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Leisure

Critical Voices: Eleanor Krause, Hold on Daylight

Not since they started making maple syrup has Vermont produced something as remarkably rich as the haunting tracks of Eleanor Krause’s Hold on Daylight. The Burlington-based crooner’s debut album lays out a simple combination of beautiful vocals and quiet guitars, which results in a moving sense of nostalgic serenity. The soft melodies of Daylight lend the album a folksy atmosphere reminiscent of Joan Baez, if Baez had honed her skills in the light of an Indiana campfire.

Editorials

Government, colleges failing students on debt

A group of students at the University of California, Riverside have proposed a plan to put themselves through college while avoiding massive student loans: students would pay their tuition after graduation by giving up 5 percent of their annual income over a twenty-year period.

Editorials

Vandalism displays need for wider dialogue

In the early hours of Saturday morning, a vandal spray-painted the words “U.S. wanted for murder” in capital letters on the campaign banner of GUSA executive candidates Colton Malkerson (COL ‘13) and Maggie Cleary (COL ‘14), which was in the form of the United States flag. A heated debate on campus revealed the divergent opinions on whether this was a legitimate form of expression, or whether the insult of a national symbol should be condemned regardless of circumstance.

Editorials

MPD’s bogus statistics betray public trust

Because of a statistical manipulation, Chief Cathy Lanier’s Metropolitan Police Department reported an impressive 94 percent homicide closure rate for 2011. But by artificially inflating its success, MPD is exaggerating how much safer the city has gotten during Lanier’s tenure, and in effect betraying the trust of the public. The artifice is especially puzzling in light of the fact D.C.’s violent crime rate has dropped in real terms during Lanier’s tenure.

Sports

Big East favorite Hoyas have high expectations

Coach Fried admits that the Hoyas lack an offensive go-to player as of yet, but he believes that with time they will be able to develop the necessary strength up top. The team added a promising freshman class this year, with young players stepping up to fill spots in each set of positions.

Sports

Sports Sermon: Maryland needs a new game plan

Maryland has eight varsity sports going down the drain, and budgetary problems growing immensely over the next few years. Maybe it’s time for Kevin Anderson to realize that the Terps need a lot more than a basketball game with the Hoyas to fix their own problems.

Sports

Hoyas regroup for Gray Out against Villanova

The annual matchup with the Wildcats is always a highly anticipated affair, due to a rivalry that stretches back to 1985, when the heavily favored and No.1-seeded Hoyas led by senior center Patrick Ewing fell in the NCAA Championship to the No. 8-seeded Wildcats

Sports

What Rocks: Zac Guy back in action

“Just watching the rest of the year was pretty difficult,” Guy said. “But now, I’m all healthy and ready to go.”

Sports

Double Teamed: The enigma of JaVale McGee

The team needs to decide whether to make a big bet this summer when JaVale McGee becomes a restricted free agent. I, for one, hope that Leonsis doesn’t hesitate to re-up McGee.

Features

Meet the issues: GUSA Executive candidates’ platforms explained

The Voice reads the GUSA Executive candidates' platforms—so you don't have to!

Voices

Approaching one year, Japan disaster already overlooked

Usher videos don’t normally cause me much concern. Occasionally I feel a twinge of curiosity—how is his head still affixed after all that bobbing? Usually a glance is more than enough, and I move on. The “Without You” video, however, was different. After watching it with my roommate, I was filled with distaste.

Voices

Carrying On: Longtime hostility against Iran

While watching the Republican debates over the past few months, I’ve been taken aback by the incredibly violent rhetoric that the candidates direct towards Iran. The three main contenders left in the Republican field, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, have all asserted they would use necessary military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center claims that at least 58 percent of Americans agree with the Republican candidates, including half of the nation’s Democrats. As a result, I’ve found myself wondering how Americans can be so eager to start another war after our more than 10-year debacle in Iraq.

Voices

From finance to fielders, navigating the New York Mess

Earlier this week, a professor of mine asked the class if anyone was a baseball fan. I raised my hand but was tempted to add a disclaimer: As a Mets fan, I felt that this affirmation required a pretty loose definition of the word “baseball.”

Voices

In an unfamiliar culture, an orphan in her own adopted family

Studying abroad and living with a Russian host family began like an awkward first visit at a friend’s house. Your friend leaves the room for a minute and you have to figure out what to say to her parents. Meeting my temporary family for the first time, I found myself in that situation, wondering when dinner is, what it will be, whether it’s any good, where it’s okay to sit, where to put my shoes and coat, what I should and shouldn’t touch, and a whole mess of other things. But I couldn’t just come out and ask any of that. I was very conscious of being respectful, and even when my host parents told me their first names, I was pretty sure I should stick with Mr. and Mrs. Sokolova.

News

Despite crackdown, student Occupy movements growing

While recent police crackdowns on encampments in McPherson Square and in other cities across the country have diminished some of the intensity and media coverage surrounding the Occupy protests, Occupy movements at colleges across the District persist, collaborating with each other to organize new protests and actions.

News

GUSA Executive candidates defend budget proposals

On Sunday evening in the Leavey Center Program Room, the seven GUSA presidential candidates gathered to debate their opposing platforms, defending their budget proposals in front of students and campus... Read more

Leisure

Lez’hur ledger: Want your money back, you will

This Saturday, I wasted 16 dollars on a ticket to the 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The following is a letter I wrote to George Lucas explaining my disappointment.

News

Hollander talks Guantánamo

Internationally renowned criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander spoke in the Intercultural Center last Tuesday about the rights of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

Leisure

Putnam’s Spelling Bee will change your weltanschauung

A story about six pre-pubescent spelling bee contestants is not exactly an intuitive subject for a musical. But it is precisely the quirky idiosyncrasies of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that make it such an appealing success. Satirizing the pressure-filled childhoods of middle school overachievers, it tells the simple tale of a county spelling bee while simultaneously capturing the growth of all its individual contestants. Filled with sharp comedy, much of which is improvised, Spelling Bee will have its audiences both falling off their chairs and pondering how to spell the names of obscure South American rodents.

Leisure

Strathmore pays tribute to Ellington, and all that jazz

“I’m not going to do justice to Duke Ellington tonight in just one lecture,” speaker Rusty Hassan said to the audience on Monday evening. This two-hour session was just one part of a series taking place at the Mansion at Strathmore Hall in celebration of the life and music of the world-renowned jazz composer, arranger, pianist, and Washingtonian. The series, entitled the Discover Ellington Festival, runs from the Feb. 3 to 20 and focuses on the “African-American Aesthetic,” making this praiseworthy celebration all the more appropriate during Black History Month.

News

City on a Hill: DCPS cheats the public

It’s been over three years since the first reports of cheating on standardized tests surfaced in D.C. public schools, and yet many questions remain unanswered.

News

GU students connect with Cuban youth

This weekend, the Cuban American Student Association (CASA) is partnering with Raíces de Esperanza, a nonprofit that works to empower young Cubans, for the Cuban Youth Summit. As Cuban society becomes increasingly open, the summit aims to foster relationships between young people in Cuba and America.

Leisure

To beef or not to beef?

After the carnivorous barbeque overload of D.C.’s Meat Week, the District’s all-veggie alternative, Meat-Free Week, began its third annual celebration this Monday. The festival challenges meat-eaters to try new diets, and record crowds show up to trade their bacon for Boca Burgers.

Leisure

God Mode: This money’s Double Fine

There is a rare class of entertainers who could ask their fans for cash and raise over $1 million in less than 24 hours. It would take a gravity-shifting megastar to generate that kind of outpouring of support, someone with a cultish following like Oprah or Justin Bieber—or, apparently, Tim Schafer.