Taylor Hanson and his wife Natalie Anne Bryant had a baby boy, Jordan Ezra, on October 31st . . . Creed have lined up two holiday shows, December 29th in Chicago and December 31st in Philadelphia . . . Lifehouse, Ryan Adams, Sixpence None the Richer and Five for Fighting will contribute songs to the Smallville soundtrack, due February 25th . . . Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Bon Jovi and others will perform at the VH1 Big in 2002 Awards on December 15th . . . Ashanti, Kylie Minogue, Shaggy and others will perform at WKTU's Miracle on 34th Street holiday concert set for December 18th in New York . . .

Royce da 5'9" will release Rock City Version 2.0, featuring production by the Neptunes and a guest appearance by Eminem, on November 26th . . . The members of Drowning Pool have teamed with Rob Zombie to record "The Man Without Fear" for the Daredevil soundtrack due in February . . . John Hammond will release his new album, Ready for Love, on February 11th . . . Former Spiritualized members Sean Cook and Mike Mooney have formed Lupine Howl and will release The Bar at the End of the World in February . . . Blu Cantrell will release her second album, Bittersweet, on December 17th . . . Shania Twain will perform at the CFL's Grey Cup halftime show in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 24th . . .

Journals, a collection of diary entries written by Kurt Cobain, will debut at Number One on the November 24th New York Times non-fiction bestseller list . . . A handful of Elvis Presley's hair collected by his former hairstylist pulled in $115,000 in an online auction on November 16th . . . Paul Weller will release his next album, Illumination, on January 14th . . . A Waukesha County, Wisconsin, courthouse will be turned into a museum and exhibit honoring guitarist Les Paul . . . Marianne Faithful will begin an eight-date U.S. tour on December 1st in Los Angeles, before heading to Australia and New Zealand for a thirteen-date jaunt . . . Suzanne Vega, the Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson and Joe Jackson will appear in an episode of the television program, The Moth, tonight . . .

Each member of System of a Down has created an original piece of artwork to be featured in limited edition runs of the band's upcoming release, Steal This Album!, due November 26th . . . Singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell will release Learning How to Fly on T Bone Burnett's DMZ Records this spring . . . We Five folk-rocker Michael Stewart, who also produced Billy Joel's Piano Man, died November 13th; he was fifty-seven . . . Revenant Records will release an album John Fahey recorded just prior to his death last year, on February 11th . . . Mick Jones joined his former Clash band mate Joe Strummer onstage at a benefit for the British Fire Brigades Union in London on Friday. The two performed three Clash songs together for the first time in almost twenty years . . .

(November 19, 2002)