Bloglander

Spokane's downtown core is bursting with newer public art projects — the Mobile Murals project at Division and Third (Note: May is the final month for the project's current location), the downtown underpass murals, sidewalk storefront installations and new pieces at the convention center as part of the recently completed expansion.

Add one more awesome new endeavor to the mix.

Earlier this year, Spokane Arts, in partnership with the City of Spokane, put out a call to the arts community looking for submissions to brighten up the nondescript, grey traffic signal boxes around downtown Spokane. Thirteen designs by twelve artists were selected to be printed on vinyl and recently were installed on the boxes by Standard Digital Print. Find all of the signal box art along Second Avenue, from Division to Maple Street.

Here's a rundown of whose art is featured at which intersections:

Division: "qWisp" by Chelsea Hendrickson
Browne: "Ohm's Law, Abbreviated" by Stine Hansen
Washington: "Pretzels" by Jacob Greif
Stevens: "Impossible Structures" by Ryann Engel
Howard: "Know Yourself" by Marina Gulova
Wall: "Love" by Ellen Picken
Post: "untitled" by Atom Smith
Lincoln: "Old Manhattan" by Dakota Berg
Monroe: "Khokhloma Matryoshka" by Marina Gulova
Jefferson: "Runners" by David Waters
Cedar: "Dot Box" by Devin Papp
Walnut: "Dannie through the Kaleidoscope" by Monica Hoblin
Maple: "Shine On" by Aaron Abolofia

Singing newsies, mythbusters and magic highlight the lineup of Best of Broadway shows heading to Spokane for the 2015-2016 season, announced today by WestCoast Entertainment. Season tickets for the series are already on sale, with three prices depending on where you want to sit at the INB Performing Arts Center: $167.50, $284.50 or $336.50. 

This year's slate for the Best of Broadway includes: 
Riverdance, Oct. 22-25
A Christmas Story, Dec. 3-6
The Book of Mormon, Jan. 26-31, 2016
42nd Street, March 24-27, 2016
Beauty and the Beast, April 5-6, 2016
Disney's Newsies, May 2-9, 2016

In addition to these productions of first-time visitors and return engagements, the Best of Broadway series includes several one-off shows throughout the season. Ticket sales for these shows will be announced at a later date. For 2015-2016, the Best of Broadway specials include: 

All Hands on Deck, Sept. 13
I Love Lucy Live on Stage, Oct. 2
Shaping Sound, Oct. 30
Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight!, Nov. 14
Snarky Puppy, in collaboration with the EWU Jazz Dialogue, Nov. 20
Mannheim Steamroller Christmas by Chip Davis, Nov. 22
Mythbusters, Dec. 11
Shanghai Circus, Feb. 7, 2016
The Illusionists: Live from Broadway, Feb. 13-14, 2016

Also announced was the next season of National Geographic Live!, a touring series of speakers, concerts and films that hits up major cities every year with a new round of stories from adventurers of the world. In Spokane, there are generally four speakers a year, all on Tuesday evenings, and who present their stories on stage at the INB Performing Arts Center. Season tickets are on sale now right here, for $106, $122 or $146. 

The Nat Geo Live! schedule for 2015-2016 includes: 

The Search for Life Beyond Earth, Nov. 3. Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist, and speaks on his career seeking out extraterrestrial life forms. One of his main jobs at the moment is to create instruments that have the ability to travel to Jupiter's moon Europa and possibly indicate that life forms exist there.
On the Trail of Big Cats: Tigers, Cougars and Snow Leopards, Feb. 9, 2016. Photographer Steve Minter discusses and shows off his work photographing big cats all around the world.
Where the Wild Things Live, March 8, 2016. Photographer Vincent J. Music tells of his many obscure assignments and his most recent work with animal photography.
Sufferfest: 700 Miles of Pain and Glory, April 19, 2016. Cedar Wright recounts his adventures when he climbed, biked, repelled and journeyed through Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.

If you're interested in what the National Geographic Live! series is all about, it's not too late to catch the final speaker from the 2014-2015 season. Next Tuesday, at 7 pm, explorers Cory Richards and Mike Libecki present "Untamed Antarctica." The two discuss their adventures attempting to climb seemingly inaccessible territory in Antarctica, and share photos from their journey. 

A state appellate court has allowed a previously dismissed defamation lawsuit against a polyamorous former employee of Spokane Civic Theatre who engaged in vitriolic blogging against the arts center to proceed.

The court’s decision is the latest development in the story of Yvonne Johnson, the former executive artistic director at the Civic who helped turn the financially struggling theater around, but also left a trail of enemies before being abruptly fired from her position.

One of those enemies was James Ryan, who was hired in 2010 as the theater’s full-time music director. After being hired, the theater received an anonymous email disclosing the non-monogamous nature of Ryan’s marriage as well as his use of nude photographs and texts while searching for sexy times online.

The theater, according to the court, also discovered that Ryan mentioned his place of work and used his employee photo while cruising for sex online. According to the court, the theater also learned that Ryan initiated some of his solicitations while on its premises.

When Johnson found out, she wrote him a lengthy letter stating that he was being terminated not because of his “swinger lifestyle” but because he had coupled it with his employment, which the theater worried had the the potential to alienate potential donors. According to the court, Ryan admitted to posting to Craigslist looking for sex, but denied that he linked it to the theater.

Freshly unemployed, Ryan started an invective-filled blog against the theater. He also obtained the domain names “spokanecivictheater.org” and “spokanecivictheatre.org.” According to the court, Ryan used his Internet presence to stymie the future job prospects of Johnson.

In 2013, Johnson responded by filing a suit against Ryan for intentional interference with business expectancy and defamation. Ryan got the motion dismissed using an anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) defense.

Many states, including Washington, have anti-SLAPP laws that are designed to prevent libel, slander or interference-with-business lawsuits that are designed to stymie free speech regarding issues of public concern.

However, the appeals court ruled that Ryan’s blogging activities were of a personal, not public concern, and reversed the lower court’s dismissal.

(Clarification: Polyamory and swinging are not the same thing. Swingers are couples seeking seeking sexual relationships with other individuals that aren’t emotional or romantic in nature. Polyamorists seek relationships that are also romantic or emotional in nature.)

Happy First Friday, Spokane! The spring-like weather has arrived just in time for a new art space to sprout up in Kendall Yards. West Central's new neighborhood continues to blossom into one of Spokane's up-and-coming developments with various dining options, small businesses and now a growing art community. 

Marshall Peterson, the man behind the Marmot Art Space, beamed when talking about his new project.

"There are frogs and there are lizards, and all of them are important. I believe that Marmot Art Space will be a part of the ecosystem of Spokane's art community," Peterson said, adding that he hopes to create a space to showcase local artists and provide a gathering space for the community. 

The artist of the hour has been concealed behind butcher paper on Adams Alley up until tonight, however it's now been announced that Marmot's first show features celebrated Spokane artist Melissa Cole. Cole cuts the ribbon to the Marmot at tonight's First Friday grand opening, with events starting at 5 pm. 

The Kendall Yards development perched on the north bank of the Spokane River is growing so fast even we sometimes feel like we can't keep up, and the Inlander sees these almost daily changes right outside its front door. Another new venture is moving in just across the street from Inlander HQ in May, when creative arts education nonprofit INK Art Space is set to relocate. 

Since it was founded last March, INK has been headquartered in a second floor space above the Bartlett (228 W. Sprague), thanks to a subsidized lease agreement with the building's owner, Dan Spalding. There, the nonprofit has hosted a slew of mostly free arts, music and technology workshops and programs for local, school-age kids.

The all-volunteer nonprofit, co-founded by Spalding and Spokane literary icon Jess Walter, has held classes in spoken word poetry, street art, music writing, digital arts and filmmaking, all thanks to local artists and creatives who've donated their time to teach at INK. Many of the free workshops, however, have been taught outside of INK's downtown space at Spokane Public Library branches to better reach underserved communities.

Yet the new Kendall Yards space — INK is actually set to move into a combination of two currently empty street-level spaces (1218 and 1214 W. Summit Parkway) between Mom's Custom Tattoo and MonkeyBoy Bicycles — should help with that aspect, says INK Board President Mischa Jakupcak.

"It's a great neighborhood for foot traffic and kids," Jakupcak says. "Where we’re at right now, around us there isn’t a ton of parking, and it’s not close to neighborhoods where we serve youth. We do a lot of programming with kids from West Central, so we’re nearer to where the kids are."

Kendall Yards developer Greenstone Communities is donating the space to INK through its charitable Greenstone Foundation. The new spot should allow INK to eventually offer a consistent, open-door schedule, whereas now it's typically only open during scheduled events, Jakupcak says. Once the creative space is up and running, she hopes to offer regular after-school programs and tutoring through partnerships with local universities like Gonzaga and Whitworth. 

INK plans to continue partnering with the public library system to host off-site classes, too, among other public venues the nonprofit has worked with in the past year. 

"We're really excited," she says. "We're going to have some tech aspects open to the public and it's really going to be a community center for people of all ages."

In the late '70s and early '80s, it was hard to find a hotter comedy act than the duo of Cheech & Chong, unless you count the time Richard Pryor set himself on fire. 

The stoner comics took a nightclub act and turned it into a pop cultural force, creating hit movies and best-selling albums (including that famous "Dave" sketch) that gave every serious weedhead and occasional dabbler a reason to laugh the night away before hitting the Cheetos. 

After their creative partnership seemingly dried up, the two split in the late '80s, with Cheech Marin going on to some mainstream success in movies like Tin Cup and on shows like Nash Bridges, while Tommy Chong hit the road to do standup and created a line of pot-related products. That business eventually got him in trouble thanks to some overzealous California law enforcement, landing Chong in jail for nearly a year. 

When he got out, his old buddy Cheech was ready to get the act back together, and Cheech & Chong have been pretty much touring the casino and theater circuit ever since. 

They will hit the Coeur d'Alene Casino on Thursday, March 5, along with WAR, the killer Latin-funk outfit that provided the soundtrack to some of Cheech & Chong's most memorable movie scenes with their tune "Low Rider." Tickets for the show are on sale now for $45 and $55, via TicketsWest. 

This clip from Up In Smoke shows how well the comedy team and WAR go together: 

Only a couple months into its merger, and leaders at the Modern Theater — the new-ish name for the combined incarnation of what formerly was Interplayers Theatre and Lake City Playhouse — are busy planning for the future. 

This past Saturday, the nonprofit theater group officially announced the lineup of shows it's staging at both its Spokane and Coeur d'Alene theaters. Season tickets for the 2015-16 season go on sale Sun, Feb. 1. Following is the production schedule; find descriptions of each performance on the Modern Theater's blog.

The Modern Theater Spokane:
Other Desert Cities (drama), Sept. 25-Oct. 11
Wild Parties (musical), Nov. 6-29
Lucky Me (comedy), Jan. 1-17, 2016
Last of the Boys (drama), Feb. 19-March 6, 2016
Next to Normal (musical, April 7, 17, 2016 — this show is to be a special co-production with the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, and is performing at the Bing Crosby Theater.
The Ladies Foursome (comedy), May 13-29, 2016
Man of La Mancha (musical), July 8-30, 2016

The Modern Theater Coeur d'Alene:
Rock of Ages (musical), Sept. 11-Oct. 10 — we're assuming based on their site listing A Rock Show for the Ages, since the Modern can't really say til Feb. 1)
The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, Nov. 27-Dec. 20
All My Sons (drama), Jan. 22-Feb. 7, 2016
Maybe Baby (comedy), March 4-20, 2016
A Bright New Boise (dark comedy), April 22-May 8, 2016 — a play by Moscow, Idaho-native Samuel D. Hunter.
Anything Goes (musical), June 3-26, 2016
Dogfight (musical), July 29-Aug. 14, 2016

The arts should be accessible to everyone, which is why the Spokane Civic Theatre is debuting a new, budget-friendly preview night ahead of its next production, The Servant of Two Masters.

Though opening night is officially this Friday, the public can catch a preview performance tonight, paying what they can afford at the box office.

Suggested entry is $5 per person, and seating availability in the 335-seat main stage theater is on a first come, first served basis, says the Civic's marketing coordinator Miranda Larson.

Doors tonight open at 6:30 pm, with seating starting at 7 before the curtain rises at 7:30 pm. Thursdays typically serve as a production's final dress rehearsal, with the previous night designated as "friends and family night" for the cast and crew members. 

The idea to open up the Thursday night rehearsal came from the Civic's artistic director, Keith Dixon, whose former theater, Theatre Baton Rouge, offered a similar program.

"It helps with accessibility to the community theater because some people can't afford it," Larson says. "We're doing it for every production [going forward] to let people who otherwise wouldn't be able to come. We want the community to be a part of local theater."

Though the suggested entry is $5, Larson says those attending can pay more or less, depending on what they're comfortable giving.

For the Civic's next Studio Theatre production, Orphans, pay-what-you-can night is set for Thursday, Jan. 29, a week from today.

While the new preview night is open to the general public, the Civic has for some time been offering student rush tickets when a production on the main stage has at least 30 open seats, or there's at least 10 seats in the studio theater. Rush tickets are generally half of what regular student pricing is, but tickets at that rate are only sold 30 minutes before the performance, and only when the minimum number of seats are available. For Servants, rush night tickets are $9.

Not halfway into its current, 68th season, the Spokane Civic Theatre has already announced the lineup of shows it plans to produce for its 69th year, starting in the fall of 2015. 

Right now, the theater is staging a musical version of the classic Dickens' tale A Christmas Carol, running through Dec. 20. Read Inlander theater writer E.J. Iannelli's take on it in this week's issue, out a day early, on Wednesday, Nov. 26, in light of the Thanksgiving holiday.

For the 2014-15 season, the community theater kicked things off with a bang, opening with an impeccable production of Fiddler on the Roof. And those who saw it won't soon forget the previous season's sold-out run of Les Miserables. 

Keeping with its theme of musicals and other familiar favorites, the Civic's 2015-16 season opens on the Main Stage with Catch Me If You Can, The Musical, Sept. 18-Oct. 18, 2015.

It will be followed by these shows, on the main stage:

• White Christmas, Nov. 20-Dec. 19, 2015
  
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), Jan. 15-31, 2016
  
• Little Women, The Musical, Feb. 26-March 20, 2016
  
• The Fox on the Fairway, April 8-May 1, 2016
  
• Ghost, The Musical, May 20-June 19, 2016

Downstairs in the cozier Studio Theatre, the 69th season features:

• Evil Dead, The Musical, Oct. 16-Nov. 15, 2015
  
• Sordid Lives, Jan 29-Feb. 16, 2016
  
• Hapgood, March 18-April 10, 2016
  
• Fiction, April 29-May 21, 2016

Ten days, folks. TEN DAYS. That’s all the time remaining to get your stories in for this year’s Inlander Short Fiction Contest. We’ve seen submissions pick up in the last couple of weeks, but we know you’re just putting the finishing touches on those gems.

Remember, we’re looking for unpublished stories of less than 2,000 words based on the theme of “spirits,” however you want to interpret that. Stories must mention an Inland Northwest landmark, and must be submitted by 11:59 pm on Nov. 21 (again — 10 days away!).

And there’s the $500 in cash prizes for our top stories. Additional details here.

We’ve also set up a fiction contest Facebook page to answer questions and invite friends. Feel free to help spread the word.

If you need some last-minute inspiration, renowned regional author Sharma Shields is hosting a Flash Fiction Workshop on Saturday on how to craft “ultra-short stories” that leave a strong impact. It’s over at the South Hill Library.

And feel free to read through some of our previous top stories from years past. We’re looking forward to going through this year’s entries. Good luck.