The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 05, 2001, Page 5, Image 5
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