(Momentarily lapsing into the first person. Hold onto your hats!)

Dear Seattlest Readers,

Back in February, I inherited editorial duties on this site from the lovely and talented Seth Kolloen, who has since gone on to be Editor of Sports Northwest magazine. He's done a smashing job over there, and I'm hoping that legacy of smashing will follow me to all my future endeavors. I like smashing things, especially potatoes. (Rimshot!)

But seriously, folks. I've made an executive decision to focus wholly on my life as a music reporter, and have taken a job working with the next incarnation of No Depression. When the new ND site goes live at the end of this month, I'll be News Editor, and I hope you all spend hours upon hours during your day frequenting that site. I hope you tell your zillion friends and family members. It's a very exciting direction for them, and for me. And, it'll add nicely to the work I've already been, and will continue doing for About.com and Sound magazine.

You won't be totally rid of me. I'll continue to write for this site, focusing on folk music and politics, as it were. But I'll no longer be correcting these jokers' misplaced commas, fixing their wonky coding, or making sure they don't libel anyone. I happily hand that task over to the very capable hands of Michael van "Face of Seattlest" Baker. Along with his newly formed band of merry section editors, I think MvB will be an extraordinary editor for Seattlest. He's already got plans for expanding our little office into a six-story condo building with street-level retail. Novel idea!

Okay, that's it. I'm out. Please send all your complaints and love letters, from this day forward, to MvB. Good night, and good luck.

~Kim "Your No-Longer Editor" Ruehl