CPT Twit - Linda Ronstadt - Happy Birthday (July 15) from your former University of Arizona Classmate - You made us all proud!

When I was a freshman at the University of Arizona in 1964 a young singer named Linda Ronstadt was in my freshman class.

Here she is in 1964 with New Union Ramblers.

It did not take long to know she was going to be a star and we used to go see her in concert at the local spots like the roller rink.

Linda on far right

Of course no one hit on her when we were at the University of Arizona as her uncle was the Chief of Police in Tucson.

Here she is in 1965 with Stone Poneys.

Within a year or two her recording of Different Drum hit number 1 and Linda would become the queen of rock and roll.

Congratulations to a courageous and pioneering woman and classmate, Linda Ronstadt.

Different Drum (Double click for full screen)

Blue Bayou (Double click for full screen)

Tracks of my Tears (Double click for full screen)

.

Arizona Women's Softball Team seeks 9th National Championship - A Proud Alumni

.

When you have something good to talk about, then talk about it.  My college, the University of Arizona in Tucson, gives one many reasons for having a little pride not the least of which is the amazing accomplishments of the Women's Softball team.

Arizona has won eight NCAA national championships, second only to fellow conference member UCLA. Speaking of conference, the PAC 12 continues to be the dominate conference with an incredible five teams in the top 11 tournament rankings.

Besides Arizona as the number two national seed, other PAC 12 seeds include Oregon No. 3, UCLA No. 5, Washington No.6, and Utah No. 11.  All are hosts teams for the first rounds.  Arizona won the conference championship against the best competition in the nation.

In the trivia column the Wildcats will be playing in their 31st consecutive NCAA championship, more than any other school in history.  Arizona coach Mike Candrea, the most successful softball coach in Arizona history, was a graduate of Arizona's bitter instate rival the ASU Sub Devils.

Two Arizona players out of ten nationwide are nominated for the most prestigious award in women's softball, the NCAA Player of the Year.

Katiyana Mauga broke the career home run record for the Wildcats.

Danielle O'Toole, star pitcher led the nation in wins the past two seasons.

Add to that freshman Jessie Harper winning other honors and you have one celebrated bunch.

Here is what SB Nation had to say about the Cats.

    

NCAA Softball Tournament bracket: Arizona hosts New Mexico State, St. Francis (PA), and South Carolina

The road to OKC goes through Tucson

by Jason Bartel  May 14, 2017, 7:35pm PDT

For the 31st consecutive season, the Arizona Wildcats are in the NCAA Softball Tournament.
This wasn’t a question heading into Sunday night since Arizona had clinched an auto-bid with its first Pac-12 title since 2007, but the question really was would they be a national seed and be guaranteed to stay in Tucson the first two weekends?

Well, they are a national seed — No. 2 to be exact — and will have the opportunity to host a Super Regional for the first time since 2011 assuming they can get through the first weekend.
The No. 2 national seed is the highest Arizona is ranked in the tournament since 2007, which happens to be the same year as the program’s most recent National Championship.

The Wildcats, who have a 48-7 overall record this year (18-6 Pac-12), will welcome New Mexico State, St. Francis (PA), and South Carolina to Tucson this coming weekend.

Tucson Regional:
South Carolina vs. Saint Francis (PA)
New Mexico State vs. Arizona

10:28 PM - 14 May 2017

The Regional round is a four-team, double elimination pool. Arizona will play NMSU first, and then progress from there throughout the weekend. The first game for U of A will begin at approximately 6:30 PM PT and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

The Super Regional round is still a best-of-three format, but will take place over three days instead of the customary two days in the softball tournament.

If Arizona does indeed win its regional, they would play the winner of the Waco Regional, which includes Baylor, Kent State, Oregon State, and James Madison.


In other Pac-12 news, Oregon is the No. 3 national seed, while UCLA is the No. 5 seed. Washington is the No. 6 seed and Utah is the No. 11 seed, making it five different Pac-12 host sites. ASU will travel to the Oxford Regional to potentially face Ole Miss. Former Wildcat Taryne Mowatt is on the Rebels’ coaching staff. Cal will travel to Auburn.
.

Futurist Paolo Soleri from the Arizona Desert

.

The following is the obituary of Paolo Soleri, a brilliant human being and futurist who lived and worked in Paradise Valley, Arizona.  He died four years ago but his life and achievements will live forever.  When I went to school at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, several fraternity brothers were into architecture and encouraged me to travel to the Phoenix area to see this unusual Italian architect.

His studio and teaching areas were a series of pods spread across the desert and his designs for a future civilization were stunning.  I can remember the passion this man had for preparing for the future of mankind and his determination to establish a model in the Arizona High Desert.

A few years later my parents moved to Paradise Valley and every time I went to visit I went to the Paolo Soleri studio and was amazed at the many, many architectural students from around the world who journeyed to work with his on his amazing concepts.

To help raise money for his unique institute he also made the most complex and magical bells I ever saw and collecting the Soleri bells became a passion.  Mostly just watching the master at work was sheer fun as his relationship with students, his extraordinary designs, and his adaption to his adopted desert were a source of delight and inspiration.

Everyone should get a chance to experience the Soleri studio and his model of the cities of the future out in the desert, it will give you hope for mankind.  Soleri was one of a kind, and he influenced thousands with his genius.  Meeting him several times was one of the highlights of my life.

Arcosanti

IN MEMORIAM

REMEMBERING PAOLO SOLERI

June 21,1919 - April 9, 2013

Today the world has lost one of its great minds.  Paolo Soleri, architect, builder, artist, writer, theorist, husband, father, born on Summer Solstice, has died at age 93.  

Paolo Soleri spent a lifetime investigating how architecture, specifically the architecture of the city, could support the countless possibilities of human aspiration. The urban project he founded, Arcosanti, 65 miles north of Phoenix, was described by NEWSWEEK magazine as “…the most important urban experiment undertaken in our lifetimes.”

His own lifetime of work is represented in models, drawings, books, lectures and museum exhibits throughout the world. Soleri’s exhibition in 1970 at the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC – and the concurrent publication of his landmark book, CITY IN THE IMAGE OF MAN – changed forever the global conversation about urban planning on our living planet. His term, “Arcology” joining the words architecture and ecology to represent one whole system of understanding human life on the earth is meant to serve as the basis for that conversation.

Paolo Soleri’s ideas are embodied on the ground in the flowing forms of his architectural workshop Cosanti in Paradise Valley, (now an Arizona Historic Landmark) and in the continuing construction at Arcosanti, the urban laboratory on the high desert in central Arizona. There, to date over 7,000 students have participated in its construction. More than 50,000 architecture enthusiasts visit the site each year.

Over the years Soleri’s architectural commissions have included the Dome House in Cave Creek, Arizona, the astonishing Artistica Ceramica Solimene ceramics factory in Vietri, Italy,  the Indian Arts Cultural Center/ Theatre in Santa Fe, the Glendale Community College Theater, the University of Arizona College of Medicine chapel, the Scottsdale Pedestrian Bridge and Plaza; and his latest bas-relief murals part of the new I-17 Arcosanti/Cordes Junction Arizona traffic interchange. In an age of specialization Paolo Soleri showed architecture’s ability to influence and even lead the search for a new pattern of inhabiting the earth. The awards that resulted from this search included gold medals from the American Institute of Architects, the Union of International Architects, the Venice Biennale and the National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt/Smithsonian Museum.

Soleri continued questioning and creating until his death. The theme of his last project, a series of collages entitled “Then and Now”, juxtaposed his own signature forms with illustrations of life from antiquity. In this project Paolo Soleri attempted to capture the critical notion that we are constantly building on the past, on the work of countless generations that have preceded us on the earth. Our own work - and Soleri’s work especially - put into this context, might be a seed that takes many more generations to mature and complete.

Paolo Soleri is survived by two daughters, Kristine Soleri Timm and Daniela Soleri, both of California, two grandchildren, and the famous urban research Foundation he began, Cosanti. A private burial took place at Arcosanti, the internationally – renowned urban laboratory he founded in 1970, whose construction continues. Soleri’s body was placed beside his wife Colly, who preceded him in death by 31 years.
.