Tuesday, October 3, 2017
The air is crisper. The nights are getting darker earlier. The stories about things that go bump in the night start to appeal to our senses.
And let's face it: Whether you're a firm believer, a skeptic, or sure that ghost stories are all b.s., the fact is, most of us either have our own ghost story, or know someone else who swears by their experience with the unexplained.
The Inlander wants to hear your best ghost story for a piece we are working on that will explore local brushes with the beyond, paranormal investigation, and dive into why people want to believe.
Please share your story in THIS GOOGLE FORM in 500 words or less.
We may share snippets or your full story in print or online, and if you leave a name and contact information, you may hear from me. Alternatively, feel free to email me directly at samanthaw@inlander.com.
Send in your best stories by Friday, Oct. 13, and look for our coverage just before Halloween.
Tags: ghost stories , submit , submission , tell a story , share a story , Inlander , ghost , paranormal , investigation , spooky , Arts & Culture , For Fun! , Image
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Eastern Washington takes a considerable amount of pride in the fact that the state's poet laureate, Tod Marshall, is a Spokane resident and Gonzaga professor.
His term as poet laureate is in the home stretch as he nears the completion of two years scampering around the state, meeting with groups large and small, encouraging people to find the poet inside themselves and enjoy the words of their fellow Washingtonians.
Lest you think Marshall is a quiet academic type, content to wallow in the wonderful wordsmiths of yesteryear, you should maybe check out his column for the Seattle Times, published online Tuesday and in the major daily in Wednesday's edition.
In his column, titled "Let's all take a knee to stand for justice and to pray for a return to decency," Marshall delves into this weekend's hysterical public relations war between the current president and the professional football players who are daring to protest for the rights of black Americans and against police brutality. Marshall is particularly perturbed by the president's use of language to sow division in the country:
"The president devalues language, abuses truth and leeches the meaning from words. As Holocaust scholar Timothy Snyder reminds us, without agreed upon language there can be no shared truths. Without shared truths democracy fails.
"Further, without shared understanding of language, we cannot have honest and open conversations about race and social justice, about economic inequalities and health-care policy, about the history of discrimination in our country and the possible routes toward transcending mistreatment of any part of the population."
Marshall's term ends in early 2018, and no doubt he'll be heard from again on the state of the country — in poems or columns.
You can read the entire Seattle Times piece here.
Tags: For Fun! , Comment , Tod Marshall , protest , Image
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Yes, it was smoky and hovering in the 90s a mere couple of weeks ago. And we ended a seemingly endless string of precipitation-free days just a couple of days ago. But for those of us interested in all things winter sports-related, the pictures sent our way from Schweitzer Mountain Resort are enough to get us salivating for snow season.
Check out the scene at the mountain's Sky House:
You can see on this weather radar that there's plenty of precipitation in the mountain areas between Spokane and Missoula; elsewhere in Montana, the early snow has helped with their nasty wildfire season.
Schweitzer is planning on Dec. 1 for its opening day. 49 Degrees North plans to open around Thanksgiving if possible, while Lookout Pass is aiming for Nov. 23. Silver Mountain is likely looking at Thanksgiving weekend, too, if last season is any indication.
Tags: Sport , Schweitzer Mountain Resort , first snow , 49 Degrees North , Lookout Pass , Silver Mountain , Sports , For Fun! , Image
Monday, September 18, 2017
This week, YMCA of the Inland Northwest is joining other organizations around the country in welcoming immigrants and refugees to the community and thanking them for their contributions.
The week, Sept. 15 through Sept. 24, is happening in collaboration with other YMCAs and Welcoming America, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to make communities around the country more inclusive and welcoming to immigrants and all residents.
Monday night, Spokane Mayor David Condon is expected to sign a proclamation at the city council meeting to recognize Welcoming Week, and there are two upcoming events which are open to the public:
On Wednesday, people are invited to dance and listen to African Congolese drumming, followed by a social with the chance to taste Congolese food and food made by refugees representing their respective cultures. That event will take place from 6 to 8:30 pm at the South Spokane Y, 2921 E. 57th.
On Friday, there will be a Garden Revitalization Project at 4:30 pm at the North Spokane Y, 10727 N. Newport Hwy. Music, food, tools and supplies will be provided — just arrive ready to get in the dirt, the YMCA says.
Tags: What's Up , news , events , Spokane , refugees , immigrants , Welcoming Week , YMCA , Arts & Culture , For Fun! , What's Up? , Image
Friday, September 15, 2017
Do you read the Inlander every week? Of course you do!
Do you know the story of how Spokane's weekly paper, nearly a quarter-century old, came to be? Probably not, despite the existence of this handy "Who We Are" page on Inlander.com and this slick video:
Tags: For Fun! , Inlander , University of Washington , columns , Ted McGregor , Jer McGregor , Tim Egan , Image
Thursday, September 14, 2017
On an average night, Hope House shelters 36 homeless women, giving them a safe place to sleep and connecting them with case managers whose ultimate goal is to get them into permanent housing.
Hope House sheltered 322 women last year. Meaningfully, it transitioned 108 of them into permanent housing, treatment, or transitional housing, says Stephanie Neumann, Development Director for Volunteers of America of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, which operates Hope House and the Crosswalk teen shelter.
But there's always a need for more help: the shelter turns away about a dozen women every night. Those who wind up camping can be moved along by police for staying anywhere longer than 15 minutes, Neumann says.
"Sadly, the women do not have anywhere else to go," she says. "If the police see them, they are asked to keep moving. They are in danger on the streets… it’s a tough thing to witness."
To raise money for Hope House and Crosswalk, Volunteers of America will host "Eye Contact: Humanizing Homelessness," a one-night-only art exhibit featuring art by homeless women and teens in the community.
"There’s this mindset of homeless people as kind of the other people in our community," Neumann says. "They feel more inspired or encouraged when members like me or you say "Hi" to them and see them as a human being. It encourages them. The goal of this event is to humanize homelessness."
In addition to artwork that's been made by people experiencing homelessness in recent years, the show will feature professional artwork up for raffle, an aerial silks performance, live art, and more.
Hors d'oeuvres and dessert will be provided by the Wandering Table and Inland Pacific Kitchen, with wine by Overbluff Cellars, and Anvil Coffee.
Tickets can be found at voaspokane.org/eye-contact.
Tickets: $40 in advance; $50 at the door. Event: 6 to 9 pm, Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Terrain space in the Washington Cracker Co. Building, 304 W. Pacific Ave.
For a look at what a night at Hope House is like, watch the following video to hear from women who've stayed at the shelter and staff who work there.
"Fortunately, Hope House is housing these women. We are very blessed to have such determined case managers to help these women get off the streets and in permanent housing," Neumann says. "Fundraisers such as Eye Contact help us fund the program."
Tags: Hope House , Crosswalk , fundraiser , homeless , Eye Contact , art , exhibit , Terrain , Washington Cracker Co. Building , Arts & Culture , For Fun! , What's Up? , Image
Friday, September 8, 2017
Jenny Hyde and Katie Creyts, cooperative member artists and faculty members at Eastern Washington University and Whitworth University respectively, debut their new works tonight from 5 to 9 pm in a two-woman exhibition at Saranac Art Projects (25 W. Main).
Hyde, a multidisciplinary artist who teaches digital art at Eastern, has exhibited at Saranac Art Projects dating back to 2009. Her works have explored cultural geography through study of landscape and the body, and she is the recent recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship. This month, she debuts a series of digital prints featuring individual American-made rifles.
An area gun shop gave Hyde permission to document these weapons; she captured their images with a photo scanner on-site. Initially, she was interested only in the .22-caliber rifles, with the intention of viewing the guns as household tools, as they are often understood to be in many rural American homes.
But once the process began, all of the rifles became points of interest for Hyde — the old shotguns, as well as more recently manufactured models. These images reflect rural Americans' cultural identity in different ways, in particular exploring the romanticized depiction of isolation, or what is perceived as “independence.”
Creyts, an associate professor of art at Whitworth for the past decade, specializes in sculpture and working with glass — she has studied at the Pilchuck Glass School, among other schools and studios — and is on Artist Trust's board of directors. She received Whitworth's Innovative Teaching Award in 2011 and was named an Artist to Watch by the Inlander the following year. She also has previously exhibited her works at Saranac Art Projects.
An avid outdoorswoman, Creyts explored the West this summer on a series of hikes in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. For her, these rugged adventures became pilgrimages, as she devoted her time to exploring the theme of hope — both the dashed hopes of the past and the ever-twinkling hopefulness of the future.
Creyts hiked with a mirror ball and iPhone camera, considering spaces that would respond to the mirror ball, both in reflection and fragment, and recording images that inspired and would become part of the sculpture on view, a geodesic dome titled "Tabanakkle." She considers this to be the shrine at the end of her summer-long trek; selected images from her mirror-ball hikes also will be on view.
In addition to tonight's artist reception, the exhibition is open for viewing Thursdays from 2 to 6 pm and Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 8 pm. It runs through Saturday, Sept. 30.
Tags: Art , opening , exhibition , Saranac Art Projects , Jenny Hyde , Eastern Washington , Katie Creyts , Whitworth , rifles , mirror ball , hope , Artist Trust , Inlander , Artist to Watch , Tabanakkle , geodesic dome , Arts & Culture , For Fun! , Image
Thursday, September 7, 2017
You might have noticed the arrival of the Inlander's Annual Manual this week. It's arriving at more than 1,000 locations throughout the Inland Northwest, and you can pick one up for free while supplies last.
Whether you're new to town, trying to entice a friend or family member to visit the region, or a longtime resident just trying to keep up with all the new restaurants, shops and entertainment activities around town, the Annual Manual has you covered.
If you're too late in grabbing the colorful 228-page publication, you can check out virtually all the articles online right here.
Tags: For Fun! , Annual Manual , the Inlander , Image
Thursday, August 31, 2017
They took our pogo sticks, and we did nothing. They came for those hoops you rolled with a stick, and we stayed silent. Then our drive-in theaters started to disappear.
Roller Valley, in operation for the past 42 years, is closing up shop today, following the death of its owner, Colleen Bernstein. Today from 1 to 3 pm, and tonight from 8 to 10 pm, is the public's last chance to lace up skates and hit the rink.
"Thank you to everyone in the Spokane community all so much for the support over the years," Roller Valley said in a Facebook announcement.
Incredibly, roller skating dates back to the 18th century, when a guy named John Merlin was the first person known to have invented a roller skate, in the 1760s in London, according to the National Museum of Roller Skating. Skating gained traction in the early part of the 20th century: Charlie Chaplin starred in the film The Rink in 1916, and the pastime took off during the Roaring Twenties, before the Great Depression ground everything to a halt.
Then came waitresses on wheels in the '50s and '60s, serving up burgers and fries at drive-ins. Even the Amish loved skating, the New York Times reported. ''It's faster than a horse, and it's fun," Andrew Herschberger told the Times in 1996.
Finally, roller skating peaked in the days of disco — captured in the 1979 film Roller Boogie — before beginning its slow, eventual decline.
Tags: For Fun! , roller skating , Roller Valley , Spokane Valley , final day , Image
Mark your calendars: One Tree Hard Cider just announced the grand opening of its downtown Spokane cider house next Friday, Sept. 8, at 2 pm.
The new downtown location — which will feature some 20 taps of ciders from around the country — puts One Tree in the heart of what's quickly becoming Spokane's brewery (and now cidery) district. Earlier this month, for our Drink Local issue, we mapped out the west end of downtown, showing six brewery destinations within three-quarters of a mile. We've updated that map here:
1. River City Brewing
2. Iron Goat Brewing
3. The Steel Barrel Taproom (technically home to three separate breweries: Little Spokane, Young Buck and, most recently, TT's Old Iron Brewery)
4. Orlison Brewing Taproom
5. Whistle Punk Brewing
6. Steam Plant Brewing (Temporarily closed for renovations; expected to reopen later this fall)
CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly called the new location a tasting room, rather than a full cider house offering other cider and beer products.
Tags: drink local , Food , For Fun! , One Tree Cider , grand opening , Image
Sundays at the Crosby House @ Crosby House Museum
Sun., July 27, 3:30 p.m., Sun., Aug. 3, 3:30 p.m. and Sun., Sept. 14, 3:30 p.m.
