Gene Weingarten in the article Pearls Before Breakfast turned his interview with Bell into a very interesting story that can teach the reader how great and talented people can be found around them if they open their eyes and look around. Weingarten illustrated images of homeless musicians to say that they’re just like any educated musicians who have their own concerts. For example, Weingarten said “When he performs, he is usually the only man under the lights who is not in white tie and tails. He walks out to a standing O in black pants and an untucked black dress shirt, shirttail dangling.” Then Weingarten uses one of the biographical facts about Bell to describe how did he professionalize in playing violin. For example, he says “he got his first music lessons when he was a 4 year old in Bloomington.” This fact about Bell tells the reader that Bell has been playing violin for years, and that’s why he can play some very difficult music. Then, Weingarten describes how Bell loves and cares about his instrument by leaving it under the perfect temperature so the sound of the string would not change.

I really like how Weingarten used some french words and sentences to describe some images and ideas. This tells the reader that some of the ideas and events have taken place with foreign people. For example, Weingarten says “AS METRO STATIONS GO, L’ENFANT PLAZA IS MORE PLEBEIAN THAN MOST.” In addition, he capitalized the whole sentence to make it look different to the rest of the paragraphs and sentences so the reader can read it carefully. In this case, Weingarten talked about how ‘l’enfant plaza” are different by making the sentence also look different.

Weingarten in this article shares an important idea to readers which is how they can see important and talented people if they open their eyes. In these days, people are mostly distracted from phones and technology. I believe that people in this story were distracted from Bell and they couldn’t take advantage of listening to one of the world’s most famous musicians. In other words, they lost “a free, close-up ticket to a concert by a talented musician.” Weingarten showed how phones can make us blind and not notice what’s going on around us.

 

Musicians can share their feelings by playing several kind of music. Weingarten described how Bell shares his feeling with people by illustrating Bell’s motions and describing his music. For example, Weingarten says “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.” Bell shared his feelings with people by playing a powerful music called Chaconne. In addition, Weingarten described Bell’s body language: “his body leaning into the music and arching on tiptoes at the high notes… the sound was nearly symphonic, carrying to all parts of the homely arcade as the pedestrian traffic filed past.” In other words, Weingarten described Bell’s body language so the reader know about how engaged Bell was to the Chaconne music.

I really enjoyed reading this article because Weingarten did a really good job making this article attractive. He shared his interview ideas and facts with the reader by describing events, and illustrating motions. In addition, he shared an important take away in this article, which is how great and talented people don’t always come from a high class. Homeless musicians who

may look creepy or be annoying by their music can be one of the world’s most famous musicians if we support them.