Pier Plowman, what is astonishing to me is the one-sided nature of those who program such events, to be considerate of the desires of big kids and dismissive of the needs of little ones. Those same little ones are our collective future. Treating them like so much excess baggage, to be parked somewhere, so big kids can have their fun, just seems completely backward.

I've took my inspiration to develop this idea from children and created something for children, which also appeals to the child in all of us. Most of the children's programming efforts that I've seen have always been rather traditional in its intent and execution. A big kid reads a story to little ones, or creates a puppet show for little ones, or paints the faces of little ones... It always places a big kid as the entertainer and treats little ones much the same way that big kids entertain other big kids, as an audience to be entertained. With my Gadgets, I don't dictate a role for the children to follow. I merely set-up what becomes an irresistible attraction of zany sounds, a kind of sonic jungle gym and provide the means by which they can explore them. I let the little ones entertain themselves, with no rules,just fun.

The volume level of most amplified stages at such events have no difficulty, whatsoever, of maintaining a sonic dominance over the available listening environment via their volume knobs, PA systems and amplifiers. My Gadgets are not amplified in any way. They are completely acoustic in nature.

I wonder what on earth is so important, so vitally necessary, that any big kid might perform/share on an amplified stage, that is so urgent, that it must take precedence over children having fun? This sort of reaction brings me right back to the beginning of this whole endeavor, where I was the big kid, about to shut down the fun that a group of little ones were having with my personal Gadget. Had I followed through with that notion, I would have never taken the time to capture the images and video clips of those little ones having fun and without those images and clips to look back on and reflect about, I likely would have never made the connection I did, to consider creating my loony laundries and other wild and crazy instruments. And ultimately, the thousands of interactions with my maniacal musical menageries might never have happened. And the world would be that much less fun for a whole bunch of children. Would the children have survived the loss? Of course, if nothing else, children are resilient to a fault. But I count it as one of my most priceless musical pursuits, to have taken the time to set aside my own desires and accommodate the insatiable curiosity of children.