Inlander 04/06/2017

APRIL 6-12, 2017 | FAMILY OWNED. COMMUNITY FOCUSED.

THE

CHANGING FACE OF

MONROE THE FUTURE OF NORTH MONROE

STREET IS BEING HOTLY DEBATED, BUT THIS MUCH IS CLEAR: COOL THINGS ARE HAPPENING PAGE 20

FIRST FRIDAY 30

SEXIST SMURFS 34

JAZZ 38

ZAGS’ WILD RIDE! 54

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COMMENT NEWS COVER CULTURE

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EDITOR’S NOTE

A

t a glance, Spokane’s MONROE STREET is the same mishmash it’s always been.

But look closer: Something’s happening.

It’s becoming almost… cool. Hip bars, breweries, barbers and vintage shops have joined the mix of old-school favorites. But that’s not all: Enter a proposal to transform the street with crosswalks, transit shelters, trees and fewer lanes of traffic, and the dividing lines become stark — between new and old, neighbor and business owner, people wanting change and others preferring the status quo. We dispatched five writers to explore this neighborhood in transition (beginning on page 20).

Also this week: in Food, we talk with farmers preparing for the coming season (page 31) and in Culture, staff writer Mitch Ryals tackles the region’s newest rock-climbing gym (page 27).

— JACOB H. FRIES, Editor

TAXING THE POOR PAGE 8

REVIVING SPRAGUE PAGE 13

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WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF MONROE STREET?

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It’s a very convenient north-south arterial to get to the northside and downtown.

What do you think of the possible lane reduction?

That’s going to be a disaster. There won’t be a reason to go down through Monroe; it will be a reason not to. It’ll be all clogged up, and the people [who] are seeking businesses here, I would guess, will be seeking elsewhere.

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I use it a lot to get from northside to southside faster than the other arterials like Division and Maple.

Do you stop anywhere on Monroe frequently?

Not a lot. I used to stop at the antique stores, but not as much anymore.

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It’s a street that all looks the same to me when you pass Boone.

What do you think of a possible lane reduction?

I love it. People speed through Monroe, and I feel like the local businesses would do better because most people use it as an arterial to go straight through.

Carolyn Padgham-Walker (x214), Emily Walden (x260) SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

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STEPHEN EYMAN

I love this part of town. It kind of has always been a central area to stop and walk around.

This coffee shop is new, but this area has always had great spots.

What do you think of the possible lane reduction?

One friend said something really good about it, that it would be great to bring people in and have them walk around.

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I’m from the westside, so it reminds me of Tacoma, which I really like. It’s not pretentious like some other areas. It’s a good place to hang out.

Do you stop anywhere on Monroe frequently when you visit?

Vessel and Bruncheonette. I also just like walking around and it reminds me of home, I guess.

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COMMENT | BUSINESS

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Spokane’s startup stats echo Gonzaga’s historic season

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6 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

D

uring March Madness, most everyone in Spokane is focused on Gonzaga men’s basketball and the endless number of statistics associated with it. Head coach Mark Few established a vision, developed a culture, created alignment, executed the plan and led Gonzaga to the national championship game, finishing the season with a 37-2 record.

As a proponent of entrepreneurship in Spokane, holding the belief our region has an opportunity to become a leading hub for startups, I am often asked to support my views with statistics pertaining to new business formation, capital raises and exits.

Most recently, this has been an easy question to address. Since the beginning of the basketball season, I am aware of nine transactions that have closed, with two more pending. I think it is worthwhile to highlight this activity to illustrate Spokane’s success stories, and as an indication of our region’s ability to fund startups and grow industry-leading companies.

In chronological order from the start of Gonzaga’s schedule, the following is a summary of Spokane’s entrepreneurial statistics. (Full disclosure: I have a hand in all of these companies.)  Etailz was acquired by Trans World Entertainment for $75 million. Etailz, a leading ecommerce company focused primarily on thirdparty marketplaces, was started in a classroom at Gonzaga. Etailz remains based in Spokane and employs approximately 180 people.  Demand Energy Networks was acquired

by Enel Green Power for an undisclosed amount.

Liberty Lake-based Demand Energy Networks is a leader in intelligent energy storage solutions.

ENEL Green Power is an owner and operator of renewables facilities, with more than 100 plants in 23 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.  APANA, a company with offices in Spokane and Bellingham, raised $3.5 million in equity. This financing was led by Kurita Water Industries of Japan with participation from Element 8 of Seattle and the Urban Innovation Fund of San Francisco. APANA has developed proprietary algorithms and hardware devices to monitor industrial and commercial water usage, and provide alerts when there is a problem resulting in wasted water. The company cuts water usage by nearly 25 percent.  Stay Alfred, based in Spokane, raised $15 million in equity from a Seattle-based private equity group. Stay Alfred has created an entirely new hospitality experience by leasing apartment buildings and converting them into hotels complete with multiple bedrooms, full kitchens and laundry facilities. The company is the leader in this market and currently operates in 12 cities.  Safeguard raised $300,000 in an equity financing with participation from Avista Development. Safeguard is developing a wristband that can be worn by anyone who may come into close proximity of a high voltage power line. It sends

an auditory, visual and physical signal to the wearer, alerting them to potential danger. The wristband is ideal, for example, for utility linemen. The company was formed by three graduates from the University of Idaho and was the winner of the 2015 Inland Northwest Business Plan Competition.  HyperSciences closed a follow-on financing and to date has raised a total of $2.6 million with participation from the Washington Research Foundation. The Spokane company uses rockets to drill for geothermal energy.  Gestalt Diagnostics raised $2.6 million in an equity financing. Gestalt is focused on developing digital pathology solutions to enable tissue samples to be captured, transferred, read and archived digitally. The Spokane-based company is a spin-out from Inland Imaging, one of the nation’s leading radiology groups.  2nd Watch closed a $19 million equity financing with participation from prominent venture capital sources and has now raised $56 million in total. 2nd Watch, a cloud-based technology company, has offices in Spokane, Seattle, New York and Atlanta and employs 160.  Kick-Start III raised about $4.6 million. Kick-Start III is the third in a family of angel funds targeting investments in emerging companies in the region. The fund expects to invest $100,000 to $400,000 in approximately 15 regional companies. Kick-Start III is closely affiliated with the Spokane Angel Alliance (a memberbased angel investing group) and a family of funds was established to “kick-start” the funding process of companies presenting to members of the Spokane Angel Alliance.

I

n addition to these nine transactions, I am aware of two more companies that have entered into agreements with investors to raise a collective total of $4.5 million. I expect these financings to close within 45 days.

These 11 deals represent a total of $52.1 million that has been, or will be, invested in nine entities in our region, and two successful exits, since the beginning of Gonzaga’s season. That’s a nice run! Exits (generally a sale of a business or an initial public offering) are how investors receive a return on their investments. Successful exits are important, as they not only validate the potential of a company but also “fuel the pump” to back new startups.

While not a 37-2 record, seven closed financings, two pending capital raises and two exits over the course of a basketball season remains very compelling. With a vision, culture, alignment and execution similar to Gonzaga men’s basketball, perhaps Spokane can also gain national prominence as an entrepreneurial team. n

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The annual event includes cuddles with cats and kittens currently in the shelter’s foster care system. Stop by and learn how the program works, bring in a donation for this season’s kittens, and learn how to become a foster parent and help save lives. Donation wish list at event link. Sat, April 8 from 5:30-8 pm. Spokane Humane Society, 6607 N. Havana. bit.ly/2o3okFP (467-5235)

Recliner Sale

KOPANGA BENEFIT CONCERT

Join Partnering for Progress in celebrating the power of community at this inaugural event, featuring live music by Troubadour and Funky Unkle, a raffle for a Kopanga-inspired painting by local artist Katie Staib, First Friday artwork by Salik Seville, a raffle, food and more. Fri, April 7 at 7 pm. $10 suggested donation. The Observatory, 15 S. Howard. partneringforprogress. org (710-3960)

APRIL SHOWERS AUCTION & DINNER

The Lands Council’s 22nd annual benefit includes a dinner and live/silent auctions to help support the restoration and revitalization of Inland Northwest forests, water, and wildlife. $75/individual; $800/table. Sat, April 8 from 5-9 pm. Davenport Grand Hotel, 333 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. landscouncil.org (209-2407)

DACHSHUND RESCUE NW OPEN HOUSE

The local rescue and club is celebrating the placement of more than 1,500 homeless wiener dogs with a potluck party at its 26th annual open house.

Sun, April 9 from noon-5 pm. Free to attend. Dachshund Rescue NW, 9209 N. Brooks Rd. spokanewienerdogs.org (796-2140)  Tell us about your event or other opportunities to get involved. Submit events at Inlander.com/getlisted or email getlisted@inlander.com.

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This exhibition was created by The Field Museum, Chicago.

Major support from Spokane County and the Joel E. Ferris Foundation

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 7

COMMENT | TAXES

CALEB WALSH ILLUSTRATION

Institutionalized Inequity Trump and Republicans continue to demand that those with the least pay the most

BY PAUL DILLON

A

fter their effort to replace the Affordable Care Act crashed and burned, the White House and congressional leadership are setting their weary gazes on everybody’s sexiest issue: the tax code. The talk, of course, is to go big — we haven’t seen a national overhaul since “Reaganomics,” and there’s a reason: It ain’t easy.

Yes, tax reform could be more complicated than health care reform, Mr. President. Who knew?

This is actually good news, because real reform needs to be taken more seriously, especially in Washington state. We are home to the most upside-down tax code in the country, with lower-income households paying rates up to seven times higher than the richest households, according to the Washington State Budget & Policy Center.

Perhaps in a preview of what to expect nationally, the state Senate Republican plan that passed in March did

nothing to fix the tax code’s fundamental inequities. Instead, the status-quo budget did the opposite, protecting powerful special interests — like Walmart and Comcast — at the expense of adequately funding education and the social safety net.

The proposed cuts include $53 million from the Housing and Essential Needs program, which helps homeless adults who are unable to work due to a physical or mental limitation. Local childcare workers have criticized the impacts of a rising minimum wage to their businesses, yet the Senate plan cuts deep, hacking $44 million from the childcare subsidy program for families with low incomes.

We should view a budget as a moral document. It’s a reflection of our values, which should be investments in schools, transportation, and helping our most vulnerable.

Instead, we are failing to address the 694 tax breaks that only benefit special interests, and neglecting to pass solutions like a capital gains tax or earned income tax credits,

10

which would bring relief.

A major culprit: According to the conservative Tax Foundation, Washington has a combined state and average local sales tax of 8.92 percent, the fifth highest in the U.S. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, that sales tax hits harder than it does for those who have substantial savings.

Income is also a key factor in life expectancy. An alarming (and real) statistic missing from Cody Delistraty’s dishonest Guardian piece on our struggles: The Spokane County Health District’s “Odds Against Tomorrow” report, which focused on wealth disparities (among other indicators), notably found that the “Southgate Neighborhood has the lowest and Riverside (downtown) has the highest overall age-adjusted mortality rate. And the gap in life expectancy is approximately 18 years between the neighborhood with the highest life expectancy and the neighborhood with the lowest.” In most of City Council District 1 — a district that voted for President Trump — 20 percent of families living below the federal poverty line also have life expectancies that are below the national average. They are all paying into the system, without getting the same benefits.

“It’s basically asking those who have the least money to fund government,” says the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Matt Gardner regarding the regressive tax structure. “And that’s not a growing source of revenue. By far, the fastest-growing income group is the best-off Washingtonians. So from a fairness and a sustainability perspective, sales taxes are a bad idea.”

With this local context, and harnessing fresh energy from the rallying lessons of the successful attempt to prevent the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, there’s a new opportunity to build bipartisan consensus around rules that make the wealthy pay what they owe and invest more at home.

Honest federal reform is suspect, since Trumpcare was never a legitimate health care plan, but merely a preamble to a massive tax cut for high earners, begging the question: Does a deal with the devil mean that presidential allies have no souls? Only serious soul-searching and organizing will tell. If it’s another (likely) tax cut for the wealthiest, then the fault lines within parties will continue to be exposed on the elected level. However, on a community level, if you think cutting from Big Bird and Wheels On Meals isn’t “compassionate,” or if you care how long a lower-income Spokanite lives, then keep your eyes peeled for what comes next on the agenda.

The least might be paying the most, but we are also paying attention now. n Paul Dillon, a Center for Justice board member, manages public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho.

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APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 9

10 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

COMMENT | FROM READERS

INVEST IN OUR CHILDREN s our state legislators craft a biennial budget, I urge them to recognize

A

the importance of early learning by investing in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Working Connections Child Care (WCCC). While much of the budget focus this year has been on the critical need to address the McCleary court decision that requires increased investment in K-12 education, we can’t lose sight of the importance of the entire education continuum, including early learning. By age 5, a child’s brain is almost completely developed — yet too many kids in Washington do not have access to high-quality early learning. By investing in the earliest years, we help prepare children for success in school, meaning that children are ready to learn and thrive in their K-12 education.

I can personally testify that my kids would not be where they are academically without being a part of the ECEAP/HS program. By investing in the ECEAP and WCCC programs, we are building the very foundation that will make K-12 a success. We always tell our children how important LETTERS education is to our lives; now let’s Send comments to put those words into action. Having a editor@inlander.com. budget that allows us to serve more children with learning and developmental disabilities, that are earlier recognized, will allow them to get the help they need to be successful. Our children now will be the leaders of tomorrow; let’s help make them great.

Please give Washington’s children the strong start in life they need by increasing investments in early learning.

TIENAYA GODES Vice President, Policy Council, Spokane Head Start/ECEAP/Early Head Start

SUMMER SOUNDTRACK. ON SALE NOW

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TOBY KEITH AUG 3 WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY WITH KACEY MUSGRAVES AUG 8 BOZ SCAGGS & MICHAEL MCDONALD AUG 11 The scene inside the Globe Bar & Kitchen. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Readers react to three Inlander writers’ journeys into the so-called “Bromuda Triangle” (3/30/17) party zone on Division between Main and Spokane Falls Boulevard:

HANK WILLIAMS JR SEP 15 WITH THE CADILLAC THREE

ELIZABETH PARKER: Sounds fun.

Not. HOLLY ROBERTSON: I love a good pun, but even I think that was a little much.

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MICHAEL McMULLEN: Calling it the ‘Bromuda Triangle’ not only makes me want to stay away from it, it makes me wonder if we should spray it down with disinfectant. 

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 11

PRESENTED BY DOWNTOWN SPOKANE

— Your neverending story —

HOW TO first friday LIKE A BOSS.

out of bed sometime between 6am and 3pm.

1 Get Go to work if that’s your thing. your friends at 5pm. Not literally, of course— 2 Grab that’s just rude. a gallery for free food, free fun, and free art.

3 Hit Repeat…oh, a couple dozen times before 8pm.

Don’t miss the next First Friday: April 7th, 2017

—

For event listings visit: www.firstfridayspokane.org Most venues open 5-8pm

12 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

—

The University District Gateway Bridge, under construction now, will provide a route across the train tracks for pedestrians and cyclists.

RENDERINGS COURTESY OF THE CITY OF SPOKANE

DEVELOPMENT

Breaking New Ground In the University District and East Sprague, two separate visions are merging, transforming the city

BY WILSON CRISCIONE

T

he area just east of downtown Spokane has heard a lot of negativity over the years. And as a 15year resident of East Central, Heather Wallace knows all about it.

“It takes a really long time to change the reputation of a neighborhood,” Wallace says. “Everyone knows East Sprague is known for prostitution. When people say ‘Sprague,’ that’s what you think of.”

But soon, community leaders agree, that won’t be the case. It’ll be known as a place to shop, a place to live, and a place to get an education. From the University District to the East Sprague business district, a huge chunk of Spokane is in the midst of a transformation that promises

to make the area safer and more vibrant.

And after years of work to make it happen, this construction season marks two major milestones in that transformation.

Last month, crews began building the University District Gateway Bridge, a $9 million project that will enable pedestrians and bicyclists to easily travel across the train tracks, which currently block the University District from East Sprague.

And this week, construction began on a $4.3 million project to revitalize the East Sprague business area between Helena and Stone Streets. By fall, there will be new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping.

It’s all a result of two different visions, created decades ago on each side of the train tracks. On the north side, there’s the vision of the University District, which is now home to several university campuses, including Washington State University and Gonzaga. On the south side and farther east, residents and local businesses created a vision to improve East Sprague, and the plans gained traction when the city of Spokane targeted the area for public investment in 2013.

And now? Wallace, a member of the East Central Neighborhood Council, doesn’t hear the kind of negativity she used to. ...continued on next page

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 13

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Avista’s rendering of a planned development south of the train tracks.

“BREAKING NEW GROUND,” CONTINUED...

“People are excited,” she says. “They’re excited for it to finally happen.”

UNIVERSITY VISION

When Spokane City Councilwoman Amber Waldref was a kid, she rode her bike on the Centennial Trail through what is now the University District. At the time, decades ago, it was mostly dirt.

“It was just nothing,” she says. “Rocks and dirt, and nothing.”

Eventually, local universities opened campuses there. By 2004, the University District laid out a plan for redevelopment. With its proximity to downtown and local hospitals, as the thinking went, it was the perfect location for medical education and research. Included in that plan were city projects like the University District Gateway Bridge and the extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, which runs through the U District.

This year, Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine is set to open, construction of the bridge is underway, and the next phase of the MLK Way extension is getting ready to begin.

“We’re checking things off the list,” says Karl Otterstrom, the University District’s board chair.

The city’s investment in the area already seems to be bringing more private development.

In March, Avista announced plans for a major project on the south side of the railroad tracks, made possible in part by the connection of the the University District Gateway Bridge. Avista, which is calling it the Catalyst Project, has said it will be a 140,000-square-foot, multi-use building on 5 acres of land, with high-tech labs and space for offices or classrooms. Other details of the project, including the price and which partners will use the building, haven’t been released.

Latisha Hill, senior vice president of development for Avista, says the project ensures that the

bridge will not “land in gravel” on the south side of the train tracks. She says the No. 1 impact of the development will be jobs.

There are more and more students in that area, especially with the incoming WSU medical school and the already existing University of Washington medical school on Gonzaga’s campus. They’ll need a job to support them out of college, she says.

“I’d like my friends to come back and think that Spokane is cool again,” Hill says. “Our goal is to create and support efforts already underway.”

The development farther east on Sprague will help lure private developers to the area. While it’s a different project, what happens on East

“I’d like my friends to come back and think that Spokane is cool again.”

Sprague is “synergistic to what happens in the University District,” Otterstrom says.

“If we as a community say East Sprague is important, [the] U District is important, then developers look at the opportunity to invest,” he says.

University District development supported East Sprague’s efforts to revitalize as well, says Waldref. In 2013, city council had to choose which area of the city it would target for revitalization. Ultimately, it came down to West Central and East Sprague. The council chose East Sprague, partly because local business owners and residents had been pushing for change for so long, and partly because there was already momentum from the University District.

“Without the U District vision,” Waldref says, “I’m not sure if we would be where we are today, with the amazing amount of investment that’s occurred farther east.”

GENTRIFIED?

As streetscaping is undertaken in the East Sprague area, there’s one word that East Central Neighborhood Chair Karen Sutula doesn’t want to hear: gentrification.

“That only comes up in newspaper articles,” she says. “It doesn’t come up at our meetings at all. It doesn’t come up in East Sprague Business Association meetings. We don’t see that as a problem.”

Rather, businesses are more worried about how construction may hurt them in the short term. But the concern that lowerincome people may be forced out of the area due to higher living costs is very real to some, including Waldref.

“I think it’s a concern,” she says.

She brings up South Perry, another East Central neighborhood where streetscaping improvements brought about an influx of new businesses and increased the cost of living. But Waldref says that gentrification can be avoided near Sprague, if done right.

That means replacing any affordable housing that goes away.

An apartment building for low-income residents is being built right now in the section of East Sprague being renovated, at the corner of Sprague and Madelia in what used to be a used-car lot. The 1 South Madelia Project will bring 36 new units, and the funders agreed to serve households with income levels at 60 percent of the area’s median income, says Melissa Owen, a project planner with the city of Spokane.

“If we can ensure that we replace any affordable housing that ends up going away, then I think it’s a win-win for the community,” Waldref says.

Wallace, with the neighborhood council, says they have learned from what happened in South Perry, though she notes that it might be hard to control cost-of-living increases.

“We want this to be a neighborhood where people can still afford to live,” she says.

THE PERKS KEEP ON COMING.

INCOMPARABLE

The renovations to East Sprague are different than that in other areas of Spokane, like North Monroe. While the East Sprague Business Association pushed the city for changes, Waldref says, it’s the city which has pushed for the changes to North Monroe.

That’s because not all of the North Monroe businesses see the lane reductions and street improvements as necessarily benefiting them. (See “Drawing Lines in Asphalt” on page 20.) When it comes to Sprague, however, everyone seems to be on the same page.

Last year, for example, East Sprague businesses and property owners created a business improvement district, or a self-taxing zone to raise money for improvements. Jim Hanley, owner of the Tin Roof furniture store on Sprague and a member of the East Sprague Business Association, says he envisions the area to be an “upscale neighborhood,” with more high-end businesses moving in.

Waldref says that those businesses, in turn, will help the cluster of development that is expected to move farther west in the University District, south of the train tracks.

Between the University District and the East Sprague Business District, some compare the transformation to Seattle’s South Lake Union area, another neglected neighborhood that has been turned into a vibrant urban center.

“I think you could say it’s similar to South Lake Union, in that it took some visionary people who said, ‘We’re gonna LETTERS do this,’” Waldref says. “They Send comments to brought everybody along, it editor@inlander.com. took a lot of time and money, and in the end created a whole neighborhood that’s walkable, transit-oriented, has good-paying jobs. East Sprague can be that.”

Hill, with Avista, goes one step further. She believes that the area has something “more provocative” than South Lake Union.

It’s bigger, and near six universities and two hospitals.

“We need to set a new standard,” she says. “They should be saying, ‘Wow, have you seen what Spokane did?’” n wilsonc@inlander.com

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VALLEY Last week, the Spokane Valley City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring that it was an “INCLUSIVE CITY” and that discrimination would not be tolerated. The move received support at the council meeting from Spokane NAACP President Phil Tyler and members of the Spokane County Human Rights Task Force. The resolution reaffirms Washington’s nondiscrimination law and the state constitution, and it states the Valley’s commitment to inclusiveness. City Councilmember Ed Pace advocated for the resolution after asking a local black pastor what he’d like from the Valley. “It’s not trivial, what we did,” Pace says. “It’s us standing up and saying, ‘We really believe this stuff.’” (WILSON CRISCIONE)

DEVELOPMENT The area directly north of the Monroe Street and Post Street bridges is set to get a full-scale makeover. With a Spokane City Council resolution last week, the city moved toward a plan that could take a former parking lot — currently being rehabbed for a combined sewer overflow tank — and turn it into in a new CLIMBING WALL FACILITY and the jumping-off point for three local trails.

Right now, city Chief Financial Officer Gavin Cooley says, the plan is for part of the parking lot to be sold or leased to a private company; that revenue would be used to fund other improvements in the immediate area. “We want that to be the north gateway to Riverfront Park, beginning at Monroe Street,” Cooley says. (DANIEL WALTERS)

NEWS | BRIEFS

From Both Sides Party activists target McMorris Rodgers and her potential 2018 opponent; plus, new plans for the former Otis Hotel SNOWFLAKES AND ROBOCALLS

When it comes to urging constituents to COMPLAIN TO THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS, both parties have stepped up their game. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11 am to 1 pm, Democratic precinct committee officer Cynthia Hamilton stands outside the Peyton Building, where Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ office is located.

“I’m aware of the fact that people are upset. And they want to talk to people,” Hamilton says. “The best person for them to talk to, usually, is their elected members of Congress.”

So she offers passersby guided tours of a sort, a chance to talk to the staffs of McMorris Rodgers, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Patty Murray, and the Spokesman-Review about their concerns.

She calls it “Project Snowflake” — a repurposing of the conservative insult aimed at perceived sensitive liberals.

“People need to hear stories of their constituents,” Hamilton says. “It’s kind of a way of bridging that gap.”

Meanwhile, local Republicans are getting organized around taking on McMorris Rodgers’ would-be challenger, Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart. Spokane County Republican Chairwoman Stephanie Cates sent out robocalls last weekend encouraging conservatives to turn out for Stuckart’s Tuesday town hall meeting. The GOP website also posed potential questions to ask Stuckart, like whether he planned “to continue using marijuana if elected to Congress” and whether he waited to pass a mandatory sick-leave policy until after the election because it was “viewed as politically unpopular.”

“We just want to promote that he’s bad for the 5th District, and encourage people to ask him some tough questions,” Cates says. “If he’s going to criticize the congresswoman for not standing up to tough questions, we’ll see if he can.”

Stuckart says he welcomes the chance. “If half the crowd hates my guts and comes in there, I do see it as an opportunity,” Stuckart says. (DANIEL WALTERS)

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A new group is looking into the feasibility of renovating the former OTIS HOTEL into about 100 small-to-tiny apartments, with commercial space on the first floor.

The former hotel at 110 S. Madison St., a skid row apartment building in later years, has been empty since 2007, when the final residents were required to leave for what was supposed to be a renovation into modern apartments. That didn’t happen, and after the recession hit, the site changed hands several times.

Plans submitted to the city in March by ZBA Architecture show the potential for dozens of units on the second through fifth floors of the building at First and Madison, units that would range between about 250 and 500 square feet.

While the assessor’s site still lists the building as owned by Coastal Community Bank of Everett, the plans submitted to the city say it’s owned by Curtis Rystadt of Portland. Rystadt is registered as owning several corporations dealing with property and real estate in Oregon.

Neither Rystadt nor Randy Vanhoff with ZBA Architecture returned calls seeking comment.

The site plan estimates the project’s cost at about $4.5 million, and says it could start as soon as July. Mark Richard, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, says he heard that due diligence was being conducted for a possible purchase: “I think what we’re seeing in general is a huge interest in downtown living, and I think the micro units have a strong potential to fill a really neat niche.” (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

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APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 17

NEWS | PUBLIC RECORDS

License to Sue A local attorney continues his crusade against the Washington State Patrol selling accident records to “ambulance-chasing” lawyers and chiropractors

BY DANIEL WALTERS

I

t works like this: You’re in a terrible car accident.

You’re injured, maybe badly.

The cops arrive, swipe your driver’s license to get state Department of Licensing data, then upload that information into the Washington State Patrol database.

The next day, someone from an attorney or chiropractor’s office logs onto the Washington State Patrol website and buys more than a dozen accident records — including yours.

They use your name, your address and your accident details to send you an advertisement in the mail.

It outlines exactly what happened to you. For a price, the mailer explains, you can get help.

Last year, the Inlander wrote about former Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser’s multiyear quest to stop this practice. Sweetser has gone to the Washington State Patrol, the Washington State Bar, and the Washington State Attorney General’s office, all without success.

So now, Sweetser is going the legal-action route: This week, he’s filing a class-action lawsuit against the chief of the Washington State Patrol. It argues that the WSP is breaking federal law when it sells your accident informa-

tion to people who plan to use it for marketing to clients.

ACT OF CONGRESS

“The state does not screen these requests,” Sweetser says. “You are never told that your information is sold.

The requests may be made by anyone. A crazy person.

An ex-boyfriend. A neighbor. A stalker. Identity thieves.

You name it. They’ve got your address, your telephone number and your full name.”

That sort of thing has happened. In 1989, a stalker murdered California actress Rebecca Schaeffer after he got her personal information from a motor vehicle database. That’s what the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, was created explicitly to prevent: DMV information can’t be released unless it fits into a narrow series of exceptions.

And trying to find clients for lawsuits, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013, doesn’t fit into those exceptions. That’s why Sweetser is convinced that the WSP is out of line.

“They know it’s against the law, and they have been

told so repeatedly,” Sweetser says in an email. “And they still continue to sell your very private personal information. This case will hopefully put an end to this practice.”

Gretchen Dolan, spokeswoman for the Washington State Patrol, says the agency is in an awkward spot: It has to abide by Washington’s broad public records act — requiring disclosure of nearly every public record, outside some narrow exemptions — without running afoul of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. But she says she’s confident that the WSP has struck the right legal balance. Dolan says that federal law bars the Washington State Department of Licensing from directly Jim Sweetser releasing information, but not the Washington State Patrol from releasing that same information indirectly.

“It’s our position that it’s on a WSP form now, it’s not a [Department of Licensing] document,” she says.

Dolan justifies the decision by pointing to a ruling in Illinois finding that cops can write down DMV information on parking tickets without it violating federal law.

“Until recently, [WSP accident record] forms were old-school, written out,” she says.

It would be impractical, Dolan says, to suddenly have to redact personal information on accident records because drivers’ licenses are being scanned and the information uploaded to the WSP database.

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Always in reach

opinion in the Illinois case, Sweetser says, where it says that “had the Village been making the information on parking tickets publicly available over the Internet” the invasion of privacy would probably outweigh the value to law enforcement.

Sweetser comes armed with his own stack of precedents, arguing that the protections on motor vehicle record information don’t somehow magically disappear when they leave the Department of Licensing and appear on an accident report.

THE ROAD AHEAD

This is not a new controversy. Sweetser references an email from 2005, where then-Washington state Rep. Toby Nixon raised concerns about a shadowy company viewing hundreds of accident reports and using them for marketing purposes. Nixon even attempted, unsuccessfully, to pass legislation banning state public records from being used for direct marketing purposes.

Now, however, Nixon is on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, which would be very cautious about limiting access to public records.

“Maybe there’s a badly designed intersection. You may want to contact other people who’ve been in accidents at that same intersection,” Nixon says. “There are all kinds of arguments to be made for not closing this down.”

Even before filing the class-action lawsuit, meanwhile, Sweetser has achieved a small victory. The primary target of his crusade has been Craig Swapp, a Utah-based attorney who was purchasing hundreds of accident reports every month in order to target potential clients. But in the months since the Inlander published its story, Swapp has stopped that practice.

“Because the direct mail solicitations turned out not to be effective, Mr. Swapp is no longer obtaining records from the WSP to use in direct mail solicitations,” Swapp’s attorney wrote in an October letter to Sweetser.  danielw@inlander.com

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Drawing Lines in the Asphalt

20 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

North Monroe Street’s future is being hotly debated, but cool things are already happening along the strip

BY DANIEL WALTERS

PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK

F

ive lanes wide, with only a single spotlight over the course of more than a mile, the North Monroe Street corridor plunges down the hill at Garland Avenue, past a jumble of more than 70 years of development — of rises and falls and abandonment and reinvestment.

Commuters speed past auto-parts dealers, fastfood joints, a waffle house, an international grocer, a plasma bank and vacancies with cracked signs advertising urban decay. They drive past a hip new coffee roaster, then an antique shop old enough to be an antique itself, then the bar that’s been open since the 1940s in a building that’s stood for 117 years. They zoom past Dan’s Barber & Styling Salon — the barbershop at the bottom of the hill with the giant scissors jutting into the air — which opened in 1957. Seconds later, they roll past Brickyard Barbershop, with its taxidermied bison head and beer fridge, which opened in 2016.

Yet the question isn’t about where Monroe Street has been. The question is where it’s going.

And on that question, North Monroe Street is divided along generational and philosophical lines that have sometimes exploded into profane tirades and furious emails.

Drivers can see that too, on the red “Say NO to Monroe Street project” signs posted on buildings, stuck into the ground and stretched across a giant billboard at the bottom of the hill.

Two grants, worth $4.1 million, are set to transform the corridor with crosswalks, street lighting, transit shelters, trees, wider sidewalks, more room to park and — most controversially — a reduction from five traffic lanes to three. Some parts of North Monroe are eagerly awaiting the street’s wholesale transformation, while others are fighting like hell to stop it.

The city spent the past month gauging public opinion and floating potential compromises. But with neighbors and businesses staking out positions a full five lanes apart, agreement looks elusive.

ASSIGNING LANES

GUIDE TO MONROE BOOZING 22 MANSCAPING 23 SHOPPING 24 NOSHING 25 CAFFEiNating 26

The dramatic overhaul of the 1.12-mile stretch of North Monroe Street between Kiernan and Indiana Avenues has plenty of supporters. The EmersonGarfield neighborhood, tired of reading horror stories about pedestrian deaths on their street, embedded the lane reduction in their neighborhood plan.

E.J. Iannelli, a member of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council, recalls watching as a passing car tore off the car door of a handicapped woman trying to exit her vehicle from the narrow parking space outside Tossed and Found on Monroe Street.

“She just sat there screaming,” says Iannelli, also an Inlander freelancer.

Along the targeted stretch, newer, younger businesses — like Brickyard and Vessel Coffee Roasters — see the project as a way to imbue the area with a new vitality, attracting new businesses to long-empty properties.

Dave Musser has been part of the neighborhood for 11 years. He notes that before he cofounded Bellwether Brewing at 2019 N. Monroe in late 2015, the building there, an abandoned mechanic’s shop, had been vacant for a decade.

“We’re excited to bring new life into the neighborhood,” Musser says.

Skippers Restaurant owner Gary Jarvis, however, aligns with businesses like Azar’s, Zip’s, Waffles Plus and the Moezy Inn Tavern, many of

which have been on Monroe for decades.

“If you’ve only been in business two months, what stake do you have on Monroe Street?” argues Jarvis, who has stretched a “NO to Monroe Street Project” banner over the sign advertising Skippers’ Fish and Clam Basket deal.

Jarvis worries that businesses may not survive a construction season, and that reduced traffic volume from commuters will take their toll on sales. He predicts that freight deliveries, emergency vehicles and bus stops could wreak havoc with traffic. For that matter, he doesn’t believe that Monroe is unsafe.

“We just want to save Monroe,” says Jarvis.

“Monroe is not broken.”

UNPOPULAR COMPROMISE

Last summer, the lane reduction seemed almost inevitable.

“We’ve accepted the grant dollars,” city spokeswoman Marlene Feist told the Inlander last summer.

“It’s a project that’s moving forward.”

But now, facing intense opposition from Jarvis’ group, the city has spent the past month trying to assess just how many people are on each side of the project.

“We want to know, once and for all, what do people really think?” Feist says.

Jarvis believes the people are largely on his side. He contrasts the “thousands” of customers who he claims come into his restaurant opposed to the project with what he says are the “the small, small group of people who are for the project.”

However, when the city conducted a nonscientific SurveyMonkey online poll of more than 600 Spokane residents, including commuters and Monroe residents, it found that two-thirds of respondents believed the project achieved a strong balance between safety, business vitality and neighborhood livability. (Jarvis doesn’t believe the survey is reliable.)

Now, Feist says, the city is redoing Monroe Street traffic counts and is attempting to contact every business and property owner along the corridor regarding their views on the project. The city has even suggested spending anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 striping the lanes as a trial run for the lane reduction.

Almost nobody seems to like the idea.

“You’d get all of the doom and gloom that everybody is predicting without the benefits,” Iannelli says. You’d drop a lane, he says, but wouldn’t get wider sidewalks, street trees or any of the other desirable features of the proposed project.

Jarvis doesn’t like the idea of wasting money.

“We oppose spending $500,000 of taxpayers’ money to test out the project,” he says. Even if the city tests out the new lane configuration and none of his dire predictions come to pass, Jarvis says the opposition group won’t change its mind.

Eventually, Feist says, the city council will likely have a chance to vote on whether the North Monroe project will proceed.

City Councilwoman Karen Stratton agrees with the neighborhood that the stretch of Monroe is not safe, but sympathizes with business concerns about their livelihoods.

She says there’s not a clean answer.

“If the city decides to say, ‘Let’s just not do this,’ then you’ve got angry neighbors. The chances of them utilizing the businesses on Monroe might fade,” Stratton says. “That’s when it hits me that nobody is really going to win.” n danielw@inlander.com

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 21

Roger Villareal, left, opened T’s Lounge last fall.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

New Kid on the Block T’s Lounge joins a popular lineup of North Monroe watering holes

BY DAN NAILEN

T

he antique beer signs in the window and stuffed deer heads hanging from the walls would be at home in many American bars. But at tiny T’s Lounge on the lower end of North Monroe, they’re artifacts of the room’s former life.

“I’ve been in this spot going on four years now,” says owner Roger Villareal. “I had a place called T’s Recyclery. It was my secondhand thrift store. The neighborhood, I knew it was going to blow up. Everybody watches the American Pickers show, so I figured I’d be able to make a little bit of money, but to survive was tough. Plus, I didn’t like to sell any of my stuff!”

Villareal converted his store into T’s Lounge through a lot of remodeling work last summer, and the bar opened in September. He’s basically trading in one business plan — secondhand store — with plenty of Monroe Street competition for another, but most of Monroe’s well-established drinking spots are farther up the hill. He remains enthusiastic about his section of Monroe, even after the one-two punch of downtown road construction and a harsh winter made for some slow months after T’s first opened.

“Kendall Yards is coming up this way,” Villareal says.

“And they remodeled a bank a half-block away into really nice apartments people are living in. Bruncheonette opened, which brings people to the neighborhood, and the grocery store [My Fresh Basket, slated to open this year] is going to

22 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

bring more people. Last year, we did really well when people were walking around and could see us.”

The T’s Lounge space at 703 N. Monroe is still evolving, Villareal says, and probably always will be. It has a full club license, so cocktails and and a rotating cast of beers dominate the offerings. There’s a small game room in back where one can play darts or pinball, and he’s hoping to add a patio out back to take in the sunsets this summer.

Most of the T’s regulars are folks who live or work in the neighborhood, or old friends of Villareal’s from when he tended bar years ago at Mootsy’s and Ichabod’s North. “I’ve been in the hospitality industry all my life,” he notes, taking a pause to sip a couple of beer samples from a local brewery’s sales rep. “It’s kind of turned into a neighborhood bar.

Neighbors and friends.”

With any luck, T’s could become an entertainment anchor for a section of Monroe that has lacked for bars, save Charley’s Grill & Spirits and Ruins. They showcase art on First Fridays, and occasionally book DJs; Villareal would like to add some low-key acoustic music to the mix. On a recent Sunday night, a bunch of Elton John concertgoers discovered T’s Lounge as one of the few bars open within walking distance to the Arena, and Villareal is starting late-night happy hours for the staffers at nearby restaurants.

“That’s our vibe, we keep it chill,” he says. “We keep evolving, and we like to have a good time.” n

MOVING ON UP Monroe Street, particularly its north end, has seen more than its fair share of pub crawls through the years, thanks to the presence of some of Spokane’s best, oldest and cheapest bars.

The MOEZY INN TAVERN (2723 N. Monroe) is a must-stop, as is the HI-NEIGHBOR TAVERN (2201 N. Monroe) and PJ’S PUB (1717 N. Monroe); all of them offer some friendly folks and good deals on beer, with the occasional karaoke night mixed in to entertain the pull-tab players and regulars. The HUB TAVERN (2926 N. Monroe) is within walking distance of those spots; it’s another neighborhood joint, albeit one with a distinct hockey-fan vibe.

Down the hill from the Hub, a couple of newer spots — both opened in 2015 — are adding life to the North Monroe drinking scene. PROHIBITION GASTROPUB (1914 N. Monroe) has craft cocktails, a wide array of local and regional beers on tap, and some seriously tasty burgers on the menu. And BELLWETHER BREWING (2019 N. Monroe) has made a name for itself in the Inland Northwest’s burgeoning craft beer scene with its “Old World” beers and willingness to experiment.

Jay Troutt, right, draws customers from across the region to his barbershop.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Cutting it Close Looking for a traditional barbershop?

North Monroe is home to four with distinct personalities

BY DAN NAILEN

W

hen Jay Troutt opened Classic Cuts just over a year ago, the front door literally hadn’t been opened in 23 years. Customers of the former tenant, Vintage Rabbit Antique Mall, entered the space from a labyrinthine set of hallways inside the building, perusing decades’ worth of odds and ends piled up on carpet that was installed a good 50 years ago.

For Troutt, 44, making that entry on 2311 N. Monroe inviting for his longtime customers and passersby was just one step in rehabilitating the space into the barbershop. He and his wife Brianna painted the walls, tore out the carpet and got the wood floors underneath buffed into shape. Less than five years after getting his barbering license and building a clientele working at a mall barbershop, Troutt has decided that the gamble involved in opening his own spot was well worth the risk for the satisfaction it’s brought him.

“Peace of mind is the best way I can explain it,” he says one weekday afternoon between customers. CNN plays on one TV hanging in the shop, and a sports talk show on the other, while posters of Muhammad Ali overlook the four barber chairs Troutt installed. There’s room for more when it’s time for Classic Cuts to grow, he says.

Troutt isn’t quite a Spokane native, but he’s lived here since he was 12, when his Air Force dad was stationed at Fairchild. He worked all kinds of jobs through the years — industrial manufacturing, construction, “all kinds of stuff” — before starting to think about a longterm career.

“Life begins at 40, right? You’ve heard that?” he asks with a smile. “I needed to do something I’d be happy doing for years and years.”

He’s found that in cutting hair, Troutt says, especially

since opening Classic Cuts. Gone are the days of staring at a clock waiting for the day to end; instead, he only looks at the time to make sure he’s going to finish one haircut in time for his next appointment.

Landing on Monroe wasn’t automatic. Troutt hired a realtor and looked around a few different parts of town.

He knew he wanted somewhere between his old job at NorthTown Mall and downtown, where his clients could easily find him. So far, so good, he says, for his spot that, instead of being shuttered, now boasts big windows opening onto Monroe.

“People walk by and walk in who never knew we were here,” Troutt says. “I’ve met so many people in this barbershop. The diversity — so many walks of life.”

While Troutt considers Classic Cuts a throwback to the good, old-fashioned barbershops he grew up with, you could say the same about the other barbershops doing business on North Monroe. All cater to a predominantly male clientele looking for some of that old-school vibe, though they all have their own distinct personalities.

Dan’s Barber Shop, toward the top of the hill at 3301 N. Monroe, is quite literally old-school; it’s been in the same location more than 50 years since Dan Flambouras opened it. Bright fluorescent lights shine on walls covered with photos of generations of customers. While Dan’s does women’s hair, too, they specialize in “flattops, crew cuts, fades and shaves,” and one whiff upon entering the place will produce flashbacks for anyone who ever went to a real old-timey barbershop growing up.

Down the hill at Brickyard Barbershop (2802 N. Monroe) there’s a bit of a retro vibe, too, but the place

just opened last year. Like Troutt, owner Chris Banka was looking for a long-term career after years of manual labor.

“I had crazy long hair in the ’80s, some pretty horrendous metal hair,” Banka says. “My mom used to always tell me, ‘You should be a hairdresser when you grow up. You can have your hair however you want.’ Instead of listening to her, I did construction for my whole life, until I was so sick of it I couldn’t stand it.”

Banka picked Monroe for his shop after some looking around, and Brickyard’s clients come from all corners of the area for the friendly vibe he’s created in the 111-year-old building.

“I just wanted it to be a warm, comfortable environment” while maintaining the qualities of a traditionalstyle barbershop, Banka says.

The vibe at Quick’s Barbershop (1429 N. Monroe) is a bit of a combination of the other three shops. Sports played on TVs one recent evening when I popped in, and a few barbers and customers bantered about their families, recent vacations and the street scene outside the large windows. Facebook is full of pictures of children’s first haircuts done at Quick’s, and grown-ups can get all the services one would expect from a traditional barbershop.

Brickyard’s Banka says it makes some sense for the shops to have congregated on Monroe, even if that wasn’t intentional. And there’s room for all of them to succeed.

“I’ve traveled Monroe my whole life. It’s affordable and it fits perfectly,” Banka says. “Here’s the thing about the shops: We’re all different, in many ways. The style, the feel, the people. And that’s not bad.” n

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 23

FROM LEFT: Mandi Neale, Rachell Fincher and Jessi Fincher explore the treasures found at 1889 Salvage Co.

A Passion for History 1889 Salvage Co.’s owner mines and repurposes the past to satisfy modern tastes

BY RAVEN HAYNES

“W

e like to tip things on their ear here,” says Gina Campbell, owner of vintage shop 1889 Salvage Co. She says this standing beneath a bare metal box spring, which sits atop metal bars, which sits atop a red window that was converted into a table and framed with wooden posts — in other words, the crafty and creative check-out area of the store, which opened last September.

1889 Salvage Co., the latest addition to the vintage, antique and thrift shop mecca that is Monroe Street, also offers custom-built creations. Her collection, about half her finds and half those of her vendor-partners, features vintage home décor, books, photos and clothes, and shines thanks to skillfully arranged vignettes. A zebra-print chair pops against a plush red rug; an antique toolbox flips and turns into a shelf; and a purple velvet Christmas tree from Nordstrom is now a completely logical spot to hang portraits from the early 1900s.

“I’m going to garage sales, estate sales, thrift shops,” says Campbell, who occasionally sold her finds at flea markets until the space at 2209 N. Monroe opened up. “I’ll pull my car over and grab something off the side of the road, out of the dumpster. If I think I can give it new life, it’s mine!”

Campbell is used to showing things off; she was director of visitor services at Visit Spokane for nearly eight years.

She designed and led tours for visitors and companies, led workshops on Spokane history for hospitality and customer

24 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

services workers, and drew the store’s name from that passion for history (and the hunt for vintage goods).

“Not only was 1889 the year that Washington became a state,” Campbell says, “it was also the year of [Spokane’s] Great Fire, and out of the ashes came a new city, brick buildings, new industry.” She hopes to offer the same rebirth for the items she finds.

As one of the newcomers to Monroe, Campbell says her main mission is getting the word out about the store before construction begins next year on the highly divisive North Monroe Corridor Project, which would reduce Monroe Street from five lanes to three. Though it’s a tough hurdle for a new business, scant parking and a lack of pedestrians already pose a challenge, so Campbell thinks it will be worth it.

“I think it’s going to catapult this corridor into the next stratosphere,” Campbell says, “and bring it to a level like South Perry Street. A really cohesive, fun place to walk around.”

She hopes to continue drawing customers in through enticing photos of her merchandise on Instagram and by partnering with online vintage shop Sicilia’s Closet for a Vintage Clothing Pop-Up Shop on April 8. For now, she’ll keep doing what she does best.

“I just let my creativity take over,” Campbell says, “and try to put together vignettes that inspire people to look twice.” n

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

OLD AND NEW SPOKANE LIQUIDATION / MONROE INTERNATIONAL

FOODS & MORE, 2106 N. Monroe: Peruse a selection of discounted home goods, clothes and auto parts, among other things, then cross over to the mini Arabic market, which offers halal and kosher meats, Arabic coffee, Syrian pita bread, halva (a fudge-like sweet), date syrup, molokhia (a leafy vegetable) and more.

BOULEVARD MERCANTILE, 1905 N. Monroe: The main floor of the historic Stewart’s Hardware building houses an eclectic mix of vintage home and garden décor and beauty products. Downstairs, the cozy, rock-walled basement is mostly dedicated to vintage threads. New inventory from Boulevard’s many vendors comes through the door on a daily basis; follow the shop on Instagram (@boulevardmercantile) for hot new items that always seem to sell fast.

KINGSLEY & SCOUT, 2810 N. Monroe: You can’t miss the turquoise-and-purple storefront at this new men’s boutique. Co-owners Billy Jones and Nick Lewis make sure you get your fix of denim, shirts, beanies, hand-stitched leather goods, bourbon- and tobaccoscented candles and even scotch-flavored toothpicks.

VINTAGE RABBIT ANTIQUE MALL, 2801 N. Monroe: Vintage Rabbit is nearly vintage itself, serving up a variety of collectibles and antiques to Spokane for more than 20 years. The mall recently hopped a few blocks north on Monroe to a new, larger location, where there’s sure to be a treasure hiding around every corner.

4000 HOLES, 1610 N. Monroe: This record shop is a Spokane staple, around since 1989, and named after the lyric in the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” referring to potholes in the northern English town of Blackburn (which easily translates to Spokane). Check out a regularly rotating collection of vinyl, CDs, DVDs and books.

And of course, Beatles memorabilia.

GIANT NERD BOOKS, 709 N. Monroe: Say hello to Happy the Alligator (and the other animal skulls in the shop’s menagerie) and browse through owner Nathan Huston’s carefully curated collection — ranging from odd to kind-of-out-there — including novels, biographies, art books, fantasy fiction and comics.

Shirley and Jack Williams, right, have owned Charley’s for nearly 40 years.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

A Corner Classic For nearly four decades, locals have come for the food and drink at Charley’s, returning again and again for its cozy, Cheers-like vibe

BY CHEY SCOTT

W

hen you tally up all the places on North Monroe Street to grab a bite to eat, no matter the meal, there are few places that have satiated appetites for food, drink, and good company for as long as Charley’s Grill & Spirits.

The local pub opened back in 1973, but first sat across the street, at 1011 W. Broadway, from its highly visible, longtime spot on the corner of Broadway and Monroe. Back then, recalls owner Shirley Williams, the place was called Charley My Boys: A Tavern, named after an oft-uttered expression by the late comedian and actor W.C. Fields that had been adopted by the tavern’s original owner. When an opportunity to buy the business arose, Williams and her husband Jack jumped right in.

“January 4, 1978, was the first day. My husband and I were very young,” Williams recalls from the empty bar on a Thursday morning before Charley’s opens for lunch.

“His dream was to own a bar, and he had worked for Charley’s previous owner for about a year and fell in love with the customers and the neighborhood,” she continues.

“He’s a fun-loving person, and at the time we bought Charley’s, the [TV] program Cheers was on. He wanted to identify with that concept of a neighborhood place where people could come and feel comfortable and have a good time.”

Jack is now retired from the day-to-day restaurant operations, but Shirley still manages the restaurant and oversees other aspects, like revamping the menu and planning to ensure that Charley’s continues to be a neighborhood hangout for future decades. Next year, the couple celebrate Charley’s 40th anniversary. Shirley is already dreaming up ways they can mark the momentous event, perhaps by bringing back

original menu items and inviting former employees for a big party.

Just recently, Williams sat down with her Food Services of America rep to rework some of Charley’s classic American pub food offerings — burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and other entrées — to showcase more local ingredients, like produce and beef. She also slightly adjusted some prices to help compensate for Washington’s minimum wage increase, but says she managed to do so without bumping prices too high.

On a Monday evening during happy hour (Mon-Sat, 4-7 pm), several older customers fill a few back tables. The lone bartender knows many of them by name.

Charley’s location near the Spokane Arena continually draws customers before and after events there. Throughout the years, Charley’s has also been loyally frequented by Spokane Civic Theatre cast and crew, as well as Spokane County employees arriving from next door. Waitstaff offer a 20 percent discount on food to folks who come by on their way to or from an event at the Arena, the Civic or other nearby venues.

Despite its old school — yet clean and inviting — interior, Charley’s is adapting to the demand in current industry trends. Williams recently brought on nearby Tom Sawyer Coffee as a supplier, and eight of Charley’s 12 beer taps are reserved for offerings from familiar, local names: No-Li, Twelve String, Iron Goat, River City and One Tree Cider.

“I have great satisfaction of where we’ve been and what we’ve done,” Williams reflects. “I also feel we’re in the best possible position we’ve ever been in from day one, with the fact that this neighborhood is becoming a destination place.

Kendall Yards has very much been a driving force for the businesses here revamping and making changes.” n

ON THE MENU No matter your budget, the time of day or your hunger cravings, North Monroe from the bridge to the bottom of the hill is filled with a variety of local food spots to meet your needs. Joining Charley’s as another longtime establishment, MILFORD’S FISH HOUSE (719 N. Monroe) has been in business since 1980 and has a reputation for serving up some of the tastiest seafood in town.

Just up the block, Chef Tony Brown’s diminutive eatery RUINS (825 N. Monroe) is one of a few newer spots to open along this stretch. Ruins serves up sandwiches from the former Stella’s Café during lunch, and its regularly rotating, smallplates-style menu keeps things fresh. Farther up the street, PROHIBITION GASTROPUB (1914 N. Monroe) is another newer face to the business district, opening in late 2015. The burgers there are a must-try. Craving Mediterranean food?

AZAR’S RESTAURANT (2501 N. Monroe) has been a North Monroe staple for more than two decades.

How about some tacos or a massive burrito?

GERARDO’S AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD (2706 N. Monroe) has all the tortas, tamales, tacos and more. Fans of decadent breakfasts can get their fill of, well, waffles at WAFFLES PLUS (2625 N. Monroe). Another tiny shop that packs a flavorful punch is ALOHA ISLAND GRILL (1724 N. Monroe), a popular takeout spot for the lunch crowd and hurried drivers on their way home.

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 25

Vessel Coffee Roasters is a caffeine destination point in the evolving Monroe neighborhood. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

Fresh Grounds Approaching its one-year anniversary, Vessel Coffee Roasters looks to expand its neighborhood clientele

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

C

onsidering the layout of Monroe Street, you’d think there would be a drive-thru espresso stand on every block: Its current five-lane setup would certainly allow for it. But Vessel Coffee Roasters, which opened last June at 2823 N. Monroe, is really the only brick-and-mortar coffee shop on the stretch of Monroe between the drive-thru Jacob’s Java (formerly Caffe Delicio) and the Garland District.

If the recently shuttered Coeur Coffee (at 701 N. Monroe) marks the start of the Monroe District, then Vessel is the opposite bookend.

Vessel’s owner, Sean Tobin, says the lack of proximity to another sit-down coffee place has its advantages: People are going out of their way to visit his shop because they like what it offers — only about 10 percent of his clientele comes from foot traffic, he estimates — and they’re typically staying for a while and savoring the experience. At 8 am on a Thursday, there are already 20 or so patrons hunkered over laptops or thumbing through the paper with their morning joe.

“We don’t have a lot of people just walking down the road, coming in for a cup of coffee,” Tobin says. “It’s really a destination point at the moment, so we want to create an environment and an atmosphere that people

26 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

enjoy being in. aged to settle down here. I saw a really bright future on “But if someone wanted to open a coffee shop right the horizon for us in terms of what that could look like.” down the road,” he adds, “I wouldn’t say, ‘No, don’t do Since Vessel opened its doors last summer, Tobin says it. I’m afraid about my business.’ If someone wants to do he and his staff have been experimenting with different it, they should do it.” roasting approaches and have been making new types of That, of course, could change with the proposed coffee available to their customers. They’ve also released Monroe Street updates, which predate Vessel’s addition a new spring menu and are selling their coffee wholesale to the neighborhood. Tobin has been a vocal supporter of in small shops in Seattle, Boise, New York and Tobin’s the project: He’s currently part of a collective of resident hometown of Portland. business owners that calls itself Know Monroe (its name There are also plans to install a parklet with benches, is an obvious riposte to the group opposing the construcsimilar to the ones that have popped up downtown, tion), which meets to share news of the project adjacent to Vessel next month, which Tobin LETTERS and to “spread the good that’s happening in the says should give people an idea of what a Send comments to neighborhood,” Tobin says. neighborhood with wider, more walkable editor@inlander.com. sidewalks might look like.

He is aware, however, that not everyone is as optimistic about the changes as he is: In fact, And while there’s no current plan to there’s a banner opposing the Monroe project hanging on expand Vessel to a second location, Tobin says it’s not the neighboring Vintage Rabbit Antique Mall, which you an impossibility. For now, he wants to give his customcan see through one of Vessel’s large windows. ers a place to relax and unwind while the neighborhood “I recognize the risk,” Tobin says. “But I think all develops around them. great things in life require some sort of risk. They don’t “We could have a drive-thru and people could get a usually come easy. And I think this could potentially be quick cup of coffee and be on their way,” Tobin says. “In one of them. … When I heard about the project and I a sense we’re saying slow down, take a breath, enjoy a heard about what it could do, I was extremely encourcup of coffee and a good conversation.” n

RECREATION

Bouldering?

It Rocks!

Spokane follows the national trend with the opening of a second rock-climbing gym

BY MITCH RYALS

A

dam Healy’s problems are color-coded, and each week it’s something new.

Healy co-owns a climbing gym that recently opened in north Spokane. In the world of climbing, “problems” are the specific routes that climbers use to move up a wall. Healy’s facility, Bloc Yard Bouldering Gym, has about 180 problems that are rearranged on a weekly basis. That means the entire gym will turn over with fresh routes every six weeks.

“The holds are constantly rotating and constantly on different planes,” Healy says, “so people get to experience that hold in a different way every time.”

Bloc Yard, located at 233 E. Lyons Ave., is only the second climbing facility to open in Spokane in decades. Healy’s facility differs slightly from Wild Walls, which has long been the to-go gym locally, as his is a bouldering-only gym. Bouldering is a specific type of climbing that doesn’t make use of ropes to scale shorter walls. For some, that’s a bonus, Healy says, because ...continued on next page

Katie Rykken is among the first to try out Spokane’s newest climbing gym.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 27

CULTURE | RECREATION

Rock climbing is skyrocketing in popularity, and bouldering-style climbing is a great way to build strength for outdoor climbs, Bloc Yard manager Brett Jessen says.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

“BOULDERING? IT ROCKS!,” CONTINUED... bouldering climbers don’t need a partner.

The new gym, which opened last week, has about 4,500 square feet of wall space and is about 16 feet high at its tallest point.

“From what I’ve seen from building [gyms across the country], these are some of the best angles I’ve seen put in a space like this,” says Brett Jessen, a manager at Bloc Yard, who has traveled the country building climbing gyms. “It’s got beginner terrain to professional.”

I

n the weeks before Bloc Yard’s soft opening (rates are discounted until the gym’s grand opening on April 15), Healy and Jessen discuss their excitement about the new facility over the buzz and clank of construction.

The two began renovating the nearly 10,000-squarefoot former gymnastics studio last November.

“Since the build started, I think I had, like, maybe five days off,” Healy says. “It was about a month of just pure cleanup. We started throwing steel in at about midDecember.”

Climbing as a sport has grown steadily in the U.S. since at least 2009. Last year, 27 new climbing gyms opened across the country; though that number is down

Slice and Grind FEATURING:

slightly from previous years, facilities are still popping up all over at a good clip. According to Climbing Business Journal, more than 40 gyms are set to open this year, and the industry has grown in the U.S. at about a 9 percent rate since 2012. Competitive climbing also has been added to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

That fact is not lost on Healy and Jessen. Sections of the Bloc Yard will feature beginner-level problems and an area for kids, and part of the gym will be dedicated to competition-level climbers.

“The planes are large enough that we can put these volumes on and change the three-dimensional aspect of the walls, and still have independent lines going through,” says Healy, who has helped design climbing gyms in Portland. “The height of the walls allows us to set really showy, dynamic problems — real crowd-pleaser stuff.”

Bloc Yard also has a “cave,” where climbers hang nearly upside down. That’s perfect for developing power and endurance, says Healy.

F

or these two, Bloc Yard is a homecoming. Jessen and Healy met back in the late ’90s when Healy was a freshman at Gonzaga. A buddy took him to

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Wild Walls, where Jessen worked, and he’s been climbing ever since.

“Then I started climbing outside at Minnehaha, Tum Tum and Deep Creek,” Healy says of the popular rockclimbing areas near Spokane. “I just got hooked, and tried to spend all my free time doing it.”

The two left town and have been helping build climbing gyms all over the country for the past several years.

Jessen left his mark in New York and Chicago, and most recently on a 40,000-square-foot facility in Salt Lake City.

Healy has helped out on the Circuit Bouldering Gyms in Portland, and has started his own company that designs “holds.”

Coincidentally, the two landed back in Spokane last year and agreed to help brothers Jason and Shaun Olcott build and open Bloc Yard.

“This city is big enough, and bouldering is one of the fastest growing sports in the country right now,” Jessen says, indicating that the sport’s popularity demands a second facility.

“We really don’t look at it as competition,” Healy says of Wild Walls. “We’re trying to build a community.” n mitchr@inlander.com

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CULTURE | OPERA

F

UI student Dylan Champagne brings new life to an old movie.

Old Flick, New Licks University of Idaho student crafts a new original score for Phantom of the Opera

BY DAN NAILEN

or years, the most memorable aspect of the 1925 silent horror film Phantom of the Opera was the genuinely creepy makeup designed and worn by the movie’s star, Lon Chaney, Sr. That remained true of the tale even after music and sound effects were added to a reissue in 1930.

That all changed, of course, when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version that made it to Broadway in 1988 became a runaway hit, cementing the image of the Phantom in modern audiences’ minds as part of an operatic melodrama. Thankfully, University of Idaho music student Dylan Champagne found inspiration in the 1925 film and created an all-new score for Phantom of the Opera, and an eight-piece chamber orchestra will perform his work at a screening at the Garland Theater.

“The experience of viewing a silent film with a live score is profound, harkening to the days before talkies,” Champagne noted in an announcement for the show, noting that live music at a movie “adds an element of chance and authenticity that starkly contrasts [with] the standardization and mass production that permeates our contemporary cultural landscape.”

Champagne will graduate this spring with a degree in music composition, and the Garland screening comes thanks to a grant secured after he debuted his new Phantom score in April 2016 at Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.

Expect a sound experience that evokes Phantom’s inherent campiness, not to mention creepiness. n Phantom of the Opera • Thu, April 13 at 7 pm • $20; $15 for students • Garland Theater • 924 W. Garland • dylanchampagne.com/phantom or garlandtheater. com

open to open the to open to the public. the public. public.

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 29

CULTURE | DIGEST

VISUAL ARTS FIRST FRIDAY S

pokane artist Robert Kraut’s latest show, containing more than 30 new works created over the past two years, strays from the artist’s familiar use of bright and vivid color palettes. Titled “Revolting Developments,” Kraut uses the collection to explore some darker philosophical elements: “This work conveys something beyond illusion, deception or beauty… Life is not just all wonderful and glorious!” Kraut muses in his artist statement. Far from serving as aesthetically pleasing art for the sake of beauty, this collection instead seeks to find a balance between the offensive and introspective, perhaps despite the subjects some of Kraut’s pieces explore: child abuse, frustration with aging, and caring for his own aging parents. Through these emotions of anger, frustration and repression, Kraut asks his audience to ponder the universal question: what is this art about?

— CHEY SCOTT

Robert Kraut: Revolting Developments • April 7-28: Opening reception Fri, April 7 from 5-9 pm; closing reception April 28, 5-8 pm • KolvaSullivan Gallery • 115 S. Adams

Spokane artist Bob Kraut’s April show at Kolva-Sullivan Gallery is a collection of more than 30 new works.

RECEPTIONS ON FRIDAY, APRIL 7, FROM 5-8 PM, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, VISIT DOWNTOWNSPOKANE.ORG OR INLANDER.COM/FIRSTFRIDAY. Avenue West Gallery, 907 W. Boone “Musings” by Cheryl Halverson.

Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main “3 Minute Mic” feat. Tim Greenup; 8-9:30 pm.

Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Mixed media by Valerie Ann Lindberg; 5-10 pm.

Bellwether Brewing, 2019 N. Monroe A mother-daughter show by Jacqueline Brewer and Elle Brown. ben GALLERY, 1024 W. Railroad Alley New art by Ben Joyce.

Bistango, 108 N. Post Music by Ray Vasques, 6-9 pm.

Bloem, 808 W. Main Cityscapes by artist Tracy Dupuis.

Bozzi Gallery, 221 N. Wall Steel sculptures by Rick Davis.

Chase Gallery, 808 W. Spokane Falls “Explorations XV” feat. thesis work of graduating seniors from Whitworth, EWU, GU, SFCC, NIC. Chosen Vintage, 7 W. Main Art by Missy Narrance and Ryan Dean Tucker; 10 am-8 pm.

Community Building, 35 W. Main The Spokane Watercolor Society’s

t

s 71

N

SEASO

g n i n e p O Friday April 14th at 7pm Buy 1 Get 1 Free

Tickets Available Online

annual show.

Core Pilates & Wellness, 1230 W. Summit Pkwy.

Watercolors by Ginny Brennan.

Craftsman Cellars, 1194 W. Summit Paintings by Tom Quinn. Music by the Brad Keeler Trio, 6:30-8:30 pm.

Dodson’s Jewelers, 516 W. Riverside “Palouse Yearning” by Vicki Broeckel.

Express Employment, 331 W. Main “Blooming Artists;” art by kids at the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.

Free People, 865 W. Main “In Bloom;” drawings and paintings by floral design artist Oana.

Gina’s Design Center, 811 W. Second A showcase of SFCC interior design students’ work.

Indaba Coffee, 210 N. Howard Art by Jon Deviny.

Iron Goat Brewing, 1302 W. Second Art by Travis Chapman.

Keith Powell Gallery, 123 E. Second Art by Keith Powell, David McMillin and Lisa Waddle; 5-10 pm.

Kress Gallery, 808 W. Main “Art of the Brush;” sumi-e and

Overbluff Cellars, 304 W. Pacific Art by Jamey Cunningham.

Patit Creek Cellars, 822 W. Sprague Music by Shauer with Friends, art

by Roch Fautch; 4-9 pm.

Philanthropy Center, 1020 N. Riverside “Warrior Spirit Native Art Show.”

Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington Batiks by Toni Spencer.

Richmond Gallery, 228 W. Sprague Art by Gonzaga University Art Department’s graduating seniors.

River City Brewing Co., 121 S. Cedar Art by Megan Lange and tapping of the First Friday Firkin; 3-9 pm.

Robert Karl Cellars, 115 W. Pacific Paintings by Richy Sharshan.

Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main “Displace,” feat. Lisa Nappa, Chris Tyllia, and others.

Saranac Commons, 19 W. Main Paintings by Audreana Camm.

Solace Mead & Cider, 1198 W. Summit Paintings by Ryan James Herring.

Spokane Art School, 809 W. Garland “Cleave, Stick & Split.”

Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main Music by Boat Race Weekend; 6:30-8 pm.

Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third “35mm: A Musical Exhibition.”

Steelhead Bar & Grille, 218 N. Howard Landscapes by Gary Johnson.

Terrain Gallery, 304 W. Pacific “Oracular Rooftops” by Heather Hart; April 7-8, from 4-7 pm.

Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams Ceramics by Otis Bardwell.

Urban Nirvana, 108 N. Washington Art by Josef Senesac.

V du V Wines, 12 S. Scott Fiber art by Christina Rothe, music by Crushpad; 5-9:30 pm.

West Second Pop-Up, 307 W. Second Art by Elliott Kolbe, Joe Kimmel, Jake Headlee, Emerlynn Terrell.

William Grant Gallery & Framing, 1188 W. Summit Pkwy.

Photos by Mike Busby.

Window Dressing Pop-Up Shop, 159 S. Lincoln Grand opening, feat. 15+ local artists and artisans. n

509-328-4886

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• Parkinson’s Disease

• Migraines Sat Apr 15 • 2pm Fri Apr 21 • 7pm Sat Apr 22 • 2pm Sun Apr 23 • 2pm

Fri Apr 28 • 7pm Sat Apr 29 • 2pm Sun Apr 30 • 2pm

COMING NEXT The Jungle Book the musical

30 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

calligraphy by Northwest artists.

LeftBank Wine Bar, 108 N. Washington Watercolors by Stan Miller.

Liberty Ciderworks, 164 S. Washington Portraits by Hannah Koeske.

Lucky Leaf Co., 1111 W. First Multimedia art by Jordan Lemm.

Marmot Art Space, 1206 W. Summit “Show (And Tell),” a photography-based showcase.

McCarthy Art Co., 120 N. Wall Art by Theresa Rocha.

Missing Piece Tattoo, 410 W. Sprague Art by Gabby Graham.

Nectar Catering, 120 N. Stevens Art by Nanci Wolfe.

New Moon Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague “A Grimm Night at the Moon” group show; 5-10 pm.

Object Space, 1818½ E. Sprague La Resistance’s “Carnival Extravaganza” group show.

The Observatory, 15 S. Howard Salik Seville and Denny Carmen.

Orlison Taproom, 1017 W. First Artist Brandon Sparks is featured.

Contact us today to learn about a research study!

Call (509) 343-3710 324 S. Sherman St., Ste. A2, Spokane, WA

Working the Soil

With help from her son, Idaho farmer Erica Gregerson adds organic fertilizer and chicken manure into a garden bed using a broadfork. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Regional farms are focusing on this year’s growing season; tending first to their soil is an important step after a long, wet winter

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

T

he herd is getting restless for spring, and they’re not alone. After the long, cold and especially wet Inland Northwest winter, Beth Robinette, who runs the 800-acre Lazy R Ranch with her father, Maurice, is just as eager to see green. It means food for her Black Angus-Lowline cattle.

She’ll have to wait, though; winter’s lingering effects have turned their lowland pastures into a pond.

Like most farmers in the region, Robinette takes weather issues in stride as one of the many variables of successful farming. And while they can’t control, much less predict, long-range weather, many farmers focus on what they can control: soil health.

“Two years ago we saw a historic drought; this year, we have more water than I’ve seen in 20 years,” says Robinette, who is also the co-founder of LINC Foods cooperative and the fourth generation to run this Cheney-area farm started in 1937 by her grandfather.

The spring to-do list at Lazy R includes, among numerous other tasks, continuing to compile records. The ranch owners track water, sun and soil information to help plan where, when and how their grass-fed cattle will graze throughout the year, says Robinette, who also promotes farmer education through her ranch’s nonprofit branch, Roots of Resilience.

In farming, after all, everything cycles back to the dirt on the ground.

Doug Warnock, formerly with Washington State University Extension and a member of the Pacific Northwest Center for Holistic Management, explains the importance of soil health: “Soil will be at its best when it is covered with growing, healthy plant life and providing a viable home for micro-organisms and [that] is effective in storing moisture,” he writes.

In turn, those plants protect the soil from eroding while also providing nutrients and moisture for the many organisms that live in it.

“When the soil is bare, raindrops dislodge soil particles, beginning the erosion process,” Warnock explains.

A

cross the Washington-Idaho border at Rugged Roots farm in Bayview, Idaho, Alan Wright and Kelsey Racicot are checking their notes, too.

“The Inland Northwest is a four-season schizophrenic, and anything can happen, from 85 degrees in May to frost in August,” says Wright. “When you spend seasons outside, the whole progression becomes a visual and auditory experience that you can compare year to year.”

The couple gathers important weather data based on observations ...continued on next page

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 31

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FOOD | FARMING “WORKING THE SOIL,” CONTINUED... of plants and animals and advice from their neighbors, some of whom have farmed the region for more than 60 years.

“All plant blooming [and] growth and animal hibernation [and] migration are choices made by intelligent creatures based on climate and weather,” says Racicot.

Armed with their respective degrees in environmental studies and forest management, the couple created Rugged Roots in 2013 as an ecological farm, which means they pay close attention to their soil ecosystem health. In turn, the precious resource produces 35 seasonal crops, including spring kale, summer squash and cabbage in the fall.

Like Lazy R Ranch, Rugged Roots uses a holistic approach. Traditional farming — picture a big green tractor pulling a toothy-looking dredge — tills or turns over the soil to dry it out, fold in nutrients like manure, kill weeds, and aerate the soil for easier planting.

Rugged Roots, in contrast, eschews tilling, as well as chemical fertilizers and sprays. Instead, Wright and Racicot “sheet mulch” their soil by applying a layer of decomposing plant matter over their raised beds to kill weeds, warm up the soil and add nutrients that sink in naturally.

Rather than leave soil bare at the end of harvest — as holistic farming expert Warnock explained, bare soil is bad — Rugged Roots plants “cover” crops like sorghum, which fights erosion and keeps soil aerated until the next crop goes in.

Planting cover or seasonally rotating crops also interrupts the growth and feeding cycle of pests and soil-borne organisms associated with certain crops, allowing the soil to rejuvenate.

At Rugged Roots, plants are grown from heirloom, non-GMO seeds and companion-planted for maximum yield. This means that instead of using herbicide or pesticide sprays, the couple plants varieties that attract beneficial insects — and also ward off the bad bugs — including pollinators and wasps that prey on insects which would otherwise eat their crops.

Number one on their to-do list this time of year, says Wright, is getting seed-start and transplant crops going in their greenhouse.

“In a year like this with the snow hanging on, having big beautiful transplants is even more important than normal,” he says, “but getting the timing right is the real key and challenge.”

They’re planting two to three weeks later than last year, says Racicot, who adds that

11am 4pm to

weather’s unpredictability is an opportunity to pay attention and reconnect with nature and its cycles.

“That’s probably one of the most rewarding things about farming, and why we continue to do it,” she adds.

A

t their home in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, Erica and Randy Gregerson are in their second year of urban farming at Gregerson Family Farm. The couple, who met through 4-H, produce and sell several dozen vegetables and berries both on-site and directly to regional restaurants. As with Rugged Roots, soil quality is a paramount concern for the Gregersons.

“We are blessed with good soil, so drainage isn’t a problem for us even in heavy snow/rainfall years,” says Erica.

To prep their garden beds, the couple uses a broadfork — a row of sturdy tines along the base of two upright poles — to lift the soil without turning it over, so that the complex layering of soil organisms, including the small but mighty earthworm, is kept intact. The couple also applies compost to their raised beds and covers them with plastic, elevating soil temperature and suppressing weeds.

They’ve already started crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant for transplanting, and will watch the weather to determine their planting schedule.

“We aren’t doing anything extremely different from years past; farming requires trust and patience,” says Erica. “If you are going to be successful as a farm, you have to be ready when the weather says ‘go.’”

Meanwhile, as climate change continues to be debated in the upper echelons of the federal government, our nation’s farmers are seeing the impacts of the scientifically proven trend firsthand, year after year.

While weather patterns are becoming more unpredictable, says the Lazy R’s Robinette, “the only solution is adaptive management and setting our ecosystem up to be as resilient as possible, so that we can quickly bounce back from unexpected conditions.”

So while Lazy R Ranch will shift the herd to higher ground earlier than expected this season, Robinette and her father know that sustainable practices will ensure that not only will the lowland pastures recover from winter’s deluge, but all their pastures should remain healthy for years to come. n

Fresh Omelette Station, Smoked Salmon, New York Strip Roast, Smoked Ham, Cashew Chicken plus lots more!

Adults $26 | Senior (55 yrs+) $22 | Under 12 $12 | Under 5 FREE

VIVALDI’S CLASSIC RE-IMAGINED Ten Artists with Spokane Symphony Musicians

$25 & up | Tickets: spokanesymphony.org • 624-1200 32 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

Dinner Menu available after 5:00pm Reservations Recommended

838-5211

The Airport

FOOD | OPENING

Sushi Swap A new Japanese eatery has taken over a North Spokane spot recently vacated by another

BY CHEY SCOTT

A

ji BBQ & Sushi opened quietly last month, just days after the shuttering of its building’s former tenant, Yuzen Sushi Restaurant.

While sushi — nigiri, sashimi and rolls — is still a menu staple at the new Aji, diners will also find an extensive list of Japanese and Asian fare that includes teriyaki, katsu and tempura meals ($9.95-$11.95), noodle and rice bowls ($8.95-$16.95), and other traditional dishes from the island nation, some of which Aji owner Kevin Phang says can be harder to find in Spokane. He lists Japanese curry dishes and okonomiyaki, a savory, layered pancake, as examples.

“It’s family-style Japanese food,” Phang says. “We wanted to make our menu different, and targeted for larger groups, so it includes meat and barbecue and a lot of Japanese starter appetizers and small items.”

Most of the entrées, like the teriyaki meals, which come with a colorful side salad, are large and easily shareable. Customers have also taken notice of Aji’s expansive menu, as compared to what they remember of Yuzen’s offerings, Phang says.

Aji sushi chef Matt Penley stayed on through the transition.

ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS

The transition between Yuzen, which had occupied the small building on North Division near NorthTown Mall since 2011, and Aji happened quickly. Phang says the family who owned the former restaurant — they also operate a location on Mercer Island, near Seattle — had been trying to sell it for some time. Phang, meanwhile,

was looking to make a transition from his longtime career in international business to something that would keep him closer to home and his children.

Having spent the bulk of those 18 years working with clients in the Asian marketplace, Phang says he often ate at restaurants in Japan and Korea, among other countries.

Considering that experience, friends encouraged him to open a restaurant in Spokane, so Phang spent about six months working for a restaurant-owner friend to learn the nuances of managing an eatery.

When the building’s landlord finally approved the business transition back in early February, Phang opened Aji three days later. Several of Yuzen’s former staff, including its sushi chef, were retained through the change. Because of that quick transition, the inside of the restaurant hasn’t changed much since he took over.

Phang plans to gradually update the interior and exterior as time goes on. His main goal is to make Aji — named after his grandmother, Aji, who was beloved in her Japanese village for sharing home-cooked meals with friends and neighbors (aji is also a Japanese word for flavor or taste) — a welcoming and comfortable place where diners and families want to come and spend time together over a long meal.

“You go to restaurants and the bottom line is, you want to feed yourself and be comfortable and satisfied,” Phang says. “We don’t want to forget about that. We want people to stay for at least one hour, or maybe two, with good friends or family.”  cheys@inlander.com Aji BBQ & Sushi • 5204 N. Division • Open Mon-Sat, 11 am-9 pm • facebook.com/ajibbqandsushi • 413-1272

Breast cancer is about us. It’s in our neighbors, our moms, our kids, it’s a part of us. It’s not affecting a friend of a friend of a friend. It’s affecting us. Me, you, us. There’s a team, it’s called Women.

We are women. The team is crucial.

Fundraising is more than money, it’s about knowledge, accessibility. If we want to fight cancer, we can’t just sit in a recliner. We have to participate. The remote in your hand is you. Take charge.

– Anni Ryan Meyer, Cancer Warrior & Maverick Former Whitworth Professor, Stained Glass Artist & Competitive Athlete Every Woman Can – An organization started by women, for women, for the Inland NW. Be part of the solution.

REGISTER for the run, SIGN UP a team and DONATE TODAY!

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 33

BLUE IN THE FACE Doubling down on regressive gender stereotypes, The Lost Village is a Smurfing disaster

BY MARYANN JOHANSON

T

he problem with the Smurfs — apart from the movie actually makes this big mess worse by doubling fiery rage they inspire to stomp them into blue down on regressive gender notions and embracing the goo — is Smurfette. (Typical. It’s always the gentler form of misogyny that puts women on a pedestal. woman who causes trouble.) Created by the evil wizard It may sound benevolent, even feminist, to suggest that Gargamel out of clay and sent into the Smurf village as women — or female Smurfs, in this case — are better than a spy, she’s sort of the original sin of Smurfkind: It was men, but it isn’t. only then that the Smurfs realized they were male, and It’s worse, too, that this reboot of the big-screen sexual creatures. It’s either that, or they already were Smurfs is more strictly for little kids than the 2011 and sexual creatures who were getting it on 2013 films: The horrid mix of live action and with one another (not that there’s anything animation — and the weird focus on the career SMURFS: wrong with that). and parenthood issues of adult human proTHE LOST VILLAGE Anyway, Smurfette is now an object of tagonists — has been replaced by 100-percent Rated PG love and lust for 99 male Smurfs (excludCGI cartoon. The little blue monsters are right ing, I guess, Papa). It’s impossible to believe Directed by Kelly Asbury at the center of an adventure full of junky, Starring the voices of Demi that this doesn’t cause problems, and that juvenile slapstick and animation, full of the Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Mandy sort of color and movement we more generally she hasn’t completely thrown off whatever balance once existed in the Smurf village. In Patinkin, Julia Roberts find in over-the-crib mobiles meant to stimulate this sense, even though she is now “good,” babies. and no longer an agent of Gargamel, she continues to We open with Smurfette (the voice of Demi Lovato) sow discord by the mere dint of her gender and presence. desperately trying discover her “purpose” as the sole (And do not tell me that I’m reading too much into a woman in a world story and characters meant for kids. There are children’s full of men named picture books that tell the story of Adam and Eve. People things like Brainy, want kids to take these ideas onboard. Our culture is positively steeped in views of women as disruptive to an easy life and as wicked temptresses for men. Kids are paying attention, and crap like the Smurfs reinforces these ideas; this is not cool.)

Smurfs: The Lost Village is all about actively confronting the problem of Smurfette, and it seems to believe it is redeeming the matter. Yet in the process, the

Clumsy and Hefty (they’re literally one-note characters, defined solely by their names). Smurfette wonders what “-ette” means, but of course we already know. Her femaleness is her defining characteristic, and within very narrow constraints of femaleness at that: She is blonde and pretty and “nice.”

An escapade to the castle of Gargamel (Rainn Wilson), wherein Smurfette ends up a damsel in distress who needs rescuing, results in the discovery of a map that leads to a legendary lost village of Smurfs. Smurfette, also desperate to redeem her evil origin as a spy (as if it’s her fault!), decides that finding this lost village and warning them about Gargamel is her purpose.

So off she tromps into the “Forbidden Forest” (like a certain forbidden fruit?) in her stupid, impractical girly high heels… But I won’t reveal what she discovers here, even though it is screamingly obvious. Suffice to say that it raises more questions about the origins of the Smurfs (and why that whole original village was male) than I suspect it’s intended to answer, and the conclusions it ultimately comes to regarding Smurfette’s identity crisis are enraging. She “can’t be defined by just one word,” one of the male Smurfs figures. But the male Smurfs can?

Not a good message for the little ones. 

FILM | SHORTS

OPENING FILMS THE CASE FOR CHRIST

Investigative journalist Lee Strobel was once an avowed atheist, setting out to irrefutably prove that there is no God. But as soon as he started digging into the “evidence” of Jesus’ existence — and once his wife converted to Christianity — he began to see the light.

Here’s a family-friendly, dramatized retelling of Strobel’s path to finding religion, co-starring Faye Dunaway, Robert Forster and Frankie Faison.

(NW) Rated PG

GOING IN STYLE

Oscar winners Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin take on roles originated by George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg in this remake of a 1979 comedy about old dudes who decide they’ve got nothing left to lose and rob a bank. Directed by (of all people) Zach Braff and written

by Theodore Melfi, who helmed last year’s Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures. (NW) Rated PG-13

QUEEN OF THE DESERT

The latest from prolific writer-directorexistentialist Werner Herzog is another of his meditations on our relationship with nature. This stately biopic chronicles the life of the English explorer and political officer Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), whose historical knowledge and diplomatic acumen were instrumental in establishing the modern state of Iraq. The movie received

scathing reviews after its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, but at least it’ll be pretty to look at. (NW) Rated PG-13

SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE

The third (!) feature in the recent reboot of Peyo’s Belgian cartoon creation jettisons the live-action elements from the last two Smurfs movies and goes all-in on its eye-searing CGI. This time, Smurfette takes off on a mission to discover her purpose in her otherwise all-male village, stumbling upon the secrets of Smurf existence in the process. Regressive gender stereotypes ensue. Featuring the voices of Demi Lovato, Mandy Patinkin, Julia Roberts and, uh, TV chef Gordon Ramsay. (MJ) Rated PG

YOUR NAME

A shy teenage girl, wishing she were someone else, wakes up one morning and finds herself in the body of a more popular teenage boy. But there’s a catch: He’s now occupying her body, and they find themselves improving one another’s social lives as their minds and bodies swap back and forth over the course of a year. Based on a popular novel by writer-director Makoto Shinkai, this anime feature is perhaps too densely plotted for its own good, but it’s an ultimately moving, beautifully drawn story that should appeal to young adults. In dubbed and subtitled versions. (NW) Rated PG

Writing workshops, panels, readings, and more!

NOW PLAYING A UNITED KINGDOM

The true story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), a Botswanan prince (and later, president) who aided in securing his country’s independence while married to a woman (Rosamund Pike) who was both European and white. During the late 1940s, their marriage was initially met with resistance from both the British and South African people, though they came to be generally beloved political figures. At the Magic Lantern. (NW) Rated PG-13

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Continuing the trend of remaking its animated classics as live-action features, Disney’s update of its great version of Beauty and the Beast is reverential to a fault. The plot goes more or less unchanged — the bookish Belle (Emma Watson) is taken captive by the horrifying Beast (Dan Stevens), who turns out to be cuddlier than expected — though this script provides more backstory for its central characters. Still, it’s not enough to make you forget the 1991 original, which probably shouldn’t have been monkeyed with in the first place. (SR) Rated PG

THE BOSS BABY

The latest from DreamWorks Animation casts Alec Baldwin as an infant who wears a business suit, talks like Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock and offers

April 17 - 23

up such pearls of wisdom as “cookies are for closers only” (because kids sure do love their Glengarry Glen Ross references). But here’s the twist: Baby Baldwin’s antics are all in the mind of his imaginative 7-year-old brother, who’s afraid the arrival of a new sibling will attract all of his parents’ attention.

(NW) Rated PG

Laila Lalami Christopher Howell Albert Goldbarth Nance Van Winckel

Shin Yu Pai John Rybicki Jamaal May Emily Ruskovich Alexandra Teague

Meghan Daum Jason Rekulak Justin Torres and more!

Tickets & Info: GetLitFestival.org

CHIPS

Another raunchy, R-rated big-screen adaptation of a goofy, retro TV show, this time updating the adventures of ’70s California highway patrolmen Poncherello and Baker to contemporary L.A. Michael Peña and Dax Shepard (who also wrote and directed) step into those famous khaki uniforms to, in a plot ripped from a Dirty Harry movie, hunt down a renegade ex-cop on a murderous rampage. Hey, the approach worked for 21 Jump Street.

What’s next — T.J. Hooker? (NW) Rated R

Spring Tours and Specials!

SATURDAY APRIL 8TH • 11AM, 1PM, 2PM & 3PM

Learn how we grow plants and get into Spring Mode with some GREAT SPECIALS!

GET OUT

Written and directed by Jordan Peele, this psychological thriller tackles the same issues of race and masculinity that were regularly explored on his Comedy Central series Key and Peele.

Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) and Allison Williams (Girls) play an interracial couple who visit her family’s country estate, which he discovers has a curi ous history with its African American ...continued on next page

14208 E 4th Ave, Spokane Valley | 509.926.9397 | plant-farm.com

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 35

FILM | SHORTS

NOW PLAYING staff. A clever, consistently funny racial satire and horror film that mocks white liberal cluelessness and finds humor in (without dismissing) black people’s fears. (ES) Rated R

CRITICS’ SCORECARD THE INLANDER

THE WAR TO END ALL WARS

April 6th, 1917 America entered the Great War in Europe.

The exhibit honors Spokane County soldiers who fought in World War I.

Find out why America entered the War, the impact of the Spanish Flu and more.

HOURS: WED-SAT 11-4

(509) 922-4570 | spokanevalleymuseum.com 12114 E Sprague Ave. Spokane Valley, WA

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36 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

KEDI

For anyone who wishes that all the cat videos on YouTube were feature length, here’s an 80-minute documentary about the feral felines who roam the streets of Istanbul and have completely taken over certain parts of the city. You can view it as a fly-on-the-wall study of an urban ecosystem, as a sumptuous international travelogue or simply as a visual love letter to Istanbul’s furry inhabitants. At the Magic Lantern. (SD) Not rated

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Set in 1973, the latest attempt to revive King Kong has a group of scientists, mercenaries and soldiers dropping into a jungle turf war between the legendary giant ape of the title and the horrifying monsters (known as “skullcrawlers”) that decimated his species. Skull Island is a lot of things at once — a war movie, a breathlessly paced chase film, a creepy-crawly creature feature, a man vs. nature parable — but it all works in its own crazy way. (MJ) Rated PG-13

LAND OF MINE

In the aftermath of World War II, a group of German POWs, most of them still in their teens, are forced to physically excavate the land mines that their fellow countrymen had buried on the Danish coast during the war. This harrowing drama is based on real events and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars.

(NW) Rated R

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

The improbably delightful original LEGO Movie found a brilliant game plan for turning a toy into a story: combining a child’s anarchic sense of play with a savvy adult’s perspective on how goofy yet inspired that play can look from a distance. The LEGO Batman Movie adds another level of self-awareness about the entire recent history of comic-book movies, making for a wonderfully engaging mix of action spectacle and genre parody. (SR) Rated PG

VARIETY

(LOS ANGELES)

METACRITIC.COM (OUT OF 100)

My Life as a Zucchini

85

Get Out

83

Logan

77

Beauty and the Beast

66

Kong: Skull Island

62

Life

56

Ghost in the Shell

53

GHOST IN THE SHELL

This live-action reimagining of a highly regarded 1995 anime feature neuters a crafty, cerebral premise in favor of plodding, mostly bloodless gunfights and slo-mo hand-to-hand combat. Scarlett Johansson plays Major, a half-human, half-cyborg mercenary who attempts to stop a cabal of terrorists from hacking into people’s minds and controlling them for their own nefarious aims, but all is not as it seems. The occasional striking image can’t save this dull attempt at intriguing sci-fi. (NW) Rated PG-13

NEW YORK TIMES

DON’T MISS IT

WORTH $10

LIFE

A Mars probe discovers and obtains a sample of an extraterrestrial organism, and it’s handed over to a small team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The life form seems docile at first, but it turns out to be intelligent and malevolent, escaping captivity, multiplying in size and wreaking havoc on the ship. The film copies a lot of its moves from Alien, but relentless, heart-pounding suspense isn’t one of them. (NW) Rated R

LION

This multiple Oscar nominee is based on a memoir by Saroo Brierley, who was separated from his mother in Calcutta as a child, adopted by an Australian couple and later used Google Earth to locate the tiny Indian village he left behind. Although the film’s middle section drags considerably, this is an undeniably powerful true story, and Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and 8-year-old Sunny Pawar deliver standout performances. (NW) Rated PG-13

LOGAN

The third film in the stand-alone Wolverine trilogy is probably the best XMen movie yet. Set in 2029, 25 years after the last known mutant was born, a haggard Logan (Hugh Jackman) has retreated into the desert to care for the ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

The existence of a little girl with uncanny powers soon becomes known, and Logan agrees to transport her to a faraway mutant refuge known as Eden.

Bloody, bold and badass, this is one of the finest comic book movies ever made. (MJ) Rated R

MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI

Although it may feature a large cast of adolescent characters, this Oscarnominated stop-motion story, a SwissFrench co-production, will probably be a bit intense for younger viewers.

For older children, though, it’s a disarmingly honest, bittersweet tale of a timid little boy who accidentally kills his abusive, alcoholic mother and winds up in an orphanage with other kids from similar troubled backgrounds. At the Magic Lantern. (NW) Rated PG-13

POWER RANGERS

Power Rangers, a cheap, Americanized repackaging of the long-running Japanese series Super Sentai, started as a

WATCH IT AT HOME

SKIP IT

fad in the early ’90s, and it’s somehow still inspiring new merchandise and spin-off TV shows. It was inevitable, then, that Hollywood would eventually mine the franchise for a reboot, producing a new group of kids who are morphed into heroes, differentiated solely by their brightly colored super suits. (NW) Rated PG-13

THE SALESMAN

As they’re preparing to appear in a production of Death of a Salesman, a husband and wife living in Tehran are shaken following a violent assault. An observant character study that unfolds with the propulsive nature of a thriller, this recent Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film further cements writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s reputation as one of the best filmmakers currently working in any country. At the Magic Lantern. (NW) Rated PG-13

THE SHACK

While on a camping trip, a little girl is abducted and murdered, leaving her family emotionally shattered. But don’t let that gruesome premise fool you: This is an inspirational film for Christian audiences, and pretty soon the girl’s father (Sam Worthington) is receiving cryptic messages that seem to be coming from on high. Co-starring Octavia Spencer, Radha Mitchell and Tim McGraw. (NW) Rated PG-13

T2: TRAINSPOTTING

Twenty years after the first Trainspotting, everyone’s favorite Scottish junkies Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie are back in a sequel that serves as a self-referential tribute to the original cult favorite. Long-awaited follow-ups rarely deliver on the promise of their predecessors, but the return of director Danny Boyle and writer John Hodge, along with solid reviews from European critics, bodes well. (NW) Rated R

THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE

Jessica Chastain stars as Antonina Żabiński, who, along with her husband Jan, turned her once-thriving Warsaw Zoo into a safe haven for Polish Jews during WWII. It’s a remarkable true story, most famously documented in Diane Ackerman’s bestselling book, but this adaptation looks to be another handsome, conventional Hollywood biopic that was made to win Oscars it won’t ever receive. (NW) Rated PG-13 

FILM | REVIEW

NTERN THEAT GIC LA ER A M FRI, APRIL 7TH- THURS, APR 13TH TICKETS: $9 MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI (65 MIN) FRI/SAT: 3:30 SUN: 1:15 WED/THU: 3:00 A UNITED KINGDOM (105 MIN)

www.SpokaneMovies.com

LAST WEEK

FRI-SUN: 5:00 WED/THU: 4:15

LION (115 MIN) FRI/SAT: 7:00 SUN: 2:45 WED/THU: 6:15 KEDI (78 MIN) FRI/SAT: 7:30 SUN: 3:45 WED/THU: 6:45

When you stare into the void and nothing stares back.

Artificial, Not So Intelligent

THE SALESMAN (122 MIN) FRI-SUN: 5:15 WED/THU: 4:30 (509) 209-2383 • 25 W Main Ave MagicLanternOnMain.com • /MagicLanternOnMain

AIRWAY HEIGHTS

10117 W State Rt 2 • 509-232-0444

Ghost in the Shell is a flat, unimaginative repackaging of a cerebral, groundbreaking anime

Quality Moving Services for Home and Office

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

Throughout Spokane and the Inland Northwest

A

mind is a terrible thing to waste, even if and her human colleagues, all boasting varying it’s been surgically implanted in a fully degrees of cyber-enhancements, are investigatsynthetic, military-grade body. So, too, ing a plot to destroy the world’s leading robotic is a good premise, especially one that previously manufacturing conglomeration, and they find anchored a landmark sci-fi film and has now themselves chasing a mysterious cloaked figure been listlessly recycled into a tiresome, dead-eyed who’s hacking into people’s brains and using blockbuster. them as avatars in his violent scheme.

Such is the case with Ghost in the Shell, a liveGhost in the Shell is the second feature from action remake of a revered anime feature that, director Rupert Sanders — his debut was the since its release in 1995, has been copied many forgettable Snow White and the Huntsman — and times over: Steven Spielberg, because his background is in James Cameron and Joss TV commercials, it’s not much GHOST IN THE SHELL of a surprise that he offers up Whedon have willfully borRated PG-13 rowed elements from its story, some striking imagery here. His Directed by Rupert Sanders and the Wachowskis have been vision of a futuristic metropolis, Starring Scarlett Johansson, Takeshi Kitano, especially vocal about its influbathed in neon and covered Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt ence on The Matrix. A tricky, in holographic billboards, is twisty, cerebral meditation on hardly original (Blade Runner, consciousness and identity, it still holds up on its anyone?), but it’s hard to deny that it pops off the own. screen. And some of the film’s robotic creations This version, by comparison, is a dull Holare spectacular and horrifying, particularly the lywood product, and it feels even less like a fleshmachines with the double-jointed legs that allow and-blood creation than its animated forebear. them to scale walls like mechanical arachnids.

It also exhibits about as much personality as its As for those accusations of whitewashing protagonist, the ruthless, stoop-shouldered Major, you’ve been hearing about: They’re not unwara half-human, half-cyborg mercenary played by a ranted. The film does address Major’s ethnicity brooding Scarlett Johansson.

— to discuss any more would probably give too As the film opens, Major is awoken, so to much away — but it doesn’t have the guts to adspeak, and is briefed about her situation by Dr. dress the murky sociopolitical questions it raises Ouelet, a Mother Frankenstein type played by (perhaps unintentionally). A thoughtful, provocathe great Juliette Binoche. Major’s brain is suptive film could have been made from this mateposedly that of a refugee who died in a cyberterrial, even with Scarlett Johansson at its center. rorist attack, and it now resides within a body But that kind of thoughtfulness would require that is, Ouelet explains, “a synthetic shell. But the movie to have anything on its mind other your mind — your ghost — is still there.” (The than bloodless gunfights, car chases, explosions screenplay is overloaded with horribly clunky and lots of slo-mo hand-to-hand combat. Considdialogue like this.) ering its source, Ghost in the Shell is a disappointWith that unnecessary exposition out of the ingly standard action spectacle, but it’s boring way, the story leaps forward a year, and Major spectacle, the kind you’ve seen dozens of times is now the primary killing machine for what can before. It turns out to be something of an empty best be described as a futuristic police squad. She shell itself. 

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APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 37

Monthly Mardi Gras Northwest of New Orleans is a musical variety series that aims to bring the sounds of the Big Easy to the Bartlett

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

I

t was in 2005, in a small New Orleans jazz club called the Spotted Cat, when Garrin Hertel fell head over heels in love with the music of the French Quarter.

While watching a band called the Jazz Vipers, Hertel, a classically trained pianist who hadn’t played music in more than a decade, was finally inspired to get back into the swing of things.

“Watching the guys in the band play together, seeing the joy they felt while playing traditional jazz, I had to know what it felt like to create music with a group of people on the spot, onstage in a jazz club,” Hertel says.

So Hertel, entranced by the stylings of Jazz Vipers rhythm guitarist John Rodli, picked up a guitar himself, and eventually formed the local jazz and swing collective

38 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

Hot Club of Spokane in 2007. Now Hertel is taking his love of Dixieland to a venue that you might not immediately associate with jazz: He’s one of the creative minds behind Northwest of New Orleans, a variety series that’s set to bring a little slice of Louisiana culture to the Bartlett.

These monthly concerts share a name, format and venue with Northwest of Nashville, a regular folk and bluegrass series conceived of and hosted by Spokane singer-songwriter Jenny Anne Mannan. Hertel recalls going to November’s Northwest of Nashville show because it featured Steve Bauer, Hot Club of Spokane’s lead guitarist, and he knew instantly that he could do the same thing with jazz.

“I loved the format, the music and the whole idea,” Hertel says. With Mannan’s enthusiastic blessing, that idea quickly became a reality.

The New Orleans and Nashville shows will follow the same basic structure, which both Hertel and Mannan have likened to the long-running radio program A Prairie Home Companion. It’s similar, too, to the ongoing Round series, also hosted by the Bartlett: Musicians from different projects and disciplines share the same stage, performing their own work, collaborating with each other and often improvising in the moment.

“Since [Ella’s Supper Club] closed, it’s really been difficult to pin down a local establishment that has regular offerings of jazz,” Hertel says. “Jenny’s show inspired us

Hot Club of Spokane, bringing New Orleans to the Inland Northwest.

CHRIS WOOLEY PHOTO

to take a risk on promoting something monthly that could give jazz another anchor in Spokane culture. Without that opportunity, and others like it, the scene simply can’t grow.”

The first Northwest of New Orleans show will be hosted by members of Hot Club, and the featured artists will include multiinstrumentalist and swing revivalist Casey MacGill — “he’s a modern-day Cab Calloway, in a way,” Hertel says — and the vocal trio of Anna Jo Muhich, Cady Croskrey and Mikaella Croskrey, paying tribute to the Boswell Sisters, 1930s jazz stars who inspired Ella Fitzgerald and the Andrews Sisters. Mannan will also be performing, helping to ring in the latest entry in her namesake series.

Since Mannan’s brainchild already has attracted a regular audience, Hertel hopes that his take on the format will, too.

And who knows: Maybe someone will experience the same jazz epiphany that Hertel did a dozen years ago at the Spotted Cat. “It’s really easy in Spokane to promote the music that always attracts an audience,” Hertel says. “But for a true sense of vitality, people need to hear something new, even if that something is actually old. … Who knows who might come to one of these shows, hear what we’ve created, and then invent something new the next day, just because they realized something was possible, where before they didn’t?” n Northwest of New Orleans, hosted by Hot Club of Spokane • Tue, April 11 at 7:30 pm • $7/$10 • All-ages • The Bartlett • 228 W. Sprague • thebartlettspokane.com • 747-2174

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 39

MUSIC | TRIBUTE

This Ain’t No Disco Life During Wartime pays groove-filled homage to Talking Heads

BY DAN NAILEN

N

ame a popular band, and there’s likely a tribute act out there delivering soundalike versions of their songs. The Bing and the Knitting Factory get a steady diet of classic-rock tributes, and even smaller venues occasionally play host to the likes of Super Diamond (Neil Diamond) or the Iron Maidens (duh — Iron Maiden).

Life During Wartime is a little bit different. Band leader Lawrence Orleck describes the Portland-based crew as “a Talking Heads experience,” and notes that his band isn’t merely trying to recreate the sound of the pioneering art-rockers. Life During Wartime is using Talking Heads’ music — more specifically, the funkiest era in the lifespan of the David Byrne-fronted quartet — as a jumping-off point for some extended funky breakdowns all their own.

“When Talking Heads came out with the Stop Making Sense movie by [director] Jonathan Demme, what really changed was this funk element to the band that started to develop and solidify with those [extra] musicians like [keyboardist] Bernie Worrell,” Orleck says. “That’s how we kind of started out, and we kind of built in the backup singers and started getting really strong jazz WEEKEND and funk players in the C O U N T D OW N band.”

Get the scoop on this With the touring weekend’s events with Life During Wartime our newsletter. Sign up at lineup numbering anyInlander.com/newsletter. where from six to eight members, Orleck and his bandmates focus on the funkiest elements of the Talking Heads catalog, a decision he says has attracted jamband fans as well as serious old-school fans who just want to hear the Heads’ tunes in a live environment again.

The idea of taking some of the songs into extended funk workouts evolved naturally on stage, Orleck says.

David Byrne’s naive melodies get a funk-infused update.

He recalls the band being locked into a version of “Take Me to the River,” which naturally evolved on the fly into another Talking Heads tune his band had never played before. That experience led the band to put more effort into pushing the funky envelope, and the songs welcomed it, Orleck says.

“The Talking Heads songs are really open, the fans are really open and the music is really open, so [we] started opening up the midsections, and it kind of opened up the improvisational vibe in our shows,” Orleck says.

“Because of the grooves that we’re playing, people just start sweating and dancing, and they do not stop pretty much for the entire night.”

There’s not much more you can ask of a tribute band. And Life During Wartime doesn’t ignore Talking Heads’ most popular tunes: You’ll hear “Burning Down

the House” and “Psycho Killer,” as well as some less-familiar tunes — “Moon Rocks,” “Pull Up the Roots,” “The Great Curve” — that are naturals for a bunch of funk and jazz folks lighting a fire under a dance party.

Learning and performing those deep cuts has only given Orleck a greater appreciation of a band he once knew solely for its hits.

“Everything is about timing,” Orleck says, “and getting into this project, seeing how the music affected people, getting to know the fans of this music, and learning about the stories behind some of this music — it took a second, but now I’m in love with it.” n Life During Wartime with Super Sparkle • Fri, April 7 at 7:30 pm • $10 • All-ages • The Big Dipper • 171 S. Washington • bigdipperevents.com • 863-8098

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APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 41

MUSIC | SOUND ADVICE

GARAGE ROCK WHITE MYSTERY

C

hicago’s sibling duo White Mystery bears more than a passing resemblance to another similarly named guitar-anddrum duo from the Midwest. But they’re hardly a White Stripes ripoff act, if that’s what you’re wondering: Sure, Alex White and her younger brother Francis crank out bare-bones, powerchord-heavy rock, but their songs are closer in tone to the fuzzy oddities you might hear on one of those ’60s Nuggets compilations. The Whites were part of 2015’s Volume lineup, but I first saw them three years earlier, crammed into the corner of Neato Burrito with 50 or so other late-night revelers. If this upcoming concert is anything like that one, it should be a sweaty, raucous, beer-soaked evening. And if we’re lucky, the band will throw handfuls of AirHeads — their namesake flavor, natch — out to the crowd.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER White Mystery with Fun Ladies, Nat Park and the Tunnels of Love • Fri, April 7 at 9 pm • $5 • 21+ • Baby Bar • 827 W. First • 847-1234

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

Thursday, 04/6

J J THE BARTLETT, Marco Benevento BEEROCRACY, Open Mic BOOMERS CLASSIC ROCK BAR & GRILL, Randy Campbell BOOTS BAKERY & LOUNGE, The Song Project J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Open Jazz Jam with Erik Bowen J CHAPS, Spare Parts COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, PJ Destiny CRAVE, DJ Freaky Fred CRUISERS, Open Mic Jam Slam, hosted by Perfect Destruction & J.W. Scattergun FEDORA PUB & GRILLE, Kicho HOTEL RL AT THE PARK, Ron Greene THE JACKSON ST., Jody Piper J LAGUNA CAFÉ, Just Plain Darin J MONARCH MOUNTAIN COFFEE, Open Mic Hosted by Scott Reid OBJECT SPACE, CJ Boyd, Maiden Hair, The Poids, Nothing But the Dead & Dying, Quarry, Rebecca Chadwell THE OBSERVATORY, Vinyl Meltdown J THE PALOMINO, Open Mic J THE PIN!, Nef the Pharaoh, Chozen, DJ Keddy, Alvin Artzis, Young East POST FALLS BREWING COMPANY, Wyatt Wood THE RESERVE, Liquid with DJ Dave THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler TIMBER GASTRO PUB, Sammy Eubanks ZOLA, Blake Braley

Friday, 04/7

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Son of Brad

42 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

DOOM WREKMEISTER HARMONIES

W

hat’s in a name? In the case of Wrekmeister Harmonies, an awful lot. The musical project of composers JR Robinson and Esther Shaw, who often work with members of the experimental rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor, tips its hat to Werckmeister Harmonies, a celebrated 2000 art film by Hungarian director Béla Tarr.

Despite dabbling in different media, Robinson and Shaw’s recordings form something of a stylistic symbiosis with Tarr’s offbeat films: The spare, droning soundscapes on the most recent Wrekmeister album, 2016’s Light Falls, would pair perfectly with Tarr’s predilection for grainy black-and-white photography, sallow, haunted figures and long, long takes. Maybe they’ll all collaborate one day.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER Wrekmeister Harmonies with Aerial Ruin • Thu, April 13 at 8 pm • All-ages • $8/$10 day of • The Bartlett • 228 W. Sprague • thebartlettspokane.com • 747-2174

J BABY BAR, White Mystery (see above), Fun Ladies, Nat Park and the Tunnels of Love J THE BARTLETT, John Craigie, Little Wolf BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn J J THE BIG DIPPER, Life During Wartime (see page 40), Super Sparkle BLACK DIAMOND, DJ Sterling BOLO’S, Mojobox BOOMERS CLASSIC ROCK BAR & GRILL, Dangerous Type J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Heather and the Soul Motions CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA AND SPIRITS (CDA CASINO), KOSH

CURLEY’S, Dragonfly J DOWNTOWN SPOKANE LIBRARY, Boat Race Weekend FEDORA PUB & GRILLE, Dan Conrad HILLS’ RESTAURANT & LOUNGE, Front Porch Trio IRON HORSE BAR, Aftermath THE JACKSON ST., Steve Livingston and Triple Shot LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Nick Grow LIBERTY LAKE WINE CELLARS, Wyatt Wood MAX AT MIRABEAU, Tuck Foster and the Tumbling Dice MICKDUFF’S BEER HALL, Devon Wade MOOSE LOUNGE, Whiskey Rebellion MULLIGAN’S BAR & GRILLE, Bill Bozly

NASHVILLE NORTH, Luke Jaxon, DJ Tom NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE (CDA CASINO), Uppercut NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, DJ Patrick THE PALOMINO, A Cryptic Ending, Within Sight, Rusted Hand, Pagan Country Rebels, Ghost Heart PEND OREILLE PLAYHOUSE, Open Mic THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler J RIVELLE’S RIVER GRILL, Just Plain Darin THE ROADHOUSE, Eric Rice THE ROCK BAR & LOUNGE, Tribute to

Merle Haggard THE SNAKE PIT, Arvid Lundin & Deep Roots THE THIRSTY DOG, Usual Suspects ZOLA, Sammy Eubanks

Saturday, 04/8

ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Son of Brad J BABY BAR, Feral Anthem, Perenne, Jacob Jones J J THE BARTLETT, Sisters, LEGS BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn J J THE BIG DIPPER, Itchy Kitty, Supervillain BLACK DIAMOND, DJ Stud BOLO’S, Mojobox

BOOMERS CLASSIC ROCK BAR & GRILL, Dangerous Type J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Dan Maher BULLHEAD SALOON, Usual Suspects CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA AND SPIRITS (CDA CASINO), KOSH CRUISERS, Freak System CD Release Party, with Symptoms of Insanity, Killer E’s CURLEY’S, Dragonfly FEDORA PUB & GRILLE, Donnie Emerson FLAME & CORK, Devon Wade HOTEL RL AT THE PARK, The Rising Tide IRON HORSE BAR, Aftermath THE JACKSON ST., Karaoke with James LA ROSA CLUB, Open Jam THE LOCAL DELI, Wyatt Wood MAX AT MIRABEAU, Tuck Foster and the Tumbling Dice MICKDUFF’S BEER HALL, Brian Jacobs and Chris Lynch MOOSE LOUNGE, Whiskey Rebellion MULLIGAN’S BAR & GRILLE, Rusty Jackson NASHVILLE NORTH, Kelly Hughes Band

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NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, DJ Patrick J NYNE, Lavoy, Matt Hopper and the Roman Candles OBJECT SPACE, Terror Pigeon with Curt Oren and Mecha Drum J THE OBSERVATORY, Pleasures, Crystalline, The Smokes THE PALOMINO, Blistered Earth (Metallica Tribute) PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Brown Salmon Truck THE PIN!, Treveezy, All Day Trey, The Kid, Slim Rick and more POST FALLS BREWING COMPANY, Just Plain Darin RED ROOM LOUNGE, World’s Finest, Folkinception, Breadbox THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler THE ROADHOUSE, The Hankers THE THIRSTY DOG, DJ Dave ZOLA, Sammy Eubanks

Sunday, 04/9

DALEY’S CHEAP SHOTS, Jam Night with VooDoo Church J J INB PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, Newsboys LINGER LONGER LOUNGE, Open Jam O’DOHERTY’S IRISH GRILLE, Live Irish Music THE OBSERVATORY, Vajra & Krashkarma J J THE PIN!, Michael Graves (The Misfits), Deadones USA, Sins and Sinners, Scared of Bears THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Sunday

Karaoke Night THE ROADHOUSE, The Stepbrothers with Peter Rivera, Smash Hit Carnival, The Nerve ZOLA, Whsk&Keys

Monday, 04/10

J CALYPSOS COFFEE & CREAMERY, Open Mic EICHARDT’S, Monday Night Jam with Truck Mills RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic with Lucas Brookbank Brown ZOLA, Perfect Mess

Tuesday, 04/11

J J THE BARTLETT, Northwest of New Orleans, feat. Hot Club of Spokane (see page 38) THE EMPEROR ROOM, T.A.S.T.Y with DJs Freaky Fred, Beauflexx THE JACKSON ST., Steve Livingston, Jerry and the Prairie Breeze Band JOHN’S ALLEY, Diego’s Umbrella LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Turntable Tuesday MICKDUFF’S BEER HALL, Open Mic MIK’S, DJ Brentano THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Open Mic/ Jam Night ZOLA, Dueling Cronkites

Wednesday, 04/12 GENO’S TRADITIONAL FOOD & ALES, Open Mic with Travis Goulding J GONZAGA UNIVERSITY, Tim McNary J J KNITTING FACTORY, Local Natives (see page 45), Little Scream

LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Carey Brazil LUCKY’S IRISH PUB, DJ D3VIN3 NO-LI BREWHOUSE, Wyatt Wood J THE PIN!, Gem Starks, US[+], Dyve THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Live Piano RIVELLE’S RIVER GRILL, Jam Night: Truck Mills and guests THE ROADHOUSE, Open mic with Johnny Qlueless ROCKER ROOM, Lil Debbie, Demrick, 1Ton THE THIRSTY DOG, DJ Dave ZOLA, Haley Young and Champagne Jam

Coming Up ...

J J THE BARTLETT, Wrekmeister Harmonies (see facing page), April 13 J THE BIG DIPPER, Emby Alexander, Boat Race Weekend, April 13 J BABY BAR, The Dancing Plague of 1518, Outercourse, Blood Handsome, April 13 J THE BARTLETT, Sera Cahoone, Naomi Wachira, April 14 J KNITTING FACTORY, Supervillain, Quarter Monkey, April 14 THE PALOMINO, Dysfunktynal Kaos, Strawberry Rocket, April 15 J THE BARTLETT, Gaelynn Lea, Dry & Dusty, April 15 J THE BARTLETT, Tyson Motsenbocker, Fialta, April 18 J KNITTING FACTORY, Beats Antique, Mr. Bill, April 18 THE OBSERVATORY, The Cryptics, Foxtrot Epidemic, Itchy Kitty, April 18

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MUSIC | VENUES 315 MARTINIS & TAPAS • 315 E. Wallace, CdA • 208-667-9660 ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS • 4705 N. Fruit Hill Rd. • 927-9463 BABY BAR • 827 W. First Ave. • 847-1234 BARLOWS • 1428 N. Liberty Lake Rd. • 924-1446 THE BARTLETT • 228 W. Sprague Ave. • 747-2174 BEEROCRACY • 911 W. Garland Ave. THE BIG DIPPER • 171 S. Washington • 863-8098 BIGFOOT PUB • 9115 N. Division St. • 467-9638 BING CROSBY THEATER • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • 227-7638 BLACK DIAMOND • 9614 E. Sprague • 891-8357 BOLO’S • 116 S. Best Rd. • 891-8995 BOOMERS • 18219 E. Appleway Ave. • 755-7486 BOOTS BAKERY & LOUNGE • 24 W. Main Ave. • 703-7223 BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB • 201 S. Main, Moscow • 208-882-5216 BUZZ COFFEEHOUSE • 501 S. Thor • 340-3099 CALYPSOS COFFEE & CREAMERY • 116 E. Lakeside Ave., CdA • 208-665-0591 CHAPS • 4237 Cheney-Spokane Rd. • 624-4182 CHATEAU RIVE • 621 W. Mallon Ave. • 795-2030 CHECKERBOARD BAR • 1716 E. Sprague Ave. • 535-4007 COEUR D’ALENE CASINO • 37914 S. Nukwalqw Rd., Worley, Idaho • 800-523-2464 COEUR D’ALENE CELLARS • 3890 N. Schreiber Way, CdA • 208-664-2336 CRAFTED TAP HOUSE • 523 Sherman Ave., CdA • 208-292-4813 CRAVE• 401 W. Riverside • 321-7480 CRUISERS • 6105 W Seltice Way, Post Falls • 208773-4706 CURLEY’S • 26433 W. Hwy. 53 • 208-773-5816 DALEY’S CHEAP SHOTS • 6412 E. Trent • 535-9309 DIAMS DEN • 412 W. Sprague • 934-3640 EICHARDT’S PUB • 212 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-263-4005 THE EMPEROR ROOM • 25 E. Lincoln Rd. • 703-7474 THE FEDORA • 1726 W. Kathleen, CdA • 208-7658888 FIZZIE MULLIGANS • 331 W. Hastings • 466-5354 FOX THEATER • 1001 W. Sprague • 624-1200 HOGFISH • 1920 E. Sherman, CdA • 208-667-1896 HOTEL RL BY RED LION AT THE PARK • 303 W. North River Dr. • 326-8000 IRON HORSE • 407 E. Sherman Ave., CdA • 208667-7314 JACKSON ST. BAR & GRILL • 2436 N. Astor St. • 315-8497 JOHN’S ALLEY • 114 E. Sixth St., Moscow • 208883-7662 KNITTING FACTORY • 911 W. Sprague Ave. • 244-3279 LAGUNA CAFÉ • 2013 E. 29th Ave. • 448-0887 THE LANTERN TAP HOUSE • 1004 S. Perry St. • 315-9531 THE LARIAT • 11820 N. Market St. • 466-9918 LA ROSA CLUB • 105 S. First Ave., Sandpoint • 208-255-2100 LEFTBANK WINE BAR • 108 N. Washington • 315-8623 LUCKY’S IRISH PUB • 408 W. Sprague • 747-2605 MAX AT MIRABEAU • 1100 N. Sullivan • 924-9000 MICKDUFF’S • 312 N. First Ave., Sandpoint • 208)255-4351 MONARCH MOUNTAIN COFFEE • 208 N 4th Ave, Sandpoint • 208-265-9382 MOOSE LOUNGE • 401 E. Sherman • 208-664-7901 MOOTSY’S • 406 W. Sprague • 838-1570 MULLIGAN’S • 506 Appleway Ave., CdA • 208- 7653200 ext. 310 NASHVILLE NORTH • 6361 W. Seltice Way, Post Falls • 208-457-9128 NECTAR CATERING & EVENTS • 120 N. Stevens St. • 869-1572 NORTHERN QUEST RESORT • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • 242-7000 NYNE • 232 W. Sprague Ave. • 474-1621 THE OBSERVATORY • 15 S. Howard • 598-8933 O’SHAY’S • 313 E. CdA Lake Dr. • 208-667-4666 THE PALOMINO • 6425 N. Lidgerwood St. • 242-8907 PEND D’OREILLE WINERY • 301 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-265-8545 THE PIN! • 412 W. Sprague • 368-4077 RED LION RIVER INN • 700 N. Division • 326-5577 RED ROOM LOUNGE • 521 W. Sprague • 838-7613 REPUBLIC BREWING • 26 Clark Ave. • 775-2700 THE RESERVE • 120 N. Wall • 598-8783 THE RIDLER PIANO BAR • 718 W. Riverside • 822-7938 RIVELLE’S • 2360 N Old Mill Loop, CdA • 208-9300381 THE ROADHOUSE • 20 N. Raymond • 413-1894 SEASONS OF COEUR D’ALENE • 209 E. Lakeside Ave. • 208-664-8008 THE SHOP • 924 S. Perry St. • 534-1647 SOULFUL SOUPS & SPIRITS • 117 N. Howard St. • 459-1190 SPOKANE ARENA • 720 W. Mallon • 279-7000 THE THIRSTY DOG • 3027 E. Liberty Ave. • 487-3000 TIMBER GASTRO PUB •1610 E Schneidmiller, Post Falls • 208-262-9593 ZOLA • 22 W. Main Ave. • 624-2416

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 43

Find Hustle & Hide’s handmade leather goods, modeled here by designer/owner Teddi Cripps, at the new Window Dressing Pop-Up shop.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

ARTS SHOP THE POP-UP

Months in the making, the fruits of creativity and perseverance have finally ripened for local arts nonprofit Window Dressing and its Creative Enterprise program. With a mission to place emerging local businesses in empty downtown storefronts to help test or kickstart a retail space, while also helping property owners showcase their vacancies, the first space in the program is here. Rather than placing each of the program’s initiate class members into individual spaces, the pop-up serves as a collaborative hub where locals can shop for handmade jewelry, leather goods, floral arrangements, fine art and much more. Visit the link below for a full list of the vendors you’ll find at the Steam Plant Square shop, or hit up this Friday’s grand opening party, with live DJ tunes, Steam Plant beer and more.

— CHEY SCOTT Window Dressing Pop-Up Shop Grand Opening • Fri, April 7 from 5-8 pm • Free admission • 159 S. Lincoln St. • bit.ly/2n5yky2

GET LISTED!

Submit events online at Inlander.com/getlisted or email relevant details to getlisted@inlander.com. We need the details one week prior to our publication date.

44 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

WORDS TEEN LIT TRIO

A trio of authors, including Spokane’s own Kris Dinnison, are joining forces for a group reading centered around their young adult novels, which share the common theme of teens struggling to find their place in the world. Dinnison’s 2015 novel, You and Me and Him, follows an overweight protagonist and her gay best friend, who both fall in love with the same guy. Joining her is Brie Spangler, whose debut novel Beast tells of a teen boy who falls for a transgender girl in his self-help group, and Portland-based Whitney Gardner, the author of You’re Welcome, Universe, about an artistic, deaf teen daughter of a lesbian couple. Of course, these descriptions only scratch the surface of the respective writers’ complex and very real characters; hear more about the trio’s individual processes to develop believable characters who definitely do not fit inside traditional literary molds.

— CHEY SCOTT Unconventional Beauties • Sat, April 8 at 7 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main • auntiesbooks.com • 838-0206

FOOD CELEBRATE SPRING

Enjoy delicious and traditional teriyaki and sushi dishes in celebration of the arrival of spring. This weekend, the Spokane Buddhist Temple hosts its 27th Annual Harumatsuri Japanese Spring Food Festival. This local version of the time-honored celebration, which traditionally included rituals to ensure a plentiful crop in the coming growing seasons, also offers a tofu-and-vegetable dinner option. Desserts include authentic butter mochi and chex arare; the latter is a sweet, baked sesame-seed snack. The event allows for online pre-ordering as well as takeout options.

— TUCK CLARRY Harumatsuri Spring Food Festival • Sun, April 9 from 11 am-3 pm • Food from $5-$12/dish • Spokane Buddhist Temple • 927 S. Perry • 534-7954 • bit.ly/2odRrmE

MUSIC SHAPE SHIFTERS

The first few seconds of Sunlit Youth announce the arrival of a slightly different Local Natives than we’re used to hearing. More so than on earlier releases, this third studio album from the L.A. indie rockers, released last September, fully embraces the electro-pop influences they’ve only hinted at previously. In terms of its production, this is their most expansive, biggestsounding album yet, and while their music has always been the kind you can easily bob your head to, this one is almost effortlessly smooth. Sunlit Youth doesn’t represent a seismic shift in tone or style, granted, but it does suggest that the guys in Local Natives are still pushing the boundaries of their sound nearly a decade into their career.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER

4.24

Local Natives with Little Scream • Wed, April 12 at 8 pm • $25 • All-ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague • sp.knittingfactory.com • 244-3279

FESTIVAL SWING INTO SPRING

The Lilac City is home to a thriving swing dancing community; come see for yourself during the annual Spokane Vintage Swing Dance Festival, featuring live music and dancing, a VIP party, crash-course dance lessons and more.

The festival also appropriately highlights April as Jazz Appreciation Month — swing dancing emerged along with early styles of jazz music — and includes live music on Saturday night by local group the Hot Club of Spokane. For the seasoned swing dancers out there, the festival also offers late-night “Lindy Exchange” dance sessions, starting at midnight Friday and Saturday after the evening’s main festivities have concluded.

— CHEY SCOTT Spokane Vintage Swing Dance Festival • Fri, April 7-Sun, April 9; times vary • All-ages • $12-$60, free/kids 12 and under • Events at Central Christ Church (19 W. Shannon) and Montvale Event Center (1017 W. First) • vintageswingspokane.com

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APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 45

W I SAW U YOU

RS RS

CHEERS JEERS

&

I SAW YOU MAYBE, JUST MAYBE... THERE WAS A MISCOMMUNICATION I wrote, extending gratitude and hope that you might contact me, now two weeks ago. I, sadly, didn’t get a response. I did, however, see that there was a misspelling in my ‘I saw you’. So, I am trying again: Officer M, with your copper hair and amazing demeanor with those in high risk situations, I would love to offer you a drink/dinner/thanks. I think both of us have high stress careers.

Maybe we can commiserate or enjoy some much needed relaxation. Contact me at pineapples_and_pirates@hotmail.com or call the number on my card (the one I have you after we worked together).

YOU SAW ME GAZING AT YOU You saw me gazing at you and acknowledged me with a smile and wave. I cannot help but gaze at you. You have a pleasantness about you. There is a light and warmth that emanates from you. Your smile is delightful.You are just wonderful to be around. You make me laugh and smile and bring joy to my heart. But there is a deeper reason I gaze at you. It’s because you are the reminder of a promise; the promise of a son who would someday come my way. You were the first person I gazed upon after this promise was revealed to me. So you are a significant part of my life, unbeknownst to you. Every time I see you, I remember that promise and that brings me peace and joy. That’s why you find me gazing. You’re the one who keeps

my hope alive and keeps me believing. So thank you, young man. Thank you.

I USED TO ‘SAW’ YOU A sad haiku: Used to be best friends // I have a best friend tattoo // Now I’m dead to you EYES WIDE OPEN All these years, you were right in my backyard. It’s like I knew, but didn’t notice. Until we got those sparks a tiny bit too close, and they started a fire. Now I’m noticing — my eyes are wide open. I have always thought you were an incredible man. Funny, kind, interesting, compassionate, handsome, intelligent, thoughtful, determined; and I have to admit, I am enjoying being the object of your determination right now.

You fill my cup. You make me feel safe, cherished, and beautiful. I could come up with 505 more reasons I’m in to you, but I do want to keep a little mystery, as well as leave space for others to post their ads in “I Saw You”. I just want you to know I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment we’ve spent together this far, and I greatly anticipate what our future could hold.

CHEERS JUST DON’T GET IT Can I get an “OH YEAH”, Way to go YAMAMOTO & all hockey players out there! GET BEHIND HOCKEY SPOKANE. This town has a lot of young hockey players that never get mentioned. A lot of these kids train before school, go to school all day and train again after school while maintaining passing grades and traveling on the weekends to games. They gotta to skate, shoot, pass, and check and be checked. Talk about a TOUGH SPORT! WE COMMEND ALL PLAYERS with an OH YEAH!

JEERS CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS Jeers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers for failing to do her job. Failing to hold town-hall meetings in Spokane, only answering constituents who agree with her and voting Yes to sell our internet browsing history.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers has received over $75,000 from the telecom industry. She does not represent Eastern Washington.

She represents big money. 2018 cannot come soon enough...

TIPPING GUIDELINES Jeers to anyone who says that bartenders, servers/waiters, or anyone in a service capacity does not deserve a tip for doing their jobs, regardless minimum wage rates. HUGE JEERS to those who work in a service industry and don’t tip their fellow service industry workers, especially on a $200 bill or tab. Just so we’re clear on proper

“

a uniform as OK. How? OBAMA went to very few LEO’s funerals, but when he did he mentioned police brutality, the oppression of black folks, slapped them in the face with their assailant’s cictimhood.

Obama did go to EVERY criminals funeral of a “high profile case” and made lavish speeches about the great person that person had despite them trying to kill a

A sad haiku: Used to be best friends // I have a best friend tattoo // Now I’m dead to you

etiquette: Waiter/Waitress: 15-20% of bill (excludng tax); no less than 10%; Bartender: 15% to 20% of the tab, with a minimum of 50 cents per soft drink, $1 per alcoholic drink.

ANOTHER SUMMER OF DESPAIR Like last year this Summer is rapidly shaping up for two colliding disasters. Unaware Spokane drivers and a City with as many torn up streets as the City can tear up. I’ve already been honked at twice taking a right hand turn onto Main from the East lane of Lincoln St (traffic revision) next to Nordstrom’s. Signage plainly shows that turns from BOTH lanes turning West are legal. Sadly the chronically unobservant Spokane driver who can’t quite pull their eyes off their telephone screens to look at traffic revisions would rather just assume (and you know what that does) one lane turns on Main (going East) and the other (Going West) onto Main to go over the bridge. Sadly driving is like an IQ test but not on paper. The people of Spokane freeze up at temporary 4 way stops. Drive 5 miles an hour when NO ONE else is near and can’t see the forest for all the road signs telling them about the revisions. Add that to a City that DOESN’T CARE how inconvenient the street closers are with some daily or at least weekly management of lanes opening when not being worked on. My favorite last year at the very end when Monroe had sat for

SOUND OFF 1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3.

Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”

46 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

WEEKS without any forward movement finally having been paved but the three lanes were still closed (of course you can’t work on lights if any one else is working) and there was a contractor parked (in the three lanes) with a large box of donuts on the hood of the pickup with “All the Guys” standing around at 9:30 AM have a donut while the citizenry were still trying

to keep their lives going but in ONE LANE! But after all Why manage the projects any better? Clearly the drivers of Spokane aren’t paying any attention anyway!

RE OZZIE To the person who wrote a response jeering Ozzie’s claim Obama was responsible for & incited alot of assaults/ cops being killed... OZZIE IS RIGHT! Ask any LEO or 1st Responder out that and I bet you’ll get the same response. Many many 1st Reaponders & security guards are having to invest in ballistic vests that are stab resistant in the past several years.

Proof you need? Well how about Obama’s constant praise of the Black Lives Matter & the many many many MANY TIMES they’ve incited violence towards cops, specifically white cops. The number of assaults, ambushes & murders of police officers has in the past few yrs risen exponentially & has spilled into security & 1st responders. How bout the many cops injured during riots? The ones ambushed at gas stations, or fake 911 calls to get cops somewhere, or the cops shot sniper style at Black Lives Matter Texas demonstration? How about the security guard shot & killed in the back a few months ago in Denver, the security officer stabs & killed a month ago in PA? The ambulance driver run over & killed recently by a thief in NY? Not all are done with an anti cop ideal in someone’s mind, but the prior POTUS emboldened criminals to target those in

”

cop, to disobey orders of officers or being a criminal as a whole. Almost Every high profile case had riots, looting & destroying their own communities. And the officers in their body cam footage were shown to have acted justifiably. So yes I agree with Ozzie & many other sheriffs, LEO, & 1st Responders that Obama was no friend to any who wear a uniform or put on a badge. And yes, I am a security officer & yes I have felt the need to invest in ballistics vest, body cam & self defense insurance so I have good legal council for any reason I might have to defend my life against someone wanting to harm ME. My uniform makes me a target, not You. My 3am foot patrols in bad areas make ME a target. Not YOU. Trump may have alot of issues, but he backs the Blue & he backs our military. 

THIS WEEK'S ANSWERS P S H A W S

A P A C H E

W W W W I W I

G I R L I E

H I T S H L O A A V R W A D

E N D A T T E R E L E E B T H Y E I D E I L E D

D E C A F

U N T R O D

F L I U L W O U R D Q E D

M P E R T O F E R D B A E I N C N T H B E O W W E R R O U E S N N E O T S

S C O U R H E Y E M T

E L L R O Y

P O L O N E C S K E T G H E T I O D U I T

T S S E O W C O L L A D Y I R O N E R

F E I S T Y

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

EVENTS | CALENDAR

BENEFIT

KOPANGA BENEFIT CONCERT Includes live music by Troubadour and Funky Unkle, a raffle for a Kopanga-inspired painting by local artist Katie Staib, First Friday artwork by Salik Seville curated by Art Seed Spokane, a 50/50 raffle, food and more. April 7, 7 pm-midnight. $10 suggested donation. The Observatory, 15 S. Howard. partneringforprogress.org POST FALLS LIBRARY TRIVIA CONTEST Join in the fun and support the library. A suggested donation of $20 per person at the door secures a seat at tables of 4-6, or a chair to watch the action. Ages 21+.

April 7, 6:30-9 pm. Post Falls Library, 821 N. Spokane St. communitylibrary.net APRIL SHOWERS AUCTION & DINNER: The Lands Council’s 22nd annual benefit includes a dinner and live/ silent auctions to help support the restoration and revitalization of Inland Northwest forests, water, and wildlife. April 8, 5-9 pm. $75/ individual; $800/table. Davenport Grand Hotel, 333 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. landscouncil.org (209-2407) SPA GALA & AUCTION The Spokane Preservation Advocate’s 2017 gala and auction supports local historic preservation programs and projects. April 8, 5:30 pm. $50. Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. spokanepreservation.org/gala SPOKANE BOXING GRAND OPENING + FUNDRAISER Meet and greet the Spokane Boxing community, dedicated to helping youth develop their entire well being through the sport and discipline of boxing. Also includes a raffle fundraiser for Inland Northwest Youth Boxing. April

8, 4-6 pm. Free to the public. Spokane Boxing, 115 S. Jefferson St. (217-0731) DACHSHUND RESCUE NW OPEN HOUSE The local rescue and club celebrates the placement of more than 1,500 homeless wiener dogs with a potluck party at its 26th annual event. Dachshund Rescue NW, 9209 N. Brooks Rd. April 9, 12-5 pm. spokanewienerdogs.org CASA RAY OF HOPE LUNCHEON A onehour lunch to spread awareness about the 100s of local victims of child abuse and neglect, during which a teen speaker shares her story of abuse and recovery.

The event also recognizes local CASA partners in child protection. April 11, 12-1 pm. Free with RSVP. Tango Cafe, 414 Church, Sandpoint. northidahocasa.org

COMEDY

2.0PEN MIC Local comedy night hosted

by Ken McComb. Thursdays, from 8-10 pm. Free. The District Bar, 916 W. First Ave. facebook.com/districtbarspokane/ GUFFAW YOURSELF! Open mic comedy night hosted by Casey Strain; Thursdays at 10 pm. Free. Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. (509-847-1234) THE PUNDERGROUND 12 potential punsters compete. Paired up randomly at registration, each pair is given a topic to pun when called to take the stage. Then, turn by turn, they’ll have to pun within that subject matter without repeating puns or using clichés. April 6, 7 pm. Free.

Boots Bakery & Lounge, 24 W. Main Ave. bit.ly/2nb3vUT (703-7223) MUSIC IN YOUR FACE The BDT Players put their comedic twist on this all-impro-

vised musical comedy, with song, storytelling, laughs and merriment. Fridays, through May 6, at 8 pm. $7. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland. (747-7045) STAND-UP COMEDY Live comedy featuring established and up-and-coming local comedians. Fridays at 8 pm. No cover. Red Dragon Chinese, 1406 W. Third. reddragondelivery.com (509-838-6688) SAFARI The Blue Door’s fast-paced, short-form improv show. The gamebased format relies on audience suggestions to fuel each scene. Rated for mature audiences. Saturdays at 8 pm. $7.

Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com (747-7045) DRINK N’ DEBATE Four teams of comedians step on to the debate stage but only one team is crowned #MasterDebators. Doors open at 7 pm. April 9, 8 pm. $10/$15. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. (318-9998) JAY CHANDRASEKHAR The actor, director, writer and comedian is known for his work with the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, and for roles in “Super Troopers” and “Beerfest.” April 13-15 at 7:30 pm, April 14-15 at 10:30 pm. $16-$28. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com (509-318-9998)

COMMUNITY

MAMMOTHS & MASTODONS: TITANS OF THE ICE AGE The highly-interactive touring exhibit from the Field Museum in Chicago features hands-on activities, hundreds of fossil specimens from around the world, full-size models of Ice Age megafauna. Exhibit runs through

FESTIVAL ATSANDPOINT THE

May 7; open Tue-Sat, 10 am-5 pm (to 8 pm on Wed; half-price admission on Tue). $10-$15. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931) NATIONAL TARTAN DAY The St. Andrews Society of the Inland Northwest celebrates with an event offering plaid weaving demos, a reading of the Arbrouth, a history of plaid and kilts, help to find your Scottish clan, Scottish dancing and refreshments. April 6, 3-5:30 pm.

Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley. inlandnwscots.org (444-5390) WWI: THE WAR TO END ALL WARS A new exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I. Through Nov. 30; open Wed-Sat, 11 am-4 pm. $4-$6 admission.

Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, 12114 E. Sprague Ave. valleyheritagecenter.org STICK GAME TOURNAMENT This tribal tradition of betting and entertainment is free to watch. Held three times a year, it features three days of diversions, trickery and drumbeats. April 7-9; Fri 4-10 pm, Sat-Sun, 10 am-3 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S Hwy 95. cdacasino.com CONTRA DANCE Spokane Folklore Society hosts the band Crooked Kilt, with caller Nancy Staub. Beginner workshop at 6:45 pm. April 8, 7-10 pm. $8/$10. East Spokane Grange, 1621 N. Park Rd. spokanefolklore.org (509-747-2640) SHS KITTEN SHOWER The annual event features cats and kittens currently in Spokane Humane Society’s foster care system. Stop by and learn how the care program works, bring in a donation and learn how to become a foster parent to help save kittens. Donation wish-list at

link. April 8, 5:30-8 pm. Spokane Humane Society, 6607 N. Havana. bit.ly/2o3okFP SPOKANE CONTRA DANCE The Spokane Folklore Society’s April dance features the band Crooked Kilt with caller Nancy Staub. Includes a dessert potluck during the break. April 8, 7-10 pm. $8/$10. East Spokane Grange, 1621 N. Park Rd. (598-9111) PJALS POSTCARD HAPPY HOUR An opportunity for the public to communicate a short message to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. Post cards will then be delivered to these elected officials. April 13, 4:30-6:30 pm. Saranac Commons, 19 W. Main. (838-7870)

FILM

GROWING UP SMITH In 1979, an Indian family moves to America with hopes of living the American Dream. April 6-9; times vary. $4-$7. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida.org (208-255-7801) JUMANJI Kinderhaven presents a free showing of the action-adventure family film. April 8, 2-4 pm. Free. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida.org MARY POPPINS The KPBX Kids Concert series offers a showing of the 1964 Disney adaptation. April 8, 1 pm. Free. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. spokanepublicradio.org CHINESE MOVIE NIGHT: HERO This 2002 martial hero film is based on the story of Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC. April 12, 7-9 pm. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)

Saturday, August 12

For our CLASSIC ROCK Fans:

GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS - Rock Party Tour

AUGUST 3 - 13, 2017

No Foolin’!

The Festival officially announces two headliners coming to Sandpoint, Idaho this Summer…

WITH

You can still purchase your Festival at Sandpoint Early Bird Season Passes for only

249until they’re gone!

$

*Plus sales tax and city parks fee.

Still think we’re foolin’?

For our COUNTRY Fans:

All Tickets $74.95

All Tickets $74.95

And More to Come for EVERYONE with our full announcement on April 29th.

Saturday, August 5

JAKE OWEN

The White Buffalo

Visit us at

www.festivalatsandpoint.com or call: (208) 265-4554 APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 47

Smell Test How an untangling of the cannabis genome could help standardize strains for mass consumption

BY CONNOR DINNISON

W

Researchers say that 30 specific genes are essential to the production of terpenes.

hen the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s massive successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope, is rocketed into orbit around the sun in October 2018, astronomers will aim its infrared cameras deep into space and time (13.5 billion years into the past) to witness the births of the first galaxies, shortly after the Big Bang; a glimpse, essentially, into the genetic strands of the universe.

What is it made of? And how has that determined what it looks like? What it smells and tastes like?

The latter is actually a question that scientists with an earthier bent have been busy decoding, with microscopes fixed not on the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, but on the coiling DNA of the cannabis plant.

As published last week in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified the genes which give marijuana’s myriad strains their distinctive aromas. They say that 30 specific genes are indispensable to the production of terpenes, organic hydrocarbon compounds emitted by the plant that determine just how skunky, citrusy, piney or cheesy it will seem to your nostrils and taste buds. Why not tweak one, two or 10 of the genes to customize your harvest or patent a Frankenstein strain (odorless grass for the stealth-inclined?)

to whet the appetites of a niche customer segment?

While the prospect of genetically modified marijuana is bound to stir up some paranoia, the researchers say that the potential windfall from their discovery is a benign nudge toward standardization that the growing industry should embrace.

“The goal is to develop well-defined and highly reproducible cannabis varieties,” says Jörg Bohlmann, a UBC professor involved in the study, in a press release. “This is similar to the wine industry, which depends on defined varieties such as Chardonnay or Merlot for high value products.”

Standardization begets commercialization, which begets big profits, which tend to consolidate in the hands of a powerful and ambitious (greedy?) few. “Designer weed” could be a boon to growers, retailers and consumers expecting a consistent product, but what of the wabi-sabi and egalitarian ethos so endemic to a cannabis culture that historically has objected to the mammon-centric values of “industry”?

As Kevin Sabet, who opposes the commercialization of marijuana as the head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told The Cannabist this week, “Ultimately, marijuana legalization is all about making a small number of investors very rich.” n

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RELATIONSHIPS

Advice Goddess REBOOTY AND THE BEAST

I’m a woman in my 30s. I was married for five years, but now, thank God, I’m divorced and about two years into a wonderful new relationship. Disturbingly, I occasionally call my boyfriend by my awful ex-husband’s name. He laughs it off, but it really freaks me out. Should I see a neurologist? Is my memory going? Or — gulp — do I miss my ex on some subconscious level? —Disturbed

AMY ALKON

Right about now, you’ve got to be recognizing the unexpected benefits of those gas station attendant shirts with the guy’s name sewn onto them.

As with dead bodies carelessly submerged after mob hits, it’s unsettling to have your ex’s name bobbing up when you love somebody new. Naturally, you suspect the worst — that you’re subconsciously pining for the ex. But — good news! — the likely reason for your name swapperoos is something you should find comfortingly boring.

According to research by cognitive scientists Samantha Deffler and David C. Rubin, we’re prone to grab the wrong name out of memory when both names are in the same category — for example, men you’ve been seriously involved with or, in the pet domain, gerbils you’ve dressed in tiny sexy outfits.

You might also keep in mind that your ex’s name was the default for “man in my life” for more than twice as long as the new guy’s. Other memory research suggests that especially when you’re tired, stressed, or multitasky, it’s easy to go a little, uh, cognitively imprecise. You send your mindslave off into your brain — back to the “My Guy” category — and the lazy little peasant just grabs the name he spent five years grabbing. So, you might think of this as a mental workforce issue. The Department of Emotions isn’t even involved.

However, research by cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork suggests that you can train your memory to do better through “spaced retrieval” — correcting yourself just post-flub by asking and answering “Who is the man in my life?” and then letting a few minutes pass and doing it again. But considering that you have a partner who just laughs at your errors, your time would probably be better spent appreciating what you have: an easygoing sweetheart of a guy and no readily apparent need for a neurologist. Bottom line: Your calling the guy by the wrong name probably points to a need for a nap, not unwanted company — as in, a tumor named Fred squatting in the crawlspace behind your frontal lobe.

INSECURITY BLANKET

I’m extremely insecure about my looks, though objectively, I know I’m pretty. I constantly ask my boyfriend for reassurance. He gives it to me but feels bad that I feel this way. Now I’m worrying that I’m making such a good case for what’s wrong with me that he’ll start believing me. Possible? —Bag Over Head One oft-overlooked beauty secret is to avoid constantly giving a guy the idea that you might actually be ugly.

People will sneer that it’s “shallow” to care about how you look, and they’re probably right — if it’s all you care about. However, research confirms what most of us recognize about the especially eye-pleasing among us: They get all sorts of benefits — everything from social perks to job opportunities to discounts when they act like dirtbags (with judges assigning them lesser fines and a lower rate of bail for misdemeanors).

As a woman, being babe-alicious is a pretty vital tool for landing and maintaining a relationship, because the features that men — across cultures — evolved to consider beautiful are actually health and fertility indicators. So, for example, full lips and an hourglass bod are basically evolution’s bumper sticker: “Your genes passed on here!”

Not surprisingly, psychologist Tracy Vaillaincourt, who researches competition among women, explains that women attack other women “principally on appearance and sexual fidelity” because men prioritize these qualities in their partners. One way women chip away at rivals is by trash-talking another woman’s looks to a man — suggesting he really could do better. That’s what you’re doing — but to yourself. It’s the relationship version of “Ewww, you’re not really gonna eat that, are you?” (And you’re the fricasseed crickets.)

Beyond that, constantly begging a romantic partner for reassurance — while being kind of a black hole for it — can be toxic to a relationship. Also, the fact that your need for reassurance seems bottomless suggests it’s not your exterior but your interior that’s in need of work. Get cracking on that, and try to remember that your boyfriend is with you for a reason — and it probably isn’t that your mom and grandma are crouched behind your sofa, holding him at gunpoint. n ©2017, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

52 INLANDER APRIL 6, 2017

EVENTS | CALENDAR

FOOD

PURPLE EGYPTIAN BARLEY PROJECT The series showcases a collaboration between Palouse Pint, Palouse Heritage, Bellwether and Culture Bread, highlighting beers and breads made from the landrace grain known as Egyptian Purple Barley. April 7. Bellwether Brewing, 2019 N. Monroe. facebook.com/bellwetherbrewing/ IVORY TABLE SUPPER CLUB Chef/ Owner Kristen Ward prepares a rustic, 5-course supper featuring flavors of the season. Supper is paired with five wine selections. April 7, 6 pm. $55/person; +$20 for wine pairings. The Ivory Table, 1822 E. Sprague. ivorytable.com PLANTING SMALL FRUITS & BERRIES This class offers insight on variety selection, appropriate maintenance, what to expect for pest problems and how to tell when to harvest fruit. April 8, 12:303:30 pm. $12. WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N. Havana St. extension. wsu.edu/spokane HARUMATSURI FOOD FESTIVAL The 27th annual event serves traditional Japanese recipes for chicken teriyaki and vegetarian tofu dinners, various sushi and Japanese desserts. Dine in or take out; pre-order online. April 9, 11 am-3 pm. $5-$12/food. Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry St. SpokaneBuddhistTemple.org COMMUNITY COOKING CLASS Chef Laurent Zirotti, of Post Falls’ renowned restaurant Fleur de Sel, teaches the basics of boiling, roasting, pan frying, seasoning and more. Class is free for families struggling with food insecurity.

April 10, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. Second Harvest Food Bank, 1234 E. Front Ave. secondharvestkitchen.org ANTINORI WINE DINNER A six-course dinner by Chef Travis Dickinson, featuring wine pairings from Italy’s Antinori Cellars. Reservations required. April 11, 6:30 pm. $95/person. Clover, 913 E. Sharp Ave. cloverspokane.com FRIED CHICKEN & LOCAL BEER SERIES The monthly event from Chef Adam Hegsted features fried chicken paired with beers from a local brewery.

April 12, 6-9 pm. $35. The Wandering Table, 1242 W. Summit Pkwy. thewanderingtable.com

MUSIC

MUSIC FROM RUSSIAN MASTERS Featuring Kevin Hekmatpanah, cello, accompanied by pianist Darin Manica.

Proceeds support the Harrington Opera House Society’s rehabilitation of the historic 1904 building. April 7, 7-8:30 pm. By donation. Harrington Opera House, 19 S. Third St. (253-4719) PALOUSE CHORAL SOCIETY Featuring The Requiem Mass in D Minor (K.626), the great final work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Performers include the Palouse Choral Society, LCSC Concert Choir, and the PCS Festival Orchestra.

April 7, 7:30 pm and April 9, 4 pm. $8$15. St. Boniface Catholic Church, 207 S. St. Boniface. palousechoralsociety.org MESSIAH! The Northwest Sacred Music Chorale presents Parts II and III of Georg Friedrich Handel’s oratorio masterpiece during Lent this Easter season. April 8, 3-4:30 pm. $16-$22. Central Lutheran Church, 512 S. Bernard St. nwsmc.org RUSSIAN MASTERPIECES: MUSIC FOR CELLO & PIANO Kevin Hekmatpanah

(cello) and Darin Manica (piano) present a free concert featuring works from three Russian composers: Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. April 8, 3-4 pm. Free. Gonzaga Admin. Bldg, 502 E. Boone. (313-6733) SPOKANE CHORAL ARTISTS A performance of Orlando de Lassus’ final work: Lagrime di San Pietro with guest dancers from A Time to Dance studio. April 8, 7:30-9 pm (CdA First Presbyterian) and April 9, 2 pm (Salem Lutheran, Spokane) $12-$18. spokanechoralartists.com SPOKANE VINTAGE SWING FESTIVAL Events include an introductory dance lesson, music for dancing by Hot Club of Spokane. All-ages welcome. April 8, 7:30-11:30 pm. $17/$35 (VIP). Montvale Event Center, 1017 W. First. vintageswingspokane.com TARTAN DAY FEAT. NINE PINT COGGIES The Inland Northwest Scottish Fiddle band performs tunes from Scotland, Ireland, and the Celtic countries.

April 8, 7-9 pm. $10. Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St, Post Falls. thejacklincenter.org AUDITORIUM CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES The Cheng Chow Trio is composed of three multi-international competition-winning pianists, twin brothers Alan and Alvin Chow and Alvin’s wife Angela Chang, who all had established solo careers before coming together to perform. April 11, 7:30 pm. $10-$22.

University of Idaho Admin. Bldg., 851 Campus Dr. uidaho.edu/class/acms

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

APRIL POOLS DAY An event for families and community members to teach water safety skills and participate in fun water activities. April 8, 12-6 pm. Free and open to the public. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd. kroccda.org BREAKDANCE WORKSHOP Paper CutOut Crew hosts a free workshop for the community. April 8, 6-8 pm. Free.

Spokane Gymnastics, 2525 N. Locust Rd. spokanegymnastics.com HIKING ODESSA PACIFIC LAKE A 5-6 mile total out and back hike in scablands with rocky, rolling hills and geological views. Guides, transportation and hiking poles provided. Transportation provided from Mountain Gear: 2002 N. Division. (Ages 16+) April 8, 8 am-5 pm. $29. Mountain Gear, 2002 N. Division. spokaneparks.org SPOKANE BIKE SWAP & EXPO Offering 100s of bikes and more than 50 exhibitors. Sell or donate your unwanted bikes for the event. April 8, 9 am-5 pm. $5; kids 12 and younger free. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana. spokanebikeswap.com

THEATER

35MM: A MUSICAL EXHIBITION A performance combining the music of Ryan Scott Oliver and the photographs of Matthew Murphy to illuminate vignettes of the lives we lead as ordinary people. April 6-8, 7:30 pm, April 9 at 2 pm. $25. Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. spokanestageleft.org HOLDING ON - LETTING GO An honest, humorous and heartrending look at a family forced to come to terms with end-of-life. Through April 9, Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $25. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spo-

kanecivictheatre.com (325-2507) JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Robby French and Jadd Davis are Jesus and Judas in this production at Lake City Playhouse. March 31-April 2, April 6-8, 13-16 and 20-23 at 7:30 pm.; $24-$30.

Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave. lakecityplayhouse.org NOISES OFF! The classic farce presents a manic menagerie as a cast of traveling actors rehearsing a flop called Nothing’s On. Through April 23, Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $18-$27. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com (325-2507) SISTER ACT In this divine comedy, a woman hiding in a convent helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she rediscovers her own. Through April 9; Thu0Sat, 7:30 pm; Sat-Sun at 1:30 pm. $12-$20. Regional Theatre of the Palouse, 122 N. Grand. rtoptheatre.org A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM A performance of the Shakespeare classic by the Moscow Community Theatre.

Through April 9; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $10-$15. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. (208-882-4127) SHE KILLS MONSTERS This high-octane dramatic comedy offers a heartpounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all. Through April 8; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm and Sun at 2 pm. $8$10. Jones Theatre at Daggy Hall, WSU Pullman. performingarts.wsu.edu STAGEWEST: MIRACLE ON SOUTH DIVISION STREET Meet the Nowaks of Buffalo, New York in this production inspired by the classic comedy “Miracle on 34th Street.” Through April 8; FriSat at 7 pm, Sun at 3 pm. Dinner theater show April 8, 6 pm (reservation only).

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 639 Elm St., Cheney. stagewestct.org (951-1355)

ARTS/WORDS

WSU MFA THESIS EXHIBITION Featuring a wide range of styles and stimulating experiences for faculty, students and local museum constituents.

Through May 6, Tue-Sat, 10 am-4 pm.

Reception April 7, 6-8 pm in the MOA/ WSU Gallery. Free and open to the public. Museum of Art/WSU, Wilson Road. museum.wsu.edu (509-335-1910) FIRST FRIDAY Art galleries and businesses across downtown Spokane and beyond host monthly receptions to showcase new displays of art. Receptions held the first Friday of the month, from 5-8 pm. Inlander.com/FirstFriday ANGELA WHITE: MIXED MEDIA TRAPS Exhibition includes a performance on April 11, at 11:30 am, in SFCC Building 6, and a discussion with the artist and reception to follow. On display through May 18; open Mon-Fri, 8:30 am-3:30 pm; Sat by appt. Free. SFCC, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. spokanefalls. edu/gallery (533-3710 or 533-3746) READING: ROBERT WRIGLEY The poet’s 10th collection, “Box”, is a book of poems obsessed with the way people are contained or confined in almost everything they are and everything they do. April 7, 7-8 pm. Free. Auntie’s, 402 W. Main. auntiesbooks.com (838-0206) READING: FRANK ZAFIRO The Spokane author reads from his new book “The Last Collar.” Zafiro primarily writes crime fiction set in River City, a barely fictional Spokane. April 12, 7-8 pm. Free.

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65. Tres menos dos 66. ____ Amin, Oscar-winning role for Forest Whitaker

APRIL 6, 2017 INLANDER 53

Scenes from inside the Zags’ home court Monday night as fans watched Gonzaga fall to North Carolina.

ECSTASY, THEN AGONY PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK

T

housands of Gonzaga fans showed up to the McCarthey Athletic Center to watch a broadcast of Monday night’s NCAA men’s college basketball championship between the Zags and North Carolina.

After a tight, back-and-forth game, the Tar Heels ultimately prevailed, 71-65.

This was the Bulldogs’ first trip to the Final Four, and first appearance in the national championship game. Gonzaga has appeared in the tournament a total of 20 times, including 19 years in a row, 18 straight under head coach Mark Few. (YOUNG KWAK)

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