U2 AT THE ROSE BOWL: If you missed it Sunday night, it's all on U2ube. 

JAY FARRAR and BEN GIBBARD played music from their Kerouac-themed album at DC's 9:30 Club Tuesday night; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. did six free songs for Daytrotter, two previously unrleased. 

HA HA TONKA did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

CARLY SIMON did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, including "You're So Vain."

MARINA and the DIAMONDS seem pretty flexible in the video for "Mowgli's Road."

THE FLAMING LIPS: Wayne Coyne talks to Pitchfork about the new Embryonic album -- how it came together, the shift in direction, what it might mean for their live show.

THE RAVEONETTES: Sune Rose Wagner talks to the Detroit News, while Sharin Foo talks to ChartAttack.

THE SWELL SEASON is profiled in the New York Post.

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE: Erlend Øye chats with PopMatters about the influence of French house music, his hatred of flutes, and why his dashing musical partner is such a hit with teenage Korean girls.

BORED NEW WORLD: How the Zach Braff Prototype Is Slowly Killing American Music.

DAVID LETTERMAN: One of the few women ever to write for Late Night with David Letterman, Nell Scovell remembers a hostile, sexually charged atmosphere.

ANGELINA JOLIE bedded her mother's boyfriend when she was just 16, according to a bombshell new biography penned by controversial writer Andrew Morton.

SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW: Together again?

ROMAN POLANSKI's rape victim asked a Los Angeles court to drop the charges against the director, claiming the media attention interferes with her employment and health.  That would be a bit tricky, considering Polanski has in fact been convicted of the crime.  Her desire for closure and privacy is understandable, but the reason criminal cases are brought by "the State" or "the People" is because the system exists not merely to serve victims, but also society at large.  Private justice gets served by the civil system, where this woman has negotiated a sizable monetary settlement with Polanski -- a fact left out of this story, and almost every story about her.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN canceled a concert in Kansas City after his cousin was found dead in his hotel room.

RENEE ZELLWEGER is getting ready to "meet the parents" - Bradley Cooper's parents, that is.

ROSIE O' DONNELL told Howard Stern that she and longtime lover Kelli Carpenter are kaput without actually saying it.  O'Donnell also claimed she had a phone fling with Angelina Jolie, before she hit the big time.

THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY tried to have a Nightline piece on the church's bizarre founding mythology spiked. Shocka!

TERROR from the USA: Two men from Chicago have been charged with plotting overseas attacks, including on the Danish newspaper which published cartoons about Islam.

IRAN is already trying to change the UN-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing. Shocka!

IRAQ: The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq took credit for the Oct. 25 suicide attacks in Baghdad that killed more than 155 Iraqis. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war.

SHARK ON SHARK VIOLENCE: Let's go to the video. What say you, Police Chief Brody?

A ROBOTIC ELK is helping Oregon wildlife officials catch poachers.

WIGS FOR CATS: Just in time for Halloween!

SPIDERS and SNAKES: After finding a tarantula in a 22-year-old's bag, Norwegian customs officials decided to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings - one for each snake - taped around his torso.

GRIEVING CHIMPS? A a phalanx of more than a dozen chimpanzees stood in silence watching from behind the wire of their enclosure as the body of one of their own was wheeled past.  Sad pic at the link.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND plays a new song, "Cousins," on the MTV of the Great White North.

NEW RELEASES: Tegan and Sara, The Swell Season, Rod Stewart, Kraftwerk and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

EDWARD SHARPE and the MAGNETIC ZEROS play a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES: Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones have posted their first full studio track, "New Fang,"

TORI AMOS played a mini-set for the World Cafe, streaming on demand via NPR.

JASON and the SCORCHERS cover "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and play "Harvest Moon" for Twofer Tuesday.

MORRISSEY was discharged from the hospital after collapsing on stage on Saturday evening with apparent breathing difficulties.

THE Q AWARDS went to these folks.

NICOLE ATKINS talked to the California Literary Review on the Jersey shore in winter, songwriting, going indie, and more...

NELS CLINE talks to Paste about how Wilco (The Album) is going over live, his most recent solo album and Wilco's plans to begin recording new material in January.

V: The first nine minutes of the miniseries reboot.

PAUL HAGGIS, the Oscar-winning writer-director whose credits include "Crash," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," has left the Church of Scientology... and leaked a scathing letter explaining his reasons.

SANDRA BULLOCK is in a child custody battle with a former adult film starlet.

JUDE LAW's latest baby mama sold photos of the newborn to Hello magazine for about 300K.

ELISABETH MOSS and FRED ARMISEN got hitched in New York, though not on Saturday Night.

IVANKA TRUMP wed Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer, in a ceremony at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday.

SUZANNE SOMERS is not exactly an expert on cancer treatment, surprisingly enough.

JON and KATE: Fmr. reality star Jon Gosselin has complied with a court order to return money missing from the couple's joint bank account - but Jon says Kate has yet to account for how she spent 33K in cash withdrawals.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has the suits talking about a sequel, because we all know how well Blair Witch 2 did.

COCKTAIL may be headed to Broadway... will Katie Holmes be in it?

PAKISTAN arrested 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards for illegally entering the country from Iran.

AFGHANISTAN: Pres. Karzai questioned the reliability of the US as a partner, as he fought off criticism of his government's legitimacy following fraud-marred elections.

IRAQ: Baghdad seems resilient in the wake of two massive car bombs at the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial administration.  Calling the bombings an attack on the national unity government, Iraqi leaders swiftly responded with a compromise agreement on a new election law that had eluded them for weeks and threatened to delay national elections scheduled for January.

TURTLE LOVES WOK: Really, really.

A DEER broke into a Chinese restaurant in Middletown, PA.  Video at the link. I preeemptively denounce myself for wondering whether it went back a half-hour later, especially because the deer met an untimely end.

SMUGGLING A CHIHUAHUA: Nabbed in Dublin. X-Ray at the link.

A YORKSHIRE TERRIER outs a cheating wife.

AN ARMADA OF GIANT JELLYFISH drifts ever closer to the Sea of Japan coastline, so Japanese businesses are devising ways to make money from the creatures.

JEMIMA PEARL goes a bit 80s in "I Hate People," featuring Iggy Pop and Thurston Moore.

ANDREW BIRD played the World Cafe on Friday; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

PATRICK WATSON played NYC's Mercury Lounge as part of the CMJ Music Festival; you can stream the gig now via NPR.

PATTERSON HOOD played a mini-set for the World Cafe, streaming on demand via NPR.

REM: Michael Stipe talks to NPR about the band's new double album, Live at the Olympia.

WATCH THE BEATLES rehearse "I Should Have Known Better" from a BBC control room.

MORRISSEY canceled a concert after collapsing on stage after just one song.

THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN: Thao Nguyen talks to OregonLive and Paste, with embedded audio at the latter.

THE ZOMBIES classic, Odessey and Oracle, is on sale as an MP3 LP at Amazon for about two bucks. (Thx, LHB.)

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME: Its 25th anniversary concerts' lineups, and the institution itself, are worth arguing about.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Paranormal Activity rises to the top slot with 22 million -- marking perhps the most successful platform release in history, as a home video production that cost 18K -- and which Paramount paid 300K to distribute -- has made 62.5 million ahead of the Halloween weekend.  Saw VI comes in second with 14.8 million -- the pic cost a mere 11 million, but prior installments of the franchise routinely opened in the 30 million range.  Where the Wild Things Are drops to third, with 14.4 million -- a 56 percent drop suggesting it did not connect with younger kids and will likely need overseas receipts and DVD sales to recoup its 100 million budget. Law Abiding Citizen held pretty well at No.4, taking in 12.7 million.  Couples Retreat rounds out the Top Five with 11 million, which puts the total above its 70 million budget.  Below the fold, Astro Boy debuted in sixth with seven million against a 65 million budget. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant debuted at No.8 with 6.3 million against a 40 million budget.  Amelia debuted near-wide at No. 11, making 4 million against a 40 million budget.

THE FRENCH HOTEL, who was burglarized last year of an estimated two million bucks in jewelry, has gotten most of her valuables returned by the LAPD.

KATE HUDSON has A-Rod flirting with Buddhism?

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE got a restraining order against a trespasser.

BRAD PITT was in a minor motorcycle accident, after being struck by paparazzi.

LINDSAY LOHAN is getting desperate enough to work for free.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson baby mama Oksana Grigorieva is refusing his prenup offer, according to the National Enquirer.

ROBIN WRIGHT PENN can't wait to get divorced.

JON and KATE could be back in court today over 151K.

RACHEL EVAN WARD and DITA VON TEESE had an awkward run-in at a fashion event.

THE A-TEAM: Your first look at the new crew.

ISLAMISM in DENMARK: Danish police said on Thursday that a Palestinian father had hit a primary school teacher and bitten his ear after he had shaken the hand of the man's daughter.

IRAN: Influential Iranian lawmakers criticized a UN-drafted agreement that requires Tehran to send its atomic stockpile abroad for processing. Iranian state media has raised new conditions for the deal.

PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces Saturday captured the hometown of the chief of the country's Taliban movement, officials announced, the first big gain in the weeklong ground offensive in South Waziristan. A suicide bomber attacked a suspected nuclear-weapons site Friday.

IRAQ: Two synchronized suicide car bombings struck at the heart of the Iraqi government, severely damaging the Justice Ministry and provincial council complexes, leaving leaving at least 132 dead and more than 520 wounded, and raising new questions about the government's ability to secure its most vital operations.

THIS CAT betrayed his girlfriend.

WHY DOGS don't like Halloween.

TEACUP PIGS are all the rage in Britain right now. Slideshow at the link.

RAT STUCK IN THE SIDEWALK: Awww... poor rat.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with the MOUNTAIN GOATS at the M-SHOP, which Pate fans know is a fabulous, initmate venue in the Memorial Union at ISU.  Selections include "Dance Music" and "Houseguest," though I'm partial as always to "This Year" and especially the anthemic finale of "No Children." BONUS: John Darnielle interprets Ace of Base's "I Saw the Sign" (language), while Pony Up backs the duo on a cover of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town."  EXTRA: Darnielle talks to Paste about the Bible, his feminism, his reticence at playing autobiographer, and his least favorite singer-songwriter trope.

R.E.M. LIVE AT THE OLYMPIA is streaming in full via NPR.

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

THE TEN BEST ROCK ANTHEMS, according to AOL radio listeners, with embedded audio. Half-awesome, half-cringeworthy.

DAVENDRA BANHART shares some hazy musings with ClashMusic. 

ANDREW BIRD talks to the Burlington Free Press about finding his solo voice, and more...

LLOYD COLE talks to the New Zealand Herald about 25 years of making a commotion, fan-financing his next LP, and more...

COUSTEAU: The "Last Good Day of the Year." Though we really only know in hindsight.

THE PICTURE SHOW: How Photographers Created Rock And Roll.

FARGO ROCK CITY: Tom Ruprecht, a longtime writer on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," and Craig Finn, frontman of the popular rock band the Hold Steady, are teaming to write and produce a coming-of-age comedy, based on the 2001 memoir by music scribe Chuck Klosterman, who will join the pair in producing.

GREAT LAKES SWIMMERS: Tony Dekker explains to the Daily Times how the band came to record its new LP in the Thousand Islands area of the US/Canadian border.

EIGHT OVERHYPED BANDS YOU'LL FORGET BY NEXT YEAR, according to Crave.  I happen to disagree with a few of them.

WHO IS THE BEST LYRICIST TODAY? Answers at Drowned in Sound and NME.

CUTOUT BIN: From Nirvana to The Knack, from Candi Staton to the Mightly Lemon Drops, from The Who to Surf City, from Talking Heads to Teenage Fanclub, plus U2, Prince, The Clash, Jens Lekman, Otis Redding, and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING:  This weeken's wide releases include SAW VI, which was not screened for critics, natch; the animated Astro Boy, currently scoring 50 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, which is scoring 29 percent.  Opening near-wide is the biopic Amelia, scoring 21 percent.

JESSICA SIMPSON... and Gerard Butler? Oddly, the obligatory denial comes from her camp.

JOHN TRAVOLTA EXTORTION CASE ends in a mistrial.  The judge has ordered a retrial.

MADONNA has given Glee the rights to her catalog and an all-Madge-music episode is in the works for early next year.  The Daily Mail writes about Madge's "fresh-faced... age-defying appearance," while wondering whether she was wearing gloves to cover her wrinkly hands.  No decoder ring necessary.

SOUPY SALES, who was catapulted to national fame on his comedy and pie-in-the-face slapstick, died Thursday of cancer in NYC. He was 83.

AMY WINEHOUSE is surgically enhanced.

ROSIE O'DONNELL's wife has moved out and is spending most nights away from her, according to Radar.

NICOLE KIDMAN says Hollywood has probably contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects.

CHARLIZE THERON to replace Mel Gibson in Mad Max 4?

SIENNA MILLER won an apology from the NYT, which misstated the nature of the relationships that she had with Heath Ledger and Sean Combs.

IRAN and Israel recently took part in a conference in Cairo on nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said Thursday, but Tehran said the report on the meeting was untrue.

PAKISTAN: A US airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan may have killed a senior al Qaeda operative. But the reports may be confusing one of al Qaeda's senior-most leaders with a senior explosives trainer and expert.

AFGHANISTAN: Defense Secretary Robert Gates sounds out NATO defense ministers this week in search of more support for the war in Afghanistan, but there are myriad reasons why the US should not expect the largest NATO countries to offer up more combat troops.  Meanwhile, a surge of US Marines and a focus on security bring peace to a Helmland town.

BOBBY THE BEAR plays hockey.  Sadly, no fight breaks out.

DOGS are increasingly taking human names, at least in Vancouver.

CAT survives two miles in an SUV engine, driving through the Bronx.

A NEW BREED OF GIANT SPIDER  - which has huge five-inch females and tiny males - has been discovered by scientists.

SAVE THE GIBLETS!

GIRLS now have a video for "Laura," another warped pop ditty from their Album.

DAN MANGAN is streaming his Nice, Nice, Very Nice album, and talks to the Singing Lamb about taking it on the road. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

THE GET UP KIDS did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

JAY FARRAR talks to Billboard about the soundtrack to the upcoming documentary "One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur," which is still streaming via NPR.

LIVING COLOUR visited WNYC a few days before releasing The Chair in the Doorway, its first album in six years.

MAYER HAWTHORNE has released a video for "Green Eyed Love."

RAY DAVIES talks to Prefix about the Kinks Choral Collection.

SUFJAN STEVENS talks to The Quietus about the BQE (still streaming this week) and other projects.

GOOGLE AUDIO: Coming soon?

IMOGENE HEAP talks shop with the BBC about her third album, Ellipse.

TOM CRUISE responds to the Bornson Pinchot interview linked here yesterday.  Also, it seems Cruise was Christian Bale's inspiration for American Psycho.

LINDSAY LOHAN is refusing another round of rehab, according to Radar,

DID MICHAEL JACKSON sign his will?

NICOLE RICHIE and JOEL MADDEN are showing off the latest addition to their family, Sparrow.

ROSIE O'DONNELL and partner Kelli Carpenter are on the rocks.

JENNIFER ANISTON and JOHN MAYER are an item again, according to OK!, which iirc is the second gossip rag to take up this story.

ROMAN POLANSKI, convicted rapist, could return to the US voluntarily if Swiss extradition proceedings drag on long enough.

DR. NO is no more.

TERROR in the USA: Federal prosecutors have charged a Massachusetts man with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, alleging he and co-conspirators traveled to the Middle East seeking training, discussed attacking a shopping center, and distributed videos promoting holy war.

IRAN has tentatively struck a deal that will involve shipping most of its known supply of low-enriched uranium overseas, but it may delay Iran's nuclear ambitions by only months.

DOG PLAYING BASKETBALL: Let's go to the video.

ESCAPED OSTRICH RAMPAGE ends in truck death.

CHIPMUNK stands up to a gang of Starlings.

TARANTULA on a PLANE: British Airways cancelled a flight between Edinburgh and London after a passenger said he saw a tarantula crawling between his legs.