The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 29, 2002, Page 5, Image 5
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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.