By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
On Sunday at the Triple Door, a Seattle music club, Avi Allison played stand-up bass at a local jazz festival alongside David "Fathead" Newman, a saxophone player for the great Ray Charles.
It's not where you'd usually find one of the state's best prep tennis players, especially a few days before the district tournament.
Allison, a senior at Garfield, defies easy categorization — even by the standards at a high school known for its rigorous academics and globetrotting jazz band.
In addition to being the school's top bassist, Allison is a 4.0 student with a heavy load of advanced placement classes, a four-year student of Latin, an officer with the school's outdoor club, a pianist, a member of the school's soccer team and a Bar Mitzvah tutor.
His tennis is pretty good too.
On Thursday, Allison will be the No. 2 seed in the Class 4A District 2 tournament at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. He lost just once this year and led the Bulldogs to a perfect 10-0 record and their second KingCo 4A Conference title in three years.
"He is the most accomplished high-school student I've ever come into contact with," says Garfield tennis coach Ira Moss.
Born and raised in Seattle, Allison, the middle child of three, says he prefers the bass because it's not an "upfront" instrument. It "fits my personality," he says. "I like the feel of holding things down in the backbone."
As for tennis — which he picked up early from his dad Tony, a top player at Roosevelt in the early 70s — the 5-foot-11 Allison hopes to reach state for the third time. He lost in the first round in singles as a sophomore and finished sixth in doubles as a junior.
His future is bright — he's considering attending Columbia University, Brown, Pomona and Stanford — and his schedule is busy.
"I enjoy doing all those things," Allison says. "I've never really gotten that stressed out. ... It's helped a lot to keep me from getting burned out on one thing."
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Two more examples of feature leads
Creative Feature Leads (Description and Anecdote)
Seattle spine surgery gave child his boyhood back
By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Clutching his zamponia, a traditional Bolivian flute, Alfonso Figueroa stepped in front of his classmates and their parents during a recent Mother's Day celebration at his school. For about three minutes he played a lively song called "Celia." Then he grinned, bowed and leaned against the back wall, exhausted.
That he had enough breath at all is a big step for Alfonso.
"I didn't think I could finish," he said. "But I just kept going and going and trying."
Last year, thanks to the support of benefactors in the Seattle area and under the watch of schoolchildren and the media, the 12-year-old boy lived in Issaquah for nine months while doctors fixed his severely bent spine.
Before, his body was twisted by tuberculosis and his insides were so compressed that doctors feared he had lost 30 percent of his lung capacity. He couldn't eat much without throwing up. He was in frequent pain and in danger of dying.
Now back at the all-boys orphanage in Bolivia that he calls home, Alfonso is, by all accounts, faring well.
Plenty of cheers to greet Griffey
By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
The cheering for Ken Griffey Jr. began when the Safeco Field gates opened Friday, around 5:15 p.m. Fans streamed down the aisles, many wearing their old No. 24 Mariners jerseys with "Griffey" stitched on the back.
They cheered when Griffey took his practice cuts — hat flipped backward, a smile on his face, the familiar looping left-handed swing bopping baseballs into the right-field bleachers. They cheered when Griffey trotted to the outfield to shag fly balls.
And they cheered loudest about an hour and a half later — an almost three-minute long, stadium-wide standing ovation — when Griffey, making his first appearance in Seattle since being traded to Cincinnati in 2000, was welcomed back home in a pregame ceremony.
"Never could I imagine it would be like this coming back," Griffey said from a podium at the plate, flanked by former teammates Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez and Mariners executives Howard Lincoln, Chuck Armstrong and John Ellis.
"I spent 11 years here, 11 wonderful years here," Griffey said. "I met my beautiful wife here. Two out of my three kids were born here. This place will be home."
Seattle spine surgery gave child his boyhood back
By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Clutching his zamponia, a traditional Bolivian flute, Alfonso Figueroa stepped in front of his classmates and their parents during a recent Mother's Day celebration at his school. For about three minutes he played a lively song called "Celia." Then he grinned, bowed and leaned against the back wall, exhausted.
That he had enough breath at all is a big step for Alfonso.
"I didn't think I could finish," he said. "But I just kept going and going and trying."
Last year, thanks to the support of benefactors in the Seattle area and under the watch of schoolchildren and the media, the 12-year-old boy lived in Issaquah for nine months while doctors fixed his severely bent spine.
Before, his body was twisted by tuberculosis and his insides were so compressed that doctors feared he had lost 30 percent of his lung capacity. He couldn't eat much without throwing up. He was in frequent pain and in danger of dying.
Now back at the all-boys orphanage in Bolivia that he calls home, Alfonso is, by all accounts, faring well.
Plenty of cheers to greet Griffey
By Michael Ko
Seattle Times staff reporter
The cheering for Ken Griffey Jr. began when the Safeco Field gates opened Friday, around 5:15 p.m. Fans streamed down the aisles, many wearing their old No. 24 Mariners jerseys with "Griffey" stitched on the back.
They cheered when Griffey took his practice cuts — hat flipped backward, a smile on his face, the familiar looping left-handed swing bopping baseballs into the right-field bleachers. They cheered when Griffey trotted to the outfield to shag fly balls.
And they cheered loudest about an hour and a half later — an almost three-minute long, stadium-wide standing ovation — when Griffey, making his first appearance in Seattle since being traded to Cincinnati in 2000, was welcomed back home in a pregame ceremony.
"Never could I imagine it would be like this coming back," Griffey said from a podium at the plate, flanked by former teammates Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez and Mariners executives Howard Lincoln, Chuck Armstrong and John Ellis.
"I spent 11 years here, 11 wonderful years here," Griffey said. "I met my beautiful wife here. Two out of my three kids were born here. This place will be home."
Technology Readings
You are going to prepare for a class discussion about technology. The guiding question is:
"Is too much technology a good or bad thing? Why?"
You will use information from the following readings to support your arguments.
1. Opposing Viewpoints
2. Bill Gates
3. Readings on Online shopping, video games, online video and social networking (myspace and facebook)
You may, of course, include your own opinion in the discussion. But, to get full credit for the discussion, you will need to do the following things:
1) Cite specific evidence from the readings above. For example, you might say, "In the article about online shopping, it says that almost half of Americans shopped online in 2008. That means we're already there. Americans have already adopted this as a habit. Online shopping is so much easier for them because you don't have to deal with crowded malls or pay gas prices to drive there."
2) Turn in a discussion preparation T-chart (notes from the readings on the left hand column/commentary on the right) with a few items from all 3 articles.
3) In addition to the opposing viewpoints, online shopping and Bill Gates articles, pick one of the following subjects to focus on: video games, online videos and/or social networking. You are going to try and be an EXPERT on that subject.
"Is too much technology a good or bad thing? Why?"
You will use information from the following readings to support your arguments.
1. Opposing Viewpoints
2. Bill Gates
3. Readings on Online shopping, video games, online video and social networking (myspace and facebook)
You may, of course, include your own opinion in the discussion. But, to get full credit for the discussion, you will need to do the following things:
1) Cite specific evidence from the readings above. For example, you might say, "In the article about online shopping, it says that almost half of Americans shopped online in 2008. That means we're already there. Americans have already adopted this as a habit. Online shopping is so much easier for them because you don't have to deal with crowded malls or pay gas prices to drive there."
2) Turn in a discussion preparation T-chart (notes from the readings on the left hand column/commentary on the right) with a few items from all 3 articles.
3) In addition to the opposing viewpoints, online shopping and Bill Gates articles, pick one of the following subjects to focus on: video games, online videos and/or social networking. You are going to try and be an EXPERT on that subject.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Notes on news versus feature leads
What is the purpose of a lead?
1. To get the reader’s attention (“hook ‘em in”).
2. To introduce the subject of the story.
3. To lead the reader into the rest of the story.
A basic news lead:
1. Sums everything up nicely.
2. Covers the most important 5 Ws and H.
3. More direct.
A feature lead:
1. Tries to be a little more creative.
2. Includes more of the author’s voice.
3. Unfolds more slowly.
Two types of feature leads:
1. (Descriptive) Setting a Scene, Painting a Picture
Feature leads often begin by setting a scene or painting a picture - in words - of a person or place. Here’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning example by Andrea Elliott of The New York Times:
The young Egyptian professional could pass for any New York bachelor.
Dressed in a crisp polo shirt and swathed in cologne, he races his Nissan Maxima through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, late for a date with a tall brunette. At red lights, he fusses with his hair.
What sets the bachelor apart from other young men on the make is the chaperon sitting next to him -- a tall, bearded man in a white robe and stiff embroidered hat.
Notice how Elliott effectively uses phrases like “crisp polo shirt” and “rain-slicked streets.” We don’t yet know exactly what this article is about, but we’re drawn into the story through these descriptive passages.
2. Anecdotal lead
Another way to begin a feature article is to tell a specific story or an anecdote. Here’s an example by Edward Wong of The New York Times' Beijing bureau:
BEIJING — The first sign of trouble was powder in the baby’s urine. Then there was blood. By the time the parents took their son to the hospital, he had no urine at all.
Kidney stones were the problem, doctors told the parents. The baby died on May 1 in the hospital, just two weeks after the first symptoms appeared. His name was Yi Kaixuan.
He was 6 months old.
The parents filed a lawsuit on Monday in the arid northwest province of Gansu, where the family lives, asking for compensation from Sanlu Group, the maker of the powdered baby formula that Kaixuan had been drinking. It seemed like a clear-cut liability case; since last month, Sanlu has been at the center of China’s biggest contaminated food crisis in years. But as in two other courts dealing with related lawsuits, judges have so far declined to hear the case.
You find a specific person that can tell the story, and you tell the story through his or her point of view.
1. To get the reader’s attention (“hook ‘em in”).
2. To introduce the subject of the story.
3. To lead the reader into the rest of the story.
A basic news lead:
1. Sums everything up nicely.
2. Covers the most important 5 Ws and H.
3. More direct.
A feature lead:
1. Tries to be a little more creative.
2. Includes more of the author’s voice.
3. Unfolds more slowly.
Two types of feature leads:
1. (Descriptive) Setting a Scene, Painting a Picture
Feature leads often begin by setting a scene or painting a picture - in words - of a person or place. Here’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning example by Andrea Elliott of The New York Times:
The young Egyptian professional could pass for any New York bachelor.
Dressed in a crisp polo shirt and swathed in cologne, he races his Nissan Maxima through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, late for a date with a tall brunette. At red lights, he fusses with his hair.
What sets the bachelor apart from other young men on the make is the chaperon sitting next to him -- a tall, bearded man in a white robe and stiff embroidered hat.
Notice how Elliott effectively uses phrases like “crisp polo shirt” and “rain-slicked streets.” We don’t yet know exactly what this article is about, but we’re drawn into the story through these descriptive passages.
2. Anecdotal lead
Another way to begin a feature article is to tell a specific story or an anecdote. Here’s an example by Edward Wong of The New York Times' Beijing bureau:
BEIJING — The first sign of trouble was powder in the baby’s urine. Then there was blood. By the time the parents took their son to the hospital, he had no urine at all.
Kidney stones were the problem, doctors told the parents. The baby died on May 1 in the hospital, just two weeks after the first symptoms appeared. His name was Yi Kaixuan.
He was 6 months old.
The parents filed a lawsuit on Monday in the arid northwest province of Gansu, where the family lives, asking for compensation from Sanlu Group, the maker of the powdered baby formula that Kaixuan had been drinking. It seemed like a clear-cut liability case; since last month, Sanlu has been at the center of China’s biggest contaminated food crisis in years. But as in two other courts dealing with related lawsuits, judges have so far declined to hear the case.
You find a specific person that can tell the story, and you tell the story through his or her point of view.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Try writing some leads
Here are links to a few sets of stories.
1
2
Instructions:
1) Read all the stories in both links.
2) Pick 6
3) For each of the 6 you pick, write a basic news lead AND a creative feature lead.
4) For the feature leads, you may choose the descriptive lead or the anecdotal lead.
5) Use your imagination to fill in the details you don't have.
1
2
Instructions:
1) Read all the stories in both links.
2) Pick 6
3) For each of the 6 you pick, write a basic news lead AND a creative feature lead.
4) For the feature leads, you may choose the descriptive lead or the anecdotal lead.
5) Use your imagination to fill in the details you don't have.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Quiz review terms
Hello,
You're going to have a short quiz on Wednesday on two topics:
1) Effective Advertising Techniques and
2) Basic Camera Techniques/Shots
You will be responsible for the following terms:
Advertising Techniques -
Demographic Positioning
Evoke Emotions
Direct Response
Benefit
Personification
Problem Solution
Testimonial
Exaggeration
Dramatic Conflict
Interesting Character
You will be expected to give examples and explain why you might use a certain technique.
Go to http://www.adcracker.com/techniques/Advertising_Techniques.htm for more information.
Also, you will need to know
Basic Camera Techniques/Angles/Shots -
Pan
Tilt
Rule of Thirds
Establishing Shot
Long Shot
Medium Shot (3 types - head to toe, waist up, two-shot)
Close up
Extreme Close up
Over the Shoulder/Point of View
Bird's Eye View
Cutaway
For each of the Camera Shots, please write each one down, define it, and explain why you might use that particular angle. Due at the end of class today. Here are a few resources below. You can also use whatever notes you took yesterday.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/
http://www.learner.org/interactives/cinema/directing2.html
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/angles/
http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/cinematography-shots-and-camera-angles.html
http://www.videomaker.com/article/12981/
Also, here are some of the videomaker instruction videos from yesterday.
shot types
pans and tilts
Rule of Thirds
You're going to have a short quiz on Wednesday on two topics:
1) Effective Advertising Techniques and
2) Basic Camera Techniques/Shots
You will be responsible for the following terms:
Advertising Techniques -
Demographic Positioning
Evoke Emotions
Direct Response
Benefit
Personification
Problem Solution
Testimonial
Exaggeration
Dramatic Conflict
Interesting Character
You will be expected to give examples and explain why you might use a certain technique.
Go to http://www.adcracker.com/techniques/Advertising_Techniques.htm for more information.
Also, you will need to know
Basic Camera Techniques/Angles/Shots -
Pan
Tilt
Rule of Thirds
Establishing Shot
Long Shot
Medium Shot (3 types - head to toe, waist up, two-shot)
Close up
Extreme Close up
Over the Shoulder/Point of View
Bird's Eye View
Cutaway
For each of the Camera Shots, please write each one down, define it, and explain why you might use that particular angle. Due at the end of class today. Here are a few resources below. You can also use whatever notes you took yesterday.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/
http://www.learner.org/interactives/cinema/directing2.html
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/angles/
http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/cinematography-shots-and-camera-angles.html
http://www.videomaker.com/article/12981/
Also, here are some of the videomaker instruction videos from yesterday.
shot types
pans and tilts
Rule of Thirds
Monday, November 7, 2011
InDesign tutorials
Hello students.
I am in a staff meeting all day.
Please click on the link below to learn a little bit more about InDesign.
Tutorials
Click around, search some of the online tutorials and then try to figure out what you can on InDesign.
After I get back tomorrow, we will have a week or so to finish our magazine cover designs.
I am in a staff meeting all day.
Please click on the link below to learn a little bit more about InDesign.
Tutorials
Click around, search some of the online tutorials and then try to figure out what you can on InDesign.
After I get back tomorrow, we will have a week or so to finish our magazine cover designs.
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