Buzz Bin

by Inlander Staff & r & & r & Matrons Held Bics Aloft & r & Grimacing and prowling, ripping her bow across the strings, Leila Josefowicz attacked a violin concerto so savagely on Friday night with the Spokane Symphony that we half-expected her to smash the fiddle and set the shards on fire. Shostakovich rocked.





Big Band, Still Growing & r & Among all the elementary school and junior high bands competing at last week's Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho, the Outstanding Festival Band award went to Northwood Middle School (Lee Shook, director). To Lee and all his syncopating Huskies, congratulations and bebop-a-doo!





Replacement Shows & r & Interplayers has revamped the rest of its season. First up, Troy Nickerson directs Stepping Out (March 9-April 1), in which a North London dance teacher invigorates the lives of amateur tap dancers. Neil Simon's up next in Laughter on the 23rd Floor (April 27-May 20), about comedy writers working on a 1953 variety show. Of Mice and Men will conclude the season (June 1-24); this is John Steinbeck's stage version of his classic novel about little George (who dreams of owning a big ranch), acting as caretaker of giant Lennie (who dreams about raising bunnies).





A Different Kind of Politics & r & Comedian Lewis Black has postponed his April 8 appearance at Northern Quest Casino because he's filming a small role in Man of the Year, the upcoming movie in which Robin Williams plays a late-night political talk show host who, as a joke, runs for U.S. president -- and wins.





Expecting Virgins & r & Showing at the Panida in Sandpoint, March 2-4: Paradise Now, the Oscar-nominated film in which two Palestinians, childhood friends, are recruited for a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv. Visit www.panida.org.





Running at Scissors & r & Flushed with triumph, you'll finish Bloomsday this year, stroll onto the picturesque Monroe Street Bridge ... and be confronted by maniacs wielding scissors. Well, volunteers, not actual maniacs. For the first time in Bloomsday history, you'll have on one of those timing-chip ankle straps -- apparently they're made out of plastic mixed with Kryptonite. This year, there'll be no disputing your under-an-hour finish.





Pretty Pink Ponies & r & Last year, we had those big plastic bears doing their business all over downtown. Now the ponies are invading. That's right, in a benefit for Ronald McDonald House, unpainted ponies and giraffes -- replicas of the ones getting dizzy on the Looff Carousel -- will soon pop up in an exhibition entitled "Carousel Ponies on Ice."