[Originally posted on goofyblog on 10.06.06]
Fall is here: breezy, sometimes rainy, then back to hot and humid, but not so hot and humid as in July. New Yorkers are already wearing sweaters and light coats, even in sunny, hot weather. Go figure.
Just finished Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume 1 (there is no Volume 2—yet), which makes very little chronological sense but is engrossing. His telling of both the physical experience of being an artist and the creative process was enlightening to me. Why he did this or that, what the scene was, his reaction to other artists, etc. Great book!
I was down in the Village and mentioned I was reading the book to a guy at a bar. He said he’d been a bartender in those days that “Bobby” had lived around the corner. I asked him how much a studio apartment would go for in the area now. He said a room not even big enough for a double bed would rent for $1,700.
In the book, Dylan does finally take an apartment (just down from the bar I was in) after months of sofa-surfing: a 2-room place for $60–in 1961. That would make rental inflation about 6,000% in 45 years (you would double 2006’s 1-room price).
I was also struck by the empty (or emptier) artistic landscape Dylan found when he started out. He came to New York to do something new. There were other artists sure, but the field seemed somehow more sparse than today. An older artist I talked to recently voiced the same opinion: when he started out, an artist’s calling was rarer. I know from reading the autobiographies of directors John Houston and Elia Kazan that actor’s used to be looked down upon by society as ne’er do well’s. It wasn’t something you would do or want to aspire to unless you had a calling.
That’s all changed now. Everyone is an artist or wants to be. Dylan may not be everyone’s idea of an artist or a singer. I personally think he was most vital in the first 6 years of his recording career and after that he just lost it. Some really hate his voice and that distracts them. Whatever your opinion, his description of his creative processes is fascinating for those interested in the creative arts.
Fall is here: breezy, sometimes rainy, then back to hot and humid, but not so hot and humid as in July. New Yorkers are already wearing sweaters and light coats, even in sunny, hot weather. Go figure.
Just finished Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume 1 (there is no Volume 2—yet), which makes very little chronological sense but is engrossing. His telling of both the physical experience of being an artist and the creative process was enlightening to me. Why he did this or that, what the scene was, his reaction to other artists, etc. Great book!
I was down in the Village and mentioned I was reading the book to a guy at a bar. He said he’d been a bartender in those days that “Bobby” had lived around the corner. I asked him how much a studio apartment would go for in the area now. He said a room not even big enough for a double bed would rent for $1,700.
In the book, Dylan does finally take an apartment (just down from the bar I was in) after months of sofa-surfing: a 2-room place for $60–in 1961. That would make rental inflation about 6,000% in 45 years (you would double 2006’s 1-room price).
I was also struck by the empty (or emptier) artistic landscape Dylan found when he started out. He came to New York to do something new. There were other artists sure, but the field seemed somehow more sparse than today. An older artist I talked to recently voiced the same opinion: when he started out, an artist’s calling was rarer. I know from reading the autobiographies of directors John Houston and Elia Kazan that actor’s used to be looked down upon by society as ne’er do well’s. It wasn’t something you would do or want to aspire to unless you had a calling.
That’s all changed now. Everyone is an artist or wants to be. Dylan may not be everyone’s idea of an artist or a singer. I personally think he was most vital in the first 6 years of his recording career and after that he just lost it. Some really hate his voice and that distracts them. Whatever your opinion, his description of his creative processes is fascinating for those interested in the creative arts.
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