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I - THE GAMECOCK ^ Friday, Rflarch 29,2002 5 4 CONTACT US THEY SAID IT HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL ... The history of thei EASTER BUNNY! BY SARAH HAMMOND THE UAMECOCK Easter morning. A family, im maculately ruffled and pinched and combed and curled, comes home from church. The children run into the yard to catch, my goodness, Peter Cottontail skip ping about with a basket full of daisies and brightly colored eggs. Then the family rips him to pieces, and throws the shreds into the Congaree River. Were we celebrating Easter in Ancient Egypt, the story might go that way. Because of the rabbit’s prover bial abundance, the animal has served as a useful symbol for re birth in cultures the world over since long before the Easter Bunny signed on as mascot for Christ’s resurrection. In Egyptian mythology, the great initiate, Osiris, would be clothed in the shape of a hare, which was tom to pieces and thrown into the wa ters of the Nile to ensure the sea sonal cycle of renewal. Menebuch, the Great Hare of Algonquin myth, serves as a Christ-like link between mankind and the all-powerful sky god. After the great flood, it was Menebuch who made the Earth anew. Aztec farmers thought that 400 rabbits protected their harvests and that a god had hurled a rabbit into the sky to mark the face of the moon. Ancient Chinese paintings repre sent the moon as a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. And Buddhist leg end has the rabbit jumping into a fire to cook himself for the deity, Indra, who then places the rabbit in the moon out of gratitude. So rabbits have long been asso ciated with the lunar cycle, re newal, rebirth, procreation. A fit ting face for spring. It was the hare’s dangerous liaison with Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess Easter is named for, that cata pulted him into the holiday icon hall of fame for all of those con fused secular symbols associated with religious occasions. Every year, during the vernal equinox, the date when night and day are nearly the same length, Northern European people cele brated the rites of spring for Eostre, goddess of dawn, spring and fertility. The timing of Eostre’s festival coincided with the Jewish Passover. “The first Christians continued to observe Jewish festi vals, though in a new spirit,” the Encyclopedia Britannica says, “as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new con ception added to it of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed, and became the Christian Easter.” Here’s where the bunny comes in. Eostre had an affair with the rabbit. That’s right. Peter Cottontail’s grandpa slept his way into the Easter story. The legend goes that, after the romance died in the goddess Thumper relationship, Eostre be came angry with the rabbit and cast him into the heavens. We can see him today in the constellation Lepus, the hare. Another version of the story goes that there was once a bird that Eostre decided to transform into a hare. The creature lost its power to fly, but Eostre compen sated for this loss by giving the hare great speed. Harkening back to its winged roots, the hare is al lowed to lay eggs again once a year. Thus, in the springtime, we hunt for eggs from the Easter Bunny. A i ♦ EASTER BUNNY, SEE PAGE 6 d n PHOTOS BY DAVID STAGG/THE GAMECOCK Mack Brock, lead singer, and the other three members of the Doc Sommers Band pursue their musical career full time. BY DAVID STAGG THE GAMECOCK Giving up solid plans to pursue an uncertain career takes strong beliefs. Giving up your vocation to pursue a new and unforeseeable occupation like wise takes an act of faith that most wouldn’t follow. But that’s exactly what Mack Brock, his mother and two of his friends did two years ago when they founded the Doc Sommers Band. “Mack asked me to do it,” said Mary Brock, the 43-year-old drummer and mother of the lead singer. “I told them I would only do it if they were serious about it. I couldn’t take time off my cur rent job just to play in a garage band.” Mary Brock, a classical symphony musician for 20 years and, since 1996, a percussionist for a worship leader out of Nashville, Tenn., took an 18-month leave of absence with her son to pur sue a bigger dream. “They had to be serious in focus and vision if I were to do it,” she said. Mary Brock runs management and booking for the band, and she puts in The Doc Sommers Band, a Christian group based in Irmo, will release Its latest EP tonight at Jammin’ Java. nearly 30 hours a week plus practices, which originally were peculiar experiences. “It was different at first,” Mary Brock said, because her and Mack Brock’s roles are re versed; he usually tells his mother what to do. “I’ve learned to trust Mack’s musical ear. I do what he tells me. ” ing from her mistakes has proven beneficial to us. But it does have its challenges.” The Irmo-based Christian band is aiming for a larger scale. From the beginning, its mem ♦ DOC SOMMERS, SEE PAGE 6 The rest of the band, on-hiatus college stu dents Christian Tyler and Josh McClary, had to adjust for only a short time to dealing with their friend’s mother being in the band. “It took some getting used to,” McClary said, “but we wouldn’t be where we are without her. Her experience in the business and learn Mary Brock’s experience has aided Ithe group’s success. She Is the lead singer’s mother. Raleigh-based Weekend Excursion worth the trip BY WILLIAM MILLS THE GAMECOCK If you’re interested in seeing one of the Southeast’s more successful rock bands, go out to Senate Park tonight and check out Weekend Excursion. This Raleigh,N.C.-based rock quartet has been headlining shows and packing venues across the region in preparation for the release last Tuesday of its full length debut, “Take Me Home.” If you like to know what you’re buying, however, take a trip to Manifest Discs and Tapes on Friday for a 5:30 p.m. show. Weekend Excursion will perform songs off its new album and stay • around to chat and sign copies of the album. “Take Me Home” is the ; group’s fourth release after a succession of EPs in 2000 and 2001. This new release is bursting at the seams with love songs and emotional lyrics. Songs such as “Theory of a Kiss” and the ever-so-blunt “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” (the - band’s own, not a cover of the Burt Bacharach classic) communicate to listeners that the group is capable of surviving in a time when rock lyrics are all about the sadness of losing a girl. Songs such as “Liberty,” which conjures up images of beating the odds and coming out on top in an ’80s power ballad sort of way, might actually make you think of Pat Benetar and leather pants. “Take Me Home” offers a wide range of instruments and collaborating artists. Along with the classic rock setup, Weekend Excursion also includes a grand piano, horns and a string section on a few tracks. “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” has trombonist Dave Wright and saxophonist Tim Smith from the Squirrel Nut Zippers adding just the right amount of brass. Also, Ward Williams from Jump, Little Children performs the string arrangement on “Push Me Away,” a song that contains a 20-person chorus at the end. Within this chorus, which brings back memories of Pink Floyd’s song “The Wall,” lies the essence of Weekend Excursion’s sound: melodies and experimentation. Because every member sings, including the drummer, Cas Edmonds, the group’s four-part harmonies can become extremely full. Jeff Foxworth’s and Chris Groch’s guitars provide a sound that’s less energetic and more accurate than much of today’s rock. Instead of letting the guitars lead the way through their performances, they walk behind the vocals and the more exotic instruments. Though Weekend Excursion has included many artists on “Take Me Home,” it also has a problem with losing them. These Southeast champions of rock have a hard time holding on to their band members. The group’s bass player left the band after a New Year’s show last January. The band also lost two lead singers before Fisher stepped up in 2000. It seems that ever since the group’s formation in 1995, Songs by Weekend Excursion have been featured on MTV’s “The Real World.” PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Weekend Excursion has been in a constant state of change. It has achieved a regional fame, however, that can best be described by some of its more mainstream conquests. Eight of its songs have been on episodes of MTV’s “The Real World,” and two more have been included in the angst-ridden teen show “Dawson’s Creek.” Weekend Excursion has become much more than a weekend thing since the band’s college days at Appalachian State University. ^^IfsdoubtiuUhaUh^rouj^^ will be touring with the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ horn section or even the cellist from Jump, Little Children, but it doesn’t necessarily need them to rock out. Weekend Excursion’s marriage of R&B-style vocals, piano-backed melodies and the occasional guitar distortion should be enough to pull anyone away from the PlayStation for a night. Weekend Excursion’s show at Senate Park will start at 9 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail Hollywood mourns loss of 3 icons Dudley Moore, 66: comedian, actor TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Dudley Moore, whose comedy contained a touch of melancholy, always said he was driven to success by his mother’s rejection in the acting business and his own feelings of in feriority. Moore got the last laugh; he poured his personal pain into hu mor for the stage, TV, records and music, and even made himself into an unlikely Hollywood heartthrob in films such as “Arthur” and “10.” Moore died Wednesday at a friend’s home in Plainfield of pneu monia stemming from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and in curable brain disorder. He was 66. Before breaking into film, the 5 foot-2-and-a-half-inch classica'ly trained pianist found success in comedy revues in London and on Broadway as part of a legendary British troupe that included the surrealist comic talent Peter Cook. Milton Berle, 93: “Mr. Television” LOS ANGELES (AP) — The acer bic, cigar-smoking comedian whose pioneering comedy-variety show changed the face of televi sion, died Wednesday at home. He ' was surrounded by his wife and family. Berle, who was 93, had been diagnosed with colon cancer last year and had recently been under hospice care. Until a stroke forced his retire ment about two years ago, “Mr. Television” had been a perfor mance dynamo; he starred in films and night clubs, on radio and the Broadway stage and in vaudeville during a career that began at age 5. In 1983, he was among the first seven inductees into the TV Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Billy Wilder, 95: writer, director LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar-win ning filmmaker Billy Wilder, the Austrian-bom cynic whose gifts for writing and directing led to such classics as “Sunset Boulevard,” “Some Like It Hot” and “Double Indemnity,” has died, a family friend said Thursday. He was 95. Wilder died Wednesday night at his home, said George Schlatter, a producer and longtime friend. Schlatter said his friend of 40 years had been in failing health in recent months, and he thought Wilder had been suffering from a bout with pneumonia. As co-writer, director and pro ducer of the 1960 film “The Apartment,” Wilder collected three Oscars; he was the only per son to do so for one film. When the film institute ran a survey to pick the 100 best American movies in 1998, four di rected by Wilder made the list; when it picked the 100 funniest American movies in 2000, “Some Like It Hot” was No. 1.