For the most up to date blogging, please see my "real" blog at www.seanblogs.com . I keep that updated. Here at Typepad, this blog is mostly a place holder so that I can keep up with my friends and clients who use this service.
To learn more about my services and how I might work best for and with you, please visit my main site at www.seantells.com .
For more information about Storytelling, please visit www.storyteller.net .
2007 lost several storytellers. Some known by all. Some only known to a few.
Chet Ambrose was one of those. He passed away in July 2007. As he told me, he was the youngest of 5 brothers, with his oldest brother being in his late 90's. He was a retired school teacher and administrator and LOVED telling stories to children.
He never made it to be a festival teller. Wasn't a "Dragon Teller." Wasn't on a committee of Elders, 'cept at his own local church. Wasn't on the hay wagon back in TN way back when. I guess he wasn't successful by our sometimes myopic organizational viewpoints. I don't even think he was in the NSN. He was a member of Storyteller.net.
But he made a big difference in his telling to the children who heard him.
He wanted his stories posted to Storyteller.net so that his big brothers could "hear them and read them." His big brothers?! Chet was 77!
Come take a look at his page at Storyteller.net. Listen to his stories. Read a few. Click over to the site that his family made for him when he was still here and then have updated after his death. It is an interesting website and look at how storytelling effects/affects in a local circle.
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/cambrose
We lost other storytellers in 2007. We miss them all.
Peace. Life is good. And fleeting. Love 'em while you got 'em.
What really would happen if fairy tale characters took the leap into our world? Would modern Americans be ready for all that darkness? The premise of Disney’s newest movie http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/enchanted gets a fresh look with Storyteller.net director and professional K. Sean Buvala in our latest edition of our podcast at storytellerpodcast.net.
Listen to the podcast now when you click http://www.storytellerpodcast.com/seantellsdotcom_enchantedpodcast.mp3
Avondale, AZ November 18, 2007- "Fairy tales showing up in the middle of modern life? That’s not new. They’ve been there, in all their twisted goodness, since the beginning of humanity. Fairy tales have been making the leap into the ’modern world’ since human beings first experienced their imagination and understood the differences of good and evil," so says Sean Buvala, a full-time professional storyteller and director of the premier Internet storytelling site, Storyteller.net. And he ought to know. He’s been travelling the United States for more than 21 years sharing tales with adults, teens and children.
In the latest Podcast at Storyteller.net, Buvala discusses the role of darkness and challenge in fairy tales. "In the new Disney movie, ’Enchanted,’ the characters get trapped in modern day situations and the movie appears to ask the ’what if’ question. Stories, and fairy tales in particular, however, have been asking that same ’what if’ question for hundreds of years. What if we were confronted between the choices of morality, doing what is right and selfless behavior and the more appealing less sociable behaviors? These confrontations are the core of the meaning of fairy tales."
In a genre-busting premise, "Enchanted" puts the pure-love and doe-eyed behaviors of its main characters in the midst of our own seen-it-all society. However, Buvala says these calm, loving behaviors would be nearly unknown to fairy tale characters if they came to life. "In the real versions of fairy tales, there is very little of these types of Disney-nice actions. Rather there are behaviors of deceit, treachery, child abuse, punishment, rewards and swift justice. Fairy tales aren’t the politically correct or sanitized stories of animation. They’re hard-core, ’act right or else’ ultimatums in many cases. Children punished by death, people doomed to walk the earth as ghosts for stealing pennies and losing true love for minor infractions: these would be the behaviors fairy tale characters would expect to see in modern life."
The irony of a Disney movie parodying the contemporary understanding of fairy tales is especially fun for Sean Buvala. "The Brothers Grimm would not even recognize the Disney animated versions of ’Sleeping Beauty’ or ’Cinderella.’ In many ways, it seems that Disney made ’Enchanted’ to poke fun at the one-dimensional nature of fairy tale characters. However, those wide-eyed people in our imaginations are Disney’s own spawn. They must be having a fun time ’dis" Enchanting their own dragons."
Sean goes further in depth regarding fairy tales in modern life and examines the power a genuine storyteller has with a live audience in the latest podcast at Storyteller.net. The free-of-charge podcast can be found on the front-page of the website at www.storyteller.net or maybe be downloaded at www.storytellerpodcast.net.
Will Buvala be seeing the "Enchanted" Movie? "I’ll be in the Disneyland area next week. Maybe I’ll go see it right there in the Downtown Disney attraction," the nationally travelled storyteller says with a wicked grin.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
K. Sean Buvala
Storyteller.net
623.298.4548
sean@storyteller.net
http://www.storyteller.net
http://www.arizonastorytelling.com
http://www.storyteller.net
http://www.seantells.com
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