{"id":1768,"date":"2023-09-22T08:33:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1768"},"modified":"2023-09-22T08:33:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:33:36","slug":"talent-and-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/talent-and-virtue\/1768\/","title":{"rendered":"Talent and Virtue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo had booked the local pub, boasting to a few hopefuls that they\u2019d win \u201coh fifty quid\u201d and have the attention of a hundred people when they performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst thing that could happen was that they\u2019d be laughed at, although this crowd tended to look away in embarrassment when a no-talent embarrassed themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo didn\u2019t know the first thing about music, only that he knew what he liked. So, when a woman would whip out a guitar and play Wonderwall, he\u2019d resist the urge to grab her instrument and smash it against a radiator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight though, Rebecca Stevenson, the local college darling, promised to deliver some real magic. Rebecca was studying political science and literature, music was but a side gig, and Lorenzo had been assured her songs were amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She gave blood, donated to charity, and had even rushed into a burning building before running out, holding twin babies in her arms, who would have died without her help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, all around a decent woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was the washed-up Simon Ross slinking to the venue. He\u2019d been a big name in the nineties, only returning to public consciousness when he was Me Too\u2019d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Ross had been something of a naughty boy in his youth, ploughing through cocaine and hookers as if they were tissue paper and live on the BBC he had chanted \u201cGas the Jews!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that he was found guilty of drugging and raping a thirteen-year-old, pretty much killed off his career. Now out of prison and needing money, he\u2019d show up to any venue that would take him, usually to a chorus of boos whilst he\u2019d slur something about free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a brief hush when Rebecca with her tight lips and turquoise hair took the stage, ukulele in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to sing a song,\u201d she said, \u201cabout protecting the environment!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right-o, Lorenzo thought, nothing wrong with that. He recycled and believed the scientists on their doomsday warnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college girl breathed out and sang!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the fillings in Lorenzo\u2019s teeth began vibrating as his pint glass started to crack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few dogs lounging around outside, heard the wailings and lifting their heads, howled in harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPROTECT THE ENVIROMENT! BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DONNNNNN\u2019TT!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca then warbled on with a song about \u201cpolyamory!\u201d as the audience forcing their smiles only applauded when she bowed and left the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo resisted the urge to shout out, \u201cStick with politics!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Simon Ross appeared, grinning at the booing and hissing from the crowd. A woman in the front row howled \u201cFascist pig!\u201d and he replied, \u201cI\u2019m not a pig.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man\u2019s fingers melted into the strings, and he made love to his instrument, he played<\/em> music whilst Rebecca just plucked at the notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sang and goddamn, his voice, silky smooth and pleasing to the ear almost made Lorenzo weep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFuck,\u201d Lorenzo despaired \u201che\u2019s pure evil but a talented son of a bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lorenzo had booked the local pub, boasting to a few hopefuls that they\u2019d win \u201coh fifty quid\u201d and have the attention of a hundred people when they performed. The worst thing that could happen was that they\u2019d be laughed at, although this crowd tended to look away in embarrassment when a no-talent embarrassed themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,933],"tags":[175,643,95,8,7,497,951,128,952,953,118,954,11,172,117],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-music","tag-about","tag-been","tag-had","tag-he","tag-her","tag-local","tag-lorenzo","tag-out","tag-rebecca","tag-talent","tag-they","tag-thing","tag-was","tag-when","tag-would"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-sw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1770,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions\/1770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}