THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with JOHN HUGHES! The sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, buds, wasteoids, dweebies and dickheads, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude. The writer/director behind Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation movies, Home Alone, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and many more died Aug 6, 2009.  Hughes masterfully married music to movies, so I pay video tribute to him today, starting (of course) with "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club (the drumming o­n this song is impeccable), and Karla DeVito's "We Are Not Alone," along with the Ramones playing "Blitzkrieg Bop" (from National Lampoon's Vacation), David Bowie's "Young Americans" and The Vapors o­ne-hit wonder, "Turning Japanese" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" (all from Sixteen Candles, which opens to a clip of veteran WLS DJs Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards), Van Halen's cover of "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and General Public's "Tenderness" (both from Weird Science), the Psychedelic Furs re-recorded title track from Pretty In Pink, which also featured Jon Cryer lip-synching to Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" (that last clip is a blistering live take from the 1967 Stax tour -- and excellent, btw), The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" (a Hughes perennial), and OMD's "If You Leave," plus two more from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "Danke Schoen" and "Twist and Shout" (which was shot o­n Dearborn and Randolph Streets in Chicago, with International Polka Queen Vlasta atop the float, though Cameron and Sloane were in front of the Post Office), plus Yello's unforgettable-no-matter-how-you-try "Oh, Yeah." Videos are scarce for Some Kind of Wonderful, but I found Flesh for Lulu's "I Go Crazy" and the March Violets' take on the Stones' "Miss Amanda Jones."

LA LUZ advance streams Weirdo Shrine.

WORRIERS advance streams Imaginary Life.

CHELSEA WOLFE advance streams Abyss.

HEALTH advance streams Death Magic.

WAVVES drops “Flamezesz” ahead of V.

!!! dropped two new tracks ahead of As If. 

JOY DIVISION drops two very rare tracks in connection with the reissue of Substance.

KENNY ROGERS & THE FIRST EDITION: "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Yeah.

BEACH HOUSE gets an in-depth profile from Pitchfork. 

TITUS ANDRONICUS: Patrick Stickles was profiled by the New York Times. 

THE DOORS, ranked by Stereogum. 

GRAM PARSONS: Ten of the Best. 

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, which is currently scoring 93 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and the revisiting of Vacation, currently scoring 27 percent. 

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION - You have probably seen the trailer where Tom Cruise is hanging of the side of an airplane as it takes off (or see above). One way to describe this movie is to tell you that is part of a Bondian opening sequence, a mere setup to a film that addresses the aftermath of the last installment of the franchise (tho you don't really need to have seen that to enjoy this one). This edition, concerning Ethan Hunt's quest to expose a shadowy global terror group, also seemed to have more than its share of twists and turns than some of the prior installments (courtesy of screenwriter/director Christopher McQuarrie), throwing a little old school spy movie spice into the usual mix of heisty set pieces. Franchise faves Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Jeremy Renner return (tho, with the excption of one scene with Pegg, they haveless to do than usual), joined by Alec Baldwin and Rebecca Ferguson, who turns in a notable performance light years from her Golden Globe-nominated role in The White Queen.  Sean Harris also makes for one of the more interesting villains in the series (save Philip Symour Hoffman), though there may not be enough scenes featuring him to make the final confrontation with Cruise as compelling as it might have been.  Of course, Cruise is the main point of the film, and he continues to do do insanely entertaining stunts in the belief that he is superhuman. The Cruise-centric action sequences are, per usual, well-staged and well-executed.  All in all, an above-average entry in a series that has no real clunkers.

BEN AFFLECK & JENNIFER GARNER's former nanny claims her relationship with Affleck quickly became something much more intimate. 

JIMMY KIMMEL's emotional plea after the killing of Cecil the Lion raised 150K for Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Unit . 

CAITLYN & KRIS JENNER finally met. Kylie Jenner went to Canada to drink. 

CHRIS PINE closed a deal to play Steve Trevor opposite Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman. 

VALERIE HARPER suffered a health emergency Wednesday night, when she was taken away by ambulance during a performance of her musical Nice Work If You Can Get It.

LAW & ORDER DIRECTOR Jason "Jace" Alexander was busted on child-pron charges. Ripped from today's headlines.

FRANCE's National Security Advisor told lawmakers from both parties that if Congress votes down the Iran nuclear deal, "we could get a better deal.” (The French embassy now denies this.)

EGYPT & SAUDI ARABIA say they aim to boost military, economic, and social ties and pursue their common interests. 

IRAN will not allow American or Canadian inspectors working for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to visit its nuclear facilities, an official said in remarks broadcast by state TV on Thursday. 

WATCH THESE SEA SLUGS Stab Each Other in the Head as They Have Sex.

A FEMALE BADGER was recovering at a Polish animal shelter Wednesday, two days after the party animal was found passed out on a beach from having too much to drink. Honey Badger unavailable for comment. 

THREE GOATS used by the city of Coeur d’Alene for weed control were stabbed at a city well, leaving one nearly decapitated and a second mortally wounded.

COWS kill more people annually than sharks, on average.