Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Critical Voices

The more I listen to this album, the more confused I get: Beat Your Ass is actually listenable, wildly eclectic and surprisingly good.

By and September 7, 2006

Leisure

Dead Beats: Breaking down the commercial misuse of music

Dreamy, overdubbed vocals hovering over drumstick scratches and distorted guitar loops ask, “what’s that riding on your everything?” as a silver Nissan minivan cruises by the screen.

By September 7, 2006

Leisure

Nelson displays acting strength

The good news is that Half Nelson is a fine film; while clichéd at points, the level of acting talent from Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie puts it a step above its peers.

By August 31, 2006

Leisure

Lez’hur Ledger: The DEA’s guide to drug dealing

A desire to view mountains of drugs and paraphernalia and read about the most fearsome kingpins this world has known led me straight to the DEA Museum, conveniently located right across from the Pentagon City Mall.

By August 31, 2006

Leisure

A leisurely guide to District theater

Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s film immortalizing infamous cannibal Alfred Parker receives a theatrical adaptation.

By August 31, 2006

Leisure

Concert Calendar

This group of musical mariners is sailing up the Potomac and into Georgetown’s Bulldog Alley for a free show, one of the last stops on their sailboat tour of the North Atlantic Seaboard.

By the August 31, 2006

Leisure

Leo O’Donovan’s: still the DIY dining hall

During freshman year one of my friends described Leo’s as a do-it-yourself cafeteria, a place where everything looks nice and pretty but still needs someone with know-how to make it all work.

By August 31, 2006

Leisure

Nat’l Lampoon meets Nietzsche

Suicide, heroin, child beauty pageants: these are not typically the subjects of a “feel good” film, but, this is the perfect way to sum up Little Miss Sunshine.

By August 24, 2006

Leisure

A “blovel” concept for a book

There’s nothing funny about being locked in a room full of documents for six weeks, trying to find a single e-mail…especially not when it’s your future. But the dark shadow of the future proves no match for Jeremy Blachman, whose twisted peek into the futures of all of us law school-aspiring undergrads never loses the bitingly humorous edge that drives it.

By August 24, 2006

Leisure

Critical Voices: Lambchop’s Damaged and The Roots’ Game Theory

Lambchop, Damaged, Merge Records & The Roots, Game Theory, Def Jam Records

By August 24, 2006

Leisure

Tropicália: Brazilian politics without the oppressive aftertaste

Dead Beats: a tri-weekly column bringing indie music to the masses

By August 24, 2006

Leisure

Soulive scorches the 9:30 Club

Woodstock, NY-based Soulive tore up the 9:30 Club Sunday evening at a show so hot it could’ve set fire to a wet brick wall.

By April 27, 2006

Leisure

Fashion in the buff

With the summer rolling in, nudity in fashion seems to be making a comeback and is stirring up controversy in the process.

By April 27, 2006

Leisure

Bettie, Bondage and the Bible

Wearing nothing but her underwear, eight-inch heels and a ball gag around her neck, Bettie Page stands by a wall, her arms and legs tightly restrained with ropes.

By April 27, 2006

Leisure

Filmfest DC is 4 reel

Lovers of international cinema can expect a bold statement from the District’s twentieth annual Filmfest.

By April 27, 2006

Leisure

Seeing is a vision of an election gone awry

What if political apathy reached such great heights that no one cared enough to actually vote for a candidate? Seeing, Nobel Prize Laureate Jose Saramago’s ambitious follow-up to his 1995 novel Blindness, attempts to answer this question.

By April 27, 2006

Leisure

Hunger hurts but starving works

Director Jen Rogers’ (COL ‘06) take on complicated relationships with food make the production Schoolgirl Figure surprisingly refreshing.

By April 20, 2006

Leisure

Islands and Diamonds

The Voice recently spoke with Nick Diamonds about the Islands album and the stigma that comes in the wake of breaking up a band as beloved as the Unicorns.

By April 20, 2006

Leisure

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind

Tiina Nunnally is making a splash in Anglophone literary circles with her 2006 translation of Henning Mankell’s gripping novel Chronicler of the Winds.

By April 20, 2006

Leisure

Late-night munchies

Steak Out – a biweekly column about eating leisurely

By April 20, 2006