THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THIN LIZZY! Won't be long 'till Summer comes, now that Thin Lizzy is back in rotation. Here's Phil Lynott & Co. live at the Sydney Opera House in 1978, playing "Jailbreak," "Bad Reputation," "Cowboy Song," "The Boys Are Back In Town," "Waiting For An Alibi," and "Are You Ready?"

GLEN HANSARD stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

KELLY HOGAN stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set.

RHETT MILLER visited the basement of KUT's Studio 1a to chat and play.

ROCKY VATOLATO visited KEXP to perform an intimate set of songs from his latest album, "Television of Saints."

INDIE JAMS OF THE SUMMER? Seattle Weekly reviews the candidates. (Thx, LHB.)

RAY DAVIES turned 68 yesterday, so we conclude a week of big belated birthday wishes with "You Really Got Me" and "Waterloo Sunset."

DENT MAY talks to the Oxford American about his songwriting process, his complicated relationship with Oxford, and the real reason why he won't be returning to the ukulele any time soon.

PATTI SMITH is profiled by The Telegraph.

THE BEST SONGS of 2012 (So Far), according to NME.

THE TOP 10 FEMALE PUNK BANDS, according to PopMatters.

CUTOUT BIN: From AC/DC to Iron & Wine, from Paper Lace to Warren Zevon, from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to the Minuteme, plus Soundhog, Beach Boys, the Undisputed Truth, R.E.M. 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: Pixar's Brave, currently scoring 70 percent on the ol' Tomatomter; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, currently scoring 34 percent; and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, scoring 54 percent.

BRAVE is an entertaining and often engaging movie, but not an entirely successful one.  Pixar's latest offering, like all of its offerings (excepting possibly Cars 2), has the ambition to not only entertain, but also to do so in ways that are both inventive and deeply emotional.  For example, Up has a plot unlike any other movie, yet has a tear-jerking opening sequence unlike any in the field of animation (and few live action films are that emotionally gripping right out of the gate).  As was suggested by the trailer, the Brave tale of Princess Merida moves Disney into an era where its princesses are not always damsels in distress.  The movie certainly succeeds on that level.  However, Brave strives to be not only a tale of girl power, but also an exploration of how daughters relate to their mothers as they become women.  The movie is less successful on this level, for reasons not easy to explain without spoiling the plot.  Suffice it to say that the quirky plot twist in the second act, while fully consistent with a sort of classic fairy tale storytelling, tends to impede fully developing the character of Queen Elinor.  Thus, the mother-daughter relationship develops in a way that meets the inventiveness quotient in a way that detracts from the emotional resonance a bit (for me, anyway; perhaps mothers and daughters will feel differently).  This would be less of a problem if the other characters were better developed, but they mostly play the role of comic relief.  Overall, I enjoyed Brave, and I think most will... but it will likely suffer a bit when measured against the very high exectations Pixar has set since the original Toy Story.

JOHNNY DEPP has been maintaining a bachelor's lifestyle for a while and it's being reported that things ‘seem to be heating up' between Depp and Amber Heard.

LINDSAY LOHAN seems to be, er, having problems on the set of Liz & Dick.

KIM KARDASHIAN and here family were trashed in conversations and text messages from Kris Humphries to his former girlfriend.

KATY PERRY talks fame love and religion with THR.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, the Monsters Inc. prequel, has teaser trailers online.

THE TOP 10 USES OF MUSIC in Modern Film, according to PopMatters.

THE TOP 10 EVIL MOVIE CORPORATIONS, according to TIME. It's such a cliche as to be a target-rich environment.

SWEDEN: Sniffer dogs near the reactor of the Ringhals nuclear plant south of Gothenburg found a plastic explosive device attached to the underside of a truck used on the premises.

IRAN: With high-stakes negotiations over Iran's nuclear program at an impasse, the Obama administration is under mounting pressure to rethink a diplomatic exercise that many argue is simply stringing along the rest of the world.

PAKISTAN: A judge ordered the arrest of President Asif Ali Zardari's preferred candidate for prime minister, just a day after he was nominated.

LION CUB plays with a DOG & RABBIT...

SEALS AND A POLAR BEAR escaped from the Lake Superior Zoo, amid floods that killed a donkey, sheep and goats.

GIANT WOMBAT GRAVE discovered in Queensland.

MACARONI PENGUIN CHICKS keep the Tennessee Aquarium busy.

MILLIE the CAT guards a toy warehouse in the UK.