OK, Bob Dylan's XM satellite radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, is a gift to eclectic music nuts like myself. It is next to impossible to catalogue the various places he goes in his commentary or find any logic to his musical selections on any given show. There have been themes about parties, walking, the concept of #1, time, cars, and so on. This week's theme is Part II of a musical journey around the world including stops in Italy (did you know it's the shape of a boot?), Tunisia, Mexico, the Congo, England, and Japan. Here are a few of the topics that Bob touches on, in no particular order, just like his random samplings on the show:
-- The concepts of longitude, latitude, and the prime meridian.
-- The idea of the super-continent, pangea, from the Greek, meaning earth.
-- Loch Lomond and the Loch Ness monster.
-- Explorers from Marco Polo to Vasco da Gama.
-- Dublin, Ireland, and the County Cork as the setting for the New Bedford scenes in John Huston's movie, Moby Dick.
-- The River Mersey in England.
--Arrivederci, Roma by Dean Martin.
-- Making copies of your passport and other important papers.
-- Capistrano, an island off the coast of Albania.
-- Tom Waits reading a letter he sent Bob about all the inbreeding in Cleopatra's family.
-- Yoko Ono and her avant-garde music and art. (Don't ask.)
This show is worth the monthly cost of satellite radio, believe you me as they say back in northeastern PA.
