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g THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 31, 2003 THEY SAID IT PONTAPT TT^ J-S. MILL: “War is an ugly thing, but not the U1 > lx Vvx 1 U O ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state Story ideas? Questions? Comments? of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com nothing is worth war is much worse. BY MEG MOORE THE GAMECOCK » Summer — that venerable sea son of surf, sand and big-screen blockbusters — never fails to bring a slew of high-budget action flicks and well-marketed sequels to the nation’s theaters. Studios bank on having big summer successes, air ing trailers far in advance and plas tering theater walls with posters and signs. Summer 2003 promises to deliver a bevy of probable block busters, from prequels to sequels, and everything in between. The season’s most awaited re leases begin hitting theaters in May, just as America’s school-aged children — and die-hard moviego ers — are set free for the summer. Notably, Jim Carrey is back with a new comedy, “Bruce Almighty,” in which his prayers are answered, for better or worse. Tired of Bruce’s incessant com plaining, God, played by Morgan Freeman, grants him divine pow ers and gives him one day in which to improve the world — but if Bruce fails, God will whisk mankind back into the Dark Ages. May also means “The Matrix” series'will be back on the big screen with its second installment “The Matrix: Reloaded.” Hollywood’s current “it” gir Renee Zellweger also returns t< theaters, starring as feminist writ er Barbara Novak in “Down Wit! Love.” June offers moviegoers a selec tion of summer sequels, from th animated “Rugrats Go Wild” t the street-racing screenplay “ Fast 2 Furious.” Charlie’s Angel are also returning and bringin Bernie Mac with them ii “Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle. The much-hyped comic-spawnei film “The Hulk” should prove t , be a standout June release. As for “Dumb and Dumberer: When l Harry Met Lloyd”: What it lacks ) in intellect, it will likely make up for in ticket sales. i In terms of sequels and pre quels, “Terminator” fans can ex pect the series’ third installment, > “Terminator 3: Rise of the ) Machines,” to storm theaters in ! July. 5 A big month for summer block l busters, July signals the return of 1 two top female leads: Reese ’ Witherspoon wields her law-mind 1 ed charm once more in “Legally ) Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde,” and Angelina Jolie re-emerges in “Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life: Tomb Raider 2,” reprising her ti tle role. The hit “Spy Kids” series also returns with the trilogy-com pleting “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.” In a radically different vein, an “Exorcist” prequel, “Exorcist: The Beginning,” will possess movie screens nationwide in July. While an “Exorcist” prequel could possibly be revealing, the August release “Freddy Vs. Jason” will undoubtedly contain more gore than quotable lines. August also puts Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell in the line of fire in “S.W.A.T.” Brittany Murphy returns as well, starring as a New York socialite in “Uptown Girls.” “The Highwaymen,” which chronicles the travels of a man bent on tracking down his wife’s killer, also opens in August, as well as the book-based drama “Matchstick Men,” which stars the seasoned Nicholas Cage. All in all, summer 2003 is shap ing up to be another hackneyed yet exciting season at the cinema. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@notmail.com - SHOW REVIEW 7 Mary 3 storms Senate Park 7 MARY 3 Senate Park BY MEG MOORE THE GAMECOCK Florida-spawned rock band 7 Mary 3 has had trouble staying afloat in the mainstream market these past few years. While its de but album, “American Standard,” sold more than a million copies in just seven months, subsequent releases have failed to make sig nificant waves in the music world. Sure, the band continued to tour, maintained its loyal fan base, and even put out three more engaging albums, but suc cess is never so simple. Although the band’s popular ity has waned, its explosive show at Senate Park on Friday evening proved the group’s sound is as solid as ever. Columbia’s Tokyo Joe opened the show, playing several origi nal songs as well as rollicking through covers of the Beatles’ “Come Together” and Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” Clearly, however, most fans had shown up to see the night’s headliner — and to sing along in full force. 7 Mary 3 is in the midst of a small tour through the Southeast, playing a few live dates before heading back into the studio this summer. Columbia was the third stop on the band’s seven-venue trek, which will end April 9 with an acoustic show in Orlando. With four major-label LPs’ worth of material to work with, 7 Mary 3 had a multitude of tunes it could have included in its lengthy set; judging from the crowd’s enthusiastic response, the band made some wise song choices. Promoting a four-track sampler of its latest material, the band included a few new num bers amidst its “greatest hits (and ones that should’ve been)” set. First and foremost, however, Friday’s collection of fans clam ored for the band’s tried-and-true favorites — and 7 Mary 3 did not disappoint. Stomping through a survey of its past releases, the band in cluded obvious hits such as “Cumbersome,” “Water’s Edge” and the more recent “Wait.” It also turned the crowd into a cho PHOTO BY ADAM PATTERSON/THE GAMECOCK Jason Ross, front man of 7 Mary 3, plays the guitar and sings during the band’s performance Friday night at Senate Park. rus on favorites from its first al bum including “Roderigo,” “My My” and lead singer Jason Ross’s acoustic performance of “Lame.” From the band’s sophomore ef fort, “Rock Crown,” it included, among others, a standout rendi tion of the achingly delicate “Lucky.” 7 Mary 3’s third release, “Orange Ave.” — the name pays homage to a club-cluttered street in downtown Orlando — was rep resented Friday evening by tracks such as the up-tempo “Eleanor,” “Peel” and “Over My Shoulder.” Balancing out the eclectic mix, the band also tore through rock tracks from its 2001 release “The Economy of Sound,” including “Sleepwalking,” “First Time Believers” and the set-clos er “Breakdown.” An enthused crowd brought the band back for a two-song en core, and it played through the first track on its sampler, “Without You Feels,” and ended with “Honey of Generation” off “Rock Crown.” Entertaining a crowd full of fervent fans, 7 Mary 3 took Senate Park by storm, rocking and romping through a solid col lection of songs. The show not only solidified the fact that the band has a stel lar backlog of Southern-tinged tunes, but showcased a seasoned group that still knows how to rock hard, write well and keep the crowd calling for more. Comments on tfiis story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com BOOK REVIEW Dawes captures Jamaican spirit “A PLACE TO HIDE” Kwame Dawes ★★★★ out of BY BRIAN RAY THE GAMECOCK Writing a novel requires some thing similar to a degree in liter ary rocket science. But a collec tion of short stories is hundreds of times more complicated. Even though Kwame Dawes, a USC English professor, hasn’t giv en us a novel yet, his stories whet our tongues, and some of the longer ones approach novel length. The longest one sprawls com fortably over 50-some-odd pages. These stories range widely in theme, characterization and tone, but Dawes’ devotion to capturing a sense of the Jamaican spirit gives the collection a sense of co hesion. Whether male or female, like able or frustrating, hopeless or not, the characters all share the desire to fill an almost indefinable void in their lives. The first story is relatively characteristic of the rest. The characters’ depression is proba bly why Dawes, a member of the literary group Split P Soup, chose the title “A Place to Hide.” Poor, big-nosed Sarah’s need for companionship and faith after her father’s death is reminiscent of most of the characters’ strug gles. They all want that sense of eternal, internal peace. The lake scene in which Sarah tries to reenact her baptism serves as a fantastic ending, preparing us for more bizarre stories such as “Marley’s Ghost.” This penultimate story, a jum ble of a day in the life of the death ridden Joseph and Bob Marley, the savior of reggae, comes close to pandemonium. For 50 pages, Joseph wanders through his filthy apartment, throwing together dreams from his life and that of the late singer, wondering where his woman Rhea has gone and why she has abandoned him in his sickness. Many of this story’s strengths lie in its weaknesses. The reader will either love the way Dawes infiltrates Joseph’s demented psyche or throw the book down in a fit of frustration halfway through. It’s easy to get lost in the chunks of crazy prose, and Dawes purposefully clouds the narrative so that the reader knows very lit tle. In fact, Dawes warns the read er in the opening that “he sleeps and dreams and becomes. This much we know.” But the reader ♦ DAWES, SEE PAGE 7 CD REVIEW UK band explores boundaries “THE CORAL” The Coral ★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY JOSH WATSON THE GAMECOCK The Coral’s self-titled debut al bum captures a sound that fuses the horns of a soul revue with a simplistic lyrical prowess that sporadically hints of both Elvis Costello and Nick Cave,. Unlike most of its contempo raries, this UK sextet revisits the British Invasion after nearly four decades, offering 11 brief gems ca pable of entirely entrancing the listener. The Coral is comprised of young men who on occasion have been described as troubadours, each bringing their sundry influ ences to the band’s sound. The opening tune “Spanish Main” ig nites this album with its unfor gettable guitars and electric-or gan, evoking fragments of the late ’60s Beach Boys. “Dreaming of You,” the next track on the album, serves as a flawless testament to this band’s brand of melodically driven hyp nosis. The lyrics weave their way into this song and beautifully sus tain it. This band appears to encom pass a great deal of what sur rounds it, considering the scope of its music as infinite. The rhyth mically electric tune “Waiting for the Heartaches” sounds like a Motown song, but seethes with a dark-toned organ riff. As the album quickly winds to its finish, “Calendars and Clocks” surfaces as a song that examines time and speaks of abandoning the past: “Resent your past, repent at last. We are only lines on a map.” It might be difficult to re gard a band of teenagers as vi sionaries, but if this CD indicates the direction today’s music might take, the mainstream depression of unadventurous bands is per haps nearing its end. It is impossible to guess from which tuneful cliff this band will leap next, but after experiencing a handful of these two-minute songs, it is certain the band will engage its next endeavor with equal fervency. Its mood-melding music deserves praise for existing uniquely separate from most al bums belonging to The Coral’s Jess-venturesome contemporaries. Comments on this story? E-mail j gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com