Archive

  • By Month

All posts


News

Saxa Politica: A campaign for all students

Images of the doors of Georgetown’s iconic buildings have become omnipresent on campus in the past few weeks due to the kickoff of the University’s capital campaign, “For Generations to Come: The Campaign for Georgetown.” They have supplanted the blue “Spirit of Georgetown” banners typically bound to the light poles and mounted on the face of the Intercultural Center building. It’s hard to walk anywhere on campus without seeing something about it.

Sports

Hoyas slam Syracuse, through to Big East semis

Beating the same team twice in a season isn’t easy, especially when that team is your archrival. But the Georgetown women’s soccer team managed just that, defeating Syracuse 3-1 on Sunday to secure a spot in the Big East Tournament semifinals. While the Hoyas (15-5, 8-3 Big East) are excited to be heading to their first semifinal since 2007, they still have a lot to work on before facing West Virginia on Friday. However, head coach Dave Nolan’s focus is directed more towards correcting his squad’s mistakes against the Orange rather than scheming for a talented West Virginia team.

Sports

Sports Sermon

It has been a roller coaster few months for the Big East conference, to say the least. New reports this week, however, indicate that the Big East may finally be adding teams rather than subtracting them, sending invitations to Houston, Southern Methodist, and Central Florida, as well as football-only invitations to Navy, Air Force, and Boise State. While these programs may not be the sexy solution Big East fans were hoping for, they still have good reason to cheer up.

Sports

Double Teamed: The Passion of the Tebow

This past Sunday witnessed one of the more lopsided encounters of the NFL season so far, as the Detroit Lions battered quarterback Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos up and down the field all afternoon. Not only did the Lions win 45-10, they made Tebow look simply atrocious.

Sports

In the midst of last weekend’s snow, the Georgetown football team (7-2, 3-1 Patriot League) defeated Holy Cross for the second straight season with a 19-6 victory. The Hoyas won playing smash-mouth football, rushing for 220 yards and recovering five fumbles on the afternoon.

Sports

Men’s soccer preps for tourney

After a successful regular season, the Georgetown men’s soccer team has qualified for the Big East Tournament and will begin with a tough test at St. John’s tonight. The Hoyas were given the sixth seed in the tournament after a posting a 10-4-4 record and going 5-3-1 in the Big East.

Leisure

Throwback Jack: Clocks and robbers

Halloween at Georgetown is full of traditions: watching The Exorcist in Gaston, exploring the underground tunnels below campus, or taking part in spreading old rumors about the supposedly haunted fifth floor of Healy Hall. But what about the story that attributes wails in Healy to the ghost of a student who was crushed to death between the clock hands in the clock tower? This story may originate in another Georgetown tradition: stealing the clock hands straight off the tower as a prank.

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Decemberists, Long Live the King

After 2009’s prog-influenced rock opera The Hazards of Love added a sludgy, blues-metal lower end to the Decemberists’ literary indie-folk, the band seems to have settled into a country motif over their last two releases, The King is Dead and the recently released Long Live the King EP. But where the western influences on The King is Dead felt like a natural extension of the Decemberists’ already folky style, Long Live the King seems to be built from awkward outtakes from the album, many of them failing to materialize into fully convincing songs.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Lou Reed and Metallica, Lulu

On the first of November of the 2,011th anniversary of the alleged birth of Christ, Lou Reed and Metallica, henceforth malevolently referred to as Loutallica, released the collaborative double album Lulu, proudly proclaiming that, in no uncertain terms, “Rock is dead. We killed it.” Though this unholy union did not shout this proclamation from the rooftops, the 87 minutes of pure rubbish do all the talking (literally—most of the album is spoken word). All puns aside, Lulu is by far the worst album in rock history.

Editorials

SAC reforms are just more of the same

This week, the Student Activities Commission launched its latest club funding structure, called the Comprehensive Budget System. Though SAC Chair Andrew Koenig (COL ’12) called it a “fundamental departure from the ‘programming arc’ system of financial allocation, as well as a significant change in the way SAC approves organization events and operations,” the new system is neither a departure from the previous, flawed system nor a significant change in SAC’s labyrinthine bureaucracy.

Editorials

Anti-piracy effort crushes Internet freedom

Last Wednesday, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), introduced the E-PARASITE Act, a measure that will shackle innovation and freedom on the Internet in an attempt to stop piracy.

Editorials

Sky is the limit for the capital campaign

Last Friday, the University launched “The Campaign for Georgetown: For Generations to Come,” a $1.5 billion fundraising initiative aimed at comprehensively improving life on the Hilltop. The campaign is a necessary response to the needs of our community and a notable exception to the perceived inattention of the administration to improving the undergraduate experience in recent years.

Leisure

The Spooky Screen: Our favorite Halloween movies

#1: The Shining, Stanley Kubrick,1980 Watch The Shining by yourself. Just keep an extra pair of pants handy. Kubrick’s attempt at horror is as terrifying as it is gorgeous. The ominous twins, the bloody elevator, and the ghost of an old English gentleman set the scene for Jack Nicholson’s dip into insanity. There is no shortage of iconic imagery in this film, but the sheer terror of a psychotic father bent on killing his wife and metaphysically talented son is what makes this the best Halloween film of all time.

Leisure

The Rum Diary not very intoxicating

Johnny Depp is not a pirate. A simple fact, but he seems to forget that at times. To Depp fans’ delight (and four-year-old Captain Jack fans’ chagrin), his work in The Rum Diary returns the actor to the world of author Hunter S. Thompson, whom Depp craftily portrayed in the cult favorite Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Rum Diary, an adaptation of Thompson’s novel of the same name, is a fitting tribute to Thompson’s work, but its sluggish plot progression and burdensome editing stretch what should be a concise adventure-comedy into a vapid two-hour feature.

Leisure

Get away from the Hilltop this Halloween

If Leo’s orange-frosted pound cake hasn’t gotten you into the Halloween spirit yet, don’t worry. From embassies to theme parks, D.C. offers plenty of chances to don a costume and forget about those last few midterms for the weekend.

Leisure

Whiskey Business: Girl, what you sippin’ on?

Let’s be honest: I write a drinking column. I like going to bars. I like the décor, the loud music, the varied atmospheres, the availability of alcohol. I like to see friends or people I haven’t seen for a while, and I like meeting new people.

Leisure

Byte Me: A decade after the iPod

On October 23, 2001, Steve Jobs took the stage in Cupertino, Calif., to announce what he called a “breakthrough digital device”—the first iPod. It had five gigabytes of storage and cost $399. Critics were not convinced. The name iPod itself was mocked as “Idiots Price our Devices” and “I Prefer Owning Discs.” But the iPod was not just another MP3 player, like many people claimed. It was the first device that made the music industry’s transition to the digital world possible.

Features

American Autumn: Inside Occupy DC

Walking into the Occupy DC demonstration in McPherson Square on a Saturday afternoon is like entering a beehive. Yells and clanking pots emanate from the kitchen tent. The Welcoming Committee greets visitors from the information booth. Homeless men and women stand listlessly smoking cigarettes.

Voices

A colorblind case for income-based affirmative action

Recently, while filling out forms for a fellowship, I found myself confronted with the all too familiar race-based form that instructs me to please mark the box titled “White/Caucasian.” Of course, if I object to providing this information, I do have the option of marking the corresponding box. But I think it’s safe to say that marking the “I decline to respond” box is basically saying, “I’m white or another race that isn’t considered diverse enough for this institution.”

Voices

Tricks and treats: college unmasks a new Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It’s not just the scary movies, the haunted houses, the crisp fall weather, the pumpkin pies, the apple cider, the bonfires, the haunted corn mazes, and the hayrides. What other holiday encourages, even requires, you to put on a crazy costume and get tons of treats (or perhaps more realistically for the average Hoya, a sloppy makeout with someone whom you think is the hot guy from your English class, though you can’t really be sure under his Dread Pirate Roberts Mask)? And no, Mardi Gras doesn’t count.

Sports

Homecoming heroes: football clinches winning season

Having spent the last five Saturdays in enemy territory, the Hoyas were ecstatic to return to a packed Homecoming crowd. “I actually started to miss Multi-Sport Facility,” junior linebacker and Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week Robert McCabe said, drawing laughs from Head Coach Kevin Kelly and his teammates. With the way the Georgetown football team (6-2, 2-1) played in its 40-17 homecoming victory over Colgate after five straight road games, it’s hard to blame him.

Sports

Sports Sermon

As the Georgetown football team traded handshakes with the Colgate players and coaches following a 40-17 homecoming victory, the packed grandstands of Multi-Sport Field filled the air with resounding applause. Sadly, this was one of the only times the crowd seemed invested in the contest at all. Much of game was observed in relative silence, so much so that it is unclear which was quieter in the second half: the crowd or the Colgate offense.

Sports

Double Teamed: Theo catches his moneyball

The Chicago Cubs recently spent $18.5 million on talent that won’t even step foot on the field during his time with the team. In fact, he won’t even be in the dugout. After being named the President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs, Theo Epstein has likely become Major League Baseball’s highest-paid executive. Not only are the Cubs paying a ludicrous fee for Epstein’s services, but they also have to compensate the Red Sox, for whom he had one year left on his contract. The Red Sox will probably receive a player from the Cubs for Epstein.

Voices

High hopes for Libya and the future of U.S. intervention

Congratulations are due to the people of Libya. After months of civil conflict, the tyrant who oppressed them with his iron fist is gone. However, a warning is needed as well: that was the easy part. What Libya is faced with now is much more cruel and much more destructive than any tyrant could be. It lurks behind the joyous celebrations, behind the statements of global political leaders, and behind the news streams around the world of Gaddafi’s death. It is the potential that Libya’s reconstruction will fail.