The Accessible Icon: Have You Seen It?

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The "Accessible Icon" was recently created in Massachusetts by a team of thinkers and artists who wanted to improve the static image of the current handicap parking sign. The "old" or current sign forecasts an image of the disabled as static, lifeless individuals, which we know is far from the truth. This diminishing image is replaced by the accessible icon, which emphasizes movement, forward thinking, and activity. Cool!

To order an accessible icon, visit http://accessibleicon.org/


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"Tangled Up In Blue": What's the Best Version?

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About the Song Alright, alright, we all know that "Tangled Up in Blue" is Bob Dylan's magnum opus. It tells a hell of a story, it's in the third person, first person, and zooms through the past, present, and future. It's a life simultaneously observed from the ground floor and from above, and perhaps, stands as the ultimate statement about Bob Dylan's romantic life. True to it's never ending and kaleidoscopic nature, there are dozens of versions of this tune available for listening. The genesis of this evolving song is the first cut off of 1975's Blood on the Tracks . It's not the best version of the song, but it does set a baseline standard of excellence in which all subsequent versions of this song are judged. Time to rank 'em: 1. "Tangled Up In Blue": Real Live , 1984 Somehow, burned out 1980's Bob pulled more emotion out of this song than ever before during his 1984 tour of Europe. Lucky for us, this version saw the li
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Monday Poem: "The Book of Hours: I, 59" by Rainer Maria Rilke

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Preached on in the World: What Happened with Bob Dylan in Toronto (1980)?

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Tracing J.Cole's Millennial Journey

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J. Cole's most recent album,  KOD , arrived at an interesting point in pop music: Lil' Pump and the other lil's are dominating the headphones of teenagers, filling in a cultural void with blue hair, Xanax, learn, and generally ignorant behavior. Such is the long-told story of youth. 50 years ago the Beatles were wearing their mops, smoking marijuana, and perfecting the devils music. They said they were bigger than Jesus. People burned their records. Old timers complained about the hippies. Those hippies grew up, and complained about the gen-X kids who were fed a steady diet of malaise, Beavis and Butthead , punk rock, and Mad Magazine . Those kids grew up and had millennial's- a generation of spoiled, but poor kids who whiz through life on apps, killed the traditional music business, elected Obama, and deferred their student loans. J. Cole, born in 1985, is a millennial, and perfectly typifies the general experience of a millennial in many ways. His first album,
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"Torch Songs" and "Cast Iron Ballads": Deep Cuts from the Planet Waves Era

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Context: On Kendick Lamar's "How much a Dollar Cost"

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Review: Bob Dylan at the Oakdale Theatre

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Along for the Ride with Tell Tale Signs

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Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan's been slinging out the alt-takes, b-sides, throwaways, covers, live versions, and other unreleased tunes on the Bootleg Series since 1991. Of course, a bootleg ain't a bootleg if it is released officially, but I digress. If there's one thing that the series has proven, it is that often Dylan's best versions of his songs are left off the albums. . . and sometimes even the best songs are scratched, left in the backyard as Bob turns the lights out (I'm looking at you, "Blind Willie McTell"). Point is, the Bootleg series is rich with material, and Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8 , is about as good as it gets. Chronicling the era between 1989's Oh Mercy and 2006's Modern Times , Tell Tale  affords listeners a front road seat next to Dylan on his journey away from the burned out- leather jacket 80s to the ultimate bluesman, the songsmith so steeped in Americana that the man and the characters that po
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Peace, Bullets, Schools, Chaos, Life, and The Drive by Truckers

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Jeff Lynne's on the Phone

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