17 ways to celebrate Bob Dylan's 70th birthday in Minnesota
Categories: Bob Dylan
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1. Take a drive up Minnesota's Highway 61 while listening to Highway 61 Revisited.
2. Get off in Hibbing and go to Zimmy's, a restaurant in Dylan's hometown plastered with memorabilia from his lengthy career.
3. While you're in Hibbing, drive by Dylan's old house all creepy-like. It's at 2425 7th Avenue East (a street now named "Dylan Drive").
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4. Swing into the Hibbing Public Library and find the 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook, where you can find Zimmerman's high school photo and his ambition for the future: "To follow Little Richard."
5. Listen to the audio documentary "Boy From the North Country: Bob Dylan in Minnesota," produced by Jim Bickal and Minnesota Public Radio. The documentary is also airing at noon today on 91.1 FM.
6. Head to Dinkytown in Minneapolis and grab a drink at the Loring Pasta Bar, reveling in the fact that you're standing in the building where Dylan lived in 1959-1960. The Pasta Bar was once a drug store, and Dylan rented an upstairs room overlooking the alley for $30 a month.
7. On the corner of 14th Ave SE and SE 5th St. in Dinkytown, stand and gaze sadly at the Hollywood Video store, which sits on the site of the historic 10:00 Scholar coffeehouse where Dylan played and met local West Bank folk icon "Spider" John Koerner. It is also the venue where Koerner, Ray & Glover started to perform.
8. Revisit our recap of Bob Dylan's historic performance at Northrop Auditorium on November 4, 2008, the night that Barack Obama was elected and the first time Dylan had performed on the University of Minnesota campus since he lived there in 1960.
9. Read about the new "Bob Dylan class" being offered at the U of M.
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10. Learn more about Dylan's voyage to New York in 1961, read the Village Voice's series Bob Dylan in NYC, which chronicles his first days in the city.
11. Pick up a copy of A Nod to Bob 2, a compilation issued by Red House Records that features many of their artists (Storyhill, John Gorka, Pieta Brown) playing covers of Dylan's tunes in honor of his 70th birthday.
12. Tune into Radio K all day today as they bring in local bands like Zoo Animal, the Orange Mighty Trio, and the Goondas to perform covers of Dylan's songs.
13. Flip through the latest issue of Rolling Stone, which counts down some of Dylan's greatest moments and songs.
15. Take a look at some of the more bizarre moments from Dylan's career, as offered up by the Onion.
16. Listen to Sound Opinions' two-part series on Dylan's career, including an episode that examines his early folk years and one that calls on Al Kooper to help analyze the pivotal (and oft-misremembered) moment when Dylan "went electric."
17. Spend some time with our Bob Dylan YouTube compendium, which gives an overview of his long, winding career in a series of videos.
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