The Music of the Spheres Come Down to Earth

Two or three weeks ago, stories on NPR reported on an experiment undertaken by Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten. Weingarten persuaded the extraordinary young violinist, Joshua Bell (see earlier post re: applause at his recent Charlotte appearance) to play at the entrance of a DC Metro stop for 40 minutes during rush hour. According to NPR, and to Weingarten writing in the Post, more than 1,000 people passed by Bell's location at the busy L'Enfant Plaza station, but only seven stopped even momentarily to listen, and only one recognized him. $39 was tossed into his open violin case, plus and additional $20 by the woman who recognized him (she knew a bargain when she saw one).



What does this say about our society today? Perhaps not much. Speaking with Bob Garfield on the excellent weekly program, On The Media from WNYC and NPR, Weingarten said that these people were likely not ignorant boobs, but simply in a hurry. Having spent my share of time on that very Metro system as well as on the highways and byways of the DC area, I can vouch for the truth of that statement. Everyone, it seems, has a Very Important Job; the future of the Free World depends on them getting where they are going with no delay.



You may draw your own conclusions regarding the Joshua Bell experiment. I'd like to think I would have stopped, and perhaps even leaned against a pillar to listen for the duration. But suppose I'd been running late for a meeting?



Still, imagine what life would be like if we were a little less driven, a little freer to stop and smell the roses when we come across them: in the form of a Bach Chaconne, a bluegrass tune, a mural, a living statue, a sidewalk painting, a lone saxophone player with a cool jazz riff... So a few meetings in Washington (or New York or Charlotte or Chicago) might start late -- or might not happen at all. Would that be so bad for the country?

Image: living statue, Las Ramblas, Barcelona (photo by Vincent Lowe),

How Not to Live Sanely

At the church Judy and I attend in Atlanta, St. John's Lutheran, time is always set aside during the service for prayers by members of the congregation. There is one woman who can be counted on to pray about something every Sunday. Lately she has been praying for the framers of this year's Farm Bill in Congress. The Farm Bill? In an urban setting like Atlanta, who prays for the Farm Bill? I'm sure the folks at ADM pray for it nightly, but among the usual prayers for the infirm and for the bereaved and for the least of those among us, her prayer for the Farm Bill struck me as a little... odd.

No more. Michael Pollan's recent piece in the NY Times Magazine explains why she prays, and why we should all be praying for someone to pay attention to this vast and extraordinarily arcane piece of legislation. And explains why, with respect to farm... make that food... policy, we do not live in a sane world. For more about this, see Pollan's 2006 masterpiece, The Omnivore's Dilemma, now available at a good price from Amazon.

Bon apetit.

RIP

Much has been said, and much more will be said, about Virginia Tech. But no more needs to be said than this.

Leave of Absence

Did I mention that I've given up the blog for Lent? I had to give up something; this seemed reasonable. (I also ate a lot of black beans and rice while Judy was out of town, but it's been more feast than fast since she got home from visiting the grandkids in Seattle.)

But fear not, dear non-reader. I shall be back once He is Risen (indeed!).

Multitasking

There was an intgeresting piece on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday this morning. It concerned a study that had been done to ascertain the effect of multitasking on learning (listen here). Surprise surprise, it turns out that kids who are seriously multitasking (that is, not just listening to music in the background) have significantly more trouble learning than those who are focused on the learning task. It turns out that for some reason, when a person is multitasking a whole different area of the brain is activated than when a person is focused on a learning task. The study also has implications for all who multitask, not just students. The guest suggests that while multitaskers experience the illusion of being more productive, it may well be just that -- an illusion.

None of this surprises me. I'm not one of these people with a blackberry in one hand, bluetooth attached to my ear, downloading music, IM-ing and the like while writing, say, a proposal or a direct mail letter. Nevertheless, there are so many things clamoring for a piece of my time that I find it very difficult to focus on any one thing long enough to finish it. My attention span is getting shorter and shorter. The quality of my work has suffered, my ability to complete a letter to a friend or a household task -- much less take time to meditate -- has suffered, and it takes me forever to finish a book. I'm not quite sure what this has done to personal relationships, but it can't be good.

If one is searching for a way to live sanely, this is not it.

For Now I See But Through A Glass Darkly

This photo, mentioned by Tom Friedman in his column this morning (paid content), strikes me as a perfect metaphor for our world today. The gentleman on the right is the Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, inspecting troops on the Golan Heights. The "vision gaffe" was noted by the BBC.

It leads one to wonder: What did Peretz see? Sheer blackness? His own eyeballs? Or that which he had already made up his mind to see? Worth noting, too: apparently no one in the chain of command wanted -- or dared -- to point out the Defense Minister's mistake. Of course, it could never happen here...

More Applause!

When I posted that last bit I had no idea that I was riding a wave -- or at least a wavelet -- but then I stopped by Greg Sandow's Blog today, and found him waxing enthusiastic over an article by Andrew Drukenbrod in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette a couple of weeks ago. Apparently this issue of applauding in all the wrong places is one on which reasonable musicians can disagree, though the tide seems to be turning in favor of spontaneous expressions of approval. Good. According to Drukenbrod, though, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra knows where it stands. Using one of my favorite words, he tells us that "tucked away on the penultimate page of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra programs" is the following:

In a multi-movement work, it is customary to wait until the end of the last movement to applaud, so as not to break the concentration of the performers.

But as for the performers themselves... well, you can read the article. It comes replete with musical examples which reinforce my point about the intent of certain composers, by the way.

I swear hadn't read any of this before. I must have been touched by the zeitgeist of these changing times.