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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:39 am
by timothyallan

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:48 am
by peeddrroo
first: i didn't write the text in the original post, i copied it from a webpage.

i thought it was scary that so many people could walk by one of the best violin players (according to the critics) without noticing him.
i know ppl have their problems, are pissed off by their job, have no artistic education, but still, we're talking about thousands of people here.
and i thought that really good music can't let you unmoved.

this reminds me of this guy who went deep into the rain forest in the 50s to meet tribes that hadn't ever seen white men. he had brought a record player (!) with a few mozart records. and the tribes, that had never heard a violin nor seen a turntable were immediately moved when he started playing it and assumed the man was peaceful.
so i'm scared that people in DC are worse than tribes from the amazon. :wink:

anyway, i think this experience was fun. i wonder if i would have stopped.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:51 am
by timothyallan
I wouldn't have.

I'm very important... my office smells of rich mahogany, and I have many leather bound books.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:56 am
by peeddrroo
and you take the subway???

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:57 am
by timothyallan
peeddrroo wrote:and you take the subway???
pwnd

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:04 am
by Homebelly
timothyallan wrote:
peeddrroo wrote:and you take the subway???
pwnd
He is keeping it real.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:07 am
by Homebelly
peeddrroo wrote:
this reminds me of this guy who went deep into the rain forest in the 50s to meet tribes that hadn't ever seen white men. he had brought a record player (!) with a few mozart records. and the tribes, that had never heard a violin nor seen a turntable were immediately moved when he started playing it and assumed the man was peaceful.
so i'm scared that people in DC are worse than tribes from the amazon. :wink:
Wow!!
That must have been a hell of an extension chord.
Maybe they thought he was the coming of the great snake god with its singing head.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:08 am
by timothyallan
Homebelly wrote: That must have been a hell of an extension chord.
Great musical spelling slip there :D

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:13 am
by Homebelly
timothyallan wrote:
Homebelly wrote: cord.
Great musical spelling slip there :D
Fixed..
:oops: :oops: :D :D :D :D :D

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:22 am
by Nick the Zombie
Very interesting story, but I also agree with some of the skepticism here. I agree that people don't stop to perceive the beauty in their surroundings nearly enough during an average day. However, the idea that the music or this guy's playing was objectively "beautiful" (whatever that means) seems like a pretty big assumption.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:29 am
by LOFA
Thank you for posting.

I sometimes stop. Some of the biggest inspirations I had growing up were from observing street performers in NYC. I also am a performer so I am biased.

I am so glad that the one woman stopped. It was like a sigh of relief as I caught myself cursing society. I was actually impressed that anyone stopped at all, much less recognized him.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:15 am
by freqn
Nice!

Re: amazing, yet scary...

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:49 am
by Dexes
Homebelly wrote:
peeddrroo wrote:About a very silly and baseless "experiment"
What a bunch of shit....
Most people are not musicians or art conscious.
Too true...one experiment I've always wanted to do at a techno party was set up a simple 16step Drum pattern, crank up the volume so it's more or less permanently clipping, play it for an hour and mute or Solo the bass drum every few minutes.
Wonder how many people would actually notice.
Most people passing through that subway station have to go to work for eight to ten hours.
They have to get up early to do it.
They have to spend 30 or 40 minutes, maybe more, on a crowded form of mass transit to get there.
If they are any thing like me, the are probably partially sleep deprived and in need of coffee, not some wanker, no matter how good he might be, or how lofty the music he is playing, squawking away on a fucking expensive fiddle!!
I think that's exactly the point they were trying to make. It's not about pointing at people and saying how ignorant they are for not noticing that famous musician, it pointing at the whole society, saying how shite the system we live in is, as there's thousands of people rushing though a place they dont want to be at, to get to a stuffed train they don't want to travel with, to another place they dont want to be at, to do something they dont want to.

And because they're in such a rush to do this, the completely miss the few nice things they pass on the way.
Whether it's some top class musitioan with a 3,5mil violin or a bum on a fiddle, wheather it's a million $ picture by a famous artist or a chalk drawing by a street artist...no one ever cares to take any notice of the beautiful things going on around us.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:00 am
by liveISlife
Perception- it can make you pay $100 to see some dude play an overpriced fiddle.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:21 am
by aizo
1.This story is olddddd

2. Some people just don't have time. There's many things I want to stop and enjoy daily in my city but I can't I have to go to work.

3. He's not that famous because I don't know him. I'm nobody but someone famous is someone everyone knows. (I'm from the USA)

4. It must be a Washington thing because here in Osaka people stop for anybody attempting to make "beautiful" music. But only when the work day is over. NO ONE performs in the morning because they are just wasting their time.