(During our interview, we asked for “a video message to your fans” – there’s the result)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two months ago, West Seattle radio personalities Marty Riemer and Jodi Brothers got axed from their long-running show without getting so much as a chance to say goodbye.

But this duo known for humor as well as music seems to be having the last laugh. Truly.

Some fans are still finding out they’re no longer on The Mountain; the short item we published about the abrupt end to their tenure there, mostly pointing to what our partners at the Seattle Times reported, is still drawing a few new comments each week – apparently thanks to a Google quirk, where the search query “what happened to Marty Riemer?” points you to our blurb first.

But hundreds of fans have long since rediscovered them on Facebook – starting with the day they got the boot, when Marty reported it with this status update:

Since then, on his page, he’s posted videos and invitations to events – including the one they plug in the video clip atop this story – a Marty Riemer Funny Festival that they’re staging wholly independent of any media sponsor. The FB page has even revealed personal news, like his wife’s pregnancy. So, of course, sent our interview request via Facebook, resulting in a rendezvous on a recent rainy afternoon (where you’ll also find Marty emceeing this Saturday’s tree lighting):Read More

On the same day King County Executive Dow Constantine was sworn in, the list of 11 applicants for his now-empty County Council seat was made public. Two are from West Seattle. State Sen. Joe McDermott‘s candidacy already has been covered here – including video of what he told the 34th District Democrats‘ last meeting (see it here), when they voted to support his quest for the job. The other: Vlad Oustimovitch, an architect and planner who runs a West Seattle-based project-management firm and has served on numerous boards and committees including the Southwest Design Review Board, Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholders’ Committee, Southwest District Council, Monorail Board, Fauntleroy Community Association Board. Oustimovitch e-mailed WSB a copy of his application for the position, saying he intends it to be a public document but hasn’t seen King County post the applications yet. You can read it here. We followed up by asking him, so why do you want to be a County Councilmember? Read on for his reply:Read More

It’s the perfect day to ponder some of what you’re thankful for. So it’s perfect for the latest update we received from the local chiropractor rescued from a kayak mishap last March – who first sent in his account of the rescue, and has since updated us twice (in August and in October) about his renovation of a home with history.

Story and photos by Dr. Scott Redfern

The heater is going off again. This is a splurge; I’ve been home for three hours, heat included.

Recently I have been getting bids on re-plumbing the entire house.

It seems my bucket-bath days are limited. I must proceed, however uncomfortable, and demo the last standing bastion, my bathroom. I must smash the tub into tiny bits, saw all the walls, and finish by sacrificing brutally and mercilessly the pipes of old.

I am experiencing a lifestyle change. Next week I will be in Vegas at a seminar. I could come home to new plumbing if I play my cards right.

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From tonight’s Alki Community Council meeting: Officer elections, with 3 returnees and one new: Jule Sugarman, Randie Stone and Paul Carr are returning as president, vice president and secretary, respectively; since Larry Carpenter chose to step down from the treasurer position, Terry Zerngast was elected to take over. ACC is also looking for a new board member to replace Laura Sue Hoover. Another new name: Glynnis Vaughan has been hired to take over the Alki News Beacon, succeeding Cami MacNamara; next edition, said Sugarman, should be out in January (he’s accepting story suggestions). The ACC also heard from Chas Redmond regarding the upcoming Alki wayfinding kiosks and stanchions (signposts) that are in the works along with Admiral, which has a meeting at 4 pm tomorrow, as noted here earlier:

(If you’re wondering about the decor, the group had to meet in an Alki Community Center room more often used for kids’ programs, since the center’s community spaghetti dinner was in its bigger space.) As is the case in Admiral, and Fauntleroy before that, there’ll be meetings to zero in on location and content for the wayfinding structures, part of West Seattle Trails (seen the updated map yet?). One more Alki note – another work party for the West Seattle Wildlife Habitat Project demonstration garden at Seacrest is coming up this Saturday, 9 am-1 pm, all volunteers welcome, meet behind the Alki Kayak Tours shack at 9. (No ACC meeting in December, by the way – next one’ll be January 21st.)

From tonight’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative community dialogue at Chief Sealth High School: Attendees of all ages talked about solutions as well as the problem. We visited during the breakout sessions midway through the two-hour-plus event, and noticed the theme was jobs – a young person with a job is a productive young person, learning life skills and staying out of trouble. With the youth-unemployment rate higher than the adult-unemployment rate, it was suggested that job creation could be an important piece in solving the youth-violence puzzle.

Another topic tonight – the fact West Seattle doesn’t have an agency dealing full-time with substance abuse. Violence and substance abuse are often connected, participants noted, so more attention on that problem could bring progress.

We received two notes suggesting we share the news that one of two lawyers honored at the state American Civil Liberties Union’s Bill of Rights Celebration Dinner last night is from West Seattle: Amanda Lee of Fauntleroy received the organization’s 2009 Civil Libertarian Award, as did colleague Jeffrey Robinson, for work the organization describes as “seeking to uphold American values in proceedings for detainees facing the death penalty at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp” (detailed here). Lee and Robinson are part of the John Adams Project.

By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

One week after statewide Election Night, the November meeting of the Admiral Neighborhood Association provided a bit of drama with the first-ever multiple-candidate vote for president.

The new slate of officers – whose predecessors couldn’t run again because of term limits – are president Katy Walum, vice president Jim Cavin, secretary Catherine Barker and treasurer Ann Limbaugh. (From left in our photo are Barker, Walum and Cavin.)

Walum, who organized the first-ever Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series earlier this year, ran for president against ANA vice president Jim Del Ciello. When votes were counted, there was a tie, but the group’s bylaws didn’t stipulate how to handle that situation.

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Listening to the scanner on Saturday night, we heard a call for firefighters to check out smoke at the Rainier Yacht Club, and thought, “Isn’t that where the Westenders are having ‘Operation Chano’?” Didn’t hear the followup and forgot about it – till Nicky Ducommun e-mailed tonight to share the event wrapup, with Fuzz Hill‘s photos:

The Westenders Scooter Club’s “Operation Chano” was a great success! Our friend and fellow scooterist, Sean “Chano” Goff, co-owner with wife Sofia of West Seattle’s Cafe Revo, passed away unexpectedly September 17. Operation Chano was launched to raise money to help his family in a time of great need.

For the event Saturday night, our chefs, Corey & Gus were truly the lords of the kitchen, and put out a feast that had attendees going through the buffet line for seconds — and even thirds!! We had so many prizes in the raffle that even with the Westenders Prize Patrol ‘bundling’ prizes into prize packs, it took almost as long to give away the prizes as it did to watch our scooter-themed movie, “Mondo Scooterama”!

One event that caused particular mirth was the unscheduled appearance of the Seattle Fire Department. We had so many pots of water boiling in the kitchen for pasta, that an alert neighbor mistook the fogged up windows and steam escaping from the galley of the Rainier Yacht Club for smoke. The Seattle Fire Department was called and we were all reminded of why firefighter calendars are so popular. The extremely handsome, strapping men who arrived in two fire engines were wonderful, even giving all the children in attendance a tour of their trucks.

We had 50+ guests, and were pleased that about half were non-Westenders. Several clubs were well represented, particularly the Flying Monkeys SC and the F*** Yeah SC from Tacoma.

And this was a generous lot as well! On Sunday, a group of us rode out to Cafe Revo to present them with the proceeds!

Thanks again to everyone who gave so much of their time and resources to make this event a success!

Westenders Scooter Club

This was the second of two fundraisers for the Goff family; the first one was “Big Night” last month at The Sanctuary at Admiral (WSB coverage here). Chef Goff died in late September at age 43; Cafe Revo (a WSB sponsor), however, carries on, with his wife Sofia and its ace staff at the helm, serving the cuisine of Northern Italy in the Luna Park business district.

That display atop the fireplace inside Red Cup Espresso in The Junction (4451 California SW) is in honor of Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead – which is coming up this weekend, and anyone who wants to pay tribute to someone they’ve lost is welcome to add to it. We heard about it from Evonne, whose daughter is on the Red Cup staff; she says it started with a tribute to Angelia Paulsen, the Red Cup founder killed in a car crash in early 2008, and grew from there: “It is set up so that anyone can put up a picture or memento of a loved one who has died. Articles will be returned to their owners – might be a good idea to put their names on the back so they can be returned. The exhibit will, hopefully, become a community art project celebrating the lives of those that have touched others in many ways.” If you are not familiar with the Dia de los Muertos tradition, here’s a primer. ADDED 11:55 AM: Thanks to “k” for noting in comments that a Day of the Dead commemoration is also coming up at Seattle Yarn (5633 California SW); it’s happening Saturday and here are details.

Last July, when the first six West Seattle Volunteer Recognition recipients were honored, organizers promised another round of recognition opportunities would be forthcoming – and here it is. This morning we’re opening nominations for Round 2 of West Seattle Volunteer Recognition, co-sponsored by the Southwest and Delridge District Councils. The first one was a little free-form, to see how it went – so this time, there’s a little more structure. We’ll honor:

*2 individual volunteers from community/neighborhood-related group efforts
*2 individual volunteers from youth-related efforts
*2 individual volunteers from environment-related efforts
*1 group award

“Volunteer” means unpaid work, done for a nonprofit-type organization, facility, campaign (etc.), primarily serving West Seattle. And when you send your nomination – please remember that what you write is all the judges have to go on, so don’t hold back on describing the great work your nominee has done! The plan is to honor the recipients at the West Seattle Community Tree Lighting in December, always well-attended, to make sure they get a hearty round of applause from the community that benefits from their hard work. So how do you nominate someone? You’re just a click away – here’s the online form.

“Community-collaborative news” at WSB means this can be a place for you to tell your story. Twice this year, we have heard from a local chiropractor who first followed up our coverage of his March kayaking mishap with his own account, and then shared the story of his purchase and renovation of an older Morgan Junction home. After the latter, he promised followups, and today we have one:

Story and photos by Dr. Scott Redfern

On August 30th I published a story of my purchase of “a home with history” (see it here). I enjoyed the many responses, so the story continues.

Shortly after the last piece, I had a banner day. The handyman I hired hooked up the gas dryer I found on craigslist. I was very excited because, you see I have never owned my own washer and dryer. I am a virgin homeowner. He also fired up the water heater and it works.

To top it off, the furnace I was told was broken had its flywheel reattached and heat doth pour out. I was so happy I think I jumped up and down. Triple the pleasure of owning the house. Truly a landmark day.

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