[ARSCLIST] a tape archive probably worth preserving if not already being preserved

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All:

I am speaking out of mostly ignorance here, so excuse me if there are "duh" moments following.

Borrowed a copy of Velvet Underground "Live at Max's Kansas City" Rhino reissue yesterday. Got to 
reading the booklet and found an intriguing fact. The recordist, Brigid Berlin (Brigid Polk):
http://www.warholstars.org/stars/brigid.html
said in the booklet that she made "hundreds" of tapes around NYC at that time (late 60's/early 
70's). She said she would interview street people, artists, other Warhol-crowd people. She recorded 
at least the Velvet Underground, perhaps others (although she said she wasn't into music and only 
came to the show with her tape recorder because she was a friend of Lou Reed). Another person who 
participated in that recording (which is not bad at all for a club, a live band, a mono cassette 
recorder and one mic -- in fact I'd argue it's about as good as you can get under those conditions) 
said they recorded other VU shows at the same time. Finally, Berlin said she had "boxes and boxes" 
of well-documented cassettes in her possession as of 2001 when the booklet was written. Judging from 
the quality of the VU recording, the tapes would likely be in decent/playable condition.

So, the question is -- are these tapes being preserved? It seems to me they are at least an 
interesting snapshot of a unique time and place (NYC downtown scene, late 60s/early 70s), and may be 
of greater historical interest.

Berlin is still alive, as far as I know. There was a documentary done about her in 2002.  I'd bet 
there's at least a radio documentary contained in those tapes.

-- Tom Fine