A Trio of Birthdays, Plus Cartoons Sunday

Music from Dylan and Tracy Chapman.

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We’ll open with a couple of birthdays. First, one of my heroes, Vincent Van Gogh, born in 1853. My homage from our visit to the village where he died, Auvers-sur-Oise, this is the famous church he painted there (see marker in right corner).

Next, I’ve brought you a wide range of music and performers here over the past few years but never…Pavarotti…so here, as Tracy Chapman marks her 61th birthday, he sings with her on “Baby Can I Hold You Tonight.”

Some named Bob Dylan posted this message and photo at Twitter today:

“Happy birthday Tracy. Hope to see you again some time.”

Now, a couple of headlines, the first not-quite-satire from comic Andy Borowitz:

Nation Shocked That Former Fox Host Might Be Liar

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of Americans have been rattled this week by the bombshell that a former Fox News host might be a liar, reports on Thursday indicate. According to industry insiders, the revelation that a former employee might have knowingly disseminated falsehoods threatens to tarnish the image of the nation’s most trusted news organization.

And a real headline one from Deadline:

White House Correspondents’ Association Cancels Amber Ruffin Performance at Annual Gala Dinner

Ruffin had been a target of criticism from the White House, though the WHCA says it will focus the event on recognizing "journalistic excellence."

Also marking a kind of birthday: This famous Milton Glaser poster, which came inside (for several years) every copy of Dylan’s first “Greatest Hits” album, starting with its release at the end of March 1967. Still have mine. The album was meant to fill the gap in Dylan sales after his motorcycle accident and before “John Wesley Harding.” It opened with one of Bob’s worst, “Rainy Day Women,” and included several songs never released as singles, such as “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” The unprecedented poster? It went on dorm walls all over the nation, including mine. It’s now at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, labeled: “Taking inspiration from a Marcel Duchamp self-portrait, Glaser depicted Dylan in profile, his abundant curly hair rendered in saturated colors that stood out in high contrast from the white ground.”

Here’s one of the songs on the album, “I Want You,” but as an outtake from Bob’s “MTV Unplugged,” perhaps a version some may prefer.

From Toons to Cartoons

Steve Brodner warns:

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