E-cital

I'm typing this while listening to the Chopin nocturne e-cital. Give it a listen yourself -- some lovely performances by amateur pianists.

I feel I know so many of these people even though we've never met. There's a monster thread started by a Chopin-lover in Chicago, "Just for those totally devoted to Chopin," that's been going on continually for more than 3 years now and contains more than 5,000 posts, and through it, I've read what they've had to say about topics musical and non-, heard about their triumphs and tragedies, and listened to their playing.

It's become an institution. I don't know what will happen to us when it ends, as it surely will one of these days. Until then, it's a touchstone, maybe even a "third place."