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March 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: !!!, Myth Takes, Warp

With eight members and an emphasis on rhythm and danceability, !!! (conventionally pronounced “chk-chk-chk”) have sometimes lacked focus. While the band provides the perfect sound track to running really fast or freaking out, the human touch is often lost in the conglomeration of sounds. With Myth Takes !!! realize that those exclamation points can refer to emotion, not just excitement.

By March 1, 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible, Merge

The music that tugs most at our heartstrings is often the most divisive. In one camp you have those who prefer their music served raw and doused with emotion; in the other you have vicious detractors shouting labels like “emo” and “over the top” with bitter disapproval. The Arcade Fire’s emotive debut, Funeral, won over both camps by shrouding many of its emo leanings in ambiguity and lyrical imagery.

By March 1, 2007

Leisure

Indie film: “Love in the Wrong Places”

Besides the frightening presence of Joan Rivers on every entertainment channel, there may be only one thing you can predict about Oscar season. Every actress on the red carpet is thinner than you. You can avoid this strange and recurring phenomenon by exploring the assortment of films offered by the DC Independent Film Fest.

By March 1, 2007

Leisure

Jack Gilbert says no to Heaven

Jack Gilbert’s collection of poems, “Refusing Heaven”, deserves the second round of attention its paperback reissue has received for its beautiful reflection upon the American poet’s adult life.

By March 1, 2007

Voices

Carrying on: One man plays with his Wii

Back in middle school there was always one kid on the baseball team with gangly legs too long for his body and ears too big for his head: that athletic disaster that you didn’t want to see come up to bat, even though you knew that everybody gets to play in Little League. Remember how that kid didn’t really want to get up to bat either? I was that kid, and I excelled more in the field of videogames than on a physical field.

By March 1, 2007

Voices

The rhetorical war against Iran

It has been over five years since George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in which he proclaimed that an “axis of evil” that included the countries of Iraq, Iran and North Korea “threaten the peace of the world.” Bush made it clear that he is willing to take action against such “evil” when he invaded Iraq in 2003, and now there is much discussion about what should be done with Iran and its ambition to obtain nuclear technology. Currently, Americans are being led to believe that Iran is a serious threat to their security (and Israel’s), yet this idea is simply false and based on misquotations and exaggerations.

By March 1, 2007

Voices

The roaring bears of Brooklyn

As a National Park Ranger last summer, I was often asked what to do if a bear came into the campsite. This might be a standard question for most park rangers, but I wasn’t surrounded by Yellowstone’s erupting geysers or the rocky majesty of the Grand Canyon, but by weedy fields dotted with occasional clumps of pine trees at Gateway National Recreation Area. The park is Brooklyn’s largest national park, located on the southern tip of the borough. I follow the news pretty closely, but the frequency of the bear question left me wondering whether there was a rash of bear attacks sweeping New York that I hadn’t heard about.

By March 1, 2007

Editorials

The Funny Third: JWall for President

Fellow Hoyas, the time has come to ask not what you can do for your basketball team, but to ask what your basketball team can do for you, and that is to overthrow the Student Association.

By the March 1, 2007

Voices

The truth about strangers

Unfortunately, it appears that our mothers’ favorite adage about taking candy from strangers is true. Give your amiable bus driver an inch and he’ll take a mile. Chat with the girl beside you in the Safeway line once and she’ll be lying in wait for you by the shopping carts next time you go to buy cereal. Strike up a conversation with the security guard at your office and next thing you know he’ll stop seeing your 30-year age difference as an obstacle to asking you to dinner.

By March 1, 2007

Editorials

Don’t make Hoyas’ home nicer

Looking to fund $50 million in renovations to the Verizon Center without opening up his checkbook, Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin did what any sensible man would do: he turned to the D.C. Council.

By the March 1, 2007