July 2021 - Independent Authors Forum

Elliott Landy author of Woodstock Vision: The Spirit of a Generation and The Band Photographs penned a fascinating article about the making of Bob Dylan Prints and his history of interaction with the famous singer:

Here is part of that article:

Elliott Landy talks about photographing Bob Dylan in an excerpt from his book, Woodstock Vision. A selection of Bob Dylan Prints are available in the e-shop.

Bob Dylan Prints

The first time I photographed Dylan was at the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1967. It was his first public appearance since his motorcycle accident a year earlier. He was playing with The Band, who were unknown at that time.

I was just starting my photographic career and wanted to see the show as well as take some pictures that I could sell. So I called up Dylan’s office, identified myself as a photographer for an underground newspaper, and asked for two press tickets. I brought my cameras to the concert, assuming that since they’d given me tickets as a photographer, I could take photographs. But when I got to Carnegie Hall, there were signs posted stating “No Photographs Allowed,” and the ushers insisted that I check my cameras. I argued, showing my press pass and the tickets from Dylan’s office, but to no avail. So I said, “OK, no pictures allowed,” and checked half my cameras, but kept the other half—everything that would fit into my pockets and my date’s bag.

Bob Dylan Prints – With The Band, Woodie Guthrie Memorial Concert, Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1968. Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson.

I had a good seat near the front of the hall. Dylan came on stage, and I started snapping away, clicking my shutter only during the loud passages in order to be as discreet as possible.

After a couple of songs Arlene Cunningham, who worked for Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, spotted me taking photographs. Soon she and Albert, whom I did not know at the time, and a guard were all waving to me from the side of the hall telling me to stop taking photographs. I pretended not to see their increasingly frantic waving.

Then Albert gestured to the guard to get me out of the seat. Meanwhile Dylan was playing with The Band, and it was very exciting. The guard came toward me. I knew what was going to happen next. They always go for your film.

Read the full article about Bob Dylan Prints here.

An interesting post by Cathy Schottenstein author of the upcoming book, Twisted: Conflict, Madness, and the Redemptive Power of a Grandaughter’s Love. Read more about Cathy and Beverley’s fascinating story at cathyschottenstein.com

How the Legal System Allowed a Criminal Family to Seize Control of One Woman’s Life

The New Yorker recently published a comprehensive article entitled “Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare” chronicling how the pop star’s father and a team of lawyers seized control of her life, her career, and her finances—and held onto that control for well over a decade. Spears, thirty-nine, has spent the past thirteen years living under a conservatorship, “a legal structure,” The New Yorker defines “in which a person’s personal, economic, and legal decision-making power is ceded to others.” Commonly called a guardianship, the arrangement is intended for people who cannot take care of themselves.

The conservatorship was instituted by Spears’s family—in part out of real concerns for her mental health, people close to the family told The New Yorker. But the family was divided by money and fame, and Spears was ultimately stripped of her rights to such an extent that she recently called 911 to report herself as a victim of conservatorship abuse and alleged in public court that one of her most basic rights—her reproductive freedom—had been taken away. (You can find a link to The New Yorker article at the bottom of this blog.)*

Conservatorships can protect people who are elderly, or who live with severe disabilities or debilitating mental illness. But The New Yorker points out that there is also a wide range of alternatives to conservatorship that are less strict than what Spears has experienced, such as conditional powers of attorney or formal shared control of finances. Read more

Archive for month: July, 2021