Paul Turner: Street Music Week is back this week and deserves your support

Suppose someone had just arrived in Spokane and found himself walking around downtown some day this week at lunchtime.

Would encountering musicians of varying degrees of ability performing on street corner after street corner make him reassess his assumptions about the Lilac City? It might. And all things considered, that’s probably not a bad thing.

Because let’s face it, in the eyes of some, Spokane has a reputation for being a wee bit uptight.

A critical mass of guitars, harmonicas, violins and voices raised in song might challenge that starched image.

Yes, Street Music Week is back for its 16th year. But something’s unmistakably different this time around.

Event founder Doug Clark is no longer at The Spokesman-Review. He retired last summer after 35 years with the newspaper. He now writes a monthly column for Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Living magazine.

So this is the first year Street Music Week has not been preceded by a round of tub-thumping columns about the festival, which raises money for the Second Harvest food bank network.

But Street Music Week is now practically a Spokane institution. And it’s not just a downtown thing. You can hear performers in the Garland District and Coeur d’Alene.

Clark remains very much at the center of the event, which bears his indelible stamp.

An occasionally polarizing writer with many, many fans, he was happy to lend his Spokane celebrity (and his own musical talents) to the ever-growing Street Music Week. The result? It has raised more than $180,000 to help feed this area’s hungry – much of it coming from small contributions deposited in each volunteer performer’s donation bucket.

“We’re hoping this year to pass the magic $200,000 mark,” said Clark.

The event started small. Really small. Then it caught on. Now it’s a thing.

But there’s always room for more. All musicians are welcome.

If you would like to try out your busker chops this week, just check out the fact box about where to go and what to do.

Those who dismiss the event as a stage on which a retired columnist can ham it up miss a couple of key points.

That much money buys a lot of meals for people who need the help.

And Clark, never debilitated by crippling shyness, made this happen. He made this event out of nothing except a column idea and the sheer force of his outsized personality.

Street Music Week does something else, too, besides raising money for the food bank. It gives people who sing or play an instrument a chance to experience appearing before an audience of strangers.

Assuming the musicians survive, they have to emerge as slightly more confident people.

How can that be anything but good for Spokane?

Well duh, that’s the whole idea

A little boy I’ve met was looking at some pictures of his family’s house. His parents are intending to sell the home, and the photos are part of an online real estate listing.

He paused and looked at his mom. “These make our house look better than it really is,” he said, not altogether approvingly.

His mom quietly reminded herself that he is still too young to fully understand how the world works.

How to know if you have a classic Spokane personality type

Are you able to answer “Yes” to these questions?

Do you regard The Spokesman-Review and the Inlander as an extended index of topics you don’t care about?

Ever said “Seems like at least one word in ‘Vacation Bible School’ doesn’t belong”?

Would your family say that you love to grumble and spout observations like “When did chefs become a thing in Spokane?” and “So they made a movie based on some Spokane Peter Pans who didn’t want to grow up and face the grim slog of adulthood?”

A better question

Emails from my friend Nancy Hill and others make me think this might be a better small-world question: Where in your travels have you been to a place where you did not encounter someone wearing a Bloomsday shirt?

When your smartphone

makes you feel dumb

Many of us, of course, have had the experience of our phones doing something we had not requested. I suppose butt-dialing is the time-honored classic.

But has your phone ever done something you wouldn’t know how to make it do on purpose even if you wanted to?

For me, it’s playing music I had not requested.

OK, your turn.