With our long international nightmare over for now and before the next bout (more on that later) here are some good ways to enjoy what is left of summer.

1.  Go see Bob Dylan.  Bob is on a summer tour of minor league baseball parks along with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson.  We were lucky enough to not only get them in South Bend but got them on July 4th.  Ain’t that America!   This might be the best band Dylan has ever toured with and there is no question it is the best dressed band I’ve ever seen.  Bob was in fine form, he even played guitar and, I swear on a stack of bibles, smiled a lot.

He opened with “Yankee Doodle.”  Then to match the day’s weather he did a killer version of Rainy Day Woman.  It then stopped raining. Really there were 9 thousand witnesses.

bobdylan.com is a very cool web site and you can check out the remaining stops on the tour.

2. Go see Public Enemies.  Any movie with this much hype is bound to draw some fire but I thought it was terrific film making and Johnny Depp is, well, Johnny Depp.  My only criticism is the fact that John Dillinger’s last bank robbery was right here in South Bend.  It may have been the most violent and chaotic of Dillinger’s career.  This is not depicted in the movie.  The film does a good job getting across the popularity of Dillinger at the time.  People hated banks.  If Dillinger could come back, just think how popular he would be today.

3. Read Public Enemies.  Bryan Burrough’s massive book does a much better job at describing the ENTIRE era.  The incompetence of the fledgling FBI, and the ego of J. Edgar Hoover is on full display here.

4. Go see Sugar.  This small film is the best movie I have seen in 2009.  You can go to any of the movie sites (imdb.com) to get all the details but let me say that it is most realistic baseball film ever because the “actors” can actually play baseball.  My wife thought it was sad, I thought it was warm and wonderful.  Find it somewhere.  Locally it is playing at the beautiful Vicker’s Theater  in Three Oaks, Michigan.

You should probably get all of this in now because I think there could be another Michael Jackson tour very soon.  So what if he is dead, that is the beauty of it.  That promoter in Europe who scheduled 50 dates (someone should check his bathroom cabinet) could have roving memorials.  I am telling you people will pay for this.  Never forget, some people are worth more dead than alive.