THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with HARDROCK, COCO & JOE: If you grew up with this cartoon as a holiday tradition, you'll find it charming; if not, you'll probably find it demented, not least because they're not elves, they're dwarves. And because of the yodeling. And because they call it a story "so queer." NTTAWWT. If you recognize this cartoon, you will likely recognize "Suzy Snowflake" (a total chick flick) and the jazzy take o­n "Frosty the Snowman" as well.

THE WIGGLES: Yellow Wiggle Greg Page is forced to retire due to orthostatic intolerance. He will be replaced by Sammy Hagar.

THE JACKIN' POP POLL: The New York Times reports that Idolator approached deposed Village Voice critic Robert Christgau about editing its proposed o­nline successor to the VV Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, but he declined: "My wife was not happy that I was fired, but she was overjoyed that Pazz & Jop was out of our lives. We hope to go to Puerto Rico in early January." Bonus points for the headline -- "Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bloggy."

BILLY IDOL: You can see and hear some of his Christmas goods, from a CD available exclusively at Best Buy stores, via MySpace.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS and her dad, poet Miller Williams, talk about each other's influence with the L.A. Times.

TALKING HEADS with ADRIAN BELEW: Both featured in the early Pate setlists, so I could not resist this scary Super 8 bootleg footage of "Life During Wartime" and "Psycho Killer," both of which feature scorching Belew solos.

THE SNEAKERS, which launched the careers of dB's Chris Stamey and Will Rigby, and Mitch Easter of Let