Leisure
Critical Voices: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Mosquito
Though their usual musical nuance is missing throughout most of their fourth album, Mosquito is the kind of eccentric experimentation that could only come from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. While it lacks the clear highlights of prior albums, such as “Maps” from the now decade-old Fever to Tell, Mosquito is not without its moments—but listeners will have to scratch beyond the surface to discover these glimmers of artistic success.
Under the Covers: A book as bland as matzah
Mystery, a love triangle, cross-cultural conflict, and a foreign setting—what more could you want in a summer read? And for us internationally aware Georgetown students, Second Person Singular’s author, Sayed Kashua, is yet another of its attractions.
Reel Talk: Risqué, violent movies ‘R’ us
Most movie fans remember the first R-rated movie they watched. If you have trouble recalling this formative experience, you probably had awesome parents who let you watch Commando when you were three. But that’s beside the point. A couple hundred R-rated movies later, we cannot help but miss the visceral reactions our younger selves felt as we saw explicit images on the screen, images that opened the door to terror, sexuality, and humor which our virgin eyes and ears had never been exposed to.
Astounding Trojan Barbie takes on a life of its own
Walking into Gonda Theater and seeing a Barbie doll’s limbs tied on cords is a bit of a shocking sight. At first, you think it’s just a child’s room gone horribly wrong, when in reality, it means so much more. As grotesque as it appears, it conceals profound conflict beneath the surface.
D.C. Film Fest kicks off
Now in its 27th year, the D.C. Film Fest continues to showcase a comprehensive selection of foreign films and documentaries. This city-spanning event brings in some of the more enigmatic filmmakers and public figures of the age, but to categorize these guests as provocateurs would be a bit of stretch.
Trance will hold you in its sway
A psychological thriller can only go one of two ways—astounding success or abject failure. Every piece of the puzzle must come together in the end, the build-up to the ultimate reveal being propelled by unmistakable momentum. Director Danny Boyle masterfully achieves this feat with Trance, his fascination with both visual and metaphorical fragmentation showing through in every scene and suspense pervading every line.
Examining intimacy with “Let’s Not Ever Be Strangers Again”
I have never witnessed a performance art show, since it’s a relatively nascent artistic phenomenon to gain attention from the general population. The closest I ever got was visiting the Curator’s Office, a gallery near Logan Circle, to examine the extraordinary documentation of D.C. native and performance artist Kathryn Cornelius’s edgy experiment, performed in summer 2012. “Let’s Not Ever Be Strangers Again” details 34-year-old Cornelius’s experience of getting married to seven different people in seven hours, and promptly divorcing each one merely an hour after the wedding vows. All in a day’s work.
Critical Voices: James Blake, Overgrown
A sensitive dubstep artist who’s been known to collaborate with Bon Iver isn’t exactly the kind of musician you find in droves these days. So, James Blake is somewhat of an anomaly in this sense, though the tremendous appeal of his idiosyncratic, folksy electronica is impossible to deny. With his sophomore effort, Overgrown, the London-based singer-songwriter proves that he’s in no way contained within the boundaries of genre.
Critical Voices: Brad Paisley, Wheelhouse
Few things are as satisfying to watch as an artist with nothing left to prove. With nine albums under his belt, country star Brad Paisley is truly in his comfort zone; now, he’s just having fun. A largely unedited, seemingly casual jam session merges his unique brand of comedy and a glimpse at pervasive social issues on the appropriately titled Wheelhouse, unleashing the full force of Paisley’s insight and creativity on a 17-track masterpiece.
Loose Cannon: I wish I was in Dixie
Throughout this semester, I have been contemplating many aspects and incidents of drunken debauchery here at Georgetown. The more I thought about the subject—the wild nights, the painful mornings, the stupid and awesome decisions made—the more I wanted to know the meaning behind all of this intoxicated behavior. Why does Georgetown drink so hard, and how could I get to the bottom of this question?
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