When West Virginia’s often dispiriting politics get me down, I tend to look up. Into blue skies. Into wind-rustled branches of the state’s endless trees. At hula hoop dancers at sunset on a steep-pitched mountain in the outback. Mixing homegrown images with homegrown music is a kind of knitting or quilt-making to me. We invite you to take five minutes from feeling harassed by the news or our own hectic heads for “Sonata for Piano & West Virginia No. 1,” by my new musical confabulation, The SCRIBBLERS. It offers another way of looking at West Virginia and those parts that remain uncorrupted, fresh, and true. ~ Douglas John Imbrogno
CLICK TO VIEW
- The JUNE 2021 ISSUE of WESTVIRGINIAVILLE.com
- EDITORS/NOTE: Elephant Ankles, a Dad’s love, Natural Sonatas, CROWN Act-ing & More
- COVER STORY: ELEPHANT ANKLES: Life with Long COVID
- IN/PROGRESS: “The Air My Flowers Breathe: A Love Story”
- PICTURE/SHOW: Kyle Vass on taking his best shot
- MUSIC/VIDEO: ‘Sonata for Piano & West Virginia No. 1’
- RE/PRINT: Bringing the CROWN Act to a town near you
- FREE SUBSCRIBE AT: WestVirginiaVille.substack.com
RELATED
NATUREGRAM: Two minutes of nothing but pines, plus some calming music: march13.2021: We can’t share with you the sweet aroma of a stand of pine trees in Putnam County, West Virginia. But we can share with you the experience of standing among them. A new WestVirginiiaVille shelter-in-nature short video.
VIDEO: Other ways of looking at a Mail Pouch barn: feb16.2021: Mail Pouch barn signs became such an iconic, familiar image, showcased in tens of thousands of similarly framed snapshots, postcards, and saturated photographs that they are almost impossible to see afresh. We give it a go in “Chew This Way.”
MUSICVIDEO: “Winter Walking,” when it’s not such a wonderland: feb16.2021: A long winter grips the land. Add in cabin-fever weariness from a year-long COVID quarantine—and you can be forgiven if it seems like we are living through “a winter that never dies.” Here’s a music video about that.
VIDEO: “Chasing Birds in Snow”: feb10.2021: Take a 2-minute excursion into the heart of the heart of Nature, as a bunch of birds play leapfrog in the midst of a West Virginia snow squall.
VIDEO: “The Edge of Day”: feb9.2021: Thoughts on high while at the edge of day. An original short video production featuring imagery and music by Bobby Lee Messer and words by Kim Wilkinson.
VIDEO: A Sky-high View of the New River Gorge Bridge: jan30.2021: The New River Gorge Bridge is one of West Virginia’s most iconic landmarks. But have you ever seen it from an eagle’s eye view—or maybe an Olympian god’s?
VIDEO: 9 Ways of Looking at ‘Hallelujah”: dec30.2020: We dip into the archives of West Virginia cultural multimedia with a 2010 video appreciation of Albert Paley’s striking 198,000 monumental sculpture, “Hallelujah,” in Charleston WV. Get up close-and personal with a great work of art.
VIDEO: The debut of “Animals in Appalachia” with “Deer Me”: dec22.2020: In the start of a new short video series, “Animals in Appalachia” by WestVirginiaVille.com, a mother deer puts her foot down as she momentarily loses track of her two fawns.
VIDEO: The Artist’s Work Considered As a Moving Picture Show: dec192020: Sharon Lyn Stackpole’s art considered as a video: “I always had a female character in my drawings either in illustration form or comic and I’d have her acting out whatever I was also living in my drawings. For some reason, this was reassuring and helped me to feel less alone.”
