Another great video … this one is about the constant undermining of decisive speech by, like, you know, nambypamby fillers. I’d like it more without the audience noise, I confess, but that’s just a picky detail.
Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo. Poem by Taylor Mali.
Via Tom Elliot (whose website seems to be having a funny moment, otherwise I’d link to it.)
Every now and again I search YouTube to see what people are doing with LibriVox files or saying about the site. And found a really lovely video – this is a dance to a remix of Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice. You can hear my read along with lots of other LibriVoxers (it was a Poem of the Week, so remixers have lots of versions to choose from.)
From the Youtube description:
Cera Byer, the visionary behind Damage Control Dance Theatre and Shoebox Studio, dances to “Fire and Ice” from Manko Eponymous’ 2008 cd “Kaihealoha.” Original poem by Robert Frost, performed by librivox.org volunteers.
It doesn’t seem like a moment since I was making an excited post (and podcast) about librivox.org reaching its 2K book … and now here we are seven months and 500 more completed projects on from there. The numbers aren’t quite so notable once one hits four figures; the next biggie will be 5K, but at the current rate of production and assuming modest but steady growth, that’s likely to be late summer 2011, not so far away at all.
Of those 2,500, 359 are in languages other than English (14%). In fact, there are 24 other languages represented by at least one entire work … not to mention LOTS MORE languages which are held within ‘multi-lingual’ collections.
Contributing to those recordings have been 2,816 individuals, who didn’t think that this was too crazy an idea, and went for it with a microphone — and an uncounted number more who supported the readers with organisation, proof-listening, help with summaries and cover art and simple cheering-on.
I’m happy to be part of such a great project and love working with so many wonderful people from around the world … and if by some crazy chance you haven’t yet visited the catalogue, then may I present:
Basic search for totally FREE, no strings, no signups, no download limit audiobooks: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/
Search by genre: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/genres.php
Search by language, reader and other options: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/visitor_advanced.php
Esther Waters is a book I saw recommended somewhere online a long time ago, bought in hard copy from the dingy basement of a London bookshop a year ago, and have now contributed two chapters to its audiobook incarnation. It’s a realist novel about a housemaid whose virtue is lost – outside the sanctity of marriage – to a roguish young man and the consequences of that action. It’s unusual for the period in that the world doesn’t end with a woman’s fall … things go on, and they are Victorianly grim, but also quite vivid and imaginable. It’s a long listen, at 14 hrs, but I reckon well worth it.
Download individual files or the whole thing in a zipped folder from:
http://librivox.org/esther-waters-by-george-moore/
Listen to me starting off the book:
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(17:07)
I’ve just found that a poem I recorded a long time ago, by Julia Ward Howe, has been used as part of a history podcast. The segment starts off with a lovely combined voice recording of her Mother’s Day Proclamation, and then continues with my own recording of her inspired Mother Mind. The show was released on 7th May, which I think fits in with the US Mother’s Day celebration … though we in Britain did it somewhat earlier on 22nd March.
I must confess, I hadn’t read this poem in a “Mothering Sunday” light at all, nor had I realised the poet had written “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I am now better informed and have thought about the poem further. I like her idea of a Mothers’ Peace Day observance far more than the commercial orgy of flowers and chocolates. Nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day” like your children being alive, safe and happy, rather than wounded or killed in any kind of war.
More information about the Talking History podcast here. Or listen:
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(03:44)
(Howe is Segment 2, Segments 1 and 3 are titled “The Good Mother: A History of American Motherhood.”)
I recorded this short story more than a year ago now … and it took me almost that long to get around to editing it, since in the raw state it was about 70 mins. Now it’s trimmed to a perfect 49 mins 37 seconds and it’s available for general listening.
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There are also some other stories of hers in this collection, although read by a different voice. My story has one of my favourite lines in any literature anywhere:
“The main thing” — his voice sank to an impressive whisper — “is not to infringe the copyright.”
And I don’t believe I did. Rule of Shorter Term, American author, first publishing there.
Download this, and 19 other stories, free at: http://librivox.org/librivox-short-story-collection-vol-37/
My original idea for this website was to create an Encyclopedia Piratica, hence the domain name. However, I never found the time and energy to do the vast amount of work required; too much time spent proof-reading and recording audiobooks. However, this weekend I’ve sat down and used a few different resources to pull together a listing of piratey works … which can now be found at:
http://piratelibrary.com/library.htm
This is a bit of a hotchpotch at the moment, since contemporary and modern works are mixed, as are fact and fiction, and sea pirates with thieves of other stripes. I’ve simply labelled books according to source. So it will evolve over time, and I hope it proves of use / fun to someone somewhere along the way.
Collections included so far:
Project Gutenberg
LibriVox
The Internet Archive
To come:
Google Books (the public domain ones, anyway)
Other free online sources of piratical text & audio as I find them
So, I read this story for the Sci-Fi Collection ages ago, and then it sat on my computer in an unedited state while I worked on other things. And in the end I got a round tuit … and decided that it really wasn’t science fiction at all, and might fit better as a general fantasy story in the Short Story Collection. It contains one of my splendidly bad attempts at a cod-Californian accent (don’t tell me how bad it is, it was just for fun!) and is a tres random story, all in all.
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(14:33)
It was catalogued today, and also in that collection is a group reading of a very silly Dickens story, The Lamplighter which I joined in with. I have yet to listen to how it came out — it was recorded on a handheld recording device, sitting in a chilly pub garden in London with some far-flung visiting LibriVoxers and a persistant blackbird. Very good company. :)
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(38:34)
Charlotte wrote these poems while in debtors’ prison with her husband … luckily, the collection was successfully published, which allowed her to pay for their release. David and I alternate on these readings … which took a bit over a year to finish (that’s my fault entirely; I procrastinate too much.)
They didn’t deserve that wait … some of these sonnets and poems are really lovely, though I’m not sure I’d listen to them all in one sitting, that might be pretty bleak! In amongst them is my new favourite poem title of ALL TIME. I’m so lucky that the order fell out right in order for me to record it, too.
Sonnet LXX. On being cautioned against walking on a Headland overlooking the Sea, because it was frequented by a Lunatic.
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(1:17)
http://librivox.org/elegiac-sonnets-and-other-poems-by-charlotte-turner-smith/
(1:22:53 of 3:04:49)
My newest solo has been released at LibriVox. I needed a bit of light relief after the splendidly wordy William Morris, so the Moving Picture Girls by Laura Lee Hope, seemed like a good choice. It’s set in early 20th century New York city, the home of a burgeoning movie industry, and is a very family-friendly fictional account of how a reputable theatre actor and his two daughters make their way into the business. I particularly like it for its description of how a movie is made and for a perspective on how movies were initially looked down on by “legitimate” actors — this is fictional, but not too far from the truth, I think.
There are no swear words of even the mildest sort, no sex (not even kissing, just some blushing & giggling romance), and the closest we get to violence is a light scuffle in an apartment building. It’s 7 hours of the cleanest fun!
Listen to chapter 1 below, download the book from this page, or visit archive.org to stream the whole thing.
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12:06min, 64kbps
Public Domain – Events