THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with BEN FOLDS! The Ben Folds Five, to be exact, at a gig not to be named to keep the intellectual property cops off scent. Your selections include "Missing the War", "Kate", "Battle of Who Could Care Less", "The Last Polka", "Selfless, Cold and Composed", "Brick", "Smoke", "Philosophy", "Emaline", "Theme from 'Dr. Pyser'", "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces", "Underground", the Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly" and "Song for the Dumped".

BOOKER T. JONES is advance streaming The Road From Memphis.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

THE VACCINES did three free songs for Daytrotter at SXSW.

THE BASEBALL PROJECT: Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon and Peter Buck visited Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set in audio and video.

BLACK KEYS drop "Dearest," their contribution to the upcoming Buddy Holly tribute LP.

RUPERT HOLMES: "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)."  Mostly because my mind goes there every time one of these stories pops up. Plus, an arguable Cinco de Mayo hangover.

COLOR ME OBSESSED: The Mpls. City Pages profiles the making of the new Replacements documentary.

PANDA BEAR is interviewed by actor Oliver Platt for New York magazine.

R.E.M. will reissue Lifes Rich Pageant as two-disc set, the second being demos.

THE FELICE BROS: Ian Felice talks to the Capital Times about the recording of the band's adventurous new album, Celebration, Florida. (Thx, LHB.)

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: Mick Harvey talks to Spinner about his departure from the band.

CUTOUT BIN: From Big Star to John Lee Hooker, from Harry Nilsson to the Beastie Boys, from Marc Cohn to the Ramones, from Husker Du to the Zombies, plus Girls, the Cramps, the Replacements, Joe Jackson and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are now streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide releases are the Marvel epic Thor, which is currently scoring 83 percent on the ol Tomatometer; the rom-com Something Borrowed, currently scoring 14 percent; and the also martial Jumping the Broom, scoring 43 percent.

THOR works about as well as it could have and better than I expected when Marvel Studios announced the project.  Imho, Thor always seemed a bit out of place in the Marvel Universe.  After all, the Marvel formula was to give relatable, flawed people like Peter Parker or Tony Stark super-abilities through some sort of science.  In contrast, Thor was the Norse God of Thunder with mythic power and a personality that seemed separate from his human alter ego, Dr. Don Blake.  The movie addresses the first problem with a dash of Arthur C. Clarke and the second by (almost) dispensing with Blake and making the Thor persona more explicitly flawed (which actually serves the original idea of the comic better).  Although Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins (and even Kat Dennings) are the "names" in this film, Chris Hemsworth makes a name for himself by carrying it, as he ultimately must.  I don't know that we really needed Kenneth Branagh to direct this (Asgard is not Shakespeare), but he manages to bridge the two realms without taking you out of the movie.  It's not a perfect movie -- Thor's arc may come a bit too easily to him, Loki's motivation seems a bit muddled in the third act, and Thor still seems to me like he should be in the DC Universe with the Kryptonians and the Amazons.  Nevertheless, Thor was a surprisingly engaging adaptation.  Two additional notes: (1) I saw the 3-D version, but don't think it added terribly much to the experience; and (2) per usual, viewers may want to stay until the end of the credits.

PRINCE WILLIAM & KATE: You're dying to know their pet names for each other, right? or are you more interested in Kate's sister Pippa dirty dancing with a half-naked dude?

BRYAN ADAMS is a dad for the first time.

KATIE COURIC is about to turn her abject failure at CBS into a 20 million dollar deal with ABC for a talk show and involvement with the news division.

BRAD PITT & COURTENEY COX were able to attend a birthday dinner for their manager without getting into a fight over Jennifer Aniston.

ELIN NORDEGREN, the former Mrs. Tiger Woods, is back on the market.

PIRATES 5? Pirates 4 (On Stranger Tides) doesn't hit US theaters until May 20, so Johnny Depp isn't rushing into the next one just yet.

LIZ TAYLOR, MICHAEL JACKSON & MARLON BRANDO fled NYC after 9/11 and went on a road trip, with Brando demanding they stop at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway.   This must be made into a movie.

KILLING BIN LADEN: Will the "treasure trove" of intelligence seized at Osama's safe house lead to a significant degradation of al Qaeda's network?

IRAN: A Congressional panel released a report that alleges that Iran's elite Al-Quds force offers support to Al-Qaeda, adding a new dimension to the militant threat to the United States.  Speaking of new dimenasions, close allies of Ahmadinejad have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  But if you can summon djinns, why do you need nukes?

FOXES, Domesticated.

THEM! Almost 50 million years ago, ants the size of hummingbirds roamed what is now Wyoming, a new fossil discovery reveals.

SNAKE in a... dishwasher.

THE RED-FOOTED TORTOISE teaches scientists about contagious yawning.

CATS FROM HELL: Jackson Galaxy promtes his new show on Animal Planet.