erudite

I don't normally post blogs like this, but I was just now surfing the Opinion section of the NY Times and came across this piece by Dick Cavett. It is the first interview between Cavett and Richard Burton. [You have to click on the link or the images to get to the article and then scroll down to view the recording - it is brilliant.]

I haven't really been exposed to a lot of Burton's work (or Cavett's TV show for that matter), so this was a bit of a first - it was recorded in July of 1980, four short years before he died. 

It is a powerful lesson: one generation ago, a talk show consisted of some simple opening and closing music, a stage and two chairs. The host and the guest sat very close to each other and talked. They talked (in this case) for just under 30 minutes, without interruption, and yet at the end you felt like it had just begun.

In comparison, our conversations today are shamefully vacuous; our talk shows even worse; and I struggle to come up with more than one or two entertainers (actors, musicians, athletes, etc.) who could even come close to the presence and wit and strength and impact of Burton. He was something special indeed.

We would do well to hearken back to the day when one had to deliver in such a simple medium, and those that were proficient could do it with such ease, but create such powerful tours de force.

You can say the same thing about business, education, and politics today - so much of it is small and mundane, and so many of their "stars" pale in comparison.

I wonder if this is just a matter of the pendulum swinging, and that at some point in the very near future, we will swing back to where we demand and expect this level of performance not just from our players, but from everyone, no matter their role? I hope that is the case, right now, I'm going to look for the other three shows, and watch them often.

Bravo