Carnival Or Carnaval, It Still Spells Music, Dancing And Fun

Understand one thing from the start: There will be no Ferris wheel at this carnival.

That’s because The Brazilian Carnival on Saturday is a carnaval, as in festival, not your standard grade-school fare with a fishing booth and crazy rides.

This party boasts samba rhythms performed by Aquarella Folk Dancers and a drawing for trips to Brazil. The dinner portion of the show has already sold out, but you can still catch the music and dancing.

Cost is $29 per person. It begins at 8 p.m. at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. Call ahead to (800) 325-SEAT for ticket information.

Culture out our ears

Whoever said the Inland Northwest lacks culture (I think it was the esteemed Steve Hasson) hasn’t looked around lately. Two nearby events deserve a look.

North Idaho College is celebrating the 25th Anniversary Popcorn Forum with a week-long event called “An Affair with the Arts and Humanities.” Highlighting the week is the play “Camp Logan,” performed tonight by an all-black theater troupe from San Antonio. The play retells the largest mutiny and court martial in U.S. history, leading to the execution of 19 African-American soldiers of the 24th Infantry in 1917.

Tickets are plentiful at $7 a person and can be reserved by calling (208) 769-3415. Curtain is 8 p.m. at NIC’s Boswell Auditorium.

Closing the week’s events is a ragtime concert with Pulitzer Prize-winning conductor Gunther Schuller at 2 p.m. Sunday at Boswell Auditorium. Tickets are $10 each. Call the above number for information.

For something a little different, there’s the Ku-Au-Mah Pah-loots-pu Powwow today and Saturday at Washington State University.

Northwest dancers, drummers and their families are due at the powwow to share American Indian culture, to promote higher education and to gather as friends. There will be dance contests, crafts tables, WSU college tables, a queen contest and a host drum, “Indian Nation.”

The powwow is scheduled for Bohler Gym from 6 to 11:30 tonight and from noon to 4:30 p.m. and 6 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s open to the public without charge.

Music fix

The Gonzaga University Choir saved the best for last and will conclude its intermountain tour with performances at St. Aloysius church at 7:30 tonight and at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral at 4 p.m. Sunday.

The choir, under the direction of Edward Schaefer, will perform a three-part a cappella program of works ranging from 16th- to 20th-century works. The performances are free and open to the public.

American violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama will perform at WSU’s Beasley Coliseum at 8 tonight as part of the “On Stage With…” series.

The world-recognized young violist has performed all over the United States. General admission tickets are $8, students pay $4. Call 335-1514 for information.

The North Idaho Children’s Choir will be joined by the concert choir of the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus in a Saturday concert at the First Presbyterian Church in Coeur d’Alene. The concert begins at 7 p.m.; admission is $1.

If you’ve got a hankering for some fiddling, there’s no better place to go this weekend than the 27th Annual Northwest Regional Fiddle Contest at Trent Elementary School on Saturday and Sunday.

You’ll hear all ages at all levels compete, nearly 100 fiddlers from seven states and Canada will play. Sessions on Saturday begin at 8 a.m., and 12:45 and 6:30 p.m. Sessions Sunday are at 9 a.m. and noon.

Adults pay $5 for a single session, $10 for a weekend pass. Students and seniors pay $4 and $8. Children under 5 are free.

Call Lundin’s Violins, 926-7357, for more information.

Opera Buffs of Spokane presents Perry Lorenzo, director of education for Seattle Opera, at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Rockwood Retirement Community Center.

He’ll preview by lecture and musical excerpts Wagner’s “Ring Cycle,” scheduled for August production in Seattle. It’s free.

Miscellaneous fun

The Cheney Cowles Museum is holding its second “Adventurers Wanted!” auction of adventure packages at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

The event, held this year at SAFECO Insurance Co., begins with a wine social. There’s a full dinner and entertainment by the museum’s staff. The auction ends the evening.

You’ll have a shot at a weekend at the Festival at Sandpoint, kayaking the lower and upper Priest Lake, a high-roller weekend on Wall Street and many other unusual adventures.

Tickets are $35 for museum members, $40 for non-members. Call 456-3932 for reservations.

The Palouse Patchers will hold their 15th Annual Quilt Show, “Timeless Treasures,” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Latah Country Fairgrounds in Moscow.

Admission is $2, $1 for children ages 6 to 12.

The Post Falls Flyers are hosting the 23rd Annual Model Aircraft Symposium and Swap Meet at the North Idaho Student Union Building in Coeur d’Alene Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The public is invited and there is no admission charge.

If you doubt science and creativity are close cousins, visit the 1995 Science Olympiad State Tournament this weekend and be amazed.

About 750 students will compete in 46 science events that test knowledge, thinking skills and science application. What the kids come up with to perform specific tasks can be pretty unusual. The public is invited to the day-long event Saturday at Eastern Washington University.

The Spokane Folklore Society is holding an April Fools Dance featuring the Cajun music of Seattle’s Cayenne on Saturday at the Corbin Community Center, 827 W. Cleveland, from 7:30 to 11 p.m.

There will be a Cajun swing workshop preceding the dance. Admission is $7 for the general public; $4 for Folklore Society members. People under 18 get in free. Anyone is welcome, single or attached. Dances are smoke-, drug- and alcohol-free.

MEMO: This sidebar ran with story: GETTING OUT We were going to hold off on yard advice until at least April, but just one day shy, we’ll forge ahead. It’s time to head for the back yard. You can even put some of the tougher plants into the garden - pansies and primrose will offer little color spots until the rest of the yard greens up. Or, if you just want to look at yards, go downtown to the Convention Center and browse at the annual Spokane Home & Garden Show where there will be plenty of flowers and tools to make yard work seem easier, or at least more fun.