The Old, Weird America

Most of you reading this know I'm a big Bob Dylan fan. While he was born and raised in Minnesota, he spent just a year or so in the Twin Cities in 1959 before leaving for New York City. He was briefly enrolled at the University of Minnesota and living in Dinkytown. I was able to drive around the campus and see some of the places where Dylan was, though some of the buildings are now gone, as it was nearly half a century ago he was there.

I had a more interesting Dylan moment, if you will, when I was at James & Mary Laurie, Booksellers in downtown Minneapolis. Deep inside this twining bookstore, in the labyrinthine downstairs, I heard the opening notes of "Lo and Behold"...no, really.

Yes, The Basement Tapes was playing as I perused the cavernous, copious stacks in, appropriately enough, the basement. I was so tickled, I spent twenty minutes going through the extensive vinyl collection to find a Dylan album to buy and mark my experience.

Here's Dylan's version of "The House of the Rising Sun" - this is the kind of material he was learning and playing in Dinkytown before he left to find Woody Guthrie in the Big Apple:



And here's The Band from 1970 with a Basement Tapes cut, "This Wheel's On Fire". (That's also the title of Levon Helm's extremely readable and informative autobiography.) Those of you who've seen Absolutely Fabulous will recognize this is the original version of that show's theme song.

"Who can turn the world on with a smile?"

My wife can, that's who. Here she is in downtown Minneapolis where 70s protofeminist Mary Richards raised the bar, and the hats, for professional ladies across the country. Yes, it's TV Land's Mary Richards statue.


Love is all around, Gwendolyn. C'mon, girl...



Yeah, that's right!

One of the most acclaimed television shows of all time, and frequently named the greatest sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show defined the era of ERA. I wouldn't have noticed this statue, as I walked right by it, until Gwen said, "Hey, there's Mary Tyler Moore". Turning, I saw it and remembered reading about the dedication a few years back. I recall the Ralph Kramden Honeymooners statue outside of the Port Authority in New York City. I used to see that one a lot in Manhattan. (I bought it a few drinks, actually.)

MTM First Season credits



MTM later season(s) credits. Notice the optimistic change in the last verse from "You might just make it after all" to "You're gonna make it after all". The 70s did seem full of hope at some point, I suppose. And how about that Fran Tarkenton jersey? And those pantsuits? Jesus. Did snow blindness bring those on?

Shush.

I spent last week in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. We were ostensibly there for the Public Library Assocation conference. I met my wife in a public library (or rather, she scoped my holds and decided I was cool and maybe even smart enough to risk talking to), but this kind of thing has long interested me, anyway.

As some readers know, in my spare time, I'm currently an at-large docent with the Library of Congress. (No, really, I've escaped! With a laser pointer! Mwah-hahahaha! Now empty your pockets and look at that architecture over there! Look at it! NOW! Can you guess what style that is? I SAID, what style is it, fool?!? Do I have to shine this little light on your kneecap? I'm not afraid to use this, cause your ignorant ass just might learn something! And surely you have more than five dollars on your broke ass. What do you think that's going to get you in the gift shop, sucka?) Incidentally, the LOC is opening a brand new visitor experience on April 12th.

Regarding architecture, the Twin Cities' own Guthrie Theater was recently honored with a prestigious award for its designer. I was able to see that as well as other landmarks around the area, including the Fitzgerald Theater, where A Prairie Home Companion is broadcast live. And let's not forget the striking, realtively new Minneapolis Central Library.

I did find time to visit the exceptional Walker Art Center (the "Worlds Away: Suburban Landscapes" was my favorite) as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In my opinion, the latter has both ancient and contemporary Asian collections worthy of comparison to any DC or New York galleries.

Oh, yeah. There's some big shopping center out there, too.

"My God, it's full of stars...."

Arthur C. Clarke and I share a couple of things in common. We both stayed in the Chelsea Hotel and we both dreamed of other worlds...

RIP

"He says 'I gotta see a joker/And I'll be right back...' "

Well, they gotz the Spitz. The Fedz, I mean. Of course, it was man's age old foe far prior to organized government that really did him in. The same one that does us all in, eventually.

You fellas know what I'm talking about. So beguiling. So deadly. Always a wild card....

Chicks, man. Why must they tempt us so?

I was just in Washington, DC's Mayflower Hotel recently on business. (Not that kind of business, fortunately.) To commemorate this spectacularly sordid, this staggeringly sad demise of an otherwise dedicated public servant, here's Steely Dan's caustic yet poignant tale of a similarly disgraced, lost soul in the Empire State: "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More".

Lash me to the mast, boyz. I can see them! I can hear them! They're calling to me...

The Kingfish

I'm reading All The King's Men again this political season. It's always apt to revisit this masterpiece when one needs reacquainting with the dark side of ambition and avarice masked as altruism. I also recently watched a Ken Burns documentary on Huey Long.

So this naturally made me think of some of Randy Newman's early work. Six years ago, in a cramped studio on New York's Lower West Side, I had the privilege of attending two tapings of the now defunct Bravo show "Musicians," hosted by the critic David Wild. (Wild was rumored to be the inspiration for the actual Critic.) Anyway, Randy Newman was one of the guests. (Elvis Costello was the other). What a gloriously garrulous old crank Newman was! I sat right behind him. Salty and hardly sentimental, you'd never guess this Rabelais of a composer wrote all that sweet kiddy movie music.

Good Old Boys is one of his major works. Released in 1974, and mentioning Huey Long figuratively and literally, it features one of Randy's best compositions, and one heard especially over the past few years since Hurricane Katrina.

"Louisiana 1927"



No mention of Good Old Boys would be complete without a tip of the hat to the devastating "Rednecks". Living in Louisiana for a significant amount of time as a child, Newman consequently brought a critically intelligent perspective on yet a proud acknowledgment of what fellow songwriter Patterson Hood calls the duality of "The Southern Thing". (I can't stand ultra-liberal condescension either.) Savagely satirical here, he indicts soft yet corrosive Northern hypocrisy and racism.

"Rednecks"