Some people should get a lot more of that. For instance, a good friend of mine, Bradley Beckstead. Excellent musician, and truly gifted when it comes to showing people around town. As in, selfless impresario extraordinaire. Check out his website and buy his CD, if you want to discover a true original.
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I sometimes wonder at the oddity of our personal affinities, our sense of ownership and pride. Especially when we think we see something in our favorite writers, singers, philosophers, and artists that others just don’t see. Along the range from smugness and superiority to sadness and resignation, we often view our likes and dislikes in irrational ways. Insiders versus outsiders. The cognoscenti versus the great unwashed. Sometimes, we actually experience a strange sense of disappointment when someone we admire gains much deserved recognition, finally. Because now others see what we see, and we lose some hold, some link, some special designation, and we don’t like that. Ironic, of course, because we have been saying for so long how the world is blind to the merits of X, Y or Z.
Who tops your list of great artists, writers, musicians and philosophers, languishing in obscurity, neglected, forgotten?
