Against the back wall of the Black Cat, I sat down with Josh Garza, the drummer from rock group The Secret Machines, just before his performance with the Blonde Redhead. Sipping on his triple shot of Bombay Sapphire, Garza set the tone for the intense show I was about to witness.
A dreary, rainy evening opened with the blinding light of heaven in the form of a Dallas-turned-New York band known as the Secret Machines. Three shaggy-haired men reeking of early-'90s brashness took the stage in front of three spotlights that were pointed straight into their audience, causing many to avert their eyes.
On the seminal punk classic Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, lead singer Johnny Rotten, in the Pistols' trademark virulent manner, offered his commentary on a woman's right to choose: "Body screaming fucking bloody mess/Not an animal/It's an abortion.
I would never advise somebody to skip the performance of a great dramatic text. However, I would recommend actually reading the text before attending a play as elliptical as "Waiting for Godot." Some elements of the Washington Shakespeare Company's new production of Samuel Beckett's tragedy are downright laughable, but many great questions are cleared up after seeing it performed on stage.
With surprising fleetness and depth, a budding student-run theater company has moored itself into the histrionic GW community. Having already produced works by such estimable talents as George C. Wolfe ("Colored Museum") and Tony Kushner ("Angels in America"), Majority Theatre Productions emphasizes the voices of minorities.
Alejandro Agresti, director and screenwriter of 'Valentin' (Miramax), has chosen some big shoes for his very small title character to fill. Seen through the eight-year-old, slightly-crossed eyes of Valentin (Rodrigo Noya), a precocious boy growing up in 1960s Argentina, Agresti's film is a touching tribute to innocence and honesty that emulates the highly acclaimed foreign film "Cinema Paradiso" in content and style.
Taken on its own, "Baadassssss!" (Sony Pictures Classics) has severely limited appeal. It's not that the film is artsy or inaccessible or requires deep background information beforehand; actually, the opposite is true. The film's long, muddled narrative, a blow-by-blow account of the making of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss! Song," lacks focus and loses its audience halfway through.
Every high school has them. They are overly Mystic-tanned in the dead of winter and wear tight clothes that expose their thongs and excess skin. They have superiority complexes. They are the A-list chick clique, high school royalty. In "Mean Girls," the new teen comedy from Paramount, they're known as "the Plastics.
Where: All over D.C. (and even a trip to Northern Virginia) Carded: "Your hair's a different color." Cover: Nada because I'm cheap Dress: My favorite pair of jeans, a black T-shirt and heels Specials: Requested shout-outs There is a time when all good things must come to an end.
The GW golf team will travel to Middletown, R.I., this weekend for the Atlantic 10 Tournament. If the Colonials can win it, they will earn the program's first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Sophomore Brian Carroll, the team's top player, said his team has a good shot at winning the tourney.
The GW baseball team completed a three-game sweep over Dayton with an 8-6 victory Monday. The Colonials have now won four in a row and five out of their last six games. Trailing 6-4 in the top of the ninth inning, GW mounted a four-run rally. With two outs and runners on second and third, junior Anthony Raglani (2-for-5) singled to right field, knocking in the two tying runs.
Ultimate Frisbee GW sports teams are nicknamed the Colonials. All but one, that is. The GW ultimate Frisbee team is the only squad on campus with a unique title - the Hungry Hungry Hippos. Club President Joe Pollak said Frisbee teams usually like to choose a name that is a bit different from the norm.
Positive Men's basketball: After a dismal 2002-03 season, the men's basketball team made a dramatic improvement, finishing with an 18-11 record and a National Invitational Tournament bid. With star-in-waiting Maureece Rice set to potentially join the young cast, GW could be looking at its first trip to the big dance in five years.
In a year that has seen continued GW successes as well as unspeakable tragedies, my hope is that The Hatchet has continued to serve as a vital resource and forum for the University community. In our 100th year of publication, the newspaper looked to continue its tradition as the GW newspaper of record, and although some members of the community disagreed with our decisions at times - and we certainly heard from you - I hope that we kept you reading and earned your respect in the process.
Rummaging through my mailbox last week, I almost missed an envelope wedged between a Victoria's Secret catalog and my new edition of Gambling Debt Monthly (this month: "Never Mess With the Russians"). The return address listed none other than Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.
"So wise so young, they say do never live long." -William Shakespeare. As I sit, staring blankly at my keyboard, I try and remember my cousin's philosophies on life. I wish I could have recorded them, wrote them down, neatly packaged and copyrighted them.
Josh Schimmerling and I were initially reluctant to accept the charge of co-chairing the Class of 2004's Senior Class Gift Campaign. After four years of tuition payments, library printing and Student Health fees, we felt that we had paid our dues to the University.
Art politics We are writing in response to the article "Art department to make cuts" (April 12, p. 3). We are both seniors majoring in fine arts with a concentration in visual communications and we want to point out the gross misrepresentation of the focus of your article.
Thursday Arts festival and chalk-in Noon to 5 p.m. Kogan Plaza Sponsored by Program Board Street harassment workshop 7 to 9 p.m. Marvin Center room 402 Sponsored by Alliance for Sexual Assault Awareness One-act plays Comedic and dramatic productions written by students Thursday - 7 p.
Greek-letter groups to hold stress-free events The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association will sponsor free music and food Sunday. The "Greek Stress-Free Zone" is open to all students and will take place behind Townhouse Row from noon to 5 p.m.
Senate to hold transition The Student Association Senate-elect will hold its transition dinner to initiate new members Friday night. The dinner, which costs the SA six to seven thousand dollars, will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel. SA Vice President for Community Affairs Mary Mai said the funding came from the executive and Senate budgets.
Some people say they would rather create the news than report on it. Others are happy to observe events around them and write. I like to think that both are equally important; if we didn't have the "newsmakers" there would be nothing to report on, but if there were no media organizations, people wouldn't be aware of the world around them and all of the "newsmakers'" work would go to waste.
A few things need to be cleared up before I say goodbye. My time at GW should be over in less than three weeks, but it is not. I am not graduating, but I will in eight semesters because I took a semester off, so it is technically on time, just Snow time. So this really isn't a goodbye as much as it is a reflection on my four years of Hatchet life.
I was running through the chaotic streets of Washington the morning of September 11 with a notepad and pen in tow and a Hatchet photographer beside me, and I couldn't have felt more comfortable. I still remember every interview I conducted that day - including one with famed Washington correspondent Helen Thomas, who was yelling at Secret Service officers to let her through police lines.
About 2,100 prospective students remain on a waiting list to come to GW in the fall, said Kathryn Napper, director of Undergraduate Admissions. Last year, the waiting list consisted of 700 students. The last of the regular decision applicants were notified earlier this month about whether they can come to GW next semester.
A small crowd turned out for a GW Votes rally on Kogan Plaza Wednesday evening that registered only four students to vote. Launched in November 2003, GW Votes is a University initiative seeking to register 100 percent of students for the November election.
Assault with a Weapon 4/25 - Public Space - 3 a.m. case closed Five male students on the 2100 block of H Street were carrying a Ukrainian flag celebrating the "Heavyweight Title" fight when another group of students made comments to them. A student pulled out a knife, threatened the taunting students and cut one of them in the stomach.
Asian-American women shared their personal and professional experiences at a panel discussion Tuesday night. About 30 students gathered in the Marvin Center to listen to the panel, dubbed "Celebrating Us: Asian American Women of Excellence." Speakers discussed the importance of fully integrating Asian-American women into society.
GW Law School Dean Michael Young could learn Thursday night whether he will become the next president of the University of Utah. Young, who has been the Law School's dean for six years, is one of three candidates being eyed by the University of Utah to fill its top post.
When freshman Christina Mueller was seven years old, her father took his own life. Eleven years later, Mueller's experiences coping with loss motivated her to research suicide prevention for her University Writing class. Little did Mueller know that the topic she chose to write about in January would hit home with many students after two GW undergraduates committed suicide this semester.
Students filled the Marvin Center Wednesday night to take a break from studying and grab some free eggs, french toast and muffins at GW's biannual Midnight Breakfast. About 2,500 students lined J Street waiting to be served a buffet breakfast by 55 GW faculty members.
Internet-based class management software Prometheus will be inaccessible to students and faculty as of May 31. Blackboard, a similar software package that GW began using this past fall, will replace the application. Both Prometheus and Blackboard were available for student and faculty use throughout the academic year to aid in the transition from one package to another.
Most students look at May 10, the last day of exams, with disdain. They look forward to the minute they can drop their No. 2 pencils, head out of class and jump on the next train or airplane home. But some professors helped end their students' semesters slightly before the final examination period by giving tests during the last week of classes.
Students received free massages at the Hippodrome Thursday, relieving tension and stress before finals week. The event was part of the Student Activities Center's Stress-Free Zone program, which will continue throughout the exam period. The masseuse on duty, Sarah Pederson, of the GW Center for Integrative Medicine, greeted each student before leading him or her to a massage chair.
Members of the Catholic Church encouraged young people to wait until marriage to engage in sexual intercourse at a panel discussion Monday night. Speakers told the 20 to 25 attendees that couples practicing in "natural family planning" abstain from pre-marital sex and then only engage in intercourse during specific times of the month once they get married.
The Student Association Senate-elect confirmed its 2004-05 cabinet and directorship appointments at its meeting Tuesday night. The student leaders will begin working under President-elect Omar Woodard beginning Friday, following a transition ceremony. The new student leaders are the following: *Ross Mankuta, vice president for Academic Affairs *Stephanie Adelman, vice pres- ident for financial affairs *Judah Ferst, vice president for student affairs *Vik Bakhru, vice president for graduate student policy *Isaiah Pickens, vice president for undergraduate student policy *Carrie Warick, vice president for public affairs *Chrissy Caggiano, vice presi- dent for community affairs *Evan Pinsonnault, director of the Dining Services Commission *Rita Sinha, director of diversity affairs *Sean White, tuition action director *Tiffani Wesley, director of Mount Vernon affairs *Krystal Gallagher, director of transfer and commuter affairs *Karinna Arroyo, co-director of Greek affairs *Lee Roupas, co-chair of the Joint Committee of Faculty and Students *Justin Neidig, Aaron Keller, Scott Farbish and Erica Fischer, JCFS appointments.
Posted 9:15 p.m. Thursday, April 29 GW Law School Dean Michael Young will be leaving his post to assume the presidency of the University of Utah.
Posted 11am April 29 The March for Women's Lives drew more than a million people from all over the nation on April 25 according to organizers who marked it as the largest march in U.S. history. Organizers stressed the importance of voting, hoping to translate the strength in numbers before them into votes in the upcoming election. "If all we do is march today that will not change the direction this country is heading under this administration," said Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., one of the guest speakers. The last large abortion rights march on Washington gathered on April 1992, shortly before Bill Clinton, a pro-choice president, was elected. Sunday's march began around noon and by 3:30 p.m. the long stream of people was still winding along Pennsylvania Avenue and emptying into the Mall.
Posted 1:15pm May 3 Curriculums that do not fall under the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind stand as the next victims to be cut in an effort to fund the program, which emphasizes increasing learning achievement and equity through testing children on reading and math. The program, which has been one of the main points of President Bush's domestic agenda, seeks to eliminate the disparity of learning achievement of students of varying backgrounds. The program emphasizes basic math and reading comprehension and skills, and is not completely funded under Title I, which it is a component of.
If, as the songs say, the scent of love is in the air, then the England studio at the Washington Ballet has been converted into a veritable perfumery. The fragrance of ardor comes in a variety of bouquets, among them the tang of infatuation, the musk of lust and the lingering trace of intoxicating, Dionysian desire.
Posted 11:44pm May 9 "There are times when you feel that the class is in charge of you and you just want to run, other days you sit back and say, 'Wow, I did something great'," says Casey Fullerton, a fourth grade teacher at Simon Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Simon Elementary School is located in Southeast Washington, an area that is far removed from the white marbled buildings that make up the federal government and the ornate monuments that christen the mall area. Students who pass through the walls of Simon will end up at Ballou High School, a school in the news this past year because of a major shooting and other violence. Casey says Simon is rough, but not dangerous.
Vol. 108
An Independent Student Newspaper
Serving The George Washington University Community Since 1904
