Blog #3 The reading response

I read all three of the readings, but am focusing on the Joshua Bell article. It gives the account of world renowned violinist Joshua Bell performing at a Metro station in Washing DC. One morning he came and performed for 45 minutes during morning rush hour, at a station where a lot of federal employees are getting off their trains and heading to work. And here is my response (which may be a shitty first draft, but deadline is near and my wife really needs me to do something with the kids):

Dear Mr Weingarten,

I have read your article on the Joshua Bell incident and I have one thing to say to you, “thank you.” Yes, sir, thanks to you and your driveling, incessant, super sized value meal of a wordy, portentious article I now have the perfect piece to read my kids to sleep at night. First of all, this experiment is really hardly worthy of the three sentences I wrote describing the incident to my English Instructor, so this part is not your fault. They take a man hardly anyone knows (no reflection on his amazing talent) and stick him in the middle of a bunch of idiots going to their offices to continue their twisted mission of dragging this country even further into a bureaucratic quagmire it already is. OF COURSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHO HE WAS!! These people probably think Michael Bolton has talent and no doubt think that Michael Buble is the next Sinatra! You might as well have taken U2's Bono to a conference full of senior citizens trying to maximize their retirements and getting investment and medicare tips. Bono could walk right up to them, introduce himself, start singing “With or Without You”, and they would argue that Cher's husband died years ago and this man is an impostor! For God's sake, at least put the guy up on the Mall, with a little bit of commercialism around him, have some people listen who aren't tunnel-visioned. I would listen. I wouldn't know who he was. I'd probably contribute, myself a former street guitarist with slightly less talent than Mr Bell. So there's that.

Now, Gene, we come to you. And I do appreciate the background on Joshua Bell. You set the story up very well. But all those words to say basically nothing more than “famous guy plays and isn't recognized?” This is worthy of a Pulitzer?! And this bloated, triple-decker cheeseburger of excess vocabulary and portentious phrasing was just an excerpt? My God, what else was there to write about? Did you mention his shoe size, his favorite movies, the color of every passing stranger's socks in the full article? A Pulitzer? And you gloss over the fact that some Brazilian nitwit with no heart and soul calls the police on street musicians? Holy crap, Gene, this is the real crime of the story! Your writing is dull and it was a pain to read this article. I am reminded of a scene in “Amadeus” where the King says to Mozart, “too many notes”. And I am sure that you would see me as a bumbling king and no doubt envision your self as the Mozart of words, but I say to you, “too many words!” Were it not that I HAD to read this, I would have tossed it before the second paragraph.

Have a great day, Gene,
Jim Caruthers
Vancouver, Washington