867-5309 is up for auction on eBay, with bids over 150K as I write this. The price of a call has gone up since the days of Tommy Tutone (who appears to have been a peeping Tommy; who knew?).

NEW RELEASES: Ben Kweller, the Brighton Port Authority, Zero Boys and more are streaming in full this week via Spinner. Heartless Bast^rds bring The Mountain. The Von Bondies return with Love Hate And Then There's You.

VON BONDIES: Jason Stollsteimer talks to the Detroit News and Exclaim about the trials and tribulations of the past five years.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Tracks from The Decemberists, Don Auerbach and Buddy Holly are featured in the latest edition of the long-running NPR series.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKER Patterson Hood talks to the Citizen-Times about his upcoming solo LP, which he describes as power-pop.

ATLANTIC CITY: The Springsteen tune is covered by The Hold Steady for your Twofer Tuesday.

BUDDY HOLLY is featured on NPR's Morning Edition for the actual Day The Music Died. Indie rockers pay tribute at Metro Boston News.

FRUIT BATS: Eric Johnson talks to the Santa Barbara Independent about gigging with The Shins.

EMMY THE GREAT discusses her dark side with The Shields Gazette.

RONNIE SPECTOR talks to Chronogram about her multimedia show, "Beyond the Beehive."

JESSICA SIMPSON's recent weight gain made her a big target for the producer of an exercise video the pneumatic blonde once nixed. And Pres. Obama got dragged in to the story to boot.

BRITNEY SPEARS may cancel her upcoming tour if Fed-Ex's lawyers continue to block an agreement allowing her to take the kids on the road.

CHRISTIAN BALE went ballistic on the set of Terminator: Salvation a while back -- TMZ has the extremely explicit audio. Nikki Finke reports that Bale regrets that he lost his temper.

MADONNA may be back with 22-year-old Brazilian model Jesus Luz.

KATE MOSS wants to be an actress, according to the uber-reliable News of the World.

LETTERMAN'S NINE MOST HILARIOUSLY AWKWARD MOMENTS, including Harvey Pekar and Crispin Glover, via Cracked magazine.

RICK MORANIS wrote about Wall Street's financial mess for Sunday's New York Times.

ISLAMISM in the UK: Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary has warned Brit lovers that if they celebrate Valentine's Day they will rot in Hell.

IRAN: The chairman of the US House Cmite on Foreign Affairs tried to meet a top aide to Iran's supreme leader in mid-December but was rebuffed at the last minute, a snub illustrating the challenges to dialogue with Tehran pushed by Pres. Obama.

IRAQ: January 2009 marked the lowest death toll in Iraq in the past five years. Prime Minister al-Maliki and several secular parties appeared to score significant gains in Iraq's provincial elections, according to preliminary reports.  Indeed, the Anbar Awakening leaders threatened the non-secular Iraqi Islamic Party with violence if the polls are found to have been rigged.

A TRUCKER & HIS DUCK: Let's go to the video.

A LABRADOR and TIGER CUBS, living together... mass hysteria. Lisha - who lives at the Cango Wildlife Reserve in South Africa - has also been called upon to look after no less than 30 orphans, including pygmy hippos, a porcupine, cheetahs, a mongoose, serval kittens and even a barn owl.

COW struck by lightning ... and lives.  Dawn of the Steak.  Freaky pic at the link.

EXTINCT IBEX has been brought back to life for the first time after being cloned from frozen tissue.  What could go wrong? They spared no expense.

DOLPHINS are the Chef of the Sea.