Peter T - these are very interesting thoughts. I believe that sticking Fred Astaire into a vaccum cleaner ad was in bad taste ... likewise John Wayne in the beer ads, etc ... and I like your comment about the human voice being part artifact (the recording) and spiritual - the life/air within me becomes sacred through the thoughts I express in word/song - I have always found that notion appealing. But in part, that is why I saw Natalie's as a gift - she was able to commune in song with her father - whose spirit had been preserved in recording. I don't feel this was about other such works I've heard - the ads we discussed, the Hank Williams recordings, etc ... but Nat and Natalie clicked with me. I sensed a spiritual connection.

And the 'artificail' insemination comment I used earlier was alluding to the similar medical process we use today ... preserving the semen of your doomed spouse in order to produce his child years after his death. This would-be unnatural practice is a real possibility for many humans today ... can be a very reasonable thing to do (I presume) and is analogous, to my way of thinking, to what Natalie has done with that recording.