Has anyone got any playlists they want to share? I'm in the mood to have my horizons expanded.

"The idea that music can't hope to artistically equal its past is endlessly parroted. You get a lot of terrible, condescending articles to that effect, usually written by music journalists of a certain age. One recently claimed he had essentially scientifically proven that rock and pop reached a creative peak in 1971 and that everyone today was wasting their time trying to match it. Homer Simpson once posited a similar theory about 1974, but that was meant to be a joke. This guy was deadly serious."

Alexis Petridis in Saturday's Guardian

I don't think I need to hear this to know how awful it's going to be:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2034666/SuperHeavy-Mick-...

Has there ever been a more dispiriting phrase than "solo project produced by ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart"?

I just picked up tickets for Dylan at Finsbury Park a week on Saturday - only £40 which makes me wonder if they're not selling that quickly. But I reckon I can stand to be disappointed at that price (and it's only up the road from my house so I can walk there and back).

There's a striking similarity between David Hepworth's column on how fiction is being outdone by reality, and an essay by Philip Roth, written nearly fifty years ago ("Writing American Fiction") which makes exactly the same point:

"The American writer has his hands full, trying to understand and then describe and then make credible much of the American reality. It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates, and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one's own meager imagination. The actuality is continually outdoing our talents, and the culture tosses up figures almost daily that are the envy of any novelist."

Just thought I'd share that with you. Look up the original if you can (it's not easily found on the internet though).

Johnny Pearson, leader of the Top of The Pops Orchestra has died aged 85. He was responsible for TV themes such as All Creatures Great And Small, Owen MD, and Superstars, which was apparently used as the theme for "Monday Night Football" in the US.

Another attempt:

http://www.billboard.com/news/beach-boys-lost-smile-album-to-see-release...

Did anyone see this documentary on telly last night? I normally love the Friday night docs on BBC4, but Christ, what a bore he was!

Here we go again...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/03/morrissey-china-subspecies-r...

the new edition's cover is really rubbish.

It looks like some old tat you'd buy in an Athena shop (if they were still around).

But I'm sure the magazine's contents are the usual tip-top stuff, and I'll buy it anyway.

It may be that I'm being thick, I can't find a link to the Festive Fifty Spotify playlist. Can anyone help?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8444156.stm

What? No Blind Faith?

I've just seen Mr Hepworth on this programme and I'm extremely concerned about the apparent state of his living quarters. I think it's time the Massive organised a whip-round for some furniture.

Bring on the trial of strengths!

I've just finished Philip Norman's biography of John Lennon. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I'd expected to despise Lennon by the end of the book. But here's the thing - I realised that I actually quite liked the man.

Certainly, he could be crass, insensitive, violent, and self-centred, but it seems that by the end of his life, he'd actually made a real effort to reform himself, and come to terms with his own shortcomings. Above all, this was a man who was never ever dull.

Anyone else read it/care to share their thoughts/disagree violently?