Joshua Bell, at L'Enfant Plaza Metro.

[randomness]

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html:

Pearls Before Breakfast

By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page W10

"It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by.

"On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

"So, what do you think happened?"

(Thanks to kjc007. Posted particularly for my friends who take the Metro every day.)

Discussion on the article is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/06/DI2007040601228.html. Audio and video are linked from within the article.

Comments

[midsummernd.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine from H.S. posted this on facebook. It really impressed me on a number of levels. . . first, that Gene Weingarten can write something that intelligent and resonant (I'm not a fan of his column).

But otherwise, it's just something I've wondered about a lot - I love this one guy who plays in the T - but I never gave him money or bought his CDs because I felt weird doing it. But who's to say that his music is better or worse just because it's happening underground in a train station?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

first, that Gene Weingarten can write something that intelligent and resonant

Yeah, not really his usual kind of piece, is it?

[midsummernd.livejournal.com]

I kept re-reading the byline. He quotes Kant. And not in a pun kind of way - in an "I actually DID go to my English classes" kind of way. I was like "Who IS this guy? And what did he do with Gene Weingarten?"

He's way more entertaining this way.

[qwyneth.livejournal.com]

Weingarten is actually quite intelligent and deep with a track record of thoughtful, resonant cover stories. I point you to several links:

Cover story on Alaska
Cover story on terrorism
Cover article on the Great Zucchini
Cover story on Trudeau
His columns are easily the weakest work he produces. They can be amusing but are quite hit or miss. I love his weekly chats (which are a delightful mixture of silly humor, politics, and meaning of life type stuff--I personally have asked him serious questions and gotten wonderfully wise, fatherly advice), and I look forward to his cover stories all year.

He's a college dropout, by the way. I believe he left school to infiltrate a street gang to write about them.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for posting this! What an interesting article. But the thought I really have to post is: "hott" is a Washington Post-level word now? When the hell did that happen?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I noticed that, too! It was jarring. Maybe Weingarten gets away with it because he's a columnist?

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

Rick Wakeman of Yes did pretty much the same thing with pretty much the same result a number of years ago.

The Post article got discussed a fair bit in clara_girl's journal here.

A professional busker, she says in part
talent DOES NOT MATTER on the street. it's all charisma and hat line. it's all how you sell your particular schtick.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Rick Wakeman of Yes did pretty much the same thing with pretty much the same result a number of years ago.

Yeah, and there's a link somewhere in the article to Bruce Springsteen doing the same thing a couple of decades back.

talent DOES NOT MATTER on the street. it's all charisma and hat line. it's all how you sell your particular schtick.

While I don't disagree with that, I don't think that was the point of the exercise. I mean, there are lots of obvious things he could have done to maximize earnings. And as he observed, he still made $40 an hour, even doing the reverse of selling his schtick.

I think the point was to see if the music itself would stop people, and it seems clear that music alone won't.

Selling that particular schtick probably would stop people, but the Post went out of its way not to sell it.

[mud-puppy.livejournal.com]

I read this last week as well. I agree with the curator from the National Gallery, context is important! I figured that would be the response honestly. For one thing, most folks wouldn't recognize him, I certainly wouldn't eventhough I've seen him perform before. *shrug*

I'd like to believe that I would've stopped and listened, but with my brain in commuting mode, I'm not sure about that.

It's an interesting piece and it got me thinking about beauty and where and how we find it. *hug*

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my reaction was that at 8AM I'm not usually even awake, much less riding the Metro.

Metro's one day pass is only valid after 9:30AM. Oddly enough this has never been a problem for me. :)

*hug*