Music Minute

iTunes Top Five

1. You Belong With Me- Taylor Swift


2. Heartless-Kayne West


3. Live Your Life-TI


4. If I Were a Boy-Beyonce


5. Womanizer-Britney Spears

Upcoming CD Releases
November 11^th
Christina Aguilera- Keeps Getting Better
David Archuleta-David Archuleta
Tracey Chapman-Our Bright Future
Deborah Cox-The Promise
Missy Elliot-Block Party
Enya-And Winter Camer
Gnarls Barkley-Who’s Gonna Save My Soul
Music Soulchild- On My Radio
Seal-Soul
T-Pain- Thr33 Ringz
Taylor Swift-Fearless

Concerts this Weekend:
Friday
Common-Love
Hellogoodbye-Sonar
Dar Williams with Lucy Wainwright- Birchmere
Joel McHale-Warner Theatre
Saturday
Alejandro Escovedo-Avalon
Cassandra Wilson-Warner
The Decemberists-Rams Head Live
Dark Star Orchestra-930
Sunday
The Cheetah Girls-Verizon Girls
Alejandro Escovedo-Birchmere
Ben Kenney-Black Cat

-Taylor Barnes

Little Change in Local Elections

The obvious focus of last night’s elections was the Presidential race, but what happened locally? Some may not know, but George Washington University is in Ward 2. For city council, Democrat Jack Evans easily beat Republican Christina Culver. Evans has been City Councilmember of Ward 2 since 1991. Mary Lord had no problem winning Ward 2’s school board position because she ran unopposed.

While D.C. doesn’t have official voting Senators and Representatives, they do elect shadow congressmen to help lobby for D.C. statehood. In the D.C. Senate election Democrat Paul Strauss easily won the seat with 82% of the vote. Democrat Mike Penetta won the seat in the D.C. House with 87%. For City-Council-at Large, Democrat Kwame Brown won, beating several other candidates. Finally, Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton dominated at the polls for U.S. Delegate, beating her opponent, Republican Maude Hills.

-Roxanne Martin

All Quiet at GW Polling Place

In continuing election coverage here at WRGW, our very own campus polling place at the Smith Center was rather calm yesterday, with none of the hour-long lines that some of our professors had to endure in Virginia and Maryland. Voters did not report any problems with the machines, and the only thing remotely unpleasant about the day was the steady drizzle of rain that persisted all morning.
The steady trickle of individuals coming to the Smith Center to vote seemed to be mostly employees of local government buildings.

Daniela Karlin, a graduate student at the Elliot School, was standing on the corner of 22^nd and G streets from 12 noon to 4 pm, handing out fliers with numbers to call if you need a volunteer-organized ride to your polling place or if you see someone’s voting rights being violated. Karlin reported that many of the students she spoke with had already voted via absentee ballot, and most of those students had voted for Barack Obama.
Karlin also was handing out fliers reminding voters that they would have to cover up their campaign shirts or buttons inside the polling place, but that they could not be denied the right to vote on account of wearing campaign apparel. She expressed excitement about the election, and cautious optimism about Barack Obama’s chances of winning, citing the Bradley effect as a possible distortion of the various national polls.

- Monika Wysocki

Ibsen's Hedda Gabler Comes to GW

Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler was performed this weekend at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre. Gabler is one of Ibsen’s most well known plays, and tells the story of a socially devious and ever climbing housewife who believes she has been put into the wrong by marrying a lack luster scholar.

The play opened for a special preview on October 29^th to great reviews, and had a theatrical run until a November 2^nd matinee. Alan Wade directed the play and Samantha Schaeffer designed the beautiful set. The play stared Patrick Pasake as Hedda’s husband, George, and Madeline Ruskin as Hedda Gabler.

Hedda Gabler is the Marvin Center’s second Mainstage performance of the fall semester. The next performance will be Danceworks, which begins its theatrical run on November 20^th, at 7:30 pm. for more information on shows and events at the Marvin Center visit their website at http://gwired.gwu.edu/marvincenter.

-Pat Miller

Election Night at GW

DC was the place to be last night as Barack Obama made history, winning the 2008 presidential election and becoming the first African American president in the history of the United States. 

The College Republicans and College Democrats started their election parties off at 7 pm on the 3^rdfloor of the Marvin Center with food, drinks, and of course big screens that televised live coverage of the incoming results. Activities included a mechanical bull on the red side of the grand ballroom and a jousting ring and “blogging” section on the blue side. 

It was easy to tell from early on in the evening how overwhelming the support was for presidential candidate Barack Obama.  Hundreds of people were packed into the College Democrats side, chanting, shouting, and cheering as the result poured in, while the red section was remained quiet for much of the night.

Jay Herman, a sophomore at GW said, “Barack Obama is good on all the policy issues but his appeal goes beyond that.  He has inspired millions of people to participate in their democracy.  He is a once in a lifetime candidate.”

The support from GW students also reflected in the polls, as 95% of D.C voted for Senator Barack Obama while only 5 percent voted for Senator John McCain. 

The night was capped off with hundreds of students storming the White House to rejoice in the victory of this historical election.

-Haley Lesavoy

GW Votes Delivers

On the eve of one of the most historic elections of recent memory, the GW Student Association’s voter registration initiative – GW Votes – is boasting record numbers.

While the figures have yet to be completely tabulated, SA President Vishal Aswani told WRGW that GW Votes delivered absentee ballots to and registered just around 1,700 GW students. It is by far the most successful year in the voter campaign’s 4 year history.

The process is quite simple: go online, enter the student’s zipcode, download a state election ballot and election rules, and within 36 hours, mail the forms… all on the SA’s dime.

In the days and weeks leading up to tonight’s finale, the initiative had expedited its turn-around times from 36 to 24 hours in hopes of ensuring on-time ballot arrivals to some of the nation’s most important battleground states.

President Aswani noted that ballots were sent to many of the 2008 swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado and others. In fact, the most ballots mailed to a toss-up state, went to the one that decided it all in 2000– Florida.

And while GW Votes has seemingly done its part this election cycle, GW waits on the rest of the country to do theirs tonight.

-Jared Pliner

Pre-Election Party

Less than twenty four hours before the polls opened on election day, the GW College Democrats hosted a pre-election rally Monday afternoon to prepare its members for tonight’s election results party in the Marvin Center, where the CDs and CRs will gather to watch the election returns.

The rally, which took place in Kogan Plaza, featured the “Yes We Can” drive, in which students donated nonperishable food items to be donated to charity in exchange for an official Obama/Biden rally sign to wave at the election results party. Students could also make their own banners, using the markers and paper supplied by the CDs.

Tonight’s party will be taking place in three different rooms in the Marvin center: the CDs and CRs will each have a separate ballroom on the third floor, where they will be watching the returns as they come in. Program Board will be hosting the actual party in Columbian Square, which will feature food from Sodexho and Crepeaway, and activities such as balloon darts, spin art, and patriotic tattoos.

The CDs are advising all party attendants to bring a blanket and pillow, in case of a long night.

DC Sports Roundup

This week marks the beginning of the GW basketball season for both the men’s and women’s teams. The women’s team will play the DT-3 All-Stars, a group of former college players, in an exhibition match this Wednesday at 7:30 pm in the Smith Center. The men open in an exhibition against West Georgia on Saturday at 2pm, also at home.

Keeping with basketball, the Washington Wizards lost their first two regular season games against New Jersey and Detroit this past week. The Wizards travel to Milwaukee for their next game on Wednesday.

The Washington Capitals defeated Nashville at home last Tuesday in a 4 to 3 shootout victory but were shut out against Buffalo in a 5 to nothing loss on Saturday. Star forward Alex Ovechkin was absent for both of those games as he has been in Russia spending time with his ailing grandfather. Ovechkin returned in time for practice today and will be in the lineup for tomorrow’s game as the Capitals travel to Ottawa to face the Senators. The puck will drop for that game at 7:30 pm.

Finally in football, the Washington Redskins will play tonight at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Redskins go into the game with a 6 and 2 record. Wide receiver Santana Moss is listed as a game time decision to see if he will play tonight. Moss missed practices this week after suffering a strained hamstring in the Redskin’s win over Detroit. He is currently the 7^th ranked receiver in the NFL with 658 yards for the season. Kickoff for tonight’s game is schedule for 8:30 pm.

-Joe Lewis

Greek Week Aims for Campus Unity

Saturday marked the exciting conclusion to Greek Week 2008. A barbecue held at Kogan Plaza brought the teams together for the last time to announce the winning team, as well as Greek God and Goddess for this year.

Greek week is a series of events meant to celebrate the Greek community, fraternities, sororities, and multicultural organizations alike, while raising money for a philanthropic organization.  This year, profits went to a local food bank called So Others May Eat. This year also marked the first time that the multicultural community has been included.

Greek week fostered friendly competition as members of the Inter-Fraternity council, Pan-Hellenic association and multicultural Greek council were split into teams and pitted against each other in the Olympic-themed events. The winning teams for some events were determined by participation points, such as the unity ball and a forum on Greek Life led by guest speaker David Stollman. Other events, including the date auction on Monday, an Olympic relay on Tuesday, a pumpkin carving contest on Wednesday and the talent show on Thursday night all consisted of first, second, and third place finishes. The participation points and place finishes were tallied to determine the final results:

Third place went to the white team - Alpha Phi, Sigma Chi, Phi Sigma Kappa, and Sigma Psi Zeta. Second place went to the black team: Sigma Delta Tau, Zeta Beta Tau, and Pi Kappa Alpha. First place was awarded to the blue team: Phi Kappa Psi, Alpha Delta Pi, and Iota Nu Delta. The titles of Greek God and Greek Goddess went to Jack Burmingham of Phi Kappa Psi and Katie Mize of Alpha Delta Pi.

There has been some controversy to the blue team’s win because the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council and the president of the Pan-Hellenic Association are in Phi Kappa Psi and Alpha Delta Pi respectively. Claims that the blue team was stacked have appeared on GW’s section of the gossip site juicy campus. But none of this has quelled the excitement of the week or of the blue team’s win.

Alpha Delta Pi pledge Paula Shulman said, “Greek week got the whole community involved. It was great seeing everyone out in full force, especially the multicultural community because it’s the first year that they’ve been involved.”

-Jenn Neuner

Concert Review: Murs

LA rapper Murs was in D.C. Saturday night for a concert at the Rock N' Roll Hotel, along with openers Isaiah, Big Poo (of Little Brother) and Kidz in the Hall. 

The venue was relatively empty during Isaiah’s set (and those who missed him shouldn't be disappointed, he was mostly inappropriately angry), but steadily filled up as the evening went on. Big Poo lived up to his reputation and was hilarious. Kidz in the Hall, made up of DJ Double-O and rapper Naledge, were also very good and although strangely awkward at time, with some bizarre back and forth between them.

Murs stole the show; coming on stage he immediately started jumping everywhere and was able to keep that energy up through the show.

Murs latest album, titled Murs for President, came out last month, but he didn't just stick to the album’s songs. Instead, he performed songs from many of his albums, including highlights of his work with producer 9th Wonder. Murs' latest record is his first with a major label, Warner Brothers Records, but the show didn't feel at all as though he had "sold out" to corporate interests.

All in all, the show was quite fun. And during his set, Murs invited some of the openers on stage - a few of whom seemed more than a tad inebriated, which just added to the overall festivity of the concert.

-Ahna Olsen