THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with a SPECTACLE!  Last week, Elvis Costello had She & Him and Jenny Lewis on his TV show for conversation and music, music, music.  In Part One, Elvis opens with "Show Biz Kids," has a Q&A with She & Him, then joins M Ward and Zooey Deschanel on "Change Is Hard."  In Part Two, Jenny Lewis chats up Elvis and performs "Pretty Bird," with M Ward taking the solo.  In Part Three, Zooey joins Elvis and Jenny on the twang-y "Carpetbaggers" and "Go Away." BONUS: M Ward rawked "Never Had Nobody Like You" at the Ed Sullivan Theater the other night.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK has a chat + tracks streaming via NPR's Day to Day.

THE TEN BEST SMITHS SONGS, Tubed by Paste magazine.

BLITZEN TRAPPER is profiled by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. (Thx, LHB.)

THE MC5: Kick Out The Jams for 1.99, brothers and sisters!

NIRVANA: Kurt Cobain would have been 42 years old today, so I'm linking "Come As You Are," "In Bloom," and the Unpluggedy version of "About A Girl."

TOP TEN SONGS ABOUT SMOKING, according to Pop Tarts Suck Toasted.

NEKO CASE talks to Mother Jones about being a hobo, the New Pr0nographers, country music, etc.

SUSANNA HOFFS talks to GetBack about the 20th anniversary of The Bangles' "Eternal Flame" (which has a funny backsory - who knew?), upcoming projects and more.

A.A. BONDY talks to Tuscon Weekly about his preference for analog recording and more...

SUB POP, the Label That Grunge Made, is profiled at... CNNMoney?

CUTOUT BIN: From the Aerovons to AC/DC, from the Osmonds to the Ohio Players, from the Beat Farmers to BTO, plus Lou Reed, Fountains of Wayne, Spoon, Foo Fighters, Martha & the Vandellas and more-- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

GRAN TORINO: I just realized I never posted a review blurb for this wonderful effort from Clint Eastwood.  His Walt Kowalski is every bit as politically incorrect as Dirty Harry -- and just as equal opportunity in his abusiveness -- but what appears at first to be racism turns out to be something quite different.  The Academy snubbed this film, and not for reasons of quality,  If this is Clint's last acting role, it will be a memorable swan song for an amazing career.  Ahney Her also turned in a great performance as one of Walt's Hmong neighbors; it is a debut that will be tough to top.

NOW SHOWING:  Oscar weekend's wide releases are the decidedly non-Oscar oriented Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, which is unscreened for critics, and Fired Up, which is scoring 32 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.

RHIANNA & CHRIS BROWN: TMZ has a photo of Rihanna taken after Chris Brown allegedly beat her. E! Online reports that Brown is being investigated for a variety of felonies.

JESSICA SIMPSON: The weight story inevitably becomes the pregnancy rumor, though a source close to her bf, Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, says Romo likes Simpson ''with a few more pounds on her.''

TOM CRUISE is popular with studios again, after "Valkyrie" did better than expected around the world.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: Warner Bros. denied reports claiming the studio had asked Guy Ritchie to reshoot parts of the movie, calling the additional work standard pickup shooting. 

WOODY ALLEN talks to The Irish Times about his 40-plus years in film, the movies he's most proud of, why Oscars don't interest him, the attractions of film-making in Ireland, and how children have changed both his life and his work.

100 ESSENTIAL FEMALE FILM PERFORMANCES, a mega-feature compiled by PopMatters.

VIDEOGUM embarks on The Hunt For The Worst Movie of All Time.

WATCHMEN will run about 2 hours 36 minutes in theaters, but the DVD may have two longer versions.  Collider has nine clips, including new material beyond the four clips released earlier this week.

EBERT on SISKEL, ten years after the latter's untimely death.  Essay + Videos at the link.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS:  Critics have theirs.  So does Nate Silver, who has also crunched stats for baseball and presidential contests.

THE BOX OFFICE BUMP usually enjoyed by Oscar's best picture contenders still hasn't quite materialized for many in this year's class.

SYRIA is rebuilding its chemical weapons capability, according to satellite images analysed by Jane's Intelligence Review.

IRAN has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, UN officials acknowledged on Thursday.

PAKISTAN: The US was secretly flying unmanned drones from the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan as early as 2006, according to an image of the base from Google Earth.  And Pakistani intell may be making these airstrikes more precise. Eleven of al Qaeda's top 20 commanders have been killed or captured since August because of the Predator missions conducted by the CIA, according to a Pakistani official, and current and former US intelligence officials.  The controversial peace agreement designed to end Taliban violence in the Swat Valley hangs in limbo amid criticism in Pakistan and rising concern in Washington.

KITTEH CAGE MATCH, in a laundry basket.

GIANT RABBITS are back on the menu in Spain.

AFRICAN WILDCAT turns up in a backyard in N'awlins.

POODLE coughs up her owner's nose for Italian police.

CHIMP ATTACK UPDATE: The chimp and its owner were probably a little too friendly.