CALLING ALL SAXOPHONISTS: Picture this—1,000 saxophonists playing their hearts out in an assembly on the Great Wall of China. Such a stirring vision may sound like a pipe dream, but it's not. This impressive sound sensation is set for June 23, 2003, International Olympic Day.
The idea is to show the Great Wall as a symbol of peace, bringing people of all nations together through music. Five hundred Chinese saxophonists are expected to join 500 from the United States and elsewhere. Sponsors are the Santa Cruzbased Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra and the Poly Culture & Art Company of China.
The conductor will be Pulitzer Prizewinner Gunther Schuller, and the music director is Mark Watters, conductor at the '96 and '02 Olympics. Los Gatan Judy Bingman, former band director at Los Gatos High School, will be one of the musicians in this heart-stopping performance.
Workshops, master classes and showcase performances will also be part of the proceedings, and the group will go to Beijing for a concert, too. Imagine the impact on the senses (and heartstrings) that this mass gathering of musicians will produce. For more information, call 800.993.7621 or visit www.nuclearwhales.com.
AMERICAN IDOL: Erienne Poole, 19, tried out for the TV talent show American Idol in Los Angeles and made it to the second round. Poole is a singer and a student at San José City College who is studying to be a signer for the deaf. She recently cut her first demo tape of her singing.
Since the competition is so fierce for this show, Poole says she isn't discouraged at all, but rather encouraged that she made it into the second stage. The auditions went on all week and the day she got to town she was No. 2,000 in line.
She and her roommate, Katie Pasquale, waited in line 20 hours, including through the cold night, armed with sleeping bags for dozing and directors' chairs for sitting. At the second-round audition there were about 500 contestants.
Poole is the daughter of Elroy and Sherry Atkins, of Los Gatos Mail Boxes, Etc. You can find Erienne often working there, too, but I can't promise she'll burst into song.
BODYBUILDER: Franco Yaconelli participated in two amateur bodybuilding contests last month for the first time, placing fourth in the Natural Universe in Hollywood and third in the Silver & Black Muscle Classic in Oakland. A '92 Los Gatos High School grad, Yaconelli is now a Sacto lawyer, employed by Mastagni, Holsted & Amick.
He specializes in labor law and representing law enforcement officers. At LGHS he played football and at the University of Nevada he was a boxer. In his dedication to remaining fit, he works out every day to counteract the possibility of becoming, as he puts it, "a fat lawyer."
"I love competition as well as the spotlight," he says. "You can do anything you set your mind to." He is the son of Ruth Martinel and Phil Yaconelli. Brother Nick is a '97 LGHS grad and Stanford grad, currently traveling.
COMPOST, ANYONE?: Here's an unusual occupation—teaching compost making ... and at least one among us counts that among her several occupations. She's Laurie Roberts, and she teaches composting at various locations.
Roberts is also a professional quilter, designs her own greeting cards, often incorporating quilting patterns, and she's the former barber/hairdresser at the historic adobe building in front of Mesa's Floor Covering on Los Gatos Boulevard. She's also a gardener of note, as evidenced by the compost teaching.
BOOK LOCALE: Cyber Invasion by Dale Tibbils has Los Gatos and Washington locales. A high-tech thriller in the Tom Clancy vein, it has been published by 1stBooks Library, a self-publishing firm. Tibbils is a retired GE engineer who lives in Campbell.
A great portion of the plot was developed while he biked the Los Gatos Creek Trail, so it seemed only fitting to make LG a prime location for the novel.
TO DANCE: The newest and evidently least-known-about event at the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center is ballroom dancing. Because it meets only every other month—the third Tuesday—the word doesn't seem to have gotten out. The next meeting should be Dec. 17, 6:308:30 p.m.
The band is crowd-pleaser Nob Hill. Burt Altman and Juliana Richmond are particular advocates and are sorry more of the light-footed don't know about it.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? How can the restaurant Kuleto in the new Hotel Los Gatos be truly Italian? There's no "k" in the Italian language, notes Rebecca Yates' aunt, Marian Stoop, the former longtime Los Gatan who owned Kerful Cleaners.
SETTING RECORDS: The Friends of the Los Gatos Library netted a record total at its most recent book sale of better books—$1,790. Also record-breaking is the total sales for the month at the used-book tables—$1,912. Moneys will enhance the present library and contribute to the new one, now on the drawing boards.
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By Mary Ann Cook