Archive

Taming the Wildcats

The Big East Tournament, like any other bracket-based affair, is designed to give the top seed the easiest road to victory—a right that team has presumably earned throughout the season. This might have been difficult to stomach for Hoya fans when the conference tournament bracket was finalized earlier this week. Top-seeded Georgetown (25-4, 15-3 BE) would face the winner of the 8/9 game between the Syracuse Orange (19-13, 9-9 BE) and the Villanova Wildcats (20-11, 9-9 BE). Both teams step up their game against longtime conference rival Georgetown, and the Orange had already defeated the Hoyas at the Carrier Dome earlier in the season.

By Anthony Francavilla March 13, 2008

Boys and death in a City of Men

In an early scene from Brazilian director Paulo Morelli’s City of Men, best friends Ace and Laranjinha pester Laranjinha’s grandmother for clues about his absent father. The grandmother scoffs at the questions, asking them what good could come from a father who abandons his own child. Ace (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlen Cunha) exchange a terrified look, run out the door and scramble through the favela shouting the name of Ace’s young son, Clayton (played by twins Vinícius and Vítor Oliveira), who has been dropped off with acquaintances somewhere in the slum. His father has no idea where he could be.

Ace and Laranjinha’s frantic quest to find Clayton reflects the film’s central themes of fatherhood and maturity. City of Men is based on the TV series that was inspired by Fernando Meirelles’ 2002 film City of God. City of Men shares with that movie its setting in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, an area of violent gang crime; the characters differ, although some of the actors return. While City of God made gang wars the centerpiece of the film, though, City of Men accepts them as a part of life in the slum and focuses on what Morelli sees as the root of the problem: absentee fathers.

By Sara Carothers March 13, 2008

Not very “Impressed by Light”

The National Gallery’s new photography exhibit, which displays British calotype photography from 1840 to 1860, may be called “Impressed by Light,” but whether you’ll be impressed by the collection is up for debate. Though the 120 photographs presented in the exhibit are historically important as some of the first photographs in British history, their subject matter is often fairly unadventurous and most of the photos are too small and modest to make an impression on our minds, which have been conditioned with flashier modern work.

By Justin Hunter Scott March 13, 2008

State of the brain, in one act

This year’s Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival features last year’s winner of Mask & Bauble’s one act play contest, “Lost in the Brain of A Great Man,” written by Seamus Sullivan (SFS ’08). Inspired by watching the furrowed brow of President George W. Bush while giving last year’s State of the Union address, this precocious play chronicles the brain activity of an unspecified president before giving the address.

By Ryan Maye Handy March 13, 2008

Critical Voices: Destroyer, Trouble in Dreams

Dan Bejar, the chief songwriter and musician of Destroyer, is a weird fella. But he’s smart, and it sells—the raspy David Bowie voice, the deliberately obscure lyrics, the meandering array of yelps and proclamations. And it helps that his band is just getting tighter. Trouble in Dreams generally eschews the hard-charging hooks of his lastshy;shy;—and arguably most accessible—album, Rubies, but it’s still Euro-pop blues for the masses.

By Tim Fernholz March 13, 2008

New prez, new plans

After being officially sworn in at Monday night’s GUSA senate meeting as the new GUSA President and Vice President, Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and James Kelly (COL ’09) laid out an ambitious timeline for accomplishing their three major initiatives: a “GUSA Summer Fellows” program, a take-your-professors-to-lunch program and a modification of the alcohol policy.

By Juliana Brint March 13, 2008

Popped Culture: Backlash to the backlash

Vampire Weekend released their first CD at the end of January, and depending on who you are (and how much time you spend on the internet), you either hate them in spite of the hype, or like them despite the backlash. The band hasn’t been around that long and has already zoomed through the cycle of taste—blog buzz, great reviews, trickle into the mainstream, SNL performance, saturation (they play it at MUG!)—at warp speed.

By Shira Hecht March 13, 2008

Student groups talk diversity

A month after a Georgetown student woke up with a swastika drawn on his body, more than thirty student organizations, including the Georgetown University Student Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jewish Student Association and the Corp, held a second Diversity forum last night, following up on one held last fall.

By Crystal Chung March 13, 2008

Plans for local library underway

The D.C. Public Library has begun the process of reconstructing and renovating its Georgetown branch, nearly a year after a fire severely damaged the building and the library collection.

By John Cooke March 13, 2008

Student-run class visits sweatshops

It was late last week when Manuel and Julio, union leaders at a textile factory in the Dominican Republic, rushed into their factory office and shouted triumphantly, “We got our visas!” Days later, the two men boarded a plane to the United States to speak at universities along the East Coast about the poor working conditions—verbal abuse, low wages, unpaid overtime and discrimination—they experience as laborers in Dominican sweatshops.

By Alison Crowley March 13, 2008

Madeleine’s Memo

“What’s evident is that the world is a mess,” Dr. Madeleine Albright said Tuesday.

The former Secretary of State and current Mortara Distinguished Professor in the Study of Diplomacy spoke to a full audience of undergrads, graduate students and faculty in Copley Formal Lounge on Tuesday about her newest book, Memo to the President Elect.

By Maddie Donnelly March 13, 2008

City on a Hill: Radical Rhee-form

The purge of nearly 100 employees from the District of Columbia Public Schools’ central office shows that Chancellor Michelle Rhee is developing a habit of coupling good instincts with god-awful implementation. Her focus on rehabilitating the dysfunctional central office is much needed: DCPS’ administrative hub has devolved into a bloated bureaucracy incapable of providing students, teachers and principals with the resources they need.

By Juliana Brint March 13, 2008

That’s so not Georgetown: College Road Trip

Do you dream of a Georgetown where the Greek party scene is alive and thriving, the campus is connected to a high-end golf course and our school color is bright turquoise? Then College Road Trip is the perfect fantasy escape for you!

By Vivian Chen March 13, 2008

Features

Take Me Home

“I remember people would say … ‘What if you never do that again, what if the songs aren’t hits?’ I don’t have time to think like that. So I never had a plan B. And I still don’t.”

By Jeff Reger March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: No doubt for Georgetown this time

The Georgetown Hoyas (26-4, 15-3 BE) showed their quicks against Villanova (20-12, 9-9 BE) and set a Big East tournament three-point shooting record to overcome senior center Roy Hibbert’s worst game of the season and overthrow the Wildcats, 82-63.

By Anthony Francavilla March 13, 2008

Crosswords

Crossword Answers

By Cal Lee March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Hibbert guides Hoyas over Mountaineers

Roy Hibbert had the guns on display at Madison Square Garden, leaving the shirtsleeves in the locker room at the start of Friday night’s semi-final against West Virginia. It wasn’t the first game this season that Hibbert went with the look, but normally the senior center waits until halftime for the wardrobe change. But tonight, the seven-footer was all-too-eager to cast off the sleeves, and with them his abysmal scoreless performance against Villanova. Mission accomplished. Hibbert was unstoppable inside and out, scoring 25 to lead the Hoyas to the 72-55 victory and their second consecutive Big East Tournament final.

By Anthony Francavilla March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Pitt muscles past G’town for Big East title

The inspired Panthers became only the second team in tournament history to win four straight games, capping off a stretch of three consecutive wins against ranked opponents with a 74-65 win over the Hoyas.

By the Voice Staff March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: These ‘dogs will hunt

“No one gives you a chance, especially no one else being a 15-seed, but we believe in our team,” UMBC junior guard Jay Greene said. “No 15-seed has ever beaten a 2-seed that didn’t believe they could do it … We know we have a good team and we are not going to back down from Georgetown.”

By Mike Stewart March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Hoyas all business against feisty Retrievers

They wouldn’t play dead. They never rolled over. But the 15-seed UMBC Retrievers ran into much bigger dogs today at the RBC Center, as the 2-seed Georgetown Hoyas played to their strengths—lockdown defense, methodical offense and one of the best big men in the country in senior center Roy Hibbert—to record a ho-hum 66-47 win to move on to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

By Mike Stewart March 13, 2008

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Georgetown to take on 10th-seeded Davidson tomorrow

A win tomorrow against Davidson would mark another huge accomplishment for Georgetown: a third straight trip to the Sweet 16 after many college basketball fans had left it for dead before Thompson took over just four years ago. Tip-off in Raleigh is set for 2:50 p.m.

By Mike Stewart March 13, 2008

Effective cinema: the movies of your dreams

Some pieces in “The Cinema Effect” challenge our notion that moving pictures on a screen require a story, while others indulge it magnificently. One of the most impressive exhibitions currently in D.C., “The Cinema Effect” delivers a well-conceived blend of pieces to create an alternate, dream-like world.

By Sara Carothers February 28, 2008

Major Barbara’s battle

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “Major Barbara” is an incredibly crisp, engaging example of what the greater Washington D.C. theatre scene has to offer. Director Ethan McSweeny’s interpretation stays true to George Bernard Shaw’s impeccable original text and conveys the author’s pertinent social commentary and finely-tuned wit.

By Katherine Norton February 28, 2008