THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

with MUSIC TELEVISION!  The cable phenom debuted on this weekend in 1981. The first four hours included The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," while the rest of the first day included Pat Benatar's cover of "You Better Run," Rod Stewart's "She Won't Dance With Me," The Who's "You Better You Bet," PH.D's ""Little Susie's On The Up," Cliff Richard's "We Don't Talk Anymore," The Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket", Todd Rundgren's "Time Heals", REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run," Styx's "Rockin' The Paradise", and many more.  BONUS: Stereogum ranks the debut videos.

CUT WORMS plays a mini-concert for World Cafe.

GORILLA VS BEAR shares a “modern 2023 yacht rock mix.”

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE shares “Soul Capturer.”

THE PRETENDERS shares "A Love."

SOCCER MOMMY covers Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun."

BEASTIE BOYS: 25 Years of Hello Nasty.

SINEAD O'CONNORs death was not suspicious. And here's Morrissey.

RANDY MEISNER, founding Eagles bassist and the sky-high voice behind the band’s 1976 top five hit “Take It to the Limit,” has died at age 77 due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to a statement from the band.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM has a final trailer online.  The early reviews are hot.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS are hiring AI specialists amid strikes where AI is very much at issue.

DUNE 2 won't be delayed by strikes, according to IMAX's CEO.

BLUE BEETLE's Long Journey to the Big Screen.

BRAD PITT & ANGELINA JOLIE may settle the bitter dispute over their winery.

TALULAH RILEY & THOMAS BRODIE-SANGSTER got engaged.

THEORY WILL ONLY TAKE YOU SO FAR: One writer's journey to understand Christopher Nolan, ‘Oppenheimer,' and the bomb in the desert.

BARBIE almost had a "fart opera."

A RACCOON runs wild through Philadelphia International Airport, causing terrified passengers to scream.

DANCING IN THE STREET: Don't forget the Marmot city!

SEA LIONS at San Diego's La Jolla Cove aggressively barked and charged at dozens of tourists who were on the shore, including children.

SINEAD O'CONNOR, the outspoken Irish singer-songwriter known for her powerful, evocative voice, as showcased on her biggest hit, a breathtaking rendition of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and for her political provocations onstage and off, has died. She was 56.

DAVID WAX MUSEUM visits World Cafe.

NATION OF LANGUAGE shares "Too Much, Enough."

MITSKI shares "Bug Like an Angel."

ANTI-FLAG acknowledges they split over sexual assault allegations against their frontman, who denies them.

BETHANY COSENTINO, on reinventing yourself at any age, the value of journaling, and being intentional in what you do.

CLAUD talks to Chicago magazine.

THE BEST ELTON JOHN SONGS, ranked by Steven Hyden.

SUMMER OF THE STRIKES: Tracking the fallout in Hollywood.

PARAMOUNT is moving away from releasing original animated movies in theaters and focusing on IP-driven projects.

THE MATTEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: Oh no. (Though I am here for Major Matt Mason.)

CILLIAN MURPHY on Oppenheimer's controversial sex scene, skipping out on cast dinners and filming the ending.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT calls for residual payments for AI training data.

KEVIN SPACEY was found not guilty of all nine sex charges in his U.K. criminal trial.

HULK HOGAN got engaged to his gal pal, Sky Daily.

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BULIDING: Season 3, with Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd, has a trailer online.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, as a water race.

CATS & DOGS, living together...

A BUNNY's corn heist.

ELO: Because I "Can't Get It Out Of My Head."

ALL SONGS CONSDERED has Big Thief, Squirrel Flower, and more.

LITTLE MOON plays World Cafe.

NIGHT CLUB covers Siouxsie and The Banshees’ “Cities in the Dust.”

BETHANY COSENTINO shares "Natural Disaster."

WOODS shares "Another Side" and "Weep."

JACK WHITE is auctioning off a number of rare items in a “Third Man Garage Sale.”

12 ESSENTIAL SEBADOH SONGS, according to PopMatters.

OPPENHEIMER is getting some digital censorship in the Middle eats and India.

NOLAN MOVIES, ranked by THR.

GRETA GERWIG is not thinking about a Barbie sequel.

COMIC-CON, minus Hollywood.

A-LISTERS are skipping the picket line.

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER has a trailer online.

WES ANDERSON already has another movie coming this year.

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN claims he's making progress on The Winds of Winter.

GEN V: A spin-off of The Boys has a trailer online.

A CROW, recycling.

A DOGGO with its own ball pit.

A DOGGO refuses to get out of bed and falls asleep looking after a little human.

CATS & DOGS, living together...

THE YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS, cranking out "I Don't Let The Little Things Get Me Down" and "Rock & Roll Pest Control" raw for Twofer Tuesday.

R.E.M. playlists their favorite Top 40 songs by the band.

CYPRESS HILL plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

BLUR shares "The Rabbi" and "The Swan."

STURGILL SIMPSON shares “All The Gold In California.”

SHANE McGOWAN is recovering after a stay in the intensive care unit of a Dublin hospital for an unspecified health issue.

THE 50 GREATEST SYNTH-POP ALBUMS, according to Paste.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Kesha's "We R Who We R," a dance-pop anthem about self-acceptance.

THE HOUSE OF MOUSE may be delaying some releases for strike-related reasons.

THE ROCK made a record-breaking contributon to the SAG-AFTRA strike relief fund.

CHRISTOPER NOLAN reveals which movies make him drop the remote.

CILLIAN MURPHY, on becoming Oppenheimer.

TOM BRADY and... Irina Shayk?

NAOMI WATTS felt like she was “spiraling out of control” when she went through early menopause at age 36.

RYAN REYNOLDS is reviving ALF, sort of.

DOGGO with ball skills.

TWO TYPES of cats.

DOGGO in a sidecar, sort of.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

NEW RELEASES: Paste will point you to Guided by Voices, Andrew Bird, and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT has Blur, Strange Ranger, and more.

STEELY DAN's long-lost Schlitz Beer commercial.  Yes, really.

BULLY covers Jackson Browne’s “These Days.”

ALEXA ROSE covers Lucinda Williams’ “Passionate Kisses.”

LANA DEL REY, working at an Alabama Waffle House.

TONY BENNETT, a singer whose melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-embracing persona and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards helped spread the American songbook around the world and won him generations of fans, died on Friday at his home of many decades in Manhattan. He was 96.  The NYT also has 10 essential songs from his catalog.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Barbenheimer blows away expectations... and shatters records.  Barbie tops the chart with an estimated 155MM, when tracking suggested closer to 100MM, while Oppenheimer placed with 80.5MM, when tracking had it at closer to 50MM. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning showed with 19.5MM on a 64 percent drop, suggesting Tom Cruise was right to squawk about Christopher Nolan moving in on all those IMAX screens. Sound of Freedom was verrrrry close behind at 19MM.

THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA?  This weekend also saw a lot of buzz on Film Twitter about the Baarbenheimer phenom possibly marking a tectonic vibe shift, not just in terms of the massess returning to their local theaters, but possibly towards those audiences expressing their desire to move on from endless sequels and cinematic universes to more fresh material.  That has been the general pattern this Summer, with even the much-anticipated Mission Impossible flick (perfectly cromulent, tho perhaps not as good as the prior two installments) looking like it might not fare substantially better in the US than Indiana Jones 5.

QUENTIN TARANTINO did the Berbenheimer experience.

DUNE, PART 2 may have to move to 2024.

JAMIE FOXX spoke about his recent health scare.

THE MARVELS has a trailer online.

MIDNIGHT RUN at 35: A Shining Star of the Middlebrow Firmament.

A DOGGO cleans off at the carwash.

PENGUINS, chasing a butterfly.

A DOOGO makes its own fun with no ball in sight.

EVERYONE likes a good skritch.