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Tue, 17 April 2012
It's Cherry Blossom Time! We've been spotting more of these colorful blossoms this spring, all over the country, than we have any other year. The custom of celebrating their appearance comes from Japan, so we bring you a Japanese story that is supposed to explain how the tradition got started. We're back in our old stomping grounds in Northern California, after a long and eventful drive from Arkansas, mostly on (sometimes muddy) backroads- including historic Route 66. Our adventures included horseback riding in Oklahoma, exploring the ruins of a 400-year-old mission in New Mexico, and stopping in the old mining town of Oatman, Arizona where wild burros roam the streets. And in Tehachapi, California, we visited Indian Point Ranch, a prime producer of ostriches, and fed some of Big Bird's distant cousins. Now we're having the last few performances of our current production, "World Tales", and getting ready for our next show. Happy Listening!
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Sun, 15 January 2012
Happy New Year! That's a bit late for American listeners, but it's a little early for Chinese listeners. Because Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year) is celebrated this year on Jan. 23 (Year of the Dragon). The exact date varies considerably from year to year (It will be Feb. 10 next year.) because it's based on a different calendar system. Anyway, the dragons knew when to come visit us, just in time for Dragon Appreciation Day (Jan. 16th) - all four of them, appearing in our Chinese story "The Four Dragons", which we even named after them. Being skittish around dragons because of their more sinister character in Western folklore, we wouldn't dare not name it after them. It's a tale about how four dragons in very ancient times tried to persuade the Jade Emperor (the supreme god of ancient Chinese folklore) to send water to earth because the people were enduring a terrible drought. We come to you from Myrtle Beach, SC, where we spent a day chasing and battling a dragon at MagiQuest, an interactive electronic fantasy adventure that you just have to see for yourself sometime. There are many different quests and adventures you can go on, collecting (virtual) objects with the aid of your magic wand, which you get to take home with you. It's like helping to create and act in your own fairy tale. Gung Hay Fat Choy! Dennis (Yellow Dragon, Black Dragon, Jade Emperor, Farmer, Earth People) and Kimberly (Narrator, Pearl Dragon, Long Dragon, Earth People, Guard)
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Wed, 16 November 2011
"The Baker's Dozen" is a holiday story from the Dutch settlers of upstate New York, about a stubborn baker who learns an invaluable lesson about generosity. The story commemorates St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6) a day to honor a legendary figure who also figures prominently in another holiday later in the month. Many people would be surprised to learn that St. Nicholas was a real person; and they'd be even more surprised to learn where he came from. He lived in the Fourth Century on the island of Lyra, which was then owned by Greece but later became part of Turkey. He was a rather small fellow who apparently had a broken nose. About a thousand years ago, his bones were smuggled to Italy to protect them from invaders, and they've been kept there ever since. But just recently, the Turkish government requested that Italy send them back so they can be put to rest in the place where he was born. Nicholas was well known for his generosity, which included the habit of leaving coins in people's shoes - thus the tradition of gift-giving in December. Many legends arose around him, and his fame spread to other countries. Among the Dutch, he became known as Sinterklass, which later became the English Santa Claus, and the legends about him blended with traditions from Norse mythology, including the use of reindeer. Dutch settlers in America celebrated St. Nicholas Day by eating cookies shaped like him. We come to you from Winston-Salem NC, after spending October enjoying the beautiful foliage and the haunting season in Massachusetts, and sending time with our son Zephyr in Rhode Island. And we tell you about our most recent ziplining adventure and our pilgrimage to Mayberry. Happy Listening, Dennis (Baker, Boy) and Kimberly (Narrator, Old Woman, Mother, St. Nicholas)
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Sat, 17 September 2011
"The Book Of Magic", from Russia, is one of the stories in the manner of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", about someone attempting magic and getting in over his head. And the solution involves a trick very common to folklore about magical spells. This yarn is a bit spooky, because we're getting into the "spirit" of Halloween early. We come to you from New Jersey, where the floodwaters from Hurricane Irene have receded just in time for us to end our summer library season - much later than usual, even though we started much earlier than usual. We discuss our recent trip to New York City, where we took a bus tour of Manhattan and saw "Billy Elliot" on Broadway. The show still has us tapping our feet! P.S. Nominations for Podcast Awards are now open. Please nominate your favorite podcasts this week. We'd be honored if you'd consider Activated Stories for the Cultural / Arts category. Thanks! Happy Listening, Dennis (Visiting Soldier, Varioius Spirits) and Kimberly (Narrator, Home Soldier, Various Spirits)
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Thu, 20 March 2008
In episode 75 we announced the "Be A Character" contest. Here are the details: Be A CharacterWe will name a folktale character after you or one of your friends in episode 80. You can be the hero! Or choose to be the villain if you prefer. All who comment will be entered into a drawing. You may enter as many times as you like. Comments do need to be relevant to the podcast (no spam) and may be posted about any episode or the show in general. To enter all you need to do is leave a comment or review at one of the following sites.
Please leave a way that we can get back in touch with you. If you don't want to leave your email on a site just send us an email so if you win we can find out what your preferences are. Otherwise we'll just do what we want (insert evil laugh here). It is wise to send us an email just so we don't miss anything. We do not share email address with anyone. We typically do a podcast every other week. But every now and then we are sneaky and throw in an extra one. We like to record them on Mondays and air them on Thursdays. So if we stick to a normal schedule you will have until May 19th to enter the contest. Category:general
-- posted at: 6:37 PM |
Sat, 8 March 2008
Here is the video to accompany podcast #74. Watch Kimberly zipline through the Trees at Banning Mills on YouTube. The camera had to be strapped to the outside of our hand and could not be held or focused when we were on the zipline. But we think it still turned out pretty well. Hope you enjoy the ride! Category:general
-- posted at: 3:18 AM |
Mon, 19 February 2007
We had to take last week off to put the final touches on our new Shakespeare production Shakespeare Shazam. After 14 hour days of sword fighting, sewing, rehearsing and breathing Shakespeare the show is up and we'll be back to our regular schedule of a new podcast every Thursday!
Happy Listening, Dennis "The Bard", Kimberly "Mom" and Zephyr "Lenny" http://www.activated-storytellers.com The Act!vated Storytellers are currently in Orlando, Florida Category:general
-- posted at: 4:52 PM |
Sat, 6 January 2007
No we have not fallen off the face of the earth. We just had to spend the last two weeks making props, and sewing costumes and pages for our giant oversized book that we use in our live stage productions. We have adopted a new dragon! Made a tree that grows rotten oranges and found an "odd" sage. We are happy to report that our new show went up today at a school in Las Vegas to roars of laughter! We'll be heading East from here -hope you get a chance to see us perform live.
We'll be back on Thrusday with a new story and tales of our travels to Reno and Las Vegas. Thanks for hanging in there! Dennis, Kimberly and Zephyr Goza Category:general
-- posted at: 1:47 AM |
Tue, 12 December 2006
This week's challenge really had our brains doing overtime. "And now a word from our sponsor..." that's what they threw at us. So we pondered, brainstormed and batted it about for a few days before we finally came up with a piece we call "In Wolves Clothing". Have a listen and then vote for your favorite by logging in on the Pickle Site, logging in to the forums (Yes, they make you log in twice) there you should see the place to vote and make comments. If not, click on Forums > Podcast Discussions > Pickle Tales Round 2 (it is pinned on the top). UPDATE Voting for this round begins December 13th (not the 11th or 12th as originally scheduled) and ends at noon (ET) a couple of days later - that's 9 am on the west coast. Please check the Pickle site for details as we will be off sewing costumes for a new show up in the woods and Zephyr is off recording with his band in North Carolina. Thanks for listening, Dennis (Red's Wolf), Kimberly (Red and the Director) and Zephyr the announcer Category:general
-- posted at: 5:01 AM |
Mon, 27 November 2006
Thanks to all who voted for us last round we netted a whopping 1/3 of the votes and we have made it to round two of the Pickle Tales storytelling contest. For this round we were issued 3 sound effects and told to come up with a story. So, we told the "Fiddlestick Family and the Eggs" a traditional folktale from the Ozarks that we just made up. Listen to the six stories in this round. Some of the other stories may be "PG-13" (ours is "G"). One of the stories in this round will be eliminated (we are hoping it won't be us!). Voting happens today Nov. 27th through the 30th (ends at noon Eastern) at Podcast Pickle You can also get there by going to the Podcast Pickle homepage, then looking under Forums > Podcast Discussion > Pickle Tales Round II.Thanks for your support, Dennis "Pa Fiddlesticks", Kimberly "Ma" and Zephyr the narrator and "Cousin Clem" Category:general
-- posted at: 7:05 PM |
