THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with JOHN HUGHES! The sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, buds, wasteoids, dweebies and dickheads, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude. The writer/director behind Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation movies, Home Alone, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and many more died Aug 6, 2009.  Hughes masterfully married music to movies, so I pay video tribute to him today, starting (of course) with "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club (the drumming o­n this song is impeccable), and Karla DeVito's "We Are Not Alone," along with the Ramones playing "Blitzkrieg Bop" (from National Lampoon's Vacation), David Bowie's "Young Americans" and The Vapors o­ne-hit wonder, "Turning Japanese" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" (all from Sixteen Candles, which opens to a clip of veteran WLS DJs Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards), Van Halen's cover of "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and General Public's "Tenderness" (both from Weird Science), the Psychedelic Furs re-recorded title track from Pretty In Pink, which also featured Jon Cryer lip-synching to Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" (that last clip is a blistering live take from the 1967 Stax tour -- and excellent, btw), The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" (a Hughes perennial; here, the Dream Academy cover from FBDO), and OMD's "If You Leave," plus two more from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "Danke Schoen" and "Twist and Shout" (which was shot o­n Dearborn and Randolph Streets in Chicago, with International Polka Queen Vlasta atop the float, though Cameron and Sloane were in front of the Post Office down the street), plus Yello's unforgettable-no-matter-how-you-try "Oh, Yeah." Videos are scarce for Some Kind of Wonderful, but I found Flesh for Lulu's "I Go Crazy" and the March Violets' take on the Stones' "Miss Amanda Jones."

THE DISTRICTS advance stream Popular Manipulations.

DOWNTOWN BOYS advance stream Cost Of Living.

ALEX WILLIAMS  advance streams Better Than Myself.

MOTORHEAD posthumously covers David Bowie's "Heroes."

LIARS share "Coins In My Caged Fist" and "The Grand Delusional."

CREAM syncs "I Feel Free" at the Beat Club.

PETER BUCK: The fme R.E.M. guitarist talks to Stereogum about Filthy Friends, Automatic For the People, and more...

STEVE ALBINI talks to The Quietus about avoiding publicity, bearing witness to the rise of Britpop and harbouring an irrational hatred of Billy Joel.

PINK FLOYD's 165 songs, ranked by Bill Wyman.

THE KIDD CREOLE, a member of the pioneering ’80s rap group Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, has been arrested and charged with murder.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are The Dark Tower, which is currently scoring 21 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Kidnap, scoring 43 percent.  Detroit expands wide scoring 93 percent.

ROBERT HARDY, known for his role in the Harry Potter movie franchise and as the star of the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, has died. He was 91.

DEATH WISH: A version of the 70s classic directed by Eli Roth and starring Bruce Willis, has a trailer online.

TOM WOPAT, who played Luke Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard, has been arrested for indecent assault and battery in Massachusetts.

SUGE KNIGHT was indicted for an alleged death threat against famed Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray.

GENE SIMMONS thinks JUSTIN BIEBER is a spoiled brat who needs to get a life — and yet he also wishes him well.

JEREMY RENNER apparently is a devoted dad and an incredible house-flipper.

THOR:RAGNAROK's big joke was written by a Make-A-Wish kid.

AZIZ ANSARI talks to GQ about quitting the internet, Master of None, and more.

AN ELEPHANT stops a potato truck for a snack.

THE CAMEL SPIDER: It's not a spider and it's also not a scorpion. It's a cousin to both.

GRIZZLY BEARS: They will rip your face off. The More You Know.

SOME BROOKLYN DOGS aren't getting vaccinated.