I am hooked on Twitter and now I realize it could save my life one day – or at least help me get bailed out of an Egyptian prison.

Check out this story on CNN.

If you have no idea what Twitter is… go here, sign up and have at it. (and follow me! )

Disclaimer: What I am about to write is purely an attempt to vent some frustrations. I fully believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t really think the government or anyone else should tell me what I can listen to. This is merely a comical suggestion with a twinge of WTF.

A man sat next to me on the 8:14 NJT from Exileville, today and asked me what I was listening to. I am always open to making friends, so I pulled the earbuds out of my head and answered, proudly, “Bob Dylan.”

The heathen seated to my left made a face and some odd gutteral noise and said, “I have no time for him.”

I can accept a Dylan Neophyte, so I asked him what he listens to. I was shocked, awed and totally taken aback; “It begins and ends with The Beatles for me.”

WHAT??? How can anyone allege to be a Beatles fan and “have no time” for Bob Dylan?!?! That is like saying you are a Christian and “having no time” for the Old Testament. For anyone else out there who missed this day in the school of life – you cannot have the Beatles without Bob Dylan. For crying out loud, the Travelling Willburys is the closest thing in Rock to Jesus going up to the mountain and hanging out with Moses and Elijah, for the afternoon.

The man who would not be a friend of mine and I continued to go back and forth on the merits of Dylan. The only argument he could come up with and kept repeating was, “He just can’t sing.” Sure he can – it may not be a conventional – but he can make sing. He can make music and Bob Dylan is one of the most prolific songwriters of modern times.

So, my proposal – if you can’t even recognize the importance of Bob Dylan in American Music, then you don’t get to listen anymore.  Please remove your earbuds and send your ipods, cds and records to PO 9847 NY, NY 10022

Go listen to Nashville Skyline and have a wonderful day.

It seems that rock music is not the only style of music making it’s makers deaf.

In an article in today’s NY Times, European symphonies are being told to quiet down, lest they violate a EU law on noise levels. I love classical and symphonic music and quite enjoy the peaks and valleys contained within each piece. I never realized how dangerous it could be to the musicians.

The next time your grandfather tell you to “turn that loud rock and roll down, or you’ll go deaf,” you may have cause to tell him to do the same.