And they did a fine job of it. I like Pearl Jam and love Sonic Youth. I have not been keeping up with PJ and have not seen SY live since a lame dollopoflosers appearance. Better than nothing, but still...it was great to see them tonight at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and stand on its comfortable concrete while listening to drooling PJ fans dis SY and Kim Gordon: "they suck, but they rock." That take some serious evolution. My friend Paula informed the guy he was a moron and used the word "asinine". Someone said "what's that mean?". Not good.

But Eddie and the cruisers do know how to rock like good 'ol boys, and they do it pretty fucking well. After seeing guitar deities like Daniel Ash, Thurston Moore, and Lee Renaldo in the last week or day it hard to stand up to comparison. The Pearl Jam lead guitarist was a bit Sabbath-like and not nearly as annoying as Joe Satriani. Thank God. Also major points for bringing out two members of the Avengers to play American Me which had the most politically overt message of the evening. And those over-30 chicks can really rock, no?

Like Bauhaus, I want to say that Sonic Youth does Sonic Youth better than anybody. So it seems that they are almost too perfectly doing what they do. One thing I like about these bands is that they just do what they want and don't give a shit what people think...always an admirable thing. Both bands also do not suck, and they rock.

the link, which is for the NIN main site, has a great shot of Peaches singing in the audience...her set was too short and in broad daylight but maybe I will see her again in a dark disco...hopefully. Obviously I am a huge Daniel Ash/Bauhaus/Love and Rockets (the band and the comic) fan and loved seeing him especially last night at the shoreline. David J is extra cool. Murphy has an amazing voice and I appreciate his theatrics. As he said "This is our last show with Trent. It's hard being mahvelous."

Fittingly, I went to Death Guild (SF dance club) for the first time last Monday, so it has been a Goth week, in many ways. Last week my friend K. and I saw Fiona Apple at the Mountain Winery which was amazing: she is the music/movie hookup that brought me out to NIN last year and this year as well.

In other news, I finished Within a Budding Grove, a huge accomplishment, made some progress on my novel, and put together a book of my photographs and other art, using flickr and Qoop, which turned out well. It's a prototype but looks almost good enough for a gallery: I just need to make a few changes before sending it out. Overall I am very happy with it. Now I need to finish putting my slides together.

I am thinking of going to burning man this year, have not even looked for a ticket really, but it could happen, depending on work, projects there.

For those of you who remember my friend Brian's fascination with the Polish singer Ewa Sonnet, here is an update: you gotta have Faith

A good antidote to X3 and other crap: watch a few episodes of the Aeon Flux animated series, not the shorts but the ones where she talks, then get the Charlize Theron film. Great stuff! Weird, sexy, thrills, good sci-fi.

Well I guess the highlight of this week was the Ministry show last night at the Filmore with Revco. Also on Thursday a tribute night for Ian Curtis at the Eagle Tavern: Leaders of Men and Ghost of Curtis played, two excellent Joy Division cover bands. Leaders has a frontman who looked and acted like Curtis but they did a great job of the earlier stuff and Ghost did a great job overall, playing many great songs their first set and then playing the entire album Closer on their second set.

The pit at Ministry was pretty intense, not bad but just a bit much for this old punker. Very intense show, great great great. Purefect. Kudos to Al Jourgensen for continuing to bring it home to the masses.

Saw the new "Xmen" movie tonight. As a huge X-Men fan, Jean Grey/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix fan, I can only hope that this film took place in an alternate universe I never have to visit again. Fortunately Ian McKellen was sexy and lent gravity an otherwise weightless film. Oh well. The first two are still great.