A while ago there was a story about Bob Dylan being briefly arrested in New Jersey, having been taken for a vagrant wandering down the highway with his hood up. He was looking for Bruce Springsteen's childhood home. Somewhere (quite possibly here) it was asserted he had been seen doing similar research in the suburbs of Toronto, researching Neil Young's early years.

Can you learn anything about an artist in this way? Strikes me that it is a bit cultish and like a sort of inverse reliquary, where saints' childhood places not their bones are worshiped. I think of the musicians I love the most, and can't imagine any who I would want to make a journey to see where their primary school used to be.

Is this to do with Dylan's particular make up as an artist, or about how we want our musicians to be? Some people like to dig into the biography for as far as it goes to 'explain' the music, some like to take it on its own terms. I like to imagine Mark E Smith's Prestwich, say, but I don't think the place formed in my head it has much to do with the actual place. If I did happen to visit it would be dispapointing to find that it did, in fact. And of course with some musicians (arguably including Dylan and Young) the mythmaking of their work is in some sort of opposition to their (non woody guthrie-ish) upbringing.

So. Would you go on a Dylan-style stalk through any particular artist's childhood environs? And if so, who?

Are there any klezmer enthusiasts around these parts? A bit of spotifying has whetted the appetite, but I could do with a few nods in the right direction from those in the know. Not knowing much about it I couldn't tell you much about my street, but to say that The Cracow Klezmer Band's Remembrance is right up it.

To celebrate the recent victory by glamorous ex-Fall melodicist Brix Smith (AKA Brix Smith-Start) over the unappealing Gok Wan in that prog of his, I wondered if Word-ists might like to list some exciting ex-muso/ pop star trivia.

Keeping on the Fall theme, Steve Evets (who was in the band for about 30 seconds - insert 'hasn't everyone gag here) is in that Ken Loach film about Eric Cantona.

But who have made the most amazing post pop careers for themselves?
Of course there is the D*Ream bloke at Cern. Skunk Baxter off of Steely Dan and the Doobies is a name that often comes up in these conversations, too, because of his transition from hippy guitarist to freelance military defence consultant. Can any others compete?

I was with the mag right from the beginning. I only had a subscription for a year, but bought it pretty much every month before taking one out. It ran out fairly recently, but I don't have much desire to resubscribe this year. I still imagine I'll buy it for train journeys etc, and take an interest in the goings on here. But I don't feel the desire to restart my sub, even with the freebie and discount. Part of this is a gut feeling that preoccupations, opinion, subjects, jokes in the mag are a bit predictable. Unfair, and disprovable I'm sure, but I'm just being honest about my gut feeling. Last year, in my 'umble, it drifted that bit closer to the muso mag competition. And that is a sad thing to see. The Word used to surprise me with the quality of its writing, the clarity of its thought, and the breadth of its coverage. As I say, this may be a case of 'it's not you, it's me', but I don't feel that so much any more.