August 2012

AUBURN--Two lightning quick early strikes did not hold up for the Mount Rainier High School football team against the big play defense and patient offense of Auburn-Riverside in the season opener for both teams Thursday, Aug. 30.

After taking leads of 6-0 and 13-10 on long plays the Rams came away on the short end of a 44-21 score against the Ravens at Auburn Memorial.
"The biggest thing was the fatigue factor," said Mount Rainier head coach Tremain Mack of what went wrong as the game wore on. "We had offensive linemen missing so we did not have the proper substitutions. And we've got to get better on defense. We will be better."

The Rams' offense looked sharp when they first unwrapped it.

Quarterback Logan Wagner found Christian Pham wide open on the left side on the game's first play from scrimmage and connected with him for an 81-yard touchdown pass. Pham outran one last defender until he dove at him and clipped his heels at about the 10 yard line, but Pham kept just enough balance to get over the line before falling.

West Seattle Herald columnist and stand up comic Georgie Bright Kunkel turned 92 today. Friends Flora Belle Key and her beau, Cal Bannon, a West Seattle High School Class of '39 graduate, hosted. Kunkel was accompanied by her sweetheart, Emil Martin (shortened from Martincevic), a Lincoln Park resident.

Bannon, 91, donned in a spiffy pink outfit, greeted guests in the lobby of the Ivy Court Apartments near the Morgan Junction and directed them to the building's interior courtyard. They were then greeted by Key, in matching attire.

Kunkel has two daughters, Susan and Kim, and a son, Steve, plus nine grandkids and nine great-grandkids.

Although Kunkel is a Virgo, she said, "I don't believe in that stuff."

Said Martin, "I knew she got on the stage and did comedy, and I had a collection of all these jokes, a box full of them. I called her and asked if she'd like to go through them to see if she could get any material for her comedy. So I brought the box over and that's when I first met her and one thing led to another."

Kunkel giggled at his recounting of how they met.

"The jokes were funny," she said. "All the jokes he gets over the Internet."

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission invites the public to the Arts of India Festival at Saltwater State Park on Puget Sound between Seattle and Tacoma.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 8 and 9 at Saltwater State Park, 25205 8th Place South in Des Moines. Celebrate the culture of the Indian subcontinent with performance art, exhibits and more. The festival features dances and songs from across India and instrumental performances by musicians trained in classical, semi-classical and contemporary music. Visitors may explore vendor booths with authentic Indian food, apparel, jewelry and art available for purchase. Admission to the event is free. The Discover Pass is required for vehicle access to the event.

The event is organized by Mera Desh Entertainment. The organization strives to spread Indian culture to the general public and showcase East Indian musicians in the Pacific Northwest. For more information about Arts of India and a full list of event performers, visit www.artsofindiafestival.com.

Press release:
The leaders of seven King County school districts announced Friday, Aug. 31 that they are joining forces to compete for up to $40 million in federal Race to the Top grant money.

The superintendents of Highline, Tukwila, Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, Renton and Seattle have committed to working together and with their communities to complete the grant application, which is due Oct. 30.

This is the first time the federal Race to the Top competition has been open to districts; previously, the grants had only been offered to states.

Awardees will be announced in December.

The seven districts actively work together as part of the Road Map Project, a region-wide effort to achieve dramatic improvement in student education from cradle to college. The project’s goal is to double the number of students in South Seattle and South King County who are on track to graduate from college or earn a career credential by 2020 and to close achievement gaps for low-income students and children of color.

UPDATE: Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m.

The 7-state American Lung Association of the Mountain Pacific Region held its fundraiser. “Ride Around the Sound” Saturday, Sept. 15. Over 200 registered riders pedaled 100 miles from South Seattle Community College, or 75 from Marvista School in Des Moines. The organization helps keep kids from picking up that first cigarette, helps families dealing with lung cancer & asthma, and advocates for clean air. This is ride's the 30th year, but the first with this route. It was in the San Juan Islands in the past.

Press release:

Over 200 cyclists will take part in the inaugural “Ride Around the Sound” bike ride on September 15th. A benefit for the American Lung Association in Washington, the ride features five distance options around Puget Sound, ranging from 100 miles to a family-friendly ride of under 15 miles in West Seattle. Local school Marvista Elementary will serve as the 75-mile starting location.

Burien streets that will be on the route are: 16th Ave SW; SW 107 St; 10th Ave SW; SW 116th St; 4th Ave SW; SW 152nd St; Maplewild Ave SW; SW 172nd St; and Sylvester Rd SW.

Starting Wednesday this week, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day, there will be single lane closures on the Ballard Bridge as crews continue work on upgrading the lighting system.

Here's some bullet points of what closures will look like:

- Wednesday and part of Thursday, Sept. 5 and 6: Southbound outside lane and western sidewalk will be closed
- Thursday and Friday, Sept. 7 and 8: Crew will change sides, closing the Northbound outside lane
- Saturday, Sept. 9, from 11 p.m. to Sunday, Sept. 10, 7 a.m.: Bridge will be closed to all vehicular traffic; one sidewalk will remain open

Single lane closures will continue for the week of Sept. 11-14 and Sept. 24-28. Remember that major backups could be caused when the bridge goes up and to plan accordingly.

2012 is the 50th Anniversary of both the Seattle World's Fair and of the Elvis film, "It Happened at the World's Fair" filmed here. Elvis visited the Emerald City for 10 days. In honor of his visit, Bumbershoot is bringing Elvis back in an ELVISTRAVAGANZA! of art, music, performance, installations, pop culture and kitsch.

ELVISTRAVAGANZA! is curated by West Seattle residents Marlow Harris of Seattle Dream Homes and husband, Jo David. They own and operate that maroon van "The Elvis Chapel of Love" you might spot at area street fests. Harris notes that Elvis "slept here" at 4225 Beach Dr., West Seattle, on May 18, 1962.

Rhonda Porter, a West Seattle resident with www.MortgagePorter.com, has created a 2'x3' painting of the King enjoying a peanut butter and banana sandwich, in acrylic on black velvet. While all the works of art in the show are for sale, the net proceeds of the sale of her painting will be donated to the victims of the Cafe Racer tragedy, to www.CafeRacerLove.org.

The Burien / Normandy Park Fire Department will be hosting their annual open-house event on Saturday, Sept. 8th at the downtown Burien fire station, 15100 8th Ave. S.W.

During the event from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m., there will be a wide range of activities. The firefighters will demonstrate their skills in emergency automobile extrication and high-angle rope rescue.

Kids can practice escaping from a burning house, squirt a fire hose, learn about safety in many areas, and answer questions for prizes.

Balloons, fire hats, and safety information will also be handed out. Bully prevention and low cost helmets for anyone over the age of 1 provided.

Dear editor,

Ballard has an opportunity to protest proposed coal trains from coming through our community and the time to take action is now. Now, before SSA Marine is able to get permits to construct a coal-exporting plant at the Cherry Point terminal near Bellingham. Now, before Peabody Coal continues to negotiate terms to ship coal across our state. Now, before the public relations ad campaign is repeated on paid TV spots talking about happy communities and more jobs, while hardly mentioning where those would supposedly come from. If there was ever a time to let the City of Seattle officials and our state’s political leaders know how you see the coal trains impacting your community, this is the time to do so.

With the ever-growing number of open bed coal cars passing through, a number of communities across the state are looking at train tracks as a threat to the environment. It is very different from shipping other commodities along the tracks. Some of the biggest issues are as follows:

Julian Weller and Kair Hirayami, both 21, can often be seen busking on Sundays at the Ballard Farmers Market. Weller mostly plays the ukulele (because it is fun and easy to carry around) and Hirayami plays the clarinet, though together they know how to play an armory of instruments.

Weller is entering his senior year at the Walla Walla University, where he majors in Creative Writing. He said he wants to be a writer, possibly for children's books or for radio, but wants to keep music as a serious hobby.

He said he first fell in love with the idea of busking after watching the movie, "Once," a modern day musical featuring a busker who falls in love with an immigrant. The two actors performed the songs in the movie themselves and had actually fallen in love on set.

Hirayami, also entering his senior year, is a music education major. As his studies would suggest, he wants to make a career out of music, teaching it to high school students.