Karl 
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER: Okay, so I was off by a week on Charlie Brown, but Rudolph definitely airs on CBS tonight. To warm up for the show, you can check out author Rick Goldschmidt's Rankin/Bass tribute site, go to TVParty for a look behind the scenes or straight to Time and Space Toys for Rudolph merch.
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Noah Lennox and David Portner are interviewed in CMJ and seem every bit as odd as the band's music.
IRON & WINE and CALEXICO are streaming a gig from NPR tonight.
THE BAND, its influences and impact are essayed at Stylus.
JELLY ROLL MORTON: The Village Voice reports that the interviews Alan Lomax recorded with Jelly Roll Morton for the Library of Congress in 1938 — the first jazz oral history, complete with musical demonstrations — have been released complete and unexpurgated as a seven-CD box.
ROGER DALTREY, out promoting a DVD set of Who live performances of Tommy and Quadrophenia, talks about the industry and his career in rock: “His parents were never convinced, however. 'Certainly till the last few years of their life, they felt: “One day you'll get a real job, son.” And that was after Tommy!'”
THE ROLLING STONES are slated for the Super Bowl halftime show.
LAURA VEIRS: So Much Silence is killing music with MP3s of her recent gig for KCRW: “This is the first I'd listened to her, and it's quite intriguing.”
GARY GLITTER: Vietnam is considering releasing the former British rocker charged with child molestation on 40K bail, but he would not be allowed to leave the country.
THE POSIES get a profile in Glide magazine.
PINK FLOYD'S DAVID GILMOUR is famed for his philanthropy, but when it comes to his kids, acts like money is the root of all evil today.
PAUL WELLER is still ruling out any chance of reuniting The Jam. Weller also denied recent reports that he is worth £165 million — much to the dismay of Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher.
OASIS: Speaking of which, Noel and brother Liam are feuding again, requiring separate buses on the Aussie leg of their tour.
BLACK MOUNTAIN tells ChartAttack that the band is not feuding with Broken Social Scene. Well, of course not; both bands are Canadian. You can download a couple of Black Mountain tracks from the band's label.
JACK WHITE and wife Karen Elson are expecting a child, according to Star magazine. No word on whether they are expecting Jessica Simpson's child.
JACKO: In other paternity news, Michael Jackson's ex-wife has reportedly told an Irish newspaper that Jacko is not the natural father of their children. I am shocked! C'mon, is Jacko the natural anything?
MORRISSEY talks to Billboard about working with legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone for his upcoming album.
THE RECORDING BIZ is complaining that some users of the Live365 site aren't following the Byzantine laws for webcasts.
FREE DOWNLOADS: *Sixeyes is touting one of its sponsors — eMusic's trial offer of 50 Free Downloads, no strings.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer has reportedly left rehab after a week.
BECOME PRESIDENT OR DIE TRYIN': Most people who call President Bush a gangster don't mean it as a compliment. But rapper 50 Cent continues to be the anti-Kanye, calling Dubya “Incredible… A gangsta. I wanna meet George Bush, just shake his hand and tell him how much of me I see in him.”
50 CENT, TOM PETTY, AEROSMITH, DON HENLEY and JOE WALSH are available for bat mitzvahs, if you're a multimillionaire defense contractor.
THE FRENCH HOTEL and her former BFF have sunk to selling their cancelled “reality” show to the E! channel. So what does the “E” stand for?
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE: A newly-revealed letter by author C.S. Lewis shows he opposed the idea of a screen version of his Narnia books. The letter was written decades before the creation of computer-gererated effects, but whatever.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise won the title of “Tackiest Star of the Year” in a poll taken by the Los Angeles Daily News, over stiff competition from Paris Hilton and Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Jude Law and Sienna Miller, and Anna Nicole Smith. Cruise promised to donate the ultrasound machine he bought for Holmes to a hospital when the child is born, thereby looking like less of a nutball and getting a tax deduction. SEMI-RELATED: Desert circles in remote New Mexico mark the huge mountainside vault constructed to protect the works of L. Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded the Church of Scientology in the 1950s.
LENNY KRAVITZ is reportedly in talks to play Jimi Hendrix in a biopic a la Ray and Walk The Line.
JESSICA SIMPSON: Future ex Nick Lachey has hired an aggressive PR flack to combat the one hired by Jessica's creepy dad-manager Joe. And Joe has been mending fences with US Weekly by giving them the scoop on the couple's separation.
BRITNEY SPEARS has reportedly sent Christina Aguilera a self-help guide to marriage. Because the pop tart is a supermom. Excuse me, I have to lie down for a moment.
LOST: Paper magazine has a catch-up guide for those who want to start watching or want to pretend that they do.
STARSKY AND HUTCH is being remade for French TV so that it's “less macho.” But of course. After all, in the States, the cops don't surrender at the end of the show.
KATE BECKINSALE explains that making the sequel to Underworld is all about keeping the spark in her marriage to director Len Wiseman, particularly her black leather catsuit: “What can I say, guys like it. That costume is really just sex fetish wear.”
IRAQ: Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), back from his 4th trip to Iraq in the past 17 months, reports real progress on the economic political and security fronts. Sen. Lieberman notes that “polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now.” He adds: “American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the Iraqi military are able to 'lead the fight' themselves with logistical support from the US, and that that number should double by next year.” Bill Roggio, blogs from Husaybah about the Iraqi troops there — and the Marines' opinion of them. Kevin Sites blogs from northern Iraq. Virginia governor and prospective Democratic presidential candidate Mark Warner said on Monday that the US needs to set milestones for progress, not a firm withdrawal date.
IRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad claims to have felt “a light” surrounding and protecting him while addressing the UN in September. Which makes eeryone more comfy with the nuclear program and his comments about wiping Israel off the map.
CULT OF THE iPod: The true cultist has an iPod-compatible bed.
SOME MP3 PLAYERS are among PC magazine's ten worst products of the year.
MONKEYS have an accent depending on where they live, according to a new study at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute. For example, in France, they call themselves “minkeys.”
THE FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE: Not only the theme to The Green Hornet, but also a scientific mystery now solved.
SHEEP are singing ringtones for the holidays.
HAGGIS SEASON starts today.
