Beneath the Radar

By Ryan C. DeNardis on January 6, 2009 10:23 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews

The link above is to an article about a social experiment in which Joshua Bell, violin virtuoso, who has sold out concerts across the world, plays Bach violin pieces as a 'street musician' in a Washington DC subway lobby for about 43 minutes.  In comparison to his sold out concert the night before, with tickets starting at $100, he accrued a total of around $32, and received barely a few claps.

I'm not sure what to draw from this.  On the one hand, people were rushing to work, so anything beyond A-to-B would exist beneath the radar.  However, what are they missing, and is this 'okay'?

It reminds me of something from Tenacious D's "Pick of Destiny" (please excuse the extreme vulgarity (but, hey, at the very least, it is a variation on Bach)):



I guess the question reoccurs: what are we to get out of art, and is it really something so specialized that only other artists truly appreciate it (like the guitarist who worked in the Subway lobby)?  Or what about the kids or the woman who approached Bell at the end of one of his videos?

But I'm sure it goes even further.  How much are we missing on a daily basis?  I'm sure very few of us actually revel in the fact that our refrigerators don't use ammonia anymore, or that many of Penn State's sidewalks are heated from beneath (actually I curse this when snow refreezes, but anyway).  Maybe we just need to slow down and take in the world around us a little more often.

Of course, it's also the way we're constructed.  Something will always fly beneath the radar.  Do we choose to naively ignore this fact, or should we stress and adapt to better open ourselves to the possibility?

I've taken the latter.  I'm really trying to open myself to the world around me, not simply as an artist, but it seems to make me enjoy my life that much more.

As for the money part - I'm between the money and the passion (in both performer and audience).  And like Bell said, $30 an hour really isn't too bad. I think art is a construct of man, and therefore demands some form of compensation, but then to finally have someone compliment you after a lot of very difficult, unnoticed performing...  It almost makes the 'street musician' approach more difficult than being a 'professional musician.'  On the street, you have to work to be noticed, far more than as a 'professional.'

As a student, this frightens me.  No matter what I go into after I graduate, I'm beginning beneath the radar.  Sure, college may give me a nice tall flag to wave through the clouds, but the visibility may not be good enough for them to notice me.  Hopefully, at the very least, I can hook up a strobe light.

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This page contains a single entry by Ryan C. DeNardis published on January 6, 2009 10:23 AM.

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