“If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
Following him.
Bergamo, Italy, February 2016.
I’m not a stalker, I swear.
Tag Archives: favourites
September Highlights
NoOoOoOoO! It’s already the end of September!
Autumn is here, my time to write the blog has gone with Summer, I reckon.
I have been too busy sorting out my life, my apologies for not preparing the monthly favourites. A consolation? Check the past 8 posts all in one page, The Playlist.
Not enough? Ow, you really want me to feel bad, don’t you? Ok, here is the -at least- the playlist I prepared with my fave songs. Enjoy the tracks!
P.S. In few days check back the Playlist page and you’ll find all brand new suggestions for flowers, food, arts, movie, radio podcasts, tv series and more!
August Highlights!
Hello lovely people.
It is, again, the end of the month. Almost the end of the Summer too, so double meaning.
New exciting times and changes are coming, more layers on too. I can’t wait for Autumn to start, maybe bar the rain, but I’ll live to moderately embrace that too. Bring it on! Under “Playlist” you can find a new fine selection ’bout what impressed me this month: flowers, movies, books, radio, etc.. We start with a brand new playlist.
A very peculiar mix this month: I took some of my favourite songs listened on Youtube, (especially this lovely demo song by Henry Hall for a great Casey Neistat’s video – he’s a filmmaker from NYC, go check him out if you don’t know him!), podcasts like Song Exploder and This American Life. I believe it’s an interesting mix, let me know what you think. To start to listen to and read of other monthly favourites just click on the picture or directly HERE.
Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.
Val
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Art Basel: one big fair is in town.
The following post will be a highly promotional essay about Art Basel. If you are against contemporary art or you think the matter might offend or hurt your feelings please do not continue to read and go back doing what you were doing. Please beware that any complaint will be forwarded to Bruce.
Just kidding. This above is an amusing work by the Bruce High Quality Foundation in Brooklyn. Go check them out.
Let’s start again with a statement: If you are into contemporary art, you must at least once go to Basel, let’s say a weekend in June.
Basel – lovely Swiss city where everybody speaks 3 languages and pretends to understand them too – has itself a remarkable amount of good museums, such as the Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst and Museum Tinguely, but for the past 45 years it has also been hosting a massive art fair, the most important one on the Planet. Here some datas about the undiscussed supremacy: http://www.artlyst.com/articles/art-basel-45-retains-its-supremacy-in-the-art-marketplace.
So what’s special about it? The quantity? The quality? The events and sub-fairs around it? All of it. It is a very nice way to spend a weekend, believe me. I saw so many good artworks my eyes were hurting. I especially loved a Jaume Plensa’s sculpture…
or this Sterling Ruby’s spray painting..
and many more. I am going to try and give you the general feeling with the pictures I took with my phone (sorry for quality). Enjoy.
Hulk has a personal bodyguard, did you know?
That’s Amore, Michael Delucia
A room walking on rainbow paper leaves
A very natural pose
An artwork with a cheeky hole to look at the other side
An entire wall of sea landscapes, to feel inspired and see-sick at the same time. Powerful work, anyway.
June Highlights!
Hello June, welcome Summer!
And hello to you, beautiful creatures here reading. June has come and gone, and now things are getting real: half of 2014 has happened already. Seriously. It was like a quick time-lapse movie, I know, but take this time to consider if, so far, you have done enough of what all the good new year’s resolutions?
I haven’t, but I am excited because on the good way, and not stopping. Join me on the positive vibes, now!
Let’s start with music and a brand new playlist:
Click on the picture now to start the playlist and see all the other monthly favourites!
What to expect more? Just few topics from my very personal list of favourites, selected and explained just for you: Flowers – Film – Book – Radio – Tv series – Artist – Photo – Food …
Just click on the pic/album to start!
Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.
Val
P.S. Question of the month: who’s gonna win the World Cup???? Leave me a comment below if you want!
March Highlights!
I have a kind of soft-spot for March.
Yeah you know, it’s the kind of month you start seeing the sun more, consequentially you start loving everything around you, to then realise you love everything except the fat that is partying hard in your weak, pale body since the frozen days back in December January and February but hey nevermind you still have 10-15 days to go out and get fit before rainy April start. Story of everybody’s in a continental climate’s life.
Oh, and for me March means business. Birthday business. So the list of favourites is pretty special, starting from the playlist. Spoiler, it gets super boosting-up:
Here’s the link to the full list, https://valanzo.com/playlist/ some juicy favourites to interact with (click on all the bold words and links to get more info). Highlights? True Detective, Stephen King, Macarons…
Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.
Val
Canal Saint-Martin, Paris
Mais oui Paris! Mais oui Canal Saint-Martin! Un de meilleur et unique lieu unique de Paris, j’ai laissé mon coeur dans le canal là.
As a convinced Kreuzbergerin I love open spaces with a quiet canal where to hang out in peace with a bunch of peeps, sipping a beer and soaking in sun and conversations. It is the ideal place for a spontaneous picnic too!
Canal Saint-Martin is an exclusive place to find a piece of Berlin vibes in Paris, plus a bit of extravagant chich style in the area surrounding, full of graffitis, cool restaurants, bars and stunning ‘800s-styled buildings.
What a difference makes a place like this. As Berlin-centred I think of Kreuzberg, but now that I think more of it, if you are a Londoner you can relate there with Regent’s Canal in Camden or the lovely Angel area. It is indeed a good living, especially on a sunny day.
Talking about geography, you can easily find this area between Republique and the beginning of La Villette. It’s a super easy walk from train station Gare de l’Est and it’s beyond well connected.
Why not visiting the next time you are in time?
… Just don’t forget to invite me, I’ll bring some red whine, cheese and crackers with me.
Please click here to see more pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60353299@N08/sets/72157642967485263/
FIND MY SHORT GUIDE: PARIS IN 1 WEEKEND WHAT TO DO HERE!
February Highlights!
Hello friends!
It is now online on its special page the complete February section of my monthly favourites! Link for lazy bums here
We start as usual with a music compilation, quite referring love, hope and patience:
Furthermore, I spoke about flowers, movies, artist, and also the dish of the month, a pretty healthy one this time.
Thanks to your suggestions I also included some new favourites: book, radio program/podcast, tv series and photography (well, the best, or most significant, photo I took during Feb.). I hope to keep it sharp, inspiring and relevant. Oh, keep in mind that every section has a link if you want to know more about the topic. 🙂 Just click here…
Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.
Val
January Highlights!
Hi!
It’s the end of the month, and as promised I started a new chapter of this blog, a monthly list I am going to post every 30 days from now on where I will tell you about my biggest favourites, starting with, as the name states, the music, but including also art, movies and more! (…suggestions are welcome too, if you want my opinionated fingers to write about something particular just leave your ideas in the comments below…)
You can start by looking at January on newly created section “The Playlist” that it’s next to “About” on the grid title above.
As a starter, I hope you will enjoy my virtual January mixtape, made with loads of love (and 8tracks).
Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.
Val
P.S. For my dear subscribed followers, the page is not actually a blog post so you won’t get a notification; I am working on moving my WordPress blog to somewhere more useful and open and funny but in the meantime I will post my favourites every end of the month so just pop over during those days if you feel in the mood, cheers!
Valanzo 