[MD] Joshua Bell piece in the Washington Post

[Ben Golden]

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my post.  I'm glad people appreciated 
the link.  Arlo, I especially liked your MOQ-based definition of art.  I 
think when people complain that the younger generation lacks an appreciation 
for high art, they're missing the fact that context is part of the reason 
they find value in whatever they deem high art.  It takes exposure to 
classical music to build an appreciation for classical music.  Lacking that 
exposure, it's much more difficult to have a high-quality experience with 
the music.

It seems reasonable that overall, the experience of walking through a subway 
station where Joshua Bell is playing would be a low-quality experience to 
many.  Even with good music, subway stations are lousy, stressful places 
that many would just as soon spend as little time in as possible.  I thought 
one interesting point of the article was how different people turned the 
event into a high quality experience, by finding a comfortable spot, by 
checking to make sure that there was time to stay and listen, etc.

There was also an interesting MOQ tie-in with the guitar player who noticed 
that Bell was a musician who was not just technically skilled, but also had 
an emotional connection to his music.  In my mind, technical skill is 
static, be it biological, social or intellectual.  But artists who dig 
deeper can get to the point where they can channel dynamic quality.

Arlo, in your comment about didgeridoos, I thought you were going to go the 
opposite direction.  I think there's some degree to which, in the Bell 
experiment, a didgeridoo would have had a larger effect.  The fact 
didgeridoos are so uncommon in subway stations gives it dynamic quality and 
would get people's attention.  Assuming the player was a top-notch musician, 
listeners might stay to listen.  With regard to your definition of art, 
there still is a static context for the high-quality experience in that it's 
still music, which is a static institution.

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