Where's the grumpiness?

[peterbirks]

I dunno. It's a lot harder to write a blog entry when nothing has made you grumpy at the insanity of the world. I mean, not only have we had the Dylan documentary, thus making it impossible to bemoan the lack of any good telly these days, but the trains have been running on time, the showers in the gym have been working and everyone is being polite. OK, so we had Michael Brown, ex FEMA boss, blaming Blanco for the New Orleans disaster ("It isn't my fault shes a Democrat..."), but even that might have had a kernel of truth. Brown might have been an incompetent not up to the job, but it was Blanco whose main invocation on the Sunday night seemed to be "I think we should all hold hands and pray...".

So, contentment and peace all round. And, as we know, contentment loves solitude.

Comments

We apologise for the disruption to your mood...

[jellymillion.livejournal.com]

...normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Re: We apologise for the disruption to your mood...

[(Anonymous)]

I saw a bit of that Dylan interview and briefly watched a section where he was at a press conference in the sixties being asked earnest questions by people in suits. It was quickly obvious to me that he couldn't string any intelligent answer together, yet they carried on treating him as though he might come out with some stunning insight at any moment. Instead he had nothing of interest to say about anything.

Did nobody ever point out that the emperor was naked?

DY

Re: We apologise for the disruption to your mood...

[(Anonymous)]

By interview, I mean documentary. DY

Re: We apologise for the disruption to your mood...

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Yes, this was the Pennebaker film Don't Look Back. I remember thinking when I saw that movie: "what a wanker".

However, the Scorsese film puts this in a bit more perspective. No-one could deny Dyla's caprciousness (Joan Baez's comments are the most revealing here), but the point about these interviews (where Dylan comes across as a twat) is that here you have a man in his 20s whom the press and the Seeger-like hard left wanted to make "a spokesman of his generation". Dylan didn't want any of that at all. His protests were more nihilistic than political.

Just because a man in his 20s is not particularly articulate and is a pain in the arse is no reason to deny the talent of his songwriting. The problem is, just because a guy can write great songs, people expect him to be a political spokesman and, perhaps more impossibly, to be a politician.

Springsteen went through a similar trial, where he was accused in interviews of mumbling and being inarticulate. It just so happens that some people are good songwriters and other people are good in speech. That doesn't make him a naked emperor.

PJ