Monday, April 09, 2007

Only in D.C.

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Wow. I don't know that I have ever heard anything as beautiful or read anything so sad. Ok, so maybe it's not that bad. I mean, it's not a woman selling her daughter for money to buy crack or students being run over in Tiananmen Square. But the story moved me like most stories don't these days. There's only so many times you can hear about a wife killing her husband for insurance money or a drunk truck driver plowing through a family on the Beltway before you start to get numb. Now, I don't profess to be an expert in classical music, and I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't heard of Joshua Bell before I read this article, but holy mackerel! Even through the lousy, hidden-camera audio streaming over the internet, I could hear that this man is a master. I think the beauty of the music made such a sharp contrast to the sadness of the article - Here was one of the world's greatest living violinists and everyone was so wrapped up in their own little world that they didn't even notice he was there! It was amazing, sad, beautiful and pathetic all at the same time.

No comments: