25 October 2011 by ben.

Our family vacation this year took us to several national parks:  Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Arches.  We drove to Missoula, Montana the first day and each took a spin on the Carousel for Missoula near the riverfront park.  Day two, we drove to Bozeman and then south to Gardiner so that we could enter Yellowstone through the famous northwest arch.  The Gardiner area allows convenient access to Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar River Valley, where we saw a couple of grizzly bears, numerous bison, elk, and antelope.

We took a couple of hikes while in the park, the first in the mist and the second in the mosquitoes, and explored the area around geyser basin and Old Faithful Lodge.  And for the first time, we dined at the historic Old Faithful Lodge between viewings of the famous geyser’s eruptions.  On our drive towards Lake Yellowstone, we had the incredible good fortune to spot two gray wolves at dusk while they hunted an elk near the road.  In thirty seconds, they had vanished along with the rest of the pack we couldn’t see.  We stopped nearby, and I could hear them yipping for a couple more minutes.

After a couple nights, we drove out Yellowstone’s eastern entrance towards Cody, Wyoming, and stayed three nights at Absaroka Mountain Lodge, were we enjoyed an amazing horseback ride up a scenic ridge, an evening cook out, and a trip to Cody to see the nightly rodeo.

Heading south, we next drove to Jackson, Wyoming.  Our highlight in the area involved riding the gondola up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain, about 10500′ elevation, where we embarked on a 13-mile hike from the top, descending gradually in a clockwise manner back to Teton Village over the next 7 hours.  On the way, we had to traverse numerous small snow fields, scared up one large elk, watched several marmets study us, and encountered three bull moose just across Granite Creek.  A small shower welcomed us to an aspen forest in the final miles as our legs grew very weary.   On the drive back to our motel, we spotted a Cross Fox patrolling a recently cut hay field, a type of fox none of us had ever heard of before.

Finally, we arrived in beautiful red rock Moab, Utah, a location which allowed us to visit both Arches National Park and Dead Horse National Monument.  Both parks are scenic, and we enjoyed a dusk hike out to the famous Delicate Arch nearly clear skies with a full moon rising in the east.

Click on the photo for archive:

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17 October 2011 by ben.

Local area jazz fans were treated to a spectacular Seattle sunset just minutes before Mountlake Terrace took the stage at Seattle’s Town Hall on Friday the 14th of October at the opening performance of the Earshot Jazz Festival.  Executive Director John Gilbreath opened the festival with many kind words about the strong jazz traditions in the northwest including both Roosevelt High School and Mountlake Terrace High School, which placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the 2011 Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival in New York City last May.

Both bands treated jazz lovers with a diverse selection of big band arrangements and two World Premier compositions, one by Roosevelt pianist Chris McCarthy and another by Roosevelt lead trombone Andrew Karboski.

Roosevelt Jazz Band at Earshot Jazz Festival (click for photo archive)

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26 September 2011 by ben.

Last June, Sandy, Bonnie and I drove to Olympia to picnic with their cousins and other relatives and also to explore the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.  At the refuge, we saw dozens of herons, a rabbit, a racoon, and many other birds, and enjoyed a great view of Mount Rainier.  At the picnic, we enjoyed the company of several cousins, nieces, and nephew.

Click photo for archive:

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9 May 2011 by ben.

Raffle was the mother of our previous corgi, Bear, who died quite young of health complications.  When we adopted Raffle a month or two later, it felt like a band-aid for our hearts as she began to mother us.    Within a few weeks, we took her on her first camping trip near Leavenworth, where she proceeded to get the dirtiest ever in her life, and she loved it!  And then a few months later, we adopted a puppy named Pippin who turned out to be her own great grandson, and they always got along swimmingly.  Pipping was bigger, faster, stronger, more clever:  but Raffle was the Grandma and the boss!  The next year, we took them both to Manzanita, Oregon to our beach house rental, and both had a chance to run in the surf of the Pacific Ocean.

Raffle turned out to love playing in the snow, and her breeder, Gloria, told us that she was born in Alberta, Canada in early December, and so probably only knew snow for the first four months of her life.  By the time she was two, she was a champion corgi, winning local and regional best-of-breed titles. 

When she was older and had trouble keeping up with Pippin on walks, but still desperately wanting to join us for every outing, Sandy created a nest for her in her wagon.  When we had a big snow storm in December of 2008, Sandy pulled Raffle around the ‘hood to enjoy the beautiful snowfall. We’ll always remember you, Raffle, you were a good dog!!

Raffle in December of 2008… click for more

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7 March 2011 by ben.

It was bitterly cold in the Moscow, Idaho area during the festival this year, with the thermometer plunging to -11 degrees Fahrenheit (-24 C) on Friday evening.  Brrr…

All groups performed well for the judges, although because of the way the student concert has morphed in the past two or three years, hardly anybody comes to hear the bands, instead going to dinner in preparation for the evening concert.  I personally miss the excitement of the festival from a few years earlier when winners and runners up were announced, soloists performed on the big stage, and winner bands performed on the big stage.  When Bonnie and Sandy performed with their middle school winning band just five years ago, several thousand students, parents, and jazz fans heard them perform.  This year when the same middle school performed, there were 90% fewer people listening.  Clearly, the train has come off the tracks for the student concert.

Regardless, there were photo ops galore as Kim and I followed the Roosevelt Jazz kids around.  Vocal Jazz did have their chance to perform on the Kibbie Dome stage, mostly to their friends from Roosevelt and Garfield High School.

Click on the image below to view the complete archive.

Roosevelt Vocal Jazz Ensemble at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

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15 February 2011 by ben.

Bonnie competed in the Seattle area solo and ensemble competition (classical) on Saturday, February 12th.  With accompanist Tom Bell, she performed the difficult 1st and 3rd movements of Hindemith’s Sonata for Trombone and Piano.  I uploaded a video of her performance here.  She advances to the State Solo and Ensemble Contest to be held April 29th and April 30th in Ellensburg, Washington, where she will be joined by two of her cousins from Vantage, Nick and Carolyn.

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9 February 2011 by ben.

Roosevelt High School sent two bands to the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver Washington on the 29th of January:  the Roosevelt Jazz Band (JB1), directed by Scott Brown, and Roosevelt Jazz Band 2 (JB2), directed by Stuart MacDonald.

Since JB2 performed at 10:40 and Vancouver was over three hours south of Seattle, the bus had to depart the high school in near darkness at 6:45 AM.  After a groggy and speedy trip down I-5 and straight Clark College, we checked into the festival and JB2 climbed the stairs to the warm up room.  They would perform just 20 minutes later.

JB 2’s set sounded strong and drew much applause, and they were invited to perform in the AAA finals that evening with the other top AAA bands.  After the lunch break, JB1 performed an inspired set and were also invited to perform in the finals that evening as one of the top AAAA bands.

A dinner break followed, with the bus taking us over the Columbia River to Portland’s Janzen Beach mall area.  Chaperons, students, and directors scattered in all directions on a quest for food.  After our return to Clark College just over an hour later, both bands warmed up and coincidentally played back to back in the finals, something that rarely happens.  The JB1 set included a crowd pleasing rendition of Every Day I Have the Blues featuring vocalists Eric Reiman and Katherine Stuber that totally energized the jazz loving audience.

Final results:  JB2 won 4th place honors in AAA and JB1 won the 1st place AAAA trophy.  In addition, the award for Sweepstakes Band (best band of festival) was awarded to Roosevelt’s JB1.  Next year, they will be the honorary band who will not compete and will perform the final set of the evening (as Garfield Jazz Band did this year).

Click photo for archive:

Roosevelt Jazz Band members accepting the AAAA 1st place trophy

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27 December 2010 by ben.

This year, we had a small family gathering for Christmas:  my parents, who drove over from Okanogan for the week, plus the five of us.  During the week, everyone finished their shopping and enjoyed a seasonal flick or two.  This year, we watched It’s A Wonderful Life and The Bishop’s Wife earlier in the month, and after my parents arrived, viewed the John Ford / John Wayne classic, Donovan’s Reef.

On Christmas, Kim and the kids played a concert for us.  Sandy played the melodies on her saxophone, Scott and Bonnie accompanied on their trombones, and Kim added harmonies on her violin.  In the kitchen, Kim cooked Beef Wellington as the main course, and, with Kim’s crust, I made a chocolate pecan pie.   A few other dishes rounded out the delicious meal.

Click Santa for a few family photos:

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6 December 2010 by ben.

For the 11th consecutive year, the Roosevelt Jazz Band in Seattle performed the Jazz Nutcracker, as arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington in 1960. This annual tradition brightens the theater with thoughtful and articulate performances of this increasingly popular jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.  Many attendees had kids in the jazz programs in previous years and come to the concert to hear this great music again and to see some old friends, too.

Click the photo for the rest of the archive:

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3 December 2010 by ben.

On Friday, 3 December, Roosevelt Jazz Band put on a special pair of concerts for area 4th and 5th graders.  In each concert, the band played selections from the jazz version of the Nutcracker, as arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington.  The band played a few selections, and then director Scott Brown solicited questions from the audience, some of which showed surprising insight.  One boy wanted to know, “What does that big saxaphone sound like?”  A girl asked a question about jazz improvisation, wondering if the musician played completely on their own, or interacted with other musicians on the stage.  That was probably the most insightful question ever asked at these concerts for the local middle school kids over the past decade.

And here are some photos I took of the event, click the one below to see the full archive: 

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