University of South Carolina Libraries
8 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, December 4, 2002 CONTACT US THEY SAID IT l^U A 1AL 1 L 0 THOMAS EDISON: “To invent, Story ideas? Questions? Comments? you need a good imagination E-mailusatgamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com ..... . , .......r and a pile of junk.” THE ‘INSOMNIAC’ HOST WENT FROM BEING A NO-NAME STAND-UP COMEDY ACT TO HAVING HIS OWN LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CABLE-BUT HE’S JUST REALLY GLAD THAT PEOPLE STILL COMETOSEEHIM PERFORM BY WILL MISCHNER THE GAMECOCK Getting paid while getting drunk. That’s his job, plain and simple. And don't try to rat on him to the boss, because he is the boss, and it's OK. Wish you were Dave Attell yet? If not, yotx wilL Sixteen years ago, Dave Attell embarked on a comic journey that would eventually propel him from a no-name stand-up act to the host of his own Comedy Central television show, t'Insomniac With Dave Attell.” The first installment of the new season, which starts tomorrow, was filmed in none other than Myrtle Beach for Biker Week. “It was cool seeing people ride their bikes in bars,” Attell said. “The bars close when the bartenders say they close, so you have to be a good tipper. In the South, people know how to go out and party.” Attell also visited Dynamite Fireworks and shot off a few ex plosives; talked with the Myrtle Beach Airport ground crew and security; and took a tour of Alligator Adventure, the world's largest reptile park. His main focus is his stand-up routine, but recently, he has blended his act and lifestyle for “Insomniac.” He said because he was not an actor, he wanted to do a show that involved what he did anyway: travel, go to different towns, do his routine, wander the bars, drink, et cetera. Attell said he got into comedy because “I really wasn't good at anything else, so I just gave it a shot.” “I wanted an ugly version of 'Wild on E!' And that's kind of what it is now; it's for regular peo ple,” Attell said. “It's a fun show, and it's a cool alternative to reality TV,” Attell said. “It's a good show because it's somewhere in between 'Girls Gone Wild’ and 'Cops.' And you get to see places you don’t see all the time.” An early-morning cow insemi nation in Boise, Idaho, might be the craziest thing the show has ever aired, Attell said. “A lot of crazy stuff has to do with just seeing people drunk, passed out,” he said. “We don't show that on TV, though. It gets a little hairy out there.” After graduating from New York University, Attell began working the New York comedy scene. Whether it was just hang ing around comedy clubs or even tually working the door, Attell said he just stuck with it until he finally began to headline gigs on the weekends. “It's a very raw kind of come dy,” he said. “I really don't talk about politics or anything like that. I tend to hit the basics. You know, sex, midge'ts, drinking — that kind of stuff.” Attell has filmed comedy spe cials for HBO and Comedy Central, and for a short time, he was a “Saturday Night Live” writer. Now in its third season, “Insomniac” is Attell’s brain child; it gives him writing cred its and allows him to be the star of the show. The format is simple: a little stand-up comedy, followed by Attell perusing some local nightlife. “Every place is not 'the place' in town; it's more regular bars, and we also try to hit up late night jobs that people don't know about,” Attell said. “There's real ly not much to it.” And Attell said his adventures are all as fun as they look. “Yeah, it’s cool having drinks, except it gets crazy,” Attell said. “People now know what the show is and are all trying to get on camera.” Attell said he lives the comic lifestyle as he sleeps all day and stays up all night. “The crew had a little trouble adjusting at first,” he said. But viewers don't have to stay up all night to catch the show. It airs at 10:30 p.m. “I guess if you really want to do it, though, it's a lot of cigarettes and a whole lot of cof fee,” Attell said. “I suppose it should be on at, like, 3 in the morning, but then a lot of people wouldn't really get to see the show,” he said. “It’s sort of just a win dow into the late-night world.” There is plenty of glo betrotting left in the third season of “Insomniac.” Solstice day in Anchorage, Alaska, and Attell's tagging along with a crime-scene unit in Oakland, Calif., are all coming up. In the future, Attell will release a comedy CD and a DVD release of past “Insomniac” episodes. Even with all his current pro jects, Attell said, “I'm just enjoy ing the fact that when I do stand up, people are com ing to see me.” mmentson this story? E-mail gamecockmix editor@ hotmail.com HMbs I A writer for “Saturday Night Live” Frank in the movie “Pootie Tang” Frank DeMore in Comedy Central's prank-phone-call show “Crank Yankers” Contributor to “The Daily Show” Efram the driver in the upcoming with Jon Stewart movie “Max and Qrace” “Insomniac” host Dave Atteil is both the star and the iM writer of the Comedy Central show, now in its third season. ■ “A lot of crazy stuff has to do with Just seeing people drunk, passed out,” he said. PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK TOP 10 The most requested songs on USC’s student radio from Nov. 25-Dec. 1 are from the following albums. 1. “CIGARETTES AND CARROT JUICE” Camper Van Beethoven 2. “FREE SO FREE" J Mascis and the Fog 3. “UNT Fifty Tons of Black Terror 4. “STORIES OFTEN TOLD” Sadies 5. “THE ESSENTIAL LEONARD COHEN" Leonard Cohen 6. “ITS A LONELY PLANET Photon Band 7. “PHOENIX ALBUM" _Warlocks 8. “whip rr on” Raveonettes 9. “REDHEAD" _ Bleu 10. “BRAINWASHED" George Harrison CD REVIEW Album chaotic but classic “PHRENOLOGY" The Roots ★★★* out of BY JUSTIN BAJAN THE OAMECOCK A physician named Franz Joseph Gall invented phrenol ogy: the belief that a human’s skull is conformed to a person’s mental abilities and personali ty. Gall thought you could feel for bumps on a human’s head and deduce which of the 27 fac ulties a person had, such as po etic talent, moral sense or me chanical skill. Although the idea was discredited, that didn’t stop the Roots from nam ing their newest album “Phrenology.” What similarities can be drawn between a pseudoscien tific concept and one of the most innovative bands in hip hop? None, really, but from lis tening to “Phrenology,” fans might be compelled to pull out some calipers and feel around the album to find out why it is so musically bumpy. Each song is what one can expect from the Roots: a blend of battle-hungry lyricism and con scious-minded themes with clas sic live instrumentation. But when these songs are played in the album’s intended order, the listener might want to set an al ternative arrangement, in hopes of crafting a logical syntax — which this album lacks. Lost yet? Listen to the album. Roots fans might wonder what happened to the usual long in tros, band member and rapper Malik B, a Ursula Rucker spo ken word outro, rapper friend Dice Raw, or one of Scratch’s vocal-turntable interludes. “Phrenology” begins in be wilderment with a string-driv en intro that segues into the an themic “Rock You” produced by DJ Scratch, not The Roots. The album doesn’t settle in, as “Rock You” fades into “!!!!!!!” a garbled punk song that lasts about 20 seconds. “Phrenology” does focus with the next song, “Sacrifice.” The song features Nelly Furtado and Black Thought harmonizing on the chorus, with Black Thought’s semicrooned vocals drowning out the high-pitched Furtado. Black Thought displays his lyrical arsenal on the hip-hop throwback “Thought @ Work.” He raps, “I bang with the best around/who can test the crown/when I finesse the sound?” The song is one of the three salvaged from his shelved solo debut; the other two are “Water” and “Pussy Galore.” The album returns to the weird on “Water,” a song that had two movements added to it after Black Thought’s album was scrapped. The song is a dia tribute about to the aloof and blatantly absent Malik B, who is an original member of The Roots, but does not tour with the band and has lacked commit ment, a combination that pro ♦ THE ROOTS, SEE PAGE 10 ' ‘Blue Jeans to Ballet’ Show sets out to demonstrate the variety of dance BY KAMILLE BOSTICK THE GAMECOCK The USC Dance Company is set to perform its first major show case of the year with “Blue Jeans to Ballet,” which combines clas sical ballet with contemporary dance performances. Mixing a range of dance styles and music, the aptly-titled per formance will include choreogra phy for Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Hannah Jane” and a “Moulin Rouge” medley, as well as more traditional music. At one point during the show, a group of fe male dancers will perform hang ing on ropes from the ceiling. ♦ BALLET, SEE PAGE 10 I miss the days of,just Nintendo CHARLES TOMLINSON GAMECOCKMIXEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM Every night, I come home to the sounds of my roommate blasting his online opponents in “Quake.” I’ll admit: I’m not even envious. I completely fell out of the video game loop six years ago, and the most advanced system I own is a Super Nintendo. In second grade, I got a regular Nintendo for Christmas — big mistake on Mom and Dad’s part. It glued me to the television for so many hours every day that my mother thought something was wrong with me. I’d come home from school and run right to the Nintendo before my mom could tell me to do my homework. I even made my family late to church and birthday parties so I could “just finish one more level!” And my recreational reading consist ed of a Nintendo Power magazine, about which my mom said, “You’re going to read the print right off those pages.” I started with two games, “Super Mario Bros.” and “Mickey Mousecapade.” My “Super Mario Bros.” was the super-cool version; the game’s cartridge contained not only “Duck Hunt” but “World Class Track Meet,” as well. I think I was the only kid in my second graae class witn a rower rau. Speaking of “Duck Hunt,” I was a huge cheater. I put the Zapper right against the screen and shot the ducks. I could deal with the PlayStation; I thought games such as “Resident Evil” and “Final Fantasy VII” were cool. But then, developers tried to make the games too realistic. I liked “Resident Evil” because even though it had voice actors, they were still bad voice ac tors. So it wasn’t a far cry from the days of Nintendo, with its bad sub titled dialogue. Some examples from the classic “Metal Gear”: “Oh, no! The truck have started to move!” and “I feel asleep!” Because of the new wave of games, I’m thankful for the ram pant Nintendo nostalgia. Several pawn shops, as well as stores such as Funcoland, sell used Nintendo games. And across the Internet, Web sites such as Vimm’s Lair, at www.vimm.net, are dedicated to “preserving the classics.” This site features Nintendo emulators that run copies of the video games on a computer. The one stipulation is that you’re supposed to actually own the game before you download the em ulated copy—a rule I’m sure all you responsible gamers will obey. Nintendo has cracked down on emulation, however, so the games have become scarce. But if Nintendo doesn’t want people “stealing” the games, it should start making them again. The Mushroom Kingdom, at www.classicgaming.com/tmk, is an encyclopedia of everything Mario-related: every bad guy, ev ery Mario game and even televi sion listings for the “Super Mario Bros.” movie. For those who crack up at the sheer insanity of the game con cepts and dialogue, the Web site www.seanbaby.com has a Nintendo section that shows “Nintendo logic” at its most ludi crous. For example, Seanbaby wrote about “Ninja Gaiden,” “Everyone knows a ninja does 16 flips every time they jump.” He also points out that “getting hit by an eagle hurts more than a bazooka blast to the face.” I’ve considered getting a GameCube because of the new “Metroid” and “The Legend of Zelda” games, but I’m afraid they’ll be too complicated and realistic. I know I sound like an old man, but I remember those days of Nintendo logic — those nonsensical days when things were simpler. Tomlinson is a fourth-year print journalism student.