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HOYA COURT TO OPEN NEXT WEEK PAGE 4

FOOTBALL CAN’T STOP A NOSEBLEED PAGE 6

NOMADIC DAZZLES WITH STOPPARD INTERPRETATION PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w October 24, 2013 w Volume 49, Issue 11 w georgetownvoice.com

“there is no place for us to play and no one really knows about us”

How GU Jam Sesh IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY for Georgetown’s burgeoning music scene

by jeffrey lin

2 the georgetown voice

october 24, 2013

Jeffrey Lin would like to dedicate this week’s issue, especially the feature, to his mom and dad for teaching him how to play on no matter what and his grandma, who is making her own music in a better place.

Voice oice Crossword “Do Not Pass Go” by Cal Lee

ACROSS 1 Group activities (abbr.)

5 Stockholm-Tallinn separator 11 Faux __ 14 “Cat on a__ Tin Roof” 15 From way back when

16 General ending?

17 Mosquito guards 18 Still staying out of debt 19 H, to Homer 20 Cartoon canine family 21 Bazaar floor purchase?

23 Part of speech (abbr.)

BLOG.GEORGETOWNVOICE.COM 24 WWII leader 25 32-card card game 26 Mauna __, Hawaii 27 Despondent “For real?”

30 They’re waved at the Olympics 31 Albus Dumbledore’s mysterious sister 33 George who redefined “Force” 35 Sharp bay 36 Like 39-down, get-rich game, but requiring more luck 38 Actress Thompson or Watson 42 Answer man’s challenge 44 George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Philip Sousa 46 “All I gotta do __ naturally,” Beatles lyrics 49 Familiar patriarch 51 Izod Center performer 52 “Too ___ a good thing” 54 Him, to Henri 55 Shakespearean lament 56 A rarity in the Georgetown area 59 __ favor 60 DE blockers 61 Act opener

62 Literature Nobelist Morrison 63 It runs in the Seine 64 Akon’s “__ Matter” 65 Many young New Haven residents 66 Food pkg. abbr.

67 Slang for foot 68 Painter Anthony Van __ DOWN 1 Second largest city in its country after Rangoon 2 President who served between two Williams 3 Consequence of a convicted felony 4 M & Wall (abbr.)

5 Cover of a song by The Drifters?

6 Pronounce true 7 Singer-songwriter Lovett or baseball player Overbay 8 Saturday morning show 9 Steaming 10 Intelligent order?

11 Mathematician de Fermat 12 Not born yesterday 13 Exhibits a show 21 “In the case __ emergency” 22 Moments of poor judgement

28 Fiddle with 29 Piece of trail mix 32 Geronimo’s tribe 34 United group 37 Surprise in a SMS 39 Theme connecting 5-, 56 across and 3-, 5-, 34-down.

40 Memory device 41 Record marker?

43 Cuts the nonsense 45 “Don’t be __! Let someone else have the last piece.”

46 Declaration one may make in 39-down after seeing double 47 Costly custom?

48 Pocket rockets 50 “Independence Day” enemy 53 De __ (actual) 57 Try again 58 Wedding day tie?

62 Broadcast journalist Koppel

get wordy. help us write crosswords. e-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 49.11 October 24, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Gavin Bade Managing Editor: Connor Jones Blog Editor: Julia Tanaka News Editor: Lucia He Sports Editor: Chris Almeida Feature Editor: Patricia Cipollitti Cover Editor: Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Leisure Editor: Heather Regen Voices Editor: Ana Smith Photo Editor: Andres Rengifo Design Editors: Lauren Ashley Panawa, Teddy Schaffer Projects Editors: Alec Graham, John Sapunor, Cannon Warren Puzzles Editor: Tyler Pierce Creative Directors: Madhuri Vairapandi, Amanda Dominguez Back Page Editor: Tiffany Lachonna Social Media Editor: Rio Djiwandana

Assistant Blog Editors: Minali Aggarwal, Isabel Echarte, Ryan Greene, Laura Kurek Assistant News Editors: Jeffrey Lin, Claire Zeng Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Castano, Brendan Crowley, Joe Pollicino Assistant Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Assistant Leisure Editors: Rianna Folds, Dayana Morales Gomez, Joshua Ward Assistant Photo Editors: Kathryn Easop, Joshua Raftis Assistant Design Editor: John Delgado-McCollum

Staff Writers:

Tim Barnicle, Sourabh Bhat, Max Borowitz, Emilia Brahm, Grace Brennan, Emmy Buck, Shalina Chatlani, Will Collins, Emlyn Crenshaw, Steven Criss, Lara Fishbane, Mary-Bailey Frank, Abby Greene, John Guzzetta, Kevin Huggard, Kenneth Lee, Julia Lloyd-George, Claire McDaniel, Liana Mehring, Dan Paradis, Max Roberts, Abby Sherburne, Jackson Sinnenberg, Deborah Sparks, Manuela Tobias, Daniel Varghese, Chris Wadibia, Dzarif Wan, Joshua Ward, Annamarie White, Sam Wolter

Staff Photographers:

Elizabeth Coscia, Robin Go, Alan Liu, Ambika Ahuja, Gavin Meyers, Annie Wang, Muriel van de Bilt, Katherine Landau, Annie Wang

Staff Designers:

Karen Bu, Mike Pacheco, Tom Pacheco, Sebastian Sotelo, Christina Libre, Sophia Super, Pam Shu, Corrina Di Pirro, Katarina Chen, Dylan Cutler, Noah Buyon

Copy Chief: Sonia Okolie Copy Editors:

Grace Funsten, Caitlin Healey-Nash, Morgan Johansen, Sabrina Kayser, Samantha Meaden, Dana Suekoff, Isobel Taylor, Suzanne Trivette , Eleanor Fanto

YOU’RE A MEAN GIRL, CADY

GU Confessions death threats cross the line

Two death threats appeared on the Georgetown Confessions Facebook page on Oct. 5.

The page, which has over 2,600 likes, serves as a forum for anonymous “confessions” posted for public viewership, has become notorious for its hateful and bigoted content. Following the launch of a police investigation into the threats two weeks ago, Georgetown Confessions ceased its operations and has not posted new content in over two weeks.

Georgetown Confessions provides an anonymous way to comment on the Georgetown community, free of social pressures that may otherwise inhibit commentary. However, in light of these threats, the page needs to adjust its operating principles and revise its anonymity policy so that the page’s administrators can consistently monitor their posts and hold contributors accountable for their submissions.

Georgetown Confessions must adhere to a set of standards for the content it makes public.

Gavin Bade, Patricia Cipollitti, Lucia He, Quaila Hugh, Connor Jones, Julia Tanaka, Ryan Greene, Lara Fishbane, Ian Philbrick, Juan Daniel Gonçalves, Emilia Brahm, Ryan Shymansky, Jeffery Lin

General Manager: Michael Grasso Managing Director: Nick Albanese 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 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

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 Gannett Publishing. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover: GU Jam Sesh Cover Photo: Joshua Raftis

According to the page’s administrators, personal attacks often “make it to post” on the page as a result of high post volumes, oversight, and human error. The attitude where excuses such as: “it can be awfully difficult to identify and filter each and every inappropriate/harmful confession,” are acceptable creates concerns for student safety and cannot continue.

Although the “confessions” on the page come from individual contributors, executives of the page still bear the responsibility of being aware of the content of the posts they publish.

They must review each individual post to ensure it meets the standards set in the “About” section of the Facebook page, which states that confessions releasing “names and sensitive information that would jeopardize any person, organization, or department” should not appear on the page.

The allure of Georgetown Confessions undoubtedly lies in its anonymity, yet these death threats prove that complete anonym-

ity is not a responsible option. In the police investigation of the threats, the Georgetown University Police Department could not verify the identity of the authors of the death threats because the page’s current submission system does not allow page administrators to view the identities of individual contributors.

If Georgetown Confessions is to remain a medium for public expression at Georgetown, it cannot continue to rely on the Google form to catch violations of the page’s “About” section.

They must seek an alternate system that records names so violations of the page’s policy, including personal threats, can be properly investigated and addressed. Forums for public dialogue about controversial topics such as race and gender play an important role for the Georgetown community, but this dialogue only benefits the community when it occurs in a responsible manner that doesn’t threaten the safety of others.

BAH, HUMBUG!

Grab-n-Give cheats students and homeless

The student group G.I.V.E.S., an organization committed to assisting marginalized populations, teamed up with H.O.P.E., a student group that seeks to provide food to D.C.’s homeless population, and Aramark this week to increase advertising of Graband-Give, a program that allows students to donate their leftover meal swipes to Martha’s Table, a local soup kitchen.

The program’s introduction in 2007 was greeted with substantial public support, but in the past years, student awareness of the initiative has dwindled, a trend that can be credited to Aramark’s failure to advertise the program and present students with clear information about its benefits.

While the underlying principles of Grab-and-Give are admirable, the reality of the program is less than ideal. Students are only allowed to donate their extra swipes once a week on Fridays.

Editorial Board Chair: Caitriona Pagni Editorial Board:

the georgetown voice 3

Additionally, when students donate a swipe, Aramark does not donate the full value of the swipe, which ranges from $10 to $12. Each donation only contributes the “equivalent” of a meal in a soup kitchen.

This amount translates to $2-3, about $7 short of what students pay every time they eat at Leo’s.

Meals donated to Grab-and-Give should be equal to the dollar value of the donation, not a meal “equivalent.” The program in its present form is unfair not only to the students who donate their meals, but also to those who could have benefited from them.

A study released by UC San Francisco last May found that meals served in soup kitchens contain high-fat contents and low amounts of fiber and essential vitamins.

Allocating $2-3 per meal simply does not allow soup kitchens to provide impoverished people with the nutrition they need.

Despite its problems, Grab-n-Give’s new partnership with G.I.V.E.S may prove beneficial in increasing the program’s effectiveness and student awareness of the program. The current lack of clear public information only hinders the value and success of the program.

Increased publicity from G.I.V.E.S will at the very least increase the number of student donations. Ideally, this advertising would also inform students about the actual benefits of the program.

Aramark has so far been unresponsive to H.O.P.E.’s efforts to enhance the program’s benefits. H.O.P.E., with the added efforts of G.I.V.E.S, needs to continue to press Aramark to increase the volume and quality of advertising of Grab-n-Give.

Students cannot back down to Aramark’s obstinance because, if history tells us anything, it is that student advocacy will be the driving force in improving Grab-n-Give.

FLYING UNDER THE RADAR

Johnson perilous choice for Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, formerly the Department of Defense’s top lawyer, accepted President Obama’s nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security last Friday.

In an address made at Oxford last November, Johnson looked to a future end to the 12-year long war on terror. Despite remaining vague, his tone instilled a sense of hope that the country will be able to move past the conflict that has burdened foreign and domestic policy for over a decade. However, his defense of the military’s use of drones in the past and his continued support of torturing terror suspects are worrying indicators of the policies he will implement in his new role.

In spite of civilian casualties and sharp international criticism, Johnson staunchly defended the United States’ authority to use armed drones to target and kill suspected al-Qaeda leaders. “The U.S. government is in an armed conflict

against al-Qaeda and associated forces to which the laws of armed conflict apply,” he said. He also supported brutal anti-terror policies such as indefinite detention without charges and extrajudicial killing, by insisting capture, detention, and lethal force are tenements of war and must be seen in the context of a war, not our criminal justice system.

Despite his continued support for inhumane tactics and human right violations, Johnson’s explicit goal of ending the war on terror gives hope for his legacy as the Head of Homeland Security.

Johnson is the first Head of Homeland Security since its creation following 9/11 to publicly question the idea of an indefinite war against terrorism. In his address to the Oxford Union Society, he said, “In its 12th year, we must not accept the current conflict, and all that it entails, as the ‘new normal’.”

President Barack Obama remains confident in Johnson’s ability to bring positive change to the Department of Homeland Security. When announcing Johnson’s nomination, he said he nominated him for his “deep understanding of the threats and challenges facing the U.S.” Obama also credits Johnson with the design and implementation of policies that dismantled “the core of al-Qaeda” overseas.

Johnson’s specific policy goals still remain vague. Up to this point, he has merely referenced a “tipping point” when the majority of al-Qaeda leadership will be rendered ineffective and the organization will no longer be able to carry out strategic operations. The Voice awaits this tipping point with anticipation but urges Johnson to abandon his support of coercive anti-terror tactics and blatant violations of human rights to take the country there.

4 the georgetown voice

news

october 24, 2013

GU welcomes new mascot Hoya Court to open next week

by Manuela Tobias

katherine landau

by Deborah Sparks Georgetown’s new mascot, John B. Carroll, arrived on campus Monday, Oct. 21. The 14-weeks old puppy took the journey from San Diego, Calif. to Georgetown with breeder Janice Hochstetler.

John B. Carroll and J.J. share the same mother—a bulldog named Treasure cared for by Janice and Marcus Hochstetler, parents of Georgetown students. “They’re three-fourths brothers.

J.J. was a very quiet puppy. We couldn’t have anticipated some of the challenges he faced here,” Hochstetler said.

Though “B” stands for “bulldog,” the middle initial has traditionally been named in honor of the mascot’s caretaker. The middle initial “S” in J.J.’s official name was in honor of Fr. Christopher Steck.

John B. Carroll attended the men’s home soccer game against DePaul University Wednesday. “My initial thought today was to expose him to the large numbers of people, which he’s never seen before. That seemed to work,” Hochstetler said.

The new caretaker and John B. Carroll will live in a University-funded townhouse on 36th Street.

Minor on ethnic studies proposed

by Grace Brennan The Cura Personalis Initiative, a student-run effort established in September 2012 to address issues of diversity on campus, presented a proposal to the College Academic Council for an interdisciplinary minor in race, cultural, and ethnic studies on Tuesday night.

The minor is intended to draw from different departments at Georgetown to enable students to study American ethnic diversity.

“We have programs in the SFS specifically to address culture and politics around the globe, but our programs that engage those topics in the United States are remarkably weak,” said Kevin Magana (COL ‘15), who is a part of the leadership in the Cura Personalis putting forward this proposal.

The proposal builds upon previous attempts to incorporate diversity into Georgetown academics. In 2009, the Georgetown Student Commission for Unity, a student advocacy and research group, produced research that showed that Georgetown continues to lag behind in Asian American, African American, and Latino American studies compared to other elite academic universities throughout the United States.

“Academic working groups [in 2010] were asking … [for] five tenured line fac-

ulty in Asian American, African American, and Latino American studies. So far in Asian and Latino American studies, there has been nothing,” Magana said.

The Cura Personalis Initiative expects the minor to provide a base for future work in the area. “This is one step of trying to work at getting a minor started and then hopefully working with that to make it a major, program, and fullfledged department,” said Antony Lopez (COL ‘14), who is also leading the initiative’s proposal.

The proposal asks the CAC to form a working group to propose ideas and discuss the critical aspects that should be included in the proposal to the Deans. Magana and Lopez believe the new major is an important step since the CAC advocated for the two newest minors in the College, bioethics and journalism.

If College deans raise no objections to the minor, Magana and Lopez believe that the University could implement the minor as soon as fall 2014, contingent on more community support. “A lot of people want to do this, but they don’t communicate enough to really put it forward. … If we can start getting alumni interested and start donating, it would get the ball rolling to making this happen,” Lopez said.

Elevation Burger, Salad Creations, and Subway are expected to open to students at the new Hoya Court in the Leavey Center next Wednesday, Oct. 30.

The food court, originally intended to re-open at the beginning of the fall semester, has been undergoing renovations since the summer.

“We’re very excited we’re nearing the end of the project,” said Associate Vice President and Chief Business Officer of University Services Deborah Morey. “All the equipment is in, the construction is up, the names for each of the concepts is up, the menu boards are in, the registers are up, the fountain machines are in. It’s looking really good.”

Administrators are waiting on an inspection of the fire suppression system for the cooking equipment, a health department inspection, and a certificate of occupancy from the District of Columbia before announcing Wednesday as the official opening date of the food court.

“If anything’s not right with the inspection, we’d have to fix that, and that may have a day or two delay in the opening,” Morey said.

The aim of the reconstruction was to replace the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC previously in placewith more environmentally sustainable and healthier options, as suggested by students in University-wide surveys conducted by the food services and by the Hoya Court planning committee last year.

“The good thing is we went from four venues that were very tight and crowded to three very strong brands. We believe the experience will be better for those that go to Hoya Court,” said Joelle Wiese, associate vice president of auxiliary business services.

Though the project has faced several delays pushing the opening date from the beginning of the fall semester to the end of October, including infrastructure and licensing issues, the challenges were expected.

“We took on an aggressive project back in the spring, and we knew that if one minor thing did not line up well we’d actually have some delays in the overall project, and we’ve actually had very few of those to our surprise,” Morey said.

The temporary wall covering the new food vendors will be taken down once the fire prevention inspection is approved within the next few days. Once the wall comes down, two photographic murals will cover the food court’s walls—one of Key Bridge with Georgetown in the background, and the other a horizon of the District of Columbia.

The fight song and a graphic of Jack the

Bulldog will also be painted on one of the walls.

“We are very excited about the seating area because that is all student design,” Wiese said. The Hoya Court student committee, composed of five students, chose the murals and wall designs.

The Einstein Bagel Bros’ kiosk will move back to its previous location on the third floor of Regents Hall. Roasted, the rotisserie temporarily in Hoya Court, will be removed, and the temporary Subway beside Starbucks will be once again replaced by the Grab n’ Go location.

“What I’m most excited about are the hours. It’s just a nice food option to have on campus in addition to Epicurean that is open late,” said Adam Ramadan (SFS ‘14), GUSA vice president, who has been part of the student committee for Hoya Court planning that helped produce its new image.

Elevation Burger will remain open until 11p.m., while the other options will close earlier at 8p.m.

Morey expects the soft opening to take place next Monday, primarily as a test run for the vendors, and hopes for the official opening to take place next Wednesday.

“We’ll probably do a ribbon cutting in the morning, and then we’ll have lots of goodies, drawings, some samplings of the burgers and the shakes from Elevation Burger, and I think some soups from Salad Creations, so you can try some of the various items. Michael Burger [owner of the company] from Burger Elevation will be here, so it will be a fun celebration,” Morey said.

Aramark, which operates most of the food services in the University, including Starbucks, Cosi, O’Donovan Hall and Grab n’ Go, has replaced the previous Hoya Court contractor, Yasmin Parveen, whose license was revoked this summer because he failed to pay sales taxes. The new management will allow for greater flexibility in contracting options for the future of Hoya Court, should student demand for food services change.

“It’s a combination of what the students are asking for and what we can go get,” Morey said.

The University’s Sustainability at Georgetown Initiative is also working alongside Elevation Burger to create a more sustainable food service model.

Georgetown will be a beta test for Elevation Burger ’s scheme to use leftover vegetable oil as a fuel source for buses.

“We’re going to go through the master planning process, identify additional needs and work in a logical way to address what the plan would suggest that we need,” Morey said about the future food services on campus.

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the georgetown voice 5

Grab-n-Give pushes for more student awareness

by Lara Fishbane Georgetown Individuals Vocal and Energetic for Service (G.I.V.E.S.) began tabling outside Leo’s to raise awareness of Grab and Give this past Friday.

The Grab-n-Give program, first started in 2007 as a joint effort by Hoya Outreach Programs and Engagement (H.O.P.E.) and Aramark, is a service that offers a way for students to donate meals to the homeless.

“It started off as people who were trying to get their Grab n’ Go meal and using their last one and bringing it down to M Street,” said Gianna Maita (COL ’15), H.O.P.E. coordinator of Grab and Give. “It wasn’t really working well, so they tried to do it in a new way.”

The program allows students to swipe one meal each Friday to give to the homeless. “Unfortunately, you can only do one [swipe] … We have over the years wondered if we could get them to do [more], but right now, they’re really just going to do one meal swipe a week,” said Josetta Moore, resident district manager of Georgetown Dining. “I don’t know if I can an-

Leo’s employees swipe in donations for the homeless on Fridays. swer [why more swipes are not allowed] without guessing.”

Donating a meal does not translate to one direct meal to one homeless person. “What happens is the cost of that meal is put into a check that goes to Martha’s Tables that Leo’s writes every week,” Maita said.

Although the door rate for lunch at Leo’s is $12.45, the amount that gets donated to Martha’s table is much less. “Unfortunately, it’s really not

Waiting for de Blasio

“De Blasio wins a primary, Summers doesn’t get nominated, Peter Beinart writes an essay and suddenly the parliamentary left is resurgent?”

That was Cole Stangler, In These Times writer and my first editor at this fine publication, exercising his Twitter skepticism about a popular piece on The Daily Beast by Peter Beinart. In it, the City University of New York professor says the millennial generation, blighted by a sluggish job market and the Reagan-Clinton political dichotomy, will push the political spectrum back to the left in elections to come.

I’d have to agree with Cole’s skepticism, in part. A simple generational change won’t mean a progressive surge, even if millennials are more liberal than older folks.

There is a resurgent progressivism in America today, but it’s far from the headlines, hidden in the daily plights of low-wage workers. How institutionalized liberalism in D.C. and around the nation reacts to this new New Left will define its success or failure in the next generation.

A series of strikes and walkouts at low wage retailers around the na-

tion is capturing the imagination of writers and activists alike. This summer, hundreds of fast food workers and other low-wage laborers in 60 American cities walked off the job to demand the right to unionize without intimidation and a raise in the minimum wage. Surprisingly, the once-conciliatory Service Employees International Union has led and supported the movements across the country. The SEIU’s reach even extends onto our campus. As we noted last week, they’re behind last year’s adjunct unionization.

There are other signs of progressive resurgence in D.C. Unions and activists nearly scored a coup this summer with the passage of the Large Retailer Accountability Act. It may have died after Mayor Gray’s veto, but it was impressive to get eight councilmembers to stand up to the likes of Walmart in the first place.

Now, living wage legislation of some sort is almost a foregone conclusion, along with marijuana decriminalization, and a citywide drivers’ license that won’t discriminate against undocumented immigrants.

All of these initiatives are the

KATHERINE LANDAU

that much,” Maita said. “Each swipe is a little more than two dollars.”

Leo’s management would not divulge the exact amount that was donated and would not answer why it is significantly less than the cost of a meal.

Even though Grab and Give has been around for six years, H.O.P.E is concerned that not enough students are aware of the program. “Leo’s used to products of activism and protest, but D.C. is yet to witness the rise of an insurrectionist political candidate. In New York, the de Blasio campaign is the electoral incarnation of progressive social movements, a campaign with an informed, intelligent leader who hasn’t (yet) been co-opted by the financial interests of the town.

The District’s local political scene is different. We’ve had only Democratic mayors, while NYC’s gone two decades without one. But party

City on a Hill

by Gavin Bade

A bi-weekly column about D.C. news and politics. affiliations only paper over a larger similarity—for years, progressives in both cities have been disappointed with City Hall.

Any way you look at it, voters and progressive groups are clamoring for a de Blasio-type figure to emerge ahead of next year’s mayoral election. The choices so far aren’t great. Gray has yet to announce if he’s running for reelection and would do so without the support of organized labor, which abandoned

NEWS HIT

have a sign out last semester to tell students that it was there and they kind of stopped putting it out,” Maita said. “They said that students already knew about the program.”

In order to continue spreading the word, H.O.P.E. decided to team up with G.I.V.E.S., a group dedicated to pursuing random acts of kindness. The team of 30 G.I.V.E.S. members are responsible for tabling for the program. “In terms of G.I.V.E.S.’s role, we are there to help and take an already existing great program and to provide the manpower and enthusiasm to get the student body interested,” said Benjamin Weiss (COL ‘15), a coordinator of the group.

Throughout the semester, G.I.V.E.S. will have members stand at a table weekly to remind people about the option to donate their last swipes. Since G.I.V.E.S. began tabling outside Leo’s last Friday, new signs are already by the entrance explaining the Grab-n-Give program to students. “I think that Leo’s and Aramark realized that students really like this program and [they] should embrace it a little more,” Weiss said.

TEDx to launch on Saturday

him after the LRAA veto. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) is out of favor with labor and activists for opposing the LRAA as well, although he has a more modest bill of his own. Amazingly, that’s led some union leaders to throw in their lot with perpetual Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), a longtime business favorite, and relatively inaccessible old white guy.

Were a qualified, clean candidate to emerge from the rich D.C. activist corps to challenge the Democratic establishment from within, their performance could be impressive.

All D.C. politicos pay lip service to inequality and workers’ rights, but none in the mayoral race so far can say they walk the walk. The stage is set for someone who can. I’m not saying I know who that is, but the folks fighting for a living wage, the right to organize, immigrant rights and environmental protections need to look around at themselves. The time for an insurgent candidate is now, in this city and others.

At the end of the day, any nascent resurgence of the Left is fragile, and it will take time to ascertain if it can ever move national politics. Ultra conservative organizations and

the 1-percenters who fund them have enjoyed a rich run of victories since 2010 as well, and the gap in resources between management and labor hasn’t been this pronounced since the gilded age.

The good news is that progressives have public opinion largely on their side. De Blasio’s campaign priorities of universal early childhood education and after school programs, modest tax hikes for the rich, and humane community policing are all supported by a majority of New Yorkers. There’s reason to believe that Washingtonians would feel the same. Speaking on MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes de Blasio pushed his “Tale of Two Cities” message, saying he’s got a mandate to address the crushing poverty facing almost half of New Yorkers: “People in this city want these statistics addressed ... they will back up a leader who works for progressive change, and that’s the X factor.

Maybe it wasn’t as true in the past politics of the city, but it’s true now.”

Hard to tell whether he’s talking about his city or ours.

TEDxGeorgetown will hold its third official event, sponsored by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, on Oct. 26. The theme of the event is changemakers.

Held in Gaston Hall, Saturday’s event will comprise three main sessions. Georgetown University President John DeGioia will host the first session on Global Human Development.

The planning for this fall’s event has changed since last year and now features an advisory board in charge of selecting the speakers and reaching out to the different schools at Georgetown.

This year’s line-up of speakers includes mostly Georgetown professors and students, representing a change from previous years, which saw more external speakers.

“We’re trying to make this unique to Georgetown, this TEDx event,” said Jamie Sharp (COL ‘15), chair of TEDxGeorgetown.

“We have some quite amazing distinguished people in the Georgetown community, so why not give them a chance to share their story?”

—Daniel Paradis

Join the progressive movement with Gavin at gbade@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

october 24, 2013

Football strives for consistency in homestretch

by Joe Pollicino Unfortunately for Head Coach Kevin Kelly and the Georgetown football team (16, 0-2 Patriot League), college football is played in two thirty-minute halves, not one. This tale of two halves reared its head again as the Hoyas fell at No. 16 Lehigh (6-1, 1-1 Patriot League) this past weekend 45-24 in their official Patriot League opener.

Despite outscoring the Mountain Hawks 21-7 in the second half, the Hoyas couldn’t overcome an insuperable halftime deficit of 35 points.

The Hoyas have been outscored 66-3 in the first half their past two games, but have outscored their opponents 33-13 in the second half in those same two games. The loss also marked the team’s 13th straight defeat to Lehigh, an opponent the Hoyas have not beaten since the Calvin Coolidge administration.

“We have shown spurts where we played well, and we have shown spurts where we played poorly,” Kelly said. “But obviously, we have to be more consistent in what we are doing and if we do that we have a chance of winning.”

For the second consecutive week, the Hoyas struggled to establish the tone early. The Mountain Hawks imposed their will, dominating on the both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball throughout the first half as they built an insurmountable 38-3 halftime lead. The absence of several defensive starters certainly showed for Georgetown, as Lehigh scored on seven of its first eight possessions and amassed 380 yards of total offense in just the first half.

Although senior linebackers Dustin Wharton and Nick Alfi-

eri returned to the lineup, senior tack, which amassed 229 yards against Patriot league foe Col- where the Hoya defense allowed 31 first downs and a school record gate (2-5, 1-0 Patriot League). co-captain and defensive line- on the ground.

The Raiders have won two of 707 yards of total offense.

“Nick Campanella is running man Sean Campbell, sophomore “Every week we try to get betdefensive back Ettian Scott, and extremely hard,” said Coach their last three games, defeating sophomore defensive lineman Kelly. “He had been banged up Holy Cross last week 28-24 and ter and better,” said Kelly. “We’ve Hunter Kiselick were unable to for a few weeks and wasn’t the Cornell 41-20 just a few weeks had some injury issues, so contiplay against Lehigh and their Nick that people expected to ago. Stopping the Colgate run- nuity hasn’t been where we’d like statuses are uncertain for this see, but I thought Saturday he ning game will be imperative for it, but Colgate is a run-type foothad an excellent football game, success this Saturday, as the Raid- ball team, so obviously we need to Saturday’s game.

“We’re getting some guys ran extremely hard and we’re ers average 202 rushing yards per stop the run this week.”

After their duel with the Raidback, but we’re still a little expecting the same thing at Col- game this year.

The Hoyas will look to ex- ers, it’s three more Patriot League nicked up at some positions,” gate.”

This week the Hoyas return act revenge against the Raiders, games to conclude what has been said Kelly. “We’ve had a good week of practice and I expect home to Multi-Sport Field this who blew them out last year 57- a disappointing season, their sevthat we’ll have a pretty good ball Saturday, where they will look 36 in Upstate New York in Kyle enth losing season in the past for their elusive second win Nolan’s first career start, a game eight years. game [this week].”

On the offensive side of the ball, sophomore quarterback Kyle Nolan made his first start of the season for the Hoyas and “[We’re] rooting hard to bring back the World Series Cup to Boston, like we did in 2004 and 2007.”-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino confusing the World Series and the World Cup. played solidly, completing 19Now to “tanking.” Tanking is forwards Lavoy Allen and Thadof-30 passes for 140 yards and a by Chris Almeida the process of losing games in or- deus Young, guard Evan Turner, touchdown pass. Nolan has apder to acquire a better player in the and bathrobe thief Michael CarIt’s interesting to think about peared to emerge as the team’s draft.

This tactic is employed fre- ter-Williams. Haven’t heard most what is best for a professionstarting quarterback, over redquently, but it’s not usually through of these names before? Most casual sports franchise, especially shirt senior quarterback Isaiah the overt lack of effort on the floor. al NBA fans haven’t. To put it simin basketball.

Is it winning the Kempf and freshman quarterUsually teams exaggerate injuries ply, this team is going to be bad. most games possible each seaback Tim Barnes. Kempf, who to their better players or trade away Historically bad. And that’s just son, winning a solitary champiwas the starter heading into this players who make the team good— how the Philadelphia front office onship, or is it building for susseason, struggled the past few wants things until they can snatch but not championship-worthy—in tained dominance in the future? games with injuries and mediup super freshman Andrew Wigorder to lose games without directThough many commentators ocre play. Barring injury, Nolan gins and another first rounder in ly violating the policy of the league would think the first is the most will be team’s the starter for the next year’s draft and pair them that says that teams cannot intendesirable situation, those familremainder of this season. Hopewith a rejuvenated Noel, making tionally throw contests. iar with the NBA know that the fully for the Hoyas and their for a stronger squad during the Both of these strategies are latter two are more commonly stagnant offense, Nolan can pro2014-2015 season. widely present in this year’s accepted.

Is tanking a plague or vide stability to a position that Now this isn’t a bad strategy NBA. The aging Boston Celtics, an effective method of building a has seen six different occupants for putting together a better team, with their core of Paul Pierce and winning machine? over the past two seasons. but is it ethical?

In trying to win Kevin Garnett, were able to make In most professional sports “At the quarterback position, championships, teams certainly do the playoffs perennially but were leagues, the first pick in amatuer Kyle Nolan will start,” Kelly not field their best teams each year, clearly not strong enough to condrafts goes to the team that finsaid. “I thought he started out and as a result, many NBA games tend with the top teams in the ished the previous season with slow last week, but he finished are less than entertaining—I still Eastern Conference, such as Mithe worst record.

The second pick strong, so after another full week maintain that the Wizards-Bobcats ami or Indiana.

As a result, the goes to the second worst team, of practice, we think he’ll be betand so on. In basketball, due to Celtics traded away Garnett and matchups over the past few years ter this week.” the nature of the game, one player Pierce, as well as guard Jason Ter- have had less energy than my pickSenior running back Nick can change a game significantly ry, to the Brooklyn Nets for a slew up games at home. This is where Campanella was one of the few more than in sports like soccer, of inconsequential, small-contract the culture of competition comes bright spots for the Hoyas, scorrole players as well as future draft into conflict with the nature of the football, or baseball. ing a career-high of three touchpicks. Once thought to be the face professional sporting industry.

As a result, in the NBA, the downs and rushing for 129 yards Sports are supposed to proof the Celtics for the future, guard draft can be everything to a team. on 23 carries. Campanella led a vide entertainment, but losing Rajon Rondo, is still nursing a So, the NBA has an added wrinkle strong Georgetown running atin their draft, the lottery. The lot- torn ACL. If Rondo is not traded close, entertaining games doesn’t tery system gives each team that early in the season, it is safe to say bring in money or satisfy players failed to make the playoffs in the that he will not be rushed back to hungry for titles. The same way previous season a chance to ac- the court to help the ailing Celtics. that Spurs coach Greg Popovich The Philadelphia 76ers have resting his players during the quire one of the draft’s top three picks based on a lottery system engaged in similar actions. This year comes into conflict with the in which teams have increasing- past offseason, Philly traded desires of Stern and NBA manly better odds of acquiring a top away their best player, All-Star agement, the aim of franchises to three pick as their record gets Jrue Holiday for Kentucky prod- put together championship runs, worse. This arrangement is meant uct Nerlens Noel, who is also rather than entertaining seasons, to deter teams from intentionally rehabbing an ACL injury, and a creates a key problem in the NBA. dropping games, though it is un- future draft pick. Assuming that It’s a shame that the League proclear how, since the worst team in Noel will be in no rush to play, duces so many unwatchable the league still has the best odds the Sixers’ starting lineup is com- games, but if I was the Sixers GM, prised of center Spencer Hawes, I’d probably tank, too. to acquire the first pick.

Football has struggled to find the endzone early in the game.

the sports sermon

JOSH RAFTIS

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Men’s soccer exorcises Blue Demons There’s no denying Riyan

by Chris Castano A cold Wednesday meant that only a few people turned up on Shaw field for the game between the Georgetown men’s soccer team (113-1, 4-1-1 Big East) and the DePaul Blue Demons (4-9-2, 0-5-1 Big East).

The Hoyas did their best to combat the low temperature by blazing shot after shot into the DePaul net in what turned out to be one of their most dominant performances of the season so far.

“I think they sat in pretty well in the first half and really absorbed a lot of pressure. I think any time a team is defending that much, holes start opening up later in the game,” senior forward Steve Neumann said. “Credit to our offense for putting in those goals lately.”

The Hoyas began the game by probing for a chance in a crowded Blue Demon defensive formation.

It didn’t take them long to find the back of the net. After five minutes of searching, junior midfielder Tyler Rudy casually chipped the ball from the top of the box past DePaul keeper Phillip Huang. The Blue Demons were left standing as the Hoyas went up 1-0.

The Hoyas continued to hold the ball and look for spaces to open up in the midfield. Tyler Rudy was again involved in a scoring chance as he was fouled in the box after 39 minutes, allowing Neumann to convert the ensuing penalty. The Hoyas headed into the break up 2-0.

Neumann found himself 12 yards out once more after the break as senior defender Ted Helfrich headed a ball from a corner kick down into the hand of a DePaul defender. Neumann converted to make the score 3-0.

Brandon Allen finally got involved in the game after 61 minutes.

What was proving to be a particu-

SOPHIA KLEYMAN

Men’s soccer will look to continue their dominance against Marquette.

NFL attitudes need to change

Two weeks ago, PBS released a long-anticipated Frontline documentary entitled League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis. Journalists worked themselves into a frenzy over the sobering stories of former players like Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and Junior Seau. But today that story has been all but forgotten, which begs the question: Why has this issue been so quickly laid to rest? And how did such a gripping film fail to change the minds of NFL executives?

Originally, ESPN and PBS were working on the project together.

However, just two months before the broadcast of the documentary, ESPN withdrew from the project, after having spent over a year working on the film with PBS. Certainly, the ESPN brand would have bought the documentary a lot more traction, but, in the end, ESPN had to prioritize its relationship with the NFL. That isn’t to say that

ESPN journalists weren’t excited to be a part of the investigative film, but their hesitation to attach their names to the project goes to show the pervasive taboo surrounding concussions and football. The NFL still refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

And I don’t disagree. NFL players receive million-dollar paychecks each season and are fully aware of the risks associated with playing football. How could they not be? The same risks are present in middle school, high school, and college football. The presence of these risks at the lower levels may be a result of the NFL’s policies, but they still exist.. And the risks and excitement of these physical matchups is what keeps the NFL (and ESPN for that matter) in business.

Players have no incentive to speak up about these risks, which they knowingly take on when they sign those million-dollar contracts,

larly anonymous performance from the sophomore forward turned into a flurry of motion as Allen carried the ball towards the DePaul net, had his legs swept out from under him, clawed his way back onto his feet, collected the ball on the end line, and scored Georgetown’s fourth goal from almost a 90 degree angle.

At this point, more and more of the Georgetown reserve squad began to see time on the field. Despite the large number of subs, the Hoyas still dictated the flow of the game.

“We put the reserve squad into the formation that DePaul played today and we were saying to ourselves that that might’ve been harder for our starters than the game today,” said Georgetown Head Coach Wiese.

“No disrespect to DePaul, it’s just that our reserves are hard and good. They honestly don’t drop our level at all.”

True to Wiese’s word, the Hoyas didn’t slow down during the changing of the guard. Sophomore defender Cole Seiler was in position to hammer home as Huang spilled the ball off of a free kick, adding another to the already impressive haul for the day.

Freshman forward Brett Campbell was next to get in on the action as Tom Skelly rolled a ball across the box, which Campbell finished.

The game finished 6-0 in favor of the Blue and Gray. They’ll be back in action in Wisconsin against Marquette this coming Saturday at 8:05 pm. when the topic is even taboo in the locker room. “It’s a shame-based issue,” former Patriots Linebacker Ted Johnson said at a conference on concussions last year, following the suicide of former teammate, linebacker Junior Seau. “It makes you feel like less of a man.” Concussions and other internal, invisible injuries don’t offer a convincing platform for change, so the discussion falters

Sporty Spice

by Abby Sherburne A bi-weekly column about sports

where it is most important—in the locker room.

While the NFL can’t be held responsible for this discussion, nor the culture, there is an undeniable correlation between football-induced concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a condition caused by repetitive concussions. It is a disease that causes continuous deterioration of brain

by Brendan Crowley “He’s with us now. He’s on the team.” Two simple sentences from Georgetown Men’s Basketball Head Coach John Thompson III provided validation for a dream once in doubt for 6-foot-4 sophomore walk-on guard Riyan Williams, the newest and presumably final addition to the 2013-2014 Hoya roster.

Williams, the son of former Georgetown and NBA basketball player Reggie Williams, was first introduced to Hoya fans this summer through the Kenner League, an NCAA-sanctioned basketball league held each summer in McDonough Gymnasium that features top high school, college, and professional talent. Divided among various teams sponsored by local businesses, the Hoyas compete against each other for bragging rights, and simultaneously give coaches, scouts and the media a chance to track their offseason development.

From the beginning, it was clear Williams had the talent to earn the walk-on spot he strove for, as he excelled in Kenner League play.

“I’ve been trying to walk on for a while,” Williams said.

“Coach Thompson is a great guy

tissue. In the past five years, examinations of 12 deceased NFL players’ brains have been conducted.

All 12 brains exhibited evidence of CTE. There is certainly a causal link between the NFL paycheck and CTE, but the blame clearly cannot fall on the League’s shoulders.

But when watching League of Denial, all I wanted to do was blame the NFL for institutionalizing this cultural taboo. I found it impossible to blame the players for the culture when watching Junior Seau’s kids talk about their dad or Troy Aikman’s agent recalling a particularly terrifying concussion. But in the end, the choice to play and the assumed risks come back to them. So instead of assigning this impossible blame, both the players and the NFL should be looking for ways to remedy the epidemic.

Let me be clear, I have no desire for the rules of football to change. And if I’m being honest, I have no desire for the culture to change either. I love watch-

and told me at the beginning of the year to just focus on my grades, and that is the best advice he could give me…I worked hard in the classroom and got good grades, so I could put myself into the position to come to him with my transcript and say I want to walk on.”

Despite his off-court preparation, it seemed entering this year that Williams would be on the outside looking in. He was absent from practice, as well as Georgetown’s roster and media guide.

Then, on Tuesday, Williams was seen suited up and shooting with the team in front of local media outlets, prompting questions about his spot on the team that were quickly and curtly affirmed

by Coach Thompson.

Although Williams is expected to see little to no playing time this season as a walk-on, his athleticism, length, and shooting ability will be of value in team preparations, especially at the small forward position where so much uncertainty has emerged following expected starter Greg Whittington’s torn ACL. Look for Williams, as well as the rest of the 2013-2014 team, at this Friday’s Basketball Tip-Off Party at 7:00 p.m. in McDonough, featuring a performance by B.o.B.

ing the Pats defense get riled up—there isn’t much I find more satisfying than watching Jerod Mayo drill a receiver into next week. (And watching CBS replay it two or three times generally isn’t too bad either.) But as much as I hate to admit it, attitudes like mine are the problem with NFL culture today.

While advocates for concussion awareness may swell slightly in numbers and a few parents may think twice about letting their children play football, when it comes down to it, the message won’t hit home until the NFL culture changes.

I think Patriots quarterback Tom Brady best epitomized the de-legitimizing culture surrounding concussions. “I don’t think about it at all,” he said in a response to the documentary. “I’m not overly concerned.”

Commiserate with Abby at asherburne@georgetownvoice.com

feature

8 the georgetown voice

feature

georgetownvoice.com

october 24, 2013

the georgetown voice 9

Standing in a living room full of people eager for the start of tonight’s performances, Zoe Rosen (COL ‘16) readies herself to sing at last Friday’s GU Jam Sesh event, “Folking Around.” People completely fill the off-campus house’s small living room and its attached kitchen. Some are even sitting on the stairs, just to catch a glimpse of the show.

The sounds of a guitar tuning and of friends offering cheers of support make for an energetic atmosphere. Then the lights start to dim and the room becomes silent. Zoe gives one final look at the crowd, takes a deep breath, then begins her first song.

From left: Mary Ellen Funke and Danny Sullivan

HOW IT all BEGAN // “Folking Around” was the second concert organized by GU Jam Sesh, a newly-formed independent student group dedicated to creating a community for musicians at Georgetown.

In the summer of 2013, the group was nothing more than the idea of GU Jam Sesh’s co-presidents, Gianfranco Nuschese (COL ‘14) and Tyler Pierce (COL ‘15), to bring more attention to Georgetown’s band scene. (Full disclosure: Tyler Pierce is the Voice’s puzzles editor.)

“I went up to Tyler Pierce in Gelardin, where I work, and we just started talking about how bad the music scene was here at Georgetown, not because of bad musicians but because there is no place for us to play and no one really knows about us,” Nuschese said.

“Even when I [tell] people that I’m a music major, they didn’t even know we had a music major here at Georgetown.”

Nuschese and Pierce began working on the structure of GU Jam Sesh this past summer. In talking to like-minded students, they eventually found Sacha Millet (COL ‘15) and Mary Ellen Funke (SFS ‘15), the group’s other two co-presidents.

“I was really involved with Guild of Bands and in an active student band, which is how I ended up meeting everyone and when they started talking about starting an organization like this, I immediately jumped on board,” Funke wrote in an email to the Voice. “With Guild of Bands being the only outlet to get on-campus gigs, I think that we all saw a need to expand upon the potential that we saw with some of the student bands.”

Guild of Bands, a one-credit Music course taught by adjunct professor Joseph McCarthy, teaches students how to prepare a concert and perform music. Though the class

provides students with practice space and equipment as well as an opportunity to perform at an end-of-semester concert, only students in the class can benefit from these perks.

“The thing about Guild of Bands is that, because it’s a class, it needs a structure to function, but Jam Sesh can really reach out to those other students who want to be involved in music at Georgetown,” McCarthy said. “I think what Franco is doing with Jam Sesh is a great thing.”

finding community // Given the tight-knit nature of Georgetown’s band scene, finding performers to play at GU Jam Sesh shows has proven easy for the group. GU Jam Sesh reaches out to musicians they would like to feature in their shows, but other students who just want an opportunity to perform have also approached them.

“At the beginning of the semester, I told Jam Sesh that I am interested in performing and the style of music I play,” Rosen wrote in an email to the Voice. “Since I am a singer-songwriter, they asked me to perform last weekend at a more acoustic event.”

Co-presidents Nuschese, the drummer of Dagos; Funke, lead singer of Mellen; and Pierce and Millet, lead singer and lead guitarist of The Ripples, respectively, have also performed with their bands at these events.

Eman Abid (COL ‘16), a blog writer for GU Jam Sesh’s website, is excited to integrate the new group into the University’s music scene. “We’re going to have more events and more people. Solidifying the community and allowing the bands to collaborate more is what the future entails.”

Musicians who have performed at GU

SHALINA CHATLANI

From left: Gianfranco Nuschese and John Romano

georgetown jams

From the outside, Georgetown’s music scene often seems limited to a few visible student groups. But a capella singers aren’t the Hilltop’s only musically-inclined students.

Through its efforts to build a community of student musicians, GU Jam Sesh is providing an outlet for diversified creative musical expression at Georgetown, despite the obstacles it faces from neighbors and University noise policies. by jeffrey lin

Jam Sesh events recognize the gap that the group has filled in regards to providing opportunities for students to showcase their talents.

“This is a really good basis for us to practice and know how it is like performing in front of an audience,” said Juan Luis Tirado Anduze (COL ‘16), who also played at “Folking Around.” According to Tirado Anduze, GU Jam Sesh is doing an important service by providing small gig opportunities that would be difficult to find elsewhere in the city, especially for fledgling student bands.

Teddy Schaffer (COL ‘16), another musician featured in “Folking Around,” echoes Tirado Anduze’s sentiments. (Full disclosure: Schaffer is a designer for the Voice.) “I organize the open mic nights at UG and, beyond that, there aren’t many opportunities for that kind of expression at Georgetown. Jam Sesh is doing a really good job taking the initiative on this.”

However, these opportunities come at a cost. For the services provided by GU Jam Sesh, each band must pay dues of $50 each semester. This membership fee covers performance venues, a website that features the bands, and publicity.

“We’re trying to have ... common money to buy moving equipment because at this point [lack of moving equipment] is the biggest hassle, so if we could have a GU Jam Sesh equipment fund that would be fantastic,” Millet said. GU Jam Sesh has to be creative in transporting amps, keyboards, micro-

phones, wires, and other equipment from venue to venue.

Before GU Jam Sesh, finding equipment was one of the greatest obstacles faced by Georgetown’s aspiring student musicians. According to Pierce, bands would have to be lucky enough to know someone who had the equipment they needed. Now, GU Jam Sesh bands pool resources and share equipment.

Students involved with GU Jam Sesh consider this collaboration invaluable. The community the group is creating among musicians brings together the pieces of Georgetown’s scattered music scene. The founders of GU Jam Sesh believe their efforts will open this scene to different genres of music.

“One of the reasons a capella groups do so well is because they’re low budget. All you need is a room and people,” Pierce said. “It takes more [resources] to have a band, but it’s not impossible and I think people are open to the idea of bands playing shows.”

Although Hoyas are involved in numerous bands and musical ventures across the Hilltop, many musicians say that students weren’t aware of Georgetown’s music culture before the creation of GU Jam Sesh. But, according to Funke, the collective is changing all that.

“The band scene is becoming more well known and is getting more press than ever before,” Funke wrote. “So the music scene is going from being an underground subculture to something that everyone at Georgetown can actively participate in and celebrate.”

Musicians who perform at Jam Sesh believe the shows give them an avenue to express their creativity unavailable elsewhere at Georgetown. “Music has something from poetry and something from instrumental music, and I can write a song that has a specific meaning,” Tirado Anduze said.

“Jam Sesh gives me that opportunity to express myself.”

dealing with neighbors// Although GU Jam Sesh has both the following and the membership it needs to be a unifying musical force on the Hilltop, finding a venue for larger, louder shows has been difficult because of the new noise violation

SHALINA CHATLANI

Alicia Wun, Juan Luis Tirado Anduze, and Jack Treado

rules in the Code of Student Conduct.

Since the beginning of the fall semester the University has instituted a new policy restricting noise to one’s property line at any time of day. “The neighbors have all the power. They can abuse that power extremely easily,” Millet said.

Millet hosted GU Jam Sesh’s first concert on Sept. 9 at his house in Burleith. Recognizing that the show could disturb some neighbors, Millet preemptively informed them of his plans to host the show by knocking on doors and leaving flyers in mail slots.

In a letter Millet wrote to Adam Fountaine, associate director of GU’s Office of Student Conduct, Millet revealed that many of his neighbors appreciated being informed about the show ahead of time. Despite the goodwill demonstrated toward Millet before the concert, a neighbor’s complaint during the show, scheduled from 8:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m., resulted in a noise violation imposed by the University. Millet was fined $50 and required to work five sanction hours.

D.C. metropolitan police did not penalize Millet because he was not in violation of the D.C. Noise at Night Law, which makes it illegal for people to make noise “likely to annoy or disturb one or more other persons in their residences” between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

“The cops came knocking on the door half an hour before the show ended,” Millet said.

“They could not do anything legally. They just asked us to shorten it. We were already planning on ending before ten, so we shortened it by half an hour.”

Millet recognizes that the noise could disturb some neighbors, but he lacks a means of communicating with them to address their concerns. “I understand that people don’t want noise at any time without knowing, but if we could decide on the precise date with the neighbors, and all agree, it’s fine,” Millet said. “But we have ... no way to contact the neighbors. Neighbors are complaining because we disregard their lives but we have no way of having a dialogue with them.”

The University, however, believes the Georgetown University Compliance Helpline, a tool for students and non-students to report possible violations of University policy,

JOSH RAFTIS

Tyler Pierce and Sacha Millet

is the best way to deal with altercations with the neighbors.

“We believe the Helpline is the most effective way to address any concerns in the neighborhood and resolve issues before they escalate,” said Rachel Pugh, Georgetown’s director of media relations.

“We have received an increased number of calls to the University Helpline this year, from both students and non-students, and we expected this.”

Nevertheless, because of the strictly-enforced standards for noise violations, GU Jam Sesh is struggling to find off-campus venues for louder shows. According to Nuschese, the recent change in the Code of Student Conduct regarding noise violations hurts the group’s ability to realize its potential.

Jam Sesh is also not an officially recognized student group with access to benefits, including on-campus spaces. It is limited to off-campus venues.

“The downside of not being [a University sponsored organization] is that we cannot have access to the venue, and if we do it’s very expensive,” Millet said. “The good thing is we can work with WGTB, who are very supportive of Jam Sesh.”

Allie Prescott (COL ‘14), general manager of WGTB, has been behind the new group since GU Jam Sesh’s inception. She and other members of the student radio station see the group’s goal, to bring attention to the vibrant music scene at Georgetown, as consistent with their mission as a radio station.

“We have about 2,500 built-in connections through social media, and a much higher weekly reach through our website,” Prescott wrote in an email to the Voice. “We try to use those numbers to help Jam Sesh artists in any way we can. Our biggest promo push was for Mellen in August—we released her EP via our website, and it got picked up by mtvU and a number of music blogs.”

Though WGTB’s media resources are helpful in spreading the gospel of GU Jam Sesh, until the independent student group can find a way to host louder shows without the threat of noise violations, hosting quieter, more low-key shows such as “Folking Around” will be the norm for the group.

SHALINA CHATLANI

FUTURE OF JAM SESH // Recognition as an official university group could bring additional space and financial support to the group, but many of its leaders are wary of being institutionalized.

“Being involved in Georgetown means adding two or three middlemen to the bureaucracy,” Pierce said. “We would get funding, but we would be limited in the shows we could do, and we would have to censor things. Band people don’t want that stuff.”

Funke, however, hopes that GU Jam Sesh can find a way to have official University sponsorship while continuing to operate independently.

According to Nuschese, the group has also explored the possibility of collaborating with GU’s Department of Music. “I would love to work with the music department,” he said.

“They are sort of intrigued, and they’ve asked me about it. I’m hoping to get their help.”

For now, the four co-presidents are at the group’s core, dedicating much of their time to the development of GU Jam Sesh, but they acknowledge the group’s potential to grow.

Pierce believes creating a separate board to deal with logistics and financial matters would expand the group’s capacity to showcase more bands and sponsor more shows.

“I think that the potential for Jam Sesh is extraordinary,” Pierce said. Though the group is only in its nascent stages, the proud co-founder already sees the impact it is having on Georgetown’s music culture: “Once it was there, everyone realized they were missing it.”

Zoe exhales her final note for the night, and her face breaks into a smile as her friends rush to the front of the room to congratulate her while new fans shout words of encouragement and praise. The rest of the audience is expectant, chattering excitedly in anticipation of the next act.

Inspired by Zoe’s delivery, Teddy Schaffer rises from his seat on the ground and takes a seat in front of the mic. The audience quiets down, and people make room for those just arriving. Teddy takes in the crowd, already primed for his performance, calmly tunes his guitar, and adjusts the mic. He’s ready for his time in the spotlight. The lights dim, and after a deep breath, Teddy begins to play.

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

october 24, 2013

Nomadic brings Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to life

by Emilia Brahm “Who are we when nobody is watching?” goes the director’s tagline for Nomadic Theater’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a post-absurdist play by Tom Stoppard. Director Kathleen Joyce (COL ‘15) notes that, “We live a fundamentally absurd existence with rules that don’t make sense. …

Post-absurdism says ‘How can we live our lives under those assumptions? How can we be sane and happy given the chaotic universe that we live in?’”

So how do we feel less alone?

Don’t get bogged down by these heavy questions and life, the universe, and everything. Instead, go see Nomadic Theatre’s brilliant production. See who Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are when they think no one is watching.

I cannot insist enough that you go and see this play. Stoppard is the first playwright who has simply stopped me in my tracks. He is a genius with word play, and as his characters exclaim, “Words are all we have to go on.” This play is in the service of words, even in their inadequacy to find reason in a senseless word. Hamlet is described as “talking nonsense to others … and sense to himself,” and all of Stoppard’s characters do just that, weaving in Socrates, the Sophists, and Shakespearean references. A play like this one, though, requires actors and production with the skills to add a robust third dimension to the work—words are not, in fact, all they have to go on. And in this, Nomadic Theatre succeeds to the highest degree.

Grayson Ullman (COL ‘16) is incredible as The Player, the leader of a band of ruffian (porno) actors. From his fluid movements to the deep timbre of his voice, he radiates energy. While he speaks, Ullman is in character from head to toe. The way he presses the fingers of his left hand together, the Player’s comforting tic, especially adds emphasis to his sophistic soliloquies. The players, too, are stunning, from each miniscule facial twitch to the complicated choreography they master.

In a supremely talented cast, the other standout performance comes from Taylor Rasmussen (COL ‘16) as Guildenstern, in a moving portrayal of the only character in the play that puts any real effort toward finding reason.

Though an absurdist play, its many elements are pulled together impressively, though seemingly coincidentally. The costumes, designed by Claytia Gonsalves (SFS ‘15), were autumnal, corresponding with what Guildenstern calls “a certain brownness at the edges of the day. … Russets and tangerine shades of old gold flushing the very outside edge of the senses.” They are clever takes on Shakespearian style—a mashing of traditional with crisp, 20th century lines and cuts.

The set is a powerful actor too, with psychedelic designs and funhouse entrances, including tunnels, stairwells (both rightside-up and upside-down), and, my personal favorite, a rock-climbing wall leading off (and up) stage right. Perhaps the silliest piece of blocking was Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, tying up her bountiful skirts to climb the rock wall out of

MARLA ABDILLA

“You can’t treat royalty like people with normal perverted desires.”

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and into the world of Hamlet.

The characters shuffle off stage to their lives as we know them best in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Stoppard wrote the story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor courtiers in Hamlet, piecing together their mission, situation, and ultimate fate

based on snippets of Hamlet itself, coupled with, in Joyce’s words, “losing it, essentially, and figuring out how to go on after you’ve lost it.”

You can catch the (albeit only slightly) more sane world of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Davis Theater the first two weeks of November, put on by the Department of Per-

The Joys of Campus Cooking

This is the first year I have had access to a full kitchen at Georgetown (sorry Village B, but size matters), and it has been a blast to experiment with cooking and develop a culinary personality.

Sriracha hot sauce features heavily in my food identity.

Try any dish that comes out of my kitchen, and probability says you will ingest a healthy dose of Sriracha. I have to buy this stuff in bulk because of how I often I use it. Eggs, pasta, soup, meatloaf—you name it, and I’ve put Sriracha on it.

Thus far, I’ve only managed to avoid squeezing a bit of the good stuff into baked goods.

From time to time, I’ll peruse Pinterest to get ideas for dinner party menus. But really, I usually just throw things into a pan, turn up the heat, and hope for the best.

We live in an age with instant access to tens of thousands of recipes. At the click of a button, my computer screen will display 40 different ways to make the perfect pizza dough. A Google search for “chocolate chip cookies” yields more recipes than I would gander or are even possible to bake in a lifetime.

Some of the more popular cooking websites are incredibly helpful tools for working in the kitchen. An algorithm counts how many eighths of a tablespoon of baking powder you’ll need to make a batch of pancakes for one, if you’re all alone and hungry for breakfast.

My mother ’s copy of The Joy of Cooking certainly lacks that function and other high tech characteristics of these recipe sites. I’ll admit that The Joy of Cooking has not seen much use at our house in years, but the book sports an impressive array of marginalia from

my mom’s years in graduate school. There are notes about adjusting the oven temperature and better instructions for mixing ingredients penciled in the empty spaces of the cookbook’s pages.

This advice is certainly helpful, but they pale in comparison to whispers about “the secret touch” or “secret ingredients” exchanged in the kitchen between generations of chefs.

In the world of digitalized recipes, the opportunity to customize ingredients isn’t encouraged. There are small check boxes next to each “cor-

Plate of the Union

by Rebecca Barr & Colleen Wood a bi-weekly column about food rect” ingredient, a handy tool when you aren’t sure whether you already added the baking powder, but one which can stifle culinary creativity. While baking with a friend once, I suggested we add a dollop of Greek yogurt. “But it’s not on the recipe,” she said.

Her observation was true, but I’m not convinced that deviating from the recipe necessarily dooms a dish to disaster status. Martha Stewart leaves a lot of things out from her recipes, but that does not mean they should not be added to the mixing bowl.

Your grandmother’s cookies aren’t delicious because she followed the recipe to a tee.

They’re delicious because she has a heavy hand when pouring in vanilla and because she has spent decades experimenting with flavors and butter-to-sugar ratios to make the recipe her own. Recipes become special when we tinker with them.

forming Arts. Just be sure you don’t miss Nomadic Theater’s showings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead this weekend and next weekend, Thursday through Saturday with a Sunday matinee. To paraphrase Rosencrantz, I don’t know if you’ll leave enlightened, but you’ll most certainly leave intrigued.

Of course, you can Google “secret ingredients” and find endless accounts of perfect additions that give unexpected flavor to any dish. Yet this misses a big point of so-called secret ingredients. It takes out a large part of the fun of experimentation. Google doesn’t get the message “Don’t add chili peppers to strawberry cake” across in quite the same way as taking a big bite of a foul-tasting baked good that you tried to give a bit of pizazz.

Because what if chili peppers in strawberry cake actually taste good? You won’t know unless you experiment.

The best meals I’ve ever cooked were always the result of this “Why not?” attitude.

After a long night of dancing and sipping on Tombs Ale, “Why not?” was the guiding principle behind emptying the contents of my refrigerator to make the best mac ‘n’ cheese ever. Dumping a can of beer into the salsa bowl at a party (because “Why not?”) might not end up tasting as good as pouring beer into a pot of chili, but the process of experimentation is equally important in both cases.

So don’t be dismayed if your search for the perfect secret ingredient sometimes yields a less-than-delectable product. (This is college, after all, so someone on this campus will likely eat it regardless of its taste.) Rather, buck up and press on. Try different combinations, different additives, and different methods of mixing everything together.

Good luck, and don’t forget to invite me over if your homemade tikka misala turns out to be amazing.

Find your secret ingredient with Rebecca and Colleen at rbarr@ georgetownvoice.com and cwood@ georgetownvoice.com

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“I hate it when things don’t go my way. It makes me so horny.” — Cruel Intentions

the georgetown voice 11

Van Gogh’s Repetitions: New each visit These tapas ain’t free

by Tim Annick Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are sculpture. Using a technique called impasto, his brush strokes are so thickly applied that they create peaks and canyons of paint. These mountains and caverns create an image of a furious flurry of activity in his paintings. Consistent throughout van Gogh’s oeuvre, his technical virtuosity appears improvised.

Enter The Phillips Collection’s current exhibit on van Gogh’s work. Based on eight years of research, Van Gogh Repetitions aims to shatter the popular image of van Gogh as an improviser. The exhibit opens with a comparison of two different paintings of the SaintRémy street Cours de l’Est. The first is improvised, probably painted while van Gogh actually observed it. The second, The Phillips Collection’s own The Road Menders, is a planned composition with sub-

tle but distinct changes. The motif of repetition, but even more so the idea of subtle improvement, is the focus of this exhibit.

But remember, this is van Gogh, not Albrecht Dürer. The exhibit has a hard time distinguishing repetition with exploration in color. For example, in the exhibit’s third room, Weavers is displayed as the starting point of van Gogh’s evolution in color. We see his influences, Monticelli’s being the most obvious to a casual viewer, and the chromatic effect his surroundings have on his work. In the artist’s words, in the south of France there is “more color, more sun” than in Paris and Antwerp. We are even treated to his personal musings on color: “NO BLUE WITHOUT YELLOW and WITHOUT ORANGE.” It is not until the second half of the exhibit that the subject of repetition is really addressed in paintings (as opposed to preliminary sketches), when three, four,

phillips collection

“I had no idea these impressionist maps would be so hard to read.”

or five different works of the same subject are directly juxtaposed.

Van Gogh Repetitions can be misleading, as the exhibit addresses his artistic process more heavily than simply repeating subjects.

While the immediate juxtaposition of pieces makes for a wonderful game of Spot The Difference, the placement of the works throughout the space can be disorienting. The exhibit mixes orders of paintings, sometimes displaying the preliminary sketches before the painting, and sometimes doing the opposite. It makes for a circular viewing experience. I found myself returning to paintings I had already seen to better understand how the works differed.

The exhibit encompasses 35 different pieces from museums and private collections all over the world— the Parisian Musée d’Orsay, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, as well as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts represent just a handful of the works displayed. Washington, D.C. has not seen an exhibit of van Gogh this comprehensive for 15 years. It would be ludicrous to miss this, for even a casual audience will delight in a group of paintings ranging from some of the master’s best known works to those that made one patron ask, “Is this really van Gogh?”

The Phillips Collection 1600 21st St., N.W. Tuesday-Sunday $10 student tickets

by Sabrina Kayser At Barcelona Wine Bar, a bull’s head hangs on the wall, flames roar in the open kitchen, and rows upon rows of glistening wine glasses create a curtain of reflecting light. Rough exposed wood panel lines the interior, and a wall of glass looks out onto the patio. While the wood is dark and earthy, the glass wall and high black ceiling open up the space to create a balance between the light and the heavy, the intimate and the spacious.

Located on 14th St., Barcelona Wine Bar is sheltered behind a tree of rather large girth, which effectively creates a partition that blocks off the outside world. The dishes encompass traditional Spanish offerings like patatas bravas, pintxos de puerco, gambas al ajillo, and paella. Head chef Pedro Garzon, a descendant of Spanish olive growers, used his years of culinary experience to create an elegant menu.

The sublime Manchego sheep’s cheese, a traditional La Mancha variety, is served on a wooden board with a fig and port spread. While at first glance the brittle texture of the cheese creates an expectation for dryness, it turned out to be unexpectedly creamy—sharp enough to pair well with the fig jelly.

After the Manchego, the spinach-chickpea Cazuela was something else entirely. Never have I had a dish like the Cazuela. The spinach was cooked to perfection, but the best part was the creamy sauce inside each leaf: a warm, voluptuous spread.

The salmon, swathed in a honey-sweet sauce of braised leeks, melts in your mouth.

However, my adventure with the broccoli rabe did not go very well. The stocky end was repulsively bitter, while the leaves were unbearably spicy. On a sweeter note, Barcelona Wine Bar also offers an assortment of typical Spanish desserts, like the famous flan catalan and churros y chocolate.

The restaurant may lack a certain eccentricity that can be found at other tapas bars in D.C., but what it lacks in uniqueness it more than makes up for in elegance. While Barcelona may not be the ideal weeknight venue for a cashstrapped student—each small plate runs from about $4 to $10, and you need several to even whet your appetite—it makes for a sophisticated weekend outing. And with a full sherry menu, the classic caña, and house vermut, Hemmingway would feel right at home at Barcelona Wine Bar.

Live fast, die young: Bad girls do it well in The Counselor

by Joshua Ward Drug cartels and decapitations have never been so sexy. Although his stunning A-list cast definitely helps, Ridley Scott infuses The Counselor with a ubiquitous sex appeal that seeps through every meticulous detail of the film. It’s difficult to imagine that such an attractive movie could successfully carry themes of grief and death, but Scott’s silver platter proves to be a successful vehicle for the ugliest of human experiences.

Beautiful people, shiny cars, lavish houses, and a steamy wardrobe highlight this film’s obsession with aesthetics, but Scott’s fixation on attractiveness extends beyond the eye candy. The film is Breaking Bad-clean. Every bullet hole and pair of red-tinted sunglasses serve a greater purpose, and every shot displays these intentional details

charmingly, with beautifully lit, expertly framed precision.

Malkina (Cameron Diaz), the film’s femme fatale, epitomizes the intersection of cruelty and grace.

Diaz, as always, plays evil well in her role as the predatory vixen, complete with two majestic pet leopards and a matching leopard print tattoo wrapping from her shoulder to her frequently exposed lower back.

This smooth-talking, enigmatic mercenary is a character founded in sex appeal. She entrances both her flashy cartel-puppet lover, Reiner (Javier Bardem), an otherwise brazen criminal, and the audience as she throws the morally obtuse lives of everyone around her into chaos.

Malkina is not the only character that provocatively grasps the audience’s attention. The first scene of the movie, a pseudo-pornographic encounter between Michael Fassbender,

the mononymous Counselor, and his fiancé, Laura (Penélope Cruz), establishes the viscerally sexual relationship between the two.

As the bankrupt Counselor enters into a criminal deal to finance his life with Laura, he quickly learns how dirty his seemingly pristine world is.

The all-powerful cartel controls his life and shapes his demise as Malkina’s plan comes to fruition.

Though in line with the movie’s vision, Scott is too quick to equate lust and love in the Counselor’s relationship with his fiancé. Fassbender’s emotion-filled performance toward the end of the film attempts to redeem this shallowness, but from the opening scene to graphic phone sex, it is hard to see anything deeper between the two characters. Regardless, the strength of this relationship carries the film’s painful plot through the otherwise gleaming world.

At times the attempted philosophical contemplation gets a little too heavy handed. We find Fassbender receiving extended nihilistic monologues from multiple random Mexican men, killing the conversational flow and removing the message from a natural, relatable domain.

While The Counselor may be flawed, the world that Scott creates is

not. In his carefully cultivated world, even death is made sexy, with Tarantino-esque fountains of blood and clean decapitations. If nothing else, this film is easy on the eyes and a beautiful respite from the clumsiness and inelegance of so many of its fellow crime-thrillers. And really, how often do you get to see Cameron Diaz have sex with a Ferrari?

imdb

“I mean, the date was bad, but at least the sex was good. You were better.”

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

october 24, 2013

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

Sainthood Reps, Headswell, No Sleep Records Sainthood Reps’ sophomore release, Headswell, blasts listeners with a head-clearing assault on the senses. With the release of their most recent collection of artful rock jams, the four-piece has stepped to center stage as a contender for the brightest musical spark from the Long Island, New York breeding ground for its now-characteristic strain of heavy, creative alternative rock.

The opener, “Shelter,” sets Headswell off to a furious start. Layered power chords and relentless drumming anchor the track in the post-grunge elements that have come to define Sainthood Reps’ sound, but the track hints at a new polish and attention to detail. The precise drum fill during the bridge, for example,

spectacularly leads into the crashing, final chorus.

“Desert Song” continues the frantic pace but throws in a heavy dose of somber reflection with Francesco Montesanto’s striking vocals.

Throughout Headswell, Montesanto carefully mixes a soft delivery during most verses with an intense barrage of emotion in every chorus.

The lyrics tell a story of pain, pity, and resentment, and the listener is left unsure if Montesanto hates the objects of his songs or morosely wishes them the best.

“The Last Place I Left You” rounds out Headswell’s spectacular opening. Progressively louder guitars rip into Montesanto’s lyrics as he chillingly chants “a phone call from nowhere / I never want to hear that wretched sound again” during the song’s outro.

“Run Like Hell” and the following title track command the middle of Headswell, with the former never letting up and the latter, alternatively, offering the most reflective lyrics and careful guitar work on the entire album.

Headswell’s only great misstep is its lackluster ending. “Rapture Addict” and the acoustic closer, “Breath Worth Breathing,” slow down the pace and turn down the distortion,

Conjuring up movie magic Getting ready for Halloween at Georgetown can be complicated—with two weekends of parties, the creativity to fuel multiple costume changes can start to run thin. But there’s one thing that should never be left off a true Halloweener’s to-do list, no matter how busy the holiday festivities get—horror movies.

As most horror movie fans know, rounding up a group of friends who are willing to watch a two hour blood bath can be nearly impossible. There are a few solutions to this problem, but most of them involve shameless trickery and flat out bribes. So this Halloween, try picking some movies that capture the holiday’s spooky spirit without sending your friends home crying.

A great place to start looking is Tim Burton’s canon. While this eccentric director may have lost his touch with his last few

CGI-oozing films, his earlier work includes a handful of essential Halloween movies that appeal to horror films’ staunchest critics. The Nightmare Before Christmas is about as Tim Burton-y as Tim Burton gets. With Nightmare, Burton’s imagination blends the grotesque with a poignancy unlikely to surface in traditional Halloween fare. If this stop-motion classic doesn’t entice your friends, Johnny Depp’s starring role in Edward Scissorhands should attract one or two Depp fanboys’ attention.

If the roommates aren’t feeling Burton’s freak factor, they may have an appetite for something with a little more … humorous. Some of the best horror movies ever made have used their sense of humor to enhance the thrill of the ride. Any Bruce Campbell movie—Army of Darkness, The Evil Dead 1 and 2—has enough jumps and laughs

but leave the listener yearning for a more climactic finish. The acoustic instrumentation and soft vocals do not fall as heavily or as memorably as the head-banging tracks on the front end of the album.

Its misguided closer aside, Headswell boasts track after track of powerful alt rock. Like the drowning swimmer depicted in the album’s cover, this record took a bold plunge and emerged dripping with the best elements to be found in the scene.

Voice’s Choices: “Run Like Hell,” “Desert Song” —Ryan Greene

The Head and the Heart, Let’s Be Still, Sub Pop Records Beautiful. The only word that surfaced in my mind as tears welled up to make you seriously question your sanity. The same goes for An American Werewolf in London.

There’s also some dark humor unapparent to most audiences in films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Hostel, but again, that might scare off your more squeamish buddies. And even worse, if they decide to stay and see you

Reel Talk

by John Sapunor a bi-weekly column about film laughing through Hostel’s gruesome scenes, they may have you pinned down in a straightjacket by the end of the night.

What about those people whose primary complaint is about the supposed poor cinematic quality of most horror films? This observation may be a true for the genre overall, but it certainly has its exceptions. Stanley Kubrick took a dip into horror with The Shining, which is now

in my eyes at the close of The Head and the Heart’s self-titled debut album, which I left spinning in my car’s stereo for many months of my senior year of high school.

Painstakingly passionate and full of life, the sextet shook the indie world with their debut album in 2011. Their unique blend of folk rock thrived in a saturated environment of Mumford and Sons wannabes. Unfortunately, their newest effort fails to meet those same standards.

It’s not that the band’s second LP, Let’s Be Still, is bad. In fact, the album is fairly good, standing out among the exhausting sea of folk rock revivalists.

Songs like “Josh McBride” exemplify graceful and magnificent composition and highlights the band’s strengths. The guitar riff that begins the piece transports the listener to a perfectly calm and peaceful mind, before we are met by the capable and experienced voice of Josiah Johnson.

Johnson is joined by sparse piano accompaniment and the simple, straightforward harmonies that the band has perfected over their short existence. As a tale of love unfolds over the five-minute track, the entire band is slowly integrated into the musical mix, prudently adding ornamentation that creates a percussive, yet melodic background. considered one of the best-crafted horror movies of all time. Maybe a little Gregory Peck in the original Omen can sway a couple doubters over. Or perhaps Roman Polanski’s like-minded demon child film Rosemary’s Baby will have your friends begging for more. This critically-acclaimed list of horror films may be limited, but it doesn’t disappoint.

Finally, there’s a never-ending supply of classic black and white horror films. While I have a long way to go when it comes to educating myself in this spectrum of the genre, classic horror films like Frankenstein¸ Nosfteratu, and Vampyr have their fair share of creepy moments. Maybe it’s the grainy image, or maybe it’s the fact that these movies kept your grandparents up at night, but there’s something uniquely frightening about the pre-WWII monster movie. It’s also comforting to know that many of these films were early enough to be completely orig-

“You are in the seat beside me” Johnson croons, “you are in my dreams at night.” This symphony of raw emotion follows the album through its entire run.

There are points, though, where the configuration of melodies ends up being a little lackluster. This is especially the case when the band attempts something new. The musical pair of “Springtime” and “Summertime,” mark a musical departure for the group. These connected pieces involve the use of a synthesizer to create broad, flowing chords to accompany the unique voice of Charity Thielen, the violinist, and secondary vocalist.

Both songs are stylistically inconsistent with the rest of the album and, as a result, feel poorly executed.

The Head and the Heart’s strengths lie in their ability to weave stories through beautiful lyrics, simple instrumentation, and radiant harmonies. The majority of Let’s Be Still follows this notion and contains magnificent and striking refrain. The only question that remains is whether or not I’ll ever get some of these choruses out of my head.

Voice’s Choices: “Josh McBride”

“Settle,”

—Daniel Varghese inal, and originality has been sadly looked over in the contemporary world inhabited by Paranormal Activity V. And that’s about all I’ve got in terms of recommending user-friendly horror movies that your friends will actually watch with you. There’s the obvious cop out of The Exorcist (which is an awesome film), but this Halloween, take a chance and try luring your friends into a marathon of lesser-watched horror films. And if no one’s going for it, just tell them they’re about to watch your favorite before-and-after movie, 28 Days Later. At this point, it’s their fault for ignoring your pleas for soft-core gore. No, now your stupid friends are going to have to watch some hard-core material their eyes will never forget.

And I’m not talking about Snooki’s sex tape.

Trick or treat with John Sapuno at jsapunor@georgetownvoice.com

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14 the georgetown voice

october 24, 2013

Sexual assault a cultural problem, not a self-help issue

by Julia Lloyd George The first time I got drunk, I was 17 and at my cousin’s house in London. I’d had alcohol before, but never enough to feel that hazy lightness I’d heard so much about. I woke up the next morning with my first hangover. The party the night before felt like some distant and glamorous dream.

I wouldn’t be drunk again until college, which fostered a culture entirely foreign to one in which I was just drinking sangria with German exchange students. I noticed a fierceness in the way that people approached alcohol, like drinking was some kind of extreme sport. I started getting used to hearing people tell battle stories about their weekends, bashfully recounting how wasted they’d been and how they’d been pushed to the point of throwing up when these seemed to secretly be points of pride. On a couple of occasions, I became that person myself.

But, it wasn’t until the summer after my freshman year that my relationship with alcohol got out of hand.

I entirely lost control and ended up getting blackout drunk with a group of strangers at a music festival. When I found myself in an ambulance later, I was told that my blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and that I’d been found wandering around naked. I will never know what happened that night, but I felt vulnerable and scared in a way that I had never been before. I felt dirty, powerless, and small. I swore to myself I would never get into that situation again. So far, I’ve been successful, though there have been a few low points when I got close.

The decision to drink alcohol will always be personal, a consideration of the risks in comparison to the reward: that uninhibited feeling of invincibility, deceptive as it is. I alone am responsible for the extremes of drunkenness I have reached. I alone can monitor myself. But that does

not in any way make me culpable for what someone did to me while I was drunk. Laying the burden of responsibility at the door of a sexual assault victim not only heightens psychological damage in the aftermath, but also shifts our focus to the wrong area.

Educating people about alcohol and encouraging responsible drinking as prevention for situations of sexual assault are only common sense, since incapacitated people make the most natural targets. I have no issue with being told to drink responsibly, but what I do resent is the implication that my drinking habits constitute the only variable. The attitude that the behavior of sexual attackers is somehow a constant unable to be budged only serves to substantiate cultural inertia and reinforce the stigma of being a sexual assault victim.

Every rape case in the national spotlight seems to involve a girl who drank too much and the boys who took advantage of her condition.

Those circumstances, sadly though,

are hardly newsworthy. The reason we hear about cases like that of Daisy Coleman or the girl in Steubenville, Ohio, lies in the ways in which those communities foster a rape culture that encourages victim ostracism and perpetrator protection.

The kind of society that attacks a rape victim over social networking and forces her family to leave town constitutes a problem far greater than any alcohol education program can possibly prevent. This is a culture in which rape is a non-issue, while a girl having non-consensual sex and making a fuss about it is a crime worthy of censure.

On a smaller level, Daisy Coleman’s agreement to have a drink five shots tall might have been prevented by the knowledge of what it would do to her, but women also tend to be people pleasers. Saying no might seem uncool or antisocial. Moreover, breaking rules is fun and drinking is glamorous. I went through AlcoholEdu along with the rest of my class-

mates, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still sometimes overestimate my capabilities. Telling only one gender to moderate drinking is a short-sighted tactic because it overlooks the reality of social situations and the ways in which alcohol-related sexual assault also affects men, both as victims and attackers with a dim memory of the night before.

As long as a culture in which heavy drinking is promoted and rape does not carry severe consequences persists, the two will go hand in hand.

Tackling both elements of a toxic environment requires major systemic change that cannot possibly happen overnight, but altering attitudes tends to be both the most difficult and most fundamental solution. Unfortunately, there is no class for that.

Julia Lloyd George is a junior in the College. She’s also annoyed there aren’t classes for paper football and Dungeons & Dragons.

Nobel Peace Prize obsolete and based on media attention

by Ian Philbrick Early in the morning on Friday, Oct. 11, media outlets lit up with the announcement that the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Founded in 1997 and based in The Hague, the OPCW is organizing intergovernmental efforts to inspect chemical weapons sites of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Most commentators were rooting for 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was the prospective front-runner among this year’s 259 nominees. Her loss shows that winning the Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t

mean that much—and that’s something that should bother us.

While the choice of OPCW is unlikely to provoke the same controversy that met Yassir Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Perez in 1994 and President Obama in 2009, this year’s choice is somewhat ironic. Although the Nobel Committee denied that Assad’s violations of international law influenced their decision to award the prize to a chemical weapons watchdog organization, the timing is difficult to ignore. Still, Dashiell Bennett from The Atlantic Wire brought up the point that what could be more warranted than a robust condemnation of such be-

LEILA LEBRETON

MSBro receives Nobel Peace Prize for safely running the largest beer pong competition.

havior in “the first year in decades that chemical weapons were deployed in battle on a large scale”?

The problem with a Peace Prize attuned to current events and awarded on that basis isn’t necessarily that it’s premature or undeserved, but that it focuses too much attention on newspaper headlines.

Media have focused the world exhaustively upon every step of the political tango danced by President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin around an agreement, every dissembling denial of wrongdoing

by Assad, and every opinion rendered by punditry and politicians preceding the UN resolution that provided the OPCW’s its mandate.

What hope is there for issues that lie outside the limelight? Bringing awareness to injustice shouldn’t be reduced to pageantry when the issue most in the news gets the win. The Prize is and should be a forum on humanitarian issues affecting the international community—but the humanitarian crises needing the most attention are the ones about which we know least.

Far more than not being able to satisfy everyone (an impossibility), the trouble with the awarding of the Peace Prize this year—the trouble with awarding it any year—is that public opinion matters little in the

decision. Which did we, the world, need more? An affirmation that the use of chemical weapons against a civilian population represents a heinous rejection of human norms, which is undoubtedly true; or, proof that individuals can, through their courage and persistence, combat oppression and promote women’s educational rights, ideals in which we ourselves have a daily stake? Ultimately, not only do individuals, activist groups, and NGOs make a difference in humanitarian crises, but they also impact the greater attention of humankind.

The Peace Prize has an obligation to better facilitate this process.

The funding and public attention that come not just with winning but with being nominated are the Prize’s perennial value. The positive attention brought to the individuals and organizations laboring to address injustices that persist without significant public awareness is immeasurably redeeming in light of the demonstrable failings of the prize itself. Malala, for one, appears to be capitalizing on her brush with the Prize the right way. Not only has she demurred when asked if she deserved to win, but she has harnessed the publicity generated by the prize to launch the Malala Fund, raising money

and awareness for her cause. She is living out her own maxim, expressed in an interview for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, that “we don’t realize the importance of anything until it is snatched from our hands.” Other nominees, who include Congolese gynecologist and sexual assault victim activist Dr. Denis Mukwege, the first-ever female attorney general of Guatemala Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz, and three female Russian human rights activists, should follow her example.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 94 times, to 100 individuals and 25 organizations. It is individuals, far more than organizations alone, who have the faces, stories, and voices that inspire others to action. In her Daily Show interview, Yousafzai speaks with all the idealistic conviction of a 16-year-old, yes—but also with a conviction that resonates beyond any award and beyond the easy immediacy of the headlines. As Alfred Nobel himself stated, “I would like to help dreamers.” The Nobel Committee would do well to take note.

Ian Philbrick is a freshman in the College. Honestly, he just hates everything about news media. Awkward.

voices

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the georgetown voice 15

GOP hypocrisy: Not all security issues are created equal

by Julia Tanaka I pulled into the parking lot at work—a little late, NPR humming on the radio. Stepping out of the car, I picked up a bag of clipboards out of the trunk. There were rolls of stickers, pens without caps, and posters crammed haphazardly into every corner of my car, but cleaning it out was last on my list of priorities. It was the first week of early voting, which meant that it was the beginning of a two-week long push to ensure that voters made it to the polls before election day. I breathed in the hard, stinging cold air and walked down the alley separating the parking

lot and my office. Fall comes fast in the desert.

In the fall of 2012, I spent three months as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Reno, Nev. Seven days a week, I called, knocked on doors, registered voters, and helped organize events when surrogates came into town.

I don’t list these things as part of my résumé. I list these things because I spent three months working intensely with Reno natives to politically organize. I list these things because my regional office was in Sparks, a small city just east of Reno, and, three days ago, a 12-year-old boy shot a math teacher,

Hypocrisy! Printing and distributing fliers kills trees!

CHRISTINA LIBRE

Vaulting success despite racism

When you Google search “Simone Biles,” the top hits are not about how she left Belgium earlier this month as the most decorated gymnast of the 2013 World Championships. They do not praise her Amanar vault that could impress two-time, reigning World Champion McKayla Maroney. And they don’t discuss her floor exercise, which was packed with some of the most difficult skills in the world, one of those being recently named after the 16-year-old gymnast.

Instead, the top hits from “Simone Biles” are about her race—more specifically, racist comments made by 18-year-old Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito at this year’s Gymnastics World Championship.

In an interview with the Italian media, Ferlito said to teammate Vanessa Ferrari, “Next time we should also paint our skin black so that we could win, too.” While certainly naïve and

immature, was her comment intended to be racist?

I doubt Ferlito is familiar with the details of the American Civil Rights movement, much less the history of blackface. Living in Italy this semester, I’ve realized that America, despite its lingering race problems, is in fact one of the most racially tolerant countries in the world. Italy, on the other hand, is not. There aren’t many minorities in Italy, much less black people. Therefore, racism isn’t viewed as it is in the United States. The Sicilian teenage girl has not been raised in a culture in which children are taught to think carefully before saying anything that could be construed as racially discriminatory.

In order for her comment to be intentionally racist, Ferlito would have insinuated that Biles was inferior because she was black. This is not the case here. On the most basic level, she was just noticing the recent success of

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three of his classmates, and then himself at Sparks Middle School.

Like most of us, I have read stories about mass shootings with deep empathy. Tucson, Aurora, Sandy Hook, the Navy Yard. To hear about lives taken in such a brutal and senseless way always causes a pang. This story was different for me, however. To have walked those streets, knocked on those doors, and talked to those people brought the story closer.

Gov. Brian Sandoval (R), Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and President Obama have all expressed condolences over the tragedy. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated on Tuesday that the President is still committed to pushing for greater gun control.

But when are we going to stop comforting and apologizing, and when are we going to do something?

We talk about large-scale gun violence as though it’s a phenomenon, but it has become commonplace to us.

At this point, it’s white noise. Shootings come and go with regularity like the tide, and, for some reason, Americans are starting to accept that this is the price of our freedom—that parents across the country should stoically bear the deaths

of their children as a sacrifice in order to maintain the integrity of our democracy.

Or at least, so Republicans would have us believe. What Republicans conveniently ignore is that in a time of crisis, when great violence had been done unto this country, Americans’ constitutional rights were nothing more than a footnote in the greater picture of “national security.” After 9/11, there was a massive ballooning in the size of government and national spending, which brought with it a huge encroachment on our private lives—for our own sakes, we were assured. There was no conservative uproar there, no call for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Certainly, there was no absurd constant threat of a Senate filibuster in order to get even the most basic legislation passed.

As part of a mission to protect the United States, Congress passed several pieces of legislation, such as the PATRIOT Act, several large portions of which have since been deemed unconstitutional by federal courts. Many security programs, such as NSA wiretapping and drones, remain under legal contention.

It’s easy for Republicans to say that on a “security issue” it’s acceptable for

Biles and Olympic champion Gabrielle Douglas—arguably similar to the way I jest that I should dye my hair blonde and wear Lululemon in order to win the sport of boys at Georgetown. Does that mean I have a deep prejudice against blondes? No, it simply means I have noticed their success at attaining male companionship.

Ferlito’s comments were catty and juvenile, surely, but the interpretation of them is what intrinsically connected Biles’s race to her success.

Though her parents were justifiably angry, Biles brushed it off and

Romanians to dominate the sport for years.”

Clearly there is a cultural divide here about what is and isn’t appropriate to say, but what is most concerning about the federation’s comment was its gross ignorance.

Firstly, the success of Douglas and Biles this year hardly constitutes a trend, and, furthermore, they are completely different gymnasts. Pairing them together as similar would be like saying long-lined Nastia Liukin and petite powerhouse Shawn Johnson are anything alike in style when, in fact, like Douglas and Biles, they are polar opposites.

However, the main flaw was labeling a shift in focus from elegance to difficulty as opening “new chances to athletes of color (well-known for power).”

The Amanar that gave Air-Maroney her name? Named after Romanian gymnast Simona Amanar at the Sydney Olympic Games. Ever heard of the “Moors?” Maybe not yet, but white Canadian gymnast Victoria Moors’s double twisting somersault—the hardest element on floor with the highest Code of Points rating today—was named after her at this year’s worlds.

Both powerful gymnasts, both Caucasian, and neither of them can do a switch leap on beam—a highly graceful technical element—as elegantly as Gabby Douglas.

Carrying On

by Julia Jester A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

did not want to let catty remarks take away from her “victorious moment.”

Ferlito apologized for her remarks via Twitter, but, to throw in another insult, Italy’s gymnastics federation issued another apology via Facebook that worsened the incident: “Carlotta was referring to a trend in gymnastics at this moment, which is going towards a technique that opens up new chances to athletes of color (well-known for power) while penalizing the more artistic Eastern European style that allowed Russians and

our rights to be violated. Well, I’d consider children shooting themselves and others to be a “security issue.” Arguably, by sheer numbers, domestic gun violence remains as large a toll on our people as battles abroad. Our children aren’t collateral damage for stubbornness and political infighting. Somehow the conversation about gun control has shifted to an abstract conversation about rights rather than a conversation about violence.

If Republicans are so concerned about democracy, I have a little advice: the best way to maintain democracy is to fund the government. It’s to pay back our debts. It is an atrocity that we have allowed squabbling to take precedence over basic protection in schools, in movie theaters, in temples.

The idea that our 237-year-old country will collapse if we pass gun control is used to coerce Republicans into voting against gun control, but it is an empty threat. Talking points are hollow when it comes to hollow-points.

Julia Tanaka is a junior in the SFS. She has a little bit of advice for everything. Very little.

Yes, the spokesperson for the gymnastics ministry is terrible at damage control. But the most offensive part of this story is that the mainstream media ran with the racial controversy narrative and failed to mention her successes as a gymnast. Articles in USA Today, CNN, and ESPN glossed over her awe-inspiring performances in Belgium before analyzing how her race factored into them. Instead of praising how Biles was the only American (note how I said American and not black American) to advance to every world final event—all-around, balance beam, floor, and uneven bars—since gymnastics legend Shannon Miller, the media pitied her for being subject to ignorant comments made by a catty, jealous teenager.

The Federation of International Gymnastics got tired of gymnasts playing it safe with their skills and wanted to distinguish artistic gymnastics as an athletic, challenging sport. This has nothing to do with Biles—connecting her race to her powerful style is completely irrelevant and inaccurate. Biles is not a powerful gymnast because she is black. Biles is not a successful gymnast because she rose to the top “in spite of” being black. Biles is a talented athlete because she persevered to get where she is. Attributing that success, or the success of any other athlete, to the color their skin is the real insult here.

ArtistiSpotlight Tell me a little about your art and how you got started.

I tried acting when I was 11 and completely fell in love with it. I was a pretty shy kid. I think act- ing the lives of other people, even fictional, gave me a stronger voice. As I explored different characters, their flaws and triumphs, and tried to relate to these completely different characters, I realized I was becoming more comfortable and confident in myself. As far as film itself goes, I picked up a camera my senior year in high school and it gave me a different perspective of my art.

How did film change your perspective?

Well, I think performance and acting are more about inhabiting a world while film and directing are more about creating a world.

I used to think I fell in love with both types of art for the same reason: because I loved their ability to explore the human condition. But, I think I have come to realize that I fell in love with these forms of art for very different reasons.

How do you figure?

There is something really beautiful about capturing a single fleeting moment on film to have from that moment preserved forever.

But, at the same time, there is a certain thrill about being on stage in a certain scene and having a connection with the audience that will never again be experienced by you or that audience, no matter how many times you do the same scene. Each performance allows for its own special connection, its own ephemeral feelings.

Taylor Taylo Mansmann

So how has Georgetown played a role in your art?

Well I came to Georgetown and I felt a lot of pressure to move away from my art and focus on “real life,” whatever that means.

It took me a semester to realize that I couldn’t keep my sanity without that artistic outlet. My second semester I got involved in a very rewarding theater project “Still me,” which relayed my own story of coming out. The emotion laden response I saw from the audience made me realize that despite the career oriented outlook people have here, they are still passionate about art and appreciative of its expression.

I am also a member of Mask & Bauble, take plenty of theater and film coursework, and recently finished writing a screenplay.

College ’15 English, Film and Media Studies Arts: Acting, Film Production Philadelphia, Penn.

Wow, that’s impressive! What are your plans for next semester?

I’m going to study directing in Prague at The Film and Television Academy of Performing Arts. I’ll be the first student from Georgetown to do this program but it seems pretty cool. Basically, I’ll be committing myself to developing a film and the whole process behind that.

It’s clear that you’re very invested in your arts. Do you see yourself pursuing them post-Georgetown?

I am definitely going to try. I feel like I have to go the “no regrets path” and just try. I will try acting while pursuing some sort of film path.

I don’t really know what it all looks like yet but I’m excited.

Contac tT george iff at tdl25@ town.e du with your s ugges tions!