Tag: Storytelling

Jump-Start

It’s the New Year. Let’s start with new ideas.

I have noticed after living here (Saigon) for a while that there hardly is any basketball court.

A city full of young people, but no basketball. I don’t play the game myself. I just jog. But for those who look for a place to make a difference in the lives of young people, why not asking around to find some way to start this sport.

It’s ironic that in a country whose young people help produce Nike Shoes yet there is an eerie absence of basketball courts.

Fitness, coordination and collaboration of this team sport are just a few skill-set that last a life time.

I am sure the expats and tourists could join in to break a sweat during their in-country stay as well.

My second idea is to have a platform on which  people can practice and promote their story telling and screen play.

Like WordPress, but with template and tutorial: characterization, plot, conflict and resolution.

A few years ago, Boyz in the Hood made a splash due to its screen play. We learned about inner-city plight of young people trapped in harsh circumstances (South Central).

William Goldman talked about Hollywood in turmoil back in the 80’s. Now it’s still the same. No sure-fire formula for success.

By crowd-source story ideas and screen play, we make our world richer with creativity and hard-to-get-to corners where shadows are darker and perhaps light is brighter.

We cut of unemployment insurance to 1 million people. I am sure one in a million has a story to tell, if not all.

Why not have a story board for them to post their pleas and plight, instead of just post in compliance to “act” as if they have looked for a job.

We live in a world of pretense. Why not take it to the next productive level: sell your story (suffering or triumph).

Use it. Pain and all.

Life is tough. Now let’s get going, dribble a ball or scribble a story, transforming the negative into positive.

The world and what it has to offer, actually depends on what and how far you go about searching for it. You have the right to a phone call or the pursuit of happiness.  2014 multiple choices. The art of jump-start an idea.

It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

Content and Creativity.

Time spares no one. That continuum ticks on, breath by breath, counting down and counting you out.

Yet family bond endures. It has been that way for centuries: hunting and gathering, agrarian and industrial society.

The very moment we fear that the machine will take over, that’s when we got Social, from Twist to Tweet.

Web Page or Front Page, we still have demand for Content and Creativity.

Story telling. The narrative, personal or institutional. Once upon a time, there was….

We don’ t exist in a vacuum. Instead, weakest or strongest link, we are a part of that chain, of continuity and 4-D universe.

What comes around comes around.

Carrying all that mass around, we search and seek for meaning in the mundane. But we are here, still here, on this New Years Eve. Champagne and confetti. Or we might as well lay down and die….

What is there to celebrate? The fact that we owe our existence to a host of people: food provider, transportation provider, internet provider, medical examiner (not yet).

We connect and we reject. We choose then we return the merchandise. Choices piling on top of other choices.

Sometimes, no choice at all.

That’s when we feel the helplessness of depending on others, when we face our limits.

Go ahead and connect, to link, to post, and to Like.

It’s all virtual, but real nevertheless.

Until we move on to something else, to other platform and play place.

Part of growth, of dying. Of shredding old skin and put on the new. Reinvention the Gaga’s way.

Lips singing and lips kissing, same-sex or hetero-sex.

Finding new combination, exploring alternative mode of existence. But the time continuum ticks on, as it always has.

Santa has left along with 2013. Everything was. Simple past. From here on, we all face new possibilities and potential.

Content-rich or content-poor, all up to you. Suit yourself. Ever since the invention of the zero, we have realized the futility and irony of our being: can’t do with it, and can’t do without it (the zero).

So, what’s left? Back to the cave, and see our shadow? Project ourselves onto others? Disliking someone or disliking ourselves? Kiss and make up, or split? Dilemma by definition is not to be solved. It is to be shared with others who have a heightened sense of empathy. Then we are back to needing others, fellow inmates in this asylum called Earth.

I don’t want to time-travel. In fact, I’d rather stay freeze-framed in time. Being just a boy, looking out to the game called life, where adults hurting each other and pretending to laugh (alcohol induced).  Being just a memory keeper of both the good and the bad times. So I can start my story with “Once upon a time….” all the while making up more sizzling detail to hold your attention. That attention has been split between screen flashes and banner ads, children demand and societal demand. The burden is on us, to keep creating and reinventing ourselves, shaping our narrative and destiny in the process. A guy walks into a bar….a boy born into an aging family….a girl growing up without a Dad….what’s the punch line? Will there be a happy ending. We want in. To be part of the story-telling and narrative written. But first, there must be conflict. Not too far-fetched so the audience can relate, can empathize and connect. We need Content and a bit of creativity. We got enough platform that last for a life time. Post-industrial society has more convenience than any earlier times, but for some reason, we find ourselves wanting. Kids still want to shoot randomly and then themselves.

Man still threw his baby out then jump from the tower (with reason known only to himself). In the absence of terrorist, we have projected onto that mirror, and found ourselves the very horror we have become. Good luck with happy endings.