The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 06, 2002, Page 8, Image 8
g THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, February 6, 2002
THEY SAID IT
t t DAVID LETTERMAN: “The whole coun
CONTACT IIS try is experiencing a newfound sense
of patriotism. For instance, Puff
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? Daddy has changed his name from P.
E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Diddy to P. Doodle Dandy.”
—
mpress
i_■ one you love
BY ERIC SUTTON
THE GAMECOCK
This Valentine’s Day is
your opportunity to really
impress your loved one - but
you’re going have to make
plans and reservations now.
To help you make next week ex
tra special, here is a list of top
quality fine dining that can go a
long way in increasing your
chances of landing Cupid’s arrow
in the heart of the one you love.
Note: Prices listed are esti
mates, and wine selection can
make a big difference. Try to
get reservations or see if the
restaurant offers call-ahead
seating. This will save you
some time. Most of the
places listed here will
take walk-ins. Times
listed mean they’re
only letting peo
ple sit down
at those
times.
LEXINGTON
ARMS
316 W. Main St., Lexington,
359-2700
For Valentine’s Day, Lexington
Arms will serve a four-course din
ner at $35 per person.
VILLA TRONCO
1213Blanding St., 256-7677
Villa Tronco is Columbia’s old
est Italian restaurant. It features
menu items from both Sicily and
Naples, and the wine list is exten
sive. Great desserts include a va
riety of cheesecakes and tiramisu.
As always, Villa Tronco will offer a
dinner-for-two package. You can
get out of here at around $50 for
two.
MANGIA MANGIA
100 State St., 791-3443
Mangia Mangia is also an Italian
restaurant. Look to spend about $50
per couple. The menu for
Valentine’s Day wasn’t definite at
press time, but look for raspberry
risito on the dessert menu.
RESTAURANT 1-2-3
7001 St. Andrews Road, 781-0118
Restaurant 1-2-3 requires a reser
vation. The food is continental.
According to the chef, it will be very
romantic but pricey, about $70 per
couple. She recommends the
chateau briand.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
401S. Main St., 254
6767
California
Dreaming
serves
American cui
sine. It offers call
ahead seating and rea
sonably priced dinners, for
about $40 per couple. This place
is big, so if you forget to plan ahead,
this is the place to go.
THE MELTING POT
1410 Colonial Life Blvd. West, 731
8500
The Melting Pot is a fondue
restaurant. It’s fun and romantic,
but if you don’t have a reservation
yet, start praying.
HENNESSY’S
1649 Main St., 799-8280
Stuffed veal chops, steak, seafood,
creme brulee ... it sounds pretty
good, I know. Hennessy’s is offering
a special Valentine’s Day menu, and
the prices are reasonable.
DIANNE’S
2400Devine St., 254-3535
Dianne’s is another Italian
restaurant that’s made a name for
itself in the city. For dessert, check
out the salty crunch cookie. Plan on
spending about $50 for two people.
HAMPTON ST. VINEYARD
1207Hampton St., 252-0850
Hampton St. Vineyard offers re
ally delicious American selections.
It’s doing a five-course dinner for
Valentine’s Day. It costs $45 per
person, and seatings are at 6:30
p.m. and 9 p.m. It has received
recognition from Wine
Spectator magazine for its
wine list.
CELLARS
108 Columbia
Northeast
Drive,
736-8865
Cellars serves
up continental fine din
ing. It holds seatings at 6
p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
For dessert, recommendations
include chocolate terrine with
raspberry sauce, and the rasp
berry cheesecake.
GARIBALDI’S
2013 Greene St., 771-8888
Garibaldi’s offers continental
and Mediterranean dishes and a
lot of fresh seafood. It offers choco
late-covered strawberries for
dessert. About $60 should get
you through the meal.
SALUDA’S
751 Saluda Ave., 799-9500
Saluda’s menu is fusion
(a type of cooking). The
chocolate truffle is rec
ommend for dessert.
The food and loca
tion are nice, but
it’s going to cost
you about $80
per couple.
✓
WUSC Top
Ten Albums
FOR THE WEEK OF
JAN. 27-FEB. 2
1. “BLOODSPORT”
Sneaker Pimps
2. “WASHED UP AND
THROUGH THE RINGER’”
_ Catch 22
3. “MUSIC FROM THE
MOTION PICTURE
‘OCEAN’S ELEVEN’”
Various Artists
4. “PUSH IT TO THE MAX”
EP
Zap Mama
5. “I’M WAKING UP TO
US”
Belle and Sebastian
6. “THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS’
MOTION PICTURE
SOUNDTRACK”
Various Artists
7. “DEAD MEDIA”
_ Hefner
87“A COUPLE OF TRICKS”
EP
Aphrodite
9 “I AM SAM’ MOTION
PICTURE SOUNDTRACK”
Various Artists
10. “COME WITH US”
Chemical Brothers
CD REVIEW
Shannon McNally’s powerful
voice sends ‘Sparrows’skyward
I * ■
JUKEBOX SPARROWS
Shannon McNally
★ ★★*1 out of ☆☆☆*☆
BY CARRIE PHILLIPS
THE GAMECOCK
Remember about eight years ago
when, all of a sudden, the world went nuts
over a raspy-voiced girl with a guitar
singing, “until the sun comes up over
Santa Monica Boulevard”? She now has a
rival.
Shannon McNally’s homespun voice
immediately evokes visions of Sheryl
Crow and back-porch summer days. Her
first full-length release, “Jukebox
Sparrows,” is a mix of folksy guitar rock
and soft piano ballads.
The album is hard to classify by genre.
Alternative country-rock is probably the
most comprehensive way to put it, but
the infusions of blues and jazz give the
sound a sophistication that transcends
simple classification.
McNally grew up on Long Island and,
until recently, was a denizen of the
The song’s
simple lyrics
are
complemented
by the raw
power of her
voice, which
has the power
of Sheryl Crow,
the range of
Joni Mitchell
and the
jazz/blues
sensibility of
Rickie Lee
Jones.
coffeehouse scene. Since being signed
by Capitol Records, however, she has
performed on “Late Night with Conan
O’Brien" and is scheduled to perform
on David Letterman in March. She is
now on tour as the opening act for Five
for Fighting.
The album’s 11 tracks are a soulful mb
of blues, rock and folk. McNally’s lyrics
lack pretension but they aren’t simplistic
or sophomoric.
The album opens with “Down and
Dirty,” a blues-infused song that softly
chastises her lover: “Don’t you know I
love you when you’re down and dirty?
Don’t you know I love you when you’re
clean.” The song’s simple lyrics are
complemented by the raw power of her
voice, which has the power of Sheryl
Crow, the range of Joni Mitchell and the
jazz/blues sensibility of Rickie Lee Jones
McNally softens her sound for “I’ll
Always Be Around,” in which she
sounds like a female Ryan Adams. The
lilting vocals in the chorus paired with
the cool mix of an organ and steel guitar
create an easy country air that’s simply
relaxing.
“Bitter Blue” and “Now That I Know”
continue the easy alternative country
feel, but if you listen closely, the overall
complexity of the music is awesome.
Anyone who can work a toy piano into
most of her songs and make it an
indispensable part of the sound is
incredibly talented.
“It Could’ve Been Me” is Nick-Caye
eerie; it recounts the tale of a girl who is
attacked after having to leave her car on
the side of the interstate. While the story is
simplistic and the chorus leaves
something to be desired technically, her
voice’s raw power makes this song worth
it.
In “Colorado,” McNally puts on her
Jones/Tom Waits mantle. The song is
simply a showcase for her vocal talents
on a backdrop of whispered guitar, piano
and strings. In the middle of the song, she
switches to spoken word poetry, aging
her character and making the song even
more powerful.
The shimmering guitars of “Bolder than
Paradise” and the simple blues balladry of
“Bury My Heart on the Jersey Shore” (“Sha
la la la la la”) transition nicely into the title
track. The song is experimental; spoken
word, toy pianos, bongos and a baritone sax
create a song as weird and fascinating as
anything Waits or Jones have ever done.
“Jukebox Sparrows” can be a light
little alternative country album or a
complex explosion of talent, depending on
how you listen to it. Either way, listen!
McNally is a formidable new talent, and
she promises to blast her way into
jukeboxes everywhere.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
Stupidity
reaches
errant
heights
DAVID STAGG
GAMECOCKMIXEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM
Earlier this week, I managed
to attain a new height in
stupidity. The ever-reaching
ladder of folly had kindly lent me
a new rung on which to climb.
I’d like to say I did something
else; something I wouldn’t have
a problem admitting to (insert
friend’s name here) when I had
the imminent “How was your
day?” conversation.
FRIEND: So what did you do
today?
ME: Well, you’ll never believe
what happened to me. Remember
that fake ID I bought last weekend?
FRIEND: Of course, my aunt
paid for it.
ME: Right, well, I went down to
Five Points in hopes ot making
use of my newfound freedom, only
to have the waiter question me as
to whether it was mine.
FRIEND: That bad of an ID?
ME: No, it’s just that, as it turns
out, their bartender had lost his ID
a week ago, and the guy we bought
it from had stolen it from him.
FRIEND (attempting a
concerned look, only to be
overridden by sputtered
laughter): Dude, that is terrible.
ME: It gets worse. The guy
had a warrant out for his arrest.
At least that story has some
incident of helplessness on my
part. I couldn’t help some of the
coincidences that ensued, and
therefore, part of the story was
nut nf nnntrnl
But not this time. No, my
stupidity was exceeded only by
its intention (or lack thereof).
It was eatfy in the morning (at
least for a college student), and I
was parked in my garage spot,
reading a textbook chapter I
definitely should have read the
night before. But for some reason
or another (mainly my practicing
dance steps in my attempt to hit
the big time on MTV’s Becoming
O-Town), I had put it off.
When I realized it was time for
me to make my cross-campus trek,
I simply got out, locked the door,
moved around to the backdoor of
the car, removed my backpack,
put it on, locked that door, shut it
and took my place next to the
partridge in the pear tree.
And as sure as the pope is
Catholic, every single one of you
know what I did -1 locked my
dang keys in my car.
I walked 10 steps away, put
my hands in my pockets (the
common reaction on a cold,
windy day), and realized my keys
weren’t in their normal resting
place. And as quickly as Enron
CEO Kenneth Lay reneged on his
promise to testify, I made an
about-face. The world went dark
and the spotlight shone on my
car, now an indestructible safe
guarding my passage home.
It ruins your day. It really does.
/aiiu i iviiuw wuat pu ic 11 inii\uig
now. Where’s your cell phone?
You could just call someone. Well,
as sure as Mariah Carey falls one
note short of a full scale, I locked
that sucker in the car, too.
I wept through each one of my
classes that day like a high
pitched pre-teen girl named
Brittany who didn’t get ‘N Sync
tickets. I tried to think of the way
in which I was going to
overcome the boulder in my
path, but it seemed as hopeless
as Robert Downey Jr.’s recovery.
I had to think of something to
do. I honestly considered
breaking my window with my
fist, ironically, to salvage some
dignity and not let anyone know
what I had done. At least this
way, I could blame it on the
passing motorist I cut off who
later caught up with me. I
eventually ruled it out, given the
fact that my hand would be split
open and I’d probably spend the
rest of my day in the hospital.
♦ STUPIDITY, SEE PAGE 9