A city like a web too intricate to understand

That's how Dylan describes New York (recalling his entry into the Greenwich Village scene in the early 60s) in the first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles.

Dylan will, no doubt, be a major character when I get around to writing about the downtown scene in the 60s.

For now I have some thoughts on Todd Haynes's film I'm Not There over at The Great Whatsit. According to the account in the New York Times Magazine a couple weeks ago, Haynes gives the impression he had to leave New York in order to keep his career alive; you get some of that antagonism in the way he's chosen to represent Dylan's many lives.

Then again, the shot of Moondog from the opening credits makes you wonder -- where else could a career like this one have taken off?