THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE WHO!  Mostly because I was in the mood, but also because I noticed the resurfacing of the infamous Cow Palace Incident (1973, San Francisco), with Scot Halpin. So let's add three tracks from the Charlton Athletic Grounds in 1974: "Substitute," "Bell Boy"  and "Baba O'Riley."  And amped-up takes on "Join Together" and "Squeeze Box" at the Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland, OH from 1975. 

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FEST: Sets from Jamie Lidell, Vampire Weekend, The Old 97s, Drive-By Truckers, Man Man, Conor Oberst, John Fogerty, Nicole Atkins, Neko Case, Okkervil River, The Raconteurs, Tegan & Sara and many more will be streaming this weekend from the AT&T Blue Room, starting this afternoon.

ROBERT POLLARD talks to Youngstown, Ohio's Vindicator about GbV, his new album and his new band, Boston Spaceships, which may release three LPs a year. Pollard tells the Cleveland Free Times that the Spaceship songs aere "silly and filled with sexual innuendos and things a 50-year-old man shouldn't be doing. I guess it's a middle-age crisis." (Thx, LHB.)

CENTRO-MATIC does the six free songs thing for Daytrotter.

PETER HOOK talks to Drowned In Sound about New Order re-issues, the Factory legacy and staying relevant.

DUMPTRUCK: "Back Where I Belong," in the grooveyard of forgotten favorites.

THE 10 WORST #1 SONGS, according to Spike, starting with

SPIRITUALIZED stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.

THE BLACK KEYS: Patrick Carney talks to the Houston Chronicle about the Hadron Supercollider, G.I. Joe, Akron, etc.

THE RAVEONETTES: Sharin Foo announces the birth of Molly Foo Edwards. Congrats to her!

CUTOUT BIN: From Ian Hunter to Gary Numan, from the MC5 to Kim Wilde, from Barrett Strong to Billy Bragg to the Beach Boys and the Byrds, plus the Young Fresh Fellows, Jr. Walker & the All-Starss, the Seeds, Super Furry Animals and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Eagle Eye, which is currently scoring xx percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Nights In Rodanthe, which is currently scoring xx percent; Miracle at St. Anna, which is scoring xx percent; and the near-wide Fireproof, which appears to have gone unscreened for critics.

JOHNNY DEPP has agreed to return as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth Pirates pic; play Tonto in a bigscreen adaptation of The Lone Ranger; and star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's 3-D animated version of Alice in Wonderland.

BRITNEY SPEARS and Fed-Ex are reportedly undergoing couples counselling to rebuild their relationship in the hope that they can raise their two sons as a family, according to the ever-reliable National Enquirer. Spears will likely perform on the hit Brit music show X-Factor, according to Simon Cowell.

PAUL McCARTNEY played Tel Aviv and visited the birthplace of Christ, along with 5000 bodyguards. The security drive dwarfs the protection given to Pres. Bush when he visited Israel.

KIRSTEN DUNST & JUSTIN LONG are dunzo, with Dunst as the dumpor and Lond as the dumpee, according to In Touch.

THE 25 HOTTEST ACTORS UNDER 25, according to Moviefone, which means you should read it with the mental voice of the Moviefone Dude.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS fielded questions about the financial turmoil shaking world markets from reporters recalling his role in the 1987 film "Wall Street." Yes, really.

JENNIFER ANISTON is back in contact with John Mayer and longing for a reconciliation, according to the MailOnline.

RUSSIA bans The Simpsons as unpatriotic.

TERROR in the UK: A British Muslim was a senior al-Qaeda leader who kept a terrorist contact book containing telephone numbers and emails written in invisible ink, a court has heard.

IRAN: Russia's announced earlier this week that it is no longer willing to support the UN Security Council's permanent members' proposal for further sanctions against Iran.

IRAQ: Bing West has a piece in The Atlantic detailing how gritty work by US troops helped nurture the Awakening movement in Anbar province: "It is incorrect to say AQI "overplayed its hand," as if war were poker. The Americans at the squad level had shown for two years that they were both stronger and more decent than AQI."  Violence during Ramadan is 82 percent less when compared with levels in 2007.

COW!  And... COW!

SELF-MILKING COWS: New Zealand's first robotic dairy farm is now up and running, complete with milking robots that allow the cows to choose their own milking time. Video at the link.

BUMPER the TABBY CAT was so determined to get to the seaside that he travelled there by clinging to the underside of a camper van.

HORSE MASSAGE: Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

A SNAKE fails to eat a toad. Pics at the link.