Wednesday, May 23, 2012 @ 5:11pm

Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers in Seattle: Van Sessions

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers: Van Sessions

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers are a San Francisco-based band who, like lots of bands, travel from city to city, show to show, in a big old van. Bored on the road and without a radio, they started to pick out old songs from their childhoods that made them smile or laugh, and performed them in the van with the help of an iPhone. In March, their cover of Hall and Oats' "I Can't Go For That" hit YouTube, and weeks later it went viral, racking up over a million hits; becoming the inspiration for our SUV Sessions. video

"I'm pretty sure John Oates, or his people, put it on their Facebook page," Nicki says. "Twitter just picked it up and people from Cameron Crowe to Ryan Adams to Bette Midler to Wil Wheaton were all tweeting it. I think in today's world of Twitter and Facebook, it was a big snowball."

They also got the attention of a cop.

"We did get pulled over in Salt Lake City for not turning on a turn signal for long enough," says guitarist Deren Ney. "We had just been learning "Material Girl" by Madonna. The cop looked around and we just sort of had instruments in our hands. He asked what we were doing, we said that we're a band. He asked to hear a little bit of music. We played Material Girl for this cop and he sat, and dug it, and let us go."

Nicki travels the country with four guys: Two guitar players, a bassist and a drummer. I asked her what it's like being crammed into a van with all those dudes.

"It feels pretty natural, actually, I grew up with two brothers. I don't think I'm a tomboy but I feel pretty comfortable with boys. It's easy. They're funny and there's no drama, which I like."

Four guys on a long road trip: Is there any peeing into bottles?

"Not on this trip...yet. We've been using the restrooms."

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers are playing at the Triple Door, in Seattle, May 23rd and 24th, 2012.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 @ 4:55pm

Kindergarten Goes To College

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Kindergarten Goes To College

When you're in kindergarten, your school career has just begun. Everything is new and fresh and fun. The paste tastes great and you might even get to take a nap. So what better time to introduce kids to the college experience? To keep them motivated all the way through high school and beyond? One hundred and fifty kindergartners from the Kent School District toured Seattle Pacific University on Tuesday, and learned a bit about college life.

"College is a big place that you learn in it," says kindergartner Asal. "When you grow up, the big kids can teach you how to do some stuff and you can learn a lot of stuff in college."

I asked Asal what she'd like to study in school.

"I want to learn how to make noise. That means, you can make noise everywhere."

The kids got to do a science experiment, read some books and take a tour.

"They were so excited to see the dorms," says Kent substitute teacher Michelle Dudgeon. "I don't think they understood that you get to live at the school when you go to the school. They're having a blast."

She thinks this experience will stick with the kids through their school career.

"There are so many students who aren't making it through high school. Just getting them excited about it, making sure they get to see what it actually is like. Two of them said, 'I don't think they have any recess at this school!' I thought, 'They sure don't!'"

Before they left, all the kids made a pledge that someday they would return to higher learning. They repeated after an SPU official:

"I promise to do well in school. To listen to my teachers. To help my parents. To graduate from high school. To go on to college!"

Even though SPU intended to send out a general message about the benefits of college, the tour did turn out to be some pretty good PR.

"I want to go to this exact same college because it's so much fun!" said 5-year-old Taylor.

"I want to go to this college too, because I love this college!" Asal agreed.

Monday, May 21, 2012 @ 6:46pm

An Update on Jordyn & Her Wheelchair

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: An Update on Jordyn & Her Wheelchair

Last October I introduced you to 15-year-old Jordyn, a Gig Harbor high school student with a very rare condition called FOP that is slowly turning her body into stone.

"There are about 700 known cases worldwide and about 250 in the United States," says Jordyn's mom, Arica Valona. "It affects any soft tissue, it turns it into bone when there is a trauma."

Four years ago, Jordyn was taking ballet classes and cheerleading, but when Jordyn discovered some bumps on her body that weren't healing. She was later diagnosed with FOP.

"She has now become frozen from her neck all the way down to her waist and all the way down the right side of her leg and into her ankle. Her shoulder blades are fused to her back, so she can no longer move her arms and so she's kind of in a straight jacket position. It's very difficult for her to walk, to use the restroom. Eating has become more difficult for her."

Jordyn needed a custom wheelchair that cost $6,400, but the family has an extremely limited insurance plan that wouldn't pay for the chair. So we put out a call to you, The Ron and Don Nation, and you came to the rescue.

"The listeners were so generous, they donated over $3,000. In fact, money has still kept coming in over the months. Since then, we have one listener who has remained anonymous who still send in a small donation every single month just to go towards Jordyn's continuing medical costs, which is amazing and so appreciated. It's just...wow. Wow, for me."

The family organized a walk-a-thon last November, and they raised another $11,000 for the chair and Jordyn's extremely expensive medical costs.

"The listeners came down, introduced themselves. It was just a really neat connection to be able to have. It just was an amazing outpour."

Since so many of you helped Jordyn, I thought you want to get an update on her condition.

"Jordyn, unfortunately, right before her sixteenth birthday, took a fall at home and suffered a concussion and a fracture in her right knee. Her right leg was already compromised by her condition, but this worsened the situation. Hence, having the wheelchair right there, ready to go, was amazing and just so timely. This is exactly what I was worried about, and in fear of, all these months that we did not have a functional wheelchair for her."

Luckily, Jordyn is doing okay, she hit the back of her head so she still has full movement in her face and jaw. But as you can imagine, the 16-year-old girl was not excited to get a wheelchair.

"After the accident, her Young Life group came together and they said 'You know, let's decorate this chair.' So they blinged it out. We had the zebra duct tape and rhinestones and pink pink pink. Completely glammed and deva'd it out for her. Having other people accept it, she was able to accept it. I think, at sixteen you don't want to be different, you want to be like everybody else."

Jordyn isn't completely wheelchair bound, and she tries to stay on her feet whenever she can.

"She's going to walk as long as she can. Whether that means she's hobbling or limping or whatever the case may be, she's going to do that. So we use the chair as a backup, especially when she gets fatigued."

Unfortunately, the family's insurance situation has gotten worse. Her husband is a contractor, so they have a very minimal plan that doesn't pay for much, but because they have some coverage, the state won't help them either.

"It's very frustrating that we fall into that middle category where the employer may or may not offer insurance anymore and then you can't get state benefits. It's just a very gray area for most of middle class America. We are not the only family struggling from this."

Arica and her family wanted to make sure that our listeners know just how appreciative and thankful they are for all the support you've given to Jordyn.

Thursday, May 17, 2012 @ 5:35pm

Tom Douglas: Seattle's New Lunch Lady?

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Tom Douglas...The New Seattle Lunch Lady?

The plastic trays, the lunch ladies, the little cartons of milk; I think everyone has memories of their school's cafeteria lunch. At my elementary school, the chimichangas were notoriously disgusting and uncool. Eating one could turn even the most popular girl into a social leper.

"Everything was gross," says my co-worker Jillian Raftery. "We would try not to eat the school lunches. It was just kind of...ugh! It was too gross to even talk about!"

"First thing I think of when I think of school lunches is sitting alone and everything tasted like tears," laments Ross & Burbank's producer Andrew Walsh (who, it should be noted, cried during our short interview.) "Secondly, I would say I remember square pizza. I loved square pizza! Are you kidding me?"

If you're eating a homemade PB&J or a Lean Cuisine for lunch today, prepare to be jealous of Seattle Public School students. The district has partnered with Tom Douglas restaurants, and executive chef Eric Tanaka to create some delicious, nutritious menu items that are being served to 18,000 kids a day in all the city's schools.

"Butternut squash and chicken curry that we served over Israeli couscous. So it's a curry spice, a little bit of cardamom, coconut milk, fresh veggies, red peppers."

Kids, like 13-year-old Miyah Rosenfeldt, are loving it. She agrees with me that the dish tastes like it was served at a Thai restaurant.

"It actually tastes like curry, unlike the old curry, that didn't really taste at all like curry."

On Thursday at Queen Anne's McClure Middle School, they served baked pollock with a sauce Provencal, which is tomatoes and olives.

"That was kind of a long shot, but actually the kids really loved that one," says Chef Tanaka. "The kids kind of dictated that that went on."

Eighth grader Charmaine Walker says she likes the food much better than before.

"They probably just thought we wanted food to eat, and didn't care what we eat. But we actually kind of do."

Fourteen-year-old Jason Lu says kids' palates have been underestimated.

"I'm more of a person who likes to live balanced. I always want at least some sort of veggie inside what I eat."

"I'll admit, for myself, I think I've been underestimating them," says Wendy Weyer, the district's director of Nutrition Services. "One of the things that the students actually brought forward, that they eat at home, that they don't see on the school lunch menu, was kind of a steamed, baked white fish. So we developed this menu concept around what kids were telling us they wanted to see."

Weyer says they have plans to incorporate other local chefs into their menu planning. The planning itself is a bit challenging: They only have $1.25 to spend, per meal, per student and some pretty strict nutritional guidelines. Not to mention the daunting task of creating recipes that will stand up to being cooked in mass quantities.

As for the privilege of eating Tom Douglas' food in their school cafeteria, not surprisingly, none of the kids I met have ever heard of the James Beard Award winner. But that's totally cool with Chef Tanaka, a dad of three, who's doing this as a sort of passion project because he cares about kids and nutrition. Chef Tanaka has his own fond memories of school lunches past.

"I actually love school lunch. It was probably worse then than it is now, but I'm an eater so bad food didn't stop me. My favorite day was burrito day. I got suspended from school for setting our clock ahead to the shop bell, which rang 10 minutes early, to get out to be first in line, and I got busted."

No one would have ever set the clock ahead on chimichanga day.

By Rachel Belle

Thursday, May 17, 2012 @ 5:08pm

When 12-Year-Olds Try and Cure Cancer

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: When 12-Year-Olds Try and Cure Cancer

Dutch Hill elementary sixth grade teacher, Alex Snyder, says he was reading the Dune series when a paragraph about energy gave him an educational epiphany.

"It kind of stopped me, and I was thinking 'What if I look at my classroom as purely energy?' There's so much energy in this classroom. I have 32 kids in a portable. So I was thinking how I could use there energy in a good way and I thought maybe we can figure out ways to cure cancer."

So he contacted Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and they connected Alex's students with doctors and scientists.

"We've been working on this since the beginning of the year and we've been emailing our doctor partners and asking them questions and coming up with ideas," says 6th grade student Isabelle Nyquist.

Isabelle and her classmates have since come up with some very unique ways to combat cancer.

"My idea was to use coffee because when kids drink it, it stops your growth," says student Chloe Hipp. "So I thought if you put it in the cancer, it might stop it from growing."

For some reason a lot of the kids thought bleach would be a good cancer stopping chemical. Megan Coonrod says half the class included bleach in their theories.

"Since bleach is poisonous, if you injected it into the cancer cells, it might kill the cancer cells."

Eleven-year-old Karl Berner came with my very favorite solution.

"What if you somehow made tiny, tiny little robots that could just go in and kill off the cells."

Fred Hutch grad student Amanda Frey is one of the scientists who has been corresponding with the kids. The idea was not only to get the students thinking, but to inspire researchers to think outside the box.

"I do think that coming at it from their perspective really helps scientists to sort of think outside the box. Although their ideas might not be exactly something that would be feasible, it's definitely a new way at looking at approaches that could one day definitely be used or incorporated into my research."

"I think that a lot of people underestimate these kids," Alex says. "You know, they're 11 and 12 years old and [people] think 'Oh, whatever, they're in school, they're learning basic stuff.' If you give these kids an opportunity to learn this stuff, it's amazing what comes out of them. It truly is amazing."

Eleven-year-old Melina Keogh feels the same way.

"I think that it's kind of good that kids are trying to cure [cancer] because sometimes when you're an adult you think 'Oh, that won't work,' because that's what you've been taught. When you're a kid you have a free mind, an open mind, to anything. I think that no matter how old you are people shouldn't judge you. You can do anything you want."

The kids got to take field trip from Snohomish to Fred Hutchinson last Friday to meet the researchers they've been corresponding with and tour the lab. Teacher Alex has already made a connection with Group Health for a future project and he hopes that other teachers take his idea and run with it.

"My ultimate goal would be to create this system that accelerates our society. We can take all this energy that these kids have, this creative, innovative energy, and use it to tackle all kinds of problems that we have."

Check out Alex's website, here.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 @ 5:53pm

Get Bugled At Emerald Downs

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Get Bugled at Emerald Downs

I made my first trip to Emerald Downs a few weeks ago and it wasn't the athleticism of the horses or the thrill of gambling that my friend used to get me excited; it was the promise of getting bugled. Daniel Harrington has been the track bugler at Emerald Downs for the past 15 years. Dressed in a top hat, tails and riding boots, he's easily noticed and very sought after. His main duty is playing the Call To Post every 30 minutes, but he has expanded his position beyond the average track bugler.

"I wander around the crowd and I look for birthdays, anniversaries, anything special. If it's a slow day, and I can't find anything else to do, I just walk up to somebody and say, 'Hey, do you have a favorite song that you'd like to hear?'"

Daniel will play anything from a Beatles tune to Hey Dolly to The Simpsons theme song if you really really want him to. Once he's played for you, you get a much coveted "I've Been Bugled" sticker. A friend of Daniel's came down to the track and was shocked to see his friend was a local celebrity.

"He said, 'You're like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Everybody wants to see you and have their picture taken with you.' That really cracked me up!"

But Daniel wasn't born to bugle. He worked as a Delta Airlines pilot until he was diagnosed with diabetes and because he takes insulin, the FAA wouldn't let him fly. Shortly after he lost his job, a friend gave his name and number to Emerald Downs and he had an interview.

"I actually never ever played one single note for them. They asked me what my background was and I told them I had gotten a performance degree in trumpet and got my masters degree. They said, 'Well, I'm sure you can play the Call To Post.' And I said 'Well, yes, I hope so!'" he laughed. "The only other question they asked me was 'Do you think you can handle playing Happy Birthday?'"

Daniel estimates he's played the Call To Post tens of thousands of times. Being the bugler is only a weekend gig, and he doesn't make a lot of money, but the job is deeply satisfying for him.

"I've had people come to me and say 'You played Happy birthday for my father, it was more than ten years ago, and he passed away. But every birthday, after you did that, he would talk about how the bugler at Emerald Downs would play for him and it really meant a lot.' So that's the kind of thing that sticks with me. It's very, very important for me to create those kinds of memories."

Long ago, before Daniel was a pilot, when he was trying to become a professional trumpet player, he says he took playing very seriously and every note had to be perfect.

"Now when I play, I keep it just as a fun thing. Yeah, you'll hear me miss a note or two here and there and I don't really care! I just have fun," he laughs.

Don't forget to tip your bugler!

Thursday, May 10, 2012 @ 4:30pm

Seattle's Floating Farmer's Market...and Taco Boat!

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Seattle's Floating Farmer's Market...with tacos!

The Virginia V is a beautiful, beloved boat here in Seattle. Built in 1922 to move passengers, freight and mail around the Puget Sound, now you can check her out at this weekend's Seattle Maritime Festival or even get married on her. She was one of hundreds of boats that belonged to, what was called, the Mosquito Fleet, but she's the only one left. Now the Virginia V is home to Farm Boat, a floating farmers market in South Lake Union that opened today.

"What we're trying to do is bring back the old world maritime heritage of the Northwest," says founder Dave Petrich. "Link local farmers and craft people with people here in the city."

He says having a farmers market aboard a boat seems novel, but it's pretty true to the old Northwest.

"Really, the inspiration is what people used to do here in the Northwest 100 years ago. Before the 1930's, everybody traveled on boats like this. Before roads connected towns, farmers grew things on the islands and brought them in by boat and often sold them right at the dock. This boat, the Virginia V, was transporting products from Vashon Island to Pike's Place Market in the 1920's."

The Farm Boat is the country's only floating farmer's market and it's now open every Thursday from 11am to 3pm, so you can pick up some flowers, artisan products, fruits and veggies or sit down and have lunch.

"The first taco boat in the country will be tied up next to the Virginia V. You are the first to hear about it. We have not made this public. We're just getting ready to launch the boat this week. It's a restored fishing boat from San Francisco."

Mmm....boat tacos. Dave says this is only one of many farm boats to come. He hopes to eventually open 18 around the Puget Sound, including in West Seattle this summer. Future sites could be in La Conner and Poulsbo, amongst other places.

Find more information about the Farm Boat here.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 @ 6:29pm

From Rap Sheet to Rapper: A Musician Brings a Festival to Bremerton

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Bremerton Gets A Much Needed Music Festival

When kids don't have anything to do, they often get in trouble. Bryn King, and his girlfriend Takeshia Seward, say that Bremerton is a breeding ground for bored teenagers who commit crimes.

"It's a military town, which brings a lot of people to that area," Takeshia says. "However, there's just nothing for the youth to do there. There is a Walmart, Safeway, there are a few restaurants. The mall is just slowly closing down, there are barely any stores there."

Twenty-two-year-old Bryn says he had no role models or people keeping track of him when he was growing up, so he took to the streets when he was 14.

"We got into the mix and I guess you can say we didn't know right from wrong. Our income came from everything from selling drugs, to guns, to robbery, whatever it might have been at that point in time, without a lot of thought or repercussion from it."

In 2006 he was arrested in a huge police sting called Operation Pharmacy and in 2009 he went to prison. That's when he started to write rap lyrics.

"While I was out on bail, one day, out of no where, I started writing. About a week later, somebody heard it, who seemed pretty impressed by it, and they told me I'm going to go ahead and introduce you to this producer from Seattle.' Next thing I know, I'm at this man's house looking at these gold records on the wall, shaking his hand. He was impressed. At the time, he described it as a phenomenon. He said 'I've never really heard of anybody pick up a pen for two weeks and sounding like this.' He said, 'I don't know what else you're doing with your life, but this is what you need to be doing.'"

Bryn had to finish out his sentence, but he spent the rest of his time behind bars writing, and the day he got out he went straight into the studio to record. He cleaned up his act, moved to Seattle, signed with UGK records and decided he wanted to use his good fortune to help his hometown.

So last summer, Bryn and Takeshia organized a music festival called the Summertime Benefit Bash in Bremerton. They said a community event like this is pretty much unheard of in Bremerton.

"I don't think everybody believed, at first, that there was really going to be something happening at the Evergreen Park," Takeshia says. "People just believe that nothing worthwhile would go on in that area."

"Because it doesn't!" Bryn adds. "This is the same park that these different ways we got money occurred at. This was not even the best part of town to do it in and it was a phenomenal success. There is a lot of talk-and-no-walk with things like that. We did every single thing that we said we were going to, and it echoed across the whole city for sure."

Four hundred people, from little kids to seniors, came out to listen to music and eat BBQ and they collected 700 pounds of food for the Bremerton Foodline.

"I saw an opportunity where I could give back by using what I had to put together something that everybody can be involved in, in a place where things like that do not happen," says Bryn.

The couple, who started dating while organizing the event together, just got the green light to put on another festival in their hometown this summer. Bryn says he wants to send a message to kids in Bremerton that great things can happen, if you just try.

"Think and step completely outside of the box. Growing up somewhere like Bremerton, you don't see outside of the walls of Bremerton and it's life changing if you can do that, whatever path you're pursuing. Learn from your mistakes. Do not settle for less. Find a goal and achieve it."