THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ELTON JOHN! Half of a live show captured by the OGWT on Christmas Eve, 1974.  Your setlist includes: "Grimsby" (incompete), "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Daniel," Grey Seal,"  "Bennie And The Jets," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," "Honky Cat," "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," "Crocodile Rock," "The B^tch Is Back," "Your Song," and "White Christmas."

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THE ASBURY JUKES play a set at The Cutting Room that includes my fave of theirs, "Love on the Wrong Side of Town."

GLENN TILBROOK of Squeeze stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

JOHN GRANT stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

MARTIN COURTNEY of Real Estate stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

THE KINKS, with the evergreen "Father Christmas."

RUBBER SOUL TURNED 50: Ultimate Classic Rock surveys one of the Beatles' best albums, while the Wall Street Journal argues the US version was better than the UK lineup.

KEITH RICHARDS, Lord of the Undead, has never listened to Mick Jagger's solo albums.

THE TOP 50 LPs of 2015, according to Rolling Stone.

IN MEMORIAM: Bands We Lost In 2015.

SCOTT WEILAND, singer for  Stone Temple Pilots has passed away at the age of 48.

KRAMPUS is this weekend's sole new wide release in theaters...and it wasn't widely screened in advance for critics.

COLDPLAY will be headlining the  2016 Super Bowl halftime show. The NFL apparently still needs more women to watch.

PAMELA ANDERSON will be featured on the cover of Playboy's final nude issue.

CHARLIE SHEEN's ex-fiancee Brett Rossi has sued the actor, claiming he bullied her into getting an abortion after allegedly ranting she'd give birth to a “retarded child” given his HIV status.

MARIAH CAREY is doing well after a reported hospitalization for the flu.

CARRIE FISHER talks to the Wall Street Journal about Princess Leia, her fans and why she's glad Harrison Ford is getting most of the marketing attention for The Force Awakens.

IRAN: The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog found no credible evidence that Tehran has recently engaged in atomic-weapons activity. But the agency reported that the country had pursued a program in secret until 2009, longer than previously believed. Also, Iran provided little information on some points and offered some misleading responses.

SYRIA: Is a political solution to the civil war in sight?

A HAMSTER EATING A CARROT is your moment of Zen.

A DONKEY ON THE LAM was rounded up and transported in a Norman, OK, police car.

A RASH OF SQUIRREL ATTACKS prompts a warning in Marin County, CA.

MAN vs DOLPHIN: Who you got?