Book Review

by DOUG NADVORNICK & r & & r & Year of the Fires & r & by Stephen Pyne & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & he story of the "Big Blowup," the huge August 1910 wildfire that burned three million acres in the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana is now well-known. A

Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & BABY MAMA & r & & r & Busy career woman Kate (Tina Fey) decides that, husband or not, it's time to have a baby. When a doctor tells her that her uterus isn't up to snuff, she goes the surrogate-mom route, but chooses white trash Angie

A Letter to My Grandchildren

As a freshman congressman in 1955, I regrettably voted with my col

Old-Time Ophthalmology

Throughout the days of his long, productive life, fur agent and Inland Northwest explorer David Thompson spent time watching the landscape, observing wildlife, performing neat mathematical calculations on unlined paper, reading and, especially, writing.

The Player

by MARTY DEMAREST & r & & r & Viking: Battle for Asgard & r & Rated Mature; PS3, 360 & r & 4 Stars & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & M & lt;/span & y favorite way of killing uses both an axe and a sword. I thrust my sword into the pale-blue gut of one of Hel's undead warriors u

A Day in the Life

by 12 LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHERS & r & & r & Twenty-Four hours, twelve photographers capturing Spokane, one click at a time... SATURDAY, APRIL 12TH. For the full slideshow of the photographers' contibutions, & lt;a href="http://cpc.inlander.com/slideshow/04_24_2008/inde

Now Playing

by THE INLANDER & r & & r & 21 & r & & r & A based-on-fact, Hollywoodized story about the fellow (Kevin Spacey) who masterminded, along with a group of sharp MIT students, a plan to take Vegas for large sums of money. They succeed, they get caught, things go awry,

Urbane Pleasures

by LAUREN McALLISTER & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & was feeling a little left out that I hadn't been to Scratch yet. After all, Inlander readers already voted it the best new restaurant, even though it only opened in November. So I eagerly made res

Getting High

& & by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & & & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & A & lt;/span & decade ago, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air raised compelling questions about the deadly over-commercialization of the Mount Everest industry: expensive expeditions aimed at helping relatively ine

Take Two

The Counterfeiters & r & & r & by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & o the fraught psychology of survivor's guilt, let us add another wrinkle: complicity. The Counterfeiters, which won this year's Oscar for Foreign Language Film, also wins th

It's Not Over

by MICK LLOYD-OWEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & hey're talking in taverns. They're holding meetings and swapping books. They have the Internet, and they're not afraid to use it. Some even wear guns -- a symbol of revolution. Republican presidential

DVD Review

Lars and the Real Girl & r & & r & by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & "G & lt;/span & uy falls in love with a blow-up sex doll." Some people are never going to get past the premise of Lars and the Real Girl. That's ridiculous, they say. Freakish. Couldn't

Recently Reviewed

The Inlander Staff & r & & r & BARDENAY & r & & r & Visiting on a snowy night, we opted for comfort: moist, fragrant and meaty "Wild Turkey Bourbon" pork loin chops served with deliciously sweet and smoky cider-glazed apples and onions, garlic mashed potatoes and c

Flawed Oversight?

The city and the guild reach a tentative agreement on a police ombudsman

Buzz Bin

by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & Walk, Jog, Slog or Fly & r & & r & Thursdays at 6 pm, do that for just three miles -- starting from O'Doherty's Irish Grille -- and you'll be anointed (after your sixth jog/slog) as a Flying Irish Running Club shirt-bearing member. Or ans

Remote Possibilities

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & The Democrats' Debate & r & & r & (ABC, aired on April 16 at 8pm) & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & he intro was schmaltzy. The orchestral score, Survivoresque. The graphics looked tacky and Charlie Gibson tried (unsuccessfully) to

Borowitz Report

by ANDY BOROWITZ & r & & r & SWIFT BOATERS: DEMOCRATS 'TOO MEAN' & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & he Democratic race for President has descended to "a level of meanness and acrimony that is damaging to American politics," the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Puberty by Disney

by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & W & lt;/span & hen you're young, sometimes life plays out like something you'd see in the movies. Or onstage. & r & & r & John Jeffrey Martin has been playing the lead, Troy Bolton, in Disney's High School Musical for mor

Fresh & amp;amp; Tasty

CASUAL Beach Comfort & lt;BR & & lt;BR & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & H & lt;/span & igh on Spokane's South Hill, Dan and Debbie Barranti wanted to create a space where anyone could relax and be comfortable, no matter what their income or outlook. While many restaurants hope to ins

Sound Advice

Thursday, 4/24 Arena, Celtic Woman Baby Bar, NFFU, Handsome Hank Chinaski of Nothing, Scatterbox Big Easy, No Quarter Bluz at the Bend, Riverside R & amp; B The Blvd., In

Bomb Garden

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & Hard Rain's Gonna Fall & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & R & lt;/span & emember when, in February 2003, a pyrotechnic malfunction at a Great White show in Rhode Island caused a fire that killed 100 concertgoers? That was effed up, right? Tra

Remaking the Plaza

by JACOB H. FRIES & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & N & lt;/span & othing's official yet. Spokane Transit is still weighing two options: fixing the downtown Plaza or moving operations to the Intermodal Center, the hub for Amtrak and Greyhound about six blocks to the

New Girls on the Block

& & by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & & & r & & r & & & OLIVIA & & & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & he first time I heard Olivia, it was at some random Empyrean open-mic. Dap to everyone who came out and played that night, but her hard-strumming, reggae-inflected songs w

Food for Thought

by TED S. McGREGOR JR. & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & A & lt;/span & fter decades of choking down prefabricated, fat-laden, fake-flavored foods, created in a lab and mass-produced in some factory, Americans started to rebel. Today there's a growing movement to mak

High and Mighty

Departing the Suburbs

by ELIZABETH STRAUCH & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & L & lt;/span & ast weekend, a young woman approached me in Riverfront Park, handed me a flyer and informed me that Ben Folds was coming to Spokane. A few years ago, that woman would have been me -- a die-hard Fold

CD Reviews

R.E.M. & r & & r & Accelerate & r & & r & 3 STARS & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & O & lt;/span & nce dubbed America's best band, R.E.M. has seen better days -- in fact, the band's last three albums have been, aside from a handful of tracks, atrocious. Now critics are saying t

Trail Mix

by TED S. McGREGOR JR. & r & & r & Mating Calls, Part Two & r & & r & Over on the Huffington Post, Lawrence O'Donnell just reconfirmed his prediction of June 2007 that Barack Obama will pick Gen. Wesley Clark as his running mate. "Obama needs military experience on

Street Level

by ANDREW MATSON & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & S & lt;/span & imply put, Houston MC Scarface is a rap legend. Regional, national, international. We're talking Big Dog status. At 38, he's older than almost every other rapper. He's also way better than most rappers

Delivering a Dud

by ED SYMKUS & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & here's only one proper way to begin here: with some thoughts about Tina Fey. I have no idea what women think of the former Saturday Night Live regular. But I asked a lot of guys for a few words, and they a