BOB DYLAN'S AARP INTERVIEW AND NEW ALBUM OF OLD STANDARDS

When I saw that Dylan had chosen to give his only interview (so far) to promote his new album of ten songs Sinatra recorded, sometimes more than once, it almost seemed like a joke, or one of those Dylan style quirky choices to confuse anyone thinking they've got him figured out.

But on the other hand it's pretty typical of Dylan: combining a seemingly deep commitment to making music and recording it, with a pretty savvy take on how to get attention from the audience he thinks the music might appeal to. And recording well known and more obscure American Songbook tunes Frank Sinatra chose to record in his time, when Dylan was a boy and young man, might be a sentimental and generational choice, but promoting it through an extensive interview with the magazine for seniors is smart business.

I've always had problems with Dylan since the first time I met him, before he had yet recorded, through a female mutual friend back in '61. My reaction afterward was to tell the girl I thought he was a phony. Which, of course, at the time, he totally was, making up stories about his background and present. But then when I heard his album BLOWIN' IN THE WIND a few years later, I was envious that someone almost my age (he's a year older) was getting a message I, and a lot of us, shared across much better than we were at the time.

I ran into him again over the years at parties and other places and didn't have much direct connection to him, and when I did he wasn't gracious or even nice. And I've heard stories from those who knew him better or worked with him etc. over the years and some of them said it was a great experience and others said he was a pain in the ass diva in some ways and not nice to them either.

But his musical endeavors nonetheless often impressed me, certainly for the first few decades of his career. I never went to see him perform until about twelve years ago at a concert he did with Willie Nelson and while Nelson was older he gave an audience-engaged show and sang well, while Dylan seemed to care less about the ballpark full of paying customers and sang as though he only had access to two notes an out-of-tune octave apart.

But in this new venture, SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT, what I've heard of it so far, and despite the criticism may friends rightfully have of it (i.e. he's often flat, singing out of tune, and who else wold be given the recording facilities of Columbia records with a voice like that, etc.) I have to say I'm struck by his sometimes compelling attempt to carry the original melody and to give the lyrics the force of innovative phrasing and meaningful interpretation.

The interview captivated me too (here's a link to the unedited long version), because it concentrates on his musical taste and intentions with this album, and despite his seemingly evening the score with other recording artists and justifying his choices over theirs, or his usual disingenuous insistence that he's only interested in the music and hates interviewers asking question about philosophy or politics when for many years he wrote lyrics about philosophy and politics etc.

So, despite his faults and the shortcomings of his I experienced, he managed to get me to care about his latest offering and to read the entire interview and in the end to feel engaged with him and his musical project in a way I wouldn't be if he hadn't used his usual trickster manipulation to get my attention and, I suspect, people like me, i.e. of his, our, generation. Be interesting to see what younger listeners might make of it, if anything.

ANOTHER FACEBOOK ROUNDUP

ERIC HOLZMAN ART SHOW

Having trouble posting the announcement for my friend, and one of my favorite artists, Eric Holzman's show that will run for another week and you shouldn't miss. I missed the opening because of my bout with the flu, or whatever it was, but intend to catch it before it closes.

You have to see his work in person to get why it's so compelling, (the closest artist I can link him with, in some aspects of the figuration that appears or is hinted at in Holzman's work, is William Blake, though comparisons are odious and it doesn't do Eric's work justice to leave the impression it's derivative in any way, because it isn't, it's unique). 

So if you're anywhere near Manhattan in the next week drop by here:

Eric Holzman: Small Paintings

Lori Bookstein Fine Art

138 10th Ave, and 18^th street

January 08, 2015 - February 07, 2015        

And here's a reproduction of one of his paintings:

GOOD NEWS FOR SHOW TUNES

When I was in my late teens and twenties, especially my four years in the military, I often hid my love for great songs from Broadway musicals even though WEST SIDE STORY had had an enormous impact on me and even my writing, but then after I joined the movement for women's and gay rights as the 1970s began, I came out and admitted I loved a lot of show tunes.

This article supports the conclusion that singing show tunes can actually improve the minds of people with dementia and Alzheimers. I love science.

ROD MCKUEN R.I.P.

I didn't know Rod McKuen, but I certainly knew his poetry when I was a young man and he was one of the most popular poets in the history of the USA, or the world. In some ways he was the first "spoken word" artist to have an impact.

Back in the 1960s I knew very few Beat chicks, or later Hippie birds, who didn't have a crush on McKuen and his records in which he read his prosy personal conversationally lyric poems. And though I hated to admit it, when some young woman would insist on playing Stanyan Street or Listen To The Warm, I'd pretend to be too hip for it but would actually be moved.

The man had a voice that expressed his take on the dailiness of loneliness and love sickness better than a lot of more technically brilliant poets of the time. And he was a prize-winning composer and song writer. He had enormous popular success but was mostly dismissed by the academy and the book critics and his fellow poets.

Here's a great story about the poet and writer Aram Saroyan's encounter with McKuen when Aram was a young man. Goodnight Rod, you deserved to have been treated better by your poet peers, but at least you had a worldwide audience that loved you.

ANOTHER OLD FAVORITE QUOTE

"While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by the darkness and find the true light."  —Jack Kerouac (from The Scripture of the Golden Eternity)

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

Well after watching THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, I can see why Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking, is the favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar, and has already won other Best Actor awards. He brings Hawking to life in a way that seems so solidly real you forget you're watching an actor transform himself and feel like you're watching Hawking himself. Brilliant performance.

But hopefully not lost in the warranted accolades for Redmayne's performance is the actress who plays his wife, Felicity Jones, whose performance is so nuanced and subtle it might be overshadowed but shouldn't be. It's an amazingly compelling performance, and the aging alone is impressive to watch considering so little of it is done with makeup but rather with attitude.

I wasn't expecting a domestic drama, but these actors make it work, along with the rest of the typically competent Brit cast. Well worth seeing.