Inlander 12/19/2019

SNOWLANDER Finally, the snow is here and the mountains are open!

PAGE 27

FILM

Is there such a thing as too much Star Wars?

PAGE 44

DECEMBER 19-25, 2019 | IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

SONGS OF MY

FATHER

A true story about a murder mystery, hippies in the woods, Catholic nuns, rock ’n’ roll and my dad

BY WILSON CRISCIONE PAGE 22

SUPPLEMENT TO THE INLANDER

Whatever it is, we’ll help you get there.

See how people in the Northwest are finding their awesome at watrust.com/awesome

INSIDE VOL. 27, NO. 10 | ON THE COVER: A CRISCIONE FAMILY PHOTO

COMMENT 5 NEWS 13 COVER STORY 22 SNOWLANDER 27

CULTURE FOOD FILM MUSIC

39 42 44 46

EVENTS I SAW YOU GREEN ZONE ADVICE GODDESS

50 52 54 60

EDITOR’S NOTE

T

here’s an old saying in journalism: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” It’s part of a reporter’s credo: To find the truth, you must assume nothing, not even assurances of your mom’s affection. It forces reporters, like scientists in a laboratory, to look at everything through skeptical goggles, and this week staff writer Wilson Criscione takes that critical eye to an unlikely subject: his own FATHER — a man shaped by the ’60s, the peaceand-love movement, the guitar and an accidental murder that left the elder Criscione fatherless at a pivotal moment in his life. Fifty years later, a son tries to understand his dad in a special story beginning on page 22.

Also this week: In News, staff reporter Daniel Walters examines the Spokane City Council’s last-minute budget changes — pushed through as an “emergency” with minimal public input — and how, in essence, it’s the latest battle in a yearslong power struggle between the council and the mayor’s office (page 20).

— JACOB H. FRIES, Editor

Sun-Thurs 7am-9pm Fri-Sat 7am-10pm • 509.443.4215 • 909 W 1st Ave. Ste. A

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HOPES AND HELPINGS PAGE 42

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK PAGE 50

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 3

4 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

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

YOU’RE IN CHARGE OF THE NEXT STAR WARS MOVIE. WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

PUBLISHER

J. Jeremy McGregor (x224) GENERAL MANAGER

EDITORIAL Jacob H. Fries (x261) EDITOR

Dan Nailen (x239) MANAGING EDITOR/ARTS & CULTURE

STEVE LYMPUS

I think my gut reaction is that I hope they end it — they actually end it — and end it well.

I’m OK if they do one-offs in the future, and they will because it’s Disney and they’ll milk this for the rest of my life and beyond. I hope they actually have the balls to end it. Close the door. End it well, but do end it.

Chey Scott (x225) FOOD & LISTINGS EDITOR Nathan Weinbender (x250) FILM & MUSIC EDITOR

Derek Harrison (x248) ART DIRECTOR

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Wilson Criscione (x282), Josh Kelety (x237), Daniel Walters (x263), Samantha Wohlfeil (x234) STAFF WRITERS

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TANYA MILLER

That would be my dream job right there. I would fix everything that went wrong. If it’s the start of a new trilogy, I’m done with the Skywalkers. It’s like three generations of one family that has been screwing over the galaxy.

There’s more families in the universe than the Skywalkers.

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JAMISON COSBY

Oh gosh... I’m trying to think how it’s supposed to end.

Any controversial Star Wars hot takes? Do you want it to end? Ever?

No, I don’t! My husband and I just started going through from start to finish, and when I saw the preview for the new one coming out that it was the end of the saga I was like, “NOOOOOO!”

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DANIEL CLAWSON

I’m kind of just excited to see how J.J. Abrams is gonna wrap it up after what Rian Johnson did to it.

Is there any direction you’d like to see the new generation go in?

I’ve heard Jon Favreau is going to be very involved going forward and if the future of Star Wars is going to be anything like The Mandalorian, then that’s great. More of that.

KIM DELAGNES

I’ve never actually seen one.

Never?

Never.

What do you think it’s about?

Intergalactic interactions, but I don’t know the details. I know who R2-D2 is.

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CALEB WALSH ILLUSTRATION

The Power of Kindness Mister Rogers is still teaching us to care for each other

BY KEVIN PARKER

O

n Feb. 19, 1968, a quiet and simple show called Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood debuted on PBS to little fanfare. This predominantly one-person kids show employed puppets to communicate unconditional kindness during a time when the country was experiencing mounting pain. This little show would air a staggering 912 episodes over 33 years, becoming one of the longest-running shows in history. Now 16 years after Fred Rogers’ death in 2003, Tom Hanks brilliantly portrays Rogers in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His mesmerizing performance allows us to be touched by the unrelenting power of Mister Rogers’ kindness one last time.

Mister Rogers’ catchy theme song contains the memorable lines, “It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Would you be mine, could you be mine?” Fred Rogers was inculcating the idea

that we are all connected to one another. Seemingly, his show was centered around the notion that we do not live or act in isolation from each other, but just the opposite. We choose whether to be a stepping stone or a pothole in the lives of others. We are a stepping stone when we encourage one another, give grace and show kindness not because it is earned, but because we should.

The far-reaching power of this idea is central to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke from a place of hope and acceptance anchored in the tenet we are all connected to one another. It was Dr. King who said, “Injus-

SAY WHAT?

DO SOMETHING!

“It just goes to show that we were on the right track with what we started in the first place.”

HOMELESS MEMORIAL: CHAS Health honors Spokane-area individuals who were homeless when they died by joining with local community partners and those committed to ending homelessness to raise awareness of the struggles and humanity of those without a home. Includes speeches from homeless advocates, a reading of the names of those who died without a home in the past year, and a call to action to end homelessness and support those struggling to meet basic needs. A warm lunch is provided. Fri, Dec. 20 at 11 am. CHAS Denny Murphy Clinic, 1001 W. Second Ave. chas.org (444-8200)

Pamela Hawkes, who joined a lawsuit saying the city of Boise punished her for sleeping outside when there was no other option. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn’t review a landmark ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found Boise’s law to be unconstitutional. Hawkes recently got an apartment and a job in Spokane. Find that story on page 13.

tice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. … Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Perhaps Mister Rogers was attempting to live out part of Dr. King’s legacy the best he knew how. He focused his message to children through simple words couched in simple phrases, using simple puppets, filmed on a simple television set. Sometimes simplicity is like sunlight shining through the gray skies of complexity. We know it when we see it.

Make This A

Christmas

We choose whether to be a stepping stone or a pothole in the lives of others.

One of the more moving aspects of Mister Rogers was that he accepted people as they were. I suppose he never felt it was his right to define another person. In a memorable and touching scene in the new film, Mister Rogers is sitting in a restaurant with Lloyd Vogel, a disgruntled journalist writing a story about Mister Rogers. Lloyd and Mister Rogers had spent considerable time together by this point in the film. Lloyd is worn down by the world and confused by Mister Rogers’ generosity; in this moment, Lloyd asks Mister Rogers why he’s willing to spend time with people like the journalist, people who are broken. Rogers stares back before uttering, “You are not broken.” The brilliance of this man is that he didn’t see people as broken, perhaps at times incomplete, but never broken.

We are fundamentally incomplete individuals. I know I am.

Some of the people who have deeply impacted me have a different world view, but their kindness, grace, and time they have spent with me have changed the way I see the world and people.

Relationships, thoughtfulness and graceful tones of communication change people. It is OK we are different. Our differences can be places of beauty where we can gracefully complete one another if we are willing to gracefully engage with each other. Mister Rogers would never think it is right to decide how others should behave and act.

Perhaps Mister Rogers’ legacy speaks to our souls in that our mission in life is fundamental to help others live their best lives.

Making a meaningful difference does not require we write a novel, step foot on the moon, climb Mount Everest or serve as a CEO for a large organization. What is required is that we care, listen and gracefully engage with one another. After all, it is a leader’s burden to hope for one another. A person’s victory is, in part, our victory, their defeat is, in part, our defeat. We don’t always have to move mountains to make a difference for someone; sometimes we just need to move a little dirt for our neighbor. n Kevin Parker is an entrepreneur and teaches leadership and business courses at Whitworth University. Previously, he served as a state representative for the 6th Legislative District.

FROM THE VAULT DEC. 15, 2005: The Inlander delved into the sex-abuse scandal hitting the Catholic Church after the Spokane diocese filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a way to settle those claims. The issue continues to confront the church. In March of this year, we reported on a growing divide between the liberal and conservative wings of the global church that is still trying to own up to past abuses.

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 7

COMMENT | NEWSMAKERS

Q&A BRET GORDON A chat with the owner of one of Spokane’s newest — and largest — craft breweries

BY DEREK HARRISON

I

t’s an unusual origin story in the Inland Northwest brewery scene. Bret Gordon decided he wanted to open his own commercial brewery. Then Gordon decided he wanted to open his own commercial brewery in Spokane — a place he had never lived.

He was living in his native Southern California at the time and working at the Bruery, a large production brewery in Orange County. Before that, he studied brewing at the University of California San Diego and was the brewer at a brewery in Santa Monica.

He moved to Spokane to avoid being a small fish in a large sea of breweries, which is arguably the case in cities like San Diego and Los Angeles. Instead, he wanted to be a part of a community he thought had plenty of room for growth. It’s what led to the opening of Lumberbeard Brewing, a 20-barrel brewhouse on the east end of downtown.

We talked to Gordon about his decision to open a brewery here, and his plans moving forward. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

INLANDER: Why did you choose Spokane as the home for Lumberbeard Brewing?

GORDON: I started coming up to Spokane in 2000. My sister went to college here. I have another sister who now lives here. I have some cousins who live up here. I’ve been coming to Spokane for 19 years, so it’s always been a part of my life.

Living in Southern California, the brewery scene there is pretty packed full. When I decided I wanted to start a brewery, I came up to Spokane, went to the breweries and felt like there’s a huge opportunity here.

I think the beer scene in Spokane is growing. It’s on an upward trajectory, but I think it has a ways to go. To be a part of something growing and booming sounded like an exciting opportunity. To not just be another one out of 40 million breweries.

When you say the local beer scene still has “a ways to go,” what do you mean?

The quality of beer in Spokane and just the size of the breweries. You look at the population of Spokane, there’s places that are much smaller with huge breweries. Much smaller cities with many more breweries.

Some of the breweries like Whistle Punk, Hidden Mother, Perry Street have raised the bar of beer in Spokane, and they’re continuing to get better and better and better. I think people are starting to figure out, “Oh, that place does make better beer than that place” and they can tell the difference. Spokane is finally growing into a place where the beer can be good, and I think it could be a beer destination.

How are you going to hold Lumberbeard to that standard?

Coming from places that make beer on a consistent basis, I have somewhat of an idea of what I’m doing — at least I like to think so. Hiring Tanner [McKinlay, formerly of River City Brewing] was awesome because he has experience working in breweries, he knows what beers should taste like, he knows how to clean. We’re having a quality control program with us tasting the beer every step along the way, and then at the very end, we need to make sure that this beer is good and not just serviceable.

Part of it is just experience. When I was a homebrewer, I totally thought I knew what I was doing — and I did make good homebrew. Then when I got into a commercial setting, I was like, “Whoa, this is very different.” There’s so many things that I didn’t think about, and all these things matter a lot more on a large scale.

What are some of your first goals for the brewery?

Our plan is to distribute off the get-go. I’m going to self-distribute. I want to keep it as local as possible, for as long as possible. Basically inundate Spokane with Lumberbeard beer, and then grow as quickly as we can.

I think Spokane wants to drink local, but there aren’t as many breweries that can supply it. Most breweries are big enough to supply their own taprooms and that’s it.

We want to be able to supply every restaurant and bar that wants our beer and also our own taproom.

Are you planning to can or bottle your beer as well?

Yeah, I mean, the growth and the packaging kind of go hand-in-hand. We’re doing just kegs for now. The next level of expansion will probably be a canning line and more fermenters. n

DEREK HARRISON PHOTO

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8 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 9

M A R T I N

W O L D S O N

T H E A T E R

A T

T H E

F O X

CALENDAR OF EVENTS GIVE T H E GIF T OF EXPERI ENCES FO R ALL AGES THIS HO LIDAY S EAS ON !

Spokane Symphony Pops

HOLIDAY POPS WITH VANESSA WILLIAMS

Saturday, Dec. 21, 8pm Sunday, Dec. 22, 2pm

Fox Presents

Spokane Symphony Chamber Soirées

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7:30pm

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 7:30pm Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7:30pm

JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT ROADSHOW WITH KEVIN SMITH

NEW YEAR’S EVE: TUESDAY, DEC. 31 SPOKANE SYMHONY: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH

Spokane Symphony Masterworks

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ GALA

Saturday, Jan. 18, 8pm Sunday, Jan. 19, 3pm

Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 7:30pm Historic Davenport Hotel, 9pm to 1am

BEETHOVEN’S 250 BIRTHDAY TH

Spokane Symphony Movies & Music

Spokane Symphony

THE M SHOW WITH MATEUSZ WOLSKI

Saturday, Jan. 11, 8pm At the Knitting Factory

PIXAR IN CONCERT

SOIRÉE ON THE STAGE: VALENTINE’S

GONZAGA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WITH MIDORI

Thursday, Feb. 13, 7:30pm

SPOKANE STRING QUARTET WITH SPOKANE KANTOREI CHOIR

Sunday, Feb. 16, 3pm

Saturday, Jan. 25, 7pm Sunday, Jan. 26, 3pm

Spokane Symphony Movies & Music

BACK TO THE FUTURE IN CONCERT

Spokane Symphony Pops

Friday, Feb. 21, 8pm

Saturday, Jan. 11, 7pm

Saturday, Feb. 1, 8pm

Spokane Symphony Masterworks

SPOKANE YOUTH SYMPHONY: 70 YEARS OF EDUCATION

Spokane Symphony Masterworks

EL GRAN FESTIVAL DE MUSICA CUBANA

Sunday, Jan. 12, 4pm

CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES

MUSIC FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Saturday, Feb. 8, 8pm Sunday, Feb. 9, 2pm

Spokane Symphony/Davenport Hotel

Spokane Symphony Masterworks

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Dec 31 7:30PM Concert 9PM Gala

Join millions around the globe in this New Year’s tradition — Beethoven’s Ninth — a triumphant exhilarating testament to the human spirit. A one hour concert.

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10 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

5 0 9 6 2 4 12 0 0

Spokane Symphony Movies & Music

PIXAR IN CONCERT

Jan 25 7PM

Jan 26 3PM

Conductor: Mark Russell Smith

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Saturday, Feb. 29, 8pm Sunday, March 1, 3pm

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COMMENT | FROM READERS

Craig Meidl was named Spokane’s police chief in August 2016.

Readers respond to last week’s cover story (“Chief Among Them,” 12/12/19) about Craig Meidl, Spokane’s police chief. During his tenure, the department has faced criticism for its use of force and racial disparities in arrests, among other issues.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

MARIAH ROSE MCKAY: The chief’s comments on racial disproportionality are really not OK. The force needs to take responsibility for the disproportionate stops and shootings and everything in between.

Santa’s big little helpers.

LOANNE ODELL: How about you stop being a criminal first? There!

Solved it.

DARCY HILDEBRAND: I think Chief Meidl has been successful in his role and certainly so in comparison to the previous office holders. We always want to have civilian oversight and discourage over-reach by law enforcement, especially with regard to the use of force, and any cultural factors that allow or dismiss it. However, if you listen to our members of the City Council and the current City Council President-Elect, then crime is down considerably in Spokane.

LARRY CEBULA: So predictable that Meidl’s first instinct is to defend a clearly out of control officer.

Same thing when he saluted Karl Thompson right after the man was convicted. Why can’t Spokane rein in its police department?

TIMOTHY THOMPSON: It’s easy to judge and take a video out of context. It’s much different when you are confronting a dangerous criminal and attempting to place them under arrest. Leave cops alone.

DAVID MACLEAN: Keep him. He is the best we have had for a very long time.

CORRECTION

Two recent news stories on the conflict between wolf advocates and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife misidentified the advocacy group that won an injunction temporarily protecting the Old Profanity Peak Pack. While the Center for Biological Diversity has been involved in a separate lawsuit against Fish and Wildlife, it was not involved with the injunction case.

TERRY PARKER: It’s not that people of color commit more crimes than people who are white. It’s that they are targeted by police. That’s why the numbers are disproportionate to their number in the population. Every reputable study has shown that whites use drugs at higher rates than blacks. Yet look at their conviction rates for drug crimes in relation to their prevalence in society. Sorry Chief, it’s racism and you can couch it in any type of data that you want to but it’s still racism. n

877.871.6772 | Spokane, WA

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 11

STAND WITH OUR SENATORS

PROTECT OUR PUBLIC LANDS

Since 1964, LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND has provided

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Here in Eastern Washington, this program has preserved some of our most precious natural areas, such as the Little Spokane River and Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

Vital funds should be permanenetly preserved for future generations. Our senators are fighting for us, but they need you to stand with them.

Call our SENATORS PATTY MURRAY & MARIA CANTWELL at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you support funding for public lands.

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12 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

Pamela Hawkes recently found an apartment in Spokane after years without a home.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

HOMELESSNESS

FINALLY HOME

Her lawsuit against Boise made cities change how they treat homeless people.

A decade later, she’s found a home in Spokane

BY WILSON CRISCIONE

W

hen the shelters in Boise were all full, Pamela Hawkes always tried to sleep where police couldn’t find her. But they found her any-

way.

In 2006 and 2007, she racked up a dozen citations for staying outside, even when there was no other place for her to go. Twice, she spent a night in jail. Police on bikes would find her in a tent on a trail, she says, or they’d find her wrapped in a blanket in the park.

“They could pretty much get you for lying on a skate park bench with your backpack underneath your head,” she tells the Inlander.

Hawkes, now 36, joined a lawsuit in 2009 saying the city of Boise punished her for sleeping outside when there was no other option. As cities in the West grapple with a growing homeless population, the case has reshaped the way police treat people sleeping in public spaces.

In 2018, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling saying it was unconstitutional and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment to enforce a camping ban without enough shelter beds available. Many cities, including Spokane and Spokane Valley, hoped the ruling would be reversed. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn’t review it. When notified of the news by the Inlander Monday, Hawkes says she’s “ecstatic” that the ruling was upheld.

“It just goes to show that we were on the right track with what we started in the first place,” says Hawkes, one of six plaintiffs in the case.

But even as the impacts of the Boise case have rippled across the country, Hawkes struggled to find a place to live. After leaving Boise in 2008, Hawkes returned to Spokane, near where she grew up. She cycled in and out of the streets, and police kept adding citations

for sleeping outside. It wasn’t until this fall — more than a decade since she moved back — that she found what she hopes is a permanent home of her own.

H

awkes went to Boise in 2005 because she and her boyfriend were hoping to break out of the cycle of homelessness they’d fallen into in Spokane.

“We thought we might be better off by just going to Boise to see what they had to offer, and maybe get a better grip — getting a job, or getting us a place to live, stuff like that,” she says.

When that didn’t happen, she moved back to Spokane. She knew she had some kind of mental health disorder, and she sought counseling, but it wasn’t until 2017 that she was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder. ...continued on next page

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 13

NEWS | HOMELESSNESS “FINALLY HOME,” CONTINUED...

For most of this decade, Hawkes lived with her mom when she could, but it didn’t always work, so she often didn’t have a roof over her head. It was hard for her to find a place to live or get a job, due in part to a felony conviction in a bank fraud case in 2013. Even if shelter space were available, she preferred to stay outside. She got lice once at a women’s shelter, and she didn’t feel safe around so many other people.

“I just feel safer staying out in nature,” she says. “I love the outdoors and camping. Even though it’s not easy on the body, it’s mentally healthier for myself than staying someplace where I’m scared and not welcome.”

But when too many people are camping in public spaces, cities can see it as a problem. The ruling in the Martin vs. Boise case that Hawkes was a part of made it more difficult to enforce anti-camping laws. Some cities built shelter space so that police could legally clear public spaces of homeless campers. Others passed laws funneling campers to certain public spaces.

Spokane’s so-called “sitlie” law prevents sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks, but only when there’s enough shelter space available. The same goes for its law preventing camping on public property. Spokane Valley, meanwhile, passed a similar camping law, only it keeps a permanent ban in three locations no matter if shelter space is available or not. And Spokane Valley considers shelter space “available” if it’s in Spokane, since the Valley lacks shelter space of its own.

That can create a bit of a gray area for municipalities — how far away should shelter beds be, in order to legally clean out a camp? And do warming centers count as shelter?

Spokane and Spokane Valley both were part of an amicus brief in support of Boise’s appeal of the 2018 ruling. The appeal argued the ruling created confusion over what “adequate” or “sufficient” shelter means, and that it took away a strategy to encourage people experiencing homelessness to engage in Spokane’s Community Court, where people are connected with social services.

Spokane Mayor-elect Nadine Woodward, who made reducing homelessness the central focus of her campaign, previously told the Inlander

that the Boise ruling was “really hand-tying” a lot of places on the West Coast. She didn’t want to invest in more shelters until the Supreme Court resolved it.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision this week not to hear the case, Woodward replied to an interview request from the Inlander with a statement saying the decision provides “clarity on important legal questions,” adding she plans to focus on the “root causes instead of the symptoms” of homelessness.

Jose Trejo, an attorney with the Northwest Justice Project, says that while the Boise ruling does change how cities approach homelessness, it’s still a narrow ruling. It doesn’t prevent cities from criminalizing homelessness. It just says cities need to offer them somewhere else to go.

“Before you can cite them for existing, you have to tell them where they can go to exist,” he says. “As long as there’s a place to go, then you can criminalize it.”

“The whole point of me trying to help and trying to get this taken care of was for cities to face the problem head-on.”

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Spokane, he says, has been more careful in following the Boise decision than other cities, since it’s tried to add shelter space and has officers call in to make sure beds are available before issuing citations. And many of those citations tell people experiencing homelessness to go to Community Court, which connects people to services they may need.

And that’s exactly what happened to Hawkes earlier this year. In February, she says she was cited for criminal trespass in the early afternoon for laying under a bridge downtown. A couple months later, she was cited under the camping ordinance as city leaders extended its delay on opening a new 24/7 shelter.

It was frustrating, she says, because it felt like the city had just found a way around its own sit-lie ordinance and the ruling in her case, like it was the same story a dozen years later.

“The whole point of me trying to help and trying to get this taken care of was for cities to face the problem head-on,” she says.

But she was referred to Spokane Community

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Court. And that, she’d find out later, turned out to be exactly what she needed.

O

n the couch at her apartment on the lower South Hill, Hawkes pets her new kitten when the phone rings. It’s from the laundromat she applied to days earlier. They’re offering her a job.

“Oh my gosh! I’ll take it! I will take it!” she says as she paces in her living room. “I am so thrilled to come on board with you guys, you have no idea.”

For Hawkes, it’s one more sign she’s on the right track.

When she was referred to Community Court, she got connected with a mental health diversion program through Spokane County and a housing program through Goodwill. They helped her get the apartment she’s living in and helped her with part LETTERS of the rent. Now, with a job, Send comments to she can hold up her end of the editor@inlander.com. bargain.

For supporters of the city’s current approach to homelessness, it’s exactly how the system should work: Instead of sending homeless people to jail, direct them to a place where they can get help finding a home and other services.

Hawkes acknowledges cities may have a difficult time balancing offering services to those in need and tough-on-homeless approaches that send them to jail. In her experience, being forced to do things makes her rebel, but she says she’s also gotten too comfortable being homeless in the past.

“There’s a gray area. Just the right mix helps push me to achieve certain goals,” she says.

Community Court is widely seen as a success from both sides of the aisle; the debate is over how to refer people to it.

City Councilwoman Kate Burke says people who are homeless shouldn’t be forced to go to Community Court by being issued a criminal citation.

“I just don’t feel like we need to criminalize them to get them resources,” she says.

She suggests other ways of going about it, like having caseworkers go to people in public spaces and refer them to Community Court.

Meanwhile, Hawkes wonders what would have happened if the conversation was more like this a decade ago. At the time, she just wanted cities to have “more structure” in their laws when it came to homeless people.

She’s glad that the case is over with after all this time.

“It’s a huge relief,” she says. “It’s nice to have some finality to it.”

She’ll continue to advocate for people who are homeless, she says. She wants cities to look at their growing homelessness problems honestly and individually, without adopting what other cities are doing and without assuming it’s all rooted in drug addiction.

But she doesn’t want another fight like she just had.

“I’m not wanting to go around and sue every city,” she says. n

Brian Regan

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NEWS | DIGEST

ON INLANDER.COM

CLOSING THE GAP With Spokane City Councilman Breean Beggs vacating his District 2 seat to take his newly won seat as council president, the council will be filling his district’s vacancy. APPLICATIONS will be accepted through noon on Dec. 31 from people who’ve lived in District 2 (covering the South Hill and much of downtown) since at least Jan. 13, 2019. The applicants will be scored, and the top four to six will be interviewed during a public meeting Jan. 13. At that meeting, the council will likely then enter an executive session to discuss their choices, then return to a public session to vote. Whoever wins will need to run for re-election in 2020 if they want to keep the seat. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

FEATURING NATIONAL NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

UNDER WRAPS Last month, a whopping 76 percent of Spokane voters approved PROPOSITION 1, a ballot measure that calls for all collective bargaining between the city and labor unions to be made public.

But despite the measure’s passage, the city still won’t make the ongoing contract negotiations with the Spokane Police Guild public. Since the negotiations began in 2016 under the condition that the process would be kept private, the city can’t and won’t make the talks public, according to city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

But government-transparency advocates argument blasted the position. “To have such a strong vote of the people and then to say ‘Sorry, we’re going to ignore that,’ it’s just kind of flagrant disregard for the opinion of the public,” says Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. (JOSH KELETY)

SCANDALIZED BY SCULPTURE The ceramic sculpture, Sated, by University of Montana grad student Stephanie Dishno, features a nude female figure with her mouth open and her hand to her mouth. Last year, it was featured in the 2018 All Media Juried Exhibition in the City Hall’s Chase Gallery in October. Anyone who walked into a City Council meeting in early October could see Dishno’s work staring back. But then an unidentified city employee used the city’s anonymous HARASSMENT tip line to argue the sculpture was offensive. And even after Spokane Arts turned the statue around, the employee still said the sculpture was offensive, causing the sculpture to be moved again.

(DANIEL WALTERS)

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ICONIC. HISTORIC. MAJESTIC. COPS AND PATIENTS A new program through Eastern State Hospital and the Spokane Police Department could help reduce violent interactions between police and people with MENTAL ILLNESS, officials with SPD and the Department of Social and Health Services say. The program, called Community Outreach with Patients Through Affirmative Law Enforcement Conversations, or COP TALK, brings SPD officers into Eastern State, where they are able to build relationships with patients and educate them on how to respond to law enforcement. Patients can also agree to provide information regarding medications and their diagnosis upon their release to form an individualized response plan that officers can use when responding to calls. It’s part of the Police Department’s goal to “start to shift the paradigm” away from people with mental health problems having traumatic experiences with police, Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl says. (WILSON CRISCIONE)

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NEWS | BRIEFS

A Long Time Coming The Spokane Tribe is finally getting compensated for losses due to Grand Coulee

N

was previously reached with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the act requires the Bonneville Power Administration make payments to the tribe each year from its electricity revenues. The tribe will receive about $6 million per year, which will go up to about $8 million per year in 2030.

“This has been a long time coming to finally treat the Spokane Tribe honorably for the injury to our Tribal People and Reservation,” says Carol Evans, chairwoman of the tribe’s business council, in an email. “This important legislation will not bring back the salmon lost or lands flooded, however it will help the Spokane People move forward and heal.” (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY

early 80 years ago, the SPOKANE TRIBE was paid just $4,700 for the land and resources that were taken and flooded by the U.S. government to build the Grand Coulee Dam. From the 1930s to the ’50s, the massive dam cost more than $270 million (about $2 billion when adjusted for inflation) to build and start generating power. In the process of helping Central Washington flourish with new irrigation and electricity, it destroyed many of the Spokane Tribe’s traditional lands and eviscerated oncebooming salmon runs.

Now, the tribe is finally going to receive payments for those lost resources, with the passage of the Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation Equitable Compensation Act. After being approved by the Senate in June and then in the House on Dec. 16, the bill is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed.

Structured in a similar way to an agreement that

The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating a caregiver who in February gave a woman who is disabled CLEANING VINEGAR instead of laxative solution, killing her, court records say.

A search warrant, filed in Spokane County on Dec. 9, indicates that the caregiver, who worked for a supported living service called Aacres, may have committed manslaughter when she gave the 64-year-old woman, named Marion Wilson, Heinz cleaning vinegar. The Spokane County medical examiner says Wilson died from an accidental ingestion of the vinegar.

The Inlander wrote about the circumstances of the death in August. At the time, the Spokane Police Department couldn’t confirm if they were investigating the situation, but the department now says it referred the case to the AG’s Office. An investigator with the Medicaid Fraud Control Division of the AG’s Office was assigned the case on Aug. 16, according to the warrant.

The state Department of Social and Health Services has cancelled its contracts with Aacres, part of a parent

company called Embassy Management, following a series of violations including Wilson’s death.

Wilson was scheduled to have a colonoscopy procedure on Feb. 27. The night before, she was supposed to drink a laxative solution in preparation of the procedure.

The search warrant says one caregiver from the night before left the Heinz cleaning vinegar behind a coffee pot and the laxative solution in the refrigerator, giving the overnight shift clear instructions that the solution was in the fridge. But a different caregiver from the overnight shift, who has not been charged with a crime and who the Inlander is not naming, had Wilson drink the vinegar instead.

The next morning, Wilson was slurring her words, wheezing and bleeding from her rectum. At one point at the hospital, Wilson said, “This is a really shitty day,” the warrant says. She died later that morning. (WILSON CRISCIONE)

ONE LAST TIME

In most ways, Spokane City Council President BEN STUCKART and Councilman MIKE FAGAN were opposites on the council. Thanks to Stuckart’s series of victories, Fagan, a deep-red conservative, found himself isolated by a council that trended increasingly to the left.

Yet both served eight years together and both suffered political defeats in the last election cycle. In their final council meeting on Monday, it was Stuckart who read an official council salutation to Fagan.

Stuckart noted Fagan’s work on veterans issues, talked about the time he earned “Best Buds” marijuana socks from Councilwoman Karen Stratton after approving an additional marijuana shop in his district and praised Fagan for setting “the example for constituent relationships.”

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The end of an era: Ben Stuckart and Mike Fagan leave the council.

DANIEL WALTERS PHOTOS

“Probably 40 times when I’m out in the community, people would come up and say, ‘Mike came to my house! I called, and Mike showed up the next day,’” Stuckart said.

The salute to Stuckart, meanwhile, came from his successor, Council President-elect Breean Beggs, who praised Stuckart’s work on issues like immigration and safe-and-sick leave.

“Ben Stuckart’s contemplative nature and tendency to shirk debate meant, as council president, Ben was rarely seen and rarely heard,” Beggs said. The audience laughed as they caught onto Beggs’ sarcasm.

When the time came to gavel the last meeting of his political career to the close, Stuckart offered to share the gavel with Fagan.

“Thank you all everyone,” Stuckart said, “take good care of this place.” (DANIEL WALTERS) n

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 19

NEWS | CITY HALL

The Last Battle Mayor David Condon has one last skirmish with City Council over its expanding role

BY DANIEL WALTERS

I

n the summer of 2011, back before Mayor David Condon or City Council President Ben Stuckart were ever elected, Stuckart sat down with the Inlander and gently brought his two fists together, as if to say this is how the relationship between the mayor and the City Council should work.

“Tension in government is how things get done,” Stuckart said back then. “Since we’ve switched to a strong-mayor form of government, we have not had a City Council president who has understood the role. … Blindly following gets us nowhere.”

And that, at least, was one campaign promise he kept. The next eight years were defined by battle after battle between the Mayor’s Office and the City Council, as council members pushed to expand their role, and the mayor fought back.

Even as Stuckart has intentionally stepped back in his final weeks on the job, his successor, Council President-elect Breean Beggs, has grabbed that baton: With only a few day’s notice before the council approved the budget, Beggs introduced a slew of last-minute changes to Condon’s budget that included another expansion to the size and power of the council’s offices.

But the mayor hasn’t been willing to leave without a fight. He held a press conference of his own in response. He sent out a press release condemning the council’s latest budget as “nothing more than a money grab designed to fund their pet projects.”

“As of late, City Council seems to increasingly be forgetting that they serve the citizens of Spokane, not their own self-interests,” Condon wrote.

Beggs, however, argues that Condon’s opposition goes beyond the merits of their proposal.

“My sense of it is is that the mayor, for whatever reason, is grumpy on his way out the door,” Beggs says.

STRONG MAYOR, STRONG COUNCIL

Critics of the Spokane City Council were complaining about mission creep way back in 2014, lamenting the way that council’s budget of around $955,000 had climbed by more than 43 percent in eight years.

In 2014, conservative council members Steve Salvatori and Mike Allen proposed asking voters whether the council job should be officially considered full-time or part-time. But liberals on the council swatted down the idea immediately.

“If you gave citizens a hundred issues the city deals with, this would be number 100,” Stuckart said. “They are more worried about their streets, public safety, down-

20 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

town, jobs and economic development.”

But two years later, behind closed doors, council members made the argument to the Salary Review Commission that, in fact, they were working full-time and were underpaid.

“This is not new. The council and I have debated this several times,” Condon says. “If we’ve decided we want full-time city council members supported by full-time staff, I believe that that should go to the people to vote on.”

Today, the council’s budget is more than $1.6 million.

And Beggs’ budget increases it to almost $2.2 million — a 35 percent increase in one blow.

It would include hiring a full-time council spokesperson and new research assistants. They’d upgrade the council’s lobbyist — the intergovernmental-affairs position — into a full-time job. Legislative assistants would get another big raise. The council office’s travel budget would be increased to $10,000.

Beggs says the intention isn’t to replace anything the mayor is doing — but to do more of what he hasn’t been doing. It’s complementary, he says, not contradictory.

“In the administration, people are trying to do operations and policy development at the same time, and that’s challenging,” Beggs says. “A lot of this budget is about identifying areas where the city has been slow to develop policies to address issues.”

2017, the council created five garbage collector positions, but the mayor simply refused to fill them.

But Beggs’ budget not only resurrects those five garbage collector positions, it stipulates that if the mayor doesn’t fill those positions, that money would be swept up and put into a “Sustainability Opportunity Fund” that could be used only for certain “innovative” initiatives.

(On Monday night, however, the council delayed a vote on officially creating the Sustainability Opportunity fund, and two similar funds until next year.)

Beggs is quick to point out that his proposal doesn’t technically add a cent to the budget.

Instead, the City Council intends to pay for the council’s budget by doing things like eliminating vacant positions — like the position for the economic development director — and grabbing unused funds earmarked for the Spokane County Jail.

But when Condon looked at the council’s initial budget proposal, he saw a variety of rushed and half-baked ideas. In an email sent out Monday morning, he even suggests the council’s proposals could put the city’s credit rating in jeopardy.

Asked by the Inlander if he sees this fight as a kind of capstone of eight years of philosophical fights over the council’s role, the mayor readily agrees.

“Absolutely. There’s a philosophical divide,” Condon says. “I think it’s important that we have these debates.”

THE FINAL VOTE

Mayor David Condon is not a fan of the last-minute budget changes — which include a big staffing boost for the City Council. DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO That, Beggs says, includes issues like homelessness, housing, transportation, crime and public safety.

The City Council has repeatedly expressed frustration over getting clear and quick answers from administrative staff on major questions, with some staff members being told they’re not allowed to speak directly to council members at all.

But observers like former Councilman Salvatori argue that speed is not necessarily a virtue.

“I just found the quotes from Breean shocking,” says Salvatori. “I’m going, ‘Really? More policy faster? That’s what you think the city needs? More policy?’”

As both branches have looked to expand their influence, the fights have gone both ways.

During the mayor’s two four-year terms, council members repeatedly objected to Condon’s attempts to whittle down the number of positions governed by the “civil service” bureaucracy, while expanding the number of highly paid “exempt” positions that he could hire directly.

But Condon fought back against the council’s attempts to constrain his staffing decisions, arguing that the City Council was overstepping its authority. Sometimes Condon vetoed council ordinances — he vetoed more council bills than the four past mayors combined. Other times, he simply refused to implement them. Back in

At least one vote against the council’s budget on Monday night was unexpected. At his final meeting on the council, conservative Councilman Mike Fagan says his big problem with the council budget isn’t the financial piece — the council budget is still tiny compared to the $1.1 billion city budget — but the adversarial nature of it.

“It’s the perception that what we’re trying to do is to compete with the Mayor’s Office,” Fagan says.

Yet another objection comes from a more surprising quarter: Stuckart announces that while he supports the budget as a whole, he opposes one part: A proposal to spend $120,000 to hire a full-time spokesperson for the council.

“I think if you work well with the administration, you can share their numerous public information officers,” he says. Stuckart doesn’t think it’s necessary — and two other council members agree.

However, Beggs says that, in his opinion, the mayor’s spokeswoman put out an inaccurate statement about the council’s budget in the last few days.

“I can’t imagine going to that person to put out information about the budget,” Beggs says. The budget passes, with all the new positions for the council intact.

Meanwhile, one of the most important figures has remained comparatively silent: the mayor who will actually be implementing it. The next mayor, Nadine Woodward, spent the campaign excoriating the council for failing to effectively work with the mayor — and promising that she’d go through the budget line by line with a scalpel to find big savings to fund more police officers.

Woodward hasn’t joined the mayor in his condemnation of the council’s budget revisions. The mayor-elect didn’t return an Inlander request for comment before Monday’s council meeting, and Beggs says that he didn’t hear any objections from her about the budget.

“She’s wisely staying out of that fight,” Beggs says.

He and other council members express optimism about working with Woodward going forward.

As for the current mayor? Stuckart lobs one last insult his way.

“He’s being totally crazy, attacking council,” Stuckart tells the Inlander. “I just want to go out with the least amount of controversy possible. n danielw@inlander.com

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SONGS OF MY

I

FATHER

f I ever have kids, the one thing I know is that no story I tell them about my life will ever measure up to the stories my father told me.

Kids can never truly know who their parents were before they became Mom and Dad. From the dinner table stories and the anecdotes he packed into life lessons, I’ve always understood my dad to have been two separate, but related characters.

There’s the guy with frizzy hair and a beard who hit the highway in a Volkswagen bus, who withdrew into the Pacific Northwest wilderness to teach himself guitar and made his money by performing in local taverns.

And then, before that, there’s the carefree child from an Italian family in a suburb of Los Angeles who suddenly lost his dad in a mysterious, accidental murdersuicide.

The official account goes like this: My grandfather, Joe Criscione, owned and operated a car wash in the 1960s. He was a fun, life-of-the-party kind of guy — just like his son — but he’d begun to drink more as the family business was faltering. One day, he was in his office chatting with one of his close friends, Mike. As Mike was leaving, Joe pulled what he thought was an empty pistol out of his drawer and said, “I’m going to shoot you,” but playfully, according to a completely bizarre newspaper article in the Pasadena Independent dated May 27, 1965.

Joe pulled the trigger, and he immediately knew he made a mistake. Mike slumped to the ground. Joe stumbled back in horror.

“My God, I’ve killed him,” Joe said out loud. “I might as well kill myself.”

“Don’t do it!” someone shouted. “Don’t do it!”

He did it.

The story is almost unbelievable, like a poorly writ-

22 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

ten movie script. Was he really narrating his own actions out loud? Is it too convenient that witnesses heard the dialogue through the office windows?

When my dad, who went by Ronnie back then as a 15-year-old, got home after school, he found cars parked in the driveway. He opened the door to relatives gathered in the living room.

“What happened?” Ronnie asked. No one answered. He kept asking, “What happened, what happened?”

When finally he heard the answer, it was as if a glass wall formed around him, he’d later recall. He heard muffled voices and distant sobbing. He was present yet somehow detached, paralyzed yet floating, and suddenly without a father to ground him.

This is the version of my father that I’ve rarely asked about. I have a hard time imagining him being a vulnerable kid, because what he is now is the opposite. The dad I’ve known is the one with a guitar in his hand and a smile on his face — the old hippie singing songs and living the dream. How could that person have lost so much so young?

It’s only been recently that I’ve come to understand that whoever my dad is, and whoever I’ve aspired to be, was created that day by two gunshots at a car wash.

W

hen his dad died, Ronnie didn’t cry for three days. He remembers it as a state of shock, a blur of relatives shuffling in and out of the house. He couldn’t find any time to be alone. He couldn’t listen to music, because people were always there and there weren’t any headphones.

He went to school two days later. The principal called him into the office, and Ronnie thought he was in trouble again.

But the principal just wanted to ask what the hell he was doing there.

“I don’t know where else to go,” Ronnie said.

The reason my dad thought he was going to get in trouble at school is because he was constantly getting in trouble at school. He was like his dad, always joking around, laughing, the center of attention. But his private Catholic school teachers were nuns, and they couldn’t handle a kid who wanted to be the class clown. They’d berate him and whip him and slap his hands with rulers.

Once, in grade school, the nuns stuffed him in a locker for three hours for pushing another kid out of the bus.

My dad, Ron Criscione, has always felt the most comfortable with a guitar in his hand, seen here around 1980.

FACING PAGE: Joe Criscione, my grandpa, holding my dad and my aunt.

A true story about a murder mystery, hippies in the woods, Catholic nuns, rock ’n’ roll and my dad

BY WILSON CRISCIONE That actually wasn’t his fault, my dad maintains to this day.

Somebody behind him pushed him first.

Ronnie always felt like he wasn’t living up to his dad’s expectations, like he needed to be more. His dad wanted Ronnie to be a dentist. His mom and dad thought about buying him an accordion when he was young, but Ronnie didn’t like it. His dad took him to Dodgers games, and Ronnie liked playing baseball, but he wasn’t very good at it. Nor did he want to play violent sports like tackle football. “Ronnie’s a lover, not a fighter,” his dad would say.

At 14, he got his first guitar. My dad remembers that because it was the year he had to miss the first Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston fight for a guitar lesson. But he didn’t really see a future in music. Everyone had a guitar in Los Angeles.

To this day, he laments that his dad never saw how good he got at guitar.

Neither my dad nor my aunt have really known anything besides the official story, that their dad accidentally killed someone before turning the gun on himself. It was only when my older brother dug up the article several years ago that I started to wonder what really happened. I recalled anecdotes that suddenly seemed incriminating, like the time my grandpa brought my dad into an empty house. It felt like the family had suddenly disappeared. Decades later, my dad still can’t shake the feeling that they weren’t supposed to be there. I’ve heard whispers within the family that grandma knew the “real story.” My brother, sister and cousins have all semi-jokingly broached the idea that our grandpa was part of the Italian Mafia, that his death was the result of some deal gone wrong. But there’s no way to know for sure. My dad and his sister, for what it’s worth, have always believed the initial shot was an accident.

But that’s not the question that sticks with my dad. What hurt him then and what hurts him still is why, even after killing another man, his father pulled the trigger on himself. Was he thinking of his son at all? ...continued on next page

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 23

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“SONGS OF MY FATHER,” CONTINUED...

As a teenager, Ronnie had no one to talk to about it. There was no counseling for him, no extra support in place to help him get through it other than his grieving mother.

All of the sudden, the Beatles — who he didn’t care much about when songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” were released one year prior — became everything to him. He glued his ears to the radio waiting for each new song. He spent hours in his room with his friends, adjusting the sound to hear every intricacy, every note. He saw them at Dodger Stadium in 1966, though he couldn’t hear one word because the crowd just screamed wildly the entire time. But he laminated that ticket, put it in his wallet and told himself he’d keep it with him forever.

When he drove down Sunset Boulevard, he passed the billboards of all his idols: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, the Beach Boys. While his sister, a beautiful, classically trained singer, was majoring in music, my dad played drums for crappy garage bands in high school. Music was the one constant in a time when everything on the news was chaos — war, assassinations, civil rights protests. He was terrified he’d be shipped off to fight in Vietnam, and after Richard Nixon was elected president, my dad went to college if only to avoid the draft. He rebelled against societal norms. He rebelled against the Catholic school that beat the shit out of him.

And during all of this, he’d lost his only male role model just as he was trying to figure out what it meant to be a man.

“I didn’t have someone to counsel me, or help me make decisions,” he says. “I had nobody.”

All he had was his music. With a guitar in his hands he knew who he was and who he was supposed to be. And ultimately, it led him out of Los Angeles and into the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

W

hen I was 15, I decided that being a hippie was cool.

And I figured it was about time I asked my dad for some suggestions to boost my credentials.

“What’s some good hippie music to listen to?” I asked. He was confused because it was the same music we’d been listening to all my life. Still, I was newly fascinated with the idea in all the worst ways. I should start smoking weed, I thought. I should grow my hair out. I should stop caring about school.

Even as a young child, I grew up listening to my dad’s music.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The cabin he built in some woods 40 miles north of Spokane.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wilson Criscione is a staff writer at the Inlander. When he’s not exposing deep family secrets and exploring what music means to his family, he writes news stories on schools and social services in the area. Contact him at 509-325-0634 ext. 282 or wilsonc@inlander.com.

I was one of those kids who was convinced I was born in the wrong era. The ’60s, from what I’d heard from my dad, were the best time to be alive. How exciting it would have been to live in a time when new Beatles songs were coming out, when everyone was dancing around in fields with flowers on their heads, when it always felt like the world was on the verge of collapse. That last part may not sound fun to most people (and too real today), but to me it was evidence that the popular music back then mattered, that the art said something about the world we live in. This might shock you, but bands like Nickelback and Linkin Park weren’t really doing it for me.

It’s always been important to me that my dad approve of my musical tastes. He didn’t like rap, and my mom didn’t approve of all the cursing, so enjoying it filled me with immense guilt. When Eminem’s Encore came out, my friend burned me a copy, and I listened to the entire thing in the back of the car coming home from a family trip one day, trying my hardest to stay still so it didn’t look like I was bobbing my head to rap. (This is, I know, the whitest story you’ve ever heard.) Of course, I loved it. But at the end of the car trip, I took the CD out, waited for my parents to go inside, and threw it in the garbage bin by the curb. I was so proud of myself. Look at me, resisting the insidious dark force poisoning the minds of youths everywhere.

So when I asked for hippie music, my dad gave me some more suggestions: The Animals, the Doobie Brothers, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Jimi Hendrix. I illegally downloaded all I could on Limewire. Eventually I fell in love with a slightly later era, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin — not the music he loved from his high school days, but music he respected. I made some attempts to be a musician. I played percussion for the middle school band.

My parents bought me a drum set but eventually I asked for a guitar that I played around with.

Any semblance to what my dad was like in high school was superficial. To wit, my favorite piece of clothing was a tight-fitting Dark Side of the Moon 1973 tour graphic T-shirt that I got at Target.

PRESENTED BY

BENEFITTING

F E AT U R I N G C O U N T RY M U S I C A R T I S T

I wasn’t a hippie because “it was cool. I was a hippie because I do believe in love, and I do believe in music.

”

Like any teen, I didn’t know my identity. I played sports, and that fact always dueled with my desire to be more like my dad.

Really, though, I had no idea what that meant.

I

never truly understood this until now, but for my dad, being a hippie wasn’t about image.

It was like a religion to him. And music was the scripture.

“I wasn’t a hippie because it was cool,” he tells me now. “I was a hippie because I do believe in love, and I do believe in music, and those are the things that true hippies were all about back then.”

And certain things followed that belief system. Leaving the busy city for the solitude of the woods was one of them. At the time, he wasn’t consciously attempting to escape the trauma of his teenage years. But looking back, he realizes that his personality totally changed after the death of his father.

“I turned into an introvert,” he says. “It was like I was in a shell for 10 to 15 years.”

And he only allowed music inside.

He chose Missoula as his first outside-of-LA home in the early ’70s. For a year, he lived alone in an 8-foot-by-35-foot trailer, which he says was like a tin can that whistled as the frigid wind blew in. He didn’t know anyone around him, so he’d spend each night teaching himself how to play the guitar. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do it, free of any outside judgment. He didn’t read music. He listened and let it flow from his fingers. ...continued on next page

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FAMILY

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“SONGS OF MY FATHER,” CONTINUED...

If his life were a movie, this would be the two-minute montage ending with him ready to make it to the big stage. But that wasn’t his goal. He just enjoyed playing for anyone who would listen.

He fell for a girl who lived in the trailer across the way, and they decided to look for a place to live together. They settled on a piece of land in the forest, 40 miles northwest of Spokane. They built a log cabin there, got married and had a child.

When I ask my dad how he learned to build a cabin, he says he “got a book.”

They used a chainsaw to cut down trees and then they would peel off the bark, bleach the logs, gather them together and then nail them on top of each other to form an eight-sided cabin. When it was finished, they had no running water. The toilet was a hole in the ground. In winter, they skied into town and took showers in the snow.

He was a musician constantly on the road, driving to the next dive bar in Canada or upscale restaurant in Spokane that would pay him to perform. The idealism of the flower power era was over. By the mid’70s, it was the musicians who could shred an electric guitar like Jimmy Page who were idolized. But my dad and his partner stayed acoustic. They played a few originals, but the sets were dominated by covers from bands like Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, and those same artists he saw on the billboards back in Los Angeles during high school.

In many ways, he’d achieved the lifestyle he’d dreamed of.

And he came to despise it.

It turns out, living without running water or a toilet or a snow plow isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. He remembers one day driving down a dirt road when a song came on, he can’t remember which song exactly, but it made it click for him: All of this — his marriage, his lifestyle, the person he’d become — was falling apart. They couldn’t

26 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

live like this any more — My dad (right) and me. His band, the He bolted from his hometown; he needed money, a real Ronaldos, plays Arbor Crest Wine Cellars I’ve lived in mine my entire job. He moved to Spoat 5:30 pm Saturday. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO life. He’s the guy on stage; I’m kane. He split up with the guy in the corner. his wife. Meanwhile, my But I’ve always reached older brother could hardly form a sentence for that connection he has with music. If when his parents landed on opposite sides I’ve ever had it, it was fleeting. I thought it of the country. happened once, when I was 11 or 12 on a One winter night my dad was performtrip home from a basketball tournament in ing in Canada and a guy approached him Yakima. The car stereo was turned off and on stage. He told him John Lennon got I leaned my head against the window. As shot. My dad says the news wrecked him.

I studied the sounds of the tires humming He finished the set and went upstairs to the along the road, somewhere within that hotel room. When he opened his wallet, he white noise I heard a song. It was unmistaksays the Beatles ticket — the one he’d saved ably “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, from that concert at Dodger Stadium — was Stills & Nash. If you would have asked me gone. to memorize the lyrics, I couldn’t have done it. And yet somehow I heard every single oday, my dad is almost 70 and he’s word and every single note, like it was playgoing stronger than ever. He books ing softly on the radio even though it was gigs all over town in local wineries all in my head. and restaurants with his band the Ronaldos.

I’ve often wondered: Did I tap into My dad, who goes by Ron now, may whatever place my dad is able to go to? Or have left the woods, but he kept playing was I so desperate for a melody that my music. He met my mom while auditioning brain picked up a frequency it wanted to for a show in Spokane, and as their relationhear? ship blossomed in the ’80s, he built a career For most of my life, I’ve imagined what in real estate. He kept playing music on the it would be like to have lived with my dad side as my sister was born, and as I was in the woods, to drive around the Northborn four years later in 1991. west in a Volkswagen bus, to have the same For my dad, playing music has always sense of purpose he feels when he has a been a sort of meditative, spiritual experiguitar. I wanted to be there with him on his ence. He’s able to immerse in his craft, like journey. he’s tapping into something greater than But when I piece together all of the himself. I can see it when he’s performing fragmented anecdotes he’s told me, that in a crowded restaurant, or when he pulls journey becomes clearer. It’s like I can out his guitar in the living room on Thankshear the melody through the white noise. I giving. It gives him a sense of purpose remember that teenage kid surrounded by a that few have. And it gives me a feeling of glass wall, suspended in a state of disbelief, something, too. Whenever my dad’s there and I know music isn’t some innate calling with a guitar, I’m at home. to my dad.

I am now 28, and I generally consider It’s an escape, a retreat into a world of myself nothing like my dad. At 28, he’d fighis own making. With each song he gives ured out how to survive in the woods; I still us a peek inside, but it’s a world nobody call him for help when my sink’s clogged. else can follow him into. Not even me. n

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Spokane’s Pete Arneson finds himself judging some of the world’s most talented skiers BY BOB LEGASA

Pete Arneson polished his skills at Schweitzer and Mt. Spokane.

I

learned how to slide a rail in a backyard before I actually made a turn on a pair of skis.

That’s not the most conventional way to start skiing, but it obviously worked for professional slopestyle skiing judge Pete Arneson. Raised in Spokane, Pete has been judging slopestyle events for almost 10 years. He’s one of the guys you see on TV judging ski events like the X-Games, Dew Tour and the Olympics’ skiers run.

Pete’s skiing and ski-coaching background made for an easy transition into judging competition ski runs.

In his early teens Pete was a snowboarder, but with some persuasion — coercion, maybe — by his childhood friend, Pete put on some snow skis.

“I had a friend named Jason Guthrie who invited me to his condo at Schweitzer,” Pete recalls.

“Jason told me that I wasn’t allowed to snowboard and that he was going to teach me how to INSIDE

GIFT GUIDE

6

EVENTS

ski. That was my first time. I was 14 and I was pretty much hooked after that. I mowed lawns all that summer and bought myself my first skis, a pair of 169 K2 Public Enemies.”

Hooked and determined to be a good skier, Pete spent the weekends at Schweitzer and many evenings after school under the lights night skiing at Mt. Spokane. Pete was infatuated with skiing where he also tried to gather as much information about skis from the Sports Creel, the local ski shop in the Valley.

“When I was 15 and 16 years old, I would just sit at the shop, probably annoying them more than ever, watching ski videos, never buying anything and just watching them work and learning about skis,” Pete said. “Then I worked there for four years, started tuning skis and working in the back. That instilled a lot of the love of skiing for me.” ...continued on next page

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DECEMBER 2019 SNOWLANDER 29

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R

aised playing traditional competitive sports like baseball and football, Pete’s transition into competitive skiing was a natural one where he started competing in local events.

“I started in all the local comps put on around Spokane and Sandpoint, anything and everything, because all my friends were going. We all wanted to try and win a pair of poles or whatever,” he remembers.

After graduating high school from Lewis and Clark in 2007, Pete moved onto college sports and played football for University of Montana Western in Dillon. It didn’t take long for Pete to figure out where his real passion lie. “I played for a year at Montana Western and realized that I loved skiing a little bit more than living in Dillon. A small town in Montana wasn’t necessarily for me at 18 years old,” he says with a laugh.

Pete ended up moving back to the area, where he lived at the base of Schweitzer Mountain Resort. All of Pete’s time was either spent working on getting his associate’s degree from North Idaho College or shredding Schweitzer’s Stomping Grounds Terrain Park.

On the weekends Pete would coach for Schweitzer Alpine Racing Freeride Program and he also started doing a little bit of filming with ski movie makers like Poor Boyz and Toy Soldier Productions.

Through his coaching, Pete was asked by some of the local judges if he could help out and judge some of the local ski events.

Pete ended up going through a certification clinic hosted by the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association, but soon found himself helping instruct the clinic.

As Pete told me, “They sent out a representative from USASA to put on the clinic. He was a snowboarder but was also teaching the freestyle skiing side of things. During the course, I ended up teaching the majority of the course as far as how things work because he didn’t know the terminology as much.”

Through progression Pete started judging locally, then regionally, then nationally where he judged the U.S. Nationals. This is where he met Steele Spence, head representative for the Association of Freeskiing Professionals. At that time, AFP was the main governing body for freestyle judging, which included half-pipe and slopestyle. This organization was trying to do something a little different by having a panel of judges that were all ex pros creating a judging format of what the athletes actually wanted to be judged on.

Judging the X-Games (left) and getting deep at Schweitzer (above). BOB LEGASA PHOTO Pete moved onward and upward and went through the next phase of judging certifications with the AFP. This clinic was put on by Steele and former Coeur d’Alene resident Josh Loubek.

“Because I tested highly, they told me it’s a possibility they would get me judging some of these bigger contests. I’m 21 years old, I have hair probably halfway down my back, I didn’t really want to judge a lot of these contests because the majority of them were my friends who were still competing. At this point, I was torn between judging the contest, the bigger contest, or just float around doing it in the local circuit and enjoying it,” he recalls.

“I did the Grand Prix at Copper. That was my first major contest,” he continues. “It was half-pipe. I had never judged halfpipe before in my life. I was on a panel full of freestyle ski legends and then me, this goofy kid wearing double XL clothes who had really no idea how to judge half-pipe. They just threw me in there.”

F

ast forward several years, Pete has judged the X-Games eight times, all the major World Cup events, all qualifying events for the Olympics and an array of other high-profile events around the globe.

“It’s been a cool thing,” Pete says. “I’ve been able to travel all over Europe for judging, France, Spain, Switzerland. I went to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi where I lived for a month. I worked for NBC as their freestyle ski expert. I sat in a research room and talked to producers and announcers explaining to them why someone was going to win and what tricks work.”

Nowadays Pete has sort of retired from the heavy travel of judging and now spends some time announcing at a few of the high-profile events like the X-Games and Dew Tour.

“Judging was putting its toll on my love for freeskiing because I just overanalyzed every single thing I saw, whether it was my own skiing or other people’s skiing,” he says. “Stopping that, I’ve been able to ski a whole bunch more just with friends and family.”

Pete is now working on bringing in the next generation of skiers by getting his nieces and nephew out as much as possible.

“I have a whole lot more time to take them up to Mt. Spokane and Schweitzer and get them going,” he says. “It’s been a pretty cool experience. I’ve been able to ski with people who I idolize growing up and travel the world going to way more places than I ever could have imagined. Yeah, it’s been cool.” n

DECEMBER 2019 SNOWLANDER 31

GIFT GUIDE

GIFTS FOR SKIERS AND BOARDERS ’Tis the season to give the gift of mountain accessories BY ALEX SAKARIASSEN

M

ountain adventurers are a tough lot to shop for. As much as they’d welcome a new tent or pair of alpine-touring boots, their gear is usually already as well established as their powder day routines. Still, there are plenty of peripheral conveniences to zero in on during the holiday season, the things skiers and snowboarders would love to have but never seem to get around to buying for themselves.

YETI STAINLESS STEEL COLSTER (a)

No day on the slopes would be complete without a beer or three.

But those cans really numb the hand, and a koozie is just about the easiest thing to forget on a powder morning. So toss a YETI colster under the Christmas tree. This insulated screw-top can holder will probably kick around the car all winter long, traveling from one

après-ski party to another as it keeps your favorite rider’s beer cold and their hand warm. $25 • Sportsman’s Warehouse

FOURHEART CHARGER/HANDWARMER (b)

Skiers and snowboarders tend to take environmental consciousness very seriously, for obvious reasons. And those disposable hand warmers, while a slopeside staple, create a lot of waste. Fourheart’s electronic hand warmers will not only make the rider on your Christmas list feel greener, they also heat up fast and have four different temperature settings. As an added bonus, they’ll even recharge a smartphone. $26 • Various outlets

DRYGUY TRAVEL DRY BOOT DRYER (c)

Powder days come with one major drawback: boot stink. It’s a

stoke-killer for driver and passengers alike, and left unchecked can linger in a car all season long. The only solution is to keep those boots dry. A pair of DryGuy’s portable boot dryers can plug into a car charger or wall socket, pumping heat into every sweatdrenched inch of liner. $39 • Alpine Haus

DAKINE ADJUSTABLE TUNING IRON (d)

Mountain people tend to be fairly stubborn when it comes to maintaining their own gear. They also have a difficult time justifying spending money on the fancy when the cheap and practical will do.

So this Christmas, consider treating the skier or snowboarder on your list with an iron tailor-made for waxing planks. Unlike that battered old clothes iron left over from college, Dakine’s tuning iron has temperature control settings designed to achieve the smooth, even

winter activities your guide to

city of spokane parks & recreation activity guide

EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES WE OFFER:

Try something new, get outdoors, and play with friends. Let us be your guide to fun!

Find us online or at your neigborhood library.

SpokaneRec.org | Call 311 or 509.755.2489

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Snowshoeing Outings

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Cross Country Skiing Outings

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No School Day Camps

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Fitness & Wellness Classes

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Open Gym Basketball

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Therapeutic Recreation

We offer hundreds of camps and classes—plus four golf courses, six aquatic centers, 17 splash pads and more than 80 parks.

finish a rider needs for an epic day on the slopes. $50 • Ski Shack

AVALANCHE AWARENESS COURSE

Wading into mountain culture is neither easy nor cheap, and settling on a gift for a mountain newbie is no different. Perhaps the best place to start is a little lesson in snow savvy. REI offers exactly that with a free hour-long avalanche awareness course Jan. 16 alongside the Northwest Avalanche Center. Sign your giftee up online and they’ll get a crash course in the basics, from where avalanches typically occur to how to get the latest scoop on backcountry conditions. Space is limited, so get on it soon. Free • REI

BACKCOUNTRY SNOW STUDY KIT (e)

Some people aren’t content with just hitting the backcountry on

the weekends. They desire a deeper understanding of winter’s ever-shifting landscape, and Backcountry Access has the tools for them to reach it. With a digital thermometer, slope meter and more, this handy kit makes for a perfect gift for anyone on your list looking to enhance their snow science know-how. $100 • Mountain Gear

U-TURN ULTRALIGHT TITANIUM WOOD STOVE (f)

For some, winter adventure isn’t restricted to that narrow slice of daylight hours. The truly hardcore among us yearn for their blankets of snow to come complete with a starlit sky. If you’ve made it your holiday mission to help keep them warm, look no further than Colorado-based Seek Outside and its slick line of lightweight collapsible wood stoves. These titanium stoves come in a variety

We offer outdoor adventures—like our SHOWSHOES AND BREWS Mt SPOKANE TOUR. With all the guides, gear, transportation and fees, we have you covered—so come dressed for the adventure!

of sizes and double as a cooking surface, ideal for any backcountry trek or just a weekend car camp close to the slopes. $295-$679 • seekoutside.com

SKI3 LIFT TICKETS

There’s really no telling exactly when the powder will fall during a given season. But when it does, it’s always good to be prepared, and that’s where Schweitzer’s Ski3 lift tickets come in. Each day pass in this three-pass bundle can be used on any given day of the 2019/20 season. There are no blackout dates, meaning that special someone you’re buying for can hold onto them until that first major dump finally comes. The passes are completely transferable, too, so your giftee doesn’t have to ride alone. $217 through Dec. 24 • schweitzer.com n

WINTER EVENTS Commitment to powder days.

W HI T EF IS H M OUN TA IN RES O R T

Commitment to character.

In the ‘30s local skiers discovered good skiing on the “big mountain” north of town. Since then we’ve been committed to a life of good times,

great people and deep snow. In Whitefish you’ll find a community true to itself and a deep-rooted lifestyle where character is encouraged.

JANUARY WHITE SALE Get 33% OFF lodging and lift tickets when you stay 3 or more nights and ski 3 or more days in the month of January.* *Terms and restrictions apply. Offer valid for the month of January.

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DECEMBER

SKATE RIBBON COLLEGE NIGHT Show your current student ID to receive free skate rentals with admission ($5.25-$7.25). Students also are entered into a raffle for 49 Degrees North lift tickets and other mountain discounts. Every Thursday from 4-9 pm, Dec. through Feb 27.

Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com (625-6600) NIGHT SKIING Mt. Spokane’s night skiing schedule has expanded to four nights a week, every Wednesday through Saturday, from mid-December through midMarch. The mountain’s full-service cafeteria stays open late, and live bands play most Saturday nights.

Offered Wed-Sat from 3:30-9 pm, Fri, Dec. 20 through Sat, March 14. $23. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mtspokane.com (238-2220) FREE ICE SKATING LESSONS Riverfront Park offers weekly ice skating lessons at the Numerica Skate Ribbon, skate rentals included.

Registration is available on site and lessons are available on a first-come, first-served basis. (Paid lessons also available; see website for details).

Sundays at 11 am through February 23. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com (6256600) KANTASY NIGHT TUBING SESSIONS This all-new event in the 2019-20 season offers “rockin’ music” and colorful lights illuminating the tubing hill, with a roaring bonfire and snacks and beverages in Lodge 1. Offered Friday and Saturdays through Jan. 25, with sessions from 4-6 pm or 6-8 pm. $20. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mtspokane.com (238-2220

34 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2019

WINTER SOLSTICE PARTY An open house and winter party.

Come pick up your season pass, and enjoy food, music and see the new improvements at the resort. Sat, Dec. 21. Details TBA; event is weather dependent. 49 Degrees North, 3311 Flowery Trail Rd., Chewelah. ski49n. com MT. SPOKANE SNOWSHOE TOUR Learn the basics of snowshoeing during a guided hike on snowshoe trails around Mt. Spokane State Park. Pre-trip information is emailed after registration. Includes snowshoes, instruction, walking poles, trail fees, guides and transportation (from Mead Yoke’s, 14202 N. Market St.). Ages 13+. Offered Sat, Dec. 21 and 28; Jan. 5 and 18; Feb. 16 and 23; March 1 and 21 from 10 am-2 pm. $29. Register at spokanerec.org (755-2489) NIGHT SKIING AT 49 Night skiing is great for the whole family and a fun way to see the mountain in a different light. Rentals are available at half-day pricing, no lessons are offered. Offered Dec. 21, Dec. 28, Jan. 18 and Feb. 15 from 4-8 pm. $5 with three cans of food.

49 Degrees North, 3311 Flowery Trail Rd., Chewelah. ski49n.com CROSS-COUNTRY SKI LESSONS (MT. SPOKANE) Learn the basics of cross-country skiing at Mt. Spokane Selkirk Nordic Area, taught by Spokane Nordic Ski Association certified cross-country ski instructors. Fee includes skis, boots, poles, ski area fees, instruction and transportation (departs from Mead Yoke’s, 14202 N. Market St.). Ages 13+. Offered Dec. 22, 29 and 31; Jan. 5, 25 and 26; Feb. 15, 16, 22 and 23 from 9 am-3 pm. $51-$53.

Register at spokanerec.org (7552489)

It’s almost time to bust out that Santa suit. LOOKOUT PASS PHOTO NICE TURNS FREE TRIAL RUN This annual clinic is designed to help existing skiers get out of a rut and improve their skills with personalized coaching with a small group at a similar level, intermediate or above. Offered Dec. 22 and Feb. 16-17. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) DRESS LIKE SANTA, SKI FREE Bring your red Santa suit, hat, white beard and black belt, or a Mrs. Claus outfit, to the mountain and wear it to qualify for a free lift ticket for the day. Santas are then requested to join in the mountain’s annual Santa Downhill ride at noon. Sun, Dec. 22. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan. skilookout. com (208-744-1301)

NM We’re

SO MUCH DEEPER than just THE POWDER

MORE EVENTS Visit Inlander.com for complete listings of local events.

SKI WITH SANTA Make some turns with Santa who stops by for a quick break to visit good girls and boys of all ages.

He’ll hit the slopes one last time for the holiday balloon parade on Christmas Eve. Mon, Dec. 23 from 1-4 pm and Tue, Dec. 24 from 1-5 pm. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) SANTA SKIS AT LOOKOUT Kids are challenged to find Santa on the slopes before the big day and make a run with him. He’ll also hand out treats and take photos. Tue, Dec. 24 starting at 10 am.

Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan. skilookout.com (208-744-1301) ...continued on next page

VISITSANDPOINT.COM Sandpoint is the kind of place to really find yourself. Of course, there’s plenty of deep powder skiing at Schweitzer Mountain. But when it’s aprés ski time, there is so much more: Amazing entertainment, award-winning breweries and wineries, art galleries, live music and performing arts and outstanding restaurants.

Go deep this winter, to Sandpoint, Idaho.

Visit SANDPOINT thisWINTER Get visitor information at 800-800-2106 www.VisitSandpoint.com

DECEMBER 2019 SNOWLANDER 35

WINTER EVENTS

SheJumps returns to Mt. Spokane Nordic Center on Dec. 28.

CHRISTMAS AT SILVER Spend the holidays on the lifts or in the Silver Rapids Waterpark, and see if you can catch Santa himself taking a turn or two after a long night of work. Wed, Dec. 25. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave., Kellogg, Idaho. silvermt.com (866-344-2675) SHEJUMPS INTO CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Back by popular demand, this event is hosted by Fitness Fanatics and Spokane Nordic to offer a day of cross-country skiing to skiers of all ages and abilities, with mentors and rental gear available. Sat, Dec. 28 at 10 am. $20. Mt. Spokane Nordic Center, 26017 N. Mt. Spokane State Park Drive. shejumps.org

TORCHLIGHT PARADE A New Year’s Eve tradition featuring torch-bearing skiers/riders (signup to participate, ages 16+) gliding down the mountain, followed by food specials (4-6 pm) and great viewing of the procession from the Loft Pub & Grub. Tue, Dec. 31 at 5 pm. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan. skilookout.com (208-7441301) NYE AT SILVER Celebrate the end of 2019 with a prime rib dinner and live music at Noah’s Loft. The slopes will be open until 6 pm to send the decade off in style. Tue, Dec. 31. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave., Kellogg, Idaho. silvermt.com (866-344-2675) n

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wallaceidahochamber.com 36 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2019

LookOut Pass

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SHEJUMPS PHOTO

LAST RUN

DEEP ATTACHMENTS Remembering the planks that made us

I

BY ALEX SAKARIASSEN

was weaving between fly-fishing displays a few weeks back when Don’s voice came rolling out from behind the tuning-shop counter. “Surprise,” he said, producing my battered pair of Surface Save Lifes. “Had to do a base weld.” I’d figured when I dropped my skis off for their pre-season tune that they might need some extra attention. That’s the risk you run training with toboggans on rocky slopes. Still, core shots are nasty business, and I’d like to think I could take better care of the equipment that takes such good care of me.

These Save Lifes have been my go-to skis since I slapped some alpine-touring bindings on them eight years ago. They’re light on a skin track, springy in powder and can cut a turn around a dime on corduroy. Sure, they chatter a bit when the conditions are icy, but so do my teeth. We have a bond as old as skiing itself. I think, they react.

It’s strange the attachments humans forge to inanimate objects. We name our cars, our instruments and our boats. We line our shelves and pockets with good luck talismans and hold on to beloved childhood toys well into our twilight years. Why would skis and snowboards

be any different? Every scratch and gouge and divot they hold is part of the patchwork of our past adventures, the planks themselves marking each step in the evolution from novice to pro.

For me, it all started with a pair of Elans. They were janky old things, white with red lettering, that had already lived a full life as rentals when my dad bought them from a shop in Lead, South Dakota. I was 6, fresh off my first weekend on skis at Terry Peak and eager to get back on the snow. Those Elans were my ticket.

We rode together for several seasons before Rossignol entered the picture. With my ski skills improving, Dad decided it was high time I had brand new planks. He settled on a pair of Viper Jrs, snagging himself some Rossignol Viper Xs in the process. Our third musketeer, a neighborhood friend of mine named David, got a pair of neon-orange Viper Zs that same season, and we dubbed ourselves the “Viper Squad.”

I woke up one Christmas in my mid teens to find a set of Rossignol Bandits waiting under the tree. It was love at first sight, and those Bandits saw me gently down my first double black diamond. But a factory

Our skis tell a story about who we are and where we’ve been. defect caused them to delaminate during our first season together. They were replaced by a pair of Bandit XXs, which carved like a dream at Tremblant, Lake Louise and Sun Valley and still live in a storage space beneath my bed, waiting for the day that nostalgia finally drives me to ride them again.

And I have no doubt that day will come. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It’s partly why a friend of mine continues to ride a pair of 15-year-old Rossignol Scratches, and why David rode his Viper Zs for over a decade. It’s why my dad gets so excited when he sees my old Elans shredding the slopes back home. They’ve passed through the hands of at least three families since my last outing with them, and they probably have the battle scars to prove it. But like my Save Lifes with their fresh base weld, those Elans still have a few good turns left. n

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DECEMBER 2019 SNOWLANDER 37

38 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2019

GILLES TOUCAS PHOTO

CHRISTMAS

The Real Thing Vanessa Williams brings a pioneering career and deep roots in Christmas traditions to her shows with the Spokane Symphony

BY DAN NAILEN

I

f you ever had any question about how powerful a woman Vanessa Williams is, consider the fact she made Arnold Schwarzenegger cry without even laying a finger on her Eraser co-star.

It was a few years after that action flick had made friends of the singer, actress and former Miss America Williams and actor-turned-politician Schwarzenegger.

His then-wife Maria Shriver asked Williams to pop into a Christmas party toward the end of his stint as California governor and surprise him with a song. And Shriver mentioned that “Silent Night” was always Arnold’s favorite carol.

“I was talking to one of my friends I went to college with, and he said, ‘Why don’t you do it in German,’” Williams recalled in a phone call from her New York home. “I go, ‘Oooh, you’re right,’ so I sang ‘Silent Night’ in German. Of course, I had my index cards with the German written out, I didn’t memorize it. But he got really emotional and Maria’s like, ‘How did you make him cry? I can’t even make him cry!’

“That was probably the most effective Christmas song I’ve ever done. Making the Governator tear up.”

It shouldn’t really come as any surprise that Williams

has the kind of voice to bring the manliest of manly men to tears with a song. The daughter of two music teachers, she had serious musical chops well before becoming a pop star and well-known actress, having studied dance and a variety of instruments growing up, in addition to singing. She went on to become a musical theater major in college before leaving school when she became the first African-American Miss America in 1983.

That naturally led to opportunities acting on TV and in movies, and recording a radio-friendly brand of R&B that gave her No. 1 hits (“Save the Best For Last”), platinum albums (“The Right Stuff,” “The Comfort Zone”) and an Oscar-winning song from the movie Pocahantas, “Colors of the Wind.” As her music career continued beyond the ’90s, she expanded her sound into jazz, gospel and pop. After early movie successes like Soul Food, she more recently starred on Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives on TV, and on Broadway in The Trip To Bountiful and Hey, Look Me Over.

Throughout Williams’ long and varied career, Christmas has popped up repeatedly. She’s recorded a couple of albums packed with holiday favorites, and added her voice to a star-studded (Patti LaBelle! Eartha Kitt!

Gregory Hines!) animated TV movie called Santa, Baby!

In 2001, and starred in the memorable A Diva’s Christmas Carol as “Ebony Scrooge.”

T

his time of year, Williams hits the road to perform holiday tunes with a wide array of groups, including the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and, this weekend, the Spokane Symphony.

“It’s kind of my busy time of the year, for tree-lighting ceremonies and stuff like that,” Williams says. “I try to get the house decorated by Dec. 1 and then it’s catch as catch can in terms of being at home and relaxing and trying to do any kind of Christmas shopping.”

Williams grew up with the kind of Christmas traditions that most of us only get to see in movies. Westchester County in New York is just a half-hour or so from New York City, “so we would go in for the annual Christmas show at Radio City [Music Hall] and see the Rockettes and all that stuff, go see the tree at Rockefeller Center. We used to have hot roasted chestnuts so, yeah, a very traditional upbringing.” ...continued on next page

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 39

CULTURE “THE REAL THING,” CONTINUED...

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And it’s something she was able to share with her own kids later since Williams moved back 27 years ago to the town she grew up in. Her kids went to the same schools she did, and her parents lived just one town over, so many of the traditions of her childhood kept going until her own kids grew up and moved out on their own.

“Our church would have a Christmas pageant where everybody would kind of dress up, and they’d recreate the Nativity scene,” Williams says. “I would cook a lasagna beforehand, and once we finished mass, we’d all come home and [the kids] were allowed to open one present and we’d have lasagna on Christmas Eve. Now, it all depends on people’s schedules and where they are in the world.”

While the homey touches might be harder to come by for her, Williams’ concerts around the country during the holidays are no doubt parts of her fans’ own Yuletide traditions. At the Spokane shows this weekend, expect the symphony to do a set followed by Williams joining them for a mix of carols and her must-have hits (I’ll be the first one to riot if she doesn’t do “Save the Best For Last”).

You probably won’t hear Williams do “Jingle Bells,” but she’ll likely hit on another popular favorite that seems to strike a chord consistently with the audience. “[From] Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, I covered ‘Silver and Gold,’ which Burl Ives had done, but I do have a very sentimental ‘Silver and Gold’ and a lot of people connect to that because it brings back childhood memories,” Williams says. “A sentimental favorite.” n Spokane Symphony Holiday Pops with Vanessa Williams • Sat, Dec. 21 at 8 pm and Sun, Dec. 22 at 2 pm • $33-$92 • All ages • Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox • 1001 W. Sprague • spokanesymphony.org • 624-1200

CULTURE | DIGEST

SPACE RACE If there’s one good thing Jeff Bezos ever did, it’s save The Expanse, the to-be-canceled SyFy series. The fourth season just hit Amazon Prime, and the plucky crew of the Rocinante heads to a newly discovered planet being colonized by asteroid belt (“Belter”) refugees. The rest of the solar system, facing high unemployment and other post-war troubles, is eager to explore 1,300 other new systems accessible through an alien-created portal called the Ring Gate.

The system’s planetary governments, though, are hesitant to allow colonists to explore these potentially dangerous new worlds. If you need to catch up on one of the best sci-fi sagas ever created, all four seasons are on Amazon Prime. (CHEY SCOTT)

Style Revival

A

BY CHEY SCOTT

h, the ’20s. Immigration is restricted and alcohol is prohibited in the United States. The Ku Klux Klan, communism and fascism are on the rise.

Mickey Mouse, sci-fi comics and commercial radio are born. Fashion enters the modern era, and flapper girls challenge cultural and social norms.

As we enter another decade of the ’20s, some of these historical milestones feel more relevant than others. Fittingly, New Year’s Eve celebrations everywhere are throwing things back a century, at least in style and party culture.

If you choose to embrace the look and feel of the 1920s, consider the following tips shared by Spokane-

THE BUZZ BIN

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Some noteworthy new music arrives online and in stores Dec. 20. To wit: FRANK ZAPPA, Hot Rats (50th Anniversary Edition). Six-CD set dedicated to one of Zappa’s best/ weirdest. It even comes with a “Zappa Land” board game!

JOHN WILLIAMS, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. For the Star Wars completist in your life.

based vintage fashion expert Fay Ripley of Red Leaf Vintage.

Ripley’s foray into the world of vintage fashion began with her love of the 1920s’ looks. At one point, she counted more than 100 original pieces and textile samples from the decade in her personal collection.

Today, her vintage brand focuses on mid-century-era clothing, which is more durable and easier to come by.

“It was a rebellious time,” Ripley notes. “[Young women’s] mothers were in that Victorian era — the prim-and-proper, nip and tuck of everything to be a certain shape. And then in the ’20s it was straight and flat and drop waist and more comfortable.”

Since authentic 1920s-era dresses and other clothing are hard to find (also expensive) and incredibly fragile considering their age, Ripley says wearing a reproduction piece is completely acceptable.

“Whenever I tell someone going to a party — and it hurts me to say this — just go to Amazon,” she says.

Or, look for ’20s-inspired silhouettes that made comebacks in the 1960s and 1980s.

If authenticity is your goal, consider that while most photos of ’20s looks are black and white, clothing of the era was actually quite colorful, Ripley notes.

Dresses with heavy fringes, a popular feature in reproductions, however, are less accurate, she adds.

Most formal pieces were heavily beaded, embroidered or featured layers of sheer, embellished fabrics. Hemlines for formalwear hit at the calf or just below the knee (not above), and were often scalloped or asymmetrical.

Don’t forget about accessories: A headband or cloche hat, long necklaces, T-strap pumps and an embellished clutch. Tuck up long hair into a faux bob and accentuate your cupid’s bow with dark lipstick. n

THIS IS A TRIBUTE I would suggest we’ve probably heard enough covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at this point, but Spokane’s own Myles Kennedy proved me wrong recently when his band Alter Bridge played a show at L’Olympia in Paris — the venue where Jeff Buckley recorded his definitive version of the song in 1995. Kennedy took the stage solo, with Buckley’s own Fender Telecaster guitar no less, and delivered a pretty killer take on the song. You can find a video of the performance at youtube.com/user/alterbridge. (DAN NAILEN)

SERIOUS SHOUT-OUT Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and 2019 Booker Prize winner The Testaments took to Twitter to give Spokane’s own Sharma Shields a shout-out for Shields’ 2019 novel The Cassandra: “Quirky, funny, dark,” wrote Atwood. “Not like anything else. What if you could really see the future...and are working at an A-bomb lab in the 1940s…” (DAN NAILEN)

BACK TO THE DANGER ZONE Because every popular movie eventually gets a reboot — and because Tom Cruise doesn’t seem to age — a sequel to the 1986 hit Top Gun was an inevitability. The trailer for Top Gun: Maverick dropped earlier this week, and it looks like Cruise is back to train a new generation of pilots, including the hotshot son of his old friend Goose (RIP). The supporting cast includes Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connolly and (per IMDb) Val Kilmer returning as Iceman, and you can probably bet that Cruise performed all the death-defying aerial stunts himself. The movie lands in theaters June 26. (NATHAN WEINBENDER)

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 41

TRADITIONS

HOPES and HELPINGS U

nited nations we are not, especially when it comes to end-of-year traditions, which range from somber to celebratory depending on one’s religion and cultural heritage. Yet even as outward expression varies, there is one commonality: food.

In Charity Bagatsing Doyl’s family, for example, holiday meals are a reflection of her diverse heritage: Punjabi Indian, Spanish, Filipino and German.

During December, Doyl’s Sikh grandfather, father and uncles sponsor a langar, or free community kitchen, through two churches for those in need. Christmas Eve means midnight Mass followed by Noche Buena, a feast of jamon (ham), paella (seasoned rice, seafood and sausage), flan (custard) and other Spanish foods common throughout Catholic-practicing Hispanic and Latin American cultures.

For New Year’s Eve, the family eats lechon baka, a Filipino roasted calf dish, which becomes leftovers alongside German food — sausages and apple strudel — on New Year’s Day. Sweet treats are abundant during holidays in Germany, including marzipan, a cookie rich with almond paste, which Hermine Sittle has been making and selling at her

42 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

Egg rolls (Vietnam), leche flan (Philippines), banh bo (Vietnam), pan de los reyes (Mexico) and churros (Mexico) served during the Northwest Winterfest’s recent Feliz Navidad event on Dec. 14.

Multicultural groups across the Inland Northwest celebrate year-end holidays with traditional foods and more

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

Coeur d’Alene store Hermine’s Old World Confections since opening in 1988. Sittle’s lebkuchen, often described as similar to gingerbread, is flavored with anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and honey.

Christmas in the German tradition is a more somber affair, Sittle says: A meal of sauerbraten (marinated roast), potato dumplings and red cabbage, followed by the tree lighting.

“The spectacle is outside,” she explains, where in most towns, the Weihnachtsmarke, or Christmas market, would be open all month serving food and gluehwein, hot spiced wine.

In Germany, the Christmas season begins on Dec. 1, the beginning of advent, explains Karin King, president of Spokane’s German American Society. She recommends Alpine Deli on the east edge of downtown Spokane for many German foods like dampfnudeln (noodles with vanilla and fruit sauce) and gebrannte mandeln (roasted candied almonds).

S

imilar to German tradition, Bulgarian Christmas is also sedate, explains local resident Alisa Vashon, who grew up in the formerly Communist-ruled

country before emigrating to the U.S. in her 30s.

Christmas Eve culminates a 40-day abstention of meat in the Orthodox religion. Dinner might be stuffed cabbage leaves or peppers, says Vashon, who describes Bulgarian cuisine as a mix of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Slavic influences.

Vashon remembers anticipating Christmas Day meals featuring jerky, kielbasa, salami — all dishes that had been curing for months — as well as lyutenitsa, a kind of chutney with roasted vegetables, peeled tomatoes and peppers, and shredded carrot for sweetness.

To find some of these products locally, she recommends Kiev Market and Mariupol European Bakery & Deli. Odessa European Foods and Deli is another local European market selling such specialties. Bobby’s Café and Catering in Liberty Lake, Vashon adds, is owned

by Bulgaria native Bobby Taninchev. The restaurant doesn’t offer dine-in service, but online orders only.

“It’s not easy to prepare some of the traditional dishes, so you have to modify,” says Vashon, who has shared Bulgarian culture at her church and children’s school, as well as through programs hosted by Spokane Public Library.

FOOD | BEER Vashon also participated in last year’s Northwest Winterfest, a multicultural event held at River Park Square and organized by the local publication FamilyGuide, of which Doyl is editor and publisher.

Doyl, whose three daughters are also of Bulgarian heritage and whose husband is Scottish, Irish, English and a “wee bit of Norwegian,” was approached in 2017 by several community members with an interest in creating such a holiday-themed event.

“Based on my heritage, I thought how fun it would be to come together; to invite other cultural groups for a cross-cultural exchange of holiday traditions by decorating a Christmas tree, entertainment and offering cookies, breads and pastries from their country of origin,” Doyl says.

She launched Northwest Winterfest in 2018, mostly focused on Christmas traditions and featuring 18 cultural groups.

The event quickly grew: 25 cultural groups this year represent China, Finland, Guam, India, Mexico, local Native tribes, Norway, Persia, Philippines, Scotland, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.

This year’s event, held at NorthTown Mall, started nearly three weeks earlier than in years past, and finishes Dec. 29 with a Kwanzaa Festival honoring African culture. Christmas trees are on display through Jan. 1 at both the mall and Mirabeau Park Hotel, which is slated to host Winterfest in 2020.

F

or many observant Chinese, end-of-year celebrations are still a month or more away because New Year’s Eve varies according to their lunar calendar.

In 2020, Jan. 24 is the last day of the year — the year of the pig, to be replaced by year of the rat — and the celebration, which begins Jan. 25, stretches to Feb. 8.

The observance is commenced with the Lantern Festival, during which sticky rice balls are traditionally eaten to symbolize togetherness, explains Jianjun “JJ” Lu, chef-owner at Chef Lu’s Asian Bistro.

Although the restaurant typically offers Chinese New Year’s specials, they differ from what would be served amongst friends and family.

“Every fancy dinner should have a fish dish,” notes chef Lu. Nian nian you yu, which translates to “may the year bring prosperity,” accompanies the serving of New Year’s fish. The Lus are partial to serving the whole fish, deep-fried and served in a sweet-and-sour sauce. The presentation is important, too; the fish is cut in a special pattern and presented with the head towards the elder or honored guest.

Vinson Cai, who often translates for Lu, draws the character for fish — 鱼or yu — and explains how the characters for fish and “abundance” are similar.

“Eating food [that symbolizes abundance] equates to the signs of abundance.”

Although regional differences exist in Chinese New Year traditions, food served symbolizes or is connected to the written character for prosperity, surplus, fortune, etc.

Fried spring rolls resemble gold bullion, signifying prosperity, for example, while the crescent shape of dumplings resembles a currency used in bygone days.

Typically consisting of pork, cabbage and other vegetables, the dumplings might be steamed or fried and are one of many dishes enjoyed well beyond the holidays.

At the start of every new year, says Cai, “there’s only three things people are looking for: money, longevity, happiness.” n Northwest Winterfest • Sat, Dec. 21 and Sat, Dec. 28 from 2-4 pm; Sun, Dec. 29 from 2-5 pm • Free • NorthTown Mall • 4750 N. Division • facebook.com/ NWWinterfest

FROM LEFT: Adam Keys and TJ Wallin of Project Craft Brewing, and Jason Gerstner and Tim Stoltz of Golden Handle Project.

Brew Projects

Golden Handle Project and Project Craft Brewing join the Spokane brewing scene

BY DEREK HARRISON

T

wo more breweries arrived in downtown Spokane this month.

On the west end, the Steel Barrel welcomed its newest tenant, Golden Handle Project. And with the launch of Project Craft Brewing, Community Pint is expanding from a beer bar and bottle shop into a brewery taproom as well.

Golden Handle Project and Project Craft Brewing have both arrived on scene at the end of a year filled with a seemingly endless list of brewery openings. Yet, both businesses are bringing new approaches to running a brewery.

GOLDEN HANDLE PROJECT

Brewing’s been a longtime hobby for Tim Stoltz and Jason Gerstner. The two have a combined 40 years of homebrewing experience, which is partly what led them to open their own commercial brewery.

Golden Handle Project is the newest business to move into the Steel Barrel, an incubator brewhouse with a seven-barrel system that’s shared between multiple breweries. It’s the fourth brewery to launch out of the downtown taproom, taking the spot of recent incubator alumnus TTs Old Iron Brewery. Golden Handle, however, is different in one specific way.

“I believe we are the first brewery in Washington that’s a social purpose corporation,” Stoltz notes.

A social purpose corporation is a kind of hybrid between a for-profit business and a nonprofit. For Golden Handle Project, this means a portion of its profits will be directly contributed to biomedical research and education. It’s a cause important to both Gerstner and Stoltz. Gerstner is a researcher at Washington State

DEREK HARRISON PHOTO

University Spokane specializing in neurodegenerative disease, and Stoltz’s grandfather had Alzheimer’s.

The latter is one reason Gerstner and Stoltz chose to make their first beer for Ales for ALS, a nonprofit that delivers hops to breweries around the world and, in return, asks for $1 from the sale of each pint made with said hops. Their iteration is a hazy IPA. Next up is a helles lager and farmhouse ale.

The two are both keeping their day jobs for now and credit the incubator brewery at the Steel Barrel for making Golden Handle Project a possibility.

“Having an incubator set up already is a huge step forward,” Gerstner says. “They’re experienced brewers that we’re brewing next to, so all pitfalls that we might’ve experienced trying to get it off the ground ourselves is lost really.”

Golden Handle Project celebrates its official launch on Thursday, Dec. 19, from 5-10 pm, at the Steel Barrel. The Ales for ALS IPA will be on tap, along with one or two other beers.

PROJECT CRAFT BREWING

TJ Wallin opened his beer bar Community Pint two years ago in east downtown. At the same time, he knew he eventually wanted to start his own brewery.

“Community Pint was always my first step into owning a brewery,” Wallin says. “That was always my ultimate dream.”

With the help of Adam Keys, another aspiring brewery owner, that dream became a reality. Keys and Wallin partnered together to create Project Craft Brewing. The production-only brewery located north of Spokane in Elk is using Community Pint as its taproom.

It’s something this city has never seen before; using an already operating bar as a brewery taproom, too.

“Doing it this way, we have less overhead,” Keys explains.

The duo plan to use Project Craft’s one-barrel brewhouse to largely focus on current brewing trends and experimental styles. Keys says milkshake IPAs, heavily fruited sours and pastry stouts will shine, with classics like West Coast-style IPAs and lagers thrown into the mix.

During its launch last weekend, beers on tap included a Czech-style pilsner, hazy IPA, hazy pale ale, fruited kettle sour and a milk stout brewed with cacao nibs, vanilla bean and lactose.

“There’s never been more new innovations at one time than there is happening right now,” Wallin says.

“So it’s just cool to be able to be part of that.” n

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 43

ESSAY

THE STATE OF

STAR WARS

As The Rise of Skywalker readies to put a bow on a chapter in Star Wars lore, the franchise’s omnipresence has shifted its fandom

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

W

ith all due respect to Greta Thunberg and Billie Eilish, nobody had a better 2019 than Baby Yoda. The real star of the Disney+ flagship Star Wars series The Mandalorian, the little green puppeteering/CGI marvel (aka “the Child”) might be the most adorable creature ever created. He’s instantly vaulted near the top of the Star Wars character pantheon, become a hyper-memeable internet sensation, and Laura Dern even said she spotted him at a basketball game (???). He’s dominated Star Wars discussion.

Oh, on that note, The Rise of Skywalker, the (alleged) final chapter in the nine-film saga that began in 1977, hits theaters this week. It’s kind of weird that that doesn’t feel like a bigger deal, right? While we love him with every fiber of our beings, has Baby Yoda become the emptycalorie sweet treat that’s ruined our appetite for the main course? Perhaps. But a clearer culprit is Disney, which has turned the franchise into an even more omnipresent force of the Force.

Here’s the thing: Star Wars has always been the dominant culture. You can’t make an inflation-adjusted $3.06 billion dollars at the box office with a niche product. But during the 16 dormant cinematic years between 1983’s Return of the Jedi and 1999’s The Phantom Menace, Star Wars became something that the actively nerdy among us had to seek out through expanded universe novels, action figure magazines, video gaming and other less zeitgeistfocused outlets. So growing up a Star Wars megafan in the 1990s, it felt like my own little corner of the galaxy (albeit one far, far away). But it’s hard not to feel like the combination of Disney lordship over the franchise and

44 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

modern technology has somewhat dampened that kyber crystal-powered fandom spark.

There’s no mistaking that Star Wars has been commodified better than any pop culture entity. In addition to his creative brilliance, George Lucas was undeniably a merchandising genius. But while his characters adorned everything from action figures to Taco Bell meals, he kept the actual filmed depictions of his universe to a minimum. This was in part because moviemaking technology wasn’t advanced enough to fully realize his visions, but he also understood the value of scarcity. Everybody freaked out when The Phantom Menace arrived in 1999 because it had been over a decade and a half since a Star Wars film.

To put it mildly, Disney has not adhered to this philosophy. After acquiring the Star Wars rights from Lucas in 2012, the company decided to accelerate the Star Wars release schedule in a manner that’s closer to its Marvel monoculture saturation than Lucas’ blueprint. Starting with 2015’s The Force Awakens, Disney has released a Star Wars movie every year. The results? Not great. It turns out there’s something special in scarcity. After Solo underperformed last year, Disney scrapped multiple Star Wars films in development.

It took Lucas nearly 28 years to make six Star Wars movies. Rise of Skywalker marks Disney’s fifth in five years. It’s hard to internally generate the same hype when fandom schedules become routine.

Part of the issue was that Disney tried too hard to stick to standard Star Wars storytelling formulas with the spin-offs. Why not try a galactic Boba Fett noir/

spy thriller, or make Solo a buddy comedy? Thankfully, Disney appears to be learning while pushing into the television realm with the Western adventure-of-the-week style of The Mandalorian.

The internet has also made it less fun to be a Star Wars fan. While the web’s early days offered intriguing connections speculating about the prequels, things have gone overboard with further technological breakthroughs.

Social media has platformed the worst Star Wars “fans.”

You think Mos Eisley spaceport is a wretched hive of scum and villainy? Just wait till you check out Twitter.

The human womp rats made it their mission to tear down The Last Jedi for a litany of what they perceived as felony-level crimes against the franchise. Luke Skywalker wouldn’t act like that! Rey’s parents have to matter! The film is too feminine! The trolls even online harassed actress Kelly Marie Tran, who plays Rose Tico, to the point where she left social media and needed therapy. It’s hard to muster up the same enthusiasm for something when you don’t want to be associated with a loud minority of cretins attempting to hijack the franchise you love.

My peak Star Wars fandom is probably in the rearview mirror, but there’s still enough there to love even if it’s become more challenging. I have no idea what Rise of Skywalker will bring, but the possibilities have me buzzing.

I’m delighted by the idea of Twitter’s Sith edgelords choking on a rumored film trilogy with The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson at the helm. And, of course, I remain vigilant in protecting Baby Yoda at all costs.

There have been disturbances in the Force, but the Force is still strong with this one. n

FILM | SHORTS

OPENING FILMS BOMBSHELL

Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie headline this darkly comic exposé of the sexual harassment allegations swirling around Fox News and former CEO Roger Ailes. (NW) Rated R

CATS

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s derided but popular stage musical slinks its way to the big screen, the story of dancing felines competing to sacrifice themselves to their weird cat god. Or something.

(NW) Rated PG

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

This ninth episode, helmed by returning director J.J. Abrams, finally brings an end to the biggest film saga ever. Early reactions seem somewhat divisive, but it’ll make a boatload of cash regardless.

(NW) Rated PG-13

Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to Lady Bird is a decidedly modernist adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s literary classic.

Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson and Florence Pugh star. (NW) Rated PG

NOW PLAYING

SPIES IN DISGUISE

In this animated caper, a superstar secret agent (voiced by Will Smith) is accidentally turned into a pigeon and finds it’s the ultimate camouflage.

(NW) Rated PG

DARK WATERS

The true story of a corporate defense attorney (Mark Ruffalo) who uncovers a conspiracy that has kept DuPont’s reckless pollution under wraps. A sturdy, old-fashioned polemic about a contemporary issue. (NW) Rated PG-13

FANTASTIC FUNGI

The culinary, medicinal and psychotropic properties of mushrooms are explored and celebrated in this scientific nature documentary. At the Magic Lantern. (NW)

FORD V. FERRARI

From director James Mangold, a slick dramatization of the relationship between the Ford auto designer (Matt Damon) and the pro driver (Christian Bale) who set out to beat Ferrari in the ’66 24 Hours of Le Mans race. (ES) Rated PG-13

FROZEN II

Solid sequel to the Disney juggernaut, with Queen Elsa, Princess Anna and friends venturing into the wintry wilderness to save their kingdom from a mysterious force of the past. There’s no “Let It Go,” but it’s good enough. (NW) Rated PG

Adam Sandler is getting raves for his turn in the Safdie brothers’ nail-biting New York odyssey, a night in the life of a jeweler who makes one harebrained decision after another. (NW) Rated R

THE INLANDER

NEW YORK TIMES

VARIETY

METACRITIC.COM

(LOS ANGELES)

(OUT OF 100)

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

80

BLACK CHRISTMAS

51

FROZEN II

65

HONEY BOY

73

KNIVES OUT

83

JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL

58

RICHARD JEWELL

69

BLACK CHRISTMAS

A killer haunts a sorority house in this loose reworking of the 1974 slasher classic. It presents some promising themes of toxic masculinity and campus rape culture before descending into silliness and didacticism. (NW) Rated PG-13

UNCUT GEMS

CRITICS’ SCORECARD

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

A lovely ode to the power of kindness, with an Esquire journalist learning to live more authentically after writing about none other than Mister Rogers.

Tom Hanks, Hollywood’s nicest man, plays the beloved TV personality. (MJ) Rated PG

TO THE

WORLD

CHRISTMAS RELEASES LITTLE WOMEN

JOY

DON’T MISS IT

WORTH $10

HARRIET

The humanitarian and abolitionist Harriet Tubman finally gets a biopic deserving of her legacy, anchored by an electric performance by Cynthia Erivo.

Old-fashioned filmmaking of the highest order. (MJ) Rated PG-13

HONEY BOY

Powerful performances define this metatextual memoir, with Shia LaBeouf (who also scripted) playing a fictional version of his own overbearing father and manager, and Noah Jupe as his child actor son. (NW) Rated R

JOJO RABBIT

In Taika Waititi’s WWII-set satire, a little boy with an imaginary friend who looks just like Hitler befriends the Jewish girl being hidden by his mother. Its juggling tones and bleak subject matter might not work for everyone. (ES) Rated PG13

LEVEL

JUMANJI: THE NEXT

Another week, another unnecessary sequel. The teens from the first Jumanji return — with their grandpas this time — and leap back into the video game realm to rescue a missing friend. (MJ) Rated PG-13

KNIVES OUT

Rian Johnson’s all-star whodunit centers on the death of a wealthy patriarch,

WATCH IT AT HOME

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM

SKIP IT

and the craven relatives that would profit off his demise. As a mystery, it’s merely OK. As an evisceration of the one percent, it’s satisfying. (NW) Rated PG-13

MIDWAY

The 1942 Battle of Midway gets the noisy epic treatment from schlock king Roland Emmerich, with a sprawling cast that includes Woody Harrelson and Dennis Quaid. (NW) Rated PG-13

PARASITE

Satire, slapstick and secrecy collide in Bong Joon-ho’s twisty, Palme d’Orwinning contraption, about a poor South Korean family that insinuates itself into the lives of an upper class clan. Surprises abound. At the Magic Lantern. (NW) Rated R

QUEEN & SLIM

A black couple are pulled over on their first date, the cop ends up dead and they go on the run, becoming villains and folk heroes in the process. Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith star.

(NW) Rated R

RICHARD JEWELL

Clint Eastwood takes on the FBI and the media in his portrait of the security guard wrongfully accused as the bomber of the ’96 Olympics. Indifferently structured and styled, it aims at big targets and misses. (MJ) Rated R n

35 W. Main, Spokane Mon-Sat 10-5:30 (509) 464-7677 kizurispokane.com

TER GIC LAN N THEATER A M TH TH FRI, DEC 20 – THU, DEC 26 TICKETS: $9

UNCUT GEMS (135 MIN) TUE: 4:30 WED: 12:00, 4:30 THU: 1:15, 6:30 A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (108 MIN) FRI/SAT: 2:45, 6:00 SUN/MON: 2:45, 5:00 TUE-THU: 5:00 PARASITE (132 MIN) FRI/SAT: 5:00, 7:30 SUN/MON: 1:45, 6:30 TUE-WED: 1:45 THU: 4:00, 7:05 LAST WEEK HARRIET (125 MIN) FRI/SAT: 1:15 SUN-TUE: 12:15

JOJO RABBIT (102 MIN) FRI/SAT: 3:45 8:15 SUN/MON: 4:15, 7:05 TUE-THU: 2:45 LAST WEEK FANTASTIC FUNGI (79 MIN) FRI/SAT: 1:00 SUN-WED: 12:00 THU: 1:00

25 W Main Ave #125 • MagicLanternOnMain.com

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 45

HOLIDAYS

New Christmas Classics The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show

We review the latest holiday albums from Kacey Musgraves, Idina Menzel, Ne-Yo and more

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

I

t’s an inevitability: Every artist who achieves even an ounce of popularity eventually records a Christmas album, with the express purpose of producing the first new holiday classic since Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” This year’s batch of Yuletide jams runs the gamut from country to blues to alt-rock, and we’ve applied our highly scientific rating scales to judge some of the season’s freshest tunes.

YOU WISH: A MERGE RECORDS HOLIDAY ALBUM

Merge Records has made artists like Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel into indie royalty, and as the label celebrates its 30th anniversary, it’s dropping a Christmas present in the form of this holiday compilation featuring other stars on its roster. Of the original compositions, highlights include Mike Krol’s “Won’t Be Alone Tonight,” as fuzzy as an old wool sweater; Telekinesis’ bouncy “Christmas Time Is Here (Uh Oh),” which Cheap Trick nearly recorded; and Tracyanne & Danny’s “Santa, Don’t Say No,” with a swinging horn line straight out of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.” As for the covers, Hiss Golden Messenger and Lucinda Williams duet on John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison,” and William Tyler turns in a lovely instrumental version of Big Star’s “Jesus Christ.”

RATING: Three and a half vintage turntables

KACEY MUSGRAVES, THE KACEY MUSGRAVES CHRISTMAS SHOW

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show isn’t technically an album: It’s the audio from her old-fashioned variety special, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime. The alt-country superstar performs alongside Zooey Deschanel, Camila Cabello, Fred Armisen, Lana Del Rey and Leon Bridges, taking on well-worn classics as well as originals — tracks like “Christmas Makes Me Cry” and “Present Without a Bow” deserve to become standards — and her crystalline voice is a perfect fit for holiday songs. The problem with this release is that it doesn’t work sans visuals, particularly with the awful, way-too-loud canned audience reactions interrupting the music. Either watch the special or get Musgraves’ 2016 album A Very Kacey Christmas instead.

RATING: Two red-and-green-sequined bodysuits

ANDREW BIRD, HARK!

Listening to an Andrew Bird record is akin to wandering through an old curiosity shop, finding vintage whatsits tucked away in

46 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

corners and hidden under sheets. The singer-songwriter brings his distinctly quirky sound, with plucked strings and his thereminlike whistling prowess, to the six-song holiday EP Hark!, and it feels appropriately like an odds-and-ends collection. The record is bookended by the two best songs, which are not coincidentally the only originals in the set — the fireplace-lit “Alabaster” and the melancholy “Night’s Falling.” It’s a perfectly pleasant set, designed to be background music while you open presents, but you’re better off getting one of Sufjan Stevens’ holiday releases, which this resembles quite a bit.

RATING: Two and a half antique glockenspiels

LAST CHRISTMAS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Since George Michael died on Christmas Day in 2016, his music will always be associated with the season. It helps, too, that he’s responsible for one of the quintessential holiday pop songs, which lent its name to the recent film Last Christmas. Michael’s music is a presence throughout the movie, so its soundtrack naturally features a couple Wham! hits, No. 1 solo singles like “Faith” and “One More Try,” and some deeper cuts. The biggest selling point is the inclusion of a previously unreleased track called “This Is How (We Want to Get High),” which, weirdly, doesn’t appear on the album’s streaming tracklist (it’s available on Spotify as a separate single). Sure, most of these songs have nothing to do with Christmas, but it’ll put the boom-boom into your heart regardless.

RATING: Three oversized “Choose Life” T-shirts

IDINA MENZEL, A SEASON OF LOVE

The Broadway legend, Frozen star and erstwhile Adele Dazeem applies her ice-melting voice to a series of slick, serviceable ’50s-style Yuletide tunes, with appearances from Ariana Grande, Billy Porter, Josh Gad and her husband (and Rent co-star) Aaron Lohr. The set includes a Mrs. Claus empowerment anthem, a Latin-flavored Hanukkah song, two showtunes (including the Rent song that supplies the album its title) and a Menzel-penned ballad about inclusion. Sweet and inoffensive.

RATING: Two and a half “Defying Gravity” solos

ANA GASTEYER, SUGAR & BOOZE

The former Saturday Night Live star has already released an album of jazz standards, and this nip of Yuletide comedy continues in that tradition. Over the course of 15 swingin’ songs, Santa gets stuck in the chimney, Maya Rudolph shows up to gossip about her romantic entanglements with a secret Santa, and Gasteyer laments that nothing rhymes with “Christmas.” Even if you saw those sketches she did with Will Ferrell as the high school music teachers, you’ll be surprised at what a smooth voice she has.

RATING: Three fingers of bourbon

NE-YO, ANOTHER KIND OF CHRISTMAS

There haven’t been this many double entendres associated with opening presents since “Dick in a Box.” Ne-Yo’s doing a lot more than putting gifts underneath the Christmas tree, that’s for sure, but the R&B crooner’s “kind of Christmas” doesn’t just involve romance: In one song, he’s getting over a breakup, and his mom’s buzzed on eggnog and his cousins are fighting in another. In between are the straightforward covers of “Carol of the Bells” and “The Christmas Song.” So yeah, this is a weird one.

RATING: Two suede fedoras

KEB’ MO’, MOONLIGHT, MISTLETOE & YOU

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 47

v

It’s sort of refreshing when a Christmas album flat-out admits that “Christmas Is Annoying,” which is what Keb’ Mo’ does smack-dab in the middle of Moonlight, Mistletoe & You. He’s tired of maxed-out credit cards and the inundation of ads — “Let’s apologize to Jesus for what went wrong,” he says. An anti-consumerist screed probably isn’t destined to be a future Christmas classic, but this is nonetheless a solid collection from the influential blues guitarist, and it’s better when you’re not listening to the words and just digging on the guitar licks.

RATING: Three gold-plated guitar slides n

MUSIC | SOUND ADVICE

ROCK FAT LADY

I

t’s not quite Christmas yet, but this upcoming lineup at Red Room Lounge is already proving to be the gift that keeps on giving.

First off, you’ve got Fat Lady, a band that has been fusing soul and psych-rock since 2016. It’s not often you hear cello and woodwind sounds blending so seamlessly into blues grooves, and it helps that they’re a group of great musicians that can slay a solo. Alongside Fat Lady will be Dead Serious Lovers, the longtime project of local scene stalwarts Henry Nordstrom, Vaughn Wood and Brandon Vasquez that specializes in contemplative alt-rock. It’s a goldmine for Spokane music fans and offers a little bit of something for everybody.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER

KRISTEN BLACK PHOTO

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

Thursday, 12/19

A&P’S BAR AND GRILL, Open Mic Night with KC Carter BERSERK, Vinyl Meltdown BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn J BOOTS BAKERY & LOUNGE, The Song Project BRIDGE PRESS CELLARS, Open Mic J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Open Jazz Jam with Erik Bowen CRUISERS, Open Jam Night FIZZIE MULLIGANS, Country Dance J THE GILDED UNICORN, Starlite Motel J HOUSE OF SOUL, Jazz Thursdays IRON HORSE (VALLEY), Rockin’ Christmas Show feat. The Kevin Shay Band J LAGUNA CAFÉ, Just Plain Darin LION’S LAIR, Karaoke with Donny Duck LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Jack Yoder, Jesse Quandt, Pamela Jean J MONARCH MOUNTAIN COFFEE, Open Mic Hosted by Scott Reid MOOSE LOUNGE, Country Night with Last Chance Band MY PLACE, DJ Dave NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE (CDA CASINO), PJ Destiny THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos J THE PIN, Spilt Milk, Late for the Parade, Gabriella Rose, Frank Sinclair THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler THE ROCK BAR & LOUNGE, The Rock Jam Series TAPP’D OFF, Karaoke on the Patio J THE STEAM PLANT, Ron Greene YAYA BREWING COMPANY, Jonathan Tibbetts ZOLA, Blake Braley Band

48 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

BLUES SAMMY EUBANKS

Fat Lady with Dead Serious Lovers and Sound Souls & Flesh Vessels • Fri, Dec. 20 at 9 pm • $7 • 21+ • Red Room Lounge • 521 W. Sprague • 838-7613

W

hen Elvis sang about having a “Blue Christmas” he might have been referring to a show like this. Spokane blues guitarist Sammy Eubanks has been a local institution for years, and anyone who has paid even cursory attention to our music scene has seen him shred at least once. He tours around the country pretty regularly, but we always relish a hometown concert, and his now-annual Christmas concert is one you won’t want to miss. Expect Eubanks and his ace group of backing musicians to put their own bluesy spin on some holiday classics, alongside Spokane blues-rock favorites Tuck Foster and the Tumbling Dice.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Friday, 12/20

219 LOUNGE, The Aaron Golay Band 1210 TAVERN, The Jukers A&P’S BAR AND GRILL, DJ Skwish ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Dan Conrad BARLOWS AT LIBERTY LAKE, The Kevin Shay Band BEEROCRACY, Starlite Motel BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn BOLO’S, Chris Rieser and the Nerve BOOMBOX PIZZA, Karaoke BRIDGE PRESS CELLARS, Haley Young Power Duo J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Palouse Forro Experience CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA AND SPIRITS (CDA CASINO), Into the Drift Duo CORBY’S BAR, Karaoke CRUISERS, Karaoke with Gary

DALEY’S CHEAP SHOTS, The ShuffleDawgs MoJo Xmas Party FISCHIN’ HOLE SALOON, Usual Suspects HONEY EATERY AND SOCIAL CLUB, Dawna Stafford HOUSE OF SOUL, Alive and Kicking IDAHO POUR AUTHORITY, Ron Kieper Jazz Trio J IRON GOAT BREWING CO., Complimentary Colors IRON HORSE (COEUR D’ALENE), JamShack THE JACKSON ST., Working Spliffs LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Chuck Dunlap LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, DJ Night with Saffron City MAX AT MIRABEAU, The Jesse Weston Band MICKDUFF’S BEER HALL, Devon Wade MY PLACE, DJ Dave

Blue Christmas with Sammy Eubanks and Tuck Foster & the Tumbling Dice • Sat, Dec. 21 at 8 pm • $5 • All ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague • sp.knittingfactory.com • 244-3279

NASHVILLE NORTH, Ladies Night with Luke Jaxon and DJ Tom NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, Tom Pletscher THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, One Street Over THE PIN, December Luau feat. YP, Jordan Taylor, Past Life Kenny, Bendi, Cookie J RED ROOM LOUNGE, Fat Lady, Dead Serious Lovers, Sound Souls and Flesh Vessels (see above) REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Laney Lou and The Bird Dogs THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler RIVER PARK SQUARE, Nick Grow J SARANAC COMMONS, Kevin Partridge

STORMIN’ NORMAN’S, DJ Danger THE VIKING, StepBrothers UP NORTH DISTILLERY, Bill Bozly

Saturday, 12/21

A&P’S BAR AND GRILL, DJ Kevin ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, The Ronaldos BARLOWS AT LIBERTY LAKE, Barlow’s Christmas Party feat. The Kevin Shay Band BEVERLY’S, Robert Vaughn BOLO’S, Chris Rieser and the Nerve BRANDYWINE BAR & BOTTLE SHOP, Schuyler Dornbirer BRIDGE PRESS CELLARS, Jesse Weston Duo J BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB, Izzy Burns & The Anders CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA AND SPIRITS (CDA CASINO), Into the Drift Duo

Certificates!

Gift CRUISERS, Tamarack Ridge Band GARLAND PUB & GRILL, Still Kickin’ HAYDEN EAGLES LODGE, Black Jack Band HONEY EATERY AND SOCIAL CLUB, Miller’s Sun J HUCKLEBERRY’S NATURAL MARKET, Dallas Kay IDAHO POUR AUTHORITY, BareGrass IRON HORSE (COEUR D’ALENE), JamShack THE JACKSON ST., Karaoke JOHN’S ALLEY, The Intentions J J KNITTING FACTORY, Blue Christmas with Sammy Eubanks & Tuck Foster and the Tumbling Dice (see facing page) LEFTBANK WINE BAR, Lucas Brown LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, DJ Night with DJ WesOne MARYHILL WINERY SPOKANE, Katie Fisher MAX AT MIRABEAU, The Jesse Weston Band MULLIGAN’S BAR & GRILLE, Truck Mills

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.

NASHVILLE NORTH, Ladies Night with Luke Jaxon and DJ Tom NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, Tom Pletscher THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Larry Mooney THE PIN, Carpe Noctem feat. Blood Klotz, Medik, Differential, Domino, Pewpewspload THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos feat. Christan Raxter & Steve Ridler RIVER PARK SQUARE, Nick Grow STORMIN’ NORMAN’S SHIPFACED SALOON, DJ Danger J WASHINGTON CRACKER CO. BUILDING, Young Neves feat.

Wanderers, Soul Aura, GFG, Sean Thomas and more

Sunday, 12/22

CRAVE, DJ Dave DALEY’S CHEAP SHOTS, Rev. Yo’s VooDoo Church of Blues Jam GARLAND PUB & GRILL, Karaoke HOGFISH, Open Mic IRON HORSE (VALLEY), Maxie Ray Mills LINGER LONGER LOUNGE, Open Jam THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos O’DOHERTY’S IRISH GRILLE, Traditional Irish Music PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Piano Sunday with Bob Beadling

J J THE PIN, BaD PeNMaNSHiP 16 feat. Lilac City Dynamics, Dru Religion, Dungeon Lord, Sintax, Meganoke, Jaeda & more RED ROOM LOUNGE, Jason Perry Trio THE ROXIE, Hillyard Billys ZOLA, Glass Honey

Monday, 12/23

THE BULL HEAD, Songsmith Series J CALYPSOS COFFEE ROASTERS, Open Mic CRAVE, DJ Dave EICHARDT’S, Monday Night Jam with Truck Mills J J IRON GOAT BREWING CO., Stella Jones’ Festivus Miracle THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos PACIFIC PIZZA, Organism RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic with Lucas Brookbank Brown

Tuesday, 12/24

219 LOUNGE, Karaoke with DJ Pat BOOMBOX PIZZA, Karaoke CRAVE, DJ Dave GARLAND PUB & GRILL, Karaoke LITZ’S BAR & GRILL, The ShuffleDawgs Blues Power Happy Hour NORTHERN QUEST RESORT & CASINO, Tom Pletscher THE NYC PIANO BAR, Dueling Pianos RAZZLE’S BAR & GRILL, Open Mic Jam THE RIDLER PIANO BAR, Country Swing Dancing THE ROXIE, Open Mic/Jam TAPP’D OFF, Karaoke on the Patio THE VIKING, Songsmith Series ZOLA, Desperate 8s

Wednesday, 12/25 Christmas; contact venues for info

Coming Up ...

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Bob Riggs, Erin Parkes, Eric Kegley, Dec. 26 COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, Midland, Dec. 27-28 J KNITTING FACTORY, Zoso: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience, Dec. 27 PACIFIC PIZZA, Lucas Brookbank Brown, Dec. 27 J KNITTING FACTORY, Rebirth, an Animal Party ft. TRUTH, Pigeon Hole, Templo, Dec. 28 THE PIN, 2020 Resolution Pre-FUNK ft. Flynn, CCB Krew, Tr3ezy, Suicide Ghost, Dec. 28 J PANIDA THEATER, Ben Klein & The Rocketeers, Dec. 30 THE BIG DIPPER, Roaring 20s New Year’s Eve Party, Dec. 31 THE HIVE, Hive NYE Ball ft. Collectivity, Dec. 31 LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, 80s New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31 MAX AT MIRABEAU, New Years Eve ft. Bobby Patterson Band, Dec. 31-Jan 1 NYNE, nYne Bar & Bistro’s Roaring 20s NYE Party, Dec. 31

Gift cards, because corn pasta goes bad under the tree.

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GIFT CERTIFICATES

MUSIC | VENUES

219 LOUNGE • 219 N. First, Sandpoint • 208-2639934 A&P’S BAR & GRILL • 222 N. First, Sandpoint • 208-263-2313 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 BEEROCRACY • 911 W. Garland Ave. BERSERK • 125 S. Stevens • 714-9512 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 BRIDGE PRESS CELLARS • 39 W. Pacific • 838-7815 BUCER’S COFFEEHOUSE PUB • 201 S. Main, Moscow • 208-882-5216 THE BULL HEAD • 10211 S. Electric • 838-9717 CALYPSOS COFFEE & CREAMERY • 116 E. Lakeside Ave., CdA • 208-665-0591 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 COSMIC COWBOY GRILL • 412 W. Haycraft, CdA • 208-277-0000 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 EICHARDT’S PUB • 212 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-263-4005 FIRST INTERSTATE CENTER FOR THE ARTS • 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. • 279-7000 FIZZIE MULLIGANS • 331 W. Hastings • 466-5354 FOX THEATER • 1001 W. Sprague • 624-1200 THE HIVE • 207 N. First, Sandpoint • 208-457-2392 HOGFISH • 1920 E. Sherman, CdA • 208-667-1896 HONEY EATERY & SOCIAL CLUB • 317 E. Sherman, CdA • 208-930-1514 HOUSE OF SOUL • 25 E. Lincoln • 598-8783 IRON GOAT BREWING • 1302 W. 2nd • 474-0722 IRON HORSE BAR • 407 E. Sherman Ave., CdA • 208-667-7314 IRON HORSE BAR & GRILL • 11105 E. Sprague Ave., CdA • 509-926-8411 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 LEFTBANK WINE BAR • 108 N. Washington • 315-8623 LION’S LAIR • 205 W. Riverside • 456-5678 LUCKY YOU LOUNGE • 1801 W. Sunset LUCKY’S IRISH PUB • 408 W. Sprague • 747-2605 MARYHILL WINERY • 1303 W. Summit Pkwy, Ste. 100 • 443-3832 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 NORTHERN QUEST RESORT • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • 242-7000 NYNE • 232 W. Sprague Ave. • 474-1621 O’SHAY’S • 313 E. CdA Lake Dr. • 208-667-4666 PACIFIC PIZZA • 2001 W. Pacific • 443-5467 PEND D’OREILLE WINERY • 301 Cedar St., Sandpoint • 208-265-8545 THE PIN • 412 W. Sprague • 385-1449 POST FALLS BREWING CO. • 112 N. Spokane, Post Falls • 208-773-7301 RAZZLE’S BAR & GRILL • 10325 N. Government Way, Hayden • 208-635-5874 RED ROOM LOUNGE • 521 W. Sprague • 838-7613 REPUBLIC BREWING • 26 Clark Ave. • 775-2700 RIDLER PIANO BAR • 718 W. Riverside • 822-7938 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 STORMIN’ NORMAN’S SHIPFACED SALOON • 12303 E. Trent • 862-4852 ZOLA • 22 W. Main Ave. • 624-2416

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 49

EXHIBIT VOLCANIC VIEWPOINTS

Nearly 40 years ago, much of the Pacific Northwest was blanketed in snow-like ash. Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington had exploded, spewing 520 million tons of ash into the atmosphere and transforming an otherwise sunny spring morning on May 18, 1980, into a dark doomscape. To commemorate the 40th anniversary, the MAC has curated an exhibit chronicling the history and locals’ memories of the volcanic eruption. Featuring material artifacts, film, photography, recordings and other accounts, Critical Memory also explores how knowledge of historical events is passed down through generations. Starting in February, the exhibit runs concurrently with the traveling exhibit Pompeii: The Immortal City, examining the devastating 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

— CHEY SCOTT Mount St. Helens: Critical Memory • Sat, Dec. 21 through July 2020; Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm; third Thu until 8 pm • $5-$10 • Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture • 2316 W. First • northwestmuseum.org • 456-3931

50 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

STAGE RADIO DAYS

MUSIC COUNTRY FOR A CAUSE

A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play • Thu-Sat, Dec. 19-21 at 7:30 pm and Sun, Dec. 22 at 2 pm • $27 • The Innovation Den • 418 E. Lakeside Ave., Coeur d’Alene • cdasummertheatre.com • 208-660-2958

Holiday Bash feat. Randy Houser • Sat, Dec. 21 at 5 pm • $25 • All ages • Gonzaga University Martin Center • 801 N. Cincinnati St. • ccfbash.com

Long before we spent our free time staring slack-jawed at our TV sets, American families got their evening’s entertainment from the living room radio, held captive by the sounds of the week’s wildest adventures. Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater is harkening back to that tradition with a limited-run production this week, staging a live radio play of A Christmas Carol. You know the details: It’s Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts who visit him on Christmas Eve, forcing him to confront his own past, present and future and changing his holiday-hating ways. As it would have been done in the old days, it features just a few actors crowding around microphones and creating the illusion of a sprawling cast of characters. It’s a classic story, classically told.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER

’Tis the season to do some good while also having a little fun, and this weekend you can groove to some slick country-pop while also benefiting the Community Cancer Fund. Presented by the Kalispel Tribe and Northern Quest Resort & Casino, the evening’s big draw is a performance from country star Randy Houser, who began his career as a Nashville songwriter and later racked up Top 10 hits like “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” and “How Country Feels.” But the entertainment isn’t limited to just the concert: It follows a game of hoops between true rivals — the EWU Eagles and Gonzaga Bulldogs — and continues at a VIP afterparty at the Davenport, so you can keep dancing into the night. General admission tickets for Houser’s performance are $25; VIP packages start at $300.

— NATHAN WEINBENDER

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.

Made in Spokane 509-484-6454

COMEDY WEST SIDER

A couple years ago I was at the Spokane Comedy Club for The Dope Show, the monthly showcase when comedians do a set, go get stoned, then come back and (try to) do a second set. Gabriel Rutledge had done a weekend of headlining shows, and decided to stick around to join the fun that Sunday night. Like most of the featured comedians, his first set was infinitely better, and his skills as a standup have stuck in my mind ever since. The Olympiabased comic mines his family life for genuinely hilarious material, and he’s won both the Seattle International Comedy Competition and Laughing Skull Comedy Festival in Atlanta, in addition to appearing on Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and various other comedy outlets.

— DAN NAILEN

1419 E Holyoke Ave, Spokane, WA 509-487-3238

1025 W. 1st Ave., Spokane, WA

hallettschocolates.com

Gabriel Rutledge • Thu-Fri, Dec. 19-20 at 7:30 pm; Sat, Dec. 21 at 7:30 and 10 pm • $8-$16 • 21+ • Spokane Comedy Club • 315 W. Sprague • spokanecomedyclub.com • 318-9998

Read All About ’Em! MAGIC XMAS TRICKSTER

As long as the air is full of holiday magic, why not get into some real magic, too? Adam Trent is just the guy to get you to believe the unbelievable. One of the original stars of The Illusionists megahit on Broadway, Trent now tours on his own with a show full of tricks, laughs and music courtesy of America’s Got Talent finalist Evie Clair, on board for his tour coming to Spokane. His “Holiday Magic” show is full of seasonal illusions, and it’s geared for the whole family. After all, you’re never too young, or too old, to be awestruck by a great magician.

— DAN NAILEN Adam Trent’s Holiday Magic • Sun, Dec. 22 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm • $25-$40 • All ages • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague • bingcrosbytheater.com • 227-7638

Inlander Histories Make a Great Gift!

Available at

INLAND NORTHWEST HISTORY

Atticus, Auntie’s Bookstore, Looff Carrousel Gift Shop, Paper & Cup Coffee Shop

Timeless Tales of Spokane and the Inland Northwest, Volume 1

T i m e l e s s Ta l e s o f S p o k a n e a n d t h e I n l a n d N o r t hwe s t , Vo l u m e 1 EDITED BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.

I

f you call yourself an Inlander, you need to know the stories. Do you remember those ancient ivory tusks pulled from a farm down on the Palouse? What happened after fur trappers set up their first trading post on the Spokane River? Or how a local basketball team captivated the nation? What about “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done”?

A World’s Fair?

Those are just a few of the tales that define the rich history of the Inland Northwest — stories that were first retold in the pages of the Inlander newspaper starting in 1993. In Inlander Histories, you’ll meet Nell Shipman, the silent film star who launched her own studio on the shores of Priest Lake. You’ll hop a flight over Mt. St. Helens on a particularly memorable day. And you’ll learn how Walt Worthy kept the dream of Louis Davenport alive in downtown Spokane.

Noted local historians Jack Nisbet, Robert Carriker and William Stimson join Inlander staff writers, including Sheri Boggs, Andrew Strickman and Mike Bookey, to take you on a tour of some of the most important moments in the region’s past. Collected together for the first time, Inlander Histories pieces together the tapestry of Eastern Washington and North Idaho culture, creating a rare document of life in the “inland” part of this corner of the continent. $14.95

COVER DESIGN BY CHRIS BOVEY

inlanderbooks SPOKANE,WASHINGTON INLANDER.COM/BOOKS

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 51

[Melisa] I met at the Davenports Tree of Elegance on Sat Dec. 7. I didn’t know if you were playfully flirting or romantically flirting and didn’t want to ruin the perfect moment by finding out. This may be a pathetically charming (hopefully) attempt to see you again, but life’s short and I’m a fool and dreamer. Let’s have some adventures to see if there’s a connection. Email me “Mr. Adorable” at spokaneandsingle@yahoo.com

I SAW YOU GO DAWGS! You were cute, funny, and paying for parking at WSU. I was cute, funny, and late for an exam. Your quick wit primed me more for my upcoming feat of erudition than did the Dutch Bros coffee I was sipping. Fancy a beer?

SouthernBelleInThePNW@gmail.com I DIDN’T SEE YOU Hey you three missing tortillas. It was 11:29 PM and my growling stomach led me to the Safeway on Northwest Boulevard for the ingredients to make my favorite meal. I had been dreaming about stuffing a melty cheesy quesadilla into my mouth and sped home to my apartment to create the culinary masterpiece. When my excited hands went to open the tortilla package, I discovered it was already open and I quickly took inventory of my new tortillas. There were only 7 remaining of the original 10 that were advertised on the package. This happened in 2001 and I am still forlorn and have dreams about you. I hope wherever you ended up you were happy.

DOWNRIVER GRILL You were a server, dark hair and extremely tan skin. So beautiful, we kept making eye contact but I was at a family dinner. I had the white T shirt on and gray beanie, also a broken foot with a brace. Let’s grab a drink. Send me an email if your interested. bamafootball523@gmail.com ULTA-RA CUTE I saw you standing awkwardly in Ulta this weekend. Your willingness to help supportively without any knowledge of the product was laughable but candid and kind. I appreciated your honesty and hilarious commentary. .

CHEERS CHEERS AND JEERS Cheers to all the business on Sprague for removing snow from their sidewalks. And jeers to those who don’t! (Merry Christmas to all.)

TO THE MOST AMAZING WOMAN Cheems, congratulations on almost two years at VIPKID! You’ve worked so hard and put so much of yourself into it. I’m so proud of you! You bless the kids and I so much with your selflessness and you are such a blessing to your students! We love you!

heart, Inga, and for coffee, toffee ice cream, fog drifting, strong women saying what they want, different cultures from my own, tea, humility, leopard print, cheek wrinkles, mustaches, democracy, kindness, lyrical music, reading, peaceful protests, moonrise, sunset, unmarked snow on a moonlit night, suede boots, swimming in water that feels like velvet.

“

Let there be more cheers in 2020!

CONSTANT COMFORT You’ve been a support throughout so much whether it’s helping with a sick kiddo to helping with work events and trying shoes. You are my safety, my happiness and my comfort. I love you more.

THE 575 MAFIA Yokes sommelier. Thanks Cody you made our day. Gewurztraminer

JEERS

READY TO SHRED? Hey little green turtle. Last year you were tearing up your toe side carving. Are you ready to shred again this year? Let’s hit the slopes together sometime.

BURRITO BONDING Cheers to the owner of Neato Burrito whom we had a pleasant conversation with last Saturday during the slow time. We were the couple who tried to come in whenever we’re downtown, as the vegan options are fantastic. So great to support a successful family business in the heart of downtown!

FUN FLIRT I hope this message finds the beautiful woman with short blonde hair with tattoos on each shoulder named

CHEERS TO INGA LAURENT Thanksgiving is long over but it is never too late for gratitude. Thanks for a peak inside your

MERRY MELTDOWN MEMORIES Jeers to anyone who thinks placing a terrified, hysterical child on Santa’s lap for a Merry

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.”

Reserve Your Holiday Party Space Now!

Gift Cards Available

(your life)!

SHAME ON ALL OF US After reading the article about tenants rights in Spokane and the public’s comments in response to that article I just have this to say: SHAME ON ALL OF US. We allow homelessness to exist by our lack of action, by our mindsets, and also by our own

...I quickly took inventory of my new tortillas. There were only 7 remaining of the original 10 that were advertised on the package. This happened in 2001 and I am still forlorn and have dreams about you.

SECURE YOUR DOGS I’m sorry to sound like a jerk here, but reading about someone’s dog jumping out from the back of a truck kinda struck a nerve. Why don’t people secure their dogs if they are driving a truck? Do you know how many accidents happen with dogs in the back of trucks? If that dog jumped out while the truck was going fast, guess what? Bye bye doggie. I’m not talking about bumps and bruises, the dog could get seriously injured/possibly die (no kidding cause a serious wreck). Secure your dogs.

Give the Gift of The Swinging Doors

Meltdown picture is an acceptable holiday tradition. Way to taint the holidays for the only group that gets to celebrate them wholeheartedly, and good luck on them wanting to be “Home for the Holidays” when they’re old enough to set their own boundaries. Yeah, that’s therapy-speak. But honestly, there is something passive-aggressive about

tormenting your child, so you can get a funny picture.

NIGHT CREATURES To the slick night creatures who silently stole a great grandmother’s 2002 Hyundai Electra (on food stamp shopping day!). What a shock in the early am! They took her car across town to a Shadle District back alley where they jacked and blocked it up so they could quickly remove the toofancy rims and catalytic converter. They also took her battery; her nice stereo; two pairs of sunglasses; the steering wheel cover; her cigarettes and lighter; and even her ice scraper! Then they got into the trunk and stole the jack and her old man’s ammo box full of hand tools.

Very slick, boys! What you failed to realize as you opened your ill-gotten Xmas “gift,” is that you’ve now made a future appointment for yourselves in the valley of Hinnom just outside of Jerusalem.

Your appointment is with One who will also come as a “thief in the night” to pitch your sorry asses into the “lake of fire!” Perhaps “instant Karma” will get ya first in this life. “Thou shalt not steal!” The “wages of sin is death,” boys.

You might want to consider repentance before the “great and terrible day…” Will you die the “second death” for stealing a little old grandma’s ice scraper? You bet

MAKE I SAW YOU GREAT AGAIN Meeehhh, “I’ve been looking at these things for years and never seen one about myself meeehhh,” grow up...

Excuse us for sharing a common enjoyment with our SO that make their heart skip a beat when ever they unexpectedly see something written about them.

I’m sorry your lonely pathetic ass can’t appreciate small showerings of appreciation to a loved one. No one’s gonna write one about you... Move on. n

THIS WEEK'S ANSWERS P A I N T

I G L O O

F O W E D R S T A P H

H Y D R A

52 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

P Y S U O I M O R M P S H E R O A T A T T H U T M I W M S P A F I S H R T H E E I S O N S P

A S B A D

S P R E A D L E Y M O N K E M E L L L E E D

A C A T L O S H O N T E S R I T E A R I N T S I N O U T H S A L S E R I E L O D Y F I R E D I O S S N

Celebrate the holidays at

Enjoy crafts and activities.

December 14–29 Noon–4pm

Learn how Norman Rockwell’s illustrations left a lasting influence on American Christmas celebrations.

Campbell House

Talk with members of the 1914 Campbell household as they prepare for the holidays.

Sponsored by

theswingingdoors.com 326-6794 • 1018 West Francis Ave • Spokane

K S Q E L H U S O A O L S T H O L L S D O O P L Y E L L A R S I T O N T N S E

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.

$2 with regular museum admission

(509)

”

filthy greed (BECKIE SHELLY: If property taxes go up on the landlord then why can’t they pass the expenses onto the renter? My bill goes up every year... so should rent.) When will we care enough to change it? Probably not until you have experienced it yourself! It’s coming.

northwestmuseum.org

EVENTS | CALENDAR

BENEFIT

COMMUNITY CANCER FUND HOLIDAY BASH The 5th Annual Holiday Bash is presented by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and Northern Quest and features country artist Randy Houser performing at Gonzaga’s Martin Centre following the EWU vs. Gonzaga men’s basketball game.

Proceeds support the Community Cancer Fund. Dec. 21, 12 & 4:30 pm. $25-$300.

Gonzaga University, 502 E. Boone. CCFBash.com (509-328-4220) ERIK BRUHJELL MEMORIAL FUNDRAISER Evans Brothers Coffee hosts a fundraiser benefiting Panhandle Animal Shelter in honor of Erik Bruhjell, a Sandpoint resident who passed away in 2018 at 22. A portion of sales from all three Evans Bros. cafes (Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint) and online are donated to the shelter to support spay and neuter programs. Dec. 28, 7 am-5 pm. Evans Brothers Coffee. evansbrotherscoffee.com PORTICO RESTORATION BENEFIT DINNER & CONCERT Historic Mt St. Michael’s porticoes must be replaced. The Singing Nuns host a five-course dinner and concert to support their restoration. Dec. 30, 5:30-9 pm. $100. Mt. St. Michael’s, 8500 N. Saint Michaels Rd. gofundme.com/ portico-restoration (467-0986 x121)

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) AGT COMEDIAN RYAN NIEMILLER Despite being born with a disability in both arms, the self-proclaimed “Cripple Threat of Comedy” shares his views of the world from the perspective of the handicapped.

Dec. 20, 8 pm. $26-$35. Bridge Press Cellars, 39 W. Pacific. bridgepresscellars.com COMEDY OPEN MIC Tell some jokes, share some laughs. Signups at 6, funnies start at 6:30. Third Friday of the month.

Free. Calypsos Coffee Roasters, 116 E. Lakeside Ave., CdA. bit.ly/2LVJXET SEASON’S GREETINGS Too much going on, stressed, stuff got you down, need a break? Join the BDT for a night of laughs and improvised comedy celebrating the holiday season. Fridays in December at 7:30 pm. ​$8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com 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 Ave. reddragondelivery.com SAFARI The BDT’s version of “Whose Line,” a fast-paced short-form improv show with a few twists added. Fridays at 7:30 pm. $8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com THE SOCIAL HOUR COMEDY SHOWCASE Featuring comics from the Northwest and beyond, hosted by Deece Casillas. Sundays, 8-9:30 pm. Free. The Ridler Piano Bar, 718 W. Riverside Ave. socialhourpod.com (509-822-7938) OPEN MIC A free open mic night every Wednesday, starting at 8 pm. Doors open at 7 pm. Free. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com DAN CUMMINS: THE HAPPY MURDER TOUR Inland Northwest native Dan

Cummins has been a guest on multiple Late Night shows, including Conan, the Tonight Show and more. Dec. 26-28. $18-$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. (318-9998) LATE LAUGHS An improvised comedy show featuring a mix of experiments in improv, duos, teams, sketch and more.

First/last Friday of the month at 9:30 pm. $8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com

COMMUNITY

CAMPBELL HOUSE HOLIDAYS Explore the house at your own pace and enjoy the Christmas tree and decorations, participate in craft activity and interact with living history characters. Dec. 17-22 and 26-29 from 12-4 pm. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (456-3931) CRESCENT WINDOWS AT THE GRAND View revitalized historic window displays from the old Crescent department store this holiday season in the Main Avenue.

Through Jan. 5. Davenport Grand Hotel, 333 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. downtownspokane.org (800-918-9344) THE GREAT GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION Edible wonderlands can be found at the Historic Davenport, Davenport Grand and the Centennial Hotel.

This year’s theme is Vintage Christmas.

Guests can vote for their favorite display.

Through Dec. 25. bit.ly/38n5RrK HISTORIC FLIGHT FOUNDATION HOLIDAY SCHEDULE A new flying museum has landed in Spokane; see history come to life through this collection of airworthy aircraft from 1927-57. The Felts Field presentation includes a DC-3 and P-51 Mustang. Admission is free for the rest of 2019. Open Tue-Sun from 10 am-4 pm (except 12/25). Free. Historic Flight Foundation, 5829 E. Rutter Ave. historicflight. org/feltsfield (509-535-6000) HOLIDAY LIGHTS AT MANITO The Gaiser Conservatory is decked out in holiday lights, offering wonderful photo ops and a festive setting. Dec. 13-22 from 12-7:30 pm (closed 12/25). Free, donations accepted. Manito Park, 1800 S. Grand Blvd. thefriendsofmanito.org (456-8038) JOURNEY TO THE NORTH POLE Take a festive holiday cruise across the sparkling waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene and view more than 1.5 million twinkling holiday lights on the way to visit Santa a waterfront workshop. Through Jan. 1; daily at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 pm. Kids 5 and under free. $8.50-$23.25. Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdaresort.com LIGHT UP THE NIGHT Community groups and organizations have decorated trees for the park’s Holiday Tree Walk, displayed adjacent to the Skate Ribbon from through Jan. 5. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. spokaneriverfrontpark.com LILAC CITY LIVE! Hear from local authors, musicians, artists, comedians and more. Doors at 7, show at 8. Dec. 19, 8-9 pm. Free. Downtown Spokane Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org OPEN HOUSE FT. SANTA CLAUS & HIS FIREFIGHTER HELPERS Spokane County Fire District 9 personnel again host multiple open houses with Santa, as well as escort him through selected neighborhoods. The District is also collecting donations for the Mead food bank. Through Dec. 21, daily from 6-9 pm. Free. Fire Station No. 91, 616 W. Hastings Rd. scfd9.org SANTA EXPRESS The annual holiday retail store for kids (ages 4-12) offering

gift items priced from $1 to $10. Proceeds from the store benefit the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. Mon-Fri 11 am-8 pm; Sat 10 am-8 pm; Sun 11 am-6 pm through Dec. 23. Located at 221 N. Wall (old Runner’s Soul space). santaexpress.org SANTA’S REINDEER AT RITTERS Before their big night out, Santa’s magical reindeer are hanging out at Ritters. Reindeer are available to visit from 9 am-6 pm through Dec. 22. Free. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. bit.ly/2KpiLLh WINTER GLOW SPECTACULAR This year, Liberty Lake hosts the Winter Glow Spectacular. Orchard Park is lit up with holiday lights and displays. Walkable or drivable around the perimeter. Through Jan. 1. Free. Orchard Park, 20298 E. Indiana. facebook.com/spokanewinterglow CARROUSEL STORY TIME An early literacy activity to engage the young imagination with stories, songs and preschool activities. Free rides for those who attend. Third Friday, 11 am-noon, through May 2020. Free Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. spokaneriverfrontpark.com CHAS HOMELESS MEMORIAL CHAS Health hosts a memorial to honor Spokane-area individuals who were homeless when they died. Lunch provided.

Dec. 20, 11 am. Free. CHAS Denny Murphy Clinic, 1001 W. Second. (444-8200) DOWNTOWN HORSE & CARRIAGE RIDES Enjoy the sights of downtown from a horse-drawn carriage and sing favorite carols with family and friends.

Rides start at 221 N. Wall, Fridays 3-8 pm, and Sat-Sun 12-5 pm through Dec. 22, in addition to Christmas Eve rides from 12-3 pm. Free. downtownspokane.org DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Join the library for a game of D&D. All skill levels welcome. Club meets on the first and third Friday of the month (for grades 6-12.)

Dec. 20, 3:30-5:30 pm. Free. Hillyard Library, 4005 N. Cook St. (444-5300) BREAKFAST, PHOTOS & STEEL DRUM MUSIC WITH SANTA Enjoy breakfast and take photos with Santa and his North Pole teddy bears. Includes steel drum Christmas music by Taylor Belote Dec. 21, 9 am-noon. $4-$15. Southside Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. sssac.org DROP IN & SCIENCE Our resident mad scientist shares experiments from the gross to the glorious, inspiring a sense of wonder. Third Saturday from 3-4:45 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (279-0299) GREENBLUFF CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE Take a 20 minute horse-drawn sleigh or wagon ride across the bluff, through the trees and back. Offered Dec. 21-23 from 10 am-3:30 pm. $15-$20. High Country Orchard, 8518 E. Green Bluff Rd. bit.ly/32Iv63y (509-238-9545) MT. ST. HELENS: CRITICAL MEMORY An exhibit commemorating the 40th anniversary of the eruption on May 18, 1980 of Mount St. Helens, which remains the most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Dec. 21 through July 202; TueSun 10 am-5 pm; third Thursdays until 8 pm. $5-$10. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (456-3931) A NIGHT IN BETHLEHEM Take a walk through the village of Bethlehem as if it were the very first Christmas over 2000 years ago. Featuring food, kids’ activities, live animals, actors and more. Dec. 21-22 from 3-6:30 pm. Free. Stateline Speedway, 1349 N. Beck Rd. anightinbethlehem.info/event-schedule OPEN OFFICE HOURS WITH FUTURE ADA Drop by with any general technolo-

gy or computer-related questions during open office hours, as local IT professionals assist the public. This service is free, and is offered on a first come first serve basis. Offered Dec. 21, Jan. 18 and Feb. 15 from 2-4 pm. Free. Downtown Spokane Library, 906 W. Main. spokanelibrary.org PFLAG PRESENTS: A CAMPY CHRISTMAS FUNDRAISER The evening includes a dessert potluck, raffle, silent auction and drag show. Funds raised help PFLAG Spokane’s mission of support, education and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, their friends, families and allies.

Dec. 21, 6-8 pm. $8; ages 10 & under free.

Corbin Senior Center, 827 W. Cleveland Ave. pflagspokane.org (593-0191) WINTER BREAK COOL CAMP Spokane Valley Parks and Rec offers two weeks of themed winter break activities for ages 6 to 11. Camps are Dec. 23 and 26-27 ($90); Dec. 30-31 and Jan. 2-3 ($109). Day rates offered. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place Dr. spokanevalley.org/recreation (720-5200) SPOKANE REGIONAL MENTAL HEALTH COURT: COMMUNITY RESOURCE FAIR A collaborative therapeutic court on the second floor of the Public Safety Building every Wednesday from 9 am-noon. Individuals with court proceedings are welcome to meet with community agencies to obtain resources to assist in overcoming their personal and legal challenges. 9 am-noon. Free. Spokane County Public Works Building, 1100 W. Mallon Ave. DROP IN & RPG If you’ve ever been curious about role-playing games, join us to experience this unique form of game-playing, and build a shared narrative using cooperative problem solving, exploration, imagination, and rich social interaction. Second/fourth Friday of the month, from 4-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org

FILM

SUDS & CINEMA: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION The Inlander, Horizon Credit Union and Rainier Beer host this new annual holiday tradition, offering screenings at 6 and 9 pm, with pre-show activities, prizes, a costume contest, beer specials and more.

Tickets available for advance sale at the Garland box office. Dec. 19. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland. bit.ly/2OPs8oT CATS The Panida shows the new release film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s beloved musical, starring Taylor Swift, James Corden, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and many others. Dec. 20-Jan. 2; times vary. $5-$8. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. (208-255-7801) ELF A community sing-a-long and screening of the classic holiday film. Dec. 21, 3:30-5:30 pm. Free. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida.org IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE The Kenworthy Board of Directors and staff host two special screenings of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Even renovation (and an auditorium without chairs) can’t stop us from continuing this annual tradition, this year screening at the Hartung Theater on the University of Idaho campus. Get $1 off your ticket when you bring a nonperishable food item. Dec. 21, 4 & 7 pm. $5. Hartung Theater, 875 Perimeter Dr. kenworthy.org (208-88214127)

FOOD

GOLDEN HANDLE PROJECT LAUNCH Meet the folks behind the Golden Handle

Project, the newest addition to the incubator brewery. Featuring beer on tap, and a look into how the social purpose corporation is using beer for a great cause. Dec. 19, 5-10 pm. Free. Steel Barrel Taproom, 154 S. Madison. (315-9879) SCOTCH & CIGARS Select a flight of whiskey, scotch or bourbon paired with a recommended cigar during an event on the outdoor patio. Thursdays, from 6-10 pm. $15-$25. Prohibition Gastropub, 1914 N. Monroe. (474-9040) TASTEFUL THURSDAYS The series highlights local beer brewers, winemakers and artisans who meet the public while offering free samples, gift ideas and information about their goods. Dec. 19 from 5-7 pm. Free. Moscow Food Co-op, 121 E. Fifth St. moscowfood.coop WINTER CHEER TOUR Join Wander Spokane for a guided walking tour combining aspects from its food, wine and beer tours with a bonus craft cocktail stop.

Stops include Va Piano Winery, Heritage Bar & Kitchen, Cochinito, Whistle Punk Brewing, Soulful Soups, Cease & Desist Book Club and Chocolate Apothecary.

21+. Offered Dec. 19, 21, and 28; Jan. 4, 9, 11, 16 and 18 from 2-5:30 pm. $45. wanderspokane.com (279-2929) A WINTER FLING Celebrate a cozy evening of fine dining. On the menu: herbed pork tenderloin, winter’s harvest soup and buche de noel for dessert. A la carte items available, including beer, wine, coffee, tea, bread and pastries. Dec. 19, 6-8 pm. $26.50. The Bank Left Gallery & Bistro, 100 S. Bridge St., Palouse. bankleftgallery.com (509-878-8425) ROYAL ICING COOKIE CLASS Learn tricks and tips to decorate beautiful sugar cookies. Includes the bakery’s royal icing and sugar cookie recipe, 12 decorated cookies and mimosas and light snacks.

Dec. 20, 6:30-8:30 pm. $50-$90. Lilac City Bakery, 1215 N. Ruby. bit.ly/353W87C NO-LI FROST FEST A festive celebration of No-Li holiday barrel aged beers, hazy IPA’s and Day Fade Jolly Hard Seltzers.

Dec. 21, 8-11 am. [SOLD OUT] No-Li Brewhouse, 1003 E. Trent Ave. (242-2739) DOCKSIDE SUNDAY BRUNCH WITH SANTA Enjoy Dockside’s legendary brunch service with Santa. Dec. 22 from 9 am-2 pm. Dockside Restaurant, 115 S. Second St., Coeur d’Alene Resort, Lobby Floor. docksidecda.com (208-666-5799) TAPAS TUESDAYS A showcase of tapas plates featuring charcuterie, cheese, baguettes and topped flatbreads. Tuesdays from 4-6 pm. $10. Wanderlust Delicato, 421 W. Main. wanderlustdelicato.com CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER BUFFET Enjoy a holiday buffet, including brunch favorites from 11 am-2 pm. Dec. 25, 11 am-6 pm. $25-$50. Mirabeau Park Hotel, 1100 N. Sullivan Rd. mirabeauparkhotel.com WINE WEDNESDAY Stop in for wine tastings and light appetizers every Wednesday from 4:30-6 pm. 4:30-6 pm.

The Culinary Stone, 2129 N. Main St., CdA. culinarystone.com (208-277-4166) MOCHI FEST To celebrate this annual Japanese New Year’s tradition, the temple offers traditional mochi, mochi desserts and other baked items. Dec. 29, 11:30 am-1 pm.

Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry. spokanebuddhisttemple.org HILL’S RESORT PRESENTS: THE ROARING 20S A special NYE menu is served in George’s Dining Room; reservations required. Includes live music from 8:30 pm-12:30 am. Dec. 31. Hill’s Resort, 4777 W. Lakeshore Rd., Priest Lake. (208-4432551)

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 53

GIFT GUIDE

Nice and Naughty Gifts for cannabis connoisseurs

BY WILL MAUPIN

T

he stereotypical aesthetic of cannabis culture — picture rasta colors and weed leaves everywhere — isn’t for everyone.

This has become even more true since legalization brought cannabis out into the open. Unfortunately, if you walk into most dispensaries or head shops, the aesthetic hasn’t caught up to the times.

Thankfully, you can be a pot enthusiast without looking like a pothead. It just takes a bit of looking, and we’ve done some of that for you with a list of gift ideas for the smoker in your life who doesn’t want to stick out like a stoned thumb.

CANNASEUR (a)

Are you shopping for someone who appreciates the finer things in life? Can you picture them seated in a leather chair with a bourbon in one hand and a cigar in the other? Would dropping anything short of a few Benjamins on their gift be unforgivably distasteful?

Sounds like you’re shopping for a cannabis connoisseur, and thankfully for you there’s, wait for it… Cannaseur.

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54 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

Their elegant humidors, which are about the size of a shoebox and come in walnut or mahogany, claim to keep your cannabis at the ideal humidity. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the “German-made precision hygrometer” inside and see for yourself.

HEMP CLOTHING (b)

As a kid, clothing was the worst gift possible. It was never, ever, ever on my wish list and yet somehow, every single year, a box from Macy’s ended up under the tree. Now that I’m an adult, my feelings toward fabric-based gifts have softened. In fact, I hope my mom is reading this because I could use a new outfit. And I’m not talking about polyester; I want some hemp clothing this Christmas.

Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia has a sizable line of hempbased clothing that includes everything from tank tops and shorts to flannels and winter coats. Its clothes come in a variety of sizes and colors, none of which are tie-dye. So, you can wear your weed without anybody knowing. ...continued on page 58

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 55

GREEN ZONE

BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.

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56 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

WARNING: This product has intoxicating affects and may be habit forming. Smoking is hazardous to your health. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. Should not be used by women that are pregnant or breast feeding. Marijuana products may be purchased or possessed only by persons 21 years of age or older. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination and judgement. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug.

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Warning: This product has intoxicating effects & may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, & judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 years or older. Keep out of reach of children.

DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 57

GREEN ZONE

PROPER ETIQUETTE (d)

“NICE AND NAUGHTY,” CONTINUED...

MINIMALIST WALL ART (c)

If you’ve outgrown the Cheech and Chong posters that adorned dorm room walls of years past, but aren’t quite ready to pull weed completely off your walls, look no further than Goldleaf’s line of beautiful and simplistic prints.

The online retailer, which also specializes in Moleskinestyle notebooks and journals, has a diverse selection of affordable prints available. Some are clearly marijuana, showing leaves and buds glowing with beautiful trichomes, while others hide dark green marijuana leaves subtly behind a bright floral still life. They also offer gorgeous flow charts and infographics showing things from cannabinoid molecular structure to the history of marijuana.

In 1922, Emily Post wrote Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, which taught countless Americans the proper way to act. The book has been updated 19 times since its initial publication to reflect how changes in society and technology have changed proper etiquette. Nearly a century after the initial publication, Post’s great-greatgranddaughter, Lizzie Post, decided to tackle weed etiquette. Higher Etiquette: A Guide to the World of Cannabis, from Dispensaries to Dinner Parties, which was released this past March, tackles the world of weed just like the elder Post tackled weddings. Readers will learn the “proper” way to share a joint without seeming like a mooch, and while spreading as few germs as possible, along with a plethora of other ways to act high class while getting high. n

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58 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

Recreational & Medical Cannabis

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Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.

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DECEMBER 19, 2019 INLANDER 59

RELATIONSHIPS

Advice Goddess GHOUL, INTERRUPTED

A good friend’s mom just died. Out of nowhere, he told me that his mom never liked me very much. Frankly, the feeling was mutual, but I of course never said anything. While I don’t want to start a fight or anything, I’m bothered that he told me this. How should I let him know? —Irritated When somebody talks trash about you, it’s natural to want to respond. Unfortunately, sending this woman a “we need to talk” text will require a mediator with a Ouija board.

AMY ALKON It does seem pretty rotten that your friend suddenly let his mom’s opinions of you off-leash. However, consider that keeping a secret — having information of interest to another person that you need to keep barricaded in a closet in your head — is mentally and even physically stressful. Research increasingly finds that the body and mind are co-workers. (Action leads to emotion and emotion to action.) In secret-keeping, holding back information causes psychological tension, which brings on physical tension — which can make keeping the secret both figuratively and literally a pain in the neck.

Research on secrecy by psychologist Michael Slepian suggests that it isn’t concealing information but having a goal of concealing information that stresses us out.

Unlike many other goals — the kind you can complete and check off on your to-do list — the goal to keep a secret has no endpoint. This turns keeping a secret into a sort of zombie goal, a goal that won’t die — or, in researcher terms, “an outstanding intention.” This makes it more accessible in memory — to the point where the mind tends to wander to it. And this mental reflux has some psychological costs: “The frequency of mind-wandering to secrets predicts lower well-being,” explains the Slepian team.

“Thus, what seems to be harmful about secrecy is not having to conceal a secret but having to live with it and having it return to one’s thoughts.”

Other research, exploring willpower, finds that stress and “aversive” (feelbad) emotions like sadness diminish our ability for self-control. So, your friend, under the emotional stress of grieving his mom, maybe lacked the energy he normally had to keep his mom’s feelings stowed in the, uh, overhead compartment. Obviously, you’d prefer to unknow this info. However, if this guy generally isn’t unkind or insensitive, you might want to let this go — especially considering the advantage you have over a lady who’s now living on somebody’s mantel: “I will come find you and reduce you to ash! Oh. Wait.”

KEEPIN’ IT REVEALED

I’m a 32-year-old woman, dating again after a five-year relationship. I’ve got some issues I’m working on. (I can get a little needy.) I’m getting all kinds of advice, from “be you!” to “play hard to get!” I guess acting unavailable works, but shouldn’t somebody like me for me, not because I’m out of reach?

—Sincere At fancy supermarkets, they try to sell you smoked salmon with a tiny sample on a cracker; they don’t slap you across the face with a giant fish: “LOVE MEEEEEE!” In dating, there’s being a bit scarce, and there’s being somebody else. Scarce is good when you’re getting to know a person, leaving them wanting more as opposed to less. Somebody else? Not so good.

What does it mean to “be yourself”? It basically means not being emotionally manicured, being “authentic.” Clinical psychologist Lawrence Josephs and his colleagues explain romantic “authenticity” as a willingness to risk being emotionally vulnerable and a companion unwillingness to “act deceitfully” even when being honest comes with some costs. They, not surprisingly, find that being authentic in these ways leads to “better relational outcomes.”

If you aren’t yourself, somebody might be attracted to your fake front and then be bummed out and not really into you when it eventually falls off. Additionally, the researchers’ findings “suggest that individuals engaging in ‘being yourself’ dating behavior are generally preferred as dating partners over more game-playing individuals.” In fact, they find that men who are authentic seem to have a “special antipathy” toward “more game-playing” women.

But let’s say there are some things about you that are authentically not so great.

Like, say you’re “a little needy.” You can tell somebody you tend to be needy. That’s kind of brave and may lead somebody to admire your honesty. Of course, you should also get cracking on becoming more secure. (You might also tell a potential partner that you’re working on it, which emotionally healthy partners are likely to respect and admire.) The important thing is doing what it takes to not act all needypants, like by using diversionary tactics — say, by repeatedly texting your BFF when you’re dying to text some new guy. Her phone goes off in a meeting. Her boss: “Why does some woman keep sending you pix of her boobs?” n ©2018, 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)

60 INLANDER DECEMBER 19, 2019

EVENTS | CALENDAR

MUSIC

CHRISTMAS GUITAR SUMMIT CONCERT SERIES Presented by Leon Atkinson’s Friends of the Guitar Hour and featuring Leon Atkinson, the Tonedevil Bros., and Mike Johnson, who together play a wide range of guitars and styles.

Dec. 20. $25. Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St., Post Falls.

Also Dec. 21 at 7:30 pm, Holy Names Music Center, 3910 W. Custer Dr. xmasguitar.bpt.me (208-457-8950) CLASSY CHRISTMAS AT LUCKY YOU Put on your best dress for a Lucky You Christmas party with live jazz, cocktail specials, dancing and mistletoe. Dec. 21, 9 pm. $5. Lucky You Lounge, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. luckyyoulounge.com SATURDAYS WITH THE SYMPHONY Members of the Coeur d’Alene Symphony woodwind section have joined together to perform a program of holiday music and Christmas carols for all to join in singing. Dec. 21, 10:30 am.

Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org SONGS FROM UKRAINIAN HARP: FOLK MUSIC & HYMNS The musical group Ukrainian Harp aims to preserve Ukrainian traditions and culture for future generations. They share a short history of Ukraine and perform 18th and 19th century folk songs and 20th century hymns. Dec. 21, 3:30-4:30 pm.

Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (444-5300) SPOKANE SYMPHONY HOLIDAY POPS WITH VANESSA WILLIAMS American pop icon Vanessa Williams stars in this season’s Spokane Symphony Holiday Pops, conducted by Music Director James Lowe. Dec. 21 at 8 pm and Dec. 22 at 2 pm. $33+. Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague. spokanesymphony.org WHEN CHRISTMAS CONCERT Light refreshments served, bring a dish to share for lunch. The nonprofit is also collecting gloves, sweaters, socks, scarves, coats and hats to distribute at 4:30 pm at the same location, made available to refugees, migrants, and those in need.

Dec. 21, 11:30 am. West Central Muticultural Adventist Church, 1201 W. Spofford. whenetwork.com (509-998-5322) BEL CANTO OPERA’S HANSEL AND GRETEL Bel Canto Opera and the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint present this holiday favorite, directed by Keely Grey-Heki and featuring John Fitzgerald, Brenda Rutledge and Karin Wedemeyer. Dec. 22 and 23 at 3 pm. $6.24$16.74. Heartwood Center, 615 S. Oak St. heartwoodsandpoint.com CHRISTMAS IN SPOKANE: A NOT SO SILENT NIGHT A family-friendly Christmas music event, featuring favorite songs performed in multiple genres.

Dec. 22, 8:30 & 10:05 am. Free. ONE* Church Spokane, 15601 E. 24th Ave. ChristmasinSpokane.com (926-3254) CONTRA DANCE A community style of dancing, with all dances taught by Susan Dankovich to live music by Red Herring. No experience necessary, includes a snack potluck at the break. Dec. 27, 7-10 pm. $5. North Spokane Dance Center, 7424 N. Freya. (489-4492) CHRISTMAS CANTATA The St. John’s Lutheran Church Choir presents a “Christmas Cantata, Everlasting Light: the Promise of Christmas.” Dec. 29, 3-4 pm. Free. St. John’s Lutheran Church, 5810 S. Meadowland Rd. sjlspokane.org

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

SKATE RIBBON COLLEGE NIGHT Show your student ID to receive free rentals with admission. Thursdays from 4-9 pm through Feb. 27. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.org EAGLE WATCHING CRUSIES Every year, 100s of American Bald Eagles visit Lake Coeur d’Alene on their annual migration in December and January. Take a cruise to Wolf Lodge Bay to see these magnificent birds in the wild. Cruises offered Dec. 21-22 and Dec. 26-Jan. 1 at 10 am, noon and 1 pm. $13-$25. cdacruises.com (855-379-5478) FREE ICE SKATING LESSONS Weekly lessons at the Numerica Skate Ribbon, skate rentals included. Registration available on-site; lessons are first-come, first-served. Sundays at 11 am through February. (Paid lessons also available; see website for details) Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. riverfrontspokane.org (509-625-6600) CHEAP SKATE MONDAY Admission to the ice ribbon includes free skate rentals. Mondays from 11 am-8 pm through the season. $5.25/$7.25. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. (625-6600) SPOKANE CHIEFS VS. TRI-CITY AMERICANS Promo: Family Feast Night. Dec. 28, 7:05 pm. $11-$26. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon. (279-7000)

THEATER

A CHRISTMAS CAROL The holiday classic, performed as a radio drama.

Dec. 19-22. Pullman Civic Theatre, 1220 NW Nye St. pullmancivictheatre.com A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A RADIO PLAY The Charles Dickens holiday classic comes to life as a live 1940s radio broadcast, complete with vintage commercials and the magic of live sound effects and musical underscoring. Dec. 19-21 at 7:30 pm, Dec. 22 at 2 pm. $27.

The Innovation Den, 415 E. Lakeside Ave., CdA. cdasummertheatre.com ELLEN TRAVOLTA PRESENTS: CHRISTMAS MIRACLES The Travolta Christmas show at the Coeur d’Alene Resort is a local holiday tradition. Starring Ellen, sister Margaret Travolta, daughter Molly Allen and featuring Abbey Crawford, and directed by Troy Nickerson with accompaniment by Jennifer Twitchell on piano and Eugene Jablonsky on Bass. Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 5 pm through Dec. 22. $27.50.

The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdaresort.com (208-765-4000) IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE The saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose guardian angel descends on Christmas Eve to save him from despair and to remind him, that his has been, after all, a wonderful life. Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through Dec. 22. $15-$35. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com (325-2507) THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS CAROL Join Charles Dickens in his study on Friday the 13th, 1843 in a one-man play crafted by Dickens scholar and author Dr. Eliot Engel. Dec. 19, 7:30-9:30 pm. $15-$25. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet. (313-2787) TRADITIONS OF CHRISTMAS A Radio City Music Hall-style show featuring kick line numbers, a USO performance

and Christmas classics brought to life through song and dance. Dec. 19-22 at 7 pm; Dec. 20-23 at 3 pm. $21-$34. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd., CdA. traditionsofchristmasnw.com SPARK CENTRAL RADIO THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL An adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic performed as a radio theatre show Dec. 20, 7:30-8:30 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (279-0299) ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS It’s four days before Christmas, and the New York Evening Post needs a holiday feature story, but writer Clement Moore has writer’s block. Fri at 7 pm; Sat-Sun at 2 pm through Dec. 22. $12$16. Spokane Children’s Theatre, 2727 N. Madelia. spokanechildrenstheatre.org

ARTS

21ST ANNUAL SMALL ARTWORKS INVITATIONAL The Art Spirit’s 21st annual holiday exhibition, featuring small artworks by over 50 local and regional artists. Through Jan. 4; open Wed-Sat 11 am-6 pm. Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman Ave. theartspiritgallery.com NORMAN ROCKWELL’S AMERICA A remarkable collection of oil paintings, charcoal/graphite studies, original posters and all 323 vintage Saturday Evening Post magazine covers spanning six decades. Through Jan. 12; TueSun from 10 am-5 pm; third Thursdays from 10 am-8 pm. $5-$10. The MAC, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org ORNAMENT & SMALL WORK SHOW The Spokane Art School’s annual holiday showcase features art by more than 40 local artists, with most items priced under $50. Through Dec. 23; Mon-Fri 10 am-5 pm. Spokane Art School, 811 W. Garland. (325-1500) SARANAC SMALL WORKS SALE Saranac Art Projects’ annual showcase featuring original works ideal for holiday giving - small, affordable works in a range of media by members and guest artists. Thu 2-6 pm; Fri-Sat 12-8 pm; Sun 2-6 pm (closed 12/25) through Dec. 28. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave. facebook.com/Saranac.artprojects WINTER ART MARKET & ORNAMENT DISPLAY The 5th annual market features small artwork by POAC’s local fine artists, including handmade gifts from painting to jewelry and ceramics. MonFri 10 am-5 pm through Dec. 27. Free admission. Pend Oreille Arts Council Gallery, 110 Main St. artsinsandpoint.org LAURA, OR SCENES FROM A COMMON WORLD A multimedia installation bridging film, literature and fine art by artists Charles M Pepiton, Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton, Wes Kline, and Damon Falke. Dec. 20, 5-8 pm. Free.

Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. bit.ly/2RbUkVV (458-5517)

PERFORMANCE

HIVE HOLIDAY QUEEN B DRAG SHOW Take a night out of the holiday bustle and enjoy drinks and entertainment without judgement. Dec. 21, 7 pm. $10$25. The Hive, 207 N. First, Sandpoint.

(208-457-2392) HOLIDAY MAGIC WITH ADAM TRENT: Broadway and TV star Adam Trent brings his technological illusions, music and comedy to the Bing with a special holiday twist. Dec. 22 at 2 and 7:30 pm. $22-$37. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague. bingcrosbytheater.com n

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RADITIONS OF CHRISTMAS is a popular, Radio City Music Hall-style production at Salvation Army Kroc Center. This beloved Coeur d’Alene holiday tradition is produced

by Laura Little, an accomplished theater veteran with three Broadway producing credits to her name, including co-producing Peter and the Starcatcher, which won five Tony awards. We caught up with Little, who’s currently serving as Traditions of Christmas’ artistic director and producer. She shared some of her insights:

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A Christms Carol DECEMBER 19-22

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre brings the Charles Dickens classic comes to life on the stage as a live 1940s radio broadcast. $27; Thursday-Saturday 7:30 pm, Sunday 2 pm; The Innovation Den.

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LITTLE: Traditions of Christmas has roughly 20 different acts or scenes. There are scenes that will make you laugh and cry, some will educate and some will just simply entertain.

This year we have about 500 costumes, 72 people in the cast, 20 on the crew and many front-of-the-house volunteers.

When did you get started with the show and why?

I was introduced to Traditions of Christmas in San Diego in 2001 and upon seeing it, I was so entertained, moved and filled with the spirit of Christmas that I knew that this show was going to somehow be part of my future. When I moved to Coeur d’Alene in 2004, I recognized that this community would benefit from this production. It took years to put all the pieces together but

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This unforgettable cruise across Lake Coeur d’Alene provides unparalleled views of the Resort’s 1.5 million twinkling holiday lights and takes you to Santa’s workshop! Cruises depart at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 pm. Tickets and boarding takes place at the Resort Plaza Shops.

ultimately it came to be in 2011.

What are some highlights that seem to be favorites with the audience?

The USO military tribute is definitely the crowd favorite followed by the “singing” monks.

You sometimes change up small segments of the production. Any changes this year?

Yes, we have added our most complicated number to date. It is a beautiful storytelling song that ties in with the USO military scene.

We are also bringing back some crowd favorites that we rotated out last year.

Do you have a favorite tradition for the holidays in Coeur d’Alene?

My holiday season is so consumed with Christmas shows that I barely have time to put up a tree but I always make time for church and to make my family’s favorite Christmas cookies. Traditions of Christmas has become a tradition for me in itself. I’m in the audience for every show and it brings me so much joy to watch the audience and to know that we are filling their hearts with the spirit of Christmas.

Visit traditionsofchristmasnw.com for dates, times and ticketing info.

Christmas Miracles DECEMBER 19-22

Each season, The Coeur d’Alene Resort features an original holiday production

by Ellen Travolta. This year’s touching show celebrates Christmas miracles through music, stories and laughter. $27.50; Thursday-Saturday 7:30 pm, Sunday 5 pm; The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

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