Slow Down! Read this through!

reply to post by Free4Ever2


i honestly stop for the musicians who sound good, not the beat up tube player but experienced musicians is what i am into


3.5 mill? i am surprised he did not get robbed

i love this post! and i love bach. i'm assuming he was playing a stradivarius violin (and hopefully partitia 3 in E major, as that is a truly special piece), as there aren't too many left, and by some unknown construction, sound better than anything we can make today. i have an ear for music, and would have definitively stopped to listen.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


Probably because the strings are made of cat gut and the pieces were truly hand crafted.

reply to post by Chewingonmushrooms


it is actually due mostly to the density of the wood. the wood that they are made out of is very special (more dense than modern violins. if i'm not mistaken, you need trees that grew during an extended cold period, such as an ice age). the chemicals that the wood is treated with has also been determined to produce the sound difference.

there is alot of research on why they sound so much better. recently a scientist and violin maker got together and used fungus treated wood. it was a blind test involving 5 violins, two with fungus treatment, two without, and one Stradivarius violin. the fungus treated ones were ranked higher than the stradivarius by the judges and audience.

Pretty interesting stuff . Sorry OP for the derail. Back on subject. The story is an metaphor for our society in general.

We go to school from kindergarden (now pre-k) to 12th grade being bombarded with propaganda and conditioned to be good worker drones. Enter college and specialize in a subject to be a more skillful drone. Continue out of college into our first "real" job with the hopes of staying with the same company for medical benefits and pension. We work 40-70 hours a week to buy things we don't need, or to have an appearance of being special (by the clothes we wear, the clique we hang with and the house a car we have). Find a trophey wife, or suga daddy to marry. Have children because that's what everyone else does. Get to our mid forties and have a midlife crisis where we hate who we've become. Cheat. Then look forward to retire at the rip age of 65 (edging to 67-70 now) to live the last of our 5-10 years rotting in some home with no one to talk to.

This is about 85% of the middle class life. So basically we live to work for that way we can live. Does that make any sense? We are so much in a rush in our everyday lives that true beauty, true connection, true involvement, and being a true human being is lost in our rat race lives. What is wrong with us?

reply to post by violence=answer

3.5 mill? i am surprised he did not get robbed

who knew it was allegedly worth USD 3.5M ??????????

reply to post by ignorant_ape


lol i probably would have said that about any price...


200 dollars? i am surprised he did not get robbed

reply to post by Free4Ever2


S&F, very good. Not surprised at the result though.
Very true Sprocket2cog about the park, this should be the natural next test.
Living in the country i love the slower pace, i'm not one for small talk but i'm happy others can indulge.
I do think the concrete and corners, the steel and flat edges have some effect on the natives. And not a good one it seems.

Thanks for sharing, what I find most interesting is the fact that most parents hurried their children along when they were obviously interested the music. In my opinion, children need to be shown that being creative is a good thing

Wow, I got lost in a sea of wacky pics, thanks for the laughs.

spot on and a great find star and flag for you.
it just goes to prove that there are more important things than the rat race life is for living perhaps readers of this post may take on board the need to stop and take note of whats around you.

I learned a valuable lesson from this

S&F and thanks

reply to post by o0o0o

The children ! Thats what i noticed first actually, that the children were being moved along, but thats the way of the world isnt it, the parents were the one with timetables. I would agree with what another poster said, and would be interested to see the experiment done in a park or along a beachfront.
I think there is a point with classical music being not that popular, i love it, but i wonder would the experiment had had a different result if it had been a famous (but in disguise obviously) jazz or rock musician, although i doubt it, people were in a rush, and as we know it, works come first in this world.
Ooo and a flag and star, cos that was good.

The point is clear. Some people careless about violin though. Just like fine wine. I could taste a $1,000 bottle and a $2.99 bottle and not tell the difference. It all tastes like ass to me. I have been hiking in the woods a lot lately taking photos of everything. I walk real slow and listen to whats around me and see all kinds of stuff. Most of the people I see on these trails are power walking or even jogging on the lighter trails. They notice nothing.

The thing that gets to me is that the children were some of ones taking notice.
The parents were then tugging and pulling the childrens attention away.
When the mind is uncorrupted then you can see and hear but if the guidance is pulling them away hope is slim for them to ever make sense of what they are seeing and hearing.
We need to take time to take notice the life around us and see what is really happening and enjoy it or it's not life.
It all starts with the parents leading the future generations.
Good experiment.Makes one think of how this world is shaped and what we can do to make it better.

That violin is worth how much???

Seriously that is a really cool article.

Someone could probably write a whole book on this social experiment.

reply to post by Free4Ever2


That is a sad commentary on current state of mind of the general public. I bet if there was a giant flat
panel screen playing Dancing with the Stars more people would have stopped. LOL

In all fairness though, that was a busy location. I bet more people would have stopped to enjoy the music
if it was at a park or beachfront.

S&F

reply to post by A por uvas


smal children do not have a sense of schedule or timekeeping - nor realise that its imperative they and more important - thier parents must be at certain places by a certain time

reply to post by Free4Ever2

I've been saying and writing for many years now about the speed most people travel through their daily lives. How it is far too fast so that we miss so much. My words:- "We speed along the higway of life at 400mp/h, which is too fast to see the signs and the scenery"

Most everyone in our modern culture is in the chase for more $$$$ to have that "Lifestyle" media shows we are "supposed" to have, to buy all those useless but "must have" items we may use occassionaly, etc.

No time to smell the roses. No time to stop and listen to our own inner voice. SImply no time for anything other than the mundane of our physical existence.

How sad.

This is the very reason the world is the way it is. Very few and I mean very few people pay an attention to what is going on around them. You can do something right in front of them in plain sight and still be invisible. And something that is out of context like this world class violinist playing any where but a $100 a seat theater does not even show up on most peoples radar.