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Seth Rogovoy at the screening of âA Complete Unknownâ at The Triplex.
Natalia Zukerman
When Seth Rogovoy, acclaimed author, critic, and cultural commentator of âThe Rogovoy Reportâ on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, was asked to lead a talkback at The Triplex in Great Barrington following a screening of the Bob Dylan biopic âA Complete Unknown,â he took on the task with a thoughtful and measured approach.
âI really try to foster a conversation and keep my opinions about the film to myself,â said Rogovoy before the event on Sunday, Jan. 5. âI want to let people talk about how they felt about it and then I ask follow-up questions, or people ask me questions. I donât reveal a lot about my feelings until the end.â
The film, directed by James Mangold and starring TimothĂŠe Chalamet as Bob Dylan, portrays young Dylanâs arrival in Greenwich Village during the early 1960s. The film depicts his interactions with key figures like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Suze Rotolo (called Sylvie Russo in the film), while also exploring Dylanâs evolution from performing traditional folk songs to writing his own, including iconic tracks like âBlowinâ in the Wind.â The narrative touches on his struggles with fame, identity, and the pressure to conform, culminating in his controversial electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
âI went into seeing the film with an open mind,â said Rogovoy, ârecognizing that this film is not for me. Itâs not for âDylanologists,â for experts. Itâs a Hollywood film. I donât think it does harm, but I think it doesnât do a lot of what it could have done.â
The film presents a sentimental narrative with many historical inaccuracies. âAccording to Elijah Wald, whose book the film is based on, he said he likes the film but that itâs entirely fictional,â said Rogovoy.
The talkback itself was lively, with audience members sharing their thoughts on the filmâs nostalgic appeal and its historical inaccuracies. Several attendees mentioned how the film helped them relive the cultural transformation of the era.
âIt brings to mind the first time I heard that music, and the change it had on our culture,â shared one audience member.
Another attendee, who was just a baby during the time period depicted in the film, said, âI loved how much of his music they did play. It wasnât just one verse and then cut away. I really got a renewed appreciation for his genius. Iâm going full Dylan when I get home.â
While Rogovoyâs approach during the talkback was to facilitate discussion, audience members were eager to hear his analysis. His 2009 book, âBob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poetâ explores Dyanâs connection to Jewish liturgy. In contrast to âA Complete Unknown,â Rogovoy offered a reminder of âIâm Not There,â the 2007 experimental musical drama co-written and directed by Todd Haynes where six actors portrayed different facets of Dylanâs persona. He described the filmâs nonlinear narrative as offering what he called âa Dylanesque portrayalâ of the artist, capturing more of the complexity of Dylanâs identity. Rogovoy characterized Chalametâs portrayal as âone note.â
âAnd how do we know about the essence of Bob Dylan at that time?â asked Rogovoy. âWell, because there are a number of documentary films with footage of that time, which Iâm sure that they (the filmmakers and cast) all viewed again and again. My understanding of Chalametâs preparation was that he really immersed himself in everything to be a credible Bob Dylan. But in the end, I just found him to be entirely monochromatic.â
The screening and talkback provided a nuanced platform for discussing âA Complete Unknownââa film that, while not without flaws, ignited a conversation about Bob Dylanâs influence and his enigmatic role in shaping American music and culture.
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On planting a Yellowwood tree
Jan 08, 2025
The author planted this Yellowwood tree a few years ago on some of his open space.
Fritz Mueller
As an inveterate collector of all possibly winter hardy East coast native shrubs and trees, I take a rather expansive view of the term ânativeâ; anything goes as long as it grows along the East coast. After I killed those impenetrable thickets of Asiatic invasive shrubs and vines which surrounded our property, I suddenly found myself with plenty of open planting space.
Thatâs when, a few years ago, I also planted a Yellowwood tree, (Cladastris kentukea). It is a rare, medium-sized tree in the legume familyâspectacular when in bloom and golden yellow in fall. In the wild, it has a very disjointed distribution in southeastern states, yet a large specimen, obviously once part of a long-gone garden, has now become part of the woods bordering Route 4 on its highest point between Sharon and Cornwall.
It has always intrigued me that so many species, whose native ranges today are much further south, grow so well here. Besides Yellowwood, that includes, for example, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) of southern swamps whose natural range reaches into southern New Jersey. However, it also grows in Litchfield hills gardens and, incongruously, even as a street tree in New York. Among others are PawPaw (Asimia triloba), Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina), American snowbell (Styrax americanus), Redbud (Cercis canadensis), and Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum), a good-sized tree with white flowering racemes and outstanding brilliant, deep red fall foliage. Besides our local swamp and Pinxter azaleas, others that are very hardy here include the early-flowering Pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron vaseyi) of the North Carolina mountains and from the mountains of Georgia, the rare-in-the-wild, July-flowering Plumleaf azalea, (R. prunifolium). Robust and larger in habit and most stunning of all is the Flame azalea (R. calendulaceum), which historically grew as far north as southeast New York, where it is now extirpated.
After some research, I learned that Cladastris kentukea might have grown over a much wider and more northern area, but during the last glaciation episode, it survived in the wild only in those isolated southern locations. That it survived at all so close to the glaciers edge is in itself an indication of cold hardiness. It is estimated, based on fossil plant and pollen records, that with the retreat of the icecap around 16,000 years ago, trees migrated again northward at a rate of approximately 50 km per century. This may apply to prolific sprouters such as maples, ashes and oaks, but it could be much slower, I suspect, for the many rarer plants which donât get around by wind, squirrels, and birds, or areâunlike our common treesâfinnicky to sprout from seeds. I can also imagine how many of the rarer trees and shrubs, for example Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), became collateral damage during the 19th century clearcutting for charcoal and farming. In any case, Yellowwood didnât manage to recolonize its former range, and a similar scenario may apply to those other woody plants with a more southerly distribution today but that are perfectly hardy up here.
Climate change, which used to occur over millennia, now seems to happen within half a century. Birds, like the Carolina wren, can adapt quickly and become abundant after just a few warm wintersâbut plants are stuck. They need help to keep up with such rapid change. In the case of trees and shrubs, human gardeners can assist them in expanding their ranges into areas that are now warm enough for them to live thrive again.
I bought a sapling Water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), native to southern swamps, from a Missouri nursery. It has survived two winters so farâalbeit quite mild onesâin a woody swamp here at 1100ft elevation. One hundred years from now, who knowsâugar maples, which thrive in cold, snowy winters, might be replaced with sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), a more southern hardwood.
I found space for trees by clearing thickets of invasives. The modern trend of transforming excessively large lawns into natural meadows also provides an opportunity to plant native trees with an understory of shrubs and ferns, whether as a stand-alone copse or a forest edge. This is not meant to replace flowers and grasses but to complement them, based on the understanding that, in our region, the primary ecosystem is forestâan exceptionally species-rich one to boot, with over a half dozen oaks alone.
Compared to watching grass grow, watching a treeâany treeâgrow is almost exciting, given a bit of patience. Early on, protection against deer is necessary, but later, maintenance is relatively minimal; the leaves can simply fall and stay where they may.
Fritz Mueller lives in Sharon.
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Schlock and Awful: winter edition
Jan 08, 2025
A scene from âExterminators of the Year 3000â
Courtesy IMDB.COM
The Lakeville Journalâs Bad Cinema desk sincerely hopes everyone had something better to do last summer than sit inside and watch appallingly bad movies. Anything would do. Hiking. Antiquing. Going for coffee.
Even â and we realize this is strong stuff â writing poetry.
But now, winter is here. For those looking to while away the hours during the hibernation period, here are five more of the most spectacularly bad flicks currently available on streaming services such as Tubi, Freevee, and Sickee, not to mention Plex, Yecch and Blecch.
âSilent Madnessâ (1984): This â80s slasher was originally in 3D. Nobody cares but there it is. The best film ever shot in Nyack, New York, the cast includes some names regular people may have seen in normal movies. Loony bin in New Jersey lets psycho killer out by mistake, and psycho killer starts picking off sorority girls. Starts off nicely with death by vise grip, but then a whole lot of plot intervenes. Really bad mise-en-scene. As Jean-Luc Godard once said, âLe pfui.â
âDeliriaâ aka âStage Frightâ (1987): Italian slasher, in which the cast and crew of a play about a serial killer called the Night Owl are locked into the theater by the tyrannical director until they get the darn thing right. Well, the jokeâs on Mr. Big Shot Director because local psycho Wallace is also in the theater, and he starts killing everybody. And he does this while dressed as a big owl. With plucky heroine and ambiguous ending.
âTruck Turnerâ (1974): Isaac Hayes is Truck Turner, bail bondsman and smooth lover, forced by circumstances beyond his control to clean up the streets and get his jailbird girlfriend a kitten. With gratuitous nekkidity and unironic fried chicken. The terrific soundtrack by Hayes adds a great deal, with toe-tapping, car-crashing numbers such as âPursuit of the Pimpmobile,â âHospital Shootout,â and âDrinking.â
âExterminators of the Year 3000â (1983): Aka âMildly Miffed Max,â this Road Warrior rip-off was made in Italy and Spain for about $11.87 (thatâs $37.62 in todayâs dollars). The big difference between this and the Mad Max films, besides talent, is in this one itâs water, not gasoline, that everybodyâs after. There are a lot of cars crashing around and some weird dialogue that doesnât make much sense and girls in leather pants which must have been really uncomfortable in the desert.
âShrunken Headsâ (1994): Here at The Lakeville Journalâs Bad Cinema desk, we like to save the worst for last. This flick, brought to you from the entire Elfman family, neatly and concisely explains why itâs never a good idea to get too close to your local voodoo practitioner. (A simple âHello, how are you?â will suffice.) This incredibly strange film should have made âEat Da Whizzoâ a national catchphrase, but didnât. With shrunken head sex, sort of, and righteous retribution against the bad guys. Highly recommended, especially if youâre in traction.
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