The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 02, 2001, Image 6
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
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