Althouse: "Bob Dylan Painted The Most Instagrammed Spot In Brooklyn."

November 3, 2016

"Bob Dylan Painted The Most Instagrammed Spot In Brooklyn."

"Yes indeed, Robert Zimmerman has painted the Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO—that spot is located at Washington Street, between Plymouth and Front streets...."

18 comments:

campy said...: Y'know who else painted? HITLER!!!; 11/3/16, 12:19 PM
Amexpat said...: Why the Zimmerman reference here and in so many other articles?

Dylan legally changed his name shortly after he became an adult and has used it for all of his professional career. Plenty of musicians and actors have either changed their names or used a stage name without having their birth names come up regularly in articles written about them. Dylan seems to be the exception. Is it meant as a snide comment that Dylan is a phony, or are they trying to take a giant down a peg or two?; 11/3/16, 12:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It might be disparaging but it might be this style of writing where you try to avoid reusing words. I've seen it dine to the pint of confusion, like in that Maureen Dowd article about Trump and the Clintons. She kept substituting words like "the mogul" for Trump and I couldn't always be sure which person she was talking about. I think it was intended to be amusing or stylish.; 11/3/16, 1:20 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. "America" as a theme seems to interest the Brits, or at least there have been some exhibitions on the theme at the Halcyon Gallery which is holding this show. Another exhibit there by Ernesto Cánovas , a Spanish artist, is worth a look.

I really liked the intro video Dylan made for the exhibit, even more than the paintings and drawings. He caught the essence of what makes the USA the USA and the basic non pretension of Americans which is so dismissed by the elites, especially the ones who don't get Trump.

BTW, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Joanie Mitchell have all also been very dedicated painters.; 11/3/16, 2:31 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: Joni Mitchell; 11/3/16, 2:32 PM
traditionalguy said...: Eisenhower liked to paint his tree on Augusta National.It was a sign of his orders made and obeyed.; 11/3/16, 3:46 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Done to the point....

Not dineto the pint.

Sorry for writing confusingly about confusion.; 11/3/16, 4:51 PM
MAJMike said...: Winston Churchill painted landscapes AND was a brick layer.; 11/3/16, 4:59 PM
Amexpat said...: but it might be this style of writing where you try to avoid reusing words ...I think it was intended to be amusing or stylish

OK, but why isn't it done with Elton John, Prince, Sting, Elvis Costello, etc? I think the amusement is, partly, in debunking Dylan. Lennon did this in his song "God".; 11/3/16, 5:12 PM
BN said...: "Is it meant as a snide comment that Dylan is a phony, or are they trying to take a giant down a peg or two?"

No, it's "I'm smarter" signaling (I do it myself).

But, that said, taking a real poet's name is kind of cheating. And I think it worked. Would Dylan have won the Nobel Prize for Litshit if he were named "Zimmerman"? Don't think so. Anti-zimmer bias is everywhere.

But, also that said, I still want to know what Bob thought of Elvis. I remember reading somewhere ("somewhere" is a valid reference in the OED, so it works here too) when his beatnik folkie friends were putting down the Beatles for teeny bopper "She Loves You" etc, he stood up for them. Of course, Harrison said he thought the words "I can't hide" from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were actually "I get high" and so he turned them on to mary when they visited New York. Which is how they became such fast friends--and eventually all chose their own reality. Which is the real truth to how he won the Nobel Award, i.e., there is no reality any more.

Hey, look it up!; 11/3/16, 6:20 PM
BN said...: And then he went electric. So... thereby redefining (is that the same as choosing?) reality for the ages.

Woodie chuckled. Hank got drunk and laughed a good bit.; 11/3/16, 6:26 PM
BN said...: By the way, what's Elvis Costello's real name?; 11/3/16, 6:33 PM
BN said...: Perfesser: "I've seen it done to the pint of confusion."

Oh, me too! Me too!

(I'm stealing that by the way. That's good! I'm going to title my autobiography that. Preorder now on Amazon! Use the perfesser's link!); 11/3/16, 6:38 PM
jerpod said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/3/16, 6:56 PM
jerpod said...: Elvis Costello = Declan McManus

Costello being his grandmothers maiden name, I believe.; 11/3/16, 6:57 PM
BN said...: MacManus, I believe.

The other guy's a soccer player (or so Wikipedia says).; 11/3/16, 7:01 PM
RichardJohnson said...: Not a bad painter, either.; 11/3/16, 9:10 PM
Josephbleau said...: Harry Nielson covered the god thing in his immortal song ,good for god, you know he has a really hard job... He went and made the planet blue but all the thanks he gets from you is look at allll the doo doo in my yard.' Not a Lauriet he.; 11/3/16, 9:45 PM