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- Issue Archive for
- Mar 29 - Apr 4, 2001
- Vol. 8, No. 24
News & Comment
Reform with a purpose
The Bush Administration's rhetoric regarding school reform, to date, has been long on noise and short on imagination. To reduce the problem of public school performance to more testing -- for both students and teachers -- is simplistic in t
A glimpse of green
It was the perfect respite from the land of snow and ice. Green plants, the sweet scent of hundreds of blooming plants, and chirping bird music in the background made THE NORTHWEST FLOWER AND GARDEN SHOW (which took place in Seattle in Februa
Elegy in motion
Most cultures around the world have rituals surrounding death, rituals of closure that serve as spiritual events as well as simply giving us rules to go by at a time when it's difficult to know what we should be doing. Following the trag
Hometown favorites
Any nervousness about selling enough tickets to the NCAA West Women's Regionals evaporated when the Washington Huskies won their way into the regional, bringing with them fans from all over the state and region. Having the Huskies
Letters to the editor
Regarding "An Un-SIRTI future" by Robert Herold (3/1/01): Here is the positive side of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) story from the biotechnology angle, a perspective I am familiar with. Beginning
A musical life
When you think of figures on the fringe of society's mainstream, those who swam against the tide, a name like James Dean comes to mind. The image is of society's outsider, a leather-clad rebel who didn't do what others did, and didn't car
Oscar Hits and Misses - Ray
Like most everyone else, I specialize in Oscar predictions pulled right out of the air, answering the who's-gonna-win question with whatever wild surmise my mouth finds itself forming. I was at a party for the New York Underground Film Festiv
Letters to the Editor
In your 3/15/01 issue, there is an article by Mike Corrigan about John Mayall and his gig at The Met. In the article, Corrigan states that Eric Clapton went on to join the Yardbirds after his one album stint with Mayall & amp; The Bluesbreakers, circa 1966. Th
Small-scale cinema
Film festivals have become strange things. Initially the repository for everything avant-garde and outside the Hollywood mainstream, they have quickly turned into bloated, let's-make-a-deal feeding frenzies. Think Cannes. Think Sundance.
Oscar Hits and misses - Ed
So who's gonna take home the gold this year? Only those guys with the suits and the briefcase know. The bigger mystery is why so many people and films are ignored every year when it comes time for nominations. There are a lot of people in the
Driving to Minneapolis
You could see that Gonzaga has been there before if you watched the conclusion of some of the other games on Sunday. While teams like Penn State and Temple were celebrating wildly after their victories, Gonzaga had an understated p
E! = Emme2
I might as well tell you: I am on a diet. I did not really mean to go on one. I have never been on one before. As the personal ad might say, I am 5'4", HWP, and athletic, but when the scales tipped to 172, I had to face facts. Against e
Dirty rotten scoundrelettes
It's very rare for a full-fledged comedy to be so loaded with so many characters that are impossible to root for. For the most part, this one is peopled with the kind of folks most of us would strive to avoid. There are the two leads, the mom
A Best of Odyssey
Welcome to the Eighth Annual Best of the Inland Northwest issue. As we do every year, we have tallied up the ballots that our dedicated readers sent in a few weeks back, and you'll find the results of that balloting in these pages. We have also included t
Civic pride
Sometimes life can be condensed into a small space -- a momentous event retold in a one-page poem, a lifetime packed into a book. Rarely, though, does an entire three-dimensional dramatization of a story, complete with bodies, props and f
Big Screen spelunking
Dr. Hazel Barton is a British biologist who travels the world collecting samples of extremophiles for use in scientific and medical research. Serious business when one considers the objects of her affections and the samples for her test tub
Spokane State - A new look
A few weeks back, as the Washington state legislative session geared up, Eastern Washington University President Steve Jordan proposed that Eastern and all the branch campuses be granted limited doctoral granting authority. The proposal a
Ch-ch-ch-changes...
Zephyr never fails to bring Spokane audiences a healthy portion of the unpredictable, and the April 21 concert, featuring the string quartet FLUX, is no exception. Flux's four members, all under the age of 30, have been playing to rave re
Go West, young lady
Round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows. Well, nobody except the NCAA, anyway. Two years ago, when Kevin Twohig, general manager of the Spokane Arena, helped to submit the Arena's bid to host the 2001 NCAA Women's Basket
Local briefs -Monroe St. plans
SPOKANE -- As the city is getting ready to rehabilitate the Monroe Street Bridge -- a project expected to begin late in 2002 and close down the bridge for 24 months -- the Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC) continues its study of
Be Mine
THE VALENTINE KILLERS first caught the touring bug way back in 1999 after the release of their first piece of wax, a four-song, seven-incher (that's vinyl, y'all), and then hit the road for a 17-stop whirlwind tour of the Midwest and East
Randy's real deal
Randy Shaw leads a double life. From behind a desk, he's played the part of a respected TV news anchorman. But lose the tie and put a Fender Telecaster in his hands, and he's transformed into something else entirely. He becomes a performe
Chemical killers
A very powerful story about fighting for truth and justice has its heroes. This story, a tale of the secrets and lies behind America's chemical industry, is no exception. Like Erin Brockovich, the paralegal-turned-movie icon who fought agai
CD Review - Kate Campbell
A quick glance at the songs on Kate Campbell's Wandering Strange would seem to indicate that this is a gospel album. "Now Is the Day of Salvation"? "The King's Business"? Indeed it is. But where contemporary religious music is so often cloy
Teaching to test well
We went to the store." For the third-graders in Jennifer Jensen's class at Freeman Elementary School, the possibilities of that simple sentence are endless. Her class was spending a recent Friday morning parsing sentences -- where is th
Radio Free Coeur d'Alene
There's a new lilt to the Inland Northwest's radio waves, courtesy of Coeur d'Alene inventor, audiophile and all-around mad scientist John Bedini. Call it Radio Free Coeur d'Alene (although the signal carries well into parts of Spokane). Des
Local Briefs
PULLMAN, Wash. -- As the nation continues its recovery from election night's media-fueled roller coaster ride of "we'll give that state to Gore... no wait, we'll give it to Bush," the TV networks have had a lot of explaining to do. On Thursday,
Double Your Pleasure
Elsewhere in our magical city of endless entertainment options, we find at Boomerang's on Friday night a blues band invasion by the likes of local legends TOO SLIM AND THE TAILDRAGGERS and young upstarts AARON RICHNER AND THE BLUES DRIVER
Fixing our schools
When all else fails, when all the strategies they have learned and drills they have practiced and knowledge they have soaked up have been exhausted, and the clock is ticking down the seconds, Longfellow Elementary school teacher Erin S
Desert island discs
You gotta get up, if you're down in a hole. It's the Golden Age of Rock and Roll." The best sound to come out of the Golden Age of Rock and Roll has got to be Ziggy Stardust, and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. This effort transcends i
Can you pass the 10th grade?
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test is administered to fourth and 10th graders in the spring. The 10th grade test, which is divided over two days, covers math concepts and procedures, plus the following four fundamen
CD Review - Stephen Malkmus
When the brains and heart of one of the '90s most influential indie rock bands ventures out on his own, expectations are bound to run high. Maybe that's unfair. But it can't be helped. On Stephen Malkmus' first sans Pavement outing, his
Blowin' in the wind
The prevailing winds blow steady out of the west over Vansycle Ridge just southwest of Walla Walla, Wash. Part of that ridge runs through the 4,000-acre ranch owned by Royal Raymond, whose grandfather homesteaded the property as a dry-land whe
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