THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

... with THE RASCALS!  I was delighted to find one of my fave clips, their cover of "Mickey's Monkey" in a medley with "Turn On Your Love Light."  A second live medley includes a pair of Rascals originals, "I've Been Lonely Too Long" and "Come On Up." Plus, a copy of "A Girl Like You" has returned to the Tube.  Round it out with the live-instudio version of the obligatory "Good Lovin'."

BEST COAST stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

MAYER HAWTHORNE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD is streaming their Hypnotic Knights EP.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT sings your favorite gum jingles.

LaBELLE: "Lady Marmalade." I coulda used a little more cowbell.

DAVID BOWIE: The A.V. Club considers The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars 40 years later. The Guardian reprints a vintage 1972 interview.

NPR's favorite songs and albums of 2012 (so far). Plenty of embeded audio.

THE BEST OF 2012 (so Far), according to SPIN.

THE BEATLES' ALBUMS, ranked by NME. They are wrong, of course. USA Today rates the 20 Best Beatles songs. They are wrong, of course.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Jam to Merle Haggard, from Bobby Hebb to the Meat Purveyors, from Joe Jackson to Billy Swan, plus The Who, Ted Leo, Booker T & the MGs, Guided by Voices 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: the film version of Rock of Ages, currently scoring 45 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and That's My Boy, which is scoring 17 percent.

CHRIS BROWN sustained a nasty gash on his chin - apparently a wound from a bottle attack - after his entourage allegedly clashed with Drake's crew in a NYC nightclub brawl?

COURTNEY COX filed legal docs responding to David Arquette's divorce petition, and just like David ... she did it without a lawyer.

CHARLIE SHEEN talks to the NYT about Anger Management and and anger management.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL recently had some dates with his crush Minka Kelly, who had turned him down cold when he first asked her out last fall.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON does not like being labelled as 'the sexiest woman alive'.

ITALIAN police arrested ten people with alleged links to Greek anarchists, who are suspected of involvement in a series of attempted terrorist acts in Italy, Germany and France in recent years.

GITMO: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has asked to wear military-style clothing at his upcoming war crimes trial.

EGYPT's Supreme Constitutional Court, made up of judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak before his ouster last year, ordered the dissolving of the Islamist-dominated parliament and upheld the right of Mubarak's former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq to run for president. The rulings came only two days before the start of this weekend's runoff election between Shafiq and the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood.

AFGHANISTAN: Fourteen schoolgirls were poisoned in Kabul. One day after ISAF said it would not conduct airstrikes on homes, the US Department of Defense said strikes on homes could occur.

A DOG steals food off the counter.

CAT & MOUSE game ends with a potentially fatal case of the Black Plague.

BULL FIGHT linked to pig threat.

BABY CHEETAHS at the National Zoo.

BOWERBIRDS are "Overcome With Light" in their newest video.

METRIC played a 6-song set at the UBS Forum.

SMASHING PUMPKINS is advance streaming Oceana via iTunes.

JONATHAN BOULET is streaming We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart.

DANIEL JOHNSTON played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

SUPERCHUNK is streaming their cover of "Cruel Summer" via Spotify.

ELVIS COSTELLO: "The Other Side of Summer."

OF MONTREAL: Kevin Barnes talks to Spinner about returning to a more collaborative mode.

GILLIAN WELCH talks to the Austin Chronicle about how songs change, her fallow songwriting period and more... (Thx, LHB.)

PAUL WILLIAMS talks about his songs, both famous and obscure, with The A.V. Club.

JIMI HENDRIX & JIM MORRISON are headed toward the hologram treatment.

WORLD WAR Z: Brad Pitt's 170 million dollar zombie project is a nightmare.

THE LONE RANGER budget is back up to 250 million...and possibly over schedule.

THE KARDASHIANS: Khloe is undergoing fertility treatment. Kanye West wants to get Kim pregnant.

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE is not in Anchorman 2 yet.

PORTIA de ROSSI is set to play Lily Munster in the NBC reboot.

HUGH LAURIE is in negotiations to play the villain in the Robocop reboot.

THE 25 BEST SUMMER VACATION MOVIES, according to Complex.

TERROR in the USA: A federal court sentenced Haji Bagcho, an Afghan drug kingpin, to life in prison for conspiring to sell heroin in the US and use the proceeds to fund the Taliban.

SYRIAN government forces appeared to be preparing another massacre, in the town of Haffa. UN observers attempting to reach the town were fired upon. Rebel forces tried to smuggle civilians out of the town.

EGYPT's  parliament has for the second time approved an assembly to draft a new constitution after the first attempt was criticized for including too many Islamists... but the list of 100 names immediately triggered similar objections from liberals and Christians, raising the prospect of fresh legal challenges to the new assembly in the courts.

IRAN: The wide gap that remains between Iran and world powers over Iran's nuclear program is being filled by a diplomatic blame game, a week before talks are due to resume in Moscow.

A DOG nurses SIBERIAN TIGER CUBS... Mass hysteria!

50 CENT the GOOSE survives being shot seven times.

DOES A BEAR GO IN THE WOODS? Will he stop you from doing the same?

WOOFSTOCK: They are stardust; they are golden retrievers.

GASLIGHT ANTHEM dropped "45" ahead of their next LP. Stone Pony FTW.

DEER TICK stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set including a cover of The Replacements "Kiss Me On The Bus."

IMAGINARY CITIES also stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO's My Life In the Bush of Ghosts demos surface.

CAN is advance streaming selections from The Lost Tapes collection.

SUPERCHUNK drops "This Summer" as a single. The flip side will be a cover of Bananarama's "Cruel Summer."

THURSTON MOORE covers Michael Chapman's "It Didn't Work Out."

SEALS & CROFT: "Summer Breeze." Because it's that time of year in this hemisphere.

JENS LEKMAN talks to Pitchfork about his forthcoming album (and how he failed making it, sort of).

RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON are essayed at Oxford American, with embedded audio and video; if you're on teh Facebook, you'll be able to stream their classic Shoot Out The Lights. (via Friend of Pate Sylvia Hauser.)

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO talks to Aquarium Drunkard about his latest album, Big Station, which again finds him working with Chuck Prophet and Tony Visconti.

THE 10 BEST MIKE WATT SONGS, according to PopMatters.

LINDSAY LOHAN was driving with an open container of alcohol when she crashed into a truck Friday on the Pacific Coast Highway... but according to cops she had no alcohol in her system.

CHARLIZE THERON has shaved her head for her role as Furiosa in Mad Max 4: Fury Road.

ALYSON HANNIGAN and husband Alexis Denisof welcomed their second daughter.

COURTNEY COX & DAVID ARQUETTE are officially headed for divorce.

KOBE & VANESSA BRYANT are working on a full reconciliation.

ZHYANG ZIYI: The "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star has filed suit against two media outlets for defamation over stories alleging she received millions of yuan to have sex with suspended Politburo member Bo Xilai and other Chinese leaders.

ANN RUTHERFORD, who achieved immortality as Scarlett O'Hara's sister Carreen in Gone with the Wind, has died at 94.

HENRY HILL, the former mobster whose life story became the basis for the movie "Goodfellas," died Tuesday at the age of 69.

YEMEN: Al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has posted several messages on jihadist forums in a recruitment campaign directed at supporters already living in the West.

SYRIAN troops are using children as young as nine-years-old as human shields, forcing them to ride on top of government tanks to deter opposition attacks, a UN report has stated.

IRAN: European Union officials said on Monday that Iran has agreed to discuss a proposal from six world powers to curb its production of high-grade uranium at a meeting in Moscow next week in an apparent deescalation of tensions ahead of the talks. Uh-huh.

SPIDER-CAT walks down a fridge.

A WEIRD DOG is mistaken for an escaped genetically modified pig or a strangely colored mini-horse.

A TREED BEAR closes a Winter Park, FL museum.

TEN BIZARRE BATS, courtesy of the Pets Lady.

THE VACCINES have "No Hope" ahead of their sophomore LP. Pretty peppy for hopeless.

NEW RELEASES from Metric, Hot Chip, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Skinny Puppy, Black Box Revelation and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

BLOOD ORANGE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

WILLIE NELSON played World Cafe Live; you can stream the gig on demand.

KATHLEEN EDWARDS stopped by World Cafe Live for a mini-set.

JAPANDROIDS played "Fire's Highway" and "The House That Heaven Built" for Fallon in time for Twofer Tuesday.

NEIL YOUNG talked to the BBC about Americana and original materialrecorded with Crazy Horse.He talks to the L.A. Times about his latest concert movie with Jonathan Demme.

THE dB's: Peter Holsapple talks to Spinner about embracing cult band status.

LEE RANALDO talks to Drowned in Sound about the making of his solo record, the draw of the creative process, the Occupy movement and what the future holds for Sonic Youth.

CRAIG FINN talks to Creatve Loafing about beer.

LINDSAY LOHAN lied to cops Friday by telling them she was not driving the Porsche that slammed into a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway; as a result, she could be prosecuted and her probation could be revoked.

ROBIN ROBERTS been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and will undergo chemotherapy in advance of a bone marrow transplant later this year.

TOMMY CHONG is fighting prostate cancer.

MARIA MEMUNOUS told Howard Stern she was sexually abused not once, but twice, by two separate doctors.

ZAC EFRON and Lily Collins' spring fling is over.

FRANK CADY, a character actor who played Hooterville general-store proprietor Sam Drucker on the TV sitcoms "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction," died Friday at 96.

BLUE VELVET: Nearly an hour of of deleted footage from David Lynch's 1986 cult classic has been rediscovered in a Seattle warehouse.

THE TOP 50 SCI-FI MOVIES, according to Film.com.

SYRIA: The opposition finds a leader in... Sweden.

IRAN's state finances have come under unprecedented pressure and the resilience of ordinary people is being tested by soaring inflation as oil income plummets due to tightening Western sanctions and sharply falling oil prices.

PAKISTAN: The US is withdrawing its team of negotiators without securing a long-sought agreement to allow trucks to supply NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan again.

RESCUE KITTENS not thrilled with their bath.

THE SWARM: Fifty thousand bees have set up shop in an Orlando neighborhood.

TWO GIANT TURTLES, together for 115 years, refuse to share a cage anymore.

A DINGO caused the death of a baby more than 30 years ago, a coroner ruled Tuesday. Obligatory.

JOAN JETT & AGAINST ME cover The Replacements' "Androgynous." Against Me!'s lead singer announced her decision to live as a woman last month.

FIONA APPLE is advance streaming The Idler Wheel.

GLEN HANSARD is advance streaming Rhythm and Repose.

THESE UNITED STATES are streaming their self-titled fifth album.

THE dB's are now streaming Falling Off the Sky via Rolling Stone.

SMITH plays "Baby, It's You" live in 1969.  The introducer seems familar.

PAUL McCARTNEY talks to Pitchfork about Ram, shearing sheep, and growing a beard.

METRIC: Emily Haines talks to Spinner about meeting Lou Reed, who appears on the band's new Synthetica LP.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: The last of the protest singers?

BARRY GIBB eulogized his brother.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Madagascar 3 tops the chart with 60.4 million, in a near repeat of the success of the franchise's sequel. Given the last one was released in November, where there is plenty of competition for family dollars, this one may reach a higher total.  Prometheus places with 50 million, just about as expected, though one wonders about its legs.  Not that it will matter much, as the film has already recouped its 125 million production budget worldwide, leaving marketing and distribution costs an easy pcikup.  Snow White and the Huntsman shows with 23 million on a steep 59 percent drop from its debut.  Here again, the film sits just shy of 100 million domestic and has just about recouped its 170 million production budget globally.  Men in Black 3 takes in another 13.5 million on a 52 percent drop; it's likely to be the least successful of the series, yet still has half a bilion banked.  The Avengers rounds out the Top 5 with another 10.8 million; it now seems likely to break 600 million domestic and already has raked in almost 1.4 billion worldwide.

LINDSAY LOHAN  was taken to the hospital Friday after her Porsche was totaled in a collision with a semi-trailer truck on the Pacific Coast Highway. Lohan is now telling friends the brakes on her rented Porsche failed.

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY wed longtime galpal Calmina Alves over the weekend. Alrightalrightalright.

DON RICKLES nearly hijacked the American Film Institute's tribute to Shirley MacLaine, unleashing a trademark barrage of insults that took aim at President Obama, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and the honoree herself.

SNOOKI: Who would have predicted nude pics would leak on the internet?

LADY GAGA suffered a concussion after being struck with a pole in concert. So many punchlines.

EGYPT: A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment Friday. After months of deadlock, Islamist and secular political parties reached an agreement on the their roles in writing a new Egyptian constitution. In a victory for the secular parties, the delegate votes would be split 50-50.

SYRIA: For the first time, intense fighting erupted in the capital of Damascus.

IRAN: The UN's nuclear inspection agency failed to reach an agreement with Iran over access to sites suspected of being used for testing nuclear weapon components.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed credit for the suicide attack that killed 25 people at the Shiite Endowment in Baghdad.

DAISY the BEAGLE welcomes home a U.S. Airman.

SEXUALLY DEVIANT PENGUINS proved too much for an Antarctic explorer.

HEY, IS THAT A RAT IN YOUR PANTS? Oh.

A LOST DOG separated from his owner at a rest stop in Missouri waited two days until his owner returned to fetch him.