Monthly Archives: June 2011

I was twelve with an attitude, riding in the passenger seat of my dad’s ancient white Toyota that he’d had since college, having been conned into a trip to the video rental store where I’d no doubt endure the inevitable argument with my dad over which movie to rent (twelve wants and needs no part of Blazing Saddles or Dr. Strangelove, and you can still turn out to be a complete and interesting and fulfilled person, a person who even studies film, despite spending your tween years watching Blue Crush.)

So we’re in the car, cruising around the Philadelphia suburbs on the way to pick up a movie for me and my sisters, and today’s spontaneous, unsolicited knowledge-imparting lecture turns out to be on the greatness of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel (you may have heard of them), whose song had just come on the radio. Read More »

When a band tours as rumors of new albums swirl, there is a good chance they’ll road-test some possible material on you. These performances used to be intimate moments: an artist sharing something that was, at that point in time, reserved only for those lucky enough to be in the audience. But now that anyone can whip out their phone, press record, and have it uploaded to YouTube by the time the next song begins, these moments have become a little less confidential. And now we’re in on it, too.

You may remember the day we last heard from Andrew Bird. Does January 20th, 2009 ring a bell? Read More »

Students in MUSC-270 spent the Spring semester holed up in the New South Film Screening Room taking on the music documentary as a genre. They watched as Beatlemania swept America and Bob Dylan and D.A. Pennebaker teamed up to paint a twisted picture of truth. They argued whether or not rock and roll was to blame for disaster at the Stones’ infamous Altamont Free Concert and collectively wondered what exactly happened in Shirley Clark’s Ornette: Made In America (I mean, really. What was going on?). But they also worked over the course of the semester to create their own short films, finding their own subjects and approaching them with a mixture of techniques and influences from the many documentaries they studied and their own unique vision. This week, Daniel Alexander (MSB ’11) shares his final project on Georgetown rapper and “Freshman LA Kid” Tate Tucker. Read More »

Public Interview, which has been bringing local luminaries (including the founder of Brightest Young Things, the managing editor of Washington City Paper, and Jim Lehrer of PBS’ Jim Lehrer News Hour) to the WGTB studios to chat this summer, will be hosting two more this Monday night at 7:30 pm: Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and Andrea Weckerle, the founder of CiviliNation. Read More »

It’s Sunday. It’s muggy, bright, approaching 100 degrees in Washington. It’s mid-June, two weeks out from Memorial Day, and the next long weekend isn’t until July 4th, which, with all of its exuberance and sociability and rah-rah red white and blue seems lightyears away from this slow, hot Sunday morning bookended by slow, hot weekdays.

WHAT DO WE LISTEN TO?

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Students in MUSC-270 spent the Spring semester holed up in the New South Film Screening Room taking on the music documentary as a genre. They watched as Beatlemania swept America and Bob Dylan and D.A. Pennebaker teamed up to paint a twisted picture of truth. They argued whether or not rock and roll was to blame for disaster at the Stones’ infamous Altamont Free Concert and collectively wondered what exactly happened in Shirley Clark’s Ornette: Made In America (I mean, really. What was going on?). But they also worked over the course of the semester to create their own short films, finding their own subjects and approaching them with a mixture of techniques and influences from the many documentaries they studied and their own unique vision. This week, Nadia Mahmassani (COL ’12) shares her final project. Read More »

Hip-hop has changed the name of the American Dream. It has transformed white-picket fences into 22” rims on a blacked-out Escalade. It has changed a dutiful wife and kids to a harem of women and a loyal entourage. Climbing the corporate ladder has become burning the corporate ladder, just to build it again, but this time with diamonds. In the same line as fast cars and quick women, hip-hop moguls rise swiftly, but fall faster. Face Off is here to pick up those tattered, dusty pieces left behind by the has-beens and once-was, polish them off, and present you with a sparkling competition.

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