Only Children Can Hear It

Via Kottke.org: Pearls Before Breakfast, an article about an experiment designed to determine whether anyone would notice if a famous violinist busked at a busy Metro station in Washington, DC. I cried when I got to the part about children being mesmerized by his performance, while their parents tried to hurry them along through the station. Fascinating, heartbreaking, and definitely worth reading.

Posted by Lori in music at 10:43 AM on April 9, 2007

Comments (4)

lori:

Wow! What a terrific article. I can't believe that so few people stopped. I don't know what I would have done myself. I loved watching the street musicians in Chicago. There was an elderly Asian man who used to play the violin with a girl I assumed was his granddaughter. I would stop and watch them. But I was never in that much of a hurry, I guess. I never want to be in that much of a hurry either.

Kids are just the smartest, aren't they? To appreciate that while their parents rush, rush, rush...

ABC's nightly news featured that story. They even had fast-forward video of the station. The children really were the only ones who even looked Joshua Bell's way.

Personally, I always give money to the really good street musicians. I want to encourage them to play where I can hear them! The bad ones, not so much. Them I'd pay to go away! Like the recorder lady at 18th and Walnut. Ugh.

loved the article. i think kids know stuff adults don't because they don't just think with their brains.

Yup, this was fantastic. I also like that Joshua Bell admitted that it transformed him: Whereas he's used to having the rapt attention of full houses, he was shaken up a bit at playing to a disinterested crowd. I liked how he said "$40 an hour. I could live on that, and I wouldn't have to pay an agent."

The bluesy guitar guy at the 8th St. Station is pretty good. I hope I would have stopped for Bell.

Comments

Wow! What a terrific article. I can't believe that so few people stopped. I don't know what I would have done myself. I loved watching the street musicians in Chicago. There was an elderly Asian man who used to play the violin with a girl I assumed was his granddaughter. I would stop and watch them. But I was never in that much of a hurry, I guess. I never want to be in that much of a hurry either.

Kids are just the smartest, aren't they? To appreciate that while their parents rush, rush, rush...

Posted by: lori at April 9, 2007 11:46 AM

ABC's nightly news featured that story. They even had fast-forward video of the station. The children really were the only ones who even looked Joshua Bell's way.

Personally, I always give money to the really good street musicians. I want to encourage them to play where I can hear them! The bad ones, not so much. Them I'd pay to go away! Like the recorder lady at 18th and Walnut. Ugh.

Posted by: ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 9, 2007 9:15 PM

loved the article. i think kids know stuff adults don't because they don't just think with their brains.

Posted by: leahpeah [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 9, 2007 10:16 PM

Yup, this was fantastic. I also like that Joshua Bell admitted that it transformed him: Whereas he's used to having the rapt attention of full houses, he was shaken up a bit at playing to a disinterested crowd. I liked how he said "$40 an hour. I could live on that, and I wouldn't have to pay an agent."

The bluesy guitar guy at the 8th St. Station is pretty good. I hope I would have stopped for Bell.

Posted by: juliloquy [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2007 10:14 AM

Comments are now closed.