tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72770967912080131912024-03-13T19:36:14.729-07:00WELCOME TO THE FAIRE!Lori Francis, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08767490764486430108noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277096791208013191.post-72130803101555331302016-11-05T01:00:00.000-07:002016-11-05T01:00:01.077-07:00To Every Season...<div class="MsoNormal">
To every thing, there is a season…<o:p></o:p></div>
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September brings the promise of nostalgia as autumn marks a
season of rest . Summer draws to a close, and the kids go back to school. Crops
are ready for harvest, sweaters come out storage, and our minds turn from water
skiing to cozy nooks piled high with books.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Autumn has always been my favorite part of the year. Where
some mourn the loss of sunshine and barbecues, I revel in the crispness of the
air, the golden hues of the trees and the sunsets, and the promise of a quiet
that descends upon the earth, like a down comforter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While the hazy days of summer fade, the scent of cinnamon
and apples permeate the air. Suddenly, all-things-pumpkin take over coffee
shops and bakeries. Grocery store aisles are filled with apple cider, spiced
tea, and mulling spices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys of
summer run toward the World Series, and suddenly televisions are filled with
gridiron games narrated by barrel-voiced baritone armchair quarterbacks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And suddenly, I find myself longing to visit with an old
friend…Ray Bradbury, and his hauntingly beautiful story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Something Wicked This Way Comes</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is a magic to his words which hypnotize the heart, propelling
the reader, back in time, to a world where every town had a Main Street, where
every community <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> the village that
raised each child, and where evil only existed in the dark of night behind the
folds of a mystical carnival tent. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Bradbury’s story gives us so much more, however. Through
Will Halloway’s father, we see ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Adults who strive to carry a torch and follow the path, occasionally
pausing to look back and find that children we once were, frolicking in the
leaves, and running with wild abandon and laughter into that golden sunset.<o:p></o:p></div>
Lori Francis, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08767490764486430108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277096791208013191.post-88475467747248470432016-11-01T18:05:00.002-07:002016-11-01T18:05:47.266-07:00Bubble Bubble<div class="MsoNormal">
Bubble Bubble…<o:p></o:p></div>
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October! Time for fireside tales and ghost stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I adore this month of suspense. Notice I said
suspense…not slasher stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I grew up in another age, when October meant hot chocolate
with marshmallows,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fall festivals, and
harvest bonfires. When I was a child, station wagons filled with kids would
spend Halloween night driving throughout the county, from one teacher’s house
to another’s, getting scared by the high-schoolers dressed as ghosts, before
earning our mug of homemade cider for our bravery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>get out of
the car at the end of one street and knock on every door along the blocks,
until we reached the far end of the street, bags filled with candy and homemade
popcorn balls, or fudge. And since everyone knew someone who knew all the
people in the town, nobody ever had to worry about sabotaged sweets.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And when all was said and done, we would create spooky
stories that usually ended with “and when they looked again, it had
disappeared.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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So in honor of the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night fun,
here is a list of some of my favorite tales~books and movies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shows and Movies<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Dracula (I prefer the PBS series with Louis Jourdan<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> or ‘79</i> Frank Langella)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dark Shadows Television Series.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tales from the Dark Side<o:p></o:p></div>
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Medium<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Lady in Black<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Haunting of Hill House<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Book by Shirley Jackson, as well as the Julie Harris Movie)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Young Frankentstein<o:p></o:p></div>
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MacBeth (Patrick Stewart…spookiest, ever)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Halloween~#3<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the only one I will watch. Completely not like all the others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hocus Pocus <o:p></o:p></div>
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Lost Boys<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sentinel<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Village<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lady in the Water<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Harry Potter…the entire series<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Books, stories, and
poems<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dracula by Bram Stoker<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sixth Sense<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Shining, by Stephen King<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Raven, by Edgar Alan Poe<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mask of the Red Death, by Edgar Alan Poe<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Harry Potter…the entire series, of course!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Did I leave any out? I’m sure!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell me, what are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> favorites?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lori Francis, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08767490764486430108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277096791208013191.post-10028251001800431432016-07-09T18:20:00.001-07:002016-07-09T18:20:46.081-07:00Radio<div class="Body">
Radio was a wonder, oh, say seventy years ago, before everyone
had one or more television sets in the household. Radio, you see, brought
voice, and story into our lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
While I am not old enough to remember an age before television, I
did grow up with old radio shows. Our local public radio affiliate would
broadcast the old comedy and mystery shows each week. CBS Mystery theatre
always had me on the edge of my seat on the ride home from dance class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, the Shadow raised questions and
eyebrows. Tuesday night meant comedy shows, like Fibber Maggie and Molly, or
The Bickersons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
However, from the age of eleven, I was glued to the radio on
Saturday nights when Minnesota public radio would broadcast A Prairie Home
Companion. For two hours each week, audiences tuned in to a real old-fashioned
live broadcast, complete with musicians, sound effects, skits, singers, and of
course Tales from Lake Woebegone. Comedy, mystery, drama, satire, conversation,
all combined on that stage to make the world seem a bit smaller, and for a
moment, suspended in time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
In our imaginations, we the audience, could visualize each
performer, and each character at the mic. Our minds would envision the roads
and houses that filled Garrison Keillor<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">’</span>s <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">“</span>hometown<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">”</span>.
We could almost smell the rhubarb pie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Radio was the bard. It told us stories, brought us news,
delighted us and humbled us with world events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Radio allowed us to share our grief over Pearl Harbor, JFK<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">’</span>s
assassination, and even 911.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Storytellers and radio fans everywhere, shed a tear as we
listened to Garrison Keillor say good-bye this past week. For forty two years,
he has drawn American audiences together, and has given us a glimpse of
ourselves, through the spyglass of that Norwegian hamlet where~well, you know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
No doubt the velvet voiced narrator will find new adventures.
Whether it be in the performance halls that dot the midwest, or the bookstores
that offer his memoirs, his own story will continue to move forward. For many
of us, though, the best adventures came from Lake Woebegone, where <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">“</span>all
the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are
above average.<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica;">”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Lori Francis, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08767490764486430108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277096791208013191.post-46045196636522010722016-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:002016-06-15T17:35:35.085-07:00Once Upon a Time...<div style="font-family: helvetica;">
Those who say history is boring, have never lived it.</div>
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Certainly, the routine of a medieval peasant, or a industrial-age mill worker must have been a bit mundane (get up at dawn, work until sunset, go to sleep hungry). However, each age has had some spectacular historical moments. </div>
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Consider the expansion of the Romans across Europe; this empire plowed through countries, building roads, aquifers, building cities, and of course engaging in war. </div>
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What about the Celts who migrated from the farthest reaches of eastern Europe to Eire (Ireland), and managed to influence art, music, and legends throughout the world? And those pesky Vikings…they were the original party crashers. </div>
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For those who think that history is boring, perhaps they just never had anyone who was passionate actually engage them in the wonder of it. </div>
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Many years ago, a friend who was teaching a middle school class about the civil war, had the kids divide into two equal groups. As the two sides advanced toward one another, he called out their names and they fell to the ground, complete with dramatic death scenes. He told them that each fallen student represented about 2000 soldiers, wounded or killed. In that moment the history became real for them. They were engaged. No boring number on a page to memorize; they each committed to memory the event, and so they all learned the impact of Gettysburg.</div>
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Whether it is Hadrian’s Wall, or Watergate, the Transcontinental Railroad, or the Triangle Factory Fire, these moments in history have stores to reveal to all of us. The tales of the people whose lives were part of these histories are what makes them real for us. And sometimes, we find ourselves part of the history. I remember at 15 months of age, looking through the slats of my crib and seeing my mother watch the televised funeral of JFK. I remember seeing it, myself, although I had no idea what it was. I remember her crying. That was history in the making. And it was anything but boring, then or now.</div>
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Friends often say, “Wow, it must be a lot of work to write medieval stories. You must do a lot of research.” I have done a lot of research, but because there are magnificent stories in the histories, not just fact checking. To stroll through an archaeological display in a museum, to read about a newly discovered treasure, to study the anthropological connection that is discovered through tribal pottery. I challenge anyone to wander through the Titanic exhibit and not feel something powerful from the personal items reclaimed from the depths of that tragic shipwreck.</div>
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This is what connects us to one another. And our hi<i>stories</i> offer some magnificent tales.</div>
Lori Francis, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08767490764486430108noreply@blogger.com0