Re: [ARSCLIST] Folkways Reissues

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Biel, per David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> (From Mike Biel, forwarded by DL)
>
> I have been FUMING here since I saw the original posting from Garr Norwick,
> just itching to reply but having trouble posting thru web mail right now.  I
am
> glad that there have been a couple of very good replies, such as this one from
> John Ross and earlier from Jim Nelson.  But with his recent posting now I
> understand where Garr is coming from.  Without him admitting he is 23 I
> wouldn't have known it because his writing is more mature than that. I don't
> know whether it makes me feel it excuses him or if he needs an introduction to
> the real world.  After all, we were all 23 once, many of my students are that
> age, and so is my daughter, Leah, who many of you know from here attendance at
> ARSC.  I was once  a young whippersnapper sitting at the feet of the pioneers
> of this field.  So Garr, come over here and listen to the Ole' Perfesser tell
> you about the real world.
>
> Back around 1986 at the Chicago ARSC, when Tony Seeger first unveiled the
> Smithsonian's plans for the Asch and Cook archives, you could hear the room
> heave a sigh of relief.  They were going to do a good job and it was going to
> be CHEAP!!!!!!  Garr, FIFTEEN BUCKS IS CHEAP!!!!!!!  It was cheap twenty years
> ago in the days of cassettes, and it is even MORE of a bargain now in the days
> of CDs and inflation.  Dubs off the MASTER TAPES!!!  Photocopies of the
> original notes!!  We sometimes didn't get them with the original LPs. (Moe
> admitted that sometimes he didn't include them to force the purchasers to send
> in the postcard so he could enlarge his mailing list!!!)  This was better than
> going to Moe's office and trying to find a copy of the LP.
>
> Have you ever tried to get a recording out of the Library of Congress or the
> National Archives thru their technical service depts?  Go on their web sites
> and take a gander.  Also look at the hoops you will have to jump thru at LC to
> get clearances before even getting permission to pay them to do the job.  Then
> take a look thru the names of some of the posters on this list who are
> professional restoration engineers. Sorry guys, because some of you are my
> friends of long standing, but some of your charges make LC look cheap!
>
> Garr, you and I are in a different world and different league from the pros.
> We do it for fun, they have to feed their families on this. Even at the
> Government. As Bob Carneal, the then chief audio engineer at LC told me 30
> years ago, "Mike, the audio lab here at LC is not taxpayer supported.  We have
> to pay our way with the work we do.  And we have to be able to defend
ourselves
> if we are accused of unfair competition with professional studios."
>
> Some of the guys on this list were also good friends of the late George
> Blacker.  We all have at least several boxes of reels of tape of all sizes of
> some of the rarest records in the world with slips in them typed so full of
> information that there are no margins on them.  George never asked a dime from
> us.  We usually didn't know the tapes were coming.  We had just chatted with
> George at a Syndicate meeting or on the phone and the subject of the record
> came up or he just found it and knew we would also be interested in it.  Boy
do
> I miss George.  Not because of all those tapes, but because he would have been
> the number one poster on all of these internet lists. George, George, George,
> what you missed, and what we all have missed without you. And lonely Bill
> Bryant up in Maine.  These lists are what he craved way up there.  Bill also
> sent out tapes of rare records.  No charge.  And Milford Fargo.  (I don't mean
> to break out the Kleenex box guys, but the story fits.  And these guys DO
> deserve our reverent memory)
> And these certainly were not and are not the only ones freely exchanging time,
> information, and recordings.
>
> Perhaps it is not so ironic that as soon as I finish this I am going down to
> school, and now that exams are over, I'm doing two dubbings I promised a few
> weeks ago.  The Kiddierecordking is getting a dub of Molly Bee's Willy Claus a
> client of his needs, and I am sending scans of the disc which Molly
autographed
> for me in October.  No charge, but I'm sure he will be returning with a dub of
> the one childrens record I've not been able to re-collect from my childhood.
> He showed me he did have a copy of it when I was over at his place.  Then I am
> doing a CD dub of an uncoated aluminum disc for someone from California.  It
> was a Walter Garwick recording and we were hoping it might be a folkie, but it
> is just a better version of a Florence Foster Jenkins type.  And next week
Neil
> Shell and I are going to exchange dubs of the one disc of the 1932 Shilkret
RCA
> broadcast series that we each has that the other one is missing.  And I have
> also done dubs of home discs or wires for people here in town for just 5 or 10
> bucks.  But this is not my business and I am not doing any fancy restoration
work.
>
> Garr, you and I are in the same boat as each other, just that I've been doing
> it for forty years longer than you.  And some of the pros on this list started
> out the same way but then went into business doing it.  Maybe you will too.
> George, Bill, Milford, and I didn't.  We all had our day jobs.  (Well, maybe
> George didn't, but he said he wanted to get a day job.)
>
> We should all be thankful that the Smithsonian provides that service.  Very
few
> other archives do at that price.  And remember, all that we are doing is
> without paying any of the royalties that would be due in the commercial world
> and would increase the price.  Since all of this I've discussed has been in
> relationship with research and educational work that we do, or a technical job
> for the owner of the non-professional original, we don't have the rights
> questions that was mentioned by others concerning the Smithsonian.
>
> Don't mean to lecture, but it come naturally.
>
> Mike (the old perfesser) Biel  mbiel@xxxxxxx
>
Reading this, I was struck by TWO thoughts...neither one actually germane
to the posted subject...!

1) Why doesn't Biel subscribe to ARSCLIST...?! His extensive expertise
in many recording-related areas would be VERY helpful to many, if not
most, of the current subscribership...?!

2) Effectively, 78-l and/or ARSCLIST serve the same function as did
the late and lamented (ESPECIALLY by me...!!...scb) Record Research
list...and there are/were a fair number of now-"late" RR contributors
who would be valuable contributors to either/both list(s) were they
still amongst us and had computers or access to same...!

This, however, leads (at least in my thoughts...eh?!) to another
conundrum! Has anyone(s) out there in Radio-Land ever given any
thought to the preservation of ALL of the 78-related discographic
information that has ever been presented to the public (and/or
portions thereof...?!)?! Over my decade or so as a 78-eller feller...
and, before that, years as a subscriber and sometime contributor
to RR...I have all too often encountered items which happened to
be answers to "wonders" I had wondered for years/decades/usw.!

Now...consider the various 78-related web sites and databases
accessible thereupon (for as long as the sites remain active,
which is all too often a finite period...!). All of this data
COULD/SHOULD be saved somewhere (IMHO)...!

Okeh, folkses...I have thrun down my gauntlet...!

Na und?!

Steven C. Barr