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‘Idol’ Aiken celebrates holidays on 21-city tour By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C. — Clay Aiken has fond memories of holidays at home — driving 40 minutes back from Durham with a fake Christmas tree sticking through the back windows of his packed Honda Accord because his family waited until it was too late to buy a real tree. “Most of America is accustomed to things going wrong” around the holidays, Aiken said. “Those are the memories I think are the funniest.” But one thing the self-described “skinny, redheaded, geeky little dork from the South” hopes goes off without a hitch this holiday season is his 21-city “Joyful Noise” tour. The tour, which begins Sunday in Pasadena, Calif, and ends the day before Christmas in Detroit aims to be less crass, more class than Aiken’s previous U.S. tours — “a few less signs and a few less people screaming, ‘Clay, I love you!’” he said. “This is a different kind of concert,” said Aiken, for whom it will be the fourth tour in the last 18 months. “It’s not meant to be a show where fans bring signs and scream. The goal is to be more intimate, almost semi-formal. The crew will be dressed up in their Sunday best and I hope the audiences will do the same.” Aiken — plus a conductor and 20 piece orchestra — will perform a holiday-only repertoire from his “Merry Christmas With Love” album, which features standards like “Winter Wonderland” and “Silent Night.” Each show will also feature local philharmonics, symphonies and choirs. Aiken said fans shouldn’t show up expecting to hear orchestral versions of his hits “Invisible” or “The Way.” Aiken has also been named spokesman for the 2004 U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign, so Marines will be collecting toys at each stop on the tour. In addition to hitting the stage, Aiken is starring in his own NBC-TV special “A Clay Aiken Christmas,” which airs Dec. 8. The show will PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS “American Idol” star, singer Clay Aiken will launch his “Joyful Noise" tour in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday. It will end Christmas Eve in Detroit. feature songs from the album and guests who include Barry Manilow and “Will & Grace” star Megan Mullally. The special will go straight from TV to DVD — arriving on store shelves Dec. 14. The tour includes two sold-out shows in Raleigh, one of which Aiken has designated for North Carolina residents only. “We tried to make everyone happy,” Aiken said. Completing the Clay onslaught this holiday season is the “American Idol” runner-up’s book “Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life,” written with Allison Glock. The volume features a collection of essays about life lessons, including Aiken’s relationship with his stepfather. Most of all, Aiken said, being home for the holidays will mean a chance to make more memories — like going out for dinner on Christmas Eve with his family, and being told by his stepfather that they were headed home to open presents — followed by a three-hour detour to look at Christmas lights that included getting lost. “I was really pumped and ready (to open presents),” Aiken said. “My brother and I had to pretend to be excited. We couldn’t say ‘Cut this crap out.’” ■ WALLPAPER Continued from page 9 during Cook’s time off from touring. Adopting the moniker The New Left, they solidified their lineup with the addition of guitarist and singer/songwriter Steve Earmon, a friend of Borges’. Three years in the making, the group’s first EP, “Wallpaper Music,” perfected at Cook’s studio in Orlando, Fla., delivers six inarguably original, blues-tinged rock tracks. As a matchstick, Cook has enjoyed limited time behind the mic, handling lead vocals on the chorus of “Hang” off 1996’s “Yourself or Someone Like You,” and fronting select tunes on tour. “Wallpaper Music” allows him to flaunt his vocal chops. From the edgy swagger of “Tease Me,” to the earnest crooning on “Cecelia,” Cook shows he has the requisite versatility and technique for frontman status. The EP opens with a pair of guitar heavy rockers, “Overboard” and “Dotted Line.” “Wind-Up Girl” finds Cook “walking downtown,” losing his sneer in favor of a more mellow approach. Finger-picked lines skip through the background, giving the tune a breezy feel in spite of the electric guitars and layered instruments. On the jazzy “Tease Me,” Borges lays down a cymbal-tinged drumbeat. The following track, “Should Have Let Go,” finds him playing percussive tricks with the time signature. Both tunes seethe with bluesy guitar licks, giving them a smokey, backroom feel. Effects transform Cook’s voice into a swirling whisper on “Should of Let Go,” as he sings, “I hear the way it sounds, and I want to scream.” “Wallpaper Music” closes with the piano-driven “Cecelia,” the most stunning cut on a stellar EP. Cook’s impassioned vocals turn the simple ballad into a timeless track, earnest and lovelorn. Over pounding keys he belts out, “Now Cecelia if you take me back, I swear I’ll be good to you ... It seems like everything we had was not our own.” As if playing lead guitar for one hit making rock band wasn’t enough, Cook has thrown the whole of his talent into The New Left’s debut EP. A group of old friends has rarely sounded this fresh. Comments on this story? E-mail ga?necockfeatw‘es@givm.sc. edu IF YOU’RE GOING WHAT: The New Left WHERE: New Brookland Taver WHEN: 8 p.m.; Tickets are $8 at the door Documentaries compete for Oscar nominations By DAVID GERMAIN THE ASSOCIATEP PRESS LOS ANGELES — The fast-food indictment “Super Size Me” is among 12 films competing for best documentary at ihe Academy Awards. Other documentaries on the list of contenders released Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include “Tupac: Resurrection,” an examination of the life of slain rapper Tupac Shakur; the surfing chronicle “Riding Giants,” the first documentary ever to open the Sundance Film Festival; and “Bom Into Brothels,” a look at the harsh lives of children of Calcutta prostitutes, which won Sundance’s audience award for favorite documentary last January. “Super Size Me” hilariously traces director Morgan Spurlock’s physical and emotional deterioration during a month he spent on an all-McDonald’s diet. The film is one of the highest grossing documentaries ever with $11.5 million at the domestic box office. “Super Size Me” ranked behind “Fahrenheit 9/1V* which grossed $120 million, as the No. 2 documentary of 2004. “Fahrenheit 9/11” creator Michael Moore, who won the documentary Oscar with 2002’s “Bowling for Columbine,” decided against submitting his latest film for that category. Instead, Moore is promoting “Fahrenheit 9/11,” his assault on President Bush’s actions regarding the Sept. 11 attacks, as a best-picture candidate. The other films in the running for the five documentary Oscar nominations are “Home of the Brave,” about slain civil-rights activist Viola Liuzzo; “Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,” a portrait of the historian and activist; “In the Realms of the Unreal,” a look at the life of outsider artist and janitor Henry Darger; and “The Ritchie Boys,” which tells the story of German Jews who trained as an elite U.S. intelligence unit in World War II. Also: “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” about a crisis over a camel calf belonging to a family of Mongolian nomads; “Tell Them Who You Are,” filmmaker Mark Wexler’s examination of his relationship with his father, Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Bound for Glory”); “Touching the Void,” blending interviews and dramatic re creations to tell the survival story of mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates on an ill-fated climb in Peru; and “Twist of Faith,” about a man confronting past sexual abuse by a priest. The 12 films were chosen by the academy’s documentary branch, which also will select the five nominees. The academy’s full membership of about 5,800 is eligible to vote for the winner. Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 25, and the awards ceremony is Feb. 27. Election proves entertainers unable to influence Politics By CHRIS JONES KRT CAMPUS Bruce Springsteen was forced to surrender. Sharon Stone’s instincts moved few beyond the Democratic base. And while a victory for John Kerry in the presidential election of 2004 was declared of titanic importance by Leonardo DiCaprio, no less, the 29 year-old’s partisan powers of persuasion proved as unable to move the Republican iceberg as the rapping of Eminem or the jottings of Tony Kushner. As America’s arts professionals — a group of overwhelmingly if not exclusively Democratic persuasion — blinked miserably out through their collective tears on Nov. 3, they were confronted with what looked like their colossal and confounding failure to influence and persuade their fellow Americans of the value of the artistic world view. “I think everybody’s just reeling from the defeat,” said Sherry Lansing, the chairman of the Paramount Motion Picture Group and an active Kerry backer from Hollywood. “Now we just have to reassess what good we did and what effect we had.” Maybe the answer is no good at all and no effect whatsoever. But the significance of the election of 2004 goes far beyond the oft-cited generality that people are sick of being told what to do by Hollywood celebrities with big mouths. There’s evidence that the issues go deeper than that. Plenty of high-art types stuck their hands into the political dirt during this presidential campaign — without achieving the desired result. In Chicago, a slew of anti-George Bush plays showed up in recent weeks, from “The Bushie Plays” in Evanston to “W!” at the Bailiwick Arts Center. There were no anti-Kerry plays on the radar. Rick Cleveland, a writer and producer of HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” decamped for Ohio, where he worked u the election and tried to turn out a vote that did not go his way. On Broadway, as always, Bush got ridiculed eight times a week from the stages of “Avenue Q” and “Hairspray.” Bush still won the majority of the popular vote, suggesting there’s nothing more politically useful for a Republican candidate than Broadway opprobrium. Behold a strange paradox. The 2004 election turned mainly on cultural issues, as distinct from matters of economics or public policy. Yet the vast majority of those who think of themselves as cultural professionals — Mel Gibson and some like-minded others notwithstanding — found themselves firmly on the losing side. In an election that many arts people saw as being of cataclysmic importance, that clear disconnect spawned a lot of soul-searching in studios, offices, screening-rooms and theaters over the latter half of the week. Many reported they were severely depressed. Many said they just couldn’t understand what looked like a majority refutation of their core values. Many admitted they didn’t know many Republicans. In the election, both sides featured endorsements from arts figures — Ron Silver, Toby Keith and Arnold Schwarzenegger all campaigned for George W. Bush. But Kerry had far, far more vocal figures from the arts on his side than did his Republican opponent. And even though one cannot discern the precise level of artistic influence (or lack thereof) in this campaign, Kerry’s defeat adds juice to the argument that arts figures now are more of a liability than a strength for a politician. Especially a Democratic politician. The salient question now is why. And the truth might be tough for artists to swallow. “Nobody votes because a cultural figure tells them to vote,” says Curtis Gans, the director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C. “They just don’t i. persuade anyone.” “People are now sick of celebrities taking political positions,” says Darrell West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University and the author of a recent book called “Celebrity Politics.” “People tend to want them to stick to music and culture.” In other words, West argues, non Democrats are perfectly willing to tolerate Springsteen singing about the angst of a working-class guy as a part of his everyday art — even to learn from him — but are determined to tune out the moment he makes an explicit endorsement of Kerry. “There’s a difference between debating ideas and music in an and the endorsement of a particular politician,” West says. “Endorsements always are interpreted in more partisan terms. Celebrities should just write a check and shut up.” Robert L. Lynch, the president and CEO of the lobbying group Americans for the Arts, argues there’s a danger now of people getting overexcited about the apparent resentment of actors and artists getting involved in politics. People still like artists on their side. “These things are purely situational,” he said. “If someone doesn’t like what someone else is saying, they’ll use the fact that a person is an artist as put down.” Still, it feels to many that the views and the work of those in the left-leaning arts worlds of Blue America have become utterly irrelevant to much of the rest of the country. Some fear backlash time. Neal Gabler, author of “Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality,” envisions the Bush administration continuing to oppose the artistic and entertainment establishment. “What they’ve realized now is that cultural warfare 'not only , works but it triumphs — that stigmatizing, demonizing not only is a device, it is the device,” Gabler said. “It is the way to govern the country.” ■ LETTERED ; Continued from page 9 graduate English department’s literary journal, Yemassee, and also the student produced magazine Garnet and Black. The Lettered Olive is working to exclusively secure the undergraduate’s role in creative writing at USC. Saylor said she hopes that “as The Lettered Olive expands its audience and gains credibility on a broader scale, it will foster increased dialogue and exchange among young writers, increasing USC’s presence in the national undergraduate literary community.” Submissions for the spring 2005 issue of The Lettered Olive are due by Nov. 30. Both poetry and prose are accepted, with $75 and $25 prizes for the top entries. For more information on submission guidelines, visit The Lettered Olive Web site at http://web.sa.sc.edu/lolr/ or e-mail the staff at olive@gwm.sc.edu. Comments or this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu movie RBIB3SBS “The SpongeBob _ SquarePants Movie” “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” _ : “National Treasure” f Hi