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May 26, 2005
The Lovely, The Talented...
Maya Angelou once said, "Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it."
If Angelou's analogy is accurate, then I work in a damn power plant.
I've written in the past about my friend Ethan, the should be-rock star who works at my company. If you want to know the difference between respect and admiration, I can sum it up easily for you: I respect Ethan's ability as a business professional; I admire his ability as an artist. Both are good statements and meant well, it's just that one is ratcheted up a couple of notches.
Over on Ethan's site, he's been posting up a storm lately... and he's got two new songs up, one of which is included in a compliation album put together to raise money for a local musician in Ohio who is battling cancer. And check the review he got from the Athens Musician Network:
"Tied for most creative on the compilation are Hazy Jane's techno-to-acoustic 'Box Elder Opera' and Indelible Beancurd's 'I Left My Blargh in San Francisco' - a layered, mock-lounge litany by Dreifort and NYC cohort, Ethan Rand."
I won't steal his thunder by lifting the link onto my blog -- you've got to go over there and click the link on his site to hear it. But despite another of Ethan's unique titles (Dude, if you're reading, what the hell is a Blargh?), the song is exactly what the reviewer says it is. Color me duly impressed. (Besides, as a commenter on his site points out, any song that can mention AstroGlide -- and in French no less! -- has got to be pretty damn cool.)
Another extremely talented and thoughtful creative type whom I work with is my friend Derek Baker. I should have linked to him before, but I honestly only learned of his blog just before I went on my little vacation. Now that I'm back and reading co-workers' blogs more often, I wanted to correct that oversight.
Derek is a calmer, more rational thinker than I am - you'll find more thoguhtful, reasoned analyses of what's going on in the world than you find on my rant-laden blog. He's also got a perspective that's somewhat different than mine on politics; I have been a lifelong Democrat, while Derek had always been a Republican until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney came along and swung the party so far to the extreme right that Derek felt he had no choice but to switch parties -- which he did, finally, earlier this month. So I guess I'd say that when you're looking for spitting, hair flaming, burst blood vessels anger, come to me... but when you're looking for a calmer, more dispassionate but no less urgent analysis or commentary on the world we live in... well, Derek's your guy.
Man, I work with some sickly talented people. Daaaaaamn.
Comments
"Man, I work with some sickly talented people." Same here, Curmudgeon! Thanks for the very kind words. Working with talented folks like you really warms my blargh.
-eth
Posted by: Ethan McCarty at May 27, 2005 11:13 AM
