Dylan and Dinner

Today I saw I'm Not There, the Todd Haynes Bob Dylan pseudo-biopic. It was completely unlike any biopic I've ever seen- actually unlike any movie I've ever seen in the last few years- but that made it so much better, because Dylan's life is incredibly ill-suited to a De-lovely or Walk the Line type storyline. This was frenetic and indirectly symbolic in all the best meanings of the words. Six actors (including Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin- a preteen african-american- who stole the show) portray Dylan in various aspects/time periods of his life. Vignettes are fragmented and juxtaposed in such a way that every minute is saturated with both transparent and hidden meanings. The movie does an incredible job of capturing his disingenuous attitude toward the media and his ultimate failure to distance himself from the songs that made him famous. For better or worse those folk roots have followed and defined him despite numerous attempts at self-reinvention. Highway 61 Revisited may have established him as the pre-eminent rock musician of all time, but the media, for better or worse, will always dwell on Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They are a' Changin'.

Today I went to dinner with my friend, Erin Brown. Erin is the most well-traveled of all my friends, arguably the smartest, and certainly the one who most deserves the label bon vivant. Sometimes I wonder why she would condescend to hang out with a college dropout who spent a year in jail for armed robbery, but I hesitate to raise the question for fear she would begin to wonder herself. Her mother was my elementary school librarian, and we attended the same middle school, but it wasn't until we were both employed by Dan Jones and Associates that we became close. I am somewhat withdrawn by nature and am always slightly intimidated by effusive intellectuals (a title for which a Russian-speaking Wellesley graduate would certainly qualify), but that never seems to be an issue with Erin. She is wonderful to converse with and flatteringly receptive to my bad jokes and inane observations. Though I didn't get drunk at the bar and watch the Utah triumph over Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl as I had planned, my night was extremely enjoyable. Hopefully when her mission to Moscow is complete my probation will be also and we can travel the world together. She has had many more random, esoteric experiences than me and I need to catch up.