Looking at the Computer....

I've been looking at the computer for wayyyy too long. Editing and writing stories can take it outta ya....

I did get some goot meetin time with folks around the county in earlier today. Met with the head of the school's energy efficiency program and then met with this woman way back in the hills who runs her whole house off solar energy. That was real cool, she was a real warm lady...good to talk with. Hope to see her more.

I love recording and talking with people. It's the editing part that kinda sucks.

Got the conference this weekend that'll be real cool. Gonna be the last damn conference I plan. More important things that we could have been spending the last coupla months planning than getting a whole buncha youths together. I'm gonna put my time, instead of just planning conferences, into planning exactly how to hook up youths with community groups.

Probably going to be taking more weekends this winter to go over to the Coal River Valley and hopefully Fayette County. I've got a lot that I need to do in terms of organizing. I want to get a better feel for the different areas of Fayette County.

I don't want to end up here in Monroe, I don't think. I'll be looking out in Fayette County.

Probably gonna be hangin out with Bobby more and more and probably Sarah Kidder too since she is from Fayette. Lookin forward to when schools go out on winter break, Tominda'll be around Charleston...Katie & Lindsey'll be around Bluefield...all kindsa folks I know'll be around Southern WV. It'll be pretty cool.

Gotta get storm windows and plastic up in my house soon. Gotta talk to Vickie about when the natural gas is actually gonna be gettin hooked up...it's cold cold cold in there.

Music is Inspiration

Burning a CD right now for a local woman who's this badass singer-waitress-funny-crazy lady of herself singing at the restaurant she works at. Gonna be handing it off to her sometime this week, it was crazy inspirational just sitting down recording her. The owner of the restaurant, who seemed real cool, hopped in on a few songs and another waitress hopped in. People in the other room eating were just sittin there talkin and listening to Brenda sing, all the other people that worked there came in and watched from time to time.

Music is where its at for this whole radio station down here, I mean the news is good and progressive and a community building idea. But, nowhere near the empowerment, fun, and imaginative potential as hooking local musicians up with the station here.

Just hung out with this guy this morning, Larry Mustain, for a few hours up in the northern part of Monroe County in an area called Second Creek. He's all about the history of the area there and keeping the people in the community there in tact. He's got all kindsa stuff rolling, I interviewed him about this stream restoration project that's going on. The biggest threat to the stream there that has people riled is the erosion of the stream banks...wish I could say that about more streams around...After we did that whole interview he showed me around this mill that he's keeping active that makes corn meal and buckwheat and the rest with the old stone grinder. Rusty, dusty place that he keeps rollin and making all this basic food that's supposed to make some real good stuff.

Going up this weekend and recording the Appalachian Heritage Festival in Shepherdstown. We should be able to play it here on the station sometime after next January when we have more of this stuff built up. If this station is going to start calling itself a community radio station, we're gonna have to live up to the name dammit. We gotta get more local people involved, local musicians involved, and be a tool for people in Monroe County to hear about their county and exert more control over their own lives.

We have a badass opportunity...