Bloglander

By day, Matt Nelson works as price coordinator at a grocery store. But by night, he becomes the comic artist behind the adventures of Catbeard, a pirate cursed to have a beard made from a living cat as he hunts for the legendary treasure of Scurvy Skeen.

“I have to be honest, usually after I get past that first sentence,” Nelson said, “people are either sold — or like, 'Huh?'”

One day while watching TV with a friend in March of 2011, Nelson grabbed his cat Tiger and squished her against his face joking that he now had a beard. His friend joked that he was Catbeard, the pirate, and Nelson was hit with inspiration. Thus, the webcomic Catbeard the Pirate was born.

“And I kid you not, it was like a bolt of lightning. I sat up,” Nelson said, ”and I was like, ‘I’m doing that — I have to do that!”

Nelson spends roughly two hours a day working on Catbeard. It takes him roughly a week to finish a single page, and each of his crowd-funded graphic novels contains around 120 of them. Every campaign allows Nelson to print off and sell another 100 or so of his books and brings a sigh of relief as the fear of failure never quite goes away for him.

“It’s nerve racking every time. Even though I’ve done four or five of them now,” Nelson said. “Holy crap, is this gonna be the one that fails?”

In July of 2015 while Nelson was away from home at work, he noticed that there was smoke coming from the direction of his apartment.

“And I just had this weird feeling. I called my landlord and was like ‘Hey, how’s it going. Just kind of wanna make sure that’s not us.’ And he said, ‘It is us!’” Nelson said. “It was pretty traumatic.”

While his unit was spared from the flames, there was a significant amount of smoke and water damage. Nelson lost a lot of his books, furniture and many other belongings, but his cat Jiji [a][b]made it out unharmed.

Many friends and fellow comic artists came to Nelson's aid. Nathan O’Brien, founder of the annual Lilac City Comicon, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Nelson. They raised more than  $3,000 for him.

“The comics community here in this town is really small,” Nelson said, “but really tight.”

The Kickstarter for the fifth book is set to launch in the next month. It’s dedicated to his cat Jiji who he had for 21 years and recently passed away.

Nelson plans to wrap up Catbeard after seven books and move on to new projects. He’s considering writing a horror story or even working on a giant monster anthology.

“There’s a little part of me in the back of my head that’s like, ‘You’re gonna miss doing Catbeard if you stop after seven books,’” Nelson said. “I just don’t wanna be the guy who does cat stuff forever.”

ON INLANDER.COM

ARTS & CULTURE: Ever wonder what it would be like to live life with a cat for a beard? What about being cursed to do so as a pirate on the hunt for treasure? Illustrator Matt Nelson wanted to know too.

WHAT'S UP: What's more amazing than acrobatics? How about acrobatics on ice? Cirque du Soleil's new show Crystal kicks off this week in Spokane. Find more about that, burlesque, comedy, story slams and more all on this week's calendar.

FOOD: Do you like really spicy stuff? Check out this salsa recipe that uses rare (but locally available!) super hot peppers.


IN OTHER NEWS

North Korea would give up nukes if U.S. promises not to attack
After peace talks with South Korea, Kim Jong-un reportedly said that he'd start a supervised shutdown of North Korea's nuclear program if the United States would promise not to attack, but some experts say similar promises have been made before and may just be an attempt to end sanctions, The New York Times reports. (New York Times)

Fewer cell phone choices?
T-Mobile and Sprint are hoping to merge, but the competition between the few large cell phone carriers has benefitted customers, so regulators will have to decide whether or not to bless the union, USA Today reports. (USA Today)

They survived, but Las Vegas shooting still haunts them
The Seattle Times takes a look at a couple from Sultan, Washington, injured in the Las Vegas shooting last year, as they try to cope with impacts from the shooting that killed 58 people and hurt more than 400 with bullets and lasting psychological effects. (Seattle Times)

No medical marijuana for Idaho
The latest effort to get a voter initiative on the ballot to legalize medical marijuana didn't collect enough signatures, the Spokesman-Review reports. (Spokesman-Review)

We're heading into May! Get me my shorts and flip-flops and let's find some ways to entertain ourselves this week:

Monday, April 30

MUSIC | The Gonzaga Symphony closes its season with a performance at the Fox featuring double-bass legend Gary Karr.

Tuesday, May 1

MUSIC | Head to the Observatory for the raucous garage-rock sounds of Pink Mexico, joined by Itchy Kitty and Runaway Octopus. Before you go, read our interview with the band.

COMEDY | Tab'z on Broadway, a relatively new club, is hosting comedian Aaron Woodall tonight, so have some laughs while scoping a new scene.

This week, our cover package focuses on all the international markets across the Spokane area, where you can pick up all sorts of cool, rare items.

After the cover was photographed, our art director let me have a few of these unusual looking yellow peppers from De Leon Foods in Spokane. Later, I sliced them open, thinking it may have been just, say, a tiny bell pepper. It wasn't.

Instead of tiny white seeds, this pepper has larger, black round seeds. It's smaller, maybe the size of a lime. And it's pretty darn spicy.

It was a manzano pepper. It's a South American pepper that's common in Mexico but rare in the United States. Think of the manzano as a hybrid between a bell pepper and a habanero. Sweet, fruity, with thicker walls like a bell pepper. Hot as hell. Almost as spicy as a habanero.

In other words: perfect for a spicy spring salsa. Here's what I made the other day. I based it largely on this recipe, from menuofmusings.com, but kicked up the spice level even higher and mixed in some chopped peppers at the end to give it a pleasing texture and an interesting color.

The best part of this salsa is that, while it's very hot (about four out of five stars on the universal Linnie's Thai Cuisine scale of hotness) it doesn't sucker-punch you in the face right out of the gate with its hotness.

Instead, it eases you into the heat. It lets you taste how all the flavors play together, with a bit of sweetness, before building to a spicy crescendo. Perfect for chip dipping, and not too shabby for tacos either. It tastes even better the next day.

PRETTY DARN SPICY MANZANO PEPPER SALSA

INGREDIENTS:

4 Roma tomatoes

• 4 and a half manzano peppers (3 and a half if you're a cowardly child too afraid the heat of a real salsa)

• 5 large garlic cloves (you can use more if you desire — no recipe in history has ever had too much garlic.)

• 1/3 cup water

• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a splash more for later

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 1 fresh jalapeño, diced

• 1 cup of chopped onion

• 1 fresh red bell pepper, diced.

• Oregano, at your whim

• Fresh cilantro (or parsley if for some reason you don't like the mouthwatering taste of soap.)

1. Heat up a grill pan or skillet on medium-high and start cooking the whole Roma tomatoes. Using a pair of tongs turn them around until each side gets a nice browned/blackened finish. Plop them in the blender for storage until you're ready to blend.

2. Cut the manzano peppers in half, removing the ribs, seeds and stem. You're working with some very spicy peppers, so keep that in mind.

3. Place four out of the peppers on the grill pan or skillet. Do the same thing you did with the Roma tomatoes, turning with the tongs until both sides seem decently blistered.

4. Now you're gonna add the garlic cloves, the diced onion, and the water to the Roma tomatoes in the blender. If you can fit them, add the grilled manzano peppers too. But because my blender was a bit small, I blended everything else together first, resulting in a puce-shaded slurry. Then I added the peppers and blended those too.

5. Heat up your tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan, then dump your sauce out into the saucepan. Add your tablespoon of salt, bring it to a boil and then downshift the heat to allow the dish to simmer. You'll want to simmer for a bit — this salsa can be a bit runny.

6. While your sauce is simmering, you're going to start working on making the dish a little more interesting. Seed and dice the remaining half of the manzano pepper.

7. Heat up a smallish skillet with a splash of olive oil and then dump the diced manzano pepper, the diced jalapeño and the bell pepper in the skillet. Sauté until you're like, ooh, that looks good.

8. Add the jalapeño mixture in the skillet. Stir.

9. Remove from the heat. Let cool. Add a bit of cilantro or parsley if you're into that. (No biggie if you're not.)

And you're done! You're ready to let your friends and coworkers sample the salsa and tell you, "The flavors are great, but it's a little too spicy for me."

Wimps, all of them.



UPDATE: I put 'em on Huevos Rancheros and they were fantastic.

With every film-to-stage adaption, it’s fun to guess how certain beloved scenes will play out live in front of an audience and whether that version will do the film justice. With Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage, as with the film, we dive in the summer of 1963 and find “Baby,” played by Kaleigh Courts, packing up for the family camp that plays a monumental role in her coming-of-age story.

It’s clear throughout that Courts is a trained dancer, but it was impressive to see her feign being an awkward dancer in the beginning, arms and legs flailing about before her training with Johnny, played by Aaron Patrick Craven. It was satisfying to see her progression from dance rookie to sultry-moves wizard. Craven plays Johnny a tad more harsh and cold in demeanor than Patrick Swayze's film version in the film, but in the end, the audience seems as won over with him as Baby is. What he initially lacks in attention to Baby, he makes up for with attention to every detailed move, spin and piece of footwork. Craven takes complex moves and makes them look too easy, the telling sign of a talented dancer.

Several times Erica Philpot, who plays Elizabeth, a singer, steals the show with her captivating vocals and range, whether performing a solo number or accompanied by other vocalists. Anaïs Blake plays Penny, the professional dancer who Baby steps in for, and dazzles with her routines and variety of bold costumes.

Every scene seamlessly transitioned into the other with the help of a convincing mountainous stage set and props. The cast broke into the usual expected dance numbers accompanied by iconic songs from the film like "Hungry Eyes" and "Hey! Baby!" The orchestra, conducted by Jonathon Marro, provided the perfect accompaniment and sets the appropriate tone throughout.

Another treat for the audience was the inclusion of several songs, like “Save the Last Dance For Me” by the Drifters and “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” by Marvin Gaye, that were added into the musical that were originally intended for the film, but didn’t make it. And, of course, there were the long-awaited moments that delighted fans of the movie, like when Johnny storms back in to the room to say “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” or the perfected lift in the end when Johnny holds up Baby in their big performance. Both iconic scenes were met with roars and cheers from the audience.

At one point one of the characters, Robbie, quotes The Fountainhead to Baby: "Some people count, some people don’t.”

To me, it rang as an ironic statement in a play where every character was vital to the storyline and every actor contributed to its success. In Dirty Dancing, the stage version, everybody counted, and most in the audience likely left the INB charmed by their effort.

Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage runs through Sunday at the INB. Visit the INB website for showtimes and tickets.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: The Idaho Statesman says that the Lordship Church in Coeur d'Alene is different from the sort of hate groups that proclaim racist or anti-Semitic views. So we listened to the Lordship Church's sermons. Does defending slavery and disputing the Holocaust count?

FOOD: Entrée brings you the best news possible: more ice cream is coming to Spokane.

EVENTS: Have you heard the hype about books and have been meaning to check them out to see what all the fuss is about? Check out National Bookstore Day at Auntie's.

IN OTHER NEWS

I'm thinkin' RVs
Spokane Valley is looking at limiting the stay of RVs for an extended period of time.  (Spokesman-Review)

The man's not a fan of Medicaid
Even if the Idaho voters approve Medicaid, Republican Rep. Raul Labrador might try to override it. (Spokesman-Review)

Does the prison cafeteria serve pudding pops?
Bill Cosby has been found guilty of sexual assault. (New York Times)

Only Trump could go to North Korea?
North and South Korea talk about peace and... denuclearization?! What is going on?! (New York Times)

Even Brokaw?
Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw has been accused of sexual harassment too. (Washington Post)

SWEET PEAKS ICE CREAM OPENING SOON

Marissa Keenan, owner of Montana-based Sweet Peaks Ice Cream, can’t decide which ice cream flavor of the many they offer is her favorite, so she lists two: the “Mountain Mint,” comprised of natural mint extract from mint farms Keenan grew up near in Montana, and the “Salty Caramel,” a classic.

Keenan is now bringing both flavors and others to Spokane when a new Sweet Peaks location opens downtown this May on West Main, near Durkin’s Liquor Bar. Nine ice cream flavors — the same that are served at Sweet Peaks’ seven other shops — will be available, ranging from cupcake to huckleberry, and including seasonal flavors. Those with lactose intolerance won’t be left behind, as there’ll be dairy-free sorbet or nut milk-based options on the menu.

The decision to open in downtown Spokane was a simple one: Keenan and her family have always been fond of the area and frequent downtown whenever they’re in town.

“We feel that the downtown area is a great place for handcrafted ice cream. The downtown is vibrant and the center of so much action,” says Keenan.

She hopes to work with local businesses in the area to collaborate on flavors and events.

This Saturday local bookstores across the country are celebrating the fourth annual National Independent Bookstore Day. More than 500 independent bookstores in 48 states are set to have in-store events, activities and exclusive merchandise in conjunction with the celebration.

Auntie's Bookstore will join in the festivities with events featuring local authors and businesses. The store will also offer 20 percent off all used books along with exclusive merchandise created by major publishers and authors. Past exclusives include signed books, artwork and T-shirts.

Here’s a list of the day's events at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane:

11 am - 1 pm: Local artist Katey Mandley will display an 8-foot easel in store for an impromptu drawing and art session. The 2003 Gonzaga graduate will be joined by the Spokane Art School. The easel is set to be on display until 4 pm.

11 am - 12:30 pm: Writers of the Future first place award winner Jeremy TeGrotenhuis will be signing copies of Writers of the Future Vol. 34. People who visit his table will also get the chance to win tickets to this year's Lilac City Comicon and draw pictures with the writer.

11 am - 3 pm: Students from Lewis and Clark High School will be selling books for a wish list as a part of a fundraiser to support their school’s library. If you donate a book to them from their list you’ll receive the educators 15 percent discount that day.

11 am - 1 pm: Northwest Yo-Yo Champion Chris Cook will be performing yo-yo tricks to onlookers. Cook has spent two summers as a professional yo-yo demonstrator for yo-yo manufacture Yomega Corporation. His books Damn Good Cookie and The View from the Broken Mic will be on available for purchase in store.

11:30 am - 1:30 pm: Joseph Haeger will be hosting “Let’s Write a Story Together” where people are invited to finish short stories and poems Haeger has started on postcards.

12:30 pm - 1 pm: Spokane Civic Theatre will be performing selections from their upcoming show Hello, Dolly!, set to run May 8-June 10.

1 - 3 pm: Author Trent Reedy will be in store promoting his upcoming book Gamer Army!, equipped with a Nintendo.

1 - 3 pm: Author of When Colors Meet Darcy Lee Saxton will be displaying artwork and creating on-the-spot contour-line portrait drawings for people.

1:30 - 2:30 pm: Chelsea Martin will be displaying and signing copies of her book Caca Dolce: Essays from a Lowbrow Life. She is also the author of The Really Funny Thing about Apathy.

1:30 - 2:30 pm: Co-authors of the crime-noir series Kiss the Messenger Devin Devine and Tony Russell will be in store to talk poetry with people and take poem requests for their typewriter.

2:30 - 4 pm: Spokane authors Sam Ligon and Kate Lebo will be displaying and signing copies of their book Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze. Ligon also wrote Among the Dead and Dreaming and Safe in Heaven Dead, Wonderland and Drift and Swerve. Lebo is the author of Pie School: Lessons in Fruit, Flour, and Butter.

3 pm - 4 pm: Pineground founder Annica Eagle will have a selection of pun challenges to pose to her. In 2017 she receive third place in the O. Henry Museum Pun-Off World Championship.

National Independent Bookseller Day • Sat, April 28 from 11 am - 4 pm • Auntie's Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave • auntiesbooks.com • 838-0206

Why in the world would the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a national civil rights organization, put a small, relatively unknown Idaho church on its "Hatewatch" list?

That's the question asked by two recent Idaho Statesman articles and an Idaho Statesman video. The newspaper suggests that, perhaps, the Lordship Church in Coeur d'Alene was being unfairly maligned.

"According to the SPLC, most of Idaho’s hate groups proclaim racist or anti-Semitic views," the Statesman proclaims. "Lordship Church is different."

But that isn't exactly true. 

First, a quick primer: Lordship is a proud member of the Idaho Redoubt movement.

"The American Redoubt is a stronghold, it's the last bastion for God, country, liberty, Constitution, Second Amendment and homeschooling," Pastor Warren Mark Campbell told CBC News in 2016.

He not only pastors Lordship, he started a military surplus store nearby called Redoubt Surplus and Tactical. He literally wrote a theme song for the American Redoubt, celebrating a "place where God, guns and freedom reigns."

Lordship considers itself a "free church," a church that declines to seek the sort of nonprofit status that can limit making political endorsements from the pulpit.

The SPLC, the organization, which helped take down the Aryan Nation's complex in Kootenai County, wrote up a lengthy narrative about Campbell's previous church in 2012, accusing the church of "paramilitary activities and forging alliances with an array of figures revered on the radical right."

But the Statesman quotes Campbell as saying the SPLC's account was inaccurate, driven by an anti-Christian agenda.

In recent years, there has been a lot of articulate, reasonable objections to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch list, which can lump far-right groups, like the Family Research Council and the Center for Immigration Studies, with the KKK and actual terrorist organizations.

The Statesman quotes Campbell extensively, who notes that ethnic minorities attend his church, and argues that neither he nor anyone in his congregation is racist or a white extremist.

It also cites Puerto Rican Lordship Church member Ed Reillo, who lamented that his church had been lumped in with “all these crazy right-wing extremists” and said he'd never seen hate preached from the pulpit.

But we don't have to decide whether we trust the Southern Poverty Law Center account or Campbell's account. We can see for ourselves. Lordship Church has uploaded more than 100 Campbell sermons online.

And when the Inlander began poring through the sermons, we found a lot more than just the sort of anti-gay or anti-Muslim rhetoric that the Statesman briefly describes.

Campbell has repeatedly preached that the Bible condones forms of slavery. That the South were the heroes of the Civil War and the North were the villains. That whites are victims and blacks are whiners. That the death toll of the Holocaust was exaggerated.

So does that qualify the Lordship Church to be considered a hate group?

What follows is just a sampling of the things that Campbell preaches:

ATTACKING "SODOMITES"

It's hardly unusual for a far-right Christian church to preach against same-sex relationships from the pulpit. What is unusual is the glee that Campbell takes in discussing it.

He describes the pro-gay children's book Heather has Two Mommies, for example, as “vomit into the mouths and the eyes of the American people.”

And Campbell doesn't just say "gay." Or "homosexual." He says "sodomites." In one sermon, he waxes rhapsodic about the King James Version of the Bible's use of the term.

“When you’re preaching on the streets, and you’re surrounded by thousands of homosexual sodomites, and there’s only about 10 or 15 of us, and when you use the word sodomite, it has an effect,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t have nearly the sting, the power” — he slaps his hand to punctuate the words — "of 'You sodomites, repent before the Lord, judgment is at hand!'”

Campbell doesn't just use this sort of rhetoric in church. He, for example, stood out in front of Target with a megaphone to condemn the store's transgender bathroom policy. 

In sermon after sermon, he regales his congregation with tales of standing on the street condemning homosexuals. He revels in the furious reaction.

“They come out with seething anger," Campbell says in a sermon praising God's providence in allowing then-Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to win the Republican primary. "If they thought you could get away with it, they’d bite you.”

While protesting with a group in California, he claims, he says that a gay man spit in one of their faces. 

“Of course, the person probably had AIDS. So the spit would get in the guy’s eye and give him some AIDS, see!” Campbell says. "The anger, the malice that can come out — Satan working through demonic forces — is just unbelievable."

(FYI: No, you can't get AIDS from being spit on.)

He condemns other Christians for not joining him and his allies to, say, protest a gay pride cruise at Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“There was three of us there against several hundred Sodomites,” Campbell says, in one of his personal favorite sermons. “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We could shut that thing down. We could shut down the homosexual-sodomite parade in Spokane, if the Christians would just simply turn out and stop that nonsense.”

In one sermon, he said he agreed with the Spokane Street Preachers that standing on the street and preaching against homosexuality was the most loving thing a person could do — he, after all, was trying to save them from hell and God's wrath.

But in another? He downright celebrated the accusation of being a hate group. Discussing preaching against "sodomites at the parade," he says a woman came up to him and said, “You guys are nothing but haters. Stop the hate!"

"And I said, 'Hate is a good thing!'" Campbell says. "She didn't know what to do with that!...  It's a scriptural thing. The Lord says his soul hates these things."

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' bill aimed at protecting four Lower Snake River dams passed through the House yesterday.

COVER: Your guide to international markets in the Inland Northwest.

CULTURE: OK, not really. But  at 15, Emilie Miller is dealing with way more than driver's ed and freshman year of high school. In the past month she's traveled to Oregon, Montana and Texas to show off her fiddle skills. She'll also compete in the Northwest Regional Fiddle Contest this weekend.

IN OTHER NEWS

No room
Public housing tenants in Seattle are evicted for owing $100, sometimes less. (The Stranger)

Ugh
The Rachel Dolezal documentary about life after the former NAACP president, who had been masquerading as black and was outed as white, airs on Netflix tomorrow. Director Laura Brownson filmed Dolezal for two years and interviewed her children. (Spokesman-Review)

Third time's a charm
The Supreme Court appears willing to approve President Donald Trump's third attempt to ban travel from seven Muslim majority countries. (New York Times)

Also, Kanye and Trump are bros, and you shouldn't be surprised. (The Atlantic)

'Foggy and hazy'
A flight attendant, who says she was drugged and raped by a pilot for SkyWest Airlines, is suing the airline. The woman, Mary Morgan, reported the assault to Canadian police and to the airline, where both she and Capt. Robert Rowe are still employed. (Seattle Times)

He would attack again, doctors said
Due to a change in the way Oregon thinks about those found criminally insane, a killer and rapist was released from the state's psychiatric hospital. A little more than a year later, he would be arrested again for a new murder. And this isn't the only example. Other dangerous people who have been released from state custody have been rearrested for violent crimes. (Malheur Enterprise/ProPublica)

No drugs, no stealing, no violence against women
Former freshman defensive back Zaire Webb is suing Washington State University football coach Mike Leach and the university after he was kicked off the team. Webb was dismissed for allegedly shoplifting from Walmart. Those charges were dropped, yet he was not allowed to rejoin the team and his financial aid was yanked.

The lawsuit alleges that Leach's policy of cutting any players who commit one of the three deadly sins (drugs, stealing, violence against women) is not applied equally. (Spokesman-Review)