VAMPIRE WEEKEND, Unplugged.

SPOON is advance streaming their Transference LP via NPR.  They also have a meaty profile in The New York Times.

BASIA BULAT drops "Go On" as and advance track from her upcoming LP.

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND stopped by WXPN for a chat and mini-set.

ELVIS PRESLEY: The staff at NPR is streaming their favorite tracks from the King.

LUCKY SOUL releases a video for "White Russian Doll," while Andrew blogged the shoot.

PATTI SMITH: Rolling Stone has an excerpt from her memoir, while Vanity Fair has a blurb from Clive Davis and a slideshow from photographer Steven Sebring.

NELLIE McKAY talks to the Mpls City Pages about A Prairie Home Companion, politics, and Doris Day.

BUZZCOCKS: The Mancester punks' early catalog is getting a big reissue effort from Mute.

KAREN O, frontwoman of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is profiled by Variety, focusing on her music for Where the Wild Things Are.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  This week's Top Three are last week's Top Three. Avatar shows amazing legs, dropping a mere 29 percent and taking in another 48.5 million domestically, where it enters the all-time Top Ten.  Worldwide, Avatar is already the second biggest earner of all time, behind Titanic.  Sherlock Holmes and the Chipmunks pulled in more than 16 million each.  Both dropped more than 50 percent, whcih is rough, but not shocking after two holiday weekends.  Daybreakers became the first new film in the Top Five since Christmas, with a 15 million debut, proving Ameerica loves Smurfs and vampires.  Rounding out the Top Five, It's Complicated drops a notch, taking in 11 million on a 41 percent drop; the star-filled ensemble comedy has yet to recoup its budget.  Below the fold, Leap Year debuted in sixth place with 9.2 million against a 19 million budget, which isn't bad, considering the bad reviews.  Much the same culd be said about the better-reviewed Youth in Revolt, which opened in ninth place.

CONAN O'BRIEN headed to Fox? It could happen.

MADONNA and SEAN PENN a three-hour, one-on-one dinner at four-star Alain Ducasse restaurant in Manhattan on Thursday.

KATY PERRY's Twitter account sparks rumors she's having a baby with new fiancé Russell Brand.

GREEN LANTERN: Blake Lively has nabbed the female lead opposite Ryan Reynolds in Warner Bros.' live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

STAR TREK 2.2 is tentatively slated for June 29, 2012.

THE A-TEAM has a trailer online.

KICK-ASS now has a SFW trailer online.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF LEBOWSKI: The Dude abides, in Shakespearean style.

ART CLOKEY, creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep Friday at his home. He was 88.

YEMEN: British Intelligence has confirmed perhaps the most chilling boast that accused Christmas Day bomber Umar Abdulmutallab made to investigators after his arrest: that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners.

IRAN: The son of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Friday accused hard-line pro-government militiamen and Revolutionary Guard members of trying to assassinate his father a night earlier.

IT'S RAINING IGUANAS: Let's go to the video.  Here's a bonus how-to handle them video.

HAMSTERS drink like humans.

A FROZEN CAT, successfully defrosted.

A WILD TURKEY knocked out power near Folsom State Prison. Investigators checking links to squirrels, ghost of Johnny Cash.