1 27 2011

VOICE the georgetown

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SNO-M-G: POWER OUTAGE DISPLACES STUDENTS PAGE 4

HOYAS TOP MOUNTAINEERS IN FINAL MINUTES PAGE 7

“PIXEL” PERFECT PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w January 27, 2011 w Volume 44, Issue 3 w georgetownvoice.com

Grassroot Hoyas raising the bar

2 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2011

hot off the blog Both 2010 Campus Plan petitions have significant flaws

Hey, are you tired of reading the excessive !

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Defendants to plead guilty in DMT case Jack DeGioia joins Facebook, has yet to poke Vox

University to place stops in VCW windows after student’s fall Neighbor claims that Georgetown area has turned into a “student ghetto”

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Advertise on Vox Populi or here, right in the paper.

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Voice Crossword “Moving in Parts” by Scott Fligor

ACROSS 1. Bee genus 5. Coconut meat 10. Bruin 14. “Mi casa ___ casa”

15. Prank 16. 10-across, to Cato 17. Preparation for a dive?

19. Let___ a secret 20. “Terrible Towel” team 21. Martha’s Vineyard, for

answers at georgetownvoice.com example 23. Lab animal, or a snitch 24. Iditarod transport 25. Makes tracks?

27. “And I looked, and behold ___ horse”: Revelation 6:8 29. Bygone daily MTV series 32. Wooden clog 33. Whispering game 35. Wintry precipitation 36. “10 ___ or less” (checkout sign) 37. Yemeni neighbor 38. Draw 40. Bostonian accent 41. 6-2, or 7-5 42. Cloak-and-dagger sort 43. “Garfield” dog 44. British WWII gun 45. “I’ve heard enough”, in short 46. Middle 49. Cheered on by “Cheeseheads” 54. Dell competitor 55. Sets of beliefs 57. Romance author Roberts 58. Event’s record 59. Shrek, for one 60. Nascar race, ___ -500 61. They cry “wolf” 62. Queen born in U.S.

DOWN 1. Emergency medicine tools 2. Chem hw, e.g.

3. Understanding words 4. It’s in Dallas 5. Chevron 6. Extraordinary person 7. School grps.

8. Slow down, in music: Abbr.

9. Killed by Paris’ arrow 10. Make 11. Godsmack frontman 12. “___of the Sun” (Jack London book) 13. Tea Partier Rand 18. Explosion 22. Trickle 24. Cigarettes 25. “Inferno” poet 26. German sub 27. Get hold of 28. Sports host Rodney

29. Actress Marissa 20. Biochemical enzyme 30. Ribonuclease A Abbr.

31. Found in cameras and eyes 32. Leak sound 34. Reoccuring problem for Big Ben 36. Like old Russia and Japan 39. European princely family 40. He goes with Juliet 44. Homeless dog 45. Poker signals 46. Children’s plea 47. Supply and demand course 48. Geek 49. Actress Rowlands 50. Lion’s sound 51. Computer science notation 52. Space prefix 53. Flanders river 56. Cabinet member in charge of the CIA

ARE YOU A LOGOPHILE? Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com.

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 44.3 January 27, 2011 Editor-in-Chief: Molly Redden Managing Editor: Tim Shine Editor-at-Large: Juliana Brint Director of Technology: Ishita Kohli News Blog Editor: Geoffrey Bible Leisure Blog Editor: Nico Dodd News Editor: Chris Heller Sports Editor: Nick Berti Feature Editor: Sean Quigley Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: Leigh Finnegan Voices Editor: Aodhan Beirne Photo Editor: Max Blodgett Design Editors: Nitya Ramlogan, Catherine Johnson Projects Editor: Brendan Baumgardner Crossword Editor: Scott Fligor Assistant Blog Editors: Diana McCue, Vincent Tennant Assistant News Editors: Rachel Calvert, Ryan Bellmore Assistant Sports Editors: Adam Rosenfeld, Rob Sapunor Assistant Cover Editor: Holly Ormseth, Kelsey McCullough Assistant Leisure Editor: Mary Borowiec, Heather Regen, John Sapunor Assistant Photo Editors: Julianne Deno, Matthew Funk

Associate Editors: Julie Patterson, Jackson Perry Contributing Editor: Keenan Timko Staff Writers:

Gavin Bade, Thaddeus Bell, Akshay Bhatia, Tom Bosco, Kara Brandeisky, Matthew Collins, Matthew Decker, John Flanagan, Kate Imel, Satinder Kaur, Daniel Kellner, Matt Kerwin, Eric Pilch, Sadaf Qureshi, Abby Sherburne, Melissa Sullivan, Mark Waterman

Staff Photographers:

Helen Burton, Lexie Herman, Hilary Nakasone, Jackson Perry, Audrey Wilson

Staff Designers:

Megan Berard, Richa Goyal, Lauren MacGuidwin, Ishita Kohli, Michelle Pliskin, Amber Ren

Copy Chief: Keaton Hoffman Copy Editors:

Emma Forster, Emily Hessler, Kate Imel, Tori Jovanovski, Claire McDaniel, Kim Tay

Editorial Board Chair: J. Galen Weber Editorial Board:

Gavin Bade, Juliana Brint, Ethan Chess, John Flanagan, Hunter Kaplan, Ishita Kohli, Tim Shine, Cole Stangler

Head of Business: Kara Brandeisky The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 413 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Newsroom: (202) 687-6780 Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Web Site: georgetownvoice.com The opinions expressed in the Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of the Georgetown Voice. The University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors.

The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover ... Grassroot Hoyas Cover Graphic: Matthew Funk

the georgetown voice 3

RECHARGING OUR SCHOOLS

Obama on message with energy and education Much of the talk in the media leading up to Tuesday’s State of the Union address focused on how many of his goals President Barack Obama would concede going forward, given the new makeup of Congress. Even with his approval rating back above 50 percent, it was unclear if Obama would reaffirm the more progressive ideas in his agenda or commit only to moderate goals. It was reassuring that the president did not disappoint his supporters and crafted a refreshing, sensible speech that transcended political squabbling and presented a new path for the nation.

Two issues that have recently been out of the public eye—energy and education policy—were the first two issues he mentioned in his speech. This gesture was more than symbolic. Obama’s goal of generating 80 percent of the nation’s elec-

tricity from clean energy sources by 2035 is laudable and a concrete objective for a country facing what he called this generation’s “Sputnik moment.” Equally praiseworthy were his calls to revise the No Child Left Behind act, raise incentives and prizes for alternative energy research, and allocate more investment for educational policies like his successful Race to the Top program, which pushed dozens of states to implement broad education reforms at a relatively small cost to the federal government. The aims are ambitious but necessary given the size of the challenges, especially after years of inaction.

Obama is at his best when he speaks of his vision for society and chooses to “go big.” His willingness to defend the progress he has made on issues like healthcare and economic policy while still inviting bipartisan input showed the pub-

lic the inspiring and unifying president they elected in 2008.

Obama made dubious proposals too, like a painful and unnecessary freeze on discretionary domestic spending coupled with disappointingly shallow defense cuts, but overall, the president emphasized important progressive goals while using concessions to push conservatives to action. There were some points missing, like the lack of an explicit call for action on the DREAM Act. But the president is in a sticky political situation that he managed well. His sense of purpose distanced him from the partisan politics that have consumed Congress. On Tuesday, Obama looked like a statesman who is prepared to take whatever steps necessary to address this nation’s problems and willing to work with anyone else ready to do the same.

Maybe They’re curious

Athletes’ priority enrollment needs limits For student athletes, class registration is a balancing act between meeting Georgetown’s extensive academic requirements, qualifying to play under NCAA standards, and leaving enough time for hours of practice and study. In order for athletes to have more control over their schedule, the University offers some of them priority registration, which allows them to enroll in classes before the registration period for the general student body. Unfortunately, as the Voice reported in its Jan. 20 issue, athletes’ priority registration has become a detriment to the academic experience of some students.

The Women and Gender Studies program has seen players sign up for classes en masse, preventing other students, including some who intend to major or minor in Women and Gender Studies, from

registering. Professors in the Women and Gender Studies program complained of large groups of athletes, often from the same sport, detracting from the diversity of a class and disrupting schedules with frequent absences.

The registrar now prevents student athletes from taking up more than 50 percent of a class, but this policy should be reexamined and expanded to maintain equity in the class registration process. Georgetown’s administration should formally implement a new priority registration cap, somewhere closer to 20 percent, applied to every class in every department. It should come with the additional caveat that no more than 10 percent of the students within a class can be athletes from the same sport.

When possible, coaches and athletic officials should be more flexible with ath-

letes’ schedules and should help limit the number of athletes who enroll in a specific class.

Georgetown benefits tremendously from its student athletes, who help raise the University’s national profile and contribute to Georgetown’s allure.

Most athletes are just as concerned with academics as any other Georgetown student. Their schedules are tight and they deserve priority registration. No athlete should be prevented from entering a class in a subject that really interests him or her because of a cap on athlete enrollment. Athletes who strongly desire to be in a class, but are unable to get in during priority registration, will still have this chance during normal registration. But every student, athlete or not, deserves an equal shot at the education Georgetown is renowned for.

ALWAYS LOW WAGES

Keep Wal-Mart’s rotten business model out of D.C. The largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart has always promised to bring low-cost goods to suburban and rural Americans. Recently, the company has announced plans to build four locations in the District of Columbia. However, given the company’s poor labor practices, historical intolerance of unionization, and damaging effects on the surrounding community, the D.C. Council should demand that WalMart amend its predatory business practices before it opens its doors in the District.

Wal-Mart has perfected a business model that relies on low wages and temporary labor. Instead of providing healthcare for its retail employees, Wal-Mart has encouraged its employees to sign up for Medicaid. If the employees at a Wal-Mart store choose to form a labor union, a right that is protected by federal law, the company shuts down the store—a zero-tolerance policy for labor unions that is not acceptable.

Wal-Mart stores have also led to re-

duced wages in the communities they enter and have driven away small businesses who treat their workers more responsibly. A new study by Hunter College found that the presence of a Wal-Mart in a neighborhood pushes wages downward and reduces benefits for workers in surrounding businesses. In light of this, the D.C. Council should require Wal-Mart to sign an enforceable Community Benefits Agreement, requiring the company to pay decent wages, offer basic benefits, and respect the rights of its workers in order to do business in D.C. Wal-Mart executives and some city officials have argued that the locations of the proposed Wal-Mart stores would provide greater access to fresh produce and groceries in neighborhoods lacking adequate access to these goods. However, the City Council has already taken steps to address this very problem through the FEED D.C. Act. Passed in late December, this legisla-

tion provides tax incentives and grants to bring full service grocery outlets to food deserts in the Washington area. While it remains to be seen how far-reaching these measures are, they carry none of the negative consequences of the opening of a Wal-Mart.

Right now, the negative consequences of Wal-Mart’s business model outweigh the few possible benefits—benefits that the District is already working to bring to the city in alternative ways. If Wal-Mart is to come to D.C., the City Council must do what it can to ensure the company respects its workers and treats them fairly. Groups like the AFL-CIO have already begun protesting at the offices of the City Council and are lobbying to get Wal-Mart to sign the Community Benefits Agreement. This agreement would go a long way towards blunting the negative impact the superstore may bring to D.C. neighborhoods. These efforts are important to the vibrancy of the city, and they deserve student support.

news

4 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2011

Outage forces students into snow Provost funds vets’ part-time grad advisor

by Rachel Calvert

In the midst of the largest snow storm of the school year, hundreds of students in East Campus have been displaced as a result of a power outage.

East Campus, which includes the Edmund A. Walsh building, and LXR and Nevils residence halls, lost power on Wednesday at approximately 12:30 p.m. before the snow began to fall. Workers from Pepco, the company that provides power to Georgetown, finally arrived at 9 p.m., but University officials did not expect power to be restored until early Thursday morning.

“The weather has hampered arrival of necessary help,” Provost Jim O’Donnell wrote in an email.

University Facilities could not fix the problem independently of Pepco, according to Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson. “[We] needed Pepco to be there to turn off the main power supply from the main complex in order to asses and troubleshoot,” Olson said.

Power was lost due to a fault in the main breaker’s complex, Rachel Pugh, director of media relations, wrote in an email. It remains unclear if the outage can be attributed to the electrical work that led to the Internet failures earlier in the week.

by Jennifer Rokosa

Max blodgett

Facilities employees installed temporary lighting in LXR after the outage.

Emergency lighting remained on through the evening while the University awaited the arrival of Pepco technicians.

Pugh wrote the Office of Residential Life endeavored to find temporary accommodations in vacant rooms and apartments, while offering inflatable mattresses for use. However, many students opted to spend the night with friends.

Student Affairs set up a hotline, with its number published in emails to East Campus residents, to field student inquiries and complaints.

An operator declined to comment on how many students received accommodations.

“The experience didn’t really bother my routine since I rarely use the lights, heat, and showers anyway,” Jed Feiman (COL ’12), a resi-

dent of East Campus, said jokingly.

Pugh advised students to use the shower facilities in Yates or another residence hall. However, she also noted that Yates’ timely opening “is dependent on current weather conditions.”

Feiman saw a silver lining in the delayed response.

“I loved the experience. It was a perfect excuse to stay with a friend.”

In her email to residents, Pugh also pointed out, “Lauinger Library and Sellinger Lounge will remain open all night for students.”

O’Donnell remains confident that these spaces will help students survive inconvenience and inclement weather.

“We proved, with double blind studies, that studying really, really hard keeps you warmer,” he said.

Porterfield in last lecture to seniors: “Stay out of jail”

julianne deno

Seniors packed into the Faculty Club on Tuesday evening to hear Senior Vice President for Strategic Development Dan Porterfield (COL ‘83), who will become the president of Franklin & Marshall College on Mar. 1, deliver his last lecture.

After an introduction by Johnny Solis (SFS ‘11), Porterfield talked about the joy of college and how it prepares students for life’s difficulties. Although graduation can present daunting questions, he said, he warned against focusing on “the fulfillment of externally-defined success.”

“If the plan is to stay out of jail and keep learning, that’s a good plan,” he joked.

Porterfield added that he is leaving in order to embody the path he encouraged students to follow.

“Change is not a bad thing,” he said. “Change is a good thing.”

—Matt Kerwin, Chris Heller

On Tuesday, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson announced that the Provost’s Office will fund a part-time position for a graduate student to work with veterans on campus.

The announcement, which came during a town hall meeting hosted by the Georgetown Student Veterans’ Association in the Intercultural Center, marks a victory for student veterans on campus, who for years have lobbied for a student veteran coordinator.

According to D. Heath Scott, assistant registrar for athletics, veterans affairs, and certifications, approximately 250 student veterans are currently enrolled at Georgetown—a 100 percent increase since 2008. As that number increases, so does the need for an employee to coordinate events and reach out to prospective students.

Much of the meeting was spent discussing the revisions made last December to the GI Bill under the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, which will go into effect Aug. 1. According to Erik Brine, graduate student and president of GUSVA, the meeting was intended to “start a dialogue between the veterans, administrators, and deans.”

However, Brine worried that a graduate student would not have adequate time to dedicate to veteran issues.

“Accessibility is key,” he said.

The most significant change to the GI Bill, he added, involves the adjustment of tuition benefits: the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs will pay up to $17,500 in tuition and fees for veterans at private and foreign colleges, with increases to be made annually in proportion to the average cost of undergraduate education. Brian Hawthorne, an M.A. candidate from George Washington University and Student’s Veterans of Amer-

ica board member, called the changes “monumentous.”

Hawthorne also added that the increased benefits come at the expense of the socalled “active duty loophole,” which allowed active duty service members to bill tuition expenses directly to the service. Under the revision, they will also have their tuition assistance capped at $17,500, in accordance with the benefits received by the veterans.

Herb Carmen, a graduate student in the McDonough School of Business and active duty service member in the Navy, expressed his concern that the changes would place significant financial restrictions on active duty service members who hope to complete their studies.

Attendees voiced concerns about Georgetown’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Currently, Georgetown only contributes $5,000 per undergraduate studentveteran per year, while neighboring schools, such as GWU, contribute up to $18,300 per student.

Olson also fielded questions about Georgetown’s support of student veterans on campus. In regards to student veterans’ issues, Georgetown is just recently “getting aligned as an institution,” he explained.

Nonetheless, he pointed to the Provost Office’s funding as a step in the right direction. Brine and Hawthorne, however, continued to stress the importance of a full-time staff member.

School of Nursing and Health Studies Dean Julie Deloia added that her school has begun three different research projects around veteran health issues to “pull students in and raise awareness.”

Brine concluded the meeting by reiterating GUSVA’s long-term goal—the development of a veteran resource center staffed by a full-time coordinator—and urged for continued dialogue and student support.

news

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the georgetown voice 5

To some residents, GU’s plan is a friend, not a foe

by Ryan Bellmore At the January 20 ANC2E meeting to discuss the 2010 Campus Plan, D.C. Student Speak, a District-wide student blog, questioned whether Jennifer Altemus (COL ’88), the president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, represents the citizens of Georgetown in opposing the plan. Citing the 169 signatures on the joint Burleith Citizens Association and Citizens Association of Georgetown, the students soon published a follow-up blog post calling on the “silent majority”—residents who do not agree with CAG’s opposition of the plan.

The petition has 169 signatures, CAG has 1,200 members, and the Burleith-Hillendale-Georgetown area houses 17,000 residents, according to the Washington Post. The rough population estimate suggests that fewer than one percent of residents signed the petition.

Erika Higley, an 11-year Glover Park resident, agrees with this “silent majority” theory.

“I talk to my neighbors [and] most are indifferent or supportive of [Georgetown University],” she said.

According to former ANC Commissioner Aaron Golds (COL’ 11), the issue is the definition of “constituency.” Golds argued that Altemus represents the membership of CAG, but he couldn’t determine her role in the larger community.

Ed Machir (MSB ‘74), a local resident, echoed Golds’s sentiment, maintaining that Altemus represents the most involved members of CAG.

As a resident who supports the plan, Ed Machir avoids CAG.

Meet the Zoning Commission!

After 18 months of debate over the 2010 Campus Plan, shit’s about to get real.

Come Apr. 14, the University will have a chance to discuss the plan with a group other than perpetually pissed-off neighbors: the District of Columbia Zoning Commission, a group that actually has the power to approve or deny the plan. So if there’s one D.C. government board that students should take some time to learn about, it’s the Zoning Commission.

Part of D.C.’s Office of Zoning, the Zoning Commission is a fivemember board that rules on major land-use issues. Three members are District residents appointed by the mayor and the other two are federal appointees, one a representative from the Architect of the Capitol, the other from the National Park Service. This setup might sound strange, but it’s actually very typical of a city whose attempts at self-governance are often plagued by undue federal interference. And unlike most other legislatures, the D.C. Council does not have the right to review land-use

“She probably represents that group of ... 20 or 50 or 75 people who are very vocal. I’m not vocal; she doesn’t represent me,” he said.

Many residents enjoy living near a major university, according to Higley, who enrolled in a graduate program after moving to the neighborhood. She cites maintenance of home values, customers for local businesses, and

rulings, giving the Zoning Commission even greater power over how the city develops.

Chair Anthony Hood, who has served on the commission for a whopping 12 years, is a neighborhood activist who leads meetings with a healthy dose of folksiness.

His term expired in Feb. 2010, but he has continued to serve after former Mayor Adrian Fenty’s nominee to replace him, developer Stanley Wall, was rejected by the council for lacking Hood’s neighborly sensibilities.

Another commissioner with high regard for neighbors’ concerns is Konrad Schlater, the commission’s Vice-Chair. Although a developer by trade, Schlater often argues that impact on neighbors is the “most important” factor in deciding cases.

The final mayoral-appointee is Greg Selfridge, a developer whose term expires in Feb. 2011. Selfridge, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of a former commissioner’s term, is a bit of a mystery.

He says very little in meetings and in his confirmation hearings, he distinguished himself only by re-

SaM bRotHeRS

vealing a general ignorance of the District’s zoning regulations.

Of the federal appointees, the one who really stands out is Peter May, the National Park Service representative. Called out by smart-growth blog Greater Greater Washington for being “anti-urban,” May has a reputation for being nitpicky when reviewing cases. However, May is a Georgetown alum, so maybe his persnicketiness will be tempered by fond feelings for his alma mater. May’s fellow fed-

City on a Hill

by Juliana Brint

A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics eral appointee, Michael Turnbull, who represents the Architect of the Capitol, tends to be more moderate and has an adorable penchant for sporting bowties at hearings.

The Zoning Commission deals with broad zoning issues and large projects, while its sister commission, the Board of Zoning Adjustment, deals with smaller-scale projects and special exceptions to the zoning code. It was only in 2000, though, that review of local schools’ campus plans was shifted

ample education opportunities as benefits of living near a major university.

This reticent portion of the residents tends to express themselves in a more restrained manner, Golds added. Both he and Assistant Vice President in the Office for External Relations Linda Greenan have been contacted by various residents supporting the Campus Plan.

On the other hand, Machir, although he strongly supports the plan, has not been an active proponent because he felt biased as an alumnus and adjunct professor in the business school.

The other portion of the majority—the indifferent—do not keep up on the issue, according to Higley.

“Those who have no issues with the [Georgetown] have little incentive to get involved or even to fully inform themselves.”

Another aspect of the “silent majority” theory involves students, according to former commissioner Golds.

He claims, “While there is a silent majority who don’t really care or support the university, there is a silent majority of from the realm of the BZA to the commission. So while you may have heard horror stories about the 2000 Campus Plan’s zoning approval process, it’s important to keep in mind that this will be the first Georgetown University Campus Plan that the Zoning Commission reviews. That said, the commission will be using the same rules of procedure and review criteria that the BZA did.

And what a complicated procedure it is. According to D.C.’s Zoning Regulations, the Zoning Commission has to ensure that University growth “will not tend to affect adversely the use of neighboring property” and “is not likely to become objectionable to neighboring property because of noise, traffic, number of students, or other objectionable criteria.”

This broad standard requires the commission to hear testimony from pretty much anyone who could be impacted by the plan, including the applicant (according to Rachel Pugh, university director of media relations, Georgetown’s presentation will be made by none other than President John DeGioia), the D.C. Office of Planning, the Department of Transpor-

students whose neighbors don’t even know they’re there.”

Machir adds that the responsibility to enforce conduct of the vocal student minority lies with neither the students, the citizens, nor the citizens associations. Machir maintains this responsibility lies with the University.

Of the vocal neighbors, Higley speculates, “Those who speak out likely live near a particular problem house that they blame on [the University] or dislike the area bars and blame that on [the University].”

However, Machir also assessed Altemus’ leadership in other areas, asserting his lack of support for Altemus only extends to her adverse view of the university.

“I know that she must work extremely hard because I do see all the positive things and social things the Georgetown Citizens Association does, and they wouldn’t have those without the hard work of a president and the core volunteers, whoever that is—10, 15, 20—who make the place work,” he said. “I would have hoped that she, having been a student here, would understand the perspective.” tation, other relevant city agencies, the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and any individuals or groups who want to speak in favor of or against the plan. After the hearings (which will all be broadcast live on the Zoning Commission’s website) and deliberation, the Zoning Commission will either approve the plan or send it back for tweaking or a full-scale reworking.

According to Office of Zoning Spokesperson Sara Bardin, recent campus plans from other local universities have taken anywhere from 11 to 20 months to go from initial filing to Zoning Commission ruling. That’s a lengthy timeframe—and it doesn’t even include the process for appeals, which can either go through the commission itself or the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Since any party in the case can appeal the commission, such an outcome can’t be ruled out in highly contentious cases like our Campus Plan. So if you thought this past year and a half was arduous, get ready—we’ll have a long time to get to know the ins and outs of the D.C. Zoning Commission.

Let Juliana zone your borders at jbrint@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2011

Georgetown unleashes storm against St. John’s

by Adam Rosenfeld While the winter storm caused chaos outside the Verizon Center on Wednesday night, the Hoyas had no trouble handling the Red Storm on the court. In front of a late-arriving crowd, Georgetown trounced St. John’s 77-52, avenging a three-point loss earlier this month at Madison Square Garden.

“We were fired up to play today and we definitely played with a payback mentality,” senior point guard Chris Wright said. “We know we didn’t play well at their place so we wanted to beat them here.”

This attitude was perhaps exemplified best by the Hoyas’ stifling team defense. Georgetown forced St. John’s into 13 turnovers while holding the Red Storm to a meager 33.9 percent shooting from the field.

The strong showing on the defensive end was no accident, with head coach John Thompson III choosing to focus on his team’s defensive effort and individual execution during the team’s seven-day layoff.

“The individual one-on-one defense was better tonight, and we were great at covering for each other,” Thompson said. “You can draw up whatever scheme you want, but at the end of the day you’re standing in front of me and I have to guard you.”

Wright pointed to a week of tough practices, including competitive and physical three-on-three scrimmages as the main reason for the Hoyas’ defensive improvement.

“Three-on-three might have been tougher than it was out there tonight,” Wright said. “It was definitely intense and very competitive, and it helped us out a lot tonight.”

Wright in particular had a stellar night on the defensive end, limiting opposing point guard, the catalyst of the St. John’s offense, Dwight Hardy to ten points.

While Georgetown certain-

ly dominated on defense, the Hoyas’ offensive execution was nearly unstoppable.

“They were shooting it so well and clicking on all cylinders,” St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin said.

“It was one of those nights when Pete Carril was lighting a cigar up somewhere for JTIII.” The defining feature of Georgetown’s attack was balance. Senior center Julian Vaughn pulled down eight important rebounds, was a perfect three-for-three from the floor, and finished with nine points, equaling Wright’s total. Senior guard Austin Freeman poured in 14 points, including a four-point play that gave the Hoyas a lead in the first half they would never relinquish. Sophomore forward Hollis Thompson, who came off the bench for the first time, dropped 15 points for the Hoyas.

“It’s probably as good a contribution from everybody as it’s been in a while,” coach Thompson said. “Everyone did their job when they went in.”

The most consistent and potent offensive force for the Hoyas was unquestionably junior guard Jason Clark. The extra work paid off, as Clark went a perfect five-for-five from the floor en route to a teamhigh 16 points.

After a strong start to the season, Clark had seemed to lose his shooting touch in the rough stretch the Hoyas experienced earlier in the month, but never lost faith.

“I’ve been off lately, but I’ve stayed in the gym putting up extra shots,” Clark said. “It’s important to stay with it because we’re all shooters and everyone can make shots.”

Constant offensive pressure from the Hoyas led to two early fouls for St. John’s guard Paris Horne, forcing Lavin to sit his best defender early in the first half and giving Georgetown an advantage.

Despite facing a 13-point deficit at the half, St. John’s came out swinging in the opening minutes of the second half, starting on a

MAX BLODGETT

Chris Wright led a steady yet potent offense to avenge a loss to St. John’s.

12-2 run. The Red Storm could not keep up their pace and level of play, however, and Georgetown responded in convincing fashion to put the game out of reach.

After the game, Lavin praised his team’s grit and resolve, but conceded that Georgetown was simply the better team on Wednesday.

“I thought clearly Georgetown played with intelligence, aggressiveness, and sustained their level

of execution for the 40 minutes and thoroughly dominated us in every aspect of play,” he said.

With the win, Georgetown brings its Big East record to an even 4-4 after a disappointing 1-4 start. The Hoyas next face rival Villanova on Saturday in Philadelphia. The Wildcats will surely be hungry after a disappointing loss on Wednesday night to lowly Providence. While Thompson ac-

knowledged it is always better to win three in a row than lose three, he was quick to eliminate all talk of the big picture as his team gets ready for the Wildcats.

“If you start looking at the big picture you get in trouble,” Thompson said. “As everyone’s seen in this league, teams are going to beat each other up. Guys are going to have losses, so we just have to keep fighting.”

the Sports Sermon “At least I was the #1 pick back then, fo’shizzle” — Tiger Woods, on Twitter commenting on the Chappelle’s Show racial draft a moribund franchise. The Clippers still play second fiddle to the Lakers, but Griffin has given fans a reason to be excited about the ugly step-sister of L.A. basketball. He has made his teammates better too—shooting guard Eric Gordon now averages 24 points a game after only scoring an average of 16 the last two seasons. Veteran point guard Baron Davis is playing with more passion than ever— which isn’t really saying much, but is still very impressive.

Like Griffin, Wall also provides a lot of excitement for a lowly franchise, but does so in a different way. Wall doesn’t slam

now dazzles the Garden faithful with his hustle and hard work.

If you were to ask NBA fans You won’t see much of him on or coaches, most would have told YouTube, and he doesn’t exactyou that the 2010 NBA Draft had ly light up the scoreboard. It’s one prize. Sure, there were 60 what most people don’t see that selections total, but after the seamakes him good. If Blake Griffin son, lottery teams had their eye is the Rolls-Royce and Wall is the on one just player—John Wall.

Ferrari, Fields is the Ford F-150.

This hasn’t always been the case He’ll get you there, but it might though with the first overall pick. not be pretty and he’ll have to It was Kevin Durant and Greg work a little harder.

Oden in 2007, Michael Beasley The newcomer right behind and Derrick Rose in 2008. And the rookie trio isn’t a new face who can forget the 2003 NBA for students on the Hilltop. Greg draft, where a top-four pick alMonroe has quietly improved all most guaranteed a future all-star. season and is almost averaging a (Darko still has a chance, right?) double-double in January with Of course everyone wanted a 10.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per glimpse of John Wall, game. He has come Pete Rose Central whether it was bea long way since Da bettin’ line cause they watched riding the bench him at Kentucky or at the start of the Dookies Margin Hoyas saw him doing the season.

Monroe (underdogs) (duh!)

Dougie on YouTube. (favorites) isn’t reaching these But to the deresults in any speLaLanne Bench press cial way—just hard light of NBA fans 6 ft. dirt Job everywhere, other work and steady Lombardi Tie first year players Jersey Shore Italy T-Shirt time improvement. Alhave shown that though many have they can stack up to the great home an alley-oop three times been surprised by his recent John Wall. In fact, there are four a game or jump high enough to play, those on the Hilltop who rookies, including Wall, who hit his head on the backboard; watched him the past two years make up the elite level of the he impresses people with his shouldn’t be astounded. Maybe class, and each brings some- speed. He gets up and down the what makes Monroe’s improvething different to the table. court faster than anyone and has ment more notable is that we saw The first, and most obvious, the ability to dart in and out of him first. Yeah, it would’ve been is Blake Griffin. The Los Angeles defenses while making big men great if he stayed an extra year, Clippers power forward should look like slow footed giants, (or but at least he is representing have been a rookie last year, but 38 year-old Shaquille O’Neals). Georgetown well. Having playa broken kneecap sidelined him Like Griffin, Wall has no trouble ers excel in the NBA is one of, if for the entire season. Many for- generating mass appeal. The not the best, thing a program can got about him before the season same cannot be said for the last do to attract recruits. started and did not see him mak- two elite rookies.

In October, no one was talking a large impact immediately, Most NBA draft experts ing about a great rookie class. especially playing for one of the didn’t even think Stanford Wall was a given, but people were worst teams in the league. But he guard Landry Fields would be unsure about Griffin’s health, has left fans speechless with his drafted, let alone starting for Monroe’s potential and Fields— high-flying, acrobatic dunks. The the new-look New York Knicks. well how is a player drafted after human highlight reel could justi- When Fields was drafted in the Andy Rautins supposed to make fiably fill a top-ten list of season’s second round by general man- an impact in the NBA? Now, best dunks all by himself. ager Donnie Walsh, experts more people will be talking about Not only does Griffin send laughed and Knicks fans were why the sophomores should be the home crowd into a frenzy confused. It turns out Walsh scared for their showdown over every game, he has rejuvenated was smart to draft Fields, who All-Star weekend.

by Nick Berti

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Hoyas shut down Big East elite Tennis set to open season

by Abby Sherburne When the Georgetown women’s basketball team suffered a crushing 80-58 loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 18, head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy called it a great wake-up call. The team certainly heard that call with a win against Villanova last Saturday, followed by an even more impressive win against West Virginia in which they buckled down and refused to yield to the Mountaineers highpowered offense.

The No. 19 Hoyas (16-5, 4-3 Big East) won their second game against a top ten team on Tuesday night against the No. 8 Mountaineers (192, 5-2 Big East) by the score of 65-60.

When the Hoyas jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead it seemed as if the team might have an easy night, but such is never the case in the Big East. The Mountaineers weren’t about to go down without a fight and although they trailed for the

majority of the first half, they made a comeback and led by eight at one point in the second half. With their tough press and impenetrable zone, the Hoyas were able to turn the game around to clinch the victory.

“They made their run, OK, we’re making our run too,” senior guard Monica McNutt said about the team’s resiliency.

Juniors Adria Crawford and Tia Magee both played well defensively against key West Virginia offensive threats to help maintain the momentum early in the first half. The hustle plays by both players might not have showed in the box score, but they made a big impact on the game.

However, the team did not come out of the locker room for the second half with the same mentality. The Hoyas had too many turnovers in the second half of play, which was the main reason they lost their lead. The Hoyas committed 28 miscues, which led to 25 points for West Virginia. Leading

MAX BLODGETT

Rubylee Wright had full control of the offense, dishing out five assists.

Football lost in translation With two of the league’s most storied franchises, the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, set to clash in the Super Bowl, the buzz around the National Football League has arguably never been higher. But even though football reigns supremacy as America’s favorite sport and the NFL is earning its best-ever TV ratings, the league is still struggling to move its product across the pond.

American ex-patriots packed into London sports bars to watch the NFL playoffs, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find British fans among the crowds.

The sport known to the rest of the world as “gridiron” still finds itself excluded from the sports-minded Brits.

The failure of the NFL to expand overseas differs starkly from the growth of the English Premier League, which, unlike the NFL, has built a dedicated foreign following that continues to expand each season. The EPL’s popularity is far from limited to British emigrants or citizens of countries where soccer is already popular. Many Americans whose fandom was restricted to teams in the “big four” sports leagues have branched out to support EPL clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

Though it may surprise some Americans that the British are so disinterested in our brand of “football” when they are so passionate about rugby, a very similar sport, there are

scorer Sugar Rodgers attributed the turnovers simply to the team having butterfingers.

On the offensive end, Rodgers had her finest game, scoring a career high 30 points, including four points in the final 50 seconds to put the Hoyas ahead for good. Ever modest, she credited her success to her teammates.

West Virginia senior guard Liz Repella led the Mountaineers with 20 points, but the overwhelming Hoya defense became too much for her. In the last five minutes alone, the senior missed three attempts from behind the arc.

“Even when we’re down 10, like we keep telling ‘em it’s our defense that does it,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Making a big defensive stop gives us the opportunity to not get so far behind.”

The zone and trap kept the Hoyas alive, as did their uncharacteristic success on the boards.

The women out-rebounded their opponents 32–17 and limited the second chance opportunities for the Mountaineers. Free throw shooting was also a huge factor.

Rodgers went 10-for-10 from the stripe and Crawford was perfect as well. Overall, Georgetown shot 88 percent from the line, as opposed to West Virginia’s 61 percent.

Even though the Hoyas have been fairly successful in the Big East so far, they know they can improve.

And after this big win, there isn’t a better time to get on a roll.

“Last year we lost three games in conference total,” McNutt said.

“So it’s go time.”

The Hoyas face off against Seton Hall next Saturday in New Jersey. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

clear reasons why the NFL’s campaign to generate foreign interest has seen so few results.

The flow of the American game clashes with the British sporting mindset, which is accustomed to soccer and rugby—sports that are characterized by end-toend play with limited stoppages and commercial breaks. An NFL

Backdoor Cuts

By Daniel Kellner a rotating column on sports game, meanwhile, will sometime cut to a commercial break after only one play.

This discontinuity infuriates British viewers who could not care less about what cop show is on after the game or what department store is having a New Year’s sale. Americans, mean-

by Melissa Sullivan With the fall season long over, the Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams are eagerly anticipating their upcoming season.

During the past few months, head coach Gordie Ernst has had both the men and women play in tournaments to prepare for the main part of the schedule and improve their results after last year.

“A couple of the guys played … tournaments in the off season to stay sharp,” Ernst said. “They also stayed in shape. … I haven’t had to crack down on them for [not] working hard. They’ve been doing it on their own.”

The men open their season at Virginia Commonwealth University this Saturday. The team lost three seniors in David Tillem, Anthony Tan, and Will Lowell, who accounted for 67 out of the 127 singles’ matches the team played last year. But Ernst believes that they will pull through and be just as successful as they were in the past.

“We lost two guys that are world-class … leaders,“ he said.

“The captains [Bryan Miller and Andrew Bruhn] … are doing a great job. Thanks to having good captains like we had, they learned a lot last year and are now being that type of leader.”

For as long as Ernst can remember, the men’s tennis program has consistently reached the Big East Tournament. Even with the loss of very talented players, Ernst feels that they will make it there again. He hopes he will be able to say that for the women’s team too.

while, are relieved when they first see the lack of commercial interruption in a soccer match.

The game’s uninterrupted flow— a typical match finishes in less than two hours—has helped the EPL grow in popularity.

Another basic issue for the NFL is the time-zone difference.

Many games are televised at ridiculous hours for the British audience. An 8:30 p.m. EST start for a Monday Night Football game is televised live in London at 1:30 a.m., which prevents anyone with a typical school or work schedule from watching the game. But the EPL’s matches are shown live in the U.S. in the morning and early afternoon, allowing fans to not only watch their soccer club, but to also see their American teams later in the day.

But perhaps the toughest obstacle for the NFL overseas is the complexity of the rulebook.

“I think it’s going to be a great year. I have an unbelievable bunch of kids,” he said.

“They want to do different things this year. We want to come out with more wins, not just with the Big East but also with … the local teams that we play.”

This past weekend, the women’s team opened up their season at Virginia Commonwealth University’s VCU 4+1 tournament. While they lost 3-2 against Virginia Commonwealth and 4-1 against Campbell University, Ernst has reason to believe their fortune will change.

“We just missed the Big East Tournament last year,” he said.

“And now we have girls that have been in it, coupled with adding Stephanie Wetmore from UCLA, who offers a wealth of experience from a national championship team.”

Even with the increased experience, Ernst knows the Big East won’t be a walk in the park.

The women’s team play a lot more Big East matches then the men do, including a stretch of six in less than a month.

“I have really high hopes for them,” Ernst said. “I think we can finish middle to high in the pack of the Big East. We all stay healthy and are committed to the goal of beating up on our Big East opponents.”

After spending a lot of time on the Hilltop since the summer, the Hoyas are ready to make an impact this spring.

The preparation can only help both teams find themselves on the right side of the net when the season ends.

While it may not seem like rocket science to an American fan who grew up with the game, football is a truly complicated sport that requires a certain level of understanding to enjoy it.

Soccer’s complexities are essentially limited to the offside rule, which unlike all the intricacies of football, can be explained in a matter of minutes.

Given these factors working against the NFL, don’t expect it to rise to prominence in the U.K. anytime soon. As the Super Bowl hype takes over American sports in the coming days, British sports coverage will mention it only as a side note. Football may have become America’s game, but in England, they simply aren’t interested.

Get your soccer hooligan on with Daniel at dkellner@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2011

Holding court: Tyler Spencer begins a Grassroot Hoyas session.

According to Spencer, many student athletes are interested in doing extracurricular activities other than their sport, but demanding practice and training schedules make it difficult to fit in other time commitments.

Grassroots, however, is specifically designed to work around athletes’ busy schedules. Sanders claims it is the only organization on campus that allows them to make a substantial contribution to something other than their team with the limited time they have available.

“In high school, I did a lot of community service, and when I got to Georgetown I didn’t really see how I’d be able to do it,” Sanders said. “When I saw Grassroots I got involved and I was excited because it fit my schedule.”

According to Funding Coordinator Victoria Stulgis (COL ’11), the program was designed as a kind of support team, since athletes are already intimately familiar with team-building.

“The coolest thing about being an athlete is that your team members become like a family to you, and that’s one of the big things we talk about, what a support team can do for you and what a sport can do for you,” Stulgis said.

The athletes who participate in Grassroots benefit not only from the chance to branch out from the sport they play, but also from the lessons they are responsible for giving.

“Something like one percent of student athletes become professionals [in the sport they play in college],” Stulgis said.

“So we also see it as providing athletes with the tools they can use after they graduate.

“We never start with HIV/ AIDS. We start with something simple, like soccer, and transform them into games about HIV/ AIDS,” Sanders said. “Our goal is that they know all key messages by the end of the game.”

In one game, students were all given tennis balls to hide behind their backs, with a single ball labled “HIV-positive.” Students were then asked to guess which person held the marked ball, helping them realize that it is often impossible to tell who is infected with the virus and who is not.

Sanders claims that this hands-on approach was the reason Grassroots has been so successful. Without the burden of lectures or books, Grassroots coaches can joke, play, and have fun with the students. It’s a unique approach at getting young people to talk about serious issue that can be both polar-

Nothing but smiles: A new group of Grassroot Hoyas coaches finish training.

Hoyas take the field against AIDS

by Aodhan Beirne This summer, as the world’s attention was focused on the soccer World Cup in South Africa, a group of Georgetown student athletes in Johannesburg participated in a powerful and inspiring event that took place far from the din of vuvuzelas.

They were taking part in Team Up, a project in which 10 D.C. middle school students were brought to South Africa as part of an exchange program to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and establishing links between two communities hit hard by the disease.

The Georgetown students were part of Grassroot Hoyas, a program created in January 2009 by Tyler Spencer (SCS ’08) that uses student athletes to inform D.C. schoolchildren about HIV/AIDS and promote toler-

ance for HIV/AIDS patients.

Using sports and games as a means for frank and honest discussion of the disease, Grassroot Hoyas aims to educate one of the most at-risk communities in the country.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every 20 adults in D.C. is HIV-positive, the highest rate in the nation. In Wards 7 and 8, the number is closer to one in eight, on par with parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Even more troubling is the fact that the number of new HIV-positive youths tripled between 2000 and 2005 compared to the previous five years.

“I started Grassroots because I was shocked by the rates of HIV in D.C.,” Spencer, who is now studying at Oxford University

MATTHEW FUNK

Andew Federer (COL ‘10) knows how to spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

on a Rhodes Scholarship, said.

“I had worked on a similar program, GrassrootSoccer, in South Africa for several summers, and I believed the model used there could work in D.C.” Based on the model of GrassrootSoccer, the Grassroot Hoyas program is designed both to educate D.C. children about HIV and to give them an opportunity to discuss and work through the pain of having loved ones suffer from the disease.

At the beginning of each eight-week program many children are profoundly misinformed about HIV/AIDS, with most of their knowledge from the disease coming from what they see on television.

Many students erroneously believed that HIV-positive people would display some visible sign of illness.

But even more important than correcting their misconceptions about the disease, he said, is getting them to discuss the subject at all.

“They do not talk about AIDS,” current president Deidra Sanders (SFS ’11) said. “None of them know that this is a serious issue in their community and life. Some know but refuse to talk about it. Some of these kids have been affected or are infected with HIV, and their classmates don’t know because they don’t like talk about it.”

The program is centered around sports-based games, which are intended to lighten the mood and make it easier for students to talk about HIV/ AIDS. Each game contains a key message, dealing with issues such as peer pressure, stigma, discrimination, drugs, abstinence, and safe sex.

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georgetownvoice.com

MATTHEW FUNK

izing and stigmatizing.

Though mostly light-hearted and fun, Grassroots programs often include profound and heart-wrenching moments.

“By the end of every session, these kids are opening up that their neighbor has died, their sister has died, their aunt is infected now,” Sanders said.

“Those moments aren’t as fun or happy, but there’s so much positive energy in those moments.

People are so supportive.”

The Grassroot program, though not affiliated with Georgetown’s athletic department, is limited exclusively to student athletes. Spencer, himself a member of the men’s heavyweight crew team during his time at Georgetown, claims this aspect of the program is crucial to its success, saying that children sometimes respect the athletes even more than their teachers.

They’re given skills to use in the real world, and to realize that they can be advocates for social justice.”

For their part, student athletes have taken enthusiastically to the opportunity to participate in an extracurricular that doesn’t interfere with their team obligations.

“I love my job because [the athletes] are always willing to do more. There are so many people who want to participate,” Sanders said. “That’s one of the reasons why I see this program being so successful, because everyone is so excited about it.”

After it was founded in 2009, the program grew faster than even Spencer expected, forcing him to expand the program beyond what he had originally envisioned. Even with an additional and unexpected increase in the number of programs this semester, there was a demand for more. While just 40 student athletes participated in the program’s inaugural year, this semester there were more than 170 volunteers.

“One of the problems we faced was saying [to schools that had reached out to Grassroots], we can’t put your program in our schedule this semester.” Sanders said. “And its sad, but as we grow, I’m sure we won’t have that problem.”

A major step in the program’s growth came when it was recognized as an official student group by the Center for Social Justice this semester.

Despite the fact that it advocates for condom use, Sanders said the University was happy to embrace Grassroots as an official student group.

“There were no problems with our curriculum. We didn’t

the georgetown voice 9

MATTHEW FUNK

So they put their hands up, they’re playing their song, the butterflies fly away, nodding their heads like yeah ... have to change anything. They’ve been fully supportive,” she said.

The most important change resulting from the CSJ approval was transportation. Before this semester, Grassroots athletes used Metro, cabs, or borrowed cars to travel to their programs, a costly and time-consuming process. “[CSJ] has been amazing at providing services,” Sanders said. “I can have 15 programs this semester because we have transportation, knowing the students can go back and be on time.”

Besides time and cost efficiency, having a reliable means of transportation meant that Grassroots could reach the areas of D.C. that most needed their efforts. Grassroots now

MATTHEW FUNK

has a combined five programs in Wards 7 and 8.

The need for Grassroots’ efforts in the D.C. community and the unique and effective approach it employs are only two of the reasons why the organization has experienced such incredible growth in such a short time. Stulgis credits Spencer’s initial and continued enthusiasm for the program’s success.

“Tyler has so much energy, and his experience in South Africa were really inspiring,” she said. “He was really effective at communicating his passion to the original athletes.”

This passion spread quickly, and as the original athletes returned from their programs with positive experiences, their teammates caught on. Word of mouth began to play an integral role in spreading the Grassroots message among Georgetown athletes.

Though only two years old, the program has already expanded past Georgetown. Similar groups have started at George Washington and Howard Universities, and plans are in place to set up programs at University of Maryland and American University. Spencer and Grassroot Hoyas oversaw the implementation of the program at other schools, but they are now completely independent.

Now, Grassroots is faced with having to control its growth to ensure the continued quality of the program.

“We are going to slow down a little bit to make sure it’s perfect,” Sanders said.

The plan to perfect the model involves refocusing the

program to establish stronger relationships with schools that share Grassroots passion and enthusiasm.

“We had to know that the ones we were expanding to were our good programs, where we know we’ll be effective, and growing not just to be growing,” Stulgis said.

This refocusing ensures that Grassroots’ growth is sustainable, and that the excitement for the program that spurred its initial growth continues. Ultimately, Spencer, Stulgis, and Sanders see Grassroots becoming a national phenomenon, spreading next to cities like Memphis, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, where the HIV/AIDS infection rate is also high. But their vision for the future of the program is even broader.

“I see myself doing this in the future and making it a global initiative, using athletes as role models and being able to reach the kids and telling them how to protect themselves,” Sanders said.

Participants say the program’s success ultimately depends on the fact that, while students are glad to make a difference in HIV/AIDS afflicted communities in D.C., they genuinely enjoy working with the kids.

“I think it’s taken off because when you go, you think it’s such a tragic topic, but when you go, you’re not drawn down, it’s about energy, and playing with the kids, and prevention,” Stuglis said. “And you realize what you’re doing could help prevent the kids from contracting HIV.”

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10 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2010

Activism finds a “voice” at Busboys & Poets

by Leigh Finnegan On Sunday night at the K Street Busboys and Poets restaurant, Chris Shaw, an eloquent, friendly-looking, middle-aged man, recalled one of the strangest compliments he had ever heard.

“He said to me, ‘You’re a homeless bum talking like Shakespeare, man.’”

In a sense, this praise that Shaw, a George Washington University grad school alumnus, received during his years as a homeless man in D.C. could summarize the entire open mic night. It was the first monthly installment of the 2011 Voices of a Movement series, which D.C.-based nonprofit One Common Unity is staging to spread awareness about pressing social problems. Each event, held on the third Sunday of every month, spotlights a different issue. Sunday’s event, which featured spoken-word, focused on Poverty and Homelessness. “[The series] came from a need to address all of these various social issues that people aren’t really talking about in a way that uses art,” said Rajeev

“HAWAH” Kasat, the executive director of One Common Unity and Sunday evening’s Emcee.

“We want people who are wellversed in the issues to come and share, poetically, musically, and also through their experiences of storytelling.”

Sunday’s speakers certainly were well-versed in the poverty issue. Among those who performed were multiple writers for Street Sense, a D.C. newspaper sold and largely written by the District’s homeless. Although he didn’t recite any poetry, homeless man turned congressional assistant and activist Joel Segal spoke powerfully about how widespread and pertinent the poverty problem in America is.

“The new normal in America is to have homelessness forever,” he declared to an attentive audience.

But as attentive and involved as Sunday’s crowd was, the 40-something person turnout was modest compared to the three events that Voices of a Movement held last year at the same location. Those events, staggered seasonally and focusing on 2010-specific issues like

health care and “the disaster of oil,” met with so much success that for the series’ sophomore year, One Common Unity decided that the events should be monthly.

“We probably had at least 120 people at each event,” Kasat said.

“We actually had to turn people away at the door.”

Last year’s events also included more variety in art form, with a full, live band performing at each show, and each night’s lineup stacked with activists and performers. This year, the series is embracing the “open mic” idea, allowing those in the audience to take the stage among special guests. This turned out to be a good move—on Sunday, the first performer pulled from the audience was a woman whose poem chronicled the povertystricken lives of herself and her family members. She proved one of the night’s most compelling speakers.

“We need to celebrate diverse voices,” Kasat said. “The openmic [setup is] a lot more community-oriented.”

To boost community involvement and bring in more unsolic-

world of iPads and e-books. But if you want a refresher course on just how far technology has come, you’re in luck—“Pixel Vision: The First Ten Years” opened in Georgetown’s Spagnuolo Gallery on Jan. 19.

The exhibit features standout pieces from students of the University’s digital art classes

over the past ten years. It represents a wide range of digital media techniques, including digital prints, interactive media, and digital video. But while the subjects and artistic aims of the exhibit’s pieces vary widely—they do encompass an entire decade’s worth of subject matter—the works are unified by a theme of technology, and the way it impacts and enhances the world of art.

The exhibit’s photographs and films are diverse and engaging. Alongside each piece there is an accompanying illustration, which tells the viewer how to manipulate digital media to create that type of art.

Some pieces are abstract, like Jonathan Gardener ’s (COL ’04) dreamy brick-scape, which visually renders a rigid, manufactured material malleable and organic. Some pay homage to other artists and movements, such as Olulomire Ogunye’s (COL ’10) Lichtenstein-esque Pop-Art double portrait, and Tara J. Choi’s (COL ’14) ex-

Street Sense

“Ted Williams who?” Meet the next great homeless poet—Babe Ruth. ited speakers, Voices of a Movement is looking towards taking publicity to a newer, higher-tech level. According to Kasat, One Common Unity is making efforts to get a live feed of the events streaming via their website, OneCommonUnity.org.

With the power of the year’s first event, combined with increased publicity and community outreach, the 2011 Voices of a Movement series seems likely to only gain momentum. Next

month’s event on Feb. 20—which will focus on the prison-industrial complex—will likely garner a larger audience and more speakers from outside organizations, but still maintain One Common Unity’s focus on art as a vehicle for change. “[We aim] to further the dialogue, and continue to have deep, artistic perspectives,” Kasat said.

“It’s [bringing] together art and music to form a really entertaining, educational platform.”

cellent spin on Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” in which the subjects—but not their clothes—are invisible.

Alongside the pieces whose artists obviously focused on using technology for aesthetic merit, many pieces convey clear social critiques. Maddy Donnelly’s (COL ’10) image of a man-as-wolf sitting at a bar, with his true human form reflected in the bar top, depicts an eerie, shady scene. A series of photographs of people with bags emblazoned with racial stereotypes over their heads by Jacqueline Anne Julio (COL ’10) bluntly, and a little jarringly, addresses racial stereotyping.

Another contingent of works portrays universal emotion. Claire Callagy’s (COL ’10) extreme-fish-eye photograph of an open road is a fairly typical theme, but produces an effective and familiar sense of vertigo, as the road becomes a balance beam under the photograph’s bare-footed subject.

While the themes behind

the pieces are fairly typical and sometimes a little simplistic, the focus of the exhibit is clearly on the application of digital media techniques to morph otherwise ordinary images into art. None of the works will shock or offend the viewer, but each expresses a unique, impressive vision through the use of digital photography or film.

“Pixel Vision: The First Ten Years” is, after all, about the first ten years of digital art at Georgetown. The medium itself has taken off as a preeminent vehicle for the best contemporary art, and it will only get more so in the future. We can only guess how high-tech the Spagnuolo Gallery will be when “The First Twenty Years” comes out.

“Pixel Vision”: A digital decade of Georgetown art

lez’hur ledger

by Claire Ferguson

Think about the computer your family had in 2000. Can’t remember it? That’s understandable. Technology has advanced so rapidly in the past 10 years that the digital world of turn-of-the-millenium seems completely foreign in today’s

Georgetown Department of Art and Art History

After failing to conquer Middle Earth, the Eye of Sauron turned to modeling.

“Pixel Art: The First Ten Years” will run at the Spagnuolo Gallery in the Walsh Building until April 9, 2011. Gallery Hours are Wednesday-Friday 12-7 p.m., Saturday 12-5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

georgetownvoice.com

Affleck, Jones in good Company

by Mary Borowiec September 18, 2008, starts out as normal as any other day for The Company Men’s three main characters. The hunky, 30-something breadwinner (Ben Affleck) arrives at the office in his silver Porsche, followed by his 60-year-old coworker (Chris Cooper), who has worked there for decades, and the company’s curmudgeonly old executive (Tommy Lee Jones) looks weary from the pressures of the markets falling around him.

But this day proves fateful for all three of them, who find out that day that they are the latest victims of corporate downsizing.

These aren’t your average Main Street Joes—they’re upper- crust, six-figure-salary earners who make liberal use of the corporate jet. As a consequence, the story that The Company Men tells, about the hardships these three men experience once they are laid off, makes for an unusual, but successful take on the lives of unemployed Americans.

Writer-director John Wells’s main challenge with The Company Men was to make his audience feel sympathetic for guys who belong to country clubs and shuttle their children around in luxury cars. But through the drastically different reactions that the charac-

ters have to their misfortune, particularly those of the main character, Affleck’s Bobby Walker, the movie poignantly captures raw human emotion. Although Walker’s initial refusal to acknowledge his family’s money problems is frustrating, when he takes up a construction job and finds an unlikely community among the jobless contingent of his town.he makes up for having allowed his pride to hinder his resilience.

The Company Men effectively captures moments of pure tragedy, like the suicide of one man who cannot cope with his joblessness, while still subtly giving us glimpses of hope, like Walker’s heartfelt reconnection with his family during his time out of

work. With this balance and range of emotion, The Company Men provides a striking, insightful commentary on the tolls of American corporate life.

While the film is no one’s idea of an uplifting Sunday matinee, it paints the kind of moving, dreary portrait of reality that many movies struggle to translate to the silver screen. Still, it is not Wells’ directing, or the stellar performances

by Affleck, Jones, and Cooper, that makes this a successful film. At its heart, the film is winning because its reality is disconcertingly similar to the one in which America is living. With the fear or reality of unemployment present for so many, it is a bit like watching Jaws on a sailboat: good, yes, but a little too close for comfort.

CONCERT CALENDAR THursday 1/27 Elijah Balbed Quintet Tribute to Freddie Hubbard Bohemian Caverns, 7 and 9 p.m., $15 Friday 1/28 Callers with Brainfang Jammin Java, 7 p.m., $13 saturday 1/29 Si*Se with Sun Wolf Black Cat, 9 p.m., $20 King Giant with The Crimson Electric, Throwdown Syndicate and Death Penalty The State Theater, 7 p.m., $12 sunday 1/30 Lissie with Dylan LeBlanc 9:30 Club, 8 p.m., $15 Monday 1/31 Joan of Arc with Pillars and Tongues Black Cat, 9 p.m., $12

imDB

Tuesday 2/1 Radio Dept. with Young Prisms Rock and Roll Hotel, 8 p.m., $14

Thursday 2/3 Downtown Basement with Rarely a Mellow Blue Red Palace, 8 p.m., $8 Friday 2/4 Tea Leaf Green with The Bridge 9:30 Club, 8 p.m., $17 saturday 12/5 The Great Unknown with Porch Pickers Brigade Iota Club and Café, 8:30 p.m., $12 Screaming Females with Coke Bust and Punch St. Stephen’s Church sunday 2/6 Chromeo with MNDR, The Suzans 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $25 monday 2/7 Tapes ‘n Tapes with Oberhofer, Xylos Rock and Roll Hotel, 7 p.m., $16 Deerhof with Chain and the Gang, 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $15 tuesday 2/8 Talib Kweli Black Cat, 8 p.m., $25

Such a good match, they’re reuniting for Men in Black III: Gettin’ Gigli Wit It.

No Oscar grouchiness

The Golden Globes, a catastrophic mess of erroneously categorized nominations, are finally over. And although the awards ended up in the right hands, the Hollywood Foreign Press has a long road to restoring its image. As if to counteract that embarrassment, the Academy released the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, and, proving that good taste still exists somewhere, left trash like The Tourist and Burlesque out of its pool.

Having nominated highly-respected actors and filmmakers, the Oscars have taken the conservative route but set the stage for a venerable ceremony.

With 10 nominations, True Grit, which was entirely snubbed by the Golden Globes, did the second-best at the nomination ceremony, trailing only criticfavorite and recent Producers Guild Awards Best Picture win-

the georgetown voice 11

“you been using dogshit for toothpaste, mullet? ”—Snatch

ner The King’s Speech, which garnered twelve. Was True Grit the second-best film of the year? No. But the nomination is backed by a strong cast and skillful filmmaking, and the nominations offer well-deserved redemption for the slighted film.

But even though it washed away the bitter taste of the Golden Globes, the Academy’s list is in no way perfect. Black Swan, a favorite among younger moviegoers and critics but panned by the older set, was shunned in several categories, including acting nods for Barbara Hershey’s psychotic mother and Vincent Cassel’s spot-on performance as a ballet director and certified creep. Danny Boyle and Christopher Nolan did not receive best directing nods, but recent trends in awards shows should leave Inception fans happy with the eight other nomi-

nations it received—the same number of nods the Academy gave awards-show frontrunner The Social Network.

And what would the Oscars be without some good ol’ movie studio politics? Putting Hailee Steinfeld in the running for Best Supporting Actress will raise a few brows—she had virtually equal screen time in True Grit as

fade to Black byJohn Sapunor

a bi-weekly column about film Jeff Bridges. But this was no random decision. True Grit’s studio, Paramount, pushed the Academy to nominate Steinfeld in the lower category to take this underdog out of competition with heavy hitters like Natalie Portman and Annette Bening.

Steinfeld is by no means a shoe-in, with the likes of Melissa Leo and Helena Bonham

Carter competing against her.

This is one of many categories where the winner is too close to call, but that doesn’t mean predictions are impossible. At this year’s other awards shows, best picture has been a toss-up between The King’s Speech and The Social Network, with The Social Network likely emerging in front for its clever script, fresh directing, and previous wins in this category. Natalie Portman’s all-in performance as a delirious ballerina faces its sole competition for Best Actress with Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right, but Portman has a definite edge, especially considering she has already earned five wins— including a Golden Globe—for the role. Christian Bale and Colin Firth have little to worry about in the respective Supporting Actor and Lead Actor categories, and David Fincher is a pretty safe bet for Best Director, despite the strength of the nomination pool.

While predicting some of this year’s winners may not be difficult, the question of who deserves to win is a subjective matter that is more fitting for post-Oscar night discussion.

This year’s nominees have truly earned their spots, and while the winners may include some surprises, the consistent caliber of talent in each category, including Best Picture, is high enough to leave very little room for outrage. That said, what fun would the Academy Awards be without a screaming match over why The Social Network does not come even slightly close to Black Swan? As long as there’s no Titanic sweep and Ricky Gervais isn’t hosting, Feb. 27 should be a memorable Oscar night, complete with genius billionaires, cowboys, and talking kings drowned out by music.

Show John your Golden Globes at jsapunor@georgetownvoice.com

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12 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2010

C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Fujiya & Miyagi, Ventriloquizzing, Full Time Hobby Fujiya & Miyagi’s latest release may challenge its audience with some pre-listening confusion—what do you expect from a band whose name was lifted from that of the martial arts master from The Karate Kid? Apparently, it sounds like a talented duo of British synth masters.

And with this week’s release of Ventriloquizzing, the group’s fourth studio release, Fujiya & Miyagi deliver a series of edgy electro compositions and artfully layered beats that would make even the staunchest of karate masters tap his foot.

Steve Lewis, the man behind Fujiya & Miyagi’s ominous beats and impressive electro work, absolutely shines on Ventroliquizzing. On “Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue,” a song apparently about abuse (or possibly

a decidedly unsubtle threat of abuse), Lewis lays a foundation with a menacing base track, then slowly builds the progression as the song continues, enhancing it with electronic work until in culminates in a computer-generated horn blast. Its use of such unusual techniques is one of the album’s strongest points, a sample of the innovation that electronic music has to offer.

Sadly, the superior construction of “Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue” falls victim to Ventriloquizzing’s most rampant problem—lead vocalist David Best’s uninspired lyrical style and content. Amounting to little more than mumbling on most tracks, Best’s vocals are the antithesis of Lewis’s dynamic instrumentals. Several songs on the album, most notably “Universe,” “Cat Got Your Tongue,” and “Yoyo,” are half-witted personal attacks, frequently addressing the unknown subject with tired platitudes such as “you’re not the center of the universe,” and “you go up and down like a yoyo.”

Taking in Lewis’s awesome instrumental work with Best’s half-hearted attempts at singing is like opening a bottle of 30-year-old wine to complement a McDonald’s dollar-menu cheeseburger—the staleness of one ultimately detracts from the

As long as it’s not in a box

This past December, I resolved to graduate to big-girl wine. I was growing tired of buying bland, acrid magnums of Little Penguin and Barefoot, and with Safeway just four blocks away and stocked with hundreds of wines at decent prices, there was simply no excuse not to upgrade.

This posed just one problem—the Georgetown Safeway sells hundreds of wines. The three solid rows of bottles are foreboding and seemingly without an entry point. So I met with Leonore Moog, the wine steward at the Georgetown Safeway, and asked her to introduce me to the art of buying wine. For the sake of ease, we stuck to American reds.

I came away relieved—it turns out you can get a good wine for

under $15, and there are plenty of reliable approaches to buying off of Safeway’s wall o’ wine. Below, I’ve distilled some of her advice.

Accept that buying wine is gambling. After swearing off bulk-grape magnums, I based my first few wine purchases on the look of the label. Toasted Head has a picture of a bear breathing fire on it? Sold. It felt very amateur, but Moog said that wine snobs pick their bottles this way too—although most would never admit it. The bottom line is, when you buy new wine, you run the risk of being disappointed. You can improve your odds, but don’t get discouraged if you blow a few bucks on something awful.

Read the label. Before Moog showed me the error of my ways, I had always written off wine la-

greatness of the other. Sometimes less is more, and this is especially true for Ventriloquizzing. The album would have significantly benefitted from some purely instrumental tracks. But even with these flaws, the album is still worth a play—as long as you try to focus on Lewis’s beats and melodies.

Voice’s Choices: “Airborne Aquarium,” “Montreux,” “Famous” —Samuel Harman

Cold War Kids, Mine and Yours, Downtown Records The second track on Mine Is Yours, the latest album from Cold War Kids, is entitled “Louder Than Ever.” That could be the mission statement for the whole album, whose anthemic songs are filled with sweeping riffs demanding to be played at full bels as self-promotional balderdash. And to some extent, they are. “They’re all ‘big and bold,’ they’re all smooth,” Moog said, “but they can still tell you things.”

Find out where the grapes come from—a smaller region pretty consistently indicates a better buy. A wine from Rutherford,

amuse-Bouche

by Molly Redden

a bi-weekly column about food and drink Napa Valley will be better than a wine from Napa Valley, California, which will be better than a wine that comes from California, USA. Many wine labels will also boast about the foods they pair well with—which is a savvy sales mechanism, but helpful.

Prices can send signals about quality. Buying wine is

volume. However, lest they grow stale, Cold War Kids intersperse their louder songs with pockets of calm melody. By manipulating frontman Nathan Willett’s impressive tenor vocals and often stripping the music down to just one or two instruments, Mine is Yours beautifully displays the band’s obvious talent for songwriting and cohesion.

The band returned to their roots to write Mine Is Yours, moving to Whittier, California, to record their first demos in 2004. In addition to fueling their emotion-driven lyrics and the record’s overall ethos of comfort and familiarity, the hometown atmosphere is clear in the album’s subject matter. “Sensitive Kid” chronicles the story of an isolated child with a lonely home life and is driven by a pulsing back beat and faint yells throughout the song. Video game sounds creep their way into the instrumentation, reinforcing the childhood atmosphere while adding depth to the sound. In keeping with the album’s exploration of growing up, in “Louder Than Ever,” Willett uses an innocuous childhood board game—“that mousetrap game”—to create an unusual image of an uphill battle with a loved one. The universality of this childhood memory makes it keenly relatable. not like buying a handbag, in that American vintners don’t usually tack on extra bucks for the label.

A $12 bottle of Robert Mondavi will typically taste better than a no-name $8 bottle. Moog added that, like most consumer products, it is almost always a bad idea to buy the cheapest wine you see. At the same time, old wineries often produce superb wine for less because they own their land, and, conversely, it’s possible to buy shitty wine for $40. So don’t take prices to be the last word on good wine.

Know what you like, and tell the wine staff. The wine room employees at Safeway, or any supermarket, are not just there to debate which Chateau Mouton vintage was the best with their fellow oenophiles. They can recommend an $8 bottle just as well as they can recommend a $200

Although they are frequently called an indie band, for this record, Cold War Kids run with the funk influence that we’ve heard hints of on their previous albums.

“Royal Blue” has a bluesy sound reminiscent of Hendrix and introduces retro riffs and drop beats that they experiment with later.

Willett’s voice showcases his ability to encapsulate the soulful wails of a heart in pain, but at times he almost gives too much.

Hearing echoes after almost every lyric on “Royal Blue” gets a little tedious. But the band’s tight, in-sync style salvages the song and keeps Willett’s wailing in check.

The album livens up again with its closer, “Flying Upside Down,” a feel- good story about young love. The tug of war between youthful hearts, coupled with larger-than-life synths reminiscent of Journey, leaves your ears wanting to picture the story again and again. With synesthesia like that, Cold War Kids presents an addicting collection that makes even the most independent college student want to go home.

Voice’s Choices: “Louder Than Ever,” “Royal Blue,” “Sensitive Kid” —Amanda Wynter

bottle. Moog’s colleague, Jody Jackman of Winebow Imports, brags that she can suggest wines to pair with frozen pizza or takeout. Of course, not every grocery or liquor store has a Moog. But you can compensate by getting familiar with a region or label that you like—in short, have favorites.

So there you have it. You don’t need to learn wine culture’s secret codewords to buy a good bottle.

Moog recommended a few, college-wallet-friendly wines, like Avalon’s 2007 cabernet ($12.59) Hayman & Hill’s 2008 cab, and Columbia Crest Grand Estates (starting at $9.09). The good news is, if you buy a flop, the best thing to do is just keep drinking.

Show Molly that you’re the whole package: big, bold, and smooth at mredden@georgetownvoice.com

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An Open Letter to John DeGioia, Todd Olson, James O’ Donnell, Alan Brangman, Linda Greenan, the Georgetown University administration, the Georgetown University student body, and the freshman who vomited in our alley last Friday After almost two years of negotiations with the Georgetown Association of Georgetown, University administrators have entirely ignored the plight of their besieged neighbors, as evidenced at last Thursday’s ANC meeting, when the University persisted in its obstinate refusal to build more undergraduate housing on its traditional campus.

GAG represents all the residents of West Georgetown, East Georgetown and Burleith. As the executive board of GAG, we speak for all neighbors when we say: we are shocked and appalled by the way Georgetown students have been taking over our neighborhood for the past four decades.

They throw loud raucous parties all hours of the day and night, all week long. The houses they rent are old and decaying, which drives down the property value of our historic family homes.

Mandatory Study Abroad in Doha Tour guides brag that 57 percent of Georgetown students study abroad. Frankly, this number is unacceptable. Georgetown should aim to send 100 percent of its students abroad, preferably for three or more years at a time. Space at Georgetown’s Doha, Qatar campus is probably similarly underused. Why not ship the drunkards there?

Satellite Campus in Arlington A satellite campus in Arlington would offer students total freedom from Georgetown’s space constraints. There, the University could build high-density apartments, a student union and a 1,000 foot smokestack if they want—all in a place where it won’t lower our property values.

Sometimes students sit out on their patios drinking and yelling until midnight—or until MPD finally comes to issue them 61-Ds. The situation has become unbearable, and we very well may move!

University officials claim they simply don’ t have the space to house the thousands of out-ofcontrol rug rats they call “undergraduates.” But if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. So yesterday on our way back from Yates, we took a stroll through campus and looked for spaces ourselves. One architectural firm had pointed out several reasonable locations for new undergraduate housing: the hill behind Darnall Hall, the tennis field north of Kehoe Field, on top of Village C, the McDonough parking lot, and Harbin Patio. But this uncreative group also failed to notice the most blatantly obvious locations. Below are our findings:

Unused Green Space Right next to the ICC, there is ample green space that would be an ideal spot for an additional dorm. There’ s only a ghost of a chance that the University will even consider this location, since it may need permission from the Old Georgetown Board to remove the old stones currently occupying the lot. But it seems to be the dead-obvious choice.

Cloud City Films have taught us that college football players are among the most disruptive students on any campus, and Georgetown is no different. Furthermore, they consistently post a losing record. Why not convert their football field into a helicopter/zeppelin landing area, and use the University’ s billion-dollar endowment to build floating aerial housing. This “cloud city” would provide ample space for student housing without disturbing the historic skyline.

Jesuit Housing Roommate Matching System (JHARMS) The Jesuits on campus are shining examples of the kinds of residents this neighborhood deserves. We could mitigate both the overcrowding and disorderly student behavior by placing students in rooms with Jesuits. The Jesuits could discipline unruly students, teaching them moral character and silent prayer. In return, the students could help the Jesuits to develop patience and inner strength.

The Tunnels So the University simply refuses to build up. Has it even considered building down? There is an existing series of tunnels underneath Georgetown that serves no purpose except as a storage closet for the University rock-climbing club. This could easily be expanded into subterranean housing for students, who will have no trouble assimilating with the tribes of mole-men currently residing there— they do share a nocturnal lifestyle.

Stand with us, our neighbors. Together, we will withstand the tyranny of Georgetown University. They will not displace us from our homes. They think in centuries—but we think in millenniums. And stand with us, our temporary student neighbors. As you can see, this modest set of proposals best serve your interests as well. You’ ll be well-acquainted with the University’ s history, heritage, and core values. And you won’t be inconvenienced by landlords and stovetops and “ independence.”

John DeGioia, in 10 days time, we expect to see that you have altered the 2010 Campus Plan to our specifications. Assuming you do, we will reward you by not suing you for “adversely affecting” our idyllic little community.

Best, GAG

voices

14 the georgetown voice

january 27, 2011

It’s all relative: Finding family in a Finnish playboy

by Kristiina Liuksila When I was a young child, my older sister had a necklace with a bird on it that had been a gift from my father’s cousin.

It was a small ceramic bird that whistled when you blew into its mouth. Throughout my childhood, this bird symbolized the mystery of my father’s rarely mentioned cousin. His name was Raimo, and he lived in the city of Turku, Finland making these bird-whistles that we saw in every crafts store during our summers in Scandinavia. Growing up, I would learn more and more about this man and his bizarre ways, which made me ashamed to be in his family.

Early on, my dad revealed that Raimo was a traditional Finnish craftsman by occupation. He made bird whistles and woodcrafts and sold them in open-air markets. Quirky, but not too weird—at least not when compared to his other pastime. Apparently Raimo

snagged many a Finnish hottie in his lifetime. He married two different Miss Finland winners, and, according to my father, he “kicked them to the curb because they were too in love with him.”

Those handicrafts sure get ‘em every time.

Adding to my knowledge of the many faces of Raimo, my mom explained that once when she and my sister were visiting Seurasaari, a nature preserve outside Helsinki, they stumbled upon a traditional crafts fair where merchants dressed in old-timey Finnish artisan garb. Raimo was there selling bird whistles to eager Finns who couldn’t get enough of his avian talents. After talking to him briefly in broken Finnish, my mom discovered that he was essentially the godfather of the traditional crafts circuit in southern Finland, and that he went to every fair, spreading the Liuksila name and attaching it to every craft item he could get his hands on. From an American

standpoint, this was equivalent to bumping into one of your relatives in colonial Williamsburg and learning that he wears a bonnet and a monocle to work every day before returning to his log cabin to make homemade paper by gaslight.

I finally met Raimo when I was 14 years old. Until then he had never been a real person to me, just someone to joke about with family. Right before the meeting, I sat in our Turku hotel room as shame came over me.

How could I be related to this crazy man with so many wives?

My greatest fear was that the Liuksila crafts gene would suddenly become dominant and I would turn into a Finnish artisan, whittling crafts and wearing handmade twill pants just like Raimo.

We were to meet at Raimo’s house, so I was perplexed when my father led us inside an old wooden barge in the Turku harbor. Realization swept over me. This was Raimo’s house.

A barge. That sold woodcrafts.

When I entered his house, I actually had to wait in line behind paying customers before I could finally get to the artisan himself.

When we reached the front of the line, I discovered that Raimo didn’t speak a word of English.

So I just smiled at this jolly, fat Finnish man in a linen shirt and work pants who was holding a wooden replica of a Viking ship.

Not knowing what to do, Raimo pointed out his “apprentice,” a small brunette Finnish woman (not a Miss Finland) who never said she was his wife but didn’t deny it either when my father, who translated for us, asked.

Needless to say, it was just weird all around, and I was embarrassed that there were customers lining up behind us. So we left, and that was all I ever saw of the man, the legend, Raimo Liuksila.

Raimo is indeed an odd relative to have. However, there’s a lot to be learned from his Finntastic life. That a pudgy, unattractive, barge-living, arts and crafts enthusiast could seduce

not one but two Miss Finlands (among many other women) shows that he’s really just a gogetter with a penchant for dressup. He’s also someone who has spent his life doing what he loves, and doing it better than anyone else. Standing in that barge in Turku, it felt like I was in the Scandinavian crafts holy land, waiting my turn to meet the high priest. People certainly loved his work. Raimo represents the characters I associate with my Finnish heritage: gogetters and free spirits. He lets me know that it’s ok to be a birdwhistle maker. But that I should never turn my back on the things I love, even if it means wearing folk costumes in public and crafting tiny birds that whistle from every orifice.

Kristiina Liuksila is a junior in the College. Her uncle uses the bird whistles he makes to play “I’m on a boat.”

Obamacare is not sufficient for frustrated future physician

by Scott Fligor For the last two years, Democrats and Republicans have drawn battle lines over health care reform.

As a pre-med student, I look with dismay upon this current mess, but Tuesday’s State of the Union address offered an encouraging sign when Presdient Barack Obama indicated his willingness to consider the Republicans’ suggestion of medical malpractice reform.

The medical profession is bombarded continuously with malpractice lawsuits, decreasing compensation, and less job satisfaction.

A recent Physician’s Foundation survey sent to the nation’s 300,000 medical doctors produced some distressing statistics about our country’s caregivers. Seventy-eight percent of physicians said medicine is either “no longer rewarding” or

“less rewarding”, and 42 percent of physicians described the morale of their colleagues as “poor” or “very low.” Even more disturbing, 60 percent of physicians would not recommend medicine as a career, not an encouraging sign for the profession that I wish to enter.

While Obama’s pledge to reform medical malpractice lawsuits is a step in the right direction to control medical expenditures, we need to realize that there are real costs in reshaping how Americans are covered. As Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Clearly, we cannot cover an additional 50 million people and cut down the deficit at the same time. Democrats cite a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office which claims that over 10 years Obamacare will reduce the deficit by $230 billion. However,

FLICKR.COM

Wait until debate ends before matriculating at medical school.

the CBO can only work with the data and assumptions given to it

by Congress. Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin estimated that health care reform will really add $562 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, and he said that deceitful accounting tricks, such as excluding implementation costs in the analysis as well as assuming unrealistic cuts in Medicare, led to the faulty CBO report.

Universal coverage will cost money, and not all of the costs can be taken on by the wealthy as Obama has promised. Obamacare requires insurers to pay for 75 “preventative” procedures at no additional cost to the consumer. Mandating additional coverage in every plan will unavoidably raise costs.

Furthermore, many insurers will withdraw from the market if some parts of Obamacare are implemented. In fact, many already have.

Companies such as Wellpoint and Humana have withdrawn from the child insurance market because they cannot remain profitable once Obamacare takes effect.

So what should be done? First and foremost, Congress should address tort reform. If a doctor follows accepted standards of care, then he should be protected from claims of malpractice, with a definite cap on liability. Malpractice reform will allow doctors to only perform necessary procedures. A 1996 study by economists Daniel P. Kessler and Mark McClellan found

that malpractice reform reduces health care costs by 5 to 9 percent in patients with severe heart disease.

However, President Obama does not advocate liability caps for malpractice suits.

Second, it has been proven time and again that the free market represents the best way to keep down costs. In many states, only a handful of insurers offer coverage. Consumers need the option to buy insurance across state lines.

Currently, insurers can only sell in states in which they are licensed; each state regulates insurance companies’ policies for that state.

By transitioning regulation to the federal government and allowing health care plans to be sold nationally, costs can be decreased and consumers will have more inexpensive choices.

Thirdly, our country faces a serious and growing physician shortage, mainly in primary care.

Obamacare started to address this issue by raising Medicare reimbursements for primary care physicians. However, even more can be done to help address this problem.

Many students pass up primary care due to outstanding student loans and the relatively low pay that comes with the profession.

Payscale.com places the median salary for a family physician at $134,251 per year. However, starting salaries are below that number, and medical school tuition costs approximately $70,000 each

year (Georgetown’s medical school costs between $71,425 and $77,000, depending on one’s year). Primary care is just not an attractive specialty.

Possible ways to address this shortage include federal tuition reimbursement for committing to primary care, tax breaks for primary care physicians, and shifting the current compensation system to reward preventative care and regular care by primary care physicians.

Obamacare begins to address some of the problems our country faces in health care, but it is far from perfect. Congress cannot avoid dealing with medical malpractice liability reform or the continuing physician shortage. While we need to help the vast numbers uninsured people, we also have to accept the costs that come with such coverage and stop hiding behind flawed accounting to blur the true costs. With the new Congress in session, both parties have the chance to start over on this issue and impart meaningful, lasting reform that will provide each citizen the coverage they deserve.

Scott Fligor is a freshman in the College.

Trust him, he may or may not become a primary care physician.

voices

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the georgetown voice

15

The Golden Globes reveal the golden era of television

by Jeffrey Sutton As I settled in to watch the 68th Golden Globes two Sundays ago— I was one of dozens who did so—I couldn’t help but notice an unusual occurrence. No, it wasn’t host Ricky Gervais’ scathing monologue, in which he told Johnny Depp that the trend of three-dimensions in movies applied to everything except the

characters in The Tourist. Nor was it Robert De Niro’s awkward acceptance of a lifetime achievement award, which featured off-the-cuff immigration jokes and heavy silence from a crowd that is usually prone to courtesy laughs.

Instead, it was something that happens every year. As everyone at the ceremony gave the standard interviews and acceptance speeches

IMDB.COM

Drinking, smoking, meth, and gambling have become part of great TV.

Need for freedom of Twitter?

Once something is on the Internet, it’s there forever. From awkward pictures to secret government communiqués, the Internet has revolutionized the spread of information. Two summers ago, the Internet transformed the death of a young Iranian woman named Neda into “probably the most widely witnessed death in human history,” according to Time.

Thanks to Twitter and YouTube, the unintentional martyr became a global symbol for the growing opposition to the oppressive Iranian regime. A mere decade ago, the death of a civilian in the chaotic streets of Tehran would have quickly become a statistic. Today, a photo shot on a cheap cell phone can crisscross the world in a matter of seconds, tweeted and re-tweeted across every national, lingual, and cultural boundary.

When popular riots in Tunisia successfully unseated an Arab dictator for the first time in modern history earlier this month, the

world was once again reminded of the integral role that social media like Facebook and Twitter play in our world. News of the monthlong riots raced around the world while American mainstream media largely ignored the development of the popular uprising. Besides simply informing the world about the historic events, social media offers a freer realm of expression for a Tunisian opposition that continues to clamor for democratic government.

The Tunisian uprising has sparked a wave of unrest across the Middle East. This week, Egypt witnessed the largest anti-government protests since President Hosni Mubarak assumed control three decades ago. The massive protest was largely organized via Facebook. The influence of social media has never appeared greater.

Unfortunately, the American government has not respected the democratic power that social media can wield. In post-9/11 Amer-

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(“It’s an honor just to be here, all the other nominees are so talented”), it appeared that television actors and producers actually meant it.

Maybe more incredibly, I found myself believing them.

In today’s gifted TV industry, just being nominated for these awards has to be a thrill— so many shows are simply too good, and choosing a winner in loaded categories has become less a matter of actual ability and more a choice based on personal preference.

Take the Globes’ Best Performance in a TV Drama category, which has gone to five different actors in the past five years. It’s impossible to say whether Jon Hamm plays Don Draper’s inner anguish better than Bryan Cranston plays Walter White, or if Michael C. Hall’s Dexter is a better creation than Hugh Laurie’s Gregory House. And, none of these actors actually won—the award went to Steve Buscemi for his work in Boardwalk Empire.

Any year in which Hamm, Cranston, Hall, and Laurie all lose out is remarkable. But imagine the problem voters face: it’s like going to Leo’s on a Thursday afternoon and having to choose between ica, the leaders of both political parties have not shied away from restricting civil rights in the name of national security. Although liberals point to the excesses of the previous administration, Obama’s has not been fundamentally different on this question. The most recent example is the government’s efforts to silence Wikileaks and its supporters on Twitter. The Obama administration has subpoenaed Twitter’s records in a developing attempt to prosecute Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks,

Carrying On

by Jackson Perry A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

in an American court. If the US is serious about promoting democracy, it must defend, not assail, the freedom of social media.

For Georgetown students, the probe into Wikileaks and its supporters on Twitter has a potential impact on their future employment. Tweeting Hoyas, many of whom are considering a career in government service, face the dilemma of reacting to the biggest story in international relations by either commenting on it and risking their future or censoring themselves online.

In an email last month to students of the School of International

chicken fingers and … well, four other imaginary foods that are really good.

OK, so that’s not the best analogy. Yet it’s a great problem for TV, as premium networks like HBO and Showtime have challenged the traditional way of doing things.

No longer are ratings paramount.

Instead, it’s all about gaining a fervent audience, whether it happens to be small or large, and winning critical acclaim.

This means allowing writers and producers to create a show exactly as they see fit—no forcing in awkward-but-famous guest stars, no ridiculous plot lines for sweeps week. All this leads to better, deeper shows, with perhaps the greatest caveat being a bigger selection for viewers.

This new landscape has finally flipped the trend for actors also. No longer are they only interested in doing TV until they’re famous enough to make movies.

Instead, many have gone the other way—Buscemi appeared in countless movies before crossing over to HBO. Alec Baldwin, the star of NBC’s 30 Rock, followed a similar path. and Public Affairs at Columbia University, the school’s Office of Career Services forwarded a revealing warning from a SIPA graduate who worked for the State Department. The email advised students to refrain from making comments about Wikileaks “on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.” Although the State Department cautioned that this was not official policy, the message from the government has still been clear: silence is smarter.

The dean of SIPA eventually released a statement in strong support of students’ “right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena…without fear of adverse consequences.” Carol Lancaster, the Dean of the SFS, adopted a more pragmatic approach in a statement last month: “Our advice to students… has always been that whatever they blog about or post to Facebook could be accessible publicly and available permanently. We do think this is a learning moment; students should certainly be keeping up with news reports on the issue and thinking about what the implications are for diplomacy going forward.” This is certainly a learning moment, for the tendency of the powers that

Television allows actors like Baldwin and Buscemi to develop their characters with more nuance over a series than they would be able to do so in a two -hour movie, showcasing their talent in ways they never have before.

The cinema has long been considered the primary venue for Hollywood’s most talented actors. With the advent of reality TV, especially, the disparity in respect between TV and movies has grown. Many consider TV the venue for the likes of Snooki and Kim Kardashian. To many, genuine talent should stay far away from the venue that glorfied “The Situation” and Paris Hilton.

The Golden Globes have proven that the stigma of TV as work for lesser actors no longer exists, and this, coupled with networks’ newfound interest in quality, can mean only one thing: many more years of complaining about the Golden Globes.

Jeffrey Sutton is a junior in the MSB. He loves the excessive drinking in Mad Men because it reminds him of the Jersey Shore. be, whether they are universities or governments, to encourage silence instead of discussion about potentially embarrassing matters has been made obvious. According to the SFS, students should be “keeping up with” and “thinking about” the leaks, but discussion and debate is perhaps inadvisable.

Though there is little doubt that efforts to constrain expression on the Internet will continue, the state is ultimately fighting a losing battle. The Internet, has accelerated the speed of innovation worldwide. There are intelligent dissenters who believe that the Internet has assisted authoritarian regimes by facilitating propaganda and surveillance. That theory was shaken in Iran in 2009, and was just knocked out in Tunisia.

Tunisia’s police state, named by Hillary Clinton as one of the two most egregious Internet censors in the world (along with China), was wholly unable to quell this uprising. The power of the Internet to inform and inspire people dwarfs the ability of authoritarian governments to contain it. Despite state efforts to the contrary, the Internet will always be what we make of it.

Jackson Perry is a junior in the SFS. If you like his article enough to lose your job, feel free to retweet it.

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