Happy Medium School, 620 20th Ave. S., is now the Giddens School, changed in honor of the school's founder, Huda Giddens. Madrona K-8 School, 1121 33rd Ave., has appointed its PTSA board for the 2005-06 yearThe Seattle Girls' School, 2706 S. Jackson St., received a $3,500 Small and Simple Grant from the city's Department of Neighborhoods over the summer.Three East-Central Seattle graduating seniors were among the 24 to receive scholarships from the Seattle School Retirees Association.
Kindergartners and first-graders at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, 3201 E. Republican St., got some help from 20 Puget Sound Energy employees planting bulbs (above) the school purchased from nearby City People's Garden Store. The students also made pictures of what they wanted their school to look like after they were finished.
Aa fifth-grader, Doug Fleming Jr. wrote his first song - a rather adult-themed song called "I Want to Make Love to You" - and performed it with his band The Peacemakers at his older brother's birthday party. Now, Fleming performs his rock 'n' roll children's songs more than 400 times per year, mostly at day-care centers, schools and Learning Garden educational centers throughout the Greater Seattle area. He also sings at birthday parties, bookstores and the annual Folklife Festival with Decateur Buff percussionist Mike "Bongo" Young, himself a stay-at-home father with a toddler.
The Southwest Airlines public-relations machine is at full volume concerning its proposed move from Sea-Tac International Airport to Boeing Field (King County International Airport). Unfortunately, Seattle residents are not matching the carrier's noise with hard questions and harder facts about the impact such a change will have on the region. Considering the number of people who live in the immediately affected areas of Georgetown, Beacon Hill and Magnolia, few have shown up at community meetings to voice their dissent over the proposed move with Southwest Airlines and King County representatives. While this citizen apathy continues, Southwest Airlines and King County Executive Ron Sims are running their own campaigns of vague promises of regional benefits, but very few people are listening closely to what they're saying.Sims called Southwest Airlines' "generous" with its $130 million relocation-investment proposal. However, Southwest Airlines wants to limit the spending to its new passenger terminal, parking garage and any "accommodations" it must make for increased airport traffic. This doesn't include improvements to the existing road system, for Ron Ricks, a Southwest Airlines senior vice president, deemed the roads feeding into the Boeing Field area "adequate." Ricks is citing an older traffic study done by the county, a study that didn't take into account the effect a major airline would have on the area if it set up shop at Boeing Field. With this in mind, Ricks also neglects to mention that each of the airline's projected 80 flights per day will drop off about 200 passengers per plane and pick up about 200 more. These people will need to get to the airport somehow using cars, taxis or buses. Light rail is out of the question, it's going to Sea-Tac Airport.
Former and current Roosevelt High School students will have a chance to shine and the school's selection for its 2006 spring musical will be revealed at the upcoming Light Up the Stars fund-raising event on Saturday, Oct. 15."There is such excitement in the air," drama teacher Ruben VanKempen said. "There are a lot of families that come year after year."Last year about 300 attended. When the event began 18 years ago, it was quite simply a fund-raiser to obtain lights for the performers. Now the money raised goes to lights, as well as other items, such as a piano, that are needed to support the drama and musical theater programs at the school.
The Nathan Hale Raiders put up a good fight but couldn't keep up with the speedy Cleveland Eagles Friday night. Cleveland won 28-18. The Raiders fall to 0-6.
Gertrude, Zelda and Beatrice just cluck at all the media attention they've received lately. That includes an upcoming segment on "The Today Show," numerous spreads in national magazines and a writeup this month in Seattle Homes & Lifestyle magazine.But the three Buff Orpington hens represent a growing phenomenon in this country: They're "city chickens," living in a modular, brightly colored, two-level pied-a-terre coop in Jennifer Carlson's back yard.Worth clucking aboutCarlson, a landscape designer, notes that she's taught Seattle Tilth classes about them at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. "We have standing-room-only classes of 40," Carlson said of City Chickens 101 and City Chickens 201. "Now I only teach city-chicken-coop-building classes."
There was an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment among the local and government organizations that gathered at the Green Lake Bathhouse on Sept. 20 to share their work on Green Lake's water quality with the community. But the work is hardly coming to an end. "It is a complex issue," said Karen Schurr, chairperson of the Friends of Green Lake organization. "Many people ask why we haven't figured it all out yet, but it is very complex."Spurred on by Schurr and the Friends of Green Lake, the meeting informed residents of the successful 2004 alum treatment with presentations from government agencies such as the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, King County's Department of Natural Resources and Seattle Parks and Recreation.
This is Part II in a two-part series examining local trends in growing, buying and consuming organic foods.Although everyone agrees that eating organic isn't cheap, there's still good reason to spend a little more."We think of it as health insurance," said Diana Crane, community and public relations manager for PCC Natural Markets: If you make healthy-food choices, you'll spend less for medical care."I feel good buying the food that I'm buying and serving," said Don Wilson, owner and chef of the certified-organic Sterling Café in Ravenna. "I'm proud of what I'm doing. I don't consider cost." Someone who eats hot dogs would consider eating steak expensive, he said, but someone who eats steak would probably never consider eating a hot dog.And although you'll still spend more money on an organic meal than going through a local drive-through, as a result of organic food's popularity, increased competition and more mainstream distribution, Smith said he's actually seen prices go down.
If it weren't for Cindy Sherman and her self-portraits, I'll bet few in Seattle aside from feminists and art scholars would have heard of Claude Cahun. Even with Ms. Sherman, there probably aren't many who know the name. That's not to say Cahun isn't an appropriate subject for an exhibit. It's just to suggest that the current show at the Frye is more than a bit esoteric.Claude Cahun is a representative of the Surrealist movement, despite the fact that the better-known Surrealists didn't welcome her into their fold. But her whole life was surrealistic, and one has to understand that to understand the exhibit. Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France, in 1894, she was the highly intelligent and radical daughter of a wealthy, conservative French publisher. Her father was Jewish, and the family wasn't particularly religious. Her school friend Suzanne Malherbe, a Catholic, became her lover, and the two set off on an artistic partnership that lasted throughout their lives. Lucy adopted the name Claude Cahun, and Suzanne became Marcel Moore. In 1917, when Claude's father married Marcel's mother, the school friends/lovers/intellectual partners became sisters. Sisterhood was a good cover for lesbian intellectuals in the 1920s.
The following letter was sent recently to the Sound Transit Board.Dear Sound Transit Board:At the Sept. 13, 2005 Board Meeting of the First Hill Improvement Association, Mr. Don Billen presented an outline of the Goals and Objectives for the study of First Hill Transit Alternatives. We were told the study has five objectives and criteria:* Improve the Quality of Transit Service.* Increase Transit Ridership.* Provide a Financially Feasible Solution.* Preserve Environmental Quality.* Develop Alternatives that can be deployed by (the time of) University Link Opening.The study will compare alternative solutions such as:* Giving higher priority to bus lines along Madison, Broadway, Boren and James.* Increasing the frequency and hours of service on routes nos. 60, 9, 2 and 12.* New connections/modes.* Other ideas, including sidewalk improvements and extension of the ride free zone.During and after the presentation, a certain amount of community skepticism emerged, focused on four main areas, which we would like to share with you.
Several weeks ago, while taking a run one afternoon with my dog Meggie, I passed a handsome woman strolling down 16th Avenue. Dressed in a simple white T-shirt and pants, she had chocolate brown skin and high cheekbones. I'm a friendly runner so I called out "Good afternoon, how are you?" As Meggie and I passed she responded, "Just fine, love," and smiled and waved at me.We crossed Harrison Street and Meggie, who'd found a sweet spot on the tree lawn, resisted going forward. The lady in white caught up with us.Our eyes met, and we nodded again. Before Meggie and I darted off she called out, "I'm holding a benefit for Katrina all day today. If you'd like some delicious rice and beans look for the white balloons a block back. You won't regret it."
From a wall of windows, light floods Mayor Nickels cheerful office as he smiles and comes forth to shake my hand. "Hi, Mona," he says. "The last time I saw you was at the ice cream social in Othello Park." I am not surprised that the mayor of Seattle with a constituency of close to 600,000 citizens remembers my name. He always recognizes me when we meet. This is a man with a phenomenal memory.Greg Nickels is a solid presence the size of a quarterback fully suited up. With the ease of a seasoned politician, he offers me a seat beside him at a conference table, giving me his complete attention to signify that his scheduled half hour is fully mine for the interview. As if born to the job of running Seattle, Greg Nickels began his political career at age 19 as legislative assistant to then City Council member, Norm Rice. In 1987 Nickels won a seat on the King County council. There he served for 14 years before becoming mayor in 2001. I pull out my half dozen big-picture questions and begin:
While not everyone in the city spends time thinking about it, the signs and posters, planted in lawns and plastered windows tell the tale. An election is at hand. November 8, less than a month away, offers voters the chance to cast votes for Seattle's mayor and four of the nine city council positions.With that end in mind, a local candidates forum earlier this week provided an opportunity for the community to hear from the candidates directly. Sponsored jointly by the Miller Park Neighborhood Association and the Capitol Hill Community Council, the Monday, Oct. 10, forum held at the Miller Community Center attracted roughly 70 people, all told, which felt like a strong turnout on a drizzly fall night. The structured event featured all eight city council candidates, plus mayoral candidates Greg Nickels and Alfred Runte and school board candidates Mary Bass and Jane Fellner. (Due to length, this overview will be limited to the city council races.)
After The Black Panther Party reunion in Seattle this past summer, people were excited and inspired to carry on the legacy of Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Kwame Ture, Elaine Brown, Assata and Fred Hampton. Brother Emery Douglass, minister of culture, gave us an idea of how we could capture the imagination of the people using revolutionary images and sounds together in filmPeople all over the world had been fed volumes and volumes of misinformation about the Black Panther Party (BPP). This misinformation campaign was carried out by way of newspaper, radio, magazines and television. So if media was the poison then, the immunization against it (according to dialectical materialism) would have to come out of media, right?We all know the age-old sayings "TV is junk food for the brain", "Movies are too violent!" Well not all TV and cinema falls into these classifications, there are exceptions.Television, cinema, radio and paper media are like water: they take on the shape of their container. In this case, their containers happen to be agents of misinformation and propaganda.