Archive

Spring Awakening shocks and awes in Poulton Hall

This weekend, sex and suicide will be simulated on a Georgetown stage. This is not a lurid hook to get you to spend $8 at Poulton Hall. It is a salute to our Jesuit University and its students for their creative and mature handling of the, at times, violent and shocking content of the musical Spring Awakening. The show is masterfully done and displays the full spectrum of Georgetown’s talent from the singing, to the staging, to the orchestration.

By Liana Mehring April 4, 2013

Gosling spruces up Beyond the Pines

Ambition can sometimes be a dirty word, depending on its reach and underlying intentions. A riveting film following fatherhood and its generation-spanning consequences, The Place Beyond the Pines is certainly no stranger to aspiration. Though a narrative triptych that throws its net a little too wide, the latest film from Derek Cianfrance, the director of indie darling Blue Valentine, is nevertheless a rarity in its ability to touch on themes of novelistic proportions.

By John Buckley April 4, 2013

Outwin Boochever Competition breathes life into portraits

While the traditional notion of a “portrait” connotes the art of creating detailed personal representations, the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition takes the art of portraiture to entirely new levels. The exhibit transforms portraits into powerful works that communicate themes of personal identity, cultural differences, and the fleeting nature of beauty—qualities the average Facebook profile picture simply cannot capture.

By Rio Djiwandana April 4, 2013

Spring Sing is in the air

As the Georgetown community gets pumped for Calvin Harris’s concert this Saturday, campus a cappella groups are gearing up for a performance of their own. Superfood will host the Spring Sing concert, featuring familiar groups like the GraceNotes, the Capitol Gs, and the Chimes, as well as esteemed national acts like Johns Hopkins University’s Vocal Chords and Brown University’s Jabberwocks.

By Julia Lloyd-George April 4, 2013

Critical Voices: Wavves, Afraid of Heights

We each cope with depression in our own way. For Wavves frontman Nathan Williams on the band’s fourth full-length release Afraid of Heights, it’s copious self-medication, followed by suicidal meditation. Using ‘90s-era skate punk as a vehicle for self-loathing, Afraid of Heights is a well-constructed dirge of an album, even if Williams hasn’t moved on thematically from where he was five years ago.

By Keaton Hoffman April 4, 2013

Critical Voices: Charles Bradley, Victim of Love

There are a couple of things you won’t believe when you first slap Charles Bradley’s second record, Victim of Love, on the turntable.

By Gavin Bade April 4, 2013

Under the Covers: Sandberg leans in, falls short

“The blunt truth is that men still run the world.” Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead asserts that gender inequality in the workplace is rampant. Sandberg’s book calls on you, women and men of Georgetown, to lean in—“be ambitious in any pursuit”—to combat this phenomenon.

By Emilia Brahm April 4, 2013

Reel Talk: Some ideas shine, some don’t

Reflecting on the recent “conspiracy theory” documentary chronicling interpretations of The Shining’s true meaning, The Atlantic’s Jason Bailey posed a salient question: can movies be solved? A cryptic and haunting movie, The Shining asks more questions than it answers; on top of this, its famously elusive director Stanley Kubrick was known for his meticulous attention to detail and big picture thematic undertones. With these facts on the table, it becomes clear that The Shining may have an agenda beneath its horror movie veneer.

By Mark James April 4, 2013

Men’s lacrosse fails to tame Wildcats in fourth-quarter loss

Coming off an exciting 17-12 home win this past Friday against Marquette (2-5), the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (4-6, 1-1 Big East) lost 8-6 in disappointing fashion to Villanova (3-6, 2-0 Big East). Facing a 6-5 deficit after the third quarter, the Wildcats scored three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter that helped catapult them to victory.

By Joe Pollicino April 4, 2013

The Sports Sermon: Jay-Z to the rescue

The 2013 season was starting to look pretty bleak for the New York Yankees: The Bronx Bombers set a new MLB record for highest opening day payroll at $230.4 million on Monday and then went on to get convincingly handled by the Boston Red Sox 8-2—not quite the start you would expect out of the most valuable team in history. The woes do not stop there, though, as their disabled list could almost fill an All-Star team starting lineup.

By Steven Criss April 4, 2013

Double-Teamed: Gyms are the new sweatshops

I did a little bit of a double take on the Rutgers news this week. My initial reaction to reports of men’s basketball coach Mike Rice’s verbal and physical abuse of his players was pretty nonchalant; “Tough love,” I thought. Then I saw the video. Fiery passion is one thing, but Rice’s callous disregard for his players as humans needed to be addressed.

By Kevin Joseph April 4, 2013

#Natitude re-emerges in D.C.

After Robert Griffin III’s knee buckled under the weight of the city’s expectations, Georgetown students eager to get into D.C. sports were left with only the underachievers who play in the Verizon Center. Baseball fever, however, has made its way through the city. Two years ago, the Nationals were a sub-500 team, and three years ago, they barely fended off a 100-loss season. Then, it was 2012, and things snapped into place.

By Chris Almeida April 4, 2013

SCOTUS hearing, but not listening, on same-sex marriage

Last week, the Supreme Court herd oral arguments in two gay rights cases involving Proposition 8 (which banned same-sex marriage in California) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA, which... Read more

By Mark Stern April 3, 2013

Justices ignore historical context in aff. action cases

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Schuette v. Michigan Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, after hearing Fisher v. University of Texas earlier this term. “Another affirmative action case?”... Read more

By Julia Tanaka April 3, 2013

NCAA culture of impunity a threat to university life

In March 2010, LaMichael James was charged with menacing, strangulation, and assault of his ex-girlfriend. In February 2011, Darrell Williams was charged with rape and sexual battery. In December 2012,... Read more

By Sara Ainsworth April 3, 2013

Carrying on: Sexism in science sucks

Sitting in a large intro science class in Reiss 103 last year, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. The lights had been dimmed for the PowerPoint presentation, and... Read more

By Claire McDaniel April 3, 2013

Features

Voice Spring Fashion

This season we ventured into the District to showcase a mix of vintage and new. From Malcom X Park to cafes in Adams Morgan to the Sculpture Garden at the National Mall, D.C. is the perfect place to get out and explore. Now is the time to shed your winter layers and strut spring styles.

By Neha Ghanshamdas and Julian de la Paz March 21, 2013

Mari Vanna opens a portal to the Motherland in Dupont

Borsch—a beet and assorted vegetable soup with beef—is perhaps the most iconic dish associated with Russian cuisine. Indeed, the image of a wooden spoon resting casually in a steaming bowl of the red staple, along with a surrounding crowd of bustling relatives, is common in the motherland.

By Kirill Makarenko March 21, 2013

Ginger & Rosa: Love in a Cold War

There’s something about 1960s London that smells like teen spirit. Caught in between the heyday of the Beatles and the stifling atmosphere of ‘50s conservatism, the title protagonists of the sharply intelligent Ginger & Rosa relish the tide of change that is just beginning to roll in at the start of the decade. Best friends since birth, they are restless 17-year-olds that sniff at their mothers’ bourgeois domesticity and yearn for freedom. Theirs is a familiar narrative, filled with the same rebelliousness and shattered illusions of adolescence, yet it’s a coming-of-age tale that explores an emotional landscape far broader than that of mere tension between generations.

By Julia Lloyd-George March 21, 2013

Corcoran photography examines the state of the world

So exactly, how is the world? This is the question one of the Corcoran’s newest exhibits tries to answer through a small assortment of contemporary photography. Bringing together a diverse group of photographers with styles that range from self-portraiture to exclusively using the life on the streets as a subject, How is the World? is an eclectic yet cohesive collection that offers a powerful insight into an age when both the world and the artistic medium used to capture it are constantly evolving.

By Dayana Morales Gomez March 21, 2013

Critical Voices: Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience

There will always be something a little seductive about the prince of pop, and Justin Timberlake fully capitalizes on this magnetism to bring a heavy dose of hype to his new album. The former ‘N Sync singer brings sexy back in full force with The 20/20 Experience, which features an eclectic variety of songs that vary from R&B, pop, Latin, Eastern, and even a little slow rock. One may think the selection might make the record messy, but Timberlake makes every transition flawless.

By Zakiya Jamal March 21, 2013

Critical Voices: Alpha Rev, Bloom

Formed in the wake of the breakup of frontman Casey McPherson’s previous band Endochine, the stalwart crew of Austin rockers known as Alpha Rev has climbed the Texas indie chart with three full-length LPs built around McPherson’s vocal range. Alpha Rev’s most recent album, Bloom, utilizes his practiced voice against a soothing musical backdrop to bring compelling soft alternative rock into the world.

By Rhiannon Greene March 21, 2013