“This film is not sanctioned by the Artist.” That warning should alert you to the fact that these nine videotaped interviews with Bob Dylan in the 1970s and 1980s might not agree with Bob Dylan’s current thinking. Released in 2015, this 100 minute DVD presents Dylan talking about the music industry, religion, and dealing with his fans in a series of interviews of various quality.

I’ve read a couple biographies of Bob Dylan, listened to over a dozen of his albums, seen Dylan in concert (with The Band) and continue to listen to his music on a regular basis. People freaked out when Dylan won a Nobel Prize, but I consider him deserving of this honor. In 2022, Dylan sold his entire catalog of songs to Universal Music Group/Sony at sale price that was a sizable nine figure amount, north of $200 million.

I’m not sure I learned anything new watching Bob Dylan In His Own Words but it was shocking how quick he aged from interview to interview. GRADE: B-

Michael Broyles believes three decades in American History profoundly changed American Music. The three key decades are the 1840s, the 1920s, and the 1950s.

I was most inthralled by Boyles’s presentation of the 1950s (except he cheats a little by making references to musical happenings in the 1940s).

“By 1945 many of the big bands had disbanded or were on life support, suffering from multiple blows caused by World War II. Gasoline rationing and a shortage of rubber made travel nearly impossible for an ensemble of twenty-plus musicians. Even staffing a band was difficult, with many musicians in the armed forces….

This bands that she how survived the war faced a new reality. The mood of the country had changed. The public no longer favors the jitterbugging, toe-tapping hot sound of Benny Goodman, but the fuller, heavier, she sound of Guy Lombardo or Freddy Martin….The public wanted to be soothed, and the big-three record companies, Columbia, RCA, and Decca, obliged. Sentimental Tin Pan Alley songs prevailed, sung by velvety singers with lush instrumental backing.” (p. 221)

In 1948, Columbia Records announced they will be issuing 33-1/3 rpm records in addition to 45 rpm records. Decca and RCA soon followed. Two more inventions, television and tape recorders, became powerful and essential tools to revolutionize both classical and popular music in the 1950s.

“Sam Philips, owner of Sun Records, allegedly said, ‘If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'” (p. 253)

Sam Philips found Elvis Presley and the rest is History. Presley was the first Rock ‘n’ Roll superstar and changed the trajectory of popular music in the U.S. until the British Invasion in the Sixties.

Broyles makes the case that the 1840s introduced the minstrel show and the new dance craze, the polka, to America. It replaced the waltz and led to Sousa’s marches, then ragtime and ultimately Jazz.

The 1920s brought African American music into the music scene and Black musicians were able to make a living despite white singers covering their songs. Radio arrived and provided a new outlet for music. Phonographs became affordable and popular. Records in the 78 rpm format became common. “The 1920s blended race and technology to create the far-ranging changes in American musical culture, from creation to performance to audience, which was no longer limited to the soundscape of the event.” (p. 358)

If you have an interest in the History of music in America, I highly recommend Revolutions in American Music. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: A Personal Statement — xi

CHAPTER 1: Three pillars and the nature of revolution — 1

The 1840s:

CHAPTER 2: Minstrelsy : an American musical contribution and America’s curse — 13

CHAPTER 3: Polkamania and Polk — 46

CHAPTER 4: Classical music arrives. — 65

The 1920s:

CHAPTER 5: The twentieth century : music technology collapses time and space — 89

CHAPTER 6: The Jazz Age — 111

CHAPTER 7: Blues, hillbilly, and crooners — 149

CHAPTER 8: The ultramodern revolution and music appreciation. — 191

The 1950s:

CHAPTER 9: After the war — 221

CHAPTER 10: Johnnie Ray and the rise of rock ‘n’ roll — 241

CHAPTER 11: The summer of ’55 : rock ‘n’ roll’s turning point — 264

CHAPTER 12: Rock ‘n’ roll : culmination and collapse — 289

CHAPTER 13: Anonymity and its ways : classical music in a postwar world. — 320

EPILOGUE — 363

Notes — 365

Illustration Credits — 401

Index — 403

Yes, the 15th Doctor has morphed from a woman to a Black man. The new Doctor Who is Ncuti Gatwa (you might remember him from Sex Education). After watching two new episodes of Doctor Who on Disney+ I’ve come away with an affection for both Ncuti Gatwa and his new Companion, Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson (you might remember her from Coronation Street).

The 15th Doctor showed up in last year’s “The Giggle” where David Tennant passed him the torch. The true premier was the Christmas episode called “The Church on Ruby Road” where infant Ruby is left on the doorstep of a church on Christmas Eve. Twenty years later, Ruby Sunday finds herself the target of an incredible series of “accidents” that are finally solved by The Doctor. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you’ll enjoy this new series with veteran screenwriter and television producer Russell T Davies running things. GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards a B+

Last night Diane and I drove over to the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts to hear multiple Grammy winner and former bandleader of The Stephen Colbert Show, Jon Batiste. The Center for the Arts was sold out and the performance delighted us.

Are you a Jon Batiste fan? GRADE: B+

SET LIST:

1. TELL THE TRUTH Play Video
2. Hello, Billy Bob Play Video
3. Raindance Play Video
4. FREEDOM Play Video
5. I NEED YOU Play Video
6. Worship Play Video
7. Piano Momen Play Video
8. If You’re Happy and You Know It([traditional] cover) Play Video
9. Butterfly Play Video
10. When the Saints Go Marching In([traditional] cover) Play Video
11. WE ARE Play Video
12. CRY Play Video
13. Master Power Play Video
14. I NEED YOU / Night Time Is the Right Time / I NEED YOU Play Video
15. Encore:
16. Blackbird/ Killing Me Softly With His Song Play Video
17. It’s All Right, Wonderful World, When the Saints Go Marching In

“I feel not a whit sad at the fact of death, but massively sad at leaving friends behind, among who you count dearly. I have always know what my true feelings are by whatever line of poetry rises unbidden to my mind on any occasion; to my genuine happiness, this time was a line from Herbert’s ‘Evensong,’ in which God (always in Herbert, more like Jesus than Jehovah), says to the poet, ‘ Henceforth repose; your work is done.'”

The great poetry critic Helen Vendler died April 23, 2024 at the age of 93. Over the years, I’ve read several of Vendler’s books on poetry and always came away delighted and inspired by her insights and commentaries. That paragraph above comes from a letter from Vendler to her friend Roger Rosenblatt (you can read more about their friendship here) shortly before her death.

“In choosing the 150 poems for inclusion here I wanted to edit many different aspects of the poet’s work as a writer, form her first-person poem to the poems of grand abstraction, from her ecstatic verses to her unparalleled depictions of emotional numbness, from her comic anecdotes to her painful poems of aftermath. I have included many of the familiar poems, but I have wanted to makes space, too, for daring poems that have rarely been anthologized or taught in school, and so have not reached a large general audience. There are poems of varying achievement here, the lesser ones included to show the conventional or occasional Dickinson, the great ones to sustain her right to fame.” (p. 3)

To honor Helen Vendler and one of her favorite poets, Emily Dickinson, I want to urge you to check out Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries (2012). Vendler shows how Dickinson’s poems work to achieve their effects. Do you have a favorite poet? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

A Note on the Text — xiii

Introduction: Dickinson the writer — 1

Selected poems and commentaries:

23. In the name of the Bee –17

32. The morns are meeker than they were — 19

90. An altered look about the hills — 32

122. These are the days when birds come back — 35

124. Safe in their alabaster chambers — 38

129. Our lives are Swiss — 43

134. Did the Harebell loose her girdle — 45

138. To fight aloud, is very brave — 47

165–I have never seen “Volcanoes” — 50

181. A wounded deer leaps highest — 54

187. Through the straight pass of suffering — 57

194. Title divine, is mine — 60

204. I’ll tell you how the sun rose — 64

224: An awful tempest mashed the air — 67

232. He forgot – and I – remembered — 69

236. Some keep the Sabbath going to Church — 71

238. How many times these low feet staggered — 75

240. Bound a trouble – and lives will bear it — 78

243. That after horror – that ’twas us — 84

256– The robin’s my criterion for tune — 86

259. A clock stopped — 89

269. Wild nights – wild nights! — 93

276. Civilization – spurns – the leopard! — 95

279. Of all the souls that stand create — 98

284. The zeros taught us – phosphorus — 101

288. My first well day – since many ill — 104

291. It sifts from leaden sieves — 107

294. A weight with needles on the pounds — 110

306. A shady friend – for torrid days — 112

312. I can wade grief — 115

314. “Hope” is the thing with feathers — 118

319. Of bronze – and blaze — 121

320. There’s a certain slant of light — 126

325. There came a day – at summer’s full — 130

330. He put the belt around my life — 135

337. Of nearness to her sundered things — 138

340. I felt a funeral, in my brain — 141

341. ‘Tis so appalling – it exhilarates — 144

348. I would not paint – a picture — 148

351. She sights a bird – she chuckles — 151

355. It was not death, for I stood up — 154

359. A bird, came down he walk — 157

360. The soul has bandaged moments — 161

365. I know that he exists — 165

372. After great pain, a formal feeling comes — 168

373. This world is not conclusion — 173

383. I like to see it lap the miles — 177

401. Dare you see a soul at the “white heat”? — 180

407. One need not be a chamber – to be haunted — 184

409. The soul selects her own society — 187

420. There are two ripenings — 191

423. The first day’s night had come — 194

425. ‘Twas like a maelstrom, with a notch — 198

430. A charm invests a face — 202

439. I had been hungry, all the years — 205

444. It would have starved a gnat — 209

446. This was a poet — 212

448. I died for beauty – but was scarce — 216

450. The outer – from the inner — 219

466. I dwell in possibility — 222

479. Because I could not stop for death — 225

515. There is a pain so utter — 231

517. A still – volcano – life — 234

519. This is my letter to the world — 237

534. It feels a shame to be alive — 239

528. ‘Tis not that dying hurts us so — 243

533. I reckon – when I count at all — 246

550. I measure every grief I meet — 250

558. A visitor in Marl — 255

578. The angle of a landscape — 258

584. We dream – it is good we are dreaming — 261

588. The heart asks pleasure – first — 254

591. I heard a fly buzz – when I died — 266

615. God is a distant – stately lover — 269

620. Much madness is divinest sense — 273

633. I saw no way – the heavens were stitched — 275

647. To fill a gap — 278

664. Rehearsal to ourselves — 280

675. What soft – cherubic creatures — 283

686. It makes no difference abroad — 286

696. The tint I cannot take – is best — 289

700. The way I read a letter’s – this — 293

706. I cannot live with you — 297

708. They put us far apart — 304

729. The props assist the house — 307

740. On a columnar self — 311

347. It’s easy to invent a life — 314

760. Pain – has an element of blank — 316

764. My life had stood – a loaded gun –318

772. Essential oils – are wrung — 323

778. Four trees – upon a solitary acre — 326

782. Renunciation – is a piercing virtue — 330

788. Publication – is the auction — 333

790. Growth of man – like growth of nature — 336

796. The wind begun to rock the grass — 339

800. I never saw a moor — 343

830. The admirations – and contempts – of time — 345

836. Color – caste – denomination — 349

857. She rose to his requirement – dropt — 352

861. They say that “time assuages” — 355

867. I felt a cleaving in my mind — 357

895. Further in summer than the birds — 361

905. Split the lark – and you’ll find the music — 367

926. I stepped from plank to plank — 369

930. The poets light but lamps — 371

935. As imperceptibly as grief — 373

962. A light exists in spring — 378

983. Bee! I’m expecting you! — 382

994. He scanned it – staggered — 384

1010. Crumbling is not an instant’s act — 386

1038. Bloom – is result – to meet a flower — 389

1064. As the starved maelstrom laps the navies — 392

1096. A narrow fellow in the grass — 396

1097. Ashes denote that fire was — 400

1100. The last night that she lived — 404

1121. The sky is low – the clouds are mean — 409

1142. The murmuring of bees has ceased — 411

1150. These are the nights that beetles love — 415

1163. A spider sewed at night — 418

1218. The bone that has no marrow — 424

1243. Shall I take thee, the poet said — 427

1263. Tell all the truth but tell it slant — 431

1268. A word dropped careless on a page — 434

1274. Now I knew I lost her — 437

1279. The things we thought that we should do — 441

1279. Art thou the thing I wanted? — 446

1325. I never hear that one is dead — 449

1332. Abraham to kill him — 452

1347. Wonder is not precisely knowing — 455

1369. The rat is the concisest tenant — 458

1393. Those cattle smaller than a bee — 461

Long years apart – can make no — 465

1408. The bat is dun, with wrinkled wings — 467

1428. Lay this laurel on the one — 470

1474. The road was lit with moon and star –475

1489. A route of evanescence — 479

1511. The fascinating chill that music leaves — 481

1513. ‘Tis whiter than an Indian Pipe — 485

1539. Mine enemy is growing old — 489

1577. The Bible is an antique volume — 491

1581. Those dying then — 496

1593. He ate and drank the precious words — 498

1618. There came a wind like a bugle — 500

1668. Apparently with no surprise — 504

1715. A word made flesh is seldom — 506

1742. In winter in my room — 511

1766. The waters chased him as he fled — 515

1771. ‘Twas here my summer paused — 518

1773. My life closed twice before its close — 520

1779. To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee — 522

Primary Sources Cited — 527

Acknowledgements — 529

Index of First Lines — 531

An impressive group of singers showed up for this celebration of Bob Dylan.

“The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration is a live double-album release in recognition of Bob Dylan’s 30 years as a recording artist. Recorded on October 16, 1992, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, it captures most of the concert, which featured many artists performing classic Dylan songs, before ending with three songs from Dylan himself.

The house band for the show were the surviving members of Booker T. & the M.G.’s: Booker T. Jones on organ, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, and Steve Cropper on guitar. Joining them was drummer Anton Fig filling in for the late Al Jackson, plus drummer Jim Keltner. Longtime Saturday Night Live bandleader and initial lead guitar player in Dylan’s Never Ending Tour G. E. Smith served as the music director of the whole event as well as a sideman on guitar and mandolin for several artists. Background singers were Sheryl Crow and Sue Medley among others.” — Wikipedia

I enjoyed the number of songs these artists covered. I especially liked Neil Young’s rendition of “All Along the Watchtower.” Richie Haven’s does a nice job with “Just Like a Woman.”

There’s also a DVD and Blu-ray video of this concert. Are you a Dylan fan? Is your favorite Dylan song on this Track List? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

	John Mellencamp*–	Like A Rolling Stone	6:53
	John Mellencamp*–	Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat	4:20
	Kris Kristofferson–	Introduction	0:56
	Stevie Wonder–	Blowin’ In The Wind	8:54
	Eddie Vedder / Mike McCready–	Masters Of War	5:15
	Lou Reed–	Foot Of Pride	8:53
	Tracy Chapman–	The Times They Are A-Changin’	3:01
	June Carter Cash / Johnny Cash*–	It Ain’t Me, Babe	3:50
	Willie Nelson–	What Was It You Wanted	5:47
	Kris Kristofferson–	I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight	3:11
	Johnny Winter–	Highway 61 Revisited	5:10
	Ron Wood–	Seven Days	5:27
	Richie Havens–	Just Like A Woman	5:50
	The Clancy Brothers And Robbie O’Connell With Special Guest Tommy Makem–	When The Ship Comes In	4:24
	Mary-Chapin Carpenter* / Rosanne Cash / Shawn Colvin–	You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere	3:52
	Neil Young–	Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues	5:38
	Neil Young–	All Along The Watchtower	6:20
	Chrissie Hynde–	I Shall Be Released	4:27
	Eric Clapton–	Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right	6:17
	The O’Jays–	Emotionally Yours	5:49
	The Band–	When I Paint My Masterpiece	4:23
	George Harrison–	Absolutely Sweet Marie	4:44
	Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers*–	License To Kill	4:53
	Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers*–	Rainy Day Women #12 & 35	4:48
	Roger McGuinn–	Mr. Tambourine Man	4:15
	Bob Dylan–	It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)	6:22
	Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, George Harrison–	My Back Pages	4:39
	Everyone (11)–	Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door	5:39
	Bob Dylan–	Girl Of The North Country	5:12

Playboy’s Stories of the Sinister & Strange (1969) joins the dozen or so Playboy Press paperbacks I’ve collected over the years. The most famous story in this anthology is Kurt Vonnegut’s “Welcome to the Monkey House” set in the Future when the population of the Earth is 17 billion people.

I also liked Irwin Shaw’s “The Mannichon Solution” where a scientist makes a Big Discovery, but is co-opted by other scientists. My favorite story is Gerald Kersh’s classic “Somewhere Not Far From Here” where a group of men wage war against invaders. Combat goes not get more graphic than this tale!

For John Wyndham fans there’s “Wise Child” where an ambitious scientist plots to use his pregnant wife as an unwitting subject in his research…with dark comic results. I’ve enjoyed all the Playboy Press anthologies I’ve read. If you see one, it’s worth picking up! GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• iv · Preface · Anon. · pr
• 1 · The Mannichon Solution · Irwin Shaw · nv Playboy Dec 1967
• 41 · The Dark Music · Charles Beaumont · ss Playboy Dec 1956
• 57 · Somewhere Not Far from Here · Gerald Kersh · ss Playboy Mar 1965
• 78 · The Investor · Bruce Jay Friedman · ss Playboy Feb 1962
• 90 · Ripples · Ray Russell · ss Playboy Oct 1967
• 93 · The Dispatcher · Gerald Green · nv Playboy Aug 1967
• 120 · Wise Child · John Wyndham · ss Argosy (UK) Nov 1962, as “It’s a Wise Child”; Playboy May 1967
• 137 · Welcome to the Monkey House · Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. · ss Playboy Jan 1968
• 160 · Room 312 · G. L. Tassone · ss Playboy Aug 1967
• 177 · The Golden Frog · Ken W. Purdy · nv Playboy Jan 1963
• 200 · The Annex · John D. MacDonald · ss Playboy May 1968

I’ve only watched one episode of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire but what becomes apparent is violence and death are a big part of this series.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is an animated six-episode journey into the malevolent Galactic Empire. The tales are told by two warriors on divergent paths, set during different eras.

In the first episode, young Morgan Elsbeth loses her mother in a battle with Imperial battle droids. Morgan navigates the expanding Imperial worlds toward a path of vengeance for the murder of her mother. Meanwhile, former Jedi Barriss Offee does what she must to survive a rapidly more dangerous galaxy.

The talented voice cast includes Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), Meredith Salenger (Barriss Offee), Rya Kihlstedt (Lyn aka Fourth Sister), Wing T. Chao (Wing), Lars Mikkelsen (Thrawn), Jason Isaacs (Grand Inquisitor), and Matthew Wood (General Grievous). GRADE: Incomplete, but trending towards a B

I’ve read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, the same with Edgar Allan Poe, and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries. So I was a sucker for James Patterson and Brian Sitts’s Holmes Marple & Poe. And 118 chapters later, I’m here to warn you that very little of the greatest Holmes, Marple, and Poe show up in this novel.

Who are the Holmes, the Marple, and the Poe operating together in this book? We don’t find out. What we do find out is that their original names have been deliberately obscured and their Past thoroughly buried. We are given hints that the trio shared a history of military adventures and spy craft before entering their current investigative business. It’s also clear the Holmes-Marple-Poe Agency is a well-funded operation. And, if these three have lots of money, why do they need to run a private detective Agency? Questions for another book, perhaps…

Like his namesake, Brendan Holmes is a narcissist and drug addict. But brilliant. Miss Margaret Marple, like Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple, can analyze a situation from perspectives her partners lack. This Miss Marple is younger than her namesake and is no stranger to combat. Lastly, Auguste Poe has a tragic backstory with a fiancé who died. Poe blames himself for her death. Poe also collects muscle cars, is an expert marksman, and very physical. Together, this trio takes on cases that baffle the police.

Holmes Marple & Poe might develop into an entertaining series, but the first book is sketchy. Do you read James Patterson books? GRADE: C

Roast Collection: Variety Pack Cup Coffee Pods: Veranda Blend, Breakfast Blend, House Blend, Caffee Verona 

CLASSIC FAVORITES: Variety Pack cup Coffee Pods: Veranda Blend, Caramel, Vanilla, and Toasted Coconut Mocha

Starbucks has introduced these Variety Packs of K-Cups recently. I bought these at BJ’s Warehouse for about $30 (with a coupon). If you like Starbucks coffee, this is a good way to sample various Starbucks coffee offerings. What’s your favorite coffee?