The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 29, 2004, Page 9, Image 9
Ginger hopeful takes
‘Gilhgan’ role seriously
By Daniel Fienberg
KRT CAMPUS
From coconut radios to pesky
cosmonauts to coconut phones to a
surprising victory at the Cannes Film
Festival, very little that happened on
“Gilligan’s Island” was ever mistaken for
reality.
Leave it to “The Bachelor” mad
scientist Mike Fleiss to turn the beloved
Sherwood Schwartz chestnut into
deliriously exploitative unscripted
television. Featuring real people cast for
their resemblance to popular culture’s
daffiest group of castaways, “The Real
Gilligan’s Island” premieres Tuesday on
TBS.
Searching for the perfect lovely lady
to stand in for glamorous actress Ginger,
Fleiss turned to Rachel Hunter. Even
though your typical swimsuit-modeling
legend has better things to do than spend
three weeks on a deserted island playing
an elimination game for the kinds of
prizes she .could just buy on a whim,
Hunter worked with Fleiss on ABC’s
beauty show debacle “Are You Hot?”
and jumped at the chance to collaborate
again.
“I love working with Mike,” Hunter
gushes. “If there’s anyone you’re going to
work with in reality, it’s Mike. He
pushes the envelope and knows reality
inside and out. I’ve always just enjoyed
his projects.”
It didn’t hurt that Hunter vividly
remembers rushing home in the
afternoons to watch episodes of
“Gilligan’s Island,” which played
regularly on one of the two stations her
childhood home in New Zealand
received.
“I just loved Gilligan, he was such a
goofbag,” she laughed. “I loved how
even though it was deserted, all these
colorful characters were always on the
show _ the crazy millionaires, the
aloofness of Ginger always wafting about
in her evening gown, Mary Ann just
running around so happy about
everything and cooking a pie and
completely out of her mind. She should
have been on Prozac the entire time. And
the Professor! He was so asexual, wasn’t
he?”
Although Hunter insists, as reality
show contestants always seem to do, that
she would relive the “Gilligan’s”
experience again in a heartbeat, she had
many reservations about the limited food
supply made available to the castaways as
they competed in challenges based on
incidents from the series.
“We were given certain things, but I
couldn’t eat,” Hunter said. “It was like
eating cardboard. You’ll probably see a
more voluptuous Rachel at the
beginning and a more scrawny Rachel at
the end.”
“The Real Gilligan’s Island” begins
with two groups of castaways, from
which a final group of seven — one for
each character on the sitcom — will be
chosen. Hunter’s Ginger counterpan is
former “Baywatch” star Nicole Eggen.
Hunter promises that she was always
herself when the cameras were rolling
and that she never felt any pressure to
♦ Please see GILLIGAN, page 10
WUSCDESK
SgGS“~ IN HOT CARS
Dogs Die in Hot Cars
‘Please Describe Yourself (V2)
Let’s be honest, the early ’80s was one mighty
chic era. The remnants of punk dispersed and
birthed what seemed like a hundred valid
musical movements. Lately, many bands have started
to mine an early ’80s aesthetic, and Member’s Only
jackets have been flying off vintage store shelves like
they’re going out of style. British bands have been
the leading purveyors in the throwback sweepstakes;
groups like Franz Ferdinand, the Futureheads and
Bloc Party have taken the sounds of post-punk and
new wave and made them into something entirely
their own. Glasgow’s Dogs Die in Hot Cars follow
suit nicely with an album brimming with the
influence of XTC and the Talking Heads. This band
has a definite playful streak; they claim that their
name stems from a helium-induced hysteria. Indeed,
all eleven songs on their debut full-length are as light
and warm as a red balloon drifting on a warm April
day. The acrobatics of dual vocalists Craig
Macintosh and Gary Smith suggest the absurd image
of Robert Smith and David Byrne hopped up on
pixie stix. Their bouncy harmonies are best
experienced on the song “Godhopping. ” Unlike their
mopey-er, detached Brit-rock peers, Dogs Die in
Hot Cars gleefully express a certain wide-eyed
wonder. That feeling carries over to the album’s
artwork. A peek inside the CD booklet will reveal
vivid modern art, most notably a picture of the
band’s heads imposed on nude, less-than-attractive
bodies. These Glaswegians have every right to
embrace the typical British “next big thing posture,
but instead what we get is a band completely
unconcerned with image and pretense. Because of
this fact, “Please Describe Yourself’ is one of the
most complete and promising debut albums of the
year.
Red-Eyed Legends
‘Mutual Insignificance’ (File 13)
Expectations are a tricky thing. Consistency
and inconsistency are both potential bear
traps for artistic credibility. For more than 10
years now, Chris Thomson has been walking that
specific tightrope between progression and
stagnation. Starting out with D.C.-based dissonant
post-hardcore band Circus Lupus and continuing
through the mid-’90s with the equally obnoxious
and genius bands the Monorchid and Skull Kontrol,
Thomson has been working with the same material,
molding it a bit different every time. “Mutual
Insignificance” is the second EP from his latest
band, the Red-Eyed Legends. This recording finds
the band filling out its sound with the addition of
Kiki Yablon on farfisa organ. It’s that garage rock-n
roll staple that makes this album so special; that
ever-present hum is highly infectious and provides a
much-needed new element to the typical
guitar/bass/drums set-up. Thomson is as vitriolic as
ever, spouting off about nothing and everything at
the same time. For the uninitiated his voice is
definitely unnerving, a nasal and bratty whine that
will ultimately decide whether or not you can get
into this band. But for those who get it, Thomson’s
vocal antics are as punk as it comes. The five tracks
on this EP are full of sweat and exertion and are as
confrontational as they are catchy. With Red-Eyed
Legends, Chris Thomson and Co. have given birth
to a scaly, neon-yellow, fire-breathing reptile of
rock-n-roll.
By JORDAN REDMOND
WUSC Music Director
■ KRAUSS
Continued from page 8
“He goes with me everywhere, and
that’s awesome,” she says of Sam. “I
thought ‘Oh my God, how lucky I am
that I can do that.’”
Hearing Krauss speak is a bit like
seeing a picture of a favorite radio
personality for the first time and
finding that the face doesn’t fit the
voice. In Krauss’ case, her speaking
voice doesn’t mesh with her angelic
singing voice. She has a slight Midwest
accent, which appears when she says
something like “Oh geez.”
She grew up a fan of classic rock
bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith in
Champaign, 111., about 140 miles
south of Chicago, and began playing
violin at her mother’s suggestion.
“My mom and dad wanted to put
my brother and I in everything — art
classes, sports. One of the things we
were going to do is take an
instrument for five years, and she
chose the violin for me because my
brother had the piano already. They
bought me a book, and I listened to
records. I made a tape of whatever
song I wanted to learn and would
play it like 35 times.”
She soon was winning ribbons and
trophies at bluegrass fiddle contests.
She began performing in a bluegrass
group when she was only 12, and by
16 released her first album, “Too Late
to Cry.”
As well as anyone, Union Station
has managed to stay true to its
bluegrass roots while appealing to
country and even pop listeners.
They’ve recorded the traditional
“Down to the River to Pray” and
Ralph Stanley’s “Heaven’s Bright
Shore” as well as Bad Company’s “Oh,
Atlanta” and the Allman Brothers’
“Midnight Rider.”
In the process they’ve sold 7
million albums — an extraordinary
number for a bluegrass band.
“They’ve turned a lot of people on
to the music and caused a lot of people
to want to go out and learn how to
play,” said Dan Hays, executive
director of the International Bluegrass
Music Association.
New
MUSK ^°r the week ? November 29
“Breakaway”
Kelly Clarkson
“Street’s Disciple”
Nas
“Headfor the Door” A
Exies ~ y
“Old Friends Live on Stage”
Simon & Garfunkel
“Collision Course (w/DVD)”
Jay-Z. Linkin Park
■ FRIDAY
Continued from page 8
watching thousands of shoppers from a
third-story overlook.
Karen Burk, a spokeswoman at
Wal-Mart Stores, said it was too early
to comment on business and traffic
around the country. She said there
“was a huge rush” at 6 a.m., however.
The world’s largest retailer drew
throngs of shoppers with such deals as
a $139 flat-screen 20-inch TV/DVD
combination; $4.77 fondu sets; and
$25 children’s bikes, she said.
At the Cabela’s in Wheeling, W.
Va., elk-skin slippers on sale for
$19.95 sold out within a half-hour.
Another hot ticket item at the outfitter
was a meat grinder half off of its usual
$100 price tag, said John Castillo, the
store’s marketing manager.
“There definitely seems to be more
buying than a year ago,” said Tracy
Mullin, president of the Washington
based National Retail Federation, who
checked out three malls in Virginia on
Friday.
Stores are hoping that the shoppers
will keep coming throughout the next
month.
Already, hot items were selling out.
At a Wal-Mart store in Alpharetta,
Ga., just north of Atlanta, a supply of
discounted personal video players from
toy maker Hasbro Inc. sold out in just
11
That is why many shoppers mapped
out a strategy to get the most coveted
bargains — in the wee hours of the
morning.
“The deals are better this early in
the morning,” said Karen Dawkins,
who was at a Toys R Us store in
Columbia and was almost done with
her buying shortly after 6 a.m. “I have
my mother at Circuit City and my
sister at Target.”
Crystal Rhoades of Wake Forest,
N.C., stood in front of a Hudson Belk
department store in Raleigh, N.C.
The National Retail Federation
projects that total sales, after restaurant
and auto sales are excluded, will
increase 4.5 percent for the November
December period. That would be less
than the 5.1 percent gain of a year
earlier.
The holiday shopping season got off
to a slow start in Lafayette, La., where
vandals apparently glued at least 200
locks on dozens of the town’s biggest
stores. That sent store managers on a
frantic search for locksmiths and
forced hundreds of would-be shoppers
to wait outside.
Garan Wilson, one of the
locksmiths to the rescue, made his way
at 5 a.m. to Lafayette’s Old Navy,
pushing through about 500 shoppers
to reach the lock.
“I found about a half a tube of glue
stuck inside,” he said.
In Portland, Ore., activists stood
outside local malls urging frantic
shoppers to take part in a 24-hour
moratorium on consumer spending.
They called it “Buy Nothing Day,”
hoping to throw a wrench into what
they say is society’s blind habit of
consumerism.
Cut
X
Color
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Foil
3214 Millwood Ave.
803.256.6419
... 111 ———..
Eating Maurice s Gourmet BBQ could result
in uncontrollable cravings. Beturn to any
of Maurice’s 13 area locations to avoid
complications of cravings.
Cboose from World Famous BBQ Perk, Bibs.
Chicken, and Beef. Also choose from a
variety of sides and desserts. Any and all
choices relieve uncontrollable cravings.
.—.
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800 Elmwood Ave 256-4377
4411 Devine Street 782-9547
West Columbia (Near Campus)
1600 Charleston Hwy. 796-0220
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