Photo by Douglas Imbrogno (2008). Click to enlarge
I was driving home one warm night in December, heading toward Dunbar on Route 25. And the door was open to Lee’s Studio of Dance, the building bedecked for the holidays. All these dancers were pirouhetting and shimmying in the brightly lit interior. Quite surreal. So I quick-snapped a shot out the window.
Photo by Douglas Imbrogno, 2008. Click to enlarge.
I’ve recently begun to gather up volume 2 of a new collection of photos of West Virginia skies. For years, I’d see McDonald’s signs (like this one at the Milton U.S. Route 60 East turn-off to Interstate 64) and not realize that these are not just golden arches but were supposed to be, um… an ‘M.’ Oh. OK, I was, like 26 years old before I realized this.
In the podcast, article and slideshow links in the post below, Budget Tapes and Records’ John Nelson dishes on some of Charleston greatest/most notorious concerts. What are yours? Best replies will be featured in a mid-January cover story in print gazz. Add them to the post below (or this one) by clicking on ‘Comments.’ Or e-mail gazz@wvgazette.com with subject line “My Concert History.” Or fax 348-1233. Might want to bounce off John’s memories first.
Julian Hintz of Electric Junkyard Gamelan mans the “clayrimba” at Culturefest 2008 at the Appalachian Folk Life Center. Photos by Douglas Imbrogno.
SHOWDATE: Electric Junkyard Gamelan performs 8 p.m., Friday. Dec. 5 at The Room Upstairs, 869 Mercer St., Princeton, W.Va. For directions, click here.
I saw Electric Junkyard Gamelan perform at Culturefest 2008 in September and highly recommend them, not only because they rock but because they feature some of the most unusual instrumentation of any band you’re likely to see. I included shots of them in my Culturefest slideshow (described in the post below), but have pulled some photos out for further study. The show will be a double treat as it takes place in one of West Virginia’s sweetest listening rooms, The Room Upstairs, in downtown Princeton. Some musical compatriots run the joint, Lori McKinney and Robert Blankenship, and the big, cozy room features overstuffed sofas, chairs and futons, a hip, well-stocked stage and a relaxed vibe. And free raisins. Now, if only we could get the tolls taken off Interstate 79, so you didn’t have to run a gauntlet to get there from C-town. But this will still be a worthy musical roadtrip (and you can hit the Starbucks near Tamarack for a fuel injection).
Here is more on EJG from their press materials, described by Global Rhythms Magazine as a group that “makes music so original they had to create their own instruments to play it.” Click the photo at right to see a utensil most people use for making cornbread turned into a kick drum. Read the rest of this entry »
The three-day, 26-band Culturefest took place in mid-September 2008 on one of the coolest outdoor stages in West Virginia. This audio slideshow, set to the music of one of the bands, Option 22, will give a feel for the multifaceted, multi-genre happening. The stage sits perched on the lip of a ridge at the Appalachian South Folklife Center, a few minutes down the road from Pipestem Resort. Among the Folklife Center’s other claims to fame is that for years it was home to Appalachian poet, coal mine labor activist and political radical Don West, who established the Folklife Center. His daughter, Heddy West, wrote the song “500 Miles” there.
The floor is now open for other nominations for other excellent outdoor stages in the great open-air state of West Virginia.
John Nelson pauses (not for long, though) in the midst of tending to the many needs of customers at Budget Tapes and Records. Photo by Douglas Imbrogno
Here is a shot from a forthcoming “My West Virginia” audio slideshow profile of John Nelson, of Budget Tapes and Records in Kanawha City. He recounts his personal history of attending some of the finest rock concerts ever held in Charleston.
WATCH: “Looking for Love: The Life and Times of the Periodical Cicada.”
It’s not a “My West Virginia” show, but here’s the latest Gazette multimedia web show by Douglas Imbrogno and Mary Kay McFarland. It tells the tale of the current brood of periodical cicadas in West Virginia, which has been raising a racket in the eastern and western reaches of West Virginia. Don’t confuse cicadas with the far more destructive swarming locusts. Cicadas don’t bite and don’t eat: they’re just lovestruck, says John Marra, the W.Va. University Extenstion Agent for Cabell County and a go-t-guy for all things cicadas. Click on the link above to watch the show or right here. Follow the link below to read a companion article on the bug-eyed beast from the June 17, 2008 Charleston Gazette. Read the rest of this entry »
WATCH: ‘My West Virginia’: Chef Michael Voltaggio
Last April, the Greenbrier Resort reopened after some multimillion dollar renovations. Among the changes unveiled was a new high-end restaurant called Hemisphere where the Old White Club, a Greenbrier institution, used to be found. What visitors discovered there instead was a sleek, stylish new prix fixe restaurant helmed by 29-year-old Chef de Cuisine, Michael Voltaggio, who has a penchant for reinventing familiar foods and dishes in unexpected ways.
“Conceptually, what we wanted to do was create a globally themed menu that would accent the finest products and techniques from around the world.,” says Voltaggio.
In the latest audio slideshow in the “My West Virginia” series, we visit Hemisphere and talk to the chef about his methods and food philosophy. In the 35 photographs that accompany an audio interview with the chef, we take a look of some of the dishes from Hemisphere’s several tasting menus, which include a vegetarian option. Read the rest of this entry »
CLICK TO WATCH “West Virginia Skies”
NOTE: Individual photos in the “West Virginia Skies” audio sideshow can be purchased at www.cnphotostore.com
The rolling mountains get all the glory and good press in West Virginia - the place is nicknamed “the Mountain State,” after all. But let’s not forget how cool and flat-out gorgeous the skies that hang above those lovely mountains often look. That’s especially true as sunset comes on and the skies above these hills slide from blue to orange, and then to gold, bronze, pink, purple and other hues from the pastel-colored rows of a Crayola crayon box.
In the latest installment of the audio slideshow series “My West Virginia,” we feature a series of 30 photographs titled “West Virginia Skies.” You’ll see mountain skies from across West Virginia, as well as some urban skies above downtown Charleston. The slideshow is set to a soundtrack of a resonant performance by Roane County musician David Bing. He performs the mountain fiddle tune “Yew Piney Mountain,” a song with what Bing describes as an “archaic” sound and which he performs on a Harold Hayslett fiddle.
Hayslett is a 90-year-old South Charleston instrument maker who has handmade nearly 150 fiddles, violas and cellos, many in whole or part from West Virginia’s trees. He was featured on the show 3 in the “My West Virginia” audio slideshow series.
Click to view “My West Virginia: Show 3″ on South Charleston instrument maker Harold Hayslett. The retired Union Carbide pipefitter has made 81 violins, 63 cellos, 13 violas, plus assorted bows and other instruments. He turned 90 on Dec. 26 and was honored with a West Virginia Cultural Center event , where some of the Mountain State’s finest musicians performed classical, old-time and contemporary music, almost all of it on hand-made Hayslett instruments. Our audio slideshow features more than 30 photographs of that day with music played on Hayslett’s creations.
A companion CD, “The Hayslett Collection ~ A Musical Tribute,” is available for purchase online at cdbaby.com/cd/hayslett. And locally at Taylor Books, Frog Creek Books, Fret’n’ Fiddle and Mountaineer Frames (both St. Albans), Ferguson’s Tea Room (Hurricane) and at Tamarack.
INTERVIEW: Listen to a West Virginia Public Broadcasting interview by Kate Long with Harold Hayslett and family.
