Charleston FestivALL 2009: A City Becomes A Work Of Art

The preliminary lineup of events for Charleston FestivALL 2009 was announced today. Ten days of music, art, theater, entertainment, creativity and fun bring the city of Charleston alive from June 19 - 27, 2009. Where the city become a work of art!

As many of my friends, colleagues and regular readers know I love the Charleston FestivALL (my past posts) and am already excited about this years expanded ten day event. The event highlights why I love West Virginia and its creative powers and people. To experience a visual understanding of this feeling check out FestivALL from 2006-2009 through the eye of Rick Lee.

The image above will be a part of the official FestivALL 2009 poster. This year's poster, conceived and designed by Alex Morgado, is a symbol of the FestivALL idea. Local artists have contributed designs for letters. At the opening ceremonies, each letter will be taken to a different part of the city where it will be displayed during the ten days of FestivALL. At the end, they will be gathered and displayed together.

Check out the schedule of events (and pre-festival events) by FestivALL Executive Director, Larry Groce. Also, the lineup was announced in today's Charleston Gazette. Last year there were 83 different events featuring 169 performances, exhibitions and presentations by 378 companies, troupes and individual artists.

UPDATE (5/12/2009): FestivALL has launched its new web site which includes a full 2009 schedule. The web site has a cool and creative roll over of the artwork, "A City Becomes A Work Of Art." Check it out.

The Apple iPod Racer

The Apple iPod Racer will be competing in the Charleston Pack 28 Pinewood Derby. We are hoping for a win in the "best creativity" class to highlight the spirit of Creative West Virginians. Apple has nothing on us. Wish us luck!

Post race photos:

ESPN World's Strongest Man Competition 2008 - Charleston WV

Everyone be sure sure to tune in to the ESPN World's Strongest Man Competition 2008 starting to air on ESPN2 on December 25 (7pm-1am) and ESPN on December 28 (1pm-7pm).

Charleston, West Virginia played host to the 2008 competition. I look forward to ESPN showing off the beauty and positive aspects of Charleston and West Virginia. Also, the hometown of the 2006 World's Strongest Man, Phil Pfister.

UPDATE: Today's Charleston Daily Mail  issues official announcement of the airing of 2008 World's Strongest Man Competition on ESPN.

Michael Gerrard: National Environmental Lawyer and West Virginia Native

Dave Yaussy over at the WV Environmental Law blog beat me to the post. The Sunday Charleston Gazette featured another nationally recognized lawyer with West Virginia roots.

Featured in the article was Michael Gerrard, a nationally known environmental lawyer and current managing partner of the New York office of Arnold & Porter, LLP. Mr. Gerrard grew up in Charleston, West Virginia not far from where I currently live in South Ruffner near the University of Charleston.

While looking over his profile and publications I noticed a timely article as we head down the home stretch to the election. The article looks at environmental policy positions of McCain vs. Obama. The article, McCain vs. Obama on Environment, Energy and Resources was published in Natural Resources & Environment, ABA, Fall 2008.

Mr. Gerrard follows on a list of well known West Virginia lawyers who are heading up some of the largest law firms around the globe, including Ralph Baxter and Greg Jordan.

Great to see successful fellow West Virginians who help to project a positive stereotype of of West Virginia.

BeBetter: Charleston Based Health Company Is 15th on Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies

Today's Daily Mail covers Charleston based beBetter Networks, Inc. selection as the 15th fastest growing private company in the U.S. BeBetter was selected and is highlighted in Inc. Magazine's September edition featuring the 5,000 fastest growing companies.

BeBetter's three year growth rate was 6,675% and Inc. Magazine names beBetter as the industry leader in the health care sector ranking. See the full list of 5000 fastest growing.

The Daily Mail article points out that the company has developed several Web sites, including one mentioned that caught my eye called the Portion Plate. The website includes information to better understand the importance of portion control and help individuals visualize the correct portion size. The site is focuses on fighting the growing obesity problems in U.S. and West Virginia.

Congratulations to beBetter Network. Great to see a West Virginia based company in the top 20. Keep up the great work.

2008Tour De France: Congrats to West Virginian, Will Frischkorn

Congratulations to West Virginian, Will Frischkorn, on his amazing 2nd place finish in today's 3rd Stage of the 2008 Tour de France. The 2nd place finish puts him 3rd overall at 1' 42" back.

Will chronicles his win in his online diary at VeloNews via his Blackberry. Watch his post race interview below.

To learn more about Will and his West Virginia roots check out this excellent ESPN article, Two for the Road, covering Frischkorn and the Garmin-Chipotle team.

West Virginians are cheering all the way to the mountains of France from the Wild and Wonderful hills of West Virginia.

Mountain Stage: The Gold at the End of the Rainbow

A memorable 2008 FestivALL ended last evening with a great Mountain Stage performance at the Clay Center. One of the best all around performances I can remember in recent past.

A storm rolled through Charleston about 15 minutes before the performance and I captured the following photos. Coincidence or not? Well the pot of gold at the end of FestivALL was the "Gold" Mountain Rebels.


Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels were excellent as expected as the headliner. The Gold Mountain Rebels had a smooth tight sound that mixed well with Dylan's voice and lyrics. I really enjoyed the performances by singer songwriters, Andy Davis from Nashville and Priscilla Ahn from LA. Great new performers who I was first introduced to at the show and plan to hear more from. Krista Detor and Hayes Carll rounded out the evening with solid performances. For another perspective, check out Roger Lilly's review of the evening at the Charleston Gazette.

Still More FestivALL: Blues & Brews kicks off weekend events

Sorry for a lack of substantive health care posting the last couple of weeks. The result of being just too busy with client legal matters.

This morning I was catching up on my RSS feeds and saw these great photos by Rick Lee (photo to right by Rick of Sonny Landreth) from last nights Blues, Brews & BBQ. Looks like everyone had a great time. We sat on the porch last night after the kids went to bed and caught some of the great music.

Today Capitol Street comes alive with artists, performers, etc. Don't miss the fun. Looking forward to watching Jesse & James, Monkeys in the House, Expert Liar Bil Lepp, a variety of music and much more. Later in the day Michael Feldman's Whad'ya Know (Feldman visits Power Park) will be in town and tonight University of Charleston plays host to Wine & Jazz.

Tomorrow Mountain Stage caps off the weeklong FestivALL wich a great show including Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels, Hayes Carll, Andy Davis, Krista Detor and Priscilla Ahn. My wonderful wife surprised me with tickets - can't wait to see the show.

If you Twitter follow all the action aqt @FestivALL. In the words of Larry Groce, Mountain Stage host and FestivALL organizer, "Go out and see some live music [and arts] this weekend."

Please Repair Your Ball Mark

Amazing photos from yesterday's hail storm that swept through the Charleston area.

The photos were taken at Edgewood Golf Course in the Sissonville area of Kanawha County by one of my partners, Nate Tawney. Great shot of the driving range - looks like they haven't picked up balls all year long. The photo on the green gives you an idea of the size of the hail.

I've heard that the damage to cars in the lot was incredible - broken windshields, etc. One person said, "It looks like someone jumped on my hood with a pogo stick."



More photos in from Erik Engle:

FestivALL: West Virginia Wiener Dogs Run . . .

The Charleston Gazette's front page shot and story of the FestivALL wiener dog races, "and the wiener is . . ."

The photo features one of the winners, "Saugy Bottom Boy" who looks like a real thoroughbred. Our kids along with some of their friends are in the background.

Week long FestivALL kicked into high gear yesterday with events throughout Charleston. Downtown was busy with Smoke on the Water and the West Side was packed at the wiener dog races. If you twitter - pick up the latest @festivall.

My family and I spent a great day taking in the events. We started out the day dressing up and being photographic models for K.D. Lett's visual arts piece that he is working on as a part of FestivALL. He is taking photos of individuals, groups and families at the Charleston Ballet Building on Virginia Street. Then it was off to the wiener dog races. After that we swung by Ellen's Ice Cream for some "drive by" ice cream and it was off to the West Virginia Cultural Center Theater to catch the amazing work of the Squonk Opera group who performed a custom creation about "Charleston".

Gazette Covers West Virginia Blogger Effort to Confront Stereotypes

Today's Gazette local section covers the Better West Virginia project by West Virginia bloggers to examine and challenge the traditional West Virginia stereotype on West Virginia Day (June 20). Bloggers from around the state will post their view and vision of West Virginia's new stereotype.

Sarah Cooper over at the Putnam Scoop asked her regular readers to leave a comments with their impression of West Virginia and its stereotypes.

I would be interested to hear similar thoughts from my regular readers. Please leave a comment with your positive or negative stereotype of West Virginia and its people.

After Tax Day Thought: Intuit CEO Returning To Speak In West Virginia

West Virginia claims its share of high profile thinkers leading and funding some of the most innovative companies and businesses in the world. Add to this list Brad Smith, President CEO of Intuit, Inc.

Last week I learned from Matt Ballard, President of the Charleston Area Alliance that Mr. Smith will be returning to West Virginia to serve as the keynote speaker for the Charleston Area Alliance's Annual Celebration on May 6 from 5:15pm to 8pm at the Clay Center.

Mr. Smith is a native of Kenova, West Virginia and graduated with a degree in business administration from Marshall University. According to his bio, Mr. Smith became Intuit's president and chief executive officer in January 2008, culminating a five-year rise through the company in which he successfully led each of its major businesses. Before being named CEO, Smith was senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's Small Business Division, including being responsible for the company's portfolio of QuickBooks, Quicken and Payroll products. Prior to this he ran the company's QuickBooks Group from May 2005 to May 2006.

I look forward to hearing Mr. Smith's keynote speech and hope to talk to him about Intuit's efforts to bring the Quicken approach to health care reimbursement/payment through its product, Quicken Health. Last year I attended the Health 2.0 conference and learn about Quicken Health from Mike Battaglia.

As a member of the board of the West Virginia Health Information Network I would like to brainstorm on how Quicken Health might be incorporated into West Virginia's efforts to provide better and more affordable health care for West Virginians.

The CAA Blog post on the upcoming event mentions that this ties in well with Governor Manchin's "Come Home to West Virginia" concept (listen to another native West Virginian's version). Recent story on the effort from the State Journal, Bringing Our Children Home.
Here is the except from the Governor's State of the State mentioning the concept:

However, we can’t continue down this path without help. As everyone knows, our best resource has always been our people – and not just those who are here today living and working in West Virginia, but those who were born or raised in West Virginia and have left the state because they felt they had no other choice in order to make a living. Unfortunately, we are all guilty of teaching an entire generation that they couldn’t find a good job in West Virginia, so don’t even bother trying. Well, that’s absolutely not true today, and now our challenge is to reverse these thoughts and show those who have left that this is the perfect time to come home.

Some of the most successful people in the country are native West Virginians – Sylvia
Matthews, chief operating officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Wes Bush, president of Northrop Grumman; Ralph Baxter of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who has come home to West Virginia to co‐chair our 21st Century Jobs Cabinet and, of course, as previously mentioned, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. And I know there are many, many more success stories out there, both large and small, that most of us aren’t even aware of – except for the proud mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who deep‐down wish their loved ones were achieving success here in West Virginia.

Regardless of your field of expertise, we need you, and your intellectual capital, ingenuity and work ethic, now more than ever. We need those of you who have an entrepreneurial spirit, or those who have accomplished your goals and are looking for a place where you can teach others all that you have learned. You’ll recognize much of what you left behind, but you’ll also find a work force and a business community that have made tremendous advancements.

While your coming home will help us to make this an even better place to live and work, it will also be rewarding for you as well, because you’ll be able to give something back to this place that I know you’ve always carried with you in your heart and is such an important part of who you are.

So to get the word out, we are going to start a “Come Home to West Virginia” campaign this year through our Department of Commerce. This recruiting campaign will be aimed at bringing former West Virginia residents back home to either work in West Virginia’s growing industries or to expand in West Virginia the businesses they have started in other places.

These West Virginia born knowledge leaders bring a new direction that I hope West Virginia takes to transition itself into a state for the creative class to grow and thrive.

For more check out the blog posts at the CAA Blog and Skip Lineberg at Maple Creative.

Business Blogging Features in Sunday Gazette-Mail

Last week's Sunday Gazette-Mail featured an article, Blogging for Dollars: talky web journals keep customers in the loop, providing insight into some local business bloggers. I want to thank the reporter, Sarah Winn, for contacting me and allowing me the opportunity to be interviewed for the article.

The article featured my Health Care Law Blog along with these other West Virginia based business blogs:

Just A Modern Guy by Chuck Hamsher of The Purple Moon Marketing Genius from Maple Creative Direct Online Marketing Jason Keeling and A Better West Virginia

It was nice to be featured along with these great blogs. The draw back of such an article is that you can't cover all the great West Virginia blogs that are available. For more check out the follow up comments by Skip Lineberg at Maple Creative and Paul at Direct Online Marketing.

As a result of Justin Seibert's comment to this post I thought I would share a link to a resource over at This is not my blog that includes a good comprehensive list of West Virginia blogs (over 200). He also cites the blog roll at Lincoln Walks at Midnight as also having a comprehensive list of West Virginia blogs.

Photo: Marketing and public-relations professionals Skip Lineberg of Maple Creative LLC and Jason Keeling of Keeling Strategic Communications LLC discuss blogging at the recent Create WV conference at Stonewall Resort. Each writes a blog and says his online journal has become a business tool.

Butterfly in West Virginia

A butterfly we noticed just outside our front door this weekend. The kids loved watching them. Saw a couple of Monarchs and then this one. What is it? No I didn't photoshop to match the colors of the butterfly with the flowers. Rick Lee eat your heart out. By the way Rick, love your recent Chicago series, especially the Cloud Gate photos.

Almost Heaven . . . eBay

Almost Heaven West Virginia eBay.

Interesting survey results from Scarborough Research showing that Charleston, West Virginia is the #1 U.S. market for eBay visitors. 41% of adults in Charleston who accessed the internet in the last month are eBay visitors.

Skip Lineberg at Maple Creative has some additional thought on what this means for Charleston business? Jeff James at CreateWV provide more commentary in the post, "Is eBay the Killer App to Drive WV Broadband Adoption?"

Inspired by Rick Lee . . . Bugs!

I haven't been posting a lot because I've been very busy at work. However, I was inspired by Rick Lee tonight. In tribute to Rick's "Friday the 13th bug post" I thought I better post what's been bugging me. After returning from the grocery store (Monday night is grocery night at the Coffield House) I found this guy hanging out in our kitchen.

Not sure what he is (maybe someone out there can offer assistance). I have saved him for the night in the kids bug catcher so they can check him out in the morning.

Fun At FestivALL . . .

We spent yesterday at FestivALL and Rick Lee captured some great shots on Capitol Street. More fun today!

Thanks to Rick for capturing a shot of me and my daughter during Drew the Dramatic Fool.










This morning we made a second trip over to see Julian Beever's Charleston artwork to get some shots. The last one is of a couple who got on after us and had a lot of fun riding West Virginia's white water.

FestiVALL: Pavement Drawings By Julian Beever

Rick Lee beat me to the punchpost. Last week I read where Julian Beever, 3-D pavement/chalk artist from Belgium will be coming to FestiVALL 2007 in Charleston.

Last Thursday's Charleston Gazz featured photos of some of his work. I'm excited to see what he comes up with while working the streets of Charleston. (Hmmm . . . is this what he is planning). I'll try to get photos of his work and post them. Scan some of his past work courtesy of Google Image Search.

For more about this weeks FestiVALL check out my past post or the new FestiVALL 2007 Interactive Map, courtesy of the Charleston Gazette.

UPDATE (6/21/07): Below is a photo from the front page of today's Charleston Gazette showing the partial completion of Julian Beever's West Virginia FestiVALL work. Check out the article.


UPDATE (6/22/07): Last night Julian Beever completed his artwork for Charleston. Amazing. More photos courtesy of Charleston photo bloggers Rick Lee and Tom Hindman (more photos by Tom here and here). Photo below courtesy of Rick Lee.

Fishy FestivALL 2007

As a follow up to my recent post about Charleston being featured in Kiplinger's Best Cities At Every Stage of Your Life it reminds me to mention that FestivALL is on its way (June 21-24).

FestiVALL is just one example of why I think Charleston received a postive ranking in Kiplinger's bohemian factor. Here are posts (here and here) about last year's Charleston's premier arts event. For more background check out What is FestiVALL.

I got excited earlier this week after seeing the production photos of the 2007 FestiVALL Catfish over at friend and fellow blogger, Dale Morton's Costume Blog. (official FestiVALL catfish photo above).

Here is the quick overview of FestiVALL 2007 (For more info on 2007 FestiVALL check out the full schedule of events). Also, to stay up on FestiVALL check out the FestiVALL Blog by Adam Harris hosted via the Gazz Blogs.

This year our kick-off concert features the soulful sounds of The O’Jays at the beautiful Maier Foundation Performance Hall of The Clay Center on Thursday.

Friday night is party time on the river! Fund for the Arts’ Blues, Brews & BBQ will take place outdoors along the banks of the Kanawha at the University of Charleston with The Robert Cray Band and more. Phenomenal Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel will be in concert at The West Virginia State University Capitol Center Theater and A Gershwin Gala music and story tribute to the great George Gershwin will be at The Clay Center in a cabaret setting.

Saturday brings one of Charleston’s most popular events, Fund for the Arts’ Wine & All That Jazz, again outdoors on the U. of C. lawn. Smooth jazz sax man Eric Marienthal heads a bill that also includes the finest local and regional jazz artists and the fruits of local vineyards. Also on Saturday, The Capitol Street Art Fair fills two blocks with quality artists and crafts artists. They will be selling and, in some cases, demonstrating their work. On Saturday evening enjoy part one of The WV One Act Play Festival at The Clay Center. This year it will be topped off by a Late Night Cabaret performance. Also on Saturday night, at The WVSU Capitol Center Theater, you can hear the WV brother/sister duo of Tim and Mollie O’Brien in concert. Tim won a Grammy in 2005 for best traditional music recording and you may know Mollie as a long time regular on A Prairie Home Companion.

On Sunday, The Capitol Street Arts Fair returns and The One Act Theater Festival continues. On Sunday night, FestivALL 2007 ends with a very special edition of Charleston’s own internationally popular live music radio program, Mountain Stage.

On Wednesday, June 20, there will be a FestivALL West Virginia Day Celebration on the lawn of the Clay Center. It will feature popular local bands including the reunion of two of Charleston’s most popular 60’s and 70’s rock bands, The Mojos and Quiet. Later that evening, it’s the Gazz FestivALL Preview at Blues BBQ restaurant with more music and a discussion of FestivALL’s theme, “A City Becomes a Work of Art”, by city artists.

Check the Dance listings for performances by The Charleston Ballet, The River City Youth Ballet, West Virginia Dance Theatre, JADCO, Allegro and other companies. There will be 36 hours of free music on stages at Davis Park (blues, jazz), Haddad Riverfront Park (Charleston dance bands), Capitol Market (country and bluegrass), Charleston Town Center (eclectic mix) and at The Capitol Center FOOTMAD Stage (traditional Appalachian and folk). FOOTMAD will also be having a big Contra Dance Weekend.

Chalk artist Julian Beever will be coming in from Belgium to do one of his incredible “three dimensional” sidewalk drawings and the popular GO FISH catfish sculptures will be back in Brawley Walkway (Fife Street) and elsewhere. Street performers of all types will perform up and down Capitol Street. There will be family activities on The West Side and East End and, especially for the kids, The Kanawha Public Library’s Street Fair will take place on Saturday.

The City of Sistersville River Taxi will be ferrying folks across the Kanawha and last year’s extremely popular Location!Location!Location! “Ten Minute Play” contest winners, staged in the lobby of the Security Building, will be encored. Plus, a new contest, “A Streetcar Named…” will result in a twenty minute play that will be acted on a KRT Trolley as it makes its rounds.

In short, there will be plenty to keep the whole family entertained.

New WV Law Blog: West Virginia Business Litigation

Just a quick note to welcome another West Virginia lawyer, Jeff Mehalic, now blogging at West Virginia Business Litigation. It appears he started blogging in April. Looking at his past few posts looks like he will be generating some great content. Interesting reading, especially for West Virginia lawyers.

Welcome Jeff. I've added you to my blog roll list under the West Virginia Blog section. Be sure to check out some of the other West Virginia blogs. Your blog also now entitles you to attend the next meeting of CAB (reminds me that we need to schedule a get together).