AC/DC: The Northwestern lists 10 reasons why they never grow old.  And that's without the nine lives mentioned in "Back In Black."

THE BEATLES: All Songs Considered has a one-hour plus feature on the White Album, if the 40th Anniversary special at PopMatters wasn't enough for you.  The NPR feature has excerpts of demos and outtakes -- shiny!

APOLLO SUNSHINE does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, one previously unreleaased.

THE QUIETUS has posted a game where you guess album covers performed by mimes.

THE ROSEBUDS: Kelly Crisp talks to Prefix about musical geography, why she blogs letters to Frank Black and more...

MARGOT & the NUCLEAR SO & SOS play "As Tall As Cliffs" for Conan the Comedian. More megaphone!

25 GREAT SOPHOMORE RECORDS, with streaming audio, courtesy of JamsBio.

20 BOY-GIRL DUETS FOR THE AGES, with streaming audio, courtesy of JamsBio.

FRIGHTENED RABBIT: Scott Hutchison talks to Clash about the year that was.

MATTHEW SWEET talks pottery with Blurt. Yes, really.

NOW SHOWING: The holiday weekend's wide releases are the VInce Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon comedy Four Christmases, which is currently scoring 28 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Transporter 3, which is currently scoring 18 percent; and Baz Luhrmann's Australia, which is scoring 51 percent (38 percent with the top critics).

ASHLEE SIMPSON & PETE WENTZ named their baby... wait for it... Bronx Mowgli.

BRITNEY SPEARS rolls out some wacky for a feature in Rolling Stone: "There's an understanding among those who know Britney well: When she's blond, she's happy.  When she's brunette, she's sad.  When she's pink, she's crazy."

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise tries to reel in the wacky for a piece in the Daily Mirror.

AMY WINEHOUSE was admitted to a London hospital after suffering a bad reaction to medication, her representative said Tuesday.

HEATHER LOCKLEAR & RICHIE SAMBORA are reuiniting for a family Thanksgiving dinner.

GEORGE CLOONEY prank called Hugh Jackman over the People magazine Sexiest Man Alive award.

WILLIAM SHATNER comments on the latest Star Trek movie trailer.  Okay, not really, but I suspect it's prtetty close to the mark.

TINSELTOWN'S TOP EARNING COUPLES, courtesy of Forbes magazine.

TO 20 GREATEST MOVIE CAR CHASES, according to the Times of London.

THE 100 GREATEST MOVIE CHARACTERS, according to Empire magazine. Lotsa clicking involved.

TERROR in the US: After more than 15 years of investigation and two trials, the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than 12 million dollars to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS: "They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom. But the members of Saudi Arabia's first all-girl rock band, the Accolade, are clearly not afraid of taboos."

AFGHANISTAN: In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

IRAQ: Bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed 17 people yesterday aimed to destabilize Iraq before provincial elections, which are central to the nation's process of reconciliation, the UN said. Moqtada al-Sadr's influence wanes. The US military says Iraqi forces have arrested a suspected Shiite militia leader who has been linked to Iran.

DOGS WELCOME their owner upon his return from 14 months in Iraq.  Awww...

A 15-INCH MINI HORSE awaits a name.  Awww...some pics at the link.

PARROTS: A missing parrot has been reunited with its owner after chirping its own name down the phone from the home of its rescuer. A sad parrot was so heartbroken by the death of his owner that he's been prescribed an animal-friendly version of Prozac.

SOLAR-POWERED SEA SLUGS harness stolen plant genes.  Video at the link.

GECKO RUSTLERS: Is there anything lower?

THE HIVES & CYNDI LAUPER: A Christmas Duel. Not all that family-friendly, I must say.

NEW RELEASES: The Fireman (Paul McCartney + Youth), Scott Weiland and Tom Jones are among those with albums streamin this week via Spinner. Slim pickins this week.

NEIL YOUNG: Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968 will be released Dec. 2, but you can stream the entire album at NPR.

THE WRENS: Download The Meadowlands for less than two bucks.

JULIANA HATFIELD is now hopeful of having turned the corner on her anorexia, but the Observer excerpts some of her blogging from the treatment cinic.

NIRVANA: Krist Novoselic tells the whole story behind the 1992 MTV Music Video Awards when his bass came crashing down on hsi head.

GLASVEGAS: I've been remiss in forgetting to alert y'all to this dramatic band from Glasgow, so "Please Come Back Home" and "Daddy's Gone" are your Twofer Tuesday. 

EFFED UP do the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, albeit under their actual name.

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME opens its NYC Annex.

DEERHUNTER (not to be confused with Deerhoof) gets some guff from the Seattle Weekly.

OF MONTREAL: Kevin Barnes lists a few of his favorite things for Drowned In Sound.

KANYE WEST listens to Thom Yorke and Feist in his crib.

BRITNEY SPEARS is chafing under her father's conservatorship.

HEIDI MONTAG & SPENCER PRATT eloped, for once avoiding mining their lives for publicity. No endless stories about wedding plans.  And some say we have little for which to be thankful.

MADONNA: The ink isn't dry on her divorce decree, but her rumored beau, Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, was beginning to distance himself from her beloved Kabbalah.

JASON LEE reveals he got hitched in July.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO hears his biological clock ticking.

BOY GEORGE's false imprisonment trial got underway with testimony from the Norwegian escort allegedly shackled to a wall and beaten by the former Culture Club singer.

IRON MAN: Jeff Bridges has posted photos from his limited edition book, Making Iron Man, on his website. DUDE!

MICHELLE WILLIAMS is still mourning the loss of Heath Ledger: "It's a strange thing to say, because I'm at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse."

NORTH KOREA is halting cross-border train service with South Korea starting next week. Ronery.

AFGHANISTAN: A French infantryman writes about the US troops there: "Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans..."

IRAQ: Warblogger Michael Yon writes in the New York Post about walking in South Baghdad without his helmet and body armor, and more...

CAT CHASES HIS LEASH: Let's go to the video.

LUCKY LUNA lives up to her name, surviving more than 300 miles perched on a car's engine block for nearly a week, without food or water. Pic at the link.

HARVEY DO SURF: Everybody's heard/ about the dog. Dog, dog dog/ dog is the word.

HEY, IS THAT A HAMSTER IN YOUR PANTS?  This vest might work better.

A CATFISH and a BASKETBALL: Jeff Bridges has... the rest of the story.

BEACH HOUSE has a new video for "Used To Be."

STEVE WYNN stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set drawn from his latest album, which was crafted in Slovenia.

THE SPELLS: Carrie Brownstein blogs an interview with collaborator Mary Timony and offers tracks to stream and download.

OLABELLE a supergroup of sorts, mixing gospel, blues, bluegrass and country influences, played the World Cafe on Friday; you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

NEW ORDER has issued a recall on its reissues.

THE MC5 and related artists have shows to stream or buy from Wolfgang's Vault. A good excuse to "Kick Out The Jams" on a Monday, though be careful of the strong profanity at the outset, won't you?

OKKERVIL RIVER: Part Two of the Will Scheff interview is posted at Drowned In Sound.

MGMT is profiled in the Independent.

THE BEATLES: John Lennon is forgiven by the Vatican for that "bigger than Jesus" crack in 1966.

INDIE MUSIC could learn a lot from American Idol?

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The teen vampire flick Twilight blew the roof off your local cineplex with 70.5 million.  It's the fourth biggest November debut behind three Harry Potter movies.  It almost made back its 37 million production budget on Friday.  It made more that day than any other film its distributor ever made.  It beat gurus' estimates by 10-20 million. A 200 million total is not out of the question.  Big.  Quantum of Solace dropped 60 percent to pull in 27.4 million.  But it made over 100 million in eight days, is already massive worldwide and stil may make 200 million in the US.  Bolt nipped at Bond's heels with 27 million.  Probably disappointing for Disney, but this one had to contend with both the Madagascar sequel -- which came in fourth with 16 million -- and the media onslaught from Twilight.  Maybe the dog will show some legs next weekend. Rounding out the Top Five was Role Models, which held onto the comedy niche with 7.2 million; it could end up making 75-80 million on its 28 million production budget.  Below the fold, HSM3 was hit hard by Twilight, dropping 64.5 percent this weekend -- but 86 million on an 11 million budget still looks like good ROI to me.

ASHLEE SIMPSON & PETE WENTZ welcomed a baby boy late Thursday night, Ashlee's pneumatic blonde sister is said to be over the moon.

LINDSAY LOHAN & SAMANTHA RONSON reportedly have been fighting like cats and dogs, with a smidge of video to support the claim.  The pair supposedly had their second major public spat in a week at the extravagant launch of a Dubai hotel.

NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN were... wait for it... caught canoodling during Sheridan's 45th birthday party at Beverly Hills restaurant Luau.

JENNIFER ANISTON does a Q&A with the NYT, in which she goes just a little too far out of her way to assure us she's not the creepy stalker chick she just played on 30 Rock.

AMY WINEHOUSE says her marriage is over, amid tales of threesomes and "really gross stuff you couldn't mention in a newspaper," according to the uber-reliable News of thew World.  And if it's too gross for the NotW, I'm thinking it's pretty wacky.

JON HAMM: Mad Men's Don Draper takes GQ on an autobiographical tour of LA. On delayed success: "If I were 21 and doing this, we'd be having a very different conversation," he says. "I see actors in this town who make it big young. They don't understand the word no: ‘What do you mean I can't kill this elephant, drop it on a car, set it on fire, and then snort it?' Well, you just can't."

MEGAN FOX, like Jon Hamm, was honored as one of GQ Magazine's "Men of the Year" last week.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson denies his marriage is in trouble.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT takes another step toward the big screen. 

SIENNA MILLER won about 79K in damages from a photo agency on Friday over claims of paparazzi harassment in a settlement her lawyer said could have significant implications for other celebrities.

PAKISTAN: A US missile strike that killed Rashid Rauf -- the UK's most wanted terrorist -- suggests the US is getting better intell. Backstory of the raid is at the Independent.

IRAN complains that the International Atomic Energy Agency isn't doing a good enough job preventing information leaks to the news media.  Meanwhile, shortly before dropping North Korea from the blacklist of states that support terrorism this summer, the Bush admin. reportedly thwarted the transfer of missile parts from Pyongyang to Iran, according to US officials.

IRAQ: Parliament votes on the US security pact Wednesday.  Iraqi ministers are pushing the deal; Hezbollah is opposing it. US forces captured eight members of the League of the Righteous and six Hezbollah Brigades operatives during raids in Baghdad, and captured seven al Qaeda fighters during raids throughout Iraq.  In Mosul, Iraqi forces are leading the surge against the remnants of AQI.

HAMSTER on a PIANO (eating popcorn): Let's go to the music video.

SO, A DOG drives into a coffee shop...

THE PANDA is just not that into you.

SHIBA PUPPY CAM UPDATE: The newly famous Internet puppies have been adopted.  But UStream's replacement is at the link.

3200 FEMALE WHITE MICE were purchased by the Kremlin. I have a bad feeling about this.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with SHINDIG SOUL! This compilation is Tubed into three parts. Part One includes James Brown with "Please Please Please," Tina Turner with "A Fool In Love" and Booker T. & The MG's with "Green Onions." Part Two includes Major Lance with "Monkey Time," Joe Tex with "Hold What You've Got," Tina Turner with "Money" and Marvin Gaye with "I'll Be Doggone." Part Three serves up James Brown with "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," Aretha Franklin with "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" and Marvin Gaye with "Hitch Hike."

THE WHITE ALBUM gets a 40th Anniversary special at PopMatters.

THE SOUNDTRACK TO OUR LIVES' new album "Communion" is currently streaming in its entirety.

HOW OLD ARE YOU NOW? Jason Kottke lays out timelines for classic rock and movies: "Listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller today is equivalent to listening to Elvis Presley's first album (1956) at the time of Thriller's release in 1982."

THE UGLYSUIT does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.  The band is from Oklahoma City, but two of these tracks were inspired by the Windy City.

ELVIS COSTELLO now has a promo site for his new TV show, Spectacle, which will air on the Sundance Channel in the US.  Clips of El C talking and playing with Elton John are posted now.

THE DECEMBERISTS: Colin Meloy says everyone will be calling the band's next album a rock opera.

SHEARWATER: Jonathan Meiburg gives Drowned In Sound his rundown of his band's latest album, Rook.

THE GREAT MOUSTACHES OF ROCK, courtesy of Yahoo's Get Back blog.

CUTOUT BIN:  Covers aplenty this week from Counting Crows, My Brightest Diamond, Michael Barone, Nico, Mary Lou Lord, Bob Dylan, M Ward, David Ruffin and X -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW PLAYING: This weekend's wide releases are the animated animal adventure Bolt, which is currently scoring 86 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, and teen vampire sensation Twilight, currently scoring 47 percent.

MADONNA & GUY RITCHIE have reached agreement on their divorce - with the British film director reportedly refusing to take a penny of the Madge's cash.

JENNIFER GARNER has obtained a temporary restraining order against a 36-year-old fan she claims has been stalking her since at least 2002.

BRITNEY SPEARS unleashes some more wacky comments in documentary clips posted by People magazine.

HEATHER MILLS has made several complaints to the UK's press watchdog about inaccurate reporting and invasion of privacy in three national newspapers.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. gets Salon's award for the Sexiest Man Living 2008.

WINONA RYDER: Wonder why she was briefly hospitalized after a flight to London?  The Daily Mail suggests it was an accidental overdose of tranquillizers.

THE FRENCH HOTEL and Benji Madden called it quits Tuesday after nine months of dating.  Is Prince William to blame? 

JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME totally hits on a 22-year-old Newsweek reporter in a Q&A for JCVD.

PARTICK SWAYZE talks to the Chicago Tribune about the Windy City, his career and his health.

MEGAN FOX, contrary to some reports, is still engaged to Brian Austin Green and planning a small wedding. Which is just enough news to link some outtakes from her recent GQ photo shoot.  Call it Gratuitous Friday.

STAR TREK: This week's new trailer inspired Trekker backlash, and this mash-up with Beverly Hills 90210.

THE END OF THE WORLD is coming to a theater near you many times before the end of the year.

MONTY PYTHON have started their own YouTube channel. There goes your weekend.

IRAN has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to experts analyzing the latest report from UN nuke inspectors.

IRAQ: Members of Parliament clashed over the US security pact; supporters of the agreement rallied in Sunni and Shia cities. The Iraqi Army is equiping seven to eight light divisions, including commando, air assault, and mountain units.

CAT vs. RABBIT: Let's go to the video, for the patented rabbit hold.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A kitten with two faces.

DEAD PREGNANT ANACONDA: Not something you see every day.  WARNING: Some of the pics are pretty graphic.

AND THERE WAS WHALE all over the highway. A scooter owner's day is ruined.

LIVE WORM discovered during brain surgery. Video at the link.

ROGUE FLAMINGO recaptured in Des Moines, IA.

EMMY THE GREAT compiles a mixtape for Drowned in Sound. They return the favor by linking the video to her current single, "We Almost Had a Baby."

THE BROKEN WEST does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

GUNS N' ROSES: Chinese Democracy is streaming now.

ART BRUT: Eddie Argos is set to get festive this season by way of a brand new Christmas single, one that he'll soon be giving away for free courtesy of his Glam Chops project.

MARIANNE FAITHFULL has a posse of celeb collaborators on her upcoming covers album, Easy Come, Easy Go. It won't drop in the US until next year, but you can stream various tracks online now.

KISS: Gene Simmons opens the New York Stock Exchange -- is that a buy signal? Video at the link.

PAUL SIMON is interviewed by Stephen Colbert, then plays "American Tune."

OKKERVIL RIVER: Drowned in Sound has Part One of an interview with frontman Will Scheff about the band's five-year slog, cover songs and more...

THE GUTTER TWINS are going on hiatus, while Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan focus on their other projects.

GIANT SAND: Howie Gelb asks The Sun how he got to be known as "the Godfather of alt-country."

GUNS N' ROSES: Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy for The A.V. Club: "Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom?"

BRADGELINA: Jolie talks about the twins, by which I mean breastfeeding. Pitt tells Oprah his brood has made him "impervious to poo, snot, urine, vomit."

HUGH JACKMAN is People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive for 2008. I do know women who saw Van helsing just to see him, so I suppose there's something to it.

WINONA RYDER was taken to a hospital on Wednesday after falling ill on a flight from L.A. to London, but her rep called it a "precautionary measure" and she was quickly discharged.

GWYNETH PALTROW raised eyebrows last weekend when she went to the Victoria's Secret fashion show at the reopened Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach instead of flying to see her rocker husband, Chris Martin, on tour with Coldplay.

ANNE HATHAWAY: Addicted to losers?

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Spike Jonze gives a lengthy, wide-ranging interview on the long-awaited and mysterious adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic to Moriarty at Ain't It Cool News.  Exclusive images, too!

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Those who have seen Valkyrie say not only is the film nowhere near as exciting as a thriller, but Cruise's performance elicits uncomfortable and inappropriate laughs. RELATED: The Tom-Kitten bests the Bradgelina babies in the Forbes list of Hollywood's 10 Hottest Tots.

CAPTAIN AMERICA is closing in on a screenwriting team.  Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely worked on the Narnia films, as well as HBO's "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers."

STAN LEE, who helped create hundreds of comic book superheroes, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and Iron Man, was awarded the National Medal of Arts at the White House on Monday: "I wonder what took so long," said Lee, 85, in an interview Sunday. "Say 'He said it with a laugh' or I'll shoot you."

SYRIA: A complex bombed by Israel bore features resembling those of an undeclared nuclear reactor and Syria must cooperate more with UN inspectors, a watchdog report said on Wednesday. Good luck with that.

PAKISTAN: A senior Al Qaeda commander was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan.  A big enough fish that the airstrike occurred outside the tribal areas.

IRAQ: I would think they have to work on the water and sewer services first, but the fact that the Mayor of Baghdad has announced plans for a subway that would cut across the city's sectarian lines seems like a barometer of the mood there.

CAT ON A ROOMBA: Let's go to the video.

PYGMY TARSIERS: Mouse-sized primates not seen alive in 85 years have come out of hiding from a mountaintop in a cloud forest in Indonesia. And yes, they do look like Gremlins.

PET FIT CLUB is back on in Britain.

THE SWARM is making folks in Invercargill, New Zealand, justifiably nervous.

CRUCIFIED SQUIRREL: Overreaction to the threat.