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THEY SAID IT “Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills and her seas. _ a * Rest your spirit in her solitary places." rage o T? \_mn: ernestdimnet Friday, April 22, 2UU5 *< . french clergyman Planting * the seeds ^ i < 5 AWARENESS fj Environmental groups events get down to Earth By JENNIFER FREEMAN THE MIX EDITOR Started in 1970, today marks the 35th anniversary of a worldwide event for people to celebrate the earth and commit to building a safer, healthier and Cleaner world. | USC is participating in Earth Day with a variety of activities, including an environmental Celebration on Greene Street. ' The event is being organized by Students Allied for a Greener Earth, USC’s brand-new “green dorm” West Quad and its Learning Center, and the School of the Environment. The event will feature recycling and environmental programs, USC research and activities, as well as community and environmental Organizations. Activities will include live music from local band Kilcoy, henna painting, an ecological footprints activity, free food such as s mores baked in a solar cooker and free planters with seedlings. “It’s kind of a festival, but it’s also an informational event,” said Laura Sima, president of USC’s SAGE chapter and a second-year chemistry student. “It’s the end of the year, so we just want to make it fun so people will want to get involved in SAGE next year, or just get involved in anything.” SAGE is bringing in eco friendly organizations with informational displays to raise student awareness of environmental programs on and off campus. “We’re trying to make people aware of different environmental concerns. In South Carolina' specifically, but also across the world,” Sima said. The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Columbia Recycling Center, Congaree National Park, Earth First!, S.C. Sierra Club, S.C. Wildlife Federation, Johnson Controls, Fair Trade Coffee and USC’s School of the Environment will be on hand. Some students might find immediate rewards from visiting tables and learning about the issues. “We have lots of prizes,” Sima said. “There are gift certificates from different places in Five Points. There will be questions from the different information given at the tables. We’ll just be asking people in the crowd and if they know the answer, they get a prize.” SAGE promotes sustainable living and raises awareness about environmental concerns throughout the year. “We work on national campaigns throughout the year,” Sima said. “An issue will come up and we’ll try to raise awareness by having tables, things like that.” SAGE reaches beyond USC to the state level. “We just started a statewide organization, the South Carolina Alliance for Sustainable Campuses,” Sima said. “We just created it with Charleston, Clemson and Winthrop. We had a convention about three weeks ago, but we want to get more campuses involved to accomplish more things.” Members of SAGE recently got a chance to participate on the national level. “We just came back from Washington, D.C. Four of us went to a conference, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. It was mostly lobbying, but it was also a conference,” Sima said. “We got to meet with different grassroots groups.” Sima said SAGE provided needed representation for the state. “We were there to make sure South Carolina was not being forgotten.” As part of Earth Day activities, West Quad residents will finish a Carolina Fence Garden backyard habitat from 4-6 p.m. today. The garden will be located in the Learning Center, the center of West Quad. The project, coordinated by USC geographer and West Quad Learning Center Director Kirstin Dow, will be the third backyard habitat installed by USC students, faculty and staff. The Carolina Fence Garden projects use plants and cultural elements associated with South Carolina to make a natural habitat for wildlife. The garden will include a split-rail fence, yellow jessamine, Indian grass, blue granite, a Carolina wren birdhouse and native wildflowers. West Quad will be an integral part of USC’s Earth Day celebration, as almost every part of the dorm — from stairways to hallways to study areas — was made to protect or conserve environmental resources. The carpet is made from recycled materials that give off no carbon dioxide emissions. Lighting is planned to sit atop southern exposure windows, reflecting heat back outside while providing natural light inside. An internal air-quality plan helps ensure air is clean, and recycling centers are located on every floor. West Quad dining facilities offer more “green” products, and carryout food is placed in recycled plastic containers. West Quad also includes solar panels to help heat water, and a rooftop garden helps cool the building. Other amenities include an outdoor amphitheater and a hydrogen fuel cell that helps power the learning center. April 22 is the official date for Earth Day, but more related events are occurring in Columbia during the next month. An Earth Day festival is being held at Saluda Shoals Park on May 7 and will feature plant swaps, art shows and a trash-to-treasure contest. For more information about Earth Day and related events, visit www.earthday. net. Earth Day is just a day of awareness, but we want to make it fun for people so they want to get involved,” Sima said. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu CONCERT REVIEW Truckers drive by Columbia to prove Southern rock not a dying breed WES WOLFE/ THE GAMECOCK “Drive-By Truckers” @ Headliners ★★ ★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ By WES WOLFE FOR THE GAMECOCK The Drive By Truckers, like their fans at Wednesday’s invitation-only Headliners concert, were fueled by Jack Daniels and ready for a rock show. At about 11 p.m., the Truckers took the stage like any other show they would play — with amazing energy, as if the band was playing to a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium. The crowd responded in a similar fashion, greeting the band like the rock stars they’ve become. Since the release of “Southern Rock Opera” in 2001 — a two disc adventure into the civil rights struggle in the band s home i state of Alabama and a celebration of Lynyrd Skynyrd (with both discs concentrating on what front-man Patterson Hood would call “the duality of the Southern thing”) — DBT has been riding the wave of critical and public acclaim. Subsequent albums, “Decoration Day” and the latest, “The Dirty South,” have been placed on “Best Of’ lists from the South to New England to the West Coast and everywhere in between. Still, the band stayed true to its working-class Alabama roots, visibly enjoying the close interaction with the crowd and ’ making sure they had enough hand towels and whiskey on stage. The Truckers’ set was punctuated by Jason Isbell’s brilliant guitar playing, which seemed at times as if it was going to peel the paint off the walls. Whatever he did before he came onstage, he should keep doingit. His guitar-play was dead-on to the point of unconsciousness. Then again, maybe he was close to it, saying to the crowd early in the show, “You’re probably as drunk as I am. It’s really great.” The show was the Truckers’ first Columbia show since their co-headlining performance at the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Five Points. No matter how great the Truckers played, though — and they gave an awesome show — they were upstaged by the band that played just before them, a rag-tag group of musicians called Don Chambers + GOAT Just imagine a five-member band in which the lead is a burnt-out Neil Young. His hair was long and unkempt; he had an untucked Western shirt and a well-worn pair of leather shoes. Two other members struck the eye as odd, with the lead guitarist looking like Zachery Scott and the bassist looking like Lisa Loeb. That wasn’t the end of the oddities, though. Don Chambers, the Neil Young look alike, sported an electric banjo. Zachery Scott’s doppelganger made use of an electric-acoustic guitar and wore a nice suit, as well. Also, one of the two conventional-looking band members set up behind a slide guitar. Don Chambers + GOAT makes its home in Athenp, Ga. where DBT now calls home ~ and has garnered rave reviews rom the hometown crowds and press. A recent Athens concert by the band compelled a crowd member there to yell, “You’re my new favorite band,” according to a Weblog on athensmusic.com. Though Chambers and GOAT haven’t ventured far outside the friendly confines of t e Classic City, their inventive Southern rock blend should do well following DBT’s lead. The opening band, The out fit nicely in the modern S°uthern-rock niche of the evening, though they gave a performance that left the crowd feehng like it’d just seen a raw ♦ Pjease see SHOW, page 9