Mad About March
House of Sand and Fog, Hearty Hamburgers, Bob Dylan, Steph Curry, Stay Safe
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes my favorite Dylan songs and covers, two Santa Barbara burger spots, the greatest songwriter of all time, the greatest shooter of all time, and kidnapping prevention. I hope you like the picks and pics.
On Saturday I took Julian to the downtown Santa Barbara Library and he checked out a book about locomotives. We then walked up and down lower State Street and stopped at Mister Softee for an ice cream treat. Trains and ice cream: two things Julian loves.
Our family is mad about March—the best month of the year. Tracy and Kathy (both Spartans) and their niece Sommer (a Wolverine fan) were all born on March 10, and I was born on March 26. But even better, it’s the start of March Madness.
In the previous issue I added a story just before deadline about a buzzer beater for Michigan State over Maryland. A few days later Michigan beat Rutgers on another last-second 3-pointer, this one a tad shorter:
Nimari Burnett’s Game-winning Buzzer Beater for Michigan over Rutgers
Last year was very, very good to me. I was recently honored with Kent State University’s Information School Friend of the Year Award for 2024:
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Fave Five 126: Mad About March
Heartbreak House (House of Sand and Fog), Hearty Hamburgers (Eureka! and Third Window), Hibbing Hero (Bob Dylan), Chef Curry (Steph Curry), and Stay Safe.
Fave Five List: Favorite Bob Dylan Songs and Covers
Originals
Out of many possibilities, here are my five favorite Bob Dylan originals:
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Tangled Up in Blue
Dignity
Mississippi
Folk Covers
Here are my five favorite covers of Bob Dylan songs by folksingers:
Boots of Spanish Leather - Nanci Griffith
Blowin’ in the Wind - Peter, Paul and Mary
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Shawn Colvin
Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word - Joan Baez
Ring Them Bells - Sarah Jarosz
Rock Covers
Here are my ten favorite covers of Bob Dylan songs by rock performers:
All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
My Back Pages - The Byrds
You Ain’t Goin Nowhere - The Byrds
It Ain’t Me Babe - The Turtles
Mississippi - Sheryl Crow
When I Paint My Masterpiece - The Band
Blind Willie McTell - The Band
The Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann
When the Ship Comes In - The Hollies
Book Best Bet
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
I read and enjoyed this heartbreaking novel many years ago. I also saw the movie version.
From Amazon: The National Book Award finalist, Oprah’s Book Club pick, #1 New York Times bestseller, and basis for the Oscar-nominated motion picture.
A recent immigrant from the Middle East―a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force―yearns to restore his family’s dignity in California. A recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold onto the one thing she has left―her home. And her lover, a married cop, is driven to extremes to win her love.
Andre Dubus III’s unforgettable characters―people with ordinary flaws, looking for a small piece of ground to stand on―careen toward inevitable conflict. Their tragedy paints a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today.
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.
On a road crew in California, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force sees a way to restore his family's dignity in an attractive bungalow available on county auction. But the house's owner, a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck, will fight for the one thing she has left. And her lover, a married cop, will be driven to extremes to win her love. In this masterpiece of American realism and Shakespearean consequence, Andre Dubus III's unforgettable characters careen toward inevitable conflict, their tragedy painting a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today.
Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III’s nine books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times "Editors’ Choice". His work has been included in The Best American Essays and The Best Spiritual Writing anthologies, and his novel, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the National Book Award, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. His 2013 novella collection, Dirty Love, was listed as a “Notable Book” by The Washington Post and The New York Times, and was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice” and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”. His 2018 novel, Gone So Long, was named on many “Best Books” lists, including selection for The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018” and “The Best Books of 2018, Top 100”, Amazon. His most recent novel, Such Kindness, was one of Amazon’s “The Best Books of 2023, Top 100”. His acclaimed collection of personal essays, Ghost Dog: On Killers and Kin, was published in March 2024. He is also the editor of Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories, (Godine, 2023.)
Mr. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, three Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books are published in over twenty-five languages, and he teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Restaurant Recommendations
Hearty Hamburgers
We recently indulged our craving for burgers at these two popular Santa Barbara spots. Our grandsons enjoyed the fries and ketchup at both places.
Eureka! 601 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Eureka! American: American Swiss, grilled red onion, lettuce, house pickles, tomato, special sauce, Signature Fries
Third Window Brewing Company 406 E Haley Suite #3, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
The Original Smashed Cheeseburger with special sauce and a side of house-made pickles. We have been raising Wagyu beef on the ranch where our family has lived for four generations. All of our double Wagyu beef cheeseburgers are smashed with thinly-sliced onions Oklahoma-style. They’re worth the wait!
Large Fries with your choice of two house-made dipping sauces (ranch, chipotle aioli, lemon pepper aioli, special sauce, ketchup, classic buffalo sauce, house-made BBQ sauce, Alabama white sauce)
Marvelous Musician
I am looking forward to streaming the movie A Complete Unknown. As a huge Dylan fan, I know I will relish seeing it. I previously listed Bob as my favorite male pop/rock singer/songwriter.
My sister Joan bought his 1967 album John Wesley Harding which introduced me to "All Along the Watchtower." I heard covers of his songs by The Byrds ("Mr. Tambourine Man"), Peter, Paul and Mary ("Blowin' in the Wind"), Joan Baez ("Love is Just a Four-Letter Word"), The Turtles (It Ain't Me Babe), and Manfred Mann ("The Mighty Quinn"), and his hit "Like a Rolling Stone" on the radio. When my brother David and I bought all of The Byrds' albums, we heard a lot of their covers of Bob's songs. And I bought the The Hollies album Words and Music by Bob Dylan which further opened my ears. It took me awhile to like Bob's singing voice, but it eventually grew on me.
I bought a cassette of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and then the 3-CD Biograph box set, and I was hooked. I read No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton and subsequently bought many other books about him. I enjoyed Bob's Chronicles: Volume One. I have seen Bob perform twice: November 18, 1990 at Fox Theatre, and October 12, 2007 with Amos Lee and Elvis Costello at Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center. I was moved to tears by Patti Smith's performance of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in 2016. His Nobel prize is well-deserved.
I received this childhood photo of Bob taken by a neighbor in Minnesota:
This is the caption on the other side of the photo:
From Wikipedia: Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Range west of Lake Superior) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Rolling Stone has ranked Dylan at number one in its 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, and listed "Like A Rolling Stone" as the "Greatest Song of all Time" in their 2011 list.
Dylan has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including an Academy Award, ten Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, National Medal of Arts in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Dylan has been described as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. He was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation." In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."
For 20 years, academics lobbied the Swedish Academy to give Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature. He received the award in 2016. Horace Engdahl, a member of the Nobel Committee, described Dylan's place in literary history: "a singer worthy of a place beside the Greek bards, beside Ovid, beside the Romantic visionaries, beside the kings and queens of the blues, beside the forgotten masters of brilliant standards."
The Nobel Prize committee announced on October 13, 2016, that it would be awarding Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." The New York Times reported: "Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901." Dylan remained silent for two weeks after receiving the award, and then told journalist Edna Gundersen that getting the award was "amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?"
Mr. Tambourine Man (Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1964)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Like A Rolling Stone (Live at Newport 1965)
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (with Tom Petty)
Forever Young
Patti Smith performs Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 2016
My Playlist
Bob Dylan Covers
Sports Star
Steph Curry lights up Orlando with season-high 56 points, including 12 3-pointers
The Warriors' star hit a 51-foot buzzer-beater and outscored the Magic by himself in the 3rd quarter in a 121-115 win.
26th career game with at 10+ 3-pointers. Nobody else has more than 9.
14th career game with at 11+ 3-pointers. It’s only been done 39 times in NBA history.
9th career 50-point game since turning 30, the most in NBA history (next closest: Wilt Chamberlain with 7).
Curry’s career scoring high is 62 points, set on Jan. 3, 2021 vs. Trail Blazers.
Curry’s career high for 3-pointers in a game is 13, set on Nov. 4, 2016 vs. Lakers.
I love watching Steph play. I first saw him at the Midwest Regionals in Detroit in 2008 when he nearly led Davidson to the Final Four. He is number 2 on Remarkable Roundballers: My five favorite basketball players.
When Draymond Green (Michigan State) joined the Golden State Warriors in 2012 (Steph’s fourth NBA season), I became a fan of the team. I rooted for them ever since, during the Detroit Pistons’ woeful years. After Jimmy Butler was traded to Golden State at the trade deadline, Draymond guaranteed a fifth NBA championship. Detroit is much improved this season, so is it too much to ask for a Warriors-Pistons final this year? Well, I can dream.
Lakers Legend Makes Bold Steph Curry Statement After Warriors-Knicks
The Golden State Warriors took down the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night behind another stellar performance from superstar point guard Steph Curry.
Curry went off for 28 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, and two steals in New York, shooting 10-21 from the field and 5-9 from beyond the arc in a 114-102 win. The Warriors have won nine of their last 11 games to improve to 34-28 on the year, and Curry is getting some major love.
After his great performance in MSG on Tuesday, Los Angeles Lakers legend and Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal made a bold statement about the Warriors superstar.
"I demand you fans to start putting Steph Curry in that greatest of all-time conversation," O'Neal said. "I played against [Michael Jordan], played with Kobe, played against and with LeBron. They're all great, but at some point, we're going to have to put Steph Curry in that category. I'm not saying he is, but let's just have the conversation... I ain't never seen anything like that before."
From Wikipedia: Wardell Stephen Curry II (born March 14, 1988 in Akron, Ohio), nicknamed "Chef Curry", is an American professional basketball player and point guard for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely considered the greatest shooter of all time, Curry is credited with revolutionizing the sport by inspiring teams and players at all levels to more prominently utilize the three-point shot. He is a four-time NBA champion, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), an NBA Finals MVP, and a two-time NBA All-Star Game MVP. He is also a two-time NBA scoring champion, an eleven-time NBA All-Star, and a ten-time All-NBA Team selection (including four on the First Team). Internationally, he has won two gold medals at the FIBA World Cup and a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics as part of the U.S. national team.
Curry played collegiately for the Davidson Wildcats, where he was named Conference Player of the Year twice, and set the NCAA single-season record for three-pointers made (162) during his sophomore year. Curry was selected by the Warriors as the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft.
In 2014–15, Curry won his first league MVP award and led the Warriors to their first championship since 1975. The following season, he became the first player to be elected MVP by a unanimous vote and lead the league in scoring while shooting above 50–40–90. That same year, the Warriors broke the record for the most wins in a regular season in NBA history (73) en route to the 2016 NBA Finals, which they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7. Curry helped the Warriors win back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018, and reach the 2019 NBA Finals, losing to the Toronto Raptors in six games. Following injury struggles and missed playoff appearances in 2020 and 2021, Curry won his fourth championship with the Warriors and first Finals MVP award, defeating the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals. The same season, he became the all-time leader in three-pointers made in NBA history, surpassing Ray Allen.
Curry has the highest career free-throw percentage in NBA history (91.0%) and has led the league in three-pointers made a record eight times. In 2013, he set the NBA record for three-pointers made in a regular season with 272, surpassed that record in 2015 (286), and again in 2016 (402).
Steph Curry Ignites For 56 Points in Orlando on February 27, 2025
Picture Pun
Reassuring words for those on a food crawl.
Definitely agree with your top three rock Dylan covers