THE HEADLIGHTS have a video for "Cherry Tulips," the frothy, ethereal single from their new Some Racing, Some Stopping album.

NEW RELEASES: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Tift Merritt, Beach House, Cowboy Junkies and more are streaming in full this week from Spinner.  Jason and the Scorchers' Fervor EP and Lost & Found LP are being reissued on a single CD.

TIFT MERRITT talks to the NYDN about recording Another Country in Paris.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks to Drowned In Sound about the new album, switching drummers, family commitments, and so on.

THE RAVEONETTES are doing a blog interview tour that starts at Brooklyn Vegan and MOKB.

HEY, HO, LET'S GO:  It's not the slogan for Ramones Condoms, but it could be!  Guardian blogger Nicholas Blincoe writes that he wouldn't turn to the band for help with his. love life.  But it did put me in the mood for vintage performances of "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," which is youtr Twofer Tuesday.

THE SWELL SEASON:  The Oscar-winning duo are getting a concert re-run via NPR.

ALEXANDRO ESCOVEDO has posted a new track, "Fall Apart," and a behind the scenes video at EscovedoSpace.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND is the subject of a SPIN story on the new metrics of success in the Internet Age.  That link is an excerpt, but thole thing may be online today at SpinSpace.

MOTLEY CRUE:  Please do not read about "The Spaghetti Incident" before or after a meal.

AMY WINEHOUSE trashed a room at the Riverbank Plaza Hotel before the Brit Awards, according to the ever-reliable Sun.  A Winehouse rep denies the story.

SEAN PENN & PETRA NEMCOVA were looking cozy over the weekend.  The tsunami-surviving supermodel would say only that they are "friends" who met through her charity work, but I am going to have to signal Vader.

OSCARS REDUX:  The Associated Press has backstage tales of nervousness and bodily functions.  And Jack Nicholson hitting on the reporter.  Maybe showing that stuff would help the show's sagging ratings.

JESSICA ALBA denied rumors she was pregnant with twins while on the red carpet at the Oscars.

BRITNEY SPEARS had her second visitation with her kids; the trips are reportedly going well.

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS, Britney's knocked up 16-year-old sister passed her GED exam and is looking to take the ACT college entrance test.

TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Holmes tells the Daily Mail that Cruise is "just amazing. He's kind, generous, smart, he's Tom Cruise - he's the most artistic man I've ever met."  That is in contrast to Raymond Shaw, who is "the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

THE McCARTNEYS:  Heather Mills is about to make FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World list.

JENNIFER ANISTON has put her eggs on ice until Mr. Right comes along, according to the ever-reliable Star magazine.

JOE SIMPSON, dad-manager to Jessica and Ashlee, adds another item to the list of reasons why he is creepy.

MATT DAMON plans to be Bourne again.

JIMMY KIMMEL, icymi, has responded to his gf Sarah Silverman's "I'm Effing Matt Damon" video with the even more star-studded, but still likely NSFW, "I'm Effing Ben Affleck."

CLIMATE CHANGE:  Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.  Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.  One winter is not a trend, but if this winter had been warm, you can bet we would have heard a lot about it.

ISLAMISM DOWN UNDER:  Muslim university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on Australian campuses.

IRAN:  Documentation presented Monday to the governors of the UN's nuclear watchdog suggests Iran continued nuclear weapons work beyond the 2003 date cited in a recent US intelligence report, diplomats said.  Oh, come on... when US intell ever wrong?  Not that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will care.  Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to France says there will be consequences should Paris continue its "illogical" stance toward Tehran's nuclear program.

IRAQ:  Bill Ardolino has posted the fourth part of his look Inside Iraqi Politics, examining the Iraqi government's efforts to propose and pass legislation allocating wealth. "This includes the 2008 budget, which is immediately essential to executive functions and represents a de facto distribution of revenue among Iraq's provinces and sects, and the hydrocarbons laws, which will have long-term ramifications for the apportionment and development of the country's oil resources."

ORANGUTWINS Towan and Chinta turned 40 at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo over the weekend.  The zookeepers have a term for some of the regular human visitors - "orangutan groupies."

PET TORTOISE nearly burns down its owner's house in Bracknell, Berks.

PEG-LEG PARROT UPDATE:  George has shown more interest in eating the lining of the device, rather than fitting his leg into it to get his balance.

IS THAT A MOUSE IN YOUR POCKET?  Then I guess we'll have to quarrantine your airplane flight.

MAX the BOXER took his owner's car for a joyride in Azusa, California.  Surveillance video at the link.