The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

About Joshua BellJoshua Bell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed with almost all of the world’s major orchestras and conductors. As well as the standard concerto repertoire, Bell has performed new works — Nicholas Maw’s violin concerto is dedicated to him, the recording of which won Bell a Grammy and gave the world premiere of the work in 1993. He performed the solo part on John Corigliano’s Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film The Red Violin and was also featured in Ladies in Lavender. Bell also made an appearance in the movie Music of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other notable violinists.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written (“Chaconne” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor), with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars (a Gibson ex Huberman Strad handcrafted in 1731 by Antonio Stradivari). Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true 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 people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

The Dark Side Of The Moon – Part 2

The Dark Side Of The Moon – Part 3

The Dark Side Of The Moon – Part 4

The Dark Side Of The Moon – Part 5

You can watch the full video right here.

This fantastic work got the attention and recognition of everyone on Vimeo. It really blows everyones minds!!!
What really amazed me was the technique used to make it. Someone guessed that it was done with 3Ds Max, Vray, FumeFX and Krakatoa but the answer came quickly “It’s just After Effects and Particular.”
This is the perfect example of 1% perspiration and 99% of inspiration.

I first heard this song in this following composition. It has different sequences from Wong Kar Wai’s movies.

Love Someone

I could go on with his songs … but just one more

Step on my Trip

LYRICS

Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday

Footsteps of spring
the city starts adding color
The melody flowsLE LU LA LI
Through the colored lenses

ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all the different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
Whats the most important thing?

Spinning and turning on the overpass
as we overtake that season
this and that, which color is your melody?
Sometimes you could get confused

ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
What are you thinking of now?

If we can embrace all the differences
It will shine the sky in rainbow colors
Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday

You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Don’t worry about it, lets just go as we are.
If we can embrace all the differences
The rain will stop, and the sky will shines in rainbow colors

Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday
You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Let your tone shine like the rainbow

Pass through the maze of everyday
And start playing your tone

On the 4th July, to coincide with America’s Independence Day, Diageo Ireland is launching a new Budweiser campaign featuring a groundbreaking 60 second TV advertisement titled Lyrics.

The Shoot

Lyrics is an ad about people from all over a city coming together to spell out the words to the Beatles track All together now in time to a train as it passes by. Written by Dave Henderson and Richard Denney, and shot by award winning Director Chris Palmer, it was shot over 5 days from an actual train on the metro-rail as it tracked around the city of Chicago.

All in all, the film and crew were on the train for 50 hrs over a 5 day period in temperatures that were often below freezing. Technically it was a remarkably complex shoot as the train needed to be integrated into the everyday running of the usual metro time table, and needed to go at exact speeds that mimicked the pace of the song.

Each lyric then needed to happen at exactly the right moment as the train tracked by so that it could be captured on film. With over 30 Lyrics sets at any one time spread over an 8km loop of the city, it was a logistical challenge to say the least.

Another challenge was that all of the actors were outside for up to 10 hrs a day in the freezing temperatures, often in costumes that provided little warmth. As such there was almost an entire crew of people dedicated to keeping the actors warm with blankets, thermoses and portable heaters.

The people of Chicago were brilliant as well and invited actors into their homes and offered them some respite from the bitter weather during shoot down time glorious stuff.

The Music

All Together Now was written by Lennon & McCartney and originally recorded by the Beatles in 1967 (released in 1969)

The band behind the music track is The Hours (they are touring with U2 in August), who were able to find time in between touring to re-record a version of the Beatles original specifically for the ad

The band chose to record the track as organically as possible to keep the tone in line with the film and was recorded in their hotel room using basic unsophisticated equipment and some of the percussion was even made in obscure ways like banging a fire extinguisher against a metal heater.