Recent Posts

• The Forgotten Gems; These Ten Films Might be Out of Theaters, But They Are Still Must-Sees for Any Movie Buff

  Lifestyle February 18, 2010 at 10:53 am Comments are Disabled

  Ross Bonaime, Staff Writer In the first few months of the year, film studios dump their films that may not be so great into one great heap that ends up making January and February a less than desirable time for movies. So in these winter doldrums, here are ten recent, lesser-known films to keep you entertained util the good ones start coming out. In Bruges After one of their jobs goes wrong, two hit men are told to lay low in the town of Bruges, Belgium and await further instructions. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson work great together as the two hit men in this darkly humorous and unpredictable film. Whip It Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut follows a teen (Ellen Page) in a small town who hasn’t quite figured out who she is, until she joins a roller derby league. Page is great as the newcomer to the team and this film about finding out who you really are is one of the best surprises from 2009. Treeless Mountain This Korean film about two little girls left with their aunt while their mother tries to find their father is a simple, yet beautiful and touching tale. The little girls, Jin […]

   

• The Led Balloon That Flew

  Lifestyle February 18, 2010 at 10:51 am Comments are Disabled

  Pearson Jones, Asst. Style Editor Keith Moon, the legendary drummer of The Who, is infamously quoted for once saying that the up-and-coming heavy rock band formed by Jimmy Page, then known as The New Yardbirds, would go over like a led balloon with crowds. Moon couldn’t have been more off, making one of the worst predictions about a band since Decca Recording Co. rejected The Beatles in 1962 because they thought guitar music was on its way out of being included in main stream music. Change the word balloon to Zeppelin and you have one of the most influential bands ever, Led Zeppelin — a quartet of rock gods who became the progenitors of heavy metal, setting off trends of power chord ridden riffs, big arena rock-style songs and even bigger hairdos. The “led” balloon flew, completely overshadowing the world of music to the point where it was almost impossible not to take a moment to look up and see how this band was re-setting the framework of rock ‘n’ roll. Led Zeppelin IV, also known as the Four Symbols, could have been considered the most notoriously anti-Zeppelin sounding album when it originally surfaced in 1971. Yes, it was the […]

   

• The Holiday for Lovers Isn’t Sweet for Everyone

  Lifestyle February 18, 2010 at 10:47 am Comments are Disabled

  Ramy Zabarah, Broadside Correspondent It’s that time of the year again, so take out your wallets and get ready for some love! Originally cherished as a day where one could express his or her love and affection toward a companion through exchanging confectionery and picking out flowers, the Valentine’s Day we know has since been remodeled. As any holiday approaches, we’re always reminded that sentimentality might not necessarily be at the top of everyone’s priorities. And by “everyone,” I mean businesses. Honestly, how would Martin Luther King, Jr. feel if he knew that we were using his birthday as an excuse to buy cheap furniture? Valentine’s Day is no more innocent a holiday than any other. In fact, The United States Greeting Card Association (yes, they have an association) claims about one billion valentines are sent worldwide every year. When Valentine’s Day was fairly young, before it met its doom in the 1800s in the form of industrialization, romantics used to write and design each other valentines and exchange baked goods. We now have a society considerate and convenient enough to provide us with that service, so we don’t actually have to do any work. What’s even cheesier than cutting […]

   

• Finding Humor in the Everyday; The Comedy Central Star Talks with Broadside About Inspiration, his Comedic Father and his Future

  Lifestyle February 18, 2010 at 10:45 am Comments are Disabled

  Marine Jaouen, Broadside Correspondent When interviewing Demetri Martin, I expected the conversation to be punctuated by a series of humorous one-liners. Like some gifted word genius, he would magically sum up questions with clever single sentences, I would be gloriously entertained listening to my favorite comedian and it would be awesome. After reality set in, I quickly realized that Martin’s answers were elaborate and eloquently explained, fitting for a comedian whose observational comedy includes word play like palindromes and paraprosdokians. Martin discusses his path to becoming a comedian, his television show and his ambitions. Martin studied law at Yale University and New York University, but with one year left before graduating he realized that he wanted to try something new. Growing up with comedy from Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy’s Delirious, a major part of his comedic background came from observing his father. “My dad was a priest, so every Sunday I’d see my dad up in front of a big crowd, and he would do these pretty funny sermons that were mostly extemporaneous,” Martin said. “He didn’t prepare and write a lot, but he’d just speak for 20 minutes in front of the congregation, and he’d get laughs. He […]

   

• Mason Community Prevails Through Record Snowstorms

  Editorials February 18, 2010 at 10:27 am Comments are Disabled

  The past few days have been a test for everyone in the Washington, D.C. region; the consequence of over three feet of snow has made achieving normal, everyday activities very challenging. You have all been inconvenienced by the inclement weather, but somehow you have survived, and during this process have made us all very proud of the Mason family. You have stepped up in these most difficult of times. Knowing that there is no way to mention all the outstanding efforts of the Mason faculty, staff and students, noted are just a few of the many examples of different university efforts that far exceeded our greatest expectations: Physical Plant/Facilities Staff: On a 24/7 basis for the past 4-5 days, these dedicated men and women plowed and shoveled unprecedented depths of snow to clear the roadways and sidewalks throughout our campuses. These staff members put aside clearing their own homes to work on our campuses. Many of the staff stayed at local hotels since commuting back and forth was not practical. Campus Police Staff: Similarly, on a 24/7 basis the campus police department has kept the campuses safe, secure and attended to any emergencies that occurred. The university had thousands of […]

   

• The Non-Issue of ‘Climategate’ and The Real Issue of Climate Change

  Editorials February 18, 2010 at 10:25 am Comments are Disabled

  I was initially annoyed by Alan Moore’s recent piece on the opinion page in Broadside; I’m now thankful for the opportunity to set the record straight. After thoroughly refuting the baseless claims he made in his last piece about climate change that appeared in Broadside, I can’t pass up the chance to further educate Mr. Moore on the truth about climate change and the so-called “Climategate” scandal. However, doing so is easier said than done; like his previous piece, this one is so chock-full of errors it would take pages to refute them all. In fact, the quality of Mr. Moore’s arguments is so ridiculously feeble that I’m assuming most people that had the misfortune of reading them realized what they are: a distasteful and deceitful attempt to mislead the George Mason University community. That said, I will point out the inaccuracies in some of his more inflammatory claims. First of all, the so-called “Climategate” scandal is a non-issue. To give you a little background, the scandal in question is the result of computer servers at the Climate Research Center in the U.K. being hacked in late last November. The perpetrators of the crime released stolen e-mails to the public […]

   

• Teen Pregnancy on the Rise; Statistics Shock Citizens

  Editorials February 15, 2010 at 3:01 pm Comments are Disabled

  Justin Lalputan, Broadside Correspondent Last week, I was browsing the Internet when I came across an article that was talking about teenage pregnancy. Apparently the rate of pregnancy is on the rise again, despite a decreasing trend in the past couple of years. Citizens and officials have become concerned with the statistics, and now, debates about what should or shouldn’t be taught in the classroom are raging once again. Parents of the more conservative nature are against students being taught how to use birth control in the classroom. They feel that if they don’t teach students how to properly partake in safe sex, then the students will simply not have sex. Yes, if someone is abstinent, then he/she knows that there is a zero percent chance of them getting a sexually transmitted disease or sexually transmitted infection. It is also true that if someone is abstinent, they will not get pregnant. However, in today’s society, it is simply not realistic to say that teenagers will not have sex if they are not taught how to do it safely. Look at the culture that America has today. Almost everything has some sort of sexual appeal involved. From Lil Wayne telling girls […]

   

• Meat: Love It Or Hate It; The Conscience of a Meat Eater

  Editorials February 15, 2010 at 2:55 pm Comments are Disabled

  Meridith Kaufman, Asst. Opinion Editor Personally, I love eating meat. I am a full-on carnivore and I love it. But the more I discover about the process of how that slab of beef gets in front of me, the more I want to just stop listening. In December, I made myself listen. I went to a book reading by Jonathan Safran Foer about his book, Eating Animals. I haphazardly did not review what his new book was about; I just knew I liked his older fiction books and I liked him as an author, so I went. What I got was a lecture on how not only was I completely harming animals by supporting the farming industry as it is now, but that I was killing the Earth as well. Needless to say, I left before I could choke down a vegetarian brownie. After I gained a little bit of my ego back I made myself listen and learn about the mass production of meat in the United States of America. Most of the meat we eat in America is produced by factory farming. Factory farming is when animals are born and raised to produce their meat, milk and eggs […]

   

• The Obamateur Hour; The State of the Union Address Falls Flat

  Editorials February 15, 2010 at 2:53 pm Comments are Disabled

  Alan Moore, Staff Writer Pundits and government officials alike touted President Obama’s State of the Union address prior to its delivery as an opportunity to hit “reset” on the fledgling administration that has consistently been under fire. Not only did Obama fail miserably in that regard, but he continued the incendiary tactics and partisan rancor that sickens Americans on both sides of the aisle. His finger-wagging at the Supreme Court for overturning parts of campaign finance laws that were deemed violations of free speech was atrocious. Not only was it inappropriate to scold the Supreme Court like a hotheaded stepchild during the State of the Union, but Obama’s accusations were undeniably false. He insinuated that foreign companies will be able to contribute money to federal elections in the United States which is a complete misrepresentation of the ruling and is irrefutably wrong. It was so bad that even some of Obama’s allies in the media, like Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times, called him out on this fabrication. The slight was certainly noticed by Justice Alito who took the unprecedented action of a Supreme Court Justice by mouthing “not true” while being lambasted by the president. Republicans were not […]

   

• It’s Never About Weather; Ignoring Global Warming Will Not Solve It

  Editorials February 15, 2010 at 2:51 pm Comments are Disabled

  Anandraj Singh, Staff Writer Discussing anything even remotely related to climate change these days is a frustrating endeavor. If it’s not someone shouting, “the weather’s getting colder, so what the scientists say must be wrong,” or “it’s all just a conspiracy,” then it’s some other form of hatred. It’s always a question about what one can do, how things are either being done out of proportion or not being done enough. The lack of consensus on the issue alone is a sore selling point — as is the frustrating branding and marketing of it by both those for and against it. Those against it nearly riot that it’s a conspiracy. Those that are for it either focus too much on condemning the former group, or not enough time to properly explain it to the common man. What both groups fail to realize is that this entire affair with climate change is not about the weather. It’s not about how cold, hot, wet or dry it is wherever you are. It isn’t even about the economy. The entire affair boils down to a simple, succinct little tablet of wisdom that has served to protect our ancestors for generations before they were […]