A guy who posts a message on his website about once every Democratic presidential administration, Bob Dylan wrote a lengthy and stern letter to his "fans and followers" about his recent China excursion that appeared this morning at www.BobDylan.com. The message refutes various accounts and criticisms about the gigs, covering everything from the Chinese Ministry's allowance of the shows (it was never really an issue, he says) to the makeup of the audience at the concerts (they were mostly "Chinese young people" and "very few ex-pats," he claimed) to the big rumor about his set list being censored.

"The Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing," Dylan wrote. "There's no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play."

That he didn't play more of his topical, fire-starting tunes such as "Hurricane" or "Chimes of Freedom" -- which everybody except the New York Times' Maureen Dowd knows he rarely plays anymore -- was also a non-issue, according to the singer. He said, "[The audiences] responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn't have known my early songs anyway."

That last thought is rather ignorant, but let's not discourage the guy. The real noteworthy thing here might be the simple act of posting on his site. Maybe this is the start of a new, more verbal Bob. Suggested topics for next week's post: 1) Who's gonna win "American Idol;" 2) His favorite patio bar around the Twin Cities; 3) Oy, how ' bout those Twins?