Recall, for a moment, the most foreign Asian-sounding music you can imagine... unrecognizable rhythms and chord progressions... the kind where you just don't think that music is REALLY an international language at all... that makes you feel a little ignorant when you wonder "Is this it, or are they just warming up?"

Ok. Now put it together with everything that you know about the sound of another person learning to play any bowed intstrument... and then put it on a subway platform. I was ASTOUNDED that so many tired Bostonians were so patient with something so irritating. This Asian man was sitting on a special cushion with an empty tissue box beside him for donations and just wailing away on the thing, staring into space, his cheeks reddening occasionally... from exertion, perhaps? From embarrassment? The oppressive underground heat and humidity? After at least 15 minutes the teenage next to me moaned quietly "Oh my god." and took off his coat.