AARP Rocks

I am 61 now and a card carrying member of AARP.


How ridiculous is that? How did it happen?


Oh well, nothing to do now but deal with it.


As a card carrying member of AARP we (Carol and I) receive the AARP magazine.


Who is on the cover of the most recent issue?


Bob Dylan.


Hot damn, it is Bob Dylan.


I love it. The man is unafraid. He is 73 and not trying to be anything else.


The magazine features his first interview in almost three years.


The cool thing is that Dylan approached AARP about doing the interview.


Robert Love, who did the interview, thought it was a mistake at first. He spent 20 years writing for Rolling Stone, and when Dylan's people contacted him, Love made it clear that he doesn't write for them anymore.


He was told there was no mistake here - Dylan wanted to talk to the readers of AARP The Magazine.


Supposedly it will be the one and only interview Dylan will give in relation to the album he just released - "Shadows In The Night". On the album Dylan covers 10 songs from the 1920s to the 1960s, all considered to be a part of the Great American Songbook. Frank Sinatra recorded every one of these songs.


For any other entertainer this would be a surprising move. For Dylan it is just business as usual.


He has re-invented himself many times over in his life and he brings his own unique perspective to everything he does.


Part of what makes this interesting and unique is that Dylan has taken songs originally arranged for 30 piece orchestras and recorded them with a five piece band.


Anyway.................. cool interview.


Love asks Dylan if he thinks making this album was risky? Dylan: "Risky? Like walking across a filed laced with land mines? Or working in a poison gas factory? There's nothing risky about making records."


Dylan quote: "Look, you get older. Passion is a young man's game. Young people can be passionate. Older people gotta be more wise."


I am not sure I agree with that. I am trying to remain passionate or re-ignite my passion or use passion to solve the riddle of my strange and twisted life.


Still, it is a cool quote.


There is a lot more to talk about here. I will do it later. Gotta get movin' right now.


This Dylan/AARP thing has me thinking, though. Getting older might not be so bad, given the right perspective.


And given the opportunity and great surprise of hearing from people I respect in unexpected settings.


Ciao, baby.