Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward

18 Mar 00 - 05:09 PM (#197360)
Subject: 'Cat Storytellers, Please Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

I bring you a topic begun in personal pages, with Aine. Jump in, all!


MY MESSAGE TO HER WAS:

Help, I'm being flooded with stories in my head!!!

All the Mudcat creativity is pushing my write buttons, and people I have savored are emerging as sketches. The sketches seem tohave a point... ??? Maybe not. Whole new thing for me. Maybe I'm becoming a storyteller.

1. Are there threads on being one? I looked but didn't find, maybe looked wrong
2. Is there a list in any form of 'Catters who are tellers?
3. Is there a teller's group online worth splitting my online time with, or do I stay here to develop it?
4. ???????


AINE'S REPLY WAS:
Dear Praise,

How wonderful! I do hope you are keeping a notebook and pen handy to write down your ideas the moment they occur to you. I find that very helpful in my own writing. I haved an idea that you've always been a storyteller; and perhaps now have found the outlet you were looking for. As to your questions:

1. Are there threads on being one? I looked but didn't find, maybe looked wrong.

There probably have been, but none I can think of right off the top of my head. It's a pity that the 'Supersearch' isn't up and running yet, as I'm sure you could find them. Please, please start a thread about this, and encourage folks to write their stories down for the up and coming Storyteller page.

2. Is there a list in any form of 'Catters who are tellers?

No, but that's one of the things I should put on the Mudcat Storyteller page that I'm working on. Thanks for the suggestion!

3. Is there a teller's group online worth splitting my online time with, or do I stay here to develop it?

I do believe there are several online storyteller groups. I do know that they hold conventions and/or programs all across the country. There's one group in North Texas who'll be holding their meeting in Dallas next month. They have programs for the public (young and old), and they even have workshops and open stages for novice storytellers. Do a search for 'storyteller AND groups' or 'storyteller AND program' and see what you come up with. I'll do the same and send my results to you.

Good luck in your search and welcome to the storyteller's world! It's sorta like the Mudcat -- some good, some bad, some funny, some sad -- but all very entertaining!

-- Áine

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18 Mar 00 - 05:37 PM (#197372)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Áine

Dear Praise,

Here are couple of links that I found with Northern Light Search using 'storyteller AND pennsylvania' -- It's a place to start anyway:

Ray Gray - a storyteller in Pennsylvania

Storytellers' Research Guide: Folktales, Myths and Legends

Awakening The Hidden Storyteller

Thank you for starting this thread! (And just for the record, Praise asked my permission to use the personal message above).

-- Áine

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18 Mar 00 - 07:39 PM (#197408)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Bill in Alabama

Praise--

I'm a storyteller-- descended from a line of 'em. The best site for you to seek out to begin is here. Up at the top, click on EVENTS, and that will give you information on the National Story-Telling Festival, held every October in Jonsborough, Tennessee.

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18 Mar 00 - 07:41 PM (#197410)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Bill in Alabama

Praise--
Back again--I couldn't wait to see if the blue clicky thing worked. I would be happy to discuss story-telling with you off the forum. Send a personal message if you wish.

Bill Foster

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18 Mar 00 - 07:48 PM (#197416)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: kendall

The National Story tellers convention in TN. is something not to be missed. I was there in 1980, and had the time of my life. I'm willing to share what little I know with you.

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18 Mar 00 - 08:16 PM (#197426)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: McGrath of Harlow

And Dan Keding I know is one hell of a good storyteller.

I don't know how it is in the States, but here in England pretty well every folk festival these days has room for storytellers somewhere.

Packie Manus Byrne, whom God preserve, says that he isn't really a storyteller - there are stories, lies and jokes, and he's a liar. (And he is too, when he says he's not a storyteller.)

But that is an interesting distinction, and you can get a lot of mileage out of an interesting distinction. Most people tell jokes - though a lot of the time we don't tell them so much as crack them. Telling entertaining lies is rarer. Telling stories is something most of us hardly ever do, except for children.

Up in the links section there's a category for storytelling sites, but not many links there yet.

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18 Mar 00 - 09:08 PM (#197439)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Mbo

Uh-oh! Don't ask ME for stories! I'll never live down the whole "Haunted Goulash" story...as my sister will never live down the "Elvis Impersonator and Mickey Mouse's Ghost"!

--Mbo

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18 Mar 00 - 09:32 PM (#197453)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

First, Dan--- I am from the Chicago and now in northern PA-- and I've heard you tell as well as sing, and--- oh wow. Thanks!!!

And all the rest-- oh, man, I can't thank you enough. I don't know what I'm going to do with these yet, but would you read them and tell me what you really think??? The way they are coming is written down, but I've re-read a first draft of one and it seems to speak nearly right.

Could you look at Kathy's Garden in the current thread about the storyteller who had just died? It's a rough draft, and the word [finds] in it is a typo, s/be [friends], in the part about babies. Click here

My sense of them is that they will be used in church and/or as Hardiman and I start to go out as a twosome to play the goofy array of music we like, and these will go in, too.

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18 Mar 00 - 09:55 PM (#197465)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Bill in Alabama

Praise--
Kathy's garden is a fine piece, and deserves to be told at your performances; Congratulations!

By the way, it would seem to me to be a good candidate for a column in a suitable journal, as well. As these stories flood your head, put them down and keep them, for they are bound to be coming to you for a reason, and the reason for each will eventually become known to you.

Bill

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18 Mar 00 - 10:01 PM (#197468)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

Bill, that's exactly what I have been thinking. The two that are in first draft came as a result of personal correspondence, then I realized there was more than one person in the likely audience.

I think also that they will probably not "stand alone," that as sketches rather than things-that-happened they may end up going thematically with sung pieces.

I think that's why I never identified these deep impressions I've retained of people, as "stories." They... are something that... leaves an impression. ?

Thanks for helping!!!!

QUESTIONS FOR ALL-- do you write yours first, like I am doing? Do you borrow other tellers' stories? I want mine TOLD, I don't care by who. Is that "normal"?

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19 Mar 00 - 12:25 AM (#197522)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: rainbow

i'm from the bardic tradition. music and storytelling together. the stories of the songs... the songs in the stories. the history of the minstrels and all that. if i can assist you, let me know.

... lorraine

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19 Mar 00 - 01:02 AM (#197530)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Bill in Alabama

Praise--
I write mine first, as I find that doing so helps me concentrate on the main theme as well as the peripherals which add so much to the mood of the story (i.e. the pinafore curtains, the knocker, and the wire frame in your piece). You won't tell it exactly as you wrote it; indeed, you'll probably never tell it the same way twice--but having the experience in print helps you visualize your progression as you work at the telling. I also borrow the stories of others on rare occasions, but with adaptations and emendations to bring them into my own experience. I do feel, however, that you're better off with your own experiences, as a general rule, because they're unique to you, and affect you as they would no other. Others tell my stories, and I'm flattered when they do so; but to them, they're stories, while to me they're life experiences. There are some really fine story-telling sites as well as some fine books on putting together a good repertoire of tales. Pick up LISTENING FOR THE CRACK OF DAWN or BARKING AT A FOX FUR COAT, by Donald Davis and read them as good examples of what a story-teller can do with his own life experiences.

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19 Mar 00 - 01:43 AM (#197542)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

Thanks Bill!!!

Been looking at those links.....

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19 Mar 00 - 07:04 PM (#197827)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: GUEST,Dan Keding

It's great to hear all the storytellers on the Cat. Long may you tell! Praise, if you go to the National Festival in Jonesborough this year look me up, I'm back there telling this year. Also, if anybody out there in "storycatland" is down in Texas I'll be at the Texas Storytelling Festival this weekend. It would be great to put some faces with names. Take care, Dan

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19 Mar 00 - 07:27 PM (#197839)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

Dan, every time you post I hear your wonderful rich voice.

If we collect enough tellers here, we're going to need sound clips, not pictures, at bbc's pages!

I want to hear you all!

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20 Mar 00 - 08:46 AM (#198017)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

refresh for the Moday morning crowd

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20 Mar 00 - 09:05 AM (#198025)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Hyperabid

Priase

There used to be a very friendly writers pub in the UK at aol.com. I think you can log on to their chat rooms externally using software downloaded from here if you want to talk online.

There was also a fun UK writers website called the 1kclub where writers were challenegd to prodcue pieces of 1000 words on pre-chosen or self-chosen subjects that I used to like to occassionally send in to. Regretably I can no longer find the bookmark and with a smallish site the search engines arn't being that helpful.

Hyp

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20 Mar 00 - 10:09 AM (#198049)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Jacob B

As a storyteller, I feel obliged to add to this thread, but I feel humbled by the quality of the comments already made.

There's just one thing I feel I can add, because I know it's true. Praise, don't worry about whether the way you tell stories is "normal", or the way anybody else does it. Storytelling is the most intensely personal art, and once you start it leads you to places you never could have imagined when you started. Your job is to do it your own way, and as listeners and readers we value the things within the story that resonate truely within you.

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20 Mar 00 - 04:54 PM (#198238)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: GUEST,Dan Keding

Praise and other Cat Tellers,

If any of you are interested in storytelling in educatiuon I highly recommend Heather Forest's website on story in education, www.storyarts.org. Great ideas and bibliographies and activities. Also, how many of you mix music and story? How many sing ballads and songs in between tales? Maybe I'll start a thread on this. Take care my friends, Dan

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20 Mar 00 - 05:12 PM (#198245)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: MMario

My eventual goal is to have a number of story/songs which go together, either songs within the story, or that complete a story, or even tell the story...after one success at melding the two, I haven't had much luck coming up with more....

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20 Mar 00 - 05:33 PM (#198250)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

Hyperabid, Jacob, Mmario, Dan, all of you--

You are each a gift continuing to unfold! And you are appreciated.

Dan-- feel free to add whatever you would like to add, in this thread... if it gets too long we can always blue-clickie to Part Two!

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21 Mar 00 - 11:53 AM (#198686)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: richardw

Dan; Your link or address for the storytelling list did not appear to have an address. Could you post it again, please?

My partner, Cathryn Wellner and I almost always use songs or music in our telling. One because we enjoy it; two because first of all folks come to be entertained; and three because with music we can set the mood or scene we feel is important. Finally, of course, many songs are stories.

Lets keep this thread going. I'll send more when this right arm of mine can type again.

richard

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21 Mar 00 - 12:03 PM (#198690)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: MMario

blue clicky added for Dans link to Story Arts

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21 Mar 00 - 12:09 PM (#198694)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: katlaughing

Hyperabid, you might try this site: http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/ or, click here for the Search engine Colossus. You may be able to find the writing club you mentioned, as this has search engines which are country specific.

This is a wonderful thread. I grew up with parents and a grandmother who told stories all of their lives; dad still is at almost 83 years old, always along with music. While I tend more towards written down stories, I do still spin a yarn now and then.

Keep this one going, it is really interesting. Maybe we can lure Art Thieme in, too. He tells some wonderful tales interspersed among his tunes.

Thanks,

kat

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21 Mar 00 - 12:27 PM (#198706)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

Yeah!!!!!

My next one has to be Them Ducks.

"Oh them ducks.... There were so many.... It's hard to get all the ducks into one story. But then that's ducks for ya. Gettin' ducks to stay in almost anything.....

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21 Mar 00 - 01:27 PM (#198746)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: GUEST,Dan Keding

The listserve for storytelling, Storytell is great fun with an awful lot of great folks wj\ho love story. Sorry I didn't give the whole address. here it is: to subscrbe send an email to [e-mail] - in the body of the message put Subscribe Storytell and your name. Nothing in the subject line. The National Storytelling Network's home page is www.storynet.org.

I've been using music with my stories for over twenty years. I also have been taking some of the old ballads and reworknig them into spoken narratives. These great old ballads have some wonderful story lines that need only a little work to make them incredible spoken tales. I usually only work with lesser known pieces since there is a part of me that loves the old tunes so much I can't leave them behind. I just worked on The Famous Flower of Serving Men using both the sung ballad and a narrative piece to come up with a new story. Heather Forest is a superb example of someone who uses music in her stories. I'm off to Texas tomorrow but when I get back maybe we can post a few stories and start a thread on the tales from Mudcat. Thanks so much for all the great news on this thread. Praise you opened a wonderful can of worms!!! My only problem with the Mudcat is wanting to me everyone once I've "talked" on the Cat with them. Someday. Take care my friends, Dan

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21 Mar 00 - 10:23 PM (#199054)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

"... Gettin' ducks to stay in almost anything, now that's a trick. I know my three White Pekins did not appreciate the cardboard prison in which I carried them to their new home, although the one feller who insisted on helping me drive clearly enjoyed traveling by car.

Well, ducks like to get around. Funny how once you know ducks, you can never fail to hear them whenever they are in the neighborhood. Long after our last flock had died one by one in the road, our piece of land echoed one magical misty night with the soft guttural courting of ducks. It called me out of sleep to stand, cold bare feet in the long dewy grass, marveling at the luminous mist overlit by a full enshrouded moon, to pinpoint where they might lay. In the farm yard, brought back by the lone wild duck returning against all hope with a flock of new friends? Wild visitors daring to come upstream to explore our part of the creek, where it cuts our driveway closer each spring? Distant paddling and slippy water slaps... cupping my ear and turning in all directions to focus the vapor-diffused sounds... craning my ear in all directions... of course. They only sound like they are at my feet-- they're in the farm pond next house over. Too hard to reach in the dark... too private a party to crash... better to stand poised and just hear them, soak up the miracle of having ducks back....."

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21 Mar 00 - 11:03 PM (#199074)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

"... soak up the miracle of having ducks back.

In fact it makes you forget the sight of truck-crushed duck bodies laid on the stump beside the lower arm of the drive. The farmhands' wordless notification and sympathy for ducks found in the road come chore time, while you were at work. First one, a shock. "Honey, what is that Indian Runner doing laying on the STUMP???" Not moving.... And then, one at a time, the others, to come home to, their afternoons exploring gone wrong.

I do not know to this day why them ducks could swim UNDER the bridge downstream but had to cross ON the bridge to come back home, upstream. Guess it was just one a them duck things. But after the second stump offering I knew we would never hatch ducks here again, right on the road. Penning up ducks... well it isn't right. Even after I had to shoot the one buff duck that had only been part-crushed. Oh my. They go hard with snake shot, what I had loaded. She went hard. I was sick.

But now, in the mist, that all eases and fades, and I remember that the last duck actually left by van. Oh that was a day, a duck loose in the back of the van! An all day drive through farm country failed to turn up ONE pond with paddling ducks upon it. Finally I drove over to the next county where I thought I remembered seeing a yardfull, up past the meatpacking plant... Hadn't there been 7 or 8 varieties one day when I was out exploring... could I find it? Well find it I did, and the farm wife was kind to accept the last Pekin. Good thing, too; poor duck had tried to adopt herself into the chicken flock. Following them everywhere as they ran from her.... nearly lost several of the chickens, they ran the weight right off.

Well let me tell you when that lady's ducks rose up from their shady naps under the bushes, and quacked at my approach, I thought my armload of Pekin was fit to burst. Did she run and flap across the grass to join up! And in just a few seconds, that old Lonelyduck disappeared into a flock, and became indistinguishable from her hostesses... You know I never thought, funny how ducks will welcome strange ducks like that, and run 'em right over to the pond for a dip. "This is the water! The water!! Water water water!!!!!" And you know every time a duck sees water, it's never seen it before. Uh huh, it's always the first time.

Walter knew that. Oh Lord, old Walter and them ducks..."

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22 Mar 00 - 12:39 AM (#199124)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: wysiwyg

"... Oh Lord, old Walter and them ducks. Dear old Walter, rest his soul. Walter had a body shaped like an old potato, and a face ike an old potato, too; but Walter's heart, now, that musta been shaped just like a duck. And I never saw that in him till the day I found him parked out back between chores, in his old sedan, watching the ducks discover a panful of water. I'm sorry now he saw me watching him, just a lttle sorry, because he stopped when he felt he'd been caught. But he grinned. And smiled, shy--- "Them ducks... is something else. I never knew ducks." I didn't know then that Walter would not have too many more duck watching days in him. But Walter died satisfied, my husband tells it. Walter said, "Well, I'd rather stick around, but you know I've had me a good life and a long one; I guess it's my time is all." I like to think of Walter taking the time, even before he knew time had grown short, to stop his chores to watch the ducks.

Brian Emmanuel could sure have used Walter's gift for taking his delight as it came in the midst of the day. (We've come to call Brian the Anti-Duck.) Oh it was something. It was Brian's action as Health Department officer back in the suburbs of Chicago that had that boxed-up Pekin trying to shift gears up at the top of this little duck tale. See, Brian said that.....

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26 Feb 01 - 01:15 PM (#406604)
Subject: RE: Help: Mudcat Storytellers Step Forward
From: Áine

Since this is the thread I originally promised to do a Mudcat Storytellers' Page (uh-uhm, well - it didn't take me quite a year to get to it...), I thought I'd refresh it and let everyone know (if you didn't already) that The Mudcat Storytellers' Page is now UP AND RUNNING -- And the call for Mudcat Storytellers to Step Forward is on!!

You can send your stories in by posting them in the Additions to Mudcat Storytellers' Page thread, OR send me a PM or an email.

Here's hoping that I get a flood of stories real soon ;-), Áine

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