He is Bob

Bob Dylan was in town last night and I figured I should finally unlatch the wallet and see the old bugger before he stops touring.

As I had heard, Bob in concert is not the Bob of his albums. His last three albums have been superb - I've been amazed at the quality this guy still pumps out. I had hoped to hear the new stuff and some classics of course.
Well, I heard both, sort of. He reinvented pretty much every song, so much so that he would be halfway through a tune before spitting out a signature line (don't think twice... its alright) and the crowd would erupt in recognition.
The closest he came to the original was Stuck in Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again. In those 4 minutes I forgave a lot, realizing that this is the guy, the ultimate songsmith, the voice of a generation (sorry for the cliche), he was Bob, and he wrote it all - and he could do whatever the fuck he wanted.

He didn't say a word the entire concert - then he mumbled through some band introductions. I think mmr-bbhr hrrrblorr was on guitar and hrrr-smmmm gorffstum was on bass.

He came back after a long wait for an encore - belting out sort of recognizable versions of Like a Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower. Then he gathered his cream-suited band, gave a nod of his big-ass hat and he was gone.

His Royal Bobness

Whew. Almost a month since my last post - no excuses except for a touch of burn out. I am once again considering stopping woofreakinhoo, for a while anyway. No need to send in your notes of condolences, huzzahs, "please stays", or "its about time you tossed in the towels" (there's more than one towel?)

Nope, just feeling a bit of a loss of focus these days. Perhaps one too many irons in the fire.

But in the meanwhile...

I do finally get to see Bob Dylan! The legendary Bobster (duke of Bob? His royal Bobness?) comes to town tonight. I saw another legend only a couple of weeks ago: Neil Young. I'll report as to which of them lived up to their legend status. Of course, just to hear Bob mumble will be a treat, because, well... because he's Bob.

Later.

Declare Yourself

I'm back! Well, I truly never went anywhere, just worked like a dog these last weeks - not time to blog. Check out these brilliant messages from the Declare yourself website - get the vote out. Very timely for both Canada and the U.S. I know when I was 18 I didn't really give a shit about voting. If they would have great vids like these I think it would have made a difference.

Declare Yourself

TICK

ON deadline these last couple of weeks (and for a couple more).

woofreakinghoo will return when things slow down a little freakin bit.

Star Climber

My apologies for the lack of posts this week - I am keeping all the plates spinning this week. So far, everything remains airborne.

Find yourself something good to read this weekend.

I recommend the Globe and Mail Saturday Books section. And if you read the review of the Kenneth Oppel's new book, StarClimber, you'll note the illustration was done by a certain wooreakinhoo blogger.

(Not the illustration shown to the left, that would be the cover - and a good one at that.)