Lifestyle

• In Bed with Billy: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 1:01 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Billy Curtis, Sex Columnist We all remember the story of the tortoise and the hare, and we all know the outcome. It seems as though the older we get, the faster time goes by. This may simply be because time tends to move quickly in and of itself, or it could also be the sheer fact that as we age, we begin to move more slowly. We are stuck in life as hares. but, unfortunately, age doesn’t allow us to stay that way. Unlike age, relationships have been moving faster and faster with every passing minute. I know someone who moved in with his boyfriend after dating for only five months, and that’s too early for anyone. Even friends who have dated for over a year haven’t been able to make the before-marriage-move-in work out. That’s not to say that all couples move in too quickly, but just know that for most of you, the odds aren’t very favorable. And that isn’t me being cynical. Those are facts. Whether it’s moving in together too quickly, or going in for that first kiss just a little too soon, the fact stands that people are moving too quickly through life. It […]

   

• Causing mass Hysteria

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 12:59 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Evan Benton, Staff Writer Let me take you back nearly 30 years to the era of the much underappreciated and misunderstood glam-metal genre. Its heyday lay between the glitzy, extravagant and unapologetic years of 1981 and 1989, characterized by titans like Great White, Cinderella, Winger, Firehouse and L.A. Guns. This was a time of rampant androgyny, of tight spandex pants and their essential bulges. This was the golden age of Mötley Crüe, of Poison, of Warrant, who combined are responsible for truckloads of Jack Daniels passed through their collective veins, crates of cocaine passed through their naval cavities and tens of thousands of groupies just plain passed around. This was a time of men, a time of giants. And in terms of popularity, no band was more gigantic than Def Leppard, legendary libertines of the stage and multi-platinum recording artists. Already a household name and relative icon of the age thanks to 1983’s Pyromania and almost constant MTV coverage, Def Leppard took nearly four years on hiatus before producing their next album. In 1984 the band had to overcome a debilitating setback that would have ultimately destroyed a lesser group — the loss of drummer Rick Allen’s left arm […]

   

• Sketched into the silver screen: 10 greats that went from comic book pages to Hollywood

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 12:56 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Ross Bonaime, Staff Writer Next week, the movie adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book Kick-Ass, about a high school student who becomes a superhero after being influenced by his favorite books, will be released. Over the last decade, comic book films have become immensely popular, giving us some fantastic films. With that, here are the top ten films based on comic books. 10. Road to Perdition Sam Mendes’ follow-up to American Beauty told the story of an even more dangerous family — a mafia family. Tom Hanks is chilling in one of his few darker roles and the noir tone makes you feel like you’re reading the graphic novel. 9. American Splendor This story of eccentric comic writer Harvey Pekar deconstructed the typical autobiography, while showcasing the soon-to-be-star Paul Giamatti in one of his first great roles. 8. Sin City If you want to keep the essence of the source material, why not hire the writer to direct? That’s what Robert Rodriguez did with his co-director Frank Miller in the adaptation of Miller’s work, starring a cavalcade of stars and featuring a visually striking style. 7. Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice to play the rich […]

   

• Public confessions get loud at open mic night: Pride Week event gives performers the chance to confess personal struggles and cultural insight

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 12:54 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Ramy Zabarah, Staff Writer Open Mic Night is a Pride Week event dedicated to bringing people of all genders and expressions together to share music, poetry, comedy or art in front of an audience of their peers. Cheese, crackers and fruits were served as students, faculty and staff situated themselves in front of the stage at the Johnson Center Bistro Thursday night. Although the turnout wasn’t as high as anticipated, there was plenty of fun and good spirit in the air. Acts ranged from poetry, spoken word and singing to comedy and a metal band. Overall, the audience enjoyed the talent, and everyone had a great time. The significance of an event like this is the opportunity for members of a marginal group to express themselves in a forum without censorship. Associate Director of LGBTQ Resources Ric Chollar agrees. “What I love most about this event is that it gives a chance for each participant to share something personal and provide insight about their culture,” he said, “In a way, that makes Open Mic Night my favorite Pride Week event.” Last week was filled with fun and educational events intended to bring people together in recognition and appreciation of […]

   

• Drag show a raucous, high-energy hit

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 12:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Hayley Roder, Broadside Correspondent The lights dimmed in the Johnson Center atrium. The stage lit up as Reann Ballslee walked up the steps and back into the spotlight. Reann Sassie D’Loceanono Ballslee sparkled in a green, black and white dress, silver heels and her Ms. Mason 2009 sash and tiara. She captivated the cheering group of students, family members and friends who lined all three levels of the Johnson Center. She readied the crowd for a fierce and fabulous night of performances and fashion as she kicked off the 2010 Pride Week Drag Show. Better known during the day as Ryan Allen, Ballslee returned to host Pride Week’s main event after graduating last year. She has been a crowd favorite since she first appeared in the drag show four years ago and has hosted the annual event ever since. Ballslee gained international media attention after being crowned Mason’s Homecoming Queen last year. Friday night, she told the audience that she was updating her Wikipedia page to reflect that she is also George Mason University’s final Homecoming Queen, since the competition was redesigned this year to be more inclusive and featured only one winner crowned “Mason Majesty.” Usually a festive […]

   

• Star Trek

  Lifestyle April 5, 2010 at 3:44 am Comments are Disabled

  Star Trek is not just for geeks anymore. JJ Abrams recent resurrection of the Star Trek franchise proved it. Capturing the attention of a whole new generation of trekkies, the Abram’s installment beamed up younger fans to the Enterprise who were just being introduced to Captain James T. Kirk for the first time. This new fan base, combined with the diehard fans that have been rocking the Vulcan salute for over 40 years now, can be attributed to the large turnout alien language designer Marc Okrand received from George Mason University last Friday. Okrand is the designer behind the alien language Klingon used in many of the Star Trek films. The veteran linguist is also responsible for developing the language used in the Disney animated film Atlantis.  A god to those familiar with the franchise, Okrand unveiled the secrets of Klingon to a waving room of Vulcan salutes and anxious fans. James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in the television series, came up with the idea of Klingon orginally. Okrand took it one step further though in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Actually, make that two Klingon Dictionaries, several Shakspeare plays translated into the alien language and […]

   

• Zero to 88 Degrees: Hot Tub Time Machine as predictable as its name

  Lifestyle March 29, 2010 at 12:53 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Josh Hylton, Staff Writer Back in January, I was invited to attend an early screening of a little film called Hot Tub Time Machine. It was a rough cut and was, well, a little rough. The editing required tightening and a few story issues needed to be resolved. Now it has been completed and the finished product is, well, still a little rough. It is a shoddily structured, messily executed hour and a half trip through an unoriginal screenplay. The story is reminiscent of dozens of other time-traveling films, only this time, the machine in question is a hot tub. Still, its goofy nature and fun, unabashed ridiculousness are hard to deny. The story, as lackluster as it may be, can be summarized as follows: After Lou, played by Rob Corddry, tries to kill himself, his friends Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Clark Duke) and Jacob (Craig Robinson), travel to their old vacation spot, a ski resort in the mountains. There, they are transported back to the ’80s via a hot tub and must travel in the same footsteps they did all those years ago, lest they disrupt the past and change the future for the worse. Much like Snakes […]

   

• Broadside Now Showing

  Lifestyle March 29, 2010 at 12:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Ross Bonaime, Staff Writer With the remake of Clash of the Titans being released this week, audiences will see a film in 3D that attempts to be epic in every way. But Clash of the Titans has a long way to go to become one of the great epic films. With that, here are the top 10 epic films of all time. 10. Intolerance The father of the epic movie, D.W. Griffith, dropped all the white power messages of his previous film Birth of a Nation, and created four fascinating stories of intolerance spanning many countries and various time frames. 9. Spartacus In the battle of ’50s – ’60s slave epics, Spartacus beats Ben-Hur, hands down. Kirk Douglas and Stanley Kubrick created a classic redemption story with some of Old Hollywood’s finest actors. 8. The Lord of the Rings trilogy It doesn’t get much more epic than three films being shot simultaneously in a project that took over eight years to create. But Peter Jackson’s surprisingly faithful adaptations of Tolkien’s novels will go down as modern day classics. 7. 2001: A Space Odyssey Another great Kubrick epic, 2001 makes the leap from the beginning of time to mankind’s next […]

   

• Broadside Interviews: Clark Duke of Hot Tub Time Machine

  Lifestyle March 29, 2010 at 12:50 pm Comments are Disabled

  Starring alongside best friend Michael Cera in the Internet series Clark and Michael is only the beginning of Clark Duke’s story. With the underappreciated Sex Drive and hit television show Greek under his belt, not to mention the highly anticipated film Kick Ass on the horizon, Duke is proving himself to be one of the most promising up-and-coming actors in Hollywood. Broadside recently chatted with Duke about his new movie Hot Tub Time Machine and the difference between television and film. What attracted you to the Hot Tub Time Machine script? Clark: It was funny. I got involved with it because the guys who wrote Sex Drive had written the draft of Hot Tub and wanted me to play this part and I just said “yeah” because I really love those guys. They ended up not directing it, but I still stayed on because there was Corddry, Craig and then Cusack. I think Cusack being in it makes it really weird and meta because he’s such an ’80s icon himself. And in the movie, these guys go back to the ’80s and the whole thing seems like it’s coming out of him a little bit, which is cool. Since you […]

   

• Will the real Bon Jovi please stand up?

  Lifestyle March 29, 2010 at 12:48 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Evan Benton, Staff Writer Jon Bon Jovi is perhaps most responsible for ushering in the short-lived but ridiculously popular hair metal genre in the mid – late ’80s. While that may not be the greatest compliment in this day and age, it’s nevertheless a fantastic personal achievement. Bon Jovi represented the genre with his long, teased-out hair, his pretty-boy looks, his unstoppable voice and his shameless mane of golden chest hair. He and his namesake band left Sayreville, N.J. and took the entire world by storm with their second album, 1986’s Slippery When Wet. With “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “You Give Love A Bad Name,” and the Mason Nation’s unofficial anthem “Livin’ on a Prayer” on the record, it went diamond-certified with 12 million copies sold and to this day holds the record for number of weeks spent at #1 on the Billboard charts by a rock band. That’s right: combined with later albums, this makes Bon Jovi one of the most successful American bands ever. But that’s not even the most important part of Bon Jovi’s legacy. With the winning smile and hairy man-chest of its lead singer, Bon Jovi was an MTV favorite, and each of the […]