THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with TRAFFIC!  Live in Santa Monica, circa 1972, flagged by my online pal Jay. Your setlist includes: Low Spark of High Heeled Boys; Light Up or Leave Me Alone; John Barley corn; Rainmaker; Glad; Freedom Rider; Forty Thousand Headmen; and Dear Mr. Fantasy.

SLEATER-KINNEY plays KEXP.

20 ESSENTIAL FREAK FOLK SONGS, playlisted by Stereogum.

LORDE covers Al Green's "Take Me To The River" for a Talking Heads tribute LP.

MAXIM LUDWIG & ANGEL OLSEN cover the Velvet Underground's "I Can't Stand It."

VAMPIRE WEEKEND shares "Mary Boone."

BRETT ANDERSON & NADINE SHAH duet on a cover of Mercury Rev's "Holes."

NICK CAVE, on love, art and the loss of his sons.

MICK JAGGER, dancing to ‘Moves Like Jagger' at a bar.

SHERYL CROW, on singing jingles, acting in Cop Rock, almost joining Fleetwood Mac, and more.

STAR TREK: How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans.

STEVEN SPIELBERG loves Dune: Part Two.

HOW BENIOFF & WEISS (and Alexander Woo) put ‘Game Of Thrones' behind them with 3 Body Problem.

THE SYMPATHIZER, ft RDJr in multiple roles, has a trailer online.

UNFROSTED: Jerry Seinfeld's Pop-Tart story has a trailer online.

GODZILLA MINUS ONE director Takashi Yamazaki has signed with Hollywood agency CAA. 

JENNIFER ANISTON & SANDRA BULLOCK were seen leaving an upscale plastic surgery retreat in Connecticut.

KARLIE KROSS is... rebooting LIFE magazine?

ANNIE POTTS, on Ghostbusters, Pretty in Pink, and more.

WHY IS THIS SATURDAY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER DAYS?  Because ABC has its annual showing of The Ten Commandments, the granddaddy of Biblical epics, a spectacle featuring acting from Edward G. Robinson and Anne Baxter that is so over-the-top that Yul Brynner starts to look good by comparison.  And while Robinson's Dathan never actually spoke the line "Where's your Messiah now?" in the movie, it  -- like "Play It Again, Sam" (not spoken in Casablanca) -- has become part of a part of our culture. The line actually comes from Billy Crystal, originally a bit from the Oscars, iirc. It later turned up o­n The Simpsons, with Chief Wiggum playing Dathan to Ned Flanders' Moses. It may lose viewers to the Final Four this year, but even though I own a copy, there's something to be said about the communal tradition of its broadcast on network TV.  BONUS: The making-of story is now the subject of a novel.

TAKING A BREAK at the animal sanctuary.

A LION & LIONESS, cuddling.

A CAMEL, eating a lemon.