It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington, Furukawa says. Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn’t do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?
"Pearls Before Breakfast" by Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post
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I heard about this on All Things Considered. I like to think I’d stop and listen — I have, on multiple occasions, when a busker has been good and I’ve had to wait for a train. But more often I’ve had other things on my mind or earphones in my ears and have paid the subway musicians no mind.