Transcript Document

The Soloist
"A lost dream, an unlikely
friendship and the
redemptive power of music."
About the author: Steve Lopez
He is an American journalist, who works at
the Los Angeles times as a columnist, and is
the son of spanish and Italian immigrants.
"I'm on foot in downtown Los Angeles(...)
That's when I see him. He's dressed in rags on
a busy downtown street corner, playing
Beethoven on a battered violin that looks like
it's been pulled from a dumpster."
Schizophrenia
Is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought
processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly
manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre
delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is
accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.
Nathaniel Ayers
"He is still suspicious of me, suspicious of everything around
him it seems"
"The list includes Babe Ruth, Susan, Nancy, Kevin and Craig.
- Whose names are those?- I ask
- Oh those people, - he says,
- Those were my classmates at Juilliard"
The first Section
In chapter 1 of the book the author meets the musician
Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, in a street corner in downtown L.A.
in his way to work. The chapter concludes with Nathaniel as if it
slipped away from him tells the author that he used to study at
Juilliard.
"It was the fall semester of 1972, his third year at Juilliard, and
Nathaniel had been tormented by months of confusion, anxiety
and Hallucinations (...) Nathaniel began shedding his clothes
for no apparent reason (...) He wasn't angry or aggressive, but
he seemed to be under a dark spell (...) Nathaniel twenty one
years old was wheeled away to the psychiatric emergency room
(...) The diagnosis was Paranoid Schizophrenia, and his life, as
he had lived it until then was over. So, too were his hopes of a
career in music."
Chapter 2
In chapter 2 the author finds out that Nathaniel never really
learned to play the violin at Juilliard but he was taught to play
the Double bass he claims that "I don't know how to play the
violin." A violin that has only two strings
Chapter 3: He's got the world on two strings
" Steve, I'm the CEO of the Pearl River Piano Group America
Ltd. (...) This morning I read your article about the street
violinist in L.A. and of course was moved by your story."
LaLamp: is a society that picks mental ill people from the
streets which makes a deal with Lopez to keep Nathaniel's
instruments in their storage room and that he may play there
whenever he wants to.
Chapter 4
"The Instruments arrive"
"He doesn't answer he is seen the Cello"
Lopez takes them to LALamp
Chapter 5: Nathaniel goes to play at lamp and Lopez
communicates him with his younger sister. Beethoven's Sixth
He feels trapped, he is only allowed to play inside lamp and
after that his instruments are taken away from him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9B7nOY1Ft4