Leisure

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

Leisure

Madvillainy, Madvillain, Stones Throw

Every once and awhile an album comes around that is so highly anticipated that it seems impossible it can live up to the hype. Most of them don’t. But for every 10 or 15 disappointments (see Beck’s Sea Change or Belle & Sebastian’s Fold Your Hands Child …), there emerges one album that delivers on its promise.

By the April 29, 2004

Leisure

Upcoming Shows

Black Cat-1811 14th St. 9:30 Club-815 V St. N.W. Nation-1015 Half St. S.E.

By the April 29, 2004

Leisure

WGTB Recommends

The WGTB Music Department and Voice Leisure have collaborated on a list of 15 albums coming out this summer to tide you over until you get back to campus.

By the April 29, 2004

Leisure

2004 World Championship for Global Hegemony

Voice Leisure, in conjunction with Martha Stewart, now hiding out in Leavey 424, presents the 2004 World Championship for Global Hegemony. Submit your completed brackets to Leavey 413 to win a cash prize.

By the April 29, 2004

Leisure

“Kill Bill Vol. 2′ rampages

Quention Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown breathed new life into stagnant genres with ironic reverence and a distinct presentation. The director, who himself imitates old films with refreshing originality, has his own host of mimics (ahem, Guy Ritchie) who put the cinematic pieces in place but miss what that makes Tarantino’s work challenging and delectable.

By the April 22, 2004

Leisure

Scott Herren dicusses transition between genres

Just as mainstream rap production is dominated by the likes of Timbaland, Kanye West, and Dr. Dre, the underground is ruled by RJD2, Madlib, and Prefuse 73. The last is the glitch-hop moniker of Atlanta native Scott Herren, director of the Eastern Developments label and creative force behind the world-folk project Savath & Savalas, who played at the Black Cat last Wednesday.

By the April 22, 2004

Leisure

Some retro sneaker savoir-faire

Ahhh, springtime is here again. Squirrels are hopping, dogs are chasing them, and you’re chasing all the hottest new fashions. Spring is the perfect time for bringing out those spanking new classic athletic kicks that you’ve had stored away in your closet for playing ultimate frisbee or pick-up basketball.

What’s that, you don’t have a new pair yet? No worries, our Athletic Shoe Critic will talk you through it. After all, there’s a whole world of new-retro hotness out there, and we wouldn’t want anyone getting lost in the sea of sneakers abundant in Georgetown and Internet shopping.

By the April 22, 2004

Leisure

Oprah Almighty

One of my best friends has a framed portrait of Oprah above her mantel, right next to the portrait of her grandmother and great grandmother. Plus, strategically on display on her coffee table is “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” this year’s headliner for Oprah’s book club.

By the April 22, 2004

Leisure

Acts coming in April

List of shows from April 17-25, including Stereolab, Sleater-Kinney, Jurassic 5, and Blonde Redhead.

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

WGTB Recommends …

Unless you’re a troglodyte (we know some of them, it’s OK), you’ve noticed the oppressive gray skies and rainfall. The WGTB staff and Voice Leisure have joined forces to create a list of our favorite wet weather songs. Keep your May flowers to yourself.

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

Lezh’ur Ledger

If you’re tired of having your closet cluttered up by old skin mags, or if renting a climate controlled mini storage unit isn’t stylish enough for your cultural debris, a truly viable option is now on the market. For a starting bid of merely six million $US (easily within reach for many young Georgetown heirs and heiresses), the Nebraska-based corporation Orbital Development is now accepting offers to launch precisely 22 pounds of cargo of your choosing into space, and to crash said payload directly into the moon.

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

Hip, oh!

As an English major, I thrive on definitions. So let’s take, “hippie.” My friend Webster says it means “1. any of the young people of the 1960s and 1970s who, in their alienation from conventional society, turned variously to mysticism, psychedelic drugs, communal living, etc., 2. any person having a similar lifestyle”. My friend The Hoya says it’s “Voice staff.”

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

‘Wit’ deftly examines mortality

The certainty of death and the joy of eating popsicles. 17th century poetry and pelvic exams. This curious array of topics finds its way onstage in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, written by Georgetown graduate Margaret Edson (GRD ‘92) and presented by Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society.

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

Death Cab for Cutie repeat

Despite moving from the Black Cat to the 9:30 Club, selling out at both venues, and having their television debut on CBS this January, Death Cab for Cutie doesn’t like to think of itself as a big deal. When asked about the band’s increasing popularity, new drummer Jason McGerr explained, “It’s cool. I would rather make a record and have a couple hundred thousand people have the option to get the music rather than not … But we haven’t changed the business formula, we haven’t sought out a huge, new audience.”

By the April 15, 2004

Leisure

Carnaval Mexicano spices it up

LEISURE BY LAUREN GASKILL The lights come up, the music begins, and the stage suddenly comes to life with bright skirts, excited faces and the synchronized rhythm of dancing feet. The members of the Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Georgetown move through a whirlwind of dance and music styles from the nation’s different regions, in the showcase “Carnaval Mexicano,” rich in talent and culture.

By the April 1, 2004

Leisure

On the Broken Social Scene

For a rock band, being a so-called “critical darling” generally means you’re doing something right. Broken Social Scene, a fluctuating 10 to 15-member experimental pop collective from Toronto, is the sort of critical darling that, until now, has tended to land on music writers’ year-end best album lists but not in the CD players of the average music listener.

By the April 1, 2004

Leisure

‘Goodbye, Lenin!’ nostalgic for East

If there ever were an ideal place to fall into a coma, it would not be the Eastern Bloc, especially not in 1989. And typically, if you fall into a coma, everything you believe in hasn’t disappeared by the time you wake up. In Goodbye, Lenin!, this happens for devout socialist Christiane Kerner (Katrin Sa?), who has a heart attack and falls into a poorly-timed eight-month coma at the sight of her son Alex protesting.

By the April 1, 2004

Leisure

Acts coming in April

Voice Leisure listing of April concerts.

By the April 1, 2004

Leisure

WGTB Recommends …

Easter’s almost here, and the WGTB staff and Voice Leisure have joined forces to create a list of our favorite Jesus, sin, and death-related songs. Morbidly fascinating, we think.

By the April 1, 2004

Leisure

Danceable, really

There is an unfortunate style of music that trades on nothing other than being life-affirming. But synthesized women singing about the night and your inherent self-worth do not make for a good time. Fortunately, there are many people who think so too, and some are making music.

By the April 1, 2004