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The Gamecock SWING Amy Goulding The Gamecock Freshman Lauren Schulze and Senior Rob lanuaro swing dance at Wednesday night in the Russell House ballroom. Schulze has been swing dancing for about a year and lanuaro has been dancing for a little over a year. The event was sponsored by Carolina Productions, the Reformed University Fellowship, and other campus ministries. Motherload from page 7 Southeast, Motherload is set to become a national act. Therefore, not only will Saturday’s show allow rock fans to witness truly diverse and gifted bands such as Mass Connection and Motherload, but it may also be the last time you can catch them before they move on to bigger things. Motherload and Mass Connection are scheduled to play 10 p.m. Saturday at the Elbow Room. For more in formation about the show, check out www.motherload music.com or call the Elbow Room at 771-1502. The spotlight desk can be reached at gamecockspotlight@hotinail.com. Share your story ideas with The Gamecock. gamecockeditor@hotmail.com or call 777-3913 Students buying more supplies online by John Bailey The Gamecock Every fall semester, students return to school in droves ready to shop till they drop to prepare themselves for the impending school year. However, the number of students avoiding waiting in line in many dif ferent stores for their supplies is in creasing, as a projected 4.5 million stu dents will buy some or all of their supplies online, spending 1.3 billion dollars on the Internet. This total is more than double the amount spent in 1999, according to a report by Student Monitor and Jupiter Communications. “College students represent the largest segment of the online popula tion,” the report said. “Today, 90 per cent of all college students are online... this number is expected to reach 95 percent by year 2003.” While, in previous years, USC stu dents might have chosen to drive out to Harbison Boulevard to find most of their yearly supplies and stores in one place, some are now choosing to stay home, logon, and surf the web until they find what they want. Students can find discounted prices, large selection and a wide variety of stores and sellers when purchasing on line. All of these are contributing fac tors to the increase in online buying. The trend might not be surprising to some. Most dorm rooms on campus have data jacks available. Students are able to register for classes and take care of other university business online. It’s even possible to shop for and reserve text books on the Internet. However, online purchases go far beyond just textbooks. According to a study by the National Association of College Stores, music is the most pop ular item among students, followed by general books and tickets. Textbooks ranked sixth. Most major companies and stores now have their own websites, and many of them offer online ordering options. Chains ranging from Home Depot and Office Depot to The Gap can be found almost as simply as tagging “dot com” on to the end of the store name. For in stance, the K-mart superstore chain has a website, www.bluelight.com, featur ing K-marts sales and specials for the day. Some websites have designed them selves specifically to help would-be stu dent shoppers with their online pur chasing decisions. Studentmarket.com, founded in 1995, is one such service. “Based on our research and personal experiences, we discovered that stu dents desire a safe shopping environ ment geared towards their needs and wants,” said Oren Milgram, Director of Student Services at Studentmar ket.com. Ranked as the number two “es sential dorm stuff’ site in the May 2000 issue of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, as well as being cited in the Wall Street Journal, Studentmarket.com seems to have proven itself a student-friendly site. Service-oriented sites like Stu dentmarket.com help provide a posi tive and safe perception of online shop ping, though there remains some issues of privacy and security about buying online. But the current trends drive experts such as Jupiter Communications to pre dict students will spend more than 4 billion dollars by 2002, more than 3 times the amount of the 2000 figure. The spotlight desk can be reached at gamecockspotiight@hotmaiLcom. Amy Goulding The Gamecock Kiana Rose works on a computer at the Thomas Cooper Library. More students are buying products online. L _ .. _ _ '"n \ Why is TIAA-CREF the #1 choice nationwide? The TIAA-CREF ife formation Advantage. T Year in and year out, employees at education and research institutions have turned to TIAA-CREF. And for good reasons. • Easy diversification among a range of expertly managed funds • A sohd history of performance and exceptional persona) service • A strong commitment to low expenses • Plus, a full range of flexible retirement income options . For decades, TIAA-CREF has helped professors and staff at over 9,000 campuses across the country invest for— and enjoy—successful retirements. Choosing your retirement plan provider is simple. Go with the leader: TIAA-CREF. THE TIAA-CREF | ADVANTAGE Investment Expertise Low Expenses Customized Payment Options Expert Guidance n Ensuring the future 1.800.842.2776 for those who shape it.u -; www.tiaa-cref.org For more complete information on our securities products, please call 1 800 842 2733, ext 5509, to request prospectuses. Read them carefully before you invest. • TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc distributes the CREF and TIAA Real Estate variable annuities • Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc distributes the Personal Annuities variable annuity component, mutual funds and tuition savings agreements. • TIAA and TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York, NY, issue insurance and annuities • TIAA-CREF Trust Company, FSB provides trust services. • Investment products are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not bank guaranteed. © 2000 TIAA-CREF 08/03 .. ■ .. Fling from page 7 CD, “Bull in a China Shop”. The band played a steady stream of mellow rock, including new songs “Damsel in Her Dress” and “Venom in My System”, but the group also veered into heavier songs, balancing their style. Fling also covered “Lola,” by The Kinks and “Everything is Fine,” by Radiohead. “The great thing about our music is we can play anything from hard rock to softer ballads,” Young said. “Mellow rock is my personal style, but our band tries to give a diverse blend of pop rock and mix it up as much as possible.” Focusing more on their lead singer’s high baritone and instruments, Fling offered viewers a plethora of retro rock songs along with heavier tones to please any diverse college crowd. While Young may not be Geoige Michaels, after belting out lines of “Faith,” his vocal tone has intense clar ity and the back-ups by Touzel and Jag ger make the band more harmonious to their music. Cleland also kept the band in check, keeping the rhythm steady and singers on track. The band said they’re pleased with the reaction from the crowd, which was more than 40 people, and their newest CD. Fling was formed in 1994 by Young and Touzel in Georgetown, S.C. The band was then called Junction 51 and played in the Myrtle Beach area. Fling moved to Columbia in 1997 and defined their sound as a mix of rock, pop and ballads. Junction 51 changed their name to The Speakeasies in 1998. They have performed with bands such as Nine Days, Jagged Egde and The Glands. “We just hope to build a local fol lowing and promote our new CD right now,” Touzel said. Jagger said that Fling accomplished a lot with the CD in a short period of time. “We only spent two days in the stu dio recording and one day mixing and mastering. We accomplished a lot with the time and money we had,” Jagger said. Fling recently returned from New Jer sey, where they spent the summer. “That was the time we focused more on our sound. We got a lot of practic ing done,” Cleland said. The band plans on concentrating on their Columbia fans for the moment, although a tentative tour of the Mid west is planned for May. “It’s different playing in front of people you don’t know. You have more leeway because they don’t know you and don’t have any expectations,” Cle land said. The band will have a release party for “View from the Valley” at the El bow Room Sept. 28. People, who show The spotlight desk can be reached at gamecocks potJight@hotmail.com. SAMIAM succesful in indie return by Erin O’Neal The Gamecock & ☆ •& OUT OF * ft * ☆ SAMIAM Astray Hopeless Records Sam they' are, but despite the ti tle of their latest album, astray they are not. Back from a short-lived stint on Atlantic Records, this California five has found a home back in Indie arms. The album gets off to an ag gressive start with “Sunshine,” and progressively mellows as it winds down. However, this particular track isn’t filled with heavenly rays of light and fluffy clouds as the title would suggest, but rather a brilliant mixture of pounding drums, piercing guitar, and painfully expressive vocals with a touch of the edgy baritone typical of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. The in tensity of the lyrics - aggressive, an guished, bitter, pensive - adds to the force of the delivery and capti vates listeners, stirring them into an animated frenzy. Samiam strikes a cord with its audience, and with their sound varying from the post-”Dook ie,” Green Day sound of “Paraffin” to what could pass for a Superdrag riff in “Mexico,” no one is exclud ed. Check out Samiam live at the New Brookland Tavern on Wednesday, Sep tember 6th. The spotlight desk can be reached at gamecockspot)iglrt@hotinaiLcom. Xxxx Xxxxx The Gamecock SAM I AM is performing Sept 6th at New Brookland Tavern.