Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Drummer and Composer Aaron Alexander is a New York City based klezmer and jazz drummer, composer, bandleader and educator



Aaron grew up in Seattle, played classical violin from the ages of 4 thru 12, attended Eckstein Middle School, Nova and Roosevelt High School where the jazz band was led by the renowned Waldo King. Waldo really turned Aaron on to jazz music as a way of life and forever changed his direction. The following year Alexander began private studies with Jerry Granelli through Cornish College of the Arts. When he finished high school he attended Cornish and studied with Granelli, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester, James Knapp, and Randy Halberstadt. He attended the Banff Centre's Jazz Intensive in 1988 where he studied with Dave Holland, Marvin Smith, Anthony Davis, Muhal Richard Abrams and Pat LaBarbera. He has studied drums privately with Jerry Granelli, Sam Ulano, Gerry Hemingway, Bob Moses, Joe Morello, Victor Lewis, Woody Pierce and Mike Clark.
Alexander has appeared on over 50 CDs and his compositions have appeared on many of them, including CDs by Babkas (3 CDs on Songlines), Hasidic New Wave(4 CDs on Knitting Factory & Nottwo), Jay Clayton/Jim Knapp Collective(CDs on ITM Pacific and Sunnyside), Klezmerfest, The Kleztraphobix, Freeplay, and of course his CDs as a leader.
For the rest of the Bio, go to http://www.aaronalexander.com/shortBio.html

Wynton Marsalis


Wynton Marsalis playing with Seattle's Roosevelt High School band, winner of the 2005 Essentially Ellington competition

Queen Marie of Romania and Princess Ileana and Prince Nicolas visit Seattle's Roosevelt High School on November 4, 1926.


Queen Marie of Romania and Princess Ileana and Prince Nicolas visit Seattle's Roosevelt High School on November 4, 1926.
On November 4, 1926, Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) and her children Princess Ileana (age 17) and Prince Nicolas (age 23) visit Roosevelt High School at the invitation of the Roosevelt Girls’ Club. Queen Marie and her children are in Seattle after dedicating the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, Washington. The visit to Roosevelt is just one feature of a day jammed packed with motorcades and public appearances, but Queen Marie and Princess Ileana, charmed by the Roosevelt girls, insist on alighting from their car to pay their full respects.

Courting the Queen

The Roosevelt Girls’ Club first courted Queen Marie in the spring of 1926 by writing to her and inviting her to visit their school if her long-rumored trip to Washington ever came to be. They also requested her photograph to use in a booklet of her sayings that they had been collecting. They sent along a copy of the Roosevelt “R” Book, a 3 x 6 inch, green student handbook emblazoned with a golden “R." The book outlined all of Roosevelt’s rules and regulations, school songs and creeds, and the constitution of the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

Queen Marie’s participation in the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and her 1924 appearance on the cover of Time magazine, as well as her published articles and fairytales, made her a role model for many women and girls.

Excited Preparations

The Roosevelt News reported the student body’s excited preparations for the royal visit:

“In honor of the royal party the Roumanian flag will fly immediately below the flag of the United States; the band will stand at the right of the flagstaff and play the Roumanian national air as the Queen alights from her automobile ... the Rough Riders are to form a guard of honor on both sides of the front steps while the Aurora Guards will line up in front of the entrance ... the stage will be decorated with the American and Roumanian colors” (November 4, 1926).
The Aurora Guards were a group of female students with red hair who greeted visitors to the school and helped new students acclimate. The group's founder was Roosevelt High School's girls guidance counselor, Rose Glass (1880-ca.1965), a flamboyant redhead, who may have met Queen Marie while performing volunteer service with the YMCA in France during or just after World War I.
Queen Marie noted in her diary, “I stopped my motor and the chief-girl came out with flowers and told me that they had been awaiting me with intensest (sic) eagerness because they were the school that had corresponded with me this spring and I had answered sending them my picture. I then suddenly remembered the name Roosevelt High School Seattle and how they had sent me a little book with the ‘statutes’ of their school and how they classed all the red-haired girls for certain charges of duties, and there indeed stood up in a special row were about two dozen girls every one of them with red hair. It was like a dream to be really there” (America Seen By A Queen, p. 102).

A Fine Lot of Young People

Queen Marie’s American hostess, Constance Lily Morris, remembered the Roosevelt students:

“A fine lot of young people crowded the high flight of steps leading to the front door -- boys and girls looking the picture of health. A few of them ushered the Queen up the front steps while the rest of the assembled crowd shouted ‘M-A-R-I-E’ in unison a number of times, ending with a loud war-whoop. When the Queen reached the top of the landing, she saw a row of red-headed girls, and she immediately remembered that she had been corresponding with these girls for some time as they had sent their pictures to Roumania, and called themselves ‘The Red-Headed Band.’ They seemed like old friends, she said. It was a unique demonstration, and she enjoyed it thoroughly, and often laughed about it afterwards” (On Tour With Queen Marie, p. 135).
The crowd gathered on the Roosevelt lawn was 2,000-strong. Roosevelt was the only spot on Queen Marie’s long motorcade where the royal party alighted from their Lincoln limousines. The Roosevelt News quoted Queen Marie as saying “I cannot disappoint them -- I must get out” (“Assembled Students Cheer Heartily ..."). Roosevelt Girls’ Club president June Voss welcomed the royal party and led them up the steep, broad stairway to a specially erected dais.

The Seattle Star noted, “Cameramen and motion picture operators almost spoiled this event by boring inside the lines of students and arranging themselves in a row in front of the dais where the queen and her two children stood. Marie, seeing nothing but clicking shutters in front of her, turned a haughty, royal back on the cameramen” (November 5, 1926). According to The Roosevelt News, Princess Ileana told the girls around her, “This is the first school we have visited and I’m glad it could be this one. I have wanted to visit your school ever since I have read your creed” (“Queen Marie Visits”).

The Girls’ Club presented Queen Marie and Princess Ileana with bouquets of pink Ophelia roses. Prince Nicolas was given a felt Roosevelt banner. Loud cheers for each member of the royal family, led by cheerleader Kenneth Wilcox, followed.

A Handsome Prince

“The immaculate young prince wore a delighted grin as he heard the students’ voices echo his name with real fervor,” reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “An irrepressible little minx, standing on the sidelines, just couldn’t resist the temptation and, as Prince Nicolas passed, she reached out and plucked at his arm. ‘Oh, you sheik!’ she cried -- and if there wasn’t pure adoration in her smile there’s no such thing in all the world. Prince Nicolas seemed just a bit put out at first, but her smile was too much for him” (“Marie Rushed Hither, Yon ...").

Young women of the 1920s used the term “sheik” as a high compliment referencing silent film star Rudolph Valentino’s 1921 movie The Sheik.

Roosevelt High School received a thank you letter written by Queen Marie’s personal secretary, Robert Papworth, from her train, The Royal Roumanian. A few weeks later The Roosevelt News reported that the Girls’ Club was sending Queen Marie and Princess Ileana a Christmas gift: “To Queen Marie will go the creed of Seattle and the Girls’ Club creed printed in poster form and Princess Ileana will receive the Roosevelt creed ... Nothing will be sent to the Prince Nicolas unless the Boys’ Club should decide to send something” (“Girls Send Gifts To Queen And Princess”). Queen Marie’s response to these gifts, if any, does not appear to have survived.

Gentle Ben, Snowden retireing from Roosevelt High School



by Craig Smith
Seattle Times staff reporter

The teacher and coach they called "Gentle Ben" at Roosevelt High School is retiring after a 41-year career.

Ben Snowden, best known as coach of the Roughrider state-championship boys basketball teams of 1973 and '82, also had an impact on thousands of students as a physical education teacher and track and cross-country coach.

"You don't realize how much you touch kids' lives until they tell you," he said last week at Roosevelt. "Often, it's just the little things that touch someone's life. To them it's a big thing, but to you it's just something (a small kindness) that should be done."

Snowden has been hearing a lot of nice things as his final day at Roosevelt approaches. He was honored at a reception last week attended by more than 150 people.

"It was overwhelming," he said.

Many former players attended, including four starters from the 1973 title team, among them James Edwards, who had been cut in junior high school and had to be coaxed to try high-school basketball by Snowden and his assistant, Larry Whitney.

Edwards went on to star at the University of Washington and play 19 years in the NBA, winning three championship rings.

One thing Snowden doesn't miss about coaching is dealing with pushy parents who have an inflated opinion of their child's ability.

"I won't miss the parent issues," he said. "I don't miss the parents who would say, `Why isn't he playing? He's going to be an All-American.' But on the other hand, I also dealt with some wonderful, wonderful parents."

Asked to compare modern students with those of previous decades, Snowden said, "They aren't as respectful. I think they are much more casual than they were before. . . . In lots of ways, kids are still kids. That's why I like them. I think the thing I like most is seeing them come in as a ninth-grader and seeing the changes when they are seniors. I don't mean physically maturing. I mean upstairs. All of a sudden, they grow up and they are young adults. That's been one of the things I like the most about teaching school."

Snowden grew up in Mount Vernon and was cut from the basketball team as a sophomore. His best prep sport was boxing and he was state lightweight champion when boxing was an interscholastic sport.

"Boxing taught me a great deal," he said. "How to defend myself and how to think on my feet and make decisions when you had to and not get mad. You had to stay cool."

Another influence on Snowden's style was the man he succeeded at Roosevelt, John Fuller.

"He wasn't a yeller or a screamer," said Snowden, who figures it rubbed off on him.

"If you're excited when the kids come off the floor, then you don't get much accomplished."

The nickname "Gentle Ben" connotes calmness, and it came from a 1960s TV show about a friendly bear.

Ex-Roughriders liked playing for Snowden.

Jay Nemitz, who played for Snowden in 1992 and 1993, said, "You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has anything negative to say about him as a person or a coach.

"He was so approachable and just a good guy," Nemitz said. "I enjoyed having the chance to be around him."

Snowden began coaching the Roosevelt varsity in 1967 and retired in 1995 with a 337-265 career record and the two state titles. The Roughriders appeared in a third state-championship game, in 1987, when they lost to city rival Garfield, 63-60.

One of his most memorable victories was over Mount Rainier in the 1982 playoffs when the Roughriders trailed by six points with 52 seconds to play and didn't have the ball. Making a withdrawal from the miracle bank, they won. Two steals and layups by Peter Nielsen were pivotal in the victory.

Memorable players? In addition to Nielsen and Edwards, they include Craig Nichols '71, Will Brantley '87 (Oregon State) and Peter Dukes '88 (Stanford), Gary Gardner '82, Randy Sheriff '71 and Craig Jackson '82.

In girls track, two of his best were sprinters Debbie Adams '77 (considered one of the best athletes in state history) and Asa Pennington '79.

Snowden quit coaching track and cross-country two years ago. Last year, he had a knee replaced and the post-operation months haven't been trouble-free. Next Wednesday, he officially retires from teaching and his position as head of the physical education department.

Snowden, 65, and his wife, Venette, have three adult children and seven grandchildren. His retirement plans include travel and bird hunting.

It will be strange for him to walk out of Roosevelt a final time, but he said, "I'm ready. It's time."

Friday, March 19, 2010

Dan Raley Roosevelt class 72

Dan Raley March 19, 2010 at 5:46pm
Subject: books
Carl,

1) I have a book in book stores and on http://www.facebook.com/l/69f77;Amazon.com, entitled "Tideflats to Tomorrow: The Story of Seattle's SoDo," produced by Seattle's Fairgreens Publishing;

2) I have a book in production, entitled "Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers," to be released in 9 or 10 months by University of Nebraska Press;

3) I have a third book in progress, a biography of NBA player Brandon Roy, tentatively entitled "The Trail Blazer." I'm seeking a bigger publisher for this one, but haven't finished or contracted this book yet.

Meanwhile, I work as an editor in Atlanta. Paying for two college educations for my daughters has put me into writing overdrive. ... Thanks for your interest.

Dan Raley

Monday, March 15, 2010

Keeping up with Muriel Siki


International Day of Democracy: Events in 2008
09.45 - 10.00, Brief introduction of the panel and panellists by Moderator, Ms. Muriel Siki (Swiss Television TSR). 10.00 - 10.15, Video message from Mr. ...

www.ipu.org/dem-e/idd/events08.htm - 45k

U-Games
The 2009 U-Games 2009 will begin in one week. The Swiss university ... Muriel Siki, television hostess of Dolce Vitae on TSR1, will also be at the starting ...

u-games.ch/en/archives-news-2009.php - 24k

THE WORLD OF PARLIAMENTS
for the IPU for the period 2009-2011 are spelt out in its strategic plan. As ...... moderated by Swiss journalist Muriel. Siki (TSR). ...

www.ipu.org/PDF/wop/32_en.pdf

Muriel Siki, Roosevelt Class of 1972, Journalist (Télévision suisse romande)



The 2004 ECLOF International Board meeting took place at the La Longeraie conference centre in Morges, Switzerland. Muriel Siki was a representative on the Board of the Swiss constituency. " Everybody must have access to a more equitable information society. That was the purpose of the Summit", said the MPs attending the Parliamentary Panel organised by the IPU as part of the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva. Very well, but how can you guarantee the right to information for all countries, North and South alike? Some of the participants in the Panel, which was chaired by Mrs. Muriel Siki, a Swiss journalist, shared their thoughts She is herself Swiss-American and has been a television journalist for over 30 years. Muriel currently lives near Geneva and makes programmes for the Swiss national television service.

Après avoir participé au lancement d'Actu où il a travaillé jusqu'à aujourd'hui en tant que chef d'édition pour les différents journaux, Jean-Paul Cateau quitte l'univers de l'info pour un nouveau pari quotidien en compagnie de Muriel Siki.
Histoire, clarinette, caddie et TJ : la bio de Jean-Paul Cateau
Jean-Paul Cateau a suivi des études de lettres (histoire, musicologie, anglais) à l'Université de Genève, obtenant en mars 1987 une Licence en Histoire générale. La même année, il est engagé comme journaliste-stagiaire par la TSR. Pendant deux ans, il collabore à de nombreuses émissions - actualités, magazines, sports ? et complète sa formation par divers stages en presse écrite, à la Radio Suisse Romande et à l'Agence France-Presse.

Il travaille ensuite comme journaliste-présentateur au Journal Romand de septembre 1987 à juillet 1989. En septembre 1989, il rejoint le magazine d'information Tell Quel où il signe divers reportages sur l'actualité sociale en Suisse, obtenant notamment le Prix de la SRT Vaud pour Le rappeur, la prostituée et le maraîcher. Une année plus tard, Jean-Paul Cateau collabore au magazine scientifique TéléScope où il obtient également deux Prix pour Six milliards de races.

En 1993, il lance avec Martina Chyba la nouvelle formule d'A Bon Entendeur où, pendant quatre ans, il assume successivement reportages, productions et présentation. En 1997, il rejoint la rubrique économique du Téléjournal, qu'il partagera dès septembre 1999 avec la présentation de « Cadences ». Une émission en résonance avec sa passion pour la musique : Jean-Paul Cateau joue de la clarinette et du violoncelle.
En septembre 2001, Jean-Paul Cateau participe au lancement d'Actu où il travaillera jusqu'à aujourd'hui en tant que chef d'édition pour les différents journaux.

Fin du printemps 2006 : nouvelle aventure pour Jean-Paul Cateau : il endossera le rôle de journaliste-producteur éditorial aux côtés de Muriel Siki pour la nouvelle émission quotidienne qui s'ancrera sur TSR1 dès le 28 août aux environs de 17h50. Le grand public verra ponctuellement Jean-Paul Cateau sur le plateau de ce nouveau rendez-vous qui privilégiera l'art de vivre.

Dan Raley Roosevelt Class of 1972


Dan is presently with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as a story editor and
anchor write. Dan left the Seattle PI after being part of that insitution for many years.

Good bye from Dan Raley
This is goodbye. Heartfelt. Tearful. Somewhat involuntary.

After 30 years, and that's the longest relationship I've had with anyone except for a few chosen relatives, even trumping my marriage by a year, I'm headed out the door of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which will no longer exist as a newspaper as of tomorrow.

Permit me to reminisce a little before I toss away those interview notes I collected yesterday and today, and won't need anymore for Washington's run in the NCAA Tournament, and pull the plug and slink away.

It was a great run. I went from this part-time, temporary P-I employee with no guarantees, from this kid hired after leaving Alaska's Fairbanks Daily News-Miner to replace a woman sportswriter who was headed to a pregnancy leave, to a permanent P-I employee within a month and someone who has covered just about everything since.

I remember walking in the door at the old Sixth and Wall P-I building for my first sports department shift. I wore a suit. A kid named Scott Anderson in a Mad Magazine T-shirt and an older guy named Phil Taylor in a stained golf sweater were there to welcome me. I learned how to dress down after that.

I had my mouth fall open when people such as Muhammad Ali and Bubba Smith and countless other athletes walked into the sports department, with Ali playing tricks and mesmerizing everyone on his visit. The late Pete Axthelm, of TV and Newsweek fame, was seated at my desk one day when I arrived, in town on assignment, given a workspace out of respect. I grabbed another desk.

I had my P-I career ups and downs. I took chances, none more than leaving the sports department, or toy department as we like to call it, to become the P-I police reporter for three years (1993-1996), a much more serious-minded venture, simply to make myself a better journalist. I'm proud of that more than anything. The cops were cool, too. Just treat them fair. They'll tell you about the bad ones.

I know I've made some of you mad, others incredulous, at what came out of my laptop. Mostly, I tried to give you an honest take on things, mixing current affairs with a look at Seattle's sporting past. As a Seattle native, I made it my mission to keep the memories of our old sporting heroes alive and well. My Where Are They Now series topped out at more than 300 stories.

I was able to cover 20 major golf tournaments, which included six Masters. I got to play the place. I shot 109 with a birdie. I was happy with that. I covered or was part of coverage that took in 10 bowl games, a dozen Final Fours, two NBA championship finals, four American League playoffs and one Super Bowl. I'm estimating I wrote more than 6,000 stories at the P-I.

I'm no star-gazer, never have been, but there aren't too many jobs that permit you the chance to sit and have one-on-one conversations with the likes of Jessie Owens, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Elgin Baylor and Muhammad Ali. That probably won't happen in my next job.

My favorite stories that I wrote for the P-I were the following: 1) Spider Gaines, the UW Rose Bowl hero turned pimp: 2) Hugh McElhenny's late-life revelations about his well-funded UW football career; 3) Solving the murder of civil rights leader Edwin Pratt; 4) defining Ken Griffey Jr.'s swing, with the help of a half-dozen hall of famers; and 5) the tale of Royal Brougham.

I worked directly with some real P-I giants in this changing business, among them – and this is my Oscar acceptance speech – Art Thiel, James Wallace, Carol Smith, Jim Moore, Clare Farnsworth, John Owen, Bill Knight, Ron Matthews, Pete Wevurski, Angelo Bruscas, Glenn Drosendahl, Bill Plaschke, Tracy Ringolsby, J Michael Kenyon, Scott Anderson, Lenny Anderson, Blaine Johnson, Don Fair, Gordy Holt, Tyler Kepner, Jim Street, Gary Washburn, Sheldon Spencer, Jim Redding, Steve Rudman, John Engstrom, Mike Barber, Keith Olson, Paul Rossi, Jack Smith, Dwight Perry, Bud Withers, Danny O'Neil, Steve Dominguez, Ron Tillary, Molly Yanity, Ted Miller, Carter Cromwell, Boyd Smith, Phil Taylor, Debbie Carlton, Holly Cain, John Hickey, Dave Andriesen, Jim Caple, David McCumber, Warren Wilson, Gerry Spratt and Nick Rousso. Sorry, but Tim Kelly, in my own little protest, does not make this list.

I now invite you to support Seattlepi.com. Friends of mine will be working for it. It should be a radical departure from what we know with newsprint, but it might become a blueprint for other papers that start falling around the nation, maybe in town, and there will be more. I probably wasn't supposed to reveal this, but for anyone mad that I won't be continuing on with the Web site, I had an opportunity to join it but I couldn't make it work for me. Maybe some day. …

I now have to find another job. I have a kid in college and one who wants to go. I want to stay in Seattle, but am willing to consider relocating for work, even going overseas. My neighbor works in Afghanistan. Maybe I will, too.

Should you want to offer me a job, or simply check in on my well-being, friend or stranger, feel free to e-mail me at danraley54@aol.com or call me at home at 425-292-9168.

It's been my pleasure and a great honor to write stories at the P-I for so long. Thanks for reading my stuff and supporting my paper.

Dan Raley