America's got what?

Well, America has a lot of things, including...

• People
• More people
• Lots of peop--... oh wait... this isn't India or China...
• Different kinds of people
• All sorts of people
• Baseball
• Constitution
• Jazz
• Lady Gaga
• Southern accents
• Mountains. Lots of 'em. And large lakes.
• Melting pot... yes that includes the fondue restaurant
• Travesty of a republican democracy
• Fast food, e.g. McDonald's
• Stupidity, ignorance
• Fundamentalism
• Westboro Baptist Church
• New York Times Bestsellers (all books nowadays seem to claim a spot on the list... which is truly the BEST-selling??)
• Apple, Microsoft, Intel, nVidia, etc.
• Silicon Valley
• Advanced medical technologies and greedy insurance companies
• Weapons
• Missiles, tanks, nukes
• Lots of them
• Backwards policies regarding many things
• Lots of internet
• That includes internet marketing
• eBay, Amazon
• Talent

Oh yes, there's PLENTY of talent in America.  As a competitor in many music competitions, I can say for certain that there is plenty of brilliant talent in the state of Florida alone, and many people will realize that even the best of Florida are fish in the water up in the Northeast.

I won't pretend to be among the best of Florida, because that's

1. Certainly false, no matter what people say (this would also explain why I haven't won much of anything in the last 5 years in state competitions)
2. Unfair to the truly brilliant ones (cough Alan Clark cough)
3. Extremely egotistical, pretentious, narcissistic, untruthful, etc.

 Concerning point number 3: people who possess such qualities get on my nerves. A lot.

Anyway, a friend (we'll call him Paulo) showed me something from the incredibly popular "America's Got Talent," certainly a most entertaining and exciting show.  It claims to showcase America's best talents in a competitive popular panel-influenced jury-elimination style format.

That's good and all... until I saw what he showed me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayos7IBbF0A

First thoughts: Maestro? He called himself maestro? Dang, he must be something else...

So I gave it a listen..

After I finished the video, I sat there going like... ho-hum

The playing was nice, but it was nothing special.  It appears some YouTubers agree: "he's adept but not great."  In fact, if anything, his tone is stiff and harsh.

Maestro's not a title fitting for him. For one thing, he's not even a conductor.

The piece itself was pretty bad.  I don't know who composed it, but whoever did must've had a bad day or something, because it's a pretty bad piece!

But he made it on the show, apparently!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7rJaVupIGQ

So this guy's been playing for 12 years, practicing 6-8 hours a day.  He's pretty untalented if this is what he produced: a half-assed rendition of Chopin's Black Key Etude....

Alright, well if this is the talent America's "got" (doesn't this blatant violation of grammar rules bother ANYONE ELSE?!), then America is probably unaware of much of its population.

But let's see what the judges say.

Oh Sharon Osbourne... X'ed him because she thought it was boring.  What the fsck. Seriously? What kind of a judge does that out of boredom? With no regard to what they're actually judging?! The other judge was right: this is a talent show, you should be judging based on talent...

Then again... he also said he was one of the best talents on the show... that didn't go so well with me

I could name a helluva lot more talented musicians than you can barely lay a Bui finger on.  This kid's got the populace fooled.  And what's worse... he moved on.

People seem to be too easily convinced... a little flashy display of skill is enough to convince a lot of people that someone's "got" talent.  Why is this?  It seems it's because many people don't know enough about classical music to be able to judge for themselves who's good and who's mediocre, which "Maestro" (that title really sickens me) Bui is.

At least he's not all arrogant about it... but it sickens me to think that such a show that claims to showcase America's best talent would promote someone who is clearly a non-talent.

Of course, no offense is meant to Bui, but the show itself is flawed.  What other classical musicians with notable talent can Bui be pitted against, after all?  Perhaps that's why he went on AGT... the lack of competition makes it easy to shine.

But that's just the easy way out.

Now I know, some of you might accuse me of being elitist, because I have been in music competitions or whatever else silly reason.  I can tell you right now that if you want an example of true talent, you needn't look any farther than your own state.  There are truly amazing musicians everywhere.  Just look at who's winning the REAL competitions.  Oh yes, I can name some off the top of my head right now, from all around the country, even if the list includes people I don't like, I can and will list their names.

Alas... this is, after all, a populist show.  If the populace is so easily fooled, then they will be fooled.  As long as classical music is still assigned such a status of "BORING MUSIC" or "STUPID" or "TOO SERIOUS," then public awareness of what is truly amazing will only continue to decline rapidly.

As a populist show, it's not going to have any prestige.  Bui shouldn't expect any major orchestras to contact him any time soon.

Yes, America's Got Talent, but it's not necessarily exemplified well in the content of the show of the same name.

I apologize if this seemed too rude/brusque/caustic/long/haranguey/whatever.  I'll try not to be so bitter next time.