Ozzy and Iron Man

Here's a 1970 video of a very young Ozzy Osbourne performing the classic song Iron Man with Black Sabbath.

Anatomy of a tornado

This wonderful narrative of a town's visit by a monstor tornado is actually a series of narrative stories, interwoven to tell the larger tale of a tornado in north cetral Illinois. It was written by Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune and won a Pulitzer for best feature writing in 2005.

I encourage you to read the whole three-part series reprinted on the Pulitzer web site.

A Hike into Horror
Here's the lead for a great narrative story of a bear attack by the L.A. Times: Note how the writer uses short sentences to convey the drama of the unfolding scene, which instantly hooks readers.

Glacier National Park, Mont. — JOHAN looked up. Jenna was running toward him. She had yelled something, he wasn't sure what. Then he saw it. The open mouth, the tongue, the teeth, the flattened ears. Jenna ran right past him, and it struck him — a flash of fur, two jumps, 400 pounds of lightning.

It was a grizzly, and it had him by his left thigh. His mind started racing — to Jenna, to the trip, to fighting, to escaping. The bear jerked him back and forth like a rag doll, but he remembered no pain, just disbelief. It bit into him again and again, its jaw like a sharp vise stopping at nothing until teeth hit bone. Then came the claws, rising like shiny knife blades, long and stark.

Read it all by clinking on the link above. You won't be sorry.