Today I read an interesting article by a guy named Sam Sussman, who might be Bob Dylan’s son.
Sussman’s article starts out by describing how Sussman’s mom and Bob Dylan got together, back in 1974.
Dylan asked the mom, then 20 years old, to host a party in her tiny New York apartment.
He then showed up in red cowboy boots, along with a bunch of other people.
The other people left around 2am.
Dylan stayed. And with a flick of his red cowboy boots, he closed the front door behind the last guest, and then turned to face Sussman’s mom. And so their relationship started.
I thought Sussman’s article was worth reading for that boot-flicking seduction move alone.
Of course, Sussman has more serious soul-searching to do, including this bit:
But perhaps more than seeking a literal father, I looked to Dylan for evidence that I could make it as a writer. Besides my mother and my tenth-grade literature teacher, nobody had ever given me a reason to believe I could.
I guess Sussman turned out ok as a writer, in spite of a lack of early encouragement. His article appeared in Harper’s, and I think he’s got a novel out.
Still, that quote above made me think of a bit of advice Jerry Seinfeld gave in the 1980s to would-be comedians who had signed up for a stand-up comedy class. Jerry’s advice might sound harsh. In any case, it’s all I want to say for today, so I’ll leave you with his words, and you decide:
The fact that you have even signed up for this class is a very bad sign for what you’re trying to do.
The fact that you think anyone can help you or there’s anything that you need to learn…you have gone off on a bad track.
Because nobody knows anything about any of this.
And if you want to do it, what I really should do is I should have a giant flag behind me that I would pull a string and it would roll down, and on it the flag would just say two words:
Just work.
“That’s fine for today,” you might say, “but what about tomorrow?”
Tomorrow I’ll have something new for you. And if you’d like to read it, you can sign up for my email newsletter here.