Three Things + 1 : Inspirations for storytelling
(1) Jon Schmidt's Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay) via Jana Beck (who does these very cool custom high-contrast paintings). I've started listening to more music again. I go through phases with what I listen to on iTunes/internet radio while I work. For a long time it has been all news all the time and I am finally starting to move back towards more music and less talk. I find that listening to music often connects me to stories and evokes a wide range of emotions from my past.
(2) I can't remember if I have posted about this one before or not but it is so, so good it bears a second posting: Phillip Toledano's Days With My Father. This is words + photos. This is real life documentation & celebration. This inspires me to tell the stories of my family with more words and less stuff.
(3) Jen Lee's Fortunes : a little book of written pieces. Inspiring and filled with emotion, Jen weaves stories that are great examples of a different way to write our lives other than who, what, where, when, etc.
(4) I got a second and third batch of family photos from my cousin. These ones were even older than the others. Found some serious gems in this bunch. This one is my Great-Grandfather John (also called "Mac"), Grandfather Neil (my Dad's Dad), and Great-Grandmother Martha. Even though I have no idea of the stories of most of these people's lives they inspire me in the not-knowing. I could look at them for hours just studying the faces, looking for family similarities, day-dreaming about what their lives were like in the early 1900's.
4th Annual Paiges In Time Cropathon
Eugene, Oregon scrapbooking event coming up Friday, August 28th through Sunday,
August 30th at Valley River Inn. Includes a benefit auction for the Heart Gallery of Lane County (A Family For Every Child : one of my favorite local groups). All the details are listed here including the classes that go on sale July 27th. Note: I am not teaching any classes but am planning to go & scrapbook on the 29th.
That music is giving me chills. I shared it with all my students, and sister... and friends. Going to his site now.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Erin - scroll down to the bottom of the photo and the top of another photo appears - click on that for the next part of the story.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
This music is awesome!! Ali Thank you for sharing! Days with My Father is so beautiful
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali! Thanks for sharing the video. I am not much of Taylor Swift fan, but I can appreciate this. Love it. :)
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Love the song! Do you know Rob Costlow? Similar music; piano.
And I do feel exactly like you when it comes to old photographs! I just LOVE to study the faces, their "old fashioned" clothes and I love to imagine what they might have thought in the moment their picture was taken, what they lived like, how town looked like in that time and so on and on!! Its great! Real gems!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh my, I just read what Phillip Toledano wrote about his dad and I am almost crying.. This is so beautiful and real and emotional... it´s life art. It´s human.
Thank you for sharing this.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thanks for the you tube video. I have seen this before and love it!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Love the days with my father - I will need to do something like that. My dad has been gone now for 14 years, still smell his cologne and remember so much of the time I spent with him as a child and a young adult - such a great man. Thanks for sharing Ali.
Love the old picture - I am like you, I can't get enough of the old pictures - they make me feel at piece and a part of something very special.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali thanks for sharing Jon Schmidt - that was wonderful - I even posted it to my FB page - thanks again for the inspiration!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Wow. Thanks for the links. Love Jon's rendition of Love Story. And Days with my Father was simply touching and beautiful (and tear inducing!)
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Beuatiful music Ali, powerful. I'm listening to it over and over....thanks for passing it along. Off to check out the photos now too.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
That arrangement makes me feel like I am falling in love all over again! I want to just give my husband a big kiss!
Thanks for sharing it- sorry if that was TMI.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali,
So honored that "Fortunes" is inspiring you today. Thanks for sharing it and all the others--you are inspiring me.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
The old photos are great!! Photos are so full of history - they always make me wonder when I look at them what was going on at that moment in time !!
Thanks so much for sharing!!!!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali- Thanks for the fun post today! :) Well, maybe not so fun as inspiring today! :) I have seen the "Days with My Father" blog when you first posted it, maybe I caught from Molly Irwin's site too, but I will say, it had me in tears...what a beautiful story.
I love the photos you are getting...I want to get the Fortunes book now...I would love to learn how to tell a story in a fresh, new way. :)
Sign in or sign up to comment.
What a magnificent musical composition!
And Ali, I just had to tell you that I was fortunate enough to inherit letters between my grandfather and my grandmother, written before and after their wedding in 1914. While there aren't many photos saved from those early days, the letters provide amazing insights into the lives of people I spent time with but didn't really know.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Wow - that Love Story meets Viva la Vida arrangement was really AWESOME! Moved me to tears, really.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Love the music arrangement - it's awesome and I can't stop listening to it!!! Hoping that maybe I can find it on itunes sometime for my ipod!!! Thanks so much for sharing. Off to check out the other links. Have a great day!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
thanks for the video! my ds (4 1/2) is a HUGE taylor swift fan :) in fact he sang this song at their school's kakeoke yesterday! i would have loved to have been a fly on the wall!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Hi Ali :o) I recently went to Jon Schmidt's summer concert here in Utah...if you ever get a chance to see one of his concerts, don't miss it! He is phenomenal! Thanks for the link and for everything you post - your blog is one of my favorites!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali, Thank you for the inspiration. All of it.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh how I love this song! Such a great interpretation of Lovestory and Viva la Vida! Hear it all the time!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I love the old family photos your cousin shared with you. I have been going through an old trunk filled with wonderful photographic treasures - 4 & 5 generations ago. I so encourage all of your followers to take a moment NOW to go through any photos they have like this. If they don't know who people in the photos are for sure and if they still have older relatives living who might, make time to sit down with them and get them labeled. Time goes by so quickly. There are so many photos in my collection that I can't identify. Fun to look at it but such a mystery. I so wish someone had marked them years ago or that I had done it before my beloved grandmother passed away. I missed such an important opportunity. Don't always think you have more time for this task. You'll be grateful to have knowledge of who is looking out at you from these photographs.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh, Ali. Days with my Father has me in tears. It is beautifully heart wrenching.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
So inspirational. Wish I could ditch work for the next two days and just create. I will have to keep notes while these ideas keep bubbling up. Love the old photo. I have one similar standing in front of the house. The folks in your photo are dressed so nicely, but back in those days to leave the house was to get dressed up, to travel was to get dressed up, much different nowadays. Thank you so much for sharing all this inspiration. Keep on Rockin'
Sign in or sign up to comment.