Sheltering in Nature & Vying with a Virus
What's going on around WestVirginiaVille right now | sat.jan16.2021
Welcome. If not subscribed, get twice-monthly feature, news & multimedia stories on life, news & culture in WestVirginia at: westvirginiaville.substack.com. Or mash the button below. Be well, stay safe. Mask up! Douglas John Imbrogno, editor & co-founder
1 | Proof of Concept
If you’re suffering from Quarantine Cabin Fever right now, you may find QCF relief in this two-minute medicine, sourced from a West Virginia marshland on a cold, sunny day:
READ THE COMPANION ESSAY: “January Stroll Under an Azure Sky.”
2 | Be COVID-Vigilant
Earlier this month, WestVirginiaVille launched the COVID Family Project. The year-long multimedia series includes articles, videos, and other sorts of storytelling from the frontlines of the pandemic—tales of loss and recovery, and people working hard to stop the rising tide of infections and death. A core message: Just because vaccines are now on the scene doesn’t mean we’re over the hump or anywhere near it. Getting vaccinated—or learning that a family member, neighbor or acquaintance has been vaccinated or has recovered from a mild case—should not cause us to ease up on our vigilance, but to increase it.
READ ON: COVID FAMILY PROJECT 1: Remain Vigilant, Plus a Recovery Tale
Images from the first segment of our COVID Family Project, including our own Minister of Paragraphs, Connie Kinsey (above, middle right). She tells how even a mild case knocked her and her mother for a loop—and may have left long-term health issues.
RELATED:
A) WHEN CAN YOU GET VACCINATED IN WV?: The answer looks to be—it’s complicated. This reprint of a Mountain State Spotlight report by Lucas Manfield and Lauren Peace gives the details. READ ON: Behind West Virginia’s vaccine success story, chaos for local health departments
B) SHARE A STORY: If you have a story of loss or recovery, or are a front-line worker and would like your story to be considered for inclusion in our series, pitch us via our CONTACT page. OR EMAIL: heythere@westvirginiaville.com
C) SHARE CREATIVITY: We’re also featuring artistic/cultural reactions to the pandemic: paintings, drawings, poems, crafts, cri de couers and more. Below is a drawing by WV artist Sharon Lynne Stackpole, that’ll be part of an upcoming issue. Suggest/submit items to be considered to: heythere@westvirginiaville.com
3. ‘Play That Funky Music Bureau’
You may be surprised to learn in the past two weeks our ‘Play That Funky Music Bureau’ has posted not one, but two stories with a David Bowie connection to West Virginia. You may object the connection is tenuous in one case. We stand by our reporting. The stories were hooked to David Bowie Day (yes, that’s a thing) on jan8.2021, when he would have turned 74. Bowie died at age 69 in London.
A) “BREAKING: We Interrupt this Insurrection for David Bowie News”: Check out this epochal video of WV native Ann Magnuson, channeling Bowie at The Empty Glass in the state’s capital in 2010. She later reprised the show in L.A.
B) ESSAYS: ‘David Bowie, Dad & Me’: After young Mountain State Spotlight reporter Lauren Peace saw our Bowie post, she flagged us to her tribute about one of the 20th century’s most influential singer-songwriters. It’s a touching, trans-continental, Dad-centric homage.
4 | There, on “Gilligan’s Isle”
We have a deep bench of iconic connections at WestVirginiaVille world HQ (we’ve been around the block a time or three). So, it was that the sad occasion of another celebrity COVID death led us to craft a “Gilligan’s Island” package. Actress Dawn Wells, who played “Mary Ann” on the show, died on Dec. 30, 2020, at age 82, of complications from the virus. Wells was good friends with West Virginia native Dreama Denver, wife of Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on the beloved 1960s series.
It’s not well-known that Denver fell in love after the two performed in a theatrical production (their first kiss was a staged one) and moved to the Mountain State. They married and had a son, Colin, whose profound disability led them both to quit acting. They settled near Princeton, WV, where they helmed local FM radio station “Little Buddy Radio” (named after what the Skipper called Gilligan). That was Denver’s home when he died in 2005 at age 70, following throat cancer surgery. Here’s a video interview I did with Dreama in 2011. Click the link below for her touching memorial to her girl-pal, Dawn, whose “Mary Ann” was once christened “America’s sweetheart”:
READ ON: Revisiting West Virginia’s Connection to “Gilligan’s Island”
5 | Baddassery
Next week, we debut a package that showcases a world-class art project by Barboursville WV-based artist Sassa Wilkes. Sassa (who we’ve profiled previously) painted a portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg upon her passing last year. The artist then realized 99 days remained in 2020. She decided (as only an artist would) she’d whip up a painting a day of badass women in world history. Below are 27 of the “100 Badass Women” she ended up painting. (NOTE: If viewing on a laptop, iPad or desktop, click the video up big—the paintings show us something new every time we admire them.) Subscribe to our newsletter for word of when we post the video show all 100, plus an interview with Sassa about how she pulled off this badass project:
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Send feedback and suggest stuff to: heythere@westvirginiaville.com. Leave comments below. Subscribe for free at: westvirginiaville.substack.com. | Please wear a mask in public like a superhero or superheroine. WestVirginiaVille.com