LEO-NARD BERN-STEIN! How better to mark his birthday than with "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" ?

NEW RELEASES: Imogene Heap, Ingrid Michaelson, The Postmarks, Vandaveer, Vivian Girls, Joe Henry and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

MEW does two free songs for Daytrotter.

KAREN O's single for Where The Wild Things Are is streaming.

DARK MEAT performs a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR.

THEFT OF THE DIAL: Cloud Cult's Craig Minowa guest DJs for The Current.

MANFRED MANN covers Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn" and "Just Like a Woman" for Twofer Tuesday.

ST VINCENT: Annie Clark slams Lilith Fair and the "sexism of lowered expectations." (Thx Chromewaves.)

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: Ezra Koenig talks to CNN about the band's origins, the forthcoming album and maintaining Facebook accounts.

THAO NGUYEN gives Stereogum a status report on her band's third album.

RADIOHEAD: The New York Times is still puzzling over the band's plan to stop making full-length records and turn its attention to singles.

MEGAN FOX is hosting the 35th season premiere of SNL.

MICHAEL JACKSON: L.A. County coroner's officials found lethal levels of the powerful anesthetic propofol after examining Michael Jackson's body, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed today in Houston.

JENNIFER ANISTON and GERARD BUTLER were seen "hand in hand" this weekend at The Jane Hotel in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

BRADGELINA are spending £45 million transforming a French chateau into a dream home for themselves and their six children.

CHARLIZE THERON smacked some guy in bar, but in that good way that ticks off her boyfriend.

TERRY GILLIAM tells /Film that he wants to work for Pixar, among other things.

INCEPTION, the next film from Christopher Nolan, has a trailer online.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS are now pushing forward with their own plans to build nuclear power plants. Wink wink, nidge nudge.

IRAN: Influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has urged Iranians to follow Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's guidelines, five weeks after he challenged the authority of the country's most powerful figure.

PAKISTAN's extremist Taliban movement is badly divided over who should be its new leader, and analysts and local tribesmen say the al Qaeda-linked group may be in danger of crumbling.

AFGHANISTAN: Local Afghan leaders told a top US Marine commander Monday that they plan to step up efforts to reconcile with midlevel Taliban in the extremists' southern Helmand province stronghold.

IRAQ: Prime Minister Maliki promises a crackdown that could reach political figures. Major Iranian-backed Shiite groups announced a new alliance Monday but excluded the prime minister in a rare display of disunity among the country's majority Islamic sect.

HAPPIEST TURTLE EVER? Let's go to the video. Very Finding Nemo.

WHEN HIPPOS ATTACK: A gamekeeper in Uganda runs for his life after disturbing a hungry beast having its favourite meal of grass.

WHEN ALPACAS ATTACK: Prize-winning alpaca farmer Rob Rawlins was preparing to shear the shaggy beast on Saturday morning when it sank its teeth into his lower left arm.

DOG BRIDE SHORTAGE in India.

GOAT THEIVING has reached a tipping point in Wisconsin. 

THEM CROOKED VULTURES, featuring Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, play "Dead End Friends" in Amsterdam.  The sound quality is blown out, but it's the first extended look Americans have had since their semi-secret debut at Chicago's Metro during Lollapalooza.

THE MINUS 5 stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set now streaming in audio and video.

TORI AMOS and PASSION PIT played the World Cafe on Aug. 15th; you can stream both gigs on demand via NPR.

A CAMP, featuring Cardigans lead singer Nina Persson, stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set streaming now.

THE NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS celebrate 50 years with a box set, the first disc of which is advance streaming via NPR.

FIRST CLASS: "Beach Baby" falls into that category of summer song Oliver Wang described last week, "tinged with fragility and marked by melancholy."  It's even more true of the long version, with those French Horns and choral vocals in the c-section...

THE TOP 500 TRACKS OF THE 2000s is complete at Pitchfork, with plenty of embedded audio.

THE NINETY SONGS OF THE NOUGHTIES is presented by Drowned In Sound as an alternative to the P2K list.

IMOGENE HEAP talks to Clickmusic about her collaboration on Mika's new album, her innovative Twestival charitable donation of 'The Song That Never Was' and her love for the Japanese language. (Thx, LHB.)

OKKERVIL RIVER frontman Will Scheff talks to the Galway Advertiser about his manyinfluences. (Thx again, LHB.)

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Inglourious Basterds stormed the nation's cineplexes to the tune of 37.6 million, a personal best for director Quentin Tarantino.  Basterds has a shot at topping Pulp Fiction's 108 million in domestic receipts.  The Weinstein Company and Universal -- both of which have been troubles lately -- also have reason for cheer.  District 9 comes in second with 18.9 million -- a 49 percent drop that isn't so bad, considering the new competition.  District 9 has now made 73.5 million domestically against a 30 million budget.  G.I. Joe took another big drop and may struggle to make 150 million domestically.  But it has made another 100 million so far world wide, and will make money from its 175 million budget.  The Time Traveler's Wife made only 10 million, suggesting it won't have the sort of legs a film like this needs -- but it has almost recouped its production budget.  Julie and Julia rounds out the Top Five with 9 million; its 59 million total looks like a hit against a 40 million budget.  Below the fold, Shorts opened in sixth place, earning only 6.6 million and looking like a flop.  Post Grad also looks like bad news with a tenth-place opening.  The wonderful 500 Days of Summer drops all the way to 13th, but has earned 22.1 million against a 7.5 million budget.

QUENTIN TARANTINO talks to Billboard about the soundtrack of Inglourious Basterds and musical influences on his work.  QT is doing a staellite radio show featuring songs he found inspirational while shooting his Nazi-opus.

FUGITIVE TV REALITY SHOW CONTESTANT and suspected murderer Ryan Jenkins was found dead after he apparently hanged himself, Canadian police said.

MILLA JOVOVICH married director Paul W.S. Anderson in an intimate outdoor ceremony at their home in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

LINDSAY LOHAN's Hollywood Hills home was burglarized. Li-Lo also freaked at an NYC deli after leaving her cellphone behind.

CAMERON DIAZ and KEANU REEVES? Too good to check!

ANNA PAQUIN denies pregnancy rumors.

LATE NIGHT: Letterman reruns beat new Conans, while Leno takes it in stride.

A-LIST STARS have been failing to deliver this summer, though Inglourious Basterds is a decent opening for Brad Pitt.

IRAN's new defense minister is wanted by Interpol for the 1994 terror bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina. At least four nominees for defense, interior, intelligence and oil minister had ties with the elite Revolutionary Guard, a powerful base of support for Ahmadinejad.

IRAQ: Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari suggested the recent bombings that killed at least 95 people and wounded about 600 involved collaboration between security forces and a terrorist group.

THE MOSCOW CAT THEATER: Let's go to the video.

ASIAN HORNETS terrorize France.

HONK if you love Hammerhead Bats!

COWS stare unamazed as they are miked to monitor their belching and flatulence, in a bid to reduce methane emissions.

THE SPANISH NEWT is ribbed for your displeasure.

A CHIHUAHUA with EARRINGS was stolen at a gay bar. Whoda thunkit?

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THREE DOG NIGHT! The guilty pleasure of enjoying "Eli's Coming" with fellow fans of the late, lamented SportsNight, along with memories of The Service's cover of "Shambala" led me to compile a few more, including "Mama Told Me Not to Come," "Joy To The World," "One," "Liar," and "Celebrate."

SUMMER FLING, DON'T MEAN A THING?  Oliver Wang streams songs for saying goodbye to your summer sweetheart.

THE BANNED ROLLING STONES DOCUMENTARY with the nsfw title is now streaming on the Internet.

THE FLAMING LIPS: Wayne Coyne talks to Newsweek about the recording of the upcoming Embryonic, and his influences--ranging from Jean Cocteau to Gwen Stefani. Embedded audio at the link.

ALISON MOSSHART (The Kills, Dead Weather) talks to Seattle Weekly and Straight.

THE BUGGLES: "Video Killed the Radio Star," live in 2004. Because it launched MTV 32 years ago this month.

THE GROWN-UP'S GUIDE TO INDIE ROCK, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. It's pretty good, but I'm old.

CAMERA OBSCURA frontwoman Tracyanne Campbell talks to The Tripwire about David Lynch and heartbreak. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

ELBOW frontman Guy Garvey talks to the BBC about the band's next album and opening for U2.

THE CUTOUT BIN: From REM to Led Zeppelin, from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, from Queen to Booker T and the MGs, plus the Who, the Go-Gos, AC/DC, Camper Van Beethoven, the bEach Boys 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 Inglourious Basterds, which is currently scoring 87 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Robert Rodriguez's family flick Shorts, currently scoring 36 percent; Post Grad, scoring 7 percent, and X-Games 3-D, scoring 20 percent.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS disappointed me.  Don't get me wrong -- a disappointing Quentin Tarantino movie is still better than most.  But this was more a good movie with great moments than a great one with patchy moments.  My primary problem was with the pacing, which is about one of the last things I ever expected to write about a Tarantino movie.  Too often, when the script is trying to create tension, I just was not feeling it.  As a consequence, the scenes with Tarantino-esque dialogue and the trademark Mexican standoffs seemed too few and far between. Of the actors, Christoph Waltz is probably the standout as Col. Hans Landa; the rest are fine, given the material. I just wish the material had lived up to the basic concept.

DISTRICT 9: I forgot to review this Monday, not that the movie needs my help.  A really good, though not great, sci-fi piece about aliens stranded in a government compound-turned-slum after their spacecraft is stranded above Johannesburg, South Africa.  It is not quite as gripping as I hoped, but it was not didactic or preachy about political and social issues as I feared, either. Director (and cc-writer) Neill Blomkamp remains nicely focused on story and character, primarily that of Wikus Van De Merwe, well-played by newcomer Sharlto Copley.

JASON SCHWARTZMAN, famous for his roles in Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited, has tied the knot with clothing designer Brady Cunningham.

JENNIFER ANISTON feels rejected and upset after Bradley Cooper ditched her for Renee Zellweger.

JUDE LAW did not remember his baby mama. Classy.

THE WOLFMAN, starring Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving, has a trailer online.

AVATAR, the upcoming movie from director James Cameron, has a teaser trailer online.

VH-1 REALITY contestant Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted for questioning about the daeth of his wife, Playboy model Jasmine Fiore, reportedly has escaped to Canada by foot. Fiore's body was stuffed in a suitcase and placed in a dumpster in Orange County, CA. Jenkins was the last person to see her and the one who reported her missing.  A text message from Fiore's ex-bf may be a clue. UPDATE: Authorities in Orange County have charged Jenkins with his wife's mutilation-murder and obtained a warrant for his arrest, as truly gruesome details of the crime emerge.

YELLOW SUBMARINE remake? That is all shades of wrong.

SCOTLAND: The man convicted of murdering 270 people by blowing Pan Am flight 103 out of the sky above the Scottish town of Lockerbie two decades ago was on his way home to Libya on Thursday after authorities set him free. He spent 11.57 days in prison per victim.

AFGHANISTAN: Polls opened Thursday morning, as the war-ravaged nation held its second-ever presidential and provincial council elections.

IRAQ's prime minister has ordered a security review after the deadliest series of attacks in the country this year left 95 people dead in Baghdad.

CHIMP WASHES BEARS: Let's go to the video.

PYTHON in a SHOPPING BAG: Serious, I know.

A HUMPBACK WHALE high-fives a diver.

JURASSIC SQUID still had ink!

THOSE DARLINS' have new animated clip for "Red Light Love."

CRACKER stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming via MPR.

IMOGENE HEAP is streaming her new album.

MEW is streaming their new album, too.

I GET AROUND: The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian walks NPR through the Beach Boys classic, and how it compares to Bach's choral church music.

R.E.M.: "Supernatural Superserious."

HOPE SANDOVAL, formerly of Mazzy Star, has a new song, "Trouble," streaming via Entertainment Weekly.

NAME THAT SCREAM: NPR is streaming -- and running a contest around -- six of 74 classic rock screams from a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl disc from artist LeRoy Stevens.

THE BEATLES catalog has been remastered. Again. Beatles News has a highly detailed report of the painstaking work this time around. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

PATRICK WOLF is profiled by the Times of London.

BRITNEY SPEARS delivered Letterman's Top 10 list Tuesday night.

McSLEAZY E! Online has plenty of dish on Kari Ann Peniche, the other woman in the NSFW video featuring Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart.

MICHAEL JACKSON: The King of Merch. "Whenever any big star dies, there's always going to be a mad rush to make a cheap buck," says Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, editor of the Observer Music Monthly magazine. Mean while, Jacko's personal physician will be charged with manslaughter within the next two weeks, a law enforcement source told FOXNews.

ROBERT PATTINSON says he does not have a girlfriend, though he's been spotted canoodling with Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart lately.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE choreographer Alex Da Silva was arrested yesterday on a bunch of sex-crime charges involving four different women he tutored.

QUENTIN TARANTINO & ELI ROTH talk Inglourious Basterds, screenwriting, dating, etc. with each other.

A VH-1 REALITY SHOW CONTESTANT is a person of interest in the murder of a Playboy representative who was found dead and stuffed in a suitcase in Orange County.

JON HAMM has joined the cast of "Sucker Punch," an action fantasy Zack Snyder ("300", "Watchmen") is directing for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

PAKISTAN's army may require months to prepare for a new military offensive against the Taliban in a restive region along the country's unsettled border with Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani general on Tuesday told President Obama's envoy for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region according to senior Pakistani officials.

AFGHANISTAN has ordered Western and domestic media to impose a blackout on coverage of violence during the upcoming presidential election, saying it did not want Afghans to be frightened away from the polls.

IRAQ: At least 95 people were killed and hundreds injured by a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad. A steady escalation of attacks since the US troop withdrawals has sparked fears of a resurgence of violence ahead of next year's national elections.

NORA the CAT performed live -- briefly -- on the Today Show.

ORPHANED HEDGEHOGS, adopting a cleaning brush as their mother...

A FERRET was seen running amok in downtown Port Angeles on Thursday, startling customers and business owners as it made a mad dash for safety.

PIMP MY OSTRICH: Carnivores have been blamed for global warming, deforestation, water pollution, and water overuse. Could farming ostriches and other game animals be the solution?

THE HORRORS have a video for "Mirror's Image" that is literal, and old skool, but effective.

TIM BUCKLEY, Live at the Folklore Center, NYC, is advance streaming via NPR.

ALEC OUNSWORTH of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah does five free songs for Daytrotter, all previously unreleased.

TOP TRACKS OF THE 2000s: Pitchfork's countdown continues, with scads of embedded audio.

GORILLA vs. BEAR also lists their top albums and top songs of the decade.

R.B. GREAVES: "Take a Letter, Maria."

THEFT OF THE DIAL: The Dead Weather (minus Jack White) guest DJs at The Current.

JAY REATARD talks to Paste about his new LP Watch Me Fall, his abiding appreciation for Devo, and his fear of turning into the next Brian Wilson.

DAVID BYRNE refuses to reunite his old band, but his music career is still going strong. Then there's his travel book and his bicycle racks.

CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY talks to The Dumbing of America about her unique sound, playing with Ash and Bat for Lashes, her upcoming solo LP, etc.

QUENTIN TARANTINO lists his favorite 20 movies since 1992, and the blogosphere freaks out.

McSLEAZY: Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart did not have sex with Kari Ann Peniche - but according to Peniche, they had plenty of fun. Lawyers are already in motion over the video that leaked on the Internet.

CELINE DION is pregnant with her second child at 41.

PAULA ABDUL hints that some sort of post-AI deal is in the works ... but she wouldn't say with who.

ROBIN WRIGHT PENN filed for divorce after telling More magazine that she had no plans to reconcile with husband Sean Penn.

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE, produced by David Lynch and directed by the awesome Werner Herzog, now has a trailer online.

BRUCE WILLIS, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER and STALLONE... oh, my!

MONTY PYTHON is reuniting in New York in the fall for an event to mark the group's 40th anniversary and to promote a documentary. A six-hour version of the documentary will have its premiere on IFC on Oct. 18.

ZOMBIES would most likely wipe out humanity if they really existed, claim scientists.

IRAN: A top nuclear official denied stating that Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on its atomic program "without preconditions."

PAKISTAN: The captured spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has told interrogators that Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile strike earlier this month. But who knows, really.

IRAQ: US troops could be forced to withdraw a year ahead of schedule under a referendum the Iraqi government backed Monday, creating a potential complication for American commanders concerned about rising violence in the country's north.

WILD HORSE vs. RACE CAR: Who you got?

MOTOLA the ELEPHANT steps out happily - if a little tentatively - after being fitted with a state-of-the-art artificial limb.

A DELINQUENT COD attacks a bather at a lake... in Darwin.

CAMEL SPIDERS found in Colorado. Did they come from Iraq?

DOGS know when you're lying about treats.