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October 2008


Voices

Technology & its discontents: it’s my life in a box

It’s hardly a new problem, this constant mediation of experience into information and information into broadcasts. We take pictures just to tag them, have exciting adventures that immediately become emails or blog notes, distill our day-to-day life into status updates and Twitter shout-outs. The Facebook profile box is just the latest way to process the world through processes. Rather than experience itself, we have the experiencing of the experiencing, thinking about how we’ll tell other people about what we’re doing right now. It’s a meta-existence—thinking about what we’re doing rather than doing it.

Leisure

Myth, Moonwalking, and the Mississippi

Black Theater Ensemble’s … And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi sounds like a bait-and-switch, drawing people in with a whimsical title that turns out to be a metaphor. But there really is a Jesus, and he does moonwalk the river in light-up Chuck Taylors. It doesn’t make much sense, but then again neither does the play. Luckily, both are worth seeing anyway.

Features

Fall Fashion 2008

This fall, fashion takes its cue from the movies. Books like Brideshead Revisited and Atonement set the stage for the never-ending parade of hacking jackets, cocktail dresses and felted hats that marched out of movie screens, onto runways and into stores. High waists and sheer, fluttery sleeves abound, and it’s now possible to sit in class looking like you’re relaxing on some far off terrace, surrounded by Georgian columns with a gin fizz in your hand. This season, draw inspiration from those women from the 30s who rediscovered their waists after the flappers draped their curves away for a decade.

Leisure

Dessert it yourself — The New DIY

Although it’s already mid-October, I’ve declared this fall to be the Summer of George! Although the results were mixed for the oft-chunky George Costanza, my roommate Dan and I are all about gettin’ into being healthy and lovin’ love. The first step on our road to healthy living begins where any bildungsroman should, in the dessert aisle.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Dillinger Four, “C I V I L W A R”

Does anyone else miss socially aware pop-punk music? I’m not talking about Green Day and Sum 41’s gimmicky politico-punk balladry, but something more along the lines of what Dillinger Four perfected fourteen years ago. With a shallow catalog of only four full lengths to date, this long-lasting band has finally released its Chinese Democracy in CIVIL WAR, a record six years in the making.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Gang Gang Dance, “Saint Dymphna”

Hundreds of avant-noise bands start their careers banging out a mind-numbing racket in their basements. But only a small handful emerge from that dank womb (still dripping with primordial ooze) to produce something as staggeringly beautiful and conceptually challenging as Gang Gang Dance’s Saint Dymphna.

Leisure

Granny chic

There’s a girl in my art history class who always looks so put together. She wears really great scarves, gold jewelry (nothing too flashy, always tastefully antiqued), cozy looking sweaters, and fabulous tortoiseshell glasses. Her look is very classic and very now, but there’s only one way I can think to describe it: grandma chic. She dresses like an old lady.

Leisure

Too many Lies in this Body

If you were hoping for Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster to be in the same league as the director’s critically lauded Roman epoch, 2000’s Gladiator, prepare to be disappointed. Body of Lies is a middling action flick that, though well-made, falls short of Scott’s award-winning masterpiece.

Editorials

More Flex Dollars will set you free

There’s only one thing that Dining Services fears more than the norovirus: competition. When Georgetown introduced Flex Dollars, a program intended to give students choices beyond Leo’s for their meal plans, last year, they made it too small (a maximum of $100 per term) and too limited (just a number of venues on campus) to make a real difference. Over a year later, the program hasn’t gotten any better. It’s time for Georgetown to expand the Flex Dollars program so that the initiative finally lives up to its name and gives students real meal flexibility.

Editorials

Use it (a U-lock) or lose it (your bike)

Like an ill-fitting brassiere, Georgetown has had trouble keeping its racks in order—bike racks, that is. While the bike storage areas are centrally located, bike thieves have had no problem pilfering student owned transportation of late. At least 16 students have reported stolen bicycles to DPS this semester. Though this number isn’t staggering, it is significant enough to merit attention. There is good news though: it isn’t that difficult to keep your bike chained to the rack.