A couple of days ago, my wife went shopping. This is not unusual; she likes to shop. This particular day, she went to a store called Ollies. It is one of those big discount stores that buys all kinds of random stuff in bulk and then sells it cheaply.
She texted me a couple of photos. They had some comics for sale. I wasn’t interested in most of them, but some Batman comics looked interesting. As well as a few others.
I was cooking lunch at the time, a hamburger. Knowing she was currently at the store I knew I had to make a decision quickly. I did a little searching, looking for reviews of the books, and told her I wanted a couple of them. Then she texted me more photos. And then more. I burnt my burger.
I searched for some more. Sometimes I just looked at my own list to make sure I didn’t currently own the books she was sending. I narrowed it down to a few Batman comics and was all set.
Then she sent me a picture of Bob Dylan. He was young in the pictures, all fresh-faced and curly-haired. But there was no title to it. You can see the book I’m talking about above, but the one she sent me didn’t have the insert photo with the book’s title.
I’m trying to make it a mystery but the title is already spoiled. It is Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine, a book about the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa. It comes with all sorts of essays about Dylan and some wonderful photos and descriptions of many of the thousands of items currently residing at the Center.
I’ve been to the Bob Dylan Center and it is awesome. It is also crammed full of stuff. More than I could really take in during my visit. The book will allow me to really dig into so much of what is there, and will no doubt make me visit it again soon.
I’ve seen the book advertised many times and always wanted to buy it, but it retails for $75 which is a bit out of my price range. My wife got it for $20.
I can’t wait to dig in.
themidnightcafe.org 
Some burnt burgers for some new flicks…I’d say that’s a good trade.
Hope you & family are well.
I still ate the burger 🙂
Nice! I can’t believe I don’t have that Dylan book yet. I need to get it ! Also, I need to make it to the Dylan Center in OK for sure, someday.
I have not yet dug into the book yet but it looks awesome. And you would absolutely love the Dylan Center. It is so cool seeing all that stuff first hand.
And if you do come you have to let me know so we can grab some drinks and swap stories.
For sure! 🙂
I’ll be checkin’ out my local Ollie’s!! There used to be a overstock/freight claim store called Railroad Salvage similar to Ollie’s/OSJL that had a cut-out LP section (which I suspect was simply an area that a jobber rented from RS) that always had an amazing selection of records. I discovered, among many others Bruce Cockburn & Horslips as well as bands already known to me like Pure Prarie League, Little Feat, Johnathan Edwards, and Grateful Dead. The GD album (Steal Your Face) was particularly fascinating as the original jacket was gone so the jobber tore a center hole in some random cardboard jacket so you could see the label inside, and the random jacket happened to have a checkerboard that perfectly matched the GD label with The Fool musing his fate on his own checkerboard!! He also had a LP plastic sealer machine – to this day that one is still sealed so I have no idea the condition of the record inside!
I’ve been to Ollies a couple of times and it is always fun to dig through their stuff. I love places like that where you never know what you’ll find.
Love the record store stories, those are some cool finds.
That’s a given! 🍔🔥
I purchased my copy the Dylan book at Ollies also. My wife printed out Ollie’s 15 percent off coupon before we went there. I seem to have been locked out of Dylan Dave’s Riot page. Can you message Dylan Dave on Riot and have him contact me through my email? I don’t know how to regain access. mrthrak@gmail.com