Odds & Ends: Bob Dylan, Garth Brooks, Joni Mitchell

Artists are often promoting up-close-and-personal gigs and opportunities to see performances in intimate settings with small capacity crowds. Bob Dylan and his touring band took the concept to the next level on Sunday by performing for just one fan at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.

The show took place as the latest installment in the Swedish film series “Experiment Ensam,” which documents people experiencing things on their own rather than as part of a crowd. Lucky for one and only audience member Fredrik Wikingsson, his friend Anders Helgeson is the director of “Experiment Ensam.”

“I had an endless series of meetings where I managed to convince people my extreme fandom made me the best candidate for the enviable task,” Wikingsson said, according to Rolling Stone.

Wikingsson, who chose a seat in the middle of the second row, was treated to a series of rare covers by Dylan including Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat,” Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill,” and Chuck Willis’ “It’s Too Late (She’s Gone).”

“During the second song, ‘Blueberry Hill,’ I realized I had to say something,” Wikingsson said. “It was just too weird. I screamed out, ‘You guys sound great!’ That caused Dylan to burst out laughing. Now, I have two kids and their births were great, but him laughing onstage at some lousy fucking comment of mine was unbelievable.”

The rest of us will get to see what the private concert was like once a 15-minute documentary about the unique event is posted on YouTube Dec. 15. Wikingsson also plans on discussing the gig on his podcast, “The Filip and Fredrik Podcast.”

 You can forget about seeing Taylor Swift take on the role of Joni Mitchell. Two years after reports came out that a film adaptation was in the works of Sheila Weller’s 2009 triple biography, “Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon – and the Journey of a Generation,” Mitchell says it’s not going to happen.

Variety reported at the time that Taylor Swift was “already in line to play Joni Mitchell,” while Allison Williams, Jessica Pare and Analeigh Tipton were testing for the role of Simon, and Alison Pill, Olivia Thirlby, Ari Graynor and Zoe Kazan were up for the part of King.

Apparently Mitchell wasn’t a fan of the script or how books have portrayed her.

“I squelched that! I said to the producer, ‘All you’ve got is a girl with high cheekbones.’” Mitchell told The Sunday Times (via NME.com). “It’s just a lot of gossip, you don’t have the great scenes.”

She added, “There’s a lot of nonsense about me in books, assumptions, assumptions, assumptions.”

Garth Brooks is putting this week’s TV appearances on hold out of respect for the turmoil the nation is facing over the Michael Brown case. Monday evening the news broke that the St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown. The unarmed black teen died in Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 9.

Brooks was scheduled to promote his new album, Man Against Machine, this morning on “Live! With Kelly & Michael.” He was also supposed to stop by “The Tonight Show” Nov. 27 and “The Today Show” Nov. 28.

Earlier today the country superstar posted the following statement on Facebook to notify fans that he was postponing the appearances.

“We landed in NY last night to the news of the civil unrest that was going on in our nation. To spend the day promoting our stuff like nothing was wrong, seemed distasteful to me. I will gladly reschedule any or all appearances the networks will allow. Love one another, g”

 A previously taped segment on “The Ellen Show” still aired as planned Tuesday.  

After the grand jury’s decision was announced Monday, more than 61 people were arrested in Ferguson, on charges ranging from “unlawful assembly to burglary to unlawful possession of a firearm to arson,” according to CNN.

Rioting in the area resulted “at least 12 fires burned local businesses late Monday and into early Tuesday morning,” according to NPR. 

CNN notes that more than 130 protests were planned Tuesday in the U.S. and Canada.