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  • Books,  Characters,  Essay,  Stories

    HALLOWED STREETS of LIFE: My West Virginia and Jack Kerouac’s Lowell

    March 25, 2025 /

    As I did a deep dive into the multifaceted, and often convoluted, life of Jack Kerouac I came to see West Virginia as my version of Kerouac’s Lowell. He knew that Lowell was an integral part of his identity, which at times he embraced and at other times sought to cast off. I know that territory well.

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  • Characters,  Photos/Video,  Stories

    Saying goodbye to Earl one last time

    July 13, 2024 /

    Earl Goodall, my neighbor, friend, and an amiable human being, passed on at age 93 on July 5, 2024. Earl was the subject of my 2021 16-minute documentary, "When Earl Went to War", about his Korean War service, while also portraying the man's sweet, down-home character. Here's a look back at the kind of guy who never gets lifted up into the spotlight. But he has stories and adventures worth telling.

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  • Characters,  Essay,  Photos/Video,  Profiles,  Stories

    Saying Goodbye to Bill | In 3 Parts

    February 13, 2024 /

    Bill Hart, a dear traveling companion through this vale and holler of light and darkness, passed from this mysterious world on Friday evening, on Feb. 9, 2024. Here are some thoughts and images about a notable human being, artist, and world-class craftsman. And, to be sure, a genuinely offbeat, unconventional, and bohemian soul.

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  • Characters,  Photos/Video,  Stories

    Missing Horses and Killer Skillets

    December 19, 2023 /

    As Bill and I scan the hills for Major the Horse, he tells a cast-iron tale on why you should never cross a pissed-off, kitchen-armed hillbilly woman. | A reprint from TheHartoftheMatter

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  • Characters,  Poetics,  Stories

    PASSINGS: Recalling the ironic, sardonic, compassionate writings of PJ Laska

    August 9, 2022 /

    "It would be impossible for me to do justice either to his writing or to his intellectual prowess. But I will say, as a man, he always sought to share what he knew and never once came across as anything other than a person who could learn from any and everyone ..."

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  • Characters,  Stories

    CHARACTERS | The One-Armed Bandit of No. 1 Holler, West Virginia

    August 9, 2022 /

    The story of the "The One-Armed Bandit" is the stuff of heroes and legends. You may not know Gary Mays' tale, however, as the major league career the West Virginia native might have had may have been blocked by racism. Yet nothing ever kept Gary down for long. | By Douglas John Imbrogno, reprint of 2016 Charleston Gazette story

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  • Characters,  NewsoftheDay,  Profiles,  Stories

    ‘HERO OF THE OPEN HEART’: A WV native’s global humanitarian life showcased in documentary

    May 27, 2022 /

    When "The Wake Up Call" make its West Virginia debut June 23, 2022 in the state's capital city, the documentary will train a lingering spotlight on a remarkable global humanitarian life which ranged far beyond the Appalachian hills where Dave Evans was born.

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  • Characters,  Music,  Music/Video,  Stories

    CHARACTERS, PART 1: A music video about how I never slept with Allen Ginsberg

    November 4, 2021 /

    What do you get when you mix famous poet Allen Ginsberg, a bonfire deep in the West Virginia hills, an interview, and a recording studio. Well, 30 years later you get a music video.

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  • Characters,  Poetics,  Stories

    CHARACTERS, PART 2: Allen Ginsberg speaks up in West Virginia

    November 4, 2021 /

    In Part 2 of our Allen Ginsberg in West Virginia history, we reprint an interview with the poet who was featured at the 1983 WV Writers Inc., conference deep in the West Virginia hills.

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  • Art,  Characters,  Stories

    THE/ARTS: Charly Jupiter Hamilton, in his own words

    October 1, 2021 /

    Charly Jupiter Hamilton reviews himself: "A lot of my feelings about my art — it's Catholic. You know? It has sin. Redemption. It has lust. It has love. It has hell. It has heaven in it. And I think that appeals to people ..."

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  • Art,  Characters,  Stories

    THE/ARTS: A public art boss on Charly Jupiter Hamilton’s bravura mural, an ArtBus & his artful coffin

    October 1, 2021 /

    The wonder of the 'Wonder Mural' in Charleston WV, the art and significance of public art according to West Virginia's capital city Public Arts director, and sending an artist off in artistic style.

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  • Characters,  Essay,  Stories

    REVIEW: Channeling Dorothy Parker in West Virginia

    October 1, 2021 /

    Dorothy Parker was a figure out of a Dorothy Parker story. Fleshing out the life of the critic, poet, short-story writer and screenwriter after seeing her depicted in a fine new production of "You Might As Well Live" in St. Albans, W.Va.

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  • 5 Questions,  Characters,  Q-and-A,  Stories

    LISTEN/IN: Michael and Carrie Kline on the art and craft of of hearing & sharing stories

    October 1, 2021 /

    Michael and Carrie Kline sing and listen for a living. But what their songs and stories actually do is affirm "the depth and breadth of cultures under siege by forces of systemic oppression often threatening their very existence."

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  • Characters,  Profiles,  Stories

    HERO OF THE OPEN HEART: The Long, Strange Trip of Dave Evans’ Notable Life

    August 4, 2021 /

    He was a West Virginia coal miner’s son who lost his legs below the knees in a deadly ambush in Vietnam at age 18. What happened next sounds like a movie script. Dave Evans went on to work across the planet, building and fitting prosthetic legs, hands, and arm for thousands of adults and children in conflict zones worldwide. A look back at a remarkable life.

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  • Characters,  Stories

    BACK/THEN: On the Bad Streets of Ann Magnuson’s Charleston Upbringing

    August 4, 2021 /

    West Virginia native Ann Magnuson is an American actress and performance artist who was also once a girl growing up on the streets of Charleston, WV. Here's a short recollection of the the city's "bad" street from her girlhood.

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  • Characters,  Photos/Video

    COVERSTORY: CHARACTERS: “When Earl Went to War”

    April 17, 2021 /

    American men of Earl Goodall's generation are famously not forthcoming about their psychological states or what it's like to go to war, people dying in front of and beside you. But this Korean War vet communicates all you need to know about that 'Forgotten War.'

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  • Books,  Characters,  Profiles,  Q-and-A,  Stories

    IN MEMORIUM: Giancarlo DiTrappano

    April 17, 2021 /

    Recalling "Tyrant" book editor, "bad boy" of publishing, and Charleston, West Virginia native Giancarlo DiTrappano.

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  • Characters,  Profiles,  Stories

    PASSAGES: Sister Mary Pellicane Moves On at 99

    March 17, 2021 /

    A look back at the long life of Sister Mary Pellicane, who died today at age 99, at the Catholic retreat house in West Virginia's capital city that she helped found.

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  • Characters,  Profiles,  Stories

    BLACK HISTORY 1: ‘I was first-class in my own mind’

    February 7, 2021 /

    As part of our Black History Month coverage, here is the tale of Mountain State native Joe Turner, part of a pioneering officer class of Black West Virginians who served with distinction in Vietnam and beyond.

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  • Characters,  Photos/Video,  Stories

    ARCHIVES: Revisiting West Virginia’s Connection to “Gilligan’s Island”

    January 1, 2021 /

    The death from COVID of the actress who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" is another sad pandemic casualty. Her passing is an occasion to recall the connection West Virginia has to the iconic television show from the 1960s.

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