One of the joys of my college years was walking by the music department on the way to an engineering class. The beautiful notes rising from that building onto the Oklahoma wind took me to where “mechanics of materials” could not go.

I was reminded of those times one evening while walking my Border collie, Lex in our neighborhood. I’m accustomed to seeing the blue light flickering through windows or drapes, but this time I heard a piano. Not a recording but the real thing. How the music rang, how the tentative notes spoke of a learning hand. This was music in the first person.

My dad tells me of times when he was growing up in the ‘30’s, when neighbors would gather in the cool of evening, after the day’s work, to talk, listen to music and maybe sing along. But now the blue glow hits the sofa and goes no further.

When first radio and then broadcasting became available in the early 20 th century, it was revolutionary. People could talk to distant cities, and even ships far at sea. We never considered the power one voice could have, able to address millions of citizens at once.

Recording audio, and later video, was revolutionary in its own right. Now one performance, possibly the best of a career, could be saved, then played back any number of times, could be sold to anyone, to be replayed at their pleasure. What power in this ability to have in your very own living room what only the kings of years ago may have had, the best performers in the world, the best in all of history, right there at your fingertips.

The industry doesn’t want to make us fat and lazy, but it doesn't hurt anyone that we wish to purchase our entertainment, or that we spend most of our free time wanting to be entertained. Empires have been built around performances of talent, in acting, music and athleticism. None of these would make a respectable living without the technologies that sustain them. But what’s become of those special times, when people would gather and share their lives, building their unique community, one summers evening at a time.