What Else Are We Missing?

This article from the Washington Post is absolutely fascinating. It's long, but quite provocative--read it over lunch or something. I found it through String Theory Media (via Nashville is Talking), who wrote:

Today's Washington Post Magazine cover story, "Pearls Before Breakfast," is one of the best pieces of music journalism I've ever read, not because it insightfully parses an artist's work but because it provides a surprising and somewhat depressing look inside our music culture. It poses vital questions about music itself; does it matter to people? Are we equipped to recognize it and let it enliven and enrich our lives? In brief, the Post arranged for an exceptional violinist (it's a surprise) to play for 45 minutes in a Metro station in downtown D.C. for an audience of passers by. What would happen? What would you expect to happen? Would you stop?

The following paragraph made me "wow out loud" (I obscured key words because it's so much better to read the whole article as Gene Weingarten unfolds the story, but maybe this will whet your appetite):

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch [the violinist] or the ones who gave money, from [those] who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time [this type of person] walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch.

Go read "Pearls Before Breakfast"!