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Dylan Revisited
By David Gates On 10/5/97 at 8:00 PM EDT
Bob Dylan has reinvented himself all his life. Now he's back--from a near-fatal illness and a near-terminal career slump--with his best record in years. How does it feel? We asked him. He told us.
AS YOU SIT ACROSS FROM HIM, HIS FACE KEEPS CHANGING. Sometimes it's that I-see-right-through-you look from the cover of"Highway 61 Revisited"--you barely notice the white hairs among the curls, the two days' worth of stubble and the 30 years' worth of lines. Now he turns his head: there's the proufie from "Blood on the Tracks." Now he thrusts his chin up, and he's the funny, defiant kid who used to wear that Bob Dylan cap. Well, he is Bob Dylan. The man who did to popular music what Einstein did to physics. The incarnation of the counterculture. The songwriter of the century. Sitting right there. So what's on his mind?
It turns out that he loves to talk about Merle Haggard and early Elvis. Or Brian Wilson: "That ear-- I mean, Jesus, he's got to will that to the Smithsonian." Or Sinatra: "The tone of his voice. It's like a cello. Me and Don Was wanted to record him doing Hank Williams songs. I don't know, for some reason or other it never got off the ground." And when it comes to musical arcana, he knows the secret handshakes. Somehow you get talking about the old country duo Johnnie and Jack, and how Jack died in a car crash. "Car crash goin' to Patsy Cline's funeral," he chimes in. Bingo.
But you're really here, in an oceanfront hotel in L.A., to talk about the record he's releasing this week, "Time Out of Mind," completed before his widely reported death scare last spring; it's got that album-of-the-year buzz publicists can help along some but not create. But there's stuff he's put off-limits-where he lives, his children-and stuff you just know not to ask. What did those black and white loafers set him back? Is he still in touch with his ex-wife? In fact, he seems near the edge of his comfort zone talking about why he's not talking about one of his most illegible back pages: that conservative, born-again-Christian phase that blindsided his liberal, secular fan base some 15 years ago. "It's not tangible to me," he says. "I don't think I'm tangible to myself. I mean, I think one thing today and I think another thing tomorrow. I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time. It doesn't even matter to me." This cracks him up.
Then he says, "Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like 'Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain' or 'I Saw the Light'-that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs."
BOB DYLAN IS 56. LAST MAY, WHEN he almost died--of a viral infection in the sac around the heart--Columbia Records got 500 calls in a single day. Earlier this year Greil Marcus's much-discussed ""Invisible Republic,'' a study of Dylan's 1967 ""Basement Tapes,'' rightly ranked his music with ""the most intense outbreaks of twentieth-century modernism''; the death scare reminded us that Dylan is a major cultural figure--and that we won't always have him with us. But for Dylan himself, deep thoughts about mortality had to take a back seat. ""Mostly I was in a lot of pain. Pain that was intolerable. That's the only way I can put it.'' By August, though, he was back on tour again, lightheaded from his medication but sounding none the worse for wear.
Last weekend Dylan performed before the pope, reportedly at John Paul's own request, at a eucharistic conference in Bologna. John Paul listened, eyes closed, to ""Knockin' on Heaven's Door'' and the apocalyptic ""A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall''; then Dylan doffed his white Stetson, shook the pope's hand and sang ""Forever Young.'' In December he'll receive a Kennedy Center Honors award, with President Clinton in attendance. Will he have to speak? ""No, they say I don't have to do a thing, which is''--he laughs--""perfect for me.''
Dylan's been fitfully rebuilding his career for the past decade, after starring in the stillborn 1987 film ""Hearts of Fire,'' a knockoff of ""A Star Is Born,'' and releasing such disappointing (though underrated) albums as 1988's ""Down in the Groove.'' He's had triumphant media moments: his 1988 collaboration with Tom Petty, George Harrison and Roy Orbison as the Traveling Wilburys, his all-star 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in 1992, winning over critics in 1993 shows at Manhattan's Supper Club, holding his own with Metallica and Nine Inch Nails at Woodstock '94, his tight, audience-friendly 1994 set for ""MTV Unplugged.'' But more important are the 100 or so ordinary concerts he plays, year in, year out, on his Never-Ending Tour (which he says ended in 1991) and its successors, to which he's given such names as the Why Do You Look at Me So Strangely Tour.
And he's newly famous as the father of the Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan. ""I know they've sold a ton of records,'' says Dylan, who's ""superstitious'' about discussing family members. ""I keep hearing that they're playing arenas or whatever with the Counting the Crows group.'' Did he try to interest Jakob in old blues and hillbilly music? ""Yeah, he's heard the records. He has different likes because he was born at a different time--but sure, if he wants to hear good old-timey records, they're easily available to him.'' Do we take it he'd rather not comment on the Wallflowers' music? He laughs, either at your discomfiture or his, and--honest to Pete--the phone rings. (He can't help it if he's lucky.) OK, so has he heard Counting Crows, whose ""Mr. Jones'' alludes to his ""Ballad of a Thin Man'' and has the line ""I want to be Bob Dylan''? ""I have heard them,'' he says, ""but I get them mixed up with somebody else.'' The few things he catches on the radio anymore sound ""weak and hopeless''--and disposable. ""The top stars of today, you won't even know their names two years from now. Four, five years from now, they'll be obliterated. It's all flaky to me.''
This is the marketplace to whose vagaries he's committing ""Time Out of Mind.'' It's the first collection of his own new songs in six years--some Dylan-watchers feared there might never be another one--and maybe the best since 1975's ""Blood on the Tracks.'' His last two records, ""Good as I Been to You'' (1992) and the Grammy-winning ""World Gone Wrong'' (1993), were solo acoustic versions of blues and folk songs; ""Time Out of Mind'' should appeal to a wider audience. It's far more accessible than such thorny later masterworks as ""Infidels'' (1983)--though it may also be his darkest record ever.
Producer Daniel Lanois, who also worked on Dylan's 1989 ""Oh Mercy,'' says he ""asked Bob to step into the future'' with such technological conveniences as tape-looped rhythm tracks. Dylan hoped to push back the clock. He structured one song around a guitar line in the Memphis Jug Band's 1929 ""K.C. Moan,'' and he wanted his vocals to pack the punch of old recordings. ""Bob would say to me, "Little Richard's voice really cuts'.'' (In his 1959 Hibbing, Minn., high-school yearbook, Robert Zimmerman said his ambition was ""to join the band of Little Richard.'') Both the forward-looking Lanois and the backward-looking Dylan got their way.
""Time Out of Mind'' is a spare, spooky-sounding album, its lyrics brutally plain-spoken instead of ""Dylanesque'': ""My sense of humanity has gone down the drain,'' he sings in ""Not Dark Yet.'' It's about hopelessly lost love, about endless wandering--its first three songs begin with the singer walking--about an aging man's increasing distance from his world. ""I got new eyes/Everything looks far away.'' The landscape is hot and arid, and though there's no one around, he's ""beginning to hear voices'' and ""listening to every mind-polluting word.'' Dylan's own voice sounds appropriately murky, ravaged, distorted. ""We treated the voice almost like a harmonica,'' says Lanois, ""when you overdrive it through a small guitar amplifier.''
Hard-core Dylan freaks can be contrary; they may join the crowd and proclaim ""Time Out of Mind'' the long-awaited best-since-""Blood,'' or they may find it too accessible. But the last song, the 16 1/2-minute ""Highlands,'' should poleax everybody: it's a Thurber daydream with a Beckett narrator (""talking to myself in a monologue''), a Robert Burns refrain and a hypnotic guitar hook from Charlie Patton. In this funny, grim, crepuscular saga, the yearning for human connection gives way, with regret, to a yearning for transcendence. ""Nobody knew what to make of it,'' says Dylan. Lanois, for better or worse, talked him out of a 21-minute version.
""It is a spooky record,'' says Dylan, ""because I feel spooky. I don't feel in tune with anything.'' Yet he's proud of having registered his ambivalence and alienation so nakedly. ""I don't think it eclipses anything from my earlier period. But I think it might be shocking in its bluntness. There isn't any waste. There's no line that has to be there to get to another line. There's no pointless playing with somebody's brain. I think it's going to reach the people it needs to reach, and the ones it doesn't, maybe they'll come along another day.''
SOME 30 YEARS AGO, DYLAN'S work mattered more intensely to more people than anyone's does today. ""He not busy being born is busy dying,'' he sang, and young people yearning for a role model and an imaginary friend hung on every word as he took on and shucked off persona after persona: the new Woody Guthrie, the voice of the Movement, the rock-and-roll Fellini, the poet of the bad trip and the doomed love affair, the minimalist mystic, the back-to-basics country boy. Fans flattered themselves that they were going through the same changes. ""I never figured my mu-sic to blend into the culture in any kind of way,'' Dylan says now. But back then it was hard to tell whether he was mirroring '60s youth culture or actually creating it. He offered ready-to-wear attitudes and ready-to-cherish slogans. ""Even the President of the United States sometime must have to stand naked.'' ""Leave your stepping-stones behind.'' And--paradoxically--""Don't follow leaders.''
Dylan's early political songs--""The Times They Are a-Changin','' ""Masters of War''--belong to their era, but the electric music he invented in the mid-'60s is still in our faces. He set modern poetry--confessional, gnomic, comic, denunciatory, prophetic, visionary--to ecstatically danceable rock and roll. John Lennon said Dylan's music transformed the Beatles; today, everyone from R.E.M. to Beck to sedulously unlistenable art-metal bands shrieking out Tourettean lyrics over chainsaw guitar is doing what he made thinkable.
Dylan insists he's not a poet--""Wordsworth's a poet, Shelley's a poet, Allen Ginsberg's a poet''--and doesn't play rock and roll. Even back when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were recycling blues and R&B as pop music, he had his doubts about the whole enterprise. ""Part of me fell for it, but part of me didn't. The best part of me didn't fall for it at all.'' These days, he only listens to the old-timers, and he treasures the personal encounters he had. Big Joe Turner ""on his last legs,'' walking with a cane, singing in one more club. Lonnie Johnson--""when he walked into the room, there was an eeriness about him''--showing him guitar fingerings. ""I remember all those old guys I saw. They live in my head. I can't get rid of them.''
If he's adamant these days about seeing himself as their descendant and not a modernist genius for whom they were samples in the mix, who can blame him? Fans imagine the man who wrote ""It Ain't Me, Babe'' and ""Desolation Row'' and ""Gotta Serve Somebody'' as a demigod--or a Martian. ""But I'm not the songs,'' he says. ""It's like somebody expecting Shakespeare to be Hamlet, or Goethe to be Faust. If you're not prepared for fame, there's really no way you can imagine what a crippling thing it can be.'' The will that got him here in the first place has kept him practicing his art--which he insists is simply a ""craft'' or a ""trade''--but he's often about this close from giving it up. ""Some days I get up and it just makes me sick that I'm doing what I'm doing. Because basically--I mean, you're one cut above a pimp. That's what everybody who's a performer is. I have this voice in my head saying, "Just be done with it'.''
But what else would he do? ""Oh, man!'' he cries, and twists around in his chair to look out the window. There's a beach out there. Blue sky. ""What wouldn't I do?''
TEN YEARS AGO, DYLAN SAYS, ""I'D kind of reached the end of the line. Whatever I'd started out to do, it wasn't that. I was going to pack it in.'' Onstage, he couldn't do his old songs. ""You know, like how do I sing this? It just sounds funny.'' He goes into an all-too-convincing imitation of panic: ""I-- I can't remember what it means, does it mean--is it just a bunch of words? Maybe it's like what all these people say, just a bunch of surrealistic nonsense.'' When the Grateful Dead took him on tour in 1987, Jerry Garcia urged him to try again. ""He'd say, "Come on, man, you know, this is the way it goes, let's play it, it goes like this.' And I'd say, "Man, he's right, you know? How's he gettin' there and I can't get there?' And I had to go through a lot of red tape in my mind to get back there.''
Then, in October 1987, playing Locarno, Switzerland, with Tom Petty's band and the female singers he now says he used to hide behind, Dylan had his breakthrough. It was an outdoor show--he remembers the fog and the wind--and as he stepped to the mike, a line came into his head. ""It's almost like I heard it as a voice. It wasn't like it was even me thinking it. I'm determined to stand, whether God will deliver me or not. And all of a sudden everything just exploded. It exploded every which way. And I noticed that all the people out there--I was used to them looking at the girl singers, they were good-looking girls, you know? And like I say, I had them up there so I wouldn't feel so bad. But when that happened, nobody was looking at the girls anymore. They were looking at the main mike. After that is when I sort of knew: I've got to go out and play these songs. That's just what I must do.'' He's been at it ever since.
On the beastly hot Labor Day weekend of 1997, he ends his post-hospital tour with an outdoor show in Kansas City, Mo. It's the usual crowd: '60s geezers, and kids with backwards caps, halter tops or granny dresses, nose studs, faux tattoos, T shirts advertising a range of loyalties from Beck to Phish. What he sees from up here onstage is a floodlit ocean of faces and bare, swaying arms; he can smell the incense sticks someone in his crew sets burning in buckets of sand. He starts with ""Absolutely Sweet Marie'' and moves on to a slinky ""It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,'' to the Stanley Brothers' ""Stone Walls and Steel Bars,'' to a stately ""Like a Rolling Stone,'' in which his electric guitar tangles up with countermelodies from guitarist Larry Campbell and pedal-steel player Bucky Baxter in a sweetly chiming, wildly raving choir. When he comes off after the last encore, you congratulate him and touch his shoulder. His jacket's soaked.
He knows what they say about his concerts. "" "Oh, he's massacring the songs, there's no way of knowing what you're going to get when you go see a Dylan show, blah blah blah.' It's true, to a certain extent. But OK, so that show wasn't any good. Doesn't matter. There's tomorrow.'' In fact, he's been reworking his songs in concert since he began touring with the Band in 1966; he calls the familiar recorded versions merely ""blueprints.'' He'll distill a verse of ""Mr. Tambourine Man'' to just two or three notes, followed up by a couple of choruses on guitar, repeating a single three-note pattern over each of the changing chords. When he's on, there's no place you'd rather be.
True, he's muffed his share of big moments, like his 1985 appearance at Live Aid with Keith Richards, Ron Wood and at least one horribly out-of-tune guitar. He's too self-contained, too inward, to come across on TV or video. But now that every twerp with a stylist wants to be an icon, it's enormously appealing that Dylan doesn't have an act together. Fans affectionately post his curious onstage obiter dicta on the Internet: ""On bass guitar tonight, Tony Garnier. I'm not gonna say nothin' about Tony except that he once tried to milk a cow with a monkey wrench. '' If there's a hint of condescension here--jeez, what a character--it surely beats being Poet of His Generation. ""I don't like to think of myself in the highfalutin area,'' says Dylan. ""I'm in the burlesque area.''
Huh? Burlesque? Oh. Old-timey lowlife entertainment. Standing naked in front of strangers. He's not a poet? Fine. But that's a hell of a word.
The old songsters Dylan reveres are gone now, but their music lives. He can never again be the sweet-faced young man on the cover of ""The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963), walking on a snowy Manhattan street with a sweet-faced girl clinging to his arm. But he's still the man who said, in the notes to that album, ""I don't carry myself yet the way that Big Joe Williams, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Lightnin' Hopkins have carried themselves. I hope to be able to someday.'' Not long ago, he saw a dance performance, to songs he'd cut in the early '60s, and didn't recognize his own voice. ""I said, "What's this? This is incredible.' I thought it was some obscure person. But it wasn't; it was me. I'll have somebody get a copy and send it to you. You'll be amazed.'' Not at how terrific he was; that's not what he means.He means, That kid was on to something. He means, A lot of water's gone over the dam.
""We try and we try and we try to be who we were,'' he says. ""That's why everybody who went down went down.'' Is he talking about the dead-rock-star pantheon he's refused to join? ""People we all know,'' he answers. ""Who just--went down. Into the ground. Or scattered in the air, wherever they are. Sooner or later you come to the realization that we're not who we were. So then what do we do?'' His whole career has been a series of temporary answers. The latest answer's on his new record: you keep putting one foot in front of the other. ""I'm walking,'' the first song begins, ""through streets that are dead.'' It's one of the great Bob Dylan opening lines. How many roads must a man walk down? It's the darkest one yet. But the point is, he's walking.


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Category: Davey wavey
Straight Guys Looking At Dick Pics; Tom of Finland Emoji; Millennials Sexting and Sharing Pics
Straight Buys Looking At Dick Pics
Here's an article on a topic that doesn't seem to want to go away: dick pics.
Most gay men, by definition, enjoy seeing (and doing other things with) other men's junk. Straight men, on the other hand, do not typically enjoy seeing (and doing other things) with other men's junk.
Inspired by this distinct difference, YouTube fave Davey Wavey wondered what would happen if he found a group of straight men to offer their thoughts about a series of photos featuring other men's genitalia.
What does "most gay men, by definition," mean anyway? I don't get that. I think I can be defined as a gay man and I'm not all that fond of getting bad unsolicited dick pics. And most of them ARE bad, and worthy of a laugh or two. I think most of my gay friends (by definition) would agree with me. For the record, I wouldn't have even commented if it had said, "some gay men."
In any event, you can read the rest here. The part about the straight guys is funny.
Tom of Finland Emoji
I've posted a few things already about Tom of Finland, with respect to gay culture. At the time, I never thought I'd see anything like this. In case you don't know anything about Tom of Finland, here's a link to all of my posts.
Two months ago, DJ Hell released a video for his track "I Want U" featuring Tom of Finland artwork. (Don't check it out at work unless your boss is down with public sex and light bondage.)
And now, celebrating the fact that same-sex marriage will be legalized on March 1st, the country is published their own set of national emojis — which includes the one above. (Finland is clearly not America.)
Here's the rest.
Millennials Sexting and Sharing Pics
This article about millennials sexting doesn't surprise or worry me all that much. However, I'm not a huge fan of sharing pics without permission. Whether the pic is or isn't SFW, I don't think anyone has the right to share someone's image without permission, including those taken in public places like parks and stores. I know one dude who hikes up some canyon every morning with his dog and everyone around him (total strangers) winds up on facebook later that day. Just wrong.
In any event, here's the article I'm linking to now.
Here's what researchers learned about millennials and technology:
48% of respondents say they sext at least once a week.
42% of guys say they send naked pictures at least once a week, and 50% say they receive naked pictures at least once a week.
30% of respondents say they have shared another person's naked pictures without that person's knowledge or consent.
You can check that out here.
Cage James
Customer Review: "Well written and clever!"
February 12, 2017 June 14, 2017
New Release: Ramon Canyon by Ryan Field; Anti-Gay Marriage Kim Davis Loses Reelection; Ryan Field Gay Romance
Ryan Field Gay Romance
Straight Guys and Dick Pics
Tom of Finland Gay Culture
Have Lots and Lots and Lots of Gay Sex
I thought this was wonderful. Of course you have to "get" the context first, which many in the comments didn't seem to grasp. However, I think the general point behind it is brilliant and empowering.
Davey Wavey interviewed LGBT Historian, Tim McCarthy, and McCarthy made some spot on comments…along with an abridged lesson in LGBT history.
Have sex. Have lots and lots and lots of sex. Sex has always been a revolutionary act, especially queer sex. It both honors the protest that's required to stand up to the world around us, but it also honors and validates who we are. So, number one, if that's all you can do, you're still doing a great thing, okay?
But there's so much more. I promise that's not all this interview is about. You have to actually watch it to see what I mean. McCarthy talks about strength, caring, all the things that are positive about people who fall under the umbrella of LGBT.
You can watch some of the video here.
And, you can also read books about gay sex, love, and romance.
Mr. Clean Is One Hot Daddy
It's Friday. Sometimes you need to just focus on the lighter side of life. Or, sometimes you just need to get away from creeps like that Milo Yiannapapadolapolis.
It's a long-established fact that Mr. Clean is a stone cold fox. You know, as far as animated fictional brand mascots go.
But despite his reputation for bringing all the boys to the yard, we were simply not prepared for the newest commercial from the company, set to air during the Super Bowl.
You can check out the video here.
It's actually funnier than it is sexy, at least I didn't find anything sexy about it. But you might feel differently.
Chris Salvatore Cares For Elderly Neighbor
Chris Salvatore is a rare breed. He's an openly gay actor in Hollywood, and, he's got a huge heart.
As grotesque as the general landscape is out there, it's important to remember that not everyone is a craven opportunist hoping to misdirect people from their blackened hearts.
Case in point: Openly gay actor Chris Salvatore, who, apropos of nothing, has taken in his 89-year-old neighbor Norma Cook (and her cat Hermes.)
There's a lot more here, with photos and gifs.
We were caregivers for both my mother and father and I always tell people it's one of the most rewarding things anyone can do in life. And when it's over, you'll miss that care-giving more than you ever imagined.
Stepbrothers In the Attic
Davey Wavey Interivew With Brent Corrigan; Peter Scolari Wins Emmy For Playing Gay Dad; JK Rowling's Revelation and HIV Metaphor
Davey Wavey Interview With Brent Corrigan
Sometimes I like to post on topics that I know absolutely nothing about. For me it's a practice in objectivity, which I think is important to any writer. In fact, I wish we saw more objectivity these days everywhere.
So here's an article about an interview Davey Wavey did with Brent Corrigan. It's interesting and I really don't follow either one of them often.
Does this turn you on? Unavoidable YouTube personality Davey Wavey just interviewed adult film star Brent Corrigan for his Business of Sex web series, eking out stories about his early beginnings in the adult film industry, why he wants to steer clear of promoting King Cobra, and his lifelong obsession with horses.
You can check it out here. There's a video.
As always with pieces like this that are just meant for fun and not meant to change the world, you'll find the comments from readers a little surprising. At least I did.
Peter Scolari Wins Emmy For Playing Gay Dad
I know nothing about this. I used to watch the TV show Girls all the time. I think I even posted about it here at one point. But even though I liked it, I stopped watching because of Lena Dunham. I'm not going to elaborate on that, but I lost track of the show and characters and this is news to me as well.
Peter Scolari won his first Emmy Award on Saturday (10 September) for his portrayal of Lena Dunham's gay dad on the HBO series Girls.
The win took many by surprise since the actor was not initially a nominee in a field that also included Larry David (Saturday Night Live), Tracy Morgan (Saturday Night Live), Martin Mull (Veep), Bradley Whitford (Transparent) and Bob Newhart (The Big Bang Theory).
You can read the rest here.
JK Rowling's Revelation and HIV Metaphor
The only book I've really read by JK Rowling was A Causal Vacancy, which I reviewed here on the blog. I loved that book, it was a long book, and I hated to see it end. However, I'm not familiar with the Harry Potter series at length, it's not my preferred genre, and I know nothing about this alleged controversy with Rowling. I wasn't even sure how to title this part of the post.
JK Rowling has debunked the 'revelation' fan fave character Remus Lupin's werewolf condition is a metaphor for HIV.
In one of her new ebooks, the author is quoted as talking about his lycanthropy as a metaphor for an illness that carries some negative public opinion.
Here's the link to read more. I can't parse this one no matter how hard I try. But someone in the comments tried to make it clearer.
Valley of the Dudes
Amazon All Romance E-books Smashwords
Unabated
Unabated Create Space In Print
Peter Scolari Wins Emmy For Gay Dad Role
tv show girls
Warning Label: Rape; Davey Wavey: The Worst Part of Gay; NYT Paid Content
Warning Label: Rape
In the 1950's television shows were subjected to some of the worst kinds of censorship in the history of the arts. Censors forced producers like Desi Arnaz to use twin beds at all times on I Love Lucy because the thought of two married people sleeping (not actually having sex) in the same bed was found to be offensive and harmful to some people. Today television shows like American Horror are still being censored, and obviously the kinds of censorship Arnaz had to deal with in the 1950's has changed drastically. But American Horror (and other shows like it) is still forced to put up warnings before each show if there's anything considered questionable or harmful content.
There's a blog post, written by an author I don't know, about warning labels on books that's created more than a few in-depth discussions in the past week. The post begins with a comment about how there's an interesting trend now, especially with small niche presses.
No, this disturbing trend is far more insidious. It's the infantilization of the reader.
The riff goes something like this: "Oooh, that content is objectionable! It might upset someone! We better warn people away! Quick, tag it! Oh, how dare that author not include warnings! What a terrible, insensitive person! I bet they wrote it because ."
You can read more here.
As I stated, this post has created interesting discussions, to the point where one person left a comment on a thread at another blog posting on the same topic that went like this, in part:
She said she wished she could stop reading it but she couldn't because she had to see if the rape victim (heroine) was going to survive but it was a horrible experience for her.
I felt terrible for that reader and frankly if a warning prevents someone like her from going through that experience I'm all for it. There is far more harm that can be done without warnings than with warnings.
I hate to see anyone harmed, but I'm not so sure more harm can be done without warnings. Should we start adding warning labels to classics? In Toni Morrison's, The Bluest Eye, one of the most important pieces of literature of the twentieth century, there's rape and incest portrayed as it applies to both the story and the culture of the main characters. As far as I know, I've never seen The Bluest Eye come with a warning label. The Bluest Eye, however, has always created a certain amount of controversy, especially in schools, and many want it banned in spite of its literary qualities because they claim it is harmful.
There's always going to be something that offends or is considered harmful to someone, in books, films, music, and visual arts. I've heard there are people harmed because of gay content. Does that mean all books with any gay content should have warning labels? I've even heard where people are offended by certain dances. Unfortunately, the less sophisticated reader is usually the one who will be the most offended and harmed.
In the same respect, I don't have as strong of an opinion on this topic as I probably should. Part of that is because I've become jaded with the abuse of search engines and censorship and I've had to learn how to avoid simple words in order to keep perfectly innocent books from being targeted for the wrong reasons. So if all books everywhere, in every single genre, including The Bluest Eye, were required to come with warning labels I wouldn't complain. But I want them ALL to have labels, not just certain books with certain small publishers, in certain genres. ALL of them. I want them rated for content like films with labels…even Debbie Macomber books would have labels that read: No. Sex. At. All. Ever. And until that happens, or I'm forced otherwise, you won't be seeing any warning labels on my books.
Davey Wavey: The Worst Part of Gay
I think what I find most interesting about Davey Wavey is that he comes up with things no one else would ever consider. In this case, he's come up with the theory that the worst part about being gay is that a gay guy can have two ex-boyfriends start dating each other. And he's right. Women can't relate to that…unless they've been dating two men who turned gay. I'm sure that's happened somewhere, at some point, but it's not common. At least I hope not anyway.
In any event, here's how Davey Wavey puts it. You can check it out here on his web site, too.
New York Times Paid Content
A lot of newspapers are now charging for online content. And when I saw this ad for The New York Times I thought I'd share.
http://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp5558.html?campaignId=3F3FU
It's not something I would do at this point, but I hate to say never. I can get all the free info I want on the web from other sources that are just as good, if not better than the NYT. I find the NYT to be highly slanted, filled with spin, and patronizing to gays at times. But I also think this paid content thing is going to be a trend that continues and it will be interesting to see what's next.
Barely Legal Gay Characters; Cyndi Lauper and LGBTI Homelessness; Transgender Professor Wins 1 Million In Court
the worst part of gay
warning labels on books

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Our volunteers are amazing part 3,700
At FareStart, the work that our more than 3,700 volunteers a year produce is an extremely important piece in fulfilling our mission. From helping prepare meals in our Community Meals to entering data and gleaning produce to helping our students in the computer lab, our volunteers are amazing, dedicated and part of our DNA.
Janice works for Amazon and has been a supporter of FareStart ever since she first tasted our food at Maslow's.
"I used to work right across from Maslow's," she said. "I was a diner first and then I realized that I could do a lot more to support FareStart by volunteering."
She decided to use her skills as a former fundraiser for an educational nonprofit and join FareStart's finance committee. The finance committee is a governing body that provides financial oversight for the organization. The committee volunteers review monthly financials and approve the annual audit and budget. We just received the highest rating of 4-stars from Charity Navigator due in large part because of our financial and accountability and transparency scores.
Janice also advocates for FareStart as an employee of Amazon. She helps spread the word about our mission, events and restaurant happenings through their various internal communications channels. She's also one of our best ambassadors at Amazon employee events. She inspires us with the sense of community she has helped create at her workplace.
"I want to make my community stronger," she said. "FareStart allows me to support my city and my neighborhood by being a diner and a volunteer. I want to make South Lake Union a better place whether that's through my work at Amazon or through volunteering."
Janice thinks the FareStart model of job training combined with support sets people up for lasting success.
"Teaching people skills that lead to jobs results in economic empowerment," she said.
That empowerment and self-directed change is important to her.
"My value system leads me to care about what happens right in my backyard," she said. "I'm passionate about what is happening right around us here at home. I've seen what a lack of opportunity can do to people and I think that giving people that chance, that opportunity changes everything."
Want to give back to your community through FareStart? We have a range of opportunities. Pick the ones that suit you best and thank you! https://www.farestart.org/get-involved
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Many of the descriptions given in Moll Flanders are tautly drawn because of Defoe's personal experience with poverty and imprisonment. They are vivid and accurate accounts seemingly based on total recall of incidents and people he met. Later his confinement in Newgate Prison provided him with detailed encounters with thieves and their various thieving techniques, which he probably took down in his own version of shorthand during his interviews with them.


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Kathleen Wynne refuses Andrea Horwath's demand for no transit taxes
By Robert BenzieQueen's Park Bureau Chief
Tues., Feb. 18, 2014timer3 min. read
The stage is being set for a spring election in Ontario.
Premier Kathleen Wynne's vow to forge ahead with new ways to bankroll public transit has NDP Leader Andrea Horwath threatening to derail the minority Liberal government.
With Finance Minister Charles Sousa's budget expected in late March, Ontario voters could be heading to the polls in May.
As MPPs returned to Queen's Park on Tuesday after a 10-week break, Wynne vowed to push forward with the minority Liberals' plans to fund transit through unspecified "revenue tools."
"I'm here to work, I'm here to govern. I want this minority parliament to work," she told reporters.
Wynne was pointed when asked about Horwath's letter Monday — first disclosed by the Star — warning the NDP would no longer prop up the Liberals if the budget includes "any new taxes, tools or fees that hit middle-class families."
"I never wing it. I'm not playing 'Let's Make A Deal,' " said the premier, who last year included a slew of Horwath's demands in the budget to ensure its passage.
That was then and this is now, said Wynne, emphasizing billions in new transportation infrastructure are need to combat gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, which is costing the economy an estimated $6 billion annually in lost productivity.
"We have made a clear commitment to investing in transit," she said.
"It's not possible to make those investments in transit without identifying the revenue stream. We will bring forward a plan in the spring, in the budget, that will identify where that revenue will come from."
The premier said she understands "people are pushed . . . that they are feeling the slowness of the recovery from the economic downturn, so we are going to do this in the fairest and most responsible way possible."
In December, a report to the government on how to fund transit improvements in the GTA proposed Wynne raise the gasoline tax by five or 10 cents a litre, increase corporate taxes 0.5 per cent and redeploy HST revenue to a special transit fund.
That would see motorists pay another $260 annually eight years from now if the measures are phased in to bankroll the planned $50 billion Big Move transit expansion that includes a downtown relief line for the subway.
While Horwath said Ontarians cannot afford such a financial hit, she was surprisingly vague in her comments to reporters Tuesday, suggesting some ambivalence toward sparking a snap election.
She repeatedly declined to specifically say whether the NDP, which has kept the Liberals in power over the last two budgets, would defeat Sousa's spending plan if it contained new levies.
"New Democrats do support transit. We've made that abundantly clear and if there's an election — when there's an election — people will have their choice and we'll be clear on what our plan is," said Horwath.
"We're not going to support new taxes, tolls and fees that hit middle-class families," she said, refusing to disclose the NDP's position on Wynne's Ontario pension plan proposal or the new $11 minimum wage.
In 2012, the NDP did not technically "support" the budget — they abstained from voting, which allowed the Liberal spending plan to pass.
The machinations have left Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, who has been calling for an election since the 2011 campaign, watching from wings.
Hudak, who has promised more subways but not explained how a PC government would pay for them, said Ontarians should hold on to their wallets when Wynne talks about raising money for transit.
"I think it's unfortunate the premier sees taxpayers as revenue tools," he said, refusing to speculate on Sousa's fiscal blueprint.
"I'm happy to talk about a Liberal budget when we actually see one," said Hudak, who dodged around a potential political headache of his own.
Asked if he would sign nomination papers for Councillor Doug Ford, who has mused about running for the Conservatives in Etobicoke North, the Hudak ducked the question.
"I won't talk about folks who are not candidates."
The Tories have distanced themselves from the councillor and his brother Mayor Rob Ford since the latter, who's under police investigation for links to an alleged drug dealer, admitted to smoking crack cocaine.
In the 107-member legislature, there are 49 Liberals, including Speaker Dave Levac, 37 Tories, and 21 New Democrats.
Kathleen Wynne, Andrea Horwath


Pokémon Diamond and Pearl respectively earned the top two spots for games in Japan's console war this week, boosting Nintendo DS sales despite the recent releases of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's own Wii. Pokémon Battle Revolution, the Wii battle simulator released this week, was the 10th highest selling game, the second-highest for a Wii game.
The DS sold 319,866 units, over double the previous week and three times the weekly average, and Wii sold 108,237 units. They were followed by rivals PlayStation 3, 70,942, PlayStation Portable, 48,962 and PlayStation 2, 37,730.
Other Wii games did not perform so well. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came in 33rd, Wii Play came in 12th, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves came in 36th and Bleach Wii came in 50th.


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About Jennifer Johnson Cano
Jennifer Johnson Cano is a naturally gifted singer noted for her commanding stage presence and profound artistry with a warm, velvety timbre that has garnered critical acclaim. Ms. Cano joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008, and made her Met debut during the 2009-2010 season. As First Prize winner of the 2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, she has given stunning recital debuts with husband and pianist Christopher Cano in New York at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, in Washington, DC, at the Kennedy Center and in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Among her honors is a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and 2014 George London Award.
Ms. Cano has given over 100 performances at The Metropolitan Opera, with recent roles including Bersi, Emilia, Hansel, Meg Page, Mercedes, Nicklausse, Wellgunde and Waltraute. Other operatic appearances included Orphée in Orphée et Eurydice with Des Moines Metro Opera, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Boston Lyric Opera and Arizona Opera, Marguerite in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with the Tucson Symphony, The Sharp Eared Fox in Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra and Diana in La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera. She has worked with an impressive array of conductors, such as James Levine, Franz Welser-Möst, Manfred Honeck, Marin Alsop, Gary Thor Wedow and Sir Andrew Davis.
This season, Ms. Cano bows as Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera, as the Priestess in Aida with The Metropolitan Opera, and as Wellgunde in the concert version of Wagner's Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic in one of Alan Gilbert's closing conducting engagements in his tenure with the orchestra. Other orchestral engagements include Bruckner's Te Deum with Christopher Warren-Green and the Charlotte Symphony, and Bach's Cantata No. 34 with the Cleveland Orchestra and vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Cano also makes her European debut on a tour of John Adams's El Niño with appearances in London and Paris with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mr. Adams, as well as The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest with Markus Stenz in Amsterdam, and finally with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra under Grant Gershon.
A dedicated recitalist and chamber musician, she performs at Mt. Gretna Playhouse with Christopher Cano with a program including songs and arias by composers Hugo Wolf, Enrique Granados, Antonín Dvořák and Jonathan Dove, and she appears in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Nathan Hughes (oboe), Rafael Figueroa (cello), and Ken Noda (piano). At Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Ms. Cano performed Manuel de Falla's Three Cornered Hat with the New York Philharmonic.
In addition to her continued relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra, Ms. Cano has appeared with such esteemed orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Utah Symphonies and Orchestra of St. Luke's. She toured with Musicians from Marlboro singing Respighi's Il Tramonto and Cuckson's Der gayst funem shturem, recorded live for the Marlboro Recording Society. A live recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde featured conductor George Manahan, tenor Paul Groves and St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble in a rare arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg and Rainer Riehn. At the invitation of Mrs. Carol Armstrong, Jennifer Johnson Cano was particularly honored to sing the Anderson/Weill September Song at the private funeral for American icon and astronaut Neil Armstrong. In 2014, she released her debut recital recording, Unaffected: Live from the Savannah Voice Festival, recorded completely live and unedited.
Ms. Cano is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and made her professional operatic debut with the Opera Theater of St. Louis. She earned her degrees from Webster University and Rice University. www.jenniferjohnsoncano.net
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Please make note of the different location for this year's concert, St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, 39 Wilson Street East, Perth, Ontario.
We also want to thank Campbell Douglas Keyboards of Ottawa who will be providing a second Kawai keyboard to match the exceptional Kawai Digital Piano the church currently has. Campbell Douglas has installed several of these pianos into area churches and homes, as well as the Roland models they distribute. It is very difficult to match the level of support and service we know their clients receive.
Wow … We Are Full!
Each year there is usually one or two spots open, even more for the Men's chorus, but this fall we are at capacity.
If you are interested in joining the choir, the best we can tell you is to get in touch by email … musicofthetay@gmail.com … and we will add your name to our waiting list.
We look forward to our Sunday, December 10th, Christmas Concert which will take place at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church at 2:00 PM. This should be our best program yet and we are honoured to return to the spectacular acoustics at St. Johns.
We also want to thank Campbell Douglas Keyboards of Ottawa who will be providing a second Kawai keyboard to match the exceptional Kawai Digital Piano the church currently has. Campbell Douglas has installed several of these exceptional pianos into area churches and homes, as well as the Roland models they distribute. It is very difficult to match the level of support and service we know their clients receive.
Plan now to attend this concert … and please make note of the Christmas Concert venue!


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PTAB Blog
Biosimilars Blog
© 2020	Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C.
Insightful. Precise. Skilled.
Partner Steven Lieberman Quoted in BuzzFeed News Article On Jewish Texts Seized by Russia
"A Court Fight Over A Seized Jewish Library Could Deepen The US-Russia Divide," by Zoe Tillman
A BuzzFeed News article on Russia's refusal to comply with a U.S. court order to return a collection of Jewish texts seized in the early 20th century contains quotes from Rothwell Figg partner Steven Lieberman, a lead lawyer for Chabad-Lubavitch.
In 2013, a U.S. judge ordered the Russian government to pay $50,000 for each day that it defied the order to return the Jewish religious texts to Chabad-Lubavitch, a movement within Judaism that dates back to the 18th century. While Russia now owes an estimated $82.3 million, there is no sign they plan to pay or return the collection.
The case has been dormant for two years, but Mr. Lieberman and the group seeking the return of the collection has signaled it may move to try to claim Russian assets to satisfy the sanctions and place new pressure on Russia to return the collection. The group has been tracking down assets and has issued subpoenas to U.S. financial institutions.
Mr. Lieberman is quoted as saying: "We've received information from several of those entities that they have significant Russian Federation assets and we're pursuing that."
To read the full article on BuzzFeed News, please visit: https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/russia-owes-82-million-in-a-court-fight-that-could-deepen.
Steven Lieberman
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Truck manufacturer, MAN, is set to enter the light van market for the first time with the launch of its new TGE model, due to premier at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover this month.
The TGE is based on the platform of the new Volkswagen Crafter and is the German firm's first foray into the sub-7.5 tonne sector. Both models will be built at a new Volkswagen Group plant in Poland, following the end of a shared production agreement with Mercedes-Benz, within which the Crafter is currently made alongside the similar Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.
The MAN TGE will be revealed in the metal at IAA 2016 and will be on sale from the summer of 2017, with production due to start in April. MAN Truck & Bus CEO, Joachim Drees, said: "By launching the MAN light commercial vehicle below our MAN TGL light truck range we are entering a new business area. Many of our customers with heavy commercial vehicles in their fleets have a requirement for light commercial vehicles as well, so the MAN TGE constitutes a smart enhancement to our already established vehicle range.
The company said it will allow it to offer sales, maintenance, and repair services from a single source, from light commercial vehicles up to heavy trucks, through its dealer networks across the UK and Ireland, as well as throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.


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Varianti
Femminili: Mite
Maschili: Mito

Origine e diffusione
Si tratta di una forma sincopata di altri nomi, soprattutto di Margherita ma anche di vari composti di Maria come Maria Rita e Maria Anita; la forma "Mite" può, in alternativa, richiamare anche la mitezza d'animo.

In Italia è accentrato per circa metà della Toscana, e per il resto disperso nel Settentrione.

Onomastico
Non ci sono santi con questo nome, è perciò adespota. L'onomastico può cadere il 1º novembre, giorno di Ognissanti.

Persone

Mita Medici, cantante italiana

Il nome nelle arti
Mita è un personaggio del fumetto italiano Kylion.

Note

Bibliografia

Ipocoristici

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


setting the tone for the day.
The Belle Epoque philosophy is simple; we aim to create the most memorable dining experience of your life. Seating up to 120 guests, we do not compromise on quality and service, everything we do is to the same exacting standard as our award winning restaurant. The finest produce cooked with the same skill and passion, combined with personal service and attention to detail.
Again this part of the day can be totally tailored to meet your needs, from live swing bands to a cool club DJ. Every occasion is different but always special and individual. We will work with you, offering any guidance, advice and support to help create the perfect day and evening. Hire of the venue on an exclusive use basis provides, your choice of ceremony room, dining rooms, bar, lounge, dance floor and outside areas for photography.
If you are considering getting married or celebrating your wedding at the Belle Epoque, please call us.