muzak

sometimes i really miss living in carrboro, where there's a show every single night...and sometimes i don't. lately, my feelings have veered more toward the latter--this summer has been full of amazing bands and music. so, wv summer music in a nutshell!

1. vandalia festival: every memorial day weekend at the state capitol. where else can old-time musicians party in the shadow of the golden dome? the competitions are great (the CUTEST little boy placed 2nd in the dulcimer contest this year!) and if you know me, you know i love charleston. any excuse to go to taylor books & try a new restaurant.

2. allegheny echoes: this one may as well be called the pocahontas county drunkfest, because that's what it essentially amounted to. not that most of the week wasn't devoted to music/writing workshops--but the real event started when the sun went down & everyone gathered at the marlinton motor inn to play music. my old organization paid for me to attend (really!) and i had tons of fun...perhaps a little too much. still, i managed to gather an appreciation for pocahontas county resident and former wv poet laureate, louise mcneill. if you're at all interested in poetry, gauley mountain is a wonderful telling of pocahontas county history.

3. clifftop: some people complain that clifftop is a bougie, out-of-stater's old-time festival, and yeah, i can see that. but it's also probably the best time i've had in west virginia. a weekend of camping, music, river swimming, and square dancing was about as good as it gets. i even got married! (really? not really. but there was a ring? weird.) i only stayed for a couple of days, but plan on going for the full week next year. also, dogs are allowed, which is great for all of you pseudo-responsible, adult types.

and another thing

take a look at a new study coming out of wvu, which strongly suggests that people living in areas of mountaintop removal mining have a greater risk for birth defects. this fact sheet, compiled by the institute for southern studies, makes the study's findings clear and more than a little shocking. for example:

Percent higher risk of having a baby with a birth defect for mothers who smoked during pregnancy compared to non-smoking mothers: 17

Percent higher risk of having a baby with a birth defect for mothers living in mountaintop removal areas compared to mothers living in non-mining areas: 42

ouch. which leads into this lovely story from a few weeks back, covered in the charleston gazette's coal tattoo blog. coal industry lawyers (based out of california) responded to the study's findings with a blog post, stating:

frackin'

there's a lot more i could say, but sounds about right should suffice.

ugh.

charleston plane crash

among many, many oddities i've encountered in my time here, perhaps none is so strange as the story of the pot-filled dc-9 that crashed at charleston's yeager airport in 1979.

the cargo plane, headed up from south america, was filled with weed--at least 10 tons of it. when it tried to land in the dark, the plane overshot the runway and crashed on a nearby hill. (i've heard that yeager is the scariest place to land due to, i dunno, it being on a MOUNTAINTOP--now i definitely believe it.) best part, hands down: all the locals grabbing up as much pot as they could get after police left the scene. guess people in charleston weren't always so square. just kidding, charleston, i love you!

this video is pretty great--the nostalgia trip alone makes it worthwhile.

the logo & other wv ballers

why haven't i gotten around to this yet? clearly, jerry west is my favorite west virginia celebrity because, duh, he's THE NBA LOGO. and if you know me, you know that:

basketball + wv = love & adoration

also! i always thought he was from cabin creek--but it turns out he's actually from chelyan, which is right outside of charleston and probably my favorite geographical point on the trip there (besides skitter creek, for obvious reasons). i still haven't gotten around to reading his bio yet, but it's happening soon--can't wait to learn more about him. also, he's got an autobiography coming out in october--can anyone say 'birthday present'?

and, speaking of west virginia ballers--anyone coming into greenbrier county on i-64 will find the name bimbo coles familiar, since it's on the county sign. he was born across the wv/va line in covington, but played basketball at greenbrier east before playing at virginia tech & going on to the nba. i don't know too much about his career there, but his assist ratio was 29.41--not bad!

and, does anybody else remember kevin pittsnogle? before i ever knew anything about west virginia, he was IT. i have vivid recollections of watching the 2005 tournament while babysitting, and seeing him light it up from beyond the three-line, thinking, 'who IS this kid?!' the new york times did a profile on him a couple years back--he was teaching developmentally disabled kids, which i found equally surprising & sweet. apparently the nba didn't work out like he planned, which is disappointing, but i think the work he was doing is way more important.

so there you have it, folks--west virginia basketball. there's so much more to it than that, but i think one final image will suffice:

stranger than fiction

fourth of july discovery:

did you know that poison ivy leaves honest-to-god contusions? the more you know...

jeez louise

nothing like a good old-fashioned car cleanout to make you feel bad about life choices. after losing both my debit AND credit cards this weekend, i conducted a last-ditch search for them in the black hole that seems to be my car. (interestingly enough: it's always super-clean; leave it to me to lose things in an environment like that.) no dice on the card front. i did, however, find the following things:

--2 unopened natty lights

--3 empty natty cans

--1 harpoon beer box (which contained only 2 beers once upon a time, thankyouverymuch)

--1 blue solo cup

ouch. this doesn't even include the four loko stash & empty beaujolais bottle that has been rattling around in my trunk since last summer. let me just say: these things were NOT ALL MINE!, promise--dding folks seems to lead to drinking detritus such as this. still, it seems an apt metaphor for wv summer: messy, fun, and more than a bit confusing--how the hell does one lose two cards in one week?