Bob Dylan -- 'The Hurricane' (Live 1975)

Whoa, check this out: the lyrics are different! Not uncommon for artists (especially Dylan) to be creative/sloppy with the melody or vocal phrasings when playing live but you wouldn't expect Mr. Nobel Prize to change the words just for PBS (especially since he doesn't take out 'shit', 'ass' and 'n*****''). Apparently the song, which had just been recorded, was felt to have the potential for a defamation lawsuit, so Dylan was cagey upon the release of this as a single. Interesting curio from arguably Dylan's peak as a live performer. (The sound here is not optimal but that's not why you're watching this, so don't sweat it)

The Last Farewell/That Hamilton Woman

The internet, for whatever reason, has set Elvis Presley's "The Last Farewell" to scenes from the film That Hamilton Woman. So...uh...this exists. This is utterly pointless in every way but honestly my only criticism is that I found the opening and closing credits intrusive and clumsy.

Did Elvis Presley imagine that his songs would live on in this way? Did Olivier and Leigh realize their mock romance would be re-purposed to suit the short attention spans of future masses? Indeed, did Horatio Nelson realize that in the future his imperial awesomeness, which was nothing but an albatross for him in his homeland, would inspire people to create homemade pieces of art about him? That people would create plastic-based mechanized operas about his sex life? Why haven't we made movies about Olivier's sex life? Elvis knew that he was built to be a sex symbol and Olivier had many high profile relationships in the public eye, so how is it that instead we get a movie about a dude that died well over a century before this movie was made (which is 4/5 of a century old right now)? Is it that in Nelson's time naval heroes (and their whispered extramarital exploits) were the best celebrity culture available? 

What is time marching toward? Will people decades from now be re-purposing this blog post in the name of something I could never even conceive of? Probably not...but not definitely not.

Kids in the Hall -- 'Minimum Wage'

 

(Aired 1991)

Norm Macdonald (RIP)

When someone dies, especially someone as ever-present as Norm Macdonald, everyone gushes about what a genius the guy was, how flawless, etc. I wouldn't say Norm was a genius or that he was always brilliant with a joke. Indeed, quite the opposite: the key to Norm was quantity not quality, he was a comedy workaholic, every day he put the hard hat on and went to work in the comedy mines. And he hit plenty of fool's gold, indeed, he made a cottage industry of flailing. He was an experimenter in a world where everyone is too afraid to make a move. It is his fearlessness that will be missed.

Everyone had their favorite Norm line. Mine: "They say gambling is a disease....well, its the only disease where you can make a shitload of money!" 

His final video and, of course, it is not for the faint of heart. And if you don't like it, well, you don't have to. 

Vivian Maier