It's very impressive that the British listen to those shows. I wonder how
many Americans would. The other night, I heard part of FDR's innaugural
address on a webcast and the language was very beautiful and sophisticated.
I thought, "Well, I guess people were getting a better education back then
or something because I'm not sure the average person today would understand
the language". I guess I'm sounding like a snob.

Miriam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry" <barryem@...>
To: <audible@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: [audible] wish list


I'm a pretty big fan of old time radio (OTR). I listen to some nearly every
day. I grew up with it when it was just plain radio. I listened to Gunsmoke,
starring William Conrad, the original Matt Dillon and to dragnet long after
they became TV shows. I liked the TV shows a lot but the pictures on the
radio shows were just so much more interesting. :)

The kind of audiodrama I'm talking about grew out of what we now call OTR,
only in England they took it a little more seriously than we did. Actually
we did, too, to some extent, and much OTR is quite sophisticated. But most
isn't.

For example, this week on the links I posted previously they're playing the
following audio dramatizations:
E M Forster's "A Passage to India"
Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost"
Dickens' "David Copperfield"
Poe's "The Gold Bug"
Spyri's "Heidi"
Peter Benchley's "Jaws"
Alcott's "Little Women"
Kafka's "Metamorphesis"
Mary Shelly's "The Mortal Immortal"
Dickens "The Old Curiosity Shop"
Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum"
Dashiel Hammett's "Secret Agent X-9"
Poe's "The Tell-tale Heart"
Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss"
Pratchett's "The Wyrd Sisters"
Sherlock Holmes
Readings of several short stories
Pinter's "Landscape and the Examination"
Trollope's "Orley Farm"

Also a lot of plays (at least one every day and usually two or more) written
especially for BBC radio.

And that's just this week...:)

Normally these are fully understandable just from listening. That's their
design, just as it was the design of OTR. But now they have far more
sophisticated techniques available to them and they do some beautiful
things. Among them I think you'll find some of the highest quality
audioproductions in the world.

Barry

--- On Mon, 1/12/09, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@...> wrote:


From: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@...>
Subject: Re: [audible] wish list
To: audible@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, January 12, 2009, 9:35 PM


I assume that the audio drama that you're talking about is like a TV drama,
or is it actually like a radio program? The problem with TV drama is that
it, too, requires description for someone who can't see. The audio drama
that doesn't, is old-time radio which, a lot of blind people love. But
old-time radio is rather unsophisticated in terms of its dramatic quality.
But, of course, radio drama was written for people to listen to back in the
40's. The question came up because there is a guy who professionally writes
video description for films and TV and he's convinced that there is a wider
market for it than just blind and visually impaired people.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry" <barryem@...>
To: <audible@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [audible] wish list


The problem I see with the described movies is that they'll be competing
with audiodrama which is already available with superb quality in great
quantity and much of the best of it is essentialy frree to listen to on the
internet (legally).

If it was available to me I'd probably sample it and until I did my
reactions wouldn't mean much but my expectation is that I'd do no more than
sample it.

That's a way to access movies that are otherwise unavailable to let you be
able to participate in discussions but even for the blind I'll be surprised
if this is a preferred listening genre for it's own sake.

Not long ago I found an audio version of the movie South Pacific, probably
my all time favorite movie ever since I was a teen, and I enjoyed listening
to it. This was the entire 3 hour play, not just the music. There were no
descriptions of the action but I've seen the movie so many times I can see
it projected on the screen on the back of my closed eyelids. I enjoyed it. I
don't know if I want more of these. I could easily make one from my DVD of
the movie.

If there was no audiodrama available I might want this. If I couldn't see
movies I'm pretty sure I'd want it. But as it stands I'm not sure how much
interest it holds for me.

Barry

--- On Mon, 1/12/09, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@...> wrote:


From: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@...>
Subject: Re: [audible] wish list
To: audible@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, January 12, 2009, 8:29 PM


It's interesting that some countries insisted on including that speed for
potential use of visually impaired people because here in the U.S., the idea
is that they're so careful to limit and control the use of special formats
for the disabled because of copyright concerns. You know, they don't want
fully sighted people to have the use of special formats because then the
publishers' copyrights won't be protected.

And if anyone else beside the two of us is reading this there's been a
discussion among blind people as to whether fully sighted people would be
interested in described films. It has to do with distribution of the sound
tracks of films which include added description of the action. For those of
us who are blind, the description is the big deal and there are blind people
who download these described movie soundtracks to their streams and listen
to them. Some people think that sighted people would be interested in
listening to them just as you listen to audio books. Some people, like me,
think that they wouldn't. I'm wondering what people on this list think.
This would be just a sound track with all the action described so you
wouldn't need to see it in order to know what's going on.

Miriam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharol" <ctutor@...>
To: <audible@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 9:01 PM
Subject: RE: [audible] wish list


Nah, these were recorded at 16 2/3. The reason I'm so sure is that I tried
to find a record player to play some of them for my daughter when she was
little 1979 or 1980. They weren't 33 1/3, they were half speed and labled
"Talking Book."



"16 2/3 RPM - This speed was used almost exclusively for spoken word
content, in particular for the "talking books" used by the visually
impaired. For this reason, the inclusion of a 16 2/3 speed setting on
turntables was compulsory in some countries for many years, despite the
records themselves being a rarity. Cassette
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape> tapes proved to be a far more
popular format for such spoken content. Chrysler's short-lived Highway Hi-Fi
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Hi-Fi> format also used 16 2/3 7"s."
is from Wikipedia. They don't indicate a date, but I know Mother had them
in the early 50's when I was 6 or 7 years old.



As I recall, the school bought a bunch of them for a blind student who
subsequently moved, so Mother brought them home to listen to when they
weren't needed at school. When we moved, the school eliminated the library
(the high school became consolidated) and we kept the records.



Sharol

_____

From: audible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:audible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 7:31 PM
To: audible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [audible] wish list



Sharol,

I think maybe in the 50's, they were 33 1/3 records and before, in the 40's,

they were smaller than the typical 33 1/3 record and they were made of this
red plastic. Well, in the 40's, I was in elementary school and I only heard
those in school. I remember Alice in Wonderland, and it was truly
wonderful! To me, the change from those records to what we have today is
just amazing. For me to decide on a Saturday night that I want a particular
book, find it on a website, download it and read it on Sunday is truly a
miracle.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharol" <ctutor@sbcglobal. <mailto:ctutor%40sbcglobal.net> net>
To: <audible@yahoogroups <mailto:audible%40yahoogroups.com> .com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 8:16 PM
Subject: RE: [audible] wish list

My mother was a librarian in a high school library in the '50s, and so she
had access to some of those old phonograph record "talking" books. I
listened to Gulliver's Travels (just the first part Lilliput and
Brobdingnag) several times as an elementary school students. She also had
poetry - The Highwayman comes to mind. They were recorded at 16 2/3 and
required a record player that would play that speed. My parents bought just
such a record player so that I could listen to these books. You brought
back some very pleasant memories. I wonder what happened to those records?
Hmmmm. Maybe in storage.

Sharol







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