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4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, January 15, 2003 THEY SAID IT CONTACT US THOMAS PAINE: “What we obtain too „ „ ^ „ cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness Story ideas? Questions. Comments. only that gives everything its value..” E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com PHOTO BY ERIC SOONG/THE GAMECOCK Nuts, dried fruits, organic flour and other foods for the health-conscious line the shelves of Earthfare. Organic store attracts all ages and professions BY CAITLIN COKER THE GAMECOCK When walking into Earthfare, it looks like you’re stepping into a regular grocery store. After all, the store contains the usual produce section, frozen food section, and aisles. But when a voice crackles into the intercom, when you’d expect to hear “clean-up on aisle five” or “Kyle, your mother is waiting for you at the front”— instead, the voice announces, “Sushi bar line 5, sushi bar lines.” This is obviously not a grocery store for the average Joe. The items sold have labels such as “or ganic” and “soy.” You can find more varieties of juices, milks, and breads than the corporate stomach can digest. This is a whole foods store. But what makes these foods whole? Are other foods missing parts? Whole food must be produced in a certain way to brandish the USDA accreditation “organic.” The production must support and enhance the earth’s natural bal ance. This means promoting a healthy environment, protecting animals, and preserving the in tegrity of the food being processed. Organic foods sustain the envi ronment — from the fields to the oceans — instead of depleting it. There are, of course, some gen eralizations and stereotypes of whole foods stores, such as shop pers with dreadlocked hair, Phish music in the background, the scent of patchouli in the air or up per-class shoppers attracted by the gourmet foods. However, Earthfare doesn’t at tract distinct social groups, like tree-hugging hippies or gourmet inau yuppies, but rather a collection of people brought under the same roof by a com mon environ mental and health con sciousness. At first glance, one long-haired fel low resembled a hippie. Jason Ramsey, a wine distributor from Berkley, Calif., chuckled while admitting he represented a walking whole foods stereotype; Ramsey had no political convictions. A well-dressed brunette in the frozen foods section toted a buggy conspicuously lacking caviar and forty-dollar cheese. She said she was a housewife who ventured to Earthfare for the fresh fruits and vegetables. Another shopper stops at Earthfare in search of “flora essence,” an antioxidant that helps fight her case of breast can cer. Another was an engineer who likes to cook and enjoys Earthfare’s selection. General Foods Manager Liz Ziegler, however, has concrete en vironmental convictions. She ad mits to being concerned about “nerdy, hippie things” like recy cling and genetically modified or ganisms. Sales at Earthfare are im pi u v nig catii year, she says, thanking the growing im provement of health educa tion. “We live in a health-driv en world; it dominates our culture,” Ziegler says. For the health-driven consumer, Earthfare keeps a list of harmful in gredients T like additives and nreserva tives — that are not in any of the foods they carry. The idea of whole foods is a di vergence from the ordinary con sumer’s grocery shopping. Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation,” writes that “about 90 per cent of the money that Americans spend on food is used to buy pro cessed food.” Processed food is canned, frozen, or dehydrated and then pumped full of additives, preservatives, col orings, and sugar. “Natural” fla vors and artificial flavors are the same thing; Schlosser writes that “Both are man-made additives that give most processed foods most of its taste.” The Soil Association claims that these additives “are linked with heart disease, allergic reactions, mood swings, hyperac tivity and nausea.” Volatile chemicals combine to produce the long, mystery words that appear in the ingredients of processed foods. Methyl heptine carbonate, ethyl cinnamate, amyl acetate — “The basic scent behind ' the scent of your shaving cream is the same as that governing the fla vor of your TV dinner,” writes Schlosser. Food producers hide the tower ing number of additives by listing them as “artificial and natural fla vors.” Methyl heptine and the rest are only three chemicals of the 46 Schlosser lists as ingredients in typical strawberry flavoring. Earthfare carries a multigrain strawberry cereal bar that asserts it is “100 percent natural” and “100 percent delicious.” The bar con tains no added sugars, unlike the corn syrup-laden majority of pro cessed foods. Unsulphured calmyrna figs, rice milk, Monty Python beer, and soap are among the variety of nat ural products at Earthfare. As Zeigler sums it up, “We’ve got a lot of fun and different things.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com PHOTO BY ERIC S( The Devine Street store offers a wide array of organic foods. CD REVIEWS Phish still makes waves on album “ROUND ROOM” Phish ★★★★★out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY MEG MOORE THE (JAMECOCK Phish’s latest studio effort, “Round Room,” evokes the pleasantries of a lazy after noon. The album’s lengthy tracks blur into a stellar sym phony of bluesy melodies and poetic lyrics that remain original without bewildering the listener. Famous for its live shows and fan following, Phish has little to prove to either critics or listeners. Thick with jazzy instrumentation, “Round Room” reinforces Phish’s es tablished reputation as a jam band without comparison. It is unafraid of the ‘10-minute song,’ choosing to complete its eloquent, musical sen tences —no matter how long. Lyrically, the songs on “Round Room” are thick with the philosophical and the imaginative. “Mock Song” emerges as a beautiful, though nonsensical, verbal collage, while “Seven Below” surmis es the melancholy splendor of winter in a mere four lines. Although known for its mu sical endeavors, Phish cer tainly evidences an equally poignant lyrical prowess on “Round Room,” combining the obscure — “Right angles drive me crazier each day,” with the painfully pretty—“I am just a raindrop that accel erates without control/ Losing bits and pieces in de scent ‘til I’m no longer whole.” “Round Room” remains an intelligent album without coming across as overtly in tellectual — it proves to be ac cessible while original. Phish has mastered the art of being completely unlike anybody else, while maintaining a pleasingly familiar sound. Its collage of styles strikes a chord with fans of rock, jazz, pop and blues all at once. Defiantly unique and undisputedly talented, Phish has constructed a “Round Room” with considerable depth, both musically and lyrically. It has again proved why it deserves both critical and listener acclaim — Phish’s collection of casual ly hip songs makes waves in the surrounding sea of gen erally unimaginative popu lar music. Comments on this story?E mail gamecockmixeditor @hotmail.com Douglas retains title of dobro king “LOOKOUT FOR HOPE” Jerry Douglas ★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY ROB SEAL THE GAMECOCK Jerry Douglas is the undis puted king of the dobro. “Lookout For Hope,” his lat est album, demonstrates this beyond a reasonable doubt. The dobro is generally con sidered a bluegrass instru ment, and Jerry Douglas cer tainly comes from a bluegrass background. He’s done ex tensive work with Alison Krauss and Union Station, Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, Sam Bush and a boatload of other bluegrass musicians. And on his latest studio ef fort, Douglas demonstrates both his bluegrass proficien cy and his ability to push his musical boundaries far be yond the constraints of one specific genre. The album opens with a dobro rendition of Duane DOUGLAS, SEE PAGE 5 I pH g Coffee and snacks are closer for weary students . -.JHI PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY COREY GARRIOTT/THE GAMECOCK; PHOTOS BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK BY COREY GARRIOTT THE GAMECOCK Carolina Dining is busy with new campus eateries this semester. The first of the line quietly opened in Thomas Cooper Library Monday. With Cooper’s Comer, Jazzman’s Cafe and Cool Beans, USC students now have three coffee shops within walking distance of the campus. The cafe feels more like a real coffeehouse than Jazzman’s Cafe, the joint introduced last semester in the business build ing. Cooper’s Corner is a small setup near the exit on the li brary’s main floor. Since it blends into the library, it bene fits from the studious decor, bordered by dark wooden columns and the solemn aca demic air. This decor is in contrast to Jazzman’s, which was notorious last semester for its lack of style. Rather than bare walls, green columns and cold chairs, the Comer displays artsy gamecock paraphernalia and curvy, mod ular furniture. The coffee is good, though the selection is a little slim. An iced latte is a proper accomplice to any late-night cram session. Only the rows of bookshelves are lacking. The cafe emptied the books from the far wall, so it looks a little bare. It’s a minor er ror, probably soon to be correct ed because business is still get ting settled. Though a coffee shop might at tract more people to the Thomas Cooper Library, it also might turn what should be a quiet studying area into a social out let. A mass of people might dis turb those who study in the long tables. The glass divider should muffle some of it, but it doesn’t extend to the staircase. This leaves half of the cafe exposed to the air. The Comer isn’t the only com pleted dining project. Jazzman’s Cafe is the proud owner of an at tractive facelift. The walls are now painted in appealing hues and sport some corporate art that isn’t oppro brious The far wall remains cov ered by seven vending machines, however — perhaps they too are a form of art, a postmodern up date of Andy Warhol. Jazzman’s still has the best food available among Carolina Dining satellites. On any given day, it sells mandarin salads and ham sandwiches, cherry turnovers and scones. Cooper’s Corner still sells the same wraps and bagels found in the Sidewalk Cafe and in Capstone. But this won’t always be the status quo, Carolina Dining’s General Manager Mike Scheffres insists. “We’re going to rotate what we offer to see what really sells,” he said. “Rice Krispies are real popular right now,” but Dining will soon try out a variety of things in Cooper’s Corner to judge what the students want. The Corner even sells pens, pencils and disks — badly need ed media for any student who has found himself in the library without the tools of the trade. Yet Dining’s coffee competi tor Cool Beans may remain the ♦ COFFEE, SEE PAGE 5 MOVIE REVIEW Cage stands out in twin role “ADAPTATION" Directed by Spike Jonze and starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY TUG BAKER THE GAMECOCK Anyone familiar with “Being John Malkovich,” the 1999 collab oration between director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman, will know to expect the unexpected from “Adaptation.” They won’t see what’s coming next, no matter how hard they try. “Adaptation” is a movie about orchids, the trials of writing a screenplay, exploring the bound aries between fact and fiction, and masturbation (if not literally, then figuratively). Where does the real plot take off? From the beginning, the audience knows this is a movie based on the nonfiction book “The Orchid Thief,” by New York writer Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep). Orlean’s book describes the world of John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a con man who has dis covered a way to steal endangered orchids from protected federal preserves. It seems like an inter esting enough book, but is it really what makes a movie? Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman thinks it is, but he can’t seem to think of a way to pull it off. So he makes a movie about the trials of making a movie based on “The Orchid Thief.” Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage, is a nervous man. He sweats when he talks to wom en. He worries about his receding hairline. He fantasizes about be ing with almost any woman who shows him the smallest sign of ap preciation but can’t get up the nerve to speak to them. Most im portantly, he can’t even begin to adapt a film version of “The Orchid Thief.” He is searching for the conflict and the drama in it, yet somehow winds up writing himself into the screenplay Then there is Charlie’s twin , brother, Donald (again, Nicolas * Cage), who is everything Charlie is not. Where Charlie is intelli gent, Donald is a bit slow. Where Charlie has trouble meeting peo ple, affable Donald never meets a stranger. To make matters worse, Donald is working on his own screenplay and despite its lack of intelligence, it seems likely to be a hit with studio executives. Not much more can be said about the actual plot of the movie for fear of spoiling the delightful * ♦ADAPTATION, SEE PAGE 5 PHOTO SPECIAL TO THEj^GAMECOCK A screenwriter trails a journalist seeking to adapt her book.