SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE:  London's Sun suggests Ben Chasny is the Jimi Hendrix of folk music.  I think that's stretching the point, but you may want to check out the atmospheric video for "Shelter from the Ash."

BEST of 2007:  Uncut magazine's Top 50 is discussed at the 'Gum.  Largehearted Boy's Favorite Albums are posted, and should not be confused with his list of lists.

BOWERBIRDS -- who appear on the LHB Faves List, and whom I have criminally underplayed -- have an interview and free songs at Daytrotter.

BOB MOULD has a new single "The Distance Between Us," posted for download at Spinner.  Not a masterpiece, but solid; more big guitars than techno bleeping. 

MORRISSEY has posted his reasons for suing the NME over an interview he believes wrongly characterized him as racist.

THE WATERBOYS:  Mike Scott gave an interview and brought the band for a mini-set at KEXP, which you can stream via NPR.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS played their "Feast of Lights" live for the first time at Juidth Owen & Harry Shearer's Holiday Sing-A-Long in 2006.  Thought this was the way to go with Hanukkah starting last night.

MICK JONES, formerly of The Clash, talks to PopMatters about his current band, Carbon/Silicon, with plenty of A/V links, including a full album stream.

CAT POWER: Sasha Frere-Jones profiles "wonder woman" Chan Marshall for the New Yorker.

TEGAN & SARA, last seen here arguing, stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

THE TOP TEN ROCK LEGENDS, according to a highly debatable poll by Australia's best selling newspaper The Herald Sun.

AMY WINEHOUSE was  spotted with a bag of what appeared to be a mystery white substance in the trunk of her car - and later that night received a 4 a.m. visit from junkie rocker Pete Doherty.

BRITNEY SPEARS nearly skipped her chance to make a 500K music video - but showed up when she realized her Jive Records label was about to give the shoot to a younger, up-and-coming singer.  Also Spears reportedly phoned Fed-Ex at 1 a.m. from her birthday party to invite him, but a source told Page Six,  "Kevin reminded her that one of them needed to be a parent and take care of the boys. Then she hung up on him. Kevin said she was drinking."  Just another of the stories that helped put the pop tart atop the list of the top 10 searches on Yahoo Inc.  (The top of the Google list? iPhone.)

BRADGELINA are spending the holidays in New Orleans.

JULIA ROBERTS has body image issues.

RUSSELL CROWE has committed to star in "State of Play" after Brad Pitt left the project due to disagreements over the script.  Unclear is whether Universal will take legal action against Pitt.

DENNIS QUAID and wife have filed suit against Baxter Healthcare Corp., the makers of the drug Heparin, after the couple's newborn twins were given a massive overdose at the hospital last month.  The suit claims Baxter was negligent in packaging its 10-unit vial in a manner that looks like the 10000-unit vial.  The Quaids have yet to file suit against the hospital.

LINDSAY LOHAN enjoyed a number of late-night sessions with Heath Ledger after meeting him at NYC's Beatrice Inn over Thanksgiving weekend, according to Australia's New Weekly magazine -- a pub so reliable I've never heard of it.  Lohan split from her snowboarder boyfriend Riley Giles last week, while Ledger has been has been linked to a bevy of beauties, including supermodel Helena Christensen, since splitting from his baby mama Michelle Williams.

THE DARK KNIGHT:  Speaking of Ledger, there's a spoilerrific account of the first six minutes of the Batman Begins sequel via MTV News. 

JOAN VAN ARK:  Plastic surgery disaster?  Or did she just schedule a chemical peel too close to a red carpet event?

BILL CLINTON:  The fmr Pres. ditched Vogue editrix Anna Wintour as a dinner partner last Thursday to get next to Penelope Cruz.  Tough to argue with that, though I'm guessing he gets the frying pan from his wife's presidential campaign.

THE TOP-EARNING SUPERSTARS UNDER 25, according to Forbes and E! Entertainment.  The list is dominated by names you know, but don't see to often in this space.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS:  The Catholic League has already called for people to boycott the film, which comes out this Friday.  Author William Pullman's attack on organized religion has been toned down for the film, in a bid to attract as wide as audience as possible, sparking debate over whether the movie is anti-Christian, or not anti-Christian enough.  The early reviews suggest the debate should be over whether it is entertaining enough to plunk down the cash to see it.  But you can see the first five minutes for free via Yahoo! Movies.

ISLAMISM in the UK:  Overworked nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients' beds so they face towards Mecca.

AFGHANISTAN:  Senior defense officials weigh new strategies for quelling insurgent violence, including training and arming local tribesmen to fight Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan.  The US military is seeing early signs that al-Qaeda may be stepping up its activities in Afghanistan.  The latest crop of AQ recruits in the border areas is salted with white, Anglo-featured converts from Europe who look more like TV's Jack Bauer than Osama Bin Laden.

IRAN:  The NYT asks, "How could American intelligence agencies have overstated Iran's intentions in 2005 so soon after being reprimanded for making similar errors involving Iraq?"  The NYT reports: "Over the past year, officials have put into place rigorous new procedures for analyzing conclusions about difficult intelligence targets like Iran, North Korea, global terrorism and China."  Of course, after the CIA was surprised by India going nuclear in 1998, the paper ran a piece about how much the CIA had improved, citing in particular "the agency's increasingly successful penetrations of terrorist groups."  That piece was published on September 10, 2000, so we know how well that turned out.  RELATED:  The NYT also reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency is more skeptical about Iran than the new US NIE.

IRAQ:  Forty senior AQI members were captured or killed in November, including Abu Maysara, a Syrian and senior AQI leader.  Violence levels in Iraq have fallen to their lowest levels since January 2006.  The leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq ordered a renewed bombing campaign against Iraqi security forces in a recording posted on an Islamist Web site on Tuesday.  More youths, some only 10, are being influenced by AQ to join the insurgency in Iraq, US generals said on Monday; youths make up almost half of the roughly 2000 members of the jihadi group being held in Iraqi prisons.  MNF told KUNA that 77000 Iraqis were enlisted in so-called "Awakening" councils who were fighting AQ militants alongside the Iraqi and American forces. 

IRAQ II:  The Iraqi interior ministry would rehabilitate and train tribal fighters as a prelude to merge them into the Iraqi police, a security official said on Tuesday.  Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott Tuesday in Kirkuk - the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields - under a cooperation pact that marked a bold attempt at unity before a planned referendum on control of the strategic region.  Iraq's government has launched a state TV blitz seeking to claim credit - and score publicity points - for the recent downturn in violence and return of hundreds of refugees.  OTOH, Iraq's government acknowledged Tuesday that it cannot handle a massive return of refugees, as the UN announced a 11-million-dollar relief package to help the most vulnerable Iraqi families trickling back to their war-ravaged homeland.  Iraqis seem to be picking up the art of politics.

LAME BABY HEDGEHOGS born during the exceptionally mild autumn and who are too small or weak to hibernate nurse their broken bones at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

RAJA GAJ, the world's largest known Asian elephant, has gone missing from its habitat in southwestern Nepal.

MICKEY MOUSE & DONALD DUCK have been summoned to appear in an Italian court as witnesses in the trial of a Chinese man accused of peddling counterfeit toys and decals bearing the images of the pair.

MAYNARD the KANGAROO fled from a veterinarian's yard in Lewisville, TX and hopped loose in a heavily populated neighborhood while his frolicking chase was videotaped by a patrol car's camera.  Video at that link, and this link, too.

YOUNG CHIMPS are blessed with photographic memories, often outdoing humans at memory games, completing them more quickly and with fewer mistakes.  I had a punchline for this.