I do a watercolor painting from start to finish and ramble on about various stream of consciousness subjects while doing so.
this thing is insane 1.2 ghz dual core; 1 gb ram; 400ms mali gpu; hdmi; usb; wifi; bluetooth; ubuntu; $199 *swoon* i want a whole bunch of them.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
All voices. It’s for a kitty cat video I made yesterday. It’s supposed to be both scary and weird, hope you enjoy.
=== copied from a post on facebook === (my commentary follows) ===
Kristof Burm
A must read. Awareness.
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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
=== end quote ===
the person circled in the picture is one of the world’s greatest violinists, performing a free concert in a public venue. he can’t even get people to watch. all about us people are doing great things. but, do people notice? not usually… but why not?
the subject of the article is one of my primary interests as an observer of human society. do people like stuff based upon the content of the stuff, or based more upon social cues (peer pressure, labels, etc). the answer? as this article suggests, and my life experience corroborates, the latter. not whether other people like something, but whether people *believe* other people like something, is the single greatest factor in determining whether they are willing to demonstrate their own liking of the thing. (whether they actually like it is subjective and a far more complicated matter). but as this example tends to suggest, most people don’t even seem to notice something if they don’t believe other people think it is worthwhile. what this says about humans and the value of popularity in human society makes me want to grit my teeth, a bit, no, a lot, and perhaps mutter off into the woods to a hut, shaking my head in frustration and despair…
in related news, as an occasional traveller to various post-corporeal planes of existence, i have encountered jimi hendrix, who travels the afterlife playing street guitar with an amplifier strapped to his back. i have personally witnessed him getting heckeled while doing this. the bizzare trend to require social approval before exhibiting ‘like’ of something apparently continues to at least the near-earth realms of the afterlife. curiouser and curiouser. i suppose the social imprinting people are subjected to during earth plane existence affects various more subtle bodies? how strange. well i guess not. but annoying!
in conversation, the question becomes, do we listen to the content of the message, or do we merely respond to the messenger? it’s an important question… which do you do?
