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Friday Nov. 2 BLUES AND JA2Z FESTIVAL: Michelin presents the South Carolina Celebration of Blues and Jazz at the South Carolina State Museum. Featured will be ten of South Carolina’s most notable bands: Skipp Pgarson & Jazzology, Drink Small, The Jim Mings Quartet, Nappy Brown, . The Tony Torre Orchestra, The Jeff Liberty Blues Band, Bess Daniels, Bridgeport, The Great Society Band and The Shades playing on all four floors. Doors open at 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m.-ll:30 p.m. Members, $18 in advance, $23 at the door; Nonmembers, $20 in advance, $25 at the door. South Carolina State Museum, 301 Gervais St. BLEAK, SCENIC DRIVE AND SWIFT: $6. Uncle Doctor’s, 1734 Mobile Ave. 11 FOOT 7: $5, Jillian’s, 800 Gervais St. Saturday Nov. 3 JONASAY: Local folk-rock veterans Jonasay wili perform at Jillian’s. $5.10:30 p.m. THE KER0UACS CD RELEASE PARTY: Farpoint and Pawnshop will also play. Uncle Doctor’s, 1734 Mobile Ave. MARTIAN DEATH LYRIC, GALLOWAY AND KEVIN GREEN.: $5. Gambrell Hall. 6 p.m. HURT REYNOLDS CD RELEASE PARTY WITH DON BRAVADO AND LOVE APPLE: The Elbow Room, 812 Harden St. CAPITOL WITH SKYB0LT 6: New Brookland Tavern, 122 State St. Sunday Nov. 4 MAY WATER ACOUSTIC: 9 p.m. Jillian’s, 800 Gervais St. THROTTLEROD: Aggressive, hard-hitting and consistent, Throttlerod will bring its Southern rock-influenced sounds to Columbia. Also performing will be Gargantua Soul, Jennifer Strip and 7 Stitches. The Elbow Room, 812 Harden St. DRINK SMALL BLUES AND JAZZ FESTIVAL Drink Small will perform with nine others at the South Carolina Blues and Jazz Celebration. Doors open at 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m.-ll:30 p.m. Members. $18 in advance, $23 at the door; Nonmembers, $20 in advance, $25 at the door. South Carolina State Museum, 301 Gervais St. VIDEO GAME REVIEW Resident Evil takes gaming to new level DEVIL MAY CRY For PlayStation 2 ★ ★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY ANTHONY EVANS THE (JAMECOCK Two thousand years ago, a dark prince, Mundus, arose in the underworld, turning it into chaos and committing grave injustices. A demon knight, Sparda, had had enough; he single-handedly took out Mundus’s armies and imprisoned him, but had only enough power to keep Mundus dormant for 2,000 years. Sparda went to live with the human world and, sometime later, married and had children... Dante, half-human, half demon, sits in his office looking at a picture of his mother and brother, who both died 20 years ago. Outside, a mysterious woman falls from the sky and, seconds later, comes crashing through the doors. She explains to Dante that Mundus is about to release himself and must be stopped. She looks somewhat familiar to Dante, who grabs his sword and twin guns, Ivory and Ebony. Ever felt that rush y ju get in video games that makes everything around you one unimportant blur? All you can think about is the next enemy, mission or item. Remember those great 2D action games, such as Altered Beast (Genesis) Contra (NES), Ninja Gaiden (NES), and Final Fight (SNES)? They were packed with nonstop action and, for their time, some pretty good graphics. I want to introduce you to the next generation. It isn’t 2D, however; it’s 3D. And Devil May Cry is different in more ways than that. The camera isn’t stuck directly behind you, like in Tomb Raider, and isn’t positioned in the worst places, like in Resident Evil. In this game, the camera position is unreal. Somehow, Capcom managed to find the perfect angle for every scenario. The camera angles are set up so nicely, it feels as if you’re playing a movie. Dante gets an awesome lightning-enhanced sword and a pair of burning gauntlets. On top of that, he totes around his two pistols and later picks up a shotgun and grenade launcher; the list goes on. Just reading this might not thrill you, but the way he uses them will make you say “wow.” Dante can uppercut an enemy into the air and keep it suspended by the force of his handguns until the enemy is decimated. Dante is hard core, looking his enemies in the eye and mocking them, even though they’re 20 times bigger than he is. His attitude reflects his fighting style. Hollywood only wishes it could produce this much action. Dante also has something called a Devil Trigger. Once the little symbols under his life bar fill up, you can activate the trigger. Depending on whether he’s wearing the sword or gauntlets, he’ll turn into a demon. He can absolutely pummel his enemies in this mode, so his life slowly increases. You collect orbs from your victims to buy moves for the Devil Trigger and other items, such as health and continues. One move you can purchase is the Air Raid, which lets Dante leap into the air and transform into a flying, lightning-shooting beast. Sparda would be so proud. After you beat the game on normal mode, you unlock hard and harder modes. Beating these gives you extra goodies and a new character. The game’s many mysteries add to its allure. Who is this mysterious woman? What connection does Nero Angelo have? Can Dante live up to the legendary Dark Knight’s legacy? Find out for yourself in this adrenaline-filled horror fest that will make your heart race. There’s nothing bad to say about this game, except it could be a little longer and have maybe one more plot twist. But, no matter how good I try to make it sound, I can’t do justice to this great game Comments on this story?E-mail gamecochmixeditor@hotmail.com. Axe Release date set for February 2002 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 student, Lew, living in Groningen, The Netherlands. He lives in a house with nine other students, including Sarah and Ethan, all from various European countries. Desi, an American en route to Paris and Sarah’s friend, stays in the house for several days. She quickly becomes the object of both Lew’s and Ethan’s desires, and the two embark on several days of comeuppance to try and win her over. The story dives swiftly into a bit of a mystery near the end, keeping the reader on the edge of his seat. The book is like a symphony; chapters are labeled “Interlude,” and the songs the main character writes throughout the story give the book its own “soundtrack” of sorts. In this book, Axe’s style has become a little more developed; it takes on a lyrical, flowing quality that gently drives the action of the novel and the interest of the reader. The story throbs with life and pain. Both books are tributes to the simple joys of storytelling. There is no pretense, just two entertaining, beautifully written stories, each less than 200 pages long. The Gamecock caught up with David Axe over lunch. THE GAMECOCK: Is the book [.Anywhere and Anything] autobiographical? DAVID AXE: The whole issue of whether novels are autobiographical is something I’ve really struggled with. Everything is autobiographical. It has to be, because the writer is telling the story, and it’s all got to come from his head, so everything is filtered through his perceptions, his beliefs, his desires. So, everything ends up becoming autobiographical in a sense. Now, if you’re asking if some of these events actually happened to me. a few of them, yeah. I did get gassed in Paris. I did get lost in Hungary. G: Is there a warning here? DA: No. I hate didactic novels. I just want this to be an entertaining story, and, if it wasn’t, then I’ve failed. The only person I’m trying to teach a lesson in this thing is myself. I write in part to work out issues that I’m dealing with. I don’t want to inflict those on anybody else; I just want those to become the substance of the story. I’m not your moral superior; so, I’m not trying to teach you anything. That’s a hallmark of really bad fiction, that it’s didactic. G: So, for all the stuff that you’ve written that has been or that you feel is worthy of being published, how much stuff do you write that’s not? DA: Oh, my God, you wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff I write and then throw away before anybody can see it. I’ve started many novels that were just atrocious. Some of them I would get about a hundred pages in and I’d just realize, this is going nowhere. Sometimes I keep a few fragments that I might want to work into another story, but I’d say that probably about ten percent of what I write is actually decent and presentable. Axe’s novels can be found online at www.davidaxe.net, along with a preview of his upcoming novel Columbia. The short story “Indistinguishable” is available online at www.free times.com, in the archives. Axe will sign copies of his novels on Nov. 14 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Russell House. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockmixeditorCcilhotmail.com. Fling AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE Top to bottom: James Touzel as Brad; Kenley Young as Frank; guest Carrie Phillips played the star role of Janet. PHOTO BY MICHELLE dosson Reviving the cult classic BY KURT LING TIIIO GAMECOCK The Rocky Horror Picture Show is founded on and truly lives by the three subjects most sane families wouldn’t dare talk about at dinnertime: sex, transvestitism and homosexuality. If you dislike any of these topics, stop at the door; this movie is chock full o’ freaks. RHPS is the disco-era cult phenomenon that a freak named Richard O’Brien wrote. He was either drunk when he wrote the script or has a totally twisted imagination. This film is like a dark hybrid of Grease, Frankenstein and Plan 9 From Outer Space. The “plot” (ha!) takes Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) straight out of their squeaky-clean, tighty ' $ whitey, church-geek world into the twisted bondage den of the garter-belted, eye-shadowed (but still virile) Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry). King of the freaks, Curry must have taken the role partly to indulge some diabolical teenage fantasy. As Frank N. Furter, he takes control of Brad and Janet’s candy-cane existence from the time they arrive, and by the time they’re able to wave goodbye to Dr. Frank and his world, they’ve both been completely sodomized. As the movie says, “It was a night out they were going to remember for a very long time.” Go to the Russell House tonight at 8 p.m., and you’ll remember it, too. You’d better remember. Sweet Mary knows I did. On the way to the liquor store, I ♦ ROCKY HORROR, SEE PAGE 7 4