Giving Props To Those With Talent

Because I’ve had hundreds perhaps thousands of people ask me, I will reveal the meaning behind my use of Danzig as a benchmark in so many things. It is a story that will span decades, cross continents and truly make you believe a man can fly. Well, okay, that’s maybe stretching it a bit. I’ll grant you that it probably isn’t quite as exciting as that, but it is humorous, entertaining and might, just might make you reexamine your life. Okay, okay, yeah, that last part isn’t true in the least, but just bear with me.

I have enormous respect for anybody who goes their own way, even if I don’t agree with that way. Someone who’s willing to go in a direction even if everybody tells them not to. For the record I’m applying this respect mainly to creative types, and not so much to people like Adolph Hitler, Jeffery Dahmer and Paris Hilton. Crazy, psycho and talentless don’t fit into my scheme of things. No, I mean people who have developed a talent, an eye, a mindset, a vision of what they want to do/achieve/create and didn’t let anyone tell them otherwise. Three people on my list (my list is short, but carefully selected- – there are more than this though) would be Glenn Danzig, David Lynch and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Now people may or may not know David Lynch. Writer/Director of such movies as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and such television shows as Twin Peaks. Weird has been one word used to describe him and or his movies. Unhinged, WTF and complex have been others. And to be fair I’ll give you that he’s a bit of an acquired taste, much like coffee and flan. But, that’s what makes him so fascinating. You have to work at his movies, have to think about them, have to analyze them, have to deconstruct them.

Right now I know someone’s whining, “I don’t want to have to work at watching a movie”. Great. Go watch some Michael Bay piece of crap that not only doesn’t make you think, doesn’t want you to. Me, I like thinking. I like subtitles on foreign movies. I like trying to figure something out rather than someone doing it for me. Hence my love of David Lynch.

For instance, my favorite of all his works is Mulholland Drive. Now if I were to say to you it’s a love story and then you watched it you would either throw something sharp at me or question my sanity. But, (and of course you have to have seen it to understand what I’m talking about) in the basest sense, it is a love story—it’s just told in a really messed up way. I like that. Lynch took something that is fairly common place in American Cinema and did something totally different with it. Another example is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That’s in the top 10 of my all time favorite movies. And you know what, it’s a love story. Just told in a really odd way. I respect that. Being able to look at something with an “eye” different than everyone else.

Same with an artist named Bill Sienkiewicz. He, along with another artist name Howard Chaykin, took influences like Leyendecker, Klimt, Parrish, Mucha (slight art deco, ornate backgrounds, eye for realism, new take on light) and applied it to comic books. Early 80s saw an influx of artists going an entirely different direction. Check out Chaykin’s “American Flagg” from First Comics, and Bill Sienkiewicz’s run on the “New Mutants”. It was something that had never been seen like that before. Taking sensibilities that had never been applied (more or less) to that medium and showing millions of people what could actually be done.

And then there’s Glenn.

Music has always been the ultimate in creation for me. Writing is intensely enjoyable for me, but it’s a solo gig, done usually in darkness. So is being a designer/artist. The work is done in a linear fashion, mostly as a single entity. You start, you work your way through, you finish. Music is different. Music is many levels. Music can be many people, each playing a different bit. Music (at least the kind I like and used to play) is about a group dynamic forming to create a feeling. Music can shift radically within a single piece. Music can make you pound your fist or hum along. Some of the best times I’ve ever had were back in the day when I had a band. Best rush in the world is hearing people listening to a song you wrote and digging it.

And so I come to Glenn. Glenn has always gone his own way, even when that way wasn’t popular. From the Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, Black Aria, Circle of Snakes and so on. He continuously puts out music that he wants to do, that he likes. Doesn’t always make it the most commercially viable. His demeanor and presence don’t lend themselves to children’s parties and Ice Cream Socials, but he’s stayed his ground, pursued the style, the feel he wanted to. And in the process has made some of my favorite songs (I mean, come on, Twist of Cain, Die Die My Darling, Lilin).

So I have given him my greatest degree of honor by endorsing him. I even have a series of “Danzigs” that I give out depending on the situation. Such as, if something displeases me (say something didn’t get done) someone might earn themselves an “Angry Danzig”. If they’ve done something really heinous they’ll get a “Screaming Danzig” and if they’ve out and out done something that might cause the end of the world they’ll earn the unfortunate “Super Mad Danzig” where he’s so mad he can’t even look you directly in the face. You DON’T want one of those.  To be fair I also have “Happy Danzig” and “Medicinal Danzig” for times when healing the wound is the correct approach, but I don’t give those out often.

I had thought about calling this post Screaming Hetfield or Screaming Mustaine, but it just didn’t have the right ring to it.

Now pass my words of wisdom onto others or you will earn yourself an “Angry Danzig”

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Tags: creativity, Design

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.