Brahms at the Internet Cafe

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 Brahms, Boat Song

(some use of profanity in this recording)

Stopping in at a handy cyber-cafe out near Pape and Danforth to check e-mails to do with the 2010 RCM Flute Syllabus, I was immediately fascinated by the lively, and, uh, rather colourful conversation that was coming from the back of the space. Several  school kids on their lunch-break, it would seem, were having a really great time with some on-line game or other. I guess if I weren’t so shy I would have ventured back there to maybe watch for a couple of minutes, but  instead my reaction was to get my Edirol rolling and pop open some music: a Brahms Boat Song from that same Marian Anderson songbook!

A little classical music is not going to slow down the tidal wave of on-line pop culture, certainly if any impact of my playing were to be measured in this situation: the war games rolled on, which was fine by me as I played. Mind you, I ended up having a very pleasant exchange with these three guys – yeah, guys, go figure – when, ten minutes later, I noticed they were heading for the door.

“What’s the game you guys were playing?” to which their reply was “Counter Strike“, and I explained really briefly why I was asking - so that I could mention the game in this post - and that I had recorded playing my flute, etc. Before sprinting off to school, the shortest of the motley crew, maybe all of 10 years old, said “That was you? That was really beautiful!”

Better than a rave review in the Globe!