Critical Voices: Sufjan Stevens, Age of Adz

In 2004, Sufjan Stevens announced an audacious plan to write an album for each of the fifty states, beginning with 2003’s Michigan and moving south to Illinois in 2005. Then, in 2009, Stevens announced that the “Fifty State Project” was nothing more than a publicity stunt, and that he was starting anew.

By Luke Howley October 7, 2010

Leisure

Literary Tools: No, but I saw the movie

Adapting a book can be a tricky business. On rare occasions, an adapted movie can transcend its source, but more often than not, it loses some of the elements that readers loved. Book snobs, the lot of pretentious bastards that they are, often rightly criticize adaptations for failing to live up to original texts.

By Chris Heller October 7, 2010

Leisure

Suffer for Fashion: Dirty jeans, done dirt cheap

Jeans may have won their first fans during the California Gold Rush, but proper jean care has come a long way from simply plunking down your pan and dunking your dungarees into the stream in between sifting sessions. Some have caring for denim down to a science, but is the extra effort worth it?

By Keenan Timko 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 Brendan Baumgardner October 1, 2010

Leisure

Tombs manager lays his career to rest

Last weekend, William Watts had a lot to handle. Homecoming Weekend brought a flood of customers to the Tombs, and a private party had reserved F. Scott’s for the evening. At the same time, these were just the last few days of his 35-year career managing three Georgetown restaurants. Just one last push.

By Chris Heller September 30, 2010

Leisure

¡Ay caramba! Muchas peliculas

Between limited releases and an Oscar category that nobody pays attention to, Americans don’t give foreign films the credit they deserve. But not the American Film Institute—they’ve been offering D.C. an outlet for foreign films for decades. At the head of their current battle: the Latin American Film Festival.

By Mark James September 30, 2010

Leisure

Lez’hur ledger: Frolicking freaks at FreeFest

At 9:59 a.m. on a Saturday in July, I entered an epic Internet battle. The stakes? A free ticket to the Virgin Mobile FreeFest. My challengers? The 30,000 others vying to see Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., and Ludacris without dropping an obscene amount of cash. By 10:03 a.m., the ravenous hordes had claimed all of the available tickets.

By Emma Forster September 30, 2010

Leisure

Critical Voices: Mark Ronson & The Business Inl., Record Collection

Mark Ronson can play a mean guitar, but his extensive knowledge of rap, funk, and soul was what got him noticed in the first place. Ronson’s past two records have been slick, sample-heavy dance records that hint at his formative years as a club DJ. The formula is no different on his newest album, Record Collection.

By Matthew Decker September 30, 2010

Leisure

Critical Voices: Lazerbeak, Legend Recognize Legend

As the primary producer for the Minneapolis-based alternative hip-hop crew Doomtree, Lazerbeak has been responsible for the bass-heavy beats heard behind rappers P.O.S., Dessa, and Sims. With hip-hop credentials like these, and Doomtree’s reputation for aggressive, punk rock- infused hip-hop, you might expect Lazerbeak’s first solo album, to be filled with club hits.

By Akshay Bhatia September 30, 2010

Leisure

Warming Glow: Sympathy for the devil

You’ve just watched a man drug and kidnap someone. He ties the victim to a table, waits until he wakes up, then ritualistically stabs him in the chest, dismembers the corpse, and dumps it off a small boat into the Atlantic Ocean. Moments later, you see the same murderer holding an infant, cooing and singing the kid to sleep.

By Leigh Finnegan September 30, 2010

Leisure

Rub Some Dirt On It: Addicted to the pump

If you’re anything like me, when you go to the gym, you agonize over the clock as you wait for your 20 minutes of cardio to be over. Or you’re gaping in admiration at the energizer bunny in front of you, who has been running hard since before you got there and shows no signs of slowing.

By Sadaf Qureshi September 30, 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 Brendan Baumgardner September 23, 2010

Leisure

Encyclopedia Prep-tannica

When Lisa Birnbach’s The Official Preppy Handbook came out in 1980, its audience was the yuppies who had just graduated from college. But while TOPH parodied the lives of preppy college and boarding school students, Birnbach’s True Prep is geared towards those who’ve grown up, weathered a divorce or two, and still wear their collars high.

By Nico Dodd September 23, 2010

Leisure

Food trucks: Like restaurants, only faster

Fresh peppers, onions, and Cuban roast pork sizzle on the grill, producing a mouth-watering aroma that draws a serious crowd. Could it be? A new grilling station at Leo’s? Not a chance. This is the work of Rebel Heroes, one of the many food trucks that are popping up all around D.C.

By Mary Borowiec 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 Brendan Baumgardner September 23, 2010

Leisure

Critical Voices: Deerhunter, Halcyon Digest

I was a Deerhunter virgin before I had heard Halcyon Digest. There’s something exciting about diving into a new artist, and when the minimal, ambient sounds of Halcyon Digest first washed over me I was immediately intrigued.

By Paul Quincy September 23, 2010

Leisure

Critical Voices: Ben Folds & Nick Hornsby, Lonely Avenue

Many of today’s most successful pop stars write very little of their own music or lyrics, and they don’t want you to know it. This has never been the case for Ben Folds, who writes the vast majority of his own work.

By Matthew Decker September 23, 2010

Leisure

Literary Tools: I dare you to read this book

A novel that is written so that it is a struggle to read is meant for a particular, masochistic literary crowd: fans of post-modernism. The works of classic post-modern authors, like Flann O’Brien and Jorge Luis Borges, abandon convention and required readers to plunge headfirst into a metaphysical world.

By James McGrory September 23, 2010

Leisure

Suffer For Fashion: D.C. Fashion Week—NY Who?

The models may have stepped off the runway at New York Fashion Week, but if you’re still hungry for hot new fall fashions, the nation’s capital has what you need. D.C. Fashion Week started on Monday and will be in full swing through Sunday, Sept. 26.

By Keenan Timko September 23, 2010

Leisure

Student drumline beats up the beat

If you were anywhere near New North on Monday night and couldn’t study, converse, or hear yourself think, then you’re already familiar with the Georgetown Drumline. From 8 to 9 p.m., the group’s 15 members banged out eighth-notes and bashed cymbals together at a deafening volume on the outdoor patio across from the Davis Center.

By Leigh Finnegan September 16, 2010