Monday, September 14, 2009

Our Second Anniversary

On this day way back in 2007, I launched this little blog. Two years and almost 1000 posts later, I'm still at it. As TGOG enters its third year, I want to say thank you to all of my readers, all who have visited and all who have left comments or sent me emails. In all honesty, I do this because it's fun, because I enjoy it and because a man has to do something to keep himself out of trouble. But the fact that there are people who follow and enjoy the blog is extraordinarily humbling. I truly appreciate all who stop by to visit and spend some of their valuable time reading what is really nothing more than my online research journal. Thank you all very much and I'll try to be a better blogger in the future. Now on to the celebratory video:


We start with, what else, Little River Band:




The Big Lebowski is easily in my top five favorite movies of all time and, like the Dude, I hate the Eagles. But I love the Gipsy Kings version of Hotel California.




Speaking of The Big Lebowski, this is a nice, short mix from the movie and it is probable not safe for work.




Here's some Dylan for you. I quote this song at work all the time: People are crazy and times are strange...I used to care but things have changed.




More Dylan: All Along The Watchtower. While everybody (including Dylan himself) believes that Jimi's version is definitive, I respectfully disagree. Dylan's version is a sparse, devastating, haunting, apocalyptic vision of the end of all things and it can't be touched. Not even by Jimi.




My love of and obsession with All Along The Watchtower knows no bounds and it's one of the few songs that I know by heart. I think the best non-Dylon version of the song was done by Bear McCreary. It comes closest to capturing the haunting despair that Dylan intended. Interestingly, McCreary was the composer for all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica, which is one of my favorite shows of all time, and his version of All Along The Watchtower was used as a major plot device at the end of season three and into season four. Within the context of the show, McCreary's version of the song is extraordinarily powerful.




If you take one thing away from this post, it should be that I'm very thankful for your support of this blog and Bear McCreary is an incredibly talented composer. Do yourself a favor and check out his work. I recommend the soundtracks to all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica. McCreary is fantastic.

4 comments:

David Ball said...

Congratulations on your anniversary, Jeff. You've accomplished a lot in a short time. And I'm absolutely with you 100% on Dylan's spine-chilling original version of "All Along the Watchtower."

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Thanks, David. Appreciate it. And I think you're the only person I know who agrees with me about Dylan's Watchtower. There doesn't seem to be that many Dylan fans around anymore.

Anonymous said...

Congrats making it this far . . . Love the site!! I also am a Dylan fan!! Keep on going . . .

I am "anon..." but my name is Mike D.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Thank you, Mike. I certainly have no plans on stopping as long as I can keep finding new stuff to publish or new ways to write about what's we already know.