Tags: I Saw You
Tags: Cheers
Tags: Cheers
Tags: Cheers
Tags: Cheers
Tags: Cheers
Today 80 lucky supporters who have raised at least $1000 for Special Olympics Washington will rappel 20 stories and 264 feet down the Bank of America Financial Center – Spokane’s tallest building.
Check out the Spiderman-like action and make a donation to the Olympic games from 9 am-5 pm on Wall Street. Yesterday, I descended the mostly glass and concrete building along with nine other Spokane media people.
Photos by Young Kwak
Tags: sports & outdoors , speical olympics , non-profit , Culture , Arts & Culture , Image
So what if it was the very, very last pick of the NBA draft? Gonzaga center and all-around nice guy Robert Sacre heard his name called tonight when the Los Angeles Lakers selected him as the 60th pick in this year's draft.
Sacre, a 7-foot Canadian, played five years for the Zags, due to a medical red shirt he was awarded for his sophomore year. In his senior campaign, which saw Gonzaga make it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, Sacre averaged 11.7 points and 6.3 rebounds a game...solid numbers, but it's clear that the big man was selected for his all-around game, especially his suffocating defense.
Although he's been drafted, Sacre will nevertheless have to fight for a spot on an already stacked Lakers lineup. But there's a chance he'll fit it pretty well with Kobe and the boys.
Sacre is the first Gonzaga player selected in the NBA draft since the Pistons took Austin Daye in the first round of the 2009 draft.
Tags: Sports , Zags , Robert Sacre , NBA Draft , Gonzaga , Lakers , Image
Dig it: Harpman Hatter is Spokane's Big Lebowski.
And when the downtown street musician isn't hammering away on his harmonica, he's chowin' down at Golden Corral. Who knew?
That's just one of the things we learned when our man Nathan Brand riffed with Mr. Hatter on nine questions:
Tags: Spokane , harpman hatter , Arts , Video
The following is the latest installment of local band Terrible Buttons' road trip diary, written by keyboardist Sarah Berentson.
The final stretch of tour was a whirlwind. We headed back to Denali to pick up Reed Lakes, all still a little confused about the events in Fairbanks, and headed to Talkeetna — which seemed to be our Alaskan home - to play a show in the busiest bar in town. The place was packed, and fully equipped with hula-hoopers and a rowdy crowd. The energy was through the roof. Leaving Talkeetna was bittersweet, and it meant that we were heading to our last show.
We left for Anchorage in the afternoon and were met with familiar faces. Many people who had come to other shows drove out for our last show in Alaska, pleasantly surprising us. Better yet, they all brought new friends to share our music with. We had several people approach us telling us that a friend had called them and insisted they come. It felt good to be so supported in a state we had spent less than 2 weeks in. Needless to say, Anchorage was a good way to close our tour, and we were ready to take the Alaska-Canada highway back home.
Unfortunately, the van still had a broken radiator, the only thing between us and the road to Spokane. We drove her to a radiator shop, hoping for a quick fix, but instead we waited on the curb outside a potato chip distributing company for 8 hours. Shaun, our trusty radiator hero, came out to tell us that he wouldn’t be done until the following afternoon. Morale was at the lowest it had been all trip.
We walked, heads down, towards the van and retrieved our backpacks, pillows, and sleeping bags, and started to brainstorm a plan for the evening. A man who worked at the distributing company had approached Kris earlier, worried that we were planning on camping in their yard. Kris told him what was going on, and assured him we wouldn’t try to sleep in front of their business. Moments later, Gary emerged from the building with a box full of food, saying “Here, this should hold you over. Good luck.”
We didn’t know what to do, so we headed down the street in hopes of finding a bar. We walked into a sports bar three blocks later with our backpacks, sleeping bags, and pillows. We were quite the sight.
By a stroke of unexpected luck, Evan (the great man who booked our tour) informed us that the owner of The Brown Bear Saloon, where we had played earlier in tour, would put us up in a cabin behind his bar for the evening. Evan came and picked us up in his big blue van. So instead of spending the night on the streets of Anchorage we played pool, drank beers, and had somewhat of a slumber party in a cabin in the woods.
The next day we reluctantly forked over the cash for our van repairs, and were on the road for fifteen minutes before we turned back to the radiator shop. Something just wasn’t right. Shaun, though unhappy to see us, provided us with a quick fix, and she was finally running like a dream. We were on the road, 24 hours later than previously anticipated, and we couldn’t believe it.
About an hour into the drive we stopped at a gas station. Ryan Georgioff, keyboardist and vocalist for Reed Lakes, was catching a ride back to Spokane with us, but in a moment of impulse, he decided to hitchhike back to Talkeetna. Moments later, KB was informed that her childhood dog had died, and seconds later we received a phone call about the police shooting in Spokane. We were feeling strange and sullen, but continued to drive. As the drive progressed and grew in beauty, we regained our energy, and our spirits.
The drive home did not affect us mentally at the same intensity as the one to Alaska. We were anxious to get home. Once we entered Canada, it seemed like we were in a zoo. We saw herds of Bison, adults and babies, and the same for mountain goats. A small black bear in the middle of the road, indifferently approached our van, and we even saw a cub.
We approached the border to enter into the United States, and for the first time, had our van searched. As we were inside, the border patrol asked us how much alcohol we had in the van. We replied, “Only a few shots.” He raised his voice, in a tone that could have either intended humor or intimidation, “I don’t care how much you have in your bodies! I want to know how much you have in the van.” During the inspection the men inside put on “Mother’s Medicine” from our album, and we all felt a little relieved - until they mentioned the tour video blog.
The last three hours of the drive were the longest, and anxiety to get home turned quickly into insanity. We sang, yelled, laughed, and impatiently awaited the lights of Spokane. We’ve all rested up, and are reminding ourselves what life is like in Spokane. It’s good to be home.
Oh! You must be wondering about total the bear count. We ended up seeing a total of 28 bears on the way home, making the bear count a grand total of 36: equaling roughly three and a half naked runs around the van, but that information will remain between us and the Yukon.
Tags: bands in vans , terrible buttons , local music , Music , Video , Image