Bear with me for a few sentences while I try to triple-bank this column off of classical music, genius and my oldest son. It'll be quite a trick shot if I pull it off, because I can't imagine a context in which my son and classical music actually coexist. (He prefers the sounds of gothic whiners coughing up hairballs, accompanied by guitars being smashed. Turned up just loud enough to crack plaster.) He's probably not a genius, either, except at convincing himself that his room is "clean" when you can't see the carpet for the clothes.
He graduated this week, my oldest son did. He was never in danger of being valedictorian—didn't even wear the yellow honor society robes, mostly because, while he inherited his mother's frisky intelligence, his father's boredom in matters of paperwork was also part of the deal. No matter; he doesn't look good in yellow anyway, and I wouldn't have been any prouder regardless.
Also, that doesn't mean he's not a genius. High school—at least as I remember it—isn't exactly calibrated to CAT-scan your personality for those hidden qualities that might lift you to greatness later. No, high school is more about the incessant search for identity and hot dates.
I'm thinking about genius and classical music because this week, behind our annual CineVegas extravaganza, we're running Phil Hagen's profile of John Clare, the program director at classical-music station KCNV-89.7-FM. At first blush, this isn't a natural subject for a paper like the Weekly—if I was pressed for a one-word summary of my attitude toward classical music, and was denied the use of "boring," I'd probably go with "moviesoundtrack." But Clare is a fascinating guy, casually referred to as a "genius" by some—or so Phil convinced me—and that was enough to green-light the story.
"I was reminded how far the combination of talent and desire can go," says Phil, whom readers with long memories may remember as the Weekly's top editor a while back (he's gone freelance now, seeing how far his own combination of talent and desire can take him). "Not just how much one person can accomplish, but how far they can reach, how many people they can impact. John's mainly about music, but he's dynamic enough of a thinker and doer to cover a lot of ground. I hate people like that, but they are good for the community. They make things happen. They can change the dynamic. They shape culture. I hope he stays. I've known too many shapers who've moved on to better things culturally. We need Vegas to be the better thing culturally."
I hope he stays, too; on the evidence of Phil's story, he seems like someone I'd like my son to meet. Forget genius; it's a chancy quality. Talent, drive, passion ... thinking and doing ... those are things I'd like the boy to think about as he continues his post-high-school search for identity. And if I'm right about Clare, he and my kid might even be able to talk music.