Buzz Bin

by Inlander Staff


DWI: Driving While Islamic -- Director Jack Phillips intends Tuesday night's reading at the Civic of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy as a commentary on post-9/11 racial profiling in this country. Has he used a statewide arts grant to draw an analogy between our political leaders and the Nazis? Or is he blithely ignoring the fact that al Qaeda terrorists are young men of Middle Eastern descent? The Spokane Civic Theatre is one of only two arts organizations in Eastern Washington to receive one of the Washington Commission for Art and the Humanities grants -- and the only theater. The discussion afterwards, with a variety of panelists drawn from local human rights organizations, churches and the media, should be provocative. The play reading and discussion take place one night only, Tuesday, Oct. 8. Tickets: $5.





Bookmarked with a Pink Ribbon -- This October, you can wear yourself out walking for the cure or you can curl up with the fascinating 498 pages of Workman publishing's The Breast Book. Just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this chunky little tome is both pleasing to the eye and packs a serious heft. Authors Maura Spiegel and Lithe Sebesta celebrate the breast's significance as both vessel of nourishment and object of obsession throughout 3,000 years of civilization. More than 600 photographs accompany 12 "serious but winking" chapters covering everything from politics to pop culture, the madonna to Madonna and biology to burlesque. We were amused by the famous photograph of Sophia Loren surreptitiously checking out Jayne Mansfield's plunging decolletage (pictured), and there's even a still from the hilarious Slums of Beverly Hills (in which a bemused Natasha Lyonne looks at herself in an enormous white bra and deadpans "it's like I'm deformed or something"), but the text here is just as engaging. The authors discuss not only how breasts convey class -- they argue that there is such a thing as "working class" breasts -- but also how they have influenced architecture, inspired artists, even brought down the monarchy. Not bad for a glorified sweat gland.