This past Saturday the Princeton football team + marching band traveled to Charleston for a game with the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina most famous for the institutionalized sadism of its hazing process.

Things took a terrifying turn for the surreal, however, when the Princeton University Band (PUB), which apparently had not been instructed that certain parts of the Citadel campus were considered sacred ground, unwittingly traipsed down the Avenue of Remembrance, setting off a round of physical attacks as well as vicious homophobic taunting.

The Prince has the story (with, like, 500 comments): parts of it simply have to be read to be believed. One cadet yelled at students, "‘Cut your hair, long-haired faggots’ and ‘You go have fun in college, I’ll go fight the war," while another shattered a bandmember's clarinet. Mayor Daley's thugs Citadel cadets proceeded to spit on the Yippies scramble-bandies, shove them against trees, and generally conduct themselves like typical Southern gentlemen.

Some, however, fault the Princeton University Band for its provocative antics in the Citadel's conservative atmosphere. Reports abound of band-members "humping" each other as part of their half-time performance. (Them's fightin' pantomime!) Pig-headed belligerent Ken Burger opines for the Charleston Post and Courierier that the "the entire Corps of Cadets should be given a medal for standing up for their school." And Underside points out that the most prominent members of the Band, some of whom were directly involved in the weekend's altercation, have a history of eye-catching agitprop and radical affiliation.

Yet others explain the conflict as a clash of cultures. Read the rest of this entry »