What’s on Your Autumn Playlist?

Posted in History & Culture, Music on September 25th, 2011 by marklynn
What’s on Your Autumn Playlist?
I jumped the gun with autumn this year. Before we’d even hit the equinox, I’d already loaded up a basket in the middle of my kitchen table with mini-pumpkins and butternut squash. I made a huge pot of bean stew. I found excuses to wear sweaters. (A entirely fictional circulatory disorder topped the list.) And my stereo speakers were playing the kinds of songs that make you want to roll around in a pile of crunchy leaves. Van Morrison Read More »


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Urban Deer Hunt Starts This Weekend

Posted in Food, History & Culture on September 18th, 2011 by marklynn
Urban Deer Hunt Starts This Weekend
Downtown Deer in Huntington, W. Virginia Just two blocks from the front door of my row house in Washington, DC, I can find wild morels, scampering foxes, woodpeckers, and silvery alewives, all set in 1,700 acres of forestland. I picked my condo partially because it is so close to Rock Creek Park. Within about five minutes, I can leave the city’s blare–honking horns, construction, irate people yelling, blasting music–and stand at Read More »


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W. Virginians in Unusual Places: Libyan Prison

Posted in History & Culture on September 11th, 2011 by marklynn
W. Virginians in Unusual Places: Libyan Prison
If you’d told me a month ago that the long arm of former Libyan autocrat Moammar Gadhafi would reach West Virginia, I’d have politely advised you to lay off the bush whiskey. Then I read an unlikely article in The Charleston Gazette. It detailed the story of Rida Mazagri, a local doctor, who recently returned to Libya, where he was raised and educated, to help those who were injured in that nation’s dramatic uprising. W. Virgini Read More »


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W. Virginians in Unusual Places: America’s Got Talent

Posted in Music on September 4th, 2011 by marklynn
W. Virginians in Unusual Places: America’s Got Talent
If you haven’t seen Landau Murphy, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Get some Kleenex, and watch this clip. It looks like the new Susan Boyle could be a son of West Virginia. Murphy’s humility and unassuming charm; the mash-up between his rasta-brother look and his crooning voice; and his powerful story–car washer who’d never once auditioned for anything–it all makes you well up inside. I’ll admit it, w Read More »


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