?sday • February 10, 1998
The Battalion
r C|i Ca 8 P? L S*
By James Francis
WjMggielife editor
not Cary Grant. There is no
[ ra r serted landscape where a
ineican come from nowhere
:haSe him down the road,
moireover, Alfred Hitchcock
Dthing to do with this event.
ST'e title, however, North By
.C igate Music Festival, might
1 a bit related to the classic
'Jorth by Northwest, or even
sst Austin music celebration,
i By Southwest,
t let it be known, the up-
lucat ng music extravaganza
ledjfor March 27 and 28 will
• ie first of its kind for the
iMar, a&M University and Col-
192^ itation population.
e two-day music festival is
ucat lules to host over 30 bands
Id " across the United States, and
psibi ompters expect it to attract
I lot al thousand participants.
iEdi r an event of this size, five
igafe venues (Shadow
on, Fitzwilly’s outside,
I'Chir; 'illy,s upstairs, the Cow Hop
he Crooked Path Ale House)
dy have been selected and
Jneeniations are in the works to
Igioci ve two more.
Kepter those individuals who plan
|intake part in the festival, both
night and two-night access
bands will be made available,
at behind all the planning,
people would wonder how
vent ever came to be in the
stage that it is today.
Nathan McFall, event coordina
tor and a senior environmental
science major, said the idea of
North By Northgate came to him
while attending the Austin festival.
“It originated at South By
Southwest,” he said. “I volun
teered at their conference and
thought we could do this [the fes
tival] in College Station.”
So plans started brewing, and
soon enough, the music festival
became a reality.
“I put together a formal pro
posal,” McFall said, “and then we
ran with it.”
As event coordinator, McFall
said his job is to “cross the t’s and
dot the i’s.”
“A lot of people say I’m the man
behind the train, the power behind
it,” he said. “I’m there to make sure
everything gets done to make sure
its an organized festival.”
Because the event will be held
in Northgate venues, McFall said
it should be especially beneficial
to them.
“I think it will be great for them,”
he said. “All it can do, assuming it
goes well, is help their businesses.”
Sponsors of the event, such as the
city of College Station, members
from radio stations KHLR 103.9 FM
and KTSR 92.1 FM and the Northgate
Merchants Association, are making
arrangements to have a Thursday-
night preshow on the promenade
being constr ucted behind Northgate.
The purpose of the preshow would
be to get people ready for the two
main days of the festival; it would be
a means to let people know there is
more music to follow.
“The plan is to have an outside-
promenade free show to kick
things off,” McFall said, “and get
people excited about what’s about
to happen.”
McFall said another focus of the
festival is to have bands that are
not overexposed perform.
“We’re trying to get a band that
doesn’t come around here a lot,
but [a band] everybody would be
excited about,” he said. “I want
people to come away and say, T
saw such-and-such band and
they rocked.’”
Although some people might
still consider North By Northgate to
be a mirror of South By Southwest,
McFall said the Austin festival is
great, but there are differences.
“It’s nothing like the Austin fes
tival,” he said. “It’s nowhere near
the size and doesn’t have the film
aspect. I don’t have a problem
when people compare them.”
With plans still being finalized,
the organizers of the festival said
they are hoping everything goes
without a hitch.
Please see Northgate on Page 4.
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TJalentine \s should6e spent
with family, not significant others
Towery
staff writer
I do not have psychic pow
ers, but I already know
that this week, I will see
enough hearts and flowers to
make me puke.
No, I’m not one of those
desperate, lonely and bitter
girls who complains about
Valentine’s Day because I
don’t have a dozen roses on
my kitchen table. I’ve had a
dozen roses before, and I
found that they were ab
solutely useless. I mean, if someone wants to
spend $50 on me, I’d prefer
receiving something that
performs some kind of
function. Why don’t
people buy each
other books or
CDs for Valen
tine’s Day? In
stead, they
waste money on
something that
dies before the
weekend is over.
Instead of buy
ing me jewelry, pay
my rent. I’d rather be
able to live comfort
ably than have a gold
necklace to wear on the
many occasions that I attend
the opera.
It also does not makes sense
that a day is set aside to celebrate love.
And yet some people spend this day with
a boyfriend or girlfriend. Forget that — I
love my parents and my sister and would
rather spend my time and money doing some
thing for them than for some guy who will take
me to dinner.
Besides, I honestly don’t have time for a
boyfriend. I don’t have time to do my laundry. I
don’t have time to eat anything that can’t be mi
crowaved. The ideal date for me is a good book
and a cup of coffee. And I’ve found that a book
doesn’t lie about calling me the next day. A book
doesn’t care if it sees me with no makeup on and
my hair in a ponytail. And I can make the first
move with a book without being labeled a liber
al, free-thinking stalker. In fact, books want me
to make the first move.
I think ifValentine’s Day is going to be about
love, it should be centered on the family, be
cause our family members usually love us no
matter what. They don’t cheat on us with better
looking families. They don’t go out of town with
out calling. Families represent love much more
than a “significant other.”
Several years ago, my father gave me the
charming nickname “Ape.” Hopefully, it wasn’t
because I reminded him of a hairy gorilla. To re
iterate his love for me, he gives me a stuffed ape
for Valentine’s Day every year. Yes, it’s cheesy,
but it means more to me than roses and choco
late ever could.
I think females are raised to believe
that if they don’t have a
date for Valentine’s
Day, they are useless
human beings who
will grow up to
be old maids
and never get
married be
cause they have
the dreaded
curse — a good
personality.
Why is it that
having a good
personality con
notates ugliness? A
good personality
should be something
everyone wants to have,
yet it’s embarrassing when
someone says you have one.
I think I’d rather make people
laugh and be able to carry on a
worthwhile conversation about re
ligion or world hunger than be a
size six, blonde-haired blue-eyed
model, although it would be nice to get
the attention those perfect model-types get. But
just for a day or two. After that, I’d go back to the
good personality.
And why is it that guys will not be sitting
around wearing all black and listening to Alanis
Morrissette on Saturday night because they
don’t have dates? Because they don’t care. It’s
girls who feel the overwhelming need to get
married. And they are so afraid that if they are
21-years-old and don’t have a Valentine, that
must mean they never will. Okay, get over it. Big
deal. Go out with your friends and the people
who think you have a good personality.
Please see Valentine’s on Page 4.
Sergei Nakariakov, trumpet, age 19
...with prodigy trumpeter Sergei
Nakariakov and 35 of his closest
musician friends.
Join Mr. Nakariakov and the
Prague Chamber Orchestra for an
evening of dynamic music on
February 11 in Rudder Auditorium.
Performing the works of Bach,
Mozart, Shostakovich and
Stravinsky, Mr. Nakariakov and
pianist Valentina Lisitsa will be
featured as soloists during the
musical evening.
February 11 at 8 PM
Rudder Auditorium
Call 845-1234
•<
W’WfmA
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( sc
•PAS
Opera & Performing Arts Society
The mew York Times called
the Prague Chamber Orchestra,
3S A superlative ensemble."