Posts by Mark McDermott
All mail election heads to final stretch – Redondo Beach
The city’s first ever all mail-in election ends Tuesday as three candidates vie for two spots on the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education. Through Monday, the City Clerk’s office had received about 4,000 ballots. Another 1,200 had been received but not verified. About 15 percent of the city’s roughly 40,000 registered voters,…
Read MoreThe continuing adventures of Omar Torrez
He grew up as “the Latin Hendrix” in psychedelic Seattle, traveled to Spain to learn the music of the gypsies, rediscovered old blues in Egypt, and took off around the world with carnival master Tom Waits. Now, Omar Torrez is ready to make his musical statement. Omar Torrez is a traveler. Distances crossed are in…
Read MoreStraight outta Kona town
Pepper is a hot band. They recently sold out Club Nokia in L.A. and have toured nationally with the likes of Pennywise and Slightly Stoopid. The band came together in 1996 when guitarist Kaleo Wassman met bass player Bret Bollinger in middle school in Kailua-Kona Hawaii. They added drummer Yesod Williams and by 1999 hit…
Read MoreThree candidates vie for school board
The Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education has done at least one thing better than any other elected body in the South Bay in recent years. It has remained intact. The five person board has been remarkably stable even as the district has undergone massive changes in facilities and personnel. Three of its…
Read MoreSchool board candidate: Anita Avrick
Anita Avrick has been an ardently constant presence in RBUSD schools and at board meetings for the better part of two decades. Avrick has served as PTA president at Beryl Heights Elementary School and Adams Middle School and twice served as Redondo Council PTA president. Last year, she was named the district’s Educational Advocate of…
Read MoreSchool board candidate: Arda Clark
Arda Darakjian Clark comes from a family of educators. Her father and grandmother were teachers. Her great grandfather was a college professor – as is her sister – and her great grandmother was a school principal. Her uncles, aunts, cousins are mostly teachers, or writers. “That has just been my family story,” Clark said in…
Read MoreSchool board candidate: Laura Emdee
Laura Emdee is the only candidate in this race not endorsed by the politically influential teacher’s union, and she’s just fine with that. In fact, part of the reason she is running is to provide a voice on the school board that comes from outside the political establishment. “Teachers and administrators all have a very…
Read MoreArlene Staich suffers a heart attack
Arlene Staich, a two-term school board member, suffered a heart attack last Thursday and remained in critical care after undergoing a quadruple bypass surgery Monday. Characteristically, Staich’s attention has remained on the Redondo Beach Unified School District even from the Intensive Care Unit of Little Company of Mary hospital. “She had a heart attack on…
Read MoreMurder, whisky, and love: The White Buffalo returns
Something is going on with The White Buffalo.
He hasn’t been singing that long. He didn’t even start until a dozen or so years ago, when as a 19-year-old songs began pouring forth with such ferocity, and in such a forceful and unusual voice, that even his mother was a bit startled.
“Aw, honey,” she said. “What is this?”
4th of July fireworks saved for one more year, at least
The City Council on Tuesday night approved the Fourth of July fireworks celebration for this year. But the event organizer, Pete Moffett, said this would be his last year, and the council sent a strong message to the business community that it needs to pick up the costs of the annual celebration or the event…
Read MoreFood trucks ride growing trend to Redondo
They came by bicycle, they came by foot. Some drove cars, some rolled in on skateboards. A few thousand hungry people, all totaled, arrived at a parking lot outside a vacant restaurant in Redondo Beach last weekend where a small posse of large trucks had circled their wagons and opened their doors. The circus hadn’t…
Read MoreMurder, whisky, and love: The White Buffalo returns
Something is going on with The White Buffalo. He hasn’t been singing that long. He didn’t even start until a dozen or so years ago, when as a 19-year-old songs began pouring forth with such ferocity, and in such a forceful and unusual voice, that even his mother was a bit startled. “Aw, honey,” she…
Read MoreTales of the acoustic ninja
originally published Jan. 8, 2009 A few years ago, in a secret subterranean workshop in the mountains of Colorado, a young man altered his weaponry. He had already begun honing his craft to a fine spiritual point, but as he descended to his shop day after day, other possibilities began to emerge. His hands had…
Read MoreThe snake who would not bend
The snake came to Robb Fulcher in the dark of night.
Fulcher was dreaming. In the dream, the snake appeared. He wasn’t your typical snake. He was a snake with a story to tell. Curiously enough, the name of the snake was something Robb had already thought about in his waking hours.
Harbor hosts food truck festival
If you build it, they will come. If you tear it down, they will still come. The site of several former restaurants in King Harbor – most recently Valencia – will host a festival of food trucks over four upcoming weekends prior to its demolition later this spring as the future home of the boutique…
Read MoreAbout Town : Wellness change
Wellness change The Wellness Community-South Bay Cities (TWC-SBC) will officially announce the organization’s name change to Cancer Support Community-Redondo Beach in an open house celebration of its 24th Anniversary of serving cancer patients and their loved ones. The event takes place March 25, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 109 W. Torrance Blvd., Redondo Beach,…
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