Break, Blow, Burn, Blog

A Little History on a Great Song by Bob Dylan

This article by David Simon in The New Yorker (Jan. 26, 2009) provides a very interesting background concerning one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs.  A short article well worth the read.  In addition, here is a quality version of Dylan singing his song.  (This clip was on television?  Note the pinups on the wall in the first 2-6 seconds of the clip.  And what's being rolled in those papers?)

John McQuaid Gets it Right: On the Obamas & The New Yorker Cover

Recommended reading:

John McQuaid (of THE HUFFINGTON POST) offers intelligent commentary--amidst all the stupidity--concerning the "controversial" cover illustration on the latest issue of THE NEW YORKER.  

Please tell me the American electorate is smarter than so many think who are wringing their hands over this cover.  Please tell me we haven't become a nation of morons with teddy bears.  If this cover ends up "hurting" Obama, then everything was already lost because too many of us cannot think or aren't even the slightest bit aware of what's going on. 

I, in particular, appreciate McQuaid's last two sentences.  I've seen enough of that fear of self-expression concerning "what words can be uttered and images can be shown": that fear comes from uneducated conservatives and uneducated "liberals" (that is, people who like to think of themselves as liberals but do not really believe in free expression).

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Post Card

    I flipped through the post cards behind the "Politics" category, hoping to find some "good" post cards, a few cards of sufficient interest to me to add to my growing collection.  Aside from the fact that I can't afford anything very expensive, I don't pay much attention to the prices.  It seems some post cards I find boring are worth money to dealers and the "true" collectors because of some fine detail concerning some aspect of the card that's totally irrelevant to me.  Some post cards dealers sell for a quarter have great value for me and are "beautiful" to me for reasons beyond the beauty many post card collectors see in post cards of animals and flowers.  I'm an I'll-know-it-when-I-see-it collector of post cards.
    I wasn't long at this particular dealer's tables, flipping through the "Politics" category, when I found a post card that fascinated me.  On the front was a photo that featured three men in white shirts.  On the left and in the middle were two white men, seated.  The third man, also seated, was Martin Luther King, Jr.  Just in case one missed it, the man seated in the middle had an arrow imposed over his shirt pointing to the "black" man and labeled "King."  The top of the front of this post card read, "Martin Luther King at Communist Training School."