I'd like to throw in my two euros as well to wish MCML happy birthday,
and congratulations to Dave Lampson.  I'm somewhat in the minority on
this list as I am an active professional musician, and I'm not a collector
of CDs or even really an aficionado; I rarely listen to music at home.
But this list has been a fabulous place for me.  I've made a number of
important and valuable contacts here, and received some fantastic support
for my various projects that I've released on mp3.com (another amazing
resource for professional musicians).  I'll never forget Mimi's post after
hearing my trio.  Dave has been enourmously helpful and patient with my
shameless self-promotion.

I also write from the point of view as someone who was BOOTED from the
list.  He was right, too, I was being a "butthead"!  But I learned from
that experience, was embarrassed by my behaviour, and was allowed back in,
and since then he's been nothing but supportive, warm and helpful.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me has been this melting pot of
musicians and musiclovers.  We in the business tend to lose touch, forget
about the people who are truly the most important to us: the listeners.
So many musicians go about their business, wait for the break in the
rehearsal, churn out notes like a little music factory but forget about
the magic.  The contact with people on this list who *live* for music,
that know infinitely more about it than most musicians, whose lives are
made rich by the work we do, has been incredibly important to me and have
given me perspective and really more love for what I do than I had before.
I'm always reminded of an espisode of M*A*S*H where one of the wounded
soldiers happens to be a concert pianist.  His injury is in his right hand.
He is depressed and wants to give it up forever.  But Charles, who would be
a frequent poster on this list, takes him under his wing and introduces him
to Ravel's concerto for the left hand, and at one point says "You can't
give it up.  You have the most incredible gift there is.  You must realize
that people like me would gladly give everything they have to be able to
play for even one minute like you." Whenever I get down about my playing or
discouraged I remember this scene, and I remember the folks on this list
and it makes me proud and grateful to have the gift I do, to make music.

Thanks Dave and happy birthday MCML!

David Runnion
http://mp3.com/davidrunnion