World-renowned violinist versus DC rush hour

[sundowning]

I stumbled across this article in the Washington Post earlier on today. The subject matter was a great chance to do the usual, perhaps uninspired decrying of the busy Western lifestyle, but I think the authors did a really good job of showing the full range of effect.

>> Pearls Before Breakfast

It's long, but I think it's worth it.

 

[nightning]

Oh my goodness... that's just sad... beyond sad. I guess it's to be expected... people nowadays are simply too busy to enjoy the finer points in life. *shakes head* True, appreciation is always greater in context... but it's so disappointing to see the full extent context plays in comparison to art itself.

Curious point they made about the kid who wanted to stop and listen. Maybe there is truth in what they say about only kids can truly appreciate life in full because they have no pre-existing notions of expected behaviour. It makes me miss my childhood all the more.

Thanks for sharing that. It's not often we get experiments that allows us a glimpse of human behaviour in its natural settings.

 

[sundowning]

Oh my goodness... that's just sad... beyond sad. I guess it's to be expected... people nowadays are simply too busy to enjoy the finer points in life. *shakes head* True, appreciation is always greater in context... but it's so disappointing to see the full extent context plays in comparison to art itself.

Curious point they made about the kid who wanted to stop and listen. Maybe there is truth in what they say about only kids can truly appreciate life in full because they have no pre-existing notions of expected behaviour. It makes me miss my childhood all the more.

Thanks for sharing that. It's not often we get experiments that allows us a glimpse of human behaviour in its natural settings.

Yeah, kids are great! They're all into what's going on around them, while the parents are all, "you can pay attention later... when you're older... and too preoccupied to even care about the interesting/abnormal things going on around you." Kind of like the one guy in the article who, when contacted later, didn't even remember a musician, period.

This sort of thing just reminded me of a vid I saw on YouTube last winter. "7 black guys on a subway", or something to that effect, who did a completely vocalized hip hop tune. But basically, it always seems to start off the same: people try to ignore what's going on at first. Instead of just kicking back and taking it in, they're like, "nooo, how dare you invade my cave, derrrr."

Any sort of performance art in public is neat. There was another article I read about an improv group that did a 'real life' skit in a single public-setting that was maybe 15 minutes in length, and then repeated it numerous times throughout a single morning. Something to the effect of one guy would come in, order a coffee, and eventually end up spilling it. Another person would come in and ask to use the phone. Or two people at a table would have the same conversation. All these events, over and over.

The first couple of times, no one in the area noticed. But after 3 or 4 runs, people would start taking note, and 'sleeper agents' of the group would record audience reaction of them saying things like, "we just saw that happen before!" until everyone finally realized the 'joke'. ...I wish I could remember where I read that. Maybe it was even on INTPC last summer?

 

[Littlelostnf]

Thanks for sharing that. I'm about to email the link to a few friends. It's amazing what we take the time to do (video games, reality shows, and so on) and something so beautiful we give no time to at all. I regularly stop to listen to street musicians when I visit the city (any city actually) because there are so many hidden pearls. Wow I just wish I'd been there to hear that live. I'd probably parked myself in front of him and never moved. I wouldn't have recognized his face but the music..the music I would have recognized.

 

[Rhu]

I live and a couple blocks from L'Enfant plaza. The tunnel vision of the government drones passing through here in the morning is terrifying to behold. It's a sort of dead-eyed resignation.

I can assure you that nobody was in a hurry that morning. Nobody will cross an empty street that never sees any traffic if there's no walk signal. Everyone just stands still on the escalator, waiting for it to carry them to the top.

I hear that there's life in other parts of this city, but everyone is dead here.

 

[rhinosaur]

I enjoyed watching that a lot, thanks for the link. Joshua Bell is fantastic.

 

[Colors]

Eh. I got about 4/5 of the way through the article. There are so many things wrong with their argument. It kind of rests on the fact that the people are ignoring something beautiful- but the clips I listened to, while energetic- didn't really interest me personally, nor do I have the training to recognize a musical prodigy from a proficient violin player. Maybe the people just don't like classical music. Especially not overbearingly loud classical music.

 

[nightning]

Recordings often doesn't capture the true essense of music... especially such low quality recording as that video with so much background noise. *shrugs* Who knows... maybe that performance was sub-par, but I don't think you can tell unless you are physically there to listen.

 

[kuranes]

Syncrowicity that I had just read this blog entry on the same subject by a former member at MBTIC.
http://www.solocrow.com/2007/04/10/incognito-for-the-non-cognoscenti/

Hmmmmm. Winnipeg, eh ?

 

[raincrow007]

Syncrowicity that I had just read this blog entry on the same subject by a former member at MBTIC.
http://www.solocrow.com/2007/04/10/incognito-for-the-non-cognoscenti/

Hmmmmm. Winnipeg, eh ?

Former member? Kiss my ass K.

 

[kuranes]

 

[thatguy]

I love how they dive behind Kant to avoid ever reaching the unacceptable conclusions that are directly in front of them. Rarely is it so obvious. Nothing means anything, so we don't have to question our values when they are confronted by reality... Actually, anyone who didn't stop to appreciate what the authors know is true beauty is of questionable morality.

I see this as experimental evidence that the appeal of most popular art rests solely on the fact that people are told they are suppose to appreciate it - without that direction people will choose forms of art based on their individual experience and judgment. "Framing" is a nice euphemism for cultural indoctrination.

No worries: Since I don't usually enjoy classical music, I'm clearly the spawn of satan, so you can safely ignore my meaningless observations. Although, I'll confess to a weakness: Like what he's doing or not, the guy is clearly very skilled, and that's something I do appreciate!