(found this fascinating--what would you have done???)

http://tinyurl.com/29k6hu

Pearls Before Breakfact
gene weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job...

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?

....No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
....
(article too long to reproduce here...there are video presentations of small parts of his performance)

follow up article:
http://tinyurl.com/3almhb

Post Magazine: Too Busy to Stop and Hear the Music

Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 9, 2007; 1:00 PM



Can one of the nation's greatest musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? In this week's issue of the Washington Post Magazine Gene Weingarten sets out to discover if violinist Josh Bell -- and his Stradivarius -- could stop busy commuters in their tracks.

Gene Weingarten is a staff writer and columnist for The Magazine.

____________________

Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.

This story got the largest and most global response of anything I have ever written, for any publication. I think the enthusiastic classical-music blogosphere helped give it a viral life, as did the availability of quality video. It's kind of humbling, and I thank you all.

I am still wading through more than a thousand emails. Please be patient; I am trying to answer each one, at least briefly.

My favorite global letter so farm came from Marnie Smith of Des Moines, Iowa, who was alerted to this story in the Washington Post through an email from her daughter, who lives in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

I'm going to be answering many dozens of questions in the next hour, but there's one I'd like to pose to you all: With little or no elaboration, more than 100 readers so far have told me that this story made them cry. It was not a reaction I anticipated, at least not so universally, and it has somewhat taken me aback. Can those of you who had this reaction try to explain it? I have a hunch, and if I am right, it is extremely interesting. Rather than say what I think, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Weepers, please write in.

In slightly different ways, several people are asking the same question: Was this story intended to be an indictment of the soul of the federal bureaucrat? Was I suggesting that these people, by their nature, are less sophisticated, less open to beauty, less culturally mature, less aware of their surroundings, than the average person?

The simple answer is, no. It was not my intent, nor could anyone reasonably draw that inference from the story. We didn't have a control group; we had only one shot at the experiment, and you just can't fairly generalize one way or another. I really believe this.

However ....

(access rest of article via link)

These experiments crack me up! I believe he did make 40 $ in one hour, though - 320 $/day. Not bad, is it? It proves that people did appreciate the music, but had no time to stop and listen to a violinist (Joshua Bell or not, Stradivarius or not) during rush hour. Can you imagine a lamer excuse for being late for work than: "Sorry, boss, but there was this fantastic Joshua Bell performing at the subway and I was just like glued to the pavement and couldn't move, I absolutely had to listen to him!"