Come Along and Ride Nevada Bob Gordon's Long Train To Nowhere

Last year when Gary Firstenberg passed this way to see the two homes Bob Dylan grew up in, he introduced me to a unique individual who had recently recorded a CD in Nashville called Long Train To Nowhere. He sings with a deep resonant baritone with a warmth that draws you in. It's an album of mostly covers that has been made special by a song Nevada Bob wrote in memory of his wife Carol.

What caught my interest initially was that Charlie McCoy, the studio musician who seduced Dylan away from New York to record in Nashville, is one of the backing musicians on Nevada Bob Gordon's 24 track CD.

When Mr. Firstenberg first made mention of him, he also mentioned a book manuscript he'd written about his unusual life, tentatively titled 50 Years with the Wrong Woman. It's apparent from "Carol's Song" and the stories of their life together that he's got his tongue firmly planted in his cheek with that title.

In a couple weeks Nevada Bob is flying to Nashville from his ranch outside Reno to record a second album, this time with five new songs. If we're lucky, we'll get a music video out of this so people can hear him sing and not just try to guess what he sounds like. 

An alternative title for the book might be Bob Gordon's Unorthodox Road to Success. He began his career as a police officer in a crooked police department. When he finally escaped and distanced himself from that experience the his persistence in the face of adversities produced a lifetime of anecdotal tales that are clearly beyond the pale of most of our experiences. His cousin, for what it's worth, was NASA astronaut Richard Gordon who remained on the command module during Apollo 12, making 45 passes around the moon while Pete Conrad and Alan Bean did their work on the lunar surface.

At age 30 Nevada Bob had to deal with a severe bout of cancer that ought to have ended his story. He had other plans.

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The photos on this page are from the photo shoot for this CD plus a few extras, courtesy Gary Firstenberg.

A Handful of Insights from Nikolai Berdyaev

Seeds for contemplation and consideration.

Nikolai Berdyaev

I discovered Nikolai Berdyaev around four decades ago in a book titled Four Existential Theologians. He was born in 1874 and lived through the Russian Revolution and both World Wars. His writings do not conveniently fit a neat categorization. He's been referred to as a Christian mystic and a Christian existential anarchist philosopher, among other things.

I have selected a half dozen quotes to share here. Though written 80 to 100 years ago, these observations seem totally relevant today, do. they not?

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"Slavery is passivity. The victory over slavery is creative activity."

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"Only the free man is a personality, and he is that even if the whole world should wish to enslave him."

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"Man, human personality, is the supreme value, not the community, not the collective realities which belong to the object world, such as society, nation state, civilization, church."

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"Freedom gives rise to suffering. One can lessen it if one refuses freedom."

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"We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality."

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"It is beyond dispute that the State exercises very great power over human life and it always shows a tendency to go beyond the limits laid down for it." 

EdNote: This last quote reflects why Libertarians are constantly on guard to call out government overreach.

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We're living in some profound times. It's so easy to allow ourselves to get tangled up in pettiness. We were created for something higher. 

Earlier today I was thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King's dream about living in a world where we're judged by our character and not the color of our skin. His quote crossed my mind while I was reading a journal note from the mid-70s. I'd written something about how character is something you have to work at, to develop. It is not something that just gets zapped into us. It saddens me to see how character has been diminished as a value in our contemporary culture.

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What are you currently reading to challenge your thinking? What are you thinking about to challenge your lifestyle? Too often we just live and let live.  

Here's a poem along that line: The Easy Way Out

May 16 1966 -- Bob Dylan in Gaumont Theater, Sheffield and More

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: THE RELEASE OF BLONDE ON BLONDE

Portrait based on photo
by Jerry Schatzberg

Sheffield is 63 miles due East of Liverpool as the crow flies. Dylan and his band performed in Liverpool May 14, then Leicester the 15th before taking the stage at the Gaumont Theater on this day, the 16th. Leicester is a little over an hour South of Sheffield. The road to Sheffield passes near the forests of Nottingham where Robin Hood established his legacy.

It's easy to see why Bob Dylan liked theaters. They were created to showcase spectacle. Here is a link to the Gaumont in Sheffield where he performed this day in 1966. It was torn down two years after Bob's performance there. 

Looking back (yes, I know we've been told, "don't look back") 1966 was a remarkable year for Dylan. It began with some of the initial studio recording for Blonde On Blonde in New York City in January, shortly before commencing on his famous World Tour which helped define his career in many respects. Photos, film footage, bootleg recordings, media coverage put this enigmatic ultra hip young artist in the spotlight crosshairs like never before.

It was a year of several key transitions. He internationally showcased his transition from folk/acoustic to backing rockers that year. He also transitioned from recording in New York to recording in Nashville that year. His third transition would occur in July after a motorcycle accident hospitalized him while riding around on Albert Grossman's farm in Woodstock. Thus commenced a hiatus from touring that for several years would have an unknown duration. This sabbatical from touring generated nearly as much buzz and speculation as his life on the road.

The second recording session for Blonde On Blonde took place in Nashville in February. This, and the third, which took place in March, are superbly detailed in Daryl Sanders' That Thin Wild Mercury Sound, a highly recommended read for all fans.

As has been noted elsewhere, Dylan broke new ground in so many ways, and bringing rock musicians to Nashville was quite notable. Three of the four Beatles recorded there and many other big names. As in all encounters of that magnitude, both sides feel are touched and somewhat transformed by the other. Nashville was never quite the same after that.

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As I write this I'm listening to the Royal Albert Hall concert of 1966, Dylan's final show on the 1966 World Tour, May 27. The setlist, which pretty much remained unchanged during this '66 tour, was stunning at all these concerts. Here's the Sheffield setlist, courtesy Olof Björner's Skeleton Keys.

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The purpose of this post is three-fold. First, to give a shout out to all the chroniclers like Olof Björner, Bill Pagel (Boblinks.com) and Karl Eric Andersen (ExpectingRain.com) so that fans can be rewarded with a never ending feast of details and insights into Bob Dylan's catalog and career. Second, to mark this day when Blonde On Blonde was released. And finally, to note that Duluth Dylan Fest is kicking off in less than a week. 

Where and how will you be celebrating Bob Dylan's 80th birthday?

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Duluth Dylan Fest Links

www.bobdylanway.com

www.duluthdylanfest.com

www.facebook.com/duluthdylanfest/

Sources
Wikipedia
and Bjorner.com
www.bjorner.com/DSN01225%20(66).htm#DSN1490

Another Stellar Student/Instructor Exhibition at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art

This is a photo of the interior when it was first being
considered for purchase and renovation.

Last night I attended the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art's 2021 Student/Instructor Exhibition and what a rewarding evening. The progress these young artists have made is impressive, and the lifting of Minnesota's "Mask Mandate" a couple days ago made it especially rewarding. It was great to see actual smiles rather than just twinkling eyes.

The art school is located at 810 West 3rd Street here in Duluth, a former Catholic church. What follows are some of the photos I took, though there was much, much more to see than you see here. The Open House will continue today so drop in if you are able.

Portraits by Kelly Schamberger

Painting of Jeffrey T Larson teaching painting.

Same painting, with last night's open house guests in foreground

Perseverance, by Patrick Glander. Oil on canvas.

Four paintings by Jake Tremble

Cherub by Nelia Harper

Coffee Plate by Patrick Glander

Vintage by Jeffrey T. Larson

Mastering basic skills.

Reproducing forms while learning to see color values.

Brutus Bargue Copy by Austin Jasurda

Green Plate by Patrick Glander

Kelly Schamberger, Self Portrait at 35

For more information about the Great Lakes Academy, visit 

www.greatlakesacademyoffineart.com

George Kaiser, The Quiet Man Behind the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa

"I was young when I left home..."

The big story this week has been the announcement of a date for the opening next year of the Bob Dylan Center. News travels fast in Dylan circles, courtesy the many Dylan fan clubs on social media and our touchstone, Expecting Rain. 

This ArtNet News story expresses the sentiments of most: "For Dylanologists, the opening date of the Bob Dylan Center on May 10, 2022 may as well be Christmas: it could mark the first time the enigmatic musician’s most private possessions are made available to the public." 

That Rolling Stone would write it up was no surprise. Even the New York Times recognized it as newsworthy for its Arts section.

Yesterday's Pitchfork story by Eric Torres opens with a statement about the scale of the collection. "The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma will contain over 100,000 artifacts spanning Dylan’s career." That is a collection that didn't just come together over night.

It's no wonder, then, that the museum has taken so many years to open. Simply sorting and cataloging a collection of that scale is monumental, let alone all the decisions with regard to how to decide who should have access to what or how to best display it all. 

When Dylan sold a 6000-piece collection of his own personal items -- including notebooks, letters, photographs, audio and video material -- to the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016, I remember a few people asking why a Dylan museum would be in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's proximity to the Woody Guthrie Center answers that question. That George Kaiser has a home there is also a consideration. 

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Someone recently shared with me an interesting factoid that surprised me. Until five years ago I never heard of George Kaiser. Unlike Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Oracle from Omaha, he's not been a household name or headline grabber. 

In 2008 he was listed third on BusinessWeek's top 50 American philanthropists, behind Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates. According to a recent Forbes story the George Kaiser Family Foundation has contributed more than a billion dollars to early childhood education, among other things.

For Woody Guthrie fans -- Bob Dylan among them -- Kaiser's foundation played an instrumental role in the funding of Tulsa's Woody Guthrie Center, which opened in 2013. He also facilitated, in conjunction with the University of Tulsa, the acquisition of the Bob Dylan archive, which is to be maintained by archivists at the university's Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum. (1)

WANT TO LEARN MORE about the Bob Dylan Center?
Visit https://www.bobdylancenter.com/

LEARN MORE about the George Kaiser Family Foundation and "The Giving Pledge."
https://www.gkff.org/who-we-are/about-george-b-kaiser/

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(1) Source: Wikipedia

Throwback Thursday: The Slow City Movement

"Slow down, you're moving too fast..."
~Simon & Garfunkel, Feelin' Groovy 

In February our friend Mario from Italy sent me a link to a blog entry about the Slow City movement. I finally slowed down enough to look into it. And it's pretty interesting.

Actually, the Slow City movement is an attempt to get whole cities to participate in the Slow Movement. You may be familiar with some of the siblings in this family of attitudes: Slow Travel, Slow Food, Slow Books, Slow Living. 

 
Personally there is a lot of attraction to these attitudes. I know that when Susie and I travel, we like Slow Travel. Art galleries, museums, nice restaurants all take time, and that's what a vacation is in our book. My brother and his wife take the reverse course, Power Vacation where they seem dedicated to taking in as many experiences as possible. "While we're here we might as well cram in the Bahrumba Cliff Hike and do the Bungees over on the next peak." More power to 'em.

I like reading, but slow reading is certainly the best way to savor a page of quality prose. It's like fine wine versus Ripple. People drinking Ripple aren't doing it for the flavor, it's about how fast you can get slammed. The same with reading. It should not be about how many books you can read in a year so you can win a contest. Reading for pleasure includes pauses to roll images and ideas around in the mind, to chew and digest... and like a cow chewing its cud, resume chewing.

According to the Slow City Manifesto, no city larger than 50,000 can be part of this movement. Minneapolis is out. Philadelphia is out. Even our little corner of the world, Duluth, is out. This doesn't mean we can't individually pursue Slow Living.
 
The trademark or emblem of the movement is an orange snail with a crown made of modern buildings. That could be interesting. (I once wrote an article that began with the opening line, "Which is slower, a snail, a glacier, or a piece of legislation through congress?")
 
Life at a snail's pace might be a good thing, though right now I'm kinda busy and don't have a lot of time to think about it. 

For sure when we slow down we experience our surroundings more. The marshlands, the trees, the fields and outcroppings of rock in our rural areas make a far greater impact when you walk through them than when you fly past them on the highway. Last Sunday for Mother's Day we went to Carlton Bike Rental and took a lazy ride up the trail to Jay Cooke State Park. There are 63 miles of bike trail starting from this location, and I've been told they will be connecting yet more trail to it from the headwaters of the Mississippi, so it's easy to see why they're staking a claim that Minnesota Starts Here.

In the meantime, enjoy your day. Don't forget to take a moment now and then to stop and smell the roses.

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THIS BLOG ENTRY was posted on this date 11 years ago. Today, Carlton Bike Rental, cited above, now has three locations: Carlton, Moose Lake & Hinckley. This year they are hosting an event to help get bikers out on longer stretches of the Munger Bike Trail. The event is called the Munger Mission. Visit CarltonBikeRental.com for more information about the Mission and the incentives to hit the trail. 

Special Note: May is National Bike Month. 

Daniel Botkin's Motorcycle Black Madonna and the Gates of Eden

I have no recollection of hearing anything about the Black Madonna before its reference in Bob Dylan's Gate of Eden in the mid-1960s. Because of its prominent position on one of his most heralded albums, Bringing It All Back Home -- in the seriously great sequence of Mr. Tambourine Man // Gates of Eden // It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) // It's All Over Now, Baby Blue -- it has received mucho much play time over the past many decades. 

So it was quite the surprise to have the Black Madonna appear in the film War & Peace, based on Tolstoy's classic of the same name. (EdNote: My relationship to War & Peace is similar to Zelig's relationship to Moby Dick in the Woody Allen classic.)

According to scholar Marcus C. Levitt one of the key features of Napoleon and Napoleonism is the power of image. Supposedly Napoleon is the original source for the famous saying "a picture is worth 1000 words." Hence his willingness to have numerous portraits made of himself at key moments in his career, projecting a bigger than life mythology that gained for him a psychological advantage in battle.

Tolstoy explicitly invokes Napoleonic visual images and juxtaposes them with Russian icons including the famed Black Madonna. 

Some legends have it that the Black Madonna was painted on a piece of wood by none other than St. Luke the physician, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Historians cite a painting of the Black Madonna that stood in Czestochowa, Poland for six centuries which was profoundly revered. The icon, known as the Queen of Poland, is credited with leading a group of monks holding out against a Swedish siege in 1655. More recently, the madonna's image was never absent from Lech Walesa's lapel during the Solidarity leader's struggle against Poland's Communist regime.

In olden times it was not uncommon for armies to carry symbols like this into battle in the belief that "if God be for us, who can be against us?" Like amulets and lucky charms it was intended to put the intangibles in our favor, hence it appears in this manner in Tolstoy's epic.

How very strange, then, for the Black Madonna to make its appearance here in Bob Dylan's Gates of Eden:

The motorcycle black madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy queen
And her silver-studded phantom cause
The gray flannel dwarf to scream
As he weeps to wicked birds of prey
Who pick up on his bread crumb sins
And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden
 

The painting on this page is by Daniel Botkin. winner of the Dylan Days Art Competition in Hibbing. It was one of many impressive works that he shared at The Red Mug during Duluth Dylan Fest in 2015. When I asked for permission to share the painting he also supplied some commentary about the piece.

 

The full title is "Motorcycle Black Madonna With Grey Flannel Dwarf."

Of course the inspiration for this piece was from the lyrics, "The motorcycle black madonna, two wheeled gypsy queen, and her silver studded phantom cause the grey flannel dwarf to scream as he weeps to wicked birds of prey that pick up on his breadcrumb sins."

Like so many Dylan song lyrics, these words painted a picture in my mind, and this was one of those Dylan-inspired pictures I wanted to put on canvas.

I used a variety of materials to create it: cotton fabric, burlap, leather, wood dowel rods, rope for the motorcycle tires, doll eyes for the madonna, a glass eye and water buffalo teeth for the horse-headed phantom on the front fender, a crying doll head for the dwarf, and pieces of sponge for the breadcrumb sins.

Dylan's lyrics often have a surreal sense that produces concrete images while concealing or veiling deeper things. For example, the line from the following stanza  "While paupers change possessions, each one wishing for what the other has got" explicitly describes envy, one of Catholicism's Seven Deadly Sins.

This is immediately followed by "And the princess and the prince discuss what's real and what is not." Here we now stand in the midst of a whirl of ambiguity, because, "It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden."

You can read my 2015 interview with the artist here.

To see more of Botkin's art online, visit http://danielbotkin.com/

Poland's Black Madonna (1990 NYTimes story)