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THEY SAID IT “Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.” ' 5 „ , _ LINYUTANG Friday, September 24, 2004 the importance of living Remember the basics for fashion triumphs ■ Writing a men’s style column earns strange looks, praise, queries I guess I’ve been writing this column for enough weeks to finally _I • _I _I *&“*•* - & recent weeks have shocked me in the reaction I’ve gotten from friends and strangers alike who have said they, enjoy what they read and could laugh along to it. The most surprising reaction, perhaps, was when a former KEVIN professor of FELLNER mine flagged me down at FOURTH-YEAR the Russell J ENGLISH House [0 ask I STUDENT M my opinion B of his outfit. I’ve even been recognized off campus. My reasons for writing about men’s style are simple. First, I honestly believe men care more about their appearance than women do and have more insecurities, even though they’re often masked in aggression rather than in perfectionism. That’s why we’re always trying to cast doubt on the masculinity of male models and belittle celebrity heartthrobs (What exactly do you women see in Justin Timberlake anyway?). And I believe not enough is ever said about the diversity of men’s clothing. My second reason is that you don t realize how many people notice your appearance every day and for how long that impression can last, not to mention how long in a particular day your appearance might need sustaining. My day usually starts at 6 a.m., and since I work for a politician, I almost always find myself wearing a suit or possibly a necktie with dress pants. I was raised in Catholic schools and never seemed to feel that dressing up every day was too much of a burden. But I’m often meeting with important community leaders and professors and then attending school-related meetings until long after sunset in that same white collar get-up. So I try to emphasize as much as possible to feel comfortable no matter your style. Whether you prefer my freshman year look of ball caps pulled down over my five o’clock shadow of a face or you follow the ultra-current trends of the runways, you’re always being noticed. Chances are you’re like I am now and are somewhere in between those extremes. So I’ve compiled a list of style tips in no particular order to keep you comfortable with a clean appearance no matter what your tastes are: ♦ Remember that there is a fine line between classic and cliche. Diagonally striped ties and breast pocket handkerchiefs are classic. Gold button blazers and dress shirts with logos are cliche. ♦ A cigar in your hand accentuates any outfit. ♦ Never be afraid to roll up your sleeves even in the most formal of settings. You work hard and should feel free to appear casual while being overly ambitious. ♦ While vertical stripes are slimming, it wouldn’t exacdy kill you to eo to the Strom once in awhile. ♦ Wearing white after Labor Day isn’t as bad as it sounds. ♦ Wearing all dark colors makes you look sad except for when it’s late at night or the middle of winter. ♦ Never point a collar up unless auditioning for a role in the musical “Grease.” ♦ Seriously, at least consider going to the Strom. ♦ You can never spend too much on good sunglasses, unless you’re like me and misplace them at least once a week. ♦ Leather belongs only on your wallet. ♦ Learn how to use club soda to get stains out without drawing attention to your self during dinner. ♦ Always, always, always wear a belt with dress pants, even if you don’t need it as the result of not having gone to the Strom like I told you to. And my final reason for writing this column is for me to meet more women and help my fellow men to do the same. But 111 expand on that point next week when I brainstorm on how I can use my wardrobe to make women think I’m a _I Above: GMP worker Lucille Sims shows the diverse selection of Southern breakfast foods offered every morning including grits, eggs, biscuits and gravy and bacon. PHOTOS BY CHRIS LIVINGSTON/THE ■ GAMECOCK / Regional flavor finds its way into local restaurants, jjk campuses, grocery stores By MORIAH EMERALD McCarthy i THE GAMECOCK CHcould take an endless tour of the South by sampling the foods that mark the region, snacking on boiled peanuts and drinking sweet tea. On our trip, we would see decades old pecan groves along the rural highways of Georgia. We could travel far south into Florida and have key lime pie made from local key limes. We could go rorth right now and buy freshly picked apples from the orchards of the foothills. At gas stations we’d stock up on Moon Pies. And we would have to stop if we I saw the “Hot Doughnuts” sign lit at Krispy Kreme — after all, the famous chain was started in Winston-Salem, N.C. by a French chef from New Orleans. Some of the best sources for Southern foods would not be so easy to find. Take, Bradley’s Country Store in Tallahassee, Fla. Bradley’s is best wmm Known ror tneir smoKea sausages made on site and their coarse milled hominy grits and cornmeal. This small store has existed on a countiy Sjf road outside the city since 1927. f For Southern seafood, we could pay a , X visit to See Wee’s outside of Charleston. The restaurant takes its name from the Native American tribe that once inhabited the region. See Wee’s is the [ki-Oy perfect place to partake of plates such as 823 she crah stew and shrimp ‘n’ grits. Charlotte Taylor, a second-year Qgj electronic journalisnf student, discovered shrimp ‘n’ grits in Myrtle Beach. She is from the northeast but has embraced Southern cuisine. She said she misses cobbler, sweet tea, Sonic and Bojangles when she returns home. In downtown Columbia, you have probably noticed the Adluh Flour Mill building. Adluh (pronounced “ad-loo”) has been operating in South Carolina since 1900. You can go to their Web site (www.adluh.com) for great Southern recipes. The key to good cornbread is to cook it in a cast-iron skillet at a high temperature. The skillet creates an even cooking temperature, and the perfect crust. In New Orleans, we could be classic tourists __ * and have beignets at Cafe Du Monde. We would also drink coffee and chicory with steamed milk. Historically, chicory was a coffee substitute but now it imparts its rich bitter flavor in coffee blends. We would encounter savory andouille (pronounced “an doo-wee”) sausage, gumbo and red beans and rice. Dessert would be bread pudding with hard sauce and some pralines from River Street Sweets, which began in Savannah, Ga. Pralines are the quintessential Southern candy. Their main ingredients are sugar, heavy cream, and pecans. However, we cannot always hit the road when the hankering for downrhome flavor favorites. In Columbia Southern cooking can be found at Lizard’s Thicket, which began here in 1977. Mac’s on Main features a Cajun and Soul Food menu. And Anthony’s Dairy Bar, a small establishment on Two Notch Road, offers wonderful Southern fried delights. For something fast, you can always go to Church’s and Bojangles for fried chicken. Even campus dining facilities serve up Southern classics. Manish Dave, a second-year biology student, tries to avoid fried foods, but he misses cheese grits when he travels home to Illinois. Jamie Ballentine, a third year advertising student, is a native South Carolinian. He said that if he left the state he would miss fried food, mustard-base Bar-B Q, and sweet tea — “God bless it! On the eight day At A rmlfp cu/ppf tPi ” Bahiyyih Young, a fourth-year experimental psychology student, is also a South Carolinian, “I lament the absence of sweet tea every time I cross the Mason-Dixon Line. Sweet tea is the best drink there is.” Sweet tea is a must-have refreshment, but let’s not forget Royal Crown Cola from Columbus, Ga. Clark Wright, a third-year experimental psychology student, is a fan of another Southern soft drink, Cheer-Wine. He misses Cheer-Wine and Sonic’s Cherry Limeade when he heads home to Pennsylvania. Diverse but distinct, Southern cuisine finds its way. into campus menus, local grocery stores, snack stands, drink fountains and regional franchise restaurants. The best things about Southern food are its homemade characteristics and local ingredients. As Bahiyyih added, it’s associated with “family, warmth and happiness.” Wake up to some chicory in your cup, try Roddenbery’s Cane Patch Syrup on your griddlecakes, throw a smoked ham hock in your batch of greens, have a deep fried turkey at Thanksgiving and indulge in a Claxton, Ga. fruitcake at Christmas. When it comes to good cookin’, the South has a lot to offer. Comments on this story ? E-mail ga7nec0ckfeatures@gwm.sc. edu Cell phone cinema preps for a close-up By ERIC GWINN KRT CAMPUS The film “Cellular” puts a mobile phone at the center of a movie. Coincidentally, directors are trying to put movies into cellular phones. We’re not talking 90-minute thrillers starring the likes of Kim Basinger and William H. Macy. A mobile movie is a smaller, two minute affair meant for audiences on the move, not captive cinephiles. Like a TV ad in the age of TiVo, dell phone cinema has to hold your attention before your mind jets off to do something else with your phone, such as surf the Web, check your e-mail or, gasp, make a phone call. It takes a new approach to telling stories. Not surprisingly, there are film festivals dedicated to movies made for cell phones. Later this month, the World’s Smallest Film Festival will be held in London by BigDigit, a Los Angeles-based aggregator and distributor of mobile entertainment. In December, Atlanta film producer ZoieFilms will launch its Cellular Cinema Festival. It’s not just movies on the smallest screen. TV sitcoms, news shows and sports highlights already are being beamed to cell phones. And there’s more to come. On the surface, cell phone cinema and shows resemble the media they descend from: movies and television. You see and hear people delivering dialogue. But while those screens try to involve you in a world that’s as big as life, mobile movies are quick diversions; who’s in the mood to watch Dostoyevsky during the morning commute? No time to develop character. No room for special effects. Not enough screen resolution for moody shadows or shades of meaning. When it comes to making films for the 2-inch cell phone screen, filmmakers have to think inside the box. “Just like with TV, you have to rely on close-ups,” said Frank Chindamo of Fun Little Movies, a Los Angeles film and broadband production company providing comedy shows for cell phones. “In this medium, we rely on more static shots, very much on movement within the frame, as opposed to quick-cutting shots: the opposite of an MTV video. The camera’s not going to jump around a lot, and because we don’t have camera movement, lots of scenery or quick editing, we have to rely on one thing more than anything else, which is writing.” These nuggets of entertainment have something in common with the best of TV ads, which put a twist on the familiar formula of presenting a problem, offering a solution and showing the benefits. Creative ads do more than say, “Got underarm odor? Get this deodorant and get the girl.” Similarly, mobile movies have to propel the viewer through a story’s beginning, middle and end without giving away the payoff. “We’re going to rely on this new and exciting idea called storytelling,” joked Chindamo. “Funny works,” said Beau Buck, BigDigit’s CEO. “Animation works. People want to be entertained in short bursts.” Further constricting the medium are the mobile phones and the networks they operate on. They aren’t all ready to stream video at a broadcast-quality 24 frames per second. For instance, MobiTV, which provides television content to Sprint PCS phones that have ♦ Please see CELL, page 6