Pearls Before Breakfast

Interesting. LINK

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open: you never know when something amazing is happening.

Wow interesting experiment, amazing to think that so many would not hear it..

Imagine that at Christmas, or in the middle of high tourist season in a tourist town Like where I grew up (Victoria), lol Pavaratti wouldn't get noticed..


I have to say though some of the snipits, taken out of context don't sound that awsome.. IE he could be easy to ignore.. Like the article said a lot of it has to do with the context it is delivered in lol

The musian seems pretty cool for a guy that makes that much, and is that big though..

I lived in the D.C area and worked in Downtown D.C., though not in the L'Enfant Plaza, for a number of years. Unfortunately, D.C. is a city where the denizens are usually self-absorbed in their own imaginings of self-importance. It has become progressively so, and apparently and has gotten even worse than it was when I left there nearly 20 years ago.

It was not always so. In the early 80's while they may not have recognized him, there would a better appreciation of his artistry. If they had done the experiment then he would have had a slightly better monetary haul. However, with the rise of violent crime in D.C., despite having one of the highest per capita police to citizens ratios in the U.S., has made the folks there much more insular and fearful of contact. Washington D.C. now suffers from the general dehumanized mentality that is shared by most of the residents in and around the major cities of the U.S.

More's the pity. While I had never seen a picture of the artist, I have heard recordings of his work. He is truly phenomenal.

Interesting. I wonder if people being desensitized by other street musicians and pan handlers plays into this dynamic. As a musician myself I pay attention to street musicians I come across in Chicago. Partly because it's fairly cheap to purchase a street musician's permit from the city (I think you can even do it online now lol) and I had thought about getting one and occasionally playing guitar or something like that.

The sad truth is the majority of the street musicians I see in the city SUCK. And not just a little. A LOT. It's rare to see someone who actually has some skills. In my neighborhood there are many steet musicians during the summer. Congas, Jembes, Saxaphone players, guitar players, little groups of guitars or guitars and percussion, all kinds of stuff. And many of them were bad enough that it caused me to walk faster so I could get out of range. There have been some exceptions, there is one blues player in particular who plays slide guitar and sings that is quite good. There is a singer in one of the downtown blue line stations that is also quite good, her voice is wonderful. For the most part though, we're lambasted by guys with little skill and crappy instruments trying to play something people might recognize so they get a donation. It's essentially pan handling with a more complex cardboard sign in my opinion. Playing a bucket with sticks with bad rythm and singing "the super bowl shuffle" does not count as a good performance in my opinion. Nor does the Scooby Doo theme squeekily played on a sax a phone with no discernable reed or breathing technique. I'd rather watch someone running the shell game. Now, that is usually really impressive IMHO.

Maybe the city should just have auditions for those permits instead of charging for them....