That's My Story

A  L  O  H  A ! 

"  If history were taught 

in the form of stories,

 it would never be forgotten.  "

Rudyard Kipling

 

 “The life of every man
is a diary
 in which he means to write
 one story,
and writes
another.”

 James Matthew Barrie

“Live your life
 from your heart.
Share from your heart.
And your story
will touch
 and heal
 people's souls.”

 Melody Beattie

“A drink
 precedes
 a story.”

 Irish Proverb

" Be amusing: 

never tell unkind stories; 

above all, 

never tell long ones. "

Benjamin Disraeli

" Some stories are true

 that never happened.  "

Elie Wiesel

“Everybody here 

thinks the whole story 

is about them..
Definitely 

that goes for everybody 

in the world.”

 Chuck Palahniuk

" One of the ways

to reincarnate

is to tell

your story. "

Spalding Gray

  ><}}(°>

< ° ) } } > <     

All over the world, throughout history, 

storytelling

 has been one of the chief characteristics 

of our shared humanity. 

 The telling can involve  song, 

chant, musical instruments, 

epic poems recited from memory.  

Recitation & performance

of epics,

 the founding myths

 of a people, 

a culture

can last for days! 

From a single bard,

 to a Greek Chorus,

 to a theater troupe;

 From a prehistoric campfire,

 to Beijing Opera,

 the Broadway Stage, Hollywood,

 and yes, Blogger-

 We are the tellers of stories,

and telling them

is how we make sense

of our lives.

What young person today

has NOT lived Harry Potter,

and shared it's secret inclusion

with their generational cohort?

When I lost my job

[ and turned 50

the same week ]

I adjusted while watching

 NYPD Blue

every day on a cable network.

The redemption of Dennis Franz`

Detective Andy Sipowicz 

consumed me.  

All the themes,

all the flavor, 

all of the 'person' 

and 'place'

helped me process 

my own story

somehow.

The stories of Shakespeare

 live forever

because our hopes, fears,

 and character 

have not changed

since he revealed them to us.

Americans waited at the dock

in New York Winter

for the next installment

of Dickens 

by sail from London.

The Sopranos also captured my imagination

the way a beloved series of books does.

[ Like the Talera cycle 

 by Charles Gramlich ]

LINK

One amazing development has been

the technology to bring theater

into our home.

And now, we no longer need to watch

episodic TV every week;

No, through HULU, or HBOGO,

we can watch every chapter,

every season of our consuming Story

all at once!

Have you spent a weekend

watching every episode

of such a series as the Sopranos

or The Wire?

Would you admit it if you had?

LOL

Just asking. . .

Thanks for sharing,
leave a comment!

                   Warmly, cloudia

You can read about 
storytelling traditions here:

LINK

A  L  O  H  A !

"He was a blogger, 

which is to say,

 he died known only

 to strangers."

Robert Brault

" A book must be

 the ax

 for the frozen sea 

within us.  "

Franz Kafka

" By believing

 passionately in something

 that still does not exist,

 we create it.

 The nonexistent

 is whatever

 we have not

 sufficiently desired.  "

Franz Kafka

                       > < } } (°>

Artists & artisans

are very particular 

about 

TOOLS.

Tools become worn

to our touch,

familiar

to our muscle memory.

Without them

we are but dreamers

without the means

to prove

our visions.

Blogger

is our tool;

A magical tool!

But if one night,

someone entered

Michelangelo's chapel

and replaced every

tool,

every pigment,

every brush,

every scaffold,

with DIFFERENT ones,

though they did

JUST the same,

well old Michael

would have known

how I felt

when I opened my

"workshop"

and Blogger had 

CHANGED

EVERYTHING.

Welcome to my first post.

Today I begin again.

Now WHERE

is that ''Preview" button?

 

Happy Hunting

my fellow Blogger-nistas.

It's gonna be

GREAT!

YOU been 'updated' yet?

        Warmly, cloudia 

THIS is Hula

A  L  O  H  A !

When You Are

A  L  O  H  A !

 Click upon the pictures

When You Are Old
By William Butler Yeats

" When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. "

And so, my Friend

cherish

this irreplaceable

Day.

And thank YOU

SO Much

for spending some of it

here with us.

'Take away Peace - Leave a Comment'

today's post

dedicated

to my blog-invisible

husband.

                             Warmly, cloudia

Dick Clark: Cultural Giant

" We're goin hoppin
We're goin happin
Where things are poppin
The Philadelphia way
We're gonna drop in
On all the music they play
On the bandstand-"

Barry Manilow

<>

After school,

every kid in Philadelphia

watched the Teen-Agers

dance on BANDSTAND,

broadcast from 47th & Market

in West Philly.

It was our local show

before the world discovered it

back in the early days

of Rock & Roll.

"They look like they are having fun.

I can't wait till I'm a Teen-Ager!"

Me at age 7

"But imagine how much fun

it WILL be,

when YOU get there!"

Mom

Prophetic Mom!

Woodstock

made the cool kids on

Band Stand

look old fashioned!

Dick Clark

was VERY important

to American & World 

Pop Music,

to our culture,

for DECADES.

Many of our musical icons

only succeeded

because of his support.

Thanks Mr. Clark - 

' World's Oldest Teen-Ager"