This little guy was born into a prosperous, adoring family full of love for him and determined to do everything possible to give him a good start in life and to raise him to be a good man. He deserves it. And so do all other babies born into this world.
Now, for the rest of an eventful year.
In July, at Aunt Joanne's request, I took her, my mother, and my sister to the Sunrise Visitor Center at Mount Rainier National Park.
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| At Sunrise |
Lots of music!
On January 20,
Philharmonia Northwest presented a chamber musicale at the Piranha Shop in SODO. I was in a group performing the first movement of Antonin Dvorak's
beautiful string quintet op. 77 and was also in a bass trio (the Adagio movement of Poradowski's
Trio for Three Contrabasses) with the rest of the Philharmonia bass section, Brent and Megan. January 20 was also the day of the Women's March so CJ joined us at the Piranha Shop after doing her civic duty.
On February 25, in the third concert of the 2017-2018 season, we (Philharmonia Northwest) performed an all Latin American concert, including a new piece commissioned by the orchestra,
Tres retratos Mexicanos (Three Mexican Portraits), by Mexican-American composer Osvaldo Mendoza. The inimitable Seattle Symphony violinist
Mikhail Schmidt gave a great performance as the soloist in Argentine composer
Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (Four Seasons in Buenos Aires) and, during rehearsal, had lots to say to the bass section!
Our annual collaboration with the Kirkland Choral Society took place at Benaroya Hall as we performed Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem, more commonly known as Verdi's Requiem. We dedicated the concert to the victims of gun violence in America.
Orchestra + choir + good soloists = lots of musical power!
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| My bass onstage at Benaroya Hall before the Requiem |
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| Philharmonia Northwest and Kirkland Choral Society onstage at Benaroya Hall for Verdi's Requiem. Sadly, I am not in the picture, being too far to the right. |
Since our principal bass, Brent, hurt his hand, I was principal for this concert and we hired a replacement to take his place. Playing principal at Benaroya Hall - that's a first!
On April 29 we played an all Bernstein concert in honor of his 100th birthday year. My takeaway: some of his music is HARD! Still missing Brent. A paid sub took his place.
Our annual
Seattle Young Artists concert was, as usual, packed with talented young people playing their hearts out. Again I was principal and Brent shows no signs of coming back anytime soon.
One of our board members, who is also a composer, corralled Megan and me to play in a bass quartet he had written called "Home Run." Get it? Four basses. We did not get enough rehearsals but played it anyway on May 29 at Seattle Central College. On the bright side, he paid us $250 each.
I attended my 5th
MMR in August. My prearranged group, a string quintet, had originally planned to play the Dvorak Op. 77, but we read through the first movement of George Onslow's
String Quintet No. 12, Op. 34 and promptly fell in love with it. David Brown of the Vancouver Symphony coached us and our performance on Saturday morning turned out very well.
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| Happy with our performance! With our coach David Brown. |
One of the best times at MMR this year was getting some people together in the evening to sightread chamber music. Several of us gathered to play Brahms string sextets, Dvorak's string quintet, and some other pieces late into the night. So much fun.
Philharmonia's first concert of the 2018-2019 season was at Benaroya Hall on September 29, as we played an all Taiwanese program including singers and musicians from Seattle, Vancouver BC, and Taiwan. Our conductor, Julia Tai, is from Taiwan and she worked tirelessly to make this concert happen, rehearsing singers in Vancouver and Taiwan beforehand and bringing it all together for the concert. Paid for two substitute bass players as Brent is still out and Megan took the season off to finish a music ed degree.
Our second concert, on November 18, was a celebration of Seattle composers and featured Seattle Symphony cellist Walter Gray. Composers Sarah Bassingthwaighte, Ken Benshoof, and William Bolcom were featured with Sarah and Ken attending some of our rehearsals to make minor changes to the music on the fly. Ken Benshoof's piece, a cello concerto, hadn't been played in over 30 years and the soloist back then was Ken's wife, with Walter in the orchestra. The great circle of life. More hired guns in the bass section. Brent still far from being in bass playing trim.
Indivisible Kirkland
I am on the steering committee of Indivisible Kirkland along with three women who are extremely dedicated, in fact more so than I seem to be. This year we met with all of the state representatives and state senators from the three legislative districts that overlap with Kirkland, the 1st, the 45th, and the 48th. They are all Democrats and share our values and priorities, which makes the meetings something of a mutual admiration society. We let them know what we would like to see happen in the next legislative session and usually find ourselves in complete agreement with them.
Our greatest accomplishment this year was, in collaboration with KirklandSafe and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, persuading the city of Kirkland to pass a gun safety resolution. We worked closely with the assistant city manager on the details of the resolution's language, spoke in favor of it at city council meetings (yes, I did), and participated at a town hall meeting on the subject. As one result of this effort, the city council passed the resolution unanimously and proposed a ballot measure, Kirkland Proposition 1, to fund, among other things, expanded mental health and human services programs focusing on gun safety, homelessness, domestic violence, suicide prevention, and related public safety issues. It was approved in the November election. AS WAS A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY IN CONGRESS!! Just saying.
CJ and I also wrote hundreds of cards and letters to voters all over the country to help Democrats win. Plus, we made some new friends!
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| Indivisible Kirkland members writing letters and postcards to voters all over the country. |
Hiking
In March, I went on a field trip to Eastern Washington with members of the Ice Age Floods Institute. We took a walk at Hanford Reach with geologist Bruce Bjornstad, who is a well known authority on the floods, and had a great time admiring the views and looking at the landscape through a geologist's eyes.
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| The Stewart Range viewed from the Indian John Hill rest stop on I90 |
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| Locke Island |
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| Dunes at Hanford Reach |
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| Layers of sediment from the ancestral Columbia River |
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| The Columbia River at Hanford Reach |
In late May, son-in-law Pierce and I hiked the beautiful
Iron Bear Trail deep in the Teanaway Country near Cle Elum. I think this was my third time on the Iron Bear and it never disappoints: great views of the Stewart Range and, as the trail rises, Rainier appears on the southwest horizon behind the high ridges of the western Cascades. The forest, in typical eastern slope fashion, is a mix of Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine and, in the spring, wildflowers are everywhere: balsamroot, trillium, red paintbrush... Obviously, this is one of my favorites.
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| Stewart Range from the Iron Bear Trail |
Ira Spring Trail - Mason Lake
In June, just days before Becky and Daniel's wedding, my friend Jim W. and I hiked to Mason Lake via the
Ira Spring Trail. One of the best things about this trail is that, just a few miles west of Snoqualmie Pass, it is less than an hour from home!
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| Mason Lake |
Scorpion Mountain Trail
One of my goals for 2018 was to get close enough to get a good look at the most inaccessible volcano in the state of Washington, Glacier Peak. To this end, in early July, Jim Whitehead and I, along with son-in-law, Pierce, hiked the Scorpion Mountain trail near Stevens Pass. The trail is very steep in places (switchbacks are for wimps apparently) with an elevation gain of 2500 feet, but the forests of Hemlock, Douglas Fir, and Cedar are beautiful and so very quiet. Parts of the trail, on Johnson Ridge, featured steep dropoffs on both sides, adding some spice to the journey. We saw only four other people (plus a dog) in the 8+ miles we hiked, so it felt like we were on our own private mountain. From the summit, the views of Glacier Peak and the Central Cascades, along with millions of Avalanche Lilies blooming in the alpine meadows, made the effort to get there a small price to pay.
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| Beargrass along the trail |
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| The North Cascades |
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| Glacier Peak - a 10525 foot volcano surrounded by miles and miles of wilderness |
In mid-July, Jim W, Pierce, and I hike to Spray Park, one of the classic trails in Mount Rainier National Park. It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular.
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| Our party crossing a snowfield |
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| Glacier Lilies at Spray Park |
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| Alpine meadows with a certain mountain on the horizon |
Tonga Ridge/Mount Sawyer
Later in July, Pierce and I went hiking on the Tonga Ridge trail. We spent about an hour on forest service roads (having missed a key turnoff) but finally found the trailhead. We saw almost no one on the trail and had a grand view of Glacier Peak from Mount Sawyer.
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| Tiger Lilies along the trail |
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| Glacier Peak from Mt Sawyer |
Green Mountain
In late August, Jim W, Erik N, and I tackled the Green Mountain trail, possibly the hardest hike of the summer (8.5 miles, 3300 feet elevation gain). The day was a little cloudy and smoky but this only added atmosphere to the views. Since this was my third Glacier Peak themed hike, I think I fulfilled my goal of spending some quality time with that rather obscure mountain.
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| An un-named pond about 1000 feet below the summit |
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| I wonder why it's called Green Mountain? |
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| Downey Creek Valley leading into the wilderness of the North Cascades |
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| Green Mountain Lookout |
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| Floating on air with Glacier Peak |
Frenchman Coulee
Becky and Daniel visited in mid-September in hopes of taking a hike at Mount Rainier. Sadly, the weather was rainy so we headed east of the mountains for dry weather and Frenchman Coulee. Ice age floods carved this canyon out of solid basalt. We hiked to the head of the coulee, where there is a small waterfall. Afterwards, we visited the
Wanapum Heritage Center near Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River for an interesting look at Native American culture in this part of the country. Amazing to think that people have lived in this area for thousands of years and we walked in and took it over about 170 years ago without so much as a by your leave.
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| Becky and Daniel at the head of Frenchman Coulee |
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| Columbia River basalt and lots of it |
Tolmie Peak
In mid-October, I hiked the Tolmie Peak trail with Sue's daughter-in-law Tammy. It was a cold morning with some frost on the trail but the weather was beautiful and the exercise kept us warm. This is one of my favorite hikes for obvious reasons and I try to do it every year. This time, we came across one of the state legislators from my district, Roger Goodman, on the trail! We exchanged pleasantries but, as he was going up and we were on our way down, we did not have a long conversation. Apparently, he hikes every weekend and likes to go it alone.
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| Eunice Lake with Tolmie Peak Lookout in sight |
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| The Mountain and Eunice Lake from the lookout |
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| Tolmie Peak Lookout |
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| Eunice Lake |
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| Mowich Lake with Mountain |
Prison Work
CJ and I continued our work on prison education at the Monroe Correctional Complex. I volunteer at least a couple of times a month with
University Beyond Bars to supervise a computer lab for inmates and to tutor math during Saturday study halls. CJ meets with a group of inmates called Bridges To Hope in a different part of the prison and I recently got permission from the prison authorities to join her in her work in that area.
When CJ taught her annual class last summer at the prison, the honors students from UW and the Bridges To Hope men brainstormed ways to help with reentry issues, job training, and humanizing life in prison. Together they came up with the idea of using virtual reality (VR) in the prison to address all three of these areas. The UW School of Computer Science is totally on board with this idea and we met on campus at the VR lab with a group of computer science students and staff, Department of Corrections staff, and our state legislator, Roger Goodman, to discuss future plans.
Almost everyone got to experience VR and, after a student presentation and some discussion, we all agreed that we had a reasonable path to accomplishing something really good. Since then, Roger has put us in touch with
Steve Sinclair, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, who is interested in exploring this idea with us. Exciting times!
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| Roger Goodman trying out VR |
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| Roger, still enjoying VR |
I read this when you posted it but apparently I didn't have time to comment. Sounds like a great year. I'm envious of the hiking. Especially Green Mountain looked like a fun and beautiful trip.
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