The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 21, 2004, Page 10, Image 10
10 * THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, April 21,2004
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p , f cannot command nature
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Story ideas? Questions? Comments? . • FRANCIS bacon
E-mail us at gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu playwright
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PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
The Folly Turtles Watch Crew protects the sea
turtles’ nests to ensure their survival.
BY ANNA HUNTLEY
THE GAMECOCK
/■ /E yrtle Beach is a glittering
/I/ E Emerald City, a vacation staple
JL r E for both retirees and underage
high school kids: “The East Coast’s ultimate
vacation hub,” according to the Travel
Channel’s Web site. While it is a hot vacation
spot, other South Carolina beaches offer
something a little different.
Twelve miles south of Charleston is Folly
Beach, located on Folly Island, one of the bar
rier islands.
“It’s more like a beach and less like a tourist
trap,” said Heyward Sims, a fourth-year art
studio student whose family has a beach house
at Folly. “I’ve been going there since I was
four. You go to the beach
®«V Surf Yourself
Bark Forward Stop Re? _ , ,
To learn more about becoming a
volunteer for Folly Turtles Watch
©appk © v Crew, visit www.follyturtles.com.
-To learn more about the Barrier
Island Eco-Tours Company, visit
www.nature-tours.com.
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thing a little more whole
some than just going out
to bars.”
Folly Beach is also a
haven for surf culture —
a particular stretch of
the beach, notorious for
having the best waves in
South Carolina, has
earned the nickname, “The Washout.” The
Annual Folly Beach Wahine Surf Classic, May
15-16, is in its fourth year. If you’re not quite
up to this level, surf lessons are available.
Folly Beach also provides a refuge for log
gerhead sea turtles during their yearly egg
laying ritual. On occasion, endangered
leatherback turtles, which weigh nearly a ton,
also choose Folly as a nesting place.
The official turtle season begins May 15;
volunteers for the Folly Turtles Watch Crew
oversee the sea turtle nests to help ensure the
sea turtles’ survival, an experience far re
moved from the typical sunbathing and club
hopping that goes on at larger, more com
mercialized beaches.
Isle of Palms is a similarly less-crowded
barrier island with miles of wide beach. Like
Folly, it is located less than 20 minutes from
historic downtown Charleston. In 2002, Isle of
Palms was designated a Blue Wave Beach by
the Clean Beaches Council, a first for a South
Carolina Beach.
With its dearth of pollution, wildlife thrives
at the Isle of Palms. Should beach ennui be
gin to set in, Barrier Island Eco-Boat tours,
based on the Isle of Palms, give visitors the
chance to experience the tidewater ecosystem
unique to South Carolina’s Low Country.
Tours include the Capers Island Wildlife
Exploration, educational dolphin tours,
kayaking and sunset cruises. Tuesday
through Friday during the summer, the
Bottlenose Dolphin and Loggerhead Sea
Turtle Discovery tour allow passengers to
watch dolphins at close proximity and some
times glimpse sea turtles—the same sea tur
tles that build their nests every year on Folly
Beach. Several tours take passengers to the
Capers Island State Heritage Preserve, “one
of the last undeveloped barrier islands,” ac
cording to Barrier Island Eco-Tours
Company.
For those craving some nightlife amid all
of the nature, Folly Beach and Isle of Palms
have their own nightclubs; the Islander’s Shag
Club at Folly, which features regular disc jock- I
eys, and Windjammer at Isle of Palms, which
regularly books bands.
This summer, leave behind the jaded shores
of Myrtle Beach and explore two of
Charleston’s barrier islands. Visit a beach
where visitors engage in the scenery rather
than the hot body contests, where nature
thrives alongside and in lieu of golf courses,
where summer can be simultaneously laid
back and intense—all without the traffic jams.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu
Movie.Kevsew
‘Punisher’
elevates
action to
new level
“THE PUNISHER"
★★★★ out of ☆☆☆is-*
BY GABRIELLE SINCLAIR
THE GAMECOCK
It’s almost refreshing to meet a
superhero fueled solely by his
emotions. In “The Punisher” view
ers get such a hero. There are no
freaky mutations, no bug bites, no
bizarre experiments gone horri
bly wrong—just a man alone with
his pain, his guns, a bottle of Wild
Turkey and a thirst for vengeance.
That innate sense of justice
business can keep its place with
the likes of “X Men” and “Captain
America.”
As a movie based on comic
book, “The Punisher” comes at
tached with an immediate stigma,
an impossible set of expectations
and is, on some levels, doomed to
fail. But outside of fan expecta
tions, “The Punisher” takes the
genre to a new, promising level.
Thomas Jane, in his breakout
performance, plays Frank Castle, a
newly retired undercover agent,
pushed to vigilantism after wit
nessing the systematic slaughter
of his entire family. Castle is un
necessarily violent in the film, but
his cold rage is not absurd. Anyone
who has felt unjustly wronged or
has lost a loved one unfairly can
relate to his lust for revenge.
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, with an
amusingly limited waitress
wardrobe, does what she can to
ruin the film. As Joan, one of
Cable’s overly-friendly neighbors,
shi*s an almost offensive distrac
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Thomas Jane makes his debut in “The Punisher” as a retired
undercover agent seeking to avenge his family.
tion for a man on a mission to
avenge his family and find some
sort of peace.
Unlike other Marvel comics,
which come equipped with an end
less supply of bad guys, Frank
Castle has only one nemesis. A
warped sense of justice manifests
in the retired undercover agent,
but he has no ideology, no cliche
“with great power comes great re
sponsibility” moment.
John Travolta plays Howard
Saint, a gluttonous businessman
defined by his vices. As the mon
ster who order the annihilation of
Castle’s entire family, Travolta
makes for a decent villain, bring
ing a disturbing, comic humanity
to the role.
Though it succeeds on its own
terms, the movie could have just
as easily been used as a flashback.
It establishes the superhero’s roots
and gives a basis and rationaliza
tion for his future actions. The se
quel is when the real action begins.
And ultimately the film tri
umph^ because of its realism.
Castle is reminded again and
again that he is just a person and
success is not a given. It’s a won
derfully dark and clever film, with
a cool and ultimately likeable
hero, who wears that pasty skull
face on his chest well.
Unlike the cartoon-ish, springy
“Spiderman,” which to took pains
to keep bloodshed to a cheesy min
imum, “The Punisher” offers up
a graphic sacrifice in virtually ev
ery scene. And Castle’s killings
aren’t exactly noble, either.
It’s important to note that this
is a ridiculously violent movie.
And, unlike “The Passion of the
Christ,” the film can’t biblically
resolve the carnage.
The reactionary Castle could
easily be viewed as a villain. In the
end, though, “The Punisher”
works because it sticks to a strict
doctrine: Sometimes a guy just has
to work things out in his own way.
To each his own.
CommentSon this story?E-mail
gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu
Local band Tigerbot Hesh starts
‘Revolution’ with album release '
BY MEG MOORE
THE HAMECOCK
Guitars plugged in, amps
cranked, drumsticks at the ready,
local trio Tigerbot Hesh is prepar
ing to stage a musical coup d’etat
with the release of their full
length debut, “The French
Revolution.” From the breezy,
summery rock of “No Diving” to
the minor sounds of “Merlot,” the
band’s latest record possesses a
musical je ne sais quoi that is
sure to have listeners singing
along.
Brought together, quite liter
ally, by faith, the group — which
includes Nate Austin (guitar and
vocals), Dawson Huss (bass and
vocals) and Mike Mewborne
(drums) — has been together
since early 2002. Austin and
Huss, who had been working on
music together, met Mewborne,
then a high school senior,
through the college Christian fel
lowship, 360.
“I met Dawson, who played
bass, in the praise band there. I
only remember talking with him
once and telling him I played per
cussion. Other than that, we
didn’t really talk until one day in
like March or February — he
asked if I wanted to join a band,”
Mewborne said.
The rest, as band biographers
love to say, is history. Added
Mewborne, “We just clicked im
mediately... and we have been
playing (together) ever since.”
Rocking their way through the
local club scene, the band re
leased “The Neapolitan EP” in
2003. Earning an opening spot for
Jump, Little Children and fin
ishing second in USC’s Battle of
the Bands competition, the trio
garnered a fan following, becom
ing a popular act amongst the col
lege crowd.
The “Revolution” officially be
gan in January when the group
entered the studio with Pat Casey
of Modern Music. Completed in
late March, the album contains a
slew of well-honed tunes that
have already worked their way
into the group’s live shows.
“None of the tracks are going
to be previously unheard. It is
some of our most recent material,
but we have been playing it for a
while now at most of our shows,”
Mewborne said. “We wrote most
of the songs at least several
months prior to recording the al
bum.” Album cuts range from the
light-hearted to the distortion
heavy, all the while remaining
undeniably catchy.
When it comes to talking in
fluences, the band members are
all over the musical map. “We are
very fickle,” Austin said. But it
all comes together as “something
unique that we can confidently
call Tigerbot Hesh.”
Each member has his own
rock heroes and personal faves.
“Carter Beauford of Dave
Matthews Band and Buddy Rich
are both big favorites,”
Mewborne said. “Right now I am
listening to Copeland, Mae and
even a little Army of Me.”
As for Huss, his musical tastes
took shape at an early age.
“This is pretty embarrassing,
but I remember being 6 years old
and my dad bringing home a cas
sette of an old Christian rock
band called Petra. I remember
putting (it) in my little one-speak
er cassette player — you know,
the kind with a mic built in —
and my mouth falling open sim
ply because I’d never heard any
kind of rock and roll before.”
All of the band members agree
that their passion for playing is
more than just a passing inter
est.
“I think we would all love to
see a career come out of this,”
Mewborne said. “I mean we love
playing this music. If someone
wants to pay us so we can keep
playing and writing more of it, •I
that would rock so hard.”
Although they recognize the dif
ficulties of becoming rock super
stars, as Austin explained, “Most
of us have useless college majors,
so if the choice is between being
poor in an office or poor in a
band, we’re definitely going to be
in a band.”
However, just as their faith
brought them together, it also re
mains their musical foundation.
“We are going to work as hard as
we can, and do all we can do with
the talent God has given to us,
and if He is willing, we will make
it,” Mewborne said.
Added Huss, “Being paid to
play with Nate and Mike would
be the greatest job on the planet,
but ultimately, my relationship
with Christ is what satisfies me, .
and I’ll be happy whether I’m *
rocking the Kasbah or sweeping
the streets.”
The band will be rocking New
Brookland Tavern Thursday
night when they celebrate the re
lease of “The French
Revolution.” Always aiming to
“have fun” live, Austin admitted,
“every now and then it is fun to
go over the top” with the on stage
antics. But the group tries to
♦ TIGERBOT, SEE PAGE 11