Lifestyle

Recreational Sex Culture Infiltrates College Relationship Scene

Lifestyle October 31, 2012 at 11:00 am 6 comments

The room was fuzzy and unfamiliar at first as she blinked her eyes open and tried to recall the events of the night before. Putting together the pieces she remembered a loud and overcrowded basement, red juice that was a little too sweet and a stranger that had asked her to dance. She stretched and rolled over to find the stranger sleeping soundly next to her, and it all came back to her. While her mother may not approve and somewhere deep down the morals that she was raised with threw up red flags and sounded alarms, for some reason she just could not feel guilty. Why? Because society has led her to believe that it was okay. Today’s society not only condones the concept of recreational sex, it often encourages such promiscuous behavior among young people as a rite of passage. Decisions that would once have been considered completely immoral or unacceptable are now the norm for college students. These extreme societal changes did not happen overnight. While it is easy to blame it on this generation, it is also unfair to pin the entire moral decline on one generation when it began decades ago “Prior to the mid-60s […]
Blood, Sweat and Beers at the Patriot Center

Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia October 31, 2012 at 10:59 am Comments are Disabled

Country music artist Eric Church proudly holds in his right hand a shot glass of Jack Daniels—his drink of choice. “How many shots I have will determine what kind of night it’s going to be,” said Church, during his Oct. 26 Blood, Sweat and Beers concert at the Patriot Center. Regardless of how many shots he actually downed, Eric Church’s show could easily be one of the biggest parties that Mason has seen all semester. Throughout the 90-minute performance, the excitement level was so high that the few thousand audience members rarely sat down. Energy continuously flowed between Church and his audience. “I promise you I’m going to give you everything I got,” said Church, towards the beginning of his performance. “But you also better give me everything you got.” Clapping their hands, singing along, dancing in front of their seats, waving their drinks in the air, and howling at times, the audience heeded Church’s call. The show began as the 35-year-old, 6-foot-2 singer-songwriter emerged in a cloud of theatrical smoke from under the stage, wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and baseball cap. The stage was set with pyrotechnics and strobe lights. Playing an acoustic guitar, Church opened with […]
Behind the Hoop with the Green Machine

Lifestyle, Sports October 23, 2012 at 10:45 am Comments are Disabled

Last week, students got their welcome back to basketball season with a spectacular performance from the Green Machine at Mason Madness. The Green Machine has been exploding in popularity around the region, frequently performing shows around the northern Virginia area at venues such as local high schools and Wolftrap. “I have had so many wonderful opportunities to get involved in Mason’s culture and spread it across the country: Cleveland, Charleston, Richmond, Blacksburg and even Puerto Rico,” senior member Betsy O’Keeffe said. Lots of present members knew before even stepping onto campus that they wanted to play for the pep band. They saw that the group’s energy and excitement made it one of a kind. “I first saw them at an open house and all I could think was, ‘holy shit, I want to be part of that insanity,’” Zach High said. The insanity he speaks of can be seen, heard and felt at every home game in the Patriot Center. The members are clad in their green and gold from head to toe. Doc Nix features his impressive get up and signature cane that he uses to direct the band’s raw power. The bleachers shake to their beats and clatter […]
President Cabrera Connects via Twitter

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:40 am Comments are Disabled

Mason’s sixth president, Dr. Angel Cabrera, is fearless when it comes to connecting with students. Nearing almost 6,000 followers and 9,000 tweets on Twitter, the new president has tapped into the world’s fastest social media outlet to show the surrounding Mason community what he is all about. Recognized as the World Economic Forum’s Global Leader for Tomorrow in 2002 and Young Global Leader in 2005, Cabrera strongly believes in diversity, innovation and global connections. It comes as no surprise that this progressive leader is an avid Twitter user. When asked for advice on how college students can use their own Twitter accounts more effectively, Dr. Cabrera retweeted me in just two minutes saying, “I thought college students were the experts at this!” “I follow people I learn new things from, therefore I write about things that catch my attention, that I find interesting,” Cabrera tweeted back. Cabrera’s wife Elizabeth Cabrera, an organizational psychologist, shares her husband’s passion for this in-the-moment news platform. “I like it for sharing info about issues of interest to me like workplace positivity and women’s careers,” she tweeted. After witnessing the Twitter conversation, Cabrera’s old friend Lucy P. Marcus, founder and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, […]
“Into the Woods” Introduces Musical Theater as a New Academic Program

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:36 am 1 comment

Murmurs hover over the room as some cast members of “Into the Woods” gather around the piano to warm up their voices, others go over their lines while putting on their costumes and others move around excitedly, munching on snacks, and laughing with each other. The black floor is covered with bright colored tape indicating position marks. Other sounds come from the sound effect table placed directly in front of the performing area as the sound designer shows the musical and theater directors his latest developments. Mason’s School of Music and Department of Theater have come together to produce the musical “Into the Woods” as part of a greater commitment from the university to offer a musical theater academic program at Mason. “Into the Woods” is showing at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall from Oct. 26 through Oct. 28. The initiative will materialize in the fall of 2013 when a certificate program will be introduced for theater majors who want to be musical theater certified. Both departments are working together to craft a new degree in musical theater which will be a shared degree between the two disciplines. This degree program will need to go to state review, […]
Changing the Conversation on Mental Health

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:34 am Comments are Disabled

The Mason chapter of a national organization called Active Minds will be hosting a fundraiser on Oct. 22 from 6-10 at Josie’s at University Mall to support their efforts against reducing the stigma against students suffering from mental illnesses. Active Minds is a national organization dedicated to helping students become emotionally healthy before they reach the point of crisis. According to their website, nationwide 1,100 college students commit suicide each year. This makes it one of the leading causes of death on college campuses, second only to alcohol. Their website also states that 44 percent of college students report feeling so depressed in the past year that it was impossible to function, and 2/3 of students who need help do not receive it. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately one in four American adults per year suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability in the US for ages 15-44, and more than 90 percent of those who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder. This year, the Mason chapter of Active Minds passed out glowsticks on campus to shed light on mental illness. In November they will be hosting […]
Fox Film Critic Kevin McCarthy Reviews His Time at Mason

Featured, Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:31 am Comments are Disabled

An intense action sequence is playing out on the screen, and just when you think that there is no hope and the hero has seen the end, he comes through and saves the day in an epic display of knowledge and knife technique. The mind blowing graphics and beautifully demonstrated use of characters is just too much, and a single tear of awe and appreciation rolls down the viewer’s cheek. According to Kevin McCarthy, Mason Alumni and CBS movie critic, this phenomenon is known as nerd tears. Nerd tears, those moments of insane giddiness, are the namesake of McCarthy’s website where he posts movie reviews and celebrity interviews. Since he graduated in 2006, McCarthy has built a career in film critique and radio. It all started the first time he saw The Terminator 2, the second film in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s popular science fiction action franchise. McCarthy, a young boy at the time, fell in love with film. He was fascinated by the technical aspects that went into making the movie and its main actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would become his childhood hero. He never could have known that this cinematic experience would be the beginning of a bright career in film. […]
A Night of Blood Curdling Fun at Hallow Inc.

Featured, Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:26 am Comments are Disabled

As we stand in line outside of the Rockville, Maryland strip mall, our stocky host gives a dramatic appraisal of the situation. “This,” he explains, “is a very dangerous place, and you will be very, very lucky to make it out alive.” Already I’m excited, and I can feel my adrenaline level rising. Our host, now our survival guide, brings my friends and I up to date on the “situation.” Something is horribly wrong inside this building, and it is up to us, the brave and adventurous explorers that we are, to find out what happened. A government program for studying the effects of nuclear radiation on humans, canceled long ago, has fallen into the wrong hands. The result is housed in the warehouse before us. Our job is to check the situation out. We’re not sure what went wrong, but as our survival guide finishes his speech, he lowers his sun glasses for dramatic effect. Below his eye. A bite mark. Our survival guide is in the early stages of zombie infection. At Hallow Inc’s The Warehouse: Project 4.1, your experience begins the minute you line up outside the building. From that point on as you enter the lobby, […]
Mason Combats a Terrifying Trend

Lifestyle October 23, 2012 at 10:20 am Comments are Disabled

There is a conflict on all American college campuses. Nationwide, 1 in 4 college relationships are abusive. In an attempt to end this conflict, Mason’s Sexual Assault Services (SAS) has been promoting safe relationships where the two people in the relationship respect each other and each other’s opinions. “Our office is critical because we’re able to provide education and outreach about healthy and unhealthy relationships,” said Hope Savolainen, Education Coordinator of SAS. “We are able to provide support to students who experienced abuse in their relationship.” However, the office’s priority is to stop this abuse before it begins. SAS promotes a healthy relationship through non-threatening behavior, respect, trust & support, honesty & accountability, shared responsibility, economic partnership and negotiation & fairness. SAS defines a relationship as two people who value and respect each other. Along with these tips, the office also has key points on how to keep an exceptional relationship, start one across cultures and ways to spice up a couple’s love life. The goal of these tips is to create a relationship where the couple has equal responsibility and respect. If the relationship is strong and both trust and support each other, the office believes that this will […]
Smashburger: Home of the Smashburger

Lifestyle October 16, 2012 at 2:28 pm Comments are Disabled

When campus food gets old and boring, it’s time to start venturing out and exploring the dining options around town. You can always fall back on old favorites like Chipotle and other fast food restaurants, but if you are looking for some service with a great meal, then the place to go is the newly opened Smashburger on Fairfax Blvd. Smashburger is an original experience from the way that the burgers are made to the great value of service. So, let’s start with the burgers. The burgers start out as meatballs that are put down and actually smashed on the grill. It creates two seared outer layers that keep all the juiciness that burger-lovers desire inside. Burgers can be custom-made with imaginative combinations of buns and toppings. For a restaurant that handles orders like a fast food restaurant, the service is amazing. After ordering your meal, you sit down and relax as servers bring out orders, check on how everything is going and clean off tables. Smashburger is a great place to treat yourself to a little pampering without breaking the bank. It would be a great place for first dates, club gatherings or even somewhere nice to take the […]