MUSIC TELEVISION turned 30 yesterday. The first 20 minutes, included The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," while the rest of the first day included Pat Benatar's cover of "You Better Run," Rod Stewart's "She Won't Dance With Me," The Who's "You Better You Bet," PH.D's ""Little Susie's On The Up," Cliff Richard's "We Don't Talk Anymore," The Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket", Todd Rundgren's "Time Heals", REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run," Styx's "Rockin' The Paradise", and many more. A couple of years back, Gawker did 30 years in 3 minutes.

COLIN MELOY played a solo set at the Newport Folk Festival, though The Decemberists make an appearance.

BLACK PRAIRIE, featuring members of The Decemberists, played a set at the Newport Folk Festival, including a cover of "The Song Remains The Same."

MILK CARTON KIDS  played a set at the Newport Folk Festival.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: tracks from Yuck, the Lone Bellow, Jackson Scott and more highlight the latest edition. 

FRANKIE ROSE expresses "Sorrow" ahead of Herein Wild.

THE DEATH RATTLE: Why The '60s Really Ended In 1973.  A slightly different take on an idea expressed in Almost Famous, which means we must hear "Tiny Dancer."

ARCADE FIRE's Richard Reed Parry has started a folk band.

HARRY NILSSON: Alyn Shipton, author of a new Nilsson biography, offers 5 quirky facts about the singer-songwriter. (Thx, LHB.)

LOLLAPALOOZA's best and worst lineups, according to SPIN.

SOUL ASYLUM: An oral history of their big hit, "Runaway Train."

CUTOUT BIN: From RJD2 to Nancy Sinatra, from James Brown to lou Reed, from Them to Bananarama, plus the Who, Stealer's Wheel, King Khan, the Beatles, the Bangles and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM. BTW, I'm advised this here blog is one of the top 100 all-time users of the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are The Smurfs 2, which opened Wednesday with 14 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and 2 Guns, which is currently scoring 58 percent. Also select theaters will be running Sharknado at Friday midnight shows.

SIMON COWELL, having impregnated an ex-friend's wife, finds himself named in the inevitably nasty divorce.

JENNIFER LOPEZ is close to returning to American Idol.

AMANDA BYNES is doing better on a cocktail of psych meds, but was shut down in her bid to leave the psychiatric hospital.

ROBERT PATTINSON is "hanging out and hooking up" with Riley Keough, Elvis Presley's granddaughter.

JENNIFER ANSITON: Not a fan of Katie Couric.

AMBER HEARD is profiled in Flare magazine.

THE UNITED STATES said it would close an unspecified number of embassies around the world on Sunday over security concerns. The White House said said it is "extremely disappointed" that Russia has given temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. A sweeping House of Representatives vote yesterday approved tough new sanctions on Iran; Senate approval is expected soon.

SYRIA: President Assad made his first known public trip outside Damascus since March 2012, visiting the former rebel stronghold of Daraya.

AFGHANISTAN decided not to impose fines on outgoing Coalition cargo after the US Senate passed a measure that would have cut aid to Afghanistan 5 bucks for every dollar of fines.

IRAQ is once again, a full-blown sectarian war zone, with armed factions that hold territory and kill civilians at will.

A CORGI's first pool.

A MASS CHIMPANZEE ESCAPE was diffused by zoo officials with ice cream and fizzy drinks.

BAMBI seized from a no-kill shelter by armed agents who killed her.

A FEROCIOUS WATER BUG stalks and devours a fish.

WILCO & BECK play "California Stars" and "Loser" on the Americanarama tour. Sean Lennon joins them for "Yer Blues."

THE AVETT BROTHERS played a set at the Newport Folk Festival.

LANGHORNE SLIM & THE LAW played a set at the Newport Folk Festival.

DANA FALCONBERRY played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

MAJICAL CLOUDZ got loopy on Morning Becomes Eclectic .

RAY DAVIES and DAVID BOWIE duet on "Waterloo Sunset," live at the Tibet House Benefit, Carnegie Hall, New York in Feb. 2003.

MAVIS STAPLES talks to ToneDeaf about her childhood, civil rights, Jeff Tweedy and more. (Thx, LHB.)

LOU BARLOW spins turnes and talks to Stereogum about going back in the studio with Sebadoh, what appeals to him musically, and his secret cinnamon roll recipe.

SUP POP co-founder Jonathan Poneman talks to Pitchfork about the music of his life.

THE BEST MAZZY STAR SONGS, according to Paste.

LINDSAY LOHAN is out of rehab, but the clinic says she needs more therapy to avoid almost certain failure.

SIMON COWELL is expecting his first child with married New York socialite Lauren Silverman.

JUSTIN BIEBER won't be charged in a case in which a paparazzo accused him of hit-and-run.

KRISTEN STEWART unloads on a paparazzo.

NIGELLA LAWSON filed her divorce papers against Charles saatchi.

MONICA LEWINSKY audio tape surfaces.

ROB LOWE & RASHIDA JONES are leaving Parks & Recreation.

SHARKNADO: The ratings went up again on the third showing.

EGYPT: The cabinet told the police to clear two protest areas occupied by supporters of former president Morsi; the Muslim Brotherhood responded that protests and sit-ins will continue.

SYRIA: The leader of the Syrian National Coalition said the SNC will not engage in peace talks until "the Free Army and revolutionary forces" regain ground lost over the past eight months. Two al Qaeda affiliates, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, are fighting along with allied groups simultaneously in the northern provinces of Raqqah; Hasakah; and Aleppo, where they have kidnapped over 200 civilians from two towns.

LIBYA: The commander of the military's protection force in Benghazi was killed, and his son was injured, yesterday by a car bomb attached to his vehicle.

AMAZING MICK overcomes a debilitating birth defect.

A RACCOON stole wallets from people releasing a sea turtle into the Gulf of Mexico.

SOCIAL AMOEBAE travel with a posse, lead complicated lives.

ASIAN TIGER MOSQUITOS found in Pittsburgh, raising the risk of West Nile virus.

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SEBADOH drops a DIY video for "All Kinds" ahead of Defend Yourself.

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE advance streams Yes, it's True.

THE CIVIL WARS streams their self-titled (and perhaps final) LP via iTunes.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE played a set at the Newport Folk Festival.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK, Live in Scranton, Nov. 11, 2004. (Thx, LHB)

TV ON THE RADIO drops "Mercy," their first new track since 2011.

DEER TICK drops "The Dream's In The Ditch" from their upcoming album Negativity. That's a pick to click.

BLITZEN TRAPPER drops "Ever Loved Once" ahead of Seven. Like this one, too. 

BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE: "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet."  Because it's summer. Plus, cowbell.

MAXWELL'S: The closing of the beloved Hoboken club makes All Things Considered. 

NILE RODGERS is cancer free.

MIKE PETERS, the singer of Big Country and the Alarm, is in chemotherapy on tour. and working to save other cancer patients.

GARY GLITTER may earn £1 million from Oasis royalties.

LINDSAY LOHAN is officially free to leave rehab Wednesday ... but she's decided on her own to stay longer.

REAL HOUSEWIVES' Teresa Giudice and Joe Giudice were released from jail on 500K bonds.

JENNIFER ANISTON, interviewed by Jason Sudeikis. She also went on a stripper diet for her upcoming movie.

KATY PERRY texted Kristen Stewart about being seen with Robert Pattinson.

EILEEN BRENNAN, the veteran actress of The Last Picture Show, The Sting, Private Benjaminand more, has died of bladder cancer at 80.

LIBYA: A powerful car bomb outside the Radisson hotel in Tripoli was defused last night after a telephone tipoff. Three separate car bomb attacks in Benghazi killed a special forces officer and injured a Navy colonel, a senior security officer, and a civilian.

IRAQ: The military claimed it recaptured 349 of the 559 prisoners who escaped from Abu Ghraib during a complex al Qaeda in Iraq-led jailbreak; the military also said another 105 were killed during clashes.

PAKISTAN: The Taliban assaulted a prison in Dera Ismail Khan and freed more than 200 prisoners and killed six security personnel.

AFGHANISTAN: Gen. Dunford, head of US forces in Afghanistan, said some US troops should stay in Afghanistan after combat forces leave at the end of 2014. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction accused the US military of failing to act on his agency's recommendations to ensure that US aid money did not fall into the hands of insurgents, including al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Haqqani Network.

WHAT BEARS DO when you're not there.

WOLVES help BEARS get berries at Yellowstone. No pic-a-nic baskets.

A DOG ate a paralyzed man's testicle.

FIREFIGHTERS helped rescue a local man from a tree after he got stuck trying to rescue his cat.

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES take it down a notch for the animated "Darkness" clip.

MEDICINE is advance streaming their reunion LP, To the Happy Few.

MEAT PUPPETS played a mini-set at Daytrotter, including "Up On The Sky," an 11-minute psychedelic jam on their "Up On The Sun."

JD McPHERSON played a set at the Newport Folk Festival.

TIME FOR THREE played a Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR offices.

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE drop "Hold Yourself Up" ahead of Yes It's True.

CHEAP TRICK turns 40 this week, and while Bun E Carlos (currently suing the meaining trio) might be subtly passive agressive about it, why not have a more-than Twofer Tuesday withtheir 1977 appearance on the Night Gallery (not that one). Your setlist includes : "Oh, Candy," "Hot Love," "He's a Whore," "ELO KIddies," and "The Ballad of TV Violence."

TEGAN & SARA tell the story behind the writing of 'Closer', the inspiration of Ace Of Base and how they make music work living on opposite sides of Canada. Sara talks to Chicago Pride. 

MICK JAGGER: Why not keep dancing?

VAN DYKE PARKS is profiled on Weekend Edition.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, ranked by Stereogum.

LINDSAY LOHAN will be guest-hosting Chelsea Lately next week as she takes over for regular host Chelsea Handler. She also plan to drop many of her so-called friends.

LEAH REMINI isn't going to stop talking about Scientology.

EVAN RACHEL WOOD & JAMIE BELL welcome a son.

ANGELINA JOLIE tops the Forbes list of Hollywood's Highest Paid Actresses.

JENNIFER ANISTON's fiancé Justin Theroux broke her toe.

REAL HOUSEWIVES stars Teresa Giudice and her husband Joe have just been slapped with a laundry list of criminal charges — ranging from bank fraud to tax evasion — and face more than 50 years in prison if convicted.

SHARON OSBOURNE dishes on everything from Anthony Weiner to Justin Bieber at the Daily Beast.

LIBYA's Minister of Social Affairs resigned in protest against the assassinations in Benghazi and the government's lack of response to them.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq killed 40 civilians in a series of bombings in predominantly Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad.

AFGHANISTAN: More than 80 British military advisers assisted the Afghan military in an operation to keep the Taliban from retaking control of the Sangin district in Helmand.

A RACCOON dances to Aretha Franklin. Sort of.

A RIVER OTTER attacked two teenage cousins as they played on a rope swing in a US river, in scenes described by their grandmother as 'like something out of Jaws'.

SHARK WEEK PREVIEW: Even the BBC goes all Capt. Quint.

ASHLEY LAWRENCE, Gator Wrassler.

JJ CALE, whose songs became hits for a wide range of other artists including Eric Clapton and Lynyrd Skynyrd, died on Friday at the age of 74. His best known are the hits-for-Clapton "Cocaine" and "After Midnight."

NEW ORDER is streaming Live at Bestival 2012.

SAM PHILLIPS is advance streaming Push Any Button. Oh, yeah.

POND is advance streaming Hobo Rocket.

RICHARD HELL & THE VOIDOIDS, live at CBGB, Nov. 19, 1976.

THE PIPETTES: "Your Kisses are Wasted On Me." Before it all went wrong. Sigh.

FOXYGEN is having, er, creative differences.

20 ESSENTIAL MOUNTAIN GOATS SONGS, accoridng to PopMatters.

SEAN NELSON (Harvey Danger) talks about songwriting at PopMatters.

THE EAGLES: 14 non-hits that show they are better than you think.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:The Wolverine tops the chart with 55 million, but that's about 10-20 million less than tracking estimates (at this point, it might be asked whether it's the movies or the estimators at fault). Overseas, Logan claws outanother 86 million, so there will be money made here.  Yet 55 million is about what X-Men: First Class made in its debut, raising the prospect this franchise is topped out in North America (or that X-Men Origins: Wolverine depressed demand for this one) . The Conjuring places with 22.1 million and an 83 million total so far against a 20 million budget.  Despicable Me 2 shows with 16 million, but the sequel quickly breaks the 300 million mark in a fairly leggy performance.  Turbo drops to the fourth spot with 13.3 million and 56 million total against a 135 million budget.  Grown Ups 2 rounds out the Top 5 with 11.5 million as it starts to lag the original.  The real - and bad - news is below the fold, where Red 2 drops to sixth with 9.4 million and 35 million total against an 84 million budget. Pacific Rim skids another 53 percent with 7.5 million and a 84 million total against a 190 million budget; but here -- as with The Wolverine -- overseas markets matter, as the robots rack up another 140 million worldwide.That cannot be said of R.I.P.D., a true bomb in ninth place with 5.9 million and no real prospect of recouping its 130 million budget worldwide.

THE WOLVERINE: Pretty good, but not gripping.  Fox, which has mishandled Marvel properties more often than not, seems to have learned from the experience.  Here, the script is largely an adapation from an actual comics storyline and is the better for it.  Logan, wandering and grieving the death of Jean Grey in X3, is drawn into intrigue in Japan, which not only invites martial arts action, but also makes the film more marketable around the globe. Hugh Jackman knows the character well and always holds the screen, which is a necessity here with a largely Japanese cast not known to North American audiences.  It is also a nice changeup that no cities were leveled in the making of the final.  That being said, if you go, stay for the credits which sets up X-Men:Days of Future Past, an epic story inspired by one of my favorite X-Men stories, so they better not screw it up like they did X3.

SHARKNADO: Ian Ziering may be the sole survivor for a sequel.

AMANDA BYNES left a trail of destruction at the Ritz-Carlton in NYC days before she was taken in on a psych hold. Bynes canceled a hearing on getting sprung, as she wants the meds to take effect before making her case. Her parents think she's paranoid, delusional and draining her bank account.

LINDSAY LOHAN has booked a one-way ticket to Europe to depart as soon as she finishes rehab.

JENNIFER ANISTON says she alreay feels married to Justin Theroux.

TONI BRAXTON lost most of her hits in bankruptcy.

MALI voted to elect a new president in the first elections since a military coup in March 2012 triggered an Islamist takeover of much of the northern part of the country. French, Malian, and UN troops are providing security for the election process.

SYRIA: Rebels clashed with regime and Hezbollah forces near the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque in Homs, but were pushed out, leaving most of Khaldiyeh in regime control.

LIBYA: Unidentified attackers set off bombs a few minutes apart outside a Benghazi courthouse and near the Benghazi Justice Ministry, injuring 10 people. Officials claim to have recaptured about 100 of the 1,117 inmates who escaped from Benghazi's Kuafiya prison.

EGYPT: US Secretary of State Kerry urged Egyptian leaders to "step back from the brink" as unrest worsened in Egypt. At least 65 people were killed in clashes throughout the country between supporters of former president Morsi and the army. The Muslim Brotherhood vowed to continue holding protests against the army.

IRAQ: Prime Minister Maliki ordered the arrest of several senior police, prison, and intelligence officials after the al Qaeda prison breakout at Abu Ghraib. 

A BEAR WALKS INTO A BAR... unnoticed.

ZOO ALLOWS KIDS TO PET TIGERS: What could go wrong?

A KESTREL is cleared of spying charges in Turkey.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Health authorities have closed three campgrounds in a forest near Los Angeles after the discovery of a squirrel infected with the plague. (Thx, Dda.)