Author: harrisl585

Trump runs out the clock on emoluments suits

Dominion sues Giuliani

Good for them. Make him and all of the other liars pay!

One more on Trump’s terrible pardons

The majority of Americans support Senate conviction of Trump in the impeachment trial

This won’t sway Republicans because they’re scared of the Trump cult.

Two Bob Dylan documentaries

I recently watched Dont Look Back (1967) and Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese in outstanding Blu-ray editions from the Criterion Collection.

Rolling Thunder Revue chronicles Dylan’s 1975 tour. Scorsese made the strange decision to add fictional characters in with the real people. It makes you wonder what’s real and doesn’t add anything to the film. Howard Alk, who shot the footage in 1975 which is the basis for most of the film, doesn’t get much credit, just a brief acknowledgement in one of the supplements. Alk did a great job capturing Dylan’s performances close up. The restoration demo on the Blu-ray shows how much work went into cleaning up the footage and what a great job they did.

Dylan’s performances are excellent, much more passionate than usual for him based on the six of his concerts I have seen. Most people won’t agree but I like Desire (the 1976 album many songs here appear on) more than 1975’s Blood on the Tracks which is usually regarded as one of Dylan’s masterpieces. One of the supplements is a performance of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” with revised lyrics which are not as good as the original version. Dylan has revised lyrics to other songs and I have not heard one that improves on the first version. Dylan always revises his performances of songs and I admire this. He doesn’t treat the records as the definitive version. The film has a great electric version of “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”.

“This Land is Your Land” was used to close out the concerts but it’s not in the film. It wasn’t in the Bootleg Series 5 two-disc set taken from the concerts. It was in the 14 disc set released around the same time as the Scorsese film.

I then watched Dont Look Back which in which D. A. Pennebaker documents Dylan’s 1965 tour of England. It mostly focused on interactions with the media and other people involved in the tour and has little music. It does have the great placard video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

Dylan is very confrontational throughout but a lot of the people he meets clearly don’t understand him.

This was a solo acoustic tour but he had already released Bringing It All Back Home which has many electric songs.

great

The Harriet Tubman $20 bill is coming

Trump wouldn’t do it. Biden will.

10 minute January 6 riot video

New video shows Trump rally crowd cheering call to ‘storm the Capitol’ (yahoo.com)

Henry Aaron

Henry Aaron, who died last week, is one of the all-time best baseball players. Aaron still has the lifetime record for RBIs and held the home run record before Barry Bonds tainted it. Think of that – two thirds of the lifetime triple crown. He’s third in hits all time, too. In addition to his great baseball achievements, he fought racism. Aaron’s career reminds me of Walter Payton. They were rarely regarded as the best in any season but they played at an extremely high level forever. In addition to his great baseball achievements, he fought racism.

I saw Aaron at a book signing in Washington for his 1991 autobiography I Had a Hammer. Many years after his playing career ended, he still drew a huge crowd.

Earl Weaver – 1982 final game

Earl Weaver was a great manager. Weaver knew that most players couldn’t do everything and he found the right spots to maximize the skills they had. Look up the careers of John Lowenstein, Gary Roenicke, Wayne Garland and Mike Torrez among others. They never did as well for other teams as they did for the Orioles. Do you remember Sam Horn, a low-average power hitter who played for the Orioles after Weaver’s era? Earl would have known what to do with him. He would have gotten 350 at bats, hit .250 with 25 home runs and 70 RBIs. He would have had a long career. One of Weaver’s greatest moves from switching Cal Ripken from third base to shortstop. It took extra nerve because the Orioles had traded their third baseman, Doug DeCinces, to make room for Ripken. Ripken certainly didn’t look like a shortstop but Weaver knew he could do it.

Earl’s last game with the Orioles (until he came back in 1985) was the final game of the 1982 season. I had tickets for a game in June but traded them in for the final game since I figured it wouldn’t be crowded. I was certainly wrong.

The Orioles had been chasing the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the American League East. The Brewers finished with four games in Baltimore and came here with a three game lead. The Orioles won the first three so the teams were tied on the last day. The starting pitchers were Jim Palmer (Orioles) and Don Sutton (Brewers). It was like a playoff atmosphere. Unfortunately, the game was bad as the Brewers crushed the Orioles. After the game, the fans stuck around to give Weaver an emotional farewell. It’s one of the most memorable moments I have seen as a sports fan.

Here are two pieces of memorabilia which I later got signed by Weaver. There was a “Thanks Earl” Day on September 19, 1982. I think both the small poster and the program are from that day. I had the program framed with my ticket stubs from September 19th and the final game.

Beer Can Appreciation Day 1/24