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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, March 21, 2003 7 CONTACT US THEY SAIDIT GEORGE ELIOT: “Blessed is the man Story ideas? Questions? Comments? who, having nothing to say, abstains E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” World Night to integrate different cultures BY CAITLIN COKER THE GAMECOCK The International Student Association has joined forces with nu merous groups — among them the Hindu Student Council, Filipino American Student Association and the Muslim Student Association — to bring USC a night of diverse celebration. For the fourth consecutive year, the ISA will present World Night tonight at 7 p.m. The International Student Association is an on-campus group com posed of international and American stu dents. ISA functions as a social group for the international community. The ISA “tries to make the interna tional students who come here more comfortable in America, and allow Americans to integrate with different cultures,” said Kiti Kajana, ISA presi dent. World Night will feature a whirlwind of cultural dances, fashions and food. The show will be opened by Borenya, a West-African drumming and dance en semble from Columbia. If you have nev er seen one of its performances, World Night provides an excellent opportuni ty to catch the group in action. The high energy company, which features many students from USC, occupies the stage with both drummers and dancers. While the drummers beat, the dancers will per form authentic West African dances. The World Night show will, in fact, fo cus on ethnic dance. A professional com pany will perform Mediterranean belly dancing — an act that includes a dance with swords. The show will go on to display tradi tional Indian, Pakistani and Filipino dances, along with a salsa and merengue routine courtesy of Salsa Cabana. As icing on the cake, a group of African-Americans and Filipinos will break-dance to international hip-hop. Students will also strut their tradi tional styles on the runway in an inter national fashion show. Pekky Marquez, a fifth-year Spanish student and member of ISA, has crafted a modern version of the typical Venezuelan costume to wear in the show. The Hindu Students Council will even demonstrate Henna tattooing. World Council also includes some American acts. “We don’t discriminate,” Marquez said. “ ‘International’ does not mean only foreign students. It means Americans, too — everyone.” Representing the United States will be Higher Harmony, USC’s men’s a capella troupe. “In at least the American culture, there’s a broad cross-section of diverse musical genres,” said Chris Young, a third-year economics student and bass singer for Higher Harmony. “We at tempt to explore as many of these as pos sible: barbershop, spirituals, pop, do-wop and more.” The cost to attend will be more than compensated by the cornucopia of avail able food. ISA will fix up flavors from all over the globe, serving such dishes as Spanakopita, curry chicken bites and Chinese pot-stickers. World Night will also offer attendees the chance to find out how to get in volved with ISA and the international community. “It’s the culmination of efforts to unite the community over the year,” Kajana said. Last year, World Night attracted an audience of 400 people. This year, ISA expects attendance to exceed 500. “Last year was an unexpected suc cess, and this year we expect even more,” Marquez said. The unofficial after-show party will be held at Senate Park, and will feature rhythms from all around the world. The DJs — DJ Mafoza from Zambia, DJ Gradiska from Italy and DJ Cabreez from Venezuela, all ISA members — will spin international music and tech no. Students inspired by the exotic danc ing of World Night can attempt the in ternational dances for themselves start ing at 11p.m. You can wear raver gear, but don’t wear sneakers; Senate Park is strict about athletics wear. — Kiti Kijana. president (^International Student Association ' PHOTOS BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Top and above: Participants rehearse at the Blatt P.E. Center for tonight’s World Night dance performances sponsored by the International Student Association. The fiesta costs $5 until midnight. The festivities all begin tonight at 7 p.m. in the Russell House Ballroom, and the World Night show is expected to last until 10 p.m. The cost for the performance is $3 for stu dents with a USC ID and $5 for others. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com MOVIE REVIEW Film justifies Wilco’s awards “I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART” A film about Wilco by Sam Jones out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY COREY GARRIOTT AND MEG MOORE THE GAMECOCK Director Sam Jones wants to explain how small, alt-country ,act Wilco conjured up Amazon.corn’s album of the year, the album Rolling Stone magazine called the first great album of 2002. In the movie “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart,” Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy tries to explain. “There are a lot of holes,” Tweedy said. “There are bigger spaces Detween wnat s supposed to be... the music part.” He drift ed off, mentioning that new al bum “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” would not, definitely not, be trip hop. “I don’t know.” Wilco is a band with artistic ambitions — or so says its docu mentary, which was shown at the Nickelodeon Theatre this week. The members are not VH1 pop-star pretties or parts of a drug and sex story. They’re acoustic veterans who have come together, finally, for a mas terwork. ana is a mastertui artistic statement,” said Tony Margherita, band manager. “It could bomb.” And Wilco is also, apparently, yet another band that struggles with the tension between art and business; commercial success is a mysterious subject to the group. This predicament could characterize any group — but there’s something special about Wilco. Earlier, Tweedy, looking like a homeless person, had a funny face drawn on his belly and at tached a cigarette to it with gum. “You’re going to see a documen tary about Wilco,” it blubbered. “They are funny guys!” Tweedy’s jokes are telling — things would only get funnier when Wilco’s label Reprise dropped the band. Before the mess, musical wiz ard Jay Bennett claimed, “It’s cool to bitch about your record label," but Wilco was actually having a good experience, he said. It had received $85,000 to record its own album without a producer — or any supervision, really. Things seemed to be go ing great with Reprise, a Warner Bros, subsidiary. But once the company listened to the album, a pop experiment, it dropped Wilco from its line; Reprise lost $200,000 total, in cluding other costs. Essentially, the band had been given a couple hundred thousand dollars to make an al bum it then had the freedom to sell. Wilco toured to make money and let record companies bid up the price for “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Rumors floated that the album was amazing; Reprise dropped it only because it wasn’t mainstream alternative rock. « m tne end, the band sold it to Nonesuch Records, another Warner Bros, subsidiary, for around three times what Reprise paid for it in the first place. Warner Bros, paid for an album, gave it up for free and then bought it back. “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” con ♦ WILCO, SEE PAGE 8 . L BOOK REVIEW Flaws make characters likable |bookends | “BOOKENDS" By Jane Green out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY CHRISTY INFINGER THE GAMECOCK Jane Green’s newest release, “Bookends,” takes a group of friends living in England and puts their closest-held secrets on dis play, exhibiting their weakness es and testing the strength of their strings of friendship. The main character, Catherine Warner, is a professed lifelong single not looking for anything out of life besides a good snack and pals to eat it with. Her best friend, Simon Nelson, pleads with her con stantly to update her look, find a sexy man and settle down. Si fol lows his own advice to the letter, but finds only heartache in a se ries of losing relationships. Catherine and Si’s couple friends, Josh and Lucy, along with their devil-child, Max, prove to have their own problems as time constraints limit their sex life, and their Swedish nanny suddenly finds a secret mate. As they cope with their every day lives, a little surprise arrives on their doorsteps. Portia, Josh’s good friend from college, shows . up after years of estrangement from the group. The friends can not help but wonder what Portia’s hidden agenda holds, but are too caught up in their own problems to investigate. Catherine and Lucy make a quick decision to live out their dreams and open a bookstore/cafe together. Lucy adds the style and gourmet taste, Catherine the book sense. As their business begins to grow, the real-estate agent who helped them find their business building starts hanging around. The agent turns out to be not just any other money-hungry busi nessman, but an aspiring artist trying to make ends meet and who has an eye for the fashion-forlorn Catherine. Catherine begins to become in terested, but is distracted by Si’s sudden love interest, the always rude ' and insulting Will. Although Will is constantly mean and vindictive to all Si’s friends, Si can’t see Will’s true nature and falls in love with him, not find ing out until much later that Will has some secrets of his own. Once Catherine and the hand some agent start dating, each date becomes interrupted by some sort of friendship predica ment with Catherine. On their of ficial date, Catherine sees Josh with the illusive Portia at a se cluded restaurant, instead of with his loving wife. The second date is ruined before it even starts when Simon shows up at Catherine’s apartment with some news that neither one of them can ignore. Jane Green tops her other books with her newest release, creating a group of friends that are impossible to forget and who have friendships that others only envy. i iitur quincy cnaracter naws only make them more irresistible and take Green’s skills at charac ter development to a new level. “Bookends” is a good read that is hard to put down. As soon as you finish, you just want to read it again. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com