RICHARD HAWLEY:  Watch in-store performances of "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" and Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town" over at the 'Gum.

ALTAMONT:  Today is the 38th anniversary of the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival, headlined and organized by the The Rolling Stones.  The event is best known for having been marred by violence, including one killing and three accidental deaths.  Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin shot footage of the concert and incorporated it into a subsequent documentary film entitled Gimme Shelter -- and thanks to the marvels of modern technology, you can stream the movie on demand.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED:  Advance tracks from Radar Brothers and Death Cab's Chris Walla are among the tracks streaming from the latest installment on NPR.

DESTROYER:  Dan Bejar has released an advance track, "Foam Hands," from Trouble In Dreams, due for release in March.  You can download or stream it from the 'Gum Mix.

THE FLESHTONES are streaming a new album, Take a Good Look, via YepRoc. 

VAN HUNT and EMI/Blue Note have split in advance of his third album, which was slated for release next month.  Hunt recently told Paste magazine, "There are evidently lots of people who would like to see Van Hunt become a little more like everybody else.  That's not going to happen."

THE BREEDERS will release their fourth full-length LP, titled Mountain Battles, on April 8th, 2008.

TOM WAITS gives a reading of a "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis."

THE HOLD STEADY get an in-depth profile in the Mpls. City Pages, as well as an expanded web section with galleries and a timeline of the band's rise to semi-popularity.

ARCTIC MONKEYS, RADIOHEAD and others want a cut of scalped tickets.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE -- Steve Earle's son -- is profiled in Richmond's Style Weekly.  He's working on his first full LP, but you can stream a few from his EP at EarleSpace.

THE TOP TEN KIDS' CDS, with streaming selections, according to WXPN.  Pick to Click? "The Poopsmith Song," by Over The Rhine.

PETE DOHERTY:  A photographer who claims she was assaulted by the troubled singer in August has filed charges with the police.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON publicly threatens to sue US Weekly for implying that she has had plastic or cosmetic surgery on her nose in the mag's latest cover story, in which plastic surgeon Raj Kanodia - who has fixed the noses of Ashlee Simpson, Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz - estimates that 60 percent of Hollywood women undergo some type of procedure.  Radar magazine also has a new piece on Hollywood's plastic surgery obsession.

KEIFER SUTHERLAND was sentenced to 48 days in jail for his latest DUI arrest and for violating probation.  The way things look now, he may be able to squeeze that in during the writers' strike.  UPDATE:  Sutherland has checked in -- here's background on the jail and the booking photo.

JONATHAN RHYS MYERS had charges dropped against him after apologizing for his drunken confrontation at a Dublin Airport earlier this month.

JODIE FOSTER was the humble guest of honor at the Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast: "I always feel like something of an impostor. I don't know what I'm doing...I suppose that's my one little secret, the secret of my success."  At the event, Foster characterized herself as a "gentleman," while John Travolta called himself is a woman.

LINDSAY LOHAN is now spending time with her ex, Stavros Niarchos, after dumping rehab buddy Riley Giles a week ago. Niarchos used to date both Lohan and the French Hotel.  The busboy suing Li-Lo alleges in court papers that he has proof the actress had been drinking before she collided with his van in October 2005.

BRITNEY SPEARS, meanwhile, was soliciting business advice from the French Hotel at the pop tart's 26th birthday party.  And it seems like good advice, though Spears reportedly rejected the notion of cutting back on her social life.  The Heirhead also told Spears to rely on experts, not friends, for advice -- which seems sound when one reads about the seedy background of the pop tart's pal, Sam Lufti.  Is Spears repaying the celebutard by threatening to leak footage of the French Hotel enjoying a lesbian kiss on the internet?  Meanwhile, court docs reveal that the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services still is concerned about the safety and welfare of Sperderline children.  Spears opposes giving DCFS access to sealed court records, claiming that it might reveal too much about her two young sons' travel schedules, and that could lead to problems with paparazzi.  And on the topic du jour, OK! magazine claims Spears is mulling 81K in plastic surgery.

TIM BURTON's Christmas tree looks exactly like you imagine it would, according to Helena Bonham Carter.

TIM ROTH talks about his turn as Emil Blonsky a/k/a "The Abomination" in the upcoming relaunch of The Incredible Hulk.

THE 25 BEST CELEBRITY QUOTES of the year, according to People magazine.  I think my vote goes to Letterman.

THE 20 WORST HOLIDAY MOVIES, according to Entertainment Weekly.  Congrats to Fred Claus for making the list after only a few weeks in theaters.

TV's 50 SEXIEST WOMEN EVER, according to AOL television.  Did I mention it's a slideshow?

JENNA BUSH phones home during the Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Video at the link.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN:  Look at Frosty... hey, where did he go?

VENEZUELA:  Pres. Hugo Chavez is not taking his referendum loss well.  The tipoff is Reuters putting an explicit language warning on the story.

ISLAMISM in the UK:  The BBC funded a paintballing trip for men later accused of Islamic terrorism and failed to pass on information about the 21/7 bombers to police, a court was told.

EUROPEAN ARABS have launched a public campaign to stop Al-Jazeera TV broadcasts in Europe, accusing the channel of fostering extremism among European Arab youth and of supporting terrorism.

IRAQ:  Bill Roggio has an article and Flash presentation on Iran's Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq.  The chief Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad said 42 people linked to Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi were under criminal investigation, but he stressed the politician himself was not under suspicion.  Parliament's deputy speaker, meanwhile, said the 275-seat house was unlikely to have a quorum for about two weeks because a large number of lawmakers are traveling to Mecca for the annual Muslim pilgrimage.  Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker have agreed on details governing the operations of Blackwater and other private security contractors there.  The number of internally displaced Iraqis fell by 4.8 percent in October, or nearly 110000 people, marking the first significant drop in two years, the Iraqi Red Crescent said Wednesday.  More than 40 women in Basra have been killed and their bodies dumped in the streets in the past five months for behavior deemed un-Islamic, the city's police chief says.

KNUT UPDATE:  Fans from all over the world flocked to Berlin this week to help the once-cuddly, now dapper polar bear celebrate his first birthday.

RHINO POOP:  Why not give the ones you love endangered feces for the holidays?

TIGER CUB gets a CAT scan. Get it? CAT scan?  Really, she did.  Video at the link.

DOGS can sort photographs into categories, in the same way that humans and other primates do, the British weekly New Scientist reports in its next issue.  But can it tag them for your Flickr account?

MR. SPLASHY PANTS:  Internet pranksters force Greenpeace into extending its online whale-naming contest.