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This Day In USC History August 19, 1971 - Blossom St. Garage opened, adding 573 parking spaces to the university. On the road again • A Gamecock staffer chronicles her trip from her home in Connecticut back to USC. by Ann Marie Miani Assistant Features Editor It’s time to go buck to school. So, what does that mean for the students at USC? Classes, homework, studying and more. But before any of this begins, the students have to get to USC. I’m from Connecticut, which is about 800 miles from Columbia, and I was one of the unfortunate ones who had to make the trek back to school in a car. To make the best of a bad situation, I chroni cled my trip back to USC so I could let everyone know what the long trip was like. To begin my story. I’ll start with packing. .. „. . i jum iimsiiuu poLMJig my him MJiiuoe, cuiu uitJie ib bun mum more to be done. I think the hardest part of packing is trying to decide what to bring and what to leave at home. Also, coming from the North going to the South, there’s quite a temperature difference. For example, in Connecticut the temperatures are usually in the 30s by Thanksgiving, and sometimes it snows. But in South Carolina (last year, anyway) it was warm and sunny. I still have to pack more clothes, CDs, movies, pictures and other miscellaneous items. A1 <9,1999: Packing is finally complete, after much arguing with my mother over what I needed to pack. I spoke to my roommate this afternoon, and we discussed who is bringing what and just talked for a while. It was great to hear from her, and I can’t wait to see her again. 1 am I just said good-bye to my best friend. It was very hard to say good-bye to her because she is the only person I trust enough to tell everything. This is the second time we had to say good-bye to each other, and both times we cried. 1 think the hardest part about leaving for school in a different part of the country is saying good-bye to close friends. Even though the separation is only temporary, it’s still very difficult. 6am. Alter a very restful four hours of sleep, we are leaving for South Carolina in just a few minutes. My father has to finish packing the truck and make sure that my car is safely hitched to the back. The LeBaron is packed with boxes and is being used as a trailer. 1 am sad to leave my friends and family, but I am also excited to get back to school and see everyone there again. This day has been filled with mixed emotions. 9:20 am We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in New Jersey for breakfast and also stopped for gas. I’ve been sleeping up until now, so 1 don’t think anything exciting has happened. 11:15 am Our first traffic jam of the trip. We are somewhere in Pennsylvania. We have been stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, -and all because a lane was closed. This is definitely the worst part of traveling anywhere by car. 2:30 pm We are now somewhere in Virginia, and I just woke up from another very restful nap. The bad part about not driving on a long road trip is that there is a lot of time and nothing to do, so I might as well sleep. We stopped to stretch and get more gas. The truck is avenging 12 miles to the gallon (which my dad says is okay for pulling 3,000 pounds). 6:28 pm We have hit the 12-hour mark, and we have run into another traffic jam. We are at the Virginia/North Carolina border. 8:30 pin. We are in southern North Carolina and have just stopped for din ner and gas. This has been the worst trip ever! 9:23 p.m. We just crossed the South Carolina border, and what do we get as a welcome? More traffic! We still have another two hours of dri ving ahead of us. Oh yeah. 11:30 p.m. We have just entered Columbia and are on our way to the hotel for a welcome sleep. All three of us are dead tired. We were on the road for a total of 17 1/2 hours, but we made it in one day. For most of the drive, we talked dbout random tilings, reminiscing, and, of course, sleeping. We move into the dorm tomorrow, and then a whole new adventure begins — unpacking. Ann Marie Miani the gamecock Gamecock assistant features editor Ann Marie Miani and her parents \ travel down Route 81 heading back to school in Columbia on August 13. Campus Notes Auditions for Theatre South Carolina to be held Additional auditions for USC's fall pro duction of Shakespeare's “Much Ado About Nothing” and Anthony Clarvoe's “The Living” will be held at 7 p.m. today in Longstreet Theatre. For more infor mation, call Tim Donahue at 777-9353. Registration to be held for USC String Project The USC String Project, a national model for the teaching of string instruments to third- and fourth-grade students, will hold its annual registration meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at the USC School of Music Recital Hall. The USC String Pro ject offers instruction in violin, viola, cel lo and bass. Parents must be present with their children at the Aug. 31 registration. Enrollment is limited, and there is no preregistration. For more information about the USC String Project, call the School of Music at 777-9568 School of Music to offer lessons The School of Music is holding registra tion through Sept. 1 for its Preparatory Music Program for children and adults. Classes are held each week after school, evenings and on the weekends, and are held in the School of Music building, next to the Koger Center for the Arts on Assembly Street. To register, call Sandy Janiskee at the School of Music at 777 4281. Ballroom dancing lessons to be offered The Greater Columbia Chapter of the U.S. Amateur Ballroom Dancers Associ ation is sponsoring dance workshops for National Ballroom Month. Lessons in the fox trot will be held Sept. 11; the waltz, September 18; the rumba, Oct. 2; and the cha-cha, Oct. 16. Workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Hugh Dim mery Memorial Center in West Colum bia. Each workshop is $8. Casual dress and comfortable leather-soled shoes are recommended. For more information, call Jeane Mader at 791-8336 or Sheila Brown at 781-8114. The USABDA is al so holding its monthly dance, “Bright, Hot Nights,” from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Hugh Dimmery Memorial Cen ter. Admission is $3 for students, $4 for members and $7 for non-members. White clothing is required, and singles are welcome. Briefs for Campus Notes can be submit ted to Russell House 333. Submissions must include a contact name and a phone number. Wal-Mart proves to be a college shopper's paradise by Rachel Helwig Features Editor Saks Fifth Avenue, Pier One Imports, The Pottery Bam and ... Wal Mart? For many college students, Wal-Mart is the place to go for fur nishing everything from their dorm room to their kitchen cabinets. With two Wal-Mart Super Centers located so close to campus, USC stu dents don’t have far to travel to stock up on college-life staples like microwaves, mattress pads and, of course, Ramen noodles. Lisa Parker, a junior who lives in Woodrow, loves Wal-Mart so much that if you try to reach her and she’s not at home, you’ll hear a message that says, “You’ve reached Lisa Parker. If I’m not here right now, I’m probably at Wal-Mart.” According to Parker, “Everyone goes to Wal-Mart. It’s the easiest place to get everything you need. It’s definitely an important part of a col lege person’s life.” Like life for many other Wal-Mart fans, many hours of Parker’s week are spent perusing the store for the best deals. Parker makes it a habit to go to Wal-Mart “at least three or four times a week,” and she has spent up to four hours in the store on one trip. For Parker, it’s the huge selection and low prices that invoke her love tor tne store, that leans her to buy everything from music and magazines to pots and pans there. “Right now ,I’m buying food, but 1 buy almost everything there,” Parker said. “I just spent $200 on pans for my apart ment.” Parker’s affinity for Wal-Mart is not diminished by the onslaught of newer department stores like K-Mart and Target, which just don’t hold the same appeal. “Yeah, some of the other stores like Target may have higher quality products, but they also have higher prices, and that’s just not in niv budget right now,” Parker said. Wal-Mart is such a popular place among other college students that the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha sponsors rides to the store during Welcome Week to allow freshmen the opportu nity to stock up on college essentials. Paul Streater, assistant manager at the Wal-Mart Super Center on Forest Drive, said the back-to-school season means more sales of refrigerators, microwaves and beanbag chairs for the store. “Our business increases about 15 to 20 percent during this season,” Streater said. While shoppers include many high school and elementary school students, “lately, we’ve been seeing more college students around buying things like Yaffa blocks and refrigerators,” Streater said. Streater said she believes that stu WAL-MART SEE PAGE 9 Sean Rayford photo editor Business junior Mike Brown shops for school supplies Wednesday at the Wal-Mart on Forest Drive. mmmwmvmm i ? hi i_ i Pavement's new album a lo-fi masterpiece by Jaime Holguin Associated Press NEW YORK — While Pavement’s new album “Terror Twilight’’ won’t likely bring it superstar sta tus, the album is certainly the inconspicuous band’s most serious attempt to cultivate its fragmented and “low-fi” approach to music. “We had done all these other records just kind of haphazardly. ... An out-of-time drum take here or an out-of-tune guitar there,” said guitarist Scott Kannberg in an inter view during Pavement’s summer tour. For “Terror Twilight,” the band decided to “spend a few more bucks,” Kannberg said, to make sure there would be no mistakes to regret later. Producer Nigel Godrich, who has worked with R.E.M., Beck and Radiohead, was brought in to help shape the band’s indiscriminate sound. “We weren’t looking for some thing radio-friendly or MTV-friend ly, just a sound with a little more cohesiveness and better in a classic rock way,” Kannberg said. Working with an outside pro ducer for the first time presented some awkward moments in the stu dio for the usually self-reliant band. For example, while working on the album’s closing sequence, Godrich “tried to push his produc er power on us and we were like ‘nope,’” Kannberg said. “It was totally noncommercial. He had slow songs first and the pop songs at the very end. That’s fine, but 1 don’t want it to be boring.” Pavement’s attention to detail on “Terror Twilight” runs con trary to the band’s previous disdain for improvement or accessibility. “Part of the Pavement mystique is this band that doesn’t really know how to play its instruments and is kind of stumbling along through its songs,” Kannberg said. After a decade together, “we’re still that way, but at least we have gotten more proficient on our instruments.” Until now, the band has been hesitant to fully expose its knack for writing engaging and lyrically smart pop songs, choosing to bury its catchy melodies beneath layers of dissonance, unusual chord pro gressions and off-key singing. Although Pavement seems will ing to take its profile to a higher level, “Steve would never go on television and aci Jike a rock star,” said Kannberg, referring to singer Stephen Malkmus. Kannberg and Malkmus got together in Stockton, Calif., in 1988. They released a series of self produced EPs, which eventually led to a debut album on the indepen dent Matador Records label in 1992. Wary of allowing tjjeir ‘We weren’t looking for something radio-friend ly or MTV-friendly, just a sound with a little more cohesiveness and better in a classic rock way.’ Scott Kannberg guitarist for Pavement “musical project” to graduate to a band, they kept their identities hid den behind their respective aliases, Spiral Stairs and S.M. Pavement was well-received by the alternative music press, which dubbed the music “low-fi.” Success remains Pavement’s own private joke. The band has a reputa tion for snubbing the media, musi cal contemporaries and opportuni ties for mainstream acceptance. While the band has had opportu nities to capitalize on its under ground popularity, Pavement has always fallen short because Kannbetg and Malkmus just never tried very hard. “It’s all luck and the amount of work you put in,” Kannbetg said. “The Smashing Pumpkins are will PAVEMENT SEE PAGE ^