THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...STREAMING FROM THE CASTLE EAST! This fan-made 1973 video for "The Monster Mash" is today's must-see clip (natch), though you can also see Bobby "Boris" Pickett perform it live at Little Steven's Halloween a Go-Go 2005. The covers by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Misfits are pretty good also -- the latter uses clips from the Rankin-Bass animated classic, Mad Monster Party.

THE SHAGGS: It's Halloween!

JIM CARROLL, who recently died, sings about "People Who Died."

BEST AND WORST SONGS ABOUT DEATH, according to ClashMusic.

THE TEN BEST HALLOWEEN SONGS, with embedded audio, according to the AOL Radio Blog.  (There's also a click-through to AOL's Halloween radio channel.)

GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE: A haunted mix, spanning the genres, via NPR.

HALLOWEEN A/V: PopMatters' streaming Halloween videos and audio, from Bauhaus to Tegan & Sara to Stevie Wonder to AC/DC to Cream... has taken some hits from the lawyers since last year, including the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer,"  Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising," and Santana's "Black Magic Woman."  But my fave may still be Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

WARREN ZEVON is on that PopMatters list, but I prefer a live trifecta of "Werewolves of London," "Excitable Boy" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner."

ZOMBEATLES: The Fab Gore.

HENRI MANCINI: "Experiment in Terror." A sentimental favorite to those who grew up watching "Creature Features" on WGN before it went superstation.

KISS got their first television exposure in 1976 on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.

"DO THEY KNOW IT'S HALLOWEEN?" is the all-star charity send-up of Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" featuring Roky Erikson, Elvira, plus members from Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Smoosh, Rilo Kiley, Sparks and many more.

TRICK OR TREAT BIN:  From Barenaked Ladies to Run-DMC, from Iggy Pop to the Evangelicals, from The Who to Imogene Heap, plus R.E.M., the New York Dolls, Bow Wow Wow, Alex Chilton, Van She, Devo and more  -- this Friday's Halloween-themed finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

THE TIME WARP:  Let's do it again.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's sole new wide release is Michael Jackson's This Is It, currently scoring 81 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.

"THRILLER": Speaking of the late Jacko, I'll throw in the original 13-minute classic in addition to the filipino prisoners.

MARTIN SCORSESE shares his favorite horror movies of all time. Plus, watch clips of the scariest scenes.

THE 11 BEST OLD SCHOOL HORROR TRAILERS, according to Maxim magazine. Yeah, I read it for the articles.

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, in its entirety, Charlie Brown.  Every year, the bootleg video rises from the Internet patch.

FIVE THINGS you may not know about Halloween.

THE WOLFMAN has a new trailer online.

THE HORRIBLY SLOW MURDERER With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon. Ten minutes of unimaginable terror.

WAR of the WORLDS:  Seventy-one years later, you can stream the infamous Orson Welles broadcast from the Internet Archive.

THE WILHELM SCREAM: The repeatedly used film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums, now appearing as an in-joke in many films, is the subject of a Masters of Horror segment.

31 CLASSIC HALLOWEEN TV EPISODES AND SPECIALS, according to Zap2It.

23 UNUSUAL VAMPIRE VARIATIONS, courtesy of The A.V. Club.

13 CEMETERY ROAD: Ed and Trish Leahy couldn't help but develop a tradition of decorating their yard for Halloween.

THE MOST INAPPROPRIATE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES POSSIBLE, according to the HuffPo.

END CAT: Jake receives transmissions from the future.

MYSTERY LUMP mistaken for an alien on the beach.

A DOZEN ANIMALS ELECTROCUTED in northwestern Montana, including a wolf that was "still warm" when it was found.

HALLOWEEN may not be for pets, but when has that stopped anyone?

TED LEO plays a new song, "One Polaroid A Day," at CMJ.

THE PIXIES: Captain's Dead has Doolittle from Brussels to stream or download.

FREELANCE WHALES gets a World Cafe twofer streaming via NPR.

CHOIR OF YOUNG BELIEVERS stripped down for mini-set from CMJ for KEXP.

DEER TICK stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set streaming in audio or video.

ERIN McKEOWN stopped by WFUV for a session streaming on demand.

TEGAN and SARA play "Hell."

RANDOM VINYL: The Current spins tracks from Prince, Pete Townshend, Johnny Cash, Simon and Garfunkel, and Haircut 100.

LED ZEPPELIN: Rarely seen photos from an upcoming book are posted at RS.

EL PERRO DEL MAR: Sarah Assbring talks to Interview about Bertolucci, why so many Swedes prefer singing in English, and her fears of opening up the creative process to the unknown.

FLOGGING MOLLY multi-instrumentalist Bridget Regan talks to ChartAttack about their most recent album, their Canadian excursion and their ongoing growth as a band.

MIKE DOUGHTY talks to Glide about the his album, his musical direction, the Question Jar shows and how his many projects fit together.

ENNIO MORRICONE: The legendary Italian maestro responsible for some of the most iconic film scores in history talks to PopMatters.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS: The latest from Terry Gilliam -- and the last from Heath Ledger -- has a bunch of clips online.

ANDRE AGASSI began regularly using crystal meth in the late 90s.

BRANGELINA EXPOSED: Us magazine teases highlights of the upcoming expose book.

KRISTEN STEWART and ROBERT PATTINSON: Dunzo?

JESSICA SIMPSON got a traditional bindi dot and a henna tattoo on her hand while in India filming her reality TV show The Price Of Beauty.

DITA VON TEESE went under the knife for a boob job at the age of 21 - because years of drug abuse had ravaged her body.

PEE-WEE HERMAN: 57-year-old Paul Reubens is profiled at Details.

THE SIXTH SENSE: Military researchers have found that two groups of personnel are particularly good at spotting buried roadside bombs: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed through the woods as youths looking to bag a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in tough urban neighborhoods, where it is often important to know what gang controls which block.

AFGHANISTAN: The NYT reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.  The Karzais fiecely deny the claim and blame it on enemies of the Afghan regime and the NYT.  True or not, it is likely believed in country, and the more interesting story may be who leaked it and why.

CAT LADIES, a documentary about you-know-who, has a trailer online.

BABY TAZMANIAN DEVILS! The Taronga Zoo is not sure about the father.  Pic at the link.

BOLIVIAN CIRCUS ANIMALS, freed under a new law, face an uncertain future.

KOI CARP, drinking from a baby bottle.

A 5-FT GATOR was found in a leech-filled swamp... in Massachusetts?

U2 AT THE ROSE BOWL: If you missed it Sunday night, it's all on U2ube. 

JAY FARRAR and BEN GIBBARD played music from their Kerouac-themed album at DC's 9:30 Club Tuesday night; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. did six free songs for Daytrotter, two previously unrleased. 

HA HA TONKA did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

CARLY SIMON did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, including "You're So Vain."

MARINA and the DIAMONDS seem pretty flexible in the video for "Mowgli's Road."

THE FLAMING LIPS: Wayne Coyne talks to Pitchfork about the new Embryonic album -- how it came together, the shift in direction, what it might mean for their live show.

THE RAVEONETTES: Sune Rose Wagner talks to the Detroit News, while Sharin Foo talks to ChartAttack.

THE SWELL SEASON is profiled in the New York Post.

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE: Erlend Øye chats with PopMatters about the influence of French house music, his hatred of flutes, and why his dashing musical partner is such a hit with teenage Korean girls.

BORED NEW WORLD: How the Zach Braff Prototype Is Slowly Killing American Music.

DAVID LETTERMAN: One of the few women ever to write for Late Night with David Letterman, Nell Scovell remembers a hostile, sexually charged atmosphere.

ANGELINA JOLIE bedded her mother's boyfriend when she was just 16, according to a bombshell new biography penned by controversial writer Andrew Morton.

SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW: Together again?

ROMAN POLANSKI's rape victim asked a Los Angeles court to drop the charges against the director, claiming the media attention interferes with her employment and health.  That would be a bit tricky, considering Polanski has in fact been convicted of the crime.  Her desire for closure and privacy is understandable, but the reason criminal cases are brought by "the State" or "the People" is because the system exists not merely to serve victims, but also society at large.  Private justice gets served by the civil system, where this woman has negotiated a sizable monetary settlement with Polanski -- a fact left out of this story, and almost every story about her.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN canceled a concert in Kansas City after his cousin was found dead in his hotel room.

RENEE ZELLWEGER is getting ready to "meet the parents" - Bradley Cooper's parents, that is.

ROSIE O' DONNELL told Howard Stern that she and longtime lover Kelli Carpenter are kaput without actually saying it.  O'Donnell also claimed she had a phone fling with Angelina Jolie, before she hit the big time.

THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY tried to have a Nightline piece on the church's bizarre founding mythology spiked. Shocka!

TERROR from the USA: Two men from Chicago have been charged with plotting overseas attacks, including on the Danish newspaper which published cartoons about Islam.

IRAN is already trying to change the UN-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing. Shocka!

IRAQ: The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq took credit for the Oct. 25 suicide attacks in Baghdad that killed more than 155 Iraqis. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war.

SHARK ON SHARK VIOLENCE: Let's go to the video. What say you, Police Chief Brody?

A ROBOTIC ELK is helping Oregon wildlife officials catch poachers.

WIGS FOR CATS: Just in time for Halloween!

SPIDERS and SNAKES: After finding a tarantula in a 22-year-old's bag, Norwegian customs officials decided to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings - one for each snake - taped around his torso.

GRIEVING CHIMPS? A a phalanx of more than a dozen chimpanzees stood in silence watching from behind the wire of their enclosure as the body of one of their own was wheeled past.  Sad pic at the link.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND plays a new song, "Cousins," on the MTV of the Great White North.

NEW RELEASES: Tegan and Sara, The Swell Season, Rod Stewart, Kraftwerk and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

EDWARD SHARPE and the MAGNETIC ZEROS play a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES: Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones have posted their first full studio track, "New Fang,"

TORI AMOS played a mini-set for the World Cafe, streaming on demand via NPR.

JASON and the SCORCHERS cover "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and play "Harvest Moon" for Twofer Tuesday.

MORRISSEY was discharged from the hospital after collapsing on stage on Saturday evening with apparent breathing difficulties.

THE Q AWARDS went to these folks.

NICOLE ATKINS talked to the California Literary Review on the Jersey shore in winter, songwriting, going indie, and more...

NELS CLINE talks to Paste about how Wilco (The Album) is going over live, his most recent solo album and Wilco's plans to begin recording new material in January.

V: The first nine minutes of the miniseries reboot.

PAUL HAGGIS, the Oscar-winning writer-director whose credits include "Crash," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," has left the Church of Scientology... and leaked a scathing letter explaining his reasons.

SANDRA BULLOCK is in a child custody battle with a former adult film starlet.

JUDE LAW's latest baby mama sold photos of the newborn to Hello magazine for about 300K.

ELISABETH MOSS and FRED ARMISEN got hitched in New York, though not on Saturday Night.

IVANKA TRUMP wed Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer, in a ceremony at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday.

SUZANNE SOMERS is not exactly an expert on cancer treatment, surprisingly enough.

JON and KATE: Fmr. reality star Jon Gosselin has complied with a court order to return money missing from the couple's joint bank account - but Jon says Kate has yet to account for how she spent 33K in cash withdrawals.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has the suits talking about a sequel, because we all know how well Blair Witch 2 did.

COCKTAIL may be headed to Broadway... will Katie Holmes be in it?

PAKISTAN arrested 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards for illegally entering the country from Iran.

AFGHANISTAN: Pres. Karzai questioned the reliability of the US as a partner, as he fought off criticism of his government's legitimacy following fraud-marred elections.

IRAQ: Baghdad seems resilient in the wake of two massive car bombs at the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial administration.  Calling the bombings an attack on the national unity government, Iraqi leaders swiftly responded with a compromise agreement on a new election law that had eluded them for weeks and threatened to delay national elections scheduled for January.

TURTLE LOVES WOK: Really, really.

A DEER broke into a Chinese restaurant in Middletown, PA.  Video at the link. I preeemptively denounce myself for wondering whether it went back a half-hour later, especially because the deer met an untimely end.

SMUGGLING A CHIHUAHUA: Nabbed in Dublin. X-Ray at the link.

A YORKSHIRE TERRIER outs a cheating wife.

AN ARMADA OF GIANT JELLYFISH drifts ever closer to the Sea of Japan coastline, so Japanese businesses are devising ways to make money from the creatures.

JEMIMA PEARL goes a bit 80s in "I Hate People," featuring Iggy Pop and Thurston Moore.

ANDREW BIRD played the World Cafe on Friday; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

PATRICK WATSON played NYC's Mercury Lounge as part of the CMJ Music Festival; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

PATTERSON HOOD played a mini-set for the World Cafe, streaming on demand via NPR.

REM: Michael Stipe talks to NPR about the band's new double album, Live at the Olympia.

WATCH THE BEATLES rehearse "I Should Have Known Better" from a BBC control room.

MORRISSEY canceled a concert after collapsing on stage after just one song.

THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN: Thao Nguyen talks to OregonLive and Paste, with embedded audio at the latter.

THE ZOMBIES classic, Odessey and Oracle, is on sale as an MP3 LP at Amazon for about two bucks. (Thx, LHB.)

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME: Its 25th anniversary concerts' lineups, and the institution itself, are worth arguing about.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Paranormal Activity rises to the top slot with 22 million -- marking perhps the most successful platform release in history, as a home video production that cost 18K -- and which Paramount paid 300K to distribute -- has made 62.5 million ahead of the Halloween weekend.  Saw VI comes in second with 14.8 million -- the pic cost a mere 11 million, but prior installments of the franchise routinely opened in the 30 million range.  Where the Wild Things Are drops to third, with 14.4 million -- a 56 percent drop suggesting it did not connect with younger kids and will likely need overseas receipts and DVD sales to recoup its 100 million budget. Law Abiding Citizen held pretty well at No.4, taking in 12.7 million.  Couples Retreat rounds out the Top Five with 11 million, which puts the total above its 70 million budget.  Below the fold, Astro Boy debuted in sixth with seven million against a 65 million budget. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant debuted at No.8 with 6.3 million against a 40 million budget.  Amelia debuted near-wide at No. 11, making 4 million against a 40 million budget.

THE FRENCH HOTEL, who was burglarized last year of an estimated two million bucks in jewelry, has gotten most of her valuables returned by the LAPD.

KATE HUDSON has A-Rod flirting with Buddhism?

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE got a restraining order against a trespasser.

BRAD PITT was in a minor motorcycle accident, after being struck by paparazzi.

LINDSAY LOHAN is getting desperate enough to work for free.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson baby mama Oksana Grigorieva is refusing his prenup offer, according to the National Enquirer.

ROBIN WRIGHT PENN can't wait to get divorced.

JON and KATE could be back in court today over 151K.

RACHEL EVAN WARD and DITA VON TEESE had an awkward run-in at a fashion event.

THE A-TEAM: Your first look at the new crew.

ISLAMISM in DENMARK: Danish police said on Thursday that a Palestinian father had hit a primary school teacher and bitten his ear after he had shaken the hand of the man's daughter.

IRAN: Influential Iranian lawmakers criticized a UN-drafted agreement that requires Tehran to send its atomic stockpile abroad for processing. Iranian state media has raised new conditions for the deal.

PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces Saturday captured the hometown of the chief of the country's Taliban movement, officials announced, the first big gain in the weeklong ground offensive in South Waziristan. A suicide bomber attacked a suspected nuclear-weapons site Friday.

IRAQ: Two synchronized suicide car bombings struck at the heart of the Iraqi government, severely damaging the Justice Ministry and provincial council complexes, leaving leaving at least 132 dead and more than 520 wounded, and raising new questions about the government's ability to secure its most vital operations.

THIS CAT betrayed his girlfriend.

WHY DOGS don't like Halloween.

TEACUP PIGS are all the rage in Britain right now. Slideshow at the link.

RAT STUCK IN THE SIDEWALK: Awww... poor rat.