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Snapshots: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall


It is a summer of storms. Today's high was 98°F and the sun was beating all morning. By the early afternoon, we saw why a severe thunderstorm warning was in effect for Ramsey County, Minnesota, where Saint Paul is located, including predicted hail and winds in excess of 65 miles per hour. The storm resulted in several downed trees and power lines in the east. Xcel Energy reported as many as 7,000 people without power in the Twin Cities metro area at one point. On Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, 15 boats from local sailing schools were swamped. No one was injured.

The heavy, green, wooden lawn chair seen rolling in this series of images gives a sense of the power of the storm. In the last image, you can see one of the motorcycles in the parking lot has blown over. All images taken with a Motorola Razr V3xx camera phone. For other Minnesota weather-related stories see Rainbow over Saint Paul, MN (June 3), Black Dog Block Party 2007 rained out! (July 9th), and From Spring to Summer in Lowertown, Saint Paul, MN (July 13), the latter including images spanning March-July 2007.

Above: 3:28pm, 26 July 2007. The lawn chair has not yet blown over.

Above: 3:29pm, 26 July 2007. The lawn chair has rolled over a half turn.

Above: 3:30pm, 26 July 2007. The lawn chair has rolled over another half turn and comes to rest.

Above: 3:32pm, 26 July 2007. The nearest motorcycle in the Tilsner car park has blown over.


A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.



More From This Section

• Elliot Hughes, a young protester tortured during the RNC by a dozen cops in a dark room in the Ramsey County Sheriff's jail, testifies at a special "Community Conversation about the RNC" at the St. Paul City Council (Thursday, September 25th, 2008)

• Art: Alex Lilly photos and protest posters from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN (Sunday, September 21st, 2008)

• "Hockey Mamas for Obama": Anchorage Demonstration by Alaska Women Reject Palin (Saturday, September 20th, 2008)

• "Rage against the machine", R.N.C. Diary (part 3) (Friday, September 5th, 2008)

• "Police and technology", R.N.C. Diary (part 2) (Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008)




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