If I had a magic wand for a day …
How many times has that thought crossed your mind?
As I am staring at my laptop hoping my 1 gig of erratic Optimum internet chooses to resume functioning, the need for a magic wand is acute.
After dealing with the internot situation, I’d conjure up the winning Powerball numbers for Wednesday’s $100 million drawing. I’d also confront a few things that grate at my eyes and ears, like …
… Traveling in the NBA. Not on the airplanes. On the court. I know, it’s nothing new. I don’t watch much NBA until the playoffs and I don’t watch much more then. But it doesn’t take long to watch the delusion of the pivot foot, or the 4-step drive to the dunk.
A couple minutes into checking out the Nuggets-Timberwolves game Monday night, one of the players cradled the ball out front and shuffled halfway to Buffalo before passing it.
… The word “tonight” on the 5:30 network news. ABC’s David Muir must be paid well for every time he says “tonight” – sometimes, tonight, 2-3 times in the same 20-second reader, often covering a story that was not happening “tonight” but happened in the morning, or even the previous day.
… I have high regard for our British friends. Good blokes, most of them I’ve known. But does every fourth network newsperson need to have a British accent? We have broadcasting schools all over this country, but that truth is not self evident watching all the networks.
Hey, internet signal’s back! Rushing to scribe and send in this effort.
This also means my Sirius/XM app on my TV is revived. In a cruel twist of fate, the song playing on The Bridge is Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue.”
One of the classic anthems of its day. Lovely song.
Makes me mad.
Mr. Dylan (who BTW is apparently an avid MLB fan, or once was; he was photographed back in the days of printed newspapers reading the box scores) visited Shreveport to play at Municipal Auditorium a few years ago. I am not a concert-goer, but a friend had a ticket, and Dylan is one of the modern era’s music icons.
Couldn’t tell by the performance we heard. I’m sure his set was deep and meaningful, but it was entirely all of his most recent stuff. No “Tangled.” No “Mr. Tambourine Man.” No “Blowin’ in the Wind.” “Shelter from the Storm” played only in our minds, alongside “The Times They Are A-Changin’” that we never heard from the stage.
Not. A. One.
This is a guy who rated a “Top 100 Bob Dylan Songs” list from Rolling Stone. None of what we heard qualified.
Adding misery to insult, Dylan showed zero stage presence. Nada. Never said, hey, good to be here in Shreveport .. or Louisiana … or acknowledge he was playing Municipal Auditorium, home of the Louisiana Hayride radio show, which catapulted Elvis Presley toward all of his fame and fortune.
Never acknowledged the paying customers, as I recall. No surprise, no encore. Dylan had left the building before we could.
Best memory of the night: seeing a poodle trotting from the main floor up the stairs toward one of the bars in the hallway. Pooch looked familiar with the place. He came back a couple minutes later. Guess he didn’t endure a line to get to the bathroom.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com