I have lived my life by visions and hunches, dreams and intuitions, signs and gifts.

I took a short break from DS 106, which is a MOOC or Multi User Open Online Class in Digital Storytelling, to take a three day workshop at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley to make a short, first person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music.

• I wanted to bridge the perceived gap between Jim Groom, Alan Levine, Michael Branson Smith and their fetishistic preoccupation with getting to the Center of the Internet, and Joe Lambert’s service-oriented video-narratives.

• I also wanted to start thinking about a project I want to develop called The Soul of Lane Community College Digital Storytelling Initiative, so you’ll hear that theme starting to emerge, too.

• This is my first video-narrative, so there was, and still is, a big learning curve!

Please leave a comment if you have feedback for me!

My sister Cheryl Long and I visited the opening day of the Holiday Market here in Eugene yesterday (Nov. 19, 2011). We met a jeweler, Angela Lees, who has a very unusual, Victorian, almost steam-punk design sensibility.Here is a link to her website at Etsy.

Close-up view of the necklace, titled "Stag Party"

One piece I admired was called “Vintage German Delight,” and I asked about the origin of the porcelain doll head at its center:

This necklace is 16" long and has the head of a Frozen Charlotte as the centerpiece. The head is surrounded by matching Vintage German Glass beads and brass chain.

To my surprise, Angela began telling me the story of the Frozen Charlotte, and I was able to capture her telling the story in under 2 minutes on my iPad2:  You can watch it here.

http://youtu.be/YiUuvW5lLnI

I went online to learn more about Frozen Charlotte, and a fascinating door to an American legend opened for me when I visited an article titled Doll of the Dead by Vic Dillinger.

He says, “The legend of Frozen Charlotte is based upon a folk song,

‘Fair Charlotte.’ The creation of a children’s toy (specifically a doll) was modeled after the legend of a girl whose vanity led to her demise.  The doll, very popular for decades, was an image of the dead girl, though, not the living one.”

I won’t repeat the story here as you can hear Angela’s version in the video or follow the link to Dillinger’s excellent article.

However, I can’t resist inserting some of the dreadful Victorian-style song lyrics as we begin Thanksgiving with a little bit of energy left over from the Day of the Dead:

“O, daughter dear,” her mother cried,
“This blanket ’round you fold;
It is a dreadful night tonight,
You’ll catch your death of cold.”

“O, nay! O, nay!” young Charlotte cried,
And she laughed like a gypsy queen;
“To ride in blankets muffled up,
I never would be seen!”

“My silken cloak is quite enough,
You know ’tis lined throughout;
Besides I have my silken scarf,
To twine my neck about.”

Her bonnet and her gloves were on,
She stepped into the sleigh;
Rode swiftly down the mountain side,
And o’er the hills away.

So as part of the DS106 storytelling project, I have completed one of the assignments which had me tape my work day and speed up the video. Well I don’t think my job would have liked me walking around with a camera strapped to my head, so instead I recorded my commute to work.

I ride my bike where ever I go. You will never see me on a train unless it’s raining really hard or if I have a cold. Everyday on my commute to work I have countless close calls with cars and pedestrians. Mainly because these cars change lanes with out sufficient warning and people just step into busy roads thinking they are invincible. As a forewarning to this video I will tell you do not copy how I ride. In some cases I am being very aggressive by riding between cars and drafting behind trucks at high speed. I do this because after a year of riding Tokyo streets I have found that the faster I go the safer it is for me.

I made this video using Adobe Premier 5. I have never used this program before so it took me a long time just to make a simple video. Overall it was a fun experience, it never really occurred to me that recording my rides on camera could lead to some interesting things. When I ride, everything seems normal but when I re-watch my rides on camera, I think “how the hell did I ride there” or “a few more centimeters and I would have been hit by a car”.

I hope you will all enjoy watching this video!

So as part of the DS106 storytelling project, I have completed one of the assignments which had me tape my work day and speed up the video. Well I don’t think my job would have liked me walking around with a camera strapped to my head, so instead I recorded my commute to work.

I ride my bike where ever I go. You will never see me on a train unless it’s raining really hard or if I have a cold. Everyday on my commute to work I have countless close calls with cars and pedestrians. Mainly because these cars change lanes with out sufficient warning and people just step into busy roads thinking they are invincible. As a forewarning to this video I will tell you do not copy how I ride. In some cases I am being very aggressive by riding between cars and drafting behind trucks at high speed. I do this because after a year of riding Tokyo streets I have found that the faster I go the safer it is for me.

I made this video using Adobe Premier 5. I have never used this program before so it took me a long time just to make a simple video. Overall it was a fun experience, it never really occurred to me that recording my rides on camera could lead to some interesting things. When I ride, everything seems normal but when I re-watch my rides on camera, I think “how the hell did I ride there” or “a few more centimeters and I would have been hit by a car”.

I hope you will all enjoy watching this video!