Not Hobnobbin’ With A Hobgoblin? There’s Lots Of Things To Do Anyway

Hate Halloween? You’d better hide this weekend, because everywhere you turn there will be ghosts, goblins and Judge Itos staring you down.

So, surrender and join the fun. Here are a couple things going on this weekend to help you celebrate this fun-for-all-ages holiday; you’ll find others throughout this section of the paper.

Scary options

The Spokane Folklore Society will hold its annual Halloween Contra Dance from 6:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Corbin Community Center, 827 W. Cleveland.

It starts out with a potluck dinner (bring a dish to share and your own plates and utensils), then winds into the dance instruction at 7:30 p.m. and dancing at 8 p.m.

The music is provided by the Cantrells from Helena, billed as “so good it’s scary.” There will be a costume contest, of course.

Admission is $7, $4 for Folklore Society members. The dance is alcohol-, smoke- and drug-free.

The Spokane Lilac Festival is going a little more upscale with its “Masked Madness” Costume Ball, Auction and Dance. That says it all, really. There’s plenty going on.

The event begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Mukogawa Fort Wright Commons. Cost is $20 per person. Call 326-3339 for tickets or more information.

Not your average crafts

You won’t find sock puppets and Lifesaver dolls at this craft show. The 13th Annual Inland Craft Warnings has more serious crafts in mind.

This juried craft show will present an array of pottery, glass, basketry, jewelry, fiber arts, wood works, metal designs, photography and more from nearly 50 artists from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Prices range from impulse friendly to serious collector.

The show has been moved this year to the Crescent Court at Main and Wall. Admission from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today is $2. The rest of the weekend, you’ll pay $3.50.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. All artists will be there to discuss their work and $50 gift certificate will be given out the last half hour of each day.

For more information, call 466-2973.

On stage

“Veronica’s Room” continues its run at Mason Auditorium in West Central Community Center at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Rogue Players are presenting this Ira Levin thriller, a lesser-known story similar to the twists and turns of “Deathtrap” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” Tickets are $8 general admission and $6 for seniors or students. Call 327-9907 for tickets.

Gonzaga University’s theater division continues “The Madwoman of Chaillot” at 8 tonight and Saturday in the Russell Theatre on GU’s campus.

The play is set in Paris, where a group of promoters plots to tear up the city for financial gain; the madwoman of Chaillot sees through their crooked and greedy scheme.

The production is open to the public. General admission tickets are $7, $3 for seniors and students. Call 328-4220, ext. 3153, for more information.

Music notes

The Gonzaga University Choir is hosting its annual Fall Vocal Festival concert featuring Northwest high school students at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Hughes Auditorium on GU’s campus.

The concert culminates a day when high school students work with the GU choir. Admission is $1 or a donation of canned or nonperishable food for the Spokane Food Bank.

The Spokane Chapter of the American Guild of Organists is presenting a free preview of its new recording Spokane Organists Unlimited! Hymntune Preludes, available on compact disc and cassette, at 4 p.m. Sunday at Our Lady of Lourdes.

The concert will feature 14 of the 21 organists who recorded at 19 area churches during the summer for the CD. They’ll perform on the Cathedral’s recently restored and expanded 107-stop organ, which combines the 1914 Kimball gallery pipe organ, the 1974 transept organ by Don P. Gorman and 74 ranks of digital sampled electronics.

There is no admission for the concert, though an offering will be taken. Both the CD and cassette with be for sale before and after the concert.

Mixed bag

The German-American Society of Spokane will celebrate Pioneer Day starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Deutsches Haus, 25 W. Third. The celebration commemorates the coming to America of German and other immigrants.

Dinner is first, followed by a concert by the Concordia Choir. Dancing follows to the music of the Norm Seeberger Band. Admission is $10 for all three.

Tickets are available only in advance. Call 326-4604.

The Gonzaga University Jundt Art Center and Museum opens today with a public dedication at 11 a.m. and exhibitions by internationally acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly. The new gallery is located at 202 E. Cataldo - it’s the one with the bright copper roof and steeple.

The event is free and open to the public. Chihuly’s exhibit will run through Dec. 15.

Comedians Ross Shafer and George Miller - (If you recognize their names, it’s because they’re locals. Well, Seattle natives.) - will play Washington State University’s Beasley Coliseum at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The team sold out last year at the coliseum. Tickets are $10 and available at the Beasley box office, 335-1514, and all G&B Select-a-Seat outlets.

Next week

Opera Buffs of Spokane meets Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Rockwood Retirement Center to hear Perry Lorenzo, educational director from Seattle Opera, tell about Seattle’s coming season.

Music students from Gonzaga University will sing. The gathering is free.

Ready to hear some ethnic urban New Age music? Leroy White brings his Soul and Conscience Tour to Unity of Spokane at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the church at 2900 S. Bernard.

White’s music consists of tribalflavored drumming, deep vocals, poetry and electronic instrumentation. There is no charge, but an offering will be taken.

Wednesday brings two lectures to the Cheney Cowles Museum. First is Linda Lawrence Hunt, an associate professor of English at Whitworth College, at 11 a.m.

Hunt will talk about Helga Estby and her daughter, two Norwegian women who walked unescorted across America to win a $10,000 wager in 1896.

The lecture is part of the museum’s Wednesday senior lecture series.

At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Bernard Perlin, correspondent and illustrator for Life Magazine and Fortune Magazine during World War II, will speak in the museum auditorium about his work.

Several of Perlin’s war posters are included in the museum’s current exhibit, “Behind the Red, White and Blue: Posters, Propaganda and Pride.” He is 76 years old.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing of a witch

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: GETTING OUT Once the snow blankets the ground, it’s too late to think about using found items from nature for holiday decorating and Christmas packages. Sometimes an excursion to gather conifer cones and evergreen branches is simply a good excuse to walk through the woods. For a real forest trek near the city, head for Mount Spokane State Park and stroll the roads that will become cross-country ski trails in just a few weeks (we hope).