Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough will perform solo concerts in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Sept. 13) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sept. 15) to benefit the Caroline Dorough-Cochran Lupus Foundation. Howie D. formed the foundation after his sister died of the disease in 1998. The money raised will go to Lupus research and education and to assist people suffering from the disease who cannot afford treatment.

Bumbershoot, the Seattle arts and music festival, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this weekend (9/1-9/4) with Ben Harper, Big Star, Elliott Smith, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Savage Garden and Sugar Ray, among many others.

For this weekend's Chicago Jazz Festival, featuring Herbie Hancock and Dianne Reeves, people are encouraged to bring used musical instruments to be donated to school music programs.

The European Commission said that the result of the proposed acquisition of Time Warner by AOL would be that "effective competition would be significantly impeded in the common market," Reuters reported. The commission has not said whether it will pursue anti-trust actions against the proposed merger.

Gartner Group, a research firm, surveyed 50 colleges and universities and found that 17 of them have banned students from using the legally operating (for now) Napster MP3 file-trading site, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Bruce Hornsby [ tickets ]'s two-CD live album "Here Come the Noisemakers" is due on Oct. 24.

The October issue of Spin celebrates "The 100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock:" Jimmy Page did this, Pamela Des Barres did that, Kid Rock did the other. As with so many celebrations of sleaze, the editors pretend that the article is really a mandate for moral consternation, like with "Cops," when the announcer declares that the reason for the show is to demonstrate that crime doesn't pay, or the end of Jerry Springer, when Springer offers a life-lesson to be learned from the dating in-laws.

LiveDaily Briefly's favorite example of sleaze-ennobling: At the beginning of one of FOX's reality shows--"World's Largest Chest Wounds" or something--the announcer said, "Why are we showing this? Because knowledge is power."

From staff reports, compiled by James Woster.