Buzz Bin

by Inlander Staff


Magic Lantern Returns? -- Here's a big Dave Chappelle "YEAHHHH!!!" for the developers of the Saranac Renovation project. It's always most excellent to see a crummy old downtown building escape the demolition-and-blacktopping plans of parking lot developers, instead to be rescued, renovated and turned into one of Spokane's hottest new properties. In the case of the Saranac at 25 W. Main Ave., it's even better when the proposed building has something to give back to the community. The Saranac will join its neighbor, the Community Building, in "its efforts to influence the course of social and environmental justice" with a mixed-use combination of studio space, commercial offices, restaurant areas and (drum roll, please) the return of the much-missed Magic Lantern Theater. The art house cinema, which ran for close to two decades at 123 S. Wall St., is in talks with the developers of the Saranac to occupy several auditorium spaces and show films from Thursday through Sunday. All we have to say is, Amen.





Pro Chops NOT Optional -- Our favorite craigslist ad of the week? This one: "Big Indian bass player and redheaded guitar player needed for band praising glorious glorious Satan. The evil prince demands pro chops, cool hair and groovy sweaters. He commands you to play his praises Quinn & amp; Aaron." We want to post our own ad in response, suggesting that the writers add a "Period. To show that the praises being sung are in fact going to Satan, not to (or about) Quinn & amp; Aaron." Still, we appreciate the insistence by the Prince of Darkness on the right look.





Adult Swim -- OK, so it's too late to go out and play Hoopfest in Mayor Jim West masks -- all the good ideas come after closing time -- and for going out into the crowd looking for "interns" who are tall and have a wicked hook shot.


In The Inlander's official Hoopfest Team Name Contest, we tried to eliminate ballot-stuffing by requiring e-mail entries only -- but in what appeared to be ballot-stuffing all the same (three votes for the eventual winner, all from AOL accounts, all within four minutes), this year's contest winner is ... Team Propecia, with several teams earning dishonorable mention: Accountants Gone Bad, Eskimo Fishermen, Hasselhoffs, Tommboys and We Stink at Golf Too.


But in our unofficial, around-the-water-cooler vote, we'd have to go with one of the team names we overlooked. For its insouciant blend of current affairs and witty self-deprecating basketball reference, we select "Moto-Brick" as our Editors' Choice award winner.


As one of the Moto-Brick team members said -- based on the purported offer from the mayor to pay a young lad $300 for a naked swim -- "Our original idea was `Hey, We Swam for $25.'"