Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

My friend and coworker Laurel called me today to let me know she was going to be a little late in getting to the office. She had found a malnourished dog walking down the middle of the road, in traffic, and being the responsible animal lover she is, she picked it up and took it to the vet. It turns out the dog is well-known at the vet’s office, and they’ve been worried about it for years because of its irresponsible owner. Laurel can’t handle a third dog, but if the owner of the poor pooch doesn’t claim it in five days (knock on wood that he doesn’t), she already has a line on an awesome home for it. Well done, Laurel.

Which brings me to my rant: What the hell is wrong with people who don’t take care of their animals? Why even get a dog if you can’t be bothered to take care of its basic needs? Why? (I know the reasons; I just don’t understand them.)

When I was growing up, I knew some people who had two hunting beagles that they kept in a little pin in the back of their yard. (And by little, I mean 3′ X 6′. For two dogs. And the floor was made of two-by-fours with space in between them so some of the poop would drop out. It was a mixed blessing, because their feet would sometimes drop out too.) These were otherwise good people, but the dog thing was crazy.

I’m reminded of this kind of stuff every day, as I have to drive by this pathetic guy on my way home from work:

Fang

How bad would that suck? I did a post about this dog, who we call Fang, a year ago on Reversing the Numbness, and he’s still in this situation 24 hours a day. A lost cause on paws. Our kids often say “poor Fang” as we drive by.

To quote my friend Josh Williams: “Chaining a sentient being to a peg for its life is just not good juju.

tswhatI’msayin.

Post by: Susan Chipley
Town: Morgantown
Website: Chez Mama

Spring is a nice thing here in WV … especially after one of our cold grey/brown winters. One of the first signs of spring is the robins you begin to hear chirping as the sun rises. You know spring is here (or at least just around the corner) when you wake to the sound of birds.

Every year, a mama robin seems to find her way to our front-porch light to build her nest and lay her eggs. The kids and I think it’s so cool to keep an eye on the nest for eggs, then babies. The mama usually gets so used to us that she doesn’t even fly off when we go out the door! The babies are looking really cute now, and when we’re on the front porch we hear their soft chirps.

It’s hard to get a good photo. I have to stand on a chair and hold the camera up while pointing it down into the nest. I can’t really see what I’m shooting, and that makes it tricky.

Robin eggs

Baby robins

Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

I love music, as anyone who ever visits my Friday Music posts will know. (If you’re the same way, consider swinging by RtN and helping make a weekly play list. It’s an open invitation.) While I don’t make it out to see local live music like I used to, I still like thinking about some of the bands I was into in college in the early to mid-’90s. I love when I find traces of this music on the internet.

Here’s a video of the Joint Chiefs from 1995. These guys were hugely popular back in the day and just did a little three-show reunion tour in Morgantown, Charleston, and Huntington (I believe) a few weeks ago.

I was very stoked to find out that Steve Rubin, the guitar player from rock-hip-hoppers Circle 6, has posted all of Circle 6’s recordings online at Eight Track Mind. Go listen! With Steve on guitar and the incomparable Billy Resh on the mic, Circle 6 always put on an awesome show in a similar vein to Rage Against the Machine (but with a little more rap). At one point Steve and I had a big plan to get some guys together and do a show covering both albums of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but we never did get around to it.

Eric Lewis and I did play a lot of Pink Floyd, but it was his gigs with his band Once Hush that I remember the best. He was my roommate and the guys in the band were some of my best college friends, so I probably saw this group a hundred times. I never felt like they got the credit they deserved, because they were all fantastic musicians and they wrote really good pop songs. You can hear some of their stuff on the Once Hush MySpace page. Eric and singer/guitarist Greg Riordan are still making great music.

So many other bands, I can hardly remember them all. Rasta Rafiki. Jolly Gargoyle. The Karl Shuman Band. Lester James and the White Flames. The Recipe. The Groove Tubes. The Tide (featuring Eric Hopper). Todd Burge (who’s still the pride of West Virginia) and his bands 63 Eyes and Triple Shot. Brian Porterfield (also still going strong with his band The Love Me Knots). Sandra Black.

That’s just the beginning of the massive collection of quality bands that graced Morgantown in the early to mid-’90s. Dozens — probably hundreds — of bands have come and gone through this town since, and I missed out on most of them. I think I got to see The Argument once before they broke up, and the same goes for The Emergency, though I think they’re still together. I’ve seen one-man punk band J. Marinelli a couple of times, and Billy Matheney and the Frustrations as well. I’m sure there are excellent bands in this town I don’t even know about.

I’ll end with one more Youtube video of one Morgantown’s most world-renowned bands, Karma to Burn. They’re no longer together, but their legacy of instrumental rock lives on in fans across the globe.

Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

Last weekend was the first meeting of the Morgantown chapter of Grateful Dads, a group of fathers who get together with their kids and go on hikes, have picnics, etc. It was a small group, with only three dads and four kids, but you have to start somewhere, right? We had a really good time and will be meeting again in June. If anyone is interested in hiking with us in June, contact me at bryan@picturewestvirginia.com.

Our first get-together was at the Virgin Hemlock Trail, near Coopers Rock. It was probably as tough a trail as we’d want to tackle with small children. Thanks to some relatively minor human intervention, we were able to make the full loop. I love untouched wilderness as much as the next guy, but it’s cool that some trails have been made to be family-friendly, thanks to some tasteful, well-placed structures.

Annelies and Jude make the climb

No bridge, no cross for the wee ones

Chris and Alec make it across

Holy crap! I just found out that the submit@picturewestvirginia.com email address wasn’t forwarding right and I missed a few posts! Sorry, guys — poorly done. So this week, in addition to the ‘Structures’ theme, I’m going to catch up on the posts from Weeks 1 and 2 that I missed. I’ve got it all sorted now, so it won’t happen again.

Post by: MoneyTastesBad
Town: Morgantown
Website: The 30-Year-Old Freshman

Last summer, my wife, daughter and I went on vacation to Cape Cod and Maine. We saw some beautiful sites. Nantucket Island, the sunset at Race Point which is the very end of the Cape. We walked on the National seashore. Bar Harbor and the rocky coasts and light houses of Maine, Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain. But nothing was as beautiful as the vision of heaven we saw when we came back home. These pictures were taken from the car on I-68 shortly after crossing into WV. Although we were in Preston County, I consider that to be part of the Greater Morgantown Metropolitan Area. And I consider Morgantown my home town.

Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

They keep changing our landscape, to put more change in their pockets. Something’s got to change. I think we’ll have to change first.

————-

My friend Becky Kimmons sings (beautifully) in an a capella group now called BareBones, but formerly known as Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet. (There are only three members. Get it?) She gave me permission to use this amazing recording of “The West Virginia Hills,” off their Stirring It Up album. The photos are used with permission by Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, a group out of Huntington intent on stopping mountain-top removal. Thanks very much to both Becky and Vivian for allowing me to use these materials for this little slideshow. I’m no filmmaker, but I don’t think the stark contrast between this beautiful song and these haunting images needs much work on my part anyway.

Post by: Clint Stealey
Town: Columbus (but originally Clarksburg and then Morgantown)

Not too long ago, I remember being bummed about how WVU would be negatively affected by the exodus of three universities from the Big East conference. Virginia Tech, Boston College and Miami got up and left in the middle of the night, only to leave their siblings hanging out to dry. Of course it affected all of the sports teams, but it more noticeably affected the Mountaineers on the gridiron. I don’t think I could have pointed to one person who thought it was a good thing for WVU. How could it be a positive when it means that we lose the ability to play our second biggest rival in football in VT? Is the conference now simply going to collapse? Will WVU be in a conference that’s going to have a shot at playing for a national title? After all, playing for the ultimate prize is what it’s all about.

Fast-forward a few years and I laugh about that situation. Not only has WVU been the flagship university for the conference, but it has gained national exposure to an unprecedented level. We have won two BCS games in the last three years, beating “little known” teams from Georgia and Oklahoma. A record number of WVU football games have been shown on national TV in these past three to four years, thanks to the team’s success and the conference’s clever television contract with ESPN. Most interesting is that the ACC is the conference that has been negatively affected since the expansion. VT, Miami and BC have not been on the same level as WVU over the past three- to four-year period on the football field. The Big East has simply been better than the ACC in football since the invasion.

Not too long ago, I remember being bummed about Rich Rodriguez leaving his alma mater for a Michigan program that I feel has had its best day. I felt a certain level of betrayal and amazement that he would leave Morgantown. I do think that the WVU-Pitt game affected him so greatly that it caused him to want to withdrawal from the situation, and the Michigan opportunity was the perfect out. How could he leave his alma mater like that? How can he tell a high-school recruit he doesn’t even know “pryor” to telling Pat White and Co.? Are we going to return to a level of mediocrity that persisted during the late ’90s/early 2000s?

Fast-forward a few months and I laugh about that situation. It should be clear to every WVU alum or fan across the country that it is certainly best that this happened. Am I disappointed in missing a trip to New Orleans to watch a title game? Sure. However, it is becoming more and more clear that WVU was coached by an individual who lacks a measurable amount of moral fiber. This is exactly the type of person I would not choose to lead the Mountaineers, even if it means missing a national-title game.

Uncertainty and apprehension always seem to accompany change. However, growth and prosperity can often be at the side of change as well. When it comes to WVU football, “a change can do you good.”

Moderator’s note: Clint Stealey is my little brother, whose ass I used to be able to kick. The operative word being ‘used.’

Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

Morgantown rules. We have a vibrant music scene, a thriving arts community, a diverse population, and collegiate sports teams that are firmly planted on the national radar. Not only are we known by football and basketball fans, but Morgantown is also world-renowned in motocross circles, believe it or not. We have cool neighborhoods, museums, famous glass companies, cutting-edge medical facilities, growing industry that employs thousands of people, a happening downtown, dozens of local shops, bistros, coffee shops and bars, a great rails-to-trails systems, a new Wharf District with an amphitheater that features live music and family movies, mountain-bike trails, rivers to ride, rocks to climb, and so much more. Morgantown has really got it going on.

I’m not anti-growth or anything, but I do have to wonder just how far it’s going to go. Sure, we’ve got all that cool stuff I mentioned, but the strip malls are coming in full force, too (some of them in ridiculous places), and an overabundance of national chains are coming along with them. It’s simply remarkable how much construction is going on in this town. As the shopping centers grow, so do houses, condos and apartments. Hundreds and maybe thousands of new homes and units are underway. If you shoot a shotgun randomly in the air — please don’t — a pellet is bound to come down on something that looks like this:

Morgantown Row Houses

From that vantage point, if you turn 45 degrees to the right, you’ll see this:

Another Morgantown Apartment Building Complex

This is happening everywhere here, and it’s not just limited to condos and apartments. Housing developments are also spreading like wild fire, from starter homes to high-end McMansions. I live in a Cheat Lake neighborhood that was built in the ’80s, and builders keep surprising me by finding new places to put houses up in the development.

How is all of this going to end? What will happen to all of the older places where people used to live? Will we really get enough new residents to fill up all of these new buildings? How can we make sure our roads will handle all of this new traffic? Our arteries are already clogged — are we headed for a heart attack?

I don’t know. But if you’re one the many who are moving to Morgantown, know that you don’t have to move into a cookie-cutter subdivision with a nifty view of Interstate 79. There are other options, like this, the single coolest building in town:

The Good Council Friary

That’s right, the Good Council Friary is for sale, and if you have a cool $2.8 mil burning a hole in your pocket, it can be yours, all yours. How cool is this place? On a rainy day you can almost imagine yourself happening upon it after a long trudge through moors of Scotland. I wanted to get up close to shoot a photo of the hand-carved stone it’s constructed of, but I decided instead to heed the ‘No Trespassing’ signs. Though I have to think they would have forgiven me for trespassing against them.

Post by: The Dalai Mama
Town: Morgantown
Website: Chez Mama

This is my first post here at PWV, and I look forward to becoming a part of this blog. My town is currently Morgantown, and it has been for nearly 16 years now. I spent my first 17 years in Petersburg. I spent nearly every minute there wishing I was somewhere else. It is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains. It was a wonderful place to grow up. I just always felt like I needed to live in a place that offered a little more diversity.

I decided on WVU for college, and while I liked Morgantown during college, I didn’t plan on making it a permanent home. As a matter of fact, I’d always planned on leaving WV. The thought of that now is actually frightening to me. I absolutely love West Virginia, and can’t imagine raising my children anywhere else.

Well, I obviously never left Morgantown! I met my husband (Bryan/SleekPelt) while I was still in college. Shortly after, he pretty much landed a dream job here. Dream jobs are hard to come by in WV. So, here we are.

Anyway, since I love cooking (and food), I am going to write about some of the wonderful, local options we have here in Morgantown. For the last several years, we have bought a CSA share from Evans Knob Farm. Evans Knob is located in Bruceton Mills, about 30 miles from Morgantown. From late May to early October, we get a weekly bounty of fresh, organic vegetables. Evans Knob is certainly one of the few (if not only) USDA certified organic farms in WV. USDA certification is a process that takes years, and much hard work. The Evans’ are dedicated to their work while also practicing their farming in a way that is safe for the environment. I admire that immensely.

A few years ago, Morgantown finally got it together and organized a nice farmer’s market. Other towns in WV have really nice, big markets with such variety. That is definitely enviable, but what I love about the Morgantown Farmer’s Market, is that all products sold there must be produced within 50 miles. That’s truly locally produced! The market starts in just over three weeks. I can’t even say how much I’m looking forward to that! Much of the produce there is grown without pesticides or added chemicals. I think all of the meat sold there is grass-fed and hormone/anit-biotic free. We really are lucky to have options like that available locally. In many urban (and even some rural) areas in the U.S., you just wouldn’t be able to find fruit, veggies, meat and eggs that were essentially raised in your backyard. Just one of the many wonderful things about West Virginia!

Thanks for stopping by Picture West Virginia. The idea of this blog is to portray West Virginia through the eyes, ears, hands, hearts and brains of the creative-minded people who really know the state. (In other words, not Hollywood.) You can read full details and find out how to participate at How Does PWV Work? I’ll be the moderator as well as a regular participant. For those of you who are familiar with my personal blog, Reversing the Numbness (where I go by “SleekPelt”), this works a bit like my Friday Music posts.

As you can see to the left, the first three topics have been announced. I hope some of you will participate, and I invite everyone who stops by to comment. I’m taking contributions now and will start posting on Monday.