PATE REUNION WATCH: Conditions have created a significant risk of a band reunion occurring in early July 2013. Pate is looking for input from friends and fans via the Claude Pate Facebook page.  I have also set up and will monitor PateBlog on the Twitter, as well as PateBlog -at- aol.com for email (laugh at the aol, but why not be period?). We'll also be looking to set up additional lines of communication as needed and as plans warrant.  The last reunion was great; get involved to help get another one rolling!

...and now, our regularly scheduled programming...

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with THE BYRDS! The turning of the seasons had me in the mood for this rare live threefer of "Turn! Turn! Turn!", "Bells of Rhymney" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", introduced by... David McCallum? There are more screaming girls, plus go-go dancers when they hit Shivaree for "All I Really Want to Do" and "Feel A Whole Lot Better."  There are even more dancers when they cover Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" for Shindig! on June 23, 1965, while I'm pretty sure that's Ed Wynn introducing "Chimes of Freedom."

REGINA SPEKTOR stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

THE WALKMEN played before a live studio audience in KUT's Studio 1a.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle recently dropped by WNYC Soundcheck to play a solo session at the piano, and to share the origins of his new music.

MOON DUO is advance streaming the psychedelic Circles.

PILOT works their "Magic" on TOTP.

PATTERSON HOOD sets the record straight about what his output means with PopMatters. And tells Straight.com that songwriting may have saved his life.

JOHN CALE talks to The Guardian about his love of hip-hop, why tangerines are more tempting than drugs, and why he doesn't feel bad about taking his anger out on pianos ... or chickens.

THE DECEMBERISTS' frontman Colin Meloy talks to the Salt Lake Tribune about his next children's book. (Thx, LHB.)

THE BEACH BOYS: Mike Love fires Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and David Marks. So sadly predictable.

CUTOUT BIN: From Andy Williams to Teenage Fanclub, from Dubley Moore to Prince, from Los Lobos to Rose Royce, plus Waterboys, Glen Campbell, Nick Lowe, Susanna Hoffs 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: Hotel Transylvania, which is currenly scoring 47 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Looper, which is scoring 92 percent; and Won't Back Down, scoring 31 percent.

SONS OF ANARCHY: Law enforcement sources believe Johnny Lewis was on PCP or meth when he allegedly killed a woman and then fell to his death. Seems like this story will keep getting worse and worse.

REESE WITHERSPOON is a mom for the third time.

TOM CRUISE: The ever-reliable Star magazine asks: Could Scientology's most famous ambassador be parting ways with the church?

AMANDA BYNES is reportedly going to great lengths to avoid Lindsay Lohan.

ERIN MORAN has hit some very unHappy Days; she's homeless and haggard.

HERBERT LOM, the versatile Czech-born actor who could play Napoleon Bonaparte or a witch hunter with equal aplomb but who was perhaps best known as Peter Sellers’s frustrated boss in the Pink Panther franchise (but was also great in the original version of The Ladykillers), died on Thursday at his home in London. He was 95.

THE UNITED NATIONS: Muslim leaders demanded international action to stop religious insults in a challenge to Pres Obama's defense of freedom of expression at the UN General Assembly.

TURKEY: Prime Minister Erdogan said he might be willing to negotiate with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting for a separate Kurdish state since 1984 in a conflict that has killed over 40000 people so far.

SYRIA: Several thousand rebels fighters launched a "decisive attack" for control of the city of Aleppo. The Al Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the double suicide bombing of the Syrian Army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday. More than 300 people died in Wednesday's fighting.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq launched a suicide assault on the Tasfirat prison in Tikrit; one guard was killed. Security forces detained a senior terrorist in Baghdad. US special operations forces reportedly have deployed to Iraq to advise and train security forces.

LAMB & DOG, cuddling together...Mass hysteria!

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A militant, self-immolating rodent ignites a grass fire in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

PYTHONS tour Rome. No parrot sketch.

POACHERS KILL TIGER... in a zoo.

VAMPIRE SQUID: Garbage disposals of the ocean.