THE LABOR DAY WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE REPLACEMENTS!  Steve Foley, longtime Mpls. scenster who drummed for the band at the end of their run, died last weekend after accidentally overdosing on prescription medication. He was 49. Popdose remembers him with an essay on dying young and the final 'Mats gig at Chicago's Grant Park. Our Foley-era video includes live clips of "I Don't Know," "I Will Dare," "Achin' To Be" and "Color Me Impressed" in NYC; "Androgynous" and "Customer" from Rotterdam, Holland; and "Left of the Dial" and "Alex Chilton" in Hamburg, Germany. ALSO:  Since releasing 49:00, Paul Westerberg has released two more downloads through TuneCore.

...AND PUPPET SHOW: A collection of puppet-based music video, courtesy of Y!Music.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE songwriter Adam Schlesinger talks to Paste about writing Christmas songs for the Colbert report, adapting John Waters' Cry-Baby into a musical, writing music for the Jonas Brothers, producing Dashboard Confessional's upcoming album... and working on material for Ivy and FoW.

THE NINE-MINUTE ROAD TRIP: Five songs in nine minutes, carefully crafted to function as a microcosm of longer road mixes.

THE PIPETTES' new lineup has posted a vocal mix of "The Shoe That Fits" and encourages fans to remix it for a tour EP.

GORKI AGUILA, a Cuban punk rocker whose biting profanity-laced lyrics against the Castro government has previously gotten him in trouble is now in detention and expected to face trial today, according to human-rights groups in Havana.

BIRDMONSTER animates photographs in the new video for "The Iditarod" off their From The Mountain To The Sea album, out Tuesday.

BJORK is standing up for women making electronic music (including herself).

CALEXICO: John Covertino talks to Paste about the band's upcoming the album, ominous dreams, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and the great beyond.

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS frontman A.C. Newman talks to Straight about playing with Ray Davies and Gordon Gano.

INARA GEORGE & VAN DYKE PARKS talk to the Wall Street Journal about George's new album, An Invitation, complete with audio clips.

THE CUTOUT BIN: From the Beach Boys to the MC5, from The Doors to the Sid Presley Experience, from Wilson Pickett to Television, form Jim Reid to Jimmy Gilmer to the Hindu Love Gods, Shoes, Mojo Nixon and First Class -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Babylon A.D., which is currently scoring XX percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Disaster Movie and College, two comedies unscreened for critics; and Traitor, which is currently scoring 50 percent on the Tomatometer.  Expanding wide is the comedy Hamlet 2, which is scoring 60 percent.

HILARY DUFF's dad may be spending up to ten days in jail, after a fight over cash for Hilary's birthday party.

OJ SIMPSON attacked by his daughter? Oh, that would be too bad.

DAVID DUCHOVNY has entered a rehabilitation center for sex addiction. Dude is married to Téa Leoni, but The Strange is Out There.

LINDSAY LOHAN is lashing out at her ex-con preacher dad, Michael, who has been openly critical of her relationship with Samantha Ronson.

JESSICA SIMPSON tells People magazine that boyfriend Tony Romo is her "perfect guy" and the "love of her life." Which I'm sure Romo does not find to be at all over the top.

THE DECADE OF THE DUDE: How "The Big Lebowski" Became a Cult Sensation has Rolling Stone offering an essay, a look behind the movie's stoner soundtrack, a guide to Lebowski on the Web and Q&As with stars Steve Buscemi and John Goodman.

THE MUPPET SHOW may return after a 27 year hiatus, with an assist from Forgetting Sarah Marshall star and writer Jason Segel.

JACKO: An expert reconstruction of what the surgically altered, onetime King of Pop would really look like at 50.

PAUL McCARTNEY will play Israel, 43 years after a ministerial committee refused to pay for the Fab Four, concluding that "The Beatles have an insufficient artistic level and cannot add to the spiritual and cultural life of the youth in Israel."

OWEN WILSON moving to Hawaii? That sounds about right.

CORALINE: Variety has a piece (and two videos from IGN) on Henry Selick's stop-motion adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Nowhere near your local cinema, it seems.  Spike Jonze has ruun into a boatlaod of trouble on the project, though the L.A. Times is nice enough to throw us a clip of "test footage from an early 1983 Disney animation version of "Where the Wild Things Are," directed by none other than a pre-Pixar John Lasseter." BTW, I am available to reprise the role of Max, though it's been a while since grade school.

CULT of the iPHONE: Pictures of an Asian factory worker found on a new iPhone sold to a British customer have generated keen discussion on the Internet about her identity - and her fate. Dubbing the mystery worker "China's prettiest factory girl," China's Southern Metropolitan Daily on Tuesday quoted an unidentified Foxconn official as saying the woman was not fired. (via Lance.)

IRAN: Grand Ayatollah Bajat Sanjani accused Pres. Ahmadinejad of betraying the people and called on reformers to unite to defeat him in next year's elections.

IRAQ: Violence in Baghdad has been reduced by 89 percent, in comparison to the past two years. Moqtada al-Sadr has indefinitely extended a ceasefire being observed by members of his Mahdi Army militia. The Shiite holy city of Najaf is booming, due to improved security, free markets, and connectinions to the Shiite-led gov't. The US military will hand over  security duties in Anbar to the Iraqi government as early as Monday. The US military detained a senior Special Groups leader as he flew into Baghdad International Airport. An Iraqi official says that US forces have arrested Ali al-Lami, a top Shiite in charge of keeping senior supporters of Saddam Hussein out of the government.

(photo law_keven)

COWS stare unamazed as a scientific study using Google Earth reveals their sixth sense of magnetism.  ALSO: The phenomenon of the mini-cow (featured here previously) has gone global.

LUCY LOU, a border collie, is the only cnadidate for Mayor of the small northern Kentucky town of Rabbit Hash.

SNAKE HOARDING: A nearly fatal bite by a poisonous snake led to the arrest of a man Wednesday for keeping 51 deadly cobras and mambas in his Tokyo apartment without permission, police said. RELATED: Student zookeeper makes Fatal Error.

PUPPY MILL BUSTED: The owner of a West Virginia dog kennel has surrendered her approximately 1000 dogs to humane officials. Pics at the link.

SPAGHETTI CAT UPDATE: You've seen the video, now buy the apparel. (via Lance.)

HEY, IS THAT A FISH in your penis, or are you just... ewww.

INCONSOLABLE BABY ELEPHANT reunited with its mother, now that Mom has decided to stop kicking little Rose-Tu.  Video at the link.