Name Dropping

by NICHOLAS DESHAIS & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & M & lt;/span & ore than 100 Rotarians gathered under swaying chandeliers in the Spokane Club last Thursday to hear from two candidates vying for the Spokane County Commission. The two men, incumbent Mark Richard a

Now Playing

by THE INLANDER & r & & r & AN AMERICAN CAROL & r & & r & By the guy who created Airplane and the Naked Gun series (read: the guy who hasn't been funny since 1986) comes a mishmash satire that asks the question: What if a Michael Moore-type documentarian were visit

Recently Reviewed

The Inlander Staff & r & & r & OISHII & r & & r & Inventiveness is a hallmark of chef Junior Solis, who designed the hip space, replete with contemporary d & eacute;cor like burnished raw steel, simulated black lacquer and pop-culture paintings of Japanese geisha and dragon

Firebombing Freedom

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & n the early hours of September 27, just before 2:30 in the morning, three men allegedly pushed a gasoline bomb through the front door of Martin Rynja's London home, setting off a brief firestorm in t

Take Two

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist & r & & r & by MARYANN JOHANSON & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & t's kinda like Ferris Bueller's Night Out, but the whole gang is Ferris and everybody's way less snarky and way sweeter. Nick and Norah could well be defini

Power to the People

I-985 - Reducing Congestion & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & N & lt;/span & O -- Tim Eyman is at it again, and this time he wants to micromanage the stat

DVD Review

The Walker & r & & r & by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & "I & lt;/span & 'm not na & iuml;ve," says Woody Harrelson in an odd, smarmy Southern-ish accent. "I am superficial." The same or similar could be said of The Walker, the film in which Harrelson plays Ca

Mangia Mambo

by CARRIE SCOZZARO & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & C & lt;/span & iao Mambo has figured out the formula for success. Sort of a sexier Tomato Street, it has white butcher paper on the table and crayons for you to doodle with while awaiting your order of Italian Nach

Buzz Bin

by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & Watch When It Happens & r & & r & Wednesday is the 20th anniversary of Kirk Gibson's gimpy-legged walk-off homer for the Dodgers in Game One of the 1988 World Series. One Binster, born and raised in Los Angeles, never saw that electrify

Remote Possibilities

by TED S. McGREGOR JR. & r & & r & Life & r & & r & (Fridays, NBC, 10pm) & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & W & lt;/span & hat makes a good cop drama these days? You need a montage of quick-cut crime-solving action, set to some hip, new song you can download on iTunes. You need

IndigNation

Here's a

The Phantom Phenomenon

by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & The Phanatics & r & & r & I'm outside the stage door at Portland's Keller Auditorium. It's August, just after a weeknight performance of The Phantom of the Opera. Three dozen "Phanatics" talk animatedly, waiting for the stars to emerge.

Fresh & amp;amp; Tasty

BENEFIT Pink Tears & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & F & lt;/span & or the third year in the row, GREAT HARVEST BAKERY is producing hundreds of pink-frosted cookies and cupcakes and selling them to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation during the month of October for

Book Review

by MARTY DEMAREST & r & & r & Duma Key & r & by Stephen King & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & D & lt;/span & espite having written a whole book about writing, Stephen King has never really revealed his secrets for becoming the world's best-selling novelist. So I thought I'd

Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & BODY OF LIES & r & & r & Ridley Scott makes a paranoid-looking film about the questionable motives of counter-terrorism operatives in the era of an all-out war on terrorism and the inability, even for high-tech spies, of knowing who yo

Borowitz Report

by ANDY BOROWITZ & r & & r & O.J. SIMPSON SEEKS FEDERAL BAILOUT & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & M & lt;/span & inutes after being convicted of robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas, former football great O.J. Simpson said he would seek government intervention, claiming th

Hit the Right Notes

by GREG PRESLEY & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & t's 2 pm. The doorbell rings. Soon, a nervous and excited soprano, having divested herself of coat, books, water bottle and purse, edges nearer to me and the piano. For the next hour, we will go over an

The Player

by MARTY DEMAREST & r & & r & Mario Super Sluggers & r & Rated Everyone; Nintendo Wii & r & 3 Stars & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & used to think baseball was a simple game, requiring an assortment of bases, a ball and a bat. But during a match held aboard a c

Spin the Casbah

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & "D & lt;/span & id you guys bring the money?" Dennis Henderson asks when photographer Ben Tobin and I reached the top of the dogleg staircase that leads to the Casbah. He means the money he needs to finish the plac

The Hills Have Eyes

by KEVIN TAYLOR & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & t's turning out to be one of the last fine days of 2008, mild and golden, as four people stride up an empty logging road in remote northeastern Washington, on the lookout for evidence of Canis lupus, th

Sound Advice

Thursday, 10/9 Beverly's (208-765-4000), Robert Vaughn Big Al's, DJ D-Ates Bluz at the Bend, New Trilogy The Blvd., The Spring Standards, Stephen Kellogg & amp; the Sixers

Scars of Battle

by TED S. McGREGOR JR. & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & M & lt;/span & y friends and I were huge Apocalypse Now fans back in college, so when Platoon came out, we lined up for the first show on opening day, at the Cinerama in Seattle, with that huge curved screen. W

One for the Road

CD Reviews

& & OASIS & r & & r & & & & & & lt;i & Dig Out Your Soul & r & & r & & lt;/i & & & & & 2-1/2 STARS & & & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & "U & lt;/span & nless you're eight beers deep at a rugby party, Oasis pretty much sucks," my girlfriend remarked during a recent discussion regarding the E

Come Out Firing

by KEVIN TAYLOR & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & f Todd Mielke wants to show he can make tough decisions, he only needs to mention that he was on the board that fired nationally renowned Dr. Kim Thorburn as Spokane County Health District Director over

Bomb Garden

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & Darker Tower & r & & r & Here at The Inlander, we sometimes refer to the Spokesman-Review as "the Dark Tower," half because the physical edifice looks like a red brick penis and half because years of off-the-record grumblings suggest

Trail Mix

by TED S. McGREGOR JR. & r & & r & Tune In & r & & r & Finding the right station just got a lot easier for talk radio addicts in Washington, D.C. At conservative WTNT-AM 570, there won't be any unnecessary confusion as the station's parent company, Red Zebra Broadc

Dressed Up in God's Clothing

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & J & lt;/span & im Cotton was a bad kid. His press release says so. His mom couldn't handle him, so when he was just a middle-schooler, she shipped him across the country -- from South Boston to Washington's Maple Va

Running Man

An