Dudely lulls

The literary critic, theorist and Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt’s new book, “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern,” is partly about an obsessive book collector, and it begins, appropriately enough, with a book purchase of the author’s own.

In the mid-1960s, when he was a student at Yale and searching for summer reading, Mr. Greenblatt came upon a prose translation of Lucretius’ 2,000-year-old poem “On the Nature of Things” (“De Rerum Natura”). He plucked it from a Yale Co-op bargain bin for 10 cents, partly because he liked its sexy cover, a pair of disembodied legs floating above the Earth in an apparent act of “celestial coition.” —Dwight Garner, NYT

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There were other goodies in yesterday's art section. Ben Ratliff's review of the Foo Fighters show had a line that made me laugh: "Mr. Grohl and his tastes may be the only carbon-based link between the Boredoms and Tom Petty, whose 'Breakdown' the Foo Fighters played during a dudely lull." Dudely lull!

And Dave Itzkoff's piece on Dylan's Asia paintings, some of which appear to be based on famous photos, mentioned the Confessions of a Yakuza controversy...which reminded me of this lyric:

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine alive as you or me
Then in the year I turned 16, a man who came to recruit laborers for the Ashio copper mines asked me if I cared to work there.

—PTSNBN

Three-ring serpents

Erasing points us, as ever, to another Ouroboros: Check out a sample of the song of that same name by the Mars Volta.

Dizzyhead David sends us a clip of Bob Dylan (!), on his radio show, talking about famous examples of art- and breakthrough-inspiring dreams: "...And Friedrich August Kékulé, who was a remarkable figure in the history of organic chemistry—he once had a dream about a snake biting its own tail. From that dream he figured out the structure of Benzene. I would have just figured it was a sex dream or something." (E-mail me and I'll send you the clip.)

And finally, fans of the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series know that the covers of these books feature Ourobori...in lemniscate form!



Coming soon: Ed shares/inflicts another of his motifs/obsessions with Dizzyheads...

Strings attached

Those of you who swooned over Joe Hagan's Bill Fox piece in this year's Believer music issue should check out the Driftwood Singers Present for some tracks from The Revelers, a band featuring Fox's brother Tommy. (Woah...suddenly I had an out-of-body experience and thought I was writing about the Replacements!)

And those Driftwooders also lead us to this sublimely bad idea: Dylan interpreted by a string quartet.

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And—WOW—while I was trying to think of a headline for this post, I thought: Strings...Air on the G string...I'm not air?...no....

And then I thought I'd Google around to see if this 7" by a group called Baby Steps could be found online...The title of their (lone?) single "Air on a G-String" clever plays on Bach's "Air on the G string," and it's so great...I put it on the turntable all the time...and now you can listen to it right here! I love this song!

Here's Sarah Chang playing the Bach:

Who said it?

Editing is like cooking something very delicate that must be milled or strained three or four or five times. –Jenny D, "Aphorism of the Day"

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Do you think Americans have a right to know about a candidate’s personal life? Well, look. What’s that great line? There’s no such thing as a saint without a past and a sinner without a future.

Who said that? I just did.

—Deborah Solomon, "Questions for Christopher Dodd," NYT Magazine

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Half of the people can be part right some of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all of the people can't be all right all the time.
I think Abe Lincoln said that.
"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours."
I said that. —Bob Dylan, "Talkin' World War III Blues"

Bonus via Moistworks: Dylan on education.

Dizzies Newsfeeds™ for Monday, July 16

Light blogging till at least midweek—?!

1. Dizzyhead John, the brains behind Team Knucklehead and the "Theme From the New-York Ghost," alerts us to a free download of The Format's new album, Dog Problems. Today's the last day!

2. Dizzyhead Devin has posted the text to his talk, "Hotter Than a Crotch," which he delivered at the recent Dylan symposium in Minneapolis (and which was mentioned in Time magazine). Here's how it starts:

In November of 1972, Bob Dylan went to Durango, Mexico to play a small part in Sam Peckinpah’s Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The production was cursed by all the expected crises, but there was one element on the set that no one saw coming. Peckinpah’s biographer, David Weddle, writes that, “The topsoil of Durango was permeated with animal manure that dried up, blew around with the fine silicone dust, and lodged in people’s lungs, causing chronic pulmonary infections.” One of the film’s stars, James Coburn, said that in Durango, “It was really cold and damp, there was wind, and a thousand years of horseshit floating around in the air.”

3. "TUNING FORK SCREECH PUTS OUT 24-INCH FLAME; FUTURE FIREMEN TO STAY HOME, SAYS SCIENTIST." In other words, Paul Collins rules!

4. Any further thoughts on the Ouroboros? Discussing ouroboric films with Dizzyhead Dennis, it seems that there is some crossover to another favorite motif/symbol/thingy—the Möbius Strip! Dennis asks if Lost Highway counts as one or the other, as it "opens—and ends—with someone saying "Dick Laurent is dead" into an intercom and it turns out the speaker and listener are the same person..."

Jawbone's recent comment reminded me of this nifty review by Angela Starita from the PTSNBN:

But despite a jacket photo of the jowly Manganelli facing down a Pinocchio doll, Centuria is a wonderful read for its endlessly inventive send-ups of narrative conventions. Manganelli's "novels" telescope time so that his characters end where they started, like the ouroborous of the subtitle—an ancient symbol of renewal showing a snake that bites its tail.

UPDATE: From Dizzyhead Stubes, responding to our challenge (as "JMS"):

Perhaps of some small interest, my solution (if it counts as such) to your question #3 was, like your friend Izzy’s, orthographically derived, tho not a misreading. I merely noticed the similarity of the two words (then again, it was late—maybe my eyes were crossing). But I didn’t know the Sante passage, per se. Also interesting that Sante was on the verge of realizing a wonderful… something--not quite sure it qualifies as a pun--when he compared the coil of the outerboroughs to the Ouroboros, but missed his chance. Ah, well…

5. Also via Dennis, from Anna Karina's Sweater, this amazing look at two precursors to "2046" (the room/year of Wong Kar-wai's titular film)—can Dizzyheads think of more?

6. Team Dizzies members are encouraged to post—I'm hoping Sweeney will link to a Buffalo mixtape in the making...?! Singer will interview himself? Izzy will post a picture of the Colonel disemboweling a Michael Pollan book? Hua will do a dance? Arlo will post her avatar? Chrita?

Suite 16

From Lacunae:

I've been waking up the last few mornings with Bob Dylan's "Changing of the Guards" stuck in my head. Yesterday, I thought "I wonder if that's a signal of something? Let's see: that bit where he sings 'sixteen years' at the very beginning of the song is supposed to be a reference to its having been sixteen years since his first record came out. What happened to me sixteen years ag... ah, yes--almost to the day: I graduated from college."

W is for...

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...and for "Dylan Hears a Who!" (Are there other "historical" cover versions I should be aware of?)

That was the day

In yesterday's Times, John Mellencamp agonizes about the use of one of his new songs in a Chevy commercial.

“I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not suggesting it for anybody else. This is just what I did this time to reinvent myself and stay in business. Sometimes I get sad about it really. I still don’t think that people should sell their songs for advertising.”

The day before, I was startled by a familiar accordion-like refrain issuing from my TV—a melody I attempt, every now and again, to play on my $10 toy accordion—from a favorite song of yore...what was it? And...what was this commercial for? It was The The's "This Is the Day"—in an ad for M&M's. A favorite song—ruined! Alas, if only Matt Johnson had agonized a bit more—or at least given over the rights to something I actually like, e.g., The Swiffer...

(Favorite joke on this subject: An old Zippy the Pinhead in which Griffy imagines Dylan's "You Gotta Serve Somebody" being used in a Kentucky Fried Chicken ad.)