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Mason students recreate the Harlem Shake

Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia February 17, 2013 at 5:55 pm Comments are Disabled

Nearly 200 people showed up at Southside on Feb. 17 wearing giant penis costumes, banana costumes, gorilla suits and one guy was even wearing a floppy, rubber horse mask. The list of outrageous and quirky costumes goes on and on, but why are these Mason students running around campus in bright spandex, neon bathing suits and panda costumes? Many have heard of “The Harlem Shake,” a YouTube sensation gone viral, and remakes and parodies of the video are now popping up. So of course Mason students Ryan Glass and Vince Gomes decided to bring “The Harlem Shake” home to Mason. “The videos are going viral, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to make a video like this?” said Ryan Glass, the producer and director of the video. The video was shot at four locations on campus – outside Southside, on the spiral staircase of the JC, the George Mason statue and a Lecture Hall classroom. And as many could imagine, filming the remake was an unexpected treat for Mason’s students and visitors. Mason student Orshi Buzas was watching the video being filmed outside Southside. “Oh yeah, I definitely think this will go viral – all the [Harlem Shake] […]
Coach Hewitt gives insider perspective

Featured, Sports February 13, 2013 at 3:40 pm Comments are Disabled

Men’s basketball team might be going stagnant at a crucial time late in the season. Q: One big thing Mason fans are unsure of is the identity of their point guard, who is it? A: Well right now it’s Corey Edwards. I think putting Bryon Allen into our lineup as a secondary point guard or on the wing has allowed him to play a little more freely. Q: Is that the offense you drew up from the beginning? A: We came into the year thinking our post players would be the center of our offense, and early in the year they were having trouble finishing. We had to change things: post up our perimeter players more inside, make some shots and go to the line. Sherrod, Anali, Jonathan, Bryon. Particularly Sherrod is getting fouled a lot and he brings us some easy baskets. Q: You mentioned Jonathan Arledge. You originally put him in to replace Johnny Williams in the starting lineup due to his concussion. Is he making his way back to that starting spot? A: It is taking longer than we thought to get him back, our training staff says this sort of thing is common with a […]
Alumna creates indie film “The Long-term Side Effect”

Featured, Lifestyle February 13, 2013 at 3:34 pm Comments are Disabled

Forget “(500) Days of Summer” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” Mason may be more interested in independent film “The Long-Term Side Effect,” which was produced and directed by a Mason alumna and features a number of Mason students and faculty, as well as actors in the D.C. area. The Mason students and faculty working on the movie make up a good percentage of the cast and production crew, with 10 alumni, one current student, one professor and one staff member. This is fitting because Dannie Snyder – the producer, director, writer, music composer, and one of the cinematographers and audio mixers for the film – is a Mason graduate of 2010, who studied Theatre Studies, Film and Video Studies and music. “During my senior year, I directed a studio theater production with the Mason Players called Fuddy Meers, where I met Kathleen Mason who was playing the lead role,” Synder said. “I promised to one day write a film for her, which resulted in ‘The Long-Term Side Effect,’ her debut for the screen.” And so the indie film was born. “The Long- Term Side Effect” was originally going to be a series of five different short films filmed within four […]
Students give a face and story to statistics at first annual Mason Lobbies

Featured, News, News1 February 13, 2013 at 3:22 pm Comments are Disabled

“Democracy is messy, it’s noisy, it’s complex. But in a very deep way, it’s amazing,” said President Angel Cabrera to a group of Mason students who travelled down to Richmond for Mason’s first lobbying day. “You’re going to be a part of the process today.” The students, who traded in their T-shirts for blazers for the day, spent Feb. 7 talking to Virginia state delegates and sena- tors to off er a personal touch to the statistics lawmakers consider when doling out state funds to universities. “Th is is the best possible way of telling folks what’s happening at our beloved university,” said delegate David Ramadan (87th district). Mason Lobbies is a new initiative put together by the student government to allow students, alumni and faculty to share what they love about Mason. I think they get tired of seeing the admin-istrators and presi-dents, but they love seeing students; so, it’s really important that you’re here to- day because you tell the George Mason story best -Laura Fornash, Secretary of Education Forty-three current students and 15 alumni, along with a bevy of faculty from offices across campus, showed up to represent the university. “Today is so important for you to […]
Photo of the week: Passion for basketball fuels alumni love

Featured, Multimedia February 12, 2013 at 5:10 pm 6 comments

Passion for basketball fuels alumni love Joe Shannon proposed to his girlfriend Ellen Face during the eight minute media time out at the Feb. 9 men’s basketball game against Delaware. Though Shannon completely surprised Face, he was more than confident he would not be turned down. The couple met through mutual friends 10 years ago as undergrads. They reunited two and a half years ago and began dating, sharing a mutual love for the Mason men’s basketball team. The couple travels to see the team play in conference tournaments each year in Richmond with their mutual friends.
Freshman’s parkour video goes viral on YouTube

Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia February 4, 2013 at 1:04 pm Comments are Disabled

When Omar Zaki first laid eyes on a parkour video on YouTube when he was in high school, he never considered that one day one of those videos would be his own; especially one that would earn over 45 thousand views. “Just like anybody else, I saw the videos when I was younger and thought ‘That’s crazy, I could never do that, forget it’ and put it to the back of my mind,” Zaki said. The skills he showcases in the video, which follows him running, jumping and flipping across Mason’s Fairfax campus, has been nearly two years in the making. “It started when I met my best friend Adam, and he and I were talking about wanting to try it,” Zaki said. “Coincidentally, around the same time, my step dad was at work and one of his co-workers gave him the name of a parkour gym called Urban Evolution.” Urban Evolution is one of several parkour gyms in the Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland area that allows for individuals to be trained in the skills of parkour, freerunning, gymnastics, break dancing aerial acrobatics and more. “The first thing I say to anyone learning parkour is this: you learn […]
Sophomore convinces world-renowned experts to speak at Mason

Featured, Multimedia, News, News1 February 4, 2013 at 12:56 pm Comments are Disabled

Rejection knocks most people down, but when sophomore Peter Pham is on a mission, it is hard to tell him no. Pham, an integrated studies major, spent months trying to get in touch with some of the most intelligent and respected professionals in the international relations field and was discouraged to learn that his phone calls and emails were largely ignored or fielded by secretaries. So he decided to try something different. This past summer Pham took a road trip and visited his idols in person to convince them to come to Mason and speak to his Patriots for Foreign Service club. His trip covered ground between the University of Chicago, Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Perseverance paid off, and Pham was able to convince Dr. Joseph Nye, the former dean of the Kennedy School at Harvard, a renowned political scientist to speak in Dewberry Hall at 9 a.m. on Feb. 6 to speak on the presidential advancement of American foreign policy in the twentieth century. The event is open to the public and Pham encourages anyone with an interest in foreign service, despite their degree program, to attend. “We are looking for people who want to work in foreign service, […]
Exhibit showcases new international campus in Korea

Featured, Multimedia, News, News1 February 4, 2013 at 12:55 pm Comments are Disabled

Far from the humdrum suburbs of Fairfax, Mason’s new satellite campus is becoming a reality in Incheon, South Korea. To introduce the new campus in a more visual way, the Office of Global and International Studies is hosting an exhibit in the Johnson Center 123 Gallery from Feb. 4-8 each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. “This will be a Mason campus with its own personality,” said Anne Schiller, Vice President for Global and International Strategies. “It will be both different and familiar and help students expand their global understanding.” Set to accept its first Mason students in 2014, Songdo Mason is a university built into the concept of an aerotropolis, or an airport city. Built on 1,500 acres of land reclaimed from the sea, Incheon, located near the capitol city of Seoul, is within three and a half hours of one quarter of the world’s population. “East Asia has always been an area of commitment for Mason,” Schiller said. “This is a natural continuation of the commitment Mason already made with the Korean government.” Songdo University Global Campus is one of many initiatives in a city that hopes to become the world’s gateway to East Asia. “American education […]
The life and times of Nobel Laureate James Buchanan

Featured, News1 February 4, 2013 at 12:50 pm Comments are Disabled

Modest, intelligent and hardworking, are just three adjectives that President Emeritus Alan Merten believes would describe George Mason University’s first Nobel Prize winner, Dr. James (Jim) Buchanan. On Jan. 9, the former professor of economics, Buchanan, passed away at the age of 93 in his home in Blacksburg, Va. Dr. Merten believes that Dr. Buchanan’s accomplishment with his Center for the Study of Public Choice and eventual Nobel Prize in economics helped Mason become the university it is today. “Fourteen years after [the university] was started up it had a Nobel Prize winner,” Dr. Merten said. “Without Jim, George Mason just would not be what it is.” Buchanan’s work is often times attributed with putting the young George Mason University on the map. “The history of George Mason is one of continual progress and continual advancement, always moving forward. There are four things in the life of George Mason that catapulted it up another dimension. The first one is in 1986, when Jim Buchanan won the Nobel Prize in economics,” Merten said. Merten was not the only university president who believed that Buchanan and his team’s accomplishments were instrumental in the success of George Mason University. President Emeritus George W. […]
Mason Takes LEAD on Sandy Relief Efforts in Student’s Hometown

Featured, Multimedia, News1 November 19, 2012 at 1:57 pm Comments are Disabled

Incredible winds ravaged the area of Ocean Township. Trees and power lines crashed to the ground. Just as the storm began to take form, a neighbor’s tree fell through the roof of Jordan White’s home in Monmouth County, New Jersey and created a large hole in the ceiling, allowing rain to pour directly into the house. When Hurricane Sandy began pushing its way up the shoreline in the Northeast United States, winds broke the sand dunes and eliminated any hope of isolating the devastation on the beach. In short time, sands covered the streets in Ocean Township and blocked much of the drainage systems in the surrounding area. As a result, White’s home, along with many others in the area, were severely flooded from the storm. “It’s just a house, so it can be replaced,” said White, a leadership consultant in the LEAD Office. “Everyone in the house is okay. The hardest part for me is the town.” To add insult to injury, White’s family regained power just in time to lose it as a result of the more recent snowstorm that further devastated the area. White’s family, like many others in the area, is currently living in a house […]