FILM

BENEFIT SOUP FOR THE SOUL

For its next effort to give back to the community, Cochinito Taqueria is warming both bellies and hearts. Between now and Sunday, preorder a bowl of posole — choose from pork posole rojo or vegetarian posole verde — and you’ll also get a beautifully handmade bowl, made by the local Schumaker’s Pottery and members of the Spokane Potters Guild. Proceeds of both the soup and bowls are being donated to Second Harvest, which has seen a demand for food safety net services increase exponentially since the pandemic’s onset. Only 100 bowls were made for this special fundraiser, so if you don’t want to miss out make sure to call Cochinito to reserve one, a measure that’s also encouraged to help the kitchen keep a good pace and for all to maintain social distancing. Extra posole will also be available, along with to-go cocktails, beer and wine. — CHEY SCOTT

Bowl of Sol • Sun, Jan. 31 from noon-4 pm • $25/bowl • Cochinito Taqueria • 10 N. Post St. • facebook.com/cochinitotaqueria • 474-9618

FOOD SWEET ESCAPE

Valentine’s Day looks different this year, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be romantic, fun or memorable. Enter Days of Decadence, the new, virtual format of the annual Decadence! Spokane Chocolate Festival. Over the first three days of February, Decadence hosts local experts in food and drink for a series of free, livestreamed classes. Through Feb. 14, participating local businesses also offer in-store promotions and specials. For the upcoming online sessions, partake in wine and cheese pairings (Feb. 1 at 4 pm) with Wanderlust Delicato’s Amber Park, learn more about the “Wonderful World of Whiskey and Chocolate” (Feb. 2 at 6:30 pm) with bartender Sailor Guevara, and everything about sweet and savory European babka bread (Feb. 2 at 11 am) with Rind & Wheat bakery’s Ricky Webster (pictured). Audrey’s Boutique also hosts a shopping session (Feb. 3 at 2 pm), and optional tasting kits are available for some sessions. — CHEY SCOTT

FILM | FESTIVAL “PRETEND IT’S PARK CITY,” CONTINUED...

Harnetiaux has had a number of plays staged over the years, but it was around 2012 when she started making short films with her husband Jacob A. Ware and their friend Anthony Arkin (son of Alan). Under the moniker Steel Drum in Space, the trio has produced a number of quirky, offbeat shorts, and Harnetiaux says You Wouldn’t Understand is almost an apotheosis of all the weirdness of their previous films.

It’s hard to describe the film without giving too much away, but it begins with a man (Arkin) having a solo picnic in the middle of an empty field on a sunny day. Enter a stranger in a white suit (Ware), seemingly appearing out of nowhere, who asks to borrow some horseradish before devolving into a torrent of nonsense terms. From there, it’s a surreal descent into absurdity that seems to involve a time loop and clones from the future — or maybe the past.

“The initial idea was ‘let’s tell a story that you think you know, and then let’s see how we can kind of peel it back and take it in an unexpected way,’” Harnetiaux says. “We talked a lot about influences, and we wanted to have this strange tension and almost Hitchcock-like strangeness to this world, but also infuse it with humor and this sort of Monty Python vibe.”

With its small cast and spacious outdoor locale, you might think Understand was produced during the pandemic, but it was actually shot in New Jersey shortly before lockdowns took effect. “ROCK ’N’ ROLL FANTASY,” CONTINUED... They’re promoting just giving the best advice you could ever ask for. It’s a way to connect with these artists during COVID. It’s been hard, and live music has been hit the most. But I think it’s gonna come back, and it’s gonna come back in a very strong way. Many of these artists now are all spending time recording and creating great content, and I think there’s going to be some great music coming out and a lot of touring happening. Is there a specific moment from the early days of Fantasy Camp when you realized it had a future?

I think the moment was when Roger Daltrey came to the Rock Camp in New York. He came in on a Thursday, and he jammed with all the bands on Friday. He turned to me and said, “When do these bands perform?” And I said, “They’re playing at the Bottom Line [rock club] on Sunday night.” He said, “I want to jam with each one of them.” And that was the turning moment when I realized that he had as much fun doing the camp as the campers. It reminded him what it was like when he first started. What do you hope audiences take away from the film, beyond “I want to go to a fantasy camp”?

What I really want people to take away from it is that anybody can do what they want to do, but they shouldn’t let fear get in the way. People who have gone to the camp, you see how much they’ve been able to grow. And these rock stars, Since it has come out in the midst of the pandemic, Harnetiaux and her collaborators haven’t been able to see the movie with an actual audience, although it has played several virtual film festivals since the summer. That’s a bummer for comic filmmakers, who can easily base the effectiveness of their work on what an audience does and doesn’t respond Trish Harnetiaux to, but Harnetiaux hopes the film still delivers a little bit of levity — and a whole lot of weirdness — in an otherwise dark time.

“It’s maybe not for everybody, and it might go off the rails for somebody. Hopefully people will enjoy the journey of it,” she says. “It also lends itself to multiple viewings, and you can discover something new every time with this one. … I hope that people can escape into it and have fun with it. Because that’s why we made it, and

MUSIC | DOCUMENTARY

that’s how we made it.” n they help you along the way and push you forward. I get emails every day from people thanking me — “I’m doing this, I’m doing that, and I’m running my office better because I learned to listen.” So I’m hoping that Rock Camp is a place where you go and it changes your life in all different ways, and I hope the movie inspires people.

Is there any big star in particular who hasn’t participated in the camp that you’d most love to get?

There’s so many — from Bruce Springsteen on down. I’m hoping that when they see the film, they’ll understand what we do and how we share music. So the list is endless. One of my favorite stories was when Joe Elliott from Def Leppard came, and we’re preparing an old Def Leppard song. I turned to one of the bands and said, “I know you want to do a Def Leppard song with Joe Elliott, but why don’t you prepare a Mott the Hoople song? I know he’s the biggest fan.” And so Joe walked in and said, “OK, what do you guys want to do?” and they said, “We want to do this song from Mott the Hoople.” And his eyes lit up. I remember walking him to his car afterwards and he says, “That was my Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp.” That’s what it’s about. n

Rock Camp is available now as a ticketed streaming event through various indie movie theaters and at rockcampthemovie.com. It will be available as a digital rental on Google Play and Amazon Prime beginning Feb. 16.

JANUARY 28, 2021 INLANDER 33