some pretty radical "x-files" kinda concepts being espoused here. and one certainly has to recall the reference of the primitive tribe (can't remember where) that claimed that the camera "stole their soul" when their picture was taken. temporal distortions? we're full of 'em (in a spiritual sense) IMHO, and they are what keeps us from being *truly* in the present moment and thus enjoying our music to the fullest (among other things, simple enjoyment of music being far from the highest benefit of such a thing). what i find interesting is the search for some external "thing" (cheap clock with a dot, bag of whatever in the freezer, ritual involving photographs) to remedy this. *this* is a phenomenon of temporal existence, which is of course ultimately a product of the mind. if you can accept the possibility that time is an illusion (ok, ok, get out your butterfly nets for me too but at least *think* about it--the reconciliation of metaphysics and quantum physics is well underway, ever since einstein), then you may realize that reconciliation of these things is not at all an external process but an *internal* one. want proof? the only proof is in the doing. can i prove that these devices etc. have no effect in this manner? no, but i can reasonably infer that IF there is *any* effect it is fleeting and small (relatively speaking). have any of you ever had the experience of a piece of music literally "taking you away" and you imagine yourself there in the venue, and this was not a subtle sensation? this has happened for me, not often but a few times, and i suspect that it has for others as well. in that moment you literally transcended time. time didn't matter, you didn't feel the need to look at a clock, let alone have one in the room to assist you in this phenomenon, and you probably didn't even plan on it happening. it just did. and it will again, if you allow it to. and the notion that this somehow begins with and is attributed to photography is just plain silly IMHO--it's roots are way beyond such a thing. the earliest photographs of me are of a cute kid (obvious bias), but also of a person who, in a very real sense, no longer exists (or rather, no longer *needs* to exist). ok, get your pitchforks and torches, i'll be waiting at the house.....:-)