We're celebrating Bob Dylan's 71st birthday with a series of posts about the legendary songwriter this week. As mercurial as Dylan has always been, there is one thing we do know: for as long as Dylan has been writing songs, he has been writing to, for and about New York City. Yesterday we delved into our favorite Dylan covers, and today we're revisiting his Freewheelin' album cover. more ›

EV Grieve directs us to this notice posted on East 9th Street asking permission "to temporarily dress several storefronts and buildings," in preparation for the Coen brothers' new 60's period piece, "Inside Llewyn Davis," which features Justin Timberlake. No word on whether Ryan Gosling has been retained to diffuse the expected hysteria when shooting begins. more ›

Joel and Ethan Coen, beloved auteurs of such fine films as Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men, to name a few, are in a New York state of mind for their next film, which focuses on '60s-era Greenwich Village and its burgeoning folk music scene. more ›

While it's no surprise that old white guys like Bob Dylan, old white guys in power liking Bob Dylan is kinda ironic because you know, Dylan HATES The Man. The LA Times notes that "no musician's lyrics are more often cited than Dylan's in court opinions and briefs." This was especially true in the landmark ruling Record Buyers v. "Self Portrait" (392 US 515) in which Justice Thurgood Marshall—quoting the album in its entirety—declared that listening to Dylan's 1970 bomb was "akin to shoving glass shards into one's ear canal with a coathanger." more ›

If Lyrics Freak just isn't doing it for you, and you need the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are a-Changin’” handwritten by the man himself, well, you're in luck. According to ArtsBeat, Sotheby's is auctioning off the lyrics on December 10th as part of a larger sale of books and manuscripts. The auction house describes the item as: “a sheet of unruled three-hole notebook paper” containing four verses to the song in Dylan's own handwriting. It's expected to go for around $300,000. more ›

The man who once penned the song "Hurricane," now might inspire someone to write their own tune about his unjust imprisonment after a run-in with Jersey law enforcement. Folk/rock legend Bob Dylan was taken in by a NJ patrolwoman in Long Branch a few weeks ago when locals became suspicious when they spotted the 68-year-old wandering around in their neighborhood. more ›

Before you lay down some hard earned cash on that Bob Dylan poem, you should probably know a little bit more about it. Like, for instance, that those are actually the words of Canadian country singer Hank Snow. Reuters reports that earlier this week Christie's announced the sale of a Bob Dylan poem believed to have been written in 1957 when he was away at Jewish camp, but they "failed to detect that the words, with a few minor variations, matched those of a song previously recorded by Snow." A reader alerted Reuters of the fact, who then informed the auction house, who announced, "Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled 'Little Buddy.' The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song. This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan." The big question here is: did Dylan cop to copying the lyrics back in '57? It certainly wouldn't be the fist time he's lifted some lines. more ›

Awww, before Bob Dylan wrote the songs he became known for, he wrote a poem called "Little Buddy" about the tragic death of a dog. USA Today reports that when he was 16, Dylan (then Zimmerman) penned the poem for the newspaper at Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin—and now it's expected to take in around $15K at Christie's on June 23rd. "Written on both sides of a single page, the poem tells the poignant story of Little Buddy, who is killed at the hands of a drunkard, and the boy who mourns him." Christie's pop culture expert says, "It's a very early example of his brilliance. It comes from the mind of a teenager (with) some very interesting thoughts kind of percolating in his brain." Dylan will turn 68 on Sunday, and he told his old camp they were free to do what they wished with the poem. Read it in full, in his own handwriting, after the jump. more ›

Once word spread that Bob Dylan's former room at the Hotel Chelsea (#211) was being destroyed by the new corporate overlords running the joint, a brand spankin' new Stop Work Order was delivered by the Dept. of Buildings. The residents there report that they "responded promptly when informed of this wanton destruction, determining that the 'work' being done exceeded the scope of the permit (which was just for bathroom and kitchen renovation), and issuing a FULL STOP WORK ORDER covering the entire building." Allegedly they were "pulling down walls and ripping out a mantelpiece" prior to the halt. The times they aren't a changin' just yet...but perhaps a full restoration is in order to eliminate that electric light blue wall color. more ›

The bloggers over at the Hotel Chelsea have been keeping an eye on the new management of their ever-changing home, and most recently noted some falsified DOB construction permits obtained "in a move designed to sidestep requirement for certificate of non-harassment." more ›

Bob Dylan will be playing to a sold out crowd at Prospect Park tonight, and while some ticket gouging is going on at various online outlets, you can probably hear the mumbling of the folk legend outside the perimeter of the venue for free. Will Dylan be returning to one of his old stomping grounds? There seems to be some uncertainty about him living in Brooklyn Heights. While he alluded to spending time there (allegedly at "Capulet's, the late-lamented Brooklyn Heights cafe") and even mentioned living there in his song Tangled Up in Blue ("I lived with them on Montague Street/In a basement down the stairs/There was music in the cafes at night/And revolution in the air"), he could have very well just been crashing at a friend's pad. Although, he is listed as a notable resident on the ever-so-reliable Wikipedia. Former resident or not, this is his first concert in New York City in two years. more ›

Christie's is holding a pop culture auction this summer and their sale will include none other than Tony Soprano's most notable wardrobe items. The auction takes place on June 25th (almost a year after the series finale, and the tag sale) and WNBC reports that the proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Project, a Florida-based group assisting severely wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. more ›

Born on this day in 1932, and dying 71 years later in 2003, Johnny Cash made a lot of fans and friends during his lifetime. Today would have been his 76th birthday, so with that here are some videos of him performing in New York City. more ›

On Valentine’s Day eve over seventy heartbroken singles assembled at Brecht Forum to give the holiday a pre-emptive kiss off with a “Wake for Love." The star of the night was an actual coffin set up for the bereaved to toss unwanted mementos from their dead affairs; according to WNYC reporter Kathleen Horan, who planned the wake, some of the items sent to their graves included a wedding dress, The Bob Dylan Chronicles book and plenty of bitter Valentine cards made out to the exes. (Sample: "Have A Real Swell Valentine's in Hell!") Horan also reports “a great deal of flirting over at the cheese platter.” more ›