So Bob Dylan won’t be heading over to Sweden to pick up his Nobel Prize for Literature on December the 10th. The Swedish Academy said Wednesday that Dylan told them he “wishes he could receive the prize personally, but other commitments made it unfortunately impossible”. He is still, however, required to give a Nobel lecture some time between now and next June.
Rolling Stone announces it here, The Guardian here, here in the New York Times.
More Dylan news – and a must-read – (in conjunction with his current London art show) – “Bob Dylan – In His Own Words” in the current Vanity Fair – “Why Bob Dylan Paints”
“For this series of paintings, the idea was to create pictures that would not be misinterpreted or misunderstood by me or anybody else. When the Halcyon Gallery brought me the idea of doing American landscapes for an exhibition, all they had to do was say it once.And after a bit of clarification, I took it to heart and ran with it..”
And there’s more
“See You Later, Allen Ginsberg”, that joyous throw-away from “The Basement Tapes”, actually has a back-story, Robbie Robertson’s recently-published autobiography, Testimony tells it. Seems Bob and Robbie weren’t necessarily relishing Allen’s eager visit to the studio. More on that anon.
And here’s another excerpt/snippet from Robertson’s details-rich “tell-all” (recalling, from the ‘Sixties, a mercifully-thwarted orgy)
“About ten of us sat in the circle and Ginsberg brought out some weed and hallucinogens”, Robertson writes, “Soon the room got so smoky from cigarettes and pot you could hardly see the person beside you and things started getting gritty. Intoxicated sexual bravado turned to shouting. Laughter and madness settled on a room full of would-be pirates. And the smoke got thicker and the drinks got stronger. Ginsberg and his partner, Peter Orlovsky, suggested we all take our clothes off – saying something to the effect that “nakedness is pure freedom”. One of the (Hell’s) Angels [sic – there were Hells Angels in the company! ] started hollering and tearing off his jacket and shirt. I flashed a nervous look at Bob, but then I had an even more terrifying thought – “Oh man, what if he likes this idea!”. Bob didn’t blink. He started talking about something so elliptical and beside the point that everybody was trying to keep up with his train of thought. It killed any talk of “pure freedom”
Allen in fiction (sic) – Allen features in Nathan Hill‘s 1968-themed new novel – The Nix (The book has received some singularly laudatory reviews, for example – here)
And for more of recent Allen-in-fiction – the Allen Ginsberg character in Erica Abeel‘s Wild Girls
Hill’s book is 620 pages long so the President-Elect of America is unlikely to sit down and read it
The American Civil Liberties Union, The Center For Constitutional Rights, PEN International… We find ourselves recommending/reminding you of important organizations to support and be behind in these times.. Wonder why?
Richard Nixon‘s Defence Secretary from 1969-1973, Melvin Laird died Wednesday. Allen famously publicly urinated (accompanied by television cameras) on the front of his house.