This week I finally saw His Girl Friday for the first time, and suddenly it was clear where whole chunks of The Hudsucker Proxy came from. I understand the allure of Cary Grant's Walter Burns the same way that Aimee understands the lure of the newspaper business. I fully admit my weakness for charming assholes.

Late Friday night I found my way to a small room down a flight of stairs in the Tenderloin for Emerge N'See, a toy-themed fashion happening put on by Love's Revenge. Clips from The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, and The Black Stallion were projected onto a sheet while models struck poses on a platform nearby and a DJ spun house. At one point the visuals shifted to footage of London and a Love's Revenge fashion show at the Notting Hill Arts Club, which gave me a nice shock of recognition. It seems that I just missed them by a fortnight. There were many desirable objects for sale, but I wisely kept my checkbook stashed in my purse. The best thing I saw was a slightly tattered and bohemian gown fit for a modern Madame de Pompadour.

Saturday night in between Eichler and Abattoir I drove to the Oakland Arena to see Peter Gabriel on his first tour in a decade. There were a few moments of stadium rock cheese as the stage and set pieces threatened to overwhelm Gabriel and his band entirely, but at the end of it all there was just some really amazing music. The show opened and closed with Gabriel standing alone at his synthesizer/computer setup, thoughtfully bookending the night between "Here Comes the Flood" and "Father, Son." I can die happy now that I've heard "Red Rain" and "Solsbury Hill" performed live, and "In Your Eyes" turned into a blissful jam session with Tanzanian singers Hukwe and Charles Zawose helping out. The Blind Boys of Alabama added spine-tingling harmonies to "Sky Blue" not long after rocking the house as one of the opening acts. "Digging in the Dirt" brought back memories of high school, and even Passion made an appearance as interstitial music. I sat transfixed in terror as Gabriel ran around the edge of the circular stage in a giant hamster ball during "Growing Up," convinced he was either going to go flying into the audience or crashing over the drum set. Otherwise I envied the stage hands (dressed head-to-toe in bright orange martial arts uniforms) who got to move stuff around in between songs and make fun things happen. My only disappointment was the wishy-washy reference Gabriel made to the possible war in Iraq. He could have made a simple statement or two about peace, but instead he joked about war being like a football match.

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

Love's Revenge
Peter Gabriel