Posted by Cori on March 1st, 2008 — Posted in My Recordings
I really hope the audio below works, because it’s been so long since I recorded this poem, that I can’t actually remember how it goes. Something about a river, and some nymphs? Checking back in the thread — David and I duetted this last May!
If you think our voices go well together, this is Good, because we’re currently working on a book of Elegiac Sonnets, alternating in similar style. Actually, that’s prolly not a bad thing to do with my afternoon — I can’t record, being the snuffle-nosed monster from Planet Snot … but I do have some old recordings which await a good editing.
Now, this was an odd thing to read. I don’t think I’ve ever recorded something so thoroughly studied by other folks. It was very interesting to read the actual words and none of the arguments/disputes/definitions/redefinitions, for once.
It’s less than 4 minutes, and I’m sure there’s an entertaining discussion to be had about which of us readers has an accent most like that of its primary author, James Madison.
Posted by Cori on January 26th, 2008 — Posted in My Recordings
A little poetry to celebrate the New Year … but only three people braved the terrors of quirky verse-structure and poetic voice Rossetti-style. I rather like it, though.
Posted by Cori on January 14th, 2008 — Posted in My Recordings
Ah, it’s lovely to have archive.org behaving again … all sorts of long-ago recordings of mine are finding their way home, finally. Like my contribution to A Child’s History of England by Charles Dickens … I read the chapters England Under Richard the Second and England Under Henry the Fourth, Called Bolingbroke last June. Most of it is fairly straightforward prose, but Dickens does have occasional really splendid turns of phrase which remind me of the Horrible History books now … such as here, on greeting an unwanted visitor:
‘Fair cousin of Lancaster,’ said the King, ‘you are very welcome’ (very welcome, no doubt; but he would have been more so, in chains or without a head).
Posted by Cori on January 13th, 2008 — Posted in My Recordings
So, Mystery Story Collection Vol. 1 is now catalogued, and ready for the world’s listening pleasure, and my contribution to it is the rather long short-story, A Jury of her Peers by Susan Glaspell. It is, apparently, a ‘cosy/cozy’ mystery for those who discriminate, and for those who don’t, I can tell you that the lead characters are female and the action takes place in a kitchen. A man is strangled in his own bed, but whodunnit — and why?
I *LOVED* recording this story. It’s been on my To Do list for months, ever since the first time I read it — and cried too, it packed a punch for me. When Gesine invented the Mystery Collection, it was a natural fit, and so, I link here:
Posted by Cori on January 12th, 2008 — Posted in My Recordings
Hooray — finally, archive.org is behaving itself again, and my next solo is complete. Nine Unlikely Tales for Children by E. Nesbit is a 1901 book I found in the library a while back … and there isn’t an online version of the text, so I thought it would be jolly to scoop a reading of it. Nesbit is a pure joy to read aloud: the stories go along at a great pace for the kids, and there’re enough nods to an adult sense of humour to make an entertaining listen no matter how old one is. Now, that said, folks have to cope with me Doing Voices, which isn’t to everyone’s liking. But, I don’t believe in fairy tales without them, just wouldn’t seem quite right in my listening world. And how, exactly, would YOU voice a bouncible ball, anyway..?
Posted by Cori on December 22nd, 2007 — Posted in My Recordings
The Bird’s Christmas Carol linked below just wasn’t enough. Additions to the Public Domain for this December now include the following three seasonal sillinesses:
A Cornish Christmas Play - recorded during a London LV meet, with four people, two rolling pins, a briefcase, a frying pan and no strict adherence to the script (just as its author intended.) (2.7MB)
The Conscience Pudding by E. Nesbit - I found this as a standalone book in the library, but actually it turned out to be the second chapter of a full-length book (in progress as a solo recording by another Librivoxer.) I thought it was too much fun not to put into this collection, not many other Chrimbo stories will include the wisdom which ends: “If this simple rule was followed there would not be so many wars and martyrs and law suits and inquisitions and bloody deaths at the stake.” (16.5MB)
To An Old Fogey (Who Contends that Christmas is Played Out) by Owen Seaman - Owen is an old friend of mine, back from when he used to edit Punch. When I saw that there was just one space left in this collection, and only a few hours to the closing date … well … it’s seasonal poetry time. Especially poems that start “O frankly bald and obviously stout!” (1.1MB)
And with these three, this brings my LibriVox contribution total to 200 recordings … about forty hours. Bring on the holiday time-off and New Year!
Posted by Cori on December 11th, 2007 — Posted in My Recordings
I recently lucked into recording a section of Paradise Lost. I wasn’t planning to get a literature-nerd crush on Milton, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to have to edit “oooooh, cool!” out of the middle of a recording, once I’d finished reading a particular paragraph. But there’s a lot of unaccountable events in this life, and the above happened. Normally I wait until things are catalogued before writing about them here … but … c’mmon, movie tie-in! :D
The whole book is going to be well worth a listen — it’s much more accessible and vivid than I was expecting <imagine some muttering here about T.S. Eliot> But in the meantime, here’s just the minute of text Pullman sourced his trilogy title from: http://www.studioae.com/LibriVox/cori/misc/paradiselost_darkmaterials_milton.mp3
Posted by Cori on December 3rd, 2007 — Posted in My Recordings
Yes, it is heading towards That Time of Year again … and though I have plans for something of Nesbit’s to celebrate the season (note to self - get that copyright clearance, ASAP!) I rescued a poor little orphan chapter too, part of The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. A sweet little children’s story — I’m looking forward to listening to the whole thing … only not on the bus, because the ending looks to be sniffle-inducing, in a good way.