Seven

Yes, Black History Month is a celebration, but it still pulls Black people to answer a gritty question about their livelihood beyond resilience: How does one build an identity, home, in a world that is unapologetically, and actively, anti-Black in policy, action and culture?

What makes a record feel like it belongs to the Pacific Northwest? It could be the subject matter (“Send Me Down Saint Helens” certainly fits the bill) or sound or the art, image and aura that surround it. Or all of these things, as is the case with Matt Mitchell Music Co.’s latest album, “Captive of the Mind.”

After a year away from local theaters, I felt overjoyed to see the return of the Spokane International Film Festival and enjoyed the many flavors of cinema both foreign and local. My only regret is that I have to write this article on a Monday, and there are still so many films and shorts I want to watch and discuss.

Singer, self-proclaimed ​​International Blonde Bombshell and trans icon and former Club Kid Amanda Lepore will join the cast of Runway, “the premiere drag experience,” for a Valentine’s Day cabaret show hosted by the Globe Bar & Kitchen, at 204 N. Division St., at 7 p.m. Saturday.

I recently fell ill. Fortunately, I tested negative for COVID-19, but whatever sickness I had still hit me like a truck. I hadn’t fallen ill even once since the lockdowns began in March 2020, so I’d become spoiled living a sickness-free life. Aside from classic cold and flu symptoms like fevers and muscle aches, I found myself shocked by just how cloudy my brain functioning became.

As with Kenneth Branagh's previous Agatha Christie adaptation, "Murder on the Orient Express," "Death on the Nile" is an undeniably handsome, old-fashioned affair – a classic "locked room" murder mystery set not on a snowbound train, as that 2017 film was, but on an equally photogenic river boat in Egypt.

Following an interruption due to COVID-19, music director James Lowe was back in town to lead the Spokane Symphony in a pair of concerts Saturday and Sunday comprising a cluster of celebrations. To honor Black History Month, two works by Black composers appeared on the program.

Nearly four decades into one of the most influential careers in the history of alternative rock, it would be easy for a band like Dinosaur Jr. to soften up their reputation for ear-bleeding volumes and easygoing attitudes from their 1990s heyday. But Dinosaur Jr. is not that band.

Niche sports documentaries – especially those focusing on the peculiar, even obsessively risk-taking personalities of the athletes, whether they be mountain climbers or cave divers – have moved into the mainstream. Focusing on the life and career of climber Alex Lowe, "Torn" would initially seem to be of that ilk.

After taking a hiatus in 2021, the Spokane International Film Festival returns this weekend and promises to present a local and international palate of cinema that cannot be seen anywhere else. “We felt it was important that the community have an opportunity to experience art in a collective way,” says Pete Porter.

Much has changed in a generation for indie rock bands. Recording artists like Dinosaur Jr., Camper Van Beethoven and Sebadoh were performing to half-filled clubs during the late 1980s. Nowadays, these three acts are packing theaters. Dinosaur Jr. headline Monday night at Knitting Factory downtown.

From Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Edward Elgar, themes of love and friendship run throughout this weekend’s "Spokane Symphony Masterworks 5: Pictured Within."  “The starting point was really Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations,’ ” music conductor James Lowe said. “Each variation of the tune portrays a different friend of his.”

With apologies to Post Malone's father, David Koechner isn't a Dallas Cowboys fan. The comic-actor just plays a rabid aficionado of America's Team on television. "It's crazy since Post Malone's dad (Richard Post), who is my age, comes up and hugs me when I was backstage at his son's show a few years ago."

Here's something you can't say about every movie: I learned something I didn't know from watching "Sundown." To wit: Acapulco sure ain't what it used to be. The follow-up to Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco's "New Order" is set in the once-fabled seaside resort town, which is still struggling to rebound.

Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels were unimpressed by the Tom Cruise movies because he simply didn’t fit the author’s description. Alan Ritchson is a more faithful casting as the brawny military veteran in the new series “Reacher” (2022, TV-14). (Amazon Prime Video)

Lucas Brown – 9 p.m. Friday, Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Lucas Brown visits Zola. This event is for ages 21 and older. For more information, visit zolainspokane.com and click on “Live Music.” Admission: FREE

Capitol Hill Block Party is a music festival that annually overtakes a large part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Throughout the three-day festival, local bars, musicians and participants are swallowed up into a frenzy of art and party all on the blocked-off city streets.

"Murderville," featuring a new homicide case every episode, follows a senior police detective (Will Arnett) tasked with solving murders alongside a rotating cast of partners – each played by a celebrity guest star without a script. That’s right, each guest star must improvise their way through the investigations.

Washington State University professor Taiji Miyasaka and Seattle artist and engineer Clayton Binkley joined forces in the summer of 2020 when a call went out for an overhead lighting art installation at the recently completed the Podium sports complex.