BEIRUT dops a video for "Santa Fe" from The Rip Tide.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE did three free songs at Daytrotter, including some "Cortez the Killer."

VIVA VOCE stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set.

CALLmeKAT plays a Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR offices.

PAUL SIMON played "The Sound of Silence" in NYC yesterday, icymi.

ROBERT SMITH: Drifting away from the world, and content.

WILD FLAG talks to Salon about  falling in love with music again.

GIRLS: Billboard previews at a buzz band's second act.

THE 10 BEST ROCK MOVIES, according to 33 Days.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Contaigion tops the chart with 23.1 million, about as expected on a traditionally slow weekend slowed further by the opening of the NFL season.  The 60-million budgeted flick should come out okay once overseas receipts come in.  The Help finally slips to the second slot with 8.7 million, and a 137 million total against a 25 million budget.  Warrior debuted in third with 5.6 million, a bit disappointing given the strong reviews (with people floating the idea of an Oscar nomination for Nick Nolte).  The Debt drops to the fourth slot with 4.9 million, but has recouped its 20 million production budget, with overseas tickets likely to put it well in the black.  Columbiana rounds out the Top 5 with 4 million, with a 29.8 million total to date against a 40 million budget.

CONTAGION: Its star-studded cast -- including Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard -- might recall the disaster movies of the mid-70s, but Steven Soderburgh keeps the bird-flu drama real -- real enough for me to be depressed by it on the 9/11 anniversary weekend.  Good, although its focus on how an epidemic would likely play out on a broad scale tended to drain the suspense present in its early scenes.

MAD MEL UPDATE:  Prominent Jewish leaders are beginning to speak out against Gibson and Warner Bros. over their planned movie based on the life of religious icon Judah Maccabee.  The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg recounts some of his conversation with Gibson about the project.

ALI LOHAN's rep denies Li-Lo's model sister has had plastic surgery, insisting that "she has gone through a normal teenage growth spurt that has made her taller and slimmer." A leading nutrition expert estimates her weight has plummeted to 95lbs and she has muscle wasting.

KIM KARDASHIAN is not the mystery buyer trying to yank her infamous sex tape off the market.

AMY WINEHOUSE's father says he believes she died after suffering a seizure related to alcohol detoxification and "there was nobody there to rescue her."

AMY SMART got hitched to HGTV's Carter Oosterhouse.

CLIFF ROBERTSON,  who won an Oscar for "Charly" and saw his profile increase again, at age 79, thanks to a small but important role in the first "Spider-Man" pic, died Saturday of natural causes, one day after his 88th birthday.

ANDY WHITFIELD, who starred in the Starz period drama "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," died Sunday of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Sydney, Australia. He was 39.

TERROR in the USA: On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, US intelligence and law enforcement apparatus found no evidence to corroborate an unfolding terror plot... but there seems to be a lot of details about the alleged plot.

ISRAEL & EGYPT's leadership tried Saturday to limit the damage in ties after protesters stormed Israel's embassy in Cairo, trashing offices and prompting the evacuation of nearly the entire staff from Egypt in the worst crisis between the countries since their 1979 peace treaty.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad marked the 9/11 anniversary by repeating the conspiracy theory that the attacks were orchestrated by the US as a pretext for war.

IRAQIs are having second thoughts about the planned US drawdown.

AN ALPACA... and a kitten.

THE BIRDS: A home in Malvern, Worcestershire was overrun by nearly 500 birds in scenes eerily reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror classic.

A PYTHON is on the loose in North Naples, FL.

A MAN and his duck.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...LEFT OF THE DIAL!  It's that back-to-school time of year, so here is the BBC's documentary on US indie rock of the 80s-90s, which Rolling Stone's David Fricke reminds us was known then as "college rock."  The Nirvana story is the pull for the casual viewer, but the Brits work their way back to Black Flag, with a fair amount of R.E.M. as well.  Sadly, The Replacements and Husker Du get mere cameos, (despite being the Godfathers of Grunge).  But The Pixies get their props as a major influence on Kurt Cobain.  Tubed into seven segments:  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7.

MAN MAN stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA did five free songs for Daytrotter.

NICK LOWE guest DJs All Songs Considered.

BUILT TO SPILL: Live Melodies of the Future.

LOS CAMPENSINOS! drops "By Your Hand" in advance of Hello Sadness.

JOHNNY MAESTRO: "The Worst That Could Happen." A great, self-indulgent song written by Jimmy Webb, sung by the man who made it a hit with the Brooklyn Bridge.

SONIC YOUTH, REGINA SPEKTOR, DAVID BYRNE & MORE remember 9/11.

BEIRUT: Zach Condon is still coming to terms with success -- and those weird Brazilian tribute bands.

EEF BARZELAY (Clem Snide) talks to The A.V. Club about his new EP of Journey covers.

TEN OF THE BEST LPs of 1991 (excluding Nirvana's Nevermind), according to Earworm. (Thx, LHB.)

THE WORST SONGS OF THE 90s, according to Rolling Stone readers.

CUTOUT BIN: From Husker Du to Dionne Warwick, from Public Image Ltd to Nick Gilder, from Aztec Camera to Led Zeppelin, plus Blondie, Flaming Lips, The Who, B-52s, Tommy James 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 Contagion, which is currently scoring 82 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Warrior, currently scoring 88 percent. Creature and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star were not screened for critics.

REESE WITHERSPOON was rushed to a Santa Monica hospital around Wednesday, after a car struck the actress while she was jogging.

MATT. DAMON. spoke to New York magazine about the Purell usage on the set of Contagion, all those Soderbergh-is-retiring stories he's the source of, and his political future.

ELISABETTA CANALIS opened up about the end of her two-year romance with George Clooney.

KATE WINSLET says she regrets once vowing to stop doing nude scenes.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) are teaming to tell of the heroic story of Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee.

THE 20 BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIES, according to Paste.

THE 100 ESSENTIAL DIRECTORS, according to PopMatters.

9/11: The first five minutes of CNN coverage. I came out of the shower, saw the second plane hit on NBC, and knew had had to contact my boss, whose daughter lived in NYC. There is still a lot of crazy stuff going on around the country and the world as a result, and a lot of 10th anniversary coverage this year, so consider taking a moment to watch and remember.

TERROR in the USA:  Federal authorities have come across what they believe may be a credible threat to the US homeland surrounding the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. New York City and Washington, DC are mentioned in the non-specific car bomb threats. A US citizen is one of three people officials are scrambling to find out about.

AL QAEDA's influence grows south of the Sahara.

PAKISTAN says it will speed up efforts to build a gas pipeline from Iran despite US opposition to the project.

RISE of the PLANET of the APES: Chimps see daylight for the first time.

GIANT RATS sniff out tuberculosis faster than lab techs.

TURTLE hitches a ride on an alligator.

...AND THERE WERE FISH HEADS... all over the highway. (Roly-poly fish heads.)

WILCO drops a video for "Born Alone," while Jeff Tweedy plays a cover of Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" you cannot miss on Twofer Thursday.

DAWES stopped by WFUV for a session.

MOGWAI is advance streaming and talking about the Earth Division EP.

KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS played a Tiny Desk Concert at the officies of NPR. (Interview also at the click-through.)

BOB DYLAN and THE GRATEFUL DEAD: The Complete Rehearsals (So Far...)

BUDDY HOLLY: Although he tends to be remembered on The Day The Music Died, yesterday would have been Buddy's 75th birthday. Spinner retweeted an interview with Buddy's widow; NPR retweeted the story of his classic "Peggy Sue." So I'll let John Fogerty "Rave On."

PJ HARVEY won the Mercury Music Prize for Let England Shake.

FRIENDS, the latest girl-fronted Brooklyn pop group, is profiled (with audio) at The Guardian.

THE DECEMBERISTS frontman Colin Meloy and artist/wife Carson Ellis talk to AccessAtlanta about their children's book, "Wildwood."

THE BEST of 2011 (So Far), according to SPIN.

MADONNA has no comment on Lady Gaga's obsession with her. See what she did there?

GWYNETH PALYTROW says she can still ‘respect and admire' those who have cheated on their husbands and wives.

ALI LOHAN, Lindsay's 17-year-old sister, signed a modeling contract last month and seems to have a new face.

CELINE DION: A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into the singer's home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath.

EVAN RACHEL WOOD took a serious shot to the face and lost a tooth in Paris.

THE EXPENDABLES 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis have just closed deals to take "substantial" roles alongside Sylvester Stallone in the old old old skool sequel.

MONICA LEWINSKY's life still sucks, according to the National Enquirer.

TERROR in SWEDEN: The head of SAPO, the national security service, stated that Islamic terrorism remains the greatest threat to Sweden.

YEMEN: Six Yemeni soldiers and 13 al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters were killed during clashes in the city of Zinjibar.

SYRIA: Security forces launched widespread attacks against the central cities of Hama and Homs, the eastern border town of Tal Kalakh, and along the Syrian-Turkish border.

IRAN: The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said it will open its nuclear program to five years of 'full supervision' by the UN atomic energy agency if the world body lifts its sanctions. However, that 'full supervision' would have limits.

LIBYA:  A potent stash of Russian-made Grinch surface-to-air missiles is missing from a huge Tripoli weapons warehouse amid reports of weapons looting across the war-torn country. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

WEINER PUP vs MIRROR: Who you got?

A DRUNKEN ELK desperate for just one more mouthful of fermenting apples lost its balance in the attempt, leaving it stuck in an apple tree in western Sweden.

LEFFE the MOOSE MAN promises to get you so close you might even get a smooch... from an elk, not Leffe.

HARBOR the HOUND TAKES the Guinness World Record for having the longest ears of any living dog.

A PARROT solves the case of its own theft.

PETER BJORN & JOHN play Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness" for The A.V. Club Undercover. Well done, gents.

GIRLS are advance streaming Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

NEW RELEASES from Grace Jones, The Rapture, Chemical Brothers, Horrible Crows, Ladybirds and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

DEER TICK played the World Cafe Live; you can stream the gig, including new songs, on demand.

DINOSAUR, JR., Live in the Netherlands, Oct. 23, 1987.

YUCK drops "Cousin Corona" from the deluxe version of its debut, due on October 11.

WAVVES is "Nodding Off" with Best Coast on the Life Sux EP.

NOEL GALLAGHER's HIGH FLYING BIRDS drop "AKA...What A Life!"

PEARL JAM held their 20th anniversary fest over the weekend, yielding Temple Of The Dog's "Hunger Strike," Eddie Vedder & The Strokes' "Juicebox," and Julian Casablancas with PJ on "Not For You" in time for Threefer Wednesday or something.

ST VINCENT: Annie Clark spoke to Pitchfork about the unglamorous truth behind her creative process, the frustrating ineffectualness of natural deodorant, and the sometimes-murderous lure of "unloading every ounce of your misanthropic bile onto a crowd of people."

OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL talks to Aquarium Drunkard about assembling a new album.

PORTISHEAD pick their 13 favorite albums.

THE 25 CREEPEST SONGS ABOUT LOVE, according to Paste. Pate fans must note No.2.

LINDSAY LOHAN is taking her required clasees, but has yet to dent the community service required by her probation.

RYAN GOSLING & EVA MENDES were... wait for it... caught canoodling at Disneyland.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE & JESSICA BIEL: Together again, at a friend's wedding in Colorado over the long weekend.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL & ANNA KENDRICK were spotted hugging close outside a Subway in California.

JESSICA SIMPSON: Not getting a prenuptual breast reduction.

TIGER WOODS' alpha mistress, Rachel Uchitel, said the 9/11 death of her former fiance, investment banker James Andrew O'Grady, was meant to be. So glad it worked out well for her. That's what's important.

ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL was arrested Monday night on suspicion of disturbing the peace after a loud dispute with a neighbor.

TERROR in GERMANY: The interior minister said that nearly 1,000 potential Islamist terrorists live in Germany, of whom about 128 could be capable of committing attacks; around 20 of these trained in terror camps and are under surveillance.

LIBYA: A chaotic and apparently ill-coordinated effort by rebels to track down Gaddafi is being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters, as well as Libyan commandos commissioned by civilian leaders.

AFGHANISTAN: A local policing venture in Afghanistan's northeastern Kapisa province is faltering as men leave the force because their wages have been cut.  The local forces remain distinct from the regular Afghan National Police.

IRAQ: The Obama administration is willing to drop American troop levels to as low as 3000 by the end of this year. Senior commanders are said to be livid at the decision. Meanwhile, military commanders and intelligence officers are pushing for greater authority to conduct covert operations to thwart Iranian influence, according to US officials.

BERT the CAT vs CAT BALLOON: Who you got?

AN ALBINO OSTRICH was on the run in Russia's far east on Monday after escaping from a circus, as residents were warned not to approach the "very aggressive" bird.

A BEAR stole a Prius at Lake Tahoe.

MOUSE on a PLANE disrupts a Nepal Airlines flight to Bangkok.

THURSTON MOORE delivers a "Benediction" at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

ST. VINCENT is advance streaming Strange Mercy.

A.A. BONDY is advance streaming Believers.

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH is advance streaming Hysterical.

LAURA MARLING is advance streaming A Creature I Don't Know.

TRUE BLOOD VOL 3 soundtrack is streaming via EW.

PETER WOLF CRIER is streaming Garden of Arms and stopped by The Current -- and the MN State Fair -- for a mini-set.

NOEL GALLAGHER's HIGH-FLYING BIRDS drop "If I Had a Gun" via KROQ.

NEON INDIAN drops "Hex Girlfriend" in advance of Era Extraña.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: "Denise" turned out to be Jolene Blalock... who knew?

PAUL WESTERBERG talks to the Village Voice about his contributions to Glen Campbell's last album, the demos in his basement, scoring children's films and-drumroll please-whether he's ever going to put out another official Paul Westerberg album.

GLEN CAMPBELL talks to All Things Considered about his last LP (and you can hear one of the Westerberg songs at the link, too).

THE MERCURY PRIZE NOMINEES choose key tracks from their nominated albums and explain the inspiration behind them.

EMMY THE GREAT answers a mess of questions and reveals her love of Nilsson at The Independent. (Thx Chromewaves, which turned 9 last Friday; Congrats!)

PRINCE's perfume deal costs him almost four million bucks.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Help holds the top slot with 19 million for a third weekend -- an every bit as expected ugly Labor Day weekend.  The Debt opens in second with 12.6 million, a sorta happy ending for a film made in 2009, but held in limbo amid legal wrangling between Disney and Miramax.  Apollo 18 shows with 10.7 million, afer some gurus thought it might take the top spot from The Help (no tears; the budget is a mere 5 million).  Shark Night 3-D was a close fourth with 10.3 million, but it had a 30 million budget, and is likely to end in the red.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes rounds out the top 5 with 10.25 million (and could move into the fourth slot when the actual receipts are all tallied).  Below the fold, Columbiana held fairly well, albeit from a lackluster opening, while Our Idiot Brother has totaled 17.3 million against a 5 million budget (tho the marketing budget is reportedly faily hefty).

THE DEBT: Given this picture's long and winding road to your local cineplex (see above), one might not have been sure what to expect.  But John Madden (Shakespeare In Love) directs a fine cast -- or two, depending on how you look at it -- in this decade-spanning Cold War thriller.  If you have read a description of the film, the twists may not be all that shocking... but Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington & Co. kept it compelling.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Pregnant? Nope.

EDDIE MURPHY is in talks to host the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

LAUREN BUSH weds DAVID LAUREN. Sadly, she is keeping her name.

JANE FONDA: The upcoming bio from Patricia Bosworth is excerpted at the Daily Mail.

STEVE from BLUES CLUES: Debunking his death was one of the first entries here at Pate. Here he is on video, taking about fameishness and stuff.

THE MDA LABOR DAY TELETHON posted its best gain since the recession started, though the absence of longtime host Jerry Lewis was on the minds of many during the 46th annual fundraiser.

LIBYA: Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the Libyan rebel leader, Islamist, and longtime Gaddafi opponent tells The Daily Beast about meeting Osama bin Laden. Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for Gadhafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital.

IRAN: Almost 40 years in construction, the Bushehr nuclear power plant begins supplying electricity to the national grid.

EGYPT: The governor of North Sinai denied earlier press reports that the military was destroying tunnels used to smuggle weapons and supplies to Palestinians in Gaza.

PAKISTAN: The White House on Monday hailed Pakistan's capture of a "senior al Qaeda operative" as an example of counterterrorism cooperation, and a US official said the United States had provided "critical" tips and technical help.

AFGHANISTAN: The announcement by ISAF of the killing of al Qaeda "associate" Sabar Lal Melma in Nangarhar is interesting not only because of his status as a former detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility], but also because the accompanying claim that Coalition forces have killed 40 al Qaeda operatives this year conflicts with statements from US officials, including former ISAF commander and soon-to-be CIA chief General David Petraeus, that only 50 to 100 al Qaeda operatives remain in Afghanistan.

DUCKS IN THE WIND: All we are is ducks in the wind.

A CRAZED KANGAROO hopped straight through the front windshield of a Melbourne motorist, showering him with glass and leaving him with minor cuts and abrasions.

A PYTHON underwent emergency surgery after a man allegedly bit the creature twice.

MUTANT PIG appears in Guatemala after a UFO sighting, or something.

A ONE-TON CROCODILE was captured in the Philippines.