My thoughts in response to John Tuttle in MMD 101005.

It's always interesting to see yourself as others see you, and John
Tuttle's paeon to Australians made thought-provoking reading.  Being a
relatively young nation, made up largely of waves of immigrants,
Australia is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world,
and can't be reduced to a simple stereotype.  As with any diverse
society, we are a nation of contradictions.

We like to think of ourselves as egalitarian, which often means parents
will work very hard to send their children to private schools to gain
some perceived advantage, because some are more equal than others.  We
like to be left alone to live our lives as we choose, but have been
early adopters of a range of laws that restrict our freedom with regard
to issues such as smoking, wearing seat-belts in cars, and gun-control.
We talk about a "fair go" for all, which translates into a higher level
of government-funded social security and medical aid than you have in
the States.  We have a unique identity, but are huge consumers of
American culture in the form of films and TV shows.

In short, we are a sophisticated, independent nation in an increasingly
globalised society.  As such, I'd rather not idealise our interest in
player pianos as harking back to a golden age of post-war American
values.  For many of us, the power of a player piano is that it is an
authentic musical instrument playing our favourite songs or, in my
case, with a Steck Duo-Art, pieces of classical music, rather than
being an electronic simulation of that music.  The music they make is
the real thing!

John is right that the demise of Mastertouch has left a gaping hole in
our access to rolls of popular music.  But the real legacy of
Mastertouch is that during the period when player pianos were going
through decline in the U.S., even though we were a small market, we had
access to moderately-priced, local-produced rolls that kept the music
up-to-date and the instruments alive.  I applaud John's initiative in
trying to cater to our market and hope that others will follow suit.
With the advent of the Internet we live in a much smaller world than we
used to, which makes for market opportunities for those who recognise
them and are prepared to take advantage of them.  More importantly,
John's offer will go some way to maintaining that access to piano rolls
that historically has kept the instruments alive in this country.

Jill Bear
Melbourne, Australia