Thought for the day...

[Heather]

Manfred you have succeeded in making Marty speechless! Wow!

Now who's going to pick him up off the floor?

[Zondrae]

Manny

I can't even read it let alone feel it.

[Vic Jefferies]

Stephen I have heard it claimed that the advent of the radio (the wireless as it was called) was the main reason for the decline of the art of recitation which was at one time considered to be a great social skill.
I am afraid that technology will change the way we enjoy our entertainment and it seems only a matter of time before seeing and hearing what is happening at festivals and similar events via the internet will diminish the number of people attending.
If the National Folk Festival and similar festivals were "broadcast" both in vision and sound in real time I have no doubt many people would choose to stay home rather than travel and expend what is a considerable amount of money to attend. Not exactly the same as being there but a lot easier and cheaper.
Think of the effect of TV on sporting events and other special occasions.
Technology has obviously made it immeasurably easier for everyone to communicate and that can only be a good thing. Conversations such as these were of course impossible in years gone by and my parents could never have imagined sitting in front of a computer and talking to people anywhere in the world. I am afraid they never got very far past putting pennies in the slot and pressing button A of the public telephone at the local Post Office or receiving telegrams.

[Bob Pacey]

Manfred if that's what vodka does to you I might just not ever have any.


Bob

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, I guess we all feel ambivalent about modern technology. When I think about it, the whole 'folk revival' thing was itself a reaction against technology of sorts, wasn't it - the idea that people would gather and talk to one another instead of relying on electronic means of communication, the subversion of the 'star system', and so forth. So much of what else that was happening at the time - the hippie movement, permaculture, the environment movement, etc. - was all a reaction against modern technology, epitomised, I suppose, by the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. (I'm starting to get very deep now!) Yet now much of that is forgotten (which may or may not be a good thing) and the festivals are embracing a lot more technology. Perhaps the folk scene is starting to lose its soul a bit, but it's inevitable, I suppose, that these things go in cycles to some extent.