=pva0818 Archiving PVK Material / Administrative Notes / 18 Aug '05 ------------------------------------------------------------------- This memo summarizes points I have previously made. There are a few new refinements, but not much else new. --------------------------------------------------------------- I have done a bit of work Archiving material of R. Shlomo Carlebach, and also Archiving work of PVK. My 'RSC'='R. Shllomo Carlebach' material and some of my PVK Archiving work -- ie, most test files is posted to my Website: www.geocities.com/sa73122a and supplemental Websites, www.geocities.com/sa73122 , and www.geocities.com/sa73122c My PVK material is also posted to: www.yahoo.com / Briefcase / User ID: AdobetoZenith (Adobe, not Abode) Password: CarwashCharlie (Password is case-sensitive, ie, use capital C's ) In memos ca. 1966, included on my Website /sa73122a within /shmemos (or shmemos.zip ) I have sketched principles of archiving, primarily for RSC material, but secondarily for PVk material. I will try to dig those out; remind me if you want to if I space it. As for audio input of PVK material: I have not yet started to approached this task in a systematic way. So far I have just started to do whatever I had at hand. I had a few old audio tapes with me at Mevo Modi'in, which Alifa Saadya had preserved for me. I tried to input those as audio. Some of that input failed, at least on the copy I retained. What failed on my copy was Tapes 18 and 19 -- when PVK spoke on the meaning of 'Zahir' -- maybe the copy I sent to the Abode was ok, I don't know. I have the hard-disc copy on my computer at Mevo Modi'in. I'm trying to get that back, but the odds are against it. I also had a few SO Tape_of_the_Month tapes, and a few other distributed SO tapes, which I tried to input. Some of those I have transcribed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- WALIA COLLECTION: Most of the Zenith Master tapes were taken by ZR to Suresnes. A few remained behind in the Walia Collection. Some of those left that Collection before I saw it in Spring '05 - - lent out to individuals, I suppose. I now have what's left of the collection in my Shack at Campra. The shack is dry. I lock the shack when I leave, the Vanzetti's have a spare key. I ain't much worried about theft, even I can barely find anything in all that clutter. I've started to list and input those tapes. I also have the Sound Desk Notes, and I've inputting those notes. When I play a tape, I often take extensive notes on it. Those docs can serve as a sort of detailed topical table of contents. My procedure for audi input is as follows. I have so far used a 2-cassette player, a Philips AZ1605. This is your basic home use player, not a professional one, not even a yuppie one. It has no audio_out hole. So I take the audio out from the mic hole, and in to the Audio_in on my computer. Henceforth, I will use a SamSung Max-ZJ550 , as soon as I unpack it. That's a budget yuppie box. It does have an audio out jack, which is why I bought it. So I put the Master Cassette -- which is almost always a namebrand Type II -- into Tape 1 , and put a new TDK Type I into Tape 2. So I am making a backup copy of each Master Cassette. So as soon as I make that backup copy, I can return the Master to anyone who can store it responsibly. I suppose that would be either ZR in Suresenes, or maybe the SO in New Lebanon. Neither Walia nor Devi with to continue storing Zenith Master tapes, neither has room. So ok, then as I play the Maser for the first time, I am simultaneously listening to it -- I play in Realtime -- making a backup cassette -- and inputting onto my harddisc. My input goes into the harddisc on my computer. As that harddisc fills up, I move that input over to an external harddisc. The computer will sit here at Campra when I leave. Nico Vanzetti will know where and what it is. Maybe I take the external harddisc with me, maybe not. Anyone in the SO who wants a copy of that input can have it, but has to pay for expenses -- not for time, just real expenses. So ok: At the suggestion of Ben-Zion Solomon, I am using Audacity, which I get from www.sourceforge.net -- it is freeware. So ok: I save in all 4 available formats -- Audacity, WAV , MP3, and Ogg (which is Ogg Vorbis). So ok: You should donwload the latest version of Audacity. I gather that Audacity is good and getting better. A 45 minute tape is running about 320 Mg for Audacity and for WAV, about 35 Mg for MP3 , about 25 Mg for Ogg (Vorbis). They say that Ogg Vorbis is more or less as good as MP3, and getting better. Zenith cassettes were in Mono. Input is in Mono. I use the default settings for input -- ie, the highest possible fidelity. It's my impression that there is no significant saving in filesize from going down to lower settings. I detail that in some memo that I sent out. When I'm done, I make a DVD backup for my files (a subset of the clutter in my shack), and send a pretty complete input to the Abode -- one copy only, addressed to the Abode, and to the attention of Devi Tide and S. Gebel. I send more limited collectdions of input -- in general, just MP3 or Ogg Vorbis -- to: Alev Dilber, M. Roehrs, and Aziz Dikeleous. I take running notes on the topics covered by PVK. Those notes have gotten pretty good, because I type them while listening to the tape. I should be posting them to my Yahoo Briefcase, but I'll have to check to see if I did so. I shouild also be including them on the DVD's I send out, and I think I have done that. The software that came with my DVD RW player was Sony Sonic DLA. That means it reads and writes to RW only, not to R . More or less. Katerina uses a different system for audio input; I have to check that out and get a copy. SO OK -- I NEED TO KNOW WHAT SYSTEM AND SETTINGS ARE BEING USED BY OTHERS WHO ARE DOING AUDIO INPUT OF PVK MATERIAL. Someone who knows what they're doing has to set an "Industry Standard" for input of PVK material. That means: deciding the program that will be used to take cassettes into digital form, deciding the settings that will be used, and deciding the format(s) in which the audio input will be saved. --------------------------------------------------------------- All PVK material must be preserved in all available media. That means the Video's must all be saved as both Audio and as Text, and that that Audio's must also be Save'd as Text. So there will exist a video Archieve, an Audio Archive, and a Text Archive. Needless to say, there must be at least 2 backup copies of each Archive, in additional to the original, so at least 3 goeographically dispersed archives exist. It would be be best if at least one Archive was housed at a University. I do not deal with questions of confidentiality, but obviously appropriate restrictions can be placed on the distribution or availability of material within an archive. Concerns about confidentiality should not impede establishment of a proper archive. ------------------------------------------------------------------ A priority, and a small and simple task, would be establishment of an archive of PVK conducting the Bach B-Minor -- both performances and especially rehearsals -- some of which may reveal more of his intent and insight than the performances do. That is -- every foot that anyone shot of PVK conducting any portion of the Bach B-Minor should be preserved, and available. Latifa remarked to me this summer that PVK once remarked that he might instead have become a Conductor. Well, he might have been world-famous as such. PVK once remarked that he might instead have done his teaching thrugh music (as HIK was instructed to do by his teacher -- "Go. amd unify the world through your music" if I recall the quote) rather than through lectures and guided meditations. Aeolia remarked to me this summer that as PVK's fingers became arthritic, she would advise the singers to be guided by his glance, not by his fingers. Somoene once remarked, PVK conducts by his glance. And everyone knows that maybe most of PVK's communication with individual mureeds was by a glance. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The final interview with PVK may be a very imporzant document. There are strong concerns about the confidentiality of much if not most of the material. One must assume that PVK will become recognized as a major philospher. So publication of some of what he said can wait a generation if need be. I would hope that the entire interview will be transcribed, even if only 2 or 3 people see that transcription. Just to be sure that it is preserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ZR once said to me, why do you keep transcribing PVK tapes, he says practically the same thing every time, only the Attunement varies. Well, I don't think I can perceive attunements, except minimally. But I think I could show that in nearly every Zenith seminar PVK said some new things -- usually, adding refinements to points he had previously articulated. ---------------------------------------------------------------- VOICE RECOGNITION: It should be possible to take PVK tapes into text via a voice recognition program. One can Customize the voice_recognition program via tapes, one does not need the presence of the speaker to do so. PVK's vocabulary for lectures -- I am thinking now only of mono_lingual lectures, and primarily of the English lectures -- was surprisingly small, although with a large number of uncommon works. He had an exceptionally disciplined speaking style. So in short his lectures should be exceptionally easy to transcribe vai voice_reognition. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The main reason for a text archive is to enable topical searches. Eg, one might want to assemble all of PVK's remarks about cancer. Or about Bach. The reason for an audio archive is that one gains so much more from hearing PVK speaking the guided meditations, than from reading them. A verbatim archive is essential, to correct the errors of editors -- especially omission of significant nuuances. All published work should be identified by the original source material, and that verbatim source material should be made publically available. One project is to list and then assemble all published material by PVK in Heart and Wings -- starting I think with the Volumes put out by Munir Sharif Graham, with Taj Inayat Khan. Another project is to do the same with the PVK material -- and for that matter, the other material as well -- published in Abadi Arifa Goodman's magazine Emergence, in Boulder, Colorado. Most of that material was published in editted form. Of course PVK's 'Keeping in Touch' 's , written for and distributed to all mureeds on request, should be made available on Disc. I would say that the KITs might improve with editting -- provided of course that the verbatim remains also available. Presumably a published edit would be juxtaposed the verbatim, on disc, so that the verbatim and the edit could be compared ona split-screen. It happens that EinsteinWriter, which is what I use for all my input, is especially well-suited to such juxtapositojn. -------------------------------------------------------------- The first step in Archiving PVK material (or the material of any thinker) is Inventory. That means, listing all the PVK material that is and isn't extant. The material that is extant is all material for which you can locate a Master Tape (or printed publication, of course.) The material that isn't extant is that for which you cannot locate a useable Master tape. Then you must start chasing around after mureeds -- via a Website and mailing list -- to find a copy of tha lecture. All of PVK's known lectures (by which I mean also seminars that he led, seminars in which he was a participant, and group retreats that he guided) must be listed. Then one adds to that list, whether or not a Master tape exists, where it is located, etc. The second step in Archiving PVK material is preservation of it. The means, first, ensuring that tapes are physically well-housed. And secondly, it means copying those tapes onto digital format, making backup copies, and phsyically dispersing the backup copies. The third step is publishing and annotating that material. Of course the three steps proceed simultaneously. ----------------------------------------------------------------- One must note where all collections of PVK material exist. I assume that the largest collection is at the SO office at the Abode. A large collection, comprising the Zenith Masters, but also much other material, exists at Suresnes. I would hope that Sharif Graham is dealing with that in a professional manner. He has, as far as I know, produced a complete and definitive archive of the teachings of HIK. Incidentally, it is accepted that with HIK, verbatim publication is essential. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's all I think of for now. Respects and best wishes to all. Steve Amdur, Campra, CH-6718 Olivone, Switzerland 18 Aug '05 -- 13 Av -- 12 Rajab Warm day, but overcast. Might rain, might not. ================================================================