THEY SAID IT
"We must get beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths ...
and tell the world the glories of our journey."
°aSe ^ JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 AUTHOR AND PROFESSOR
. .. . ■ ■ - 1 — ■ '■ 1 11 1 11 - ■- ■ --“
CD REVIEW
British
darlings
fall flat
“KASABIAN”
KASABIAN
★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By PATRICK AUGUSTINE
THE GAMECOCK
It’s hard not to do well in the
UK when NME, the Isles’ leading
music publication, goes out of its
way seemingly every month to
convince people that you’re the
next thing since Oasis to start a
new British invasion of the
American Billboard charts.
Despite wrapping itself
proudly in the seamy side of
being lads in the industrial
midlands of England, Kasabian
has managed to ride a wave of
critical praise to platinum record
sales in its home nation, and a
(barely) top-40 radio appearance
here on the other side of the
Atlantic. But if anything is clear
from its debut album, it’s that the
British press is suffering from the
Stockholm syndrome —
Kasabian is well-known for its
brash and abusive responses to
interviewers’ queries, inflating
their hype by bashing American
music as “scuzzy garage rock.”
Even their name is a roundabout
fist in the air to the establishment
that has created them, as
Kasabian is the last name of
Charles Manson’s pregnant
getaway driver.
Musically, Kasabian grew out of
‘90s British hardcore and the raves
where trance and drum ‘n’ bass got
their start as the refuge of
disaffected teens who felt they had
no stock in the pop prevalent on
the airwaves, eventually flourishing
into an entire underground
culture. While incorporating
electronica flourishes and
production into their lineup of
keyboards, drums and a dual
guitar attack, their self-titled debut
falls into the trap of being nothing
more than a derivative of previous
work, something Kasabian claims
to avoid. Locking themselves away
in an abandoned textile mill on a
farm, Kasabian synthesized the last
30 years of rock ‘n’ roll in a way
that contributes nothing more
♦ Please see KASABIAN, page 10
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Featured guest lecturer John Hope Franklin is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus
of History and former legal history professor at the Duke University School of Law.
■ Legendary historian
to share war reflections
By SHANA TILL
THE GAMECOCK
A LIVING MEMORIAL TO
the legacy of one of South
Carolina’s key African
American figures will commence
Thursday night in the form of the
Robert Smalls Lecture Series. The
event, presented by the African
American Studies program, will
feature guest lecturer John Hope
Franklin.
Cleveland Sellers, director of the
African-American Studies program,
said the Robert Smalls Lecture Series
brings some of the most renowned
scholars to USC to share their work
“Over the years, we have had some
of the most outstanding scholars come
to USC as lecturers,” Sellers said.
“The group has been diverse — all
major intellectuals and scholars in
their respective fields.”
The Robert Smalls Lecture Series,
in its eighth year, is named after the
Civil War hero who later became a
U.S. Congressman. A representative
of South Carolina during the
Reconstruction era, Smalls’
contributions to political, economic
and educational reform led the S.C.
governor to declare Feb. 22, 1976,
Robert Smalls Day.
Franklin will continue the lecture
series’ traditions with his
presentation, “Days of Infamy.
Personal Reflections on World War
II.” Considered one of the greatest
historians of blacks in American
society, Franklin uses his scholarly
work to foster political and social
change. His writing collections have
shed light on previously lesser known
areas of American history. Franklin is
the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus
of History and former legal history
professor at the Duke University
School of Law. He received his Ph.D.
and A.M. degrees from Harvard
University.
One of his first published works,
“From Slavery to Freedom: A
History of African Americans,” is
regarded as a supreme and definitive
discussion of the topic. Since its first
edition in 1947, it has been through
seven additional editions and
translated into Indian, Japanese,
German, French, Portuguese and
Chinese. Franklin also served on the
team that developed the 1954
Supreme Court decision to end legal
segregation in public schools. Before
his position at Duke, he taught at
Cambridge University as the Pitt
Professor of American History and
Institutions in 1962. In the same
year, Franklin was appointed to the
Fulbright Board of Foreign
Scholarships, of which he was chair
from 1966-69.
More recently, he was awarded the •
Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1995. The same year, Franklin
donated his professional and personal
papers to the John Hope Franklin
Research Center for African and
African-American Documentation at
Duke. In 1997, he was appointed
chair of the President’s Initiative on
Race. Throughout his career,
Franklin has delivered State
Department and U.S. Information
Service lectures in more than 30
nations.
“Dr. Franklin represents a kind of
icon in the field of history, and
certainly in the field of African
American history,” Sellers said.
Sellers also emphasized that the
Robert Smalls Lecture Series is not
just for USC students, faculty and
staff. He said he hopes the series will
reach out to the entire Columbia
community.
inwr l I 1 11
W C jptcUVUJ Li Idl VYUU1U
appeal to both USC and the
Columbia community,” Sellers said.
“The program encourages all those
who are interested in moving ofrr
communities and societies forward to
take this unique opportunity to learn
from such a great African-American
historian.”
The presentation will begin 7 p.m.
Thursday in the Belk Auditorium in
Moore Business School. A reception
will follow.
The Robert Smalls Lecture Series is
co-sponsored by the African
American Professors Program, the
USC College of Arts and Sciences, the
USC Department of Education, the
Institute of Families in Society, USC’s
Office of Multicultural Student
Affairs, Office of the USC President
and USC’s Women’s Studies
Department.
For more information, visit the
African-American Studies Web site,
http://www.cas.sc.edu/afra/2005.html.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu
MOVIE REVIEW
Robots ’ impresses with inventive animated world, bores with storyline
“ROBOTS"
★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By JENNIFER FREEMAN
THE GAMECOCK
Animated comedies and comic
book movies are the new hot ticket
in Hollywood. With animated
films, the formula is to think up a
storyline involving an underdog
character and his wacky friends
defeating a Big Bad Guy as they
perform slap-stick comedy,
overcome obstacles and end up on
an uplifting note to inspire all the
little kids in the audience sitting
next to their parents who are
laughing at the jokes that only
someone over the age of 13 could
get. They all follow this formula to
some degree, but some do it better
than others. “Robots” is one of the
better ones.
Some of Hollywood’s elite
loaned their vocal talent to 20th
Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios,
the makers of “Ice Age.” Ewan
McGregor is appropriately scrappy
as| Rodney Copperbo^tom, the
young inventor who wants a shot to
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Robots Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by Ewan McGregor),left, and Fender (Robin Williams) take a
wild ride on Robot City’s subway system, inspired by artist Rube Goldberg’s Erector Set designs.
show his invention to “the greatest
robot in the world” — the curiously
hermitic Bigweld, voiced by Mel
Brooks making his animated feature
debut. Rodney and Bigweld are
joined by an assorted cast of
colorful robots given life by Halle
Berry, ,Greg Kinnear, Amanda
Bynes, Drew Carey, Jennifer
Coolidge and the always hilarious
in-animation Robin Williams.
Williams stands out in the
crowd, using the talent that was
originally revealed as the Blue
Genie of the Lamp in Disney’s
“Aladdin.” As always, his zany
character steals the show, but the
red robot Fender tends to
overshadow the story with his one
liners and physical comedy gags.
Shining brighter than the vocal
talent is Blue Sky Studios’ amazing
animation work. Following in the
CGI footsteps of predecessors like
“Toy Story,” this film is a perfect
example of how the art' form has
evolved. At one point in the movie,
a 50-gallon drum full of ball
bearings spills, and viewers can
follow perfectly each tiny metal
sphere’s pathway.
More importantly than the
minute details, the entire world
flows together so perfectly it
seems like it really must exist and
the animators just copied it. The
scenery of Rivet City and Robot
City has a 1950s futuristic
quality. The subway system is an
intricate combination of tunnels,
slingshots and other apparatuses
that would make Rube Goldberg
proud and any former Erector Set
owner jealous.
in a news release, director i^nris
Wedge said, “It (is a) totally
created world. Meaning, of course,
we realized that we would have to
invent everything. It’s not a movie
set in the ice age, or about insects
or fish. There were no reference
points we could draw from.”
More so than the Academy
Award-winning actors voicing the
robots, the film’s allure is in the
elaborate scenery and the care
taken in crafting this alternate
world. Everything in these
mechanical cities are robots with
personalities. Rodney’s own father
is a dishwasher in a local diner.
Instead of washing the grease and
oil-encrusted dishes (what did you
think robots ate — pancakes?) in a
sink, he loads them into his chest
cavity, as he has been fitted with
dishwashing parts. Even the fire
hydrant, voiced by Jay Leno, has a
distinct personality, warning the
robo-dog, “Don’t even think
about it.”
inis animated mm nas a good
story, interesting characters and
visually stunning animation.
Nothing stands out in the movie as
being displeasing, but it definitely
doesn’t have the magical quality
that makes a classic like “The Little
Mermaid,” “Aladdin” or even the
more recent “Shrek” and “Finding
Nemo.” “Robots” is an enjoyable
children’s movie that parents
won’t mind sitting through. If you
can get to an IMAX theater, the
experience is supposed to be
amazing with the new animation
technology, but if you were
planning on going to Dutch
Square to see this movie, save your
money and wait for it on DVD.
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ga7nec0ckfeatures@gwm.sc. edu