THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

....wtih THE PRETENDERS! Circa 1981, via one of Pate's two fab drummers, Jon Hahn.  Your setlist includes "The Wait," "The Adultress," "Message of Love/Louie Louie," "Talk of the Town," "English Roses," "Birds of Paradise," "Kid," "Stop Your Sobbing," "Private Life," "Day After Day," "Jealous Dogs, " Up the Neck," "Tattooed Love Boys," "Bad Boys Get Spanked," "Precious," and "Brass In Pocket/MysteryAchievement."

RICHARD THOMPSON, Live at The Loft at City Winery.

JEREMY IVEY plays World Cafe.

BROWNOUT plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

MARGO PRICE shares "Stone Me."

TROGGS: "With a Girl Like You," live.

DESTROYER: Dan Bejar on Weaving Nightmares at His Kitchen Table.

ONCE WERE BROTHERS: Robbie Robertson And The Band has a trailer online.

GREEN DAY announced that they will donate royalties from their latest track to sexual assault charities, after it sampled a Joan Jett track that was originally written by Gary Glitter.

STEREOGUM bought itself back, while SPIN is sold to a new owner.

STEVE MARTIN CARO, a founding member of the ’60s baroque pop band the Left Banke, has died from heart disease. He was 71 years old.

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide releases include Bad Boys For Life, which is currently scoring 75 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Dolittle, which is scoring 16 percent; and Weathering With You, scoring 95 percent.

MEGXIT: Prince Harry may have made his last public appearance as a Royal.

GIGI HADID was officially dismissed Thursday as a prospective juror in disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s rape and sex abuse trial.

STAR WARS: Taika Waititi, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Ragnarok, has been approached to develop a movie in the galaxy.

THE MANDALORIAN is often John Wayne’s grandson.

FRIENDS: The One Where Everyone Wants To Get Paid.

JOHN WICK spin-off series The Continental is still in the works, but won't air until after the fourth movies.

WATCHMEN won't have a second season on HBO, largely because creator Damon Lindelof isn't interested in doing it. 

ROCKY JOHNSON, —  who paved the way for son Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — has passed away at the age of 75.

CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of "The Lord of the Rings," has died. A guardian of his father's legacy, Christopher Tolkien edited posthumous works like “The Silmarillion" and created the map of Middle-earth. He was 95.

WAKING A SLEEPING RABBIT by surrounding him with dill.

BAKOOKA, a 35-pound cat, begins an epic weight loss journey.

DOGS, making like an old-school musical.

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER visits World Cafe.

WHITE REAPER visits WFUV's Studio A.

JORDAN RAKEI plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

REAL ESTATE shares a video for "Paper Cup."

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME announced its 35th annual class of inductees. Congrats to them, I guess.

NEIL PEART: A Monster Drummer With A Poet's Heart.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's son was officially sworn into the Jersey City Fire Department at City Hall on Tuesday.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Chic's joyous disco masterpiece "Le Freak."

MEGXIT: Meghan Markle surfaced publicly in Canada. Many close to Prince Harry are concerned about the growing distance between him and the rest of the royal family.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN: New evidence shows the financier sexually abused and trafficked hundreds of young women and girls on his private Caribbean island, some as recently as 2018, significantly expanding the scope of his alleged conduct, a top law enforcement official said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

PETE DAVIDSON and Kaia Gerber's fledgling romance appears to be over.

JAMES BOND "can be of any color, but he is male,” says producer Barbara Broccoli.

DAVID KOECHNER and his wife, Leigh Koechner, are splitting up after nearly 22 years of marriage. Whammy.

GUNS AKIMBO has a trailer online.

A WOLF PUP discovers its howl.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT is terrorizing a family in a Florida condo.

AN URBAN BOBCAT was caught on camera in Washington DC.

COMPELLING NEW EVIDENCE that your cat might eat your corpse.

GUIDED BY VOICES: Technically, the clip for "Auditorium" and "Motor Away" is Twofer Tuesday, but since it runs just about 3 minutes, I'll toss in "My Valuable Hunting Knife" as a bonus.

ANDY SCHAUF plays the Paste studio. And here's "Living Room."

SON LITTLE visits World Cafe.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED shares discoveries from globalFEST.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS share “Thoughts And Prayers.”

U.S. GIRLS share "Overtime."

DESTROYER: Dan Bejar Serenades the Apocalypse.

HOW TO LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC, For The Uninitiated.

ST VINCENT's greatest colaborations.

DAVE WHITAKER introduced a teenage Bob Dylan to the work of both Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac.

MEGXIT: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there are still a lot of discussions to be had about who will cover security costs for Prince Harry and Megan Markle, who are suggesting their hand was forced to leave the Roayal family due to "bad blood."

NO TIME TO DIE: Billie Eilish has been tapped to do the theme song.

GIGI HADID could be among the jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial in New York.

ALLISON JANNEY confirmed rumors that her Mom costar Anna Faris is engaged to Michael Barrett. 

VANESSA HUDGENS and Austin Butler have called it quits after almost nine years of dating.

STAN KIRSCH, who starred in the Highlander TV series and had a memorable guest shot on Friends, has died at the age of 51.

AMC & REGAL CINEMAS won’t be showing any Best Picture nominees released by Netflix on their screens in the US.

BLACK WIDOW has a special look online.

CAT versus SNAKE versus FROG.

SWIMMING with the anaconda.

LINDA, a stray dog in Turkey, comes to the same car wash a couple times a week to use the automatic petting machine.

A HIGHLAND BULL causes a rush-hour disruption to Glasgow trains.

UPGRADING a 3G flip-phone on a 10-dollar unlimited plan turns out to be tricky and time-consuming.  Fortunately, Monday turned out to be a slow "news" day, so let's get to it.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS unveiled the new "2082" at the Bowery Ballroom.

THE 80 BEST ALBUMS OF THE 1980s, according to Paste.

THE NUMBER ONES revisits perhaps the least organic #1 single of its era, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers."

QUEEN ELIZABETH issued a public statement following a two-and-a-half-hour discussion on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step down as senior royals.

THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS went to these folks. Congrats!  The NYT surveys the snubs and surprises.  And here's Adam Sandler.  Also, Netflix got 22 nominations, but I wonder whether bias in the Academy will wind up hurting films like The Irishman.

MORBIUS: Marvel's Spider-Verse vampire has a teaser trailer online.

ABBY HUNTSMAN announced she's leaving “The View” to work with her father, Jon Huntsman Jr., during his campaign for governor of Utah.

BRITNEY SPEARS is exhibiting her paintings in France.

More tomorrow, I think.

NEIL PEART, the pyrotechnical drummer and high-concept lyricist for the Canadian progressive-rock trio Rush, died from brain cancer on Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 67.  The Rolling Stone obit touches a bit on the personal tragedies in Peart's life.  Peart was an unassuming, thunderous drummer who became a music legend. The tributes have poured in from social media.  Here are 10 moments of Peart and Peart-nspired awesomeness. The NYT discusses 10 essential tracks.  And here are all 180 Rush songs, ranked at Thrillist.

NEW RELEASES: Paste will point you to Beach Slang, Paul Kelly, Alexandra Savior, and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT will point you to Field Music, The English Baroque Sound, The Durutti Column, and more.

THE BOOMTOWN RATS return with "Trash Glam Baby."

JENNY LEWIS shares "Under the Supermoon."

PEARL JAM is teasing something.

JIMMY IOVINE Knows Music and Tech. Here's Why He's Worried.

WANTED: A Home for Three Million Records.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Donna Summer's triumphant disco cover of Richard Harris' strange '60s psychedelic easy-listening smash, "MacArthur Park."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 1917 rides awards buzz to the top of the chart with 36.5MM in its first weekend of wide release; it could hold well over the upcoming MLK Day weekend.  The Rise of Skywalker places with 15MM on another 56 percent drop; it's playing more like Rogue One than The Last Jedi and will tap out somewhere around 520-530MM domestic (TLJ made it to 600MM iirc).  Jumanji: The Next Level shows with 14MM on a 47 percent drop and looks to tap out around 300MM domestic.  Like A Boss debuts in the fourth slot with 10MM, which is not great against a 30MM budget.  The wide expansion of Just Mercy rounds out the Top Five with 10MM and will likely get a bump from the upcoming holiday weekend.

1917 Is Based On a Harrowing True WWI Story From Director Sam Mendes's Grandfather.

QUEEN ELIZABETH has ordered that the row over the future roles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex be resolved within the next 72 hours amid speculation that Prince Harry could leave Britain as early as next week.  Britons want Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stripped of their royal titles, according to a new poll.  But the story of Markle doing a voice over for Disney -- in return for a charity donation to Elephants Without Borders -- seems a little overblown.

THE CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS went to these folks. Congrats!

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS sequel Clarice is set at CBS.

WILL SMITH raps up his career in 150 seconds.

THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA promotes season three with a music video.

BULLITT: The original Steve McQueen-driven, 1968 Highland Green Mustang sold for 3.74MM at auction.

BATMAN's Burt Ward was advised to take pills inducing shrinkage back in 1966.

A KOALA among Australia's burned-out forest takes the hand of a human rescuer.

BABY KANGAROOs orphaned in Australia's wildfires are being rescued and cared for.

THOUSANDS OF KILOS OF CARROTS & SWEET POTATOES are being delivered to endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in fire affected areas as the NSW Government steps in to help.

WHO WILL MOURN Australia's Velvet Worms?

A WOMANIZING TORTOISE whose rampant sex life may have single-handedly saved his entire species from extinction has retired from his playboy lifestyle, returning to the wild with his mission accomplished.