Quote:
Originally Posted by Lbooker
It reminds me of an experiment in psychogeography conducted by Guy Debord and his friends of Situationist International 50 years ago. They plotted the whereabouts of several people on maps of Paris for a long time, and in the end showed that basically people behave like robots, always going around in the same ways, thus exploring only a tiny part of reality, knowing and discovering only few of the possibilities of life. Which is why Debord invented the "dérive". Guy Debord's Theory of the Dérive. A video of a dérive in Vancouver; dice are cast and the numbers indicate directions to follow (numbers may signify : cardinal points, distance, actions, such as riding a bus until the sixth stop, or entering the third shop, building, or bar, or following the fifth person passing by for three minutes, or turning right at the fourth crossroads). Many more psychogeographic videos on youtube.
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Sounds like something out of "The Dice Man"
Quote:
Originally Posted by cassidym
Plus you need to be very cautious in DC. In fact, there are some areas in the District where the lawyers and politicians outnumber the humans!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger
Actually, now that I've been ruminating it over  I have arrived at the following conclusion: those who were meant to enjoy it, did. If you read the long Washington Post version, you'll see that a few passers-by did stop, namely those that were connoisseurs: they recognized the piece, the virtuosity or the violinist. So it did make sense for them.
I posted the story because I shamefacedly have to admit that I would not have stopped. One I have never heard of.... (even now I have to check his name) Joshua Bell, and I would definitely not recognized the Bach. Now had it been some more mainstream names, like Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi... Those tunes would have chimed differently with me, and I dare say the less sophisticated commuters of that train station. So maybe the experiment was unfortunately aimed at a very narrow audience.
Still, the question stands, and I believe that at least once in our lives, everyone walks by a miracle (or more) and misses out on an opportunity to enrich their lives or at least their spirituality. |
Nice thread Badger
