Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
… with CHEAP TRICK! Live in Providence, 1980. Your setlist includes "Hello There/Clock Strikes Ten," "I'll Be With You Tonight," "Southern Girls," "California Man," "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace," "He's a Wh re," "Oh Candy," "Top of the World," "Can't Hold On," "Downed" and "Auf Wiedersehen." Are you ready to rock?
BILLY BRAGG stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.
FRIGHTENED RABBIT stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.
ALLAH-LAs play a set of seabreezy 60's garage-pop, live on KEXP from Mellow Johnny's in Austin, TX during SXSW 2013.
COLD WAR KIDS stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.
NEIL YOUNG & THE SANTA MONICA FLYERS, Live in Manchester, 1973.
THE VOGUES: It's a "Five O'Clock World" on Friday.
THE WATERBOYS: Mike Scott talks to PopMatters about one of the biggest endeavors of his career.
BETH ORTON talks to The Telegraph about Sugaring Season.
KILLING JOKE: A vintage 1980 interview from Rock's Backpages.
RARE PICS OF THE BEATLES Larking About.
CUTOUT BIN: From Tommy Tutone to Talking Heads, from Husker Du to Rick James, from Clarence Carter to Gang of Four, plus Brinsley Schwartz, Kim Carnes, Meat Puppets, Mary Wells, and more — this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.
NOW SHOWING:This weekend's wide releases include: G.I. Joe: Retaliation, currently scoring 31 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; The Host, currently scoring 11 percent; and Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, which (as usual) was not screened for critics.
LINDSAY LOHAN has found an unlikely ally in her quest to be better understood by the public and the media — Kristen Stewart. She has not found one on the crew of Anger Management.
BRADGELINA: Not married.
JUSTIN BIEBER was spotted visiting Selena Gomez.
KRISTEN BELL & DAX SHEPARD welcome a daughter.
AMANDA BYNES wanders Times Square with a shirt over her face.
JON HAMM's underwear issue could be a marketing opportunity.
BARBARA WALTERS may be finally ready to hang up her microphone.
CHEVY CHASE & BEVERLY D'ANGELO may book another Vacation.
WHY IS THIS SATURDAY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER DAYS? Because ABC has its annual showing of The Ten Commandments, a grand spectacle featuring acting from Edward G. Robinson and Anne Baxter that is so over-the-top that Yul Brenner starts to look good by comparison. And while Robinson's Dathan never actually spoke the line "Where's your Messiah now?" in the movie, it — like "Play It Again, Sam" (not spoken in Casablanca) — has become part of a part of our culture. The line actually comes from Billy Crystal, originally a bit from the Oscars, iirc. It later turned up on The Simpsons, with Chief Wiggum playing Dathan to Ned Flanders' Moses.
THE UNITED STATES: A judge sentenced Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, an Eritrean, to nine years in prison followed by deportation, for supporting Shabaab.
NORTH KOREA: The US flew two stealth bombers over South Korea in a show of deterrent force.
SYRIA: Russia on Thursday accused the Arab League of abandoning support for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria and said it had cast doubt over the mandate of U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi by giving a summit seat to the Syrian opposition.
LIBYA: A major Sufi shrine, the Al-Andlusi mausoleum in Tajura, was destroyed in a bombing attack by suspected Salafists.
ISRAEL reopened its border crossings with Gaza, which it had closed after last week's rocket fire from Gaza.
THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: A Hamas member died in Gaza when a smuggling tunnel collapsed.
CAT walks DOG. Unhappy dog.
A DOG was accused of a hit-an-run incident in York, PA.
SEA HARES repel enemies by squirting venomous boogers.
PEEPS SHOW VII: The WaPo's annual diorama contest winners.
