01 January 2007

10 things I love that begin with the letter V

Happy New Year to all - let's begin the year with a meme (from Stefanie (So Many Books) : ten things I love that begin with the letter V.

violetsViolets, especially in the spring, when they first appear amongst the baby grasses.

Virginia Woolf,
whose vision and flow broke through the brittle logic of literary expectation.

Gore Vidal
: sage, seer, brilliant author, wit, and the living writer whose thoughts have most influenced my political understanding.

veniceVenice. I have never been to Venice, and I am told that I would not love it in person as I love it in photographs, paintings, film, and literature. It is, however, one of my life goals to see the way the reflections of the water play on the architecture.


Violas. I used to play viola, and I still love the alto beauty of its tone. ( "Harald in Italy" by Berlioz is a lovely example of how the viola sings.)

Ralph Vaughan Villiams
: "Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus," one of the folk tunes collected by Vaughan Willaims and one of my musical touchstones.

Velvet.
When I have a migraine, one of the ways I try to soothe myself is to imagine the touch of dark green velvet. (I still regret the green velvet gloves I decided not to buy in Harrod's. )

Van Gogh's IrisesVincent Van Gogh. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had two huge exhibitions of his paintings and drawings in the 1970s. I did not expect to become emotionally unhinged in the presence of "Starry Night," nor to be swept into the whirlwind of his creativity by seeing how the blue of water in one late painting was swept into the sky in the next.

Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight, a weekly free-form radio program on VFUV Public Radio. that includes such an eclectic range of music that you can listen to Laurie Anderson, Aimee Mann, Joshua Bell, Marianne Faithfull, Yo La Tengo, a string quartet playing Shostakovich, ragtime, jazz, show tunes... plus interviews with Leonard Cohen, Pete Hamill....

and....PeacePeace.


Would anyone else like to play? The original version would have me assign you a letter. Instead, assign one to yourself using the first letter of your first-grade teacher's first name... And leave me a comment when you do the meme, so I can visit.

5 comments:

Bridget said...

Happy New Year, Melanie! I love your "v" list ...

In case you want to check it out, I posted the Six Weird Things Today ... once I get some other stuff caught up, I might try the letter meme.

gfh said...

Hi! I was already tagged for this meme for the letter 'D', which I have finished. Good thing, because I'm not sure I remember that teacher's first name:)! Fantastic list!
-adrienne:)

Becky said...

What a nice variety in your list. I also love Van Gogh's Starry Night, as well as Don McLean's song tribute to it. Have you seen Kurasawa's Dreams? It is 8 short films, and one is based on a dream of actually entering the world of Van Gogh's paintings. It's lovely.

Carrie K said...

I don't want to play, but I love your list of V's!

It's funny how we some things we don't buy stay in our regrets. I was just musing the other day how much I wish I'd picked up that table/secret cabinet at the antique house years ago.

Velvet. Yum.

Stefanie said...

I've read your post a while ago but somehow managed no to comment. I love Van Gogh too, got to see some of his paintings in person. They take your breath away And Vencie, I've not been there either but would like to go someday. My boss loves Venice and has been several times. And of course, Virginia Woolf rocks! :)