With just a short time frame to impress a packed house, (filled with Vanessa Carlton fans) Graham Colton had no easy feat. There weren't bars or booze (or anything else) to distract the audience from listening to the opening act. Hell, everyone was seated and listening attentively. My friend leaned over to me and asked if we were at a school assembly because it was so quiet. (Guaranteed there would have been more talking at......

Doh! A man trying to rob a local Oakland liquor store accidentally shot himself in the leg during the robbery, and died later from his injuries. The robber had placed the gun on the counter so he could take the money, but when putting the gun back into his waistband, accidentally fired. The whole sad scene was caught on a security camera, where we're sure it'll end up on America's Most Unfortunate Home Videos soon.......

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)......

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest Bathroom Videos" and PBS trains cams on cows at, uhg, Mootube. Also,......