What’s old is new again in Things I’m Digging, featuring vintage tunes, vintage clothes, vintage portraiture, and of course a couple of rereads. Some things never stay old. What are some things from the past that you love, some old things you’ve discovered, and things you keep going back to again and again?
This Elvin Bishop Performance from 1975
I have a friend who is a musician, luthier, and a bit of a musical historian who reliably shares videos of fantastic vintage performances. Sometimes they are of some of my favorite bands, sometimes they’re people I’ve never really thought about, sometimes I’ve never heard of them at all. This week he shared this video, “Featuring the jam and jelly guy from the farmer’s market and not-Dickey Betts,” also known as Elvin Bishop performing “Travelin’ Shoes” in 1975.
Lady Ottoline Morrell and Cecil Beaton in Ashcombe, 1933
In this portrait from London’s National Portrait Gallery, the fabulous Lady Ottoline Morrell, a bohemian English aristocrat, society hostess, and fixture of the art and literary world, is pictured with Cecil Beaton, who is best known for his fashion and society photography, including work for Vogue and portraits of the English royal family. I can only dream of someday looking this glamorous and put-together in my summer wardrobe.
A Jimi Hendrix-Inspired Vintage Collection
I was pretty disappointed that this collection from UK-based vintage and vintage-inspired clothing retailer The Hippie Shake was almost completely sold out by the time I found it, but it’s still worth visiting their site to see these gorgeous embroidered pieces, as well as their own vintage-inspired line.
Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle Reread
YA writer Maggie Stiefvater is rereading her own four-book series The Raven Cycle and live tweeting her thoughts, reactions, and musings. It’s a fun exercise to observe if you’re a fan, and if you haven’t read the series yet, let this be your motivation to enter a strange world of psychics, ancient Welsh kings, and all-boys prep schools in rural Virginia before the first book in the upcoming spinoff series (Call Down the Hawk) is released on November 5.
Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan
I first read Chronicles, Volume One right after I graduated from college. I didn’t know where I was going, what I was doing, or even where to aim. In the midst of this, I found Bob Dylan’s memoir. It remains one of the most beautiful, inspiring things I’ve ever read. I’ve always admired people who knew exactly what they wanted and seized it, and Bob Dylan getting on a bus and heading to New York City with a suitcase and a guitar and a dream embodies this drive. Some criticized this as being a work of fiction as much as memoir, but since Dylan has stayed engaged in a lifelong project of self-mythologizing, it is only to be expected. As he said in Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story, “Life isn’t about finding yourself – or about finding anything. Life is about creating yourself.”
