Articles tagged: endissue


Voices

Locked up abroad

The decision to study abroad can be daunting. With single-semester, summer, and yearlong programs in an endless number of exciting, exotic locations, the abundance of study abroad experiences gives students the ability to craft an ideal program that combines fun with enrichment. Still, I doubt a nearly four-year stint in an Italian prison is on anybody’s shortlist.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Future Islands, On the Water

It is not often that a title perfectly captures the sound and feeling of an album. However, On the Water, the newest release from Future Islands, does just that. A brilliant collection of 11 tracks that ebb and flow between the band’s characteristic electronic sound and its more recently developed minimalist rhythms, On the Water showcases this Baltimore trio’s best collaboration yet.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Blink-182, Neighborhoods

After eight long years of uncertainty and chaos, Blink-182 has returned with Neighborhoods, the group’s first full-length album since 2003. Though numerous botched attempts at a comeback seemed to signal the band’s dying moments, Neighborhoods explodes from the ashes of heated arguments and broken friendships to proudly declare, as vocalist Mark Hoppus did at the 51st Grammy Awards, “Blink-182 is back!”

News

GU alumni donations recession-proof

While many universities’ alumni donations have been impacted by the economic downturn, the Georgetown Fund, Georgetown’s alumni giving fund received more donations during the 2011 fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2010 and ended June 20, 2011, than in the 2010 fiscal year.

Voices

Qwikster off to a slow start

Last week I got an email from Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, that began, “Dear Emma, I messed up. I owe you an explanation.” Well thanks, Mr. Hastings, but … excuse me? I do have a Netflix account, but the letter seemed a little more personal than anything I usually hear from heads of major companies.

News

Pop culture supplements the humanities

This semester, Georgetown is offering an array of popular culture-themed classes, from “Philosophy and The Wire” to “Videogames in Critical Content.” While the courses are in high demand, the idea of merging TV and movies with serious academic questions has drawn criticism and ridicule.

Voices

Fighting Irish take on Vatican

Studying Irish history is a lot like watching Rocky. As with every Irish hero, Rocky is an underdog with a lot of heart, a lot of will, and an incredible ability to accept a beating. And like every Irish hero, Rocky loses. Unlike Rocky, however, the Irish continue well past six fights. Ireland’s history is marked by rebellion after rebellion. The legacy of the bloodshed and failed freedom fighters belie, by stereotype and by my experience, the true nature of the Irish people: boisterous, but ultimately passive and habitually willing to submit to (Catholic) authority.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hysterical

For a group that started out as an internet buzz band, music blogs have been pretty quiet about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s new album, Hysterical. Where the band succeeded by keeping it simple but original, this new album disappoints by kicking up production and burying its tried and true style, ending up sounding like a singing telegram to later releases by The Killers and U2.

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Kooks, Junk of the Heart

Loyal fans of British indie darlings The Kooks will thoroughly appreciate their third album, Junk of the Heart, an album teeming with the upbeat, whimsical music that made their first two efforts hits. But where Junk succeeds in melodies, its cynical lyrics are an unwanted change to the group’s trademark buoyant subject matter.

News

GU adjusts to changes for Catholic Mass

After nearly four decades, the Roman Missal, the book that contains the rites and prayers that Catholic priests use in celebrating Mass, is undergoing significant change. According to Jim Wickman, the director of music and liturgy at Georgetown, Georgetown Campus Ministry will be working on making the transition to this new Missal smooth for Georgetown University parishioners.

Voices

Fundamentalist fundamentals

Michelle Bachmann. Republican presidential hopeful. Representative of Minnesota’s 6th congressional district. Federal tax lawyer. Mother to 28 children, five of her own and 23 through the foster-care system. And—most importantly—evangelical Christian. The term makes even the mildest liberal cringe in disdain. Critics of Bachmann and the entire Tea Party movement see evangelicals as bigoted, racist, homophobic, and xenophobic radicals who have hijacked America and seek to limit our freedoms and propagate hate. Growing up in an evangelical household, I can say that this hardly represents the majority of evangelicals.

Leisure

Critical Voices: CANT, Dreams Come True

If anyone in the music industry is on top of their game right now, it’s Chris Taylor. Best known as the bassist and backup vocalist for Grizzly Bear, Taylor has also done behind the scenes work on other well-regarded projects, producing records for Twin Shadow and the Morning Benders. Dreams Come True, the debut album from Taylor’s new solo project CANT, is predictably well-produced, but few of its songs display the songwriting ability that made Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest an indie classic.

Voices

Carrying on: She doesn’t even go here

My name is Emma and I am an overachiever. Last week I went out for dinner with a mixed group: some friends, some acquaintances, and a couple of total strangers. During the chips and salsa course, I was chatting with one of the unfamiliars, following the standard get-to-know-you protocol of a first encounter: who are you, what do you do, etc. I think I was explaining one of my extracurricular activities, when one of my friends at the table butted in, “Yeah, Emma is pretty much that kid Max Fischer in Rushmore.”

Sports

Men’s soccer on the rise

For many teams, being picked to finish fourth in one of the best conferences in the nation would be a source of pride. However, Ian Christianson, junior midfielder for the Georgetown men’s soccer team, feels the prediction was anything but a compliment.

Editorials

Fighting for adequate contraceptive access

After the Department of Health and Human Services announced its decision to require full contraceptive coverage on all new insurance plans after January 2012, Georgetown Professor Dr. Hal Lawrence, in a commendable break with official University policy, spoke out in favor of the change. In his capacity as vice president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Lawrence said, “The women of this country deserve no less than access to all comprehensive and clinically effective preventative care.”

Leisure

Freshman rapper Dreams big with mixtape

It’s no secret that Tate Tucker (SFS ’14) loves the west coast. From his lucky San Diego Chargers hat to tracks like “West Coast Girls” and “L.A. Sunrise,” the freshman rapper is constantly California dreaming. In fact, Tucker is so eager to get back to Los Angeles that he cancelled a performance at Dartmouth College scheduled in May after his last exam.

Sports

Double Teamed: A black eye for a Buckeye

Most college athletic programs will insist that winning isn’t everything. Wins and losses are certainly important, but what truly matters is that the values, principles, and integrity of the university are upheld. At least that’s what they say. Such a philosophy is easy to uphold when a school’s hallmark program isn’t winning consistently or performing up to expectations.

Voices

Money with a mission

Vice President Joe Biden often says, “Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” When looking at the final recommendation from the GUSA Endowment Commission, which passed up supporting the Georgetown Social Innovation and Public Service Fund in favor of allocating $3.2 million to the Healy Pub proposal, it’s difficult to tell what, exactly, our community values. The commission had the opportunity to get behind a more balanced proposal—one that would have suggested allocating $2 million to developing student space and $1 million to the SIPS Fund—but by a single vote, the commission elected not to even consider it. This proposal would have impacted many students by expanding student space, and at the same time, empowering students to positively impact the world by investing in their own ideas and potential.

News

Saxa Politica: Freedom of speech not a trivial pursuit

The first edition of “What sucks: Tombs trivia’s most offensive team names” on Vox Populi, the Voice’s blog, provoked a large outcry of responses both denouncing and defending the names. Many commenters called for the Tombs to ban team names with jokes about sexual assault, sexual orientation, or natural disasters, among other potentially offensive topics.