After a two month break from MMD I finally got around today to catch
up with what has been going on.  I was surprised and amazed at the
quite extensive dialogue about that certain YouTube "kid".  And while
everything that has been said was right, I wonder what he'll think one
day when he realizes that this specific thread in the MMD Archives is
solely (well, "mostly" anyway) about him?  Myself, I have done the
same as the others and tried to help him out as best as I could, but
it is indeed tiresome when the very same question gets re-posted over
and over...

One things that works very well and so far only has been hinted at:
YouTube comments have a voting feature, symbolized by giving
"thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to any given specific comment (unless
the poster of the video disabled that option).  The problem is,
it only works when enough people actually bother to click there!
Otherwise, being a somewhat democratic type of process, you can end
up even getting "out-muscled" by a majority of "revisionists" (as
you so politely call them here).  Just imagine a political vote is
happening, but the only ones going to the ballots are the guys who
support the <fill-in-party-of-your-own-personal-disliking-here>!

To that end this system can (and does!) backfire from time to time
with genuine comments getting marked as spam and deleted.  In any case,
I shall also be now more diligent in the future to administrate these
types of comments (...I had already given up!)

Now, Robbie suggested bringing our music to the kids.  That is
a great idea, as long as you have nothing else to do and can volunteer
your time.  As far as all "us" organ grinders out there are concerned,
the trick is indeed to _not_ work a "Do not touch" way of handling
interested folks -- period!  If old or young, doesn't matter.  Let
them have a go cranking (or pumping?) or feeling the air coming out of
the pipes.  You don't have to bring out your most prized possessions;
you'll get people interested even with something that is cheap and easy
to fix. :-)

Joe Kemph asked in MMD 100825:

> I wonder if a band organ could play "rap" and "hip-hop" music?
> Maybe that will get the kids to stop and listen!"

To which I can only refer him right back to our topic above: YouTube!
There are plenty of examples of modern tunes on mechanical instruments.
And as long as there is a genuine interest on behalf of enough owners
of these types of organs it will be easy enough to find a willing
arrangeur (hint-hint!) to run a batch of this "stuff".

The hitch here has been discussed on MMD before:  Who would be willing
to spend money on this type of music, if it is more then likely to be
all but forgotten come next summer?  I guess the best bet would be to
scan the Top Ten lists around December and January and order a roll
which you really are going to give a workout throughout the summer
season and do the same thing again next year...

I'm going to sound like a broken record mentioning again about already
even having arranged Heavy Metal for street-organ way back in the early
1990s (Metallica, and yes, I still do not have a YouTube Video of that
-- you'll have to wait until I manage to travel back to Germany in the
future) and that those interested in such music for 20er keyless can
look through my list at http://vilm.ca/RollOrder.html (yet another
shameless plug, eh?) including music by Rihanna and Madonna, and you
are always welcome to inquire about titles not found anywhere else.

Oh, and on the subject of recording of mechanical music:  I've been
planning on putting out a CD of my own recordings for quite a while
now.  It's just one of those things you put on a to-do list, but not
with a very high priority <sigh>.  One of the problems has also been
mentioned already: a quality recording does have a price-tag.

Musically,
Ingmar Krause
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada