Archive

We’re not in Kansas anymore

Though overall crime is down, theft from automobiles in Burleith and upper Georgetown has recently increased, and students comprise about 30 percent of those victimized, according to Lt. Brian Bray of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Second District. MPD’s biggest concern is the carelessness of residents and visitors who leave their cars unlocked or valuables visible.

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

First Amendment: freedom of business?

“Away in a sweatshop where no one can see, the immigrant seamstresses work constantly. Conditions are awful, the pay is absurd—the boss he will fire them if they say a word.” Our voices harmonized and we moved onto our second song: “God bless you wealthy men, good news I have to tell: The market’s up, you’re making more each time you buy and sell.

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

What do I know?

French has two verbs for “to know,” each with a different connotation. One verb means “to know” in the sense of knowing a fact. The other means the sense of “being familiar with.” In English, we have one verb and are left to find ways to distinguish between its shades of meaning.

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

Adventures in Legoland

In the classic screwball farce Airplane, Ted Striker has a drinking problem. Specifically, he has a problem getting the drink to his mouth. Similarly, I have a gambling problem. Don’t worry, mom and dad. I’m not going broke. The bets rarely rise higher than a $4 Vittles sandwich, maybe once in a while I bet lunch at the Tombs.

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

thenightisortahadwitgod

Mommy told me to go into my cold room where the windows never close and simply concentrate on the inside of my eyelids with my hands slapped together. She told me to close my eyes as hard as I could so tears can gather in a tight place in my eyes. She told me to wait until the tears dripped at gaining speeds on my clasped hands just from my deep concentration.

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

The Top Tens

The Top Ten Films of 2002

Repetition was the theme in many of 2002’s films, with few original ideas surfacing amidst the numerous studio remakes of past hits (Insomnia, Ring, Solaris), a slew of crappy sequels to films that were crappy to begin with (Analyze That, Harry Potter) and too many insightful and touching four hour musicals about exploitive British colonialism in 19th century India (Lagaan, Extreme Ops).

By the Voice Staff January 9, 2003

3,000 sheets to the wind

A war is being waged on the Georgetown campus, a war for the hearts and minds of students, a war over, well, war. In the weeks before a Thanksgiving cease-fire the action intensified with new rounds of flyers fired off daily by Georgetown Peace Action and the College Republicans.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

One asinine law

The Supreme Court’s docket for the coming term will include a case that deals with two gay men convicted of sodomy in Texas. You may be surprised to learn that sodomy, generally defined as oral or anal sex between adults, is still illegal in 15 states. The Supreme Court ruled 16 years ago that states had a right to regulate “public morals” and upheld sodomy laws.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

This sanction is a sham

Two weeks ago, the parents of David Shick, a Georgetown student killed during an alcohol-fueled fight behind Lauinger Library in Feb. 2000, released the results of the University’s disciplinary hearing concerning his death. The “respondent,” the University adjudication system’s equivalent of a defendant, was found responsible, and was ordered to write a ten-page reflection paper and to serve a conditional suspension.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

The Blind Man Dance

Take me down, Take me down. Oh won’t you please take me home. The silence in the whorehouse makes itself present again and so I quietly sing aloud. I mimic Axl Rose’s scratch that is repeating in my head, a mental hiccup from earlier when we had entered dark European bars in search of girls who would not understand that we are unimpressive.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Burn

They’re torching bums in Brooklyn. That’s what I hear anyway, I haven’t seen it myself. It’s too dangerous to take the subway even if you pay the men at the turnstile for protection, and cabs are no better now that the gangs have started firing on them.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

I Go Walking After Midnight

At the moment he knows three things. He knows his watch reads 3:08 a.m., he knows he’s walking, and he knows it’s cold. Jesus it’s cold. That’s for sure. Nothing could be as certain as that right now …

He knows of lots of other stuff. He knows of his name, for example.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Interpol: Not strokes

Perhaps the best thing about the whole Strokes/New York underground music “revival” is that it has brought a bunch of bands that are a whole damn lot better than the Strokes into the mainstream. Although those guys think they’re cool with that scraggly-haired thrift-store alcoholic image they stole from CBGB circa.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Santarchy 101

This Saturday, Dec. 7, if you’re in the vicinity of the Georgetown Park Mall around 5 p.m., you might be in for a treat, as Santa Claus is scheduled to pay a visit. Actually, about 40 Santas should be around, but they won’t be handing out any sugar plums or candy canes.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

More art, less matter

While the shopping opportunities on Wisconsin Ave. and M St. are the best around, art galleries in Georgetown are somewhat sparse. You have to look a little harder in order to find some substance beneath the overpriced clothes and trendy restaraunts. The Addison/Ripley Georgetown gallery on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Reservoir Road fits nicely into the void left by these other shops.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Strokes finish too quickly, fail to satisfy

The Strokes’ concert last Tuesday was a safe bet for D.C. kids with a curfew: By 11:30 p.m. ushers were already yelling for the hangers-on to clear the building. After playing a 50-minute set with no encore, the Strokes had cleared D.A.R. Constitution Hall in record time.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

The Sports Sermon

OK, ladies and gentlemen, let’s play Six Degrees of Sports Separation, Thanksgiving Edition. We’re taking suggestions from the audience. Anyone? Where should we start?

Yes, you there. The man with no penis. Yes, you in the Kansas sweatshirt.

“Can you talk about Kirk Hinrich?”

Ah, the elfish one himself.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Solaris remade into a bad film

In a film where a brief shot of George Clooney’s ass is the warmest thing going, something must be awry. After doing a drug movie, a sex movie, a caper flick, even one with J. Lo, Steven Soderbergh has ventured into the realm of oblique Russian cinema with a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Stark naked

When guys are asked whom they would marry if given the choice, some go with swimsuit models like Heidi Klum or Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. Sports nuts have a predilection towards Russian “tennis player” Anna Kournikova. As for me, I’m a sports guy, and I’m in love with a blond haired, blue-eyed beauty, too.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002

Smith’s career a work in progress

In Mike Smith’s ideal world, he would run 200 miles every week. In reality, Georgetown men’s cross-country Head Coach Patrick Henner would make him take a day off.

“If [Henner] didn’t pull the reins I would run myself into oblivion,” said the senior All American.

By the Voice Staff December 5, 2002