Leisure

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

Leisure

Audience touched by Angels

Controversy is always hot, and the one surrounding Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches is alone enough to incite interest in Mask & Bauble’s newest production. A drama that circles around the theme of homosexual love, Angels in America is directed by Caitlin Lowans (SFS ‘03), who proposed producing the play after the disappointing outcome of the LGBTQ resource center campaign.

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Film websites the perfect cure for the work ethic

One week into the semester and you’ve already run out of ways to procrastinate? No problem. A couple of websites exist that, once discovered, promise to kidnap and murder every second of your free time—Ifilm.com and AtomFilms.com. The former advertises itself as possessing the “world’s largest collection of short films and movie clips available to watch online” and the latter is semi-serious, chock full of truncated pieces of cinematic glory.

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Morcheeba–ha, get it?

The term trip-hop, for those readers who are neither British nor constantly depressed, refers to a style of music consisting of mellow, bass-heavy hip-hop beats and vocals that ranging anywhere from soulful, sultry singing to rapping with emphasis on flow (depending on the group).

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Porkestra plays music, comes w/ rice

Tonight the Grog & Tankard bar in Upper Georgetown will feature three local bands-The Bicycle Thieves, Alfonso Velez and Moo Shoo Porkestra-in a benefit for D.C.-area AIDS relief organizations. Composed largely of Georgetown students, Moo Shoo Porkestra is a five-piece rock band that includes lead guitarist Dave Salvo (COL ‘05), guitarist Aaron Shneyer (COL ‘05), bassist Justin Shuster (COL ‘05), trombonist Ted Berg (COL ‘03) and drummer Matt Harty, a senior at American University.

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Leisure Ledger

*Vagina Monologues auditions were held this week, and the e-mail promised that “every vagina will be heard.” We’re pretty sure they prefer to be called women now. *Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball is scheduled to host a live show in Gaston Hall on Wednesday, Jan.

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Revolucion! Kind of.

The intended purpose of this godforsaken column is to promote off-campus activities. While it rarely lives up to its “revolutionary” moniker, this week’s installment should provide the opportunity for you to really get out there and make change and inspire true revolution.

By the January 16, 2003

Leisure

Photographing the ‘dark continent’

by Sonia Smith The West is slowly coming to grips with its abusive colonial past. Europe dominated Africa with an authoritarian hand for almost a century. The Smithsonian African American Art Gallery’s new exhibit, In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960, focuses on an aspect of colonial rule often overlooked.

By the January 9, 2003

Leisure

Leisure’s hottest singles of the year

To complete the annual fit of year-end list compilation, it’s important not to neglect what rules the radio waves, dance floors and TRL playlists. Media consolidation makes finding classics among the trash as diffcult and as crucial as ever. Last year, Timbaland’s production for artists such as Missy Elliot and the now forgotten Bubba Sparxx were the unmistakable cream of last year’s Top 40 crop.

By the January 9, 2003

Leisure

Mediocrity within reach

The new Loews Cineplex Georgetown is open for business. With 14 screens, it is the largest movie theatre in D.C. and for a cut-rate $7.50, students can watch both mainstream and art-house fare.

It’s about goddamn time. Movie screens have been disappearing in this town faster than Penelope Cruz’s career, the latest casualty being the Foundry, a magical place where one could see second-run films on small screens for three bucks.

By the January 9, 2003

Leisure

Kinky Darnall

In a recent study conducted by Cornell University, Georgetown University’s own Darnall Hall was ranked as the 19th most ssexually active dorms in the country. The study, which can be found at http://www.heartwarmers4u.com/ members/?jbarn1, raises grave concerns for many students in Darnall that they are living on the wrong floor or, at the very least, not walking around naked nearly as much as they should be.

By the January 9, 2003

Leisure

Cinema ecstasy

It’s the beginning of a new semester, which means standing in long lines at the bookstore, add/drop and correcting new professors on the pronunciation of your last name, right? Well, to a certain degree, but there’s also that awesome little perk—no homework! But only for a limited time, so here’s a short guide to a few of D.

By the January 9, 2003

Leisure

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 December 5, 2002

Leisure

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 December 5, 2002

Leisure

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 December 5, 2002

Leisure

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 December 5, 2002

Leisure

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 December 5, 2002

Leisure

Urban Fare brings the city to …

Urban Fare 3 opened to a packed crowd in Gaston Hall this past Friday, bursting with fresh energy as talented performers brought a number of diverse acts. Full of noteworty performances, the night’s highlights included the poetry of Jessica Rucker (SFS ‘05), Becky Katz COL ‘06) and Lensa Fufa (CAS ‘04).

By the November 21, 2002

Leisure

Swamped? If not, check out Art-O-Matic

Art-O-Matic, an unjudged grassroots art exhibition, is currently making its third annual appearance, this time inside an abandoned EPA office building in the elusive southwest quadrant. It’s huge, it’s varied and it’s completely anarchical. Come prepared to exercise your better judgement.

By the November 21, 2002

Leisure

Holy musical, Bat Boy!

You walk in to a large warehouse-ish room. It’s all splintery wooden beams and black paint, huge red-and-black bat faces and unfinished walls. Smoke floats overhead. The slight beat of a drum echoes in the background, and bare risers surround a small stage.

By the November 21, 2002

Leisure

Northerners deliver two snoozers

The dashing hero of a Russian romantic novel poses a question to his traveling companion: “It was the French, I suppose, who made boredom fashionable?” “No, the English,” the companion replies. Surprisingly, both were wrong. Neither the Francos or the Anglos live in a locale quite northerly enough to facilitate truly mind-numbing boredom.

By the November 21, 2002