ST. PATRICK'S DAY STARTS HERE:

...with JOE STRUMMER and THE POGUES!  People will be getting their drink and dance on today, so enjoy Joe, Shane and the band putting a Celtic spin on "London Calling" and "I Fought The Law" for St. Patrick's Day, 1988. Follow that up with the Dropkick Murphys' videos for "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" (which you may have heard in Martin Scorsese's The Departed) and "The Wild Rover."  Round it out with an Old Grey Whistle Test of my fave Pogues song, "Sally MacLennane," and a Shamrock Shake.

SHARON VAN ETTEN, Live In Concert: SXSW 2012.

ANDREW BIRD, Live In Concert: SXSW 2012.

ALABAMA SHAKES, Live In Concert: SXSW 2012.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND cover "The Way You Do The Things You Do" and "634-5789," live at The Apollo.  Plus, The Boss addresses SxSW.

THE SHINS: James Mercer talks to Filter about the themes running through Port of Morrow.

LEE RENALDO talks to the Village Voice about a solo LP it took 30 years to approach.

BOWERBIRDS: Philip Moore and Beth Tacular talk to eMusic about influences, friendships, and the song that makes them cringe.

PETER BUCK is working on a solo LP, according to collaborator (and Young Fresh Fellow) Scott McCaughey.

BILLBOARD launches a Music On Demand chart.

CUTOUT BIN: From Richard Thompson to the B-52s, from the Rplacements to the Jackson 5, from Billy Bragg to Bobby Womack, plus the Byrds & Flying Burrito Brothers, Dinosaur Jr., David Bowie, the Jam and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING:The weekend's sole wide release is 21 Jump Street, which is currently scoring 85 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.  Yes, really.  Top Critics gave it almost identical marks.  Friends With Kids expands to 640 screens, scoring 62 percent.

WHITNEY HOUSTON's Mom Cissy is not thrilled about the apparent relationship between the late singer's daughter and adopted son.

RUSSELL BRAND has been arrested for allegedly grabbing a photog's cell phone and firing it through the window of a New Orleans law firm.

LINDSAY LOHAN: An eyewitness says she did not hit the club manager now threatening legal action.

HEATHER MORRIS (Glee) keeps a sense of humor about her leaked hacked cellphone pics.

JENNIFER LOPEZ wedding rumors denied.

JENNIFER LAURENCE compares the Kardashians to The Hunger Games.

KATE UPTON: Too hot for TV?

INDONESIA: Six major Indonesian Islamic organizations have voiced objections to the gender fairness and equality bill, saying that some articles may harm Islamic values.

SYRIA:The Syrian army attacked the southern city of Deraa with tanks and armored vehicles. Refugees flooded into Turkey. Turkey considered setting up a buffer zone inside Syria.

PAKISTAN: Bin Laden's wives are fighting in prison.

AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban suspended "dialogue" with the US. President Karzai wants NATO forces confined to large bases.

A CAT uses sign language to ask for more food.

ATTEMPTED GOAT STRANGLER sentenced to community detention.

A NEW FROG SPECIES, discovered in... NYC.

REJECTED FRUIT FLIES turn to alcohol as a consolation.

BEST COAST played a new song, "Why I Cry," at the 35 Denton fest.

VAN HUNT is streaming Live at the Troubadour.

CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS joined WNYC Soundcheck in studio for a live performance.

SONDRE LERCHE also joined WNYC Soundcheck in studio for a live performance.

ANDREW BIRD is streaming the making-of his album documentary, Here's What Happened, via iTunes.

JACK WHITE dropped "Sixteen Saltines" in advance of Blunderbuss.

THE IDES OF MARCH, baby! "Vehicle." I'll take you anywhere you wanna go...

STEVE EARLE talks to Rolling Stone about, er, the Rolling Stones.

M WARD talks to Rolling Stone about returing to solo music after some notable collaborations.

THE ROLLING STONES officially pushed back their planned 50th anniversary tour to next year, amid rumors Keith is not actually Undead, but unhealthy.

THE TWILIGHT SAD's James Graham fills out a questionnaire for SXSW.

LINDSAY LOHAN struck a club manager with her car and fled the scene.

CHARLIZE THERON has adopted a baby boy.

WHITNEY HOUSTON's daughter is dating the late singer's adopted son.

PETER FACINELLI & JENNIE GARTH deny rumors that infidelity triggered their divorce.

JESSICA SIMPSON: Really pregnant and really horny.

BRADGELINA wedding rumors. Again from OK! magazine.  Meanwhile, Jolie attended the sentencing of a Congolese warlord at The Hague.

AMERICAN IDOL contestant Jermaine Jones was disqualified for concealing "multiple crimes" and exited the show during Wednesday's broadcast.

JAMES VAN DER BEEK and wife Kimberly welcomed their second child Tuesday morning.

GILLIAN ANDERSON talks about some of her less conventional relationships in Out magazine. The truth is out there.

YEMEN:Salafists formed a political party. Pres Hadi replaced the commanders of several key military units. Fmr Pres Saleh demanded that 10 of his political opponents go into exile along with him.

SYRIAN army troops took control of the northwestern city of Idlib and began attacks on the southern city of Daarah. Saudi Arabia has closed its embassy. Russia said President Assad was too slow in making reforms.

IRAN: A "sophisticated cyber-attack" on the BBC has been linked to Iran's efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service. Meanwhile, although Iran once respected Hamas's wishes and helped maintain a modicum of calm inside Gaza, the gloves are now off. Iran is using its smaller and less-expensive proxies, the PRC and PIJ, to create unrest on Hamas's turf.

AFGHANISTAN: Nato's political envoy in Afghanistan firmly dismissed claims that US-Afghan relations and the planned long-term strategic agreement were under strain following the killing of Afghan civilians by a US soldier.

DOGS are licking cane toads to get high Down Under.

...AND THERE WERE CHICKENS all over the highway.

VAMPIRIC IMPLANTS Turn Snails Into Tiny Recon Scouts.

SHOULD THE WOOLY MAMMOTH BE CLONED? They'll spare no expense.

SHARON VAN ETTEN & SHEARWATER cover Stevie Nicks' duet with Tom Petty, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" for the return of The A.V. Club Undercover.

PAUL WELLER is previewing Sonik Kicks (UK listeners get a full stream).  He talks to The Guardian about his new album, periods of creative block, and more.

THE SHINS are streaming Port of Morrow at iTunes. James Mercer talks to The Line Of Best Fit about kids, Port of Morrow, and more

ATLAS SOUND: Bradford Cox dropped by KEXP to unfold a number of his "Parallax" singles into a live set of sprawling, spiraling sonic landscapes.

THE MELVINS will give you The Bulls and the Bees free for your email address.

MICHAEL HOSSACK, the drummer for Doobie Brothers classics like " "China Grove," "Long Train Runnin" and "Black Water," died Monday at 65, following a battle with cancer. Give the drummer some.

BOWERBIRDS: Philip Moore talks to Paste about The Clearing, its reoccurring themes and his newfound growth.

SXSW: 20 Must See Bands, according to Paste.

JOHNNY GREENWOOD: The Radiohead guitarist's collaboration with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki results in a New York Times profile.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN albums ranked by Nerve and summarized in a tweet by Discographies.

DEMI MOORE is struggling following her discharge from rehab, and is attempting to win her ex Ashton Kutcher back, according to the tabloids.

JESSICA BIEL tells W magazine: "It's time to be very, very bad."

GERARD BUTLER is an accused home-wrecker, according to the ever-reliable RadarOnline.

PETER FACINELLI (Twilight) and JENNIE GARTH (90210) are getting divorced.

RUSSELL BRAND is named as an alleged phone smasher in a police report.

COURTNEY LOVE believes Kermit the Frog and his gang of Muppet friends "raped" the memory of her late husband Kurt Cobain.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR., Secret Celebrity Tattletale?

THE HUNGER GAMES, which opens March 23, is tracking better than The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which opened to 138.1 million, the fifth-best debut of all time.

TERROR in the USA: The ful 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's 22-year sentence for Algerian terrorist Ahmed Ressam as too lenient and remanded the case for resentencing. The al Qaeda operative was arrested in Port Angeles, Wa. in 1999 after disembarking a car ferry from Canada in a vehicle packed with explosives he planned to detonate at LAX airport.

TERROR in BELGIUM: An axe-carrying 34-year-old Muslim man attacked a mosque in Brussels, setting it on fire and killing the mosque's imam. The attacker shouted about Syria and was said to be a Salafist.

THE SWEDEN DEMOCRATS' WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION presented a new internet commercial last week, meant to highlight "honor related violence", an issue they feel is not getting enough media attention.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Flying squirrels are breaking into attics and stockpiling food.  Meanwhile, a militant rodent learns to use a straw.

A GORILLA seems to be on the large in rural Alabama.

A FROG flips off the paparazzi.

LIBBY stopped competing in the Crufts dog show to heed Nature's call.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE's latest video is for "Never Let Me Go."

NEW RELEASES from the Decemberists, Ting Tings, AntiFlag, Delta Spirit, the Doors, Lucero and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

LEE RENALDO is advance streaming Between The Times And The Tides.

REAL ESTATE played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

SXSW: The Free Music Archives has a 100+ song sampler of bands appearing at the Big Fest this week. (Thx, LHB.)

THE HIVES drop "Go Right Ahead" before Lex Hives.

TITUS ANDRONICUS medleyed two new songs, "Ecce Homo" and "Still Life with Hot Deuce AND Silver Platter" at The Stone Pony.

MAGNETIC FIELDS: Stephin Merritt talks to BlackBook about songwriting, Sondheim and Katy Perry.

SHEARWATER: Jonathan Meiburg talks to Rolling Stone about having to change.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS' Patterson Hood talks to Boulder Weekly about the making of Southern Rock Opera, "the album that almost wasn't." (Thx, LHB.)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is an infographic at The Daily.

WHITNEY HOUSTON's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown does not want her dad's name and wants to change it. She also claims Whitney speaks to her in spirit.

HEATHER MORRIS is not filled with Glee after her cellphone was hacked.

RYAN GOSLING & EVA MENDES are rumored to be having a bit of space after six months of dating.

SEAN YOUNG will not face charges from her Oscars afterparty confrontation.

MIKE NICHOLS: The legendary director tells the L.A. Times he is terrified about reviving Death of a Salesman.

ON THE ROAD has a trailer online.

TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN, PART 2 had a sneak peek tacked to the Part 1 DVD available from Target, so of course, it's online now.

ISRAEL: Attacks in Gaza continued for a third day. Israeli airstrikes have killed 18 so far, while Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel injured 4. Israel has intercepted over 40, or 80%, of the rockets this weekend; one landed in a schoolyard. Islamic Jihad and the PRC are believed to have launched the rockets.

EGYPT: After a dozen years in prison, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood becomes the dominant voice in the nation's politics.

IRAN stands by Assad in Syria and blames the US and Arab nations for the bloody unrest shaking its ally.

PAKISTAN invited militant groups including the Taliban for peace talks and said banned organizations would be delisted if they "closed down their militant wings."

A DOG plays the piano and sings. Badly.

GORILLA and BUNNY, living together...

GOPHERS halted trains for hours in Minnesota by gnawing through a gas pipe.

A CHICKEN surprised her owners by laying a massive egg four times larger than normal.

THE SHINS played “Simple Song” and “It’s Only Life” on Saturday Night Live.  They played old and new songs in an NPR Music Presents show at NYC's Le Poisson Rouge.  Also, James Mercer stopped by OPB for a chat and mini-set.

LOST IN THE TREES is advance streaming A Church That Fits Our Needs.

ESPERANZA SPALDING is advance streaming Radio Music Society.

BAHAMAS stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

GUIDED BY VOICES drop "Keep It In Motion" ahead of the forthcoming new album, Class Clown Spots a UFO.

OF MONTREAL drops "Feminine Effects," part of a split single with Deerhoof.

JIMMY ELLIS, the soulful lead singer of the Trammps, whose 1970s hit "Disco Inferno" was immortalized in the film "Saturday Night Fever," died on Thursday at 74 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

ANDREW BIRD talks to Weekend Edition about Break It Yourself, and to Spinner about his new business model, The Muppets, and more.

CRAIG FINN talks to the Allentown Morning Call about strictly solo gigs, the semi-popularity of The Hold Steady and more...

BILLY BRAGG talks to Billboard about the Mermaid Avenue box set of unreleased Woodie Guthrie material performed with Wilco.

OLDIES RADIO and our disappearing pop-culture past.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The Lorax repeats atop the chart with 39.1 million -- a 44 percent drop from its debut, but not bad at all for a March release.  The Seussploitation flick now has 122 million domestic against a 70 million budget.  John Carter debuts in second with 30.6 million -- well ahead of projections in the low 20s, but still way short of what's necessary for a 250 million production budget, even with another 70 million in worldwide receipts (especially since much of the audience was over 50).  Project X shows with 11.6 million, its 40 million total proving again its better to make acheap bad movie than an okay budget-buster.  Silent House opened at No.4 with 7 million, but will likely die quickly on bad word of mouth.  Act of Valor rounded out the Top Five with 7 million and a 56 million total against a 12 million budget.  Below the fold, Eddie Murphy's apparently awful A Thousand Words opened sixth with 6.3 million.  I would be tempted to say career-killing, but this Eddie already has Pluto Nash and Meet Dave on his resume.

BRITNEY SPEARS could fill one of the vacant mentor/judge seats next to Simon Cowell on The X Factor, for the low, low price of 10 million -- but one report has her holding out for 20 million.

JESSICA BIEL got a giant engagement ring from Justin Timberlake.

HALLE BERRY & OLIVIER MARTINEZ confirm their engagement.

HEIDI KLUM talks about her split from Seal, sort of.

MICHAEL MADSEN (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol 2) was arrested in L.A. on suspicion of felony child endangerment.

DENNIS QUAID's wife, Kimberly Buffington-Quaid, is ending their marriage.

DICK VAN DYKE, 86, married his makeup artist, 40-year-old Arlene Silver, on Leap Day.

TERROR in the UK:London resident Shabaaz Hussain was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after he admitted to raising funds for Shabaab.

IRAN: A 30000-lb bunker-buster, designed to smash through some 200 feet of concrete before exploding, could be used by US forces in a clash with Iran over its nuclear program, an Air Force general said on Thursday.

IRAQ: At least 14 youths have been stoned to death in Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appears to be a campaign by Shi'ite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo" clothes and haircuts, security and hospital sources say.

AFGHANISTAN: Kandahar residents are bracing for trouble in the streets after a US soldier went on a shooting rampage and killed 16 people in villages southwest of the Afghan city.

RATATOUILLE the POSSUM snowboards.  ALSO: Possums invade Toronto.

PENGUINS PETE & PENNY roamed Delta Flight 486 from Atlanta to New York, en route to the NYC premiere of Discovery Channel's Frozen Planet. Video at the link.

PYGMY GOAT wreaks havoc in Muskegon County's Ravenna Township.

DOLPHINS strand themselves, but are rescued by a dozen beachgoers in Brazil.