This is the first part of a two part project. First listen: React to what you hear This a translation project. You are translating musical ideas into prose. For your first listen, I just want you to let yourself fall into this music without being influenced by what narrative the composer might have had in…
Category: Stories
The “Shape of a Stories” a talk brillant talk by author Kurt Vonnegut
What makes for an interesting story? A first answer is, something “interesting” happens. Something good happens to a character. Something bad happens to a character. Something has to happen for a story to be engaging. That is the bare minimum. Vonnegut helps us see that when a story opens the main character can be thought…
Sense of Place : Using your powers of observation.
This is an exercise in creating a setting in which your story will take place. Good luck! You may post what you make in the comments to share with others. Further research. Sense of place explained in the Wikipedia. This is a complex entry. More appropriate for advanced students and teachers.
2 Subway. A New York Day, 1992.
Earlier, in the afternoon, another thin man, this one white, much older, wrinkled, missing front teeth, asked for money on the lower level of a subway station. He was unkept. He looked at me. And he said something. But I. I shook my head and he moved on, waddling, his legs far apart with crotch…
4 Donut Shop. New York City, 1992
Donut Shop 28th Avenue at 7th New York City, 1992 This donut shop has two U shaped counters, a shape that encourages conversation between customers and customers and staff. Midnight. Several of us are sitting at the U closest to the door. There is also a steady stream of people coming in off the street…
Plaza. A New York Day, 1992
Night. Cold. A thin handsome black man with a mustache stands to the side of the Plaza Hotel. “Monday is a hard day for bums,” he says. I drop a quarter in his cup and walk on. Just behind, a woman in a long white cashmere coat approaches. “Monday is a hard day for bums,”…
The Sweater
This story is based on an encounter with an elderly woman in Prague a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. An inflation had destroyed the savings of retirees. This woman is selling her possessions to survive. Sweater Prague, 1993 At the top of a wide stairway bringing subway passengers to a huge…
Raphael. A Story.
This is a story I wrote in 1992. It is based on my meeting a young Russian man in Trabazon, Turkey. Raphael His was the bright face who said a few words while I inspected three tin jumping frogs in the Russian Bazaar. A few days later he stops me at the market’s edge where…