But some great records are are being made with today's technology and there are still great artists among us. Likewise there are artists today who are so reliant on modern technology they wouldn't have emerged when recording was more organic.

Instead of the international police action we had hoped for during the war in Kosovo there are wars again - conducted with state-of-the-art technology but still in the old style.

All this technology has not changed the way NFL Films does business and our process. Yes with one touch of a button now you reach millions of people but it is still the same approach that my father and I started out with.

I don't want technology to take me so far that I don't have to use my brain anymore. It's like GPS taking over and losing your internal compass. It's always got to be tactile still organic.

The reason is that till date in spite of advances in information technology and strategies of information the written word in the form of books still remains one of humanity's most enduring legacies.

We're still in the first minutes of the first day of the Internet revolution.

The teacher that I was for decades and that I still am in a certain way wondered what was meant by the word education. I was truly dumbfounded at the very thought of dealing with such an essential and extensive subject.

When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989 my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.

I guess by taking lessons early on and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice which I enjoyed and still do.

My younger sister had kids before I did and managed to earn a master's degree while raising them as a single parent. Now she's a brilliant second-grade teacher. I'm in awe of her ability to juggle everything and still be a great mother.