ROADWORD
An occasional series on notable road trips into and out of WestVirginiaVille

Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, right before their Nov. 6, 2010 ‘Purple Wedding to the Mountains’ on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio
photo by douglas imbrogno | click bigger

Part 1: Annie Sprinkle Comes to Dinner
PART 2: Zoot-Suiting Up
Part 3:  An Eco-sexual Ceremony: to come

By Douglas Imbrogno | I am standing in front of a mirror in a purple zoot suit. Wondering: ‘Does this zoot suit make me look fat?”

No, actually, I am wondering which of several purple outfits my friend Ken has pulled from his copious stock of costumes that I should don for the Purple Wedding to the Mountains. Ken Fox, co-owner of Magic Makers in Huntington, W.Va., is a master costumer and has outfitted me before. Let’s see, there was Captain Von Trapp. Then there was Io, lead singer of the Ions.

“Ken,” I had said, reaching him via cellphone the day before the fitting. “I’m playing at a performance art wedding this weekend between former porn star Annie Sprinkle and her professor-artist wife from West Virginia, Elizabeth Stephens. You’re supposed to wear purple. Can you help?” …

| READ ON at WestVirginiaVille.com

My work has yet, alas, to make it to the New York Times. But I’m glad to report one of my songs is currently mentioned in a New York Times blog, “Paper Cuts: A Blog About Books.” That’s a start. I got an e-mail yesterday from a writer named Bill Peschel who has a new book out with a title nearly worth the price of admission: “Writers Gone Wild: The Feuds, Frolics, and Follies of Literature’s Great Adventurers, Drunkards, Lovers, Iconoclasts, and Misanthropes.” In an e-mail, Peschel explained that he compiled a suggested mix tape to go along with the book, and a web search turned up my song, “I Never Slept With Allen Ginsberg,” from the “Saint Stephen’s Dream” CD I did some years back with Bob Webb (under the band name “garagecow ensemble).

“With the book being a collection of stories about the highs and lows in the lives of writers,” says Peschel, “it seemed appropriate to suggest a mix CD of songs inspired by writers. Here’s the roster I came up with.”

1. “Edgar Allan Poe” / Lou Reed

2. “Raymond Chandler Said” / Michael Anderson

3. “I Never Slept With Allen Ginsberg” / Garagecow Ensemble

4. “John Allyn Smith Sails” / Okkervil River

5. “Mercy Street” / Peter Gabriel

6. “Sylvia Plath” / Ryan Adams

7. “Bukowski” / Modest Mouse

8. “Lorca’s Novena” / The Pogues

9. “Hemingway’s Whiskey” / Kenny Chesney

10. “The Cult of Ray” / Frank Black

11. “Hey Jack Kerouac” / 10,000 Manaics

12. “I Got Laid on James Joyce’s Grave” / Black 47

I was, of course, delighted to be invited to such a fine party, as well as being introduced to one of the finest song titles ever: “I Got Laid on James Joyce’s Grave.” Now, that’s pop music. P.S. – The Times blog misspells Ginsberg’s name in my song title. Welcome to 21st century online editing.

Encountering former porn star Annie Sprinkle in an Indian restaurant in downtown Charleston, W.Va., she and her West Virginia native wife reveal their upcoming Purple Wedding to the Mountains. And your intrepid narrator bags an opening gig to the event.| READ ON …

“The only hope is setting out to find/A form of honest discourse to reclaim/ The honest discourse fools have undermined.”

~ Elomire from David Hirson’s play “La Bête,” quoted in John Lahr’s New Yorker review

“Love the Earth and
the Love will bring you
Down to Earth.”

~ my dear carpenter compadre Raymond
(signing off in a letter written on a very thin slice of wood)

Maj0r Minor

I am a
major
minor artist.

Which is
better,
I think,

than being
a minor
major artist.

~ By Cardinal Crowe
(from the forthcoming collection of epigrams, bon mots and poetry, “What I Meant To Say,” The WestVirginiaVille Press)