DYLAN WEEK AT TOMMYWOOD

Last night I went to the opening of the Dylan exhibit at the Skirball. Let me say this –I’ve now been twice and I still haven’t had the time to look at everything I want to as deeply as I’d like.

My Tommywood column on the exhibit will appear in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles on Thursday and I will post it on this website then. The exhibit, entitled, “Bob Dylan’s American Journey, 1956-1966” opens to the public this Friday February 8 — so in order to write the article in time for it to appear this week, I had to do most of my research before seeing the exhibit. Then the folks at the Skirball were good enough to let me visit while while it was still being installed.

My first draft was 4,500 words — that’s about 18 pages long. I had Dylan quotes from interviews he’s done recently with Jonathan Lethem and Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone and references to some of the obscure artifacts in the exhibit. With direction from my editor Susan Freudenheim, I cut all the more academic references and less personal commentary and managed to rein in my piece at 2500 words —  and I confess it is the better for it [whether it’s any good is another matter].

Still I I had so much fun delving into Dylanalia that beginning on Friday for a week I will feature an item about Bob Dylan each day on The Tommywood blog. Consider it “Dylan week” at Tommywood in honor of the Skirball exhibit.

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