just pete

It’s been some time since I had any respect for the mainstream news media since most major news sources degenerated into the capitalistic “sweeps week all year long” sensationalism that currently plagues them, (especially among our American cousins).  Here’s just another tiny example that caught my eye only because it’s about my man, Bob Dylan.  Bob has an art exhibit running right now, and Times writer Alan Jackson interviewed him about the art show (article here).  At the tail end of that interview, Jackson writes:

My time with Dylan is up and we stand in preparation for my leaving the room. As a last aside, I ask for his take on the US political situation in the run-up to November’s presidential election.

“Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval,” he says. “Poverty is demoralising. You can’t expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up…Barack Obama. He’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I’m hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.” He offers a parting handshake. “You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future,” he notes as the door closes between us.

Sounds innocent enough, right?  Just your typical (albeit unusually optimistic) political chit-chat that you might overhear anywhere.  But wait… BOB DYLAN said that.  He’s a poet, the voice of a generation, an ideological prophet, an American legend… that’s no simple chit chat!  That’s, to quote the article published the same day about that brief parting conversation, a “ringing endorsement.”  The article goes on to draw some strange, anachronistic parallel between Bob’s comments on Obama and the lyrics of his song “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”  Dylan’s relationship with the media has been tenuous at the best of times, and this kind of sensationalizing foolishness is likely a contributing factor.

While Jackson may have had The TImes They Are A-Changin’ on his mind while writing the article, a different Dylan number dominated my mind while reading it:

People see me all the time and they just can’t remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,
I couldn’t believe after all these years, you didn’t know me better than that

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin’ south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You’re an idiot, babe.
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
(”Idiot Wind” by Bob Dylan)

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