random thoughts

Sherman Alexie is from the Spokane area. He's the author of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" which is the book that the movie Smoke Signals is based upon. Jim Boyd is also a local, I think. There is a music store here that sells his music. (He is a Native American folk singer.) Smoke Signals has some scenes that were shot here. Also, the movie Bennie and Joon was shot in Peaceful Valley, which is a small neighborhood near the river and under the Maple Street Bridge.

(I tried riding my bike across the Maple Street Bridge at around 8:30 p.m. one evening this past fall. The pedestrian lane is basically a fenced "tunnel" that is suspended over the river next two four lanes of traffic. Halfway across I came across a small bicycle that someone had removed the seat from and left on the concrete walkway. "Why is that there?" I thought. Had someone been accosted and had their bicycle wrecked? THAT was when I looked around and realized I was trapped in a tunnel with no way out and if someone should try to stop me or harm me I was trapped. To my right was a street with traffic and to my left was hundreds of feet of empty space with a swift moving river below. And I couldn't go either direction anyway because there was a chainlink fence on either side of and above me. That was when I started peddling as hard as I could. I shot out of the bridge tunnel, peddled up a small hill and recognized a transient person sitting listening to a radio in the shelter of another bridge. I was out of breath but his presence startled me again and I peddled harder. When I reached Jon's apartment I was breathless and a bit sheepish. I now ride my bike mainly in the daylight, and NEVER across the Maple Street Bridge.)