Talent

I have always had real appreciation for skills that are the result of supernatural talent and hard work. I alluded a bit to it in my previous post on sports. Today I write about music, and more specifically, performance. Below are two clips of Eruption by Van Halen. When I watch Eddie Van Halen play in the first clip, I think about how much he has worked on this playing and how much he must still practice. I wonder what it must be like to think of music and have no problem playing it. The ease at which he plays the most difficult things. I play a little guitar and just the idea of playing with that much distortion on the guitar without it sounding terrible is challenging for me. Eddie is doing wonders with his left hand while his right is holding the guitar pick, doing pick harmonics, changing strings, and working the tremelo (more accurately should be called the vibrato) bar. Walking around the stage, oblivious to any stage fright, playing the crowd while at the same time in his own world. This is a talent taking to a VERY high level. I often wish I had this level of talent at something but usually check myself by thinking of all the sacrifice it takes to attain.

The second clip is just plain cool in that it takes an electric guitar solo that was a tribute to classical music and brings it back to a classical instrument. I would love to hear a violin version with the same sound effects as the guitar. I am sure it exists somewhere.

Anyway, here's to excellence!

Original Recipe



Extra Crispy

The best part of sports

I have found that my interest in sports on TV has hit an all time low. I have watched about 15 minutes of sports since the conclusion of the Spurs/Suns series in 2006 NBA playoffs. All 15 of those minutes were spent on the Thursday night NFL opener between the Colts and the Saints. I haven't watched any baseball this season! I have found this break very pleasing in that I haven't been filling up my head with meaningless stats and "awareness" of the current status of the various teams and players. I really don't feel I am missing out on anything important.

But this sabbatical has not been completely pure. I was invited to play fantasy football for both my workplace and by my best friend. I really should have resisted but the sweet siren song of "the draft" still drew me in. There was also that little bit of peer pressure to be part of the group that I succumbed to. Anyway, I have done very well in this area as well. I have averaged less than one "fantasy checkin" a week on these teams. I have also not spent any time researched or pouring over the stats to figure out who to pick up and start and such. I can really feel the extra time that this has gained me to spend on other things that I feel are more important at this point in my life.

Interestingly, I have spent MORE time reading about the NBA. I think it all started with the Boston Celtics and the NBA Draft Lottery. The Celtics had done so badly in the previous year that they had a very good chance at landing one of the top two picks in this year's draft. This would most certainly mean getting either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, either of whom would bring new hope to my floundering favorite team. The draft lottery is just like other lotteries where ping-pong balls are picked randomly to determine who picks first. This randomness is added to prevent teams from purposing losing game in an effort to get the better draft position. Well, this randomness "worked"! The Celtics ended up with the 5th pick, which was the worst they could have done. So I had the emotional high of the possibility of the good pick, the low of the actual 5 pick. But, kudos to the GM Danny Ainge who managed work out trades for both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Long story short, the Celtics look to best among the best teams and my interest in the NBA is re-kindled. There are some many intelligent bloggers in the NBA world that I don't feel like I am being dumbed down in my reading. There is even a guy who is watching old NBA games during the off-season and recapping them in his own words. It is great mix of nostalgia and op/ed.

Bottom line... I like sports because of the rules that make it possible to determine a winner and loser. I really appreciate this since in life, the rules are not clear and winning is not easily defined. I also like to see people working hard to be excellent at what they do. I like being able to directly see the fruits of their dedication to proper exeecution and exceptional fitness. I tend to root for both the underdog as over-achievers and the "overdog" as beating the odds and staying on top. Finally and most importantly, I like the drama and unexpected. Case in point...see the end of the 2007 Chicago marathon where the ending seems to embody all these things.