Spokane Is Backdrop For Movie Romance
Do you remember the movie “Love Always,” starring Marisa Ryan, Michael Reilly Burke, Moon Zappa and Beverly d’Angelo , which was filmed in downtown Spokane and Riverfront Park?
No, you probably don’t. This road movie/romance was filmed nearly two years ago, back in August 1995, and still hasn’t been released. It was titled “All Points Between” at the time it was shot, which only adds to the confusion.
Well, the movie is finally coming to theaters in September, and more specifically, it is coming to a Spokane theater (yet to be determined) on or about Sept. 26.
Writer-director Jude Pauline Eberhard said the movie has already been shown at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival and reviewed in Variety.
Variety called it “the most authentic answer to an often-asked question in American movies, ‘What do women want?’ “
As with any independent production, the biggest problem is finding a distributor. So Eberhard, based in San Diego, plans a unique marketing strategy - she’ll take her road movie on the road. She’ll be staging premieres in a number of different cities, beginning in L.A. and moving north to San Francisco, Portland, Spokane and Seattle.
Eventually, the movie will open in 20 cities, she said, and then she hopes it will be picked up for wide distribution.
The movie is about a woman who realizes, several years too late, that she let the man of her dreams slip away. She hits the road in a quest to track him down: destination, Spokane.
A fab festival lineup
That Festival at Sandpoint lineup was announced last week, and after the new organizers spent months lowering expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.
Any schedule that includes George Benson (Aug. 1); Booker T. Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama (Aug. 2); John Prine (Aug. 7); and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (Aug. 8) can’t be all bad.
The list also includes The Doobie Brothers (July 30); Martina McBride (July 31), and the Umo Ensemble (Aug. 3).
The only big disappointment: The Spokane Symphony has been cut back to only one concert (Aug. 9). But we already knew that was going to happen.
Tickets go on sale Monday through G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.
Meanwhile, back at The Ranch Speaking of concerts, another outdoor music festival is planned at Cocollala, Idaho, just a few miles south of Sandpoint.
It’s called The Ranch, and the lineup begins with Sam (“Soul Man”) Moore plus 20 other bands in the “Blues-Jazz-Old Time Rock & Roll Festival” on July 26-27. This will be followed by Ricky Skaggs and Doug Kershaw at the “Country-Western-Bluegrass Festival” on Aug. 16-17; and a tentative Willie Nelson Labor Day Weekend Picnic concert on Aug. 31.
For information and tickets, call The Ranch at (208) 683-4000.
Beverly Sills on ‘Baby Doe’
A local interview with famed soprano Beverly Sills will be heard on KPBX-FM (91.1) on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. on the subject of “The Ballad of Baby Doe.”
Spokane’s Uptown Opera is presenting this Douglas Moore opera May 23-31 at The Met. KPBX program director Verne Windham asked Sills, in a recorded interview, if she remembered auditioning for the work’s premiere at the New York City Opera in 1957.
She said she remembers being concerned that the director would think she was too big for the part of the 5-foot-2 Baby Doe Tabor. So, by way of reverse compensation, she wore her tallest heels and her tallest hairstyle.
“I must have been 8-1/2 feet tall,” she said. “At the beginning of the audition, I told him, ‘I’m going to be as big for the production as I am now, so if this isn’t acceptable, tell me and I can save your time and my energy.”’ She won the part over 103 other sopranos.
Tickets for the Uptown Opera production, starring Camille Kowash as Baby Doe, are available through G&B Select-a-Seat.
A vast volcanic project
A KSPS-7 documentary crew is in the midst of one red-hot tour of the Pacific.
The three-person crew is out filming three recently active volcanoes in the Pacific Rim’s “ring of fire”: the Unzen Volcano in Japan, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, and the Rabaul Caldera in Papua New Guinea.
They are filming a documentary called “When Sleeping Giants Wake,” thanks to an $18,000 grant from the Pacific Mountain Network, a consortium of PBS stations in 14 Western states. The documentary will show what these three communities learned about disaster preparedness.
This will be a follow-up to 1995’s “St. Helens: Out of the Ash” documentary. The crew consists of producer Alison Kartevold, videographer Jim Zimmer and audio technician Dawn Wiley-Bayman.
Silly DJ stunts, part VII
Radio listeners should be aware of the latest wrinkle in DJ stunts in Spokane.
It’s something called “The Benefits of Being an Early Bird” stunt, and it goes something like this:
Between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., the DJs tell listeners they are going to play a trick on everyone who tunes in after 7 a.m. The DJs say they are going to pretend they have done something horribly embarrassing, or maybe even illegal, although the exact nature of the offense is usually vague.
They urge their early-bird listeners to call in after 7 a.m. and berate them on the air. The listeners (pretty good actors, some of them) usually pitch right in, scolding the DJs for committing such a heinous offense, and even calling for their dismissal. The DJs apologize profusely, leaving all the new listeners to wonder, “What did these guys do?”
The purpose: To create a “buzz.” Those who aren’t in on the joke get agitated, and call in and defend the DJs. They also call the station and Mr. Spotlight to find out the exact nature of this hideous offense. Sometimes, the DJs even pretend to be suspended for a day or two.
This stunt has been pulled by at least two stations in Spokane (which will remain unidentified in the interests of not giving them free publicity) within the last two months, most recently on Thursday.
The DJs don’t always ‘fess up afterwards, leaving the impression that it was all real. I just thought you might want to know.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MEMO: Spotlight is a column of news and commentary on the arts and media. To leave a message on Jim Kershner’s voice-mail, call 459-5493. Or send e-mail to jimk@spokesman.com, or regular mail to Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.