Pearls Before Breakfast (2007) | Hacker News Reader

Pearls Before Breakfast (2007)

washingtonpost.com

38 pointstshtf17 comments

You can see this guy at the Met for what, $200? Could I pay you $200 to be an hour late for work? (Maybe I could - the HN crowd of startuppy professionals often doesn't have to be in on time - but not the kind of people who were listening in the article).

I wonder what would've happened if they'd done it in the evening rush hour rather than the morning one.

This was a delightful article, that provided a real window in human behavior and perception. Such fun!

I am reminded of a story that I am unable to locate, about a violinist who composed works and passed them off as more obscure classical music by big names (Mozart, Bach and similar). He liked composing music in the style, but he couldn't get people interested in the pieces. By passing them off as more obscure famous works from the period, people would listen to them, and respond favorably. A very similar problem, from a different perspective.

If anyone recalls the article or names, I would appreciate a link.

Sounds like Fritz Kreisler, though generally the composers he "credited" were one or two notches down from Mozart and (J S) Bach -- Vivaldi, Boccherini, Couperin, W F Bach, Tartini, Pugnani, etc. You can find a list by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Fritz_K... and searching for "falsely".

Apparently, when called on his deception he said "The name changes, the value remains".

Gene Weingarten is an amazing writer. He won a Pulitzer for this article in 2008. He won one other Pulitzer in 2010, for his (very harrowing) article about parents who forget their children in the back seat of their car.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02...

I don't know much about Pulitzers, but I'm shocked by this. I thought this piece was terrible. Maybe the people who award Pulitzers are into symphonic music.

Specifically I thought the writing had a forced enthusiasm. I think the whole premise is dull and obvious. I really didn't like the philosophical allusions. And I like classical music, DFW essays (long, poetic), and philosophy.

Maybe I'll check out what it was up against...

http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2008-Feature-Writing

Fellow finalists (seem equally boring): Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Thomas Curwen of the Los Angeles Times for his vivid account of a grizzly bear attack and the recovery of the two victims, and Kevin Vaughan of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo., for his sensitive retelling of a school bus and train collision at a rural crossing in 1961 that killed 20 children.

I wonder what would happen in a similar experiment where a large sign makes it clear how high-status the violinist is. Would people be persuaded to stop, or are the passers-by in a Metro station naturally going to be too busy and hurried to take in a performance?

I also wonder what would have happened if it were an instrument other than violin. I've long been an orchestral musician myself, and I'm one of a great many people who feel unaccompanied solo violin sounds scratchy and annoying (or thin and lacking in context at best), no matter how skillfully it's played. A really great cellist, however, would grab my attention much more effectively. Or imagine a top-notch bassoonist launching into Rite of Spring out of nowhere. I'd stop to listen.

I agree. My dad loves solo violin, and I personally don't care for the sound. I definitely prefer a cello or someone playing a woodwind.

Alto sax is my personal favorite solo instrument.

Great point. When I was rushing through Grand Central trying to get done with my commute, I hardly paid attention to any action that would otherwise be super interesting to watch/listen to. Now, GC has a huge tourist crowd throughout the day especially this time of the year. If you do this experiment in GC now, I am pretty sure you'd attract a huge tourist crowd, and get the commuters mad too, because you'd be blocking their way.

I assure Beyoncé would have drawn a crowd.

Only because people would recognize her from face or music or voice.

To replicate this you would need to put some make-up / prosthetics on to hide the fact it was her and make her sing something not particularly famous on her own.

I think the result would be the same assuming no one recognized her voice.

I think we might be able to get the. Same effect by transporting her to somewhere else in the world where American popular music isn't as popular.

Serious question: where would this be? Outside of North America, I've only been to Brazil and multiple European countries, and American pop music is still ubiquitous in these places.

I'm having a hard time coming up with something concrete myself. The 'cheating' answer would of course be North Korea.

For something more practical, targeting an older segment of the population, or a remote area in a non-English speaking country might do it.

Lady GaGa playing a piano in the same location is probably your best bet.

Practically no one recognises her without here insane make-up and get-ups (Which I think is a pretty smart ploy) and a piano is a piano yet she is in the same "Generally recognised superstar" category as beyonce and she is a very good pianist.

From Earthsearch[1]:

> The Japanese might make the best cars, the Germans the best beers, the French the best perfumes, the Italians the best pizza, but Americans make the best dreams.

> American TV, film, and music dominate the world's mass markets. While American-made computers, cars, steel and tools struggle against foreign competition, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Mickey Mouse are cleaning up. American pop culture is just about the biggest export the U.S. produces. For better or worse, it's literally everywhere. Every backroads world traveler has a favorite story about being lost, hungry, and hundreds of miles off the edge of any map when a friendly native suddenly appears to lead him to a hut. Crawling inside, the traveler finds himself staring at a rerun of Dynasty on the generator-powered TV and a poster of Michael Jordan on the wall.

> It's scary.

The passage is dated, incorrect (even when it was written), and oddly chauvinistic to our ears. But it contains a nugget of truth: practically all of humanity has consumed at least some American media.

1. http://www.amazon.com/Earthsearch-John-Cassidy/dp/1878257749 by John Cassidy, author of Explorabook.

Not necessarily: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmv1VhrtYRo

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