very interesting social experiment created by the washington post. they got joshua bell, one of the world’s leading violinists, to play his priceless violin in a washington d.c. subway station during rush hour, to see if people would stop. not so much. the article is interesting, and the video is great. read and watch here.
(ht to jeff johnson)
oh, hey — an update — i just found out that len evans and a friend found a video edited by rick bundshuh (this is what i’m told) using the footage and words from this story, and put it on youtube. it’s so much better than just reading the article! great fodder for talks and sermons. great thought fodder for pondering how much beauty we walk past and ignore every day.
Fantastic!
i disagree, the article made me cry. the video is beautiful, but the article is well worth the read.
Why did this make me cry?
Yeah, I agree with Bobbie, the article was better, although the video is nice as well. The article was one of the best pieces I’ve ever read in a newspaper. t made me want to cry.
hmmm…a fascinating experiment and article. i’m not about to claim that i’d act any differently. and as a former violinist, that embarrasses me.
but my two cents: would the experiment have yielded different results at the END of the workday instead of the BEGINNING? would the crowds have been less rushed, more receptive, hungrier for music that stirs their soul?
maybe. maybe not. regardless, it was a brilliantly creative experiment, even if we may not enjoy the results.
Thanks for the video, Marko. Here is an interesting take on the thing from a NYC subway musician.”The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how to busk. There are violinists who are not even close to being as good as he is (such as Jim Grasec or Lorenzo LaRock), yet they get crowds to stop and listen to them. It’s because when you play on the street you can’t approach it as if you are playing on a stage. Busking is an art form of its own.”