A little bit of everything

A hornazo of blog tidbits, to keep you busy while I travel:

I've spent three glorious days listening to every archived program currently offered on Carlos Perez's elclubdejazz.com.

For an ear to ear grin, try a search in Google Elmer Fudd. Vewy sweepy, fow exampwul. Ow twy wabbit. Cwazy wabbit.

Better yet, go straight to Google pig latin. Eelingfay Uckylay? Hmmm?

El País told me last week that during one hour in the metro station at L'Enfant Plaza in Washington DC, 1070 people rushed right by the violinist playing in his heart out. 27 people threw him a coin, nickels, the odd quarter. He made a little over 32 dollars in that hour. Rush hour. One woman, a young employee of the US Commerce Department stopped, stared and listened. For an hour.

She recognized the violinist, since she'd seen him perform 3 weeks before in the Library of Congress.

The violin was a 1713 Stradivarius, and the 40ish man playing it, in baseball cap and jeans, was Joshua Bell.

Leonard Slatkin lost a bet in the whole deal, according to El País. He was sure a crowd would form, and 50 and 100 dollar bills would hit Bell's violin case.

Made me wonder what prodigies and wonders I walk by every day, going where I have to go, without ever knowing......
Walk slowly and listen. I'll be back next Sunday.