When a local student wins an award at a music festival, the parents and school are naturally proud. But when the musical groups from one school sweep all possible musical awards at such an event, it is nothing short of phenomenal. Such was the case with the recent victory by 185 students, grades 6-8, from Washington Middle School at the Anaheim Music Festival, which took place May 19-22. According to Beth Fortune, orchestra and choir teacher, students took first place in all categories and managed to take all other possible awards."Our students received 13 trophies, plaques, and certificates and any other awards possible," said Fortune with more than a touch of wonder in her voice. The groups that participated included choir, junior band, concert band, and senior orchestra. Not bad for an inner city school. Fortune attributes the students' success to several factors, including solid parental support.
The Seattle Central Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual, three-day Juneteenth Freedom Festival & Parade in Pratt Park over a sun-filled Father's Day weekend. Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom that originated in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to commemorate the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Lone Star State.
Alex Welles, a longtime Mountaineers Club member, climbed to a base camp at Annapurna in late April. He said he expected it to simply be a strenuous Himalayan hike. But Welles was wrong and ended up saving the life of a fellow hiker who was sliding down an ice chute to certain doom - thanks to an unseasonable snowstorm."Basically, it was a special trek...mainly centered around Ed Viesturs' summit attempt on Annapurna in early May," Welles said of the Bainbridge Island resident's successful climb.It was a chance to catch a bit of history in the making, Welles said, because Viesturs' Annapurna climb made him the first American to scale all 14 mountains more than 8,000 meters (26,250 feet) tall in the world without the help of oxygen.
A handful of local peacemakers will embark on a journey of a lifetime this November as they travel to Nigeria to promote global peace, community service and grass-roots change.The trip is being arranged by Global Citizen Journey, a Seattle-based nonprofit that was established last November with a mission to build understanding and bridge cultural differences through education and friendship.The 20 delegates will work alongside 20 Nigerians to build a library in the Niger Delta, located on the Gulf of Guinea on Nigeria's southern coast, as part of the group's inaugural journey. They will go as ambassadors to discover new ways of thinking, living and understanding.
Last weekend, the Fremont Arts Council (FAC) held an enthusiastic and energetic parade to celebrate the solstice - and Fremont survived. I'd feared the coming of this year's parade as the date loomed and I heard murmurs about the potential content: people being hung by hooks? PURE (People Undergoing Real Experiences) had submitted a pirate-ship float proposal that involved people suspended by their piercings.
Unless transit riders speak up their bus service will be put at risk in the future. How might that happen? The answer lies in legislation that the City Council will vote on Monday, June 27.The planThe City Council had previously voted Council Bill 115292 out of the Transportation Committee by a vote of 5-2 (Licata and Peter Steinbrueck dissenting), which authorizes the mayor to proceed with the construction and operation of the proposed South Lake Union (SLU) streetcar.According to the mayor's plan, King County Metro will operate the SLU streetcar, but the city will be responsible for 100 percent of the SLU streetcar's operation and management (O&M;) costs until either Sound Transit LINK Light Rail begins operations (estimated to occur in mid-2009) or the Seattle Monorail project begins operations (estimated to occur in 2010).
The Ida Culver House-Broadview dedicated its memorial garden to Janiss Lyle Furry (1934-2001) in mid-May. Daughter of former Seattle mayor Thomas J. Humes, Furry taught in the Seattle School District for 30 years, before retiring and later helping the Seattle Education Auxiliary establish Ida Culver House-Broadview senior community, 12505 Greenwood Ave. N., with ERA Care Communities in 1990.
World-famous jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson will perform at the Taproot Theatre on Sunday, June 26, in support of the nearby Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St.All proceeds from Anderson's upcoming concert will go to the senior center to help with operating expenses.
Seattle Green Map, a new web-based map, was launched June 2. With the map, Seattle residents and visitors can look up eco-friendly buildings, recycling sites, organic and natural food stores, cultural sites, community centers, trails and transit, polluted sites and more.The online map, at www.seattle greenmap.net, will include detailed site descriptions, locations and contact information, as well as video features of sustainable stories from across the city, as created by students at Seattle Girls' School.
The Frye Art Museum is exploring new ground with a series of exhibits by contemporary artists who bring a bold, fresh look to the museum. The visitor can still see the extensive display of well-loved items from the permanent collection, but complementing these works are temporary exhibits that challenge perceptions about representational art and encourage dialog about its diversity and complexity.The latest of these arresting exhibitions is "Oliver Herring: Taking and Making." This is Herring's first solo exhibition in the Northwest, although his work has been shown in top museums both domestically and internationally.
Ed Berk is a friend to people. Not just on Capitol Hill, where he has lived for the past nine years, but all over town, thanks to the Senior Companion Volunteer program.The program, sponsored locally by Volunteers of America of Western Washington, schedules volunteers to provide special assistance to elderly persons and adults more than 18 years old who have special physical, mental or emotional needs.Volunteers have between two and five clients who they visit on a regular schedule, usually working in the program 20 hours a week. Volunteers must be more than 60 years old, in good enough health to help the clients and low-income.
Last week Seattle City Council's Transportation Committee voted 5 - 2 to go ahead with the South Lake Union streetcar - at a cost of more than $50 million. Unless there is an outcry from the public, full council approval on Monday, June 27, seems assured. Millions in limited city transportation dollars will be siphoned off to underwrite the construction of the 2.6-mile line designed to shuttle office workers, tourists and residents into and out of billionaire Paul Allen's glitzy new South Lake Union neighborhood.What's worse, the City Council also signed off on the mayor's plan to take funds earmarked for new Metro bus service hours in Seattle and divert those monies to help cover the streetcar's estimated $1.5 million annual operating cost. Literally half of all new Metro bus service (9,000 annual hours) committed to Seattle's neighborhoods for the years 2002-2007 will be taken away. And when the streetcar's operating expenses rise above projections or when fare box revenues don't bring in expected revenues, the streetcar plan approved by the council would allow even more neighborhood bus service to be reduced to cover the shortfalls.
It's the sort of thing that happens to other people. For most of us, fortunately, being mugged is not part our normal, everyday experience.But that can change very quickly. It did for Holly Hadfield. Hadfield lives near St. Joseph's Catholic Church, a neighborhood with a beautiful canopy of trees and expensive, older homes. At the end of May, on a hot spring night, Hadfield was mugged on East Aloha Street near 18th Avenue East as she walked home.A dance and performance artist, she graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in 1998 and moved to Europe for three years. Returning in 2001, Hadfield has danced with a wide variety of companies. She now works out of a local studio within walking distance of her home, teaches dance and movement and works as a waitress three nights a week to help with bills.
On June 11, Kaspar's, the beloved creation of Chef Kaspar Donier, his wife Nancy and brother Markus, stopped serving regular dinners five nights a week, as it had been doing for the past 16 years. To my dismay, it also ended the best happy-hour secret in town, with really good food that was startlingly inexpensive, as well as a great drink and wine selection. Fortunately, Kaspar's will remain a presence in the Seattle dining scene in almost every other imaginable form.
Although the current featured exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum is ostensibly a show of Isamu Noguchi's sculpture and design, it really should be considered a collaborative work. In SAM's new show, the decorative and functional art of Noguchi is the centerpiece of Robert Wilson's installation. And in this instance, the installation is as important as the objects on display.Noguchi, master of minimalism in furniture, stage sets, lamps, urban design and sculpture, fused Western modernism with Japanese aesthetics. The child of an American mother and a Japanese father, he was exposed to the influences of East and West throughout a life that spanned much of the 20th century. His impact on art and design is enormous, and contemporary furniture design and much of modern sculpture continue to reflect his style. Museums throughout the world include his work in their collections.