Group Forums >> Politicly correct and other silly notions >> Smelling the roses in 2009
Smelling the roses in 2009
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Posted 10 months ago From an email that was forwarded to me: 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 thousand 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 up 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 theirnormal 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 average $100. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an 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 some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
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133 posts back to top |
| Posted 10 months ago I remember this, and it just goes to show how effective marketing is towards peoples attachment to things based on perspective. One of the reasons I hate art teachers, most of them grade you on their personal perspective as if theirs should be held higher than any one elses, and they expect you to brown nose. I hold this true and to be evedent within the majority of modern civilization. Even though this violinist is one of the greatest and no one mugged him for that suggestive value of the violin why would it be expected that more people like the sound of violins, what he was playing, or who he is. To me, art is subjective to the interpritor, "Comment edited here I was wrong", why would it be that people who enjoy disco would sit around and listen to Bach or even Danny Gaton.
"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?"---------All these staements are subjective to each individual, Someone in that crowed could have been thinking that it sounded awfull and wished it would stop, they would have to ask each and every person what they thought before coming to these conclusions. I would go see Paul McCartney before going to see Joshua Bell in concert, and would rather hear Paul in the subway, but thats just me.
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| Posted 10 months ago The only thing I would add to Larkenra's post is that we don't know how many of those people who never stopped got to work (or wherever they were going) and commented about the great violinist who was playing in the metro station that morning. |
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| Posted 10 months ago Larkenra, I agree 100% with your statement that Art is subjective to the interpreter. Not everyone appreciates Bach or violin music. Still, I believe you may have missed the point of the article. We should take time to appreciate all the little things that life throws at us every day. Also, I never stated that I don't listen to music since the dawn of Disco. If you take the time to check, you'll find a fair few newer selections in my playlist.
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| Posted 10 months ago Phreadd says ...
I tried purposely not to go too far with my comments on this subject. I understand the intent behind it but it seems too flawed in that I think people will stop to smell the roses when they see that it is a rose, to many people this is not a rose, and it would be naive to think that everyone considers this <his music ant talent> a rose. If they said balut was yummy would you eat it? and if you liked it would you say that everyone likes it too? |
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| Posted 10 months ago No argument from me on any of that Larkenra.
It just seems to me that many people will stop and smell a Rose, but completely ignore an Orchid or a Tulip. (and for the record, I once made an attempt at eating balut. I couldn't get within 5 feet of it due to the smell! |
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| Posted 10 months ago You may pay $100 to listen to a violinist you are told is the best performing for over an hour while you sit in a comfortable chair in an air conditioned auditorium with good acoustics; but are you really going to risk your job by being late for work so you can stop and listen to a very talented busker for 10 minutes on a freezing January morning when you only pass them briefly, hearing them over the din of a train station at rush hour? In addition buskers are people that you become conditioned to either ignore or give some change to irrespecitve of their talent. So I'd say the findings are exactly as one would expect. Be interesting to see what happened if you repeated the experiment in a park on a Saturday afternoon. But yeah I guess the sentiment is there that we should take time out to enjoy the world around us. I'm quite lucky in that my working day starts with a drive down a hill with views down to a 17th century harbour where I often see trawlers leaving for sea, before driving along a road with views out across the Solway Firth and the Isle of Man on one side and the Fells of the English Lake District on the other. Can't believe I'm thinking of leaving to work in a city! But then its a two hour drive if you want decent Sushi!!! |
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| Posted 10 months ago I've always wanted to visit Scottland. That must be an AWESOME drive to and from work.
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| Posted 10 months ago Sure is and it is one you never tire of Bloody hell, writting this I'm starting to look forward to getting back to work!!! |
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, that's the good thing about working at a nuclear plant, they tend to locate them in some very beautiful places. Plus there aren't many work places where you come across Oyster Catchers, Great Herons, Barn Owls, Adders etc. on a regular basis.
