MetaFilter posts tagged with storytelling

Tales of the City

loquacious — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:20:49 -0800

In 1974 - or 1976, depending who you ask - Armistead Maupin began writing "an extended love letter to a magical San Francisco” in the form of a serialized, fictional drama published originally in the Pacific Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, originally called "The Serial" which then became collectively known as Tales of The City. It is a suprisingly beautiful, deep, emotional, cosmopolitan and lasting tale about life in San Francisco in the turbulent, heady days of the 1970s and 1980s. Widely credited with and cherished for helping spread a little of the openess, tolerance and acceptance that San Francisco is now famous for. It then became a series of books - Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You - and lastly, the spin-off tale of Michael Tolliver Lives. Almost exactly twenty years after first publishing, it then became an excellent miniseries from the United Kingdom's Channel 4, which aired in the United States on PBS, but not without protest or limitations. San Francisco... this post is for you. All of you. More than the Mission burritos, more than the diverse weather, more than the beautiful, breathtaking views and the odd experience of falling deeply in love with a place - and only slightly less than the many real people I've met - this has touched me the most. Thank you. (Get your YouTube samples here.)

Love stories

Airhen — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:25:25 -0800

This is a story [audio] about how much I love you [audio]. Stories and songs about different kinds of love from Five Chapters, The Stoop and This American Life. Five Chapters previously.

Storytelling with Google Maps

brain_drain — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:34:53 -0800

The 21 Steps is a spy thriller short story that is told using Google Maps. [via mefi projects]

Indigenous Australian Dance Ceremonies

Effigy2000 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:40:27 -0800

Aboriginal dance (also known as a corroboree) helps indigenous Australians to interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume. Many ceremonies act out events from the Dreamtime. Many of the ceremonies are sacred and people from outside a community are not permitted to participate or watch. However, there are many ceremonies we've been allowed to witness (here's one of my favourites). And there's plenty of related pictures available at the National Museum's website. Naturally, any indigenous Australians reading should note that these links may include images or names of people who may now be deceased.

The Moth: Listen to Stories

spock — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:59:12 -0800

The Moth: Listen to Stories

Ira Glass mentors the internet

bigmusic — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:31:47 -0800

Ira Glass sits at a soundboard and schools us on the art of storytelling.

Collaborative fiction

Plutor — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:45:15 -0800

Ficlets are extremely short stories (a maximum of 1024 characters). Other writers swoop in and write prequels and sequels to your ficlet, making interesting branching narratives a la Create Your Own Adventure.

Stories of The Dreaming As Told Through Sight, Sound and Art.

Effigy2000 — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 17:25:38 -0800

The Dreaming (arguably better known as 'The Dreamtime') is more than just the story of how the world was created as told by Aboriginal Australians. It is also the basis for their way of life and death, their source of power in life and it tells of the life and influence of their ancestors on their culture. It was so important to Aboriginal Australians in the time before the white invasion of Australia that it was the one commonly held belief amongst a culture that consisted of over 500 different tribes (discussion of Dreamtime beliefs here). Thought to be the oldest continuously maintained cultural history on Earth, it is often presented as a series of inter-related stories explaining Aboriginal Australian origins and culture, such as how the Australian landscape was created or how the Mimi spirits taught them how to paint these stories on the walls of caves more than 40,000 years ago.

And what better way to learn of several of the many different Dreamtime stories than to listen and watch them being told by Aboriginal Australians elders themselves? And if that isn't enough Dreamtime mythology for you, here's some links to various sites which allow you to view Aboriginal rock art to see how these stories were translated into a form of artistic expression which is now five times older than the Egyptian Pyramids themselves.

Going underground

MrMerlot — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 04:53:07 -0800

What is it with the London Underground and the internet? As many MeFi posts have noted before, no other subway system in the world has quite as many websites and applications devoted to it (why is this?). Until now the bulk of these applications have been based around maps, but the 'tube' has just got an independent site that is story-based. The brand new site at www.yourstation.co.uk wants you to write stories about the networks famous stations. Each gets its own homepage, you fill it with stories or simply read those that have gone before. Want to know how Mudchute got its name? You now know where to look.

No capes

vhsiv — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 04:51:45 -0800

No capes , no monoguing, and no ex machina. Brad Bird's 'The Incredibles' notched the clichés of the superhero genre - if not all action/adventure movies - with a thick red marker. These lists have apparently been circulating since 1994. Why do (bad) writers persist in using these plot devices?