Well, there's good news and bad news, folks!  I had an extended
phone conversation with concessionaire Terri Holleman Oyarzun, who,
to my surprise, actually turns up along with her husband and son
as owner/operator of "Goats R Us", providing fire control and weed
abatement services.  When does she have time to do Tilden?

She sounded very harried, also very cheerful and upbeat.  Her take on
the whole music thing is a bit horrific, though.  She seems to be of
the opinion that the music is so shocking that parents are afraid to
bring their children; my grandson being the exception since I have
coached him.

- The number one priority is 'making visitors comfortable'; this
includes screwy music, since 'people come for the ride, not the music'.

- She was very disappointed, along with me, at the breakdown of the
music on Labor Day weekend, however unable to rectify it at the time.

- The little North Tonawanda organ does work, but the big one is not
restored; it is on the list of things they would like to do at some
point.  Terri is aware that the new glass enclosure defeats the
acoustics of the organs.

- She never got any CDs of any sort from us.  She thinks they probably
ended up at the Park District office where they would be buried on
someone's desk.

- The only music they've gotten is through their own research, which
is (gulp) looking on-line through Amazon, I guess.

- At this point (Don't shoot me, I'm just reporting!) they are
attempting to download music they find to an iPod (shudder).

- Terri was surprised and interested at the idea of mitigating the
sound levels of the organ, but "heads up", Alan: I guess you're on
her black list, cause she kept referring to the 'guy who did the
restoration' as the one she would contact and said that you 'kept
calling and emailing' her and sounded annoyed. :-(   I'm just tweaked
enough to think that's a good thing. :-)  The squeaky wheel, man!

Now, the good news!  She is clearly overwhelmed and with a little
coaxing, said she would be perfectly happy to work with me (us) and
to have help with setting up a decent sound system and providing CDs.
Her address:  Terri Oyarzun, PO Box 37, Orinda, CA 94516

She also was very interested in the idea of having a day set up at
the merry-go-round specifically targeting band organs, and if anybody
in the public 'didn't like it', they could just stay home!

Will continue with further updates as they come.

Claudine Jones
San Francisco Bay Area

 [ CD players are affected by dust and deteriorate quickly (the laser
 [ diode dies), and cassette tape players have problems too.  Would
 [ MP3 files played on an iPod or similar give as good fidelity as CDs?
 [
 [ The sudden closure of the carousel in early 2007 is described at
 [ http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-02-16/article/26340 
 [ -- Robbie