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<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>See my
reply before your reply, Esther.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>It oft
depends upon the skill of the teller or poet. Finnagen had us enthralled
with his story of the guardian of the keep. There is a merchant who does a
wonderfully entertaining job of telling of a time he taught latin to foreign
troops. Both of these were at least ten minutes long. Thomas and
Cedric's piece was almost a half hour, but it flew by due to the setting and the
weather, which really made you feel as if you were in a long hut, and the skald
spoke with the tongue of the elders.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Longer
pieces are period, but if their recited as one would hear from a grade-schooler
with Mary Had a Little Lamb, it's painful to watch. Master Kief has no
trouble with keeping an audience for a long story, but he is masterful in his
telling of a tale, and his use of voice and words to draw his audience in.
I have seen the opposite, where someone drags a book and reads by halting
firelight for fifteen minutes, and ready to go another fifteen to the end of the
pages if not for a quick interjection. These I would avoid at all cost,
and have only occasionally had to interrupt one fellow and request that he
finish his tale on the next round. He wasn't happy, and left, but the
energy level of the group was quick to rise back to a level of cameradery rather
than comisseration.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=295405004-30042007>
<P><FONT size=2>In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am,<BR>HL
Gerald of Leesville<BR>A bard of Stargate </FONT></P></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> bards-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:bards-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>Esther<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:30 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
Ansteorran Bardic list<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Bards] Situations That Ruin
Bardic Circles<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">
<DIV>You know, I'm a story teller, not a singer or a musician. Most of my
stories run over ten minutes. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So I guess bardic circles are out for me. See you at the Hafla!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Might I suggest, it's not the length of the story, it's the skill of the
story teller. Perhaps short pieces are better for bardic circles, but I ask
you, when are the long pieces "acceptable"? The long pieces are more period
for most of us, after all. A bard/skald/minstrel was supposed to be able to
hold the attention of his audience for longer than ten minutes, a feat
stand-up comics and story tellers seem to have no problem with in the modern
world.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Well, what the heck. To each their own, better to have short pieces and a
popular bardic than a dead bardic. They can always go to the movies to see
Beowulf.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Esther</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>> 2. Problem: Stories that are 20+ minutes long!!!! Reason:
Hogging airtime.<BR>> Solution: If you have a 20 minute story, serialize it
into 10-minute<BR>> increments and do one increment per turn. Circle leader
must state a<BR>> 10-minute (or some other agreed-upon time) rule up front,
and periodically<BR>> thereafter. <BR>> <BR>anything over 10 minutes
will kill an audience. If they don't get up <BR>now, they likley just wont
even come back next time.<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
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