History Turned On

Story App Production: It's a Team Sport

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Story App Production: It's a Team Sport

Once upon a time, some crazy smart person got the idea of taking a children’s story previously passed down through oral storytelling and turning it into a book. This spawned a whole new tradition, and an industry that has thrived for centuries with a work-flow process that involves several distinct phases and teams and can take several years to complete the goal of creating an illustrated story book.

It works like this...

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Walking in the Footsteps of Giants

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Walking in the Footsteps of Giants

I write to you from Florence, Italy, where I am walking in the footsteps of Giants, specifically Michelangelo's and his David. Actually, I’m sort of stumbling about after them. But I’m on their trail, and getting closer all the time.

I'm here to walk the tour route suggested by Mary Hoffman's manuscript for In the Footsteps of Giants and to begin the process of weaving her story into this extraordinary historic place.

I've spent the past year researching the man and his works, his life and his times, in anticipation of reaching this stage in the creation of our next Time Traveler Tour.

I feel oddly close to him as I wander the streets whose names and stories I already know.

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How to Make a StoryApp, Part I: Listen to Your Characters

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How to Make a StoryApp, Part I: Listen to Your Characters

Today I am thrilled to begin pulling back the curtain on the making of our launch StoryApp: In the Footsteps of Giants.

The nexus of the project, and the most important element of all, is the story. So this is where we began. And as we close out the first month of a new year, I am happy to say that we're closing in on a working manuscript.

But the road traveled thus far is not been straight. Is it ever?

You never know what’s going to happen when you give yourself over to the creative process, no matter the medium of expression. You conceive of an idea. You pitch it to an agent or editor, who takes it to a publisher or producer; or you take it directly to the crowd. And they say, “Sure! Let’s make that.” At which point you do a happy dance. Maybe celebrate with your friends.

But then the real work begins…

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Michelangelo Meet-up in Music City

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Michelangelo Meet-up in Music City

I saw the advertising poster the minute I stepped off the plane in Nashville...

Twenty-six rare drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) on loan from the artist's family home in Florence were on exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in the home of my youth, Music City USA.

A good omen for me and TTT&T in 2016!

Lily, Jim, and I had traveled to Nashville not just to ring in the holiday season, but to celebrate my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary with the rest of the extended Towle family.

Immediately I knew what I had to do...

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History is Knowledge is Power

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History is Knowledge is Power

Why is it important to keep the good, the bad,
and most definitely the ugly of history alive?

* Knowing the past gives us a meaningful context from which to understand the present.

* Historical awareness teaches us who we are, and what we stand for. It provides us with a sense of shared humanity as well as a cultural and personal identity.

* Positive historical models guide us and inspire to emulate examples of good, responsible citizenship; negative historical models aid us in avoiding past injustices.

* A knowledge of history helps us to better understand change and current events and guides our decision-making today.

* History is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Without it, we remain vulnerable to repeating the worst atrocities of the past, all of which have been motivated on some level by hate and/or bias.

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