i heard this on the bbc (on npr)

the other morning on my way to work. it was so dang early i perhaps thought i heard wrong. i guess i didn't. (but i still think mr dylan is having fun with us)

i don't know about no direction home though. do you?
The Voice of a Peregrination
On GPS, Dylan Might Guide Lost Drivers Home

By Paul Farhi

Washington Post Staff Writer

Bob Dylan: folk-rock legend, poet-spokesman of his generation . . . and GPS voice?

Maybe. The enigmatic troubadour said on his satellite radio program that he is negotiating with two car manufacturers to be the voice of their in-car navigation systems. Insert your own Dylan-lyric pun here about "no direction home" or "there must be some way out of here" or "how many roads . . . .".......

Dylan could be new sat-nav voice

Music legend Bob Dylan is "talking to a couple of car companies" about becoming the voice of their GPS system.

The singer-songwriter discussed the possibility on his BBC Radio 6 Music Sunday show which was on the theme of street maps.

Renowned for his raspy, nasally tones, the 68-year-old American gave his listeners a taster of what his directions might sound like.

"Left at the next street. No, right. You know what? Just go straight."

He continued: "I probably shouldn't do it because whichever way I go, I always end up at one place - on Lonely Avenue. Luckily I'm not totally alone. Ray Charles beat me there."

The normally reclusive Dylan, whose hits include Blowin' in the Wind and Like a Rolling Stone, admitted he does not normally like telling people what he is doing.........

the answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind, the answer

is blowin' in the wind (OR on the tour bus as it happens)

an odd but interesting story

New Jersey Homeowner Calls Cops on Bob Dylan

Forty Years After Woodstock, Bob Dylan Is Mistaken for a Homeless Man

By CHRIS FRANCESCANI

Bob Dylan was detained by police in Long Branch, N.J. last month, when a young officer failed to recognize him, police said. The officer proceeded to go to earnest lengths to ensure the hooded, disheveled, rain-soaked music legend was, in fact, who he said he was.

Dylan, 68, one of the most celebrated, eccentric artists in American history, was in the area on July 23 as part of a national concert tour -- a fact lost on 24-year-old Long Branch police officer Kristie Buble.

To hear the young New Jersey police officer describe it, the scene was like something out of one of Dylan's epic song-poems: It was pouring rain, Dylan was soaked and wandering alone, far from the traveling home of his entourage of tour buses.

When Dylan wandered into the yard of a home that had a "For Sale" sign on it, the home's occupants became spooked by his appearance and called police with a report of an "eccentric-looking old man" in their yard, Long Branch Police said. One of the occupants even went so far as to follow Dylan as he continued on down the street........

don't care, they both make me smile (and warm)

(via)

i'm just one too many mornings

and a thousand miles behind

'cause the times they are a changin'

Come gather round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon Youll be drenched to the bone.If your time to you Is worth savin Then you better start swimmin Or youll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin.Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance wont come again And dont speak too soon For the wheels still in spin And theres no tellin who That its namin.For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin.Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Dont stand in the doorway Dont block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled Theres a battle outside And it is ragin. Itll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin.Come mothers and fathers Throughout the landAnd dont criticize What you cant understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin. Please get out of the new one If you cant lend your hand For the times they are a-changin. The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin.
(bob dylan)

Has Bob Dylan Endorsed Obama?
Mercurial Songwriter Has Never Formally Endorsed a Politician
By CHRIS FRANCESCANI
Bob Dylan, the maverick architect of modern American protest music, appears to have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Or did he?
In an apparent break from the singer-songwriter's lifelong policy of refusing to make political endorsements, Dylan told The Times of London, "Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval.
"Poverty is demoralizing,'' he said. "You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up  Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to."
Dylan, 67, reportedly shook hands with his interviewer and as he walked out the door, added, "You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future."
If indeed intended as an endorsement of America's first black major party presidential candidate, the statements were extraordinary for Dylan  from a cultural if not necessarily political standpoint.
Even at the height of his fame in the 1960s, when mass movements like the civil rights brigades and the anti-war establishment literally begged Dylan to lead them, the artist recoiled from taking sides. ........

i'm not there

(when you're lost in the rain in juarez and it's easter time too.........

that lyric ALWAYS stays with me. don't know why it just does)
i love bob dylan. always have always will. i am so excited about this movie i could just burst!

Is Six Actors Enough to Show the Many Sides of Bob Dylan?
By Paul Harris, The Observer UK.
In a Hollywood with a reputation for liking things safe and bankable, a bizarrely cast film about the life of one of the most controversial singers of all time, opening in just four cinemas in all of America, would seem unlikely to be at the center of the biggest Oscar buzz of the year.
Yet I'm Not There -- a biopic about Bob Dylan being released in November -- is doing exactly that. There is nothing normal about the movie, which delves into the fascinating life of the singer-songwriter and promises to be one of the strangest films of the decade.
It boasts six actors playing Dylan, including a woman and a black boy, so its opening marketing campaign was hardly likely to be conventional. But by any standards, opening in only four cinemas is remarkable. Usually that means that a studio thinks its movie might be a disaster, yet I'm Not There has generated nothing but good news.
Industry figures have been surprised by the move. 'It depends on the film. Sometimes you just start small and build on word of mouth,' said Karen Cooper, director of Manhattan's acclaimed arts cinema Film Forum, which is one of two New York cinemas that will screen the film. The other two are in Los Angeles.
The film is backed by the Weinstein Company, whose founder, Harvey Weinstein, has not been shy of touting the work, despite planning its slow release. He has admitted wanting to generate a slow burn of reaction before taking the film national.
"I'm going to play every major city in the United States with this movie," he said last week. "I'll play 100 cities at least."............

just like tom thumb's blues (bob dylan)
When you're lost in the rain in Juarez And it's Eastertime too And your gravity fails And negativity don't pull you through Don't put on any airs When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue They got some hungry women there And they really make a mess outa you Now if you see Saint Annie Please tell her thanks a lot I cannot move My fingers are all in a knot I don't have the strength To get up and take another shot And my best friend, my doctor Won't even say what it is I've got Sweet Melinda The peasants call her the goddess of gloom She speaks good English And she invites you up into her room And you're so kind And careful not to go to her too soon And she takes your voice And leaves you howling at the moon Up on Housing Project Hill It's either fortune or fame You must pick up one or the other Though neither of them are to be what they claim If you're lookin' to get silly You better go back to from where you came Because the cops don't need you And man they expect the same Now all the authorities They just stand around and boast How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms Into leaving his post And picking up Angel who Just arrived here from the coast Who looked so fine at first But left looking just like a ghost I started out on burgundy But soon hit the harder stuff Everybody said they'd stand behind me When the game got rough But the joke was on me There was nobody even there to call my bluff I'm going back to New York City I do believe I've had enough