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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, April 28,2003 ' 5 CONTACT US - THEY SAIDJr ^ mu J DON DELILLO: “„We seem to thinkitis Story ideas? Questions? Comments? possible to ward off death by follow E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com mg rules of good grooming.” Uq <]7T-1 iF’-wVlLrT’V'3iil BY GRAHAM CULBERTSON AND HILARY SCHRAMM THE GAMECOCK Columbia celebrated an im portant and often-overlooked art last weekend: independent film making. The Beg and Grovel film festi val began in 2001 to raise funds for a project by Hybrid Films, an independent film and television company based out of New York City. Since then, it has grown from a one-night, one-showing af fair to an entire weekend of films by regional independent film makers. This year, the festival present ed a mix of feature-length and short-length films. Starting Friday and ending yesterday, Beg and Grovel drew a diverse group of people interested in indepen dent films. The films “offer an indepen dent voice and are usually more compelling than mass-marketed films,” said Martin Caver, a third year international studies major. Caver saw “Confederacy Theory,” a documentary about the Confederate flag controversy in South Carolina. The film traces the significance of the flag from the Civil War to today and won best documentary at the 2002 Atlanta Film Festival. “ ‘Confederacy Theory’ was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while,” Caver said. “It put a lot of things in perspective for me, and it presented the arguments for both sides. It reminded the au dience of the racism still preva lent today.” Beg and Grovel took place all over downtown Columbia, with events at the Nickelodeon, Immaculate Consumption, the Hunter-Gatherer, the Basil Pot and the Columbia Museum of Art. Activities included film viewings, discussion groups, and even a workshop on social-issue docu mentaries led by David Whiteman, a USC professor of government and international studies. The first of two short-film pro grams showed on Saturday after noon at the Nickelodeon. The program opened with “Sniper 470”, a sharp Scottish sci ence-fiction film starring Billy Boyd. Boyd, familiar to film au diences for his portrayal of Pippin Took in “The Lord of the Rings,” played a space-age ar tillery man who destroys enemy convoys from his isolated aster oid. “Sniper 470” was followed by “Araby,” a brief retelling of the James Joyce story of the same naine. Although it lacked the stylish visuals of “Sniper 470,” “Araby” told an engaging story about a young Irish boy’s first crush. The program’s strongest film by far was “A Clockwork Maury,” a mockumentary di rected by Bob Leddy and starring Mark Robinson. Leddy plays a documentary filmmaker who films a series of interviews with Maury Kubrick (Robinson), the younger brother of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. As the interviews progress, Maury is in turns hostile and boastful, keeping his interview ers constantly on their toes. In actuality, Leddy didn’t always know what to expect from his ac tor, and that unpredictability lent the film its charm. “There’s a lot of improv in it,” said Robinson, who spoke about the film at the end of the screen ing. The series of short films con eluded with “Grumboon” and “Eve’s Dropping In.” In “Grumboon,” an openly silly comedy, a caveman barber faces apathy and even animosity as he tries to share his inventions with his less-evolved friends. “Eve’s Dropping In” combined humor with more serious, if melodramatic, episodes. The film studies four groups of people at a cafe through the eyes of Eve, an elderly woman. The screenplay was a collaborative effort be tween four main writers, with each episode based on an actual event. While the writing and act ing were sometimes weak, the camera-work was stunning, ac cented by the use of black-and white film. “We love the depth of black and white,” said co-writer Miguel Camara. “It helps keep the focus for the story.” Audience members could meet with many of the filmmakers af ter their screenings, and budding artists were encouraged to bring their new works to discussion groups, adding to the weekend’s community atmosphere. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com BOOK REVIEW ‘The Names’sheds light on foreign views r i “THE NAMES” Don DeLillo ★★★★★ out of *☆☆☆☆ BY BRIAN RAY THE GAMECOCK Before “White Noise” won the National Book Award in 1985, Don DeLillo could have walked through Central Park shouting his name, and some clueless passer by might’ve given this diamond of a writer a nickel to make him shut up. But three years before “White Noise” was even on the drawing board, DeLiilo was rolling through the Middle East on a Guggenheim Fellowship, scrawling out a novel that remains his most powerful, beautifully written and haunting work of fiction. “The Names” is set against the backdrop of a lush, exotic Mediterranean seaboard, encom passing treks through mountains and into the desert. Our protago nist, James Axton, is an expatri ate American who discovers an international cult obsessed with language. The group ritualistical ly sacrifices victims unfortunate enough to have the same initials of whatever city they happen to pass through at a given time. In this novel, mortality is boiled down to a sheer coinci dence of time and the alphabet, which echoes the thought: Isn’t our mortality really a matter of an infinite number of variables? In addition to working with a broad range of themes, DeLiilo sculpts brilliant characters, giving James a 6-year-old son who writes novels and an ex-wife who has taught herself Greek so she can wield a pickax in the trenches of an archaeological site at Knossos. We also meet Frank Voltera, an in dependent filmmaker who goes in search of the rumored cult, hoping to bribe the members into signing a movie contract. The characters seem more hu man than human — a tough ma neuver when you’re working with two dimensions and a set of 26 symbols. The relationship between Kathryn and James mimics alltoo well the mix of sentimentality and resentment that plague divorcees. DeLillo makes their arguments amusing and real, incorporating elements from their past that the reader knows little of. It’s like you’re sitting beside them on their roof, listening to the hurled in sults and petty accusations. DeLillo’s characters tell their own stories, narratives within narratives. Frank, for example, likes to speak in dramatic mono logue of how he was chased up a mountainside by a herd of goats or how he sees himself opening a small-town Laundromat where people gossip about his failed ca reer in showbiz. If for nothing else, read the novel for its nuances and sense of culture. DeLillo demonstrates an eye for peculiar detail — cars driving backwards, cows with painted horns, ancient monu ments and ethnic foods. “The Names” also warrants reading for its socio-political con text. James works as a risk ana lyst, and his social life revolves around paranoid Americans who make their livings off developing “third-world countries.” Yet DeLillo rises above simply accus ing the United States of slipping its hands into hying pans. Instead, he focuses on how we as Americans view the outside world and how it views us in return. The closing passage is espe cially haunting: After one of his colleagues is wounded by an anonymous assassin, James takes a somber stroll through Athens, anticipating with dreadful accu racy the terrorism and political instability in which we now we find ourselves immersed. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com SHOW REVIEW Ozma, Love Apple show entrances fans From left, Star Wick, Ryen Slegr and Patrick Edwards of Ozma performed a show, at New Brookland Tavern on Thursday night. OZMA New Brookland Tavern out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY CAITLIN COKER THE GAMECOCK When pop-punk indie force Ozma played at the New Brookland Tavern on Thursday, the band shared the stage with some of its biggest admirers—the Columbia band Love Apple. “Ozma is one of my biggest in fluences ever,” said Jason Sposa, Love Apple lead singer. “We’re go ing to rock out.” As Love Apple took the stage, Sposa’s nasal mental feeling. The yelling, growl ing vocals were replaced by smooth ones in stark contrast with earlier tracks. “We want to try to fill out the soundiive,” said Earlimart bassist Ariana Murray. “Sampling makes the live shows sound like the record and vice-versa.... It keeps a balance of the volume, makes a flow.” After Earlimart’s set, Ozma hit the stage, plunging into music from its “Rock And Roll Part Three” era. Live, the tracks had more texture and depth. The band introduced material from their impending release “Spending Time on the Borderline,” voice drenched the room in sug ary pop-rock. He poured emotion through the microphone, evoking the nostalgia of high-school melodrama. Love Apple opened with catchy, danceable songs and eventually slowed into harmonious, guitar-driven PHOTO BY COREY GARRIOTT/THE GAMECOCK “Sampling makes the live shows sound like the record and vice-versa.... It keeps a balance of the volume, makes a flow. “ ARIANA MURRAY LEFT. BASSIST FOR OPENING BAND EARLIMART which is due out May 6th. Ozma’s sound had obviously grown funki er, building on its usually lush orches trations. “I don’t think an al bum should be like a di ary; it should be a musical statement,” said Ozma bassist Daniel Brummel. “I want every chord to feel luiies. Sposa’s voice switched from sweetly murmuring the lyrics to attacking them, reminding listen ers of first loves and first heartaches, all atop pop-powered beats. Slowreader’s set bathed New Brookland Tavern in languid jam tracks, assuming the soothing quality of a Sigur Ros album. Slowreader experimented with sampling during the show — a dis astrous move. Gabe Hascall traded his acoustic guitar for a keyboard and played warbling organ notes that hammered the audience’s eardrums. The addition of a choral-voice track subverted many of the band’s later songs. Thankfully, they eventually ditched the invasive samples and finished with a rocking finale. Earlimart’s performance dis played maturity through the vari ety in its music, as well as its dis torted guitars and reverberating chords saturating the Tavern. One song incorporated a vinyl sound to produce a crackly, senti i lgm, aiiu ev ery next chord to feel even better. ” Cheers erupted in the crowd as the band started “The Tetris Song,” which is actually a traditional Russian song. Jose Galvez, an Ozma guitarist, danced and kicked up a storm; even a member of Earlimart took the stage to do something resembling a Russian jig “We need more dancing people. Go dancing people!” said Ozma keyboardist Star Wick. Ozma brought the audience into a trance, moaning “whoa whoa whoa oa oa oa” along with the band, the vocals resonating over Wick’s warm keyboard tones. After they left the Tavern, Ozma embarked on a two-day journey all the way up to Baltimore, where they will con tinue to play songs from their new release. To preview the album, due out May 6, head to www.mp3.com/ozma. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com CD REVIEW Yorn matures but stays faithful to his old style on ‘Day I For sot ’ «’**’•** PETE YORN _ DAY I FORGOT “DAY I FORGOT” Pete Yom ★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY BEN ANGSTADT THE GAMECOCK Whether Pete Yojrn’s follow-up album was going to deliver was anyone’s guess. The folk-alterna tive rocker, once a relatively un known artist, enjoyed a brief taste of popularity last year with the hit single “For Nancy." Fortunately, Yom has not been subsumed by the mainstream ma chine, and his second Columbia Records release, “Day I Forgot,” manifests that Yorn’s music has only matured with time. Upon first listen, “Day I Forgot” seems to be lacking the charisma that pervaded Yorn’s debut, “Musicforthemorningafter.” On his first release, Yorn was the vo calist and sole instrumentalist. But he receives accompaniment from numerous musicians on his most recent work, which takes away the personal stamp Yom put on his first album. Moreover, the album has a rel atively slow start, beginning with a strange intro that leads into the lackluster “Come Back Home.” Plus, with the immediate appeal of “Musicforthemorningafter” songs such as “Life on a Chain” and “For Nancy,” it seems unlike ly that Yorn could top his fresh man effort. The truth about “Day I Forgot,” however, is that it improves on all the elements of its predecessor and shows that even after a limit ed brush with popularity, Pete Yorn has stayed true to his style. Despite the slow start, “Day I Forgot” picks up with the third track, “Crystal Village.” Things become even more interesting on “Carlos (Don’t Let it Go to Your Head),” where Yom experiments with a gritty, rough-edged vocal lead on top of his usual subdued style. “Pass Me By” follows and demonstrates that Yom’s lyricism 1__l_J_1 where Yom picks up his familiar harmonica. Soon after comes “Turn of the Century,” a song that is unusually progressive considering Yorn’s style, but fits right in with the rest of the album. Interestingly Xiao H1«JU V l/l oped, as he laments over the struggle to find direction and meaning in life amid shallow surroundings. Yorn’s new album shows that he can maintain his originality while staying a viable part of the rock mainstream. VllUUgU) At sounds like a synthesis of the Counting Crows and the late Jeff Buckley. “All at Drawing the listener in from the start, “Committed,” one of the album’s strongest tracks, is fueled by a catchy bass line and out standing vocal harmonies. Plus, it’s the only track on the album Once” is possibly the album’s most sedated track, but is by far the strongest. It feels like a slow jam and features some of the al bum’s best guitar work fis well as noteworthy chord progressions. In a strange move, the album has no actual thirteenth track. Track 13 is, instead, a silent, one second recording that moves straight into the album’s last song. It recalls the old practice of constructing buildings with out a thirteenth floor to avoid bad luck. “Day I Forgot’’ is an outstand ing second effort from a develop ing artist with genuine songwrit ing talent. At this pace, it seems as though Yorn’s unique sound will only continue to mature with time. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com