Re: [ARSCLIST] Format conundrum

[steven austin <stevena@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That would be Andy's book, Rod.

Oooh. I remember "Motel of the Mysteries." It was a Christmas
best-seller, I think, and he stretched it to a couple of sequels. I
remember thinking it was light, but I might have glanced through it
while wrapping. I'll have to seek it out.

Steven Austin

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rod Stephens
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 4:11 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Format conundrum

Well Steven,

That book has already been written by David Macaulay, "Motel of the
Mysteries".

These are some quotes:

> In the 40th century the North American continent is covered with 200
> feet of detritus from "pollutans literatus" and "pollutans gravitas"
> (junk mail and air pollution). The St. Louis Gateway Arch is useful
> for kissing for luck under the arch (now three feet above the ground)
> and the penthouse levels of the Bigapple extend like new Stonehenge
> monoliths from the ground.
>
> Into this milieu enters Howard Carson who, like the Howard Carter of
> the early 20th century, stumbles into an archaeological funerary site
> and opens the door into ... "wonderful things."
>
> Each part of the "Toot'NC'mon" Motel is catalogued and fitted
> carefully into Carter's map of the site as a tomb and funeral
> repository. Even the Hot and Cold water initials on the "water
> trumpets" are taken by Carter as meaningful, namely, as his initials.
> The shrine, "carved out of a single piece of porcelain" is used to
> pray to their gods in song. The famous (because it appears on a paper
> ribbon sealing the shrine) chant is worked out phonetically by Carter
> to be "Sanitized Before Using" .
>
> The altar is a TV set on a dresser - the drawers are for depositing
> offerings for the gods, Carter postulates.
>
> The drawings of the book and the author's sense of humor reminds me of
> Glenn Baxter. In one full-page drawing, Carter is shown making shadow
> pictures of a rabbit with his hand on the "tomb wall."
>
> By the time I was nearing the end of Motel of the Mysteries I was
> wondering what the point of the book was, but in the last section,
> there it was: reproduced on a matched set of bookends was the Sacred
> Point!
>
> A good book to place on the coffee table or to keep handy near your
> favorite sacred shrine.
>
I think this puts a bit perspective on our fears of the future losses,
either humorous or otherwise.

Rod Stephens
Family Theater Productions

andy kolovos wrote:

> steven austin wrote:
> > Just a thought:
> >
> > Does anyone make digital audio copies from their archival sound
> sources,
> > then store the data as code printouts? Cards, paper, whatever?
> >
> > I would think with digital information technology, we don't really
need
> > to rely on tape or laser-encoded discs for archival storage when it
> > would be so much more efficient to store the information as digital
> > code, ready at any time to be translated through software into audio
> > sound. A hard copy of the code would avoid the degradation that all
> > storage media suffer and always offer a first-generation master of
the
> > original source recovery, where a CD-R or a tape would be subject to
> the
> > condition of the transport media.
> >
> > Know what I mean?
> >
> > Steven Austin
> >
>
> I've played around with a sci-fi story about this kind of thing.  I
> imagine a future where there are no more computers, but reams and
reams
> of printed code spat out in the last days before the machines stopped.
> In the far-flung days long after the cataclysm, a special group of
> scholars, the digital-crypto-paleographers, have been trained using
the
> Rosetta stone of the period (a stack of accidentally preserved "For
> Dummies" books) to draw meaning from these lines and lines of digits.
>
> In his monk-like cell, our scholar-hero, 47B-Ylba-C, pours over pages
> and pages of code by the light of a glowing fungus.  After a lifetime
of
> combing over a document determined to be from a single cohesive unit
of
> knowledge, 47B-Ylba-C has his eureka moment: "Aha!" he says, "The
> ancients were wise to cleverly convolute their secrets!" He breathes
> deeply and cries out through the open doorway, "Brothers!  Sisters! I
> have broken the code, that terrible, difficult, once-thought
> impenetrable code that we have determined protects that most valuable
> and secret of ancient knowledge!"  He pauses before the gathered
throng
> to flex his outstretched fingers in the ritual motions of the ancient
> Code Generators.  His fellow scholars flex in return.  "I have
> vindicated the memory of the great scholar 7-Tubar-X founder of our
> sect!" A gasp erupts from the collected throng who begin to madly flex
> their outstretched fingers in excitement.   "I have penetrated that
most
> puzzling of the ancient cryptograms!" He pauses for emphasis.  "Yes my
> brethren, I have unlocked the secret to ATRAC!" Astonished gasps and
> cries of joy fill the chamber.  He glances about the room with his
eyes
> afire.  "Behold! No more shall the most occult secrets of the greatest
> of the ancient wise-priestess seers be kept from us!  No more will we
be
> locked out of the wisdom of Brittney Spears!"
>
>
> --
> *********************************
> Andy Kolovos
> Archivist/Folklorist
> Vermont Folklife Center
> P.O. Box 442
> Middlebury, VT 05753
> (802) 388-4964
> akolovos @ vermontfolklifecenter.org
> http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org
>