Recent Posts

• Twenty Years Later: Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Where Were You When the Wall Fell?

  News1 November 12, 2009 at 4:53 pm Comments are Disabled

  On November 9, 1989, I was the Patient Care Information Systems . . . computer training coordinator, providing hospital computer training for all levels of staff in all departments, including physicians and physicians’ office staff at California Pacific Medical Center, a 425-bed acute care hospital in San Francisco, California. I found out by TV news. My first reaction, having been born and raised in Nurnberg, Germany (1951-1969) was that it was incredible and just the beginning of great change in the world. Can you imagine living under the cloud of Communism for so long and then have it evaporate overnight? I was excited for people but also worried about the adjustment they would have to make (and it was hard for everyone on both sides of the Wall at first).” – Odette Willis, assistant professor and coordinator for Academic Excellence in the School of Nursing. RN, MN, MBA I remember exactly where I was. I was sitting in the living room of my mother’s summer house in Newport, Rhode Island, a place where my brothers and sisters and their kids all converge for two weeks each summer. We were watching the TV, not really focusing until we realized that we […]

   

• Twenty Years Later: Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Iron Curtain Replica To Be Torn Down Today

  News1 November 12, 2009 at 4:48 pm Comments are Disabled

  Amanda Cheek, News Editor The Unity Walk will begin at the North Plaza of Campus at noon today and will end under the Clock Tower. It will provide a way for students to gather for the demolition of the Berlin Wall replica that will begin at 1 p.m. After a month of campus and non-campus events relating to the wall, including debates and participation in wall graffiti, the wall will be destroyed with sledgehammers and saws. This demolition will celebrate the anniversary of the destruction of the actual Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. “We’re focusing on social action for this event . . . to underline the important lessons to be learned from the Berlin Wall,” said Jacob Kohut, organizer and graduate student majoring in music. “Our understanding of ‘unity’ that we’re trying to express runs so much deeper than merely two sides of a city reuniting – it’s about the unity of the human race and destroying divisions both physical and imaginary that limit humanity’s progress.” Although the wall will no longer stand on Mason grounds, events will continue to occur on and off campus. The famous German writer Peter Schneider will be speaking on Nov. 10 at […]

   

• Student Government Promotes Public Relations: New Committee Created to Advertise Events

  News1 November 12, 2009 at 4:46 pm Comments are Disabled

  Hillary Huber, Broadside Correspondent George Mason University was the number one school to watch last year, and with a new Public Relations Committee, Student Government is proving why Mason deserves that title. The committee will be responsible for any and all advertising, and according to the Student Government website is dedicated to “giv[ing] students professional experience while developing Student Government’s visibility within the Mason Community.” Peter Danjczek, Student Government’s Chief of Staff and a senior government and international politics major, wants to make sure students are more informed. “We really want to benefit students. As a student government, we have built the relationships with all of the administrators and staff on campus,” said Danjczek. “If a student needs to know about something, we have other students that are specifically trained to know about a certain topic, and if for some reason that student doesn’t know the answer, we have all of the resources to quickly and easily get one for that student,” said Danjczek. “Well, I never know when anything is happening so more advertising would help more people know about the events and lead to more people going to the events,” said freshman Jennifer Stenzel, a community health major. […]

   

• Campus Groups Promote Homelessness Awareness: Variety of Activities Planned to Educate Students

  News1 November 12, 2009 at 4:45 pm Comments are Disabled

  Brenda Shepard, Staff Writer Imagine sleeping on cement. Now think about being hungry, alone and numb from the cold. This is how many people across the United States spend each day and night. While students on campuses across the country lie in their warm dorm rooms watching the latest reality show, these homeless men, women and children are simply trying to survive. From Nov. 15 to the 21, students across Mason’s campus will have the opportunity to learn more about homelessness through the annual Hunger and Homelessness Action Week. Through a variety of activities, students will learn about homelessness from people who were and still are living without a roof each night. “We live in one of the richest regions of the richest country in the world, so it’s easy to assume it’s not happening, but it is,” said Northern Virginia Lutheran Campus Ministry Director Ben Buss. According to the event website, actionweek.org, “Hunger and Homelessness Action Week is an annual program of the GMU Campus Ministry Association. The goal of the week is to promote greater awareness of the needs of hungry and homeless people in our community, in the United States, and around the world.” “We decided to […]

   

• Coalition Created to Care for Cats: Students and Faculty Organize Aid for Feral Felines on Campus

  News1 November 12, 2009 at 4:43 pm Comments are Disabled

  Matthew Harrison, Broadside Correspondent Two feral cats sit outside Thompson Hall in a parking spot waiting for love and human attention. It is early in the morning so the cats feel more comfortable showing their presence. And of course, it is almost feeding time. Students move slowly along the walkways of George Mason University’s Fairfax campus, never really noticing the cats that hide among them. One cat straightens its back, perks its ears and focuses on the car slowly rolling into the empty reserved spot. Food and love could not have come at a better time. They could not be happier. “At first I didn’t want to tell the police where the cats where hiding,” says Colleen Bauer, one of several faculty and volunteer workers who take care of the feral cats. “But the police said if I didn’t say where they were hiding, they would catch every cat on campus and have them all tested for rabies.” Bauer was first introduced to Mason’s feral cat community nine years ago when she was working in Krug Hall. She noticed a mother cat and her babies in a window well. Attempting to help the mother and her babies, Bauer was bit […]

   

• Cracking Up with Cook: Popular Stand-Up Comic Takes the Stage at the Patriot Center

  Lifestyle November 12, 2009 at 4:40 pm Comments are Disabled

  John Powell, Asst. Sports Editor Controversy is apparently wrapped in jeans and a t-shirt. When people look at comedian Dane Cook, he makes people laugh or people hate. From his humble beginnings of performing in a laundromat for his first standup show, Cook has gained international acclaim after appearing on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend in 1998. His standup has given him roles in more than 20 movies and TV shows going back to 1997. He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, and has even hosted Saturday Night Live. His five albums are consistently funny, and his second album, Retaliation, debuting at the number four spot in the Billboard 200, making it the most successful comedy album since the release of Steve Martin’s A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1978. Adding to the Steve Martin and Dane Cook relationship is the fact that Martin’s comedy was what inspired Cook to get into comedy in the first place. Cook’s fame and success has not come without criticism, though. Comedians such as Lewis Black have openly said they did not like Cook’s comedy. “[He] doesn’t make me laugh at all, in any way, shape or form,” said […]

   

• CFA Hosts Jazz Ensemble

  Lifestyle November 12, 2009 at 4:36 pm Comments are Disabled

  The George Mason University Jazz Ensemble and the Fairfax Law Foundation will be presenting the 8th Annual Jazz for Justice concert. The event will be held at the George Mason University’s Center for the Arts Concert Hall on Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. The proceeds of the event will go to the charitable efforts of the Fairfax Foundation. It will also help support the Mason’s Jazz Studies program. The George Mason Jazz Ensemble will be performing with Geoffrey Gallante, a 9-year-old trumpet prodigy, who will serve as the main attraction for the performance. Freshman and communication major Sha’ Air Hawkins will lend his voice as a guest vocalist. George and Edward Weiner will guest conduct the entire ensemble. Director of Jazz Studies Jim Carroll expressed his excitement about the contributions the event made. “The Fairfax Law Foundation provides a valuable contribution to the Fairfax community through its programs educating young people on the justice system and its pro bono work,” said Carroll. “Our Jazz Ensemble is delighted to partner with the foundation year after year, and we’re thrilled to perform this year with such a gifted young musician as Geoffrey.” The program for the evening includes Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan” […]

   

• GMU Players Take Center Stage: Actors Rescue Weak Plot

  Lifestyle November 12, 2009 at 4:35 pm Comments are Disabled

  Dylan Hares, Staff Writer The world of literature is oversaturated with coming-of-age stories – especially unimaginative ones. They follow the same pattern, reach the same climax and follow the same conclusion. They are boring and stale. Such is the case with Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! Set on Independence Day during the early 1900s in New England, Ah, Wilderness!”is the story of an upper class family who is genuinely ordinary. Their oldest son goes to Yale and their youngest daughter is peppy and annoying. Their 17-year-old son, Richard Miller, is a brooding, angst-driven teen who feeds off of the anarchist material of Irish writers such as George Shaw and Oscar Wilde, quoting them and others extensively in long, exhausting and melancholy monologues. We learn about Richard’s brother Arthur and how the time he has spent at Yale has made him stuck-up. We learn about Uncle Sid and his excessive drinking and Lilly, the girlfriend he can always come home to when he is drunk and not have to worry about leaving her as long as he looks sorry. Any information we get about the father and mother, Nat and Essie, does not contribute to the story at all, nor does any […]

   

• Talking About The Box: Diaz, Kelly and Marsden Talk with Broadside

  Lifestyle November 12, 2009 at 4:34 pm Comments are Disabled

  Based on the short story by Richard Matheson, The Box is a new psychological thriller directed by Richard Kelly and starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz that depicts a financially unstable 1970’s couple who one day receive a mysterious box with a button inside. They are told that if they push the button, they will receive one million dollars, but someone, somewhere in the world will die. Broadside recently had the chance to sit down with Diaz, Marsden and Kelly to talk about their experiences on making the film. Have any of you read the short story or seen the Twilight Zone episode this movie is based on? JM: Embarrassingly, I never read the short story, not out of laziness, but because we just wanted to focus on our version of what we were doing. I did see the Twilight Zone episode which—Richard where are we with that whole mentioning the Twilight Zone episode? RK: I’m under the impression that I’m not allowed to mention those words legally. [Laughs] But the short story was something I read when I was young and it had a huge impression on me, obviously, and I optioned it from Richard Matheson and I spent […]

   

• Disasterpieces: The 10 Best Movies About the End of the World

  Lifestyle November 12, 2009 at 4:31 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ross Bonaime, Staff Writer This week, director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) will destroy the world once again with his newest disaster film, 2012. As audiences, we’ve seen many horrible disasters and the many ways the world has come to complete destruction. Here are the greatest disaster films: 10. Sunshine Before director Danny Boyle turned a slumdog into a millionaire, he made this space-epic about a group of people who go to “restart” the sun to save the freezing earth. The slow breakdown of the astronauts with the fate of the world at their hands makes for a thrilling space drama. 9. Cloverfield An unidentified monster destroys New York in the surprise hit from last year. The film uses a first-person point of view to generate a greater sense of fear than in many other past disaster-films. The haunting monster that easily looms over the Big Apple is chilling. 8. Independence Day Yes, it’s cheesy and ridiculous. Yes, it’s over-the-top. And yes, it’s odd that aliens use Apple computers. But the film that made Will Smith a movie star is a fun action film that goes for cool explosions and hilarious one-liners. 7. 28 Days Later Imagine […]