Not much Dylan  related to write about this month, I'm afraid: in fact, I feel completely uninspired. I am knee-deep in packing and preparation for a week-long trip to southern Normandy with 49 ten and eleven-year-olds (starting Monday morning at 5 a.m.) and so much time and effort has gone into getting all the paperwork, risk assessments, Bills, collective passport, travel details, money, medications, group lists, room groups etc. etc. etc. ready, that this trip has almost completely taken over my life for the past three or four weeks (it’s taken a year to plan and organize, but the last month or so is always the worst bit). 

And there’s really not been too much on the Dylan front to get excited about, has there? The plaudits for Chronicles are still regularly appearing (as are the foreign editions of the book, the latest being an Italian translation), but no news yet of a European tour, or any date for a new album. 

I did hear from Bob and Linda Hocking (of Zimmy’s Restaurant at Hibbing) that they had a wonderful time in Seattle at the launching of the big Dylan exhibition there (they had been invited because they have lent some Hibbing/Dylan memorabilia), and the photos they sent did indeed make it look fantastic - see below. They were certainly in very illustrious company, with Izzy Young, Suze Rotolo, John Cohen, Daniel Kramer, Bruce Langhorn, Sally Grossman and many other Dylan-notables present for a round of social gatherings and lectures to open the exhibition. The Hocking’s sent me loads of photos of all the luminaries present, but I don't feel happy publishing them without permission: if I get the go-ahead from Bob and Linda I’ll put them in next month’s piece. I’m sure they won’t mind me using a few photos of themselves, though, for now. 

Which British museum should we petition to get the exhibition over here for a while? Since Seattle is about as far away from England as it is possible to be, I sincerely doubt I’ll be able to  get there, much as I'd like to. 

Deep as the gloom of a British winter is, however, I've been relieved - having had weather news from a number of residents of Hibbing - that I don't live there: they've got feet and feet of snow, and daytime temperatures of minus 10 degrees at the moment! 

So, I'm largely preoccupied with thoughts of school this month, but hope the photos will make up for the absence of any enlightened or enlightening Dylan analysis! Au revoir!

Bob and Linda Hocking at the opening of the EMP’s ‘Bob Dylan’s American Journey’ Exhibition.
 

Bob and Linda outside the Exhibition.

The clock in this photo is from Abe Zimmerman’s office and is one of the items lent to the exhibition by Zimmy’s.