September

Books

Jess Walter

Jess Walter has been saving the first chapter of his new book, The Financial Lives of the Poets, for just this occasion. A scene of unemployed reporter and financial poet Matt Prior walking into 7/11 for milk and walking out with a bunch of stoners sets a tone of biting satire about living through a financial collapse of your (and our) own making that propels the novel for 290 pages to a crushing conclusion about how screwed we all are. It’s really quite funny.

How good’s the first chapter? Well Inlander arts writer Michael Bowen, a man who only likes Shakespeare and late-career Mitch Albom (“Tuesdays With Morrie was bullshit,” he’s fond of saying) began reading it as he walked out of work last Thursday, got a paragraph in, sat down on the stairs and didn’t move until he was done.

Expect Walter’s performance to be at least as engaging (…as watching Bowen read — we kid!). Wednesday, Sept. 23; Auntie’s, free, 7 pm; Afterparty at Zola — LUKE BAUMGARTEN

Jazz

Nnenna Freelon w/ the Spokane Jazz Orchestra

Back in Cambridge, Mass., she sang in her Baptist church choir; Dad played Count Basie records at home. So the eclectic taste in music was established early — the recording career would have to wait several decades, until after marriage and three kids. Only then came the five Grammy nominations, 11 albums, and live performances so dynamic that Spokane audiences insisted on her return. On last year’s recording, Better Than Anything, Nnenna Freelon sings in a variety of genres (gospel, soul, Latin, reggae) and in tribute to a variety of luminaries from jazz (Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole) and pop (Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder). That’s versatility. That’s the kind of singing that will make the SJO sound even better. Saturday, Sept. 26; The Bing, $26-$30, 8 pm — MICHAEL BOWEN

Dance

Tap Dogs

Tappety tappety tap tappety tap. Is that — could it be? Do I hear tap-dancing Australian lumberjacks? Indeed I do. Starting with six guys from a steel town near Sydney, choreographer Dien Perry puts metal-soled shoes to work on an industrial-themed set for an 80-minute marathon of nonstop tapping.

Each surface — swaying rafters included — becomes a piece of the varied drum kit that dancers play with their shoes. True to spirit, they wear jeans, cut-off T-shirts and work boots customized to tap. With that much steel, denim and sweat in the mix, no one stands to lose a “man card” by agreeing to attend a dance performance. And for the rest of us, there’s the Australian lumberjack element to savor.

You may recognize this crew from the 2000 Olympics’ opening ceremony in Sydney — or from their 2006 visit to Spokane. Monday, Sept. 28; INB Performing Arts Center, $29-$44, 7:30 pm — ERIKA PRINS

Film

Gunga Din

An entire movie based on a Rudyard Kipling poem? Yep, and it’s one of Hollywood’s original epic adventures, cited by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas as an inspiration. What’s more, it was released in 1939 — by many critics’ accounts, the quintessential year for American movies.

Now, 70 years later, the Advocates of the Bing are screening a four-week series of 1939 classics, choosing some of the films you may not have already seen, like The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind — the two films really synonymous with 1939. After Gunga Din (Sept. 29), it’s Goodbye Mr. Chips (Oct. 6), for which Robert Donat won the Academy Award (beating out Clark Gable). On Oct. 13, it’s Frank Capra’s still-resonant tale of the little guy (James Stewart) shaking up the D.C. elite in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, followed by the original Hollywood Western, Stagecoach (Oct. 20), starring a young John Wayne out in Monument Valley.

Beer and wine will be available for sale, all to support the Bing Crosby Theater. And watch The Inlander in the weeks to come for more on these great films. Tuesday, Sept. 29; The Bing, $5 suggested donation, Tuesdays at 7:30 pm — TED S. MCGREGOR, JR.

Music

Bryan Adams

 You can’t really call Bryan Adams a poor man’s Springsteen. Springsteen’s the poor man’s Springsteen. Adams dabbles in the same raspy, gritty, working-class anthems that the Boss championed, albeit discussing youth in Ontario instead of Jersey. Canada’s Springsteen, then.

His songs are palatable, radio-friendly, even adult-alternative, though nowhere near as daring or iconic as Springsteen’s. The Canadian has his moments of glory, though. He’s worked with Elton John, Sting, and Aretha Franklin. He’s a noted philanthropist and crusader for education, peace and environmentalism.

His best-known song is, according to Adams himself, about a sexual position, not a watershed year in history, adding a bit of mischief to an otherwise smooth and steady rise to fame. With just him and an acoustic guitar, those same anthems that have been kicking around since the heyday of MTV will receive quite different treatment. Tuesday, Sept. 29; The Fox, $42-$87, 8 pm — JEFF ECHERT