Fritz

I've fallen into this habit where I read me a bit of James Lee Burke every January through the holidays here. It's easy going but enjoyable. This time:

Deep in John Fante territory and loving it:

Down here in the southern hemipshere January means a loooong hot summer, holidays, reading, Tamworth country music festival in late Jan, and lots of snorkelling.

I really like it. I always enjoyed his Berlin years.

Does anyone remember the Bob Dylan Tape Library? They were good people. I had them copy some VHS tapes for me - Eat The Document + Renaldo & Clara. This was a big deal back in the day. Blanks and postage between Australia and the U.S. was no small thing. The nice thing about the deal was that both times they put some extras on the end of the tapes. One of the extra segments I got was this nice little set from a TV show called The World of John Hammond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvLLueTfVEo I thought of this today when I went for a walk listening to Knight of the Hurricane. Rolling

Glad I received my Christmas subscription!

This is from Sarah Lee Guthrie's and Johnny Irion's website:

That's OK. I was wondering that, too.

Great that he sought help. Wonderful to hear that he's gonna immerse himself in writing and performing.

Amen to that.

This has been on my shelf for a while. I must say I'm hooked:

Yes, I agree with this.

I was watching the GD movie yesterday. Towards the end where there's a scene backstage (Jerry is looking for water) there's an old guy standing there, looking like someone of note who's been invited back to see the band. Hair slicked back, beard, holding a jacket in his hand. Someone makes the comment, "Look who's here!" To these eyes he looks a lot like Charles Bukowski would've looked like in 1974. Anyone know the dude I'm talking about and, if it's not Hank, does anyone know who it might be? I don't really think the Dead would be Hank's thing but you never know.

I'm moving through this slowly but quite enjoying it. Reading a young Kerouac's journal where he maps out a future career as a novelist, not so much with hope and planning, but with foresight, absolute knowledge and certainty that the only thing he will do with his life will be to write. It's quite startling.

Now watching this: http://www.ustream.tv/theflaminglips Ustream Music Presents (24hrs LIVE) -- The Flaming Lips' Halloween freakout Freak Night concert

Anthem to Beauty in the Classic Albums series is also great to watch.

Yes! That's the version that spurred me to write this post in the first place. Thanks for the replies. I , too, enjoy the slower building up ones as opposed to the faster 60s ones - though I do have a recording (forgotten the date but it's a Marijuana Defence Benefit - 1967 maybe?) where they open with a sped up Morning Dew which is wonderful. Looking forward to hunting out some of Mountain Bed's suggestions. Nothing like a little GD project to get me through these last couple of weeks of work before the holidays... Thanks again.

That is a very nice idea. On another note I'm listening to Dick's Picks, vol. 11 tonight - 9/27/72 and totally getting into the groove of Morning Dew. This was one of the first songs that got me into the Dead as it was the opening song on the very first boot I received in the mail for a B&P trade some years ago. Got me to thinking...can anyone recommend me some mighty fine versions of Morning Dew? I could listen to back to back recordings of this song alone, such is the power it has to move me. Fritz

I was a big Nick Cave fan back in the day though I rarely listen to his work these days. I do, however, quite like the sound of the first song from the new record. I'll probably fork out the $ when he comes to Sydney. It's been some years since I've seen the Bad Seeds.

Seeing him and them in the Hunter Valley next year and looking forward to it immensely.

I don't like abandoning books so let's just say I'm putting down Moby Dick for a while. It is very detail-heavy and it's just not what my head needs right now. So I found this...