This guy can play.
The article is way long, but the gist is this: An incredible violin soloist plays some of the most enduring music ever created on a 300 year old Stradivarius in a metro station in D.C. His case is open for donations like any other street performer. Will people stop and watch, will they give him money? Just the night before he had played to a house where the so-so seats were $100 each.
The answer - he made $32.17 in 45 minutes, but that's only because one lady actually recognized him and gave him a twenty. No one else really stopped to listen. They had jobs to get to. They were listening to iPods and thinking about work. One lady led her child away.
In the article they say not to judge people too harshly, as he was "art without a frame", but this still kinda gets me.