We're going to the end of the line

Happy birthday to me. I'm hoping Ed Heidegger is right. I really can't afford the car necessary to have a mid-life crisis.

Dylan gone wild

The Associated Press is reporting a nine-year-old sea turtle raised in captivity has been cruelly released by the government as part of an animal welfare-reform scheme:

A 150-pound sea turtle raised by humans returned to freedom on Monday after nine years of captivity, swimming away after the veterinarians who cared for her helped steer her toward the ocean.

Humans have raised the turtle, named Dylan, since she was found in August 1998 as a hatchling straggler on Jekyll Island's beach, left behind by her nest mates. She spent years at two nature centers before moving to the Georgia Aquarium, and later, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center at Jekyll Island.

The caretakers took the turtle to within 10 feet of water, and she scooted right in as about 300 people watched from the beach. She took an immediate right turn, swimming parallel to the beach. Terry Norton, head veterinarian at the Sea Turtle Center, helped wrestle the 150-pound turtle to turn her back out to sea.

He followed her out about 100 yards, going waist-deep into the water and then raised his arm, pointing out to sea to signal that the turtle was gone.

The sea turtle is being cruelly deprived of her right to free health care, food assistance, subsidized housing and mass transit. Most cruelly, the sea turtle is being denied her reproductive freedom to choose.

"The best thing for her would be to hang out here, get fat eating crabs and maybe 20 years from now we'll see her again laying eggs," Dodd said.

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan

Anybody who upset Pete Seeger just has to be good. Bob Dylan is 67 today.

Bonus points if you can name the poem that likely inspired the song.

A little pre-electric Dylan.

My personal favorite.

Happy Birthday

Hey Mr. Tambourine Man

(...or what happens when you OD on cough drops and Golden Gate Sweet & Sour Chicken)

Some of my readers are going to be so jealous. Until my two-year-old daughter just woke me up, I was dreaming I was back stage of a Bob Dylan tour discussing philosophy and music with Dylan.

Does this mean that Democratic consultant Bill Christofferson is having a nightmare about being trapped back stage at a Ted Nugent concert?

Buy Wisconsin Stuff Now!

She's sweet on Wagner!!!

Most of you know that I, the lovely Doreen from Waukesha, am a stay at home Mom. But I also work on Saturdays and Sundays in a bank lockbox as a Lead. During the afternoon when we are getting ready to do our daily deposits, I spend most of my time keying payments and often listen to my CD Player while keying. On Saturday, I ran into a CD that I listened to from the first to the last song and wondered how many of these CDs that I actually own that I would do that to. So I compiled a list of my top five and would be interested in hearing what you all have to add. Now, let me just add that I sang with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus for five years and one of my CDs is classical-So dont laugh!

1.) U2-The Joshua Tree
2.) Prince-Purple Rain
3.) Giacomo Puccini-Turandot
4.) The Gap Band-The Best of the Gap Band
5.) INXS-kick

I have added James' top picks also:

1.) ELO - El Dorado
2.) ELO - Out of the Blue
3.) Van Morrison- Moon Dance
4.) Bob Dylan - Blood on the tracks
5.) Pink Floyd - Wish you were here

You can definitely tell that James and I have different musical tastes. Let's just say that when I am listening to my 70's funk music, that James is not around or I am in my car alone.

I think I was last shocked by Bob Dylan

Run, don't walk, to the nearest gas station or Waukesha Freeman newspaper box, hand over a couple of quarters, and read my latest column. (I'm told there's a rumor among the copy editors that Editor Bill Yorth lost a bet and that's why my column runs every Thursday.)

This week I take on the Material Girl, the Boy Toy, Evita, and whatever other name she uses scrawled on men's room walls coast-to-coast, Madonna.

An excerpt:

But what can we expect from a concert tour that promises the following (from her Web site): “A politicized video montage starring Adolf Hitler, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, Osama bin Laden, Richard Nixon, George Bush and starving African children”?

Yippee, we’re going for the whole cliché at $350 per ticket. Can I save myself the money and read a column by Maureen Dowd instead?

Losing that sense of perspective

Ann Althouse asks what is the big deal about the "new" Scorsese documentary about Bob Dylan? Apparently the interview was from 2000, and wasn't even conducted by Scorsese.

As an admittedly casual fan of Dylan I did catch parts of the Monday night portion on PBS. For me most of the material was new and quite interesting. I'll probably buy the DVD.

But then I'm a sucker for this type of documentary on the creative process. I devoted three hours of my life to watching a documentary on Southern Rock, and then a couple of nights later spent a couple of hours watching a documentary on the legendary Blues guitarist Robert Johnson. (By the way, even if you're not a fan, I highly recommend the documentary on Johnson).

However, I think some Dylan fans need to be a bit more restrained. A commenter named Saul wrote on Ann's blog, "The Dylan documentary is not about Scorcese, it is a celebration of the genious of Dylan. The early footage is breathtaking and reveals an almost Christ-like transformation." Ooooh-kay. Let's dial that down a bit. After all, even Dylan referred to his transformation in New York as his deal with the devil.

More than any musician in the 20th Century, more than Coltraine, Billy Holliday, Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles, Dylan took songwriting to a level that will probably never be seen again. He channeled God.

Um, yeah. Was that before or after he stole the Woodie Guthrie records?