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THEATER REVIEW ‘Polaroid Stories ’gives urban twist to mythology “POLAROID STORIES” ★★★★ out of ☆&☆☆☆ BY GRAHAM CULBERTSON THE GAMECOCK ' , In “Polaroid Stories,” USC Theatre’s latest stage production, classical stories from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” fuse with con . temporary tales of homeless youth. The result is chaotic, as characters representing Zeus, Dionysus and other legendary fig ures live in the present day. By the second half of the play, the idea has worn thin, but strong performances and an even stronger effort by the stage de signer and the effects coordina tor make the show at least worth - its admission price. Longstreet Theatre, which can be used as a conventional theater but is more valuable as a circular “theatre in the round,” has been transformed into a frightening, vivid representation of an urban nightmare. A fire escape, en hanced from “The Glass Menagerie,” looms darkly and sin isterly over the stage, while a met al platform and an old mattress provide the centerpieces, covered with garbage and graffiti. Although the side exits, which have been transformed into items such as the fire escape or a runoff pipe, work well with the setting, the dark hole in the stage’s center proves the most frightening. It serves as another entrance and exit as well as represents the Greek underworld, Hades. Although the connection be tween the Greek characters and the modern-day homeless is never completely clear, a pair of gods give the best performance. Zach Hanks, Dionysus, and Marcus Thomas, Zeus, pace the produc tion with commanding perfor mances. Hanks’ Dionysus is par ticularly terrifying once he has been double-crossed by Skinhead Boy (Matt Purdy). Zeus, who is de scribed as the father of Dionysus but never interacts with him, seems to glory in the wreckage and disarray surrounding him. All of the cast members, from the self-indulgent Narcissus (Patrick Kelly) to the endearing Echo (Antionette Wright), seem to fully inhabit the characters they’re playing. Unfortunately, none of the characters seem to have clear motivations. Perhaps this could be cleared up with a greater understanding of the source material, although the program does give some brief in formation on Ovid’s characters. The play seems to be designed to catch our conscience, as we are horrified by the lives of the home less. In the jumbled-up script by Naomi Iizuka, none of the char acters are consistent enough to garner any real emotional re sponse. This lack of sympathy works against the play, as does its Greek references, as the long second half seems to be primarily a repetition of the first. But although the characters mostly come and go too rapidly for us to care about them, the play’s strengths endure. The real stars are not the actors, but Director/Sound Designer Craig Miller and the talented crew that designed and implemented the evocative and frightening cos tumes, lighting and set. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail. com DOMINO’S PIZZA 1124- Devine Street 256-3151 ♦ Lunch • Dinner • Late Night • | use VALUE MENU! I P<e<Mc &icCct "tfnUue, Iftcafj YOUR CHOICE: m tff (/ frlfli 1. Extra-Large Cheese Pizza (Code SI 2. Large 1-Topping Pizza (Code 3. Medium Cheese Pizza A 20 oz. Coke® (Code S3) 4. Small 1-Topping Pizza A 20 oz. Coke® (Code S4) 5. Small Cheese Pizza A Order of Cheesy Bread™ (Code S6) 6. Medium 2-Topping Pizza (Code S7) 38C <DS ■■ «S Valid at participatingstores only. Not valid »ith other offers. Prices may vary. Cus tomer pays sales tax where applicable. Delivery areas limited to ensure safe driving. Our drivers carry less than $20. Our drivers are not penalized for late deliveries. 2001 Do rrw no's Pizza, Inc. 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"SSSST CD REVIEW Jet duplicates hits of the past “GET FREE” Jet ★ ★★ outof-fr-w-**'* BY JUSTIN BAJAN THR GAMECOCK Unless you’ve been isolated on some small island, there’s no doubt you’ve heard Jet’s single “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by now. It’s on the radio, in TV com mercials, played at sporting events — it’s everywhere. It’s in fectious, it’s catchy and it’s just plain ol’ good rock ‘n’ roll. But Jet has more to offer than a good single. Its debut album, “Get Born,” takes the listener back in time, reiterating the raunchiness and rebellion of bands such as AC/DC, The Who and The Rolling Stones. From listening to “Get Born,” it’s not hard to detect the Jet mem bers’ influences. Rather than merely sounding like late-’60s/ear ly-’70s hard rock, as a lot of Jet’s garage-band contemporaries do, Jet takes it further by sounding identical to certain bands. The guitar riffs on “Rollover D.J.” sound like a redux of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business.’’-The riffs are so derivative that one could actually sing the* chorus of “Takin’ Care of Business” over them perfectly. “Look What You’ve Done” opens with almost the exact same piano part as The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers.” It’s so derivative that someone could layer Paul McCartney’s opening lyrics over Jet’s version and only a few die hard Beatles fans would know the difference. There are more obvious inter polations of other artists’ songs on the CD, but the whole album is not defined by these moments of artis tic robbery. Jet is a tad different than other garage bands — if only because the band manages to in corporate slower songs that are more sad than raucous. “Look What You’ve Done,” “Move On,” “Come Around Again” and “Radio Song” are tunes in which the band uses pi ano and acoustic guitar to slow the pace down. It’s refreshing that not everything is composed of an them-like guitar riffs and three chord romps. One can occasional ly hear the bass guitar break out of the background and the vocal melody. The group shows some more originality on the album’s last two songs, “Lazy Gun” and “Timothy.” “Lazy Gun” lets lead singer Nic Cester get political in the lyrics: “You get no younger from those colors in your hair/ Teach your kids how they’re all young enough to fight/ Talk about the answer/ Tell them they’re al right.” “Timothy” has Cester asking where a friend, Timothy, ran off to. Cester’s agonizing voice is sup plemented by solemn lyrics such as “Timothy, we found your space ship/ Timothy, did it hurt when you hit the ground?” Despite the album’s deliberate theft of established artists’ music, “Get Bom” is a solid listen that ex plores a range of emotions and tempos to intrigue the listener. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com CD REVIEW. Beatles’ ‘Naked’reveals depth urr nr b*... nahb» THl BEAMS “LET IT BE ... NAKED” The Beatles ★ out of ☆☆☆☆& BY STEVEN VAN HAREN THE GAMECOCK Take four bitter Beatles, add the desire to be a band again and subtract the stylings of gun-tot ing producer Phil Spector, and you get “Let It Be ... Naked,” a stripped-down, bare-bones album with powerful soul and up-tempo rock. It’s hard to believe that John, Paul, George and Ringo were at odds with one other when they recorded this album. “Naked” is a testament to the band’s rocka billy roots and the always-im pressive talents of band members. The song order has been switched around, and “Dig It” and “Maggie Mae” have been removed, with Lennon’s “Don’t Let Me Down” filling the void. After some in strumentation changes and the in clusion of different vocal takes, the listener is left with McCartney’s vision: four guys playing together again with little to no use of overdubs. The Beatles bumisfied “Naked” with equal parts of grace and grit. The liftoff shuffles of “Get Back” and “Dig A Pony” show the band’s ability to blend chicken-scratch guitars with heavenly vocal melodies, resulting in a new depth and maturity. Songs like “Two of Us” and Harrison’s thumping “For You Blue” show the band do ing what it did best: creating the world’s greatest hooks out of thin air. The addition of “Don’t Let Me Down” is a welcome surprise, showcasing Lennon’s penchant for personal lyrics and soulful shrieking. Ringo, the most under rated drummer in rock ’n’ roll his tory, unleashes a galloping snare romp on “Get Back” and puts the swing into “For You Blue.” In the two-minute song “I Me Mine,” the band goes from gentle swing to a full sonic blast with Harrison’s distorted guitar work. . It’s hard to hear the Spector less difference on much of this al bum; it merely sounds cleaner and crisper, with some gorgeous bottom end and rpverb thrown in to make the songs sparkle. However, two tunes have been drastically changed. Lennon’s acoustic gem “Across the Universe” has now been stripped down into an almost-solo perfor mance with only a hint of key boards as support The most beautiful surprise on the album is the new version of “The Long and Winding Road,” McCartney's dirge of longing. The original version was a classic bal lad, full of grandeur and sweeping walls of strings. The “Naked” ver sion is unbelievably gentle, rarely rising above a whisper, and a new vocal track contains a more fluid and gossamer performance. Harrison’s lightly phasing guitar combined with a more delicate and cavernous piano track keeps the song drifting on an almost-wa tery berth. The title song closes the album and is still one of the most important songs in rock his tory, but it can’t compare to the exquisite “Road.” T “Let It Be... Naked” is the snap shot of a great band doing some thing almost impossible: making unique songs that exude both ma turity and excitement. Even though The Beatles were on the verge of letting themselves be, it sounds like they were just getting ready to blaze one more trail for the world of rock ’n’ roll. “Naked” will remind you that these four cynical men still had magic in 1969, even during their deathbed dance. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com VOTE FOR COCKY www. capitalonebowl. com | ALL BOOKS 25% OFF OR MORE | Select books at special prices including Carolina Voices (paperback) $16;95 $10.00 Charleston in My Time (cloth) $49*95 $30.00 Creating the South Carolina Statehouse (cloth) $39*95 $15.00 A History of the University of South Carolina, 1940-2000 (cloth) $39*95 $20.00 University of South Carolina: A Portrait (cloth) $39.95 $10.00 Weekdays from noon until 4:00 p.m December 1-19 at the USC Press Warehouse, 718 Devine Street between Gadsden and Pulaski Streets (behind Carolina Coliseum) JhlJ University of South Carolina Press —