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- Issue of
- Mar 28 - Apr 3, 2002
- Vol. 9, No. 24
News & Comment
Field of Dreams
What? Another true, inspirational story about a guy who hasn't exactly had his breaks in life, and now, after all these years, is hoping to make his dreams come true? Yep. That would be the story of Jim Morris, a once-promising pitcher who wa
The Inside of Our Heads
Arthur Miller intended his 1949 tragedy to explode the promise of American capitalism, "or at least the bullshit kind of capitalism, this pseudo-life that thought to touch the clouds by standing on top of a refrigerator, waving a paid-up
Buzz Bin
Hungry for More -- Here at the Buzz Bin, we take our nightlife seriously. And while we're not expecting downtown Spokane to be everything for everyone, we would like to see it fulfill the promises that it's making. Case in point: a recen
Not Giving Peace A Chance
Ever had to wait in some professional's lobby while the minutes ticked slowly by? Add an unannounced visit, plus 15 friends singing in the lobby, and that's where some Spokane peace activists found themselves last week at Congressional R
Opening Films
Changing Lanes -- Roger Michell, the director of Notting Hill, shows another side to his sensibility with this rich, masterful story of two men -- cocky lawyer Ben Affleck and weary insurance salesman and alcoholic Samuel L. Jackson -- who collide on a New
DVD Review-Joy Ride
Like all top-notch genre films, Joy Ride starts off with a pretty thin premise: two brothers on a road trip find themselves bored, and, on a whim, they begin to torment a truck driver they encounter on their CB radio. Pretending to be a
Literary Convergence
When poet Scott Poole talks about his first reading at Get Lit!, Spokane's annual literary arts festival, the excitement he feels is almost palpable. "I got down off the stage and three great writers came up and said they enjoyed my work
What would Machiavellie Do?
A few weeks back, as I watched the proceedings down at the special City Council hearing on the garage issue and its attendant litigation, and as I followed the very detailed and often arcane legalistic testimony being offered, my mind wan
Inside Israel
In mid-March, I went to Israel on a study break from nearby Cyprus, wanting to see its countryside, to feel the mood of the place, hoping to walk around old Jerusalem for a few days. I spent three weeks travelling through much of the count
Now Playing
Alaska -- A solid natural history documentary that explores the beauty and harsh realities of nature in an extreme environment, Alaska is deserving of its 1997 Oscar for best documentary short. Gorgeous cinematography shows Alaska through the seasons, fro
Of Bats and Bunnies
It is the act for which he is best known. But in truth, Ozzy Osbourne never meant to bite the head off of a bat. In fact, the whole biting-heads-off-of-flying-creatures bit started as a publicity stunt gone wrong. Osbourne and his mana
Game Review -- Virtua Fighter 4
Fighting games are ideally full of violent fun: controlling a tough guy, or (usually) tougher girl, and beating the hell out of another character. Of course the ultimate aim is to KO the opponent and unlock new characters and stages to e
Oscar Rant
After the reality check of Sept. 11 and its sobering aftermath, many people looked at the glitterati of Hollywood and said, "Can you explain why any of us ever thought YOU were so important?" Well, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Mr. Meticulous
Movies, like dreams, can take us anywhere. With Fight Club, David Fincher began his movie literally inside the brain of a very confused young man. So I'm anxious when talented directors paint themselves into a corner. Hearing about Panic Room
DVD Review -- Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko opens with the line, "I'm voting for Dukakis." Several fluid minutes later, the audience has met the title character and his loving yet banal family, heard prophecy about the end of the world from a demonic rabbit and explor
Changing of the Guard
Spokane's only contemporary chamber music organization, Zephyr, recently announced that next year will bring concerts focusing on the erhu (an ancient Chinese instrument), tangos and madness. It's a characteristically diverse and challen
Buzz Bin
Worldly Matters -- It's a 300-year-old British play, heavy on plot and legal terminology, with everyone standing around, trying to be hyper-clever in every line. Still, William Congreve's The Way of the World, in Diana Trotter's producti
Hi-Tech Tip
Advertisements: they're as much a part of life as death and taxes, and almost as much fun. But as one of the ways that media companies stay profitable, they're not likely to disappear. They are the price that one pays for entertainment --
Settling the Bill
Elouise Cobell sits in the lounge at the River Inn, but her mind is 200 miles away. She's just arrived from her cattle farm outside Browning, Mont., where she lives with her husband. There's still two feet of snow there, and she's worried
Requiem for a Band
After half a decade as one of Spokane's top-shelf original live music acts, DELBERT the band is calling it quits. But fans needn't start their blubbering just yet. There will be one last opportunity to pay your respects to the rocking gro
In Brief
Bears All Over -- SPOKANE -- The population of Washington is skyrocketing -- for black bears, that is. As many as 30,000 black bears are estimated to roam the countryside and heavily populate especially the Northeastern areas of the state.
Quotes and Notes
A Question of Perspective- "Spokane is really cool if you look up. The problem is, most people are always looking down." - A friend, while walking downtown, looking up. A Sure Thing - While the state budget deficit looms somewhere arou
(Bad) Dream Drives
In case you missed it, a couple of months back the nationally televised program, Dream Drives, featured our fair city. And we looked good. Viewers were taken on a stroll down Sumner Avenue, our very own dream drive. Leafy and canopied, it
CD Review-Hsia-Jung Chang
Why the Chopin Ballades?" Hsia-Jung Chang asks rhetorically in the liner notes to her debut CD. "After all, there are plenty of recordings of these works by great pianists of the last century." Chang herself never felt that she would need t
Big House Blues
The county jail is jammed up with inmates, and the city's tired of paying for their share. It's no wonder, since each inmate at the Spokane County Jail costs the city $60 a day, plus a $71 booking fee, which adds up to millions of dollar
News In Brief
One Step Closer - SPOKANE -- The Friends of the Falls is having yet another gathering to discuss the creation of a Great Gorge Park along the banks of the Spokane River between Riverfront Park and High Bridge Park. Those who have followe
CD Review-Hsia-Jung Chang
Why the Chopin Ballades?" Hsia-Jung Chang asks rhetorically in the liner notes to her debut CD. "After all, there are plenty of recordings of these works by great pianists of the last century." Chang herself never felt that she would need t
CD Review - Appallachian Anthol
They're sounds you don't hear much in modern music, like the piercing edge sawn by a master violinist or the earthy resonance of a cello. These stringed sounds are the music of the wild hills and the hollers of an earlier America. Combin
Down, Boy!
It's terrible, a woman mauled to death in the hallway outside her San Francisco apartment by two killer dogs. How could that happen? How? See those dogs running loose? The ones set out by some irresponsible neighbor or, worse, abandoned
Quotes & amp;amp; Notes
"That's just an inex
Music & Film
Sonic Alchemy
The north Puget Sound logging community of Anacortes is a little off the beaten path and quite a jog from anything that could be remotely considered the center of the indie pop universe. Maybe that's why Anacortes native Phil Elvrum, the
Glimpses Under The Veil
A leg floats in a pale blue sky, dangling from a parachute. Now a shot across a desert, and there are dozens of these legs dropped from on high. And in the slightest of slow motion, across the desert sands, one-legged amputees rush, hobble, b
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