Pop Culture Journalism Class Blog

BY Zohra Alnoor

Millions of fans have been waiting to see what happens next to the Dark Knight.

George Mason University senior Anum Siddique has an idea of what happens in the “Dark Knight Rises” — because she got to be in the movie.

“The experience is something I’ll never forget,” says the 23-year-old Biology major. “What started out as me taking my little brother to the audition, ended with me becoming an extra as well.”

Her brother, a theater major at Northern Virginia Community College, heard there were open auditions in Pittsburgh for extras in the new Christopher Nolan movie.

Anum drove her 19-year-old brother, Saad Siddique, to the Steel City and stood in line with him for six hours while he waited to audition.

“As [Saad] was filling out the application he asked me, ‘Anum, why don’t you just audition? You drove four hours with me and stood in line for about six hours, you might as well give it a shot — you never know,”  Anum says.

A month later, they both received calls asking them to be a part of the movie. Anum was cast as a reporter, and her younger brother would play a water boy for a football team.

“It got better and better after that,” Anum says.

On their first day shooting, Anum got to eat lunch with Christopher Nolan and his family.

“No one was approaching him so when we did he was really nice and gave us advice on how to make it in the film industry,” she says.

Still, she says, it was hard work filming from  6 a.m. until 8 p.m. in 90-degree weather wearing winter clothing.

“It’s definitely not all fun and games, like most people think,” she says.  “But I would most definitely do it again.”

BY: RYAN WEISSER

Stomp-stomp! Clap! Stomp! Slide. Clap-clap! Stomp!

Sounds from the National Pan-Hellenic Council “Divine 9” fraternities and sororities of George Mason University’s Annual Step Show will resonate in the concert halls of the Center for the Arts on February 26.

Stepping has been a tradition among black fraternities and sororities across America since the mid-1900s, and is a very rigorous form of dancing using the body to create music and performing stunts.

“Last year we literally trained for our step show,” said Britt Wright, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. who is a 20-year-old junior from Richmond, Va., studying communication at Mason. “And this year, we’re not holding back. We’ve been training since before Winter break.”

And while the fraternities and sororities are training and preparing for the step show, other Greek organizations are getting excited about the show.

“I’m really looking forward to the step show this year!” said Bridget Drain, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha who is a 20-year-old junior from Falls Church, Va., studying psychology at Mason. “I missed it last year which was a major bummer, but I went to the show my freshman year and it was AMAZING. They were doing all these crazy flips and dance moves, and it was just super awesome!”

Stan Heaney, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, is rallying up the rest of his fraternity to go to the event on Sunday.

“I want as many of my brothers going to the show, so that NPHC knows we support them and absolutely love their event,” said Heaney, a 20-year-old junior from Remington, Va., who is studying government and international politics.

Even students outside of the Greek system know about this event and are getting pumped for the performance.

“I bought my tickets online for the show last week,” said Colleen Wilson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Centreville, Va., who is studying communication. “It’s a huge deal on campus, and I’m definitely not going to miss it!”

The NPHC Annual Step Show will be at 6 p.m. (doors will open at 5:30 p.m.) and tickets are being sold at http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?agency=TDC&pid=7176442 for $10. Tickets will be $15 on the day of the show.

By Tabby Hardman

David Lieu calls himself a coupon king.

Although he’s not as crazy as the TLC Extreme Couponers who stock their garage with mountains of diapers and deodorant the 24-year-old Mason Graduate student doesn’t buy anything without a coupon.

“I was raised to know that every cent counts, my parents and their parents were first generation Americans so they came from a place of no money—eventually that mentality just stuck,” said Lieu.

He spends hours — sometimes weeks — researching a product, tracking and matching prices before he goes to a store.

“I typically like to use multiple coupons at one time, or stack them, but you have to know the best order to use them otherwise you won’t get the most for your money,” said Lieu.

And it’s not just groceries he scores deals on.

“I always go and look for coupons when I go clothes shopping because I refuse to buy clothes online—Kohl’s are great because you can stack coupons and they are notorious for always having sales,” said Lieu. “Sometimes they try to say you can’t stack and I will stand my ground by asking where it says that in the fine print and if they are difficult I have no problem getting back in line for separate transactions.”

Instead of old school coupon clipping from the Sunday paper, he pulls up a lot of coupons on his phone.

“You can go to the store, pull up a coupon on printablecoupons.com and scan the bar code—you don’t even need a piece of paper,” said Lieu.

Getting good deals is addictive, he says.

“Because you love the high of finding a good deal, even if you don’t need something—it’s just the excitement of it,” said Lieu.  “I don’t enjoy couponing, but I can’t help it—it’s an obsession.”

By Samita Mason

A giant, green balloon with Kermit the Frog’s face floats in the air as visitors approached the Johnson Center Cinema Friday night where the Weekends at Mason (WAM) department was sponsoring a free event for students, $2 for outside guests to watch the movie, “Muppets Takeover!”

Flyers, Kermit masks and muppet posters were just some of the muppets memorabilia that were displayed at the entrance of the cinema. There were also the it’s-not-easy-being-green cupcakes in the lobby.

“There is a caricaturist that will muppify you,” said Millod Shahsiah, 21, a junior studying Global Affairs from Virginia Beach, Va. who was working at the event.

Doors to the event opened at 7:30 p.m and in 15 minutes, Caitlyn Veisely, a 23-year-old graduate student majoring in Health Communication, had handed out 50 muppet tote bags.

“Who knows about your Muppets, people?” asked Shahsiah, beginning trivia for pre-show movie goers.  The first question, “What are the names of Hensen’s hecklers?” read by Shahsiah as it showed on the big screen. Hands quickly flew in the air. “Statler & Waldorf,” screamed out Ian Watts, 16, from Fairfax, Va., who was attending the event with his mother Susan Watts.

Ian won a Muppet keychain.

There is one event every weekend. Details for each weekend’s event can be found online at the WAM website. “Our job is to brainstorm on events that people would want to attend,” said Shahsiah, a WAM Program assistant. “I just want to make sure people get involved and have something fun to do. Everyone loves free things.”

Peeking into cinematic history, films with the word Gone” in the title have had huge success. Gone with the Wind, Gone Baby Gone, and Gone in 60 Seconds are great movies that come to mind. Unfortunately, the new blockbuster, Gone, will not be joining that list.

Gone, starring Amanda Seyfried hit theatres this past Friday. Seyfriend plays Jill, a woman who claims she was abducted over a year ago and never saw her attacker. The local police didn’t believe her causing the investigation to be dropped, dragging Jill deeper into psychological torment. When Jill’s alcoholic sister, Molly, played by Emily Wickersham, was also abducted, Jill’s gut tells her that it’s the same attacker.

The story continues at a moderate pace as Jill looks for her sister on her own.

Jill keeps telling lies upon lies, making the seperation from fact and fiction a little hard to follow. It’s hard to trust the main character if her actions and intentions are not completely clear. The film has many small climaxes, but nothing to make the viewer have an “oh my god” moment.

Overall, the movie was a huge dissapoinment. Gone is like a boring game of Clue that almost all the players gave up on. Seyfried’s character is not easy to understand or disect, mostly because she’s just an uncontrollable wreck. In time this movie will be gone and forgotten.

By Tabby Hardman

Not only are Bindle Bags stylish and chic — but buying one
helps the homeless.

Frank Petricoin, a 19-year-old philosophy major and aspiring
social entrepreneur created the concept for Bindle Bags last fall.

The idea to start this business had been brewing in Petricoin’s head since junior year of high school and after taking introduction to entrepreneurship last semester with Dr. Paul Rogers, Petricoin was

enthralled by the concept that you can have your own business but help others
as well.

“I had always done coat drives and blanket drives when I was
a kid with my family but I was getting into the idea of entrepreneurship and I
decided I wanted to start some sort of small business that did some good,” said
Petricoin.

He hopes to launch his business in the next few weeks. The plan is to employ homeless people to
construct—by hand– satchel like bags, in which the bags are then purchased
by a consumer.

The physical design of the bag is supposed to
resemble ‘the bag on a stick’ which as Petricoin explained, which old-school homeless people once carried.

“I am gearing this product toward the more bohemian shopper,
people who shop at Urban Outfitters, Anthropology, those who focus on the
meaning behind a product,” said Petricoin.

As each bag gets bought

the money earned is divided up—40 percent goes to the homeless individual who
made the bag, 30 percent goes to the costs an overhead to keep the business
afloat, and the final 30 percent goes to the company for promotion and
expansion.

“The goal is to help them help themselves,” Petricoin says
of his homeless employees, “and dig them up from the rut they have gotten into—we
are not giving them a bag, we are giving them a job and showing them how to get
back on their feet.”

By working with Northern Virginia Family Services (NVFS), a network of homeless shelters and meeting with Karen Horowitz, the
director of NVFS, Petricoin has managed to work out a way for the homeless
individuals who will be employed by Bindle Bags to receive subsidized housing along
with professional training to ensure they will be capable of tackling the real
world one day.

“This isn’t meant to be a full-time career; this is a
stepping stone to get them started on their own life, and we are here to help
for that,” said Petricoin.

He registered with startsomegood.com, a website
designed to gain financial support for those trying to make a difference,
and so far, has raised more than $1,000 from donations by his Facebook
friends and people he knows with hopes to be fully-funded by the beginning of
March.

“This weekend I will be finishing my final prototype and
finding my distributor—once I have my distributor I will become fully
operational,” said Petricoin.

The projected price range for the Bindle Bag product is $20
for wallets and $50 for handbags.

Like most jobs which require a training day to learn the
ropes, Petricoin plans to do the same for his future employees.  “I have made three bags already and this isn’t a complicated
process,” he says. “The bag is made of four materials, duck canvas, a patterned cotton
liner, hemp webbing as the straps, and copper rivets to hold it all together—all
of which are assembled without stitching.” .

Eventually, Petricoin hopes this will become more than just

a small venture but a network and his livelihood. “I want to be able to make
money one day by helping others and doing something I love,” said Petricoin.

Photo Credit: www.realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com

By: Jessica Farley

MTV might be making a George Mason University students dream come true.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, producers from MTV’s hit show “Made” visited George Mason University’s Fairfax campus and auditioned students to star in future episodes.

The show, which has aired on MTV since 2002, features a different individual every episode pursuing a certain goal or aspiration, with the help and guidance of a “Made Coach.”  The show follows the individual for a few weeks as they try to reach their goal.

“This is one of the greatest and coolest opportunities,” says Tyler McDonald, an undeclared Freshman, who went to the auditions hoping to be “made” into a stand-up comedian.  He has performed at GMU’s Homecoming Talent show and runs a comedy-based YouTube channel under the stage name “T-Money.”

“I actually got her laughing,” said McDonald, 18, after his audition. “I thought that was a good sign.”

McDonald was one of nearly 40 students who auditioned for Jessica Arbus, a casting associate producer for MTV Networks.

Arbus selected Mason because she was looking for a diverse student body.

“Mason was a great fit for that,” she said.

Ayana Butler, a Freshman majoring in Vocal Performance, 18, went to her interview in hopes of becoming a collegiate cheerleader. Butler was out of the country at the time of last year’s try-outs, and feels that with the help of the show, she can learn how to kill next years tryouts. Although she was nervous when Arbus asked her to cheer.

While many students auditioned earnestly trying to make a dream come true, others just wanted to have fun.  For example, Jackie Mulherin,  a 21-year-old senior majoring in Global Affairs, went into her audition in hopes of “becoming a dictator.”

Surprisingly, she says, when she told Arbus her sarcastic goal the reaction was “complete seriousness and understanding.”

Now, students who auditioned have to wait and see if the made it to the show. If they did, they’ll get a phone call or an e-mail letting them know, that MTV is going to make their dream come true.

By: Jessica Farley

Calvin Smith rocked the annual homecoming lip-synching competition last year.

His name popped up on chatrooms, and he was even recognized and stopped by students on campus.

“A group of girls came up to me in a dining hall one night asking me to help them with their moves; it was hilarious!” says Calvin, a 20 year old junior, majoring in Communication.

But fans were shocked that he didn’t compete this year.

Many attendees of George Mason University’s annual Homecoming celebration were left disappointed

Sophomore Julie Michals, 19, majoring in Communication, remembers Smith from the previous year and was “bummed not to see him; I was looking forward to what he would bring to the table this year. He’s really talented!”

The competition, known this year as “Just Keep Singing!”- has been a staple of GMU Homecoming festivities for the past four years. The competition is performed either in groups or solo, and is judged on the following criteria: lip synching abilities, originality and creativity, appearance, crowd response, and time restrictions. Cash prizes are rewarded for first through third place winners, amounting to $100, $50, and $25  respectively.

So what accounts for his non-presence at this year’s competition, particularly after cultivating a fan base from past years? “Simply put, school comes first for me,” Calvin said. “Now that I’m in my junior year, I’ve gotten more serious about academics, and just didn’t have the time in my schedule to prepare a performance…”

Smith claims that, in past years, he spent at least two weeks deciding on a song, working on expressions and choreography, and practicing in front of close friends. And he didn’t want to deliver a sub-par performance.

What about next year? Will he be back?

“We’ll just have to wait and see…”

By Donovan Hall

Most super power movies come out with thousands of fans waiting to see their beloved comic book story on the big screen. However, “Chronicle” is a unique and twisted view on the idea of super powers that strays away from comic books.

“Chronicle” is the tale of three friends who discover super human abilities via a giant glowing rock underground. The story follows Steve, the school’s most celebrated jock, Matt, a self righteous hipster, and his cousin Andrew, a lonely wastebasket for the world to dump its problems on. Once the boys stumble upon these powers, their previous social roles suddenly become insignificant and the question arises; What would you do if you had super powers?

Even though it isn’t based on a comic, “Chronicle” is similar to some super hero stories in how the boys accidentally gained super human abilities, but besides that, the movie differs from your average comic book movie in a few ways.

First off —  the movie is shot from a hand held camera that Andrew holds. This effect gives off that “faux documentary” style that has become popular ever since “The Blair Witch Project.” Thankfully, Andrew has steady hands because a good number of these movies that use this style think that it’s ok to have the camera man have epilepsy. Plus, throughout the movie the fluidity of the camera gets better and better.

Something else that separates this movie from other super hero flicks, is the lack of focus on the background story of the powers. In a genre that’s already hard to believe, adding a detailed back story to where powers come from can really take away all plausibility. This movie does just the opposite, by focusing on the ramifications of the discovering the powers and leaving some malarkey back story behind. By doing this it allows the story to focus on what happens to the characters when they are given this power and how it changes their views on the world.

This allows for excellent character development between the three boys. It’s not the overplayed story of super heroes and bad guys battling it out, but instead, a look at the idea of becoming all powerful and how they decide to use it in their lives. In reality, if people gained super powers suddenly, would they really rush to save the world from bad guys, or use it for their own gain?

Overall, the movie has believable acting, a memorable and slightly humorous script, characters you can care about and a story you can actually relate to yourself. What it has made me realize is that if I was given powers suddenly that I would lean more towards using them for my own means. Does this mean that I would be a bad guy or would I simply be adapting and evolving? Does great power always have to come with great responsibility or can it just come with the great ability to wreck things for the heck of it. Check out “Chronicle” and see for yourself.

Donovan Taylor Hall

More than 65 women are standing shoulder-to-shoulder along a long, white table, digging through a mountain of boxes in search of mates to Marni, Delman and Giuseppe Zanotti shoes.

“They should have a better system with this shoe thing,” says Jaclyn Silva of Fairfax. “I think there’s a good selection here, but it’s impossible to find my size in any of them.”

Silva was one of the 150 shoppers who were at the Gilt VIP party last Friday, the night before their warehouse sale. This is the third annual sale held all over the country from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. The E-commerce company is known for its killer deals on designer shoes, apparel and housewares. Typically, the savings average about 60 percent off department store prices on gilt.com during their flash sales (a sale lasting for 36 hours), but during the warehouse sale, they slash the prices up to an additional 15 percent.

Shoppers are greeted at the door of the Long View Gallery in Adams Morgan with champagne and cocktails at the door, a complimentary service that got one woman in a spending mood.

“The alcohol is what’s going to put my bill over,” says Rey Banks of Washington, D.C. “They know what they’re doing at these kinds of [events] by serving up cocktails, but I’m not complaining.”

At the end of a long ramp into the gallery is the sales floor. A DJ in the corner is spinning hits from Rihanna and Flo Rida, among other dance-worthy artists. Lined on both sides are eight rolling racks stuffed with clothes: men’s on the left and women’s on the right. A long, white table stretches along the middle full of bags and accessories. Three women are huddled around a vibrant tote by Pucci, marked down from $2,500 to $399. While the slashed price is significant, it’s still not within every fashionista’s budget. The racks of clothing are much more forgiving.

“This Free People sweater is only $40 now,” says Sara Miller, an excited shopper from Arlington. She holds up an oversized knit with a tag that reads, “Price: $108. Gilt Price: $39.99.” Most of the designers displayed on the racks resemble the same, mid-grade designers, apart from a few pieces by Calvin Klein and Badgley Mischka.

It’s the shoe table along the back wall that is garnering the most attention. With hardly any space to move and the lack of shopping carts, finding and carrying the shoe boxes is a juggling act, not to mention the stress of the hungry eyes of other shoppers. One false move, and your pumps could wind up on the floor at the mercy of DC’s best-dressed ladies. One woman already has a stack six boxes high and is pawing the table for more.

What may seem to some as a desperate attempt to find clothing and shoes to make them look like “somebody,”  to others, these shopping events are more like a hobby.

“It’s worth it for me,”  says Kim Pham of Potomac Falls. “I knew what I was getting myself into coming here…it’s not just the deals, it’s the thrill of the hunt.”

« Previous Page — Next Page »