I've been steeping in Bob Dylan tunes the last few days. Bluesy old ones, mostly - some romantic, some caustic, all of them deeply moving to me. His voice is a distraction... until until you listen long enough, until you love the song and you sing it with your own flawed voice and full heart and you hear the music, not the voice.
I made a playlist to share today, on his 70th birthday, but it won't load so instead I'm giving you this amazing song I just discovered, Not Dark Yet, from his Time Out of Mind album. The top comment on YouTube: "I wanna hear this song the last 6 minutes of my life." My sentiments exactly.
Like so many of his songs, you might like it better if you hear a cover by someone with a smoother voice, and if you find a great one I'd like to know. (I love Joan Baez's cover of "Forever Young," but nobody can touch Bob's own versions of biting social commentary like "Desolation Row" and "Like a Rolling Stone.")
Minnesota Public Radio has produced a documentary to salute his birthday. "Boy from the North Country, Bob Dylan in Minnesota" can be found here. I was interviewed for it and my comments appear at 8:40 and 28:20 in the hour-long program.
If you're not a fan, no matter. But if you are, it's a good time to take another listen to some of his tunes. Rediscover the witty lines that make you grin, the sad and the romantic and the angry and the celebratory.
Bob, thanks for all the music. May you - and we - stay forever young.
Do you have a favorite Dylan song?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I want to thank the academy...
1. I've just received my first Social Security payment. It's nice to have some regular monthly income after being retired five months. I hope the same opportunity will be available for generations to come, and I worry that it won't.
2. This is our 19th year of season tickets for St. Paul Saints baseball. I can no longer sit through every kind of nasty weather, as I used to. We stayed for two innings of 50 degree wind and rain Thursday night, and nine innings Friday night. When the same weather turned up Saturday night, we stayed home. You might say we're finally smart enough to come in out of the rain.
3. I grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi iron range. In my teens I once went with some friends onto the grounds of an abandoned mining facility where we broke windows and then pushed an outhouse off a cliff into a flooded mine. It was my one act of juvenile delinquency; I quickly learned that a life of crime was not for me.
4. I was recently interviewed by a producer for Minnesota Public Radio about having beaten Bob Dylan in a talent contest (Hibbing Winter Frolic, 1959). They're doing a program for Bob's 70th birthday; I don't know whether I'll be included in it. It's a fun claim to fame, and I've already been featured in MPR and Minneapolis Star-Tribune stories a few years ago.
5. I love my iPad, but not because it makes me more productive. I use it for games (currently Scrabble, Snood, and Fish Pond) and a fun drawing-coloring program, and I look up things on the Internet (including blogs and comments) while watching television. It's an expensive toy, with the potential to be much more.
6. Speaking of games, I really do escape into games that require a little eye-hand coordination and reward me with sound effects and bright colors. If I didn't have my electronic devices, I suspect that I could easily get hooked on the machines at casinos.
7. Hubby said to me yesterday, "I just realized that I have never set foot in a Starbucks." I haven't, either. So who's out of step--us, or the people who pay those prices, sometimes several times a day?
8. Evidence that I am a procrastinator: In my wallet, I have unused cards entitling me to $10 at a local coffee shop (not Starbucks), a free loaf of bread, 15 percent off total purchase at Once Upon a Child, and free lunch at the college I retired from. I also have a $5 Target gift card and a $20 Visa gift card (sent by my HMO after I complained about an unwieldy aspect of their online prescription refill service). I hope they have not all expired!
9. For the last couple of months, I've been spending Tuesdays with my 95-year-old dad, who has just entered hospice care. Various factors limited our time together for several years, so I find our weekly visits a satisfying and healing process filled with little moments that I will remember fondly.
10. I keep thinking that I have become lazy and unfocused in retirement. I have unfinished projects everywhere, but I would rather read blogs, play games, or take a nap. Then I remember: I'm 68 years old and I'm caring for two toddlers 40 hours a week plus taking on new responsibilities for shopping and cooking, plus the long drives to see my dad. I like doing all these things, and I'll have the summer to do my projects. Right now, I deserve to relax, without feeling guilty.
I am also to pass along the award to others, and I'll do that another day. Meanwhile, stop over and visit Professor Brown; you'll be glad you did.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Catching up with the birds
The birds outside our kitchen window have been keeping us entertained. Here are a few more photos from recent weeks.
On a windy, sunless day in late April, just before it snowed again, I spotted the neighborhood mourning doves in our buckeye tree. It was unusual to see them up there and to see their feathers so wind-blown.
It was calm and sunny when they returned a day or two later, foraging under the bird feeders. (This week we spotted them perched on the big feeder, something we also had not seen before.)
A migrating group of 15 or 20 white-throated sparrows spent several days scavenging for seed on the ground. They come in two varieties, white-striped and tan-striped, and they breed with their opposites. It rained much of the time they were here, but I managed to grab a shot of this white-striped one. (Later, a similar one flew against the window and fell dead; we and the children put plastic bags on our hands and had an impromptu closeup look which I did not photograph.)
On his way to Canada or Alaska is this American tree sparrow. I am so pleased that he and his friends stopped in for a day or two.
The male goldfinches have rather suddenly emerged in full summer finery...but they flee every time I get out my camera. Still, I love this shot of a tiny finch seemingly taking on a brown-headed cowbird.
How could I forget...robins have been back for a while. This makes it official: spring is here.
As if the real-life birds weren't enough, I keep watching eagle and loon cameras. Here's an update on the Hornby Island family: Alexandra and David, named for two British Columbia environmentalists, are 10 and 7 days old today. They have huge appetites and a bit of sibling rivalry, and their parents are already teaching them to get along.
On a windy, sunless day in late April, just before it snowed again, I spotted the neighborhood mourning doves in our buckeye tree. It was unusual to see them up there and to see their feathers so wind-blown.
It was calm and sunny when they returned a day or two later, foraging under the bird feeders. (This week we spotted them perched on the big feeder, something we also had not seen before.)
A migrating group of 15 or 20 white-throated sparrows spent several days scavenging for seed on the ground. They come in two varieties, white-striped and tan-striped, and they breed with their opposites. It rained much of the time they were here, but I managed to grab a shot of this white-striped one. (Later, a similar one flew against the window and fell dead; we and the children put plastic bags on our hands and had an impromptu closeup look which I did not photograph.)
On his way to Canada or Alaska is this American tree sparrow. I am so pleased that he and his friends stopped in for a day or two.
The male goldfinches have rather suddenly emerged in full summer finery...but they flee every time I get out my camera. Still, I love this shot of a tiny finch seemingly taking on a brown-headed cowbird.
How could I forget...robins have been back for a while. This makes it official: spring is here.
As if the real-life birds weren't enough, I keep watching eagle and loon cameras. Here's an update on the Hornby Island family: Alexandra and David, named for two British Columbia environmentalists, are 10 and 7 days old today. They have huge appetites and a bit of sibling rivalry, and their parents are already teaching them to get along.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
King(let) of the forest
Conversation a few days ago between hubby and our four-year-old grandson, Augie:
Peter: Come look at the tiny bird on the suet feeder. It's a little like a finch, but it has a red streak on its head.
Augie: It's a ruby-crowned kinglet.
Peter: No, I think a kinglet is some kind of water bird.
Augie (emphatically): No, a ruby-crowned kinglet is a coniferous forest bird.
Peter (skeptically): Get your bird book; let's see what it says.
Augie: See, right here, it's a ruby-crowned kinglet.
And that's exactly what it was.
So now we've met a whole new variety of bird, a tad bigger than a hummingbird and less efficient at hovering. It is passing through on its migration northward. Males do have a reddish patch, but much of the time it is flat to their heads and cannot be seen.
I've been trying to get a shot of this active little guy, but so far he hasn't stayed around long enough. Photographing a ruby-crowned kinglet is now on my bucket list (I have simple wants). Meanwhile, I borrowed a photo from BirdForum.
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| Click photo to read about this bird on BirdForum |
Augie: It's a ruby-crowned kinglet.
Peter: No, I think a kinglet is some kind of water bird.
Augie (emphatically): No, a ruby-crowned kinglet is a coniferous forest bird.
Peter (skeptically): Get your bird book; let's see what it says.
Augie: See, right here, it's a ruby-crowned kinglet.
And that's exactly what it was.
So now we've met a whole new variety of bird, a tad bigger than a hummingbird and less efficient at hovering. It is passing through on its migration northward. Males do have a reddish patch, but much of the time it is flat to their heads and cannot be seen.
I've been trying to get a shot of this active little guy, but so far he hasn't stayed around long enough. Photographing a ruby-crowned kinglet is now on my bucket list (I have simple wants). Meanwhile, I borrowed a photo from BirdForum.
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