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.