Aw come on! It's an awful picture, no doubt, but you gotta figure he was doing poorly in the unaccustomed winter cold of Utah. I guess it's kinda weird that he tried being blonde instead of gray, but I'll let him slide on the theory, "I guess that's show biz."

I can't believe he could have aged so badly since I saw him onstage just last year. He looked fine, exuded *plenty* of energy, and sounded great --indeed, maybe better than I've ever heard him, (Now, that's only a dozen or so times, starting in 1964. Even though I'm a great admirer of his, there have been times when I was disappointed with his perfomance -- but not recently.)

Who is in "The Dead" now? Last I heard, the surviving members were touring as "The Other Ones" and playing in a number of different combinations in a complicated little network of jammers. I have an urge to make some comment about the Grateful Dead, but also feel like "why bother?" I know some of y'all can't conceive of the GD as anything but a bad joke, in which case I have nothing to say, and others who dig 'em, recognize their folk-music roots among other admirable qualities, and I don't have much to add for you folks either.

For that matter, what can we really say about the master, Mr. Zimmerman? Joke around about his bad hair and all -- that works!

By the way, the wife and I *rarely* spring for those high-dollar concert tickets, but we are looking forward to next Saturday night when we'll be seeing Bob again, with the wonderful Lucinda Williams opening. I really don't want to believe he'll walk into the spotlight looking like this picture!