Friday, January 26, 1996

Confessions of Mediocrity

Accepting his 2009 Loser award for Contributions in the Fields of Slack & Squandering, Jeremy Owen had this to say:

"I'm a Hack. I can't really play guitar, and, after 15 years of practice, I know that I never will. I also can't sing; I lisp and I slobber and I'm nasal; not tuneless, but not tuneful, either.
Every song that I've ever written has already been written a dozen -nay, a hundred!- times already, each of them better than my own sad and stunted incarnation.
But I would be willing to venture that I am among the very Best of the Worst. Beneath a thin veneer of mediocrity is a glorious luster; underneath and behind every failure is a measure of success - if only because I have succeeded at being so profoundly unsuccessful.
The world is filled with half-talented people; I am their King and Sovereign Lord. And since that is the best I will ever get, the best I will ever be, I accept it. As I accept this award: because that's just the way things are. And half of something beats all of nothing anyday."