THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with MOTOWN MADNESS! There's so much from which to choose, but let's start with a Martha Reeves and the Vandellas trifecta of "Heat Wave" (on RSG!) "Nowhere to Run" and "Dancing in the Street." Chase that with a string of Temptations classics, including "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg,"  "(I Know) I'm Losing You," "Psychedelic Shack," and "Ball of Confusion." The Supremes bring "Back in My Arms Again," "Where Did Our Love Go" and a live trifecta of "Baby Love," "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" and "Let Me Go the Right Way." The Four Tops lip-synch through "It's the Same Old Song" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" on Shindig, "Something About You" on Hullaballoo and "Baby, I Need Yor Loving" on Shivaree.  The Marvelettes  ask "Please Mr. Postman." Marvin Gaye proclaims "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You" and duets with Tammi Terrell on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," though I'll throw it over to Gladys Knight and the Pips for "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." I'll close with a trifecta from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles -- "The Tracks of My Tears," "You Really Got a Hold on Me" and "Tears of a Clown."

DAYTROTTER has compiled the 20-song Readers' Choice 2010.

DOLOREAN stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set in audio and video.

BEST COAST drops "Sunny Adventure" from a forthcoming split-single.

J MASCIS drops "Not Enough" in advance of Several Shades of Why.

BUFFALO TOM drops "Guilty Girls" in advance of Skins.

OKKERVIL RIVER, Live in Iowa City, Sept, 15, 2007.

PATTI SMITH, Live at The Bowery Ballroom, NYC, Dec 30, 2010.

THE 50 GREATEST GUITAR RIFFS, according to Spinner.

ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI goes "Round and Round" on their network TV debut.

PJ HARVEY talks to Drowned In Sound about wading into a "war album."

SAM PHILLIPS talks to the Globe and Mail about her online subscription service.

WHAT'S KILLING INDIE STORES? The Internet.

10 COVER SONGS that beat the original, according to Gibson.

NEIL DIAMOND reviews 16 hot new artists.

CUTOUT BIN: From Pavement to Billy Preston, from Bob Dylan to the Talking Heads, from the 3 Degrees to Buzzcocks, from Steely Dan to Joey Ramone, plus Dusty Springfield, Camper Van Beethoven, Chuck Berry, World Party, Thin Lizzy and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are now streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's sole wide release is the Natalie Portman - Ashton Kutcher rom-com No Strings Attached, which is currently scoring 51 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.  Peter Weir's The Way Back opens on 650 screens scoring 78 percent.

THE TOP 10 NATALIE PORTMAN FILMS, according to We Are Movie Geeks.

JESSE JAMES and and tattoo artist Kat Von D are getting hitched.

HILARY DUFF denies the pregnancy rumor linked here yesterday.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL & TAYLOR SWIFT: Together again?

CHARLIE SHEEN: Denise Richards is speaking out about her ex's recent alleged troubles.

HALLE BERRY: A source tells RadarOnline that Gabriel Aubry has been subjected to a number of nasty screaming fits by the Monsters Ball star, along with a number of angry meltdowns, and believes that Halle has hired a private investigator to tail him.

GEORGE CLOONEY contracted Malaria in the Sudan.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. has fallen out of Oz, the Great and Powerful, Disney's prequel-ish take on The Wizard of Oz tale, and the studio is in discussions with Johnny Depp to step into the role.

JOHNNY DEPP talks to Entertainment Weekly about his Lone Ranger project.

MINKA KELLY is merely blurbed by GQ, but there are pics for Gratuitous Friday.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad said that the West has no option but to cooperate with a nuclear Iran.

PAKISTAN: Sufi Mohammed, the instigator of the Taliban takeover of the Swat Valley from 2007-2009, is to be prosecuted for crimes almost a decade old.

AFGHANISTAN: The new Afghan parliament decided Thursday to convene as planned at the start of next week, in a defiant response to Pres. Hamid Karzai ordering the opening session postponed by a month.

USEFUL DOG TRICKS, performed by Jesse. Good dog!

A CAT was summoned for jury duty in Boston. The court rejected the owner's appeal to excuse Sal on the ground that he did not read or understand English.

LION TACOS: The Tucson taco restaurant planning them already has served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle.

A GERMAN who shipped hundreds of live tarantulas into the United States through the mail has pleaded guilty to a federal smuggling charge, prosecutors said.

A PIGEON was busted trying to smuggle drugs into a Colombian jail.

SHE & HIM drop a video for "Don't Look Back," directed by Jeremy Konner and proving the only thing better than Zooey is four Zooeys.

THE DECEMBERISTS played The King is Dead live in its entirety for Oregon Public Broadcasting.

THE NATIONAL and BAND OF HORSES on Austin City Limits. (Thx, LHB.)

JAMES VINCENT McMORROW is advance streaming Early In The Morning via MOKB.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS drop "Damn These Vampires" as an advance track to All Eternals Deck.

MIKE WATT drops "Arrow-Pierced-Egg-Man" as an advance track from... Hypenated-Man.

CHEAP TRICK brought "Dream Police" to Conan, with a full string section and Rick Nielsen's son sitting in for Bun E. Carlos.

SILVER JEWS frontman David Berman has started a blog.

DESTROYER: Dan Bejar wrote to Prefix about his notoriously dense lyrics, his musical influences, and Kaputt's recording process.

DURAN DURAN talks to The Telegraph about 30 years of something, the new LP, etc.

TWILIGHT SINGERS: Greg Dulli talks to MOKB about the new album, Pete Rose and more...

CHARLIE SHEEN spent 26000 on three escorts from one agency during his infamous, drugged-out weekend bender in Las Vegas.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA got "wasted" and passed out in Jeremy Renner's bed at his 40th birthday party.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Prosecutors are ready to file criminal charges against the Hollywood superstar for hitting his baby mama, Oksana Grigorieva, according to RadarOnline.

ANNE HATHAWAY is the Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Tom Hardy (Inception) joins the cast as Bane.

HALLE BERRY's ex filed for joint custody of their daughter.

MIRANDA KERR shows off her and Orlando Bloom's son.

HILARY DUFF is pregnant, according to the ever-reliable Star.

RICKY GERVAIS shot a top-secret cameo that will appear in the cold open of the January 27 episode of The Office.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS set report and pics.

LEBANON: The Saudi foreign minister says Riyadh has abandoned mediation efforts to end the political crisis in Lebanon caused by the UN-backed Hariri tribunal.

AFGHANISTAN: A senior German al Qaeda leader was killed, perhaps in the joint AQ-Taliban attack on Bagram airfield last May. The growing insurgency in northern Afghanistan could lead to renewed opium cultivation in provinces where the crop has been eliminated.

IRAQ: Violence over all has ebbed, but there remains a steady trickle of deadly attacks, most often focused on security forces, government officials, or, in recent months, Iraq's Christian minority.

OWL vs CHIHUAHUA: Who you got?

SHARKS are probably color-blind.

C*CK KILLS MAN: Cops suspect fowl play.

NEWBORN ELEPHANT: Aw.

DON KIRSHNER, who guided the course of Brill Building and bubblegum pop in the 1950s and '60s as a music publisher and promoter, and later served as an Ed Sullivan for 1970s artists like Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Kiss and the Ramones with his weekly TV program "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," died on Monday in Boca Raton, FL. He was 76. The cause was heart failure.  He was also impersonated brilliantly on SNL by the fabulous Paul Shaffer.  The A.V. Club collects more from Rock Concert.

DESTROYER is advance streaming Kaputt. Dan Bejar talks to Aquarium Drunkard about managing his various projects, influences on the Kaputt album and more...

SOCIAL DISTORTION does three free songs for Daytrotter, including "Ring of Fire."

R.E.M. drops "Mine Smell Like Honey" as an advance pop-rocker from Collapse Into Now.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS drop "Used to Be a Cop" as a freebie from Go-Go Boots.

NEW RELEASES REDUX: As I suspected, Spinner updated and is now streaming the Decemberists, Social D, Gregg Allman, Klaxons, Tennis & more...

BEST COAST premiered the "Crazy For You" video at I Can Has Cheezburger, for obvious reasons.

PAZZ & JOP 2010 is posted at the Village Voice.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: Jim Darnielle talks to Pitchfork about the new album, how he hooked up with Rutan, maintaining an indie ethos in the age of Twitter, and the fan-generated Facebook campaign that's currently trying to help him nab a cameo on his favorite TV show, Law & Order: SVU.

NILE RODGERS, best known for his work with Chic, is recovering from surgery to treat an aggressive form of cancer.

DICK DALE is also in and out of the operating room.

KRISTEN STEWART is profiled at length in -- and makes tortilla soup for -- Vogue.

REGIS PHILBIN blindsided Kelly Ripa with his retirement announcement today ... telling her less than 15 minutes before they went on the air.

CHARLIE SHEEN didn't use his charm to pick up a professional female companion during his Vegas bender last week. TMZ has the e-mail.

ELTON JOHN shows off his son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John.

LINDSAY LOHAN has passed up to 10 random drug and alcohol tests in the two weeks after she left the Betty Ford Center, according to RadarOnline.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE's ex-wife made a series of new allegations against the singer on her blog, including one involving novelties.

TOM CRUISE & NICOLE KIDMAN kept a safe distance from each other at CAA's Golden Globes afterparty.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL, otoh, was not keeping his distance from Maria Menounos, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis.

RICKY GERVAIS says he didn't offend anyone at the Golden Globes... but he's "not gonna do it again anyway."

IRAN: A team of UN weapons experts and observers has arrived in Nigeria to investigate a seized Iranian weapons shipment found at the oil-rich nation's busiest port.

AFGHANISTAN: A US-backed plan to hire an additional 73000 Afghan soldiers and police officers has raised concern among diplomats in Kabul about the quality of recruits and the sustainability of an increasingly costly security apparatus financed almost entirely by international donors.

IRAQ: Officially, the yearlong mission remaining for roughly 48000 US troops in Iraq is to "advise and assist" this country's security forces. Unofficially, it is to fight off boredom and to stay alert and safe in the long, empty stretches that dominate their days.

A BABY ARMADILLO: Let's go to the video.

DRUNKEN OWL picked up by German police.

MARRIED COUPLE show off their 28 pet rats.

DOG EATS MAN'S EAR after his girlfriend bites it off. Ruff.

POLICE HORSE allegedly slapped in St. Petersburg, FL.

METRIC covers Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting to Fly" (N. Young).

NEW RELEASES: It's still Mew, British Sea Power, Tapes 'n' Tapes, etc. at Spinner, but they may update it now that MLK Jr. Day is over...

HORSE FEATHERS play the Mountain Stage, finishing with hostess Julie Adams covering Peter Case's "Steel Strings."

PETER CASE, coincidentally enough, stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

S. CAREY stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

R.E.M., playing "Radio Free Europe" and "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" for their network TV debut ... and Twofer Tuesday.

THE DECEMBERISTS: The King is Dead drops today.  Colin Meloy talks to NPR, while Jenny Conlee talks to MusicOMH. (Thx, LHB.) 

GANG OF FOUR: Andy Gill talks to Billboard about the new album, licensing, etc.

DARYL HALL is profiled by New York magazine, but what you really want to read is the story about John Oates and Miles Davis.

CHUCK PROPHET talks to the San Francisco Chronicle about covering the Clash's London Calling album live: "It's crazy. Figured if the Coen brothers can remake True Grit, why not?"

PTICHFORK's TOP 50 ALBUMS: The sales figures.

SANDRA BULLOCK personally denies that Ryan Reynolds is her "lovah."

NICOLE KIDMAN & KEITH URBAN are the parents of a baby girl, born through a surrogate.

HEIDI MONTAG was offered a spot on Dancing With The Stars, according to RadarOnline, but she was forced to turn it down due to contractual agreements she made when she signed up for The Hills.

JOHNNY DEPP talks to Entertainment Weekly about his Keith Richards documentary.

LEIGHTON MEESTER & GARRETT HEDLUND: The Country Strong costars may be making their onscreen romance a reality.

RICKY GERVAIS is done as host of the Golden Globes. Shocka!  After Tom Hanks and Robert Downey, Jr., went after Gervais on stage, the real question is whether he ever gets a project greenlit in Hollywood again.  His only hope is that the big movers and shakers figure out that Gervais is less of a problem than the corruptdealings of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc.  Speaking only for myself, I was highly amused as dumbfounded H'wood royalty was taken aback by the sort of barbs they regularly dish out to other public figures.

ANNE HATHAWAY & JAMES FRANCO now must wrestle with how tame to be hosting the Oscars. (Prepare for that epic to be even more boring than usual.)

KELLY OSBOURNE ­tearfully dumped ­fiancé Luke Worrall when she found out he was ­having a secret affair with a transsexual.

TERROR in CANADA? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating a report that several Canadians are among Westerners training with al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas. The report named eight of the 12 Canadians said to be in North Waziristan.

LEBANON: The head of Hezbollah defended the decision to bring down Lebanon's government, arguing that the move was necessary to protect the country from the consequences of indictments expected soon from a controversial UN tribunal.

IRAN's fuel blockade of western Afghanistan has caused diplomatic strains between the two countries. Iran's nuclear negotiator defended the country's nuclear program as foreign inspectors left. The Iranian military now claims to have shot down US, UK, and Israeli drones in the Persian Gulf.

AFGHANISTAN: "Human mapping" deployed in the fight against the Taliban.

MARU: The box cat tournament.

IT'S MAN vs BEAVER at a Canadian ski resort. The eternal struggle, really.

GOATS don't let friends drive drunk... this time in California.

RACING DOGS at Daytona test positive for cocaine.

SHEEP RUSTLING: As lamb prices skyrocket across the globe, thieves are stalking the puffy white gold of the British countryside.

U2: "Pride" and "MLK." Crushingly obvious. Have a dream.

GANG OF FOUR are advance streaming Content, the band's first LP in 15 years.

WANDA JACKSON is advance streaming The Party Ain't Over, featuring 12 cover songs produced by Jack White and myriad cameos.

THE OLD 97s stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

MISTER HEAVENLY, the indie supergroup featuring Man Man's Honus Honus, Islands' Nick Thorburn, Modest Mouse's Joe Plummer, and (as a touring member) Superbad/Scott Pilgrim actor Michael Cera-- are giving away a free two-track single in exchange for an address.

DION: A vintage (and this year, crackly) performance of "Abraham, Martin & John."

JAYHAWKS: Gary Louris talks to Spinner about the runion tour and follow-up album.

ARETHA FRANKLIN shot down reports that she had been stricken with pancreatic cancer, saying the surgery she just had is going to add 15 to 20 more years to her life.

LIZ PHAIR talks to the Denver Post about playing Matador 21, composing for TV, and more...

MYSPACE teeters on the brink; Digital Music News and Paid Content examine the impact on bands.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The Green Hornet rode Black Beauty to the top of the chart with 34 million (against a reported 90 million budget).  After decades of development limbo, it's remarkable feat and major January debut, albeit inflated by 3-D receipts.  Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou may make this one do decent business worldwide.  The Dilemma opened in second with 17.4 million -- when Vice Vaughn and Kevin James usually open in the 30-40 million range.  After EdTV, Ron Howard should have considered that comedy is not his genre.  True Grit slides to third with 11.2 million, but has made 126.4 million against a 38 million budget.  The Coens' latest seems leggy and hasn't even opened overseas yet.  The expansion of The Kings Speech finds it leaping from ninth to fourth with 9 million and a 44.6 million total against a 15 million budget.  Black Swan again rounds out the Top Five with 8.1 million and a 73 million total against a 13 million budget.  Below the fold Season of the Witch tanks from third to tenth.

CHARLIE SHEEN: CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler told the nation's TV critics that "we have a high level of concern" about Charlie Sheen and the reported personal problems that he may or may not be wrestling with off-camera, but expressed confidence in his professionalism on the network's hit show, Two and a Half Men.  Sheen's Vegas hotel room was an orgy of booze and women -- complete with "big booby blonde girls fighting for his attention" -- according to a source who viewed the debauchery with her own eyes.

OWEN WILSON and his girlfriend, Jade Buell, have welcomed a son.

LINDSAY LOHAN was rejected by Donald Trump for a Celebrity Apprenticeship. However, Li-Lo is close to off the hook for the alleged altercation at Betty Ford.

ALICIA SILVERSTONE is expecting her first child with hubby Christopher Jarecki.

ZSA ZSA GABOR's right leg was amputated Friday because of a large, deep lesion that proved resistant to antibiotics, her surgeon said.

THE GOLDEN GLOBES went to these folks, after a night of heavy drinking an payola. On the plus side, host Ricky Gervais delivered a savage opening monologue.

AL QAEDA in the Arabian Peninsula planned to add poison to a bomb that was used in an assassination attempt that targeted a deputy Saudi interior minister, according to Jaber al Faifi, a member of the terror group.

IRAN's nuclear energy chief said the country's nuclear program has not been impacted by sanctions and enrichment of uranium was proceeding.  Meanwhile, the New York Times carries a long report suggesting the Stuxnet computer virus was designed as an American-Israeli project to sabotage the Iranian program.

PAKISTAN's minorities minister and an MP say they will defy death threats they have received for their efforts to reform blasphemy laws.

WEIGHTLESS CATS: I Can Haz Gravity?

JINX the CAT nurses Alfie the Piglet...Mass hysteria!

OVER 100 BABY BATS riddled with maggots and fly eggs, scratching for survival on the Gold Coast, Australia, have been rescued and wrapped in cute blankies.

A DEADLY PUFF ADDER SNAKE starts a long and winding road to the hospital.

MASS COW DEATHS: An investigation is under way after 200 dead cows were found in a field in the Town of Stockton, Wisc.

A STRANDED BABY DOLPHIN was rescued near Sanibel, FL.