Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THEY SAID IT “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal — •n - the redness and the horror of blood.” Page 7 Monday, October 2 5,2004 « E„?^ JSSSf . State Museum scares up seasonal fun with spook-filled storytelling and ghostly tours By JAIME MCSWEENEY THE GAMECOCK The State Museum will be offering hair-raising tours in the evening through a special program called the Haunted Museum. This spooky exhibit will feature well-known ghost stories as well as garish tales indigenous to South Carolina. The State Museum is a unique setting for ghost tales because it is housed in a former mill with lurid legends of its own. “It is a great place for spawning stories,” museum worker Ashley Lowrimore said. The 110-yeaf-old Columbia Mills Building will be darkened and decorated for the event. “Ghoulish Guides” from the Three Rivers Storytelling Guild will be on hand to lead adult visitors through the museum. The guides will recount traditional South Carolina ghost stories such as “Gray Man of Pawley’s Island,” “Lizard Man of Lee County” and “Alice of the Hermitage.” Marketing director Tut Underwood said the building has its own resident haunts. “The fourth floor Rural Life gallery is said to be a preferred haunting ground of more than one museum spectator. Who knows what might occur when one dares visit the site?” This floor houses the funeral exhibit and the Country Store, which both have a history of nocturnal activity. The Museum’s own ghost stories will be told in this area, which features an authentic hearse from 1890 and an icebox dating back to 1895. The antique icebox, Lowrimore said, was supposedly “used to keep drinks cold, but it is strangely in the funeral exhibit,” so it was perhaps used for creepier purposes such as embalming. In the shadowy lurches of the museum people have sighted such IF YOU’RE GOING WHAT: Haunted Museum WHERE: The State Museum WHEN: Tuesday and Thursday evening “The fourth floor Rural Life gallery is said to be a preferred haunting ground of more than one museum spectator. Who knows what might occur when one dares visit the site?” TUT UNDERWOOD DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INFORMATION AND MARKETING unearthly creatures as a decapitated ghost, disappearing mannequins and a ghost in overalls, whom the museum workers have affectionately named Bubba. The tour will also feature a reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s classic horror story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” Poe was once stationed at Fort Moultrie. According to Underwood, “The area of Sullivan’s Island was even transported into his literature, serving as his setting for his tale of huffed treasure ‘The Gold Bug’.’’ Lowrimore said, “The Haunted Museum offers a unique opportunity to hear South Carolina folklore.” Visitors will experience a one-of-a kind thrill embedded in an interactive setting. Since the stories are presented in such an appropriately daunting environment, “tour-goers will be able to get a real sense of South Carolina folklore that is different from simply reading it in PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Spooks and scares are served up in Frankenstein’s lab at The State Museum. The Haunted Museum tour begins Tuesday and Thursday in the laboratory and continues through what used to be a mill. Traditional ghost stories and regional tales are told during the two-hour tour. a book,” Lowrimore said. The Haunted Museum has been a reoccurring program over the past few years. “We try to rotate stories every year,” Lowrimore said, “to give tour-^oers a chance to hear different stories.” “Gray Man of Pawley’s Island,” one of this year’s selections, is a rather familiar tale to South Carolinians. The transparent Gray Man is said to wander the dunes of the island when violent storms are on the horizon. He was even sighted walking in the surf prior to Hurricane Hugo. Visitors also will encounter the Lizard Man of Lee County. The Lizard Man was sighted in 1989, emerging from the Scape Orr Swamp, according to museum employee Shannon Fennel who has worked in Lee County. A third tale, “Alice of the Hermitage,” will be presented in the galleries of the museum. Alice Beilin Flag of Murrel’s Inlet, South Carolina is thought to be buried in the All Saints Episcopal Cemetery in Charleston. Alice died in 1849, yet visitors continue to report sightings of a girl dressed in white wandering the Charleston cemetery at night. The Haunted Museum’s two-hour tours begin at 6:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday evening. Tour-goers who brave the ghoulish galleries will be treated to cider and cookies at the end of the tour. Groups will be restricted to 25 petrified patrons each. Tickets are $5 for children 12 and under, $10 for Friends of the State Museum and $12 for adults. Tickets can be ordered in advance or purchased at the door. The event is recommended for thrill-seekers 12 and up. For more information on the event, contact the museum at 898-4902 or visit www.museum.state.sc.us. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu MOVIE REVIEW t Talky existential comedy full of [Heart] “I [Heart] Huckabees” Starring Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law and Mark Wahlberg ★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ By D.E. MCGUIRT THE GAMECOCK May God, or whichever sentient being of a higher order to which you prescribe, bless David O. Russell. He comes up with the strangest ideas for movies this side of Charlie Kaufman. And he gets people to give him money to make them. His first movie, “Spanking the Monkey,” was an incest comedy (rare). Then came “Flirting with Disaster,” a comedy in which Ben Stiller was actually funny (even rarer). After that we got the Desert Storm war drama “Three Kings,” Russell’s best work and maybe the most important movie of the 1990s. Now, five years later, we have “I [Heart] Huckabees,” a daring and deep “existential comedy” that, unfortunately, merely scratches the surface of its vast comic potential. But it’s still well worth seeing for anyone seeking originality. As a warning to the potential filmgoer, this movie is talky — very talky. If deep thinking confuses or annoys you, run. Hilary Duffhas a new movie out. The film stars Jason Schwartzman as Albert, an environmental activist and a hilariously awful but sincere poet on the verge of an emotional breakdown at the hands of the evil, wetlands-destroying Huckabees retail stores. The human incarnation of the Huckabees Corp. is Brad (Jude Law), a smug PR exec who torments Albert by co-opting his Green Spaces Coalition ♦ Please see HUCKABEES, page 8 PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Jason Schwartzman and Mark Wahlberg bond over a game of mancala in David Russell’s existential comedy “I [Heart] Huckabees.” Childhood experiences betrayed ‘by the belV ■ Dreams shattered when popular theme song turns out to be a lie "Well, I wake up in the morning And the 'larm gives out a warning, And I don’t think I'll ever make it on time. By the time I grab my books, And I give myself a look, l‘m at the comer, just in time to see the bus fly by. It’s all right, 'cos I'm saved by the bell. ” Lately, I’ve been doing some philosophical thinking. Anyone’s childhood is always pivotal to their life long development and inevitably influences actions, thoughts and beliefs as they grow older. In general, if you had a troubled upbringing, you deal with those issues in different — usually inappropriate — ways when you’re older. However, what’s worse is when you realize that part of your childhood was a lie. It’s like being adopted. My aunt was adopted and I don’t think I found out until I was well into high school — I think my mom waited for so long because she wanted me to be' past puberty so I would understand, realized I’d never get there, and just slipped it into a sentence one day, like a dog’s heartworm pill in a delicious treat—and for a while, I was feeling kind of cheated. Allow me to expand, giving you two different ways I felt disowned by my surrogate parents, the childhood sitcom. To begin with, I really wish that I could play piano. My sister took piano lessons every other day, or something like that, at 4 o’ clock. Much to my dismay, “Hey Dude” always came on at the same time. In hindsight, this is a mild dilemma. Yes, “Hey Dude” is brilliant and the decision to watch it over taking piano lessons is worthy of consideration, but after a good look at the situation in the preseik, the decision to take piano lessons outweighs the humorous antics DAVID STAGG FOURTH-YEAR MEDIA ARTS STUDENT of Ted and Mr. Ernst. That’s the first way, and it’s also the calm before the Shock and Awe I experienced after an introspective epiphany that led to a gross realization. I’ve realized that pan of my childhood — and any child that grew up in my generation — is a lie. And the more I think about it, the more it bothers me. Above, you’ll notice the words to the theme song to “Saved by the Bell.” And they don’t make sense. THEY DON’T FREAKING MAKE SENSE. This show helped define me and is integral to everything I believe and I’m realizing that I have been cheated. My argument is as follows: 1) Being “saved by the bell,” in the literal, non-thematic, non-capitaiized sense, could be described in the following situation: Subject No. 1 is in class and, at the end of class, the teacher decides it’s time for a pop-quiz. Subject No". 1 hasn’t studied, and as the quizzes are being passed out, the “bell” rings, and the subject is thereby “saved" by said “bell;” he or she does not have to take aforementioned quiz. 2) In the “Saved by the Bell” theme song, a student wakes up in the morning post-alarm clock ring, picks There was calm before the Shock and Awe I experienced after an introspective epiphany that led to a gross realization. The words to the ‘Saved by the Bell’ theme song don’t make sense. They don’t freaking make sense. up his books, gives his or her self a once-over in the bathroom mirror (assuming there is no time to correct any problems), exits and makes a fast paced movement toward the “corner." At this point, he watches the bus he is supposed to be on turn the corner, ergo, making he or she late for school as appropriate transportation no longer exists. 3) This is presumably “all right,” because aforementioned student is “saved by the bell.” 4) However, you will see that in both situations One and Two, the student is saved by the bell, despite a clear contradiction in the actions of the subjects. ♦ Please see STAGG, page 8 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pop star Ashlee Simpson ran into a production malfunction on "Saturday Night Live” and revealed possible lip-syncing. Ashlee Simpson botches ‘SNL’ performance By DAVID BAUDER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Singer Ashiee Simpson’s “extra help” may have been exposed when a “Saturday Night Live” audience heard her voice — singing the wrong song — while she held a microphone at her waist. Her record company blamed a computer glitch and she blamed her band for Sunday morning’s incident, which cut off her planned performance of the song “Autobiography” on the network comedy show. Simpson had .performed her hit single “Pieces of Me” without incident earlier in the show. When she came back a second time, her band started playing and the first lines of her singing “Pieces of Me” could be heard again. She looked momentarily confused as the band plowed ahead with the song and the vocal was quickly silenced. Simpson made spme exaggerated hopping dance moves, then walked off the stage 35 seconds into the performance. NBC quickly cut to a commercial. “What can I say?” guest host Jude Law said with Simpson standing next to him at the end of the show. “Live TV.” “Exactly,” Simpson said. “I feel ♦ Please see SIMPSON, page 8