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THEY SAID IT Peter: Hey, how about here’s to you, Mrs. Fleckenstein? Paul Simon: Yeah, you’ve been pitching that for an hour. It’s just not a n very attractive name. X age / Peter: Oh, fine, fine. I guess we’re also not going with Parsley, Sage, Monday, March 21, 2005 Rosemary and Lowry’s Seasoning Salt. J “FAMILY 6UY" Symposium to cover entire ‘Spectrum’ By CARRIE GIVENS ASSISTANT MIX EDITOR Starting Wednesday night for a two-night run, Spectrum - Symposium will be focusing on “America’s Role in Today’s Global Society.” Sponsored by Carolina Productions, the concept of the Spectrum series is to sponsor a multi-day event during which topics of national and international interest are discussed among the Carolina community. The Spectrum Symposium was planned by a steering committee of USC students, faculty and staff members. Member of the Spectrum Symposium board and third-year political science student Sijott Sowell said Carolina Productions saw a need for an annual distinguished lecture series separate from the normal speakers and programs. “We also wanted to create student-sponsored events with collaboration between students and faculty — to create a program that would provide a means of open discussion for the Carolina community,” Sowsdl said. Although this is the first Spectrum Symposium, the series is slated to occur each spring semester. For guidance on planning, the Spectrum committee researched similar events such as Vanderbilt University’s IMPACT Symposium. Sowell said Vanderbilt’s “discussions are more politically focused, whereas, we want to look at a topic from many different angles.” Sowell also said the events are “covering the entire ‘Spectrum’ of our campus from business to medicine to politics to religion.” This year’s festivities will include a speech by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen on Wednesday night and a USC faculty member roundtable on Thursday night. Once named by Time magazine as one of America’s 200 Future Leaders and by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of America, Cohen has had an important role in shaping American government and policy. Sowell says that the Spectrum committee looked for a speaker who would “provide the Carolina community with insight and knowledge.” In addition to being chairman for both the Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Force Projection Subcommittee and the Government Oversight Committee, he was crucial in redefining Medicare and health care reform in the 1990s. After being involved in economic and security issues for years, Cohen retired in 1996 to launch the William r/-.UCK| S. Cohen Institute COHEN for International Business at the University of Maine. Cohen’s retirement was brief. He was named Secretary of Defense for President Clinton in 1997. During his tenure, Cohen revamped the American military by improving pay and benefits and by forming strong relationships with other countries to face the challenges of the post-Cold War era. He also was responsible for the air warfare campaign in Bosnia and Kosovo and additional military operations on every continent. Sowell encourages all to attend the Spectrum events. “Part of coming to college is about experiencing new things and gaining a grasp of the world in which we live,” he said. Sowell adds that it is important to “understand where America currently stands on the world stage.” Both events will feature a question-and-answer session to allow audience members to interact with former Secretary Cohen and the faculty member roundtable. “Even if you do not agree with Cohen’s politics or the views of the faculty members participating in the roundtable ... it is important to listen to their arguments and seek to understand their points,” Sowell said. Keynote speaker William Cohen will take the stage at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Koger Center. The faculty roundtable will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Russell House Theater. All events are free to USC students, faculty and staff members. Admission is $5 at the door for the general public. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK Second-year Spanish student Charity Wilson decorates the walls of her dorm room with vinyl records and other memorabilia from musical references from the popular cartoon “Family Guy.” Vinyl collecting takes a different twist with themes inspired by “Family Guy” references By JULIA SELLERS THE GAMECOCK To pay homage to her favorite television show, Charity Wilson, a second-year Spanish student, collects all musical references from , the television show “Family Guy.” An adult cartoon originally aired on the Fox network, “Family Guy” has taken on new life since its cancellation, through DVD sales and reruns on The Cartoon Network’s nightly “Adult Swim.” In the program, the Griffin family usually makes references to songs either by singing them, sometimes in a Broadway montage, or by quoting lyrics of a song. “Their music is really just pop culture and real ’80s. Anything from White Snake to Huey Lewis to Milli Vanilli (might be quoted). It is just really hilarious,” Wilson said. “A lot of my friends collect vinyl, and I thought it was cool. And I wanted to be different,” Wilson said. “I realized after watching ‘Family Guy’ for days on end they have a lot of funny references, so I was like, ‘I will just collect the vinyl they have [made references to] and put it on my wall.’” Because references range from a specific song or just a general band, Wilson has a system to her collection. “In some cases they [“Family Guy” characters] reference songs. If it is that, then I have to find that vinyl with that song on it. And then sometimes they just reference an artist, like they referenced Simon and Garfunkel. In that case I choose a greatest hits album, dr I pick an album based on whether I like the cover or not.” Sometimes finding from whom the reference comes means work for Wilson. “It is really hard sometimes to find out who the artist is because sometimes it is a random lyric from a song. I have to go hunt on the Internet for 30 minutes. Sometimes there are so many covers, and I have to figure out who the original artist is,” Wilson said. Wilson said vinyl was the easiest and cheapest way to collect and find the references. “I get most of my vinyl from Manifest. I’m not going to spend $10 to get a pristine copy. If I can get it for 99 cents, I’m going to buy it. I really don’t want to spend anymore than $4,” Wilson said. Because some of the references might be hard to find, such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” Wilson has not limited herself to how many she can buy a week. Sometimes Wilson even forgoes buying a new CD if she finds albums for her collection. “I know it is going to be really expensive to find Kiss’ “Rock and Roll;” it is Peter’s (the main character) favorite band,” Wilson said “I’m sure a lot of people would hold on to that.” So far, Wilson has found around 31 references to music from “Family Guy” as she watches the reruns on TV or DVD. “When I thought about doing it, I tried to remember as many references as possible. But then I started writing down the references as I watched the shows. I usually watch four a night,” Wilson said. Because she just began her collection, Wilson has fewer than 10 vinyls so far. Once Wilson expands her collection, she plans on displaying them in her dorm room. ♦ Please see VINYL, page 8 CD REVIEW ‘Picaresque' reaches new heights for Portland band "Picaresque” The Decemberists ★★ ★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ By PATRICK AUGUSTINE THE GAMECOCK “Picaresque: adjective. Of or relating to rogues or rascals; also, of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist.” The album title of The Decemberists third full-length album title gives listeners a clue as to the subject matter that the Portland, Ore.-based five-piece chamber indie-pop group explores during the 11 tracks that encompass its most ambitious work to date. Ranging from narratives about the passion between international spies to seafarers swallowed by whales, “Picaresque” manages both high arrangement afforded by having an upright bass, accordion, piano and theremin in addition to the usual rock complement of guitars and drums, and simple, stripped-down melodies that allow frontman Colin Meioy’s literate writing to shine through. On the bombastic end of the spectrum is the full sounding track ‘Espionage’, which features a swell from simple voice and guitar to a crescendo of strings, plus the band’s unobtrusive rythmn section, that remains largely out of the way but important to the album’s mood. In much the same way that Meioy’s lyrics evoke the best of western fiction and the sepia-toned world that yellowed book pages connote, The Decemberists’ history is a chronology of the Northwest’s evolution as the epicenter of American indie-rock. First signed to Portland-based Hush Records, which has nurtured other notable underground bands such as Kind of Like Spitting, the band made the jump to Olympia, Wash.’s Kill Rock Stars label in 2002 for the re- release of “Castaways and Cutouts” before putting out a second full-length entitled “Her Majesty The Decemberists” in 2003. Never resting on its laurels, the band saw the release in 2004 of “The Tain EP,” which was based on an 8th century epic Irish poem, and had musical nods to epic ’70s bands like Deep Purple. While these previous efforts have showcased Meloy’s promise, culled from his degree in creative writing, “Picaresque” is in many ways the most complete and even work the band has produced to date. Recorded in' a converted church with the help of Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and producer Chris Walla, whom the band worked with on “The Tain,” the album moves with each literary flourish to the denouement of each mini-story of love, loss and death as the band gives decibel weight to the song’s intended emotion. Meloy avoids the affliction of his musical compatriots and expresses emotion through the stories he tells instead of culling material from thinly veiled personal experiences. While it is hard to pin down the influences that might immediately pop out of another band’s sound, Meloy admits freely in news releases that the tapes of ’80s college rock music his uncle sent him and his parent’s reasonable listening habits played into his tastes for the more literate, if not less approachable, side of music. Although Meloy may have missed his calling to teach as a English professor, fans of Dickens or Melville will appreciate the way that “Picaresque” unfolds during repeated close listening, with previously unheard swells, accents and layers of detail making their presence known. Equal parts folk, orchestra and lush pop, The Decemberists’ newest effort will ensnare anyone with a pair of headphones and the willingness to be led into a world that is both apart from our own and at the same time a product of a culture at war. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu