Hap Holly wrote:
>As a young blind boy I was most intrigued with recording the sounds
>of nature. In the early 1960s my mom owned an early flexible-disc
>recording machine called a Soundscriber. She and my grandmother
>corresponded with these 45 RPM-sized discs. I would find one of her
>blank disks, then place her machine's boxy mic on the sill of the
>open bedroom window to pick up whatever was going on outside. In
>those days the street and air traffic nearby were non existent Too
>bad none of those recordings survived the decades.
Hi HH-
I'll say. This notion occurred to very few people. I'm sure many
nature recordists know of Tony Schwartz's work. He has a pretty large
collection of such discs; I understand very few of them are of
locations. Tony made one himself: "New York 19," (Folkways FP 58).
Its out of print, a student took off with my copy years ago, I'd love
to sit down and listen to it today and compare it with the surround
stuff I just recorded around my house over the past few days.
For those not aware of Schwartz, here's a start.
http://home.nyc.rr.com/tonyschwartz/index.html
Tony's email address is on the site.
Ok Hap, set your reading voice for middle-aged male, midwestern nasal
with faint southern slur,here's your story:
14 years ago I visited the Milwaukee and Wisconsin State historical
Societies to explore what they had in their archives as recorded
sound. Boxes and boxes of television shows, a few of radio shows,
three- quarter inch reel to reel interviews with rich "founders,"--
nothing of the real world at all, zip. I guess all of us should have
a plan for leaving behind some material for the public to access.
And Hap, let me be the first to encourage you to make that recording!
A little commentary could make up for some of what seems lost. Rob D.
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