The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 24, 2000, Image 3

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    Friday, Mu
Big Evi
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AGGIELIFE
Iriday, March 24. 2000
THE BATTALION
Page 3
evond
ggieCondl
A&M with special guests
Harlin Ellison y Terry Prachett
BY JUAN LOYA
The Battalion
n eclectic collection of activities is ap
proaching Aggieland this week — namely
AggieCon31, MSC Cepheid Variable’s an-
ilial science fiction, fantasy and horror convention.
“We include everything from literature to comic
woks, television to movies,” said Michael Crocker,
lirector of AggieCon and a senior English major.
While last year’s convention had media person
alities, such as Ted Raimi (“Xena,” “Hercules”) and
Nigel Bennett (Harrison Bergeron), as guests, this
It their platforms year’s AggieCon has more literary-theme.
The guests of honor include writers Terry
Pratchett and Harlan Ellison. Ellison, writer of sev
eral award-winning short stories and novels, will be
attending AggieCon for the third time.
In addition to the standard discussion and auto
graph sessions, EIJison will participate in a Texas
Cage Match, which varies significantly from the
standard question-and-answer session.
“We got the name [Texas Cage Match] of the
panel from professional wrestling, which some my
officers are aficionados of,” Crocker said.
“The Texas Cage Match is a panel discussion
whatever topic happens to crop up at the time,”
Crocker said. "It will be styled in such a way that
Harlan Ellison will be on the panel for the full time,
while the rest of the panel will consist of whatev
er other guest decides to sit and discuss the topic
with him.”
“Anyone who watches ‘Politically Incorrect’ on
aregular basis wall recognize Harlan Ellison,” said
Stephanie Smith, public relations director for Ag
gieCon and a recent Texas A&M Graduate. “He’s
frequent guest, and they like to invite him back
lecausehe’s such a forceful personality.”
Ellison and Pratchett are two of sci-fi/fantasy’s
ms campus. fCsenbujLgg estnameS) anc j t ] ie j r wor | < j s w jdely read by au
diences beyond the genre.
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of the 20th century by the L.A. Post, and Terry
ratchett was recently revealed [by the British Book
iral greeks put on every yalrack] to be the most popular English author ever,
ated ahead of [J.R.R.] Tolkien, [Charles] Dickens,
ind [William] Shakespeare,” Crocker said.
In Britain, Pratchett is the decade’s best-selling
living fiction author, with more than 10.5 million
ales during the 1990’s. In addition to writing the
popular Discworld series, he collaborated with
award-winning writer Neil Gaiman on the novel
Good Omens, which is being made into a film by
(lirector Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, Fear and
loathing in Las Vegas).
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Sci-fi and fantasy artists are also well repre
sented at this year’s convention. Among them is
Tim Bradstreet, whose work has been seen in com
ic books such as “Vampire: the Masquerade” and
“The Crow: City of Angels.”
And as ever, AggieCon offers a wide variety of
panels and events to participate in.
“1 feel we have at least something for everyone,”
Crocker said. “We are having a police equipment
demonstration on Saturday, a children’s reading by
one of our guests. Also, many of the panels with our
author guests deal with writing fiction [and some
times non-fiction] in general.”
Guest author Thomas W. Knowles, in addition
to the writing several western novels, recently
wrote They Rode For The Lone Star, a book detail
ing the history of the Texas Rangers. He is partici
pating in three panels, including “Writing as a Ca
reer” and “Weird Wild West”.
Also on the panel agenda are discussions such
as “Star Wars: Same Old Hype?” and “Wicca 101.”
Pratchett leads the panel “Humor in Writing”
on Friday.
“Terry is known for his humor in his work,”
Crocker said. “Everything he writes has an almost
tongue-in-cheek style to it. He will be discussing how
he accomplishes this feel from book to book and has
maintained it through over 30 books in publication.”
Smith said there have been few changes made
to this year’s Aggiecon program.
“There are a few more discussion panels than
last year, generally Q&A sessions between guests
and the audience,” Smith said. “In past years we’ve
had large events or demonstrations that took up
more time — we held a wedding last year on Fri
day afternoon — so this year we have a bit more
time for our regular panel sessions.”
Though there are no vows being exchanged this
year, there are still plenty of special events taking
place, including a costume contest on Saturday
evening, a masquerade ball (with D.1 Radio Free
Oz) and a Saturday performance of The Rocky Hor
ror Picture Show.
AggieCon is also sponsoring a charity auction
benefiting Scotty’s House, a non-profit child advo
cacy center in Bryan-College Station.
Last year’s AggieCon raised more than $2,100
and the convention’s sponsors hope to surpass that
amount this year.
AggieCon runs through Sunday, and the events
taking place are many. Additional information on
the convention is available at
http://cepheid.tamu.edu/aggiecon.
Romeo Must Die
Starring Jet Li and Russell
Wong
Directed by Andrzej
Bartkowiak
Chief
Photo Editor
toto Editor
ecek, Graphics Editor
ina, Graphics Editor
Night News Editor
hoff. Radio Producer
Ton, Web Editor
, Science & Technolog}’
While extremely entertaining and
packed with amazing action scenes,
Romeo Must Die falls short of what it
could have been — an action classic.
Featuring Hong Kong action sensa
tion Jet Li in his first American, lead
ing role, this movie is full of beautiful
ly choreographed fight scenes.
However, the script for this story does
do justice to Li’s acting talents.
Han (Li) is an ex-cop who breaks
; of a Hong Kong prison when he
n? learns of his brother’s death in Ameri
ca. Han travels to America where he
ei Ruenes, Eric Andraosjeffi#! finds himself in the middle of a war be
tween his father and a gangster played
by Delroy Lindo.
Though the premise has great po
tential, it is obvious that the screen
writers lost track of the human element
of the story by introducing a slew of
side stories that go nowhere.
The cinematography by Andrzej
Bartkowiak, in his directorial debut,
makes the story take a back seat.
Bartkowiak infuses the action scenes
with great energy, using rapid-fire edit-
mgand a barrage of constantly moving
Jcamera shots.
'ages, Bradley Atchison,
lallie Turner, Patric Schneider,!'
h 0’ Farrell, Melissa Sackett,®'
rson, Richard Horne, David SpsO®
ill, & Sean Gillespie,
istant: Cristina Padron; BethAI#--
arrie Bennett, Marc Grether.Kitf*;
elissa Mancie, Jamie Morris SIW*
it: Non! Sridhara; Whitney SW*
'an Locker, Almudena Alba,CW 1 '
tt.
Brent Barkley.
oioGV - Scott Jenkins & Vola*! 1
n the Division of Student Haft
in phone: 845-3313; Far:
attalion. For campus, local, and
in 015 Reed McDonald, andift**"'
ip a single copy of The Battato^
emesterand $17.50 forthesm'*'-
Jet Li finds himself outgunned Romeo Must Die.
all and spring semesters and #'
as A&M University. Periodicals^
eed McDonald Buildin^IeiasA’^
However, having viewed what Li is
capable of in some of his Hong Kong
films, one almost wishes that
Bartkowiak would have let Li’s amaz
ing acrobatics propel the fight scenes
rather than relying on flashy camera
tricks.
But one camera trick that does work
well in the film is similar to the tech
nique used by David O. Russell in
Three Kings.
In the middle of a fight scene, the
picture suddenly cuts to a digital image
of a person’s skeleton and then shows
a bone being broken as it is hit.
Russell did nearly the same thing by
showing the bullets actually entering
the body and lodging in various organs
in Three Kings.
In both films, this clever shot
heightens the fight’s intensity.
One just gets the feeling while
watching this that everyone involved
sold the film a little slrort.
The movie looks great, but rather
than being a lean hour and a half, it tries
to pretend it has some elements of dra
ma and was stretched out to two hours
— making the audience feel that a lot
of that time was wasted.
It is obvious that the director and
producers intended this to just be an en
tertaining popcorn-fare, and that is ex
actly what it is.
The action is fast and furious and
there it a lot of it — fights occur about
once every 10 minutes or so.
Unfortunately, Romeo Must Die
teeters on the brink of greatness but
falls short of the goal. (Grade: C+)
— Matt McCormick
DION
Celine Dion sings
at LPGA golf tour
PALM SPRINGS,
Calif. (AP) — Celine
Dion came out of
retirement long
enough to sing five
songs for fellow
golf enthusiasts.
“I’m nervous. 1
haven’t trained,’’
she told about
1,000 people at
tending a dinner Wednesday night for
the LPGA Nabisco Championship
tournament. She and husband Rene
Angelil played in the event earlier in
the day.
Dion’s performance at the Palm
Springs Convention Center was her
first since a farewell concert on New
Year’s Eve in Montreal. She began a
two-year hiatus in January.
Dion, 31, has a new look — a su
per-short blond haircut. Singing to
pre-recorded music, she did a version
of Frank Sinatra’s “All The Way,” with
Sinatra’s voice accompanying her.
1/atef will open
Cannes festival
PARIS (AP) — Vate/, starring Ger
ard Depardieu and Uma Thurman,
will open the Cannes Film Festival
this year, organizers said Thursday.
The film,-a period movie in English
about the Duke of Conde’s valet, was
made by British director Roland Joffe
and will have its world premiere May
10. It isn’t up for competition. Joffe’s
film The Mission took the coveted
Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1986.
French actress Virginie Ledoyen,
who starred with Leonardo DiCaprio
in The Beach, will be the master of
ceremonies.
Also on Cannes’ first night, French
New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard
RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
People in the News
will present a 12 minute film essay
that recounts the 20th century
through his eyes.
Alex Trebek sued
by airline security
TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — An air
line security employee has filed a law
suit against Alex Trebek over an al
leged flap last year at Los Angeles
International Airport.
Marlene Andrade, 31, of
Flawthorne, claims that the 59-year-
old “Jeopardy!" game show host tried
to get an oversized bag past her Unit
ed Airlines security gate last May.
She contends that Trebek be
came upset when she asked him to
put the bag on a conveyor belt that
has a metal guard at its mouth to
cheek bag sizes.
Trebek lifted the metal template
as if he had the same privileges as
airline employees, and slammed it
on her hand when she intervened,
Andrade said in papers filed Monday
in Superior Court.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified
damages. Trebek had no comment.
Speilberg starts
new film Website
LOS ANGELES
(AP) — Calling all
filmmakers: Steven
Spielberg and Ron
Flo ward want to
see your work.
The directors
are launching a
short-film Website
this spring called
Pop.com and said Wednesday they
plan an Internet movie showcase,
Popfest.
The films that earn the best grades
from Internet users will be reviewed by
HARRELSON
SPIELBERG
Pop.com’s partners, including Spielberg,
his DreamWorks co-founders Jeffrey
Katzenberg and David Geffen, Ron
Howard and Brian Grazer.
Some of the filmmakers could be
offered production deals with Dream
Works, Imagine or Pop.com. Film
makers can submit movies up to 30
minutes long.
Harrelson denied
state court appeal
FRANKFORT,
Ky. (AP) — Woody
Harrelson’s mari
juana possession
case is back to a
county court now
after losing a
state Supreme
Court appeal.
Harrelson plant
ed four hemp seeds in 1996, know
ing he would be arrested, so he could
challenge a Kentucky law outlawing
possession of any part of the
cannabis plant.
Through three different courts,
Harrelson has argued the statute is
unconstitutional because it doesn’t
distinguish between marijuana and
hemp, which contains only minute
amounts of THC.
The state's high court ruled Thurs
day there’s no difference between the
two. “The mere fact that hemp may
contain less THC than marijuana is
of no consequence,” Justice Donald
Wintersheimer wrote.
The misdemeanor carries a po
tential fine and little possibility for
jail time.
Harrelson, 38, has invested in a
hemp clothing company and touts
hemp’s potential for saving trees. He
has argued that if paper manufac
turers used hemp instead of trees to
make paper, there would be no need
to cut down the nation’s forests.