FALL HAS OFFICIALLY hit – I feel like I'm caught in some nightmarish time-space gnarl, racing to midterms for classes I forgot to attend. I got up way too early, at a gray, bleak 6:15 a.m., to battle traffic to Stanford University and watch Cameron Diaz guest on the mtvU show Stand In. The spunky Diaz – whose most memorable Maxim-esque movie moment was probably the one involving Ben Stiller's otherwise unimaginable DNA as extrastrength hair gel – played a guest professor, of all things, at a civil engineering class alongside consulting prof William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point). Sustainable design was the class subject, though the down-to-earth, smiley Diaz – collegiate and low-on-the-bling in jeans and studded Marc Jacobs flats – humorously 'fessing up to having ADD, was more of a good-time cheerleader than an educator. At least it sent a friendly little wake-up call to a few drowsy students: "I don't remember sleeping last night, but I'm glad I showed up," Stanford sophomore Troy Ramos raved. (You can catch all the witty repartee on college campuses on mtvU Nov. 2 and online at mtvU Über [www.mtvu.com] Nov. 1.)

My trip down to the Farm, however, got me into the old school spirit, which segued perfectly with my recent Four Seasons sit-down with Jason Schwartzman, star of the best love-/hate-prep-school film ever, Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998), which, by the way, stands up – against the Man! (or rather the Dean) – to repeated viewings.

Schwartzman, a.k.a. MaxFischer (at this point, isn't that name really one word?), was in town to promote his new movie, Shopgirl, in which Claire Danes is good in an Eva Marie Saint kind of way. Steven Martin, adapting his own slim novel for film, lets his contempt as well as empathy show for Schwartzman's character, the callow, unformed indie rock dude Jeremy, who sorta courts Danes's Mirabelle. But Schwartzman – weirdly adorable with his huge puppy dog eyes, floppy bangs, and big sack o' tics 'n' quirks – gives life to the absurd "amp stencilist" who goes on the road with a band (featuring SF longtimer Mark Kozelek) and evolves into a man worthy of Mirabelle and a Helmut Lang suit. I tell him he brought the texture of reality to the part.

"Oooh, I think that's so funny because an amp stencilist isn't a real thing," he says. "But it was fun to play something that doesn't exist real-ly."

Schwartzman still looks back fondly on his MaxFischer role, the first in his 17-year life as the son of Talia Shire, nephew to Francis Ford Coppola, and cousin to Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola – he had previously only seen himself as a drummer. He swears. "It changed my life forever," the now-25-year-old Schwartzman says. Acting "never seemed possible. It just seemed like it wasn't as real as going downstairs and playing my drums. It didn't seem tangible. You got a head shot and someone choosing you and millions of people and eeww."

Nonetheless Schwartzman left Phantom Planet last year after playing tiny joints and arenas (with Incubus) to pursue roles in films like I Heart Huckabees and Shopgirl, which he self-effacingly says he scored because "somehow I squeezed my way in there with enough lying and fake promises and banking a future."

He was able to tap into the awkwardness of Jeremy, one leg of a romantic triangle revolving around Danes's and Martin's characters, because, he claims, "my whole life is an awkward period, the last 25 years has been an awkward period. Jeremy is one of those kinds of people you love for their honesty, but you're also afraid every time they open their mouth."

In the end, he offers, "I'm drawn to characters that are passionate about something so much that it almost hurts them, like Max Fischer – he wants something so bad that it's funny." Which somewhat explains his next role, as Louis XVI in his cuz Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.

That's crazy, I blurt out.

"I know!" Schwartzman says, his big eyes getting positively grandiose. "No one realizes it's crazy more than I, by the way. I think that's the point of casting it, to show the youth and similarity of Marie Antoinette and Louis – 20-year-old kids with power and how scary that is." Working with his cousin also brought another dimension to the work. "Most directors, they reference things like, 'You know how, in life, this happens ...,' " he says. "Sofia is like, 'You know when you were 10 ...' We have a whole 'nother tank of gas to go on."

The marrying kind You'd think it was June with all the nuptials round town – Comets on Fire's Ethan Miller recently got hitched, as did Parchman Farm's Allyson "the Jew-ge" Baker (who happened to hook up with Aesop Rock, a new Bay denizen). All the official hookups don't seem to have stopped the rock (let's not even go into the rumored settling down of Einstürzende Neubauten/ex-Bad Seed guitarist Blixa Bargeld in San Mateo with his girlfriend), but it's definitely putting an end to touring for American Analog Set, which has already weathered the dispersal of its members to points east (NYC, where vocalist-guitarist Andrew Kenny is pursuing a PhD in biochemistry at Columbia), midwest (Chicago, where fan-turned-member Craig McCaffrey lives), and down south (Austin, where the rest dwell).

When guitarist-vibraphonist Sean Ripple asked Kenny if he should marry his girlfriend, the latter marvels, "I was like, 'How depressing is that if he can't get married without asking me?' " They all agreed that in the interest of various engagements, projects, and work commitments (Kenny is also getting married in June), it was time to stop touring after the current US outing. Kenny and drummer Mark Smith plan to record with a possibly different configuration. "It occurred to us all at the same time, 'Gosh, have we really been doing this for 10 years? Why not stop killing ourselves touring while we're still good friends?' " Kenny, 34, tells me.

The move seems similar to those he made with Smith in 1995 and '98, when they decided to change AAS's sound and members. "Now it's like asking people, 'What are you going to do in February? Let's hang out,' " says Kenny, who has collaborated with Ben Gibbard in the past. "I'm looking forward to reinventing the band and making something we haven't done yet. If I don't follow through, I'll feel like a real shithead."

'Cast away Come November, iMusicast is getting the ol' heave-ho from 5429 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland, says CEO Bryan Matheson. The all-ages venue that made East Bay bands like the Matches' reps is looking for a new home and raising money with benefits to finance the move, which is due to landlord issues. "We've earned a rep of being a very cool place for people to come and see music, and parents recognized it as being a safe place, and they're very supportive and down with what we do. We didn't have this when we were young," says Matheson, the 48-year-old owner of nearby studio Skyline. He says iMusicast has been Webcasting every band that played there for the past six years and has been supporting the punk-pop-ska community that organically sprang up. He'll have to get busy finding a new place to land when he gets back from Carnegie Hall, where he'll perform Meredith Monk's opera Atlas as a Pacific Mozart Ensemble vocalist, alongside Björk and Bang on a Can All-Stars, Nov. 6. Guess he'll have to pass the hat and keep banging that can. American Analog Set play Sat/29, 10 p.m., and Sun/30, 9 p.m., Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. $12. (415) 474-0365. Tip it over – e-mail kimberly@sfbg.com. Look and hear

Against Me! The feisty Floridians continue to agitate honestly and, they say, "never wear shorts onstage," all while playing songs off the new Searching for a Former Clarity (Fat Wreck Chords). Wed/26-Thurs/27, Slim's, 333 11th St., SF. Call for time and price. (415) 522-0333.

Negativland The grand old men of culture-jamming re-create the golden daze of radio and screw with your sensibilities. Wed/26-Thurs/27, 8 p.m., Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell, SF. $20. (415) 885-0750.

Jack Endino The mythic grunge producer and artist shows off Permanent Fatal Error (Wondertaker). Thurs/27, Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. Call for time and price. (415) 923-0923.

Broadcast The UK duo were dreamy and hallucinatory, playing in front of flickering projections when they last performed in SF, at Bimbo's. Fri/28, 9 p.m. Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell, SF. $15. (415) 885-0750.

Gris Gris Monsters of O-town swamp boogie, done right – the new CD is said to be amazing. Warlocks also play. Fri/28, Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. Call for time and price. www.ticketweb.com.

Ris Paul Ric Christopher Paul Richards, ex of Q and Not U, brings out the gorgeous, quiet Purple Blaze (Academy Fight Song). Fri/28, 6 p.m., Mama Buzz Café, 2318 Telegraph, Oakl. Call for price. (510) 465-4073.

Foo Fighters and Weezer Attack of the '90s indie rockers! Fri/28, 7 p.m., Oakland Arena, Oakl. $25.50-$39.50. www.ticketmaster.com.

Keren Ann Gallic NY chanteuse comes cooing for the SF Jazz Festival. Sat/29, 2 p.m., Florence Gould Theatre, SF. $25. www.sfjazz.org, www.tickets.com.

Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell Their Begonias (Yep Roc) threatens to become one of the lost country classics of '05. Sun/30, Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. Call for time and price. www.ticketweb.com.

Contact Kimberly Chun at kimberly@sfbg.com.