This week’s DJ de la semaine requires little introduction, but here’s one: Fedde le Grand is a Dutchman who has torn up the dancefloors over the last three years. While he has been more of a commodity in Europe than elsewhere, this kind of music cannot be denied (NSFW):

That was ‘Let Me Think About It’ with Ida Corr, released in 2007. It’s like they have booby tassels but over their clothes!

‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ came out in 2006 and launched Mr. Le Grand to super(house)stardom, and with good reason. The video is interesting, if only because it seems that our Dutch friend has never been to Detroit (sorta NSFW):

Hit the jump for a better idea of what Fedde is up to these days.

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Banal title, I realize. I couldn’t resist. It’s a GAAP weekend, so prospies and their harried-looking parents are overrunning campus like a plague of locusts–a plague welcomed by an administration eager to hard-sell Georgetown’s outrageous price tag. I don’t mind the GAAPers: it’s good to see new people around, especially when I wind up running into most of the people I know in a walk across our postage stamp-sized campus.

I’m struck by the contrast between myself and the GAAP participants. It’s one thing to contrast seniors with freshmen, as I’ve done in the past: we are all in college, at least. GAAP kids are just that—kids—eager to finish high school and join the ranks of beer-swilling, louche collegians. I fully expected to see some of them gate-crash the Village B party at which I threw down last night—the rain probably kept them indoors—and had any of them gotten in, I would have freaked a little bit. I haven’t partied with high school kids since… well, since high school.

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Courtesy of Is Google Making Us Dumber?

Anyone else searching for the link between cats and cancer? I know I am! In the meantime:

• SEXY PEOPLE is a blog devoted to the “celebration of the perfect portrait.” Awkward high school glamour shots galore, plus you can always submit your own.

• Gmail lets you unsend messages, and all is well.

• 5 annoying things that couple do. How I dislike couples who are too into PDA.

• An entire blog devoted to “sturgeon face,” a curmudgeonly look that has been worn by everyone from Bill Clinton to Brett Favre to That Guy.

• This list of the 100 oldest domain names should make us all happy, since we are all at least younger than the internet. Suck it, old people.

• Take a quiz to see how progressive you are, courtesy of the Center for American Progress.

Hit the jump for a guide to picking up the ladies and hunks.

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Ready for some house music from NYC by way of the DR? Let’s go!

Roger Sanchez (also ridiculously known as the S Man on some remixes) has been around for more than a minute, but this Dominican-American is one of the more tragic stories of house. After starting off his career with some epic, respectable bangers, he descended rapidly into super cheesy, somewhat formulaic ditties. But I don’t have to tell you, just look at what used to be:

‘Another Chance’ came out in 2001, after the S Man had built up a sterling reputation on the club circuit with his pals at Strictly Rhythm records. Here’s another peek at greatness (don’t mind the oddly serious vampire subplot!):

That was ‘I Never Knew,’ released in 2000. Let’s take a look at the music that followed these masterpieces, shall we? There are THREE, one of which is fantastic.

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The documentary Food, Inc. (mentioned in this New York Times article) casts a critical eye on the practices of agribusiness interests like Monsanto—and opens a debate on America’s food consumption practices. Food, Inc. taps into a trend that’s been growing for years now: locally-sourced agriculture. Long the exclusive provenance of liberal elites and Brooklynites, locavorism (locavoraciousness?) is taking on new luster in the mainstream. Americans, newly aware of their “carbon footprints,” are expressing concern about how their food is grown and how far it must travel.

Food social consciousness (for lack of a better phrase) has its origins in California, unsurprisingly. The acclaimed chef Alice Waters opened the local-as-possible Chez Panisse in Berkeley (epicenter of all things liberal) in 1971. It’s been one of the nation’s most respected restaurants since then—for the quality of its food, not its model of ingredient sourcing. But with a fresh-faced Democratic president in the White House and a First Lady bent on ruining the South Lawn for the sake of produce, “locally-grown” is the new hotness.

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Why do the Caesars of our world get “assassinated” when the rest of us have to make do with merely being “murdered”? Maybe I have my priorities in the wrong place, but this has always bothered me. The answer can be found in—guess what!—word history.

Murder derives from Old Norse morð, which came from the Proto-Indo-European base *mor “to die,” from whence we received Latin words such as mors, “death,” and eventually our English word “mortal.” Interestingly, in Germanic culture morð was understood as “concealed or unlawful killing” and thus the “murderer” was subject to vengeance and dishonor that a plain killer would not be.

Assassin, and hence assassinate, has several disputed etymologies. The first and most popular says that “assassin” is derived from Arabian hashishiyyin, “hashish-users, referring to the drug which medieval Muslim mercenaries took while they committed their killings. That’s clear enough; plus, it draws a nice, simplistic picture of violent drug-imbibing Orientals (despite that no contemporary sources mention the killers having intoxicants, except Marco Polo who probably made it up).

A second version says that “assassin” comes from Hashashin, which also meant “hashish-eaters” and was an alternative designation for the Nizari branch of the Isma’ili Shi’a Muslims. … Wait, that’s not clear at all!
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Hello there. Long time no see. I know you’ve been hurting for some new movie trailers, so I’ve got two presents for you.

‘Year One‘ stars Jack Black and Michael Cera (*swoon*) as two tribesmen kicked out of the community after Black eats from the Tree of Knowledge. From there, history and geography get thrown in the blender as they go on what studio executives would like us to think is an epic adventure. Take a look:

This movie has a lot going for it. David Cross and Paul Rudd as Cain and Abel makes me giddy with anticipation, and it looks like Black and Cera get to play to their strengths as slapsticky and awkward actors respectively. Plus, history is funny! Right? Unless there is some gaping plot hole waiting to be discovered, I think we may have an enjoyable summer romp on our hands (it comes out on June 19). Grade: A-

Hit the jump for a light French crime caper, set in Africa.

UPDATE: Now in proper English!

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I was sort of cleaning out my desk this week and came across a “pink sheet” I was using as a doodle pad. The “pink sheet,” familiar to all MSB students, lists in detail the classes that must be taken to graduate from MSB. The deans’ office, understanding that many of us are flighty simpletons, breaks down required courses into easy-to-understand sections: Liberal Arts Core; Business Core I; Business Core II; and the six majors. (Contrary to popular belief, “Leisure Studies” is not one of them, although it damn well should be.)

Anyway, the running joke in MSB—aside from MSB itself—is that the “pink sheet” runs your life most of the time. And it’s really strange to see my entire collegiate academic experience summated on one side of a single sheet of paper (except for my English minor). There’s History/Government/Classics – I’m remembering “US Since 1945” with McCartin – and Philosophy I & II. Down the list is Accounting I with Ivo Jansen, and Management & Organizational Behavior a little later. I remember the professor’s husband being chill. I also remember that our final project involved something called Maui Wowie – take that as you may.

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skeletons!

Just a few posts for today’s Hump Day…

As you might know, Lil’ Wayne is about to drop a rock-infused album, “Rebirth,” on April 7th. Its first single, “Prom Queen,” has justly cast much worry on the rest of the album with its Nickelback-cover-band-like guitars and excessive Weezy-style warbling.

Fortunately, “Yeahhh,” a track from his recent mixtape “Hottest Ni**a Under The Sun,” redeems any sort of prom-night missteps. Check out the sweet cover art at the top of the post, too. Nothin’ classier!

Jump down for crazy YouTube antics and an indie-rock breakfast. Read Full Post

Look at that dude. I’ll bet he’s as proud of that car as I am of these links:

• Here’s what  hedgehog looks like without any spikes. Simultaneously cute and gross.

• This kid has possibly the worst luck of anyone in England: his pimples spell the word ‘arse.’

• Ever wanted to own PB&J pillows? Consider it within reach.

• After hearing the worst news ever (masturbation: the silent killer), now this suckerpunch to the karmic gut: New Zealand women’s breasts are getting bigger. New Zealand men, we hardly knew ye.

• Daft Punk is doing the score for the Tron sequel. One word: AWESOME.

• I always knew M.C. Hammer had a purpose.

Hit the jump for two insane instances of Japanese television.

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This week you get a taste of some local flavor, in the form of the D.C.-based Deep Dish. This Iranian duo, otherwise known as Dubfire (not his real name) and Sharam (real name), have been responsible for some real club bangers over the last decade. They bring a moody sensibility to epic house, and the result will move you. Let’s start with ‘Flashdance,’ officially released in 2004. This song was a massive hit, see if you can tell why:

 

Deep Dish does not always work in tandem, as Sharam has something of an affinity for sugary pop house. Here he remixes Eddie Murphy’s classic, ‘Party All The Time,’ with great results. Imagine grooving to this back in 2006 (NSFW):

  

Hit the jump for five (5) more videos from these D.C. denizens.

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MSB, SFS, GUSA, ICC, GUROP, GERMS. Georgetown life is rife with acronyms. Nobody envies the incoming freshman who have to learn not only all the stuff that this alphabet soup refers to, but also the conventions determining how these acronyms are pronounced in spoken conversation.

Most of the time we spell our acronyms out letter by letter (”I.C.C.,” “M.S.B.”). But some we pronounce as if they were words (”goo-rop,” “germs,” “gap”), and other times we do whatever is convenient and suits our affections (”dops” for DPS). Then there are those acronyms that we avoid referring to in conversation for fear that our tongue cannot pronounce them or that our memory cannot contain such a long string of letters.

This much is obvious to any Georgetown student who has been here more than a semester. What we all might be surprised to learn, though, is how many common, everyday words were acronyms before they became words.
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Readers of “Senior Citizenship” know that I spent spring break in California. Needless to say, I flew there. Tramp steamers are a charming mode of transport, I hear, but I only had nine days off and wanted to maximize my time on the ground. I also fly whenever I go home to Boston; doing so is vastly quicker than trains or (shudder) buses would be. So my carbon footprint is huge. Enough about me, though—let’s talk about the process of flying itself.

Warren Buffett once quipped that an investor in airlines at the incipience of air travel would, by the turn of the century, have made nothing for his investment. In other words, airlines have never been able to muster sustained profitability. There are a multitude of reasons: airlines operate in an ultra-competitive environment; are subject to costly safety regulations by the federal government; and are prisoners to fuel price swings. Consumers, furthermore, are rarely “brand-loyal” in their air travel, opting to choose the cheapest flights for their desired routes. It is, I believe, consumer tastes that pose the biggest risk to airline profitability.

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“We’ve got a straggler on the fourth floor.”

Spoken just within earshot of me by one DPS officer who clearly felt that I was not leaving the library fast enough after being told at MIDNIGHT that the LIBRARY WAS CLOSING at Georgetown University, a (supposed) institution of higher learning. Dumb library rules are full of fail.

Hit the jump for a deep insight, courtesy of Willy Wonka.

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So I decided to go unplugged over spring break and leave the ThinkPad at home. (You know you’re MSB when…) Which meant no blogging. Sorry about that—but here’s another installment of Senior Citizenship to keep you sated. I may well post again later in the week, if I’m feeling frisky, so check back or add me to your RSS feed (if you can even do that; I don’t really get “technology”).

Spring break was glorious and sun-drenched—I ran up on Southern California and did California things. I knew it would be a dece week when I got pulled over in my rented Altima literally an hour after getting in. (I somehow neglected to turn my headlights on, even though it was like eleven at night. But in the great Ben Foster tradition I talked my way out of the situation. Word life.) My trip was comic at times, tragic at others – much like life is – and was ended spectacularly with a free ride back from Dulles at 12:30am. (Big shout-out to Sam and her friends from Catholic.)

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