Friends,  I humbly submit for your consideration this article from this
weekend's "Washington Post Magazine":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/c6d38124-dbfb-11e1-9974-5c975ae4810f_story.html 

The article describes my work with the 1921 Dentzel carousel and
1926 Wurlitzer 165 band organ at Glen Echo Park, which was once the
Washington area's finest amusement park and which is now, under the
National Park Service and a nonprofit partnership, something of a
cultural park.  I send this article into MMD not for self-promotion
but to make the point of what one conversation with a person who is
uninitiated into mechanical music can accomplish.

I met the delightful lady who wrote this article with me, Ann Cochran,
while I was performing maintenance on the band organ on a day the
carousel was not open.  She and her grandson were curious to see the
carousel and the band organ, and I gladly gave her a tour of the
public and behind-the-scenes aspects of them both.  She was so
fascinated by both machines that she mentioned she was a freelance
writer and was interested in pitching an article about my work.

I told Ann I'd certainly be interested in that, and the result was this
article, which appeared in this weekend's "Post Magazine."  I hoped
that the article would provide publicity for both the carousel and the
organ, and indeed about a dozen riders yesterday told me that they had
read the article and it spurred them to visit the park.

Certainly not every person I show around asks to write a magazine
article about what they see, but every new person to whom we are able
to really show-and-tell a mechanical music instrument is a person who
might develop a lasting interest.  I was able, I hope, to draw more
people in thanks to having met one person who happened to be a writer,
but we can all attract people to our instruments one by one.

If even one in a hundred of the people we are collectively able to
inform about one particular instrument becomes interested enough to
find a web site like this one, join a group like MBSI or COAA, or even
post about it online or otherwise mention it to friends, think how much
new blood we could have in no time!  We must all keep spreading the
word about mechanical music.

Today is my last day at Glen Echo Park for this season; I return home
to Washington & Lee University in Virginia on Wednesday after a brief
trip to show my other half the instruments and other charms of Knoebels
Amusement Park in Pennsylvania.  I invite one and all nonetheless to
come take a ride next month!

My coworkers generally change our rolls only once daily while I am
away, but I believe that our organ is one of the very finest, if not
the very finest, mechanical music instruments in public anywhere, and
anyone who knows me can tell you that I will promote it until the day
I keel over!  The organ plays with the carousel weekends throughout
September, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., and is only a short ride by car,
bus, or bicycle ride Washington, D.C.

Sincerely,
TJ Fisher - Washington & Lee University