I wanted to share what I drew in the book, but thought maybe words this time. Cross-posting for saturation.

I cried today for, I think, the first time since my Father died.

Some of you know why, this is for you. In honor of one of the most important and loved of all my favorite places:

Top 5 songs my unconscious offered up to make me cry:

5. Cheers theme
4. Change is gonna come - Sam Cooke
3. That damn catchy Beta Band song, everything is not going to be alright, asshole.
2. Both sides now - Joni Mitchell
1. Landslide - Dixie Chicks(damn them anyway)

Top 5 things that meant the most to me about the bean:

5. Hot Java on tap.
4. It wasn’t going back to my empty apartment.
3. I met the nicest people, and count them among my friends.
2. Thursday Night Open Mic - the best ever.
1. Tiffi and I met there.

I will take it with me where ever I go, that sense of peace, of belonging. I feel a montage coming on, gotta go.

Keep up the bigoted comments about WV, prove you are a lazy hack. Why don’t you ask your writers to come up with some new material, it’s obvious you can’t.

You are worse than Karl Rove pandering to the fears of the public. You are dismissing the entire state, a state you obviously don’t understand. Maybe you should stop whining about the outcome of the primary and try to do something about it.

To quote someone I used to respect, “You’re hurting America! Stop it!”

On TWiT last week, Mr. Dvorak made the sarcastic comment that Illustrators and Photographers think that Copyright is all about them.

It is John. (more…)

So, how is it that not only the true mainstream media, blogs, blog commentators and the industrial humor complex (including Jon Stewart) succeed in painting my entire state, West Virginia, as racist without understanding their own bigotry. It is a sad day when everyone points and laughs and the media takes no responsibility for their obvious impotence in the face of an under-informed population.

You can’t fight racism with regional bigotry.

We, the state of West Virginia, have provided coal for cheap heat and electricity to the east coast for hundreds of years, all the while living in isolation and poverty. From generation to generation we eek out subsistence and yank ourselves up by our bootstraps only to have to move away for a decent job. You will find West Virginians everywhere you go, displaced but friendly, holding get-togethers, finding one another, discussing the world and trying to get by. So before you judge us all by the cherry-picked interviewees, try to get to know one of us. No matter how little we have, we are willing to give, and just because some of us are misinformed due in no small part to the media, we are willing to listen.

Blunt Tactics (that just might work)

There is a great injustice being perpetrated right now, as we speak…all over the country. Thousands of people are lighting up, toking, puffing…whatever you want to call it, all over the US. While being an alcoholic is a requirement for some vocations-an author in the British Isles for example-if you were to tell anyone except for your connection and your closest friends that you smoke the reefer, you might end up a pariah. A tad duplicitous, a bit unfair, but years of propaganda & misinformation are hard to counteract. So why isn’t it legal? Thats an all-day History Channel Marathon question, so I am going to skip it and move on to my modest solution. (more…)