Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Volume 1, by John Lloyd Stephens (1805 - 1852) .
The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a structure with steps up the side, shaped like a pyramid. Next they see a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians.” Stephens records these discoveries and also his travels in Central America, where he had been sent by President Van Buren as special ambassador to the ill-fated Republic of Central America. The republic being engulfed in civil war when Stephens arrives in Guatemala, he finds himself dodging revolutionary armies while he hunts for a “legitimate government” to which to present his credentials. Catherwood, meanwhile, directs his immense artistic talent to illustrating views of Mayan architecture. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan was a best seller in its day and has been called an “Indiana Jones” saga by modern reviewers. (Summary by Sue Anderson)
Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).
Genres for the project:
adventure, art, history, travel
Keywords that describe the book:
Indians of Mexico -- Antiquities; Mayas -- Antiquities; Central America -- Description and travel; Chiapas (Mexico) -- Description and travel; Yucatán (Mexico : State) -- Description and travel Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805-1852;
The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording! Start of recording (Intro)
"Chapter [number] of Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan.Volume 1 - This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
If you wish, say: "Recording by [your name]"
Say: " Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, by John Lloyd Stephens . [Chapter]"
For the second and all subsequent sections, you may optionally use the shortened form of this intro disclaimer:
"Chapter [number] of Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens . This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain."
If you wish, say: "Recording by [your name]"
Only if applicable, say: "[Chapter title]"
End of recording
At the end of the section, say:
"End of [Chapter]"
If you wish, say: "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
At the end of the book, say (in addition): "End of Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens . "
There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.
Example filename
incidentsoftravelincentralamericavol1_##_stephens.mp3
Example ID3 V2 tags
Title: ## - [Section title]
Artist: John Lloyd Stephens
Album: Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan Transfer of files (completed recordings) Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
Hi Sue. I'm back to MC for you again. Let's do two separate projects for the two volumes if for no better reason than to keep the zip file a manageable size. MW will be available shortly.
Ah . . . I came back from our local library where I'm taking what you'd have to call an "adult literacy" computer class to find that I have a MC and a DPL both! Thank you both so much, Jo and Hugh! Yes, I thought 2 separate volumes would be better (and I'll amend the ID tag part to reflect volume 1 ), but I had been reading Stav's comments about unrecorded second volumes, and I thought I'd better make my commitment clear---Stephens is long winded, but enjoyable.
Hi Hugh, I can see you've been "librivoxing" at a great rate, with character readings no less! That's great! The dramatic reading project looks like fun.
MMMMMM Gunpowder, haven't tried that one yet. Reminds me of this...
Grandpa was mentoring his grandson on the secret of living a long and productive life: "Every morning, sprinkle a teaspoon of gunpowder on your oatmeal. Well, when grandpa died at the age of 97, he left six children, 33 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren...and a 25-foot hole where the crematory used to be.
Thank you, I'll be here all week...
Hugh
"the story seems to take forever to go anywhere - and I know where it is going." - m8b1 2012
Oops, sorry Jo about vol1!
And Hugh, thanks for pling!
Sue
Jo, is there a way to keep the same title & author info for the ID tag coming up each time you record a successive section? Most of the time, when I open the "open Metadata editor" under "file," the info from some previous book comes up and I have to delete it and type in the current book info, but, then, I can't figure out how to make that the default info for the current recording. If I had that figured out, the vol1 mistake wouldn't have occurred. Thanks, Sue
If you open the Metadata Editor in Audacity and fill in the ID3 tag info, you can click Set Default to keep it as the default which should then come up each time you export. Each time you start a new book, you will have to set the default again. Alternately, you can click Save, give the file the name of the book and then next time click Load and open the file with the tags you want to use (useful if like me you are recording more than one project at a time ).