OKKERVIL RIVER releases "Lost Coastlines" as the first band video for the Stand-Ins album.

6 AM WAKEUP CALL: A streaming playlist for those days when you need more than two cups of coffee, courtesy of NPR.

LED ZEPPELIN REUNION may well be back on, accoring to the Sun, which was first with the news of last year's O2 gig.

DAR WILLIAMS sets a segment + songs on Weekend Edition Sunday on NPR.

KIM GORDON of Sonic Youth talks to the San Francisco Bay Guardian about collaboaring with women, the nature of the bass and more.  She has also launched a clothing line for cool Moms called Mirror/Dash with her friends Melinda Wansbrough and Jeffrey Monteiro.

HA HA TONKA adds some trippy animation to the Americana of "Caney Mountain," from the Buckle in the Bible Belt album.

DAVID CROSBY lists a few of his favorite things for Drowned In Sound, revealing that they are pretty much unchanged in the last 40 years.

THE WATSON TWINS' Leigh Watson shuffles her iPod for The A.V. Club in the current Random Rules segment.

MERCURY REV talks about making an album with "instruments" created by strangers on the Internet with software called Reaktor (which is pretty amazing; I have the lite version, Dynamo).

FLAMING LIPS: Wayne Coyne talks to IFC about the band's long-awaited animated film, Christmas On Mars.

PAUL NEWMAN, one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars, a race car driver, entrepreneur and a great philanthropist, died Friday of cancer at 83.  The NYT surveys his career fairly well, so I'll add that Newman knew his strengths, primarily playing roles in which the seemingly unprincipled or dissolute man who really was more alienated or lonely.  Moreover, around the time of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," he seemed to drop some of the intensity of Method Acting and seemed to settle more into his own skin.  Whether that reflected a change in his personal life or his method, it was (imho) a major reason why his career lasted beyond the 60s. I wish more praise had been given to his roles in The Verdict and Nobody's Fool before his death, but that's the way things go. The Academy had already given him a lifetime award and an Oscar for The Color of Money, so his later work tended to get overlooked. Newman was the first guest on Inside the Actor's Studio, which has been Tubed in seven parts: Part One, Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six and Part Seven.  ALSO: Newman's philanthropic legacy will continue.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Eagle Eye led the weekend with 29.2 million -- impressive for a poorly-reviewed September Hitchcock rehash from the team that did the same with Disturbia.  Nights in Rodanthe served up the romantic counter-programming with 13.6 million -- a welcome relief for Richard Gere, but perhaps not a big enough relief without some legs.  Lakeview Terrace slid to third place with seven million, but has already exceeded its production budget.  Fireproof debuted in fourth with 6.5 million, which is gret, based on its shoestring budget and low screen count.  Whether it has legs beyond churchgoers remains to be seen.  The Coen Bros' Burn After Reading rounds out the Top Five with 6.1 million and seems to be earning  nice profit.  Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna debuted in ninth place, making 3.5 million against a 45 million budget. Ouch.  Righteous Kill and My Best Friend's Girl are shaping up as flops also.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON & RYAN REYNOLDS done got hitched on an island off the coast of Vancouver.

HEATH LEDGER: The late actor's entire estate, estimated to be worth 20 million dollars, will go to two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose.

GEORGE CLOONEY will play the Lone Ranger to Johnny Depp's Tonto. The film will be written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who also scripted the Pirates Of The Caribbean films.

HEATHER LOCKLEAR was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of driving while impaired.  Guess the rehab thing may not have been a total success.

RUSSELL CROWE jokes that his 2-year-old son is already betrothed to the daughter of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman.

ISLAMISM in the UK: The daughter of firebrand cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed turns out to be a busty, blonde, topless, tattooed pole dancer.  Bakri, now exiled to Lebanon, dismissed the news as a ' fabrication' and described it as an attack on him and Islam.  Generally SFW pic at the link.

IRAN: Russia and the US have reached a deal to seek a new UN resolution on Iran, but without imposing new sanctions. Pres. Bush told Israeli PM Olmert he would not back an attack on Iran, according to senior European diplomatic sources.

IRAQ: The Iraqi and US military have stepped up operations against the Iranian-backed Special Groups over the past two weeks. killing two fighters and capturing 107 since Sept. 16.

SPIDER VS. SNAKE: You migh bet on the snake, but you would be wrong.

SNAKE in an AIRPORT: Austin Energy officials say a snake crawling into electrical equipment caused a "flash over," which knocked out power to parts of Austin's airport.

A BAT does not give coffee a distinct flavor?

PET HOARDING: Some 83 parakeets were voluntarily surrendered by a Peabody, MA man who had been keeping them in his basement.  Video at the link.

WHEN PETS CHEAT: Some cats and dogs ditch their owners for someone they like better.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE WHO!  Mostly because I was in the mood, but also because I noticed the resurfacing of the infamous Cow Palace Incident (1973, San Francisco), with Scot Halpin. So let's add three tracks from the Charlton Athletic Grounds in 1974: "Substitute," "Bell Boy"  and "Baba O'Riley."  And amped-up takes on "Join Together" and "Squeeze Box" at the Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland, OH from 1975. 

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FEST: Sets from Jamie Lidell, Vampire Weekend, The Old 97s, Drive-By Truckers, Man Man, Conor Oberst, John Fogerty, Nicole Atkins, Neko Case, Okkervil River, The Raconteurs, Tegan & Sara and many more will be streaming this weekend from the AT&T Blue Room, starting this afternoon.

ROBERT POLLARD talks to Youngstown, Ohio's Vindicator about GbV, his new album and his new band, Boston Spaceships, which may release three LPs a year. Pollard tells the Cleveland Free Times that the Spaceship songs aere "silly and filled with sexual innuendos and things a 50-year-old man shouldn't be doing. I guess it's a middle-age crisis." (Thx, LHB.)

CENTRO-MATIC does the six free songs thing for Daytrotter.

PETER HOOK talks to Drowned In Sound about New Order re-issues, the Factory legacy and staying relevant.

DUMPTRUCK: "Back Where I Belong," in the grooveyard of forgotten favorites.

THE 10 WORST #1 SONGS, according to Spike, starting with

SPIRITUALIZED stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.

THE BLACK KEYS: Patrick Carney talks to the Houston Chronicle about the Hadron Supercollider, G.I. Joe, Akron, etc.

THE RAVEONETTES: Sharin Foo announces the birth of Molly Foo Edwards. Congrats to her!

CUTOUT BIN: From Ian Hunter to Gary Numan, from the MC5 to Kim Wilde, from Barrett Strong to Billy Bragg to the Beach Boys and the Byrds, plus the Young Fresh Fellows, Jr. Walker & the All-Starss, the Seeds, Super Furry Animals and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Eagle Eye, which is currently scoring xx percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Nights In Rodanthe, which is currently scoring xx percent; Miracle at St. Anna, which is scoring xx percent; and the near-wide Fireproof, which appears to have gone unscreened for critics.

JOHNNY DEPP has agreed to return as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth Pirates pic; play Tonto in a bigscreen adaptation of The Lone Ranger; and star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's 3-D animated version of Alice in Wonderland.

BRITNEY SPEARS and Fed-Ex are reportedly undergoing couples counselling to rebuild their relationship in the hope that they can raise their two sons as a family, according to the ever-reliable National Enquirer. Spears will likely perform on the hit Brit music show X-Factor, according to Simon Cowell.

PAUL McCARTNEY played Tel Aviv and visited the birthplace of Christ, along with 5000 bodyguards. The security drive dwarfs the protection given to Pres. Bush when he visited Israel.

KIRSTEN DUNST & JUSTIN LONG are dunzo, with Dunst as the dumpor and Lond as the dumpee, according to In Touch.

THE 25 HOTTEST ACTORS UNDER 25, according to Moviefone, which means you should read it with the mental voice of the Moviefone Dude.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS fielded questions about the financial turmoil shaking world markets from reporters recalling his role in the 1987 film "Wall Street." Yes, really.

JENNIFER ANISTON is back in contact with John Mayer and longing for a reconciliation, according to the MailOnline.

RUSSIA bans The Simpsons as unpatriotic.

TERROR in the UK: A British Muslim was a senior al-Qaeda leader who kept a terrorist contact book containing telephone numbers and emails written in invisible ink, a court has heard.

IRAN: Russia's announced earlier this week that it is no longer willing to support the UN Security Council's permanent members' proposal for further sanctions against Iran.

IRAQ: Bing West has a piece in The Atlantic detailing how gritty work by US troops helped nurture the Awakening movement in Anbar province: "It is incorrect to say AQI "overplayed its hand," as if war were poker. The Americans at the squad level had shown for two years that they were both stronger and more decent than AQI."  Violence during Ramadan is 82 percent less when compared with levels in 2007.

COW!  And... COW!

SELF-MILKING COWS: New Zealand's first robotic dairy farm is now up and running, complete with milking robots that allow the cows to choose their own milking time. Video at the link.

BUMPER the TABBY CAT was so determined to get to the seaside that he travelled there by clinging to the underside of a camper van.

HORSE MASSAGE: Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

A SNAKE fails to eat a toad. Pics at the link.

COLD WAR KIDS make "Something Is Not Right With Me" the first video from their new album.

REGINA SPEKTOR played a set at Mountain Stage; you can stream the whole gig on demand via NPR.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS played a mini-set at Mountain Stage; you can stream it on demand via NPR.

RANDY NEWMAN talks to the Philadelphia Inquirer about presenting a worldview more askew than pop consumers are after. 

TEGAN QUIN of Tegan & Sara talks to AfterEllen about being covered by dudes and such.

SUZANNE VEGA blogs at the NYT about in-ear monitors and -- more importantly -- the story of the "Tom's Diner" remixes. So here is the original "Tom's Diner" as well as the DNA remix.  It's like twofer Tuesday, but on Thursday.

THE KINKS: Ray Davies has said the band are "three quarters of the way there" for a possible reunion, with his brother's health being a key issue. "The amazing thing is that The Kinks are the only band, of that period, where the only original members are still alive," he added.

DAR WILLIAMS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

INDIE LABELS may sue the the new MySpace Music service on antitrust grounds.

SILVER JEWS: David Berman talks to Drowned In Sound about the downside of being a good lyricist and more...

NATALIE PORTMAN has split with her boyfriend, freak-folk musician Devendra Banhart.

LINDSAY LOHAN's ex-con dad calls her galpal Samantha Ronson "dark, hideous and a disgusting representation of humanity." NTTAWWT.  Meanwhile, the ever relaible Star magazine claims that Li-Lo has been seen drinking, snorting cocaine and sporting cuts on her arms.

DREW BARRYMORE was... wait for it... caught canoodling on camera with Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick.  And it's not the first time for them making out, apparently.

LEIGHTON MEESTER, another Gossip Girl star, talks with Us Weekly about being born behind bars. I hope this marks the last time I ever have two Gossip Girl related items in a single day.

NICOLE KIDMAN has attributed her miracle pregnancy to a dip in a waterfall in Australia's famous Outback.  Whereas my theory is that Keith Urban not be ing Tom Cruise had something to do with it.

SYNEDOCHE, NEW YORK: The new film from the always strange and usually wonderful Charlie Kaufman now has a trailer online.

JENNA FISCHER (a/k/a Pam of The Office) has named writer Lee Kirk her "super cute boyfriend."

GEORGIA, GEORGIA: Blogger Michael J. Totten takes you on a photo-filled road-trip to Borjomi, an area that by all accounts was bombed by Russian jets, but was never occupied or controlled by its ground troops.

NORTH KOREA has expelled UN monitors from its plutonium-making nuclear plant and plans to start reactivating it next week, rowing back from a 2007 deal to scrap its atomic bomb program.

IRAN: The government's Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults has developed an Islamic version of Barbie-style dolls as an antidote to the "harmful" influence of dolls and accessories from America.

IRAQ: Parliament unanimously approved a provincial elections law after resolving objections over power-sharing in the province that includes the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

SUNNY THE CAT, one of many strays recued by Don and Cindy White of Hampshire, is likely the result of inbreeding. With Yoda.

TERROR PIG UPDATE:  The pony-size pig who held an Australian woman hostage for 10 days inside her home was to be removed on Wednesday to a piggery, where his bacon will be saved by a stint on stud duties, rangers said.

HUNDREDS OF ASIAN SWAMP EELS found slithering and breeding around Silver Lake in Gibbsboro, NJ.

A DR. SEUSS-LIKE DINOSAUR dug up near Red Deer, Alberta, is the smallest such species ever discovered in North America, say researchers. Pic at the link.

CHIMPS can match up the faces of group members with photos of their behinds.  Much like men in bars.

NOAH AND THE WHALE go for a Wes Anderson look in the video for the infectious "Five Years Time."  The song, which has been used in a Saturn commercial, appears on the band's long-overdue Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down album.

JENNY LEWIS is streaming her new Acid Tongue album with help from that Steve Jobs guy.

JULIANA HATFIELD: Largehearted Boy has her playlist for her memoir.  The playlist is a bit of a memoir itself, discussing her first kiss, "the most authentically tortured and anguished vocal performance" she ever witnessed, and so on.

FALL MUSIC PREVIEW:  Tracks from Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Jolie Holland, Eagles of Death Metal and more are freatured in the latest All Songs Considered.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND have a new track, "Ottoman," a new track on the Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, streaming via the 'Gum.

THOSE DANCING DAYS bring the Swedish propulsive pop on "Home Sweet Home."

FRIGHTENED RABBIT vocalist Scott Hutchinson writes about the joys of the road for the Guardian: "I have many wonderful and happy memories already, such as the time we all drank petrol in Kidderminster to celebrate the birthday of Wayne Sleep. Then there was the night in the Nevada desert, when I allowed an angry scorpion to sting my penis repeatedly in an effort to make it look more like a Jesus..."

BEACH HOUSE: You can stream a new single, "Used To Be," via GvsB.

PORTASTATIC: Mac McCaughan talks to Billboard about the Band's 20th anniversary comp and the Merge Records box set.

KINDIE MUSIC: Children's-music blogger Stefan Shepherd compiles streaming tracks from They Might Be Giants, Central Services, and The Nields for All Things Considered.

CHARLIZE THERON swilled a Margarita and sang a karaoke version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Let's go to the video.

CHARLIE SHEEN's pregnant wife, Brooke Mueller, has been discharged from the hospital after emergency gall-bladder surgery -- an operation that can be risky during the early stages of pregnancy.

SHARON STONE has lost physical custody of her 8-year-old son Roan.

MEL GIBSON bought the ocean-view home of sex addict David Duchovny and Téa Leoni for about 11.5 million.

MEG RYAN tells In Style magazine that ex-hubby Dennis Quaid "was not faithful to me for a very long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that after I was divorced."  She also talks about her thing with Russell Crowe.

GWYNETH PALTROW launches Goop.

SAMANTHA RONSON, who is now publicly Lindsay Lohan's galpal, turned down a landmark lesbian watering hole in NYC seeking her DJ services for a charity benefit.

CLAY AIKEN is gay? Who'da thunkit?

IRAN: Pres. Ahmadinejad railed against "Zionist murderers" in a speech to the UN on Tuesday and vowed to resist American bullying and defend Iran's right to nuclear power. He repeatedly referred to what he described as Zionist control over international "financial and monetary centers," a widely discredited accusation that is often associated with anti-Semitism.  Meanwhile, back at home, Christian convert Ramtin Soudmand faces the death penalty after being jailed for the crime of 'ertedad' or abandoning the Muslim faith.

IRAQ: Facing a local population that has grown intolerant of AQI's indiscriminate acts of violence, many AQI operatives have gone underground - some have reportedly formed sleeper cells in the Iraqi security forces. Iraqi authorities are giving former militants, people who committed minor crimes or who are suspected of offences in the once insurgent bastion of Samarra a chance to clear their name if they turn themselves in. Sunni Arab Awakening Councils are showing signs of restiveness as their US-paid leaders face major changes, military sources say. The Long War Journal covers the Iraqi Security Forces logistical organization and development.

A PIG the size of a Shetland pony has been terrorizing a woman in a town in Murwillumbah, Australia.

LOLCATS: A hard-hitting investigative report in the business section of the L.A. Times.

A FAMILY DOG in Alabama brought home a child's foot, but searchers combing surrounding woods found no signs of any other remains and don't know where the child might be.

THE ZOOKEEPER who hand-reared Knut the polar bear and helped turn the animal into a global celebrity has been found dead in his Berlin flat.

GARZILLA: Chad Leonard went looking for catfish in the Georgia's Alapaha River. Instead, he caught a net full of teeth and temper, a state-record longnose gar.

TV ON THE RADIO releases Dear Science today; the new video is "Golden Age."

NEW RELEASES: The Raveonettes, Blitzen Trapper, Golden Smog, Old Crow Medicine Show and Cold War Kids are among those with albums streaming this week via Spinner.

CONOR OBERST talks to Tulsa World about recording, songwriting and why his latest album is not Bright Eyes.

DAVID BYRNE talks to Pitchfork about subjects from music to bike racks.

ANI DI FRANCO did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME nominees are announced.  The Stooges and Wanda Jackson should have gotten in last year!  Future Rock Hall has all the eligibles who have been snubbed.  It's a good excuse to link to the classic Stooges video of "TV Eye" and "1970" from the Cincinnati Pop Festival for your Twofer Tuesday.  BONUS: Wanda Jackson belts out "Hard-Headed Woman" on the old Town Hall Party.

BASIA BULAT is humble about her multi-instrumentalism in the Boston Globe.

NICO: Former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale is curating a tribute to the late chanteuse, with singers including Peter Murphy and Mark Lanegan.

STEVE EARLE talks to amNY about living in the Village.

KID ROCK kept his last album off iTunes and the singles chart.  But he probably made lots more money that way.

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS:  A picture of her brestfeeding her baby has sparked a federal child pornography investigation.

TRAVIS BARKER & DJ AM had Shanna Moakler and Mandy Moore rushing to their hospital beds after surviving that jet crash Friday.

DREW BARRYMORE & KIRSTEN DUNST are getting catty over actor Justin Long.

STEVEN TYLER, Aerosmith frontman, got into Cher's pants.  Literally.

JENNIFER GARNER & BEN AFFLECK are reportedly expecting a boy the second time around.

LINDSAY LOHAN is buying a £2.5 million love-nest in NYC's famous Dakota building for her and galpal Samantha Ronson, according to the uber-reliable News of the World.

THE EMMYS hit an all-time ratings low.  I'm not surprised.  If Mad Men had not been nominated, I would have bailed on that stinker of a show about 5 minutes in.  But I think it also reflects that critically acclaimed like Mad Men, 30 Rock and John Adams did not have big audiences in the first instance.

MAD MEN: Executive producer Matthew Weiner and actors Jon Hamm and John Slattery discuss the madness of Madison Avenue circa 1960 on NPR's Fresh Air (Season One spoilers).  Hamm is hosting SNL on October 25.

IRAN could be hiding a secret nuclear program, according to UN watchdogs. Shocka.

IRAQ: Forced off the streets with diminished political clout, Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia struggle for relevancy.  Meanwhile, Iraqi Shiite fighters who trained inside Iran to operate in assassination squads are starting to return home.

COW gets frisky in Bulgaria.  Was it the mood music?

TEN PIGLETS, in a variety of colors and patterns.  Awww...some pic at the link.

KILLER SLUGS march northward in Sweden. People are getting concerned, slowly.

STOLEN CHIHUAHUA turns up at the vet's office after ingesting meth.

PET RATS and a HAMSTER were rescued in Edinburgh, Scotland after fire crews were alerted by a quick-thinking neighbor.