film takes a look at the ever widening economic gap, following former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich as he attempts to shed light on the shrinking middle class. The 2007 Occupy Wall Street brought attention to the economic disparity that has emerged in American society today, but Reich takes it further, tracing the very origins of the gap, and discusses what can be done to improve an economy where the majority of the wealth is held in the hands of a very few. At Magic Lantern. (ER) Rated PG

MUSCLE SHOALS

The laid-back documentary Muscle Shoals celebrates this little-known chapter in American music history with equal measures of affection and respect. Talking heads like Keith Richards and Bono speak about the place almost reverently (a little odd in the latter’s case, given that U2 has never recorded there), while others give their props to the humble studios’ formative influence on their careers. Also features some excellent interviews with the queen herself, Aretha Franklin. At Magic Lantern (SD) Rated PG

NOW PLAYING BLUE JASMINE

New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is down on her luck. Her marriage to a wealthy husband (Alec Baldwin) fell apart after he lost all their money in a Wall Street scam, forcing Jasmine to move to San Francisco to live with her sister, Ginger, a grocery store clerk. To Jasmine, it seems like there’s not much left in her life to look forward to, as she struggles to cope with her downfall from a life of luxury to one where she’s forced to decide whether she should become a dental receptionist or a nurse. Writer/director Woody Allen presents us a modern yet familiar character study of how the haves and the havenots perceive themselves. (CS) PG-13

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

The true story of the Vermont cargo ship captain who delivers food and water to Africa, and whose ship is hijacked by Somali pirates is both a nail-biter and a fascinating character study, mostly centering on the relationship between the cool, calm captain (Tom Hanks) and the determined but unsure pirate leader Muse (newcomer Barkhad Abdi). The adventure parts are thrilling, the attack and takeover is unnerving, the lifeboat sequences are claustrophobic. Another great film from director Paul Greengrass (United 93, the first two Bourne entries). (ES) Rated PG-13

SPOKANE BING CROSBY THEATER

OCT. 25 6:30 + 9:30 PM ARREN 13 W MI 20

ETS TICKSALE ON

FILM TOUR ER LL

The Jackass crew makes its triumphant return as Johnny Knoxville takes on 86-year-old Irving Zisman, while he and his grandson, Billy, played by Jackson Nicoll, travel across country. Apparently the fake old people doing bad things trope hasn’t been beaten to death with a stick just yet, as Zisman performs prank after obnoxious prank on unsuspecting victims, who can’t believe this “grandpa’s” behavior. (But, of course, they attempt to help him through his illegal or just plain stupid predicaments.) Some of the highlights include, in typical Jackass fashion, thievery, crashing into giant penguins and putting a child stripper routine into a beauty pageant. (ER) Rated R

With an all-star cast, director Ridley Scott shines light on the extravagant nature of greed. When a lawyer (Michael Fassbender) wants to make himself a quick buck, he decides to involve himself in the world of drug trafficking. All does not go as planned, of course, and the fallout affects everyone in his life, including beautiful fiancée (Penelope Cruz), seedy middleman (Brad Pitt) and mysterious power couple (Cameron Diaz and Javier Bardem). (ER) Rated R

FILM TOUR ER LL

BAD GRANDPA

THE COUNSELOR

! W O N

ARREN 13 W MI 20

ALL IS LOST

We never learn the name (or anything else) of the grizzled yachtsman (Robert Redford) whose eight-day fight to survive on the open sea is chronicled in J.C. Chandor’s magnificently primal All Is Lost. After all, how in the world are we supposed to sympathize with our soggy protagonist if we don’t know details about a rift with his daughter, or a childhood trauma he needs to overcome, or even why he’s sailing alone in the middle of nowhere? Chandor refuses to waste time on such frills, allowing Redford’s status as iconic figure to do much of the heavy lifting. The result is a kind of pure visual cinema that tramples the listlessness of other films that call themselves “action movies.” (SR) Rated PG-13

TICKETING

CARRIE

Chloe Grace Moretz revives Carrie White, a shy, lonely girl who craves love and attention from the very group that viscously bullies her. Her overly religious mom, portrayed by Julianne Moore, isn’t much help either, as her solution to Carrie’s woes is corporal punishment. When she’s invited to prom (yeah, we know how this is going to end) and is pushed too far, she goes on a telekinetic rampage with a body count in this retelling of Stephen King’s classic novel. (ER) Rated R

BUY 10 TICKETS OR MORE AND GET $30+ OFF AND A FREE FILM. CALL 800.523.7117 *offer only available by phone

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Tickets available at REI Spokane and Bing Crosby Theater box office.

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CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS TWO

Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader,) the lovable inventor, has achieved his dreams and is now working for his idol, Chester V, creating things to benefit society. But when he learns that the food machine he thought he had destroyed is still up and running this time producing scary humanoid food hybrids including melonheads, mosquitoasts, and shrimpanzees he and his team, including love interest and weather girl Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Faris,) must get rid of the machine once and for all in this animated flick. PG (ER)

TICKETS TRAILERS PHOTOS MUSIC

...continued on next page

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 81

FILM FILM||SHORTS SHORTS

NOW PLAYING Adv. Tix on Sale THOR: THE DARK WORLD

CARRIE [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(115 355) 725 955 Sun.(115 355) 640 915 ESCAPE PLAN [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(100 345) 655 940 Sun.(100 345) 630 915

ENOUGH SAID

THE COUNSELOR [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1215 330) 715 1000 Sun.(1215 330) 645 930 MET OPERA: THE NOSE (NR)

Sat.955 AM

JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1230 300 350) 700 745 920 1005 Sun.(1230 300 350) 620 700 840 920 FIFTH ESTATE (R)

Fri.(1200 PM) 610 PM Sat.610 PM Sun.(1200 PM) 610 PM

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 [CC,DV] (PG) Fri. - Sat.(1245 340) 710 935 Sun.(1245 340) 600 820

Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a divorcee, is facing the possibility of an empty nest, as her daughter goes off to college. As she bonds with similarly situated Albert (James Gandolfini) and the two click, it seems like the perfect romance. Eva also befriends Marianne (Catherine Keener), whose only flaw is her tendency to rag on and on about her ex-husband. When this friend’s exhusband turns out to be her new boyfriend, Eva suddenly finds herself looking at Albert through Marianne’s eyes. (ER) Rated R

PRISONERS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(255 PM) 900 PM Sun.(255 PM) 905 PM

ESCAPE PLAN

MACHETE KILLS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sun.(1205 PM) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1220 315) 640 945 Sun.(1220 315) 615 910 GRAVITY IN REALD 3D [CC,DV] (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1235 335) 625 720 855 955 Sun.(1235 335) 625 710 845 925 GRAVITY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(310 PM)

REALLY,

THAT’S ALL

WE ASK.

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(105) 405 635 930 Sun.(105 335) 605 835 RIDDICK [CC,DV] (R)

Fri. - Sun.(1250 PM)

WE'RE THE MILLERS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(120 350) 630 915 Sun.(120 350) 630 900

Adv. Tix on Sale THOR: THE DARK WORLD JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(130 200) 400 430 700 730 930 1000 Sun.(130 200) 400 430 700 815 930

rivercityred. blogspot.com

THE COUNSELOR [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(105 355) 645 945 Sun.(100 350) 640 930 FIFTH ESTATE (R)Fri. - Sun.(1230 PM) 710 PM CARRIE [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(155) 445 725 955 Sun.(135) 405 650 915 ESCAPE PLAN [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1240 350) 645 940 Sun.(1240 350) 630 930 MACHETE KILLS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sun.(1245 PM) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1215 320) 625 800

REVERSE MORTGAGE

ASK ABOUT NEW CHANGES!

GRAVITY IN REALD 3D [CC,DV] (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(345) 630 715 915 945 Sun.(345) 630 800 915 GRAVITY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1255 PM 325 PM) CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 [CC,DV] (PG) Fri. - Sun.(1220 245) 515 930 PRISONERS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sun.(330 PM) 745 PM INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(100 PM) 445 PM 1005 PM Sun.(100 PM) 445 PM 920 PM WE'RE THE MILLERS [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(110) 420 710 950 Sun.(110 PM 355 PM) 640 PM

Larry Waters 208-762-6887 NMLS ID 400451

157 W. Hayden Ave Ste 104 | Hayden, ID 83835

NMLS1079636

82 20 ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013 TH

DON JON

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) stars in and makes his writingdirecting feature debut as Jon, a nightclub hopper who likes and regularly scores with the ladies, but gets more satisfaction watching porn at home on his laptop. There aren’t too many sex-porn-addiction comedies out there, but this one kind of shines. A great supporting cast: Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore as possible love interests, Tony Danza and Glenne Headley as Jon’s parents, only make things better. (ES) Rated R

Adv. Tix on Sale THOR: THE DARK WORLD MET OPERA: THE NOSE (NR)

Sat.955 AM

THE COUNSELOR [CC,DV] (R)

Fri.700 PM

Times For 10/25 - 10/27

Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) breaks out of prisons for a living. But when his last job goes wrong and he is effectively buried in a high-tech security facility so far off the map his own team can’t find him, he knows he’s been set up. Recruiting fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to make one last escape from the most fortified prison in the world might seem a little cheesy, but the big explosions and promises of punishment make up for it in this action-oozing flick. (ER) Rated R

THE FIFTH ESTATE

This film, about Julian Assange, the mysterious fellow who founded WikiLeaks, should have been an exciting and informative trip through the world of whistleblowing. Unfortunately, the whole affair is kinda flat, dull and repetitive, making sure to present Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) as a pretty darn unlikable fellow. He may be passionate about helping to right the world’s wrongs, but he’s so full of himself and lacking in social graces, he’s no one you want to spend time with, even if he stays up on the movie screen. WikiLeaks’ revelations about America’s dealings in Afghanistan shook things up. The movie about the organization doesn’t. (ES) Rated R

GRAVITY

Astronauts Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) perform extra-vehicular repairs on the Hubble space telescope and then all hell breaks loose when pieces of a destroyed satellite come their way. Thus begins a series of domino effect crises: Will they have enough air and/or jetpack life to make it to the station alive? Director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) uses crazy effects that dazzle, while also sometimes distracting from the story. (SR) Rated PG-13

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2

The Lambert family returns in the sequel to the bone-chilling thriller aptly named Insidious: Chapter Two. Patrick Wilson stars as Josh Lambert, the reassuring father to the now healing family, attempting to

erase the events of the past. But as unusual things begin to once again happen in the household, Renai Lambert, played by Rose Byrne, begins to suspect that perhaps her husband’s reassurance is simply denial, and something has followed her hubby out of the spirit-world, (ER) Rated PG-13

MACHETE KILLS

This time out, forget about the socially conscious core that fueled the exploitation engine of the first film. Robert Rodriguez has gone for flat-out, no-message action comedy that is so outrageously over-thetop violent, it’s impossible to object to any of it. Machete (Danny Trejo) is invited, no refusal allowed, by the president of the United States (Charlie Sheen — not kidding) to head on down to Mexico and pull off a job that no legitimate American agent could manage: Stop the insane cartel lord from shooting a missile at Washington, D.C. (MJ) Rated R

PRISONERS

The kidnapping-revenge genre gets a refreshing makeover when a child goes missing, Dad gets mad, and the cops don’t know what to do. It stars Hugh Jackman (the dad) and Jake Gyllenhaal (the detective). This goes places that Taken and Frantic never thought of going. A real nail-biter that’s violent and unpredictable. (ES) Rated R

ROMEO AND JULIET

It’s a timeless story that once again has come to grace movie screens with its show of teenage passion and angst. This go around, Hailee Steinfeld takes on Juliet who once again falls in love with her sworn enemy, Romeo, portrayed by Douglas Booth. The tragedy of a family feud going terribly, horribly wrong is characterized by fabulous costumes and a beautiful setting, but it may or may not be enough for those of us who saw the other seemingly endless movie portrayals of Shakespeare’s classic. (ER) Rated PG-13

RUNNER RUNNER

There’s not much to see here. Mostly it’s just Justin Timberlake sitting at computers for a bit — not even naked or anything — and later he is vaguely menaced by Ben Affleck… with words only, except for some hints of threats of being fed to mostly off-

screen crocodiles. Timberlake is a student at Princeton, working on a masters degree in financial shenanigans — he was, we’re meant to understand, the sole guy on Wall Street in 2008 who was actually honest in his work, and so he lost all his dough in the crash. Now, he tries to take down Affleck, who plays an online gambling mogul. (MJ) Rated R

RUSH

The action begins with a crucial race in 1976, before flashing back to the early years of the rivalry between Formula 1 race car drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda on the minor leagues of the European racing circuit. Director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan — who collaborated on Frost/Nixon — effectively set up the initial parallel between the two men as children of privilege who rebel against the expectations of their families, before focusing on the clash of styles that differentiated them. (SR) Rated R.

THE SPECTACULAR NOW

Sutter Keely is the most popular guy at his school. He’s funny, he parties, he has a hot girlfriend and he lives “in the moment,” that is until his girlfriend dumps him and he wakes up one morning on the lawn of “nice girl” Aimee’s house. Aimee (Shailene Woodley from The Descendants) is completely the opposite of Sutter: She has goals, she’s smart and a little shy and nerdy. In many ways, this plot seems like the typical “bad-boy-meets-girl-nextdoor” coming-of-age story, but this film — from the writers of modern cult classic (500) Days of Summer — doesn’t take the harsh realities of youthful love and confusion about the future and tie it all up in a tidy little package. At Magic Lantern (CS) Rated R

WE’RE THE MILLERS

Jason Sudeikis plays a small-time pot dealer who finds himself in major debt to his supplier (Ed Helms). He’s then forced to make a trip to Mexico to pick up some bud, and he believes he’ll keep a lower profile if he crosses the border with his family. Without one, he recruits a nerdy boy, a punk girl and a stripper (Jennifer Aniston — as a stripper!) to pose as his kin travelling in an RV. (JR) Rated R 

CRITICS’ SCORECARD THE NEW YORK INLANDER TIMES

VARIETY

(LOS ANGELES)

METACRITIC.COM (OUT OF 100)

Gravity

Rush

Muscle Shoals

Prisoners

Don Jon

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Runner Runner

DON’T MISS IT

WORTH $10

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FILM | REVIEW

THE MAGIC LANTERN OCT 25TH - OCT 31ST

INEQUALITY FOR NOW (90 MIN PG) Fri/Sat: 2:30, 6:45 Sun: 3:00, 6:45 Tue-Thu: 4:15, 6:15

MUSCLE SHOALS (111 MIN PG-13)

Fri/Sat: 2:15, 8:30 Sun: 4:45 Tue-Thu: 8:00

BLUE JASMINE (96 MIN PG-13)

Sweet Home Muscle Shoals explains why some of the best American music was made in a small Alabama town

Fri/Sat: 4:25, 6:15 Sun: 1:15, 5:15 Tue-Thu: 4:30

THE SPECTACULAR NOW (90 MIN R) Fri/Sat: 8:15 Sun: 3:15

THE BUTLER (130 MIN PG-13) Fri/Sat: 4:15 Sun: 12:30

25 W Main Ave • 509-209-2383 • All Shows $7 www.magiclanternspokane.com

BY STEVE DAVIS

or a sleepy small town (population 12,000) creatively side by side with a group of all-white nestled on the Tennessee River in the session musicians, the Swampers (described as northwest corner of Alabama, Muscle looking like grocery-store employees), during a Shoals has an unrivaled reputation in American time when racial tension rocked the rest of the music. It’s the place where Aretha lamented South. And even when rivalries between the about never loving a man the way she loves local studios threatened to tarnish its mystique the liar. It’s where Mick begged for some more and pop stars like Cher and Donny Osmond brown sugar, and the Staple Singers offered to may have compromised its standing, Muscle take you there. Countless other stars fell on Shoals continued to work its magic on bands like Alabama here — Duane Allman, Bob Seger, Paul Lynyrd Skynyrd, who lovingly immortalized it in Simon and Bob Dylan, to name just a few. “Sweet Home Alabama.” The songs recorded at this dot on the map Aside from its predictable chronological during the ’60s and ’70s are the stuff of legend. structure, Muscle Shoals tells the story of FAME You can hear the blood, sweat and tears in this Studios founder Rick Hall, a man whose life has studio sound, so far removed from today’s been fraught with tragedy. A younger brother over-polished, super-digitalized compositions. scalded to death; a mother deserting her family This unassuming little Southern town inspired to become a prostitute; a wife killed in a midnight greatness — and two recording car accident on the highway — studios. No question about it: how can someone survive all of MUSCLE SHOALS There’s definitely something in that, much less oversee the creRated PG-13 the water at Muscle Shoals. ation of music for the ages? But Directed by Greg “Freddy” Camalier The laid-back documenhe did, with a dignity you can’t Starring Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, tary Muscle Shoals celebrates this Gregg Allman. At Magic Lantern help but admire. Though the little-known chapter in Amerifilm is somewhat sketchy about can music history with equal the rift that prompted Hall’s measures of affection and respect. Talking heads original rhythm section (the aforementioned like Keith Richards and Bono speak about the Swampers) to form their own recording studio in place almost reverently (a little odd in the latter’s Muscle Shoals in 1969, all is forgiven when the case, given that U2 has never recorded there), old-timers reunite in the film. Muscle Shoals may while others give their props to the humble stunot appeal to every generation’s musical tastes, dios’ formative influence on their careers. but for those of you who love that sweet soul From the start, the music made in Muscle music and crave that old-time rock & roll, believe Shoals was color-blind. Black R&B artists worked me: It’s just the ticket. 

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ESCAPE PLAN

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GRAVITY

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R Daily (4:20) 7:00 9:35 Sat-Sun (11:00) (1:40)

RUNNER RUNNER

R Daily 6:30 8:45 Sat-Sun (2:10)

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 PG Daily (3:00) (5:10) 7:15 9:15 Sat-Sun (10:50) (12:50)

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CARRIE

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CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 PG Daily (3:00) Fri-Sun (10:50) In 2D Daily (12:50) (5:10) 7:15 9:15 Fri-Sun (11:00)

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OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 83

OCT 24th - OCT 30th

THURS, FRI

415 W. Sprague Ave. 509.624.4450

LADIES NIGHT

$5 Double Martinis

SAT, OCT 26TH

from 5-8pm

$ Cover

SUN

SEASIDE BAR CHURCH at 3

MON

9pm-4am

MARTINI MADNESS

Live music 5-10pm

$5 Doubles

TUES

from 5-8pm

TWINTINI TUESDAY

$5 Doubles

WED

from 5-8pm

84 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

TRIVIA

Starts at 7

Punk Pioneers

Sweet Madness, back in the day CINDE HAMMOCK PHOTOS

Meet the band that brought punk rock to Spokane BY LEAH SOTTILE

n the stoop of a historic white stucco South Hill home, the sound of a piano echoes past the front door. And when John Robison — a bright-eyed 58-year-old in a yellow T-shirt featuring a squirrel in aviator glasses — opens the door, he’s eager to show all of the things he makes noise with: a line of sparkling guitars and candy-colored pedals, a theremin signed by Bob Moog, a piano and keyboards. He talks musique concrète and Kraftwerk. In a paneled basement “man cave,” Robison writes and records and masters his own music. It’s just a hobby — something he’s always done and will always do. But 35 years ago, there was a flicker in time when music had the chance to be something bigger for him and his friends. For three short years, Robison was the keyboard player in a band called Sweet Madness — a no-wave outfit credited with introducing Spokane to punk rock, a group that wrote original songs when no other band here did. And just like any good punk rock group, they stirred the pot just as much as they made people dance. Somehow — Robison says he’s not really sure how — Sweet Madness’ three-decades-old songs leaked out recently. They dotted the soundtrack for Spokane punk documentary Spokanarchy! and have been picked up for

a commercial. And last week, Light in the Attic Records released Made in Spokane 1978-1981, a 16-song album of the band’s work that has already received glowing reviews from The Stranger, Magnet and The Big Takeover, among others. The record starts off in an almost quintessential Spokane way: a blaring harmonica mimics a train horn just before the band launches into “Put on Hold,” an irresistible, dancey power-pop number. The members of Sweet Madness — singer and guitarist Jan Gregor, Robison on keys, Mark Fenton on drums and Don Lynd on bass — had a buzzing, frenetic energy in the vein of Devo and Madness. It was arty, electric pop music with just enough sneer to call it punk. Sweet Madness lasted just three years before the band fanned out across the state. Robison stayed behind in Spokane while the rest of the band tried to make it big in Seattle under a different name. Friendships were lost. Robison sold all of his gear. But five years ago, Robison and Gregor started talking again. Sweet Madness brought them together, drove them apart and now is bringing them back together again. “I, personally, have not even thought of the songs for like 20 years!” Robison says, wide-eyed. He shakes

his head, “Life is strange — how things can just resurface later.”

n 1978, Spokane had no music scene. But compared to what Jan Gregor was used to in his hometown, Spokane had potential. “Because of Expo ’74, I thought I should move to Spokane,” he says over the phone from his Astoria, Ore., home. “I had this idea in my head that I could be in a band. … I was 17 and I hitchhiked up there [from the TriCities]. Got an apartment on Main — 35 bucks a month.” Gregor met the soon-to-be Paul McCartney to his John Lennon: a recent college graduate named John Robison who he worked alongside at Huppin’s. Demonstrating stereo equipment for customers, the two realized they had similar tastes. “Everybody else was playing disco, Donna Summer and The Village frickin’ People,” Robison laughs. “And I would play Kraftwerk and the Ramones and Devo and these conservative people would come in, and they’d say, ‘I don’t really like that music, can you put on something else?’” Soon Robison and his frenetic keyboards were bring...continued on next page

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 85

MUSIC | VINTAGE

HALLOWEEN at the MARKET

“PUNK PIONEERS,” CONTINUED... ing the sound of Gregor’s band, Sweet Madness, to a new level. The band practiced every night of the week, writing more than 55 songs in just three years. Still, they had to beg for gigs. Bars only hired bands that played cover sets. “There was no new music scene at the time. None,” Gregor says. “So we were really inclusive, we had to build a crowd.” They didn’t promote their shows just as concerts, but as can’tmiss dance experiences. Once their shows started to attract 150 to 200 people, Gregor says the band insisted that any opening acts play only original music too. “There were initially no other bands. So people would come to our shows and hand me a tape afterwards,” he says. “There were bands that formed just to open for Sweet Madness; the upcoming gig gave them a reason to write songs and practice.” Gregor and Robison laugh when asked if Sweet Madness will ever play again. “Ohhh … who wants to listen to old men?” Robison says. “It is good music — not debating that. We just want people to have fun listening to it and enjoy it as much as we do.” They both admit anything can happen. But right now, with their record hitting stores around the globe and people praising the work they made when they were just kids, Gregor says Sweet Madness is getting more attention than it ever has. He’s happy they toiled in obscurity for 30 years and now — bam! — brand-new fans they were never expecting. “I think we were better off with total obscurity than one or two hits. One or two hits means you might keep going even if you really shouldn’t,” he says. “Total obscurity means we got on with our lives and did other things.”  leahs@inlander.com

COSTUME CONTEST PUMPKIN CARVING LIVE MUSIC 3-6PM GREAT FOOD TRICK OR TREATING & A FISH TANK FOR THE KIDS THE MARKET IS OPEN ALL YEAR LONG DOWNTOWN AT 2ND & BROWNE (24 W. 2ND AVE) THUR-SAT, 10AM -6PM, SUN 11AM-5PM SPOKANEPUBLICMARKET.ORG

Listen to Sweet Madness’ Made in Spokane 1978-1981 at sweetmadness.bandcamp.com, or purchase it on vinyl at lightintheattic.net

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86 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

13220 ANG WA MDPL Inlander_5.5x5.4in.indd 1

9/5/13 4:14 PM

MUSIC | ROCK

Internationally acclaimed and Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist

FRI

THUR

OCT 24th - 30th

KARAOKE

W/ LIVE WIRE

at Irv’s 9pm-2am

KARAOKE W/ MATTY

at Irv’s 6pm-10pm

DANCE TILL DAWN

BY LAURA JOHNSON

ther than being the second state in the nation to hold a presidential primary/caucus every four years, what happens in New Hampshire is somewhat shrouded in mystery — especially to those who live in the opposite corner of the country. Okkervil River, whose frontman Will Sheff hails from the Granite State, is trying to unlock those unknowns in the indie rock band’s September release The Silver Gymnasium. The album encapsulates a blast-from-the-past moment, transporting listeners back to 1986 when Sheff was an awkward 10-year-old living in rural Meriden, N.H., beginning to find himself. Inspired by the year the music reflects, the album is, oddly, available on cassette tape. “This was actually written to be a driving album,” Sheff recently told thelineofbestfit.com, disregarding the fact that newer cars don’t come with tape decks anymore. “… I don’t know, there’s something really fun about that — and people also listen to cassettes in prison, there’s a real cassette economy in prison.” Whether heard in a moving vehicle or a cramped cell, The Silver Gymnasium is as personal as Sheff, the lead songwriter and lyricist, has ever let an Okkervil River album become. The prior six albums tended to be more story-oriented, mostly dark lyrically, but not based on exact experiences. “It’s kind of an odd thing, writing a personal or autobiographical record when you don’t like people examining what you do,” Sheff said. But as much as New Hampshire shaped the singer-songwriter, Okkervil River is a product of Austin, Texas. Formed there in 1998 by Sheff and two high school buddies, it became a quartet the next year with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg, who left in 2008 to take Shearwater, his side project with Sheff, full time. The band has gone through numerous lineup changes, and its current roster of six easily creates a distinctive rock/folk/country sound, though Sheff has relocated to Brooklyn; the rest of the group still resides in Austin. No matter where the band members live, for the past month the road has been their shared home, promoting the new work. The road is where the next part of their story is being formed.  lauraj@inlander.com Okkervil River with Matthew E. White • Mon, Oct. 28 at 8 pm • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague • $15 • All-ages • sp.knittingfactory.com • 244-3279

SATURDAY NOV. 2, 8 p.m. Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox

Admission: $17; $12 student/senior (62+). Tickets available through TicketsWest (www.ticketswest.com) and The Fox Box Office (509.624.1200 or www.martinwoldsontheater.com). Info: 509.777.3280.

SAT

Okkervil River’s new album focuses on a time before smartphones, comes on cassette

Dan Keberle, director

SUN

Home Run

Whitworth Jazz

Whitworth University Jazz Ensemble

SAT. OCTOBER 26TH

with the award-winning

KARAOKE W/ MATTY

at Irv’s 6pm-10pm

DANCE TILL DAWN

KARAOKE

W/ LIVE WIRE

at Irv’s 9pm-2am

415 W. Sprague Ave.

509.624.4450

Get hooked

on the best fishing

in the Northwest

Thursday Oct 24th

6 Foot Swing Friday Oct 25th

Guilt Trip Saturday Oct 26th Hannah Reader & Cursive Wires

Sunday Oct 27th

HAPPY TIME PRICES ALL NIGHT! Monday Oct 28th

TRIVIA NIGHT

hosted by Bonana King Featuring the Clearwater, Snake, & Salmon Rivers. Check out our website for special fisherman room rates & listing of professional licensed guides.

Test your anglin’ skills by entering a derby! CLEARWATER-SNAKE STEELHEAD DERBY

Nov. 23-30, 2013 Lewiston, ID WOMEN WITH BAIT

Feb. 1- Mar 15, 2014 - Riggins, ID

www.visitnorthcentralidaho.org 208.507.1904

Tuesday Oct 29th

TONE DEAF KARAOKE hosted by Kelli Wednesday Oct 30th

SALLY BOP JAZZ and WHISKEY WEDNESDAY

25 Craft Beers & Craft Cocktails 120 E. Sprague Ave.

OCTOBER 24, 2013 20TH ANNIVERSARY 87

MUSIC | SOUND ADVICE

FUNK POLYRHYTHMICS

eattle has the funk, and the city is letting us borrow some rhythm this weekend in the form of eight-piece group Polyrhythmics. A conglomeration of Afrobeats, multiple horns and a brand of swanky coolness that can’t be taught, their music pulls you in — even without the enticement of vocals. Around for three years, the band has toured up and down the West Coast and released two full-length LPs. They’re a self-described brotherhood, and song titles like “Stinky Finger” and “Nurple” prove they like to have a lot of fun while still taking their music seriously. — LAURA JOHNSON Polyrhythmics • Sat, Oct. 26 at 9:30 pm • John’s Alley • 114 E. 6th, Moscow • $5 • 21+ • (208) 883-7662

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW J = ALL AGES SHOW

Thursday, 10/24

BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Open Jazz Jam with Erik Bowen Trio BUCKHORN INN, Texas Twister J CARR’S CORNER, Hip Hoppin’ for Animals feat. Tha Pharmacist, Ninja Black, Epik Henley, Seven Crown, Lei Majorz and more THE CELLAR, Ron Criscione COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, PJ Destiny FORTY-ONE SOUTH (208-265-2000), Truck Mills GIBLIANO BROTHERS, Dueling Pianos JONES RADIATOR, 6 Foot Swing J KNITTING FACTORY, David Nail LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Nick Grow J LUXE COFFEEHOUSE, Jordan Sandness O’SHAY’S, Open mic PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Arthur Lee Land J THE PHAT HOUSE, The Tone Collaborative, Bodhi Drip, Moksha J RED ROOM LOUNGE, Afrobeast, Industrial Revelation, LaVoy RICO’S, Palouse Subterranean Blues Band SPLASH, Steve Denny THE VAULT SOCIAL CLUB, DJ Seli ZOLA, Bonfire Knights

Friday, 10/25

BABY BAR, Primal Shakes BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn BOLO’S, Bruiser BOOMERS, Kozmik DreamZz J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Snida’ & The Pullman Groove Cougars THE CELLAR, Bones, Bolan & Nelson COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, Kicho, Karma’s Circle COLDWATER CREEK WINE BAR, Slag Dog

INDIE ROCK COUCHES

f Brian Wilson and Kurt Cobain were to collaborate, the result might be the San Francisco three-piece Couches. With heavy guitars, easy rock rhythms, a California beach vibe and “don’t tell us what to do” lyrics, Couches is a breath of fresh air, a break from all the electronic and folk-inspired music new bands put out these days. Their recently released debut 7-inch “California” is an awesome antithesis to Phantom Planet’s The O.C. theme song of the same name. After playing the Treefort Music Fest in Boise earlier this year, the band is back in the Pacific Northwest to tear it up (and potentially eat some burritos) Sunday at the Baby Bar for a free show. — LAURA JOHNSON Couches, Chung Antique and Normal Babies • Sun, Oct. 27 at 8 pm • Baby Bar • 827 W. 1st • Free • 21+ • 847-1234

J THE COMMUNITY BUILDING (2321950), The Angela Marie Project THE COUNTRY CLUB, Coyote Rose CURLEY’S, Bad Monkey ENOTECA (208-457-9885), The Powell Brothers FEDORA PUB, Keith Wallace FIRST STREET BAR & GRILL, Shiner FIZZIE MULLIGANS, The Cronkites THE FLAME, DJ Wesone GIBLIANO BROTHERS, Dueling Pianos GRANDE RONDE CELLARS, Maxie Ray Mills J THE HOP!, Losing Skin’s Halloween Cover Show feat. Reason for Existence, Faus, Lay the Tarp and others IRON HORSE, The Hitmen IRV’S, DJ Prophesy JOHN’S ALLEY, Luau Cinder JONES RADIATOR, Guilt Trip LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Carey Brazil LUCKY’S IRISH PUB, Likes Girls J LUXE COFFEEHOUSE, Dirk Lind

88 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013

MEZZO PAZZO WINE BAR, Lyle Morse MOOTSY’S, Jaeda + Half Zodiac and Keyser Soze J NYNE, Federico Aubele, Lisa Alma, Bias, The Divine Jewels PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Steve Neff THE PHAT HOUSE, Open Jam Session THE ROCK BAR (443-3796), DJ JWC SEASONS OF COEUR D’ALENE, Pat Coast THE VIKING BAR AND GRILL, Stepbrothers ZOLA, Raggs and Bush Doktor

Saturday, 10/26

BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn BOLO’S, Bruiser BOOMERS, Kozmik DreamZz J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE, Greg Hodapp CARR’S CORNER, Halloween Havok feat. Kraniul Saw, Skinwalker, Cold Blooded, Zero Velocity, Morlok THE CELLAR, Bones, Bolan & Nelson J CHAPS, Just Plain Darin with Tyler

Coulston COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, Kicho, Halloween Party feat. Risky Business, Echo Elysium COLDWATER CREEK WINE BAR, Chris Murphy THE COUNTRY CLUB, Coyote Rose CURLEY’S, Bad Monkey FEDORA PUB, Keith Wallace FIRST STREET BAR & GRILL, Shiner FIZZIE MULLIGANS, The Cronkites GEM STATE CLUB (208-245-9916), The Jam Band GIBLIANO BROTHERS, Dueling Pianos THE GRAIL, Night Of The Living Shred feat. Shred Corps, 13 Scars J THE HOP!, Odyssey, Xingaia, All Gussied Up, Honey Badger, Infrablaster, Pro Abortion, Autolycus IRON HORSE, The Hitmen IRV’S, DJ Prophesy J JOHN’S ALLEY, Polyrhythmics (See story above) J JONES RADIATOR, Cursive Wires, Hannah Reader

LA ROSA CLUB, Miah Kohal, Benny Baker J LAGUNA CAFÉ, Just Plain Darin THE LARIAT (466-9918), Texas Twister LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Kari Marguerite LINCOLN CENTER (327-8000), Bite Night feat. Atomic Jive and The Fat Tones LUCKY’S IRISH PUB, Likes Girls J LUXE COFFEEHOUSE, Johnny Jubels J MOOTSY’S, Halloween Misfits Cover Show feat. Losing Skin, Dislich, Bloody Gloves, Brothers Ov Midnite NYNE, DJ MC Squared J THE PHAT HOUSE, World Bandits RED LION HOTEL RIVER INN, Chris Rieser & Snap the Nerve THE ROADHOUSE, YESTERDAYSCAKE THE ROCK BAR (443-3796), DJ Sonny SEASONS OF COEUR D’ALENE (6648008), Dan Mills J THE VIKING BAR, “Show Me Your

Tattoo” Halloween show feat. Jimmy Nuge, Nixon Rodeo (acoustic), Eyes Like Time Machines, The Lion Oh My THE WAVE, Likes Girls ZOLA, Hot Club of Spokane

Sunday, 10/27

 BABY BAR, Couches (See story on facing page), Chung Antique, Normal Babies THE CELLAR, Pat Coast  CLEARWATER RIVER CASINO (208-298-1400), Styx COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, Echo Elysium DALEY’S CHEAP SHOTS, Jam Night with VooDoo Church ZOLA, Bill Bozly

Monday, 10/28

BOWL’Z BITEZ AND SPIRITZ, Open mic  CALYPSOS, Open mic JOHN’S ALLEY, Kytami  KNITTING FACTORY, Okkervil River (See story on page 87)  THE PHAT HOUSE, Blues Hang PJ’S BAR & GRILL, Acoustic Jam with One Man Train Wreck RICO’S, Open mic

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Tuesday, 10/29

BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn CARR’S CORNER, KTFO Rap Battles feat. Pest, DJ Killmore and more THE CELLAR, Max Daniels FEDORA PUB, Tuesday Night Jam with Truck Mills JOHN’S ALLEY, Jon Wayne and The Pain KELLY’S IRISH PUB, The Powell Brothers  MOSCOW FOOD CO-OP, Gefilte Trout  THE PHAT HOUSE, Joshua Simon  RED ROOSTER COFFEE CO. (3217935), Open mic RICO’S, WSU School of Music Jazz Band

MUSIC | VENUES

THE ROCK BAR (443-3796), Live Jam with Frank Clark THE VAULT SOCIAL CLUB, DJ Q THE VIKING BAR AND GRILL, The Lion Oh My

Bellezzaspokane.com 10 N. Evergreen

salon & spa

Wednesday, 10/30 BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn THE CELLAR, Riverboat Dave EICHARDT’S, Charley Packard FIZZIE MULLIGANS, Kicho  THE HOP!, James G, Junior, Jaiiu, Fly Style IRV’S, DJ Prophesy LATAH BISTRO, Kalliope  LUXE COFFEEHOUSE, Andy Rumsey  MEZZO PAZZO WINE BAR, Brad Keeler  THE PHAT HOUSE, “Be Open” Mic RICO’S, WSU School of Music Jazz Band SOULFUL SOUPS AND SPIRITS, Open mic SUKI YAKI INN (624-0022), One Man Train Wreck THE VAULT SOCIAL CLUB, DJs Freaky Fred and MC Squared THE VIKING BAR AND GRILL, Thunder and Lightning ZOLA, The Bucket List

509.321.3660

(Corner of Evergreen & Sprague)

$50 Off Combo Service

(Includes:Deep Condition, Haircut, Full-Foil & Wax)

$45 Hr. Massage

(Add $10 For Deep Tissue Massage)

$10 off Sculptured Acrylic Nails $70 Eyelash Extentions - NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY -

Coming Up ...

THE HOP!, Pest, Spindle, Daniel Stickney, Epik, Vibe, Cruz, Mack Menace and more, Oct. 31 NYNE, Halloween Party feat. The Divine Jewels, Oct. 31 BOOTS BAKERY & LOUNGE, All Hallows Eve feat. Clusterf***, Black Ceiling, Twin Towers, Video Destroyer, Oct. 31 CHECKERBOARD BAR, Halloween Jam feat. Mojave Wizard and Wicked Obsession, Oct. 31 THE PHAT HOUSE, Halloween Party feat. The Tone Collaborative, Bodhi Drip, Moksha, Oct. 31 JONES RADIATOR, Jones Halloween Show feat. Cuss Jar, The Wreckers, Oct. 31 THE LANTERN TAP HOUSE (3159531), Tyler Aker, Liz Rognes, Oct. 31 BABY BAR, BBBBandits, The Camaros, Rice Queen, Nov. 1

Apple Festival

Weekends sept 21 - oct 27 U-Pick Apples & Pumpkins, Live Music, Pony Rides, Face Painting, Trampoline Bungee JUMP, Corn Cannon, Pea Box, Breakfast, BBQ, Caramel Apples & Sweet Treats in Cafe, and Much More!

appleranch.com • 505-238-4709

Thur 10/24, Inlander

FRED MEYER

CALENDAR GIVEAWAY

FRIDAY 10/25 vs. BRANDON The first 3,000 fans will receive a Chiefs 2013/2014 calendar. Sponsored by:

AVISTA ENERGY

EFFICIENCY NIGHT & GLOW STICKS GIVEAWAY

SATURDAY 10/26 vs. PORTLAND The first 5,000 fans will receive a glow stick courtesy of Avista Utlities.

www.SPOKANECHIEFS.com