Adventures with Johnny, Part 103

Johnny boards Air Force One along with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, for their trip overseas.

Johnny wants to see Euro Disney!

A Month of Bob, Part 2

Ok, for whatever reason, Sony Music/Columbia Records (whatever it is they're called) seems to have clamped down on people posting Bob's videos on YouTube, and making them embeddable, so its going to be a little harder posting of some the amazing videos Bob has done here.

But I got lucky, and found this one on line: the video for Bob's 1989 song "Series of Dreams", which is my all-time favorite Bob Dylan song.

I can't possibly get into all the reasons why, the song just struck me the right way at the right time, and its been in my heart and head ever since.

The version of the song for this video is shortened by a minute or so, but its still an amazing song and video:

A Month of Bob, Part 1

Its exactly one month until the release of Bob's new album, Together Through Life. To say I am eagerly anticipating this is to devalue the phrase.

So I thought sporadically over the next month I'll be posting some of my favorite videos/moments in Bob History. Every post will start off with Bob's mug staring at you, so for those of you who don't care, you'll know immediately to skip these posts. (Though you will make me cry)

Anyway, something basic to start us off. Here's Bob in 1993, performing a lovely version of "Forever Young" on The Late Show With David Letterman:

Adventures with Johnny, Part 102

Johnny trots alongside President Obama as he walks down the White House carpet for last night's press conference.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 101

President Obama asks Johnny to go and bite Chip Reid, who asked a particularly snide, attempted "gotcha" question at last night's press conference.

Berry's Birthday

Today is our cat Berry's birthday!

Berry doesn't get nearly the amount of attention here on the blog that Johnny does, but that's not to suggest we don't love him just the same. In fact, I don't think Tracy and I are more content than at night, when we've got Johnny between us, and Berry laying on me. The whole family's together.

Berry was found as a feral cat, wandering, as he puts it, "The mean streets of Marlton." So of course we don't really know when his birthday is, but Tracy when she adopted him guesses he was born sometime in the Spring, so we decided to make the first full day of Spring to be the day.

He's a wonderful little guy, and even though he has some health problems (a slight heart murmur, a weakened back leg due to nerve damage), he's in better shape now than he was just a few years ago. We hope he's around a long, long time.

Happy Birthday Berry!

Together Through Life

Teh internets are abuzz with talk about the new album, and now we've got an official track list:

1)Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

2)Life Is Hard

3)My Wife's Home Town

4)If You Ever Go To Houston

5)Forgetful Heart

6)Jolene

7)This Dream of You

8)Shake Shake Mama

9)I Feel A Change Comin' On

10)It's All Good

...of all the songs, only "Jolene" seems to have escaped the ears of people who have heard the album already, since none of them have mentioned the song.

The song titles are certainly intriguing, and Bob writing and recording a song called "I Feel A Change Comin' On" less than a month before Barack Obama became President (he recorded the album in October) certainly gives one the impression there'll be a fair amount of social commentary this time around.

I can't wait.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 100

Johnny is spotted trying to sneak into AIG's headquarters in attempt to get some of that bonus money back!

It's Official

Adventures with Johnny, Part 99

Johnny jumps on stage during a Ceili she attended with her Grammy and Grandpa.

She later had be to asked to leave due to excessive howling during "Danny Boy."

99.5% Sure There'll Be A New Dylan Album

We now have a title: Together Through Life.

99% Sure There'll Be A New Dylan Album

Since the news broke last month that Bob Dylan had a new album in the can and ready to go, there hasn't been much follow-up.

That concerned me, because there have been a number of times when a rumor got floated of a new Dylan album, and it turned out that's all it was--rumors. Bob doesn't do many interviews, and rarely (if ever) telegraphs his intentions, so its not like us BobCats ever get a clip of him telling some interviewer "I'll be heading into the studio next week...".

He tends to keep it quiet--he goes in to the studio with his regular band, bangs around for about a week or so, does a little mixing, and he's outta there.

So I was a little nervous that this was going to be another pack of unsubstantiated rumors, but today we took a huge leap in the right direction--the music magazine Mojo got a listen to seven of the new songs, and they match up with what we've heard before.

Apparently, the reason that Bob's official site/Sony Music hasn't started the publicity machine is that the album is still being sequenced, the title hasn't been chosen, and artwork is still being finalized (note to Sony: I am available).

So while I'm still not totally, irretrievably committed to the idea of a new Bob Dylan album in my future--and I won't be until I see Bob's own site start to promote it--I'm breathing a lot easier about it today than I was last night.


(BTW, the tentative song titles are: Beyond Here Lies Nothin', Life is Hard, My Wife's Hometown, Forgetful Heart, Shake Shake Mama, I Feel A Change Coming On, Its All Good, If You Ever Go To Houston, and This Dream Of You--that's nine songs, and I've repeatedly heard there are 10 on the album, so there's still one as-yet-revealed song)

Adventures with Johnny, Part 98

Johnny attends the public evisceration of Mad Money's Jim Cramer by Jon Stewart on last night's Daily Show. (She liked to wander around the stage as the beat-down went on)


On a separate note: All week, MSNBC was promoting the "Cramer vs. Stewart" storyline. But today, post-interview, we have watched about 3 straight hours of MSNBC (with the sound off) and they have not mentioned it once.

Why do I think the owners of MNBC and CNBC do not want it mentioned that their guy (and their business network) got torn a new one last night?

The Times They Are A-Changin

In Chiacgo, a bunch of frat guys let The Westboro Baptist Church (a "God Hates Fags" type of crowd) know they have "No tolerance for intolerance" and decide to embarrass the living shit of out of the haters:
...rock on, fellas. Rock on.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 97

Johnny attends President Obama's signing of the executive order to allow stem cell research.


Banning stem cell research was one of the most inhumane, ridiculous, and cruel acts the Bush administration ever committed (and that's saying something). I am overjoyed to see Obama overturn it.

Colbert on the Attack

Steven Colbert rarely goes for such a frontal assault like he does here, but this one-sentence summation of Rush Limbaugh is just too good.

It comes around the 2:00 mark, but you really should watch the whole thing:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - Rush Limbaugh

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I Watched The Watchmen

My pal Steve Spatucci went above and beyond the call, organizing a group of more than forty people to go see Watchmen last night.

As if that wasn't enough, he made up visually-appropriate name tags for all of us, so no awkward intros would be necessary. haven't felt this dorky since the NY Comic Con!

As for the movie...I don't want to say too much about it, until I have a chance to maybe see it again (most probably on DVD), but overall I'd say it was a B+.

There were some sequences from the book that were brilliantly executed (the prison break, the capture of Rorshach), and the opening credit sequence (set to the tune of "The Times They Are A-Changin'") was absolutely astounding--director Zack Snyder manages the same feat in his Dawn of the Dead remake, so he clearly knows how to open his films.

The performances and the effects were all solid, but I felt some of the characters--particularly Ozymandias--weren't fleshed out enough, robbing the story's conclusion of a lot of drama it had in the book.

Also, there are some scenes that were unnecessarily tweaked with, to no good effect. Knowing the book so thoroughly, it was very hard for me to not to compare with what I was seeing on the screen with the source material.

But overall, I enjoyed it very much, and I imagine there's a more detailed, even longer director's cut in our future, something I'd most definitely be interested in seeing.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 96

Johnny attends President Obama's Health Care Summit, held in Washington on Thursday.

She prefers to prance around the president, as opposed to sitting quietly in a chair.