I have only one flower to put up as Flower Art; the day isn’t short enough for what I need to do.  See you tomorrow.

I went to the movies to see Timothee Chalamet’s A Complete Unknown. It is a beautifully and thoughtfully told story of Bob Dylan’s explosive beginning in New York City and ending with his betrayal of Pete Seeger’s Folk Music movement at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Dylan has never been one to share the details of his youth and evolution as one of the greatest music song writers in history.

I am emotionally connected to this movie, which was touching, sad, and wonderfully portrayed. It is on the list of one of the best movies I’ve seen. I recommend it highly and thoroughly. Chalamet’s portrayal of a young, gifted, and awkward Dylan was perfect, as was the movie itself.

It struck home; I was living in Manhattan when Dylan arrived a block from Cafe Wha, where he and his lover Joan Baez met.

I saw him play there and felt the thrill of his songs and the hope they gave so many.  The movie marks the end of the struggling folk music movement – by then, stuffy and stuck –  and Dylan’s shift away from his brilliant anthem songs, which lit up a generation.

He didn’t want to repeat the same thing for the rest of his life, and he didn’t; good for him. Folk music had become constipated and self-righteous.

The movie begins when Dylan travels to New York from Minnesota to visit the Revered Folk Singer, Woody Guthrie, who is sick and dying in a New Jersey government home when Dylan arrives and walks into the hospital room. In the opening scene, Dylan enters the hospital and meets Seeger (Edward Norton), who is visiting his friend. Norton was wonderful.

Guthrie sang to the poor and forgotten of impoverished America, but Dylan didn’t care to take up that cause.

He made the music he wanted and gave his new outraged critics the finger. How sad that there is no Guthrie, and Dylan has abandoned his wondrous early works. Poor people in America could use a spiritual and musical leader, so could the rest of us.

Since Newport, Dylan has made more than 55 albums, many of them very good but none as powerful as Blowing In The Wind, Visions of Johanna, Like a Rolling Stone, etc.

Dylan’s tribute to the dying Guthrie – a legend I worshipped – left me in tears.

Mangold was wise to tell the story through music, not windy recollections from aging agents.

I’m too close to the time to write my usual detached and detailed review, but I bet Director James Mangold and Calamet get at least one Oscar Each.

Edward Norton was wonderful as the gentle Pete Seeger.

The movie broke my heart thinking of the lost idealism that one played so keen a role in music. So far, there is nothing to replace it.

I highly recommend it.  It was terrific up and down.