THE AVETT BROTHERS played "I and Love and You" at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE stopped by the World Cafe for a mini-set streaming on demand via NPR.

WILL HOGE and LANGHORNE SLIM played the World Cafe Friday; the whole show is streaming via NPR.

THE POSTMARKS played a set at KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. 

LOS CAMPESINOS have a new single, "There Are Listed Buildings", streaming at their blog.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS dropped a video for "Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace" at P-fork.

ROSANNE CASH thalks to the New York Times about The List album, out tomorrow.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS talks to the Village Voice about getting paid 250 bucks for her first record, Mad Men, and her favorite place in NYC.

MEYER HAWTHORNE talks to the Village Voice about cassette players, breaking the rules of soul music, and convincing his boss that his songs weren't covers.

GOGOL BORDELLO: Eugene Hutz talks to the Winnepeg Sun about life in Brazil, his multi-culti approach to music, and how fame has changed his life.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Zombieland took the top slot with 25 million -- slightly more than its production budget. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs drops to second with 16.7 million -- a 33 percent drop that is not bad, considering the Toy Story re-issues taking away about 1000 3-D screens. Cloudy should at least break even on its 100 million budget domestically and make money overseas.  The Toy Story re-release came in third with 12.5 million, serving as a reminder for families with younger kids for when Toy Story 3 arrives next year.  The Invention of Lying debuts in fourth with 7.3 million against a 18.5 million budget.  Surrogates rounded out the Top Five with 7.3 million, but its 51 percent drop seals its fate as a flop.  Below the fold, Whip It opened at No. 6, with a 4.9 million take against a 15 million budget, and Capitalism: A Love Story opened wide at No. 7, with an almost identical take to Whip It, and looks to be one of Michael Moore's weakest performers.

ZOMBIELAND, btw, was quite good, though it is a broad comedy, with little of the satirical touch of Shaun of the Dead (or some of George Romero's work).  I would not be surprised if this got turned into a videogame. Woody Harrelson's career may be undead. Nice surprise cameo that many reviewers are spoiling.  If you go, stay through all the credits.

DAVID LETTERMAN: TMZ identified one of females staffers Dave bedded (strangely enough, based on a tip from someone I know). But there's a second woman yet to be revealed.  Holy Hetsren -- a Letterman intern who went on to become a Hollywood producer -- says Dave keeps a bachelor pad atop the Ed Sullivan Theater. The accused extortionist -- a producer for CBS's 48 Hours -- pleaded not guilty.

ERIN ANDREWS is grateful there was an arrest in her peeping tom video case.

PENELOPE CRUZ and JAVIER BARDEM are engaged, according to the NYDN.

CHRIS EVERT and GREG NORMAN: Dunzo.

KATE BECKINSALE is the Sexiest Woman Alive, according to Esquire magazine.

JAY LENO is having a hard time booking guests from rival networks.

ANGELINA JOLIE met with Iraqi refugees in Syria on Friday and urged the world not to forget the plight of those among them who cannot return home because of the trauma they suffered and the country's instability

IRAN has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce" an atom bomb, according to a confidential analysis by staff of the IAEA.  Iran's promise to admit inspectors to a secret nuclear plant buys time to hide key evidence regarding the nuke program.  Israel's prime minister has handed the Kremlin a list of Russian scientists believed by the Israelis to be helping Iran to develop a nuclear warhead.  Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots.

AFGHANISTAN: US and Afghan forces beat back a brazen assault on two joint outposts in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. The attack was led by Taliban commander Dost Mohammed and was aided by al Qaeda's Shadow Army. Eight US troops, seven Afghan troops, and an unspecified number of enemy fighters were killed during the fighting, which ended after US air and artillery pounded the fighters in a counterattack.

STEPHEN FRY finds himself privy to an unusual mating ritual of the rare kakapo.

A GRANDMA fought off a bear that broke into her bedroom with a decorative pillow. By which I mean that the grandma had the pillow.

"NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN, the gators that are going to be roaming around the street are the bigger gators."

BLACK-FOOTED FERRETS are returned to Saskatchewan's Grasslands National Park, the only species of ferret indigenous to North America.

LLAMAS ON THE LAM: Again!

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with the wicked, wicked WILSON PICKETT, live from Germany, circa 1968. This disappeared from the Tube, but I've managed to find almost all of it reposted there or elsewhere.  His band warms up the crowd with the instrumental "Soulfinger," but Pickett electrifies from the moment he enters for "Everybody Needs Somebody" and doesn't let up through "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)," "Mustang Sally" and "Stagger Lee." He takes it down just a half-notch for "I'm In Love" before cranking it back into top gear for "Funky Broadway," during which people dancing in front of the stage start turning up o­nstage.  The tumultuous finale of "Land of 1000 Dances" from amid the crowd remains missing, but this other "Land of 1000 Dances" from 1966 is almost as wild, and in color to boot. Raw and riveting; if this can't put you in a weekend state of mind, probably nothing can.

THE TOP 200 ALBUMS OF THE 2000s, according to Pitchfork (scroll to the bottom of the page).

SEA WOLF stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming on demand via MPR.

NIRVANA: A previously unreleased live track from the Bleach reissue is streaming via Pitchfork.

DANIEL JOHNSON? There's an app for that.

SUFJAN STEVENS gets covered by string quartet Osso; Entertainment Weekly has your streaming A|B boss comparison.

THE DIRTY PROJECTORS performed a brand new song called "When The World Comes To An End" for Fallon.

ARCTIC MONKEYS frontman Alex Turner talks to Metro about recording the band's latest album, while drummer Matt Helders talks to JAM about it, as well as staying at the Joshua Tree Inn, where Gram Parsons died. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON is profiled by PopMatters in advance of his 20th album.

THE FISH FRY: Friend of Pate Sylvia Hauser tipped me to KCUR's weekly serving of blues, R&B, soul, jumpin' jazz and zydeco.  Their archives -- with playlists -- are streaming on demand, and there will be two new ones this weekend.

CUTOUT BIN: From Sly and the Family Stone to Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, from Eddie and the Hot Rods to Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, from the Modern Lovers to James Brown, plus Bob Dylan, the Feelies, Monsters of Folk and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Zombieland, currently scoring 90 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the roller-derby comedy Whip It, which is scoring 78 percent on the Tomatometer; Ricky Gervais's The Invention of Lying, which is scoring 58 percent; and the 3-D re-issues of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, scoring 100 percent.

THE FUNNIEST SCENES IN ZOMBIE MOVIES, courtesy of Moviefone.

WHIP IT director Drew Barrymore talks to The A.V. Club, while Kristen Wiig talks to the L.A. Times about training for roller derby.

A RAMONES BIOPIC gains momentum with Fox Searchlight.

DAVID LETTERMAN revealed that he was the target of a two million dollar extortion plot and admitted he had indeed slept with several women who work for him.

MICHAEL JACKSON was pretty healthy, for a dead guy.

WILL FERRELL is set to become a dad for the third time.

KATE HUDSON and A-ROD are not having a kid.  Neither is Halle Berry. 

EMMA WATSON was stalked by jerks at Harvard.

GREEN HORNET photos, video, etc. is rounded up at /Film.

JON GOSSELIN is trying to shut down his failing reality show, after his name was removed from the title.

THE TOP TEN WHITE TRASH HEROES OF CINEMA, according to Spike.

THE WORST MOVIES OF THE DECADE, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

IRAN's nuclear program is making Arab governments, especially the small, oil-rich nations in the Persian Gulf, are growing increasingly anxious. The NYT quotes a number of people advancing various agendas based on said anxiety, but the important observation is that a nuclear Iran will likely start an arms race in the region.

PAKISTAN: Bill Roggio crunches stats on US airstrikes. Looks like the intell is getting better.

AFGHANISTAN: The Boston Globe posts an impressive, wide-ranging gallery of large-size photos.  The UN fired its No. 2 official in Afghanistan on Wednesday after the diplomat, Peter W. Galbraith, wrote a scathing letter accusing the head of the mission here of concealing election fraud that benefited the campaign of the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai. Michael Yon worries about the coalition and the government.

A PARROT massages a cat's head.

AN 800 LB. GATOR was caught by a 5-year-old boy: "Well, its pretty much simple." Video at the link.

A BABY PIGMY HIPPO, barely bigger than a lettuce leaf. Awww...some pics at the link.

BEAR VS. BEAR: Officials at a German zoo say that a male brown bear attacked and killed a female bear in front of horrified onlookers.

SOME SHARKS can reproduce asexually.

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE played DC's 9:30 Club last night; you should be able to stream the reunion gig today via NPR. They played "Seven" for Jimmy Fallon the other night. And they are profiled at the Houston Chronicle.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: At imeem, where the soundtrack is streaming.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Tracks from Built to Spill, the Feelies, and the Mountain Goats feature in the latest installment of the long-running series.

RHYTHM ANGELS did a video mini-set of Americana for Folk Alley.

RICHARD HAWLEY answers Clash's questions about how he would spend his last day on Earth.

THE MINUS 5 were joined by BILL BERRY and MIKE MILLS for "The Ballad of John & Yoko" and "Hang on Sloopy" Monday night at the 40 Watt Club.

ST. VINCENT: Annie Clark talks to Radar about the New Moon soundtrack and to Vanguard about things in general.

STEVE EARLE talks to the Times of London about his Townes Van Zandt tribute.

THE FUTUREHEADS' guitarist Ross Millard has been updating the BBC on the progress of their new album.

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE singer-guitarist Nils Edenloff talks to Decider about open-mic learning curves, forward momentum and, of course, Alberta.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and JESSICA BIEL: US Weekly claims they have split. TMZ and X17 say they are still together.

DENNIS HOPPER was rushed to a New York City emergency room by ambulance, suffering flu-like symptoms and complaining of a stomach ailment. 

ROSE McGOWAN and ROBERT RODRIGUEZ call off their engagement.

BEN STILLER and CHRISTINE TAYLOR may be splitting up.

JIMMY KIMMEL and SARAH SILVERMAN sex tape? Sorry, not buying that.

JOHN TRAVOLTA leaving Scientology?

JON GOSSELIN may no longer be in the title of his show, but he claims he is still on his show.

THE BEST FILMS OF THE FIFTIES, according to Moviefone.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad voiced his concern about the UN chief's 'biased' remarks on Tehran's nuclear work and urged him to take the IAEA's opinion into account. The IAEA reported that no radioactive material has been transferred to Iran's new enrichment plant in Qom. The IAEA made plans to discuss a timetable for an inspection of the new plant.  Britain's intelligence services say that Iran has been secretly designing a nuclear warhead "since late 2004 or early 2005", an assessment that suggests Tehran has embarked on the final steps towards acquiring nuclear weapons capability. Iran's nuke chief welcomes new sanctions.

AfPAK: US and international intelligence officials say that improved recruitment of spies inside the al-Qaeda network, along with increased use of targeted airstrikes and enhanced assistance from cooperative governments, has significantly reduced the terrorist organization's effectiveness.

IRAQ: The senior US commander in Iraq says he could reduce American forces to 50K troops even before the end of next summer if the expected January elections went smoothly. That could free up combat units for duty in Afghanistan.

CAT and BIRD, hugging it out...

AN OBESE SKUNK has been put on a strict diet to help wean him off his addiction to bacon sandwiches.  Mmmm... bacon.

MONSTER EGG: Two and a half times the normal size, weighing over a quarter of a pound.

BADGERS face a cull in Wales, in a bid to eradicate bovine TB.

A BIZARRE FAUN-LIKE CREATURE was born in Lower Gweru, Zimbabwe, but died a few hours later. Pic at the link.

PHOENIX played "Lisztomania" for Fallon.

NOAH AND THE WHALE is advance streaming First Days of Spring, which NPR is calling "the breakup album of the year - maybe even the album of the year."

ARCTIC MONKEYS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming via MPR.

THE JAYHAWKS (SORT OF) get a mini-set at the World Cafe.

ROSANNE CASH is advance streaming The List -- a collection of songs recommended to her by Johnny Cash. Rosanne duets with Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, and more.

THE TROGGS: "With a Girl Like You." Inspired by last week's cover from Yo La Tengo.

JON AUER (also of the Posies and Big Star) talks to Arizona Central about his various projects, having songs bundled with Windows Vista, bootlegging and more, with an embedded playlist of solo songs. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

THOM YORKE and FLEA are forming a band. Look at them, they formed a band!

GILLIAN WELCH has a new album coming, and The Guardian's Alan McGee is excited.

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS is dead at 46.

CONAN O'BRIEN'S HEAD KONK: Let's go to the video. The man is a trouper.

KHLOE KARDASHIAN and LAMAR ODOM are not legally married ... and they won't be until a prenup is signed.

JON CRYER and his wife, Lisa Joyner, adopted a baby girl.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson will ask a judge to expunge the DUI heard round the world.

FRED DURST (Limp Bizkit) and his wife are dunzo after three blissful months.

DJ AM's died from accidental "acute intoxication" due to the combined effects of cocaine, oxycodone, hydrocodone (Vicodin), Ativan, Klonopin, Xanax, Benadryl and Levamisole.

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT is denying problems with co-star/bf Jamie Kennedy.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG defends convicted underaged rapist Roman Polanski on the grounds that it wasn't "rape-rape," which is certainly not the impression you get from the grand jury testimony.  Whoopi might want to spend a moment at Salon. Maybe, someday, she can have Polanski on to share some words of wisdom.

KATE PLUS 8 Minus Jon.  Not that anyone is still watching.

CARRIE FISHER talks to New York magazine and is as quotable as always, by which I mean not fit for family consumption.

THIS LITTLE PIGGY is a firefighter.

UGANDAN GORILLAS turn to Facebook and Twitter for survival.

GIANT PETS enroll in Pet Fit Club.

A TINY BIRD hitch-hikes on a hawk,

VENICE IS SINKING: "Okay," from the EP of the same name.

NEW RELEASES: The Avett Bothers, the Raveonettes, Panther, Langhorne Slim, the Whip It sndtk, the Black Seeds, Hope Sandoval, and a variety of classic rock collections are streaming in full this week via Spinner.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ performs a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

DAVID BAZAN does three free songs for Daytrotter.

THE PINES stopped by The Current  for a chat and mini-set streaming now via MPR.

ANDY KIM, the Canadian version of Neil Diamond, covers "Baby, I Love You" and his own "Rock Me Gently" for Twofer Tuesday with Cheese.

THE TOP 200 ALBUMS OF THE DECADE are being counted down at Pitchfork.

MONSTERS OF FOLK talk to SPIN about indie super-goupdom, with embedded audio.

THOMAS DOLBY talks to Drowned In Sound about The Golden Age Of Wireless and The Flat Earth.

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS: She's gone, at age 46.

PENELOPE CRUZ is profiled at Vanity Fair.

KHLOE KARDASHIAN, newly and quickly wed, is not knocked up, according to stepdad Bruce Jenner.

CLAIRE DANES and HUGH DANCY got hitched in France, according to the ever-reliable Life and Style.

LINDSAY LOHAN: The second of three reported thieves of her home has turned herself over to authorities.

BEYONCE KNOWLES reportedly had Lindsay Lohan thrown out of her own dressing room at the F1 Rocks concert in Singapore because she wanted it for herself.

COURTNEY LOVE and... Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez? "It was the third wink that sold me. He's a sexy dawg."

GWEN STEFANI's London mansion was targeted by robbers while the singer is out on tour.

JOHNNY DEPP may be replaced after Pirates of the Caribbean 4, making a bad idea even worse. 

FRIENDS reuninting on the big screen, according to the uber-uber-reliable News of the World.

TERROR in the USA: Investigators have identified possible accomplices of an Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terrorist attack on New York, a law enforcement official said Monday, but the whereabouts of the helpers or any bomb-making materials they procured are unclear.

IRAN warned Israel yesterday that it faces destruction if it attacks, only hours after Tehran provocatively test-fired missiles capable of hitting targets across the Middle East.

AFGHANISTAN: US Defense Secretary Gates said setting a withdrawal time line "would all be a strategic mistake." The UN said 2009 is already the deadliest year for Afghan civilians.

THE ORANGUTAN and the HOUND, living together... mass hysteria!

"SUPERCATS" PLAGUE BRITAIN: Ferocious feline chimeras menace dogs, children!

REMOTE-CONTROLLED BEETLES unveiled at the University of California Berkeley.

A TREE FROG swallows a Christmas tree bulb, looks ornamental.