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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 30, 2001 ttf i\/tty ™~ ■ I I 1 i «/ I I /% ROALD DAHL (WILLY WONKA): Story ideas? Questions? Comments? ■ ■ ■ J I W ■ ■ / m “A little nonsense now and then Writeusatgamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com ■ ■ * ^ i. 1 I ■ A m is cherished by the wisest men.” Check out dailygamecock.com for events calendar BY CARRIE PHILLIPS THE GAMECOCK The emotions created by the Sept. 11 World Trade Center at tacks have inspired music, move ments and literature. Now, those emotions are finding an outlet through dance. Starting tonight, the USC Dance Company will pre sent Visions of the American Spir it, a series of dance pieces dedi cated to the American people’s unity, strength and passion. The USC Ballroom Dance Club will also contribute pieces. The USC Dance Company was founded 26 years ago by Professor Susan Anderson, the program’s artistic director. From its first per formance in 1975 without cos tumes, the program has grown to encompass 45 members, who re hearse more than 10 hours a week in addition to reauired ballet classes four days a week. USCDC performs on campus biannually and travels the state performing at festivals, including Charleston’s Spoleto Festival every spring, and has traveled as far away as Spain to share its tal ents in classical ballet and con temporary, modern and jazz dance. '» This year, USCDC has a new concert director and faculty mem ber, Kris Cangelosi, an interna tional award-winning choreogra pher whose work has been fea tured in the American College Dance Festival, the Jazz World Congress and throughout Europe. She says she’s enjoying her work at USC. “It’s been a wonderful challenge. We’ve had a very posi tive beginning, and I see lots of po tential here.” Cangelosi has built this concert around pieces reflecting on the de struction and aftermath of the ter rorist attacks. For her, and for Celebrate 1 STRENGTH Passion The USC Dance Company will present Visions of the American Spirit starting tonight at Drayton Hall, photo special to the GAMECOCK many in the dance community, the attacks on New York made a personal and professional con nection that extends beyond the devastation. “New York City is the dance capital of the world, so September 11 was a personal at tack on dancers themselves,” she said. “It’s been a team effort and very emotional for all of us.” Cangelosi choreographed two of the concert’s pieces, including “Water, Land and Spirit.” “The piece is about the beauty that is around us on an everyday basis and that we shouldn’t lose sight of that beauty,” she said. “As Amer icans, we have a lot, and when tragedy hits us, we remember that beauty, but it shouldn’t be that way. We should remember it all the time.” Choreography from three se nior members will also be fea tured. Jen Marshall, Jake Alder son and Harley Brunson each will showcase pieces in the concert. Graduate student Terrance Hen derson has also contributed a piece. “Gathering” reflects the power of a tragedy to bring people together. “I think that my piece is unique because it uses each per son’s individual energy; so as well as being unified, they can express who they are through the music,” Henderson said. Artistic director Anderson’s “The Gans Jam” is an 18-minute number with musical selections by Gershwin, Bollin and Rampal. “This is very difficult choreogra Visions of the American Spirit USC Dance Nov. 30-Dec. 2 Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Drayton Hall Theater, $5 phy,” Anderson said. “I have done the piece with professional com panies; so I decided to put it stage here, and the girls have really risen to the occasion.” Dezeray’s Hammer tries new direction BY ASHLEY VAUGHAN THE GAMECOCK “The middle of nowhere” Three guys from Spartanburg, S.C., are making a name for them selves as Dezeray’s Hammer. For merly known as Albert Hill, the band — Aaron Whisnant (vocals, guitar), Chris Francisco (bass), and Kenny Hogan (drums) — is on the road, performing through out the Southeast to promote its third album, Immune, which hit stores in August. Greg Archilla, who has worked with Matchbox 20, among others, co-produced the album. “Right now, we’re somewhere in Georgia. We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Whisnant said. “We’re a rock band” Music commentators describe Dezeray’s Hammer’s sound as “meaty” or “muscular” rock with a focus on guitar. “I would say we’re a rock band,” Whisnant said. “We’re rock and roll with melody. ... A lot of bands these days are ei ther really light or really heavy. We’re in between. We fit in nicely with Lifehouse and Fuel. Some bands don’t like being compared, but, I mean, you’re gonna get com pared. Hell, if we are compared to a band that sells millions of records, that’s okay by me.” i The music might be “muscu lar,” but the emotional lyrics hit home. Most songs on Immune, such as “What I Think,” deal with unrequited love and failed rela tionships. Whisnant, the group’s songwriter, explains: “I would say that I’m much more prolific when my relationships are strained and when there’s turmoil in my life. I’ve never been a good happy writer.” “Nonstop excitement” Dezeray’s Hammer’s began when Francisco and Whisnant met through a music teacher their sophomore year of high school. Whisnant jokes that, when he’s with the band, “It’s nonstop ex citement. I could tell you a lot of stories about our drummer,” he laughs, but tells a story about himself instead. “I came on stage with my zipper down. Someone in the front row screamed, ‘Hey, your zipper’s down.’ It was em barrassing, but it’s funny now that I think about it.” “I wanted a new start” It’s not surprising that the band, with seven years’ experi ence in the music business, has gone through many changes. Over the years, Dezeray’s Ham mer has revamped its name and sound. One of its biggest decisions ! Dezeray’s Hammer Saturday, Dec. 1 Jillian’s $6,21 + S.C. natives Dezeray’s Hammer, formerly Albert Hill, is promoting its new album Immune. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK was asking its keyboard player to leave. “It was just one those things.... The music that I was writing, it didn’t have a place for a keyboard, and we had been doing that style for so long. I wanted a new start. I wanted to change the name and our direction.... Being an artist, if you stick with the same stuff for so long, you begin to stagnate,” Whisnant said. The band’s new name fits with Whisnant’s previously mentioned favorite theme: unrequited love. Dezeray (the spelling of her name has been changed) is a girl from his past who didn’t return his ro mantic feelings. When prodded about her, Whisnant laughed, “I don’t know if she knows that there’s a band named after her.... I haven’t seen the girl in eight years, but, knowing my luck, she’d prob ably sue us if she found out.” ^/^CHINA Internship Program in Shenzhen, China Spend a yeor teaching English conversation in a school in Shenzhen, China's fast-growing economic miracle adjacent to Hong Kong. This bustling city of four million offers modern housing, a warm climate, beaches, and only a half-hour train ride to Hong Kong. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM Teach English speaking and listening skills in a Shenzhen school, and learn Mandarin Chinese. Each semester you earn 6 credits from the University of Memphis (transferable to other universities): 3 credits in teaching English as a Foreign Language and 3 credits in Chinese. August 23, 2002 to June 30, 2003 WHAT YOU RECEIVE • One round-trip ticket • Free Faculty housing and some meals. Apartments have air-conditioning and TV. Married couples can be accommodated. • * Stipend 3,0()0 Yuan per month (approx. $360) • Paid 3-week vacation at Chinese New Year in January/February • Vacation travel bonus 4,000 Yuan (approx. $480) at the end of the program For Detailed Information - *« Please contact: Professor William O'Donnell, Univ.of Memphis Phone: 901-678-4584 - Fax: 901-624-3198 or 678-2226 Email: chinapgm@cc.memphis.edu or visit our website at: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~chinapgm/ Revisit the ’70s at USC library DENISE LEVEREAUX GAMECOCKMIXEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM With the end of the semester dangling in front of us like the proverbial carrot in front of the mule’s nose, we’re all spending a lot of time in our favorite on campus spot. No, I’m not talking about the GMP. Granted, nothing tops sitting in the GMP and reading the scrolling message board while eating chicken fingers and fries. But the place I’m talking about is a close second. It’s got all the charm of an asylum, all the class of the 1970s and all the active mold anyone could want. Not to mention some really cool metal curtains. Yes, I’m talking about the Thomas Cooper Library. Where else can you get dusty old books, upside-down floor plans and nice librarians willing to help you finish that paper at 11:30 at night? It’s like a toy store — if you’re into that kind of thing. If you’re a student here, chances are, you’ve been to the library before, at least once. (Although, if you’re an upper i/iaosiuaii wuu s iicvcx nau iu endure the horror that is Thomas Cooper, let me know. I want to know how you did it. You musf be blessed.) Chances are, it scares you as much as it scares me. The musty, silent rows of books, the trash cans placed at random intervals to catch the drips from the ceiling, the extension cords that snake across the floors to fans and whose sole purpose is to keep the active mold monsters at bay. I imagine there might be a crack in the wall in one of the back rooms of the first floor. (The first floor is not really the first floor — it’s five levels underground. More proof that something about that building is just wrong.) Maybe there’s an evil spirit living there, much like the one from The Amityville Horror. I wouldn’t be surprised if an unknowing freshman had stumbled into the wrong study room and never returned. He might have been sacrificed in the name of Dewey Decimal or the Library of Congress by a possessed librarian or grad student. The graffiti in Thomas Cooper is further proof there are strange things going on there. The study cubicles, bearing battle scars from the most desperate of graduate students, stand testament to this. On the third floor, one carrel bears this hanntinp messapp’ “Flpar flnH please help me get into grad school.” The agony that poor senior must have suffered to feel possessed to etch that forever into the particleboard desk. Next to it, however, someone answered, “God can’t help you there,” providing further proof for my theory that graduate school is a tool of supreme evil. And, of course, there’s the active mold. Because the library was — ingeniously — built like some sort of demented information upside-down cake, there are no windows on floors one through five. No windows mean no light. Ever. Because there’s no sunlight and no air circulation, and water leaks all over the place, the lower floors are the perfect breeding ground for all kinds of nasty life-forms. If the government wants to ♦ LEVEREAUX, SEE PAGE 5