THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with R.E.M., o­n German television in October 1985. Your setlist -- "Sitting Still," an embryonic version of "Fall o­n Me," "So. Central Rain," CCR's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" (which they played the first time I saw them), "Can't Get There From Here," "Pretty Persuasion," Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic" (which they played the third time I saw them), Television's "See No Evil," their own "Don't Go Back to Rockville" and the Stones' "Paint It Black."

SEASON of the LIST: An Aquarium Drunkard is streaming tracks from Robert Pollard, Centro-matic, Howie Gelb, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and more from his Best Albums list.

THE TOP 50 VIDEOS OF 2006, according to the DoCopenhagen blog, all with embedded clips. There goes the rest of the day.

THE NEW YORK DOLLS' Sylvain Sylvain talks to the Riverfront Times about rock & roll and driving a cab. You can listen to "Personality Crisis" while you read it.

THE HOLD STEADY: Heather Browne has psoted outtakes and alt-takes from Boys and Girls in America, which you can stream from the last link or jukebox o­n the HM.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: The Pretenders play "2000 Miles." It's very far. It felt like Christmastime.

THE LEMONHEADS: Evan Dando says he went back to the name "perversely just to confuse people... but also because I did put a lot of work into the band, the trademark, that name. I think we could have done a little better. Leave a better legacy."

THE SHINS frontman James Mercer talks to the Stranger about the challenge and opportunity of post-Garden State success.

MICK JONES looks back at The Clash with the A.V. Club: "We were just playing the music we liked. We took o­n the music that was actually around us. We never wanted to do the same record twice. The groups I liked, you really looked forward to their albums and you rushed to get them the first day, because you knew it was going to be different than what they did before. The records told you what that group was into at that time..."

JOANNA NEWSOM guest-DJed NPR's All Songs Considered, so you can stream songs from Sandy Denny, Randy Newman, and her collaborator Van Dyke Parks, plus songs from her critically-acclaimed new album, Ys.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: London's Sun has illustrations from the children's book inspired by the troubled singer's travails.

THE CUTOUT BIN: This Friday's fortuitous finds from the Hype Machine include: The Jimmies - Chevy Van; R.E.M. & Pearl Jam - Live For Today; The Kinks - Death of a Clown; M. Ward - Chinese Translation; Primal Scream - Movin' o­n Up; Dukes Of Stratosphere - Pale And Precious; The Hidden Cameras - Awoo; Booker T. & The MG's - Time Is Tight; The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion; Television - See No Evil; The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight; and OK Go - Jessie's Girl.

BRITNEY SPEARS seems to be trying to get back o­n track after her recent trashy behavior, even posting an underwear joke o­n her website. I guess you have to try to get your act together when Courtney Love and Janice Dickinson are questioning your parenting skills and Bette Midler is calling you a slut.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Unaccompanied Minors, a comedy that will need the box office power of Wilmer Valderrama to overcome its current score of 23 percent o­n the Tomatometer; The Holiday, the Winslet-Diaz-Law-Black rom-con scoring 54 percent; Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, scoring 65 percent, despite reviews suggesting it's even more brutal than Passion of the Christ and Gibson's personal baggage; and Blood Diamond, which features Leo DiCaprio doing an Afrikaner accent and Jennifer Connelly for a current score of 59 percent.

VAUGHNISTON: In the wake of The Break-Up couple's break-up, Star magazine brings you e-mail and blog posts from the 20-year-old American college student who spent some quality time with Vince Vaughn in Budapest. Internet gossip Perez Hilton responds to e-mail from Aniston's PR flack complaining about his claim that the couple have been dunzo for some time.

THE GRAMMY AWARD nominations are announced. And perhaps the best that might be said about them is that most of them are so uniformly lame that we don't have to worry about too many good artists getting snubbed.

THE McCARTNEYS: Sir Paul's estranged wife Heather Mills accused British Airways of humiliating her after staff got a wheelchair instead of a buggy to take her to her flight at Gatwick Airport.

LINDSAY LOHAN thinks she may get help with her image from former Vice President Al Gore, maybe even the Clintons. I guess those AA meetings haven't really sunk in yet. TMZ has the Gore dismissal and a no-comment from Sen. Barack Obama's office.

JESSICA SIMPSON claims some guy tried to hit o­n her by flirting with her mother who, coincidentally, gave her daughter a verbal smackdown after her "embarrassing" rendition of "9 to 5" in front of Dolly Parton and President Bush at the Kennedy Center Honors last weekend. I guess her creepy dad-manager must have been busy selling her product placements to do that.

DAMON WAYANS is the first comic to be banned from the Laugh Factory under the club's new ban o­n the "n-word" following the racist tirade of Michael Richards. Meanwhile, Hollywood's Comedy Union club is urging comedians to use the word at least o­nce in their routines during a special show Friday.

ERIK ESTRADA and other lesser celebrities will be packing heat as reserve officers of the Muncie, Indiana police department for a reality show. Just don't tell someone carrying a gun that they are "lesser celebrities" than Erik Estrada.

CHRISTY TURLINGTON regrets spending the early 1990s as o­ne of the catwalk's original four supermodels: ""How could I have spent so many years? So many hours?" My guess would be the money.

PETRA NEMCOVA was snapped sporting a big sparkler o­n her left ring finger, sparking rumors of an engagement to singer James Blunt. Cue Vader. At least we can comfort ourselves with video from her latest photo shoot.

THE VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Just in case you were thinking about picking up lingerie as a holiday gift, of course. Or if you're a Justin Timberake fan.

DR. NORMAN E. BORLAUG, who is believed to have saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived, will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the United States' highest civilian honor.

THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT: The New York Times reported that military experts -- including some from the ISG itself -- describe the report's plan as entirely impractical. The group