Joshua Bell, at L'Enfant Plaza Metro.
Apr. 13th, 2007 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomnessFrom 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-13 11:25 pm (UTC)He's way more entertaining this way.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-15 05:12 am (UTC)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.