This week

Looking for an art exhibit to check out during study days? Art lovers and the broke alike should find just what they’re looking for in the Class of 2008 Senior Studio Art Majors’ Group Exhibition held in Gallery 101 in Walsh. From drawings and paintings to photography and pop art, there’s something for everyone, as the styles, perspectives, and forms are more diverse than Georgetown itself.

Producer Judd Apatow has created a perverse (yet strangely endearing) Holy Trinity of contemporary comedy in the last few years: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad. And this machine just keeps spitting out more, with Drillbit Taylor and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as the most recent (and worst performing) of the bunch. His latest film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has its charms, and certainly tries to engage in an honest examination of relationships, like the best of Apatow’s films. But unlike, say, Knocked Up, the laughs feel cheap, and so does its exploitation of the audience’s emotions.

The Triple Crown is considered one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Man and beast labor as one, sweating and straining to reach the finish line; everyone else hangs out at the bar, showing off their large hats and signet rings. Ponies and potent potables have always gone hand in hand, and though this weekend’s Busch-soaked festivities at Foxfields may give the casual observer the impression that horse-racing aficionados are nothing more than meatheads marauding in madras, the average adult libation at a racetrack is as refreshingly spirited as the fillies galloping around it.

Whether it’s a drive-in, a draft house, or a serenading mariachi band, the elusive combination of food and entertainment is dying out. Dupont Circle haunt Marrakesh, though, masters the art of bringing entertainment straight to the dinner table by pairing hypnotizing belly dancers with delectable Moroccan cuisine.

There is exactly one difference between comedian Doug Benson’s documentary Super High Me and Morgan Spurlock’s much lauded Super Size Me: marijuana. Benson, who was dubbed “Stoner of the Year” by High Times Magazine in 2006, uses himself as a guinea pig to examine the physical and mental effects of smoking pot non-stop for thirty days. The end result is both an entertaining parody of Super Size Me by a stoned comedian, and a meaningful documentary, thanks to the well-focused effort of the production crew as they confront many of the societal issues regarding marijuana.

If you’re looking for a dose of cinematic pretension (we all get that itch sometimes), Andrea Simon’s 1989 short film, The Happiness of Still Life, will take care of all your needs. The movie, which is running in the National Gallery’s Spring Film Program in 16 mm format, is a study of Austria’s Biedermeier culture of the mid 1800s—a lapse into middle class ecstasy characterized by pretty furniture and domestic bliss. While the film itself isn’t necessarily pretentious, if you leave the theater thinking you completely understood it, you probably are.

Faheem Najm—sound familiar? If not, perhaps you know him better by his stage name, T-Pain. Despite being married with two children, his songs about hitting on bartenders and buying women drinks have propelled him to stardom in a pop/R&B field flooded with younger, more visible talents.