Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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« THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, April 5, 2004 ^ 7 % ir is the first thing. And fie second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things, he’s ContactUs got it a^.” Story ideas? Questions? Comments? BR0WN v:. E-mail us at gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu CAROLINA HAIRSTYLISTS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE LIVES OF ^FASHION-SAVVY STUDENTS BY LINDSEY JEFFERSON THE GAMECOCK Although some might choose to deny it, the first thing most people notice about a person stems ultimately from his or her exterior. We’re all on a quest to be approachable, even al luring, and often take painstaking measures to achieve a look we feel best represents our personalities. One often overlooked fashion fac tor is right in front of your face — or actually right on top of your head. ^ Being that most of us have had hair since birth, we tend to take it for granted, when in reality hair can be a definitive statement of one’s self. A person’s hairstyle can not only be voluminous but speak volumes as well. And when it comes to letting someone style your hair, it often takes a special touch to make your coif come together perfectly. Luckily, Columbia is home to several salons and beauty shops which help USC students leave those bad hair days behind. There are more than 400 beauty shops and salons in the Columbia area alone. Some prefer the services of huge chain stores, while others pre fer the small-town atmosphere of a pri vately owned shop. First-year crimi nal justice student Melissa Holcomb gets her hair done at Carmen Carmen • Salon in downtown Columbia Although it’s a chain shop with loca tions in both North Carolina and South Carolina, she likes the fact that she still receives personal attention. “They don’t treat you like a num PHOTO BY ANN STEVENSON/THE GAMECOCK Berry Roberts, a first-year chemistry student, gets his hair cut by Hasan Ross-EI at Carolina Styles. ber,” she said. “They know your name.” If you prefer the small-town feel ing reminiscent of your local beau ty shop or salon back home without having to travel. Columbia has plen ty of those, also. First-year business student Megan Pond has been going to the Larry Marshall Salon off of Harden Street since the beginning of the school year. The shop is private ly owned and,’’They’re really friend ly and hold conversations” with cus tomers, Pond said. Despite the differences in the type of shop, one factor remains constant: both Holcomb and Pond go to the same stylist to get their hair done. The relationship between a stylist and a customer can be a very powerful one, and sometimes that bond jf especially hard to break, even when leaving home to come to college. To avoid this split, many students such as first-year criminal justice student Artia Jones go home to Charleston when it’s time for a new ‘do. She said the trip home is worth it because the stylist there is a like a part of her family. It’s convenient to live in a city with so many options when it comes to hair care, but what if a hair emer gency strikes and you can’t make it home or to a shop around Columbia? Wanda Davis and Hasan Ross-El at Carolina Styles, located on the third floor of the Russell House, will take care of all your hair-related needs. With more than seven years of experience, the stylists specialize in everything from men’s and wom en’s hair cuts, to chemical treat ments and hair coloring. Students and faculty frequent the shop, and Carolina Styles’ greatest ad vantage over other shops in the area remains their accessibility. This is the reason Sierra Carter, a first-year print journalism student, said she prefers Styles. She has been going to the shop ever since the start of the school year. You don’t have to leave the city or even journey off campus to find a hairstyle that flatters you. With the choices available in Columbia, you’re bound to find a shop that’s right for you. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Movie. Review ‘Sylvia ’portrays personal struggles ofPlath PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Gwyneth Paltrow plays the part of tormented writer Sylvia Plath In “Sylvia,” now showing at the Nickelodeon Theatre. SYLVIA ★ out of ☆ ☆☆☆* BY MEG MOORE THE HAMECOCK She was a writer at odds with the world, a woman who struggled with de pression while living a none-too-up lifting life. Sylvia Plath, famous for her work as well as for her untimely death, is portrayed in all of her angst-ridden complexity in the biopic “Sylvia,” now playing at the Nickelodeon Theatre. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, “Sylvia” chronicles Plath’s personal struggles from the day she meets fel low poet Ted Hughes at Cambridge University to her suicide in 1963. Infused with lines from Plath’s often death-obsessed works, the film gives viewers insight into the inner tor ment Plath experienced—torment ex acerbated by her volatile relationship with Hughes. The film opens with a close-up shot of a sleeping Plath, over which we hear her waxing poetic: “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exception ally well...” Plath, from the beginning, is well-versed in the “art” of dying. Over the course of the film, she reveals having tried to kill herself by walking into the sea, and more recently, by tak ing sleeping pills. Hughes seems unnerved by Plath’s dark thoughts, but not deterred — de spite the dysfunctional nature of their relationship, it is one of a violent love. He marries her despite her obvious troubles—he is a brooding writer him self — but Plath’s depression turns into more of a burden than he knows how to shoulder. He drinks and has affairs, which only propel Plath into a deeper solitude. Plath’s death comes as no surprise — in part because we already know the end of the story, but also because she’s been dying throughout the film. The off-kilter but enthusiastic Plath that is introduced at the movie’s start be comes increasingly hollow, increas ingly pained as time passes. The tortured writer evolves into a tortured lover, then into a tortured mother and finally into nothing more than a panic stricken shell of a wom an. As echoed in the final spoken words of the film, she sees “no exit,” save death, from her overwhelming sense of being “hollow.” Paltrow plays Plath with an effec tive fervor. She appears perpetually off kilter, even at her most reserved mo ments, injecting the character with the necessary sense of uncontrollability. Her angst seems genuine and she slips from a functional woman into one ob viously unraveling with a haunting ease. Paltrow makes the audience feel uncomfortable; she affords them glimpses of the inner Sylvia, unable — as one would expect of such a troubled character — to keep her inner strife completely concealed. ♦ ‘SYLVIA,’SEE PAGE 8 10 years later, Cobain’s art reflects dark, troubled spirit BY GENE JOHNSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leland Cobain spreads a few yellowing pieces of art across his dining room table. The Aberdeen Museum of History, in the next town over, has asked him to contribute to an exhibit about his grandson, late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. One adorable Christmas card Kurt made for his grand parents at age 13 shows a hapless toddler, fishing, who has hooked the back of his shirt. There are radiant watercolor seascapes and depictions of Disney characters. Then there are the other paintings, in an apartment 55 miles northeast of Leland’s trailer. They are surrealistic, stark and powerful, revealing skeletons, aliens and the darkforests of a haunted mind. Like Cobain’s music, these images illustrate the tor mented genius of the man who shot himself 10 years ago to day. “By the time he left here, I saw him as the type who could have been a professional painter in New York, L.A. or Chicago,” said art teacher Bob Hunter, Cobain’s favorite teacher at Aberdeen’s Weatherwax High School. “But even then I don’t think I appreciated how sensitive he was. When I look at his lyrics now, I can see more of what went into his art.” In fact, said Cobain biographer Charles Cross, during the last two years of Cobain’s life the singer frequently spoke of giving up music for a career in visual arts. In 1992, he spent six months in Los Angeles, taking time off from Nirvana to focus on his heroin-inspired painting. It was a prolific time for Cobain, a time when he was experimenting with mixing his own blood and semen with paint. But those works have been seen by very few people — Cross being one of them. people omy tninK oi Kurt as a musician, dui ne was a very multitalented guy,” Cross said. “I got access to a lot of those paintings, and they’re just amazing. There’s a pos sibility he could have been a visual artist of note.” While Cobain’s estate keeps his Los Angeles paintings in a secure vault and did not respond to a request from The Associated Press asking to see them, the AP was able to view several paintings owned by one of Cobain’s close friends in Tacoma. The friend asked to remain anonymous to help ensure the security of the paintings in the apart ment. The paintings were done while Cobain lived in Olympia in the late 1980s. One shows a fetus floating amid what ap pears to be the white silhouettes of tree branches. Another shows a smiling, mad, dwarfish creature surrounded by childish stick-figures. A third is of a strangely bent skeletal figure resembling a ghostly white E.T. It was a self-portrait, the friend said. Some of the paintings were done on the back of board games that Cobain bought at thrift stores because he was ♦ COBAIN, SEE PAGE 8 PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Kurt Cobaln, lead singer for Nirvana, was not only a musical artist but a visual one as well. eleases-tolLSJ j__ __ _____ ___ - - MUSIC INSPIRED BY “THE SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR ESCAPE PASSION OF THE CHRIST" In Flames Various Artists_ t GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LIARS LOVE BAD NEWS Todd Rundgren Modest Mouse_ , TRUE LOVE INSPIRATION Toots & the Maytals William Hung