The ever-excellent O’Donnellweb found this story of an experiment conducted by the Washington Post. The Post wanted to see if commuters on the Metro would pay attention to a street musician playing in the station if the musician happened to be a virtuoso. The musician was the master violinist Joshua Bell, who has played in the finest venues in the world.
Included in this captivating story are video clips of Bell’s performance, as well as the reactions of the passersby. As for me, listening to him play sent chills through me. His music brims with emotion.
Guess what reaction he draws from commuters?
Thanks for this…it was an interesting read.
I guess it does kinda suck that people didn’t notice but as quoted from the article itself:
“Leithauser’s point is that we shouldn’t be too ready to label the Metro passersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters.”
So, lets cut them a little slack! 🙂
Did you see his comment at the end?
“Actually,” Bell said with a laugh, “that’s not so bad, considering. That’s 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn’t have to pay an agent.”
Wow! Actually, that isn’t that bad! Kinda funny, really.