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Everybody has a story. A funny thing that happened to them when they were young. An
adventure they had. A game or a fight they won.

You probably have a story, too.

Maybe it’s a stroke of luck you had. A bet you won by a fluke. The way you met your
spouse. The disaster that occurred the first time you tried to make pie crust. The
camping trip where it only rained. Or maybe something unusual - maybe you saw a ghost
once. It could be anything.

Everybody has a story. We call it your “Once Upon a Time Story.” It could be short
or it could be long. People like to talk about them with their friends, while they sit
around the fire or on the back fire escape chatting with a friend into the wee hours.

At Your Stories Your Poems we invite everyone to come and post their own “Once Upon a Time Story.”

Maybe you would like to have an example of a Once Upon a Time Story. So I will give you
one of mine.

Okay … let me think. I’m thinking.

Okay.

Once upon a time:

I decided to go on a camping trip with my friend Matt. We hitchhiked to a village which was north of the city we lived in, because we heard there was a cave there and we thought it would be fun to sleep in a cave. I had just met Matt around the city, I didn’t know him well, but we got along fine.

So we began to hitchhike and somehow, before we arrived to our destination, it got dark. The people who were giving us a ride invited us to stay in their home for the night so we did. They lived in a small village high on top of a hill.

When we woke up in the morning we had breakfast. White rolls. I ate way too many. I don’t know why but I remember Matt looking at me with a surprised expression because I was eating so many rolls.

Then we had to continue on our way to our cave. So we said thank you and goodbye and we proceeded to walk down to the main road.

Now, this village was way at the top of a hill and there was a long windy road down to the bottom. But there were almost no cars on that road at all. So we walked all the way down, maybe two kilometers.

At that time I had a habit of eating dandelions and I was picking them and eating them. Matt thought this was strange, too.

Finally we reached the main road and we continued to hitch hike to the village where the cave was. We arrived at the village and found the park which had a rock hill in the middle. The cave was supposed to be in that hill.

Now somehow, at some point while we were searching for this cave, we lost each other. And Matt had my sleeping bag.

I remember searching for Matt around that little rock mountain in the middle of the park. I went around and around that mountain for – well – three hours, as I recall. Searching and searching for Matt.

As the minutes and hours rolled on I began to believe that perhaps Matt had actually run off with my sleeping bag and I would never see him again. I began to chastise myself for trusting someone I just met. I kept trying to convince myself that Matt would not come all the way out here just to steal my sleeping bag. But, one has to remember, I was in the middle of the situation, a lonely girl without a sleeping bag, walking around and around a rock hill for hours, searching for Matt. I thought - “could this whole thing really be a plot to steal my sleeping bag?” It didn’t seem to make sense. But he was gone!

I looked everywhere. I began to climb the rocks. I looked in among the crevices. Perhaps he had fallen and gotten hurt? This went on. Time went on. No Matt.

My trek continued and just as my last hopes were fading away, I heard a voice calling my name. I turned and there he was. Matt. With my sleeping bag!

As you have probably guessed, we had both spent those hours walking around the hill looking for each other. But both walking in the same direction.

Well, there’s my little story. You see, it’s not even that fantastic or incredible. Just one of those funny things. Now and again when I think about it, it puts a smile on my face. To imagine how I had wondered if perhaps this whole cave-camping trip was really a ploy to steal my sleeping bag!

Now what about you? Do you have a story? I invite you to submit your story at Stories and Poems.

Love,

Anna of Poems

Free Poetry

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theater art. The word Kabuki is derived from the Japanese word kabuki which means avant-garde or bizarre theater. Kabukimono were youngsters who were rebellious and used to dress strangely. Because the kanji characters sing and dance, kabuki also means the art of singing and dancing.

This work has been tampered with over a period of time. The kabuki which we witness now isn’t the same what it used to be before. The founder of this art was Okuni, who was a young lady who served a Shinto shrine named Lzumo Taisha. She gained attention by adapting a completely new dance form at the theaters at the dry river beds of Kyoto in the year 1603. Basically it started with only female artist who even did the role of men. The stories were based on the common people with a comedic twist. After the initial success Okuni was invited to show her performance at the royal court. Out of envy other troupes began adopting the same style of dancing and kabuki became a common style. The women involved in kabuki began entering prostitution so they were banned from performing further and men took over their place. The attention shifted from dance to performance. But the performance by the men also became salacious and they too started prostitution as a side profession and worked for both men and women customers. This affected the audiences which attended these performance they became ill-mannered and a fight used to break out over a young and handsome actor. This led to the imposing of ban on young male actors too.

Kabuki - Theater Art

Kabuki then became a field of art for matured men. These men put in more effort to bring up the reputation of kabuki. The men who performed the role of women were known as Oyama or Onnagata. Basically there were two types of role named Aragoto or rough style and Wagoto or Sakata tojuro. Yaro kabuki or men’s kabuki was the stylized version and Kyogen comic theater was a very influential factor as it was very popular then.

The kabuki artists wore detailed makeup. Aragoto character or the reckless warrior character has a pompous role with bright clothing and loud makeup. The style too is loud and exaggerated and involves more action. On the contrary Wagoto is a more cultured role with decent dialogue delivery and gestures. More about Theater Art.

Many people spend much of their personal time collecting pieces of art, whether in the form of prints or the actual works themselves, and this is usually because the artist has created something that the person who ends up buying the piece has discovered to have some relevance or appeal in their own lives. This is not absolutely true for all of those people who decide to collect artwork, but the reasons of interest always seem to vary with the individual that purchases the work, though this idea lies in those that feel a particular piece conveys a specific message.

Artists and Famous Architects of all varieties have been working to create a form of expression which is original and unique to their personal proclivities, all artists have a unique perspective that feels its’ way onto a canvas or object that will reveal the purest sense of what the meaning is to this vision, and producing a complete and multi-layered piece of work that fits a rather general category of art. Not all art fits into a specific sub-category under which art looms over indefinitely, the critics are in place to classify the works into other categories or comparisons with that artwork which shares traits with another piece, and sometimes these details are striking enough to become a school of thought or a particular movement of art.

I was completely speechless as I walked into the store of Antique Furniture Chicago. I was given a PowerPoint on different types of Currency Artifacts to present to my class, so my mother suggested to me to go to an actual store to study for my project. When I went to the library I didn’t find what I was searching for, so when I went to this Antique Art Chicago store, I purchased a camera to take photographs of all of the Antique Bookcases. I really got some good pictures . One picture was a statue of a man holding a golden apple; I assume it was considered a Currency Artifacts. That must be a special attribute in Greek mythology. As I peered around the small but crowded room, colors were soaring all around me, and when I would turn left, something on the right would distract me. I didn’t know where to turn or where to begin searching , because everything was purely gorgeous and I appreciated all of the paintings I saw. Soon afterwards the only things I saw was the blinding flashes of my camera. I saved all of the photographs I took on the laptop computer, and from there I put it on my PowerPoint. My class loved my project when it was presented to the class , and even better, my teacher gave me an A+ for effort, artistic quality , Antique Beds, and presentation. That was the most fun project I have ever participated in for class !
One morning I was leisurely walking down the streets, just wandering and taking in all the fresh air and the sights of that beautiful day. While I was not very far away from my own home, a sign attracted my attention from across the street. It was big and red, and if that was not what attracted my attention, the real name of the store sure did. It was called, “All Amazing and Astounding Antique Art Chicago.” The only thing that I could think of then was ‘good use of alliteration!’ Wow. I had no option but to cross the street and stroll in; at least peer around a tad . When I walked into the store I was really amazed . The Antique Bookcases there was a sight to take in , everything was beautiful and captivating. Thoughts spinning around my head were ‘my husband is going to be so mad at me; he is not going to appreciate it.’ I mean, obviously, which husband would enjoy their wife spending literally thousands of dollars just to obtain Currency Artifacts and Antique Bookcases? That was exactly what I did, and in the end of our quarrel I persuaded my husband that he too has things to gain out of my procurement . After all, doesn’t everybody need some place to eat and places to sit? My motto has always been, “out with the old and in with the new.”
Every year in autumn there is an art show . I am not really gifted in anything that has to do with art, but what I am gifted in is looking and purchasing . I love going to those shows! The Antique Art Chicago is in three days and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I even played hooky at school for that, and when the day came I made sure to dress warmly because it was a cool day outside, and I definitely made sure to bring lots of money. So I was strolling down the street that was blocked off for the event , and something sparkly attracted my eye. I strolled over to the stand and there was an old woman there selling Architectural Artifacts. There was a beautiful stone there called cadmium, and when I saw the tag for it something clicked in my memory. I remember learning about that stone in class , it was golden and it was a kind of metal used as ink for tattooing. I also made a heat of the moment purchase of Antique Bookcases I bought it to show my teacher the next day, because I seriously couldn’t keep my eyes of it and I knew that my teacher would give me extra credit for bringing it in. I could always use that!

Do you want to learn how to play the piano? You are not alone; the piano is perhaps the most popular of all instruments because it evokes a combination of feelings. It can show romance, anger, happiness, sadness, and a host of other feelings combined. Of all instruments, the piano is the most romantic and men or women who have ever been played “to” know exactly what this means. If you have had trouble learning how to play the piano in the past, we have the answers you need.

The following five steps will give you everything you need to start on your journey to learning how to play the piano.

1. Obtain A Piano – This is the first step, because it is the most important. You cannot hope to learn how to play the piano without access to one. There are many different types of piano’s, large or small, cheaper or expensive, digital piano and acoustic, no matter which one you choose, you have to have one to learn how to play.

2. Get Lessons – These can be lessons in which you go to another person’s home or they come to yours. You can even learn via instructional DVD’s and tapes, as well as books or even with online resources. It is up to you to choose how you want to learn to play the piano, choose the method that you are most comfortable with.

3. Know what to learn – You have a variety of things to get to know about the piano, but notes, theory, and chords are the most important. You will also need to learn improvisation as well. It is important to understand every aspect of the piano in order to truly master the art.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice – Practicing is crucial to learning how to play the piano. If you are really dedicated to learning how to play, then you need to be practicing every single day, for at least thirty minutes each day. Your practice should begin with warm ups, such as easy notes, exercises, and scales. You can use a digital piano for practicing without disturb anyone.

5. Learn the music one measure at a time. You won’t be sitting down and playing any advanced music pieces from start to finish on first try until you’ve spent hundreds of hours practicing the piano. In the mean time learning to play the piano music will always involve patiently going through it one piece at a time. When you can play the whole musical composition, move on to your next piece of music. Go back over the ones you’ve already learned at least once per month in order to retain what you’ve learned.