neoscenes:audio: first nation stories

these stories were recorded in the spring of 2000 from a book that Nick gave as a present to Loki's mother, Magnea, way back in 1992 when he and Chris made their famed expedition to Ice Land. I don't have the name of the book handy, but will add that when I get a chance -- it is one of the nicest collections I have had the pleasure to read. this series was selected from the over 100 stories in the book mostly for their suitability for young listeners, though some of them may be a bit scary. I have recorded many tens of hours of audio tapes for my son, Loki, reading stories, telling stories, some music, and conversations in a small attempt to bridge the gap that stands between us at least half the year (namely, a divorce and the North Atlantic Ocean: he lives in Iceland). I know he listens to the tapes often, as well as other audio recordings. that form of mediated life has become an integral part of his life. story-telling was a part of my life, my mother reading or making up stories on more occasions than I can recall, and myself writing elaborate stories in elementary school. certainly don't write stories much these days, though I can be moved to tell some pretty darn exciting epics when driving in the car across the West with Loki. I can't fulfill all the many requests to "tell me a story, Pabbi!" but I try to do something once-in-a-while.

the stories were recorded lo-tech, with a standard mid-90's Macintosh microphone, direct onto a PowerPC8600 using SoundEdit16, then edited and processed using the same software for simple voice effects. after the fact I realized it might have been better to use the skills of some of my students to make a more professional studio effort, but by the time I thought about that, it was too late, and the idea of re-reading all the stories and then editing was too much. as it was, each minute of recording took about twenty minutes to produce. the final .aiff files were then converted to mono mp3 files for net distribution. I have burned several audio CD sets for friends' kids. if you might be interested, let me know. problem is that the stories are definitely copyright protected from the book and though I am no expert, I think I have already infringed by giving away a handful of copies. hmmmmm