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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.
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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.
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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.
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