Sharon Marie comments on the lack of mechanical music at the Ragtime
West festival.

I had my USB piano roll scanner outside the main ballrooms for most of
Friday and Saturday.  There was also a Wurlitzer Pianino in the lobby
across from the registration desk at the hotel.  There were AMICA fly-
ers near the Pianino.

The roll scanner got a lot of attention.  Perhaps Sharon came by when
there were others looking at it.  I often had between two and five
people watching, while I was operating the scanning machinery or
playing the converted results from the roll just scanned.

The focus of the festival is on live performers.  Many of the events
were standing-room only, and I sometimes left my machinery unattended
so I could hear the wonderful live performances.

During the time I was there operating the scanner, I scanned about a
dozen rolls.  Some of the rolls I borrowed from the vendor mentioned,
who was very kind to let me borrow them to feed the scanner.  A few
others also brought some rolls for me to scan on the spot.  Had this
been advertised in advance, I am sure others who were not local would
have brought rolls to scan.

The roll-exchange part of the festival was very short, with most of the
ragtime music gone in the first ten minutes.

Perhaps I should have been more-pro active in getting the scanner
demonstration onto the official program.  But it was sort of a last
minute decision to bring the scanning equipment.  Luckily, it was set
up in a high traffic area, and it got a lot of exposure, even when I
was not there.  I often came back to find a group of folks looking at
it.

Julie Porter