nom-chompsky:

allofthisinlondon:

environmint:

fugue-stasis:

iliveforaliving:

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest 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 Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true 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 people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…

How many other things are we missing?

Annoyed that the take-away message is supposed to be that we’re all to busy to appreciate the beauty of every-day life and not that judgments about “quality” are often a factor of [perceived] class. Like, yes, children stopping to listen to Bell play are probably less busy (and anxious) than their parents, BUT they’re also too young to comprehend or follow the social rules about street performers in the first place.

Ignorance of how classism informs culture makes everything so fucking twee, you guys.

^This is some really good commentary. Thank you

Reblogging for the commentary. That’s something I’ve always thought about this story, from when it was read to us in high school, but never been able to articulate. 

Joshua Bell is an IU grad!

can i just add that if you actually watch the video, there’s a person who not only stops and has a conversation with him, but that she recognized him and told him how much he affected her. i hate that media has to go and fuck up all of our perceptions with commentary like that. not everyone ignored him. some people did, in fact, stop to listen. i’m sure if you decided to make it statistical that the number of people who stopped to listen out of the total number of people far exceeds how many people are able to afford going to see him when he’s performing with an orchestra.

so like, what’s the take-home message there? what i’d get is that more people would ~stop to smell the roses~ more often if it were readily available, free, and not confined to those who can afford the ticket.

or like, the dude who jams on his guitar by my target and does some pretty killer acoustic versions of led zeppelin tunes and always says hi to my kids. he’s not jimmy page or anything, but should i be less wowed?