A Complete Unknown is Boxoffice Boffo

 "A Complete Unknown" was so well put together that we had to see it a second time just to be sure it wasn't a fluke that we loved it so much.  Never have been a big fan of Bob Dylan's voice and mostly like his songs sung by other artists such as The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, The Grass Roots and The Turtles but that's not meant to negate Dylan's obvious talent for word crafting.

"A Complete Unknown" was perfect in every way: direction, acting, music, sound and cinematic and is a thumbnail sketch of Dylan's early years.  Mercifully we were spared seeing his motorcycle accident, but were given an insight into Woody Guthrie's suffering from "Huntington's Disease" and his life in the hospital with Pete Seeger by his side.  Seeger nurtured Dylan's talent.

The film was affirming in several ways such as we always felt that Joan Baez had an affair with Dylan and the film confirms it.  It also shows how he was booed at during his morphing into an electric guitar versus a twelve string acoustic guitar.  This was a pivotal point in Dylan's career.

The film was also informative in that it showed how Johnny Cash became a fan and we wondered what Cash was doing at a Newport Folk Festival and why Dylan made the switch to electric guitar there. Dylan was evolving as a wordsmith and musician and he felt that his "handlers"wanted him to keep the "Folkie" thing going and have him perform "Blowing In The Wind" forever.

Dylan's choices were a bit questionable such as using an electric guitar at a folk festival versus at a regular gig.  His women called him an asshole on more than one occasion and we can see why.  

Timothee Chalamet brought Dylan's character to life on the screen and one felt like they were really watching Dylan throughout the film and deserves an Oscar for the performance.  Dylan is such a complicated man whose (to quote from the movie) talent was bursting at the seams.  It might still be, but we had to leave before his segment in July 2024 at the Hollywood Bowl for the Outlaw Tour so we don't know.

None of the supporting actors performances were lacking and each and every one was excellent.

When one puts the Hendrix film "All Is By My Side" up against this masterpiece one can only shake their head.  During that thing there was only a hint of music which Waddy Wachtel from Stevie Nicks' band diddled. Not one complete song in the whole film.

When Dylan and Baez sing "It Ain't Me Babe" in this film I was transported back to when I sent my abusive ex husband a letter that stated "whatever it is going on in your head it ain't me." The ex was a huge fan of Dylan's from day one and we figured he would get the gist with a Dylan song.  

Dylan's work was actually bootlegged by the first legendary underground record label known by its Pig logo.  In the book "A Pig's Tale" authors Ralph Sutherland and Harald Sherrick muse that some of Dylan's work was a direct result of their bootleg efforts. 

There are too many high points in "A Complete Unknown" to list everyone of them.  GO.SEE.IT!

Yes, Dylan is an asshole but so was Jim Morrison.  All the best ones are.

The Victim Mentality

 

Narcissistic Descent Into Alcoholism

 Around the time that my ex-husband and I were living in Sherman Oaks and he was working on a huge and important project, he began his descent into alcoholism with what is commonly called Boiler Makers.

His temper was just under the surface and if you looked at him wrong and he would flair up into one of his alcoholic rages and throw his captain's chair and yelling...lots of yelling.

Then his nocturnal wandering began.  

He would rise from his sleep and start looking for a place to pee. He would pee in the trash in the kitchen a lot, go outside into our back yard and he even tried to pee in my closet.

With four children to raise he no longer was the center of attention and that did not sit very well with his narcissistic personality. He held a pretty important position and had people "yes siring" him all day at work.  He needed that type of adoration at home and it wasn't happening.   

When a narcissist sees you as being too strong, this is what they'll do ...

The Beginning of The end

 It's hard to say exactly what the tipping point was that ushered in my plan to rid myself of my alcoholic ex-husband, the one day does stand out in my memory as being a critical point.

My ex-husband kept complaining about my housekeeping, parenting, shopping and then he said he never had anytime to himself.  To accommodate him I began taking our four children to church more regularly and ended up a deaconess and took over the running of the churches' nursery room.   

I did this as a way for my ex-husband to have some alone time. It worked out well for awhile and then he started complaining about how it wasn't enough.  I was getting pretty tired of his complaining  to me about me ALL of the time so I decided to quit the church and stay home on Sundays with OUR children. Now, he was back to square one.

I decided that since he didn't want to be around the children all of the time I could divorce him and he could be alone as much as he wanted except for his children's visitation days.

My ex-husband couldn't even bring himself to say alcoholic, instead he called himself a "juice head" and left it at that.  This concession was way after we were divorced.

A woman doesn't do everything she can to ensure that her children have a healthy start by eating right, drinking lots of water, no smoking, no drinking no unnecessary medications. A woman doesn't breast feed her children, make her own baby food and use cloth diapers for the first six months only to take them apart emotionally, psychology and mentally down the road.  

The ex-husband had plenty of time to put together a plan of action to negatively impact our children's view of me because while married he was always stopping over at his parent's house and complaining about me. It got so bad that his mother started tripping at a family holiday dinner when I asked my eldest daughter to fetch a diaper so I could burp my baby son. "Doesn't she do anything?" she yelled. 

Who the hell do you think got up every morning and got all four children ready for the day? Needless to say that was the end of having any family holiday meals at his parent's home. I wasn't going to voluntarily go to his parent's home to put up with that crap.

After watching Dr. Phil's podcast on Narcissists I realized why my ex-husband was always complaining about me
, yelling at me and why he became violent toward me...he couldn't control me like some Stepford Wife and have me be a bobble head "yes" wife.

Only a Super Empath Can Destroy The Narcissist, Here’s How

Living With Alcoholic Rage and Narcism

 I want to touch base on a few issues to reiterate why my ex is a narcissist.

When my ex was told to leave one of his parting shots was "I am the reason you write." During the whole time we were together my ex did not write anything nor did he go to college to write like I did.

Telling my daughter I would come on another day for her daughter's birthday because my ex was going to be there is not "weaponizing" the grandchildren.  It is protecting myself from a narcissist for whom I have a restraining order.  The ex is "weaponizing" the children to use (yet another) family occasion to have at me. Protecting oneself from a narcissist is not being a narcissist.

Smacking the right side of my face because my ex did not like my answer is a narcissist.  Doing it while drunk is also an alcoholic rage event.  My right eye was twitching before surgery from my ex's smack across the right side of my face.

Having one of the children visit another child just prior to Mother's Day in order to create a situation over something I ultimately did NOT do is a narcissist.  Ruined Mother's Day with the sibling in question. 

For my youngest daughter to tell everyone that she is done with her sibling's rage issues, but expecting me to put up with their father's very same issue (maybe worse) is just plain ignorant. 

These are just a few of the thousands of times my ex has created situations that demonstrate his narcissistic tendencies.