Halloween “Thriller” 2003 with Mark Farina @ The Abbey (2528 5th Ave.)
Clique and Luis of the always sold out "Voyage" Boat Cruises and Livin' deliver Halloween "Thriller" at the historic Abbey. The Abbey, built in 1910, boasts 50 foot cathedral ceilings with magnificent stained glass domes and windows. The Abbey's gothic yet elegant atmosphere should be the perfect setting for the gathering of the undead freaks this Halloween. The main ballroom will feature the deep house king, Mark Farina while room 2 will be representing with electro/80s/hip-hop. So start practicing your wolf howl and twitchy moves and don't forget your parachute pants and red leather jacket!

tickets $20 presale, 30-40 thereafter/door

Deftones @ Soma
The Deftones came together in 1988, at a time when Sacramento's music scene was in dire need of some rejuvenation. They then brought their heavy, crunching metal sound to LA and San Francisco, and after landing a deal with Maverick and releasing two acclaimed, aggressive metal records (Adrenaline and Around the Fur), they began touring with the likes of Ozzy, Korn, White Zombie and L7 on both Warped Tour and Ozzfest. On their latest self-titled release, the Deftones start to explore sounds beyond their trademark metal crunch, bringing new-wave and modern rock influences into their sound. The first single off the new record, Minerva, is a dazzling trip through spacey, crunchy guitar work and Chino Moreno’s soaring vocals, sounding more like Hum than Korn. Poison the Well and Denali open.

tickets $25

Liz Phair Saturday @ 4th & B
It’s kind of hard to follow up the success of an album like Exile in Guyville – an indy rock masterpiece that garnered Liz Phair the admiration of Stephen Malkmus-wannabes everywhere and secured her place as the token indy vixen of the mid-nineties. After releasing the relatively forgettable Whip Smart and whitechocolatespaceegg, a long hiatus ensued in which Miss Phair took some time out to raise her son. Breaking back into the nit-picky, chin-scratching indy rock world proved to be a daunting task. So instead of building from the themes of Exile and producing another indy masterpiece, Phair unapologetically takes the easy road and puts out a self-titled, watered-down, cookie cutter pop record that sells her beauty instead of her message. We always thought Liz Phair was hot anyways, but what made her so alluring was the fact that she could talk about sex in her songs, without trying to sell her music as a result of it. Last time in SD she opened for the Flaming Lips – this time she’ll get a full set to let loose and show us she’s still got the goods live to earn our respect. Wheat and Katy Rose open.

tickets $20

LTJ Bukem & Makoto @ Canes
Arguably the prime innovator in the development of jungle from its early status as an offshoot of hardcore techno to the respected, stylistic genre it became by the end of the 1990s, L.T.J Bukem gained fame as a master in all facets of the drum'n'bass movement: as a top-flight breakbeat DJ, owner and label-head of the Good Looking/Looking Good labels and, of course, for his recordings -- inspired by the lush strings and natural ambience of '70s jazz-fusion masters like Lonnie Liston Smith and Chick Corea as well as soulful Chicago house and moody Detroit techno. Allied with the early-'90s rave and hardcore scene, Bukem began working on production near the end of the 1980s; though his light, airy sound made little sense to his contemporaries, Bukem's style was emulated much more as the jungle scene gained momentum during the mid-'90s. Expect lots of heavy beats by the beach.

tickets $20

The Cramps @ 4th & B
The legendary Cramps came into being at the end of the '70s, and dove headfirst into America's fledgling punk scene, which embraced their sexed-up black leather rockabilly grind. “They defined an eerie world beyond punk, beyond surf guitar, beyond garage, beyond Goth, beyond raunchy '60s stripper music, and beyond rockabilly that no other band has been able to enter, and the Cramps have never tried to leave.” Their live shows are renowned for being chalk full of sex and raucous guitars, as Poison Ivy Rorscach plays his ax and his libido with equal fervor and Lux Interior struts in patent leather pants and spike heels, slithering around like a bitch in heat. They aren't the beautiful young things they once were, but their live sets are still a goth-meets-porno-meets-punk-meets-B-horror movie collage that is one of a kind.

tickets $20

Paul Van Dyk w/ DJ Youself @ OnBroadway
PvD is circling the country in support of his new album Reflections, a sonic journey through the mind of this trance master. Many of the tracks off his new album (such as “Like a Friend”) were inspired by his recent trip to India, where the poverty and inhumane living conditions of the country both disturbed and moved him. Van Dyk has been nothing short of an icon in the electronic dance community, still packing dance floors on every continent. VanDyk brings DJ Youself to warm things up – Youself is an Ibiza legend and has been a resident at the legendary Space for countless summers. Expect a sonic journey that only a legendary PvD set can provide.

tickets $30

Beenie Man @ Belly Up
The reggae scene in San Diego has been piping hot this summer. There have been memorable shows already this year from global heavyweights like Yellowman, John Brown’s Body, Steel Pulse, the Wailers, the Marley Brothers, Burning Spear, Mikey Dred, Sizzla, and Israel Vibration. The Belly Up has been the venue for the majority of these slamming shows, and bringing Beenie Man to SD will keep all the island faithful very irie, no doubt. Hailing from the Waterhouse ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, Moses Davis aka Beenie Man has been a reggae prodigy since his youth, and has been at the forefront of the dancehall scene throughout most of the 90s. Beenie began DJing at age 5 and released his first record (“The Invincible Beenie Man - Ten Year Old Boy Wonder”) at age 10! He has headlined every major reggae festival on the planet, including Reggae Sunsplash and Reggae Sunfest – his sound flows from dancehall, to classic reggae, to Zulu harmonies with a unique, fluid delivery that is revered throughout the reggae community. This is a show not to miss.

tickets $30

Echo & the Bunnymen @ 4th & B
Echo and the Bunnymen combine the rawness and venom of New York punk with the moody textures of groups like the Doors and the Velvet Underground. A major force in English post-punk, the band remains an enduring presence on the music scene thanks to Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant's exceptional songwriting skills and irresistible hooks. This can’t-miss event is part of their 25th Anniversary tour.

tickets $30

Scratch 2003 Tour @ Canes
The world’s best turntablists, all assembled under one roof, in one night – the 1s and 2s are going to suffer! The Scratch 2003 tour features Mixmaster Mike of the Beastie Boys, the Xecutioners, Z-Trip, and Jazzy Jay. If you’ve seen any one of these guys perform, you know you’re in for an aural overload! This crew dismisses any notion that a DJ simply plays records – they turn the decks into living, breathing instruments that spit fire and mix sounds and samples that will make your head spin. This is the night for trainspotting – not to procure white labels, but to watch the ridiculous skills of these mixmasters.

tickets $22/25

The Ataris @Jenny Craig Pavilion
The Ataris are a perfect example of the DIY punk ideology. First, lead singer Kris Roe, living in a boring Midwestern town, goes to a Vandals show and gives the band a tape. A few weeks later, he gets a call from Vandals bassist - and owner of Kung Fu Records - Joe Escalante - asking him to record for his label. So Roe moves to California and puts a band together with drummer Derrick Plourde (formerly of Lagwagon). Then he makes a record called Anywhere But Here, and gets invited to tour with some of his favorite bands. Then he puts together a solid new line-up, becomes Fat Mike from NOFX's favorite new band and then releases an EP Look Forward to Failure, which is produced by members of the Descendents. And the rest, they say, is punk rock history! Vendetta Red opens.

Switchfoot @ Soma
Switchfoot’s roots are firmly planted in San Diego, with a passion for surfing, playing music, and spirituality. Their band name comes from the surfing term for when a surfer switches foot positions on the board, symbolic of gaining a new perspective. Their music is filled with soaring vocals courtesy of Jon Foreman, and crunchy pop guitar hooks and melodies - the kind of sound that is radio-friendly without diluting their message. Sleeping at Last and Bleu Open.

tickets $15

Rusted Root @ 4th & B
Rusted Root broke onto the scene with the trite single “Send Me On My Way,” which was lapped up by the neo-hippie college crowd who were too young to have followed the Dead, and weren’t into Phish cause they weren’t on the radio. While Dave Matthews proceeded to take most of the cookie-cutter Birkenstock-wearing undergrad populous under his wing, Rusted Root has maintained a rabid fan base over the years due to their amazing, jam-filled, explorative live sets, and incredible musical ability. Their music is filled with incredible textures and dense layers of instruments ranging from mandolin to flutes, hand drums to violins. Their live shows turn their arrangements into cosmic, meandering jam sessions where the bandmembers incredibly trade instruments from song to song and take their audience on a sonic journey that reminds you as much of The Band as it does the Dead. This is live music at its finest.

tickets $20

North Mississippi All-Stars @ Belly Up
This band has about as much credibility in the Southern blues community as any band could ask for – bandmembers include Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of legendary Memphis producers Jim Dickinson, and Duwayne Burnside, son of legendary bluesman R.L. Burnside. Together, they have released some of the most insistent, dense Southern blues rock in recent memory. Their latest release, Polaris, “ is a culmination of all their efforts, archival and innovative, tempered by history and sparked by a sense of risk and experimentation heart."

tickets $15

Elephant @ LA locations
Let's credit Gus Van Sant for squandering the capital of his egregious Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester on sincere misfires like a superfluous shot-by-shot Psycho remake and the abstract Blair Witch gloss Gerry. Uneven though he may be, Van Sant rivals Steven Soderbergh as the mad scientist of commercial filmmakers—and the wildly polarizing Elephant is his most successful experiment to date.

Surprise winner at last May's Cannes Film Festival, the HBO-produced Elephant is a poetic disaster film that audaciously addresses the subject of American high school shootings. It was inspired by the 1999 Columbine massacre but incorporates details from other incidents, treating the material with a combination of bold aestheticism and documentary whimsy. Expertly shot by Harris Savides in the boxy 1.33:1 standard TV aspect ratio, the spectacle is designed for maximum glide—a film of long traveling shots over complex sound bridges. Less staged than unfurled, the narrative is essentially anecdotal. Characters are introduced as they hobnob in their school's cafeteria or pass through its sterile corridors.

Indeed, Van Sant spends so much time tracking down the fluorescent halls that Watt [sic] High comes to suggest Stanley Kubrick's haunted Overlook Hotel—which in a sense it is, albeit populated by the sauntering or stumbling ghosts of cool kids and bulimic Valley girls, jocks and nerds, mortified losers and artists manqué. All are played by teenage non-actors and beatified by Van Sant's rapt attention. Their being—and impending nothingness—is the movie's real subject. (As in Ben Coccio's low-budget indie Zero Day, a more psychodramatic meditation on Columbine, the principals go by their own names.)

The tension builds. Paths cross in a chance geography that, depending upon your religious perspective, is a matter of divinity or Brownian motion. As scenes replay from slightly different perspectives, Watt's locker room and library take on a cubistic multiplicity. An undercranked game of touch football, scored to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (one of the movie's recurring themes), is transversed by an inexplicably smiling beanpole of a girl who passes through the foreground in ecstatic slow motion. Truly, Elephant (as in "in the room") is a most unconventional docudrama. The movie's producers may not have been overjoyed by the near avant-garde narrative structure, but as a Time Warner subsidiary, HBO should be grateful Van Sant overlooks the Matrix-inspired black trench coats favored by the Columbine killers.

The HBO moment comes in a scene that firmly disapproves of adolescent meanness. Otherwise, flagrantly artistic and transfixed by its own enigma, Elephant is strongest on evoking a succession of specific, "empty" moments and weakest on motivation. There's no crash of heavy metal thunder; the doomed students' daily routine is punctuated with cutaways to heavenly cloud formations and underscored by only the occasional ominous rumble. Meanwhile, the two alienated shooters spend their homework time down in the basement surfing the Net for guns or watching a TV documentary about Nazi Germany. Van Sant's worst idea is the chastely prurient Larry Clark touch of having them take a farewell shower together.

Elephant is naturally divisive and disturbing, but it's also deeply tactful—perhaps too much so. The shooters make a pretty pair of Lucifers, but evil is curiously absent. It's as if the filmmaker were trying to imagine what Columbine might have felt like for one of the melancholy guardian angels in Wings of Desire. After bobbing and weaving for an hour, Van Sant surrenders to necessity and permits the massacre to proceed. Much of the carnage occurs offscreen, but the sudden chaos of shouted warnings, mad dashes, and point-blank gunfire is no less terrible for that.

Given his plaintive desire to keep things moving forever, even while arresting that flow, Van Sant could have appropriated the title of another high school movie: Time Stands Still. Elephant is a temporal whirlpool in which the artist skims the surface of a particular autumn morning as long as possible before everything is capsized and dragged into the fathomless depths.

Wonderland @ Landmark Theaters (drama)
Uber-schlong John Holmes's waning anti-celebrity is all that elevates James Cox's flashy survey of the 1981 Laurel Canyon murders above a run-of-the-mill Los Angeles debacle of coke-zonked robbery and bloodshed. Val Kilmer is far too robust and personality-plus to be convincing as Holmes, but the supporting cast is enthusiastically sleazy.

Starring Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Christina Applegate, Tim Blake Nelson Director James Cox

The Returner @ Madstone Theater (action)
Takashi Yamazaki’s freshman effort, Juvenile, was a special effects laden summer hit that innocently weaved popular science fiction with children’s adventure into a very commercial package. Juvenile contained more than three hundred CG enhanced visuals, the most in Japanese film history at the time of its release. Though, Yamazaki’s latest venture, Returner, not only boast more special and CG effects, but was even a larger success during its run due to the fierce advertising hype and newly revamped action super star, Takeshi Kaneshiro.

Coincidentally, Returner implements the same ideas and themes from Juvenile (invading aliens, time travel, saving the planet, friendship and trust), except in a more mature, graphic manner, yet still keeping the light touches of mainstream friendly filmmaking. This time around, energetic gunplay and stylized posing charge the action sequences, giving bursts of charismatic octane to Kaneshiro as he dazzles in acrobatic, trench coat wearing form. After all, he is the driving force of this film, a movie that, while superficial on the surface, is definitely a fun and visually pleasing genre voyage.

Livin’ w/ Miles Maeda @ Shaker Room - Thursdays (House)
Rumor has it that Miles is taking a breather for a couple weeks to do a mini-tour of the Midwest – which makes sense, considering the man is a living legend in Chicago and beyond. He studied electronic music composition in Indiana, and has spun at everywhere that’s anywhere in Chicago – Smart Bar, Crobar, Karma, Kaboom, Shelter – the clubs that are things of legend in the birthplace of house. Never mind his presence in the legendary loft party and rave scene of early 90s Chicago – Miles, Farina, DC, Mystic Bill, spinning all night and morning in dark lofts and abandoned warehouses – it was a time when the scene was pure and dirty, idealistic and limitless, raw and beautiful, and about absolutely nothing but the music - it was a part of house history that many know about, but few experienced. The true definition of underground. As was once put on the San Diego Ravers board – “If you don’t know Miles, you don’t know Chicago, period.” We’ll miss Miles for these couple weeks, but hopefully he’ll come home with a crate of fresh wax and inspiration from the city that knows house like no other. In the interim, jocks like Mark E. Quark, Markalan, and Afshar will hold down the house, keeping the sexy beats on point and continuing to bridge that gap between SD and Chicago – that bridge gets shorter and shorter every day, it seems.

Dragon Lounge @ Brick by Brick – First Friday of Every Month – (Drum & Bass / Breaks)
Bringing you the superior sounds of breaks and drum & bass since 1998 on the first Friday of every month w/ resident B-side - Friday November 7th is the URB Magazine Release party, featuring ELITE FORCE (W9Y, Kingsize UK)- one of the UK's finest dj/producer's out to San Diego for the first time. His tunes and remixes are being rocked by everyone from John Digweed to Adam Freeland to DJ Dan. This month also brings RAIDEN & RAS (Renegade Hardware,Futurisitcfunk, Off Key Recordings UK/SD) - Raiden is making his first appearence at DL to help Ras celebrate his birthday.

Mental @ Kadan – select Friday (Techno)
This all-techno monthly has set the stage for the development of the techno scene in SoCal. Following the lead of LA techno promoters like Droid Behavior and Cued-Up, the live duo nominal has given a home to minimal, experimental, and bangin' techno acts like Acid Circus, Gaijin, and this month's featured DJ, TJ's own Murcof. The night starts off with DJ Astarte, followed by an always jaw-dropping live PA from nominal themselves - to describe their sound, nominal cites influences such as Hardfloor, Stewart Walker, Plastikman, and Chris Leibing - using labtops, Rolands and synths with synchronized visuals from Delirium, a nominal live PA is techno for the eyes and ears - one of a kind. If you've never seen a live PA before, come check out nominal, up close and personal. Finally, TJ's finest techno courtesy of Murcof - "Originally a part of Tijuana's noteworthy Nortec Collective, Fernando Corona has splintered off recently to record his own music under the murcof moniker... taking a page out of the minimal electronic music book penned by labels like ~scape, chain reaction and context free media, Corona has pieced together a fantastic collage of micro-house with classical overtones that are both harmonious and otherworldly..."

Next month's mental will feature the techno version of The Wall over the Wizard of Oz - the silent science fiction film Metropolis, with a corresponding musical score interpreted and recorded by the techno "Wizard" Jeff Mills ~ talk about mental…..

Downtown Top Rankin’ w/ Tribe of Kings @ Shaker Room – Sundays – (Reggae)
The Tribe of Kings has to be one of the hardest working crews in all of San Diego. After setting up shop on the beach off Riviera St. on Mission Bay for 4th of July and spinning reggae, roots, and dancehall all day to a packed beach, the buzz was white hot for this crew of DJs. They used the positive vibes and momentum of their 4th of July party to bring the island flava downtown to Shaker Room every Sunday. Word is, the crowd is well mixed, the party is crackin’ and the dancefloor hits all night. Jay Dred runs the show on Sundays, so the sounds can go anywhere from dub to neo-soul and old-skool hip-hop, but the focus is on reggae in it’s various forms – roots, dancehall, dub, new riddim and beyond - the island vibe is dripping wet on Sundays!

The Global Sound Series @ Onyx Room – (Jazz/Lounge)
This tour-based monthly event features new styles in lounge, down beat, dub, bossa nova, and nu jazz by importing some of the worlds most innovative and acclaimed music producers to the plush confines of the Onyx Room. Wednesday, November 5th features the Kyoto Jazz Massive - Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino began their DJ career the late 80's in Kyoto, Japan. Like so many other Jazz DJs, the Rare Groove movement in London had a great impact on them. The sound of Kyoto Jazz Massive is often associated with Jazz Fusion. Many of their tracks with Bossa and Brazilian flavour are undoubtedly related to Yoshi's taste of music. The duo achieves to deliver the spirit of jazz from Japan travelling across the world. Witnessing jazz fused with soul, funk and other ethnic rhythm during the 70's, Kyoto Jazz Massive tries to cross over jazz with techno, house and broken beats - using its freedom to fuse, collaborate and experiment in order to evolve and create new sounds.

Nuestra Cosa @ Ventanas – (Latin)
Merge Events and Latin Flavor bring you Nuestra Cosa – “Our Thing” - a night of classic salsa & other hard latin rhythms - with resident DJs SK, Sesqui, and featuring a live performance by Pa'lante. Also featuring video clips from the SD Latino Film Fest 2004. Next night is Wednesday night, November 26th , in the Gaslamp.

San Diego Museum of Art
Partners of the Soul: African Art of the Baule
45 objects from the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History and private collectors. The Show explores complex ways in which art functioned in Baule culture and society (Ivory Coast of West Africa) through a display of spirit spouse figures, portrait masks, miniature amulet figures, mouse oracles, wooden strikers. Through Sunday, January 4, 2004.

Tradition and Innovation in European Modernist Drawings and Watercolors
35 works rarely on view due to their fragility. Artists include Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, Paul Signac, Marc Chagall. See this show of works from the museum's collection through Sunday, December 14.

Paintings, sculptures, prints, videos, and photographs inspired by elements in nature are gathered in Of Earth and Sky: Elements in Abstraction, closing Sunday, December 14.

The Later Mughals: Theaters of Power presents more than 20 seldom-seen images telling the story of the waning of India's greatest dynasty. Through Sunday, January 25, 2004.

For further information, call 619-232-7931

Centro Cultural de la Raza
Americanos: Latino Life in the United States
The exhibit includes 114 photographs by 30 photojournalists exploring "the breadth and variety of American Latino experience." 619-235-6135.

Runs through Sunday, November 23, at 2004 Park Boulevard

Museum of Photographic Arts
The Discerning Eye: Southern California Collects
Celebrates 20 photography collectors to commemorate the museum's 20th anniversary; show closes Saturday, January 3, 2004.

Also on view, "Collector's Group Acquisitions," concluding Sunday, December 14.

Find the museum in the Casa de Balboa building, at 1649 El Prado; 619-238-7559.

Mingei International Museum of Folk Art
Origami Masterworks
Innovative Forms of the Art of Paper Folding," on view through Sunday, February 8, 2004, includes more than 150 pieces by 42 artists from across the globe. Most of the objects were created by folding single sheets of paper to make geometrical forms, flowers, trees, people, masks, and a menagerie of animals.

Mingei of Japan -- The Legacy of Its Founders -- Soetsu Yanagi, Shoji Hamada, and Kanjiro Kawai
A an exhibition of objects from the museum's collection by known and unknown craftsmen from throughout Japan continues until January 25, 2004. Included: tansu (Japanese chests), pottery, calligraphy, woodblock prints, stencil work, kimono and other textiles, baskets, toys.

The Mingei is located on the square with the San Diego Museum of Art and the Timken Museum of Art. 619-239-0003. (Balboa Park)

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Alex Webb: Crossings -- Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border
Photographer Alex Webb has spent more than 25 years covering the Mexican border. includes 40 photographs documenting Webb's coverage of border life since the 1970s. Closes Sunday, December 7.

Cerca Series
Pasha Rafat explores the natural and artificial properties of light in the photography and sculpture he presents for his "Cerca Series" exhibit, opening Saturday, October 18, and continuing through Tuesday, November 11. The exhibition is built around the installation of RGB, three monumental photographs taken at different times of day in the same bar in Las Vegas.

Find the museum at 1001 Kettner Boulevard (at Broadway), directly across from the Santa Fe Railroad Depot, adjacent to the America Plaza trolley transfer station. 619-234-1001. (Downtown)

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla
Manny Farber: About Face
Celebrates the life and work of one of San Diego's most important visual artists, with work from the early 1960s to present. Farber has contributed to American cultural discourse for more than 50 years as both film and art critic and painter. Closes Sunday, January 4, 2004.

Find the museum at 700 Prospect Street. 858-454-3541. (La Jolla)

The Orionid Meteor Shower
One of the year's five best annual showers, peaks on the morning of Tuesday, October 21. The moon, in waning crescent phase, will only marginally interfere with the Orionid display this year. For best results, look during the hour or two before dawn, roughly 4 to 6 a.m. Under ideal conditions (dark skies, unobstructed horizon), you may spot up to 30 meteors per hour. The Orionids "radiate" from the constellation of Orion, and many leave long-lasting trains, or glowing trails. Comet Halley is believed responsible for this shower. Every year at this time, the Earth plows through a stream of icy particles presumably shed by that comet in the past.