for those of you who don't know, Joshua Bell is a world-class classical violinist who plays an extremely expensive violin ($3.5 million) and ticket prices for his shows are generally more than $100.
he attempted a social experiment in conjunction with the washington post; busk at a busy metro area to see if he really was noticed.
Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com
I think this is really interesting; I've seen some good buskers and I've tried it a few times with sometimes good, sometimes poor results. the most I've gotten in about an hour is $40.