New Arrival! Bob Dylan The Lyrics 1961-2012. I pre-ordered this three or more months ago, before Bob Dylan won the Nobel prize for Literature. It’s just out. It has the lyrics to every song through 2012. This stuff is both poetry and lyrics, many of which I can hear being sung in my head. The book is huge, 4.4 pounds, 10.25″ x 8.5″. Very nicely designed and laid out. There’s nothing here but the lyrics, no back stories or other matter. It’s just a book of poetry. I’ll spend a lot of time with this. I’ll bet they sell a ton of these.
Just updated the Operating System on this MacBook to the latest, Sierra, and as usual updating the OS causes all sorts of little – and sometimes large – changes in how things work, how menus show, how things integrate and so on. So since mid last week I’ve been tinkering with the darn thing. One problem was that some apps stopped communicating via wi-fi. That’s a big thing for us, as we put our shopping lists, errands and other stuff on Reminders in the laptop (or iPad) and then check them off on the phone as we complete them. Milk, check. noodles, check. chicken breasts, check, and so on. It’s now fixed, but it was a hassle going into some of the several-dialogue-box-deep settings.
Hamilton. We watched a PBS documentary last weekend on Hamilton and though we knew of the play and it’s success, knew it had won 9 Tony Awards and so on, hadn’t paid much attention. But the special had background, clips, interviews, information about the historical persons involved and many insights. I was blown away. A couple days later we watched it again, on On Demand, and the next day I bought the Original Broadway Cast Recording which I’ve been listening to for a couple of days now. I’m going to read the book. I’d go see the play, but, you know, it’s not in Portland, is it? No. No it’s not. I haven’t been this stoked by a play in a long time.
Tip the Wink 
That Dylan book of lyrics sounds like a must have.
Yes. Now that I’ve filled out and dropped off my ballot I plan on spending some time with it today. But I also have 3 library books to read….
The Dylan book sounds great. Every so often I dip into a book of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics and suspect I’ll be doing the same with Dylan once I get my grubby little hands on a copy.
My oldest granddaughter is an obsessive HAMILTON fan. As such, we’ve had to live and breath HAMILTON for the past year. Not that that’s a bad thing.
The lyrics are great, I can’t help but turn another page, and another. I know I’m WAY behind he curve on Hamilton, but that doesn’t keep me from liking it.
I never thought a rap musical could be as entertaining or smart or innovative as HAMILTON. I think how it came about is a thousand times more fascinating than the fact that it became a huge hit. The idea that anyone would contemplate doing a rap musical about an 18th century historical figure after reading his biography would seem ludicrous to most people. I hesitate to use the term genius to describe anyone in the arts, but Lin Manuel Miranda has something unique in him that most young people of his generation simply will never have nor attain. He has a unquenchable curiosity coupled with vision. He’s definitely an artist of high caliber, if not a genius.
I told Barbara after we watched tat PBS Special that he was a genius, not a word I often use. I’m looking forward to the play becoming available on DVD.
The touring company for HAMILTON will be coming to Buffalo in the 2018 season. I heard that there were empty seats available for the show in Chicago…during the World Series!
I guess everyone was watching the Series, though I don’t see the audience overlap. I’m sure you’ll go when it gets to Buffalo.