I had heard about this interesting experiment before. As someone else mentioned, there's a video you can watch and articles/interviews about it as well. As I recall, there were a number of people who's attention were momentarily caught, but ultimately didn't stop. Yesterday we went to the movies and saw a trailer for The Soloist. This is a movie about a writer for the LA Times noticing, befriending, and writing about a homeless man he met playing a violin. I think it looks very interesting.
http://www.soloistmovie.com/ The Joshua Bell experiment, the movie from yesterday (The Benjamin Buttons one), and the trailer for The Soloist all make me pause and think how important it is to live in the moment. So much to see or miss everyday. Don On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 8:41 PM, mistertaterbug <[email protected]>wrote: > > This was sent to me today. I think it is worth passing along. > Tater > > > A Violinist in the Metro > > > > > A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to > play the violin; it was a cold January morning.. He played six Bach > pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, > it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, > most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle > aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and > stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to meet his schedule. A > minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman > threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A > few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, > but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again.. Clearly he > was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year > old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to > look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child > continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was > repeated by several other children. All the parents, without > exception, forced them to move on. > > > In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped > and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk > their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and > silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there > any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, > one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most > intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. > Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a > theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100. > > > This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the > metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social > experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. > > The outlines were: In a commonplace environment at an inappropriate > hour: > > Do we perceive beauty? > Do we stop to appreciate it? > Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? > One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: > > If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the > best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how > many other things are we missing? > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
