2 3 2011

VOICE the georgetown

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UNIVERSITY TO STUDENTS: HUSH, CHILDREN! PAGE 4

HEART-ATTACK HOYAS WIN FIFTH IN A ROW PAGE 7

VAGINA OPENS IN THE DAVIS CENTER PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w February 3, 2011 w Volume 44, Issue 4 w georgetownvoice.com

Lord of of Lord the WINGS WINGS the

2 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

comments of the week “Instead of taking up valuable police time and sticking students with arrest records, this entire situation could be cleared up by the liberal use of the phrase,‘Excuse me young man/lady, I live across the street. Could you please quiet down?’“

—Jacob “ANC2E Wrap-up: Noises in the Night”

“Breaking News: It takes an unprecedented popular uprising in Egypt for President DeGioia to email the student body about something” — Jackson Perry “Twuesday Tweetacular”

“How much money did Jack foot to go to Davos? The entry is upwards of $50K to go to the conference. Plus another $20K for the reception, at least? Hmm…I wonder what the President’s budget is…”

—Simon “DeGioia goes to Davos for World Economic Forum”

“What if your name comes smack-dab in the middle of the alphabet, and you are never first and never last? Is there a ‘middle child’ personality here?”

—Eileen “Georgetown professor pioneers the ‘last name effect’”

Vox Populi: ]T

E R Georgetown's C E S #1 Campus O N S ' Blog T [I .

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Talk Back BLOG GEORGETOWNVOICE COM

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Voice Crossword “Hoya Saxa” by Scott Fligor

Across 1. Oil grp.

5. Fill 9. Municipal dept.

14. ___ Croft

15. 13th or 15th day 16. Aussie marsupial 17. Afflicts 18. 53-across, for example 20. 6-3, 227 22. Says

answers at georgetownvoice.com 23. Hiroshima’s river 24. Snatch 25. “Van Wilder” exchange student 28. 6-1, 208 30. Jefferson’s sch.

33. Rhododendron type 35. JT ___ 36. German word used slangly as “extremely” 37. Thoughtful type 38. Comfort ___ 39. Queeg’s ship 40. Psyche’s love 41. Idiot 42. Spring break destination 43. TV Pooch 44. 6-9, 247 46. Mauna ___ 47. Troutlike fish 50. Hollister rival, for short 51. House minority leader 53. 6-7, 242 58. Emmy-winning puppeteer 61. Maître d’s handout 62. Right Guard competitor 63. Sold in half sizes 64. “___ stands ….”

65. Former Japanese PM Fukada 66. Hustles 67. Sunday service

Down 1. “Cool story Hansel” speaker 2. Ark group 3. Author ___ Stanley Gardner 4. Detective’s assignment 5. “The Chairman of the Board” 6. Hebrew title for God 7. Perfect number 8. Precedes “tee” 9. Rink necessity 10. Main artery 11. 6-8, 238 12. Robert of “The Sopranos” 13. Sailors 19. ___- frutti 21. John Deere product 24. It’s protected in soccer 25. Circus employee 26. Sky-blue 27. 6-2, 170 29. Infomercial knife

31. Concert locale 32. Game site 34. ____ Misérables 36. Trumpeter Rasey 38. Munich’s river 39. Camera brand 41. Singer-songwriter Lavigne 42. Chedder and gouda 45. It stops bullets, and erosion 48. Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi 49. “Do as I say, not ___” 51. Practice exam 52. ___ - Lessien Test Track 54. Islamic leader 55. ___ Grande 56. Adams-___ Treaty 57. Acorns and pistachios, for example 59. PC bailout 60. One of the five W’s

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

E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 44.4 February 3, 2011 Editor-in-Chief: Molly Redden Managing Editor: Tim Shine Editor-at-Large: Juliana Brint Director of Technology: Ishita Kohli News Blog Editor: Geoffrey Bible Leisure Blog Editor: Nico Dodd News Editor: Chris Heller Sports Editor: Nick Berti Feature Editor: Sean Quigley Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: Leigh Finnegan Voices Editor: Aodhan Beirne Photo Editor: Max Blodgett Design Editors: Nitya Ramlogan, Catherine Johnson Projects Editor: Brendan Baumgardner Crossword Editor: Scott Fligor Assistant Blog Editors: Diana McCue, Vincent Tennant Assistant News Editors: Rachel Calvert, Ryan Bellmore, Jeffrey Neidermaier Assistant Sports Editors: Adam Rosenfeld, Rob Sapunor Assistant Cover Editor: Holly Ormseth, Kelsey McCullough Assistant Leisure Editor: Mary Borowiec, Heather Regen, John Sapunor Assistant Photo Editors: Julianne Deno, Matthew Funk

Assistant Design Editor: Michelle Pliskin

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

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

Staff Photographers:

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

Staff Designers:

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

Copy Chief: Keaton Hoffman Copy Editors:

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

the georgetown voice 3

C.R.E.A.M. GET THE MONEY

Endowment growth a welcome development Well-endowed has never been the first adjective that comes to mind when describing Georgetown, but that is slowly changing.

Last week, the University’s endowment was ranked 67th largest in the country by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, up four spots from 2009 and a full 10 spots from 2004. This climb reflects prudent fiscal management and bodes well for Georgetown’s financial future.

Much of Georgetown’s recent rise in the rankings is due to the University’s deft response to the recession. The endowment’s losses in fiscal year 2009 were smaller than the national average. The endowment turned around in fiscal year 2010, earning $114 million for a gain of 12.8 percent. Georgetown’s endowment now stands at over $1 billion again, as it did before the recession. Georgetown’s shrewd but conservative management was helped along by a great deal of luck—in the form of a $75 million gift from the McDevitt family—but the positive

net change still represents an encouraging sign for the future health of the University’s endowment and overall finances.

Much of this sound guidance came from Georgetown’s recently departed Chief Investment Officer Larry Kochard. Hired in 2004 to be the University’s first CIO, Kochard vastly improved Georgetown’s fiscal situation in his six years here by professionalizing the school’s investment management and enacting defensive investment policies to combat the effects of the recession. Hopefully the replacement for Kochard, who left in early January, will follow his example of aggressive oversight and prudent investing.

While the endowment’s growth is impressive on its own, it is even more notable that Georgetown has been able to make such gains while remaining focused on its other fiscal priorities, such as financial aid and funding for essential construction projects. While the endowment was sliding back to pre-recession

levels, the University also raised $17.3 million in scholarships through the 1789 Initiative and finally found a way to finance the construction of the new science center, a project that was put on hold by the recession. In an age when universities often come under fire for hoarding funds in their endowments, it is reassuring that the success of our endowment has not been accompanied by scrimping on other necessary projects.

Despite its progress, Georgetown’s endowment still has much room for growth.

Georgetown is still one of only two schools ranked in the U.S. News and World Report top 25 national universities whose endowment is not in the NACUBO’s top 40. Furthermore, the endowment still only covers a very small portion of the University’s operating budget (6.8 percent as of fiscal year 2009), leaving the rest to be paid by high tuition fees. Georgetown still doesn’t have the endowment it needs, but with progress like this, someday it could.

blacked out

Outage response leaves students in the dark It’s been a rough couple of weeks for students living in the East Campus. Early last week many residents lost their Internet connection for days at a time. Then on Wednesday night students in LXR and Nevils were hit by a power outage that lasted into Thursday morning. The situation was exacerbated by the largest snowstorm of the year, which hindered efforts to restore power. The well-being and safety of the students, who were forced out of their pitch black rooms into the storm, should have been the top priority of administrators that night, but, as is often the case, the University’s response was marked by poor communication and poor planning.

Last week’s power outage made clear that administrators have learned little since the botched response to the DMT lab in Harbin Hall. Even hours after power went out, there was no clear message coming from the top, and residents were largely left without answers from the University. An email from

the East Campus hall director sent shortly after 5:30 p.m. said that facilities was continuing its efforts to address the problem and told students to “expect a more detailed email from the Office of Housing Services soon.”

That email didn’t come until after 10:30 p.m., more than five hours later. It notified students that power would likely not be back until the morning and that Yates and Sellinger would remain open for the night.

Someone with more authority than a hall director should have been in contact with students much earlier, letting them know where they could spend the night in the event that power couldn’t be restored. Things only got more disorganized when the University attempted to open up rooms across the campus for the displaced students. One email to the residents of Nevils, who were still without power, suggested that they may be asked to take in LXR residents for the night.

The blackout debacle revealed a lack of

planning on the part of the University. There are a number of established procedures in the event of fire, as evidence by the fairly wellcoordinated response to last year’s fire in New South. It seems there are none for conditions that make residences uninhabitable. Keeping Yates and Sellinger open all night does not constitute an adequate response. Air mattresses were provided to a lucky few students who found refuge with friends, but they weren’t available in sufficient enough numbers to make a difference. A more effective measure would have been to open up a common space, and put down places to sleep there so that students would have had a simple and accessible refuge for the night.

Hundreds of students should never be left without a comfortable place to sleep for the night, essentially forced to fend for themselves in the midst of a massive snowstorm. If this and the DMT incident are any indications, the University needs better backup plans.

Editorial Board Chair: J. Galen Weber Editorial Board:

MA’ASSALAMA EGYPT

Head of Business: Kara Brandeisky

University stuns with capable Cairo response

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

The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

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

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

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On this week’s cover ... Inside Wingos Cover Graphic: Iris Kim

Students studying abroad in the Middle East understand that living in the tumultuous region comes with a degree of risk. But for the 15 Georgetown students studying in Cairo, that risk became a reality on Sunday, as widespread unrest in Egypt made continued safe study impossible. The University’s decision to pull the students out of the country when it did was appropriate, and it conducted its evacuation effort amidst massive protests and scattered incidences of violence with surprising quickness. Georgetown should be commended for its well-organized response, but its support should continue as these students adjust to the rest of their semester.

The decision to evacuate the students came after University administrators had consulted closely with the State Department and officials at the American University in Cairo so that they fully grasped the situation on the ground.

When it became clear that student safety was

seriously threatened, the University acted quickly, getting students past the massive crowds that have mobbed airports and onto a flight out of the country. Other universities did not act so quickly. George Washington University and American University were unable to evacuate all of their students until Tuesday.

Equally impressive was the University’s communication with the student body throughout the process. Emails from President John DeGioia and University Spokesperson Julie Green Bataille kept students updated on the safety and well-being of their peers and friends.

With those 15 students now safely in Qatar and their semester in Egypt prematurely finished, it is important that the University take the steps necessary to reintegrate the students into new classes, either here in D.C. or abroad in a new program. Georgetown has still not publicly announced the academic

options available to the students now that they have left Egypt. The University ought to offer them the chance to study at its satellite campus in Qatar or another program in the Middle East. Students should be given seats in whatever classes they qualify for. The University should also instruct professors to be flexible and make any adjustments necessary to grading policies so that students can resume their studies in the classes they chose and on even footing with their peers. It would be unfair to penalize these students for events outside of their control. Students deserve the chance to graduate on time.

So far, Georgetown deserves high marks for the coordination and communication of its response to events in Egypt. But the challenges for these students didn’t end in Egypt. They deserve the continued attention and support of the University as they try and pick up their semester far from where it began.

news

4 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

Amidst revolution, students witness history

by Chris Heller Earlier this week, 15 Georgetown students studying at the American University in Cairo were evacuated from Egypt.

Three of the students, who were set to begin a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo in the midst of an uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that began on Jan. 25., will return to campus on Thursday to finish their spring semester.

“We were safe on campus, which despite being located in Cairo, is actually about a 45-minute bus ride away from all of the happenings, but we were warned not to go into the city,” Jennifer Chau (COL ’12), who lived on American University in Cairo’s campus, wrote in an email. “If we were to go, we were to stay in groups and watch from rooftops.”

In a teleconference with University officials on Monday, the students expressed gratitude for the University’s role in their evacuation.

“I’m sure glad I got the international Blackberry before I left the States,” Benjamin Johnson (SFS ’12) joked, referring to the Egyptian government’s shutdown of Internet and cell phone access.

“It’s been a really crazy 24 hours,

especially the airport. That twohour time period felt like a twoweek time period that none of us are ever going to forget.”

After the University’s Emergency Response Team—a group comprised of different parts of the University’s administrative infrastructure, from the Office of Communications to University Information Services—decided to evacuate the students on Sunday. University officials shaped an evacuation plan that involved commercial, charter, and State Department-funded flights.

“We took advantage of the first one that became available,” Julie Green Bataille, a university spokesperson, wrote in an email that Georgetown took advantage of the first flight that became available.

“There were a number of people from different schools who called their schools on Sunday and their study abroad people or whoever they were calling had no idea how to get them out,” Rich Rinaldi (MSB ’12), a student studying abroad at AUC, said. “The whole time [Georgetown] was on top of it.”

The students, who were some of few at AUC to have a confirmed flight, departed Egypt at 2 p.m. on Jan. 31 and arrived in Doha, Qatar the same day. According to Bataille,

the University worked closely with State Department and AUC officials to coordinate the evacuation.

Department of Public Safety Director Rocco DelMonaco, who was visiting the School of Foreign Service’s Qatar campus with Director of Safety Phil Hagan on unrelated business, met the students in Doha. “[DelMonaco and Hagan] oversaw some of the emergency planning from [Doha] along with many of the SFS-Q staff and in consultation with the ERT team in Washington,” Bataille explained.

Chau recounted the hectic atmosphere at the airport as the students waited for their flight.

“I was stuck in this mob of people trying to rush out,” she said. “Nobody was moving anywhere because there was so many people. People were throwing luggage over my head because they were trying to get to the other side [of the airport].”

While their children were evacuating a country experiencing rapidly growing demonstrations, the parents of the students monitored their status on a private website created by the University’s Office of International Programs. According to Bataille, the website is a part of the University’s planning for overseas emergencies.

“[The website] consisted of textual information about the status of the evacuation,” Diane Vine, the mother of Lauren Vine (SFS ’12), wrote in an email. “It also updated us when the students arrived at the airport in Cairo and when they arrived in Doha. We are continuing to receive information including additional contacts in Doha for the students.”

Vine, who is one of the three students returning to campus Thursday, stayed in touch with her parents while in Cairo via sporadic cell phone and Internet access.

“I would give Georgetown the highest rating for the handling of this situation,” Diane Vine, who spoke with her daughter before she returned to the United States, wrote. “I keep telling my friends and family that they were amazing.”

In Tuesday’s teleconference, Provost James O’Donnell explained how the University plans to accommodate the displaced students. A team comprised of University Registrar John Pierce, Director of Student Financial Services Patricia McWade, advising deans from Georgetown College, School of Foreign Service, and McDonough School of Business, as well as Director of the Office of International

Programs Kathy Bellows will advise the students about their academic and financial options.

“We want every single one of you to have the very best semester you can possible have from this point forward,” O’Donnell said in a teleconference with the students. “We don’t know what that’s going to be yet, but we want you to have that best semester. It won’t be one size fits all. It won’t be cookie-cutter.”

Chau, who corresponded with the Voice before leaving Cairo, expressed ambiguous feelings about leaving Cairo.

“After being in Egypt barely a week, I have seen, felt, and heard a great deal,” she wrote. “Right now, a lot is uncertain. What will Mubarak do about the protests?

Will the people get what they want? ... And what about us? Will the semester begin as scheduled in the next few days? Will we be able to get out of this campus that is in the middle of the desert and finally see the pyramids? ... What I do know is that I am already more grateful and more appreciative of the life I have in the US, including Georgetown. As for the next four months of this semester, who knows what else they will bring for me?”

Students face fines, arrest under amended D.C. law

by Ryan Bellmore Noise violators can now incur up to 90 days in jail or $500 in fines under a newly amended disorderly conduct law.

The amendment, which unanimously passed last November by the D.C. Council, took effect on Tuesday, outlawing any “unreasonabl[y] loud noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that is likely to disturb one or more persons in their residences.”

In response, Dr. Todd Olson, Vice President for Student Affairs, emailed the student body Wednesday night, warning, “[This law] may have particular implications for university students throughout the District of Columbia, especially related to noise and conduct off campus.”

“Officers may make an arrest when, in the officer’s judgment, the officer has observed ‘noise that is likely to create a disturbance of the peace,’” he wrote, citing a local

Helen Burton

The DCA Act empowers MPD to make arrests if a noise is “likely to disturb.”

Metropolitan Police Department district commander.

However, according to MPD Lieutenant John Hedgecock, “the breach of peace does not have to occur,” meaning officers do not need to receive a complaint to cite offenders.

The Disorderly Conduct Amendment Act of 2010, which was introduced by Councilmember Phil Mendelson in Jul.

2009 and passed unanimously in Nov. 2010, replaced a 58 year-old “nighttime noise prohibition” which courts have called “vague and ambiguous … [and] improperly infringe[s] on citizens’ First Amendment Rights,” according to a Disorderly Conduct Arrest Project Subcommittee report.

“We increasingly heard complaints that our law was ambiguous and needed to be clarified and

also modernized,” Mendelson said in an interview with the Voice.

Mendelson added that this provision is not a new law but a clarification of the old version, which he claimed was confusing and easily misunderstood. The former nighttime noise prohibition, specifically the vague “intent to provoke a breach of peace” clause, was used to justify arrests for “contempt of cops,” according to Mendelson.

At Monday’s ANC meeting, those in attendance asked about the distinction between the DCA Act and 61-D noise violations, which enable police officers to place an arrest on someone’s record without the physical arrest.

According to Gwendolyn Crump, MPD director of communications, a 61-D is a type of arrest process in the field. It replaces taking an individual into custody.

By contrast, a violation of the DCA Act could incur time in jail or

fines, which were increased from the 1953 law.

According to the committee report, there is no filed objection to the “nighttime noise” provision, which was ruled permissible by courts on the basis that speech can be offensive by nature of its excessive loudness. Neither the American Civil Liberties Union nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who both filed extensive commentaries on the revision, found problem with the DCA Act. Furthermore, many who live in residential neighborhoods support the law. “[Councilmember Jack] Evans supports the Bill because it gives MPD additional tools to address quality of life issues in mixed-use areas of the city,” Andrew Hines, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evan’s director of communications, wrote in an email. “We know that this is a big issue is Ward 2 and heard from many that they support it.”

Mendelson said that no neighborhood lobbied for the rewrite.

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the georgetown voice 5

Gov’t may reduce federal aid, officials warn

by Sam Buckley On Wednesday, Dean of Student Financial Services Patricia McWade and Associate Vice President of Federal Relations Scott Fleming hosted a meeting to discuss potential cuts in federal aid for the coming academic year and discuss ways for students to get involved in the debate as the White House and Congress prepare to begin the process of creating a budget for fiscal year 2012.

Newly elected Republican representatives have vowed significant cuts to government spending, while President Barack Obama has stated his intent to freeze federal discretionary spending for the next five years. Any budget proposal must begin in the Republican-controlled House, and party leadership has vowed to try to push federal spending back to fiscal year 2008 levels.

McWade began the meeting by noting the role of the University’s longstanding “partnership with the federal government” in providing financial assistance to students.

“The Democratic Congress was very generous in funding increases to Pell Grants and the

like,” McWade said to a crowd of approximately 50 students.

Although Obama made a firm pledge to protect federal Pell Grant appropriations from coming cuts, other programs are likely to be targeted as the GOP looks to trim federal spending.

“Realistically, we cannot fight every single program cut, there will be cuts,” Fleming, who consulted aides to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said.

This federal partnership, McWade added, plays a significant role in the University’s ability to provide student aid. McWade also noted that the University’s aid endowment is considerably smaller than aid endowments among comparable institutions, making federal money more significant in offsetting costs that would otherwise need to be University-funded. Georgetown students received nearly $3.5 million in federal Pell Grants last academic year, with millions in additional aid coming from Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, Perkins loans, and Federal Work Study.

Between fiscal years 2008 and

A bright future for GUSA?

Too often, student government can devolve into selfpromotion with little substantive achievement. But having voted in Student Activities Fee Endowment reform and launched a new, usable website last semester, the Georgetown University Student Association looks poised for a strong semester. If last Sunday’s meeting is any indication of the sessions to come, the Senate appears to be maintaining its momentum with a set of initiatives that will make important contributions to student life.

The first order of business is to put SAFE reform to bed in a meeting with the board of directors. Once they do so, Speaker Adam Mortillaro (COL ’12) also indicated that GUSA is moving to form a commission to consider ideas for how to spend the approximately $1.9 million that remains in the student activities fee endowment.

However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that it was a mistake for the Senate to disingenuously bundle the endowment with a raise in the student activities fee into a single referendum question. It was not necessary to raise the fee when reallocating money that previously went to the endowment functionally doubled the funds available to clubs.

That said, Senator Colton Malkerson (COL’ 13) deserves credit for his good-faith legislation to definitively cap the share of the student activities fee that GUSA may allocate to itself.

This sort of bill is necessary to show that GUSA will not abuse its new, sweeping club funding powers. However, while GUSA’s budget only accounted for approximately 7.3 percent of the student activities fee allocation, the new measure offers a broad cap of 15 percent.

Also, the fee increase means that percentage comes from a

2011, federal appropriations for Pell Grants have more than doubled, from $16.4 billion to $34.8 billion, with other federal student aid programs also receiving funding increases.

Despite potential cuts to federal aid programs, McWade claimed that changes to the University’s financial aid policies are not currently on the table.

“There is no talk at Georgetown at the moment about cutting back our commitment to full need,” McWade said.

Nevertheless, both McWade and

Fleming stressed in their speeches that gaps in federal aid would need to be filled by the University and would inevitably need to be offset by cuts elsewhere, affecting opportunities for all students.

Asked about his potential stake in the debate, Eric Mooring (COL ’13), who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said the debate was unlikely to affect him personally but it had him concerned.

“All students should keep in mind that the money is fungible and that this would affect everyone’s experiences at all levels of

MAttHeW FunK

Dean McWade admitted that federal cutbacks would affect GU spending.

larger total, offering GUSA a maximum allocation of around $130,000 versus a current budget of $27,000. This can be partially justified by the fact that a large sum of this money will go to a more generous GUSA Fund, but Malkerson should question whether GUSA would ever need up to five times its present allocation to end what he calls a “culture of austerity.”

Saxa Politica

by John Flanagan

A bi-weekly column on Georgetown news and politics Despite lingering reservations about SAFE reform, it will create a culture of action that paved the way for excellence legislation in the new term. For example, Senator Michael Barclay (COL ’12) has presented a resolution asking the Department of Public Safety to publish standard operating procedures that clarify student’s rights under the Code of Conduct.

Although Georgetown’s status as a private university gives it a wide purview over the regulation of its campus, students have been pressured to give up rights beyond what even DPS can demand.

Educating students about their rights, coupled with the GUSA executive’s ongoing systematic review of the Student Code of Conduct, is an important endeavor. Recent illicit drug scandals and the rumblings of neighbors all put pressure on the University to crack down. It is heartening that GUSA is taking its responsibility to defend student’s rights seriously.

Finally, there is much to be said for the lower-profile measures that GUSA has taken to create to a more vibrant student life. Barclay’s new farmer’s market initiative, which will have its first test run in April, will deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to campus starting this fall. And anyone who eats at Leo’s will appreciate Stephanie Cohen’s

the university,” Mooring said.

Although a draft budget is not due to be released until Feb. 14, Fleming explained that the likelihood of proposals for cutting some federal student aid make it important for the University to have a plan of engagement.

“If we waited to do this meeting, then we’re running to catch up,” he said.

Fleming focused his talk on the importance of personal engagement with members of Congress in the coming debate.

As of Feb. 2, the University Office of Federal Relations has introduced the Federal Student Financial Aid Action Network, allowing students to voluntarily divulge information about their federal financial aid and providing them the option of sharing their own stories.

Fleming told students that in his experience such testimonies were critical in personalizing political debates.

“If you and other students who are getting federal aid want to be my poster children, I want to know about it,” he said.

—Additional reporting by Neha Ghanshamdas.

(COL ’12) overtures to the Food Committee to allow students to sit upstairs on the weekends.

It’s not necessarily fashionable to praise student government, but, despite lingering concerns over its funding takeover, GUSA should be commended for a strong beginning to the semester. However, senators should not rest on their laurels or give into apathy or self-aggrandizement. Students gave them a renewed mandate with the SAFE reform vote, so it is up to them to come forward with a strong vision for improving student life and for protecting student’s rights. The readiness with which the University made concessions to our unfriendly neighbors and the sometimes questionable conduct of DPS and the Metropolitan Police Department officers show that the stakes are too high to do otherwise.

Educate John about the particulars of your constutional bylaws at jflanagan@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

Collars come off for Jesuits’ annual grudge match

by Adam Rosenfeld The Society of Jesus has a diverse and colorful history, and for the past 10 years the students of Georgetown University have organized Jesuit Heritage Week in order to celebrate and make visible the school’s Jesuit character. While all of the week’s events are meaningful, one gathering is far more important and consequential than the rest—the annual Spike-A-Jesuit volleyball match.

Nothing screams “Jesuit heritage” quite like an intense game of volleyball between the student body and the Jesuit community. While the Jesuits on campus are known as an intellectual and peaceful bunch who seek to impart knowledge on impressionable students, on the night of Spike-a-Jesuit they turn into athletic tacticians with an insatiable passion for victory.

“I’m a bit of a twisted soul, but I look forward to this match the day after it’s finished,” Rev. Pat Rogers said. “I’m in charge of rallying up the Jesuits and it’s just a lot of fun, we talk it up a whole lot and the guys get really excited about it.”

Perhaps no fact is more indicative of this athletic fervor than the Jesuit’s undefeated record entering last year’s contest. That’s right. The Jesuit community was a perfect 8-0 entering the 2010 match. The students finally broke through to claim their first victory last year.

It is with this background—the students coming off their first win, the Jesuits their first loss—which the competitors met on the court on Tuesday.

After friendly introductions, the students put on their blue event tshirts, and the Jesuits cloaked themselves in gray—the collars were off.

The rivals took their sides, and play began.

It was clear from the first serve, and perhaps before, that the students had the advantage of youth

and talent. More surprisingly, the Jesuits—who are usually adept at interpersonal dialogue—struggled due to a lack of communication, making the return of the ball an adventure on nearly every play. This team-wide struggle, combined with a group of students that showed no mercy when it came to thrashing overhead serves, led to a comfortable student victory in the first game of the match.

“It’s pretty simple, the students were really quite better than we were,” Rogers said, “Actually I’m pretty proud of ourselves because we’re a pretty old team and we get out there and we try and we scrape.”

The second game started more favorably for the Jesuits, as it was apparent their slightly older team was beginning to loosen up and settle into the flow of the match. However, the students overcame the Jesuit improvements to tie the score at 15-15 halfway through the match. After some brief back and forth play, the students went on a devastating rally, giving them the victory.

“We had numbers, that’s for sure,” Margaret Massimo (COL ’11), the organizer of the event, said. “We had a large team with a lot of enthusiasm so there was no one getting tired.”

This victory in the second game gave the students the match victory due to the best-of-three format.

Despite the trophy already being awarded to Massimo and the students, the night was still young and both sides agreed to get back on the court to keep playing.

The third match was no contest, and the Jesuits reclaimed the glory attained in the event’s earlier years, demoralizing the students with a 25-10 victory.

“We started playing as a team, and we have age and wisdom on our side,” Matthew Carnes, S.J., said. “We talked to one another, passed, used some set spikes, and yeah, we played well.”

MAX BLODGETT

Men and women for others: Except when they’re on the other team.

The Jesuits continued their dominating play in the fourth and final game. With the trophy in the students’ hands, the Jesuits were playing for pride and won handily, leveling the overall score for the night at 2-2.

Carnes credited a fundamental Jesuit skill as the reason for their proficiency and success in volleyball.

“Discernment,” he said. “Discerning the weaknesses on the other

side, discerning your strengths, and using them to your advantage is what it’s all about.”

Although the rivalry is real, both sides recognize the importance of events that bring students and Jesuits together.

“It gives us a chance to really get to know each other and share our lives, happiness, challenges, and everything that happens on a court while playing a sport,” Carnes said.

That being said, the Jesuits would much prefer to promote this spirit of togetherness while taking home the trophy.

As he exited the court, Rogers took the opportunity to stoke the flames of this now decade-long rivalry in anticipation of next year’s match.

“The students better not get too full of themselves, because we will be back,” he said.

the Sports Sermon “You have a better chance of catching Bin Laden.”

—Kevin Garnett after being asked for an autograph from a Lakers ball boy week of practice. He must have of done something special—something that has never been done before. Before we answer these questions, let’s step back and look at Thompson’s path this year.

He came into this season with a team dynamic that was different from all of his other years on the Hilltop. These Hoyas are guard-oriented, lacking the inside presence that defined the JTIII-era. Thompson proved he could adjust, as the backcourt carried the Hoyas to an 11-1 start. But coaches are not only judged during the preseason—they must be able to make in-season adjustments as well. That’s exactly what Thompson had to do after the slow Big East start. Lucky for him, he had more than a full

One of those things was the defense, which is certainly not Georgetown has won five a small part of basketball, but games in row. That means the way Thompson looked at it they’re back, right? Or do the made it less of an obstacle. His Hoyas have to win six in row simple approach made it manto officially be “back”? What if ageable for players in a short pethey were never gone? riod of time.

The team certainly wasn’t “At the end of the day, you looking too good a couple of got the ball and I’m guarding weeks ago—starting off 1-4 in you and I gotta stop you. And we the toughest conference in the can sit and talk about we should country wasn’t ideal, to say do this zone and that zone, this the least. Many wondered how pressure, that pressure … There’s good this squad actually was. no magic formula, no dust coach Would they be able to get back can sprinkle, or no dust my teamto their winning ways, or were mates can sprinkle to make that they simply not talented enough happen,” Thompson said back to compete with the Big East on Jan. 24, two days before the elite? I admit, it’s a thought that Hoyas beat St. John’s. crept into my head during the Thompson emphasized a rough start. lot of one-on-one and threeNow they stand at 6-4, good on-three drills during pracfor seventh in the tice to get back to Pete Rose Central Big East, and only the basics of the Da bettin’ line a half-game out of game. The desecond place. If the fensive effort has Dookies Margin Hoyas Hoyas were running shown during the (underdogs) (duh!) to catch the bus a few (favorites) last three games. weeks ago, I think it’s The Hoyas held Matthews Hairdo Polamalu safe to say they are all three of those Dominicans riding shotgun right opponents beFreeman Jesuits now, with Pitt in the low a 41 percent Fans $$$ Jerry Jones driver’s seat. This field goal average, didn’t just happen though—it week to correct the team. And which is better than their seatook a lot of work.

JTIII passed the test with flying son average. The intensity has The turning point of George- colors, putting the Hoyas in a risen as well, which might be town’s season was not a shot by great spot. the most promising sign for the Austin Freeman, or a block by Thompson may have tried rest of the season. There is no Henry Sims. In fact, it didn’t a number of things, but none of stat for defensive intensity, but even occur during a game. Af- them were out of this world. Two it might be the most important ter the Hoyas strung together things stick out. The first thing measurement for a team’s suctwo wins in New Jersey against Thompson did, something he has cess when you have a team as Rutgers and Seton Hall, they always done well, was remain talented as the Hoyas. got a much needed week off. calm. He didn’t panic and instiYes, the Hoyas still have What they did with that week, tute a new system on offense or eight games left in the Big East the longest layoff they have all defense, or bench Freeman when season, but they are in a totally season, may very well have de- his shooting went cold—he re- different spot after their week termined their success for the mained confident in his team’s off. They control their destiny. rest of the season. abilities. Georgetown had a long Sometimes, you have to get It wasn’t easy for John climb ahead of them, but Thomp- worse before you get better. I Thompson III to get the team to son kept the team calm and fo- think it’s safe to say the Hoyas start playing better after just one cused on little things. are back and better than ever.

by Nick Berti

sports

georgetownvoice.com

Hoyas extend streak in clutch

by Rob Sapunor Georgetown has shown this season that they can win games in every fashion, but the last two games have shown that they know how to win in the most important way. Monday night Georgetown defeated Louisville 62-59, which followed a 69-66 win at Villanova on Saturday.

The Hoyas have been helped out by strong second-half performances in which they have first had to outplay their opponents and then outlast them. Each game has come down to the final possession, and different players have stepped up to take control of the team.

“We have an unselfish group and on different nights there’s going to be different mismatches,” head coach John Thompson III said. “Our team collectively does an outstanding job at getting the ball to the person who’s open when they need it.”

Against Villanova, senior guard Austin Freeman scored 30 points, including an important three-pointer and a key assist under pressure to freshman forward Nate Lubick to help put the game away. Against Louisville, Georgetown looked to another leader as Chris Wright scored 24 points, including two clutch free throws with fewer than five seconds left.

Hollis Thompson, who came off the bench for the third straight game, came through in crunch time as well, nailing a three-pointer with just over two minutes remaining to give the Hoyas a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“I came in and I saw an open shot and took it, not thinking about time or score,” the sophomore forward said.

Although Georgetown again played well in the second half, shooting 76 percent from the field and 67 percent from beyond the arc, the first half was filled with

JULIANNE DENO

Chris Wright carried the Hoyas to victory, coming through big in crunch time.

The Super Bowl? You bet Over 100 million people will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday, but only a fraction of viewers will be Packers or Steelers fans. The audience is just too massive—the entire states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania won’t even account for one-fifth of the game’s viewership. That means tens of millions of Americans watch the Super Bowl for reasons totally independent of the two teams playing. For some it’s their love of football, for others the commercials, but for many it all comes down to money.

Gambling is the one aspect of the game that the NFL would prefer to go unnoticed, but it’s inexorably connected with the Super Bowl. Nearly $90 million is wagered on the game in Las Vegas

each year, and many times more than that is wagered illegally or invisibly through bookies, sports betting websites, and friendly wagers.

There are countless ways for viewers to get “invested” in the game, from the common “squares” pool to prop bets that make the opening coin toss the highest-stakes flip this side of No Country for Old Men. There can be a sinister connotation when gambling is linked to sports. It conjures up images of organized crime, fixed matches, and point shaving. But when it comes to the Super Bowl, the majority of the wagering is innocuous. Everyone gets in on the action, even the mayors of the opposing cities, who if tradition holds, will announce some kind

sloppy basketball. Louisville turned the ball over 11 times while the Hoyas racked up eight turnovers. Georgetown went into the locker room leading by a score of just 22-18.

“There were two teams that were pretty defensive teams, and they are one of the best teams in the nation in causing turnovers,” Coach Thompson said.

Like the game against Villanova, the Hoyas’ opponent came back from a major deficit, but Georgetown was able to recover and close out the game. Thompson never expressed doubt when Louisville rallied from an 11-point deficit.

“The attitude was just said lets settle down and get stops, make shots and guard your guy,” he said.

As the point guard and floor general, Chris Wright has used his talents in different ways the last two games, despite their similar outcomes. Against Villanova, Wright was held scoreless, which was quite different from his scoring bursts against Louisville. It is apparent that he understands the importance of getting the ball in the hands of the player that is playing best that game, even it is himself.

“In the last game Austin was hitting shots all over the place so why force something, I have to be a playmaker,” he said. “But today I was open and I felt that I got a few transition buckets early and that if I kept attacking good things would happen.”

Although Georgetown has won five games in a row now, the last two have made them realize it isn’t easy and it certainly won’t get any easier as Big East play continues. But they can take solace in the fact that they have beaten some of the best teams by outplaying them when it really matters. of local delicacy-based wager later this week.

Meanwhile, common citizens will simply put their money on the line. The advent of online sportsbooks has made that easier than ever, as fans are just a few clicks away from placing a bet. They can bet on the Steelers or Packers, sure,

Backdoor Cuts

by Tim Shine

a rotating column on sports but the Super Bowl is best known for its exotic betting opportunities.

This year you can wager on everything from the color of the winning coach’s Gatorade bath to the number of times Brett Favre will be mentioned.

Of course, most fans don’t bother to make their betting so complex.

the georgetown voice 7

Rodgers hits 1,000 in win

by Abby Sherburne For the Georgetown women’s basketball team, sometimes one notable act isn’t enough. The No. 17 Hoyas (18-5, 6-3 Big East) came back from a fourteenpoint deficit in the second half to beat the Louisville Cardinals (14-9, 5-4 Big East) 76-52. More impressive than the comeback was how they did it: by scoring 57 points after halftime.

And, if that feat wasn’t enough, sophomore guard Sugar Rodgers surpassed 1,000 career points.

The first half did not go the way the Hoyas envisioned, to say the least, with Louisville taking a 30-19 lead into the locker room.

“We were just absolutely playing awful in the first half,” head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I told them that we were basically giving the game to them.”

The Hoyas committed 14 turnovers and could not contain the Cardinals defensively. Patience was also an issue—the Hoyas rushed shots and did not fully commit to the offensive set. That Georgetown shot a paltry 23.3 percent from the field didn’t help matters.

The Hoyas, however, weren’t going down without a fight. After WilliamsFlournoy’s halftime pep talk, the team came out ready to work. Through their defense and resolve, they went on a 24-2 run in just seven minutes of play for their first lead of the game.

The “squares” pool, where 100 boxes, each corresponding to a given final digit for both team’s scores, dominates offices and Super Bowl parties because of its simplicity. If the two teams’ scores end in your digits after a given quarter, you win money. But since the numbers for every square are assigned after each box is bought, these pools are no less games of chance than roulette. As frustrating as it is to watch the team you bet against cover the spread on a meaningless late field goal, it’s not as bad as hopelessly rooting for the random score you were assigned, only to find out your pool’s big winner wasn’t even watching the game.

The people with the most at stake may not even have a dollar riding on the game, however.

The diehards who will be wearing Cheeseheads and waving Terrible

“It was two totally different games, you know, games that were going on the first half versus the second half,” Williams-Flournoy said. “It’s pretty obvious for them to see how easy the game can be if you play defense, and how tough it can be if you don’t play defense.”

The Hoyas forced 30 Cardinal turnovers and capitalized to score 34 points off of their miscues.

Rodgers, who is the Hoyas’ biggest offensive threat, stepped up big defensively, grabbing six steals as part of the trapping press which was essential to the huge run to open up the second half. She also scored 17 of the 24 points during the run.

“It’s not always on the offensive end,” WilliamsFlournoy said of Rodgers, “she’s definitely learning how to take over a game.”

That Rodger ’s 26-point effort led to her 1,000-point milestone is an unbelievable accomplishment to say the least. It’s not every day that a second-year player can take control of a game like she does, and that may earn Rodgers even more attention from the Hoya’s opponents.

The Hoyas still have seven games to go in the Big East regular season with their next game on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bearcats. They will attempt to win their fifth consecutive game. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. in McDonough Arena.

Towels on Sunday have as much invested in the Super Bowl as anyone. Sports fandom is, at its essence, gambling: fans place their emotions on the line every year, opening themselves up to anguish with every loss in hope of reaping the windfall of happiness that comes with a championship. At a subconscious level, fans are making a bet, deciding to invest this meaning in what ultimately, is just a game. And in the NFL, the odds are more stacked against you than at any casino, with only one of 32 teams finishing as a winner. So when I inevitably lose my “squares” pool on Sunday, I’ll take comfort in the fact that I’ve just lost $20, while someone in Green Bay or Pittsburgh will be crying.

Bet on how much Tim will cry when Rex releases another video at tshine@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

februrary 3, 2011

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georgetownvoice.com

One night in Wingo’s

by Sean Quigley

Chicken is my favorite meat.

It’s comfort food, familiar and unpretentious, and it’s versatile, providing moist, savory substance to dishes from almost every culture.

But for chicken enthusiasts, one of the meat’s most essential styles is also one of its simplest: a short, unbreaded section of the bird’s wing that is fried and basted in sauce, sometimes called a buffalo wing or hot wing if the sauce is spicy.

In Georgetown, one restaurant has been nearly synonymous with that meal for just over a decade— Wingo’s.

Hoping to gain some insights about the inner workings of my favorite Georgetown chicken carry-out joint, I spent last Sunday night hanging out at the store on O Street, talking to the cooks and delivery guys, and trying to get a feel for what, exactly, goes into each batch of succulent, saucedrenched wings.

When I arrived around 8 p.m., founder and owner Mike Arthur, a genial, avuncular Michigan native with a deep sportscaster’s voice and a chef’s build, was more than happy to show me around. Unshaven and clad in a beanie and sweatpants, Arthur looks more like he’s at home than at work, and has a jovial, easy rapport with his customers and employees.

“I love what I do,” he said.

“This is my food. It’s what I grew up with. I have a passion for it.”

In Jan. 2001, he rented the space on O Street—formerly a Greek diner with a few seats by the window—and converted almost the entire floor space into a food preparation area, leaving only a nook in front of the door for customers to order and pick up their food. This seatless arrangement is now a rarity in the District; D.C.’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs no longer

JULIANNE DENO

Everybody likes Mike: Founder and owner Mike Arthur is friends with everyone.

issues licenses for strictly carryout and delivery establishments.

Arthur invited me back behind the counter to introduce me to the staff. The inside of the store is even more cramped than the tiny ordering area by the door, so I stood next to Arthur in the only unoccupied space I could find, right behind the drink cooler.

“Being small [in terms of square footage] is an advantage and a disadvantage,” he tells me.

“The advantage is, everything’s fresh. The food I get today, I have to use today. Everything is constantly rotated in and sold out.”

Because people like eating wings while they watch football, Sunday is the busiest night of the week at Wingo’s, so the grill, fryer, and prep stations were all operating at full capacity. Since there’s no room to walk anywhere, the cooks operate on a “turn and pass” system, conveying styrofoam boxes with orders scrawled on them up and down the line until they’re ready to be bagged and sent off for delivery or pick-up.

Not wanting to disrupt the carefully synchronized workflow, I tried to insert myself into the production chain by taking boxes that Arthur has written orders on and passing them to Inca, a quiet, glasses-wearing twentysomething who is in charge of assembling sandwiches. If the order was for wings, Inca passed it down to the fryer, where a cook prepares the famous chicken, after which it is sauced and packaged for delivery. Arthur could have just as easily handed him the orders himself, but I’m grateful to be included.

When I noted that the process looked like a factory assembly line, Arthur nodded.

“It’s all about efficiency,” he said.

For an old-school take-out joint, Wingo’s boasts a surprisingly sophisticated computerized orderprocessing system. When orders come in from the Wingo’s website and from Campusfood, a machine

IRIS KIM

Every order of Wingo’s chicken is overseen personally by Jack the Bulldog.

IRIS KIM

Dig in: The personal order of bone-in wings is a staple of Georgetown eating. automatically prints out an order form, which Arthur sends down the cooking line for preparation.

When the orders are ready to go, the system groups orders with similar destinations together to optimize his drivers’ loads. He can even track how long each of his drivers are taking on their delivery runs. On Sunday, the average was 27 minutes—not bad, considering drivers typically take three or four orders with them on a trip.

It might seem like overkill, but Arthur said that constantly upgrading his system is vital. In the past few years, he said, people have been eating less at restaurants, and the number of competitors has increased, forcing him to constantly seek ways to improve.

“Things have changed,” Arthur said. “Years ago, it wasn’t about quality, it was just about how fast it was. If a customer was unhappy, you didn’t care, because there was a line with four more people waiting to replace him.

Now, there’s no one to replace you if you’re unhappy. Everything has to be better now.”

I had already taken up a lot of Arthur’s time, and orders were still streaming in, so I asked to go on a delivery run with one of the drivers. He gave me a soft drink from the cooler and took me outside to introduce me to Marcus Douglas,

who’s about to deliver three orders around American University.

Douglas is in his early 40s, a reserved but amiable former retail store manager who has worked as a driver at Wingo’s for about a year. As we headed up Wisconsin Avenue in his white Toyota, he showed me his system for keeping track of which order goes where, how each customer is paying, and how much his tips are.

My presence in the passenger seat—covered with newspaper to prevent grease and sauce stains— forced the chicken into the back, which made it tougher for him to read the receipts that tell him the customer’s name, phone number, and address. I put myself in charge of keeping track of the three bags.

As we meandered through narrow side streets in Glover Park en route to our first delivery, we both gushed about how delicious Arthur’s wings are.

“I’ve known Mike since he opened,” Douglas said. “I’m a customer as well as an employee.”

After Douglas dropped off the first order at a squat townhouse on Beecher Street, we headed to the Avalon at Foxhall, a gigantic apartment building next to American’s campus, where our next two orders were going.

The building is home to a lot of Wingo’s customers—as we pull

in, we see another Wingo’s driver leaving—and Douglas chatted cordially with the security guard while we sign in.

When we got to the apartment door, Douglas handed me the first order, a personal order of wings for someone named Michael, and said I can try my hand at delivery.

Excited, I rang the doorbell and recalled Arthur’s parting advice about delivery before Douglas and I had driven off: “Try to smile.” I envisioned myself greeting Michael warmly and shaking his hand, perhaps even bonding with him about his preferred flavor of chicken wings or some other shared interest.

In the long minute before he answered the door, I shifted my feet anxiously, worrying irrationally that we’ve come to the wrong address. When he finally opened the door to his nearlydark apartment, bleary-eyed and sporting gym shorts, I was taken aback, feeling awkward for apparently having woken him up from what seems to have been a deep and comfortable sleep.

A few horrible seconds went by, with me having almost forgotten about the chicken and him still barely conscious. We locked eyes for much longer than strangers ever should.

The friendly, professional opening that I had planned now totally blown, I finally managed to proffer the bag of chicken and stammer, “Uh, delivery for Michael?”

He muttered something quietly, grabbed the food, and quickly shut the door.

I was a little embarrassed at having butchered my firstever delivery, but Douglas offered some encouragement.

He’s had worse encounters with customers.

“Sometimes you have issues on the weekend,” he said. “People get inebriated, they order, and then just pass out.”

It didn’t seem likely that Michael had blacked out alone and ordered teriyaki wings for himself at 9 p.m. on a Sunday, but I appreciated Douglas’s encouragement.

Still, he kept the next order—for Priscilla on the 12th floor—to himself. I was actually relieved; after my artless attempt at delivery, I’d rather watch him do it.

When we reached the apartment door, he initiated with exactly the kind of warm exuberance that I had failed to display.

“Hi, Priscilla!” he began enthusiastically. But before he could get any further, she took the bag of chicken and closed the door silently.

Douglas was unfazed. I was just relieved that his delivery hadn’t gone much better than mine had.

Of course, the year or so that he’s spent at Wingo’s has given him a lot of opportunities to perfect his doorway interactions. On the way back, Douglas said he averages around 20 deliveries per day. On busy days, he puts the figure around 40. I told him that sounds like a whole lot of driving, but he said he doesn’t mind.

“This car is my office,” he said. “OK, you’re stuck in a car, but I like it because of the freedom. I get a lot of time to myself to think and concentrate.”

Things were still hectic at the store when we got back, so Arthur sent us out again with two orders to Georgetown dorms— New South and Harbin.

Douglas estimates that around 75 percent of his deliveries are to college students, mostly at Georgetown but also at George Washington and American, so

he knows the campus well. We made the first delivery at New South—boneless barbeque wings to a muscular freshman named Kevin who seemed confused that his order is being delivered by two people—before heading to deliver an order for Rachel in Harbin.

Since she had to pause and sign a receipt—she was paying with a GOCard—Rachel was the first customer to be anything more than standoffish or hostile.

She chats politely with Douglas as she signed, and tipped him $3 in cash.

“I don’t ask for tips,” he said on the way back to the car. “I used to. If things are going slow and you have to put gas in your car, there are ways to ask. But I grew out of it. What’s going to come will come.”

Things had slowed down a bit at the restaurant by the time we get back, so Arthur offered me an order of wings on the house. I decided to take the mambo sauce— Douglas’s favorite—and sit down with Arthur on the bench outside the store.

It was a quiet night, and the block was mostly deserted except for us. I recalled what Arthur had been saying earlier about a decrease in customers across the board for restaurants since the recession.

Arthur pointed out the three unoccupied buildings visible from the bench, one of which he said has been vacant for eight years. In the past decade, landowners have raised rents so high that many small businesses— “mom and pop places,” as he put it—have been forced out, giving way to franchise chains and vacant storefronts. M Street remains vibrant, but here, just a few blocks north up Wisconsin Avenue, the only other open business in sight is a fully illuminated but empty Chinese carry-out, Kitchen No. 1, across the street.

“Georgetown used to be so much more popular than it is now.

Look at this, we’re two miles from the White House, and it looks like a ghost town,” Arthur said. “It’s a picturesque community, but if you go to Foggy Bottom or U Street, it’s lively over there.”

But the store’s relative isolation has had a hidden benefit.

While other late-night establishments that cater to drunk students have faced opposition from local groups like the Advisory Neighborhood Commission—last year’s shutdown of the popular Philadelphia Pizza on Potomac Street is the most famous example—being a few extra blocks away from typical party spots has let him avoid crowds of raucous students.

“It’s close, but it’s still really far [from M Street bars],” he said.

“It’s actually a blessing. When you’re drunk, you just want to go

the georgetown voice 9 home and call for delivery.”

As the surrounding area has gotten less vibrant, the business has come to rely more on delivery. Of last year’s business, 86 percent was delivery, he told me.

“If we didn’t do delivery, we’d have closed years ago,” he says. “We have to come to where the business is.”

Though he’s thankful that his business’s reliance on students hasn’t caused him many problems with neighborhood groups, Arthur clearly enjoys getting to hang out with the students who frequent his restaurant.

“People forget that Georgetown is a college town,” he said.

“We really rely on the students, both from Georgetown and George Washington. Without the kids, we wouldn’t be here.”

Just after the 2008 presidential election, a high school student from nearby Duke Ellington School of the Arts decided to paint the mural of presidents sitting on a bench under the store’s window to commemorate Barack Obama’s victory. Also pictured are fictional Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Newman and Arthur himself.

It’s goofy and unique, but it symbolizes the quality that separates Arthur and his business from the national chains that are increasingly common in the area: a personal connection between customer and restaurateur.

“The customers make it all worthwhile,” he said. “I like the kids. Maybe I never grew up.”

The storefront bears other signifiers of Arthur’s connection to his customers. In order to placate impatient and noisy young children, and to help their parents calm them down, Arthur began giving kids plastic bead necklaces to toss into the branches of the tree outside the restaurant. Hundreds of them now hang there; Arthur says sometimes kids come by just to throw a necklace.

Though personal touches like the mural and the beads have certainly contributed to Arthur’s success, as I licked the last of the mambo sauce off of my fingers, it occured to me that perhaps more important than customer service or a streamlined ordering and delivery system is the fact that the wings Arthur serves are incredibly tasty.

As Arthur went back inside to begin closing down the shop for the night, I realized that I still didn’t know exactly what makes the wings so good. I was assured, however, that I’ll be able to enjoy the gloriously messy goodness of a personal order of Wingo’s with spicy fries for a long time.

“I love the community,” Arthur said before sending me off.

“Without the students, I wouldn’t be here, and a lot of other places wouldn’t be here … We all love it.

I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

JULIANNE DENO

Cannibalism: There’s nothing wrong with it if it really does taste like chicken.

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10 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

Don’t miss the climax of The Vagina Monologues

by Heather Regen Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues confronts audiences’ discomfort from its very first line: “I bet you’re worried.” As the play’s introduction points out, it “doesn’t matter how many times you say it, it never sounds like a word you want to say.” But past the shock of The Vagina Monologues’ frank language lies a wellcrafted, emotionally gripping play, and one the actors, directors and producers of Georgetown’s rendition hope will bring to light

women’s issues and sexuality on the Hilltop.

Presented by Georgetown University Take Back the Night and GU Men Creating Change, The Vagina Monologues is directed by Vicky Handley (COL ’11), Whitney McAniff (COL ’12), Alex Russo (COL ’11) and Elizabeth Seaman (COL ’12). Seaman, who also works as stage manager, noted that much of the negative reaction to The Vagina Monologues arises simply because people “either haven’t seen it, or aren’t really aware of what it’s about.”

sam brothers

This picture is of neither vaginas nor monologues. False advertising.

“A lot of the underlying themes are ideas that—at least I hope—people don’t object to: women being equal, women being empowered,” she said.

Handley and Seaman aim first and foremost to create an enjoyable production that will entertain the audience and inspire engagement. By going out to see The Vagina Monologues here at Georgetown, students will also help support Spotlight on Women of Haiti, as proceeds from the performances will aid victims of the 2010 earthquake, as well as the DC charity Courtney’s House, which helps women and girls who have survived sex trafficking in the United States.

Although the production does address jarring issues such as sexual assault and violence, it balances these with empowering dialogue and scenes of levity.

“Hey Miss Pat,” a monologue

by Miss Patricia Henry of New Orleans, focuses on an extraordinary woman’s contribution to her community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. “Lists” crafts real women’s answer to the ques-

tion: “If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?” Actresses proudly exclaim: “Mink! Silk stockings! Something machine washable! … Armani only!”

Despite the play’s positive message, its performance at Georgetown still meets its share of opposition. Conservative blog Catholic Campus Watch remarked that “it is hard to imagine a production more degrading to woman… with its anti-Catholic message of indecency.”

Looking to scenes like “Hey Miss Pat,” actress Tamika Ferguson (SFS ‘11) cannot see how The Vagina Monologues could be taken as degrading to women, and hopes that the play continues as a strong Georgetown tradition. Actress Hannah Hauer-King (COL ‘14) found the Catholic Campus Watch’s opinion “hilarious” adding that anything “very feminist and sexually explicit is going to cause some element of outrage … I think the blog happening is actually a positive thing for The Vagina Monologues.” Although Hauer-King remembers reading the play and feeling uncomfort-

able, she believes that the aim of the production is “to end it feeling comfortable and laughing, and not taking it as an extremist political position, but more of a well intentioned and feminist work that has a good sense of humor.”

Although aware that not everyone at Georgetown will see The Vagina Monologues, the cast and directors agree that its presence alone on campus proves valuable. While critics argue that the play conflicts with Georgetown’s Catholic identity, Handley disagrees, believing that the use of theater to further change and address issues of social justice fits in perfectly with the Jesuit tradition.

“I hope that audiences leave the performance with the urge to start a conversation about the play—both with people who also saw it and the Georgetown community as a whole,” she said.

The Vagina Monologues runs in the Devine Studio Theater in the Davis Center from Thursday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, Feb. 6.

Georgetown filmmakers shine at Sundance

by Diana McCue Who says Georgetown doesn’t breed creativity? This past week at the Sundance Film Festival, the creative minds of Georgetown were well-represented, with five films whose directors, actors or producers that have graduated from the University competed in the worldfamous film contest. And one of these movie, Another Earth, won big. Way big.

Another Earth, directed by Mike Cahill (COL ’01) and starring fellow alum Brit Marling (COL ’05), is a sci-fi drama about the discovery of a duplicate Planet Earth in the solar system.

Marling plays Rhoda, a former MIT student who, on the night of the other Earth’s discovery, drunkenly gets into a car accident, killing a pregnant woman and her son and sending the injured boy’ father, John (William Mapother) into a coma. The drama unfolds when John wakes up, and he and Rhoda begin to develop a relationship. The film received excellent reviews,

earned a standing ovation at the Sundance festival, and had already won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and the Special Jury Prize. Fox Searchlight was so impressed that it bought the movie for $1 million.

and Cahill competed alongside Jim Whitaker ’s (COL’90) 9/11 documentary Rebirth and with documentary Miss Representation, executively produced by alum Regina Kulik Scully. Finally, rap group Das Racist’s

making alumni could not be reached to comment this week, but leading up to the festival they sang plenty of praises for their alma mater. In an interview for Georgetown’s website, Batmanglij credited Professor

Turns out there actually are nine planets, Earth is just twice as important. Suck on that, Pluto.

But Another Earth wasn’t Marling’s only accomplishment at Sundance. She and fellow alum Zal Batmanglij (COL’02) collaborated on Sound of My Voice, which also screened at the festival. Batmanglij, Marling

video “Who’s That? Brooown!,” created by Thomas De Napoli (COL’01) and Kevin Joyce (COL’02). competed in the “U.S. Narrative Shorts” category.

Amid the whirlwind of post-Sundance press, the film-

IMDB

John Glavin’s character screenwriting class with shaping his view of filmmaking, specifically noting Glavin’s idea that a story should be “like a puzzle, not only plot-wise but psychologically.”

Batamanglij, an English major was in Glavin’s class with Cahill, an Economics major.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three young filmmakers met in the Anthropology department. They then competed together at a Georgetown film festival, and in her senior year, Marling took a leave of absence to travel to Cuba and shoot her first feature-length film with Cahill, a documentary entitled Boxers and Ballerinas about Cuban artists and athletes who were allowed to leave the island.

In an interview with Georgetown’s website, Glavin credited “ten years of steady and inventive work” to the trio’s emergence as “a kind of mini film industry.”

Articles about this year ’s festival have overwhelmingly cited the surprising lack of celebrities, and the predominance of fresh talent in the Park City festival this year. But stepping into this void were five incredibly talented and limelightready Hoyas.

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“What are marijuana tablets?” — Mean Girls

the georgetown voice 11

3D can’t save Sanctum If Caravaggio knew cardiology

by Sam Harman

How does one of the world’s best-known directors follow up the most commercially successful film in cinematic history?

For James Cameron, director of mega-blockbusters Avatar and Titanic, the answer is surprising. Taking a break from fantasy and iceberg-smashing romance, Cameron signed on as executive producer for Sanctum, the tale of a father and son on a life-threatening cave expedition. The quality of the resulting film, though, is not surprising. Its 3D cinematography is engaging, if slightly hampered by occasionally weak character development.

Sanctum follows Frank (Richard Roxburgh), the head of a team of cave-divers setting out to explore a massive, unexplored cave network and claim the discovery for themselves. In their haste for glory, the team forgets proper safety equipment, finding themselves fighting for their lives when a freak storm begins flooding the cave.

Although Cameron had little actual involvement in the film’s production, Sanctum employs his characteristic, stunning 3D cinematography. Since much of the movie takes place underwater, the 3D effectively immerses the viewer—furiously cascading water pours over the theater’s seats, dead bodies float eerily overhead, and tense deep water action scenes

jump off the screen. This lends an extra level of excitement and audience involvement to the dangerous cave-diving adventure.

The movie also chronicles Frank’s struggles outside the cave.

Exhausted by the daily grind, he turns to a life of dangerous expeditions. His thirst for thrills lends the film its name—Frank seeks sanctuary in caves, even as they threaten to kill him. Roxburgh portrays the callous man well, particularly in his relationship with his son Josh (Rhys Wakefield). Their dynamic—a terrible father and sympathetic son—develops throughout the movie.

Sadly, the visual third dimension fails to compensate for the lack of depth among the movie’s supporting characters. Aside from the Roxburgh/Wakefield duo, the cast consists largely of unknowns, who, due to the limited attention they receive in the film, will likely remain that way. Since Sanctum sacrifices emotional development in favor of pretty underwater shots, it’s not exactly heart-wrenching when most characters predictably meet their demise—the film simply fails to create sympathy for its peripheral cave-divers.

Then again, who sees a 3D cave action flick for its character development? If you can put aside the uselessness of the movie’s supporting cast, Sanctum’s excellent cinematography, 3D effects, and tight action sequences make it worth a view on the big screen.

This is your brain on Tumblr

Studying can be difficult when your most important tool is also your biggest time waster. All of us are familiar with being holed up in the library, intent on doing homework, only to catch ourselves surfing the net. It is virtually impossible to stay focused with the giant bag of potato chips that is the World Wide Web at your disposal.

Betcha can’t click just one.

When I open my laptop to study, the first thing I do is bring up Facebook. An hour later, I’m stunned at how foolishly I’ve wasted my time. Oddly, I could never tell you exactly how that time was wasted, as my memory started to fade the moment I saw my newsfeed. After Facebook was probably YouTube, then Twitter, then maybe Tumblr, before winding up right

back on Facebook—it’s a colorful blur of links, photos, blogs, and videos. I can only spend a few seconds on each page before clicking on another one. With each short visit so effortless and vacuous, it’s easy to let yourself go to just one more, and then just one more after that, and so on. Before I know it, it’s midnight, and I haven’t started a single assignment yet.

So yeah, it’s a big bag of potato chips. All the media we consume today has been shrunken into bite-sized, unsubstantial little bits. A single glance at your newsfeed will never satisfy you; your appetite will only be whetted for more content.

The way people consume the majority of information today is in these teeny-tiny pieces. It’s

by John Sapunor While scientific advancement has led to solutions and cures that had previously seemed impossible, it has also bred confusion. In fact, very few average people can grasp the small, intricate details of how things actually work anymore. In the exhibition “What Was There To Be Seen,” on display now at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery on 16th Street near DuPont, Kindra Crick and Carolyn Bernstein convey their personal fascinations and frustrations with the often cumbersome subject of biology.

Paradigm Shift: Bonds and Binds, a collection of paintings

by Crick, is the product of an artist with a degree in molecular biology taking to the canvas in attempt to marry science with emotion. Several pieces bear the image of a fetus and reflect Crick’s absorption with life in its rawest, most captivating state. Their combination of bright and faded colors adds an organic feel, which effectively bridges the gap between objective science and beauty. Crick’s infatuation with the heart, both figuratively and literally, comes alive as well in a series drawn in both the typical,Valentine’s Day shape and more realistic depictions of the organ that could be straight from an 18th-

easy to turn to Twitter and harp on the instant gratification factor of headlines and mini-rants. YouTube videos are rarely longer than three or four minutes. Facebook profiles are by no means complete biographies, only fragments of

Internet IrL

by Nico Dodd

a bi-weekly column about the Internet someone’s full story—knowing our friends’ favorite music and movies doesn’t exactly show us the window into their soul. Hulu, in addition to featuring full television programs, offers short clips of shows that are more easily consumable. With an endless supply of content so readily available, there’s no telling how much you can cram into an hour.

century surgeon’s textbook.

Although the collection contains some more abstract pieces which are not as conducive to the gallery’s goal, the majority of the paintings in Paradigm Shift poignantly channel a scientist turned artist’s fervor for two disparate yet mutually accommodating worlds.

In stark contrast to Crick’s revelation of the beauty in science, Bernstein’s Yew Tree Project takes aim at the convoluted and political nature of pharmaceuticals, particularly the cancer drug Taxol, which is developed from yew trees.

Bernstein’s mediums include glass and clear paper, meant to resemble the tools of a radiologist, and many of her drawings depict human body parts, including several cancer-ridden brains. One work, a chaotic web diagram, narrates the political gridlock associated with developing and distributing Taxol, and contrasts it with the harmonious leaves of a yew tree— a gesture to the drug’s natural roots and the overbearing qualities of its cure.

Bernstein showcases her straight-forwardness on the sensitive subject in her portrait of a human body, which is composed of words that indicate how cancer affects different parts of the body. The simplicity and beauty of the yew

As more of what we consume comes to us packaged in “fun-size” formats, the amount of attention people are willing to commit shrinks drastically. Suddenly, nobody wants to read anything longer than a photo caption (evidenced by The Atlantic and The New Republic setting up their own Tumblr accounts). Why would you waste a whole hour watching 60 Minutes when there are so many Keyboard Cat remixes out there?

Looking for neural stimulation does not mean you have to unplug though. Despite our shortened attention spans, there are some signals of more in-depth media finding its audience. While Newsweek is fizzling with more light news and years of format changing, magazine weekly The Economist has found a larger audience for its no-nonsense cover-

JohN saPUNor

Fetus Model: Utimate child star.

tree are manifested in nearly every one of Bernstein’s works, and while the draining qualities of cancer on its patient may only be compounded by the maze of treatments and drugs used to fight it, Bernstein offers clarity by paying homage to the drug’s most basic—and literal—roots.

While they lack the detailed imagery of Crick’s paintings, Bernstein’s less conventional mediums are enthralling in their matter-of-factness. But side-by-side, the two artists share a commonality in that science inspired their artistic creation. Neither science nor art could function without the fuel of human emotion, and “What Was There To Be Seen” reestablishes this link in a beautiful, poignant way.

age of world news. Maybe if less superficial news sources were made more readily available to us via the Internet, we’d make a better attempt to read them. Other news organizations are catching on to this idea—two weeks ago, The New Republic announced they would begin to feature “online cover stories” that explore and analyze subjects in-depth.

Much like scarfing down a bag of potato chips, a short-form media diet is not healthy for your brain. And if you don’t give the ol’ thinker some real exercise every once in a while, you might find yourself someday being laughed at by millions in a viral video à la Miss Teen South Carolina.

Wanna see Nico’s long-form feed?

Email him at Ndodd@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

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

The Boxer Rebellion, The Cold Still, Absentee Records In today’s alternative music scene, too many indie groups have abandoned their original sound in favor of mass appeal.

So when a band can deliver emotion that is both honest and unpretentious, and stays true to the successes of its past albums, it’s grounds for major commendation. London quartet The Boxer Rebellion achieves just that on The Cold Still, with unassuming but powerful lyrics and melodies, the band rises above the rest of the indie pack.

Riding on the success of their critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Union, Boxer Rebellion found itself faced with high expectations. But they rose to the occasion with the help of a new producer, Ethan Jones

(Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne). For both the band’s longstanding followers and new listeners alike, The Cold Still will not disappoint, mesmerizing the listener with a rich, cohesive collection of heartfelt ballads interwoven with a few radiofriendly potential chart-toppers.

The first track, “No Harm,” sets the tone for the rest of the album’s mellow, poetic sound. Set to a striking but soothing combination of piano chords and melodic beats, Nathan Nicholson’s warming lyrics draw the listener in and continue to captivate in the subsequent tracks.

From this ballad to the more upbeat “Step Out of the Car” and the infectious, guitar-based “Locked in the Basement,” Boxer Rebellion demonstrates even greater merit than it did on its first album, Exits.

With numerous songs that blend into one another, the album is best appreciated as a unified collection, but a few tracks stand out on their own.

“Organ Song,” for example, blends fast-paced guitar chords and captivating drum rhythms with subtle organ undertones, creating an earthy and memorable melody. Album closer “Doubt” is also exceptional,

It’s all about the Benjamins

Hip-hop has always been a regional art. Seminal groups such as Run DMC of Hollis, Queens and N.W.A. of Compton represented their neighborhoods with songs chronicling local troubles and lifestyles.

But in the early 1990s, rap’s focus shifted and hip-hop crews began forming record labels to better promote their own music. All of a sudden, the West Coast had Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, which included the likes of Tupac and Snoop Dogg, while the East had Puffy’s Bad Boy label, which centered on Notorious B.I.G. Although this didn’t mean the immediate death of the location-based rap crew—Nelly and his St. Lunatics later came to rule the Midwest, and the Hot Boys, Juvenile, and B.G. took over New Orleans under the Cash Money label—it was a

blow, the effects of which carried into the long-term. Hiphop’s current crews don’t represent cities like they once did.

All they have in common is the pursuit of money.

This trend became noticeable in 1998, when West Coaster Dr. Dre expanded his Aftermath label by signing Detroit’s Eminem and later New York’s 50 Cent. Recently, with the success of G.O.O.D. Music, Young Money, and Roc-Nation, it has become even more prominent.

These three megalabels, centered around the biggest rappers in the game (Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Jay-Z, respectively), are based on star personalities, not geographical boundaries.

As these labels have taken over and rap crews have become less synonymous with certain regions, songs have

with its sparse, minimalistic sound, which allows Nicholson’s pleasant, throaty voice to take the wheel.

In staying true to their soft but rich sound, the Boxer Rebellion has impressively made the journey from an unsigned, unknown band producing their own albums to one of the iTunes top 100 Alternative groups. And with the shining release of The Cold Still, they prove that they deserve the recognition.

Voice’s Choices: “Organ Song,” “Locked in the Basement” —Mary Borowiec

Hercules and Love Affair, Blue Songs, Moshi Moshi Records Blue Songs, the new album

by Hercules and Love Affair, is taken on a more general tone, losing the local flavor that once made each artist’s sound unique. As this change continues, we may permanently lose sounds like the g-funk of the West Coast, or the South’s heavy bass.

Despite the power and popularity of artists in other genres, this pattern seems

Banger Management

by Akshay Bhatia a bi-weekly column about music only to exist in hip-hop. The genre’s strong sense of promotion and family mentality contribute to the desire to sponsor new artists, especially friends, like when Pharrell and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes signed Clipse, a fellow Virginia Beach group, to their Star Trak label.

At the same time, successful artists like Kanye, Wayne, and

awful. I’m not going to mince words here: it’s brutal, terrible, miserable, abominable, abhorrent, and appalling. And it’s really a shame. The band’s 2008 debut was rightly praised as one of the best albums of the past decade. Mixing old school house and disco, the group brought a surprisingly fresh twist to DFA Records’s aging nü-disco shtick.

Abetted by Tim Goldsworthy’s (The Rapture, Cut Copy) spectacular production and showstealing guest vibrato vocals

by Antony Hegarty, Hercules and Love Affair was forty-five minutes of anachronistic dance bliss, somewhere between Sylvester, Frankie Knuckles, and LCD Soundsystem.

So what went wrong in three years? The glaring answer is right on the onesheet: H&LA has renovated its cast of characters.

Although mastermind Andrew Butler remains on board for Blue Songs, gone are the vocal contributions by Hegarty and the delightfully sexy Nomi Ruiz.

Their replacements, with the exception of Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, lack both the name recognition and skill of their predecessors. Although they hold things down on standard H&LA cuts like “Painted Eyes,” Hov have learned that the real money is in management and production—whenever Nicki Minaj sells a record, Lil Wayne gets a cut too. Additionally, with Wayne and fellow Young Money rapper Drake featured on many of her tracks, Nicki sells more albums. This symbiotic relationship is at the heart of hip-hop, and also explains the recent increase in guest appearances on rap tracks.

In the past, artists had to appeal to local record execs and fans in order to build up a following. Now, with the ubiquity and promotional power of the Internet, artists can take on any musical style and still find an audience. Rappers can become famous even before setting foot in a label exec’s office, sparking sports-like bidding wars between labels. When luring in new signings, therefore, friendship and loyalty can sometimes fall by the wayside—when Jay

you can’t help but wonder how much better Butler’s arrangements would have sounded with Hegarty writing the vocal line. And when H&LA try out newer styles, as on the Herbie Hancock-esque “Answers Come in Dreams,” it’s downright frustrating—these experiments could have turned out fantastic, but instead fall short.

But their sound was also a casualty of organizational shakeups; the reliable disco stylings of Goldsworthy have been replaced by the work of producer Patrick Pulsinger. The resulting sound is decidedly more spacious— and hardly listenable. Where H&LA’s debut sounded crisp, bright, and immediate, Blue Songs is grossly reverb-laden and distant. Tracks that could have been grade-A bangers at the hands of a more appropriate producer—“My House,” “Falling,” the aforementioned “Painted Eyes”—are flaccid, washed out, and in no way worth your time. Actually, as much as it pains me to say it, just go ahead and apply those descriptors to the whole of Blue Songs.

Voice’s Choice: “Step Up” —Matthew Collins Electronica signed with Roc Nation, he chose Jay-Z’s label over that of his close friend Diddy.

Even though today’s rappers seem more focused on monetary rewards than regional loyalty, not all of hip-hop is following suit. Smaller, independent artists still exist, and they have retained their regional focus. For instance, much of Atmosphere’s Rhymesayers crew is from Minneapolis. But when one of these small rappers blows up, does precedent dictate that he leave his small, local label for Kanye or Jay-Z? Hip-hop has always been about making the most out of one’s opportunities. And as the opportunities become more abundant, the likelihood of rappers remaining true to their local roots is diminishing.

Show Akshay how far you’ll go to get him on your label at abhatia@georgetownvoice.com

page thirteen

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He dominated the wicked wildcat of Villanova.

N TUR E R THE OF MAN G A SW

the georgetown voice 13

He's coming for you next, Syracuse...

He castrated the cowardly cardinal of Louisville.

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DON ' T DRINK AND DRAW

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JA DEG CK IO IS IA A

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Got a minut e?

CHRIS HELLER

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14 the georgetown voice

february 3, 2011

Declining music sales require industry adaptation

by Matt Collins You may or may not remember the band Cake, best known for a pair of novelty hits at the end of the ‘90s. But apparently someone does. The group’s latest album, Showroom of Compassion—released ten years after their last charting single (“Short Skirt, Long Jacket” got to 124 on the top 200) and 13 years since anyone thought they were relevant—hit number one on the Billboard charts last week. It was far from an impressive accomplishment, however: at just 44,000 units sold, Cake’s sixth album was the lowest-selling number one since the advent of SoundScan in 1991.

This means far more for the music industry than it does for Cake, who probably shouldn’t take this achievement as a sign of resurgent popularity (the album’s sales dropped by 67 percent between weeks one and two, the largest drop for a number one since 2006). The industry, however, can see this as the biggest nail in a coffin over ten years in the making. With total sales nearly halving

between 1999 and 2009 according to the Recording Industry Association of America, 44,000 units for a number one looks less like the bottom of the valley and more like a sign on the side of a cliff.

The longstanding wisdom in the music community is that piracy was at the root of the decreased sales in the past ten years.

The RIAA continues to uphold this mentality—in a 2010 industry roundup, the organization claimed that “only 37 percent of music acquired by U.S. consumers … was paid for.” Obviously the illegal procurement of music hasn’t helped the industry, but the drama between record labels and the Internet has been covered from angles both pro-industry and pro-piracy. (A popular argument is that labels brought piracy upon themselves. They should have embraced and monetized Napster instead of resisting digital music out of hand, claim critics, who believe that this set a precedent for music to be free on the Internet. This argument, though insightful with respect to piracy’s development, seems to

downplay the criminality of filesharing).

All of this, though, seems a little dated—when was the last time you illegally downloaded a song or an album? If your answer was “a while ago,” you’re not alone: a survey in The Guardian shows filesharing among teenagers dropping from 42 percent in 2007 to 26 percent in 2009. Wellknown downloading sites like KaZaa, Limewire, and the Pirate Bay have either been shut down or remodeled as for-pay sites (or both), and although scouring the Internet for Rapidshare links can occasionally lead to success, the only comprehensive piracy sites are invite-only communities full of music nerds. These communities, which are notoriously hard to gain access to, consist largely of people who pay for music anyway. The kind of piracy that put the industry in the hole of old is moving outside the mainstream, but sales remain down.

Where are the listeners then?

According to Edison Research’s 2010 American Youth Study, they’ve shifted to other, more legal

sources for the free music labels taught them to expect. Pandora alone is used by 20 percent of 1224 -year-olds, while 31 percent of the same age group report that they discover new music on YouTube. The Guardian survey further supports this idea, saying that 65 percent of teenagers stream music regularly. These streaming services have been ignored by the RIAA, but the increased use of computers and, most importantly, the prevalence of smart phones, have made these services the primary method of consumption for many listeners.

With new consumption patterns, data and figures look different. “Sales” are falling for pop albums and singles because listeners are streaming “Grenade” instead of buying Bruno Mars’ debut. This form of listening has been monetized—Pandora pays steeper royalties than terrestrial radio, and YouTube, too, pays royalties to labels—but it stays off the charts, and presumably leads to less revenue than traditional sales.

Meanwhile, “smaller” albums are ranking higher in sales charts, as the devoted fans of older or inde-

pendent acts come out to support the artist in the traditional way.

This has led to numerous unusual chart occurrences in addition to Cake’s number one. Indie preach-rockers Arcade Fire and Manhattan yacht-poppers Vampire Weekend both managed to take the number one spot in the less-crowded 2010 field, while Brooklyn mopesters The National and Zooey Deschanel vanity project She & Him found themselves in the top ten. In fact, nearly half of the independent albums to reach number one (since 1991) were released in the past three years. Although these groups’ chart success points towards no significant change in mainstream taste, it could lead to one. If major labels cannot figure out how to appropriately monetize the way that contemporary listeners hear music, independent labels might be all we have left.

Matt Collins is a senior in the College.

He doesn’t mind if independent music takes over, as long as it’s not the Webbie version.

Qatar student discovers treasures in Moroccan medina

by Fatima Muneer Morocco, If you were a person, you would be one with multiple personalities. In the past two months, I have discovered your ethnic richness, multi-linguistic culture, and different moods. You can be the hottest person in the world and at times, the coldest, conservative, liberal and sometimes in-between. Most importantly, you have, in your own charming way, allowed me to explore your various characteristics in a series of epic adventures.

For months, I drooled over pictures of you, and started to prepare a list of all the places I wanted to visit. I told myself,

however, that I would only allow myself to form an opinion of you after travelling to all the places on my list. But the moment I was picked up from Rabat Ville train station, I knew immediately that it was love at first sight. Rabat, which was my home for a month and a half, could not have been a better city to live in. Living in the traditional medina allowed me to get a sneak peek of the ancient way of life that was still practiced here. Vendors and merchants gathered together to sell their goods, workers pulled bullocks, blind beggars sang among thick crowds, and neighbors took care of each other’s children, creating a united community.

FLICKR

A walk through Moroccan streets reveal much about its culture.

I was fortunate to intern at Amnesty International Section in Morocco. Everyday on my trek from the medina to work, I could see a distinct difference as my surroundings became cleaner as I went deeper into Mohammed V Street. People became more diverse in background and westernized. Shops and cafes became pricier and bullocks got replaced by speeding motorists and cars.

Looking back, I don’t think I could have worked with nicer people, and I cherish all the friendships I made. Apart from learning more about the organization than I could have through research and observation, I was lucky to have colleagues who constantly offered their help and advice whenever I faced any challenges or problems living abroad alone.

I especially enjoyed the one week youth summer camp that Amnesty International Morocco held at Al Akhwayn University where I was able to bond with some of the most creative, funny and talented youth I have met. I still fondly remember all those nights we spent laughing together, singing Aicha during breaks, and how we all tried to act as one big team even when things went wrong.

These strangers soon became

some of the greatest friends I’ve made.

I discovered you in those narrow alleys of the Fez medina where I was nearly killed by a donkey cart, in the charming medina of Essaouira where I was completely distracted by the many stunning sights of Moroccan craftsmanship and sounds of Gnaoua music, and when a snake charmer chased me at the Djemaa el Fna for a photo opportunity and money.

The unending hospitality of your people who always tried to make me feel like a part of their family, the hands of crumbling women who held my hand and whispered prayers, and the two-year-old who trusted a complete stranger like me and fell asleep on my lap on a bus ride from Chefchaouen all furthered my discovery. I discovered even more of you in a sunset that melted and combined all the best possible divine brush strokes in Moulay idriss. Your kidness came through when I got lost for the millionth time and people were so nice that after giving me the directions, they walked with me all the way to the place to make sure that I’d reached it safely.

I discovered you through the many foreigners, like myself, who I met along the way.

Couscous Fridays. Sipping mint tea at the oudaya café.

Mastering haggling. Risking death while crossing the road.

Chocolate and snail fests. Human rights craziness. Moroccan kisses. Blue walls. Green roofs.

Red out of nowhere. Bonds over train rides. Bollywood in the medina. Fights breaking out on buses. Cow’s hooves. Tiny women. Worship. Rich and poor. Poor and rich. I have discovered you.

I know that this indeed fails to give even a little insight into my entire experience, but that is only because you are one of the richest people I’ve met—your tears fall mightily in cascades and flow gently in rivers, your strength is encompassed in the mighty Atlas mountains, your loveliness hidden in the many charms of a medina, your cruelty felt in the heat and forgiven by the cool breezes from the Atlantic along the Mehdya coast.

Now that I have left, please know that you have truly made my trip a journey of a lifetime and fed my soul deep and wide.

Fatima Muneer is a senior in the S F S -Qatar. Her medina might not be funky cold, but she had a good time.

voices

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the georgetown voice

15

Shit my dad texts: differing views on a texting phenomenon Phones are damaging English

by Eric Pilch Having grown up with instant messaging and texting, I don’t bat an eye at slang as diverse as “irlol” (or “in real life laugh out loud”) and “iucmd” (my friend Matt’s favorite, meaning “if you catch my drift”). Yet I was shocked a few weeks ago when my dad sent me a text message for the first time.

It read “miss yu, yu have pro status as spanish tutor lv dad.” I had helped my 14-year-old brother Sam study for a Spanish exam over Christmas break, and it was nice to be informed he did well.

However, I was more interested in those dropped vowels. I love my dad, but I don’t consider him to be the most culturally adept person. He uses email, but I’ve always found his communication there to be very precise. As recently as a few months ago my brother was still showing him how to open the text messages he had received, so I wasn’t prepared for his sudden embrace of text slang.

As amusing as my dad’s text was, I know that he can read and communicate well in English after over 20 years of formal education.

However, students Sam’s age have lived with the constant sending and receiving of texts and IMs in a way that even current college students did not experience. My experience may be outside the norm, but I didn’t have a cell phone until I was well into high school. Now I hear of kids in elementary school having their cell phones confiscated by teachers who catch them texting. Sam recently had his texting privileges canceled after 10:30 p.m. when my parents found him sending messages until 5 a.m.

All of this communication through the short bursts of text messages is reshaping the way we process English. I recently had a professor exclaim that “text signaling” was appearing in some students’ essays, whether conscious or

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not. Every word should be spelled out fully. If that has to be clarified at Georgetown, I can’t imagine what it must be like to grade middle school English papers. And according to a study by The Pew Internet and American Life Project, 64 percent of surveyed teenagers acknowledged that “breezy shortcuts and symbols commonly used in text messaging have appeared in their school assignments.”

While these cosmetic changes are not ideal, most teachers note that “text speak” can easily be corrected in students’ papers. A report from the University of Alabama identifies a more disconcerting problem: students are having a harder time adding the supporting details and descriptive phrases that are critical components of successful writing. The authors of the Alabama study argue that young students are writing statements with reduced linguistic development because they’re used to getting the job done with as few sentences as possible, an attitude that is transferred to the classroom. One hundred and eighty characters don’t give you a lot of room to fully develop thoughts. In fact, it forces you to do exactly the opposite.

Although I don’t claim to have the answer to the dilemma posed by new forms of electronic communication, it is interesting to see both sides of this very useful technology. The speed and ease with which my dad can message me is well worth the four vowels it cost him, but if that’s the only way the next generation can communicate, we’re in trouble. My one suggestion for avoiding that fate would be to continue stressing the importance of reading great books to young students. Such exposure to great authors and their ideas (not mention full-length words) provides a grounding that makes the transition between “text speak” and formal academic writing navigable. Humans have been struggling to reconcile formal and informal modes of communication long before the creation of cell phones, but as the 18th century author and poet Samuel Johnson noted, “the greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write.” Or, as my dad might now say, “put down ur cell and pick up a gr8 book iucmd.”

Eric Pilch is a junior in the College.

He is a contributor to the Carrying On column. He doesn’t text past his bedtime.

Messages provide necessary link to home

by Emma Forster My dad got a Droid for Christmas last year. I guess it was about time—he’s been toting around a five-pound Nokia since 1997—but it still kind of perplexes me that my 66-yearold father has a cooler phone than I do. I spent Christmas morning envying the sexagenarian as he sat next to the tree fandangling away on his touch screen.

The night I returned to my Village A apartment after vaca-

I interject “uh huh” or “wow” when appropriate, I say, “Sorry mom and dad, I have to go,” and that’s it. They may have been saying important, emotive things on the phone all along, but in today’s high-paced, highstress college atmosphere, it’s almost impossible to pay attention to anything other than our current, immediate, innumerable to-do list.

Today’s tech geniuses have come up with cell phones, email, Gchat, Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other

with the latest fads—he texts in full sentences and signs the majority of his texts as he would a letter (“Frolic just about has the technique for Turkish coffee down but keeps getting fur balls in the grounds. Happy MLK festivities. Love, Dad.”) But he recognizes that texting solves the problem of the perfunctory parental phone call and texts me because it is the most effective way to stay close despite our physical, and technological, distance. His messages are, for all intents and purposes, the

Texting allows families to stay in touch and avoid rushed, insincere phone calls. tion, though, my dad sent me a text that quelled some of that resentment: “Had pork loin with fennel and rosemary polenta from your Ina Garten book.

Yummmm. Love, Old Guy.” The next night he sent another: “Just made a spectacular stew with ginger coconut milk and lime and deliciousness. Wish you were here.” It wasn’t Shakespeare, but these simple notes made me feel like I was still partly connected to the magic of home, even though I was back in the salad line at Chez Leo. Since then, every few days, he sends me a two to three line text, updating me on anything from his tennis game (“Won both our sets tonight, including come from behind 4-2 to win 6-4.

Sleep well”) to my cat’s antics (“Frolic mews regards”).

It isn’t like I never talked to my parents before my dad upgraded to a sweet phone; I have been on a sporadic conferencecall schedule with them since my freshman year of boarding school. However, the conversation usually follows the same routine: they call me, I am extremely busy, they talk,

digital media to accommodate our increasingly frenetic society.

My generation keeps up lines of global communication in a way that even George Orwell never could have fathomed. It is nearly impossible to survive out there anymore without a smart phone.

While some studies have shown that the colloquial format of text messages blurs parent-child privacy boundaries and degrades the English language, there are also studies proposing the exact opposite.

As Kathleen Yancey writes in her 2004 College Composition and Communication article, “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key”, with the advent of technological media like blogs taking the place of formal essays, people have demonstrated their ability to discern between formal and informal writing and apply both in their proper settings.

It’s true my dad has zero interest in downloading ringtones or playing GameBoid, but that doesn’t mean he’s ignorant of their place and value. He doesn’t use technology to keep pace

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same as the hand-written notes he slipped in my lunchbox every day of grade school. In the midst of the “lol”s and “ttyl”s, parents can still have fully comprehensible, meaningful (“Iran has officially banned the mullet.

Love, Dad”) contact with their kids, despite the growing gap in technological-comfort.

There are pitfalls to technological advances, but texting and slang do not have to create an upheaval in our social or linguistic structure. When wielded shrewdly, even Luddites can apply technological advances to keep up with the changing world. If accepting that my dad has more exciting tech gadgets than I do means that I can look forward to messages like, “Oh boy, a new week to explore new things, meet new people, and learn new stuff. Immerse yourself and enjoy!” then I say, “thx 4 the txt dad, i <3 u.”

Emma Forster is a sophomore in the College. She’s cool with her dad texting her, because he’s the only person who does.

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