Amazon, my favorite recourse when the textbooks offered in the bookstore are too pricey, has recently been showered with heavy criticism for removing rankings from books it deems to have “adult content.” Rankings are what get an author’s books into search results and bestsellers lists, so it is frustrating for any writer to have that taken away. However, when “adult” is defined as “containing LGBT/homosexual content,” which is essentially what seems to have happened, then there is ample room for the Internet to be indignant.

Read Full Post

So if you remember all the way back to the December 2008 issue, you may recall that Scott Oranburg wrote an interesting and slightly intoxicated commentary on the issue of Georgetown as a drinking school.

His inspiration for the article, as he discussed in a staff meeting, was the idea that there were so many brilliant writers who could only write while intoxicated, and he wanted to see if the approach had any merit.

I was immediately taken back to that staff meeting discussion this morning when I read an article in the New York Times, in their rotating Editorial column called “Proof.” The column has interesting perspectives on the role of drinking in American life, and today’s column was about– you guessed it –drunken writers. The article itself was pretty intoxicating; I finished reading the whole thing before I even realized it. Enjoy!

Source

Welcome to this week’s WTW, I hope you’re ready to procrastinate, because I sure as hell am. Plus, who doesn’t love some sweet fan art? Let’s get to this week’s links.

• I usually don’t like to link to lists (they’re generally like internet crack — cheap but of low quality), but this one is sweet: 20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters for American films. The Planet of the Apes Sequel poster from Poland is particularly jarring.

• If you want to learn in your spare time (yeah, I know, it sounded dumb to me too), you can view a semester’s worth of lectures on a variety of courses from schools like Hahvahd, Yale and Stanford at Academic Earth.

• One of my favorite blogs ever: Photoshop Disasters. The people who make ads aren’t so smart after all.

Hit the jump for a MILF machine and a hardcore Cookie Monster. It’s really, really worth your time.

Read Full Post

Following Jessica Ludwig’s article about D.C. rapper Wale, Pitchfork recently reported that the songsmith for beloved band TV on the Radio, David Sitek, will work on Wale’s upcoming full-length album. Sitek is from Columbia, Maryland and has worked with artists like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Scarlett Johansson.
No word yet on when this album drops, but check out “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” below, Wale’s remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.”

from theworld.org

Relating to my article on Obama’s image and celebrity, I now bring you the Barack Obama salon in Khartoum, Sudan. Don’t hold your breath for the Dick Cheney pizza parlor.

Also, check out this article about the music selected for the inaugural balls and how they relate to U.S. identity politics.

To continue Hump Day Music’s last post about ‘Best Of’ music lists, here’s Spin’s Top 40 of 2008, top tens from various B-list indie music acts, and the results of the annual Pitchfork readers poll, which is bound to be totally different from the ‘official’ Pitchfork ranking.

And Tierney gave you a detailed guide to hookups last month, but not so fast, says NYT columnist Charles Blow. Blame those “relaxed values” and alcohol-fueled soirees for this “strange culture” that can promote sexual assault, gender inequality and sexiles, says Blow and Professor Kathleen Bogle of LaSalle University. Keep on shaking that fist, mainstream media! You just WISH it would have been acceptable to make out casually with your friend’s frat brother back in the day.

What is more ironic than being asked for a retraction by a website founded on the spreading of malicious, unsubstantiated gossip in the name of free speech?

Nothing.

In this issue’s commentary section, I discussed the recent theory that, in an effort to bolster the website’s fading popularity at Georgetown, JuicyCampus administrators have posted on the website disguised as Georgetown students.

Though this was mere speculation and all in good fun, JuicyCampus was apparently not too pleased. The Independent soon received an email from BWR, the public relations firm that handles JuicyCampus, asking us to issue a retraction. Read Full Post

You're going to get sick if you eat it that fast

Wondering what Anna’s homemade soup tastes like? Well get ready to hop on the GUTS bus to your grocery store of choice because she was so kind as to share her family recipe with us. Check it out after the jump. Read Full Post

You may have read the childishly entertaining debate between Brian and I over whether Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig makes a better James Bond in last month’s issue. In response, the winners over at Black20 have made this mashup trailer, featuring both Brosnan and Craig. I don’t talk to blond douchebags either, Pierce.
(Hat Tip: FilmDrunk)

As a continuation of our cover story for November, we’re looking at how the organizations in that article are in the news throughout the month. The Voice reported yesterday that a fight broke out this Saturday at a costume party sponsored by Georgetown’s Black Student Alliance and GW’s NAACP chapter and Catholic University’s African Council Committed to Enlighten Students and Society. Department of Public Safety officers broke up the brawl, and the incident is being investigated.

This evening’s Past the Page is brought to you straight from the Indy office, where we’re working hard to bring you our November issue. As all of you probably already know, Matt Ivester (Duke 05), founder of JuicyCampus, is on the Georgetown campus tonight to answer questions about his website. Tierney Sneed wrote a commentary about JuicyCampus last month, so this is the obvious tie-in.

I was lucky enough to have Ivester visit my Celebrity and Spectacle class this afternoon, so we were able to have more of a genuine conversation than what’s going down in the ICC tonight. The highlights, below the cut:

Read Full Post

I’m Meredith Ponder, and I’ll be taking you “past the page” of our print edition, keeping our stories fresh all month long. I’ll be making connections, drawing comparisons, and linking you to related
content.

Since we’ll be unveiling a new issue next week, I decided that this first post should be pretty simple. Our editorial for October, We’re All Poor Together Now, highlights the fact that those of us on the Indy were, for the most part, not counting on high-paying jobs straight out of college anyway. Read Full Post

Source

In this month’s Insights section, we featured this nerdily humorous picture of Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke being silently shamed. As it turns out, this sort of humor is fairly recent. Slate investigates the phenomenon here, and gives me a new put-down in the process. You fail it, indeed.