Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Week Around The -Ists...

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Afternoon shows at the Bottom of the Hill, like Saturday's Earlimart Noise Pop show, are so excellent -- the buses are running, the sun is out, you don't have to worry the whole time that you'll become a poignant entry on the SFist Blotter ("Ladyfest becomes Slay-dee-fest as music lover is killed: Victim loved jangly guitar-driven pop") -- and, if you're fortunate enough to run into SFist Emily on the way in, you can grab a coffee at Farley's and hear about her interview with them! Well, we did almost get mowed down by some aggressive sparrows (it was like The Birds, only embarrassing), but it was a great afternoon. Earlimart is a Fresno band with five members, many of whom rotate through various instruments (it is darn cool to have two drum sets on stage, can we just say?), who crank it up and play dreamy wall-of-sound indie rock, in that My Bloody Valentine/ Creeper Lagoon/ Dealership kind of way. This is Earlimart's fourth or fifth Noise Pop outing, but, as lead singer Isaac Espinoza noted, with a tone of genuine amazement, "This is our first time headlining." The show was jam-packed full, with not only the usual coterie of Bay Area indie scenesters (ironic t-shirts, layering with hoodies), but Earlimart's other mass following of LA Silverlake scenesters too (exposed midriffs, jean jackets with shearling linings). People solemnly shaking their moneymakers, digital cameras artfully tilting above the crowd, and a whole mess of instruments, after the jump. Map of Earlimart, California off mapquest.com...