Let's Do the Time Warp Again . . .
Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.
Couldn't resist. We tried to do a Halloween Party in the Rocky Horror theme one year, but alas it didn't go over too well. Most persons just watched the movie in a state of shock and had few comments to make afterward. You realize how much something like this is a part of your pop culture and not someone else's.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and all of her pals are going to a live production tonight. I only saw a few minutes of the movie once but she was a pre-teen mega fan.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween everyone. I always think it's a bit odd to see all the celebration of the dead rising from their graves. But I like celebrating the seasons, so guess this goes back to those primitive roots.
One of my favorite artists is the crazy Stanley Spencer and he always showed people climbing in and out of their graves (I think his is more tied to resurrection), so I guess it's just a matter of taste.
This time of year I would rather celebrate Guy Fawkes Day as they did in London when I lived there. "Penny for the Guy." (I just now read the penny is to buy the fireworks -- I didn't know that)
Although Guy Fawkes Day is tied to a specific event, I wonder if it's also sort of a seasonal thing as well.
We had a successful Halloween. It was mostly for the kids. Our little daughter had 8 of her friends over. Traditionally, Lithuanians don't celebrate All Hallow's Eve, as All Saints and All Souls Days are revered here. But, I did some digging and found that All Hallow's Eve was an intrical part of the 3-day event, serving as the end of the pagan Irish New Year and a way to appease the dead. For whatever reason the Catholics chose to cleave it off.
ReplyDeleteLast night on the music show American Roots, they did a feature on New Orleans and All Saints/All Souls Day. They, too, celebrate those holidays with what sounds like real parties in the graveyards.
ReplyDeleteHere's another reflection on the holiday (by one of Teddy's favorite writers as I recall):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/24/reviews/davies-halloween.html
To me ''Gojira'' is a lot more entertaining for Halloween. But to each his/her own as they say.
ReplyDeleteBeing the nostalgia buff that I am, Halloween is a time to remember Vampira the Hollywood Scream Queen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs0ehPgyD3U
How I miss the Zacherle Show, Chiller Theatre, One Step Beyond, and all the Universal Studios spook movies!
Speaking of voting and Chiller Theatre.....
ReplyDeleteSince we are still meandering over here, I call myself an independent, although you don't have to register by party in Montana. I independently choose to never vote for a republican, and sometimes not even for a democrat.
I always try to vote for the best candidate, or hold my vote back if I can't stomach the candidate. I held my nose last time and actually voted for Baucus -- I regret that vote since I could have easily not voted in that race.
My committee chair teaches general US history and once offered extra points if students voted in the presidential election. And they did -- overwhelmingly for Ross Perot! That's a vote I can also understand but she had a moment of reflection after that.
I'm sort of put off by what happened to Nader after the 2000 election -- I refused to sign a petition in 2008 to put his name on the ballot here. I think he may have made it though.
But no vote is ever wasted, Rick. You know that!
And time warping...
ReplyDeleteMarti, did you read the Kennedy/Manchester article in Vanity Fair? It's fascinating and a little scary:
John B. Connally, the conservative Democratic governor, was at war with the more liberal Democratic senator Ralph W. Yarborough. Even a formidable Texas politician like Vice President Johnson couldn’t put out the oil fire the two men had ignited. Kennedy didn’t want to lose the state in the upcoming ‘64 election, so he’d agreed to go to Dallas in an attempt to heal the rift.
Manchester also discovered that Dallas “had become the Mecca for medicine-show evangelists … the Minutemen, the John Birch and Patrick Henry Societies, and the headquarters of [ultra-conservative oil billionaire] H. L. Hunt and his activities.”
“In that third year of the Kennedy presidency,” Manchester wrote, “a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed, ‘Impeach Earl Warren.’ Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas.…Radical Right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kennedy’s name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars.” A retired major general ran the American flag upside down, deriding it as “the Democrat flag.” A wanted poster with J.F.K.’s face on it was circulated, announcing “this man is Wanted” for—among other things—“turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations” and appointing “anti-Christians … aliens and known Communists” to federal offices. And a full-page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in The Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party; when it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, “Oh, you know, we’re heading into nut country today.”
.....
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/death-of-a-president200910
Now that's what I call a day in history!
ReplyDeleteFor donot, if he's around, a meander down to Texas:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316159697/
Avrds, I started that article while waiting for a movie to start and then put the magazine aside at home. Out of sight, out of mind. I'm going to get it out now. Have been meaning to read the article about Paulson.
ReplyDeleteThe hatred described there is like the blockheads carrying signs with the pile of holocaust victims' bodies at the idiots' rally near the Capitol this week.
The Nation had an interview with Gorbachev in which Gorbachev said:
By the way, in 1987, after my first visit to the United States, Vice President Bush accompanied me to the airport, and told me: "Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him. But if some Democrat had proposed what Reagan did, with you, they might not have trusted him."
Full article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091116/kvh_cohen
Another quote -- paragraph after the last one I quoted from The Nation (Gorbachev talking):
ReplyDeleteBy telling you this, I simply want to give Reagan the credit he deserves. I found dealing with him very difficult. The first time we met, in 1985, after we had talked, my people asked me what I thought of him. "A real dinosaur," I replied. And about me Reagan said, "Gorbachev is a diehard Bolshevik!"
I'd read half the article just before I went to sleep one morning.
Interesting interview. Thanks, Marti.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read those comments by Bush. I always loved the SNL skit of Ronnie and Gorbie with Danny DeVito and Phil Hartman,
ReplyDeletehttp://snltranscripts.jt.org/87/87fgorbachev.phtml
unfortunately, all I could find was a transcript.