“Of Dylan’s many achievements, the most fundamental was his hitching together of the folk-lyric tradition and Western modernism, connecting them at the point where their expressive ambiguities met…Dylan did not do this to prove a point; he was naturally omnivorous, and he intuited the connection without worrying about pedigree.” Sent to me by All About George, Luc Sante surveys recent Dylan literature for the NY Review of Books. Speaking of which, tickets for Bob’s upcoming five-night stand at the Beacon Theatre go on sale this morning at 10am. In a perfect world, I’d go to all of ’em (while catching a matinee of Hitchhiker’s on that Friday, April 29.) But, financial constraints being what they are, I’ll probably settle on either 2 or 3 shows. We’ll see.
Month: February 2005
Of Divided Mind.
You may well have seen it by now — I caught it before Constantine, along with the Hitchhiker’s trailer, but, if not, Keanu, Winona, Downey, and Woody get animated in the Waking Life-ish trailer for Richard Linklater and Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. Haven’t read the story, but I’m impressed by the look.
The Proud Highway’s End.
R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005. Ugh, this is terrible news. Yes, his writing had been inconsistent in recent years, but Thompson at his take-no-prisoners best was a brilliant, lacerating voice that pierced through the platitudes and hypocrisy of so much of this world. This final succumbing to the Fear and Loathing, especially at this dark political hour when we need him most, is tragic.
I had several links to catch up on after my trip, but frankly right now my heart isn’t in it. Godspeed, HST.
On the Road Again.
Hey y’all…I just got back from last weekend’s escapades, and, poof, I’ll be gone again as of this afternoon. This time it’s off to Boston and Cambridge for some freelance work meetings and dissertation research, with perhaps an hour or two to check out the ole campus environs. At any rate, hopefully I’ll be back here posting again on Sunday. So, until then. Update: I’m back and, other than the ubiquitous, inescapable Red Sox victory gear in every nook and cranny, Beantown and Harvard don’t seem to have much changed since my last trip in ’98. It was nice to see the Square still graced by Tommy’s, the Hong Kong, the Cellar, and most of my other old collegiate haunts.
Caverns of Mars.
After perusing “methane signatures and other possible signs of biological activity,” two NASA researchers claim there may well be life presently existing in subsurface Martian caves. We’re talking mitochondria, not Morlocks…but still, such a discovery would be exciting stuff, to say the least.
Abe Lincoln and the World of Tomorrow.
“Bob Rogers, BRC’s founder and chairman…draws two circles, labeled ‘scholarship’ and ‘showmanship,’ on a sheet of yellow paper. The circles overlap, but only slightly. That tiny slice of shared space, he says, is where the museum needs to be.” By way of Dangerous Meta, the Washington Post examines the mild controversy surrounding high-tech exhibits at the Abe Lincoln library. If BRC is consulting a sizable number of outside historians on the scholarship, as they seem to be doing, then what’s the problem? Gimmicks like Tim Russert introducing 1860 campaign ads are a bit facile, sure, but if they help get more laypeople intrigued in Lincoln’s life and times (and don’t unduly misrepresent the history), I’m all for it. Besides, my feeling is, if historians don’t get behind such efforts, they’re going to happen anyway, and with much less historical rigor to them.
Saber-Rattling.
While pointing out this article about George Lucas’ cameo in Episode III, Quint of AICN also reveals a motherlode of new Ep. III images. Some of these are rather spoilerish, but you probably have a sense of where the story’s going anyway.
Missed Connection.
Hmmm…I tried to update this morning and was locked out of MT…”Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: Too many connections.” It seems fixed now — still, it’s random snafus like these that make me think I really need to get wiser about how to troubleshoot such issues.
One of those Days.
Attention, People of Earth…I had a devil of a time downloading it at first, but nevertheless, a 95%-complete version of the long-awaited Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trailer is now online. I’m really looking forward to seeing this on the big-screen — all the characters look great (sass these hoopy froods), and right now I’m definitely digging the DIY, low-fi aesthetic — that Away-Team moment at the end (on Magrathea, presumably) looks like it could’ve been taken right out of an old Doctor Who or Blake’s 7. Update: It’s now up at the official site.
Stay Scared.
“We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war.” Dubya uses the swearing-in of crony Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General to pull a Two-Minutes-Fear and shill for a blanket extension of the Patriot Act. With even GOP conservatives against some provisions of the Act at this point, not bloody likely.