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Leisure

Critical Voices: Ra Ra Riot, Beta Love

As is the case with all instruments, synthesizers demand moderation and proper place within a finished musical product. Such devices are hardly appropriate in a full-blown experimental framework, particularly one that lasts hardly 30 minutes. Syracuse-based Ra Ra Riot, however, ignores these practices on the indie rock band’s third studio album, Beta Love, bringing an unpolished, unnatural, and chaotic creation into the world.

Leisure

Reel Talk: Taking care of showbiz

We live in a sad world when Twilight sequels sell out weeks before they are released. Fortunately for the film industry, however, a new generation of production and distribution companies has turned heads with the innovation of profitable art house films.

News

GU Fossil Free pressures University to divest within 5 years

GU Fossil Free, a new student group created last semester, delivered a letter to President DeGioia’s office Wednesday morning requesting that Georgetown University immediately begin a process to divest from coal, oil, and natural gas companies within five years.

News

Owner of Jack’s Boathouse faces legal battle over property rights

Jack’s Boathouse has been renting out kayaks from the Georgetown waterfront for nearly 70 years, but a legal battle is beginning to develop over the rights to the property—and the current operator of Jack’s is alleging that the National Park Service (NPS) has made a deal with a major competitor.

News

Students honor MLK’s legacy with service, celebration

Throughout this week, the Georgetown community is celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with several events organized both on and off campus to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s call to justice and embrace of radical social change.

News

City on a Hill: Certifiably screwed

It’s not often I agree with anything a Chamber of Commerce chapter has to say, but even your friendly progressive columnist has to admit the D.C. Chamber and its business lobby allies have a point in their criticism of the Certified Business Enterprise program. On Tuesday, they wrote a letter to Mayor Vincent Gray asking him to veto a bill passed by the D.C. Council late last year tightening up requirements for businesses participating in the program.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Bad Religion, True North

After almost two years of rumors and speculation, Bad Religion has finally released their 16th album, True North. Since their start in 1979, the punk rock band has become known for their three-part harmonies, intellectual lyrics and religious commentary and their latest opus is no different. As in the past, they continue to use their music to tell a story. For this album, the narrative is all about finding one’s way in the world, using an internal compass to find the way to “true north.”

Leisure

Under the Covers: Bunanameh more than ‘meh’

Buna Alkhas experienced 25 years of estrangement from his motherland, Iran, and from his father, the renowned Iranian-Assyrian artist, poet, and translator Hannibal Alkhas. This exile transformed Alkhas while he made his way around the world, while back home Iran was pulled through a totally polarizing metamorphosis.

Editorials

Divest from fossil fuels to preserve values

Yesterday, a group of students presented a letter to President DeGioia asking the University to freeze all new investments in fossil fuels and divest from current holdings within the next five years. The students, known as GU Fossil Free, also demand that Georgetown increase transparency and accountability in the investment process.

Editorials

License plates highlight statehood struggle

Two weeks ago, Obama finally announced his decision to use the District’s “taxation without representation” license plates on the presidential limousines in time for last Monday’s inauguration. Although it is a small act, the President’s use of the politically significant plates is a meaningful step forward in the struggle for D.C. statehood.

Editorials

Obama faces high expectations in second term

This past Monday, President Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term. His inauguration speech was a refreshingly progressive call for action, unequivocal about what needs to be done but broad enough to inspire and allow for policy maneuvering.

Voices

The wrong conversation about mental health and violence

Whenever a mass shooting or other act of horrific violence occurs, the mainstream media, political pundits, and members of the public are quick to jump to one of two conclusions—the... Read more

Voices

In a welcome result, Israel moves towards the center

In many ways, the results of Tuesday’s Knesset (parliamentary) elections in Israel proved a relief to Americans supportive of the Jewish state but concerned about the radicalization of its political... Read more

Voices

From caterpillar into cocoon, a social butterfly emerges

By now, I’m sure everyone has seen Mean Girls, considering it’s arguably the best teen movie of our generation. But for those of you who have been living under a... Read more

Voices

As print media lay dying: Carrying on

I grew up with Time. Every week, I would find it sitting around the house and either read it at my leisure. There was comfort in knowing it was right... Read more

Sports

Four Hoya seniors drafted to Major League Soccer

This season was a huge success for the Georgetown men’s soccer team. The Hoyas finished as the second ranked team in the country, made it to the final of the College Cup, and Head Coach Brian Wiese was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Coach of the Year. A strong senior class helped the team through a difficult schedule and drove the success that came largely from gritty, 11th hour wins.

Sports

The Sports Sermon: Weighing in on the Manti Te’o hoax

Manti Te’o has successfully transformed ESPN’s online site into a special edition of Entertainment Tonight with what is honestly one of the most elaborate public dupes on which the press has feasted its eyes. If it is true, that is. If this story really is of a second place Heisman finalist spending four years developing a long distance relationship with someone he had never met before, then maybe the NCAA should start looking into safer helmets to prevent brain damage to their student-athletes.

Sports

Double Teamed: The Hoyas as a bad romance

Envision a girl who does not really know what she wants. One minute, she wants to pursue a relationship. The next, she backs off a little bit, fearful of commitment. The common theme for the guy invested in this girl is simple-–maddening frustration.

Sports

Men’s basketball splits weekend road trip

The Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team (13-4, 3-3 Big East) had an up and down weekend for the ages, suffering an embarrassing loss to the University of South Florida (10-7, 1-4 Big East), a notorious Big East bottom feeder, before rebounding just two days later with a dominant win over the University of Notre Dame (15-4, 3-3 Big East).

Sports

Tennis begins Spring agenda

The Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams opened up their spring schedule this past Friday in Richmond, Va. where they faced off against Campbell and Virginia Commonwealth. Although the men lost both their matches, the women managed a split with a win against Campbell and a loss against VCU.

Leisure

Theater J brings Israeli politics to the Davis Center

Boged (Traitor): An Enemy of the People, showing in Davis Performing Arts Center from Jan. 15 to Feb. 3, is an inspiring play, covering delicate themes of corruption, greed, and power. Largely based on Henrik Ibsen’s late nineteenth century opus, Boged effectively moves Ibsen’s story into contemporary Israel, but the relatable narrative could very well have taken place here in America.

Leisure

Zero Dark Thirty includes total of zero dull moments

Arguably the most incendiary scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, the remarkable new film from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, are in the very opening shots. The image of a political prisoner suspended from the ceiling by chains and subjected to waterboarding has incited a flurry of controversy across a range of both media and political platforms, establishing itself as a lightning rod for the discussion of torture’s role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the ethics of using such methods at all.

Leisure

Americanization: What the pho?

When I left my small Midwestern town and moved to D.C., I promised myself I would embrace the cultural diversity of my new metropolitan home. So when I heard of the recent opening of Sprig & Sprout, it was with an exotic culinary experience in mind that I decided to make the trek up Wisconsin to indulge in some student budget-friendly Vietnamese-American food.

Editorials

SAC needs better incentives, fewer hoops

With the start of the spring semester officially underway, various changes in student life seem to finally be taking effect. In particular, the Student Activities Commission is making changes on campus that promise to have a large impact on the wellbeing of student groups. The inaugural Spring Student Activities Fair took place this past weekend, giving student groups the chance to reinvigorate their membership base.