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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, November 5, 2001 5 T T T—1 If T" THEY SAID IT j ] 11/1 I % / HENRY HARRISON: “The principles we _ __ B B B A I ■ / I B a/ live by, in business and in social life, CONTACT US I-1 I ^ I 1 / I I 1 are the most important part of B B B I 1 I B / IB/ happiness. We need to be careful, upon Story ideas? Questions? Comments? B fl B J I V | B / achieving happiness, not to lose the Writeusatgamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com B B f B B a virtues which have produced it.” ----— — - — Not just another CARTOON ANIME FANS COME TOGETHER AT USC BY AUBREY FOGLE THE GAMECOCK Anime is a Japanese word that means animation — every thing from moving stick figures to Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie. But to Americans, the word means a certain type of animation: people with big eyes, small mouths, weirdly colored hair, lots of explosions, super powered aliens, fighting robots, and, more often than not, very adult themes. It’s been called Japanimation, 6 a.m. cartoons, American youth’s new toy and toon fetish, and, of course, “that Pokemon crap." But for a growing American subculture, this type of anima tion is much more than that. USC’s anime club, Club Nashi, is part of that subculture. Club meetings are from 7p.m. until 10 p.m. on Thursdays in Humani-ties 202. At b:,su, people are aireaay m ing in and taking seats, waiting in anticipation. At 7 p.m„ the club’s president, junior Asian studies major Richard Forest, takes center stage and quickly goes through club business as club librarian Tobes Tollins brings down the projector screen. After everyone is calm and the day’s tapes are ac counted for, a small cheer goes up through the almost 50 mem bers as the meat of the meeting finally commences: three full hours of nonstop anime. Club Nashi has its own li brary of more than 270 tapes, each featuring anywhere from two to six-and-a-half hours of anime, including full TV series, movies and dozens of one-shots (short films) and fansubs (fea tures translated into English by fans before being brought to the U.S.). Collins, an undeclared sec ond-year student, said mem bers are strongly encouraged to donate what they can to the club. “It’s the only way we get big ger. At the end of the year, the officers use part of the money for the previous year to buy new tapes, but we didn’t even do it last year because we have people that are so cool and give us tapes,” Collins said. “We have people with giant li braries, and I use club funds to go to Sam’s and get blank tapes and just copy their entire li braries.” But anime features aren’t the only thing members have to look forward to during the year. Club Nashi also sponsors and organizes video game tournaments, anime conven tion excursions and special events. Last year, the club spon sored tournaments for the video games Dance Dance Revolution, Rival Schools and Bushido Blade. First-, second and third-place awards and style awards are given out. Forest said: “We like to have a lot of side club activities. Watching anime for three hours a week is nice and every thing, but sometimes it’s nice to get up and (do other things). The past video game tourna ment we had was Dance Dance Revolution. First prize was a ♦ ANIME, SEE PAGE 7 i — m BaBM_ Americans think of aliens, fighting and explosions when they think of anime. photo by Andrew rogers EMMY AWARDS BEST COMEDY SERIES * Sex and the City BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES PjgjjciuE^aton, Everybody loj&fRaym'Qnd But ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES^*/ / ErrcWcCormack, Will & Grace BEST DRAMA SERIES The West Wing BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES ^ Edie FaledPne Sopranos BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES James Gandolfini, The Sopranos BEST MOVIE/MJNISERIES Conspiracy T BEST ACTRESS W A M0VIE/IV1INISEMES Judy Davis, Life with Judy* Garland: Me and My Shadows BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE/MINISERIES Kenneth Branagh, Conspiracy THE CHARTS Top 10 Movies Figures are for the weekend of Nov. 2-4. MOVIE BOX OFFICE 1. Monsters, Inc. $63.5 million 2. The One ~ $20 million 3. Domestic Dist... $14.5 million 4. K-Pax $10,7 million 5. 13 Ghosts$8 million 6. Riding in Cars... $4,5 million 7. From Hell$3.7 million 8. Training Day $3.2 million _9. Bandits$3 million 10. Serendipity $2.5 million Top 10 Albums Figures are for the week of Oct. 29 Nov. 3. TITLE ARTIST 1. The Great Depression DMX 2. Morning View _ Incubus 3. A Day Without Rain Enya 4. God Bless America Various 5. Pain is LoveJa Rule 6. Live in Chicago 12.19.98 DMB 7. Silver Side Up Nickelback 8. [Hybrid Theory] Linkin Park 9. 8701 Usher 10. Totally Hits 2001 Various USC fencing holds tournament Challenge pits rookies against veterans for bragging rights BY ASHLEY VAUGHAN THE (MMECOCK While most USC students were sleeping on Saturday morning, fencers from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia were gathering in the Blatt P.E. Center to battle for bragging rights. Sponsored by USC’s Fencing Club, the Chicken Challenge is a local tournament open to any man or woman with a U.S. Fencing Association member ship. Thetournament has three areas of competition, named af ter the fencer’s weapon: foil, epee and sabre. Each weapon has a dif ferent blade weight and valid tar get area. “Foil is the most popu lar event because it is the weapon that most people begin with,” said Rick Thompson, USC fencing coach and organizer of the event. All of the events carried a Cl rating; so each event’s winner gained the designation “C.” Ratings range front A to E and U, A being Olympic-level skill, and U being unranked. All of the fencers, who have varying expe rience, fence each person in their pool, and then have direct elimi nation rounds, which determine the winners. Most fencers don’t mind com peting against someone more ex perienced; they consider it a learning experience. “It makes you feel really good if you actu ally score a point against some one with a higher rank,” said Sarah Young, a 15-year-old high school student who fences with the USC club. USC Fencing Club President John Codega said: “Before you compete against [other fencers], they’re not your friend, but af terwards they are. That’s the great thing about fencing, every one’s really friendly.” During the competition, the gym was filled with the sound of squeaking shoes and a con stant hum from the electronic scoring machines. In one cor ner, fencers prepared for their bouts by practicing their moves, refueling their bodies and mentally preparing to take on opponents. In another corner, some were completing last-minute registration, and in the middle of the gym, others were already competing. Still others were joking around with fellow fencers, even challenging them to playful bouts. C-ranked fencer and recent USC gradu ate Michael Allen said: “I think that there is a very strong ca maraderie between fencers. You see the same people at lo cal tournaments all the time. I’ve been fencing since I was ten, so there are some people thaljl’ve known here for eleven years.” Having several bouts at once, each of which lasted only a cou ple of minutes, added to the chaot ic yet exciting environment. Watching a bout takes a great deal of attention because the fencer’s movements are ex tremely fast - so fast that touches are scored with the use of elec tricity rather than judges. Allen took home the trophy for first place in foil. Codega took sec ond and Kevin Matthews of August Fencers Club tied for third place with Isaac Melton from Charlotte-based Touche Fencing. In epee, Tobias Lambreacht, a Swiss exchange student at USC, won first place. Bryan Mansfield, a fencing coach from Charleston, took second, followed by Allen Ouztz and Gregory Wooten, who tied for third. The final fjabre match was a highlight of the competition: From a 14-14 tie, Derrel Fields of the Atlanta Fencers Club de feated Ashley Walker, a USC Fencing Club assistant coach. Tied for third place were John Codega and Michael Szathmary. For fencers and spectators, USC’s Fencing Club will hold a two-day tournament in the spring, The Sword in the Stone, expected to draw fencers from across the Southeast as well as England. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotrmil.com. MOVIE REVIEW Talented actors make K-Pax worth it K-PAX Starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges BY TUG BAKER THE GAMECOCK Ah ... the Instigator of Change movie. Perhaps you don’t immediately recognize the reference, hut believe me, you’ve seen the type of movie, over and over again. The story usually re volves around a single, strange character whose actions, thoughts, beliefs or powers set him or her apart from the small group of people he or she stum bles upon. This character, the Instigator, then proceeds to Change the people around him, and once the mysterious stranger leaves at the end, the cast’s lives will never be the same again. Some of the more popular ex amples of this drama subgenre are Phenomenon, Michael and Powder, and most seem to leave the audience with a “warm fuzzy,” though there are excep tions. K-Pax, the latest Instigator of Change film, tells the story of Prot (Kevin Spacey), a man who seemingly appears out of nowhere to help a women being mugged. When the police ask him where he’s from and he replies that he’s from the planet K-Pax, the cops do what one would expect and ship Prot off to a mental hospital. In this mental hospital, Prot meets his psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges), and, im mediately, the audience begins to ask, “Just who is ‘on the couch’ here?” For every question Powell has, Prot has an incredibly accu rate answer, and, eventually, Powell starts to actually believe maybe Prot isn’t crazy after all. By this time, Prot’s magnetic charisma has begun to work on the hosital’s other patients, many of whom seem much bet ter off with Prot’s influence than with their doctors’. The movie does a fine job of never giving a straight answer about Prot’s origin. Is he really an alien, orjugt an extremely intelli gent schizophrenic? The answer likely lies somewhere in between, and the movie’s explanation is unique and a bit surprising. The movie revolves around the relationship between Prot and Dr. Powell, and the casting director hit the bull’s-eye when he chose Spacey and Bridges. Spacey, in a role that seems meant to show boat his talents, wonderfully un derplays Prot, staying away from making him “cute.” Bridges does a fine jqb play ing the stressed-out doctor, but the main draw is the great in teraction between these two great actors. Despite the fact that the movie’s plot is stale and overused, K-Pax is still enter taining. In fact, it seems to have learned from the mistakes of oth er Instigator of Change films and perfected the subgenre. It’s at least worth watching as a vehi cle for two very talented actors. Comments on th is story? E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail. com. ' Jeff Bridges, left, and Kevin Spacey redeem a movie that risks being a cliche, special to the gamecock V Indie rock veterans join again for tour Kyle, Caithlin . of Rainer Maria have played with Owen before BY WILLIAM MILLS THE GAMECOCK Mike Kinsella doesn’t have to travel far to get to the Chicago studio where he writes, plays, records and mixes the tracks for his solo project, Owen; it’s in his home. Kin sella has spent the past 10 years in such indie bands as American Football, Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc and Owls. He’s played everything from guitar to drunis and was the lead singer for American Football. Now, he plays all the instruments in Owen. After going on three tours with Rainer Maria as its opening act, Kinsella found he had more than enough songs to put to- TO THE GAMECOCK getherhisself-ti tled debut solo album. So, with a house full of musical equipment and much more than a capful of talent, Kinsella released his first ever solo full-length disc. The al bum has a gentle fullness not typ ical of solo work. It seems hardly believable that one person plays every instrument on the album. He sings vocals and plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. The release is a direct look into Kinsella’s mind and creative spir it. Instead of using funds from touring with Rainer Maria to go to a professional recording stu dio, Kinsella went out and beefed up his home studio. Owen’s sound is similar to the melodic guitar of American Football, mixed with a complex ity expressed in the intricate guitar work and the near-whis per of Kinsella’s voice. Kinsella won’t be appearing alone for awhile; he’s touring with Caithlin De Marrais and Kyle Fischer. The trio of friends has played together on many oc casions, and for this tour, they’re playing one-set shows together. De Marrais’ is the only outside voice that occasionally appears on Kinsella’s album. De Marrais is also Rainer Maria’s singer and bassist. Fischer plays guitar and sings alongside De Marrais in Rainer Maria, a band which reached No. Ion the College Music Journal charts for its third album, A Better Version of Me. Fischer has also been working on a side project, a solo debut with the aid of some of his friends. Kinsella will play drums on the al bum, and De Marrais will play bass and piano as well as sing. Kinsella’s album, Open Ground, will be re leased in January. In the midst of all of these solo projects, all three musi cians still have enough time to tour the Southeast. They’ve never been as prolif ic as they are these days. Because independence has had time to blossom alongside tal ent, reunions like these can sometimes be difficult. That hasn’t been the case, however, for Kinsella, De Marrais and Fischer, who have collaborated and played togeth er for years. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockmixeditor(ihotmail.com. Owen, Kyle and Caithlin Tuesday New Brookland Tavern Mike Kinsella plays all the instruments and sings for his band, Owen, special