Taking Note

[daphnep]

Here's a fascinating article from the Washington Post, about an experiment with violin virtuoso Joshua Bell busking in the D.C. Metro:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

I don't have time to really read it like I want to, so I'm posting it here to come back to, later. Some of y'all might be interested as well...touches on an entire range of points fascinating to me, from contextualizing art to children's innate musical appreciation to buddhist mindfulness.

Comments

[raydon-12.livejournal.com]

That article is totally amazing! Thank you!!

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

My pleasure.

Of course, like anyone reading it, I'm sure, I'd like to think that I'd have stopped and listened...as I have stopped and listened to many a street musician...but I know, too, that it would have depended on the situation. If I was running late to work, I'd have felt I couldn't have. If I was on my way to a hot date, I'd have been naturally preoccupied...etcetera...

[raydon-12.livejournal.com]

Very true. And like you, I have stopped to listen when I could. But its one thing to not have the time to stop because of a situation, what floors me are the number of people that seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that he's even there.

[molinaslim.livejournal.com]

HEY! I posted this very article last week!

[molinaslim.livejournal.com]

I found the article to be totally depressing. The part where Billy Collins (my favorite poet) talks about children losing their innate sense of poetry as they grow up made me want to cry.

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

Sure enough...how'd I miss it?

Don't you think, though, if one is conscious of this happening, that one can work to combat it? Read poetry, listen to music, recite poetry to one's own children, etc. If we talk about it in our culture, keep singing in the car and the shower, making up little rhymes, and pay attention, even to subway musicians, we can keep from becoming commuter automatons.

If nothing else, you get a good excuse to be late for work.