Early Buzz: You mean Twinkies won't be around forever?

Is it true? The end of the Twinkie as we know it? No more Ding Dongs or Ho-Ho's? Say it ain't so.

But apparently it is, with Hostess Brands announcing this morning that it will go out of business over a nationwide strike by its employees, ending not only a proud tradition of delicious snacking, but, on a more dire note, carrying through with a threat to lay off more than 18,000 workers in the process.

It's a downbeat way to start a Friday, so here some hopefully more upbeat headlines:

• Radio Soulwax delivers a brilliant, hour-long audiovisual mixtape that pays homage to David Bowie.
• If you're wondering how little money your favorite artists make from streaming music services like Spotify, it's even more depressing than you think.
• Here's a look at 13 candidates for the Star Wars: Episode VII director's chair. Who do you want to see calling the shots at the opening of the new trilogy? Me, I'm hoping for Christopher Nolan.
• If you really must hear the new duet between Rihanna and ex-boyfriend/abuser Chris Brown, it's hit the Web.
• With the long-delayed Red Dawn remake finally coming out next week, star Chris Hemsworth -- who wasn't a star when film was made -- says it's "kind of a Benjamin Button thing. As my films come out, I get younger and less experienced."
• Consequence of Sound marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles by examining a number of the Fab Four's key innovations, including, the site's writers argue, being an early influence on both heavy metal and shoegaze.
• Rapper 50 Cent goes on QVC to hawk his $250 headphones, claims he made $177,000 in just nine minutes. Now that's gangsta.
• Sylvester Stallone's itching to make a fifth Rambo movie... if his body holds up. If not, "It'll be Rambo fighting arthritis," he says.
• Justin Timberlake is trying really hard to get people to care about something called MySpace.
• Matthew McConaughey talks about how he shed 38 pounds to play a rail-thin AIDS patient in an upcoming movie. Guess that Magic Mike sequel will have to wait.
• If song lyrics were autocorrected text messages, they'd go a little something like this.
• Nerdist catches up with Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome co-creator David Eick, who talks about the genesis of the web series and the look and feel of the show.
• Here's the trailer for a new romantic comedy called Admission starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. Not sure I can buy Fey as a character named "Portia."
• As he starts doing press for the upcoming Django Unchained, director Quentin Tarantino suggests he may only have a couple more movies left in him.
• And, finally, behold the "urinal entertainment system," a way for men to play games while relieving themselves in public restrooms.

Follow Matt Sebastian at slicingupeyeballs.com or @slicingyeyeballs.