There is a lovely piece by Matt Zoller Seitz over at Salon about the music and movies he shared with his wife, who died at 35:
I’m listening to Jen’s favorite album, Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks,” as I write this, for the first time since 2006…
When I met Jen, I respected but didn’t like Dylan. She could quote the lyrics to many of his best-known songs the way a preacher quotes the Bible. The first time she put on “Blood on the Tracks” in her dorm room — on the evening of our first date, after eating Chinese food and then going to see “Eat a Bowl of Tea,” a film I have not yet revisited — she moseyed around the room singing along with the first song on the album, “Tangled Up in Blue.”
When she saw me trying not to wince, she said, “What, you don’t like this?”
“I like his lyrics, but I’m not sure they’re as deep as people say, and I don’t like his voice,” I said. “He can’t sing. He sounds like a Muppet.”
“You don’t listen to Dylan because you want to rate his technique or pick out holes in his argument or figure out what the message is,” she said, caressing the air with her piano hands. “It’s about the words he uses and how he sings them, and the rhythm. It’s him saying, ‘All right, let’s go here now,’ and you saying, ‘OK, fine, let’s.’ He’s just a guy with a guitar talking to you. Bob Dylan can sing. He just doesn’t sing the way you think a singer is supposed to sound. The title isn’t about a train. The tracks are the album tracks. He’s spilling his blood here.”
There was a knock on the door — a roommate returning a book. Jen moved to answer it, touching my shoulder as she passed.
“Just clear your head and listen to the music,” she said, “and see what happens.”
[Photo Credit: Nathan Makan]
Wow... very tough to lose a loved one so very young. And I agree about Dylan, as a youngster, I was not as impressed with him and (as a musician), couldn't enjoy his voice. But as I've mellowed with age, I have a greater appreciation for him now.
Ok... now to start a fight:
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5862839
"According to the source, a baseball industry executive who has knowledge of both sides' position, the Yankees are not budging from the three-year, $45 million offer they made to Jeter earlier this month
.... until Jeter and his agent, Casey Close, "drink the reality potion," according to a source close to the negotiations.
Other industry sources have mentioned the Los Angeles Dodgers as a possible Plan B for Jeter and Close, considering Jeter's warm relationship with Don Mattingly."
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I don't want to lose Jeter, but I am 100% with Cashman. The offer is at least twice his market value, so it is very fair. Mo is asking for a bit much, 2/$36m, but at least those are 'fair' negotiating numbers. I'm tired of the idea that the Yanks must always overpay for a player. I feel the opposiite; that's it's an honor for any player to wear the pinstripes, and like Beltran, should be happy to come here even for a little less.
I simply can't image Jeter going to LA for 2/$22m or so.
I mean, what would the press do to Jeter if he left down for half the money? He legacy would be shot to hell. If his ego is hurt a little, I can understand it. But he has gained the same... or actually much more by being a Yankee. He would not be an icon if he was Derek Jeter, Kansas City Royal. His place is with the Yankees as the highest paid SS in the game, and will have earned 1/4 of a BILLION dollars from NY.
If he leaves, it will be a historic fall from grace.
He ain't leaving.
[1] It would be an "historic fall from grace" only to the same people who are worried the Yankees might overpay to keep him here.
The rest of us, those of us who don't just root for the laundry, to borrow Seinfeld's famous phrase - will be mightily p'd off at Cashman, et al, for letting the face of the franchise, the Captain for crying out loud, walk over money.
If this is about the guys wife, I love him and her more. To all the women who give us the desire.