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r CONTACT US THEY SAID IT Story ideas? Questions? Comments? - caint tuamac aaiiinac E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com „ SA , 1H0IVIA^ A(JUINA5: . •* Beware the man of one book. INTERFAITH PANEL DISCUSSES RELIGIOUS VIEW OF WAR AND PEACE BY ELEANOR SIBOL THE GAMECOCK < In a panel discussion Wednesday, leaders from six faiths summarized their religious views on war. Represented at “War and Peace: Six Religious Perspectives,” spon sored by USC’s Interfaith Council, were Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Baha’i, Presbyterianism and Unitarian Universalism. Sheima Salam, a coordinator for the event, thinks the panel discus sion helped illuminate views on the war that are different from main stream beliefs. “Especially now that the Iraqi war is pending, we need religious leaders to speak out on what they believe,” she said. “And especially with many religious leaders contacting the gov ernment and taking an active role, the Interfaith Council just wanted to offer them more of a forum to express their views about war in general, as well as the war that may be happen ing.” The Rev. Patrick Price, the Unitarian Universalist panelist, thinks it is always important to dis cuss matters of war and peace. “It’s an important topic to discuss at any time, given the nature of his tory and of human beings,” he said. “I think universities are important places to discuss ideas of any kind, and I believe that examining the is sues of violence, whether it is state sanctioned or not, is important so we can look at how we resolve conflicts of any kinds.” Louis Venters, chairman of the lo cal Baha’i community’s administra tive body, began the discussion by saying, “World peace is not just pos sible, but inevitable.” Baha’i mem bers believe that the very core of their religion rests in the will of God, that humanity will live in peace and harmony. “Peace isn’t just absence of con flict; peace must be fostered within the individual and within the fami ly,” said Surya Vasudevan, president of the Hindu Student Council. During the question-and-answer part of the event, Shendal Epstein, director of Jewish studies at the Columbia Jewish Day School, was asked whether the United States should have completed . what in started in Iraq in the early / 1990s. She answered that she honest ly did not know. “Five minutes is too short to con vey the world’s problems,” Epstein said. '“Peace is something we work toward on a daily basis, and in ex treme cases, we go to war for it. Peace is seen as an ideal in Hebrew.” William Ketteran, 28, said he ap preciated Epstein’s views but was not as impressed with some of the other panelists’ speeches. “I think that (Epstein) did the best in being real and honest to herself, the audience and the ques tions,” he said. “It seemed to me that the Hindu, Baha’i and Muslim spoke mostly irrelevancies—they mostly gave generalities of their faiths.r Most of the representatives shared the same vision that hu manity is all one people, that we are all connected to each other, and that the only way society can live peacefully is to unite. “When we understand what we have in common,” said Imam Omar Shahid of the Muslim faith, “why should we be jealous of each other, and why should we deprive one another? One is not a believer whose neighbor is not safe from him or her.” Vasudevan agreed: “One should accept the ideas of all religions. Religion is meant for humanity and not humanity for religion,” he said. After the panel discussion and question-and-answer session, at ♦ FAITH, SEE PAGE 6 Above: From left, Surya Vasudevan, representing Hinduism; Sheindal Epstein, Judaism; Imam Omar Shahid, Islam; Reverand John Cook, Presbyterianism; and Reverand Patrick Price, Unitarian Universalism, speak about the possible war in Iraq at the Interfaith Council panel discussion Wednesday night in the Russell House Ballroom. Left: Vasudevan, standing, said, “One religion should accept the ideas of all religions.” The representatives advocated peaceful solutions based on their beliefs. PHOTOS BY JOHN CARLOS/THE GAMECOCK Music world takes Manhattan BY MEG MOORE THE GAMECOCK Strike up the band! The music industry’s heavy hitters and hit makers will be waltzing down the red carpet Sunday as the 45th annual Grammy awards ceremony un ■ folds at Madison Square Garden in New York City. After taking place in sunny Los Angeles for the past four years, the event is making its re turn to the Big Apple in style, promising a night of glamour, glitz and great performances. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is re sponsible for compiling the lengthy list of nominees in 104 cat egories. Entries can be submitted by Academy members — all of whom are industry professionals — as well as music-video compa nies and record labels, either ma jor or independent, that have reg istered with the organization. Qualified entries are then in cluded on a ballot, which is sent out to voting members of the Academy and from which the nominees are generated. Votes are then again cast and tabulat ed to determine the winners, which are not revealed until the awards ceremony. The most publicized honors up for grabs at the Grammys are those included in the general field of awards. These include record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, and best new artist honors. Grammys are also awarded in a number of genre-specific cate gories including pop, rock, rap, country, R&B and even polka. Along with honoring the world’s top performers, the awards ceremony recognizes those who work behind the ♦ GRAMMYS, SEE PAGE 6 L 1ft -- HIM ^M— PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS From left, Ashanti, Avrll Lavigne, Nelly, John Mayer, Neil Portnow, Cindy Lauper, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Jam and Justin Timberlake pose at the 2003 Grammy Awards nominations mv/vs conference held at Madison Square Garden in New York. CD REVIEW Damone’s rock too bubblegum “FROM THE ATTIC” Damone out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY COREY GARRIOTT THE CAMKCOCK Rock should alienate. Parents don’t like rock. It shouldn’t sound like an ecumenism council be tween liberal Protestants: “Can’t we all just get along?” But the first thing you notice about the up-and-coming Damone is how nice it is; it’s because there’s a girl singing in this here rock band. This could be good. Female lead Shirley Manson was plenty evil, more than most male singers. But Damone’s lead Noelle LeBlanc is too smooth — not harsh like Bif Naked, and much poppier than the Donnas. Maybe she belongs in the Liz Phair category of sort-of rock (but really pop). Except Phair is sexy. Well, whatever. LeBlanc is the selling point in Damone’s bubblegum rock. She’s what matters, because the friend ly, semi-hard guitars and faithful backbeat aren’t that special while bands like Weezer are touring. Some of the campaign literature wants to call them power-pop — but power isn’t power if my sister would like it. This is the same problem en countered when putting a female heroine in an action movie. Everyone knows she’s not going to die. Not that action heropersons ever die, but since she’s a girl, her punches and kicks have to be dig itally enhanced to their most un believable. Forget robotic en hancements; superhumanity is Lara Croft. Successful female leads in rock bands also have to have superhu man levels of testosterone (or es trogen, depending). LeBlanc’s voice sounds more like a plaintive piano girl than the front for a rock band. This could work if it had a grind, screech, or growl, but she never really puts her voice into the music. As a placebo, the pro ducers reverberate her voice, but it fails to make up for her perfor mance. The music itself drives through hooks and some interesting effects — until it gets repetitive, it’s a lot of fun to listen to. “At the Mall,” which is about being at the mall no less, is sung by a male member of the band, and has, at first, an interesting guitar hook. It’s just that it doesn’t improve on second listen — this music doesn’t remain interesting after you’ve heard, “You’re at the mall/and I’m missing you, miss ing you” for the 10th time. “You and I” is also trying too hard to be rock. Apparently gui tarist David Pino authored all of these songs to get back with his ex-girlfriend, meaning that LeBlanc has to switch the gender on most of the lyrics. For instance, the word boyfriend switched genders in “Your girlfriend treats me so un fair/Your girlfriend points at me and stares,” and she sings it like she means it. The minor chords that open “Leave Me Alone” come too late in the album; they might wake you up from the formulaic easy listening of the first few tracks. In fact, this last one makes the album worthwhile. Good music ages well, and you ought to understand the melody better on the 10th lis ten than the first. Damone peters out near the second. Female leads have always had a sort of sadomasochistic-undertone to their music; it’s a woman, and she’s powerful, get it? We’re not listening to harder styles of music to be let down easy. LeBlanc is ob viously a capable singer, but she should experiment more to break out of a lackluster vocal style. The first song, “Frustrated, Unnoticed” is representative. It begins with a spacey reverbera tion of her voice. Guitars ring in and her voice sways to the melody. But then the song does it twice more, and similar techniques are used throughout the album. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com