<p>Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let’s find out.</p>
<p>HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L’ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.</p>
<p>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. L’Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant…</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this incredible piece, Ya Ya! I enjoyed every word of it.
Thought provoking!</p>
<p>The lack of response from the people on the street does surprise me.
Quite remarkable, actually. It says a lot about us - not sure what, but it’s not good.</p>
<p>Well…but also, it seems like there is a musician at some sort at nearly every major downtown DC Metro location during rush hours - whatever it is they play - and some of them sound very beautiful for the few seconds you hurry by - it’s all just lost in all the other street noise, etc…everyone’s mind is somewhere else. I sometimes throw change into a musician’s box, but usually just the ones that appear to be especially pitiful-looking. At a busy Metro entrance/exit, I wouldn’t stop…so whoever is playing, regardless of how skillfully, it would be hard to notice…</p>
<p>I love the story, and the idea of it though - thanks for posting this, it will certainly make me stop and pay attention next time I’m in the area and there are musicians at the Metro stops.</p>
<p>I think most people don’t know anything about classical music. A musician singing Britney Spears songs probably would have attracted more attention (sadly).</p>
<p>My S sent me this piece this morning. I thought it was fabulous. [Edit - I posted the link, but then realized the link was already posted.]</p>
<p>When we were in Germany, there were/are street musicians all over, and were liked and appreciated. (At least most. The solitary accordian players and such do tend to get ignored.) I think it’s just a different culture – they are welcomed, expected, add to the atmosphere in Europe. Here they are bothersome - taking our space, making noise, getting in our way, slowing us down, interrupting our thoughts. I think it even has to do with our perception of music - right back to the high school teachers who told my S he was “wasting” too much time on his “hobby.” I’d love to change that attitude somehow. (Leaf through the book “This is Your Brain on Music” sometime.)</p>
<p>I don’t know what would have happened if they’d had him out in a park or pedestrian area (down by the cherry trees where people are picnicking?) where people weren’t preoccupied. I’d like to think he would have gotten more attention. I was suprised that only one person recognized him. We think Joshua Bell is wonderful, and my D has a photo of her with him as her facebook photo.</p>
<p>I <3 Gene Weingarten. If you don’t suscribe to The Washington Post (and, as a result, The Washington Post Magazine)… well, here’s one helluva reason to!</p>
<p>I <3 Joshua Bell as well. Of course this was all over the local news about 10 times for people in the Greater Washington area, too.</p>
<p>I found it a sad story; most people didn’t even notice the music, also because people are in such a rush that they do not even have two minutes to stop and listen.</p>
<p>There is a group of dudes that perform kick-ass doo-wop at the Foggy Bottom station entrance. If they had one, I’d buy their CD in a heartbeat, but in the meantime my change will do…</p>
<p>’ “At a music hall, I’ll get upset if someone coughs or if someone’s cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.” This is from a man whose talents can command $1,000 a minute.'</p>