THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with XTC!  Inspired by the career overview in Being There magazine, I checked the Tube to find tons 'o' tracks like"Statue of Liberty," "This is Pop" and "Neon Shuffle" from White Music; "Are You Receiving Me?" from Go 2;  "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Life Begins at the Hop," from Drums & Wires; "Respectable Street," "Generals & Majors" and "Sgt. Rock" from Black Sea;  "Senses Working Overtime," "Ball and Chain," "No Thugs in Our House" and "All of a Sudden" from English Settlement; "Love on a Farmboy's Wages," "In Loving Memory of a Name" and "Funk Pop A Roll" from Mummer; "All You Pretty Girls" from The Big Express; "Dear God" from Skylarking; "The Mayor of Simpleton" and "King for a Day" from Oranges & Lemons; "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," "The Disappointed" and "Books Are Burning" from Nonsvch.

FEIST has "making of" clips for the videos of "My Moon, My Man" and the dancetastic "1 2 3 4" posted (appropriately enough) in the "videos" section of her website.

THE 15 BEST SONGS about dancing with yourself, with plenty of embedded video, courtesy of Cracked magazine.

THE SMITHS:  London's Observer looks at the influence of the band 25 years after Steven Patrick Morrissey met Johnny Maher.

CAJUN DANCE PARTY isn't Cajun music, but these British teens have been tagged as a "band to watch" by Stereogum for their new single, "The Next Untouchable."  OTOH, Neu! prefers "Amylase Disco," which for some reason is not among the tracks streaming from TheirSpace.

PHIL SPECTOR:  The prosecution in the former hit producer's murder trial of moved into high gear Thursday, presenting two witnesses who recounted the music producer's actions on the night that ended in the death of actress Lana Clarkson.

WE HAD JOY, WE HAD FUN... until Terry Jacks came along, anyway.

WILCO:  The Pitch (of Kansas City) runs dueling reviews of Sky Blue Sky, which you can still stream in full over the weekend via Spinner.

THE 25 MOST EXQUISITELY SAD SONGS in the Whole World, with plenty of streaming audio... and debate by the commenters at Spinner.  Indeed, the site felt compelled to follow up with the Readers' Top 15 Write-Ins, again with streaming audio. 

THE AVETT BROTHERS is Paste magazine's Band of the Week; the mag says other reviewers have called the band's music everything from "post-Civil War modern rock" to "grungegrass."  But if you want to know what that means, you can stream a few tracks, including one from the band's album due next week.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES reveal their most recent music purchases.

THE CUTOUT BIN:  This Friday's fortuitous finds from the ol' HM are: 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me; ? & The Mysterians - 96 Tears; The Merton Parkas - Band of Gold; Guided By Voices - It's Like Soul, Man; I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona; They Might Be Giants - Why Does the Sun Shine (Live); Devo - Come Back Jonee; ELO - Dont Bring Me Down; Journey - Anyway You Want It; Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman; Isley Brothers - Hello It's Me; The Band - The Weight; Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - The Child In You; Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend; Led Zeppelin - Black Dog; Sleater-Kinney - You're No Rock 'n Roll Fun; The Who - Bargain (Live 1971); The Replacements - Answering Machine; and the hidden track.

JOHNNY DEPP didn't mention those wedding rumors, but what he told the UK's Mirror about his daughter's bout with the E. coli bug won't dampen them, either: "It was a reminder to us of how lucky we are to be able to breathe, walk, talk, think and surround ourselves with people we love."

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide releases are: the Lindsay Lohan-Jane Fonda drama Georgia Rule, currently scoring 21 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the "infected" zombie sequel 28 Weeks Later, currently scoring 71 percent; Larry the Cable Guy's Delta Farce, which shockingly was unscreened for critics; and Zach Braff and Amanda Peet in The Ex, which is scoring 20 percent (and only 8 percent among the "cream of the crop" critics).  So the real question will be how much Spidey 3 makes this weekend.

BRITNEY SPEARS has been wearing wigs in public - but one of her backup dancers says the pop tart's buzz cut looks great.  Though saying that may be a tactful way to deflect Spears's initation for the dancers to cut their hair.

OVEREXPOSED:  Spears, the French Hotel, and Fed-Ex top a list of the most overexposed celebrities.  Which suggests going around in public without panties is the definition of overexposed.  Forbes has a slideshow of the winners/losers.

DAVID HASSELHOFF:  A former nanny could be the smoking gun in The Hoffs's custody battle for his kids after his attorneys persuaded her to come forward with tales about his ex-wife's drug use.

BRADGELINA:  Though Jolie has been complaining about the paparazzi again, she goes on a charm offensive with Reader's Digest, opening up about her relationship with Pitt why she decided to adopt a fourth child, and more.  Embedded audio at the link.  And there are more excerpts at the Celebrity Baby Blog.

JENNIFER LOPEZ has reportedly beefed up security in response to ugly threats on her life from an animal-rights extremist.

LINDSAY LOHAN was showing off the new man on her arm -- British TV personality Calum Best -- at NYC hot spot Tenjune Wednesday night.

CAMERON DIAZ calls her last couple of years "hell" and "so hard," not to mention the prejudice against pretty actresses.  And you thought you had it tough?  Ha!  Try being a wealthy model-turned-actress and dating Justin Timberlake.  It's enough to drive you to watch two topless beauties "rub slime on each other" at a racy NYC sex show.

TAMMY FAYE MESSNER seems to be knockin' on Heaven's Door.

JANE FONDA was all over Stephen on The Colbert Report.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and JESSICA BIEL are both interested in Ryan Reynolds?  It's good to be Ryan Reynolds!  BONUS:  Someone needs to help Scar-Jo with her recent fashion choices.

MICHAEL MOORE is under investigation by the US Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care movie Sicko, according to the AP.  As Moore undoubtedly wants to tout that fab Cuban heathcare system, I'm guessing he did not take them to the cockroach-infested Julio Trigo Hospital in Arroyo Naranjo, near Havana.  Or any of the hospitals on this list.  And he probably won't mention the way the Castro regime suppressed the existence of a raging epidemic of dengue fever in the spring and summer of 1997.

GLOBAL WARMING has a powerful new foe -- News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch.  No, really.

HAMAS MOUSE UPDATE:  A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike preaches Islamic dominion and "armed resistance" to children.  Here's the sample video, icymi yesterday.

IRAN has constructed a new clandestine network for acquiring nuclear technology that may be larger than the nuclear-parts trafficking network run by A.Q. Khan, creator of Pakistan's atomic bomb, according to a new report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a respected London-based think tank.  Amir Taheri catalogs the economic issues that spell trouble for Mr. Ahmadinejad's struggling presidency.  That article starts with a reference to Ahmadinejad's Islamic Moral Brigades clashing with groups of young Iranians on the streets of Tehran and other major cities over the government's crackdown on "immodest dress," which you can see on video, along with a clip of a woman fighting back.

IRAQ:  A majority of Iraqi lawmakers endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, though that majority may not hold up, with Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman claiming deception.  The parliament's planned vacation and general disarray suggest that it may have as much trouble passing a timetable as it does anything else.  The uproar at the last link was precipitated by the security situation in Diyala; the good news there is that Arab tribesmen in Baqubah have said they will form a tribal alliance to cleanse Diyala of foreign fighters and those of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq.

WHEN LIZARDS ATTACK:  Why we love live local TV news... and the Tube.

GRIZZLY BEAR and MOOSE fight to the death in an Alaskan driveway.  Pic and a link for Tube video at the link.

POPPY the ST. BERNARD had a litter of 13 healthy puppies; awww...some pic at the link.  I'm very "circle of life" today.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:  The amazing albino hedgehog.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  A militant squirrel attacked two mothers and a girl in a first-grade classroom in San Jose, Cali., including the devious running up the pants leg maneuver.

A BUDGIE is believed to have been smuggled into the maximum-security Portlaoise Prison in Ireland by a female visitor who concealed the bird internally in her body.