Wednesday, 01 April 2009

• Currently Shakespeare Wrote for Money By Nick Hornby see related

  More Musical Ramblings With a Hint of Literature Appreciation

  Last Saturday I had to take my car into the garage to fix the rear brakes so I took along my Bob Dylan Mojo book that I've been working through, thus resulting in hurling me head over heels back into my Dylan infatuation. In turn, I've had little to do with anything not related to music since then (until today when I started reading a new Nick Hornby collection). Movies simply don't interest me unless it involves a group traipsing off to the theatre together or watching music documentaries or movies about music or the like. So I'll just show you some of where I've been recently in books, music and movies and where I think I see myself heading.

  First, the Mojo magazine collection of Dylan history, an informed authority on the life and music of said artist. I can't explain my infatuation with the man except for his surreal writing and lifestyle and how cool he looks holding a cigarette.

  But I can see I've already forgotten an important ingredient that chucked me Back on The Binge. That is the Martin Scorcese film The Last Waltz, a concert/documentary filmed in the '70s about The Band (who backed Bob Dylan in '66 as The Hawks). The only song I'd known by The Band was "The Weight" but I was officially sold on their opener, "Cripple Creek." Between performing their own songs they also invited out guest musicians such as Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and, surprise, Bob Dylan, switching tastefully through music styles. Of course I would be thrown back into my Dylan Obsession. Fast forward to the Mojo collections, add the Dylan documentary No Direction Home (another Scorcese) and we're about caught up. I'm re-reading his autobiography Chronicles: Vol. 1 and Shakespeare Wrote For Money by Nick Hornby, his collection of monthly columns for the magazine, Believer.

  Switching gears to Hornby - Despite his left wing, atheist ideals, I love Hornby's writing. You'd think I would suffer a massive stroke of boredom reading essays about books he's read but no one could make it more enjoyable. Here's an excerpt:

  "The Polysyllabic Spree, the three hundred and sixty-five beautiful, vacant, scary young men and women who edit this magazine, have never really approved of me reading for fun, so after several warnings I was taken by force to the holding cells in the basement of their headquarters in the Appalachian Mountains and force-fed proper literature. It's a horrific place, as you can imagine; everywhere you can hear screams of people who don't want to read Gravity's Rainbow very much because it's too long and too hard, or people would rather watch Elf then that Godard film where people sit in wheelbarrows and read revolutionary poetry out loud. Anyway, if you see me recommend a book that sounds incomprehensible, you'll know they are taking an interest in my activities again.

  And of course, his great lamentations about having to read over the World Cup (surprisingly he doesn't get any books read) are enough to make you laugh out loud!

  So all of this has pointed me down a long path of musical readings and listenings for the most part. I've signed up for a second dose of the Steve Hurst School of Music and have tickets to the most wanted concert in the world, U2, as well as back to back Dailey & Vincent concerts. I feel spoiled. And on top of my Inspirational Sundae sits a new song that could unfortunately be labled political called "Bury You Blind."

  Perhaps I should mention, at the risk of losing credibility as a grown-up, that I can't stop listening to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift...blast that key change.

   

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