ELVIS COSTELLO recently performed 1977's My Aim Is True album, with most of the same musicians, for a charity gig in SF.  He started -- of course -- with "Welcome to the Working Week."

THE REPLACEMENTS:  The Mpls. City Pages has a review of Jim Walsh's The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting.

THE PIPETTES stopped by the Bryant Park Project (with Monster Bobby in tow) for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.  There's also -- by request -- a casual acoustic video of "Pull Shapes" from the session.

THE WHITE STRIPES have collaborated with Beck on a trio of B-sides for 7" singles covering "Conquest" and an all-encompassing US-only digital download due December 18.

KELLY STOLTZ will have his next album out on SubPop in February.  You can stream the new single (which sounds a bit like mid-period Kinks) plus two older tracks at StoltzSpace.

MUSIC vs. FOOD:  Amber Taylor asks whether you think less highly of those with no appreciation for good food or those with no appreciation for good music.

THE KILLERS & LOU REED both appear in the video for "Tranquilized."

MATTHEW DEAR talked to Pitchfork about balancing his techno and indie careers.

WHY? is garnering blog buzz for The Hollows EP due next week, you can stream the title track (nsfw) and four older numbers at WhySpace.

A PALER SHADE OF WHITE, REDUX:  Writing in the Joplin Globe, Jeremiah Tucker agrees that Sasha Frere-Jones' recent argument about the whiteness of indie rock missed the mark, but argues that indie rock has an over-abundance of bad singing, deliberately poor musicianship and sensitive white males.

L.A. PUNK, REDUX:  Meanwhile, Sasha Frere-Jones has a new piece for the New Yorker about the rebirth of the genre in L.A., a local club called The Smell, and a duo called No Age.

KEVIN DREW:  The BSS maestro touring solo talked to Gothamist about his album, indie songs in commercials, desert island CDs and assassinating Pres. Bush.  That last bit could earn Drew a visit from the Secret Service and cost him the visa he needs to perform in the US.  The irony that his imagined police state probably will do none of that is probably lost on Drew.

BRADGELINA:  The birth family of their adopted daughter Zahara reportedly wants to bring the two-year-old home to Ethiopia.  OTOH, reports claiming Pitt and Jolie have purchased a man-made island in the shape of Ethiopia in Dubai as a tribute to their daughter are untrue.

THE FRENCH HOTEL:  Similarly, an AP report that the heirhead was set to help drunken elephants in India turns out to be untrue.  Instead, the woman changed by her jail term has been working the stripper pole at Marquee.

KANYE WEST:  Dr. Jan Adams -- under scrutiny following the death of West's mother -- physically assaulted his ex-wife, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.

OJ SIMPSON must stand trial on charges that could send him to prison for life, Las Vegas Township Justice of the Peace Joseph Bonaventure ordered Wednesday.

HUGH GRANT made 21 million dollars auctioning Andy Warhol's 1963 Pop portrait of Liz Taylor.

HALLE BERRY:  Reportedly devastated after learning bf Gabriel Aubry plans to remain in NYC following the birth of their first child next year.

JESSICA BIEL & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE:  He got her the same birthday present he once gave ex-gf Cameron Diaz.  Both probably got this, too. (nsfw)

LANCE ARMSTRONG let one of his daughters take new gf Ashley Olsen to school for show and tell.

GYLLENSPOON took their love on the road to Napa Valley, California.

THE 50 GREATEST TV ICONS, according to cable's TV Land and the writers of Entertainment Weekly magazine.  A TV special based on the list airs Friday night.

DAVID LETTERMAN is paying his staff from his own pocket, even though the show isn't on the air during the writers' strike.

MATT. DAMON. is The Sexiest Man Alive, according to People magazine.  Extra features at the link for you ladies (and some dudes, nttawwt).

PAKISTAN:  The cricketing legend Imran Khan faces charges under Pakistani anti-terrorist laws after emerging from hiding to join a student protest at which he was arrested.  The Times of London notes that Khan was grabbed by the student wing of the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami party, but failed to note that Khan is also an Islamist.  "Khan has more than a soft corner for the ousted Afghan Taliban," a senior leader of his party said on the condition of anonymity.  This past summer, members of Khan's party protested Salman Rushdie's knighthood by chanting, "Curse Rushdie, Long Live Osama (Bin Laden)" in northwestern Peshawar.  All of which may not justify his seizure, but I note it because events in Pakistan may be a little more complex than conveyed in the average news report.

IRAQ:  Authorities seized the headquarters of the country's most influential Sunni clerical group Wednesday, sealing off its west Baghdad compound and accusing the organization of supporting AQI.  BTW, Harith al-Dari, the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, was in Syria last month, plotting strategy with "insurgent" groups.  He already had a warrant out against him.  Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province are demanding greater recognition and support from the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.  The NYT reports on Baghdad's Bab al Sheik neighborhood, where Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians live together with unusual ease.  Coalition forces killed the emir of Tarmiyah and captured 26 during raids throughout Iraq.  Karbala police arrested 48 suspected insurgents, including five Sadrists. The Iraqi Army killed five al Qaeda operatives in Khalis and captured another 30 throughout Diyala province.

A BABY SEAL waddled about a mile from the Pacific Ocean... to the front steps of the Tracy Animal Shelter.  Video at the link.

A KANGAROO was spotted bounding through the suburbs of east Hillsborough, Florida.

COWS stampeded a McDonald's restaurant in Utah after escaping from their trailer as the driver stopped for a bite to eat.  The punchlines write themselves.

A MAN and a TOAD were busted by police in Kansas City, MO.  The man was released on bond, but the toad remains detained.  Where is PETA when a toad needs bond money?

DOGS eat the darnedest things.