We were down at Bleu (in West Hollywood) on Thursday and I got to meet Johnny Marr ... the reason he is here is to work with Beck on his new album and once he finalizes that, he will be working on a solo project that he plans to have out by the end of February 2000...

related articles:

• Apr. 27, 1999: mp3 of Johnny Marr performing "Meat Is Murder"
• Nov. 27, 1998: Johnny Marr - working on 'his own project'

This week, the Cleveland Free Times lists The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead as one of their 20 "essential" ‘80s albums, with a very brief description. The full list can be found at this link.

17. The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead (Sire), 1986. Bridging the guitar rock of the Beatles and Oasis, these witty Brits rocked with an elegant pop sensibility and a (Oscar) Wilde edge of biting satire.

I'm sad to report that narrow minded people easily believe music press rubbish, even when they are in the media themselves, case in point -

I was watching a British documentary about skinheads on an Australian TV network called SBS. During one scene where skinheads are on the prowl the producers of the doco thought it would be quite clever to put "National Front Disco" over the scenes. It also talked about the whites only scene of Britpop music like Blur and Suede and pathetically uninformed showed footage of Moz at a concert wrapped in the Union Jack making good old Morrissey look like a racist scumbag. Remember folks - the media sucks, ignore it.