Brendan Baumgardner

Leisure

Lez’hur ledger: There are no winners at the Air Sex World Championship

So here’s the thing about showing up to the D.C. leg of the Air Sex World Championship alone: it’s awkward. Like, hanging out alone at the back of an indie rock concert by yourself awkward, with the fear that everyone around you will think you’re some kind of pervert.

By October 7, 2010

Leisure

A Social success

There is an important scene early in The Social Network, bass heavy dance music throbs as the screen cuts deftly between two symbolic set pieces. The first is typical montage material: the first party of the year at Harvard’s most prestigious clubs, a debaucherous scene of hedonistic excess.

By October 1, 2010

Leisure

Beauty is in the eye of the professor

Have you ever taken a snazzy picture of the Potomac from your walk across the Key Bridge and thought “Wow, look how beautiful D.C. is?” Probably. Have you ever thought the same about a photo you took of the grimy outside of a Metro car, or traffic moving through DuPont? Probably not.

By September 23, 2010

Leisure

Dirty old Town

This settles it. With the release of The Town, the gritty Boston crime drama is officially its own genre, comprised of such films as The Departed, Mystic River, and The Boondock Saints. The main reason The Town stands apart, is that it has the dubious honor of being the first of its kind to feel cliché.

By September 23, 2010

Leisure

Start shakin’ your bacon

Bacon is the great equalizer. Rich or poor, black or white, super fly or rhythmically inept, everybody can get down on some grease-fried pork. So when a group of local DJs set out to create the most inclusive funk and soul dance party in town, there was only one name that could truly capture its essence—Fatback.

By September 16, 2010

Leisure

TGIF: The Friday Music Series makes its return

There was more music to hear on campus than Third Eye Blind last semester, yet some of the most talented acts came and went unnoticed by much of the student body. There were classical Brazilian guitarists and representatives of the Washington National Orchestra, Grammy-winning horn combos and Obama-approved gospel choirs.

By September 9, 2010

Leisure

Danny Trejo: Mexican badass

In 1982, First Blood made its debut, the first of a parade of Rambo films that have become synonymous with gratuitous violence in our pop-culture lexicon. But do you know how many people were killed in First Blood? Just one.

By September 9, 2010

Leisure

I now pronounce you Joe and Jane

In Oct. 2005, Elizabeth Grimm (GRD ’10) and Jacques Arsenault (COL ’01, GRD ’07) were married in Dahlgren Chapel. It was a beautiful, intimate ceremony with friends and family, followed by a reception in Copely Formal Lounge. As the night wore on, a group of uninvited guests joined the party.

By September 2, 2010

Leisure

Lez’hur ledger: The Dilophosaurus shall rise again

A summer road trip is one of the best ways to appreciate the beauty of our great nation. Long drives down lost highways offer snapshots of the ever-changing landscape—the vast Pine Barrens of New Jersey, the dreary bays of the Maryland coast, and the rolling Appalachian foothills all colored my most recent excursion, an outing to Natural Bridge, Virginia.

By August 27, 2010

Leisure

Piranha pandemonium

Piranha 3D does not suck, and that is already a lot more than most people would ask of it. Of course, as a remake of a ‘70s horror comedy, Piranha 3D lacks any real plot or character development, opting instead to spend 89 minutes reveling in delightfully graphic carnage and terrifyingly large breasts, all presented in gloriously tacky 3D.

By August 27, 2010