Why Tell 36 Stories?

36 Parables to be exact, an amazing team of Dave Gaw, Stewart Redwine and John Schimke banded together to create these small stories. All graduates of APU (Azusa Pacific University) These are some great guys, and their work on telling 36 stories in modern context is a great idea. So check out their stories.

Why Tell RAINBOW Stories?

Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow

I can be anything
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow
A Reading Rainbow

Truly one of the greatest television shows EVER! But I have recently re-discovered my adoration towards Levar Burton, host of Reading Rainbow and so much more. Levar is one of the few "celebrities" who use the social network/micro blog site Twitter. Never before has there been a place where you can see insights into people to such a degree. True, many people use Twitter for mundane blogs about what they had for lunch, but a rare few twitter interesting stories about their current lives, or use it to connect with their fan base on a more personal level. Levar's post are what got me really interested in Twitter. While we are still searching to define what this new blog thing is, we know that it is different, and can represent a new way of reaching those who we previously could not reach.

But back to Reading Rainbow. I remember watching episode after episode, back then we didn't have tech shows like "How It's Made", or "Mythbusters" to enlighten us, we just had Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Reading Rainbow to tell us how crayons were made, or how a wax mannequin could be cast. One of my favorite episodes, and one that is ranked as the top Reading Rainbow episode ever, was when Levar took us on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Levar played Lt. Geordi La Forge, the first helmsmen and later Chief Engineer of the Enterprise D. I - the nerd, always loved Geordi's character, a phenomenal role by Levar.

So keep your eyes on this talented actor, He's not done telling stories just yet.

Why Tell SPARTAN Stories?

When college started for me in 2002, the name of the game was Halo. This flagship game had just come out on the new XBOX console by Microsoft.

I remember running down the hallways as we set up multiplayer matches from different dorm rooms, four players to a room, 4 rooms to a game. Now compared to the graphics of the third Halo game, these were primitive, but we loved it just the same.

When we weren't killing each other in multiplayer we were delving into the involved story of Halo. You were the Master Chief, top Spartan of the entire earth space marines (who wouldn't love that title) And you had an arsenal of weapons no one could match. You were fighting the Covenant, a collection of alien races bent on earths destruction.

How this saga has grown, 3 video games, several books, and a movie in the works. Halo hooked you with the game play, but won you with it's multiple levels of story and suspense.

Why Tell GALAXY Stories?

While the plot is standard Mario saves the Princess and fights Bowser umpteen times, the nuances of the Super Mario Galaxy's story are still shining stars.

But what makes the story, what makes the gameplay so different and fun is how it handles two player mode. In every other game I've played the screen is split either horizontally or vertically and each player controls the views of their own world. But it is different in Super Mario Galaxy, the second player assists the first player by tying down baddies, shooting star bits, and making the game twice as fun as it would be playing alone.

Sometimes the best story is the one that you make with your friends while playing, not the one that the imaginative game designers made. Playing with my friend Stephen has been the most fun I've had with a Mario game ever. What a great story.

Why Tell MOON Stories?

One of my favorite mini-series, in fact this is the standard I hold mini-series to and lays the base for my theory about stories. Stories fall into three categories, and when they are not cast in their appropriate category then they usually fail. The first is a Feature Film, a narrative which is 90 plus minutes and you see it in one sitting. The second is a TV Series, where you can develop characters and plot threads over several episodes and seasons. The third is a Mini-Series, which tells a special story in 12 parts, but is formatted in such a way that the main arc ends at the end and that is it, that is all there is.

So "From the Earth to the Moon" falls into this third category. A focused set of stories beautifully told about America's journey to the Moon from 1961 - 1969. (Spoiler - we get there) One of the thing I like best about this series is each episode is so unique, even once they start going regularly to the moon it never feels routine, they cover different ground from news, to mechanical construction, to family of the Astronauts. My top two episodes are Part 5 : Spider, the story of the development and construction of the Lunar Module, and Part 10 : Galileo Was Right, about how the Apollo 15 Astronauts learned skills to perform Lunar Geology.

So if you are in the mood for a great set of American television, there is nothing better than From the Earth to the Moon.