Bloglander

Almost the weekend! Get started on your music fix early, tonight, with two very different shows. 

Choice #1: Unicycle Loves You and True FO at the Baby Bar. Free. 10 pm.

Spokane ain’t exactly a rock-skip away from Austin, Texas — and yet, somehow, we’re lucky enough to see a slew of bands from South By Southwest coming our way. Like Chicago’s Unicycle Loves You, a band that takes the freshness of someone like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and smashes it together with the whale sounds and moans of, say, My Bloody Valentine. On “Mountain Lungs,” the band conjures up this great, sun-soaked optimism, and then on “Evil Unmasked,” Unicycle Loves You just makes a lot of scary, strange sounds. In Spokane’s local music scene — a scene that flocks to experimentation — this band should be welcomed with keys to the city. Or just a Baby Bar T-shirt.

Unicycle Loves You - Justine from Unicycle Loves You on Vimeo.

Choice #2: KEITH SWEAT at Coeur d'Alene Casino. $50! 7 pm.

I mean, what else could he have been? An accountant? With a birth name like Keith Sweat, the guy could have only been a gigolo or an R&B singer. Sweat took the high road, crooning his way to the top of the Billboard charts with the sexiest, sweatiest R&B songs of the era. Remember that video for “Twisted?” Where Sweat gets all sweaty with the assassin chick? Or “Nobody,” where he lays on the Sweat all thick: “I want your body to the very last drop.” Not just anybody can get away with that kind of funny business.

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Gonzaga University, like many religious academic institutions, see-saws in perpetual tension between its Catholic tradition and its broadacademic focus. Is it okay for the school to perform the VaginaMonologues? Have a pro-life clubon campus? Havea non-Jesuit president?

If you thought the selection of Archbishop DesmondTutu (Nobel peace laureate, apartheid-toppler, preacher against injusticeand for forgiveness) commencement speaker, would avoid that sort of tension,apparently, you thought wrong.

Now, Tutu’s the subject of a critical petition from a few Gonzaga alumni.

First came a blog from the Cardinal Newman Society – a group with the goal to“help renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education” –which takes this angle on the story: “Gonzagato Honor Pro-Abortion Rights Archbishop Desmond Tutu”

The specific problem they have with Tutu: “Archbishop Tutu earned the 1984Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to subdue violence in racially torn SouthAfrica during apartheid. But as admirable as that work has been, Tutu also endorsed a constitutionalamendment in South Africa to legalize abortion and evenendorsed the work of the abortion chain Marie Stopes. “

To the Cardinal Newman Society, it’s a violation of a bishop’s directivestating that “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defianceof our fundamental moral principles.”

Today, alumni Patrick Kirby (who graduated from Gonzaga’s law school in 1993)and Maureen Kirby (who graduated from a Gonzaga Masters of OrganizationalLeadership program in 1996) have launched a petitiondrive to drum up their opposition.

“As alumni, faculty, staff, students and other friends of Gonzaga University,we are deeply troubled that Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu will give the 2012commencement address and be honored with an honorary Doctor of Lawsdegree,” they write. “If this occurs on May 13 as has been announced, it willmark a sad day in Gonzaga’s history.”

Patrick Kirby says this has been in discussion among local Catholic, on theinternet and over e-mail for some time. Now they have launched a campaign, upsetover Tutu’s support for abortion, gay-rights, and critiques of Israel. He sayshis petition has some support among a few members of Gonzaga’s faculty andstaff, though the didn’t feel comfortable naming who they were.

“Just because he has a Nobel peace prize doesn’t give him a license for aninvitation to speak at a Catholic university,” Kirby says over the phone today.“It’s shocking. It’s offensive. It’s stupid.”

Representatives from Gonzaga did not immediately return phone calls requestfor a comment.

The petition has received national traction, not only being written up by theCardinal Newman Society, but being tweeted by @AmericanPapist, a conservativeCatholic blogger with over 10,000 twitter followers.

This is not the first time a Tutu being chosen as a commencement speaker hasreceived backlash. The notion that the University of St. Thomas,in Minnesota, didn’t want Tutu to speak  due to comments about Israel ended upcreating a nationalfirestorm in 2007. The University of St. Thomas later changed its mind, andextended an invitation.

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Generally, when someone cold-calls a journalist and tells a sad story of the world conspiring against them, the truth tends to be muddier. And the more you look into it, the muddier this sort of thing tends to get. 

In the case of Cassie Price, though, and her dad Ross Taylor — who are trying to save their eco-development near Dishman-Mica from foreclosure — the picture just kept getting clearer.

The more experts we talked to, the more people said it was a great bit of ethical development in a good location and a solid financial upside. Green builders think it's a no-brainer. Greater Spokane Incorporated thinks it'll bring $175-180 million to the area in addition to 50 living-wage jobs.

So what's holding it up? Investors, banks, investment bankers, Brad Pitt —Price asked everyone and no one is interested in lending. They told her "Cool project, too bad it's now. Wait 5 years," Price told us. But of course, they don't have five years. Their lender could seize the land as early as April 30.

The only problem is the money. Price couldn't get it from traditional sources, so she decided to go very, very non-traditional. She took it to the people.

Yesterday, as our story was going to print, Cassie Price started a $2.6 million crowdsourcing campaign on the website IndieGoGo (functionally similar to the much-buzzed-about Kickstarter).

It raised $3500 in its first few hours of existence. It needs to raise much much more.

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We wrote a story this week revealing that shortly before she asked for back pay and a pension adjustment, outgoing Mayor Mary Verner signed a city law restricting voluntary salary reductions for City Council members. (Click here to download PDFs of Verner's backpay and pension request letters.)

Due to some communication mix-ups, Verner's full response came after deadline, so here it be:

Note that my letter . . . asks for evaluation of my retirement benefit as if I had constructively received my salary. This is the point completely missed in previous press coverage, but was entirely the point of my request for the City to evaluate the almost $300,000 in salary I forfeited over my term as Mayor. I asked for an evaluation of my retirement as if I had received the full salary. I have not yet received a response to this central question. I have received only the response that I will not receive any back pay, which is exactly the response I anticipated.

Again, I have not received any back pay or any bump in retirement. And I have not filed a claim. I merely made the inquiry and moved on to new endeavors. I’m not waiting for any different response from the City. My only remaining curiosity about this topic is why a news reporter would still belabor it over 3 months later.

Regarding the Council’s ordinance, it was a clarification needed to address a void between the Council’s and individual Council Members’ authorities and the mandate of the Salary Commission. The Council chose not to address the Mayor’s salary in their ordinance, deferring to the separation of duties under the City Charter. However, the ambiguity in law addressed by this ordinance still persists as it regards the Mayor’s lawful ability to decline all or a portion of the Charter-mandated salary.

There were legal memoranda from the City Attorney in 2007 and 2009 regarding whether an elected official may decline part of his or her salary. During my term, I made the executive decision to decline any amounts over $100,000/year, even though legal advice was not supportive. I did this so the City could keep other lower-paid employees, so we could pay for small contracts not otherwise covered in the budget, and we could meet other City expenses during a time of plummeting City revenues. I have no regrets about this decision; it was the right thing to do.

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Under 21 and want to go to a show this week? There's something going on every day this week that all-ages friendly, but your BEST bet is to go out next Wednesday. See below.

Thursday, 3/29

The Hop!, They're Watching, La Muerte Viva, Fizzlin Dicks

Knitting Factory, Nit Grit, Two Fresh

Friday, 3/30

A Club, The Rooks

The Hop!, EDM

Saturday, 3/31

The Hop!, Face Down, Strong Refuge, Mosaik USA, Sonus, Ellis, Scary Jane

Knitting Factory, The Sky Turns Red, Thirstyperfect, Silent Theory, Drop Off

Luxe Coffeehouse, Bradford

Sunday, 4/1

Knitting Factory, Rusted Root, Skinny Lister, Malea

Monday, 4/2

Calypso's Coffee (CDA), Open mic

The Hop!, Impending Doom, Navigator, It Came From Over There, Yukon the Archer, A Pyrrhic Victory

Tuesday, 4/3

The Hop!, 20xx

Knitting Factory, DevilDriver, Job for a Cowboy, Wretched

Wednesday, 4/4

A Club, Oberhofer, Pond, Andrew James Rumsey, the Finn

“I love Oberhofer!” That’s what Paul Shaffer, the bespectacled longtime pianist of the Late Show with David Letterman, yelled after the New York band performed on the program last week. It’s praise not every band gets — and it’s the latest in a tidal wave of love that Oberhofer (the name of one young singer and his band) has received in recent months. The Guardian’s Paul Lester named the band in a recent “Band of the Day” column, where many emerging artists — like Lady Gaga — got early boosts. It’s gritty pop music about rejection and malaise. Oberhofer is refreshing; even when he uses plinky xylophones, the music maintains its boyish raucousness and never swings into being too adorable.

The Hop!, Ashylus, Straight to Our Enemies, Losing Skin, Deviance

Luxe Coffeehouse, Dennis Smith

In fact, Idaho is greener than everyone. Yep, greenest state in the nation.

(Don't tell them that. It'll ruin their street cred.)

According to government numbers crunched by The Atlantic, Idaho generates 84 percent of its energy from 'green' sources. In the case of the Gem State, it's mostly hydroelectric power. Watch the fun and informative slideshow here.

Dirty, dirty Washington comes in second place, with 72 percent of its energy use covered by green energy, also from hydro power.

Idaho legislators this week shelved a bill requiring women to view ultrasounds of their fetuses before an abortion.

But if passed, would it actually have survived? An Oklahoma district judge today struck down a similar law in Oklahoma, according to the Associated Press.

Oklahoma's law, enacted in 2010, goes a step further than Idaho's. In addition to the ultrasound, doctors had to describe the physical features of the fetus to the woman. 

Attempts to stop a similar Texas law have so far been unsuccessful. And a Louisiana ultrasound law is also on hold until their courts figure what to do with it.

Check out a map of states that are considering or already have mandated abortion ultrasound laws here.

At the same meeting where they said nay to a West Plains casino, the Spokane City Council unanimously endorsed the renewal of a tax to pay for expansions to the convention center and Spokane Arena.

Measure 1 would renew a bed tax and a sales tax to pay for the expansions. The Spokane Public Facilities District, which operates the buildings, estimates the venues brought in $63 million in 2009.

The measure passed unanimously, as did the appointment of Nancy Isserlis as city attorney.

But the big news of the night was the council passing a resolution against the Spokane Tribal Council's effort to build a casino in the West Plains. That passed by a 4-3 vote.

You can read more about that issue in Thursday's edition of The Inlander. 

But if you can't wait to once again make eyes with the City Hall Eyeball, glance in this direction.