Dear Friends from all over the world!  My friend Yves Strobbe from
Belgium and I from France are involved in the writing of the magazine,
"Musiques Mécaniques Vivantes" which is the French magazine of the AAIMM
(Association des Amis des Instruments et de la Musique Mécanique).

Both of us give reports on what is published on mechanical music in the
world, Yves for the Dutch and German part and I cover the English and
Italian publications; this section is called "la revue des revues".
Together, we also created two years ago the section "La SeriNET" (same
pronunciation as "la serinette").  Now, let's see, what is "la SeriNET?"

It is a compilation of videos, collected on the web, of automatic
musical instruments.  The topics are chosen in a totally subjective
manner on the Web.  We have no rules other than "go to where the flavor
is" and hope to astonish you with good, bad, best, worst and exceptional
or terrific musical videos.  We try to make the most of the Web and we
try also to take responsibility for what we suggest -- not always easy!

The web site of the AAIMM society offers the comments of "La SeriNET"
with a direct access to the videos by a click!  This provides a
marvelous tool that we can all enjoy every day in the postings on MMD.
I should not say "tool" as it is made for fun and pleasure and not for
work!  Would you like to have a look?  Here is the direct access to
"la SeriNET" on the web site of the AAIMM society:

  http://www.aaimm.org/spip/serinet.html 

Sorry, and what a pity -- the comments are in French, but no need of
any help as it is easy for you to find the black areas to click and
you'll get direct access to the videos.  Enjoy this channel-hopping,
but don't leave the site without paying attention to the site itself.

The number of videos we mention is limited as the magazine is published
quarterly, however we would be glad to receive your suggestions, so you
have [see the links at "la SeriNET"]:

- your own video to recommend,
- an unexpected trial on the workbench,
- an amazing discovery of an instrument,
- a clever trick on restoration to show.

Please contact us with your suggestions.

Love from France and Belgium -- sorry we have no post card for both!

Jean Nimal
nimal.jean@wanadoo.fr.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

P.S.: Do you want me to advise you when a new "La SeriNET" becomes
available on the web site?  Okay, I'll do that for you if Robbie
agrees...

 [ Oui, certainement!  Please advise us on future news.  -- Robbie

 [ "Google Translate" may prove helpful for those who cannot read
 [ French.   Go to  http://translate.google.com and type the URL
 [ listed in the article above into the input box.  -- Jody
 [
 [ P.S. Is English not your primary language? The "Google Translate"
 [ feature is built into the MMD website. If you go to the bottom of
 [ any MMD website page, there's a "language selector" pulldown menu at
 [ the lower right hand corner of the page.  The translations are not
 [ perfect, but they may be helpful.