Three Beautiful Things 03-07-2022: More Reunion Contacts, Songs for a Bob Dylan Skeptic, Pizza Dinner

 1. I got more done on the reunion project. Slowly, surely I'm getting in touch with more people each day and finding a bit more about our classmates' plans for our July 15-17, 2022 KHS Class of 72 50 year reunion. 

2. I had the house to myself for much of the day. Debbie took a sub job at Pinehurst Elementary. I took some time away from chasing down contact info and writing texts and emails to classmates and listened to the entire episode of the Hard Rain/Slow Trains that I started as I went to sleep last night.

I wrote a bit about this episode yesterday and its title is, I think, self-explanatory: "An Episode to Play for Your Friends That Don't Like Bob Dylan But Wish They Could!"

It aired on September 24, 2020. You can go listen to it right here. 

I would love to sit at a table with people who really know Bob Dylan, people like Jeff Harrison, Daniel Mackay, Michael McDonald, and others, and listen to more of Daniel's reasons for choosing the songs he played on this show and what the others might have chosen. As I understand it, Dan's idea was to play songs that would help a skeptic or a person new to Dylan make enjoyable inroads into Dylan's songbook.

I don't know Dylan's songbook in any comprehensive way. 

I'm learning, though. 

At this early stage of listening to more of Bob Dylan, if I were to play songs that might help a skeptic who wants to like Dylan, in two ways, I'd follow Dan's direction.

First of all, I am growing more and more aware of (and fond of) Bob Dylan's songs about love, especially his songs of yearning and longing. Maybe in another post, I'll get my act together and list some of them. Dan played a solid selection of such songs in the "Play for Friends" episode.

Second, I love listening to any/every song Bob Dylan performed with Scarlet Rivera playing fiddle in his band. In this episode, Dan played "Hurricane" and that song features Bob Dylan's mad skills as a writer of long narrative songs, his ability to move his listeners to sadness and anger because of injustice, and the sublime and mournful accompaniment of Scarlet Rivera. 

3. Debbie arrived home from her day of teaching. We drank some Bombastic Brewing's Fifth Anniversary Imperial Stout together and I went to Yoke's, picked up a few groceries, and returned home with a Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza. We had a fun dinner together.