FILM
GLBT FILM FESTIVAL
Nov. 1-3
For the past 15 years Spokanites have been able to watch short films about one-night stands, drag queens, mistaken identities, mistaken genders, confused lovers and befuddled families, and longer films about identity and purpose, spirituality and religion, the aftermath of AIDS, the horrors of hate crimes and the joy of marriage and children. The GLBT community has many faces and many art forms through which to express the complexity of the GLBT experience, but film, especially these independently funded works created by passionate directors, showcases GLBT humanity, in all of its shades, in a very real and tangible way to a wide audience. (AF)
Riverpoint EWU Auditorium, prices and times vary
PERFORMANCE
MOMIX: BOTANICA
Nov. 6
For dance enthusiasts and theater lovers alike, Momix: Botanica brings just the right amount of dazzling fantasy to the stage, all through the use of the human body. Creating scenes of nature via costumes, puppetry, lighting, custom-made props and music, Momix, a Connecticut-based dance company, attacks the senses by making the viewer wonder, “How in the heck did they manage that?” The multimedia experience will be held at the Fox and promises viewers raw and inventive dance at its best, exploring the seasons and senses through tantalizing imagery and thought-provoking expression. The company features Spokane native Amanda Hulen, making her first appearance in her hometown since becoming a professional dancer. (ER)
Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, $28-$38, 7:30 pm
FILM
SANDPOINT FILM FESTIVAL
Nov. 2
It seems these days every community wants to have its own take on Sundance. And for the fourth time around, Sandpoint is no exception. Local and international filmmakers alike are celebrated at this one-day event, while vying for the coveted Audience Choice Awards along with first-, second- and third-place cash prizes. A Lifetime Achievement Award also will be given. Chances to mingle with the films’ creators are offered at pre- and post-production parties. Submissions for the festival are open until Sept. 30. (LJ)
Panida Theater, Block 1: Free; Block 2 and 3: $5, noon, 3 pm and 6 pm
CULTURE
EPICUREAN DELIGHT
Nov. 8
Spokane is a great place to eat. Not buying it? Well, then get yourself to the 32nd installment of Epicurean Delight — which benefits the Inland Northwest Blood Bank — at the Spokane Convention Center and taste the food of more than 30 restaurants from around the Inland Northwest. The black-tie (or as close to black-tie as you can get) event allows you to load up on hors d’oeuvres, first courses, entrées and desserts created by a wide range of local chefs, all of whom will be on hand. There’s also a selection of local wines and beer to wash down all this scrumptious fare. By the end of the night, judges announce the winners in each category, adding a little friendly competition to the evening. (MB)
Spokane Convention Center, $150/person, 6 pm to midnight
WORDS
JOHN STOCKTON
Nov. 9
This event has been moved to Dec. 7. Details here.
This NBA Hall of Famer and Spokane native didn’t say much when he was out on the court with the Utah Jazz, setting NBA career records for both assists and steals. He didn’t talk to reporters all that often, and even now, back living in Spokane, he keeps a low profile. But this fall, Stockton releases his autobiography, appropriately titled Assisted, and finally opens up and tells the story of a life that began in Spokane’s Logan neighborhood and took him through Gonzaga and into the annals of basketball history. At this event, he’ll be on hand to sign his book just a few weeks after its release. If you ever wondered what was going through Stockton’s mind when he was slinging half-court passes to Karl Malone all of those years, here’s your chance to learn. Speaking of Malone, he penned the book’s foreword. (MB) Auntie’s Bookstore, 2 pm
VISUAL ARTS
MAC ART AUCTION
Nov. 9
Our local arts community has certainly taken a few big blows this year, with organizations in just about every form of artistic expression struggling to maintain past levels of funding from both public and private sources. Those circumstances make events like the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture’s annual gala and juried art auction ever more important to continue preserving the arts community. This annual event is fancy — it’s black-tie optional and takes place at the swanky Davenport Hotel. All work up for auction this year is by Inland Northwest-based artists, and each piece was personally selected by Chris Bruce, director of the WSU Museum of Art. Part of the proceeds from the art sale benefit the MAC’s mission. (CS) Davenport Hotel, $100/person, 5 pm
VISUAL ARTS
LAYERED HISTORY: REDRAWN MEMORY
Nov. 12 - Feb. 7
Rose Bond’s innovative animations explore “the notion that buildings hold accretions of memory; how the brain seems to process multiple projections; and comments upon the archive and narratives that reshape them.” Her work has been described as “large scale architectural animation” and holds a dreamlike, uncanny edge. But because the images she reveals are so familiar and the renderings so vivid, the viewer can’t help but feel as if they have been to these places before, and this resultant sense of return is somewhat comforting and tangible. (AF) Whitworth’s Bryan Oliver Gallery/Lied Center for the Visual Arts, free, Mon-Fri 10 am-6 pm, Sat 10 am-2 pm
MUSIC
AN EVENING WITH JUDY CARMICHAEL
Nov. 11
If you’re a public radio listener, Judy Carmichael needs little or no introduction. In addition to 20 years of hosting her own show,
Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired, she’s a frequent guest on
A Prairie Home Companion and has received her fair share of mentions on NPR’s
Morning Edition. Count Basie — who for all his talent was never awarded with his own NPR show — also knew who Carmichael was. Out of respect for her skill, he nicknamed her “Stride,” pretty much acknowledging her as an embodiment of an entire jazz style. On this evening, she’ll perform selections from her new album
Come and Get It, which boasts inspiration from musicians as diverse as Fats Waller and Peggy Lee. (EI)
Bing Crosby Theater, $10-$20, 7:30 pm
THEATER
LETTERS HOME
Nov. 15-16
“It got pretty scary here for a couple of days. The day after we started bombing, Saddam began launching scuds. The air raid sirens sound, everyone puts on their gas mask and then goes to the scud bunkers. It was pretty scary the first couple of times, but it started getting old. Especially when we shot them all down.” That’s from a letter a friend of mine wrote on March 23, 2003, and posted online earlier this year to mark 10 years since that date. Letters Home, performed by the traveling Griffin Theatre Company, is a play composed of similar letters from troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With minimal set design, the show presents soldiers’ experiences of the uncertainty and comradeship of war, in their own words. (LW) Jones Theatre at Washington State University, 7:30 pm, $9-$18
VISUAL ARTS
GELAH PENN
Nov. 13-14
The sinewy, abstract installations by New York City artist Gelah Penn fall somewhere between sketch and sculpture. The site-specific works don’t hang politely on walls or ignore them completely — they take over, as if they grew organically on the gallery walls like alien plants, both utterly beautiful and unsettling. Penn, who has described what she constructs as a “kind of meaty ephemerality,” is the visiting artist of this year’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Penn is influenced by film noir and fiction; you know those uneasy sound effects they use in movies at tense moments? Looking at her works can feel sort of like that, in the most fascinating way possible. (LW)
Nov. 13: Spokane Falls Community College, 11:30 am; Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 6:30 pm; Nov. 14: Eastern Washington University, noon. All free
THEATER
GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT
Nov. 22-23
Billie Joe Armstrong and the men of Green Day wrote the rock opera
American Idiot circa 2004, inspired — or pissed off — by the political climate of the Bush era. In 2008, they began a collaboration with Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer to bring Saint Jimmy and Whatsername to life in a musical adaptation. The punk-rock characters have kicked traditional Broadway characters off the stage with their leather studded boots, taking hundreds of audiences on an emotionally exhausting ride that still leaves them with enough energy for a standing ovation. The tale follows three disaffected suburban youth who flee to the city and find love, addiction, war and apathy. (BN)
INB Performing Arts Center, $30-$75, 8 pm
CLASSICAL
SPOKANE STRING QUARTET
Nov. 24
The string quartet is arguably the best formation of classical instrument ensembles ever created. It contains the proper amount of brilliant voices — the rafter-seizing of the first violin, the meaty middle of the second violin and viola and the steady rudder of the cello. Back for their 35th season, the Spokane String Quartet employs this perfect formation to its highest capabilities, showing off the deeper cuts of the quartet repertoire: John Pickard’s “String Quartet No. 5” and Sir Edward Elgar’s “Quartet in E Minor, Op. 83.” Pay no attention to the boring sound of the piece’s titles; they reflect nothing of the magic that will happen on stage when performed. (LJ)
Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, $12-$20, 3 pm
PERFORMANCE
MOSCOW BALLET’S
GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER
Nov. 13-14
Each year a touring ballet company from some larger metropolitan area stops in the Inland Northwest to perform the traditional and beloved story of
The Nutcracker in the weeks leading up to the holiday. And this year,
Nutcracker fans are in for a treat. The Moscow Ballet — as in the capital of Russia — is set to perform the classic holiday ballet for two nights at the Bing. Though the performance may be a little early in the season for some, it’s unknown whether or when Spokane will get another opportunity like this, as the award-winning Russian company usually sticks to bigger cities on its annual North American tour. It’s bound to be an experience unlike any other
Nutcracker performance Spokane has seen. (CS)
Bing Crosby Theater, $30-$177, 7:30 pm
MUSIC
NINE INCH NAILS,
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
Nov. 19
Trent Reznor, the multitalented singer, writer, instrumentalist and composer behind rock outfit Nine Inch Nails, has been busy in the past five years. Since indicating that NIN was no more, he started a music project with his wife, wrote movie scores, won an Oscar and a Grammy and performed at summer festivals. The ever-evolving artist delivered fans a shocking surprise by releasing an eighth NIN album,
Hesitation Marks,
in August and announced a massive tour that stops in Spokane. A night of Reznor’s haunting industrial rock is paired with opening act Explosion in the Sky’s self-described “cathartic mini-symphonies.” (BN)
Spokane Arena, $29.50-$69.50, 7:30 pm
THEATER
THE CHRISTMAS SCHOONER
Nov. 22 - Dec. 22
What’s Christmas time without a elegantly adorned, aromatic evergreen tree to brighten the long winter nights? This holiday season, the Spokane Civic Theatre attempts to answer this question through its performance of the holiday-themed musical
A Christmas Schooner. The story, based on real historic events, tells the tale of a 19th century schooner on the Great Lakes whose captain risks his life to transport fir trees across the frigid winter waters from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Chicago. There, the captain sold the trees mostly to the city’s German immigrants, who celebrated the long-practiced holiday tradition of decorating them inside their homes. The award-winning musical ran for 12 consecutive seasons in Chicago after its original debut in 1996. (CS)
Spokane Civic Theatre, $22-$30, Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm
MUSIC
PEARL JAM
Nov. 30
The gods of rock and roll have smiled upon Spokane and — perhaps thanks in part to a Hail Mary request by the
Inlander earlier this year — Pearl Jam is coming to Spokane for the first time in 20 years. You probably think Pearl Jam is a ’90s band about which we should care little. Wrong. They’re one of the biggest arena rock acts left in the country, and the fall tour that drops them off at the Spokane Arena is almost totally sold out in every city where it stops. Their new album is called
Lightning Bolt. It comes out on Oct. 14, and from the few tracks we’ve got our ears on, it’s a return to the aggressive, in-your-grill Pearl Jam of the
Vitalogy era. This is going to be a hell of a show. (MB)
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, $69.50, 7:30 pm
