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Sports

Hoyas look to ace foes at Georgetown Classic

Starting tomorrow, the balls will be in the Hoyas’ court. The Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams look to set the tone for their 2011-2012 season with a rare home appearance this weekend as they host the annual Georgetown Classic Tennis Tournament at McDonough Outdoor Tennis Complex.

Sports

Sports Sermon

After Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced they were leaving the Big East for greener football pastures in the ACC, many Hoya fans were despondent, preparing themselves for a plunge into decades of college basketball irrelevance.

Sports

Football set for stiff road test

Georgetown’s matchup against Marist to close the 2010 football season hardly gave then-freshman tailback Nick Campanella cause for celebration. Despite their 14-7 win over the Red Foxes, the Hoyas had just wrapped up a dismal slide that saw them finish 4-7 overall, while Campanella failed to see any action in the game outside of special teams.

Sports

Double Teamed: Conference shuffle has fans dancing

On Tuesday night, the Pac-12 announced it terminated negotiations to expand the conference to 14 or even 16 teams. The conference said it was happy with 12 teams—for now.

Sports

Women’s soccer bounces back

After a rough overtime loss in their Big East opener against Seton Hall, the Georgetown women’s soccer team rediscovered their form with a huge win over Rutgers. Sunday’s 4-1 win, reaffirmed the team’s presence as a top Big East contender, improving their overall record to 7-3.

Voices

Waking up to the harsh reality of public education

Last year, my mother retired from teaching after 35 years of dedicated service. At her retirement party, I was unable to count the number of former students in attendance. A number of them gave speeches praising her for her talent and her ability to inspire. Now lawyers, doctors, authors, dancers, and musicians, they all recognized her enthusiasm and dedication as the catalyst for their intellectual growth and success.

Voices

This is just the same old story: another Hollywood remake

A few months ago, I found myself tossing back my usual concoction of Sour Patch Kids and popcorn at the K Street Theater while watching the previews before No Strings Attached. The previews, in line with the coming movie, consisted of much of the same repetitive rom-com themes that every girl occasionally indulges. When the preview for Friends with Benefits came on, however, I did a double take—wasn’t that the exact same movie I came to see?

Voices

Injury drives student skeptic to peace of mind at Down Dog

If you live in West Georgetown, chances are that sometime during the day you’ve noticed any number of well-toned young women clad in yoga pants and toting a tightly rolled mat, trooping off to some hidden fountain of youth. It’s a mesmerizing migration, and one that until fairly recently I’d thought to be off limits to the general population. Their destination, Down Dog Yoga —located behind Dean and Deluca off of M street—has in recent years become a staple for both aspiring and established Georgetown yogis.

Voices

Fighting Irish take on Vatican

Studying Irish history is a lot like watching Rocky. As with every Irish hero, Rocky is an underdog with a lot of heart, a lot of will, and an incredible ability to accept a beating. And like every Irish hero, Rocky loses. Unlike Rocky, however, the Irish continue well past six fights. Ireland’s history is marked by rebellion after rebellion. The legacy of the bloodshed and failed freedom fighters belie, by stereotype and by my experience, the true nature of the Irish people: boisterous, but ultimately passive and habitually willing to submit to (Catholic) authority.

Leisure

Throwback Jack: When Rats ruled the Hilltop

Today, faculty at Georgetown take the student Code of Conduct quite seriously, doling out fines, written reprimands, and work sanction hours. Yet when it comes to run-ins with the law our 19th century counter-parts were battling a much stricter set of rules. Still, their prescribed punishments did not prevent these distant Hoyas from having their fun.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Wilco, The Whole Love

While the release of a eighth album may suggest a band’s unwillingness to retire, with The Whole Love, alternative veterans Wilco prove that they’re creative juices are still running strong. Continuing to avoid a defining genre, Wilco remains nestled somewhere between pop, alternative rock, and indie, once again incorporating new instruments and experimental sounds to live up to their continuity-through-change reputation.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hysterical

For a group that started out as an internet buzz band, music blogs have been pretty quiet about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s new album, Hysterical. Where the band succeeded by keeping it simple but original, this new album disappoints by kicking up production and burying its tried and true style, ending up sounding like a singing telegram to later releases by The Killers and U2.

Editorials

Economic woes require immediate action

On Monday, Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies released a report revealing that more than one in three young families with children were living in poverty in 2010. The analysis was based on U.S. Census data made available on September 13, which showed that more Americans are living in poverty than at any point since 1959. These numbers are shocking, but elected officials in Washington, especially Republican leaders, have decided that the best thing they can do is nothing at all. Inaction might be shrewd political calculus, but it is terrible economic policy.

Editorials

Politicization of the HPV vaccine disconcerts

A surprising point of contention during the Republican presidential debate last week was an executive order that Texas Governor Rick Perry passed in 2007 mandating that girls in the sixth grade in Texas receive an inoculation against human papilloma virus. After the signing of the executive order, which the Texas legislature later overturned, it came to light that Merck & Co., the manufacturer of the HPV vaccine, donated $5,000 to Perry’s 2006 gubernatorial re-election campaign.

Editorials

Georgetown has a Big decision to make

Over the weekend, news broke that Syracuse and Pittsburgh have decided to leave the Big East Conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference. With some predicting that the defections will prompt the Big East’s remaining members to strengthen the conference and others already preparing to write the league’s eulogy, Georgetown must be proactive in the coming days and months to protect the school’s athletic programs and ensure that they have a place to compete at a high level.

Leisure

Drive blends the bloody and the beautiful

There’s a scene in Drive where Ryan Gosling and his love interest share a passionate, climactic kiss. Then Gosling ruthlessly proceeds to kick a thug’s skull in. This combination of excessive violence and theatrical set-ups gives Drive a gritty, gore-is-good charm. With quiet, tension-building scenes interrupted by gut-wrenching violence, the film pays tribute to classic car-chasers like Bullitt while mixing in the satirical wit of Tarantino. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s final product is a stylish, bold, and brutal film, filled to the brim with superb acting and beautiful cinematography.

Leisure

District of Pi: pizza and politics at their best

By now, most of us have picked out our favorite spot for a dose of cheesy pizza goodness. Some of the less adventurous, such as my gastronomically uninclined roommate, frequently turn to boring chains like Pizza Hut or Domino’s. For pizza snobs, this type of behavior is unacceptable, so it comes as a relief to learn that our president’s taste is a little more sophisticated.

Leisure

Houston, we have a soda

Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall has turned a new page. While complaining about Leo’s is a Georgetown pastime, the cafeteria has finally struck a change that will last. And no, we’re not talking about vegetable-infused water. We’re talking about the Coca-Cola Freestyle, the high-tech soda-bot next to the ice cream station. Overnight (or at least over the summer), Leo’s has entered the space age.

Leisure

A glimpse into middle America

In a small but compelling collection of large-scale landscape paintings, D.C.-born artist Ben Ferry succeeds in capturing the essence of his travels to the American Midwest. His exhibit, Upper Middle, featured in the Walsh Building’s Spagnuolo Gallery is relatively small, including only ten paintings, but each of the works is brilliant. Ferry’s merit lies in his ability to transport the viewer from D.C.’s urban chaos to the forgotten worlds of America’s past.

Leisure

Whiskey Business: Two sharks walk into a bar

“If you took a cab here, you don’t belong here.” So says one of what must be a million articles of graffiti on the bathroom wall at The Raven Grill, one of D.C.’s dive-iest bars. Although this quote nicely sums up the general atmosphere, it is difficult to describe exactly what makes a bar a dive. Like pornography, I know it when I see it. But there are a few generally accepted principles that all dive bars—or at least the good ones—have to follow.

Leisure

Byte Me: Google Plus doesn’t add up

I logged into my Google Plus account today for the first time since August 15, only to find that during the past month, I had missed absolutely nothing. During the time that my account went completely unused, there were four new posts in my “stream,” the Google Plus equivalent to the Facebook newsfeed.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Kasabian, Velociraptor!

After a two-year wait, English rockers Kasabian have released their fourth album, Velociraptor!, but contrary to the title, the album is an electronically-charged shift to contemporary music, not an homage to Jurassic Park. While showing off Kasabian’s trademark versatility, Velociraptor! maintains enough of the group’s pumping beats and straightforward guitar riffs to keep its older fan base on board for the ride.

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Kooks, Junk of the Heart

Loyal fans of British indie darlings The Kooks will thoroughly appreciate their third album, Junk of the Heart, an album teeming with the upbeat, whimsical music that made their first two efforts hits. But where Junk succeeds in melodies, its cynical lyrics are an unwanted change to the group’s trademark buoyant subject matter.

Sports

Hoyas win thriller, prep for long road stint

The Georgetown Hoyas (2-0, 1-0 Patriot League) will be taking their quest for a Patriot League title on the road for the next five weeks. But in their last home game until mid-October, the Hoyas gave fans a thriller, coming back in the last minutes to defeat conference rival Lafayette 14-13.