Don't wear sandals, avoid the 40-year-old scandals

--Note on June 17, somehow this didn't get posted. Maybe because I wrestled so long with the formatting features that I forgot the essential posting part. Or for some other unknown reason. Apologies! more apologies if this is somehow going out but not showing up to me. This is the third and last time I'll try to post it. Lynne
Don't wear sandals, avoid the 40-year-old scandals


June 3 to June 9, 1976 I read:

Fort Apache, Life and Death in NY's Most Violent Precinct, Tom Walker

The Divine Comedy, Dante
(began,…) another book I still have and never finished

The Space Merchants, Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
I didn't say so, but I must have enjoyed reading Gladiator-At-Law a few days earlier or I wouldn't have sought this out.


June 3 to June 8, 2006 I read


The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
I still jump into any Pratchett I can get my hands on. This one seemed to be written with a Harry Potter-age audience in mind, a bit less hard-edged than some of his Disc World books, although it is the same world--just a very rural edge of it.

Chronicle, Volume One, Bob Dylan

I enjoyed this a lot. Keeping in mind that Ben Hecht comment that songs are little houses where our hearts once lived, for me Dylan's songs were a whole fast spinning circus performances. This autobiographical exercise captures that bygone era, and gives fascinating background of the influences and processes that hatched into Dylan's songs.

I know of at least one person who has never forgiven Dylan for thoughtless treatment of Joan Baez (inviting her to come to England with the tour but not bringing her up on stage, as documented the 1965 D.A. Pennebaker documentary Don't Look Back). Roger Ebert, expresses the same opinion when he was interviewed in No Direction Home, the 2005 Martin Scorsese documentary.

I guess many people feel quite protective of Joan Baez, but I was amused to realize that Dylan's treatment of her didn't register with me at all. What I found funny was that I saw Don't Look Back about five times. My reaction to the relevant portions was along the lines of, "Look it's Joan Baez. What a beautiful voice. Love is Just a Four-Letter Word. Cool song."

Of course, I was 16 and paying attention to the poetry, the James Dean-ish, hyper-cool edge that Dylan was presenting, and the spectacle. I had to have that whole interaction explained to me 40 years later.

There may be others who have not forgiven Bob Dylan for other transgressions of the 60s. As a Buddhist, of course, I would wish Dylan (and everyone really) to make the best possible karmic choices. And maybe it's the chip of ice in my writer's heart speaking here. Although I can't imagine what it would be like to be gifted with a talent such as Dylan's, I've always thought that his first loyalty was to his creative genius, and I would have regretted it if he'd been nicer and written less.

Bob Dylan has a web site, who knew? http://bobdylan.com/index.html







<br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Fort+Apache" rel="tag">Fort Apache</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Tom+Walker" rel="tag">Tom Walker</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bob+Dylan" rel="tag">Bob Dylan</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Joan+Baez" rel="tag">Joan Baez</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Martin+Scorsese" rel="tag">Martin Scorsese</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Pennebaker" rel="tag">Pennebaker</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/<br />Terry+Pratchett" rel="tag"><br />Terry Pratchett</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Frederik+Pohl" rel="tag">Frederik Pohl</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Kornbluth" rel="tag">Kornbluth</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Lynne+Murray" rel="tag">Lynne Murray</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/orangenotebookoflynnemurray" rel="tag">orangenotebookoflynnemurray</a><br /><br />