"He was introduced in Detective Comics number #27 by Bob Kane. I always loved Batman. The way I looked at it, you had to come from another planet to be Superman, but I could be Batman… and you know I tried."
Just one item from a list of the best of Theme Time Radio With Bob Dylan. I love that radio show. I love satellite radio. And Bob Dylan. And now, I guess, Batman. Are you staying home tonight? I am. But I don’t think I could be Batman. Or even Bob Dylan. Do you?
(Posted at Instapundit too. Just felt like cross posting. Because I'm staying home tonight and I got the notion.)
June 2, 2009
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15 comments:
I see. Staying home and relaxing in the notiony cute zone.
I am staying at home grading summer calculus tests. Ugh!
Iron man was the best. It was a nice tech fix. Make a cool set of armor and go after bad guys! Batman was way too athletic for me.
Althouse contemplates Meade, pre-Meade: Link
Not quite as good but almost, is the excellent Marty Stewart's American Odyssey
Perhaps the Althouse clan started as cave dwellers, who became evolved Hippies, and finally adapting to their environment,developed into Blogger People living in cyberspace caves at night. But what great fun they have emerging every morning.
I think Batman is kind of lame. I'd rather be Mary Worth. Think of the lives you could destroy with those meddling powers!
In 3-1/2 short hours I'll be ready to talk metaphysics on Twitter with Batman.
Batman could understand metaphysics. Batman could quote Pascal and discuss Kirkegaard if it came to it. It seldom did, but you knew he could.
Then Spiderman came along, and he wouldn't stop talking existentialism.
You always knew those superheroes would wind up as senior faculty: Batman and Spiderman in the Philosphy Dept., and Superman over at the Physics Dept.
Thanks for the link.
You know I don't usually like to tell people what I'm doing, but I am talking to a couple of car companies about possibly being the voice of their GPS system. ...
You don't need a Bob Dylan
To know which way the car goes
I am unfortunately too poor to become Batman, so I'll probably have to settle for Blue Beetle</a , just without the whole being shot in the head and replaced with a hispanic teenager in an attempt diversify the hero community thing (hopefully).
The whole "I could be Batman" thing is also the explanation for the UNpopularity of the Robin character. As a kid, you can see yourself maybe being a Batman kind of guy one day. But Robin's a kid and he's just plain better than you. Lame!
Actually, the quality Dylan feels he shares with Batman is that he was "at home in the night," not "home at night," as in tucked into his little jammies.
Speaking of which, I remember receiveing the metal Batman lunchbox when I started kindergarten, coinciding with the release of TV show.
It's like a flashback seeing once again pictures of all those action vignettes that were on the side of the lunchbox and thermos. The images were burnt into my brain long ago, having studied them so hard while I ate the Wonder Bread sandwiches that my mother had made and removed the crusts from at my insistence.
I even remember the generic schoolyard safety tips on the inside of the luchbox.
Meanwhile, earlier that year, Bob Dylan had released Blonde on Blonde and crashed his Triumph 500 motorcycle. I didn't know who he was then, but I came to know him through his music a decade late.
I never said "I want to be Bob Dylan," Batman, Mr. Jones (or Adam Duritz, for that matter). But twenty years later, I got to be around Dylan through work for the first time.
Come to think of it, he is a little like Batman -- the dark, reclusive one, not the campy TV lunchbox Batman.
You can't be Bob Dylan, but you can be any (or all) of the Beatles you choose (with the exception of Pete Best).
(and in actuality, you can already be Bob Dylan, but just for one song, "Tangled Up in Blue", to quote the wiki "The song is a playable track on Rock Band 2, the most difficult song in the vocal section, and the final song for the player to complete in the "Impossible Vocal Challenge".")
Batman was dark.
Dylan was dark.
Two wild and fabulous guys (in their own minds).
Superman on the other han' was light.
The bringer of light.
Which made him square. The guy from nowhere.
Well, that's the way it was...and always will be.
At least none of them ever wore a Trilby.
@EDH
1. I'm pretty sure Dylan was doing a transition from a song about staying home at night. (He's dj-ing.)
2. Batman really does stay home, brooding in his mansion, waiting for the signal.
3. Batman is not "at home" in your sense of the term anywhere. He's uneasy and troubled. Not having a good time, even when out in the night kicking criminals' asses.
I'd like to see Batman with Samurai Jack. Jack could be cool in the DC universe.
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