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Nathan Weinbender

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All Stories

A&E >  Entertainment

Flying Spiders bring new songs, renewed determination to first show since Jordan’s death

The first day of a new year is set aside for reflection and resolutions, a chance to hit refresh, start over and to set off in new, unexpected directions. For local hip-hop collective the Flying Spiders, Jan. 1, 2014, was about all of those things and more: It’s a date that now represents their resurrection. It had been almost four months since the suicide of local music legend Isamu “Som” Jordan, who founded the Spiders and was the group’s lead emcee. The remaining Spiders refer to Jordan’s death as the “apocalypse”: His voice was so singular and his socially conscious vision for the band so firmly established that they weren’t sure they could forge ahead without him, and they were meeting on that January afternoon to determine whether the Spiders would live on.
A&E >  Entertainment

Musical comedy meets family drama in ‘Gypsy’

There’s something inherently fascinating about the painted-on glamour and inevitable tragedy of showbiz – after all, how many films, plays, novels and TV shows have been made about the rise and fall of troubled stars? But perhaps the most famous backstage tale in Broadway history is the musical “Gypsy,” which combines high comedy and lurid melodrama to tell a glorious story of unstable maternal dysfunction. “Gypsy” has been a theatrical staple since its 1959 premiere, and it’s generally considered one of the best and most influential musicals ever performed. It has been successfully revived a number of times over the years – most recently in 2008 – and it was adapted into an Oscar-nominated 1962 film starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood. Tonight it premieres at Spokane Civic Theatre, directed by Troy Nickerson, his first show with Civic since 2011’s “A Christmas Carol.”
A&E >  Entertainment

On and off stage, collaboration drives Thompson Square

There have been a lot of married duos in popular music, from Johnny and June Carter Cash to Richard and Linda Thompson, Ike and Tina Turner to Sonny and Cher. Add Keifer and Shawna Thompson to that list, but put them in the “stable” column: As Thompson Square, the couple has broken into the country mainstream with two Top 10 charting albums and several American Music Awards. They’ve been married 13 years and have been performing together even longer. Their decision to collaborate stemmed from the separation anxiety that resulted when they tried to embark on solo careers.
News >  Spokane

Stickman, Coeur d’Alene chief of staffs, tapering way back

Ask anyone walking down the street in Coeur d’Alene where to find Stickman, and odds are they’ll know who you’re talking about. Stickman’s name is Norman Oss, and he’s been producing hand-carved walking sticks under the carport next to his home near East Tubbs Hill Park for the last 15 years. He estimates that he’s made about 11,000 individual sticks – an average of two or three per day – and he’s given them all away. He’s never accepted money, trades or tips: His motto is “Not everything in life is for sale.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Interplayers show pays tribute to Kander and Ebb

There’s a scene near the end of Martin Scorsese’s “New York, New York” in which Liza Minnelli, playing a down-on-her-luck jazz singer who has been abandoned by her deadbeat husband (Robert De Niro), steps into a dark, empty recording studio. “Sometimes you’re happy and sometimes you’re sad,” she sings, “but the world goes round.” Shot in a single long take, Minnelli’s quiet, contemplative performance eventually bubbles up into an effervescent burst of joy, as she searches within herself for the silver lining in life’s dark cloud.
A&E >  Entertainment

Sea Giant finds niche with synth-pop sound

Sea Giant has always consisted of the same two guys – Conor Knowles and Kyler Ferguson – but their sound has been almost restless in its transformation. Knowles and Ferguson have known each other since childhood. Growing up in Newport, Washington, they played in bands together in high school. Sea Giant started a couple of years ago as an acoustic folk duo. But their music started edging more toward gloomy synth-driven pop – a single keyboard track would breed another and another, and now they’re almost entirely electronic.
A&E >  Entertainment

Spokane Symphony closes out classics series with Prokofiev, Mussorgsky

Sergei Eisenstein was one of the most influential filmmakers of his era, a director, writer and film theorist who helped establish basic cinematic grammar. Over the course of his career, the Russian master is arguably most famous for two action scenes – his depiction of the Odessa Steps massacre in his 1925 masterpiece “The Battleship Potemkin” and the climactic Battle of the Ice in 1938’s “Alexander Nevsky.” The latter scene, which set the groundwork for nearly every cinematic battle sequence that followed it, is a striking example of Eisenstein’s mastery of pacing, editing and visual composition. But part of what makes the images so immediately compelling is Sergei Prokofiev’s accompanying musical score, which perfectly communicates the impending dread, explosive violence and hard-fought victory of the battle.
A&E >  Entertainment

Symphony closes out classics series with Prokofiev, Mussorgsky

Sergei Eisenstein was one of the most influential filmmakers of his era, a director, writer and film theorist who helped establish basic cinematic grammar. Over the course of his career, the Russian master is arguably most famous for two action scenes – his depiction of the Odessa Steps massacre in his 1925 masterpiece “The Battleship Potemkin” and the climactic Battle of the Ice in 1938’s “Alexander Nevsky.” The latter scene, which set the groundwork for nearly every cinematic battle sequence that followed it, is a striking example of Eisenstein’s mastery of pacing, editing and visual composition. But part of what makes the images so immediately compelling is Sergei Prokofiev’s accompanying musical score, which perfectly communicates the impending dread, explosive violence and hard-fought victory of the battle.
News >  Spokane

Theater review: ‘Becky’s New Car’ both funny, deep

Steven Dietz’s “Becky’s New Car” begins as an occasionally hilarious screwball comedy and gives way to a disarmingly thoughtful drama about the nature of love, fidelity and second chances. Based on the play’s first act, which is snappy and broad and breathlessly paced, you wouldn’t imagine that it could transition so seamlessly into its touching closing scenes. It’s a tricky balancing act, but “Becky’s New Car,” crisply directed by Christopher Wooley, pulls it off. The show, which premiered this weekend at Spokane’s Civic Theatre, stars Kathie Doyle-Lipe as Becky Foster, who has been married to her loving husband, a roofer named Joe (Steven Blount), for nearly 30 years. At home she’s always picking up after her philosophizing grown son Chris (Michael Barfield) and waiting on delivery pizzas. At work she’s perpetually in over her head: As the office manager at a car dealership, she does a little bit of everything, juggling paperwork and angry customer phone calls and staying long past when the doors have been locked.
A&E >  Entertainment

50 Hour Slam puts filmmakers to the test

On a sleepy Sunday night in early April, there’s a small ruckus coming from a cordoned-off section at the back of the Saranac Public House. It’s the final meeting point for the 50 Hour Slam, a timed filmmaking competition that, now in its fourth year, puts local film auteurs under the gun. Here’s how it works: Participants have two days and two hours to write, produce and edit a 3- to 6-minute film, following specific criteria. For example, this year’s filmmakers had to incorporate a safety pin as a prop, had to solve one of two riddles that hinted at a downtown location they were required to use, and were given a historic Spokane-centric photo that had to somehow be referenced.
A&E >  Entertainment

Civic’s ‘Becky’s New Car’ a wild, energetic comedy

Sometimes our lives become defined by such familiar, indelible routines that we don’t notice how tedious they are until something – or someone – upsets the formula. This realization hits Becky Foster, the protagonist of Steven Dietz’s play “Becky’s New Car,” when a widowed, socially awkward millionaire wanders into the car dealership where she works. Becky (Kathie Doyle-Lipe) has been married to Joe (Steven Blount) for 28 years, her grown son still lives at home, and she’s taken on too many responsibilities with her job, but she’s more or less content with her life. But all of that changes when Walter Flood (Gary Pierce) enters the scene. He’s looking to purchase nine new cars as gifts for his employees, and in seeking advice from Becky about which models to buy, he comes to think that she’s a widow.
A&E >  Entertainment

Halftone gives artists an intimate showcase

It’s become an annual tradition: For one chaotic night in October, the old Music City building on West First Avenue is taken over by the artistic collective Terrain, which brings together the work of so many musicians and artists that it spills out into the street. But you can add another once-a-year celebration of Spokane’s art scene to your to-do list: Halftone is a one-night-only event showcasing local artists and bands, and although it’s just a few doors down from the Terrain space, it’s a much smaller, more intimate affair.
A&E >  Entertainment

50 Hour Slam puts filmmakers to the test

On a sleepy Sunday night in early April, there’s a small ruckus coming from a cordoned-off section at the back of the Saranac Public House. It’s the final meeting point for the 50 Hour Slam, a timed filmmaking competition that, now in its fourth year, puts local film auteurs under the gun. Here’s how it works: Participants have two days and two hours to write, produce and edit a 3- to 6-minute film, following specific criteria. For example, this year’s filmmakers had to incorporate a safety pin as a prop, had to solve one of two riddles that hinted at a downtown location they were required to use, and were given a historic Spokane-centric photo that had to somehow be referenced.
A&E >  Entertainment

Seattle comedian Jeff Dye stands tall

A lot of people are born funny, but Seattle comedian Jeff Dye was born to be a stand-up comedian. “Comedy is the only thing I’ve ever been good at,” Dye said in a recent phone interview. “I wasn’t the smart kid, I wasn’t the athlete, but I was always good at making people laugh and goofing off.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Steep Canyon Rangers feel at home playing bluegrass

Just a few years before the folk- and bluegrass-heavy soundtrack to the 2000 comedy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” became an unexpected smash, the Steep Canyon Rangers, a group of students from the University of North Carolina, had started playing bluegrass tunes at off-campus bars and parties. “At that time, at least in North Carolina, it seems like there were a lot of young people listening to (bluegrass) all of a sudden,” said Mike Guggino, the band’s mandolin player. “The acoustic music thing was just really happening, and we kind of got swept up in that.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Video game tunes get symphonic lift

When he was 10 years old, Tommy Tallarico started putting on “video game concerts” for the kids in his neighborhood. He’d traipse down to the local arcade, armed with his father’s bulky cassette player, and record hours of the blips, bleeps and bloops emanating from his favorite wood-paneled machines. “I’d splice the tape together and invite my friends over,” Tallarico said, “and I’d jump in front of the TV set with my favorite games playing behind me, grab a guitar and pretend that I was putting on a show.”
A&E >  Entertainment

‘Kid Cannabis’ chronicles rise and fall of young Idaho drug smuggler

Countless movies open with a title card informing the audience that what they’re about to see was “based on a true story” or “inspired by real events,” but very few movies have demanded such a notice as desperately as “Kid Cannabis.” It’s a tale of drugs, duplicity and murder that’s so crazed you almost don’t believe it actually happened. But it did, and right in our own backyard. The events that sparked director John Stockwell’s film took place in Idaho in the early 2000s, when a group of teenagers and 20-somethings, led by Coeur d’Alene resident Nate Norman, were caught smuggling marijuana across the Canadian border. Police estimated that the crew had moved and sold upward of 17 tons – roughly $38 million worth – of pot in less than two years. Norman, then 21, was immediately identified as the ringleader and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
A&E >  Entertainment

Seattle comedian stands tall

A lot of people are born funny, but Seattle comedian Jeff Dye was born to be a stand-up comedian. “Comedy is the only thing I’ve ever been good at,” Dye said in a recent phone interview. “I wasn’t the smart kid, I wasn’t the athlete, but I was always good at making people laugh and goofing off.”
A&E >  Entertainment

‘Kid Cannabis’ chronicles rise and fall of young Idaho drug smuggler

Countless movies open with a title card informing the audience that what they’re about to see was “based on a true story” or “inspired by real events,” but very few movies have demanded such a notice as desperately as “Kid Cannabis.” It’s a tale of drugs, duplicity and murder that’s so crazed you almost don’t believe it actually happened. But it did, and right in our own backyard. The events that sparked director John Stockwell’s film took place in Idaho in the early 2000s, when a group of teenagers and 20-somethings, led by Coeur d’Alene resident Nate Norman, were caught smuggling marijuana across the Canadian border. Police estimated that the crew had moved and sold upward of 17 tons – roughly $38 million worth – of pot in less than two years. Norman, then 21, was immediately identified as the ringleader and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
A&E >  Entertainment

Folk singer Craigie creates travelogue through music

They say you should write what you know. For folk musician John Craigie, that’s life on the road. The characters in his songs are wanderers, ramblers and vagabonds traveling from town to town, and many of them are modeled after Craigie himself. Some of them are even named John Craigie. “What’s cool about being a solo musician is that you become a character in your songs,” Craigie said in a recent phone interview. “The audience comes to the shows wondering what the adventures of John Craigie are like. I’m partially referring to the character, even though it definitely is myself.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Getting your groove on

I have too many records. Most vinyl aficionados will probably tell you such a concept doesn’t exist, but when albums start stacking up precariously due to lack of shelf space, you’ve got a problem. That doesn’t stop me, however, from picking up a copy of a favorite album if the price is right, which becomes a dangerous proposition when a particular record store’s selection is top notch. That’s why Record Store Day is a godsend for analog junkies: It’s a great excuse to shell out more dough for wax (including some limited edition special releases), all of which supports local businesses.
A&E >  Entertainment

‘Laramie’ explores lasting impacts

In November 1998, members of New York City’s Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie, Wyo., a sleepy small town west of Cheyenne. Five weeks before their visit, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Laramie native, had died after being severely beaten in a secluded rural area. His two attackers, who also robbed and tortured him, are serving life sentences. It became apparent that Shepard was killed because he was gay, and the case stirred a heated discussion of hate crimes and homophobia in America.
A&E >  Entertainment

‘Laramie’ explores lasting impacts

In November 1998, members of New York City’s Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie, Wyo., a sleepy small town west of Cheyenne. Five weeks before their visit, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Laramie native, had died after being severely beaten in a secluded rural area. His two attackers, who also robbed and tortured him, are serving life sentences. It became apparent that Shepard was killed because he was gay, and the case stirred a heated discussion of hate crimes and homophobia in America.
A&E >  Entertainment

Metal meets Wild West

Although Volbeat formed in the early 2000s in Copenhagen, Denmark, their sound owes as much to the earliest American rock ’n’ roll as it does modern Danish death metal. “I couldn’t really label it or brand it,” said Michael Poulsen, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, in reference to the first songs he wrote for Volbeat. “It was a little bit country, a little bit punk, pop-rock, rockabilly. All those styles blended together.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Photographer welcomes musicians to intimate studio

With all of the changes happening on the 400 block of West Main Avenue, Rick Singer Photography remains in the same location it’s occupied for 33 years. For the past decade or so, the studio has served double duty as a live music venue, and it’s the kind of space that imitates the loose but comfortable vibe of a spontaneous jam session in someone’s living room. A show in Singer’s studio, however, is going to sound superior to one in your average parlor. He sets up the bands in his cyclorama, a concaved wall that’s typically used as a photographic backdrop but also functions as a makeshift stage in the corner of his studio. “What’s nice is that my studio has more room, and with this cyclorama, it’s a natural acoustical band shell,” Singer said. “It makes the instruments sound great, and the musicians love playing here.”