Bob Dylan speaks out on Portsmouth Politics


A huge hat tip to Sheila Lennon of Subterranean Homepage News for blogging this cool toy. Not only is she Rhode Island's best blogger, but she clearly loves Dylan as much as I do. She's an artist; she don't look back.

Comments

Thank you for this very cool "toy"...Who doesn't love Dylan!? I have sent it to ALL my friends,and everyone I could think of in this town, with an OPPOSITE effect message(of course :) )...a really NICE endorsement about the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens(PCC)...Rather proud of what I came up with to say in a limited amount of space too. And it didn't cost anything!!!
Sorry I didn't send one to you John, It would have been too hypocritical, and I don't play both sides of the fence.

Hi, Stormie...
Glad you enjoyed this, and hope everyone in the PCC buys lots of Dylan's music. As you say, we may disagree on a lot of things, but who doesn't love Dylan?

Cheers.
-j

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. (Sorry, I just could not resist that one. Support non-violent protests only!)

Hi, Phyz...
Yes indeed. And the pump don't work cuz the vandals took the handles. Words of wisdom.

Cheers.
-j

John, thanks so much for the kind words.

Some folks have asked how I pulled that off -- they actually thought Dylan was doing a commercial for my blog. I had to run with it.

You did something relevant with your cue cards. I like it.

(Yeah, Dylan was huge for me. If not for him, I might have ended up a Stepford Wife.)

s

Hi, Sheila...
It really is one of those clever viral interwebs tricks. It's so simple, yet so amazingly effective.

I started really listening to Dylan in high school, and I remember this song in particular, and the point that I realized that the third verse was a catalog of ways to avoid the draft:

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail

The only one which puzzled me was "Ring bell," until I remembered those early-60's PSAs for mental health which used an old-fashioned bell as their icon. Suddenly, all the stuff that Mr. Flannery was trying to teach us about symbolism in Faulkner's "The Bear" finally made sense. Especially since there was still a draft in those days.

It was one of those moments of illumination when all the pieces shift, and you see things differently. Like you say, I wouldn't be who or where I am without Dylan, and all one can try to do is pay it forward.

Cheers.
-j