November 12, 2013

"I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country - where you could breathe it and smell it every day."

"And I've always worked with it in one form or another. Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow. They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow. They can shut you out or shut you in. And in some ways there is no difference."

Said Bob Dylan, who's been welding iron gates.

I read that quote out loud to Meade, and he sang in his best "Another Side" Dylan voice:
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”

10 comments:

Wince said...

"I love it so much that I even lost my genitalia in an unfortunate 'schmelting' accident."

Chef Mojo said...

Well, Bob is Cold Irons Bound, dontcha know?

LuAnn Zieman said...

So does this mean Dylan would be unopposed to mining in northern Wisconsin? Ooh--that would lose him some fans.
I student taught in Coleraine, MN, on the Iron Range. The snow was pink, which was slightly disturbing. The only thing of importance to most of the students, however, was hockey. Coleraine was the state hockey champion--every year for years--until the City schools decided to have tiers based on population. It was devastating for Minneapolis and St. Paul schools to lose to "little" Coleraine.

Vittorio Jano IV said...

The Metal Museum was a highlight of our Memphis visit some years ago.
http://www.metalmuseum.org/

rhhardin said...

You think it is the bird which is free. Wrong: it is the flower.

Jabes, Book of Questions

Rusty said...

Vittorio Jano IV said...
The Metal Museum was a highlight of our Memphis visit some years ago.
http://www.metalmuseum.org/

You might be interested in "The Craftsmanship Museum" in Carlsbad California.

FullMoon said...

Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused
The changes I was going through can’t even be used
For the lies that I told her in hopes not to lose
The could-be dream-lover of my lifetime


grgeil said...

Regarding whether a fence shuts you out or shuts you in, David Halley wrote these Dylanesque lyrics in his song Horse Called Further:
"Well I used to mend the fences,
That the weather and drifters tore,
But I guess I lost my senses,
Couldn't tell the inside from the outside of a fence no more."

Carl Pham said...

Iron is a most remarkable element. Iron atoms are the most stable atom there is: lighter atoms can be fused to make iron, releasing energy, and heavier atoms can be fissoned to make iron, also releasing iron. But iron can't be fused or split. It just sits there.

This is what causes some stars to blow up. They fuse heavier and heavier elements to keep themselves up, but when they get to iron it just sits there, won't burn. When the iron core exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit, it abruptly collapses into a neutron star and all hell breaks loose.

If the universe were more dense, all the matter in it would eventually end up as iron, its state of lowest energy. Unfortunately, our universe is dominated by entropy instead, so it will all end up as infinitely thin gruel, a sea of electrons spaced asymptotically far apart.

Smilin' Jack said...

If he welds as well as he sings I hope he's not welding prison gates.