I should be writing an essay but I'm not

I realise that this site seems to be turning into a home for links to the various pieces I've been writing for the various media here at GU. I promise to resume regular scheduled programming as soon as I have something worth writing about. If you have any ideas/questions for me feel free to suggest 'em. In the mean time, here's my latest trite efforts at music journalism.

Published on Thursday in The Hoya's competitor paper, The Voice:
A preview of the Bright Eyes/Magic Numbers concert I went to on Friday evening which, sadly, didn't live up to expectations.

In Friday's Hoya:

A slightly more interesting, if poorly composed, account of a trip to a jazz club in Georgetown.

Thanksgiving's coming up and I'm gonna be stuck here with lots of time to write about everything I'm not doing. Expect exciting reports of hour upon hour of me staring at my walls. Perhaps I'll have dinner with the jesuits. Definitely gonna get to the first home basketball game of the season next Saturday though. Until then....

Politically persuaded?

...... Interesting. While on a fairly random perusal of political blogs, looking for something on the latest Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for an essay, I stumbled across this questionnaire. Desperate as I was to find out my political persuasion, cos I'm really confused about it, I answered the questions - a little narrow in my opinion - and it turns out I am..... Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (23% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test How very reassuring. This makes me, apparently, a touch more socialist than Bono but not quite as strong a leftie as Ghandi. And I had such great plans....

Another bloody boring review

I'm starting to feel like I'm treading water with my writings for The Hoya. I barely have time/opportunity/inclination to listen to the CDs I pick up and then am rushed into writing a half-cocked review of an album I've listened to about, appropriately, half of. Nonetheless here are this week's lustre-lacking offerings:

Firstly Mobius Band - not terrible, not fabulous. From Baltimore.

Secondly Supergrass - another album that came out yonks ago but since I get to keep the disc I thought it was worth writing 250 words on.

Next week should include my first treacherous piece for The Voice, The Hoya's much less pretentious rival publication on campus.

Until then.....

EXCLUSIVE: Scrawny indie kid spotted at hip-hop show

Okay, so the pictures are shite but you get the idea.....

It's been a week of musical contrasts this side of the pond.

Friday saw me trek my way out to Baltimore - currently competing with D.C. for the title of murder capital of the USA with a homicide rate 5.48 times the national average; sadly pipped into second place by Washington which has a murder rate 5.75 times the national average. wahey! we're number 1! - to see Kanye West at the Mariner Arena. This is the man who, in a live Hurricane Katrina telecast, announced to the world: "George Bush hates black people." An amusing, if slightly mis-guided statement I feel. Dubya doesn't discriminate on the grounds of race - he hates poor people.

Unfortunately I'm just not "street" enough to do justice to such a cracking gig. Suffice to say it was off the heezy fo' sheezy. He performed everything I wanted to hear off The College Dropout and, although I don't have Late Registration, his new stuff sounds pretty good. I really don't understand why he had to change clothes quite so frequently but I won't hold that against him.

Late Tuesday evening I ventured out into the pouring rain to Blues Alley, D.C.'s most famous jazz club (nice!) right here in Georgetown. Not quite as dingy as I would have liked and without the smoky atmospherics I've been lead to expect from just places it's nonetheless a charmingly intimate venue and perfect for jazz.

The David Bach Consort were launching their latest CD - David Bach himself is at the keyboard to the right of the picture, bit of a smug SOB to be honest - and although my knowledge of jazz is pretty much limited to bits of Miles, Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong (no, Jamie fucking Cullum DOESN'T count), I know what I like. Sometimes you want music that takes you places; sometimes you need it to go nowhere and just drift around like a a cloud, occasionally seeping through your consciousness.

This week's Hoya

A few more articles in this week's paper.

Firstly, a review of t.A.T.u.'s second album although the headline is not mine and I'm not entirely sure it's an accurate summation. I certainly don't think t.A.T.u had an edge to lose at any rate.

Secondly we have Bliss? umm, yeah, not so much. An obscure indie-pop album that should never see the light of day.

Much more fun to write negative reviews than positive ones I think.

A Brush With Royalty

What a handsome chap. How bizarre is this? On his first official tour of the U.S. with his new missis, the next King of England shows up at my school. As a self-confessed could-not-care-less-about-the-horse-faced-crones, I had no real interest in catching a regal walkabout. Since I had no other plans for my Thursday afternoon, and the simple fact that it was happening within nine feet of my front door, I thought I might as well stand in the sun and take unflattering pictures of HRH. Is Prince Charles a crackhead? I wouldn't dream of making such a slanderous accusation. Treason's still a capital offence back home right? Certainly this serves as proof, if it were needed, that the Royal Family could do with dabbling a little further into the gene pool. Wise-ass comments aside, he apparently decided entirely of his own volition to come and say 'ello to us upon catching sight of these chaps with the old Union Jack.
Anglophiles: Cassie, Owen and Elle.

William Elliot Whitmore Review

Here's my latest article published in The Hoya. Ignore, if you will, the fact that I completely contradict myself in the last paragraph as well as the minor detail that the album came out last Spring.

Click: Ashes To Dust