Diamond in the Rough

Whitney Tilson mentioned a really interesting article in his latest e-mail. I wanted to make sure you took a look at it.

The Washington Post had Joshua Bell, one of the best violinists in the world, play in a Washington Metro station at rush hour and then discussed the results with various experts. The reaction from people passing by in very interesting,

I thought the thought of one of the curators of the national gallery of art was the most interesting. Essentially he says that if he put most masterpieces in a restaurant instead of a gallery people wouldn't pay attention to them, people need a frame to understand beauty, people have difficulty evaluating things outside of the context they expect to find them in.

For people who work in an industry where people don't think the "five dollar bill on the street" exists, it is interesting to note that only only five or six people out of over a thousand noticed a master playing in their midst, and one of them was a child whose mother moved him on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Timothy Burger
timothyb(at)timothyburger.com