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Voices

Primaries a primary lesson

As our plates steadily emptied of their honey-baked ham and sweet potato pudding last Christmas, I suddenly realized my family had nearly exhausted our usual yuletide conversation topics (including plans for escaping the grimy winter months ahead through trips to Pennsylvania’s version of the Riviera—Florida) and was headed directly for that reliably disastrous discussion topic: politics.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

Fountains, belly dancers, and finger food, oh my!

Whether it’s a drive-in, a draft house, or a serenading mariachi band, the elusive combination of food and entertainment is dying out. Dupont Circle haunt Marrakesh, though, masters the art of bringing entertainment straight to the dinner table by pairing hypnotizing belly dancers with delectable Moroccan cuisine.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

Just forget it, Sarah Marshall. Superbad was funnier.

Producer Judd Apatow has created a perverse (yet strangely endearing) Holy Trinity of contemporary comedy in the last few years: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad. And this machine just keeps spitting out more, with Drillbit Taylor and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as the most recent (and worst performing) of the bunch. His latest film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has its charms, and certainly tries to engage in an honest examination of relationships, like the best of Apatow’s films. But unlike, say, Knocked Up, the laughs feel cheap, and so does its exploitation of the audience’s emotions.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

High Times with Mr. Doug Benson

There is exactly one difference between comedian Doug Benson’s documentary Super High Me and Morgan Spurlock’s much lauded Super Size Me: marijuana. Benson, who was dubbed “Stoner of the Year” by High Times Magazine in 2006, uses himself as a guinea pig to examine the physical and mental effects of smoking pot non-stop for thirty days. The end result is both an entertaining parody of Super Size Me by a stoned comedian, and a meaningful documentary, thanks to the well-focused effort of the production crew as they confront many of the societal issues regarding marijuana.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

Arty Dreamy Movies

If you’re looking for a dose of cinematic pretension (we all get that itch sometimes), Andrea Simon’s 1989 short film, The Happiness of Still Life, will take care of all your needs. The movie, which is running in the National Gallery’s Spring Film Program in 16 mm format, is a study of Austria’s Biedermeier culture of the mid 1800s—a lapse into middle class ecstasy characterized by pretty furniture and domestic bliss. While the film itself isn’t necessarily pretentious, if you leave the theater thinking you completely understood it, you probably are.

By April 24, 2008

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Crazy little thing called summer love

Elektra always wore a sailor hat on top of her short auburn hair that swayed when she drove home a contention in a debate. She was a year older than me and the hottest thing at debate camp in Cameron, Oklahoma. Best of all, she wanted me. Bad.

By the April 24, 2008

Leisure

T-Pain, on Top of the Game

Faheem Najm—sound familiar? If not, perhaps you know him better by his stage name, T-Pain. Despite being married with two children, his songs about hitting on bartenders and buying women drinks have propelled him to stardom in a pop/R&B field flooded with younger, more visible talents.

By April 24, 2008

Crosswords

Crossword Answers

By April 24, 2008

Corrections

Corrections: GUSA and SAC Clash over Club Fund

“GUSA and SAC Clash over Club Fund” (April 24) contained several inaccuracies. The Voice sincerely regrets these errors.

By April 24, 2008

News

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Armed male sexually assaults student in LXR Saturday

A female Georgetown student was sexually assaulted Saturday morning in LXR by an armed black male, according to an announcement from Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Critical Voices: Wolf Parade

The group’s sophomore release, now available in a store near you, delivers in full (and then some) with a set of longer, stockier songs that rival, if not best, their debut.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: The Voice chats up Islands’ Nick Thorburn

The Voice caught up with Thorburn at the onset of his summer 2008 tour to talk about tendinitis, the occult, and why people think he’s an asshole. (And in case you didn’t know, the Unicorns are dead.)

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: The next Fugazi takes Tenleytown

The free event takes place at the highest natural point in the District and features a panoply of local talent.

By April 24, 2008

Leisure

Newseum: where the news comes to die

Pennsylvania Avenue’s towering new monument to journalism, the Newseum, opened last week with a six-story glass and steel atrium, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, an interactive newsroom, a 4-D theater, an apartment complex, two operating broadcast studios and over 15 galleries.

If that sounds expensive, it was: total costs for the new museum are estimated at $450 million. Paid for by major donations from Bloomberg LP, the New York Times Company, News Corp, Comcast, Time Warner, ABC, NBC and others, the Newseum claims in its promotional material to have two major goals: to educate the public about the importance of the First Amendment, and to help “the media and the public gain a better understanding of each other.”

And if a museum of the media, by the media and for public relations purposes sounds a little fishy, it is.

By April 17, 2008

Leisure

Cabaret: what good is sitting alone in your room?

Before the audience of Mask and Bauble’s spring musical, Cabaret, is ushered to its seats, it is afforded a brief glimpse into a dimly lit dressing room. The room, populated by ladies in bustiers and hotpants and men in lipstick, is just a tantalizing taste of the raucous, racy experience ahead. While not without its serious plot points, the show is worth seeing for the erotic musical numbers alone, which almost make the storyline incidental.

By April 17, 2008

Leisure

Smart People, stupid movie

Smart People really should have been called “Arrogant and Socially Inept People”—all of the characters have chips on their shoulders proportionate to the sizes of their IQs. Characters in a film like this one should fall into one of two types: either delightfully dysfunctional (see: Little Miss Sunshine) or delightfully malicious (see: The Squid and the Whale). The problem with Smart People is that writer Mark Poirier (COL ’91) can’t seem to decide which type he wants his characters to be, so their constantly bizzare behavior comes off as disingenuous. And because its characters are at the heart of the film, Smart People falls flat.

By April 17, 2008

Leisure

Popped Culture: I can has meme?

I absolutely love lolcats.

My brother once told me that they are the worst thing ever to befall the internet, and our disputes on the subject have done almost as much damage to our relationship as the time I broke his K’NEX tower when he was 8.

Lolcats, for the unfamiliar, are an internet phenomenon that consists of pictures of cats with captions in a big ugly font, posted on icanhascheezburger.com.

By April 17, 2008

Voices

A Papal visit without pontification

On the first day—well, Tuesday—the Pope crossed the Atlantic, and he saw that it was good.

By April 17, 2008

Voices

It’s the end of the world and we know it, and I feel fine

I recently read a New York Times article about a new particle accelerator in Switzerland. Articles in the Science section don’t normally fill me with a sense of foreboding and doom, but this one succeeded where others failed. With the accelerator, scientists hope to recreate the “Big Bang” on a small scale in order to explain the origins of the universe. It seemed alright until I got to the paragraph which said that two men “think the giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth—and maybe the universe.”

By April 17, 2008

Voices

Geography porn, or: How not to study abroad

My interest in studying abroad was inspired by my first visit to the Epcot World Showcase at age eight. For those of you who weren’t as lucky as I was, Epcot’s World Showcase is Disney’s take on globalization, a mini-park featuring small-scale replicas of eleven countries, centered around a beautiful lagoon. At Disney’s Epcot Center, not only is China walking distance from Belgium, but every “country” serves French fries, accepts VISA and closes at midnight. The fantasy climaxes every evening in a choreographed display of global friendship performed to inspirational music and accompanied by fireworks and lasers. This experience is the reason I thought the entire world spoke English until I was 12.

By April 17, 2008

Voices

Trying to cut down on the costly habit of parking in Georgetown

It’s 6:03. I race past St. Mary’s and down Reservoir Road. I’m stopped by the ridiculously long light on the corner of Reservoir and 37th Street. I check the street for cars as I race across the street. I continue down 37th looking for my car. There it is. Damnit, I’m only three minutes late. I curse loudly while removing the offending leaflet from my windshield—another ticket to add to the ticket wall.

By April 17, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Subtle, ExitingARM

ExitingARM as whole, though, represents a gamble on Subtle’s part. They’ve seemingly restrained their sound to rope in more listeners, at the expense of some of their more substantive content. Not that I can blame Doseone (see: Subtle album sales), but I get the sense that ultimately no one’s happy here: the songs aren’t poppy enough for mass appeal and will likely disappoint former enthusiasts.

By April 17, 2008

Editorials

Route leaves GU going in circles

During the never-ending parade of GAAP tours last weekend, campus tour guides extolled the virtues of going to school in Washington: internships, proximity to power and cool events in the city. Meanwhile, Georgetown’s administration had already implemented a change that will likely dissuade some students from leaving campus at all: an absurd new route for the Dupont Circle GUTS bus.

By the April 17, 2008

Editorials

For MPD, the eyes don’t have it

Can’t find your wallet? The Metropolitan Police Department and the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency will soon know exactly where it is, even if you don’t. They’re in the beginning stages of a program to consolidate 5,200 District surveillance cameras into a single network. These cameras will infringe on the privacy of all D.C. residents.

By the April 17, 2008

Editorials

Clearing out schools with cash

For too long, the District of Columbia Public School system has failed to give Washington’s students a decent education. The appointment of new DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee was supposed to change that. Rhee has already proposed closing under-enrolled schools and has laid off part of the administration, all in the name of saving money and refocusing efforts. Last Thursday, Rhee announced the latest positive step in her strategy of school reform: offering buyouts for as many as 700 teachers, which will allow the District to cut costs and better serve its students.

By the April 17, 2008