Has anyone else been following this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/10/family-julie-myerson

It all looks - like Jeff in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" would say - like a big bowl of wrong. But I'd be interested to know what others think.

Angela Morley, born Wally Stott, has died aged 84. He was responsible for the musical backing in the Goon Show, and then bore much responsibility for the lush orchestral backing on Scott Walker's LPs 1-4. (he/she was one of the most interesting contributors to the documentary 30th Century Man)

He then emigrated to America, re-inventing himself (quite literally, as they say) as Angela Morley, and worked on - among others - the Dallas and Dynasty themes.

You can keep the surgery, but we should all live such full lives:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jan/23/angela-morley-obituary-wal...

Bob Dylan's coming to the O2 in April 2009. As someone who admires a lot of the music, without ever having worshipped at the shrine, I'm thinking of going to see him for the first time. But I'm aware that Dylan's gigs have a reputation for somewhat variable quality - so I need to know from you all, Dylanologists, concert veterans, members of the Word massive and gentlemen of a certain age, is he worth £47.50 of my English pounds?

I was rung up last week by your sales department to remind me that my subscription to The Word had lapsed. I happily stumped up the cash but if I'd have read this month's cover story at that time, I would have hesitated. It was by some large margin the worst article ever published in the magazine.

What exactly was the point? The idea that we're only going to be concerned about world issues because famous people tell us we should, felt condescending even back when Sting was "saving" the rainforests. Admittedly, there's a place occasionally for "me and my famous mates" type-articles, but despite the amazing access that the writer had, there are practically no decent quotes from any of the participants. All we get from Jarvis is a homily on climate change (thank you Professor Cocker) and Martha Wainwright saying she's going to write a new protest song. Well, phew, that's the environment saved!

And the quality of the writing was dire - all that gushing praise to "effervescent Vanessa", "(Laurie Anderson's) timelessly wise voice". If I wanted to read this sort of stuff, I'd pick up the Sunday Express magazine in the doctor's waiting room.

I've read The Word from the beginning, because the quality of the writing has always been excellent - it can usually interest me in stuff I wouldn't normally go near (the prog section is a joy, and no amount of revisionist thinking is ever going to stop me from a pure loathing of prog rock). But this was a serious lapse of your usual high standards. You got a cool cover shot out of it, but nothing else.

What do people think of the new series? I'm not sure about the guest slot captain situation - Stephen Fry was his usual smug and irritating self, Bob Mortimer was OK and Johnny Vegas, well... is it my imagination or is he getting less funny the slimmer he gets?

I would format this stuff if I knew how, but looking at the England Kazakhstan game tonight, did it occur to anyone else that Wayne Rooney is turning into Herc from The Wire?

What did you listen to on your hols? And what did you read? Did you (like me) take new CDs with you in the same way you take books to read?

I got to grips with the Fleet Foxes CD (excellent), and came to the conclusion, via his new novel, that Hanif Kureishi is a terrible, terrible novelist.

I also - and this is a definition of serendipity - saw Tinariwen by accident, when they played a free gig in a square in a small French seaside town. Which was nice.

To carry on a theme started by Mr Hepworth, this is further proof (not that any was needed) that Johnny Cash's career was not all moody poses and being "authentic".

Personally I can't decide whether this is the worst thing he ever did or an act of crazed genius:

The current thread about b-sides set me to ponder upon another missed relic of the vinyl age - the messages sometimes scratched upon the vinyl near the centre of the disc, on the smooth area between the grooves and the label.

The Smiths were particularly keen on this - examples include "Alf Ramsey's Revenge" on the 7" of "Shoplifters..." and "The impotence of Ernest" on "William It Was Really Nothing". Inevitably there's a website documenting this:

http://www.geocities.com/costelt/Lyrics/etching.htm

There was never anything significant about these messages - but I always looked out for them.

Can anyone remember any other notable etchers?

What is it with Paul Weller's hair?

And is this the picture he takes to the hairdresser?

http://www.movieforum.com/movies/titles/labyrinth/images/jareth.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7311581.stm

Bobby Fischer, madman, anti-semite and chess genius is dead at the age of 64:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7195840.stm

and ever since I heard the news a certain Prefab Sprout lyric has planted itself in my brain ("When bobby fischer's plane touches the ground he'll take those russian boys and play them out of town").

Where else do the worlds of music and chess collide? Apart from the eponymous musical, the only song I can think of is "Your Move" by Yes. Any others?

I'm not sure which is the more surprising - Keef's presence, or the juxtaposition with Christopher Timothy (and apparently Pat Routledge, not pictured). What do you think they had to say to each other? "I once had my hand up a cow's arse" "Was that where you'd hid your stash?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7065262.stm