Let's explore the fuel, fate, and fascination of the artist who lives and creates outside of "traditional" centers of art, such as New York, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and elsewhere.  Do artists who defy these hubs of creative traffic do themselves a vocational disservice, or have they discovered the 21st Century's worst-kept-secret?  To wit, we've established that an artist needs an audience, but how large a one?  And are artists even entitled to that ever-elusive work/life/sanity balance?  The well-traveled, oft-acclaimed John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats (currently based in Durham, North Carolina, USA) could be onto something...and we don't mean merely a better price-per-square-foot.