THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with R.E.M.!  Live on German TV's Rockpalast circa 1985, more complete than what has previously turned up on the Tube. Songs include "Feeling Gravity's Pull," "Harbourcoat," "Sitting Still," "Maps & Legends," "Fall On Me," "Green Grow The Rushes," "Driver 8," "Hyena," "So. Central Rain," "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," "Can't Get There From Here," "King Of The Road," "Seven Chinese Bros.," "Auctioneer," "Old Man Kinsey," "Little America," "Pretty Persuasion, " "Theme From Two Steps Onward," "Toys In The Attic," and "See No Evil." The site also lists "Second Guessing," "Ghost Riders In The Sky," "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," "We Walk" and "Paint It Black," but they don't seem to be working.

THE NPR 100: Throughout the year 2000, NPR presented the stories behind 100 of the most important American musical works of the 20th century. They're upgrading it now, including features on "Born To Run" and "Good Vibrations."

MOTOWN AT 50: All Things Considered has a feature with streams of Hitsville USA's overlooked singles.

BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY: Will Oldhan visits WNYC's Soundcheck for a sneak preview of his upcoming Beware album.

THE WALKMEN talk to San Diedo CityBeat about changing up their sound on the You & Me album.

2009 ROCK & ROLL HALL of FAME inductees are Run-DMC, Metallica, Jeff Beck, Bobby Womack and Little Anthony and the Imperials. Unforgivable snubs include The Stooges, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and the Replacements.

RYAN ADAMS is blogging about Ménière's disease, which is prompting him to leave the Cardinals and quit blogging.  We'll see.  In the meantime, this end-of-2008 AOL Session may be the last we see of them together for a while.

LAND OF TALK frontwoman Liz Powell talks to Canada's National Post about the new album, BSS and getting a start in the US (including a well-deserved nod to Brooklyn Vegan).

HEARTLESS BAST^RDS:  The L.A. Times has an interview with Erika Wennerstrom and a free download of the single from the band's upcoming album.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks fantasy basketball. And Scrabble.

CUTOUT BIN: From M Ward to M Python, from T. Rex to Tom Waits to Tommy Tutone, from the Replacements to the Alan Parsons Project, plus Marshall Crenshaw, new Neko Case, Little Anthony & the Imperials, the Georgia Satellites and more   -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Hotel For Dogs, which is currently scoring 48 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Paul Blart: Mall Cop, currently scoring 28 percent; My Bloody Valentine 3-D, scoring 83 percent (based on few reviews); and the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious, scoring 59 percent.  Defiance expands wide and is scoring 54 percent.  Last Chance Harvey expands to about 500 screens and is scoring 71 percent.

AMY WINEHOUSE is reduced to crawling up to holidaymakers and grabbing their drinks, after fed-up resort staff refused to serve her.

BRITNEY SPEARS in the Sex & The City sequel?

JOHHNY DEPP may be marrying longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis in the spring.

MICKEY ROURKE discovers that one price of regaining fame is being... wait for it... caught canoodling with Bai Ling.

THE FRENCH HOTEL: Trout pout?

STAR WARS: Retold by someone who hasn't seen it.

STEVE CARELL may do his acting at the Office, but at the general store he just bought, he'll be "manning the cash register, and stocking the shelves as time permits."

MICHAEL CERA seems like the lone holdout on the Arrested Development movie.

AFGHANISTAN: Foreign Policy looks at lessons from the new counterinsurgency field manual and interviews Centcom's Gen. David Petraeus.

IRAN: Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the fighting in Gaza shows that "the continuation of the Zionist regime's life in the region is not feasible."

ROOKIE (and Carolyn Scott) perform "You're The One That I Want."

RSPCA says people who dress up their dogs could be prosecuted. Video at the link.

PET SEMATARY: Cats and men, buried together... mass hysteria.

STOLEN GECKO mysteriously returns to a Toowoomba pet shop.

GOAT burns down the house in Warren County, Iowa.  Owner saved by cat.

THE ACORN video for "Crooked Legs" made the Tube's front page, reminding me that I forgot to post it last month.

JOLIE HOLLAND stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set you can stream via NPR.

THE HOLD STEADY, sans rhythm section, played a stripped-down mini-set at KEXP, streaming via NPR also.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: James Montgomery of MTVNews spends a week with the new Merriweather Post Pavilion album, to see if it lives up to the hype.  The band talks about MPP with The Quietus.

KATHLEEN EDWARDS talks to the Seattle P-I about playing in Afghanistan and a casino.

BODIES OF WATER has a strange, creepy video out for "Under The Pines," from their recent A Certain Feeling album.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT ALBUM? The Guardian Music Blog investigates.

ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS: Frontman Hegarty gets a meaty profile in the Village Voice.

SONIC YOUTH: Thurston Moore says the upcoming album will feature "juicy supersonic songs," whatever that means.

THE ROSEBUDS: Kelly Crisp talks to JamBase about the band's current album. Video at the link, too.

RICARDO MONTALBAN, who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home. He was 88.  Of course, he had a slew of credits, evrything from duteing with Esther Williams on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to his star turn in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which he reprised his role as Khaaan! from TOS.

TWINS must be the new thing for celebs, if Lisa Marie Presley and Marcia Cross are any indicator.

BRITNEY SPEARS ran into ex Justin Timberlake at an asian restaurant in West Hollywood Monday night.  The pop wreck is in the process of moving into her sprawling new 8.9-million-dollar Calabasas home.

THE FRENCH HOTEL hid in the bathroom at Creative Artist Agency's big post-Golden Globes bash Sunday night after CAA's Kevin Huvane caught her slipping in uninvited - and loudly demanded she be removed from the Sunset Towers party.

JENNIFER LOPEZ says divorcing Marc Anthony is not an option.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON clearly bristling, said today that negotiations to put him in the role of Nick Fury have broken down because "there seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world."

MICKEY ROURKE & SAM ROCKWELL, otoh, are in talks to star as the villains in "Iron Man 2," being directed by Jon Favreau.  And Emily Blunt has emerged as the frontrunner to play the Black Widow.

PATRICK McGOOHAN, the Emmy-winning actor best known for starring in cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80.  A good reason to remind everyone that you can watch The Prisoner in its entirety online via AMC.

OPRAH loves Kate Winslet's Golden Globes.  And who am I to argue?

AMERICAN IDOL: Ryan Secrest tries to high-five a legally blind contestant.  Ooops.  The show was down about 10 percent in the ratings from last year.

WATCHMEN: A scheduled Tuesday court conference between Fox and Warner Bros. attorneys has been canceled, fueling talk that a settlement in the contentious "Watchmen" case is imminent.

THE PEANUTS CODE: Scholars have analyzed the scores played by the piano-mad Schroeder in "Peanuts" and have found real Beethoven: "If you don't read music and you can't identify the music in the strips, then you lose out on some of the meaning," said William Meredith, the director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, who has studied hundreds of Beethoven-themed "Peanuts" strips.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS: The Kingdom's most senior cleric has told followers it is permissible for ten-year-old girls to marry and anyone who think they are too young are doing the youngsters 'an injustice'.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan and Coalition forces detained eight Haqqani Network and Taliban fighters during operations in Khost and Kandahar provinces on Jan. 10. The Chaman border crossing in Kandahar reopened for NATO supplies after protests in Pakistan ended. Kyrgyzstan threatened to shut down a key US airbase used by NATO forces in Afghanistan.  BONUS: Afghan Schoolgirls Undeterred by Acid Attack.

FRENCH POLICE DOGS may be tougher than French Police.

PETS Who Want To Kill Themselves.

BRITISH BULLDOGS endangered by new breeding standards.

BIRD DIAPERS spark protest.

FUGITIVE MACAQUE on the loose in Clearwater, FL.

MORRISSEY is throwing his arms around Paris in his latest video.

M WARD: His upcoming Hold Time album is advance streaming at NPR. 

THE HYPE MACHINE has posted its Blog Zeitgeist 2008, surveying the buzziest artists, albums and songs of the past year, most all of it streamable, including full albums.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKER Patterson Hood shares his first album purchase(s) with JamBase.

THE RAVEONETTES: Sune Rose Wagner did an e-interveiw with the Bay Bridged to discuss the duo's recent series of digital EPs, a love of Christmas music, and what they're currently working on. (Thx, LHB.)

FRANZ FERDINAND relesed a clip for "Ulysses" and a PR video for their upcoming album.

THE WRENS have released a new song and claim (again) they have a new album in the works.

FRIGHTENED RABBIT is profiled in the Boston Globe.

ADELE talks to Rolling Stone about working with The Raconteurs on a cover of Brandan Benson's "Many Shades of Black," as the B-Side to the band's own version.

THE FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS talk to The A.V. Club about Season Two of their show, touring, etc.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD: I really wanted to like this, as the novel was a likely influence on Mad Men.  But it turns out that the AMC drama series, while set a few years later, explores these themes with a lot more nuance than this screenplay.  Director Sam Mendes seems to enjoy slamming the suburbs (as he did in American Beauty), but the Wheelers would have had marital troubles living in Manhattan, or Paris, or anywhere else on the globe. Kate Winslet makes the material better than it is; Leo DiCaprio is good, but doesn't rise to the level that he achieves under Scorsese in The Departed or even The Aviator.  The production design, costuming and cinematography are wonderful.  It wasn't a bad movie, but it was a disappointment.

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT has obtained a restraining order against a 62-year-old-stalker.

HOWIE MANDEL was hospitalized Monday with an irregular heartbeat, but his condition was not believed to be serious.

JENNIFER GARNER & BEN AFFLECK named their second daughter Seraphina. Her sister Violet is happy to be born first.

EDDY CURRY: The NY Knicks center  was slapped with a shocking sex-harassment suit Monday by his former driver.

KELLY RUTHERFORD of Gossip Girl is seeking to bar her estranged husband from leaving the US with their 2-year-old son for fear they'll disappear.

BRITNEY SPEARS is looking for a Harvard grad to manage her Facebook..

WATCHMEN: Warner Bros. and Fox are "close" to reaching a settlement regarding the "Watchmen" lawsuit, according to those familiar with the negotiations.

JOHN CARTER OF MARS: It now appears that Pixar is making a live-action epic for Disney.

MICHAEL BAY & McG: Two bigtime action directors who need to face off with Rock-Em Sock-Em robots.

ROMAN POLANSKI: The woman who was raped by fugitive director Roman Polanski three decades ago when she was 13 has lashed out at the L.A. County D.A.s office, saying she is being victimized again by prosecutors' focus on lurid details of what happened to her.  She believes they are trying to distract from their office's own wrongdoing 31 years ago, brought to light in the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which prompted the director's lawyer to file a motion for dismissal.  Or it could be that the L.A. D.A. is rebutting the wildly biased documentary and press coverage favoring Polanski.

AFGHANISTAN: The Obama Administration intends to send up to 30K more US troops, but does not think it will significantly change the direction of the conflict.  It's a plan to have a plan.

CAT & RATS, living together... mass hyteria...

DOG & HEN, raising puppies together... Pic at the link.

RARE TREE KANGAROO births two joeys in Nebraska.

2300 ENDANGERED LIZARDS rescued from the cooking pot in Malaysia.

CUTE SPIDER with a punky hairdo.

OKKERVIL RIVER played "Pop Lie" for Dave recently at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

NEW RELEASES: Antony & the Johnsons, Franz Nicolay, The Derek Trucks Band, some vintage Bee Gees and more are streaming in full this week via Spinner.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED is currently previewing tracks from M Ward, Animal Collective, Bon Iver, Heartless Bast^rds and those Bee Gees.

BEN KWELLER does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

MOTOWN TURNS 50: The people who made Motown "The Sound of Young America"  tell tales to Spinner.  The A to Z of Hitsville USA is charted by the BBC.

RYAN ADAMS plays "Sink Ships" (from Cardinology) in a Black Cab Session. And there's a very Adams-esque story to go with it at the link.

25 STADIUM ANTHEMS, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot.

A&R 101: Don Grierson, a record industry veteran who helped shepherd acts including the Beatles, Little River Band, Heart and Tina Turner, is teaching the Internet generation.

HOW TO SAVE ROCK & ROLL, according to nine insiders asked by Rolling Stone.

THE HEAVY METAL BAND NAME CHART: Don't miss it.

BRADGELINA were... wait for it... caught canoodling at a Golden Globes afterparty, where onlookers commented on Jolie's semmingly frozen face.

TOM BRADY & GISELE BUNDCHEN engaged? This time for sure?  Nothing up their sleeves? Presto?

KATE HUDSON & A-ROD getting cozy?

AMY WINEHOUSE is getting divorced by her recently incarcerated hubby, Blake Fielder-Civil.

ISLA FISHER says she's "very close" to marrying Sasha Baron Cohen, And again jokes that she's close to a bipolar nymphomaniac.

BRITNEY SPEARS loses a lucrative relationship with OK! magazine.

MEGAN FOX made a number of wacky comments on her way into the Golden Globes Awards.

SETH ROGEN has written an episode of The Simpsons and has cast himself as a lead character.

DC MOVIES currently over at Warner Bros. have been put on hold for the time being, according to writer-director David Goyer.

IRAN: A hidden camera catches an Iranian cleric committing adultery, and the video rockets around the blogosphere, where a new generation can finally skirt state censorship.

AFGHANISTAN: Australian special forces have killed a Taliban commander involved in recruiting suicide bombers and foreign fighters in Afghanistan, Australia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

IRAQ: Local security forces say they have captured leading Sunni militant Tha'ir Kadhim Sraiwi.

NINJA KITTEN: Let's go to the video.

KITTEN NAMING erupts into domestic violence.

CATS & DOGS, living together... he should have known better.

PIG catches a fish. Pic at the link.

BABY GORILLA debuts at the National Zoo: "Awwww," the small crowd murmured as Mandara and the baby settled onto a straw-cozy ledge for a midday feeding...

GLASVEGAS guitarist Rab Allan talks to Straight about the year that saw him leave his Rocky-esque day job. Bassist Paul Donoghue talks to the San Jose Mercury News about the evolution of the band's sound.  And the combo returned to the US, playing "Geraldine" for Dave in the Ed Sullivan Theater.

M WARD talks to Billboard about the broader production on his upcoming album, which will have cameos from Lucinda Williams, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle and Ward's She & Him partner, Zooey Deschanel.

MERZ did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, one previously unreleased. "The absolutely ideal opening paragraph to an essay about UK songwriter Merz would be a verbatim pasting of the lyrics to 'The Rainbow Connection.'" But he doesn't sound like Kermit.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN played the Bowery Ballroom on Friday; you can download the show via nyctaper.

SHARON LITTLE, who has been opening for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss on tour, played the World Cafe on Friday, so you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

BETTYE LaVETTE: The NYDN has reaction to the R&B vet's re-invention of The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me" at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.

IGGY & THE STOOGES: Mike Watt, bassist for the Minutemen, Firehose and the reunited Stooges, remembers the late Ron Asheton.  Canada's Globe & Mail caught up with Iggy on the set of a vampire movie before Asheton's death.

ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS frontman Antony Hegarty talks to The Scotsman about the band's upcoming LP and the forehead as billboard.

AMY WINEHOUSE has been targeted by Islamic extremists.

MERLE HAGGARD is suing environmental activists for misusing his name.

THE GOLDEN GLOBES went to these folks --  and to Kate Winslet twice. Slumdog Millionaire won Best Drama; Vicky Cristina Barcelona won Best Comedy or Musical.  30 Rock won Best TV Comedy; Mad Men won Best TV Drama. Photos here.

JOHN TRAVOLTA, mourning the death of his 16-year-old son Jett,  canceled his appearance at the Golden Globe Awards.

MICHAEL C. HALL eloped with Dexter co-star Jennifer Carpenter on New Years Eve.

PRINCE HARRY who wore a Nazi uniform to a 2005 costume party, was caught on video making racial remarks to fellow British soldiers.

FERGIE & JOSH DUHAMEL got hitched in Malibu over the weekend.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Gran Torino gets the checkered flag in a massive 29 million dollar upset, about 10 million more than most predictions.  This weekend pays for the 25 million production budget and may put Clint Eastwood into the Best Actor race when Oscar noms come out on the 22nd.  This weekend is the biggest of Clint Eastwood's career -- unless you just for inflation, which would put the opening of 1978's Every Which Way But Loose on top, but shhh.  The debuts of Bride Wars and The Unborn were left in mortal combat for second and third place, with the brides on top by about 500K with 21.5 million.  And these are the estimates; the actuals might but the horror filck ahead.  Bride Wars is more likely to have legs, though; last year's 27 Dresses opened in the same ballpark and ended up with over 70 million total.  Marley & Me dropped a surprising 53 percent to fourth place with 11.4 million. Benjamin Button dropped big, but will cross the 100 million mark by next weekend.  Indeed, there were a lot of big drops below the fold, including Bedtime Stories, Valkyrie, and Seven Pounds.  Oscar bait like Slumdog Millionarie and Doubt dropped back out of the Top Ten.

BRADGELINA:  Jolie, who has been lying low since the birth of her 5-month-old twins, is thinking about a brief return to film.  Shocka.

PATRICK SWAYZE was hospitalized for pneumonia on Friday. His co-stars are upbeat that the cancer-stricken actor will recover.

GLOBAL WARMING: Accelerated by the Internet.  And yet Al Gore invented the Internet.  The irony.

PAKISTAN: The Taliban launched a major assault on a Frontier Corps base housing an elite counterterrorism force early Sunday morning, sparking a battle that killed at least 10 Pakistani paramilitary troops and more than 40 Taliban fighters.

IRAN: Buried in an NYT story headlined "U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site" is news that the 140-page classified version of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate suspected that Iran had 10 or 15 other nuclear-related facilities, never opened to international inspectors, where enrichment activity, weapons work or the manufacturing of centrifuges might be taking place. The IAEA and analysts across the political spectrum were highly skeptical of the declassified NIE at the time.  So two questions that might be asked are about the political motives behind the declassified version and why the NYT is even now burying the lede.  And the answer to that second question might help explain why the NYT is at serious risk of going bankrupt this year.  Meanwhile, Iran is using front companies to buy tech for roadside bombs to kill US troops in Iraq.

IRAQ: Local forces are developing engineering capabilities, including explosive ordinance disposal; current plans are to fill out the Iraqi Army engineers during 2009 and 2010.

MOOSE take a helicopter ride from Utah to Colorado. UNRELATED: Baby moose falls into a basement bedroom in Spokane, WA.

BATS & MAGGOTS ruin a honeymoon.

THE BIRDS: After gulls attack a couple in Laguna Beach, the man is charged with animal cruelty for fighting back.

PET HOARDING: 180 stranded kittens rescued by scary-looking bikers.

MILITANT GOOSE knocks out power to 600 homes... in the village of Goosnargh.  No word on squirrel involvement... yet.