[Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities

[Kiran Jonnalagadda]

On 18-Apr-07, at 11:46 AM, Gora Mohanty wrote:

> Thank you for sharing that. That was just a beautiful, and thought-
> provoking article. Why just a musical virtuoso performing unnoticed
> on a crowded platform; most of us go through life in the same way,
> blind to the beauty around us. If sunset happened once in a thousand
> days, what paeans of praise would be written to it?

Before we start blaming people for failing to appreciate beauty  
unless it is pointed out to them...

http://sawlady.com/blog/?p=27

The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how  
to busk. There are violinists who are not even close to being as good  
as he is (such as Jim Grasec or Lorenzo LaRock), yet they get crowds  
to stop and listen to them. It’s because when you play on the street  
you can’t approach it as if you are playing on a stage.

...

A bad busking act is when the performer doesn’t make an effort to  
connect with the audience. Like musicians who play for themselves,  
not acknowledging the audience, just burying their heads in their  
instruments.