I couldn’t be more glad. I’m already beginning to transition back to investigative journalism. I’ve covered many beats in my time, but I’m far happier neck deep in data and reports.

I’ll be celebrating the end with friends tonight at the Red Carpet Lounge. I’ll also be celebrating the beginning of another writing project. I signed on with Kanawha Valley Live to write about whatever tickles my fancy. I’ll probably write about my reflections of Charleston, W.Va. I also plan to take a look at local politics from a more hilarious angle. It’ll be interesting for sure and I’m pretty excited about it.

I’m also battling a small chest cold. It’s the kind of cold I get when the temperatures begin to transition back to awesome. I should be fine, afterall I was able to buy my favorite drug: Nyquil. I bought what I thought was a bottle of Nyquil and Dayquil, only to find out that I bought regular and cherry Nyquil. Instead of taking it back I decided to drink the cherry Nyquil during the day.

Dedication people.

No real arts and entertainment plans this week. I’ll be heading back to St. Marys for a few days starting either Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be nice to get back to the hometown. I’ll also be bringing back some PA speakers and an amp to either set up a home entertainment system or maybe to use as a sound system for a band, who knows?

I recently went to a new member orientation for Generation Charleston, a young professional organization in this fair city. I’m looking forward to serving with them.

Last Sunday I spent the evening playing cards with Mona and her husband. The card game was Fluxx and you’ll just have to Google it to figure it out. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. The invited me over after I had mention being a little bit down after after a former family friend said some hurtful words. It helps for sure and my thanks to Mona and company.

I bought a new bed this week. I have no idea what kind it is, all I know is it’s bigger than a full-size. My sheets are made to fit a full-size, but I had been using them on twin I had had been sleeping on. I have since moved the twin bed into the living room, where I converted it into a make-shift couch. White-trash for sure, but it’s living room furniture nonetheless.

That’s right Charleston, I’m here to stay!

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First of all, it was the first movie I’ve seen with the new 3D screens. I never had a desire to see Jame Cameron’s Avatar because, frankly, I’m not a fan of his work. But I did enjoy the 3D experience; we’ve come a long way since red and blue shades.

It seems obvious to me the purpose of the 3D movies is to compete with HDTV’s and plasma screens. You may not get a 3D experience with those, but it’s still a great picture and you get to stay at home. Plus it’s far cheaper these days to set up a quality home entertainment system.

Now for my thoughts on the movie. Tim Burton is usually hit or miss with me; the stuff I like I really like and the stuff I hate I really hate. Examples: love Batman and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, hate Edward Scissorhands and Planet of the Apes. I like Alice though. The dialogue was sometimes hard to follow at times, but I felt Burton captured the surrealness of Lewis Carroll’s stories.

Go see it.

Friday evening was spent at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences to hear the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. I was given two tickets through Generation Charleston, and my friend Angela from Ritchie County, W.Va., was my date. We talk a lot but this was only the second time we have hung out. I was in a suit and she was in a beautiful dress.

The highlight of the performance was their rendition of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35.” The guest violin soloist was Ilya Kaler. He was absolutely fantastic, continuing to play even when he broke strings on his bow and never going off key. The crowd insisted on an encore and he obliged by playing another song.

After I made sure Angela got under way safely I went to the Red Carpet Lounge where I met up with Allen, Amber, Angela A., and her husband Stewart. I hung out with them last weekend at Thomas and Erin’s and they are slowly becoming my friends.

Tonight I’ll be checking out the No Pants Players with Rudy and Mel. I hear the comedy troupe is excellent.

I was made happy this weekend by watching the music videos for OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass.” Last week I complained about today’s musical artists and most are bad, but OK Go always seems to restore my faith. Both versions of “This Too Shall Pass” are below.

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At the time I was City Editor for The Marietta Register in Marietta, Ohio, and reporting news for a six-station radio network based out of Parkersburg, W.Va. It was a month before I was laid off from the radio station and a month before I took of the reigns of the now-defunct The Parkersburg Register.

It was also the middle of a contentious political season: the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. In one corner you had then Sen. Hillary Clinton. In the other you had then freshman Sen. Barack Obama, the change we could believe in. At the time I believed.

Hillary came to Belpre, Ohio, and Bill came to Marietta and Parkersburg. However, despite having a great grassroots organization Obama wouldn’t touch the Mid-Ohio Valley. The closest he came was a campaign stop at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. One of my job as City Editor was covering the elections, so I knew I had to go.

I recruited two of my writers – and fellow Obamamaniacs – to go along because…well…I didn’t drive. Actually at the time I did drive, but I drove without a license and without plates. But I only drove to the office and back in those days, so somehow I was able to get away with it. So Jasmine drove and Karin came along. I had already cleared them with Secret Service and made them press passes, taking the most emo pictures off their Myspace pages.

So we went, covered the event, saw Obama up close, and had a good time. Then that evening we went to Stuart’s Opera House to hear The Arcade Fire play. The indie band decided to play a couple shows in Ohio to promote Obama. I had never heard of them before, but because we were wearing our press passes we were taken to the balcony seats. That is where I heard one of my current favorite bands. It was so good we stuck around for their second set and got up front.

Here is a YouTube video someone took at that show:

Those that have read my blogs over the years know I am a music snob. I was raised on Genesis, spent my high school years in the ska wave, and I could go on and on about what is on my Zune. But I keep getting more and more sick of what is considered to be modern music.

I can never quite pinpoint when things starting going bad. I usually point to the days when The Spice Girls, The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, and Brittany Spears ruled the charts. We could have stopped it then, but we didn’t. Now we have people like Kesha – and no, I will not spell her name with a dollar sign, so EAD – and Justin Bieber.

It’s one thing to have overly-produced non-talented music. It’s another thing, however, to make obvious use of autotune. If you know how to sing you don’t NEED F**KING AUTOTUNE!!!! And now you have that video of the three-year-old girl crying over this stupid kid. You do realize that is the market now; we moved from getting teenage girls to buy CD’s to toddlers.

Not surprising since we’re trying to sexualize kids at earlier ages. Remember Bratz? Now we’re playing on toddler hormones? NAMBLA must be salivating.

I’ve given up on any new acts to break Billboard. I choose the small acts that perform in this city. There is more talent in any bar in this city than there is in the entire Sony Records stable of artists.

Friends, support your local music scene, because it is slowly becoming the only true music scene we have.

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I hope I didn’t come across as too pouty. I’m a one-man shop here, and while I have a great deal of support to fall back on, sometimes it gets a little lonely the path I’m on. It’s always nice to know that there are supporters and fans out there that appreciate what you do.

If you get bored you can even check out my interview on Decision Makers, which airs every Sunday at 8 a.m. on WOWK TV, WBOY TV, WTRF TV, and WVNS TV. I had a good time and except for looking fat it turned out well.

One of the things that really perked me up was going to hear Grinder Pump at The Sound Factory on Kanawha Blvd. East in Charleston, W.Va., Friday night. I didn’t know anything about them other than the fact they are a “office punk” rock band. It turns out their bass guitarist, Thomas Sayre, is a West Virginia Watchdog fan. I loved Grinder Pump; I skanked my pretty little heart out to their tunes. Sayre is also running for West Virginia House of Delegates in the 31st District as a Republican.

The show was great, but even better were the beautiful, yet deadly Chemical Valley Roller Girls. I got to talk to a couple of the women about the roller derby program. If you have some spare dollars, then why don’t you sponsor them so we can get a roller derby arena here in Charleston so I can watch these lovely harbingers of death dominate their opponents.

Saturday was spent with an old St. Marys High School classmate, Jessica, as well as her mother and her friend. It was sort of a blind date; Jessica trying to hook me up with her friend, who was nice…but too short for me. I’m not going to be mean. Anyone who knows me knows I came from a height-challenged family, including my own father who only comes up to my shoulder. I love me some short people, but I’m hoping to incorporate tall genes into the genetic code of my family, so I need to date someone…well, not as short as she was.

The evening was spent with friends eating snacks and talking politics. They sent me home with a copy of Zeitgeist, which I watched last night and it seriously tripped me out. It’s traces of Alex Jones and “Loose Change,” but the first chapter does a pretty effective job of showing the astrological influences of Christianity. I am always a skeptic, so I’m not throwing my Bible out because of a DVD, but it does make you think.

Sadly the weekend is over, but the Legislative Session here in West Virginia should start picking up speed. See ya later.

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I walked a labyrinth today. Not in a metaphorical sense, but an actual labyrinth. St. Mark’s United Methodist Church on Washington St. East built this lovely labyrinth, where one is meant to pray and meditate. Seems rather esoteric for a church to create, but I found it quite fascinating.

Sunny and 52 degrees in Charleston, W.Va., today, so a walk was very much in order. I choose to walk my own labyrinth and look for the unusual, the beautiful; the things that give this city its character.

It’s hard to find beauty in a mall, but ever since I was a young kid coming to Charleston from St. Marys I have always loved this waterfall in the Charleston Town Center. I remember our fourth grade choir coming here to sing in front of this waterfall.

I walk by this house every day on Virginia St., but I had never noticed this crest on the gate. I know nothing about the house, but I’m glad I noticed this.

Sorry for the pixelation, but I saw this VW Van driving by and had to capture her quickly before she drove away in a fog of marijuana smoke. I love these vans and I love what they did with it.

The Clay Center for the Performing Arts is close by my apartment. This is the first time I noticed this.

This is a wall mural across from the Clay Center.

This isn’t art, or is it? Hot Topic finally got in some Flogging Molly t-shirts just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. They have another style I’ll buy when I get paid next week. I saw them in concert in Columbus the summer of 2008 when they were promoting their most recent album “Float.”

The end.

I haven’t talked about my job on here much lately, but those of you that don’t know my other blog is a statewide investigative news blog. I was hired because I’ve been a journalist for six years. I’m paid by a public policy think tank to do what I do best: report stories. I moved to Charleston, W.Va., to cover our state’s Legislative Session.

Let’s just say my getting credentials has been a controversy for one local newspaper; a controversy they themselves could have avoided had they acted professionally. Not complaining: they gave me free advertising, letting people in the largest city in the state who I was. Any concern about the content of West Virginia Watchdog can be easily alleviated by going there and reading the news stories. Only the commentary section makes opinionated points, but no more so than any newspaper’s editorial page.

I will admit I write more about Democrats than Republicans, but do your math; there are more Democrat elected officials than Republican in this state, but I have certainly written about Republicans. Frankly readers, most of you that have followed my blogging and journalism over the years know that I am far more open-minded in regards to political views than I was when I first started blogging in 2001.

I love this city, but it’s getting annoying being bullied by the the largest kid on the block, even though the large kid only effects opinions in a 40-mile radius. The support I’ve been getting from readers has been outstanding and I haven’t stopped or slowed down. I am way too stubborn for that.

Speaking of loving the town, I also love the bloggers here. I made it to the 304 Bloggers Meet-up and drank with the best bloggers in the state. The support I get from them is also a big help. Most of them have followed me since The Holywriter blog went live in 2003. I’m going to do some bass guitar tutoring for one of them.

Tonight’s big plans include catching the punk rock sounds of Grinder Pump at The Sound Factory on Kanawha Blvd. here in Charleston. I plan to snap a few pics and hopefully there will be people I know there. Tomorrow’s plans are up in the air, but I should probably give Dad a call and do some research for the next big story.

I’ll have another blog later.

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It’s Valentine’s Day weekend and as usual I am single, but at least I haven’t been lonely. I hung out with my friends Rudy Panucci and his partner in crime Mel Friday Night. Rudy is a fantastic music blogger in Charleston, running PopCult and the host of Radio Free Charleston. We did dinner at the Bluegrass Kitchen on Elizabeth St. and Kanawha Blvd., where I had the 1/2 lb. Burger, which was topped with caramelized onions, arugula, and smoked gouda cheese. Very delicious.

After dinner we walked down the street to The Empty Glass, where I heard the sweet punk tunes of The Concept. They played their original songs, but also covered Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” (which I’m told they had to learn real quick when playing a gig at a redneck bar, much like The Blues Brothers having to play “Stand By Your Man” at Bob’s Country Bunker) and Weezer’s “Pork and Beans.”

I had to leave the show early because my friend Sarah Smith came in on a Greyhound Bus from Columbus, Ohio, to hang this weekend. Sarah and I have been friends since 2005, back when she was an undergrad at Marietta College and I was…well…the head host of Applebees in Vienna, W.Va. She has a master’s from Florida State and is at Ohio State University working on her law degree.

I was told I had to go to Macys. I made that sacrifice and ended up buying a new dress shirt and tie; she bought nothing. While here I offered her the bed and I’d sleep in the sleeping bag, but apparently she likes camping out and insisted on the sleeping bag. What a trooper. She just left to go home this morning.

Earlier Friday I went to an event hosted by Generation Charleston at Capitol Roasters on Summers St. The event was put on to bring attention to adoption. I met a few people there, gave out the business card, and met Jason Keeling of aBetterWestVirginia.com, a blog I have read for years. I think we proved that two reasonable people can have a civil discussion on various issues and walk away with respect for each other.

As I point out frequently I’m more liberal than most people realize. Honestly that is my fault for not making that more clear. I think a lot of my problems when it comes to political views is I like rooting for the underdog. During the George W. Bush years I came to root for Democrats/Liberals. Now that the scales have tipped I root for the other guys. I just like underdogs, I think that is why I supported Barack Obama for a long time. Hillary Clinton, by all accounts, was the shoe-in, but Obama was being written off. I knew better; I knew who was running his campaign in the area and saw the type of operation they had. I knew they’d pull out a win and they did.

John McCain was the underdog in the general election, but I did not root for him. I do have standards.

Dad came up Wednesday with a horse-drawn sled through the blizzard to bring me the bulk of my furniture items. I really don’t own that many things, and I own no living room furniture. I got my dresser, my TV stand which is being used in the kitchen as a stand for my microwave and toaster. Got my laptop desk, which allowed me to finally set up the podcasting studio. Most importantly I have my bass guitar and amp. She is tuned up and I’ve found that the bean bag chair makes for a comfortable place to practice.

The rest of this Sunday morning will be spent grabbing breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World and reading a newspaper. I have a few stories to write up and I’ll start that research this afternoon.

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This has been a surreal week but a good one. Currently I am getting ready for the All Vinyl Dance Party at St. John’s Episcopal Church on 1105 Quarrier St. in Charleston, W.Va. It starts at 8 p.m. and costs $20 to get in.

It’s a fundraiser for Manna Meal and I’m happy to support it. We’ll hear the tunes of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I even found this sweet shirt to wear to dress the part.

Last night I went to the Kanawha Players on 309 Beauregard Street, Charleston, W.Va. It was the first night of 12 Angry Men, one of my favorite plays. Kennie Bass, an anchor for WCHS TV, played racist Juror No. 10. My friend Rudy Panucci, who writes for The Charleston Gazette’s PopCult blog, has a full review:

Kevin Pauley shines as the one man at the beginning who has reasonable doubt. His calm, restrained performance sets the stage for the slow conversion of his fellow jurors, who initially believe the case to be open-and-shut.

WCHS TV’s Kennie Bass gives an exceptionally believable performance as the racist juror whose outburst late in the play is so ugly that it turns the tide of the deliberations. The entire cast does an impressive job maintaining character even when they aren’t the focal point at the moment.

Read the rest here – PopCult » Blog Archive » 12 Angry Men And A Busy Weekend On Tap

Go for the Sunday Matinee at 2 p.m. or next weekend, Feb. 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $10 for students.

The next play will be Raisins in the Sun, another favorite play of mine. Both plays deal with stereotypes to some extent; fitting since it is Black History Month.

Of course, stereotypes aren’t just in the world of race; you can be stereotyped based on certain political beliefs. It sort of happened to me this week, but it worked out for me good. My problem has always been people trying to shoehorn me into a political philosophy based on one or two beliefs I have. Typically I’m thrown into the conservative camp, and I do lean that way, but depending on the issue I might be liberal or middle of the road.

Example: I’m pro-choice and pro-gay marriage – actually I think it’s a violation of the church and state for government to be involved in marriages. Legally I should be able to make anyone the beneficiary of my government or work benefits whether it be a wife, a partner, or a son/daughter. When I tell people who consider themselves liberals, they are very surprised I have these beliefs. I don’t align with the conservatives on all issues.

I consider myself a free thinker, which is why I make a good journalist. I am able to listen to both sides of an issue because I LOVE listening to both sides. I am a believer in the marketplace of ideas; ideas should be allowed to rise and fall on their own merits.

The problem is there are left-conservatives and right-conservatives. What I mean is most liberals who claim to be liberal and tolerant usually are the opposite, making them conservatives – just left-leaning conservatives. And of course, right-conservatives are obviously close-minded.

There is way more gray than both sides care to admit. We’d have a better world if we’d listen more.

End of soapbox speech.

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Hey friends, it snowed here in Charleston, W.Va. Let’s take a walk and see the snow!

Beautiful in any kind of weather.

We probably have about three inches or so. This is Washington St. East, on Charleston’s East End. There is a nice theater group down the street from me, Kanawha Players.

All down the street there these great signs promoting East End Charleston, each done up by a different area artist. The bus system here is know as the KRT. It’s very good, but I’m still figuring out the schedules.

The Papaya Food Mart. I enjoy these colorful neighborhood stores and try to support them as much as possible.

Typical weekend routine for me; a newspaper and an order of biscuits and gravy at Tudor’s Biscuit World.

The sign designed by Mark Wolfe is my favorite.

I love these old-school wall murals used to advertise the business.

This is a street near my apartment. Very quiet.

This is the snowy Kanawha River, across the street from my apartment complex.

I can say I live in a historic district.

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