Buzz Bin

by Inlander Staff


O Author - There we were the other day, thumbing through our new issue of O: The Oprah Magazine -- quit snickering you punks... here in the Buzz Bin we like an occasional foray into the glossy world of women's magazines -- when we saw a familiar name. Natalie Kusz, whose article "The Fat Lady Sings" appears in the August issue of O, is the author of both Road Song and an essay in the forthcoming anthology The Bitch in the House, due out in September from William Morrow & amp; Co. She is currently a member of EWU's Creative Writing program and has earned a Pushcart Prize, an NEA grant and a Whiting Writer's Award, as well as being published in Harpers and the Threepenny Review. Kusz's intelligent and perceptive article explores the stigma of being zaftig in a society that values thinness, while simultaneously celebrating the freedom to be found in ignoring society's mandates about weight.





Speaking of Local Writers - A few weeks ago we published a little piece on Inland Northwest Lit, ending with a request for readers to let us know if we missed anything. We got an immediate onslaught of mail letting us know we forgot Terri Hein's excellent Atomic Farmgirl. In fact, we're still getting several e-mails a week (one from Port Townsend, we noticed), regarding this personal favorite set 30 miles south of Spokane. Thanks for the feedback. We'd also like to mention several other missed titles and authors: Katie Schneider's What We Know of Love, poet Laurie Lamon and Jesus's Son author Denis Johnson, who lives near Bonners Ferry.





High-Octane Handbells - We get all sorts of great press releases in the Bin, but one of our recent favorites would have to be from Campanile, an L.A.-based handbell group that bills itself as "a combination of handbells, Stomp and Cirque du Soleil." The group wears things like leopard print, gold lame and black lace gloves to perform such secular crowd-pleasers as "Wipe Out," "The Pink Panther Theme" and "Tequila." They have a local understudy, Barb Silvey-Farnsworth, and they'll be performing Friday night, July 26, at the Spokane Valley United Methodist Church, 10422 E. Main, at 8 pm. Call: 924-7262





The Davenport on TV - KSPS Channel 7 airs The Davenport Hotel -- Grand Again next Thursday, Aug. 1, at 8 pm. This one-hour documentary, produced by Tom McArthur and hosted by Ellen Travolta, offers two minutes of the rare Louis Davenport home movies and covers both the history of the hotel and Walt Worthy's ambitious renovation project. The documentary's debut will be an occasion in itself -- KSPS plans to debut it live at the hotel that night.