Bob Dylan

Guessing what Bob Dylan might do next - and pondering why he does what he does - has been a time-consuming avocation for amateur Dylanologists for pretty much the entire half-century of his incomparably inscrutable career. On Monday, the mysterious man in the white boater hat played the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, on a double bill that also featured Mark Knopfler, the former Dire Straits front man who produced Infidels , Dylan's standout album from 1983. This date on the Never Ending Tour had a more compelling raison d'etre than most.

Levon Helm, the Arkansas-born drummer and singer for The Band, the four-fifths Canadian ensemble whose music in the 1960's and '70s, some of it with Bob Dylan, endures as a high-water mark of quintessential American rock and roll, has died of cancer. He was 71. "Levon Helm passed peacefully [Thursday] afternoon," according to an announcement on his official Website. "He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.

Angelina Jolie stood up to world leaders Thursday in an address to the G8 foreign ministers meeting in London. She identified wartime rape as one of the most intractable - and ignored - travesties in world affairs. "Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been sexually assaulted in the wars of our generation," Jolie said. "I have heard survivors of rape from Bosnia to [the Congo] say that the world simply does not care about them. " Added Jolie, "But wartime rape is not inevitable.

Over the last few years, public television has made many hopeful but cautious moves toward rock 'n' roll. Saturday, it takes its most ambitious step yet, kicking off a new series called "In the Spotlight" with a two-part, four-hour film of October's Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Part One will air at 8 p.m. Saturday, Part Two at 11 p.m. Wednesday, both on Channel 12. The first part will also be repeated starting at 6:25 p.m. March 13, for those who want to see the whole thing together.

Joel Gilbert's three-DVD collection on Bob Dylan has almost everything a Dylanophile could want - interviews galore, candid photos, grainy home movies, inside information . . . everything, in fact, except the man himself. Dylan's voice is heard occasionally in this documentary, but not often enough. His music is performed by Gilbert's tribute band, Highway 61 Revisited, which boasts former members of Dylan's various touring bands. And Gilbert, who does most of the films' interviews and visits the troubadour's old haunts, dresses and acts the part quite a bit. But it's just not the same.

Tom Moon is the author of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die There really is no good reason for Bob Dylan to show up for work these days. His reputation is secure. His songs occupy their own wing in the pop-culture archive. He's the rare legend who doesn't have to go out and earn any new respect - as evidenced by the gazillion "how Bob changed my life" testimonials flooding the Internet in the wake of his 70th birthday last week. Yet there he is. On the road. Performing.

There's a jazz man's adage, attributed variously to Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, that goes something like this: "There are two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind. " Don Was, the bass player, producer, bandleader, songwriter, and now president of the storied jazz label Blue Note Records, divides the world differently. "There are two kinds of music," Was says. "Generous music and selfish music. " Was was talking from his home in Los Angeles as he got ready to head to Philadelphia to for the Non-Commvention, the national gathering of mostly public radio non-commercial music stations, hosted annually by WXPN (88.5 FM)

Opening a three-night stand with Bob Dylan at the Electric Factory Friday, Patti Smith wandered on stage in a Unabomber-style hooded sweatshirt, lifted her long theatrical arms and sang a harrowing "Because the Night," a song she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen that was her only top-20 hit. Before she finished this opening number, the 15 years she'd spent away from the rock-and-roll stage felt like 15 minutes. Here was a rock icon not apologizing for youthful insights or hurrying through the lyrics.