Review

 "A Complete Unknown"

Directed by James Mangold

Starring  Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan

The story of Bob Dylan's rise to fame is well known. I have been well aware of the broad details of it for fifty years. How - as a nineteen year old he left his home state of Minnesota  and travelled to New York City. How - soon after his arrival - he went to visit  Woody Guthrie - one of his musical heroes - in a New York state hospital. How - by good fortune as much as talent - he found a way into the New York folk music scene and earned a recording contract.

This is pretty much the course that  the bio-pic film "A Complete Unknown" covers - with the title being filtered from  one of Dylan's most timeless numbers - "Like a Rolling Stone":-

How does it feel, how does it feel?

To be without a home

Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

And of course when he arrived in New York, he was indeed "a complete unknown".

To this day, Bob Dylan remains a rather mysterious, enigmatic figure who has never enjoyed playing by other people's rules. I think that the actor, Timothée Chalamet captures some of that unknowable, rebellious quality very well. 

In the middle of the film, there's an exchange between Dylan and his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Suze Rottolo) in which she tells him that she has told him everything about herself but “I realise I don’t know you.” And I must say that I have always found it interesting that in the hundreds of songs that Dylan has written , he has never harked back to his early life in Minnesota. It is as if all of that has been deliberately blanked out.

I didn't know how I would feel about "A Complete Unknown" when I marched to our city centre this morning. I was prepared to be underwhelmed.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. There were moments when tears ran down my cheeks and there several belly laughs too. I was engaged throughout even though there were one or two scenes that I would have constructed differently for the sake of authenticity.

The songs themselves were nicely bedded within the storyline - not overbalancing it. And it was interesting to be given a renewed sense of New York life in the sixties. Nobody is glued to a smartphone . There are no computers and a lot of people, Dylan included, constantly smoke cigarettes.

The man is a legend in our time and Mangold's film helps to confirm that. I suspect that if you like Dylan you will enjoy this film.

Horrorscopes

Capricorn: December 22 – January 19

Keep a close eye on your savings as scammers are on to you and you may find your funds draining away like waste water. Consider changing all your passwords.
Aquarius: January 20 – February 18

Oh dear! Your health is under threat and your story could easily reach a premature end. When is the last time you had your heart checked out? After all, you are not as young as you used to be.
Pisces: February 19 – March 20

Nobody likes you any more and you find that none of your old friends want to make social arrangements  with you. Perhaps you should have been nicer or paid better attention to your personal hygiene.

Aries: March 21 – April 19

Time to get the electric wiring in your home  investigated if you are to avoid an unwelcome blaze. Do you have functioning fire extinguishers in every room in the property?

Taurus: April 20 – May 20

Two police officers come a -knocking on your door and they don't look too happy. What did you do that was so bad? The handcuffs will feel especially tight.
Gemini: May 21 – June 21

Food poisoning is usually very nasty  but it can  can invariably be avoided with good kitchen hygiene - washing hands etc.. Also - how old is your computer device? Seriously consider an upgrade or at least save files and folders you do not wish to lose.

Cancer: June 22 – July 22

Your star sign is Cancer. Cancer is known as "The Big C". People often avoid talking about it but in your case it is probably good to talk. Make an appointment NOW. But do not worry overmuch as these days  there are effective treatments for most cancers.

Leo: July 23 – August 22

It's always a good idea to remember to lock your front door at night but the best of us can forget. Of course burglars know this as well! What a shame! But the good news is that there is much more to life than mere possessions.
Virgo: August 23 – September 22

We have all been warned about smartphone snatchers  but most people think, "It'll never happen to me!"  If you have insurance, it is highly unlikely that they will pay up if you were at all negligent.
Libra: September 23 – October 23

You used to think that there were no such things as ghosts but not any more. As they say, seeing is believing! Don't have nightmares!
Scorpio: October 24 – November 21

All your life you imagined that you had sweet-smelling breath but a casual remark with follow-up confirmation proves that you were wrong. Fortunately, halitosis is easily treated.
Sagittarius: November 22 – December 21

It's time to visit a dentist as a matter of urgency but there's little need to worry  as the removal of teeth under general anaesthetic is a routine procedure. Also, modern dentures are much better than old animal bone ones used to be.

Reblog

Sometimes, I look back on blogposts I have written in the past and they can seem like offerings  made by someone else. So it was when earlier today I revisited this particular post - published on August 14th 2020, during the time of COVID. I was rather pleased with it and the way it was written. First time round, I titled it "Boxes"...

Somehow Britain's famous red phone boxes said something about who we were as a nation. They were strong, permanent structures made from iron and boldly painted red. They had glass panes for there was confidence that law-abiding citizens would not break them. And they were a visible declaration of our belief in both new technology and communication. 

Every community of any size had its own red phone box and you would also find them at remote crossroads in the countryside or in banks of half a dozen in busy city centres. They had pierced royal crowns beneath domed roofs and the word "telephone" appeared on all four sides - illuminated at night like a beacon.

The iconic K2 design was the brainchild of one of this country's leading architects - Giles Gilbert Scott back in the mid-nineteen twenties. From London, the phone boxes spread all over the kingdom like an army of red-coated guards. They were reassuring and as I say very solid on their concrete plinths. In contrast, so much that we now have in the modern world is flimsy, with  limited lifespans - disposable, plastic, tissue-thin. The K2 phone kiosk was not meant to be like that. It was made to last in a time when nobody predicted personal portable communication devices.

This blogpost was inspired by the content of  "Shadows and Light" this very morning so thanks to Steve Reed. Looking back through my "geograph" library, I see that I have taken more than fifty pictures of red phone boxes on my many rambles. Whenever I spot an old phone box, I am tempted to snap it in the belief that next time I walk there the box may be gone. 

In practical terms, we do not need them any more. We hold them in affectionate regard partly because they have come to represent a golden time in our history. A simpler time between the wars, a time of carthorses, unlocked doors, endless summers and upright pianos when swallows cavorted over barley fields and Britannia still believed that it ruled the waves.

How sad to see them rusting now, paint peeling, wreathed in cobwebs, converted into toolsheds, showers, homes for defibrillators, community libraries, phones ripped out, "Telephone" no longer lit up, places where men urinate or prostitutes leave calling cards, places for litter and invading ivy. By these boxes memories were made - of love  and friendship and family connections to faraway places. It's not the same now. The world has changed.

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Phone kiosks from top to bottom: Elsham (Lincolnshire), Fenny Bentley (Derbyshire), Kersall (Nottinghamshire) South Wingfield (Derbyshire) Whaley Bridge (Derbyshire).

Bonkers!

Back in early October I picked thirteen images from my "Geograph" collection for my 2025 Calendar. I had eight of these made at great expense - £80 in total. My box of  new calendars was delivered to me in mid-November. I was delighted with them.

As planned, at the start of December, I parcelled two of the calendars up and toddled down to our local post office. I was sending them to my sister-in-law Josephine and my niece Katie who both live in western Ireland. I also sent one without hindrance to my brother Robin in France.

I filled in customs declarations and paid the appropriate amount of postage - £6.55 for each calendar. 

Christmas arrived and I imagined that both calendars had been delivered. After all, I have sent many parcels and packages to The Republic of Ireland over the years.

However, at the end of this past week, both packages were returned to our house with stickers telling me that they had been rejected by Irish customs. No explanation given - just that. I took the parcels down to our local post office and was told by the helpful postmaster that several other customers had had Christmas parcels rejected by Irish customs.

I mean, what the hell could possibly be wrong with a calendar? How on earth could the parcels have failed the scrutiny of the Irish customs service? It just does not make sense.

For each package I am out of pocket by £16.55 and besides who wants a new calendar when we are on the threshold of the second month of the year? Inside the packages there were also Christmas cards wishing the Irish members of my family all the best in the festive season and beyond. Some jobsworths have blocked that ritualistic annual contact.

One of the factors at play here is surely Brexit and Britain's ludicrous disengagement from The European Union. Ironically, I was very much against it and yet I must also pay a price in terms of crazy customs rulings. How can I ever send a parcel to Ireland again?

I have complained to The Royal Mail in England but I cannot find  contact points for complaining to either the Irish postal service or to Irish customs. Maybe they don't like the idea of folk complaining or asking questions. Dickheads!

Lozenge

The majority of people in this world have heard about Stonehenge - the jewel in Britain's archaeological crown. Still mysterious, new things about Stonehenge and the area that it sits in are revealed every year. The story never ends.

Less than a mile south of Stonehenge there is a Bronze Age burial mound known as Bush Barrow. Back in 1808, this man-made  hillock was investigated. Within it, the searchers found a skeleton from the early Bronze Age - around  1900 B.C..  That in itself was not the most striking discovery - it was the grave goods that were buried with the deceased male.

Foremost among these was a lozenge of pure Cornish gold. It was wafer thin and expertly engraved. It may have been worn like a kind of ceremonial breastplate by the principal occupant of Bush Barrow. Since it was found, the gold artefact has been subject to close scrutiny and informed speculation. There are many who believe that the precise angles  and parallel lines of the golden lozenge point to the kind of astronomical understanding that  is contained in the geometry of Stonehenge itself.

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"The lozenge is the finest example of Bronze Age gold craftsmanship ever found. Made from sheet gold, only one millimetre thick. It is incised with intricate patterns, suggesting that whoever made it had a sophisticated knowledge of geometry."  - The Wiltshire Museum

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Two years ago we attended a wedding in Wiltshire and on the way home we stopped off in the town of Devizes. It was a hot day and we only had an hour to kill before moving on to Avebury. I even saw the facade of The Wiltshire Museum but did not venture inside. At the time, little did I know that it contained such an astonishing object. I could kick myself for missing it.

There is a sense in which The Bush Barrow Lozenge is every bit as stupendous as Stonehenge itself. Thank heavens it survived and saw the light of day once again. It could so easily have been lost like many treasures from Ancient Egypt - stolen by grave robbers.

We modern humans have almost lost our connections to Mother Earth and to the stars above but the exquisite golden lozenge from Bush Barrow reminds us that once there were people who lived in harmony with what they found around them - in the seasons, in the earth beneath their feet and in the stars above.

Moana

This afternoon, Shirley and I took Little Phoebe to the Odeon Luxe cinema in the centre of the city. We were there to attend the 12pm screening of "Moana 2". This popular animated film has just about reached the end of its tether on the cinema circuit and that's the main reason why today's audience comprised of just the three of us. We had the best seats in the very centre of the auditorium.

The sound system was so thunderous that Phoebe covered up her ears during the ad and preview section. She doesn't like loud noise and at just four years and one day old, she does not fake this distaste. Shirley asked the cinema staff to turn it down a notch or two and they kindly complied.

If as an adult you do not have much contact with small children, you are probably mystified by the very mention of Moana. She is a Disney figure who starred in the first film that bears her name in 2016. We watched that one down at Ian's house in Fulham, London at Christmastime 2022. It was spectacular and yet very human too. I loved the way that references to genuine Polynesian life and history had been woven in to the fabric of the film. We all enjoyed it.

Moana lives on the fictional Pacific island of Motunui. She is the daughter of Tui, the island's chief. Ultimately it falls upon her to fight for the island's future  in a battle between the ancient forces of good and evil. It's roughly the same theme in "Moana 2". Of course it is of some socio-cultural significance that Moana is female and pretty tough.

In both films we meet the huge shape-shifting tattooed figure of the demigod Maui whose streetwise voice is that of Dwayne Johnson. He befriends Moana and acts as her champion.

"Moana" and "Moana 2" are visual masterpieces that demonstrate how far Disney animation has come. Both films contain strong musical elements and songs. It is easy to lose yourself in them - especially on a big screen.

As Christmas had just passed by, we were a little stuck when thinking about gifts to buy Phoebe. You might be interested to learn that all four gifts  were "Moana 2" branded - a jigsaw, a singalong microphone, a Moana doll and Moana 2 shower gel. I am not proud to admit this but that's how it was.

When we emerged from the dark cinema, Sheffield was bathed in golden light - the glare so sharp that you had to shield your eyes. Phoebe refused to put her coat on because, bizarrely, after the recent wintry weather, it was now as if summer had arrived early. Perhaps Moana and Maui the demigod had had a hand in that.

Maui in "Moana 2"

Poem

 

Vestiges

It was the last of it -

Trailed alongside rough stone walls

Or under trees where shadows stick -

Slumped snowmen or heaps by driveways

This hidden world turned green again.

But in the solitude of altitude

Still whiteness still upon the moors

Wadding treacherous hollows.

Up there, I found a ewe once -

Suffocated by a drift and stiff

Above Eyam -

The lamb inside her frozen

And nothing left to do.

Oh where shall we go

Now May’s already calling?

This life is but a passing show

Where once white snow was falling.

And all that remains is lost.