WV Spirit - Graffiti

Randi Ward: A W.Va. Poet Who Truly Cares

Photo courtesy of Randi Ward The world looks differently through the eyes of an artist.

July 15, 2008

By the look of her, there’s nothing that suggests lonesome traveler, multilingual poet or even experimental photographer. But Randi Ward, also known as Randi Ryggi to her poet friends in the Faroe Islands where she went to graduate school, is all of these things and more.

She is of slight build, with a subtle demeanor that takes some time getting used to. Very friendly and very curious, she has the right sensibility in terms of what makes a poet a poet.

For one, she cares about people, as her education in anthropology obviously suggests. She’s also a huge participant in the ongoing struggle to link photographic imagery and meaningful lyricism together to make a unified whole.

“I’m really fascinated by the things that people leave behind,” says Ward, whose photographs contain a dark element of cultural decay and isolation.

In her first book of poetry, “Meditations on S

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Top 5 'Country Roads' Covers

June 3, 2008

5 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. So I’m watching this first YouTube clip of Me First and The Gimme Gimmes and I have to say I am shocked. Standing on stage are around four-five dudes, all dressed in country garb, button down shirts

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‘Country Roads’ Kept Taffy Nivert Danoff Home

June 3, 2008

Taffy Nivert Danoff is one of the co-writers of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — the official fight song of the WVU Mountaineers. It’s been played at every home game since 1972. Taffy was a co-collaborator on many

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Thirty Minutes with Morgan Spurlock

May 20, 2008

The connection was bad but even from 4,370 miles away I could hear the concern in Morgan Spurlock’s voice. I could hear him talk about what he had done with pride, and while that’s not rare with a filmmaker, I was captivated by it.

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Brian Logan No Longer Wrestling with the Past

May 7, 2008

The YouTube footage looks bad, real bad. You see an enraged Brian Logan leap from the ring and clothesline a fan who appears to be walking away. A fight materializes and then the video cuts out.

Jump to April 18, 2008. Brian Logan, in his

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Memorable Mustached Men of the Mountains

April 22, 2008

The mustache is indeed an enigmatic symbol of masculinity. Some men are even defined by their mustache, Charlie Chapin, Tom Selleck and Adolf Hitler. Two of these were international tragedies; the other was in the movie business. Mustached men have b

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