WestVirginiaVille

In the summer of 2007 I had already wanted my tattoo for four years. I could close my eyes and imagine it a part of me, but when I tried too hard to see it, it would slip away into the underbrush like a deer who senses your gaze.

As we gaze at our single tattoo on our right bicep, which we wish, alas, was more magnificent (the bicep, that is), we have a question for you, our readers who are tattooed: How did you get your tattoo? And where? And why?

If you’re looking to chill out in an organically sound and sweet fashion, we cannot recommend more highly picking blueberries as the morning mist rises off the Appalachian hills in the West Virginia outback.

Checking in with former prostitute and porn star and current eco-sexual activist Annie Sprinkle on her New York Times Book Review of Chester Brown’s “Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John.”

There are far smaller disasters that no one outside of a region knows about – just a handful of people killed. And yet these events are no less seared into a local community’s consciousness.

Elizabeth Gaucher’s post from her Esse Diem blog is the only thing we’ve read in the aftermath of the Casey Anthony verdict worth passing on.

Donald Call, a native of the tiny burg of Culloden, W.Va., is an excellent example of “how a life can be lived quietly, yet abundantly robust.”

‘One might be tempted to say that we’re poorer today because of Hazel’s Dickens passing, but a trip to YouTube will show that her spirit enriches the repertoire of musicians all over the world.’

A charming found video, even if the camera is a little shaky and the subject is how a Calhoun County bull lost its jewels.

“My tic used to infuriate my old boyfriend. The first time he hurt me was, perhaps not coincidentally, the first time my hand shook this way.”

Today’s Song of the Day is not quite new – actually, it’s more than a quarter-century old. In honor of Larry Groce’s turn as a headliner Saturday in Charleston, a taste of “Junk Food Junkie” and how it got to be a smash hit.

“As we awoke on the morning of November 5, 1985, none of us could imagine the changes that were being wrought upon our world …”

Boy Scouts, hip-hop dance and the state of West Virginia: What do the three have to do with one another? Check out this video of young hip-hop dancers and then submit your own wherever you are.

A homage in word and song to legendary folksinger Hazel Dickens, who passed away this Friday at age 75 at a Washington, D.C.. hospice and will be buried today in Mercer County, West Virginia.

An entertaining essay by Charleston, W.Va., native Elizabeth Gaucher, who manages to muse her way from a childhood game to issues of authoritarian manipulation.

Gabriel Redding of the Redding Brothers knows how to bring a crowd. Like the cops who came when he filmed a music video on an abandoned West Virginia bridge.

Checking in on an artisinal liquor distillery in West Virginia as it spreads its whiskey world-view far and wide, not to mention its bourbon and vodka.

The blogger known as ‘Karan-a-go-go’ has been having blogging interruptus issues. She issues a daring challenge to WestVirginiaVille to get her back on the blogging straight and narrow.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Massey Energy mine explosion that killed 29 West Virginia miners. What changes have occurred? Try none.