I first met my cousin Nicola however, I remember that we were not only about the same age, and we also got along well.

But because I being so young, remember little else. I hadn't seen him again up until this last summer. Nicola decided that he wanted to join the Italian Air Force after finishing high school.

Before beginning his service, though, he wanted to travel for a bit. He never had been to America, even though so many of his relatives live here, but he had been to England already. When the rest of the cousins heard the news, they were ecstatic.

Three of these choices indicate that the cousins looked forward to meeting Nicola. Which choice does NOT do so?

Most of them had never met Nicola or, like me, hadn't seen him, since we were kids; they were eager to get to know him.

Two weeks later, we picked Nicola up at JFK Airport. Right away, I was surprised by his height. I am the tallest of all the cousins in America and Nicola was easily a couple of inches taller than me. In addition to our height, he and I had another similarity: we were both musicians. The moment I saw the acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder, I knew he and I would get along just fine. None of them plays an instrument, I always thought I was the only musician in the family (even thought some relatives have lovely singing voices).

Two weeks later, we picked Nicola up at JFK Airport. Right away, I was surprised by his height. I am the tallest of all the cousins in America and Nicola was easily a couple of inches taller than me. In addition to our height, he and I had another similarity: we were both musicians. The moment I saw the acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder, I knew he and I would get along just fine. None of them plays an instrument, I always thought I was the only musician in the family (even though some relatives have lovely singing voices).

I was happy to find out I was wrong. Throughout that summer, Nicola and I share the gift of music. We would sing and play our guitars long into the night, only stopping when my mother came downstairs and forced us to quit. We liked many of the same bands, and we taught each other to play our favorite songs. Taught him as a child before she passed away in Italy, I was taught by him the Italian folk songs of our grandmother more importantly.

It was through those songs that I truly connected to the beauty of our ancestry. On the night before Nicola returned to Italy, my father would have thrown a big party for all of the relatives.

Nicola and I played the folk songs of our grandmothers country for the American side of our family. When we were done, my Uncle Vittorio had a tear in his eye. Since coming to America so long ago, he had never been able to return to Italy. In the music and our singing, Nicola and I brought the beautiful country back to Uncle Vittorio.

Thomas Edison first recorded sounds on the tinfoil cylinders in the 1870s, and since then, formats for recording music have come and gone at a breakneck pace. Innovation in recording music has been constant, and the popularity and lifespan of the newest format have always been transitory at best.

Those first tinfoil cylinders, which were hailed as a miracle in their day, quickly progress to wax cylinders, then hard plastic cylinders and, within a decade, were completely replaced by the next "miracle," the gramophone disc record. The vinyl phonograph record, which sounded soon better supplanted the gramophone in the 1940s.

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This newfangled format dominated the music landscape for the next 30 years, but liked its predecessors, it would eventually fall into obsolescence. The vinyl record being no longer mass-marketed to the public. For that matter, neither is its successor, the 8-track cartridge of the 1970s.

It may seem curious to a 40-year-old man today that the average high school student is well acquainted with the older vinyl record format so has never even heard of an 8-track cartridge.

DJs and those who mix popular music still uses and appreciates the vinyl record format cherished by them. They have kept records from disappearing into oblivion.

DJs and those who mix popular music still uses and appreciates the vinyl record format cherished by them. They have kept records from disappearing into oblivion.

That same 40-year-old man witnessed the rise and fall of the cassette tape, so he may not be surprised that many in today's recording industry view the compact disc as similarly spiraling toward its own doom. For the first time, though it is not the sound quality of the recording that is ushering in the change.

Now the driving force is something different the quality of the player itself. A standard audio compact disc can store only about 700 megabytes worth of digital data, which equates to only a few hours worth of songs.

Moreover, recently introduced small personal music players, such as the iPod, can have up to an impressive 60 gigabytes' worth of storage space. For those who are music lovers, this has completely changed the experience of listening to their favorite songs.

Contrasting by the few hours' worth of songs stored on a single CD, a 60-gigabyte MP3 player can store a month's worth of uninterrupted music on a machine about the size of an old cassette tape.