Consumer Affairs: Bob Dylan's No Direction Home

For those of you in the UK, BBC 2 is showing the first part of the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home this evening. Part le deux is on demain soir. But you almost certainly know that already. Hereabouts, Mister Bijou has to go to Hong Kong on Tuesday, so he will probably swing by the HMV store in Central and pick up the 2-DVD ($229.00; US$29.52; GBP16.35), despite reading this:

Scorsese's brightest stroke is to use these historic performances as the film's leitmotif, cutting back to one dark U.K. stage or another every time the back story reaches an especially fraught point. Tragically, his final offense is to climax No Direction Home with Pennebaker's footage of perhaps the single most fabled live performance in rock history -- "Like a Rolling Stone" at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, May 17, 1966, the so-called Judas show -- and cutting, after just one verse, from the performance to a black screen and end credits. Imagine spotting Halley's Comet, then being forced to close your eyes.

That's from Devin McKinney, writing in the left-leaning American Prospect. Oh, wait! Amazon is selling the 2-DVD for US$17.99. Eleven and a bit US dollars cheaper. Even with the add-on postage it is cheaper. DVD Region 1? That's what Hong Kong HMV is selling. Not that it matters. Mister Bijou has one of those completely promiscuous play-anything Made in China DVD/VCD/Mp3/WAV/and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all format players; just slip it in and press the play button.
Anyway, among all the other news print articles, historian Simon Scharma -- always worth a read -- writes about Mister D in Voice of America. That Guardian article has a listing of UK events and other related stuff, too.