Thursday, July 22, 2010

Immortalized by Not Dying: Woody Allen Goes Digital
By Dave Itzkoff - New York Times, July 20, 2010



Photo - Woody AllenMark Mainz/Associated Press Woody Allen

With the possible exception of his invention of the orgasmatron, Woody Allen is not necessarily known as an early adopter of cutting-edge technology. Still, Mr. Allen has taken a bold leap into the 21st century and recorded audiobook editions of the four collections of humorous essays he wrote between 1971 and 2007, the digital agency ClearMetrics said on Tuesday.

Mr. Allen’s readings of his anthologies “Getting Even,” “Without Feathers,” “Mere Anarchy” and “Side Effects” — including his short story “The Kugelmass Episode” — can be purchased from Audible.com and iTunes; ClearMetrics said it had also created a homepage for Mr. Allen at woodyallen.com, having wrested the domain name from two Icelandic college students.


Read the interview with Woody Allen at NYT.

I especially liked this:

Q.
Are you of the opinion that the printed word is dying out? Will your conversion – literally and figuratively – to digital audiobooks lend credence to these depressing forecasts?
A.
I can only hope that reading out loud does not contribute to the demise of literature which I don’t think will ever happen. When I grew up, one could always hear T. S. Eliot, Yeats, S. J. Perelman and a host of others read on the Caedmon label and it was its own little treat that in no way encroached on the pleasure of reading these people.

No comments: