THE I HATE MONDAY MORNING SPECIAL: KANYE AND 50 DUKE IT OUT

Now that was a weekend… unless you were a Notre Dame, UCLA, Met, Jet or OJ fan, that is. And while we really, really like Emmy winner Sally Field, we’re still waiting to hear what she had to say. Is Ryan Seacrest really everywhere, or is it just a bad acid trip? And now that Labor Day is over, can Christmas be far behind? Not if the displays at Target are any indication as the holiday shopping season has apparently already begun. Those with bumper stickers on their car longing for 2008 will be rewarded for their impatience. And, oh yeah, Britney Spears’ album is still due out on Nov. 13, so mark your calendars.

Weekend sales figures show Kanye West’s IDJ album Graduation at the top of the class, with the numbers now topping 850k and approaching 900k, while 50 Cent’s Shady/Aftermath/ Interscope album Curtis isn’t doing too shabby itself, with a one-week total that will top 625k and could go as high as 650k. SBMG Nashville star Kenny Chesney is trailing the two, with a still-impressive number hovering around 425k. Disney’s High School Musical 2 will also be in six figures, with around 115-120k insuring a #4 finish.

Jodie Foster’s The Brave One topped the movie box office this weekend, with an estimated $14 million for Warner Bros., besting last weeks’ winner Lionsgate’s critically acclaimed western remake 3:10 to Yuma, which was #2 with approximately $9 million. The New Line comedy Mr. Woodcock, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Susan Sarandon, sputtered to a $9 million gross just behind it. The big-budget South Korean creature feature Dragon Wars placed fourth, with an estimated $5.4 million, while Superbad finished fifth with $5.2 million and a total of $111 million for Sony.

The L.A. Times’ Steve Appleford says KROQ’s Inland Invasion channeled the ‘90s, with the Foo Fighters as standouts, here.

The L.A. Times’ Ann Powers gets down in the mosh pit with 10,000 fans for the Rise Against show at the Long Beach Arena here.

Our old pal Holly Gleason catches up with the great Emmylou Harris for a weekend L.A. Times Calendar feature here.

50 Cent ain’t about to retire, even if he does finish second to Kanye West this week, as he explains to the L.A. Times’ Chris Lee here.

Tony Bennett’s three Emmys are celebrated by the L.A. Times’ Randy Lewis here.

The L.A. Times’ Richard Cromelin sings the praises of Joe Henry’s latest, Civilians, here.

The N.Y. Times’ Jon Pareles checks in on Interpol’s headlining gig at Madison Square Garden and finds them glum, but natty dressers here.

The N.Y. Times’ Kelefa Sanneh is enamored with the neo-soul of Musiq Soulchild here.

The N.Y. Times’ Jenny Lyn Bader ponders the connection between Britney Spears and the Platonic ideal of knowledge here.

The N.Y. Times spotlights a teenage girl from Long Island who was given an original song to record by Burt Bacharach here.

The N.Y. Times’ Ben Ratliff finds jazz great Sonny Rollins stripped for action for his Carnegie Hall appearance tomorrow night here.

The L.A. Times’ RJ Smith is high on Ben Ratliff’s new book, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound here.

50 Cent dishes the dis with the N.Y. Daily News’ Jim Farber here.

ON THIS DAY
In 1967: On The Ed Sullivan Show, The Doors performed “Light My Fire” and “People Are Strange.” Jim Morrison sang the line “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” even though Sullivan asked him not to. They were banned from the show thereafter.

In 1967: During The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Keith Moon rigged his drum set to explode at the end of their performance of “My Generation.” The resulting detonation cut Moon’s leg, singed Pete Townshend’s hair and caused some serious damage to Townshend’s hearing.

In 1980: In Los Angeles, the Divine Madness, a concert film of a 1979 Bette Midler show, had its premiere. Leonard Maltin’s take: “Some funny bits, but will someone tell her to quit desecrating rock & roll?”

In 1991: Guns N’ Roses did a midnight release of two double albums simultaneously. Slash said the logic behind Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II was that fans could buy one and tape the other off for their friends. Regardless, the band sold half-a-million copies of the two records in two hours.

In 1997: Hartford, Connecticut was the site of the first concert on Fleetwood Mac’s reunion tour.

In 2000: Paula Yates, the British TV host who was the final companion of the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence, was found dead in her London home by the couple's four-year-old daughter.

In 2002: The first American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, released her debut single, “A Moment Like This.”

In 2002: A poll to celebrate 40 years of Jamaican independence determined that Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” was Jamaica’s most popular song.

In 2002: James Brown’s daughters, Deanna and Yamma, sued “The Godfather of Soul” for $1 million in royalties and claimed they co-wrote songs like “Get Up Offa That Thing.”

In 2002: Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt had surgery on his left wrist after coming down with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

In 2003: U2's Bono met with President George W. Bush to discuss giving more money to AIDS initiatives. In a press conference after their talk, Bono said, "I'm not here peddling a cause. Seven thousand people dying a day is not a cause. It's an emergency."