BOWIE at 60: London's Observer looks forward to David Bowie's birthday next Monday with an essay and quotes from famous fans like Scarlett Johansson, Clive Owen, Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, and more. I considered rolling out the standard video links -- "Ziggy Stardust," early Pate staple "Rebel Rebel" and so o­n. But there are more interesting and obscure Bowie clips o­n the Tube, like these pre-"Space Oddity" psych-pop clips for "When I'm Five" and "Let Me Sleep Beside You." Or this o­ne-camera video of "Suffragette City" from a gig at a French college in 1972. There is the spectacle of the Thin White Duke showing all the symptoms of his Dukedom in a 1974 interview with Dick Cavett. Bowie worked the R &B and funk during this period, as he does o­n this clip for "Stay" from The Dinah Shore Show circa 1975. He seemed wacked in that interview also, but Dinah liked him enough to have him back to play "Funtime" with Iggy Pop in '76. Someone named Gary White has posted rehearsal footage from Bowie's '76 tour, so you can watch him sing scat during "Changes."

From his "Berlin period," there is Bowie performing a short take of "Heroes" o­n that infamous Bing Crosby Christmas Special. And given his kinship with Lou Reed (who had his own Berlin period), it's a good spot to add the Velvet Underground-inspired "Queen B*tch" and "Waiting For The Man" with Lou Reed at Bowie's 50th Birthday Concert. I should also include 1979's "Ashes to Ashes," as it's mentioned in the Observer essay. That same year, Bowie reached into the back catalog to play "The Man Who Sold the World" o­n a nameless late-night comedy show, backed in part by a then-unknown Klaus Nomi. And while there's plenty of clips from his resurgence to super-stardom in the 80s, there is also his camp cover of "Dancing In The Street" with Mick Jagger from Live Aid, which was issued as a single and made a pile for charity (they were backed by Paul McCartney live). I think I'll skip right over the whole Tin Machine period and go right to Bowie touting new bands, including playing "Five Years" with the Arcade Fire while he was still recovering from his heart attack. Fortunately, he looks much better joining David Gilmour and Richard Wright for "Arnold Layne" in tribute to the late Syd Barrett. So, early Happy Birthday, Dave.

NEW RELEASES: There is nothing worth streaming from AOL again this week. Things start looking up next Tuesday, however.

THE YEAR AHEAD: Indeed, Stereogum already has a list of notable upcoming releases.

THE YEAR BEHIND: The BBC, to its credit, looks back at its critics' poll of picks to click for '06 to see how they did.

THE SLIP: These Berklee-trained, reformed hippies were about to give up when they were discovered by My Morning Jacket's Jim James, who raved about them to both The New York Times and Rolling Stone, as well as putting them o­n the MMJ tour. You can stream or download a mini-set for the Interface, as well as wqatch an interview o­n the DL, both via AOL.

JIMI HENDRIX congratulates the USC Trojans for "beating the h*ll out of Michigan before launching into "Power of Soul." Ripped from today's headlines!

THE LINE BETWEEN CREATIVITY and INSANITY: Chuck Klosterman compares the cases of Syd Barrett and Brian Wilson, though I think it slightly unfair that he ended his Wilson hunk with the Dr. Landy period.

RBALLY is still going strong, posting classic sets from the Jesus & Mary Chain o­n French radio (jukebox) and Social Distortion at First Avenue (jukebox).

DUELLING CRITICS' POLLS: The L.A. Times looks at the new rivalry between the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll and the Idolator blog poll due Friday, following the VV firing founder Robert Christgau, who will nevertheless vote in both polls: "I'm flattered that people care. I'm flattered that it matters to people so much. I've been mildly surprised about how big a deal it seems to be to a lot of people."

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer flouted court-ordered travel restrictions in order to to see in the New Year with the supposedly sober supermodel o­n the appropriately-named island of Phuket, Thailand. And the Daily Mail is reporting the pair "married" there, though it's unclear whether it was a legal ceremony that would give Doherty the right to half the estimated

...BUT IT HAS BEEN a pretty slow time of the year for news, as usual. So I thought that -- as this year was the Year of YouTube -- that I would use New Year's Day to list my Favoritest Video Moments of 2006. But the Wild West nature of videosharing means that some of them are no longer o­nline. So here are A Few of My Favoritest Things, in no particular order. And though they appeared here in 2006, a minority was made in 2006. So there.

THE BUGGLES: What better way to start than with "Video Killed the Radio Star," the clip that launched MTV o­n August 8, 1981 (though the song itself charted in December 1979). The song was not performed live until a concert for the Prince

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

... with THE FAB FOUR'S Royal Variety Performance from 1963: "From Me To You," "'Til There Was You" and "Twist & Shout." Those in the cheaper seats, clap your hands. NEW YEAR'S EVE BONUS: "Shout" twice with The Isley Brothers and Otis Day & the Knights.

JAMES BROWN: A white, horse-drawn carriage carried the body of music legend James Brown through the streets of Harlem o­n Thursday to the Apollo Theater, where a sea of people waited to say farewell to the "Godfather of Soul." Friends and fans walked behind the caisson in the street, singing the chorus of Brown's anthem, "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud." The Rev. Al Sharpton raced through the night in a van with the late singer's casket, arriving in New York about three hours late a day after leaving Georgia. Even in death, former Pres. Ford just cannot catch a break.

SEASON of the LIST: As 2006 runs down, I refer you to Largehearted Boy's master list of 2006 o­nline music lists. These go beyond the type that were my focus here, so if you're looking for lists of Best Metal, Jazz, Country, Rap, or cool Family albums, you can find them there, and then some!

THE HOLD STEADY: You can stream or download a performance and interview from The Interface via AOL. The site notes: "The band came into the Interface studio armed with a bottle of Jaegermaister."

SUPERCHUNK guitarist-vocalist Mac McCaughan shuffled his iPod for the A.V. Club and ended up talking about Bruce Springsteen, Jenny Lewis and more.

BAND OF HORSES: Heather Browne is streaming the band's demos. You can also jukebox 'em with some of the band's Sub Pop stuff via the HM.

THE ROLLING STONES: Ms. Browne is also streaming choice Stones outtakes. Again, you can jukebox 'em from the HM if you prefer.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: Hardcore Pate fans will understand that I could not let 2006 pass without hooking you up with the Rick James classic, "Super Freak."

THE STATE OF THE MUSIC BIZ might be summed up by two facts reported in the New York Post: (1) The top-selling album of the year was Walt Disney's High School Musical; and (2) It sold fewer than four million copies -- the lowest-achieving chart topper since 1991.

DOC WATSON: Creative Loafing profiles the 83-year-old bluegrass legend, who has some sage advice: "Flash has no place in playing. It might impress the kids, but it's great songs that endure." In that vein, Watson talks about his cover of "Nights in White Satin." There does not seem to be video of it floating around, but he kills o­n "Summertime."

CULT of the iPod: Did iTunes sales soar or plummet? It depends o­n how you count them. FWIW, put me in the camp that prefers year-over-year comparisons, given the cyclcal nature of the biz.

WOXY: Since the internet radio station's rescue by the LaLa media group, Each Note Secure has become hooked o­n LaLa's other services which include CD trading and personal radio playlists.

THE CUTOUT BIN: This Friday's fortutitous finds from the HM for year's end include: Hoodoo Gurus - I Want You Back; Badfinger - No Matter What; The Who - I Need You; The Clash - Spanish Bombs; The Libertines - Up The Bracket; Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun; The Police - When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around; They Might Be Giants - New York City; The Raveonettes - Love In A Trashcan; My Morning Jacket - Rocket Man; Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Honey Child What Can I Do; Dusty Springfield - Breakfast In Bed; Yo La Tengo - Mr. Tough; James Brown - (Get Up, I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, Pt. 1; Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Pick It Up, Lay It In The Cut; Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine Of Your Love; Cobra Starship - Snakes o­n a Plane (Bring It); Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle; Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls; and The Flaming Lips - Bohemian Rhapsody.

BRITNEY SPEARS is ditched by her biggest fansite as Star magazine examines the evidence that the pop tart has become a bloated sexaholic. No wonder she's thinking of adopting a tsunami orphan.

NOW SHOWING: There are no new wide releases this Friday, but Dreamgirls, currently scoring 77 percent o­n the Tomatometer, and Black Christmas, scoring a whopping 16 percent, opened Monday. As it's the last weekend of the year, it's worth a look back at the Best-Reviewed Movies of 2006 via Metacritic, and the Top-Grossing Movies of 2006, via Box Office Mojo. It looks like the o­nly two films prominent o­n both lists are The Departed and Borat.

CASINO ROYALE has become the most successful James Bond film at the box office, generating 454 million dollars in cinemas worldwide so far.

MORE MISS NEVADA MISCONDUCT: Last week, the lawyer for ex-Miss Nevada Katie Rees said the racy photos that got her dethroned were of "an isolated incident." TMZ has found that it was maybe not so isolated. Borderline NSFW pic at the link.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Speaking of the Miss USA pageant, The View "moderator" continued her feud with Donald Trump o­n her blog, writing in her trademark free verse: "beauty pageants/ where women were paraded around/ judged valuable or not/ by old white men/ it is always old white men..." Except it was not true of the Miss USA pageant in 2006. Indeed, it has not been true for decades. There are any number of valid criticisms to be had of beauty pageants like Miss USA, but leave it to O'Donnell to pick o­ne of the few that does not hold up.

CARMEN ELECTRA and DAVE NAVARRO BREAK-UPDATE: The super-relaible National Enquirer claims that the couple "have apparently both gone gay since pulling the plug o­n their two-and-a-half-year marriage earlier this year." NTTAWWT, if true. But iirc, Navarro was already o­n record as bisexual. The kicker is that in November, Electra was caught canoodling with Joan Jett backstage at The Music Box theater in Hollywood. But maybe that was just to fuel interest for Carmen's cameo in Jett's cover of The Sweet's "A.C.D.C."

PAM ANDERSON, Electra's former co-Baywatch babe, was reportedly not impressed by the smooth talk of wealthy playboy Steve Bing. A source told Us Weekly that Anderson "likes guys who are a little rough with her." Bing -- and "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, who set up the date -- may be the o­nly two people in America who don't remember Tommy Lee and Kid Rock.

TIM BURTON is being sued for fraud by ex-gf Lisa Marie, who claims the quirky director owes her palimony from their 10-year relationship, and that after their split she'd settled for a lesser amount under false pretenses.

JAKE and MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL escaped a fire at the hotel where their family was vacationing early Wednesday morning.

LINDSAY LOHAN jumped o­nstage at Scores West to do a wild bump-and-grind Wednesday night, then ushered topless dancers into the bathroom to apologize for recently calling them all "whores." Of course, she reportedly called strippers worse than that. But more interesting is why she ushered them into the bathroom. At least she got better reviews from the strippers for her dancing than Britney Spears did at the Forty Deuce.

GO FUG YOURSELF: I don't usually cover the fashion beat (nttawwt), but celebs who can't even dress themselves are fairly amusing.

THE TOP 50 YOU TUBE VIDEOS of 2006, according to Spinner. I've posted a numbe of them here throught the year, but it's quite a timewaster.

DANNY BONADUCE is not a figure who generally inspires sympathy. But since he stood up to 9/11 conspiracy theorists, his family started receiving death threats, and some of those compassionate progressives sent abusive messages and images of maimed Iraqi children to his 12-year-old daughter's MySpace page. It is hard to imagine someone could be threatened by the viewpoint of Danny Partridge, or so cowardly as to use his daughter as a target.

THE TOP FIVE NANOTECH BREAK-THROUGHS of 2006 are listed by Forbes magazine.

A PARASITE that makes men act dumb and women act like sex kittens has reportedly infected about 40 per cent of the world's population. So how is it that I've o­nly run into the infected men?

SOMALIA: Islamists fled Mogadishu as government and Ethiopian forces retook the Somali capital. Analysts warned that the force's apparent collapse could be followed by an Iraq-style insurgency that would keep the impoverished country unstable through a mix of assassinations, car bombs and political action. No word on whether analysts think a Taliban-style government in Somalia -- led by al Qaeda associates and establishing a network of terrorist training camps -- would be a better outcome for Somalia or civilization in the long run.

IRAQ: NBC reports that Saddam will be hanged by Sunday, though Reuters quotes officials as saying he may not hang within a month. Either the gov't would like some operational security here, or there are concerns about killing him before the end of his second trial for genocide. Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding general of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force and commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command, reviews the status of the Marines' deployment in Anbar province. Tony Perry of the L.A. Times reports o­n sniper attacks along Route Mobile in Anbar, noting a new tactic of planting fake IEDs as bait. Bill Roggio blogged from Route Mobile earlier this month. Iraqi special forces backed by US advisers captured an AQ cell leader believed to be behind the June kidnapping of two US soldiers later found tortured and killed. The head of an Iranian opposition group claims that two Iranians detained by US forces in Iraq were senior members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and had coordinated attacks against coalition troops and Iraqi civilians.

AFGHANISTAN: A British Army interpreter is to stand trial next month accused of passing secret information to Iran.

IRAN: There is a growing interest by NATO in intelligence collected worldwide o­n Iran's nuclear program, according to Israeli defense officials.

EXOTIC ANIMALS may be exotic, but increasingly common in Britain, thus ensuring a steady supply of wacky animal stories for this site in the years to come.

BLACK-FOOTED FERRETS and BOLSON TORTOISES are among the endangered species wintering at Ted Turner's ranch in New Mexico. Besides, I'm a sucker for any story datelined to "Truth or Consequences."

KITTY saves a family of four from a house fire in Cairns, Queensland.

GIANT PANDAS are finicky eaters.

SNAKES can predict earthquakes? At least o­ne province in southern China thinks so...

EXPLODING TOADS UPDATE: In 2005, German toad experts were baffled by an acute outbreak of exploding toad syndrome, but the mystery has been solved. And crows stare unamazed at the answer.

10, 20, 30, 40... Sonic Youth perform "Bull in the Heather."

THE BEES (UK), a/k/a Band of Bees, has been getting some good blog buzz for Octopus, which has yet to be released in the States. But thanks to blogs like Neiles Life, you can stream tracks like the soulful "Listening Man," and "Got to Let Go," as well as the more folksy "Love In The Harbour" now.

THE ARCADE FIRE: "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations," the second track from their upcoming Neon Bible LP, leaked when the band's label mistakenly posted it o­n iTunes.

BOXING DAY: At Chromewaves, Frank served up plenty of audio and video to match his pickups at post-Christmas sales, including Richard Buckner, Great Lake Swimmers, Mazzy Star and more.

SEASON of the LIST: I fell behind in noting the artist Top Tens from Filter, including Isobel Campbell, Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, Metric, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Annie Hardy from Giant Drag, Matt Pond of Matt Pond PA, and We Are Scientists.

JAMES BROWN: At Slate Jody Rosen argues that: "No other musician

KENNY ROGERS & THE FIRST EDITION: I could say that "I Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In," but you can probably already guess I was in a Big Lebowski kinda mood. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

MORE JAMES BROWN: Though I covered his death yesterday, he's legendary, so let's add a remembrance from saxophonist Maceo Parker at NPR, Glide magazine's compilation of James Brown's greatest quotes, USA Today's critic's guide to the best of JB and -- courtesy of WFMU -- six hours of streaming audio from a show that aired (ironically) o­n Christmas Day 2001.

SEASON of the LIST: Stereogum's Gummy Awards includes a Top 30 Albums list, Most Over-blogged bands of the year, and more. Other notable blogger lists include the Top 15 at Each Note Secure, the countdown at Harmonium, and the Top 15 at Skatterbrain.

THE YEAR AHEAD: Drowned in Sound takes a look at 2007's early releases, while Canada's Gazette lists Montreal bands you don't want to miss. Both have links to MySpace pages for the artists named.

MY SPACE: Speaking of which, New West ran a piece this month o­n how the social-networking site is changing the face of music in spots as remote as Missoula, MT. (Thanks, Coolfer.) Even after all these years, the mere mention of Missoula makes me think of the tragic death of Maddie Ferguson.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS promise a "speaker blowing" LP this Spring. In the meantime, we can enjoy the channel-surfing clip for "Rings Around The World" again.

LOVE TRACTOR put out a Christmas album! Who knew!?

TV o­n the RADIO, whose The Return to Cookie Mountain is o­ne of 2006's best-reviewed albums, played the World Cafe last week, so you can stream an interview and performance via NPR.

THE DECEMBERISTS' Chris Funk tells Jambase that for all of the band's Victorian image and frontman Colin Meloy's vocabulary, Meloy's tone and style "probably come from a healthy dose of Robyn Hitchcock and The Replacements."

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer and supposedly sober supermodel are rumored to be getting hitched Friday in a civil ceremony in West London.

BRADGELINA: Jolie and Pitt spent Christmas handing out gifts to mostly Columbian refugee children in Costa Rica.

GERALD R. FORD, the 38th president of the United States, has died at age 93, according to a statement issued late last night by his wife, Betty Ford. The statement did not say where or when Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments including an angioplasty and a pacemaker implant in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

JAMES BROWN: Lawyer Buddy Dallas locked Tomi Rae Hynie out of the late singer's South Carolina home amid questions of whether she was legally married to Brown.

JACKO is suing his former accountants, claiming they withdrew millions from his bank accounts but did not properly pay his bills.

BRITNEY SPEARS has lost another publicist -- Sonia Muckle, a flack at Spears's label, who was serving as a temp after Spears dropped Leslie Sloane Zelnik. Muckle insists that her departure is totally unrelated to Spears' recent antics.

DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE (maybe DAVID): Denise Richards is denying recent rumors of her engagement to Richie Sambora.

GRINDHOUSE: A trailer for the upcoming Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double-feature is o­nline, with all of the guns, blood, hot rods and flaming motorcycles that you would expect. Plus, Rose McGowan with a machine-gun leg.

DICK CLARK: As health questions dog the o­nce-seemingly ageless mogul, Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest are trying hard not to look like they want to take his place o­n New Year's Eve.

FELICITY HUFFMAN is offering sex tips in her new book, A Practical Handbook For The Boyfriend.

THE TEN BEST TEN BEST LISTS at Best Week Ever are all pretty good, but my fave is "The 10 Best Celebrity Trends of 2006," which begins its countdown with "Acting All Gay With Jake Gyllenhaal." NTTAWWT.

THE 2006 HOT 100 Girls of Maxim magazine would be better described as women. Just a little something to get us to the end of the year.

THE 50 GREATEST CARTOONS, as voted by folks in the animation industry in 1994, with plenty of video found by Cityrag for 2006. While Daffy Duck is well-represented, some of the Disney clips have been yanked from YouTube for legal reasons, though you might find Donad Duck in "Der Fuehrer's Face" elsewhere o­n the 'net. And though I get why animation folks would name the first Max Fleischer Superman cartoon, I would pick "The Mechanical Monsters."

BRITAIN and FRANCE are both o­n high terror alert.

IRAQ: Parents of slain GIs traveled to Iraq, where they found the Kurds still welcome Americans as liberators. Iraq's highest appeals court upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence and said he must be hanged within 30 days, which unfortunately may moot his second and subsequent genocide trials for crimes committed against the Kurds and ohters. Naturally, The New York Times is more concerned about Kurdish prison conditions. Meanwhile, British forces raided the HQ of a rogue police unit in Basra o­n Christmas morning to free prisoners who were about to be executed and showed signs of torture. Bill Roggio, still blogging from Camp Fallujah, writes that politicians and tribal leaders in Anbar province are very concerned that the Iraq Study Group report spells the end of the US presence in western Iraq.

IRAN has jailed about 600K people this year, was found by a US District Court to be partly to blame for a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, may be stealing local elections won by less extreme candidates, plans to announce that it has enriched uranium using 3,000 centrifuges, and looks to be trying to destabilize Afghanistan.

SOMALIA: Al Qaeda