Item #7 in my curation project is a case containing 2 CD-Rs that were given to me by a Kerouac scholar and friend who will remain nameless in case there are copyright violations afoot. The CD-Rs are identical (i.e., one is a copy of the other) and contain the Kerouac Romnibus. I can't remember why the case is labeled Kerouac, the Movie (King of the Beats) Romnibus. Maybe the King of the Beats documentary film is hiding in there -- I don't remember. That particular documentary used to be available free on YouTube but not anymore. It's a worthwhile purchase @ $3.99. I have it downloaded in Google Drive from when it was free. But I digress....
For the uninitiated, the Kerouac Romnibus is a Penguin-produced multimedia presentation of the life and work of Jack Kerouac via text, photographs, graphics, sound, animation, and video. It features the complete text of The Dharma Bums (multimedia enhanced), archival materials, biographical information, and interviews.
I have not figured out how to run the Romnibus on my current PC (something about having to install a certain version of QuickTime -- I can't remember how, but I got it to run on my old PC). This website says you can download the Romnibus, plus it gives details about what's in the program including a dozen or so screenshots: http://www.old-games.com/download/3295/jack-kerouac-romnibus-a. Check it out, but beware of viruses (I haven't tested it) plus this download doesn't include some videos. If you download it and it works, let us know in a comment. There is a fee (daily or monthly), and I assume Penguin has sanctioned it.
My memory of the Romnibus is that it is an extremely rich resource of great interest to Kerouac fans. One of the highlights for me was the enhanced version of The Dharma Bums, but there are many other gems in this multimedia extravaganza. Grab one if you get the chance, but realize that it's old technology and you may have to jump through hoops to get it to run on your PC or Mac. It's worth the hassle.
I need to play around with my copy and see if I can get 'er runnin'. I'll let you know if I do....
Below is a picture of the top shelf of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of my Kerouac Romnibus (it's under yesterday's Nicosia DVD) on the day I started curating my collection.
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The top of my Kerouac bookshelf
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2 comments:
I have an original copy of the ROMnibus CD, it will no longer run on modern PCs. I do have it running in a VMware virtual machine running Windows 98, so it can still be used. I wish there was a modern update of this, it is so well executed!
- Jeff
Lowell, MA
It's cool you can still access it! Great resource.
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