Tuesday, April 10, 2001
The Birth of an Idea: Gutenberg's Ear
Just got back from The Artist Within-based course I am taking at Inner Directions, and one of the things that was put out to the group was talk about a wish that could be fulfilled within the group. It was funny, as I was planning on talking to one of the people in the group who had expressed the wish to do voiceovers/spoken word work, which jibed with an idea that's been rattling around in my head for a while now. This thought has a name: "Gutenberg's Ear", and I explained the idea to the group, which is this: I love listening to spoken word, and have a desire to produce it myself. There are a lot of books out there in the public domain which are freely available, and the venerable Project Gutenberg has made a great job of converting many of them to etext format, for anybody to read. I'd like to take that to the next step, and offer freely downloadable MP3s of these books, recorded by anybody and everybody, and deliberately copyright-free. All I need is a cassette tape (or two, or three, or what have you), and I have the necessary software to convert it to MP3 format.
Have just finished registering GutenbergsEar.org, as well as their .com and .net equivalents. The plan is to make this a non-profit thing, where people can donate their own readings to the project. They are given due credit, and there is the understanding that the recording artists are donating their copyright for the performance to the project, with the understanding that the project will not seek to profit from this. I also want to keep it to already-published books, rather than asking for personal writings, as I think there is value in making already-familiar words from the page come alive through the spoken voice.
I've got some networking to do now. I need to find somebody/some organization willing to host the site, look into the legalities of this, and will contact the head of Project Gutenberg, as it is their texts I'd like to use, as they are already cleared legally-speaking in terms of copyright. Lots of work, but surely work to feed the soul!
Going to England!
It's done: I've bought tickets for myself, Erika and Vanessa to fly to London, England. We leave May 12th on Air Transat -- the day after I finish teaching my class at the U. of T. -- and return eleven days later. Yippee! I phoned my intention to my Aunt Edith on Sunday, and just this afternoon got a call from her saying that my cousin has offered us the use of his apartment for the time period, on the sole (and easily met) condition that we look after and feed his cat, while he goes and stays with his parents. This is great news, since this frees up a lot of cash that would otherwise have been spent on staying at a B&B in the area. Man, it's been 17 years since I last visited my relatives in Britain. Too long a time, and my only regret is not to have done it sooner. Am looking forward to it though! Some New Toys
I got a couple of new gadgets today. The AVC Soulportable MP3 player that I had ordered last week came in the mail. Funny thing about it was that this morning I punched in the Canada Post deliver number into their package tracking system, and the message said that it had already been delivered. "Hunh?" I thought, worried that perhaps somebody else had recieved it instead. On a hunch, I went to the front door, and looked out on the patio. And so I spied a plain box I hadn't noticed before, and sure enough, it contained the AVC Soul. As I write, it is playing some old OMD MP3s through my computer's speakers for me, and am pleased with its performance so far.
The other gadget I picked up was a SmartMedia card writer/reader called the ZiO! I picked up from Henry's Cameras while downtown during lunchtime. The idea is to use this device so that I can more readily grab the pictures from my digital camera -- the old way of downloading them through my serial cable took forever, and usually drained the camera's batteries in the process. Since I will be going on a trip soon where I expect to be taking a fair amount of pictures, I wanted to find a better solution. Hopefully this is it!
Somehow, I can't seem to get enough of seeing this new Fatboy Slim video... The New Guy at Work
Headed into Oakville today, so that I could be in the office the first day that our new Web Graphic Artist, Ali D., started. While on the streetcar heading to Union Station, I admired the low-hanging waxen full moon that seemed to hover just above downtown Toronto. This sight was matched by the glowering semi-circle of Sun peeking out from where I had just come, while at the train platform waiting for the train to arrive. Magnificent. Ali came in shortly before 9am, and got to work in short order on a new graphic UI for the new Digital View Web site. By day's end he had come up with a pretty stunning new look. I have some misgivings as to how fast it will load, as it seems very graphics-heavy, and I wonder if it might look a bit too "wild". Should know by tomorrow, when we should be able to show it off. Whether it is accepted or not, I feel confident in having made the right decision in hiring him.
Just got back from The Artist Within-based course I am taking at Inner Directions, and one of the things that was put out to the group was talk about a wish that could be fulfilled within the group. It was funny, as I was planning on talking to one of the people in the group who had expressed the wish to do voiceovers/spoken word work, which jibed with an idea that's been rattling around in my head for a while now. This thought has a name: "Gutenberg's Ear", and I explained the idea to the group, which is this: I love listening to spoken word, and have a desire to produce it myself. There are a lot of books out there in the public domain which are freely available, and the venerable Project Gutenberg has made a great job of converting many of them to etext format, for anybody to read. I'd like to take that to the next step, and offer freely downloadable MP3s of these books, recorded by anybody and everybody, and deliberately copyright-free. All I need is a cassette tape (or two, or three, or what have you), and I have the necessary software to convert it to MP3 format.
Have just finished registering GutenbergsEar.org, as well as their .com and .net equivalents. The plan is to make this a non-profit thing, where people can donate their own readings to the project. They are given due credit, and there is the understanding that the recording artists are donating their copyright for the performance to the project, with the understanding that the project will not seek to profit from this. I also want to keep it to already-published books, rather than asking for personal writings, as I think there is value in making already-familiar words from the page come alive through the spoken voice.
I've got some networking to do now. I need to find somebody/some organization willing to host the site, look into the legalities of this, and will contact the head of Project Gutenberg, as it is their texts I'd like to use, as they are already cleared legally-speaking in terms of copyright. Lots of work, but surely work to feed the soul!
Going to England!It's done: I've bought tickets for myself, Erika and Vanessa to fly to London, England. We leave May 12th on Air Transat -- the day after I finish teaching my class at the U. of T. -- and return eleven days later. Yippee! I phoned my intention to my Aunt Edith on Sunday, and just this afternoon got a call from her saying that my cousin has offered us the use of his apartment for the time period, on the sole (and easily met) condition that we look after and feed his cat, while he goes and stays with his parents. This is great news, since this frees up a lot of cash that would otherwise have been spent on staying at a B&B in the area. Man, it's been 17 years since I last visited my relatives in Britain. Too long a time, and my only regret is not to have done it sooner. Am looking forward to it though! Some New Toys
I got a couple of new gadgets today. The AVC Soulportable MP3 player that I had ordered last week came in the mail. Funny thing about it was that this morning I punched in the Canada Post deliver number into their package tracking system, and the message said that it had already been delivered. "Hunh?" I thought, worried that perhaps somebody else had recieved it instead. On a hunch, I went to the front door, and looked out on the patio. And so I spied a plain box I hadn't noticed before, and sure enough, it contained the AVC Soul. As I write, it is playing some old OMD MP3s through my computer's speakers for me, and am pleased with its performance so far.
The other gadget I picked up was a SmartMedia card writer/reader called the ZiO! I picked up from Henry's Cameras while downtown during lunchtime. The idea is to use this device so that I can more readily grab the pictures from my digital camera -- the old way of downloading them through my serial cable took forever, and usually drained the camera's batteries in the process. Since I will be going on a trip soon where I expect to be taking a fair amount of pictures, I wanted to find a better solution. Hopefully this is it!
Sunday, April 08, 2001
Christopher Walken: Dancin' FoolSomehow, I can't seem to get enough of seeing this new Fatboy Slim video... The New Guy at Work
Headed into Oakville today, so that I could be in the office the first day that our new Web Graphic Artist, Ali D., started. While on the streetcar heading to Union Station, I admired the low-hanging waxen full moon that seemed to hover just above downtown Toronto. This sight was matched by the glowering semi-circle of Sun peeking out from where I had just come, while at the train platform waiting for the train to arrive. Magnificent. Ali came in shortly before 9am, and got to work in short order on a new graphic UI for the new Digital View Web site. By day's end he had come up with a pretty stunning new look. I have some misgivings as to how fast it will load, as it seems very graphics-heavy, and I wonder if it might look a bit too "wild". Should know by tomorrow, when we should be able to show it off. Whether it is accepted or not, I feel confident in having made the right decision in hiring him.
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