{"id":1877,"date":"2016-10-28T08:03:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T13:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2016-10-28T08:28:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T13:28:24","slug":"i-will-go-to-stockholm-for-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/i-will-go-to-stockholm-for-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"I Will Go To Stockholm For Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wpf_wrapper\"><a class=\"print_link\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Print this entry<\/a><\/p><!-- .wpf_wrapper --><p><em>News item:<\/em> A member of the Swedish Academy called Bob Dylan \u201cimpolite and arrogant\u201d for thus far ignoring winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Repeated phone calls have gone unanswered. Dylan does not acknowledge winning the award while performing in concert \u2014 he appeared in Shreveport earlier this week \u2014 and a mention on his website has been removed.<\/p>\n<p>First, let\u2019s note I\u2019m pleased Dylan received the Nobel, the first American to receive it for literature since Tony Morrison received the award in 1993. In 50 years or so, he has written more than 450 songs, many of which are firmly entrenched in American culture. \u201cBlood on the Tracks,\u201d which was released in 1975, is one of my desert island albums. I played it on Spotify the day I heard he won the prize. Every song is a gem.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a sampling of my favorite lyrics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From <em>Wallflower: <\/em>\u201cJust like you I\u2019m wondrin\u2019 what I\u2019m doin\u2019 here. Just like you I\u2019m wondrin\u2019 what\u2019s goin\u2019 on.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>From <em>To Ramona:<\/em> \u201cEverything passes. Everything changes. Just do what you think you should do,\u201d<\/li>\n<li>From <em>Motorpsycho Nightmare: <\/em>\u201cWithout freedom of speech. I might be in the swamp.\u201d<br \/>\nAmen to that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have seen Dylan in concert once, in 2007, at ACL Fest in Austin. ACL is a three-day endurance test of one\u2019s ability to eat dust, endure stopped-up Porta-Johnnies and stand in long lines for a beer or some food, while jostling with large crowds in order to hear great musical acts. I went twice, that year and the next, but only for a single day. After the second year, I concluded I was getting too old for such foolishness even for just a day \u2014 though I can\u2019t say I won\u2019t return someday if the lineup is particular attractive to a sexagenarian.<\/p>\n<p>Dylan was the final act that night. It was not the best venue to hear someone whose voice has been reduced to an interesting growl \u2014 outside at Zilker Park with thousands of beer-soaked fans. Between the background noise of young people wondering aloud who Bob Dylan was \u2014 seriously \u2014 and the poor acoustics, it was not the greatest concert experience. But I continue to admire Dylan\u2019s work ethic and considerable talents. He just released his latest album \u2014 \u201cFallen Angels.\u201d I will give it a listen when it pops up on Spotify. Dylan has to be the most covered songwriter on the planet, given the volume of his work.<\/p>\n<p>Bob being Bob, he might continue to ignore the hoopla and not show up in Stockholm on Dec. 10 for the awards ceremony. That is his prerogative. It is not like he <em>applied<\/em> to be Nobel laureate. As a <em>New York Times<\/em> writer put it, \u201cMr. Dylan may yet accept the prize, but so far, his refusal to accept the authority of the Swedish Academy has been a wonderful demonstration of what real artistic and philosophical freedom looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So I have a proposal:<\/p>\n<p>I am willing to fly to Stockholm pick up the award on Bob\u2019s behalf. Then I will be happy to mail it to him, or even spring for UPS, since I figure he would not actually want to meet me. However, not having a large travel budget \u2014 actually I have <em>no<\/em> travel budget \u2014 I will need Bob to buy me a ticket to Sweden. I am not greedy. I can fly coach. And all I require for lodging is a hotel somewhere higher in stature than a Super Eight. Best Western is fine, or whatever the Nordic equivalent might be.<\/p>\n<p>If a speech is required, I will prepare a brief one, likely incorporating lyrics from \u201cIdiot Wind\u201d for a bit of panache. I will decline any invitations to sing, out of respect for both Dylan and the audience.<\/p>\n<p>Will Bob accept my offer? He said it best: \u201cThe answer, my friend, is blowin\u2019 in the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wpf_wrapper\"><a class=\"print_link\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Print this entry<\/a><\/p><!-- .wpf_wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Print this entryNews item: A member of the Swedish Academy called Bob Dylan \u201cimpolite and arrogant\u201d for thus far ignoring winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Repeated phone calls have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-51","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}