Blind Chance: David Faucheux's Audio Web Log
Friday, September 03, 2004
Huck hear tells of a Sept. 11 chatcast
I hear tell they're fixin' to talk about me--them Internet folks--with this audiochat on The Adventures of Huck Finn. That's me, and I'm hoping they'll do a tolerable job of understanding me and Mr. Mark Twain. Now Tom Sawyer, he says they're discussin' courage and freedom and how we is one of the good examples of the American character. I hear-tell this is part of the Libraries Remember Project. Pap never did like book learnin', so I guess I'll get Tom to learn me how to tune this in and make sure they tell the truth.
Detail: To participate Huck will need just a Net connection, sound card and speakers--plus a microphone if he wants to speak up (participants can also type comments and questions). The software is self-installing and does not contain adware. Click here to get to the chatcast room. The Meting of the Minds discussion will happen at 7 p.m. Central Daylight on September 11. Tom Peters is moderator, and the sponsor is the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Athough the chatcasts are for the blind and other print-challenged people, anyone can participate.
Warning: The above is not authentic dialect from the novel. Not sure why. Is it really true that use of IM has already corrupted Hick's speech?
Thursday, September 02, 2004
My Antonia audio chatcast to be held Tuesday, Sept. 21
The My Antonia chatcast has been rescheduled for Tuesday, September 21, 2004, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific.Participating will be Dr. Susan J. Rosowksi, a top Cather specialist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, along with a panel of students from the University. Tom Peters will moderate.
You're invited to join the discussion--or you can just sit back and hear the others. Great Gatsby fans may be especially interested, given the extent to which My Antonia served as an inspiration for Fitzgerald during the writing of Gatsby.
Drop by the Cather Project to learn more about Cather and see an annotated scholarly version of My Antonia. You can also download it in various formats from Blackmask.
To find out technical details--no big deal, the chatcast software downloads automatically and is not adware--see the Meting of the Minds page for the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.
Recording of David's chatcast on historical fiction
You can now enjoy a .wma file of David Faucheux's chatcast on historical fiction--part of the archive for Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL). Large file, 50-minute playback time. (Thanks to Tom Peters and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.)
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Preview of reading attractions--and reflections on today's bookchat
Monday, August 30, 2004
Fibromyalgia
Sunday, August 29, 2004
The sounds of silence
AudioBooksForFree.com
Why haven't we heard more about AudioBooksForFree.com, based in Scotland? You can download free MP3 audios of dozens of classics ranging from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea to Enchanted Typewriter (a machine described in a summary as being able to "communicate with Hell"). I can't wait to see if in some way I can make this work with my Dell Axim PDA. For further details on the service, see the FAQ. At least to this sighted person, the UK site appears to be blind-friendly, with a text-only mode for screen readers. Perhaps David Faucheux can add his thoughts.
How long it'll take: With high-speed cable modem service, I downloaded Treasure Island (9 hours of listening time) in less than ten minutes. I put all the files in one folder on my PC and let WinAmp take off--reading them without my having to pause to reload. Nice!
Details: AudioForFree.com uses human readers--skillful ones at that. For high-quality audio, you must pay extra. Fair enough. Ideally, of course, a business model can be found to make even high-quality reproductions free. AudioBooksForFree also sells CDs, DVDs and MP3 machines preloaded with recordings. Librarians and others should check out the copyright page. Alas, there are few American authors compared to UK ones, but this is, after all, a Scottish site.
