OK. I was sick one night (Halloween, of all nights) and I decided to watch Headbanger's Ball on MTV just for the hell of it. They played the video for NIN's "Wish" (which I hadn't seen since _Broken_ was a new release) and the video for "Get Your Gunn". The first thing I thought was, of course, the Alice Cooper thing, but the music reminded me so much of Ministry's "So What" that I dismissed these guys as a bunch of freaks who wouldn't last beyond their tour with NIN because they were ripping off so many people that they couldn't possibly do something original.

Fast-forward to December. I had my suck-job Section 333 seats for NIN at Madison Square Garden (and a date who, despite her taste in music, didn't want to get into the pit, so I was stuck in the seats all night), and when we got there, Marilyn Manson were already on stage. I only heard two or three songs, but I remember hearing Get Your Gunn (and nothing else) and I loved it. Unfortunately, about 15 or 20 people in the whole arena (out of about 12,000 who bothered to show up) were getting into it, which disappointed me -- unless the opening act is doing an especially crappy job, I'm not gonna boo 'em. Anyway, when I left, I wasn't singing any NIN song -- I kept singing "get your gunn...get your gunn..." My date kept saying "You actually liked those guys? That singer looked too freaky..." So, I spent the next week looking for _Portrait..._ (this, BTW, was right around the time MM were on HBB -- I liked "Lunchbox" a lot when I saw that video...) and found it at Borders Books And Music -- the clerk looked at the CD and looked at me like I should've been locked up for my own safety... I got home, and listened to the whole thing from beginning to end. I was amazed -- they were a bit more original than I thought they'd be (although I thought they were riding Trent's coattails a bit too much for their own good...)

Well, that's my tale.

--Don -- / Don Becker at Adelphi University db4025@panther.adelphi.edu \ | "I've