talent............................

 

practical..............

 

     One aspect of Franklin's genius was the variety of his interest, from science to government to diplomacy to journalism, all of them approached from a very practical rather than theoretical angle. . . .

     Herman Melville would one day write that Franklin was "everything but a poet."  His father, no romantic, in fact preferred it that way, and he put an end to Benjamin's versifying.  "My father discouraged me by ridiculing my performance and telling me verse-makers were generally beggars; so I escaped being a poet, most probably a bad one."

-Walter Isaacson,  Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

lingerable.............................

 I know a couple who treasure friends who are what they call "lingerable."  They are the sort of people you want to linger with at the table after a meal or in chairs outside the pool, to let things flow, to let the relationship emerge.  It's a great talent—to be someone others consider lingerable.

-David Brooks,  How To Know a Person:  The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

harmony here and discord there.....

 

There's always a lesson to be learned

whether in a hotel bar

or over tea in a teahouse,

no matter which way it goes, 

for you or against,

what you want to hear or what you don't.

Seeing Roland Kirk, for example,

with two then three saxophones

in his mouth at once

and a kazoo, no less,

hanging from his neck at the ready.

Even in my youth I saw this

not as a lesson in keeping busy

with one thing or another,

but as a joyous impossible lesson

in how to do it all at once,

pleasing and displeasing yourself

with harmony here and discord there.

But what else did I know

as the waitress lit a candle

on my round table in the dark?

What did I know about anything?

-Billy Collins, The Five Spot, 1964

A little bit.......................

..........................about William Morris:

William Morris    Strawberry Thief    Textile Design   1883

Morris speaks to us today because, for all his seemingly disparate activities, he was never diffused.

Both practical and idealistic, Morris was prodigious in his output, but, unlike Taylor, output was not his goal.

Morris "believed that eternity resides in the unique detail rather than in some Newtonian world of infinitely reproducible parts."

For Morris, taking pleasure in one's work was the essential ingredient of a good life, and its destruction the main crime perpetrated by the factory system.

Both George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats called Morris a prophet.  His genius lay in the totality of his efforts and his ability to see clearly the steep costs of an age that values the material and the efficient above the immeasurable and the human.

-As culled from Maggie Jackson's Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age

Capability.......................

We have to deal with things that we're capable of understanding.

I'm really better at determining my level of incompetency and then just avoiding that.

You have a limited amount of time and talent and you have to allocate it smartly.

-Charlie Munger, as culled from here

Forecasting is difficult *........................................

      Nor does talent exist in a vacuum.  Outstanding performers in part of a company may, when transferred, suddenly fail. . . . Hypotheses abounded but what everyone learned is that ability and environment are inextricably linked.  As anyone who's suffered a terrible boss will recognize: given the right circumstances, everybody can be made to fail.  Because achievement derives in part from context, forecasting individual talent omits half the picture.

-Margaret Heffernan, Uncharted:  How To Navigate The Future

* although the weather people seem to have gotten the latest snow forecast right

Inner........................

     In the parable of the Talents, the Master's condemnation of the servant who neglected to use his gift is clear and unmistakable, and having discovered one of the rules of the game of life, we risk failure by ignoring it.  The talent not used. like the limb not exercised, slumbers and finally atrophies.  We must be "doers of the Word, and not hearers only".  Since thinking follows tracks laid down in one's own inner conversations, not only can we see where we are going on the playing field of life by observing our inner conversations, but also, we can determine where we will go by controlling and directing our inner talking.

-Neville Goddard

On raising standards.......................

In a market which is increasingly open and increasingly global, businesses simply have to be better and good is no longer good enough. . . . everyone is your competitor.   

So what's to be done?  Raise your standards.  Ah - but how do you do that?  Firstly understand the scale of standards.  Your organization has a certain competence, talent, ability, call it what you will.  Use it, 'squeeze it to the max', whatever that might be.  But you can multiply its effectiveness many times by your decisions.  And one decision is to raise your standards.

Here's my standards scale:  Dire, poor, OK, good, very good, excellent, outstanding, awe-inspiring.

-Nicholas Bate,  Instant MBA:  Think, perform and earn like a top business-school graduate:  52 brilliant ideas

Risks...................................

    In the parable of the talents, the three servants are called to render an account of how they used the gifts entrusted to them.  The first two used their talents boldly and resourcefully.  The third, who prudently wraps his money and buries it, typifies the Christian who deposits his faith in an hermetic container and seals the lid shut.  He or she limps through life on childhood memories of Sunday school and resolutely refuses the challenge of growth and spiritual maturity.  Unwilling to take risks, this person loses the talent entrusted to him or her.  'The master wanted his servants to take risks.  He wanted them to gamble with his money.'

-Brennan Manning,  The Ragamuffin Gospel

pure talent........................

I would certainly classify Prince as a major artist of the late twentieth century, but I must admit some disappointment with how this brilliant career developed or failed to develop over time.  His great period was his early one, from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, when he created a brand-new sonic landscape and used the emergent genre of music videos as a flamboyant medium of performance art.  Musically, he downscaled Rick James' massive macho funk chords into a bewitching web work of intricate rhythm, intimate and sensual.  As a sexual persona, he borrowed transgender motifs from Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix and refashioned himself first as a half-naked s&m rent boy and then as an aristocratic dandy, dripping silk and lace. ...

     The news about Prince's death two weeks ago was announced while my "Art of Song Lyric" course was meeting.  We were in fact doing the period from James Brown through soul, disco, and funk.  I was incredulous when I got back to my office and saw the shocking headline on the Drudge Report.  At our next class, I immediately showed Prince's "Kiss" video (1986) to demonstrate what pure talent looks like.  What a low-budget masterpiece that beautifully edited video is - nothing but dance, gesture, seductive rhythm, and witty warmth.

-Camille Paglia, The Death of Prince from Provocations:  Collected Essays

On talent.................................

"If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room."

-Austin Kleon

A Chorus Line...........................

Last night, my Sweetie and I ventured out to Weathervane Playhouse to catch their final performance of A Chorus Line.   Unbelievable talent, both voice and dance, graced the stage.  It was really, really well done.  Newark is very blessed to have such a great resource like Weathervane.  Next up, in two weeks, is I Hate Hamlet.

 

Please.............................

Beautiful........................

My Sweetie and I ventured to the amazing Ohio Theatre to see the show Beautiful:  The Carole King Musical.  If you are ever presented the opportunity, do go to this show.  It was fabulous.  Of course, some of us are children of the '60s, and Carole King contributed greatly to the soundtrack of our lives.   Somehow I made it this far in life without every owning Tapestry.  Our friends at Amazon are now busy correcting that.

An exploration of anger.............

............................................................the Jack Nicholson way:

thanks craig

Well, good..................................

 “Americans have combined human ingenuity, a market system, a tide of talented and ambitious immigrants, and the rule of law to deliver abundance beyond any dreams of our forefathers,”

-as quoting from Warren Buffett's latest annual report

via

Sad news.....................

Debbie Reynolds dies one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher.  My Sweetie loved watching Debbie Reynolds.  Can you blame her?

Privilege........................

 If  this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by "we" I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp.

-Bill Bryson,  *A Short History of Nearly Everything

enlargeable photo and explanation here

Re-visiting the reasons why I like living in Newark and Licking County....

Reason #44:  The Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra.

The Orchestra performed at the fabulous Midland Theatre tonight.  They opened with Rossini's Overture to The Barber of Seville.  Yep, the one made famous by Bugs Bunny:



They closed the show with Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95, aka From the New World.  Here is different orchestra's performance of the Allegro con fuoco:



It was a fine evening.   For reference, here is another NGSO post.