Welfare Reform — After Seattle's KING 5 news found that EBT cards — debit cards used to dispense welfare funds — were being used at casinos and strip clubs, among other places, state legislators say they want greater regulation regarding how the cards can be used. The bill was in committee yesterday. (SR)
Friday of Departure — The Obama administration is doing everything they can to push Mubarak out of power, but apparently he won't budge. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other security officials are heading to Munich for a security conference today and although the next few days in Egypt will have serious implications, Washington seems to have decided it's now up to Mubarak. (Daily Beast)
Megaload Holdups — The first megaload trip didn't go quite according to plan and now ConocoPhilips has to revise its plan. The trucks caused a 59-minute delay on the highway, which clearly exceeded their delay limit of 15 minutes. (KXLY)
Tags: morning headlines , News
So I was craving a hot sandwich filled with melted cheese for lunch, and where did I go? Taste, a quaint little cafe in downtown Spokane, on Second and Howard.
Imagine my surprise when I saw all the decorations and signs declaring today — the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year — Taste's second birthday. Best part: free cupcakes, all day.
Head down, grab a cup o' joe, the best chocolate chip cookies in town and a FREE CUPCAKE!
Happy Birthday, Taste.
A German romantic comedy kicks off 11 days of international cinematic fun tonight. (Germans make romantic comedies?!) My Words, My Lies ... My Love has an interesting premise: boy gets girl by claiming, falsely, that he is the author of this great novel that hasn't been published yet. She just loves him so much, she figures — why not send it off to a publisher? And it becomes a bestseller! Just one snag: The actual author shows up. Will boy be able to hang onto his reputation and the girl?
Tonight at 7 pm at the AMC 20 in River Park Square (one of only two venues for SpIFF this year, the other being the Magic Lantern).
This is the first of two intense and SpIFFy weekends: From Friday at 5 pm until Saturday at 10 pm, there are 14 more sessions you can attend. In fact, nearly one-third of the Spokane International Film Festival takes place between now and late Saturday night — so get down to either the Magic Lantern (35 W. Main Ave.) or AMC (808 W. Main Ave.) to take in Danish comedians making fun of North Koreans, Japanese chefs goofing around at the South Pole, Congolese tuba players, German bad guys, Canadian rednecks and much more — all this weekend at the 13th annual SpIFF. Read our SpIFFy cover package.
Tags: film , Spokane International Film Festival , Image
This weekend's your last chance to see a very good ensemble in Opus, a drama about a string quartet and being perfectionistic about your passion. Opus is one of the half-dozen best dramas that Interplayers has done in the last decade. Performances on Wed-Sat 7:30 pm and Sat, Feb. 5, at 2 pm. Call 455-PLAY. Read a review. Watch a slideshow.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee isn't really about spelling. It's about our anxieties while growing up — about over-protective parents, emotionally remote parents, demanding teachers and puberty, about fitting in and not fitting in and trying to do your best and being happy with yourself even if you don't. Director Kathie Doyle-Lipe's production — which will represent the Civic in March's statewide community-theater competition — is silly but also touching, and it benefits from squeezing nine singer-actors into a black-box space. Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm; no perf. Sunday; closes Feb. 20. SOLD OUT (but you can queue an hour before performances and cross your fingers). Read a Q&A with two of the actors and a review.
V-Day is coming up and the Kenworthy in Moscow, Idaho, is marking the date with performances of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues on Thurs-Fri at 7 pm and Sat 2 pm. $12; $10 if you buy in advance at BookPeople, the UI Women's Center, or Eclectica. 508 S. Main St., Moscow, Idaho. Call (208) 882-4127.
OK, so you've seen the Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp movies. So why see Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in the Spokane Children's Theater version? Because it's a musical, and it's live, and because your neighbor's kid just might be playing one of the Oompa-Loompas. Sat-Sun 1 pm at SCC's Lair Auditorium, near Mission Ave. and Greene St. Closes Feb. 20. $12; $10, children. Call (800) 325-SEAT.
Tags: theater , StageThrust , Image
Bakers behind bars — Prisoners at the Airway Heights Corrections Center are working at the food factories, earning a small wage and learning valuable skills. The food goes to other prisons, Meals on Wheels programs and helps the prison gain revenue. (KXLY)
Health care battle — Republicans in the Senate attempted to repeal the health care law Wednesday but the Democratic majority fended it off. Now that federal judges have ruled parts of the law are unconstitutional, Democrats might not be able to keep fighting off repeal. (Washington Post)
Fire — Flames destroyed the historic Sister's Building in Coeur d'Alene this morning. The Sister's Building, built in 1880, was only being used for storage and the fire's origin is still unknown. (KREM)
Tags: morning headlines , News
For artsy, active 20-somethings in Spokane, Portland is the shining city on the hill.
It’s twee Mecca, hipster Shangri-La, El Dorado paved with bike lanes.
It’s the land flowing with soy-milk and organic, locally-produced free-range
honey.
As a pure matter of place, in other words, we Spokanites have an instant, slightly envious, conception of Portland is. As a conceptual setting, in other words, it's fully formed.
Portlandia, the new IFC sketch-comedy series, captures this Portland-on-a-pedestal viewpoint nearly perfectly in their opening sketch. Portland, you see, is this alternative-universe where the dream of the 90s is still alive. It’s “where young people go to retire.”
But yet, there’s also a fair bit of sneering at Portland’s aggressive quirk.
Portlandia, as you might expect, can be as specific as possible in deconstructing and referencing its setting. Like The Goode Family, this is “Stuff White People Like: The Series.” An attempt to buy some restaurant food — and make sure it’s ethical — leads the couple to actually drive out to the farm, and become ensnared in a cult in the process. But unlike The Goode Family, the series is able to get more pointed and observational than '”do-gooder liberals do this.”
In Portland, you can put a bird on something, and call it art. Young people join ironic sports like a hide-and-seek league. There’s a slightly bitter competitiveness – and need for a separation from – Seattle. We Spokanites may have only been to Portland a few times, but Portlandia fits the exaggerated image of Portland we have in our heads perfectly.
Writers for one of Portland’s altweeklies, Willamette Week, react to Portlandia’s portrayal of their fair city.
Portland is a national punch line. If you listen to NPR, Portland jokes crop up a lot. So that idea of the city that they’re lampooning has become widespread enough that the 10 million listeners of NPR will get it. If some small fraction of that NPR audience watches the show, then they’ll have a hit.
Portland’s incredibly strong sense of city identity – and the bevy of precise stereotypes and archetypes that come with it — make it ideal for a sketch comedy series. Or any television show, really. Plenty of television shows have been filmed in Portland but not set there. Some television shows, like Life Unexpected, have been set there, but the setting never comes into play.
As a show, Portlandia is inconsistently funny. Sketches and characters are mostly disconnected. Fred Armisen throws on a wig, and he’s supposed to be playing an entirely different man — or woman. The best sketches are those that are more surreal than angry and annoyed, and that don’t require one or both characters to dress in drag. (Drag is only funny when the Brits do it.)
But as a setting, it’s nearly perfect. Portland is a strong enough place to nearly propel a show entirely.
From Williamete Week:
One thing I do like about it is the undercurrent of anger. That makes me incredibly happy—the idea that Portlanders are furiously angry underneath their calm demeanors. There’s a lot of f---ing angry characters, and they try to be so nice. That’s one of the things they nailed about Portlanders.
That fits Portland. But that also fits good television. The characters on the most compelling shows usually have a mix of love and contempt for their setting. That's why Spokane wouldn't make a good place for a TV show — we don't love-and-hate our community enough. Our identity isn't as definable as Portland's
In drama, your setting has to be a place with deep-seeded problems — but some place worth fighting for. The Wire takes place in Baltimore's institutional rot, Chicago Code in Chicago's pervasive corruption, Friday Night Lights in the impoverished desperation of Dillon. Heck, in Lost the island was spoken of as if it was a literal character, with its own motivations, desires and frustration. And it, frankly, was a bit of a sociopath.
But in each case, the place had to be good enough that we understand why our protragonists care about the community within.
Great comedies use a similar tactic in building their universes. Greendale Community College, Springfield, and Pawnee all operate with the subtext — and sometimes text — that "this is a crazy, crappy place — but, darn it, it's our crazy, crappy place."
That's the vibe — that love-hate paradox — you see in Portlandia, and it's perhaps the most compelling thing about the show.
More shows could stand to be set in Portland. More shows, in fact, could be stand to be set in a place, rather than a title.
Tags: Television , IFC , Portland , TV , Video
Revival Lighting owner Janine Vaughn has probably had more national news exposure than your average lighting company owner.
Last year, Vaughn showed up as a simple small business owner in Inlander stories about income-tax Initiative 1098 (arguing it would save her small business money) and workers-comp insurance-privatization Initiative 1082 (arguing it would cost her small business money.)
And we weren't alone. She was profiled in the Spokesman-Review, interviewed by TV news stations, quoted in the LA Times. And now she's turned up in a speech by Barack Obama – that Barack Obama – as an example of a business owner, dogged by tripling health care premiums, who could take advantage of health care reform's new tax credits and new small-business health insurance pools .
(If we were her we'd use Barack Obama saying “Janine Vaughn of Spokane, Washington” in our outgoing voicemail message.)
So does the simple small business owner become Simple Small Business Owner: Political Anecdote?
For starters, she's not just a simple small business owner. For over a year, she's been on the steering committee for the Main Street Alliance, a national small-business lobbying group. While other pro-business groups, like the United States Chamber of Commerce, have a reputation for being conservative, the Main Street Alliance is traditionally liberal (it supported the income tax and health care reform and fought against privatizing worker's compensation).
The Main Street Alliance, Vaughn explains, is made up of mostly smaller businesses. That's why they tend to stand in such stark contrast to traditional business lobbying groups – and the Republican agenda.
“The right wing tends to push tax breaks for the rich,” she says. The Main Street Alliance – as are most lobbying organizations – is constantly contacting the White House with specific stories about how policies have affected their members. The alliance was formed to support health care reform.
A few weeks ago Vaughn was called by Karen Richardson, from the White House. She was interviewed about her story, her opinions, and about what she wanted to tell the president. Parts of that interview appeared on the White House blog.
“It's actually very surprising,” Vaughn says about her sudden ubiquity in the press. “They’re actually listening to the small business voice. It's exciting.”
So what was it like being quoted by the president of the United States?
“I think that was really cool,” Vaughn says. “As long as it wasn't Bush. Any other president, it is a pretty big honor.”
Magarito Martinez is the man in the cow costume.
Through an interpreter, he says he believes he was fired from Ruby Ridge Dairy in Pasco for complaining about working conditions. But he never received an official explanation — just a paycheck and a final trip through the front door.
Martinez was at The Davenport Hotel, hoping to attract the attention of the stockholders for the Northwest Farm Credit Services (NFCS), which was meeting there today. Along with other former dairy employees, members of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS) and the United Farm Workers, they are asking NFCS to demand fair treatment from the owners of the dairy, Dick and Ruby Bengen.
According to PJALS, the lending and insurance company holds the dairy's $13 million mortgage, and the contract specifically prohibits violations of the law including labor law.
Liz Moore, director of PJALS, says the "really horrible working conditions" include:
Job Pozos-Avila, regional director of United Farm Workers, says it was also common for workers to put in 10- or 12-hour days but only be paid for eight hours.
This isn't the first time the two groups have met. Last month, PJALS, the farmers union and 60 workers delivered 32,000 signatures to NFCS demanding workers' rights.
"We are urging (NCFS) to enforce their own mortgage language and stop the illegal behavior," Moore says. "What they've said so far is it's not their problem, that Ruby Ridge Dairy is a good customer and they don't negotiate worker rights.
"But they don't have to negotiate worker rights. They just have to enforce the law and require the dairy to abide by the law. That's why we're here."
DVDS
Let Me In
The generally well-regarded American remake of the universally beloved Swedish child vampire film Let the Right One In features Chloe Moretz (the kid assassin from Kick Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who played probably the last little boy on earth in The Road. Rated R
Conviction
You gotta admire your sister's pluck when she takes the time to go to medical school in an attempt to exonerate you, but book lernin' takes years. Convict brother (Sam Rockwell) has to be all, like, "C'mon sis, can't you do summer school or something? I'm in prison over here." Rated R
Never Let Me Go
A dystopian future dressed to look like the British near-past, this film follows a coterie of school kids who are cloned and raised as living organ donors. Complications arise when they start falling in love. Based on the Kazuo Ishiguru novel. Rated R
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
It's finally here, guys. Rated G
VIDEOGAMES
Kind of a slow week for the VGs, kids, unless you're stoked for more country music in Rock Band 2. Also, PSP owners who just love monster-hunting: There's a middling JRPG called Lord of Arcana that may or may not scratch that very specific itch.
MUSIC
George Michael | Faith Special Edition
My mom almost let me get this album when I was a kid. Then she saw that one of the track names was "I Want Your Sex," and that was pretty much the end of that. Well guess what, mom? I'm going to buy this, work my way into some supertight acid-washed jeans, pierce a single ear and dangle a cross-shaped earring from it, then. And shake my ass ALL. NIGHT. LONG.
The Go! Team | Rolling Black Outs
Indie rock group generally described in terms like "ecstatic" and "breathless" releases a new album. If you're feeling a little depressed, this could function like Cymbalta. It'll either cure your blues or make you homicidal, suicidal, gassy, bloated, irritable ...
Tags: Videogames , DVD , Music , Arts
Each Wednesday on Bloglander, we give you a taste of happy hours going on at bars around town that night. (Read previous posts.)
Dave’s Bar & Grill, in Spokane Valley, offers happy hour from 2-4 pm with $2.50 domestic beers, $2.50 well drinks and $3.50 margaritas.
Dupus Boomer’s, in Pullman, ushers in happy hour for ladies only from 4 pm-close with $5 martinis.
Fast Eddie’s, in downtown Spokane, serves up happy hour from 3-4 pm with $1 domestic beers and $2 micro beers.
Hi-Neighbor Tavern, in north Spokane, offers happy-hour specials from 3-7 pm, with $5 small and $7 large domestic beer pitchers.
Iron Horse, in Coeur d'Alene, offers two cocktails for the price of one from 5-9 pm.