As you may have noticed, I’ve been quiet in 2023. That’s mainly due to my work on other projects, one of which I’m pleased to announce today. I’ll be presenting at the 2023 “World of Bob Dylan” running from June 2–4 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ll be joining more than 125…

For Sonny Webster, Ben Rollins, Nina Fitzgerald-Washington, Lester Hawkins, and all the gang at Elmo’s. “Being a writer is not something one chooses to do. It’s something you just do and sometimes people stop and notice.” ~ Bob Dylan Part 1: The Holy Trinity “There are more things in heaven…

Being a Compleat Transcript with Commentary on Episode #11 of Theme Time Radio Hour, “Flowers” Original air date: July 12, 2006 There’s much of note in Episode 11 — “Flowers” — of Theme Time Radio Hour, including monster lists, the largest group of def poetry readings in the show’s…

“Kiss” — Episode 101 Introduction The 101st episode of Theme Time Radio Hour, “Kiss” also known as “The Kiss Show” and “Kissing,” was originally released on February 11, 2015 by Berlin radio station Radio Eins as a special episode of its “Friendly Takeover” series. …

Part 2 — On the Road Again with a Natural-Born Eastman Above, the back cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” back in the day when men were men, record stores were record stores, and the smell of vinyl and cardboard permeated the New York City air. The man reaching for a record is Jack Crystal, father of Billy…

Part 1 — War and Rumors of War The Roots of “The Philosophy of Modern Song” “For in human Art we are not merely dealing with playthings, however pleasant or useful they may be, but… with a revelation of truth.” ~ The Philosophy of Fine Art, Hegel On March 8, publishing house Simon & Schuster announced Bob Dylan’s…

The anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20 1969 had me thinking again about Bob Dylan’s 1983 album Infidels and specifically about the song “License to Kill” expressing Dylan’s distaste towards space exploration. There’s also a line about the moon in “Union Sundown” — “they used to…

“I was blind­ed by the sun for a second. This big orange sun was coming up. I was driving straight into the sun, and I looked up into it even though I remember someone telling me a long ago when I was a kid never to look straight at the…

“I always loved Batman. The way I looked at it, you had to come from another planet to be Superman but I could be Batman. And you know I tried.” ~ Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour, October, 2008 — “Night” In June 1966…