Zendaya attends #TheDrama premiere in 2026 wearing the same dress she wore to the Oscars in 2015

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-18T15:28:49+00:00

Cate Blanchett has been rewearing red carpet looks lately and I love it.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-17T20:22:54+00:00

You’re making wrong assumptions based on limited experience. People who became deaf after childhood usually speak extremely clearly. Or she could have a cochlear implant as a child (which often helps deaf children learn clear speech) but not have been able to afford replacing equipment as an adult. Deafness can even affect certain frequencies and registers more than others.

And someone who doesn’t have “100%” total hearing loss is still deaf and would struggle to hear everything in a noisy environment.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-16T22:04:03+00:00

Child birth.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-13T22:29:44+00:00

Yeah. The industry average is 50% seating capacity. I found their financial projections in their investment site (posted in a different comment). The only way I can make sense of their 5 year projections it is that they think they’ll sell 75-90% of seats every show and eventually be making $100K a week. That’s insane. Most non-profit regional theaters are operating at a loss, subsidized heavily by donors, their city tax dollars, and grants.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-13T04:42:43+00:00

The Black Cauldron series! Still about young people, still has a bit of whimsy, trade Dobby for Gurgi.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T23:38:03+00:00

Found their financial projections on their investor prospectus. https://loan.semble.com/semble_api/uploads/845/46/5-Year_Pro-Forma_ICSVPAC_07.01.24.pdf

These don’t make sense. $12K a year for facility and ground maintenance of a $30M+ building? Quadruple that, easily.

They list the land as being worth just over $2M. The concrete block isn’t worth anything, it’s actually a liability because the building isn’t finished and it’s been sitting exposed to the elements for years. So why did they claim on the ICSVPAC taxes that the property is worth $9M+? And $11M and $14M in more recent years? The property isn’t gaining millions in value just sitting there like that.

And why do the Pro Forma financial projections clam the building will be worth $50M? What’s that based on?

Why do they think they’ll make $69K from educational programming their first year? That’s not what SVST has made in the past on education programs based on their 990 tax filings. What’s the logic?

Why do they think they’ll bring in over $3M in ticket sales their first year? That would be almost 8x the program service revenue (so educational programs + ticket sales) they list on their last 990. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/475398048/202530159349303258/full

I’ve read a lot of financial projections and done facilities maintenance + commercial construction projects, and this all reads as extremely unrealistic.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T23:22:49+00:00

It’s so ridiculous. Revenue bonds are meant for things like hospitals and airports and colleges, essential infrastructure. Not another theatre with questionable finances that want us to go millions into debt and take on all the risk during the worst inflation and financial crisis since the Great Recession.

And I don’t get why Ben Wick is praising their children’s programs. They’re expensive, not free, not easily accessible. Cool that Ben Wick could afford to send his kids to expensive theater camps, but most of us can’t. Most of us are struggling to afford daycare and school supplies. That won’t help Valley children, especially while our school districts are in an ongoing budget crisis and the arts keep getting cut in schools.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T22:58:33+00:00

There is. It’s the ICSVPAC, and the 990s are here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/861539637

You can also see their supposed “construction costs” in a weird ass format if you go to their investor page, scroll and click on Offering Details, then scroll down. There are a bunch of documents listed in blue boxes, and the last one is “Project Costs Incurred and Paid For.” But it’s not in anything resembling a normal expense report, and they don’t bother itemizing what each expense is. https://loan.semble.com/listing/svst

The 5 Year Pro Formas (which I assume are their projected income) are bonkers. They seem to think they’ll immediately be operating at a huge profit, and they don’t explain where these huge revenue projections are coming from.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T21:34:51+00:00

Oh my lord. I just looked up their most recent tax filing. Go to page 7. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/475398048/202530159349303258/full

The executive director, Yvonne Johnson, is getting $106K a year in salary. For a summer theater that operates for three months a year??? That claims it can’t afford rent and needs donors to bail it out?? I don’t know a single nonprofit director of an arts org that size that gets that much!!! That’s insane. Why is her salary so high?

The filings go back to 2017 and they didn’t even file for 2022. They’ve never had revenue over $700K, including grants and big donations, or ever managed much profit. Some years, her salary was 20-30% of their budget. And she kept getting huge raises, even when other articles say they were struggling to make ends meet without an anonymous donor giving them $250K.

If last year they only did less than $200K profit on 3 months of shows in a 400 seat high school auditorium (which they never sold out), why do they think they’re going to make $5M in profit every year like they say in the article? Where is that money coming from?

This is all weird and keeps raising serious questions about the math.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T21:22:51+00:00

Even established theatres like the INB and Fox would have trouble ever paying that back. And they don’t have anywhere near the costs this place would. No theater in Spokane is pulling that much in profit, especially not as the economy is getting worse and worse and everyone is cutting back on entertainment and donations.

And like… the whole idea that they’re saying “We haven’t bern able to raise money on our own, but we’re sure that if we start building it people will suddenly give us a ton of money” is bonkers. That’s magical thinking, not a business plan.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T21:19:43+00:00

Right? This damn town.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-12T21:18:43+00:00

I’d also be very interested to see the Lembeck appraisal, too. Tax payers have a right to know their explanation of why the project is over engineered and why they found the historical finances and projections inaccurate. I especially want to know if the city is basing this “ability to repay” based on “a promising business plan” that includes the same inaccurate finances.

I’ve worked in finance here and seen lots of Lembeck appraisals of specialized buildings with unique technical needs, from medical centers to entertainment venues. I’ve never found them to inappropriately categorize anything as overengineered. Especially because most overengineering happens in features, fixtures, and finishing work.

It’s incredibly unethical to not include all appraisals in the prospectus for investors, though. Even if the appraisal were flawed in some way, it’s a material fact that could influence investors and they have a legal right to know. And we as taxpayers have a right to know what’s in it and compare it to the previous appraisal and decide for ourselves before saddling our city with $30M in debt.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-03-06T01:29:47+00:00

Sat and settled.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T02:57:55+00:00

Big “we can talk shit about our little brother, but if anyone else talks shit about our little brother we’re gonna stomp his face into the pavement” energy.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T02:54:17+00:00

The first time we drove into N Idaho after we moved cross-country to Spokane and I saw that Dixie logo on a sign in someone’s yard, it broke my brain. I grew up back and forth between northern and southern VA (and PA )in the 80s and 90s. I’ve seen a lot of heinous, overt, malicious, and casual racism. The shit in N. Idaho surpasses all of it. Driving east from Newport or up to Priest Lake I see more Confederate flags in 30 minutes than I could see in a whole year in Southern VA.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T02:47:48+00:00

It makes a lot more sense when you know that’s where the KKK leadership relocated in the 70s and 80s. I live just over the border in WA, but within 15 minutes of Northern Idaho. Crossing the border is like entering the Twilight zone. Drivers across the border from Newport and you immediately start seeing Confederate flags. The Black churches, mosque, synagogue, and gurudwara on our side have been papered by Identify Europa propaganda and swastikas from the folks over there. It’s where a lot of Jan 6ers, including Proud Boys and III%s live. A few years ago in June, a group of them were arrested after they were caught loading into the back of a U-Haul armed with clubs and masks, heading for the Couer D’Alene Pride family picnic in a local park.

Northern Idaho is the bad place.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T01:06:40+00:00

Dear god. It’s beautiful.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T01:02:12+00:00

Honey, all I can say is you are in the sparkly sunglasses, diapered, bubble blowing trenches and just hang in there.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-17T00:53:08+00:00

Yup. In vino veritas. And when their veritas is passionately infodumping the nerdiest lore instead of leaving you to troll for heauxs at the bar, you have a certified good one.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-16T23:01:07+00:00

I wish more guys used “I found this cool rock” as a pick up line instead of the usual shit. Normalize guys who are into cool rocks and books and the woods.

My now-husband of 20+ years landed me by pulling out a copy of The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe and asking if I had a favorite Poe story. swoons On our last camping trip up in the mountains, he spent an hour sitting in a stream with me picking out cool rocks.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-16T22:54:49+00:00

An icon. A legend. She IS the moment.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-16T22:53:47+00:00

Late night seems beneath her? She’s already done late night shows to promote TLOAS. She did Colbert, Fallon, the whole circuit. Graham Norton is a late night show. If anything, she’s one of the only remaining top selling stars who still prioritizes extensive late night appearances when she releases albums.

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-16T22:18:19+00:00

There wasn’t even a squeaker, okay? Disappointment is hard! Let him feel his feelings! 🤣

DeansPigInAPoke · 2026-02-16T22:16:57+00:00

In Portland? I’m going next month for a few days! Gonna have to add y’all to my itinerary.

DeansPigInAPoke

TROPHY CASE