Bob Dylan Goes Gay, Straight, Ambiguous Together Through Life

Some around the blogosphere are saying that the 1959 Bruce Davidson photo from his Brooklyn Gang series which appears on the cover of the new Bob Dylan album is a shot of two men kissing. While it's certainly an intriguing and exciting possibility, others familiar with the entire series of photos say it's a girl who appears in other photos from the same session. Still, a beautiful, carefree, ambiguous photo.

Fred McDarrah, NYC Photographer who Covered Stonewall, Dies

Village Voice photographer Fred McDarrah, who chronicled life in New York for nearly fifty years, died in his sleep in Greenwich Village yesterday. He was 81.

Lots of examples of McDarrah's work can be seen here. He was really one of the greats.

The photo above, right, was taken two nights after the Stonewall Riots on June 29, 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn. The chalk message scrawled on the brick wall reads: "To fight for our country, they invaded our rights."

The Voice writes: "Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. He photographed the still-smoldering ruins of the Weather Underground bomb factory on W. 12th Street. His unerring eye for gesture and detail caught lawyer Roy Cohn whispering what appeared to be tough orders in the ear of a young Donald Trump. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked 'McPhoto.'"

A few more of McDarrah's shots, after the jump...

Fred W. McDarrah, 1926-2007 [village voice]
Former Village Voice photographer dies, chronicled tumultuous era [newsday]

News: Al Gore, Arctic, Todd Haynes, Wide Stance, J Lo

Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch says he believes in civil unions: "I think people should have the same rights as far as probate is concerned, as far as health care is considered, as far as visitation and all those things."

The New York Times looks at Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan film I'm Not There: "Todd Haynes’s Dylan film isn’t about Dylan. That’s what’s going to be so difficult for people to understand. That’s what’s going to make “I’m Not There” so trying for the really diehard Dylanists. That’s what might upset the non-Dylanists, who may find it hard to figure out why he bothered to make it at all. And that’s why it took Haynes so long to get it made. Haynes was trying to make a Dylan film that is, instead, what Dylan is all about, as he sees it, which is changing, transforming, killing off one Dylan and moving to the next, shedding his artistic skin to stay alive. The twist is that to not be about Dylan can also be said to be true to the subject Dylan."

Al Gore frontrunner for Nobel Peace Prize "in a controversial move that could place saving the planet above saving people from war and conflict."

An animated study of the melting of the Arctic ice pack.

Ugly Betty's subversive flamboyance.

Alabama minister dies during autoerotic undertaking. Gary Aldridge "was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask." There was also another detail that the Montogomery Advertiser failed to mention in their story on the late pastor.

J Lo is assembling a lovely collection of body tents but still hasn't announced that she's pregnant.

I Love New York 2 contestant "Unsure" is sure of one thing: he enjoys showing his naughty bits off to the gays.

"Wide stance" enters the lexicon.

The Daily Show's Samantha Bee: "It's been months since the Minneapolis High Court found Larry Craig gay. Now that his petition of 'not gay' has been thrown out, it's official: Larry Craig is gay in the eyes of the law."

Gawker heads inside NYC's "Slingback" party.

Lesbian who was thrown out of New York restaurant women's room by bouncer because she looked like a man, files civil rights lawsuit: "He began pounding on the stall door saying someone had complained that there was a man inside the women’s bathroom, that I had to leave the bathroom and the restaurant. Inside the stall door, I could see him. That horrified me, and it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I said to him, 'I’m a female, and I’m supposed to be in here.' After I came out of the bathroom stall, I attempted to show him my ID to show him that I was in the right place, and he just refused to look at my identification. His exact words were, 'Your ID is neither here nor there.'"

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #176

PATTI LABELLE: Goes off on fan at concert.

THE FONZ: Yesterday, was the 30th anniversary of the moment when Happy Days officially "jumped the shark."

TOM VILSACK: Former Iowa governor rips Giuliani's marriage record.

I'M NOT THERE: A report from Venice on the Todd Haynes Bob Dylan film we posted about here.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here!

Todd Haynes' Dylan Biopic I'm Not There Stirs Up Buzz

Over the last day or so the internet has been abuzz about Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Bob Dylan in gay filmmaker Todd Haynes' (Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Poison) upcoming experimental biopic I'm Not There.

As a Haynes fan I'm really looking forward to this film, not only for Blanchett, who features prominently in a scene leaked yesterday in which Dylan converses with beat poet Allen Ginsburg (played by David Cross), but for the unusual approach Haynes has taken, enlisting five additional actors who also play Dylan at various stages of his life.

Haynes is at ease with experimentation (his breakthrough film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, was a biopic of the singer's life made entirely with Barbie Dolls) and has proven he can do Oscar-caliber drama, so hopefully I'm Not There will be a treat.

Each actor's portrayal, at different stages of Dylan's growth, is shot in a different style meant to showcase various moments on the folk singer-turned-rock star's journey.

Harvey Weinstein told the New York Times on Tuesday that the film is being given a "rolling release": "With a movie like this you have to build it. I don’t think you can go out on 500 screens. The reason for Film Forum is you go where the best word of mouth is on the movie. I like the movie; I think it’s adventurous. The audience is going to have to work — work in a good way."

He also singles out one actor: "I may be jumping the gun, but if Cate Blanchett doesn’t get nominated, I’ll shoot myself."

And here's the leaked scene with Allen Ginsburg:

The film is the first biopic on the legendary folk icon to get the approval of Dylan himself.

Here's Ledger as the singer (his wife Michelle Williams also has a role):

Shots of the other four actors — Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, and Ben Whishaw, after the jump...