The Crimson’s annual selection of “15 Hottest Freshmen” is an annual target of ridicule and mockery by the bored blogosphere. (Hey, we don’t call it “Harvard hot” for no reason!) While Boston, the place we call “home” and our stock reply to the question: “Where do you go to school?,” doesn’t fare any better. Last year, GQ Magazine named Boston the worst dressed city in America, calling it the country’s “Bad-Taste Storm Sewer: all the worst fashion ideas from across the country flow there, stagnate, and putrefy.” Cambridge also earned a (dis)honorable mention as the “modest little burg” where “everyone dresses like the proprietor of his or her very own meth lab.” Ouch. (But are we really surprised?)

(Mr. John B. Thompson of GQ, if you happen to be reading this, we’d love to meet you. Major hearts.)

This coming week, Harvard’s fashion-related student organizations have teamed up to organize the first ever Harvard Fashion Week. The purpose, evidently, is beautifying the campus and changing the perception that the typical Harvard male spends most of his collegiate career in sweats as his female counterpart prances around in leggings-as-pants, a Northface, and Uggs.

Follow the jump for the listing of events of Harvard Fashion Week, sponsored by Eleganza2012, Identities 2012, the Vestis Council, and the South Asian Association.

Wednesday, March 21st | Identities: Showing of “The September Issue” in Harvard Hall 201 @ 7:30pm

Thursday, March 22nd | Vestis Council: Blog Relaunch Party in Adams UCR @ 9pm

Friday, March 23rd | SAA’s Andaaz: A South Asian Fashion Show in Cabot Theater @ 8pm

Saturday, March 24th | Eleganza: Rent the Runway Trunk Show in Adams UCR @ 2pm

You should go to at least one of these, if not for the free drinks, then for the opportunity to hang out with the hot people of Harvard. See, we didn’t even put that in quotation marks.

I need to meet new people. How do I do [that]?

There are two parts that go into meeting new people: where to meet them, and how to meet them.

Where to meet them?

• Pick up a new extracurricular. There are lots of groups on campus that don’t have an elaborate or selective process for new members. For instance, just show up on load-in day for any student theater production and help them build their set. I’ve met lots of new people that way. There are 20-25 productions each semester, so a new load-in is happening at least every week.
• Go to a party on campus or at a nearby school. This is easier to do with a friend or two, but can be done solo as well. And there are a ton of nearby schools in Cambridge and Boston.
• Attend a student performance. There are performances of all sorts going on constantly, many of them free. Go see one, wait afterward, and congratulate the performers. You can meet a lot of interesting people this way.
• Attend a religious service. If you have a religious affiliation or are just curious about religion, go attend a service; there are lots to choose from, and religious groups are usually very welcoming.
• Hang out at a café and chat with the regulars. The locals are often there to people-watch, and will happily talk to you. Some of the local cafés have especially interesting regulars, too; for instance, Amanda Palmer (famous singer/songwriter and wife of author Neil Gaiman) can sometimes be found at Café Pamplona on Bow St.
• Go into Boston! There are free events in Boston at all times of year. When there’s a convention in town that interests you, attend. Take a friend or two and go clubbing. Downtown Boston is only a 10-minute subway ride or one-hour walk from Harvard.

Generally speaking, it’s easier to meet new people where people are plentiful but there is little competition. “Little competition” doesn’t necessarily mean a place with a huge gender imbalance in your favor; it can also mean a place where no one else is trying to meet new people. It can be somewhere very unorthodox, like a grocery store.

So, how to meet new people? That comes from being comfortable enough to strike up a conversation with a stranger. It seems intimidating, I know – I used to be paralytically shy. I was terrified of doing or saying the wrong thing, and it kept me from doing or saying anything.

The problem isn’t doing or saying something wrong – you will be amazed at how little that actually matters. Healthy self-confidence is what matters. But it’s hard to have self-confidence when you think you’re doing or saying something wrong – so how do you close that loop? By having a small but manageable number of things that you can check yourself against, things that you can know in the moment that you’re doing right, will keep you on your feet. I recommend my past posts about attracting men and attracting women for specifics.

So, what do you say to a stranger? A lot of things will work, but here’s a simple idea you can start with or fall back on: pick out something about the person that they’re wearing. A piece of jewelry, clothing, a logo, or something like that – especially something prominent, distinctive, or unusual. Ask what it is or where it came from. Maybe say what you thought it might have been. It might provoke the person to mention a hobby, a place they’ve been, or some other thing that you can ask further about. And suddenly you’re having a conversation with a total stranger!

(If you get ignored, dismissed, or shut down with an answer that doesn’t provide an opportunity to talk further, let it lie. Some people will be defensive, some will be in the wrong frame of mind, and some are just rude. Trying to force conversation at that point will just be awkward, and can kill your self-confidence. Just move on.)

Keep the conversation brief and mostly about them. You don’t want to mess up a first impression, so give yourself the least opportunity to ruin it accidentally. Talk for no more than a couple minutes at most, then excuse yourself to leave – but double back immediately and ask them for a phone number or email address.

Congratulations, you’ve met someone new!

Special Thanks to Coupling, Harvard Business School, and Life Is A Dream. Email Some Dude at somedude.harvardfml@gmail.com.

Post-Season Athletics

Men’s Basketball

After a heartbreaking loss to Princeton for sole possession of the Ivy League Championship, Harvard men’s basketball sought to continue their season in the NIT tournament on March 15th, but fell to Oklahoma State in the first round. Losing 54-71, it was no close contest, but the men’s team did finish with league recognition of Keith Wright, Kyle Casey, and Christian Webster.

Wrestling

Harvard wrestling had two members go on the the NCAA Championships at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA March 17-19th. Steven Keith wrangled out one win in the 125 pound weight class before his series was cut-short. Keith finishes his sophomore campaign with a 23-17 overall record and a 1-2 mark at his second NCAA Championships. While Keith’s run for All-America honors ended before arriving at his goal, Walter Peppelman managed a seventh place match and won All-America honors as Harvard’s 25th All-American wrestler–the 17th in the last 7 years. Another impressive point to add to Peppelman’s accomplishments from the tournament is that he was the only wrestler in the tournament that managed to turn No. 1 seed of Boise State, Adam Hall, for backpoints twice in a single match.

Diving

The Crimson diving team continued their season past their swimmer counterparts at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. Two men’s divers, Michael Stanton and Joe Zarrella, qualified for the one-meter final, placing 13th and 16th, respectively. Stanton also qualified for the three-meter final placing 16th alongside teammate Zac Ranta, who placed 13th. On behalf of the women divers, Brittany Powell led the Crimson by qualifying for the three-meter final and taking 16th overall. Leslie Rea made it to the one-meter final and garnered 16th place.

Fencing

Fencing had a spectucular showing at the NCAA Regionals at Vassar College over the break and earned 11 NCAA nods to head to the championships at Ohio State March 24-27. On the women’s side, freshman Alexandra Fiefer and junior Noam Mills won gold in their respective events. Other notable performaces came from sophomore Katherine Chou, junior Shelby MacLeod, sophomore Felicia Sun, freshman Dakota Root, and Junior co-captains Hayley Levitt and Carolina Vloka. Leading the men’s team, Junior co-captain Valentin Staller won silver, while Thomas Kolasa won bronze, and Eric Arzoin won fourth place in the men’s saber. There were three top six finished in the epee as Michael Raynis earned the bronze, James Hawrot won fourth place, and Ben White received sixth. Additionally, Tommasso di Robilant won bronze in the men’s foil.

Spring Athletics

Baseball

Men’s baseball has come off to a more-than-rocky start as they finished their tour of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina with a 1-13 record. They managed to scrounge out one win at Kennesaw St. with Zach Hofeld awarding the win due to his performance on the mound. They will take on New York Institute of Technology, who also holds a losing record of 1-9, this coming weekend with two double headers.

Softball

Women’s softball fared better in their Southern California route playing at UC Riverside, Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, and University of San Diego. Winning five of their eleven games over the course of the break with stand-out pitching by Ivy-League renown player, Rachel Brown, they headed into their first games on the Northeast with an even 8-8 record. They took on Boston University this Tuesday, March 22 with a 2-1 win, giving head coach Jenny Allard her 400th career victory. They will head to Quinnipiac and Iona this weekend for a pair of double headers.

Men’s Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team undertook quite the competition as they traveled to Southern California for games against Cal State Northride, No. 13 Pepperdine, and No. 1 USC. While they did not manage to win any of the matches, they did manage to scrap one set from USC, winning the third set 25-22. In that match alone, Chris Gibbons tallied 11 kills while Matt Jones was close behind with 10. Jones leads his squad with an impressive 202 kills, followed by Gibbons with 142 and freshman Kyle Rehkemper with 125. The Crimson will travel to Springfield on March 23 for a 7 pm match, but pick-up conference play when they take on NYU at home on March 25 at 7 pm in the MAC.

Women’s Waterpolo

Women’s waterpolo hit the West Coast with a Northern California tour. They work their way around the Bay starting with a win at Santa Clara, loss at California State Monterey Bay, win over Fresno Pacific, loss at UC Davis, loss at San Jose St., loss at California State East Bay, and a loss at Cal Berkeley. Even with such a competitive schedule, their overall record is at 10-9 and 1-0 in conference with a win over Brown back in February. They begin conference play again with a trip to Bucknell at the beginning of April but have their next game at home versus Wagner this Sunday, March 27 at 2 pm.

Tennis

Both men’s and women’s tennis made it out to California, but only the men’s team was able to compete in all their scheduled matched as they made the wise choice to stick with the sun of San Diego while the women’s team scheduled a tour of the Bay area of Northern California. Of the three matches scheduled, women’s tennis was only able to complete its match against San Francisco and easily toppled them 6-1. The men’s team also had a three-match schedule at the University of San Diego, and came out with wins against Denver and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their only loss of the week at the hands of Eastern Tennessee State with the score of 5-2.

Track and Field

While it often seems that the Track Season is all year around, they began their outdoor season at the Meeting of the Minds and the Shirley Crowe Multi Meet at Rice University. The women’s team earned wins in the 400 meter dash (Christina Twicken), hurdles (Melissa Bellin), and shot put (Shannon Watt) at the Meeting of the Minds while their counterpart, Nicole Silva, placed third in the heptathlon. The men had fine showings from John Dingus, Jared Kadich, and Brian Hill in the solo running events and bested Rice in the 4×400 relay by almost three seconds. Harvard took the titles in the pole vault (Nico Weiler), hammer (Eric Clayman), and javelin (Nick Farnsworth) as well. Both sides of the team hope to continue the winning trend at the Stanford Invitational this weekend.

Women’s Golf

Women’s golf made their spring debut at Cal Berkeley dropping a 289-315 decision at the Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, CA. Bonnie Hu tied for the individual medalist while Mia Kabasakalis (81, 8th) and Christine Cho (83, 10th) placed in the top ten. Kabasakalis, Hu and Jane Lee all tied for the best marks of the day at -1.

Men’s Lacrosse

Men’s lacrosse has come out with a bang as it has already garnered a 5-1 record and ranking of 17th in the nation. Although they have been playing since late February, the team started its conference play against Brown, winning 11-7. Over spring break they gathered wins against both Bellarmine and Holy Cross at Soldiers Field Stadium. These performances have garnered goal keeper Harry Krieger both COOP Athlete of the Week and NEILA Player of the Week honors. Looking to keep their winning streak alive, the lacrosse team will travel to Dartmouth to take on the Big Green this Saturday at 2 pm.

Women’s Lacrosse

Women’s lacrosse has come off to a promising start, with a win against Johns Hopkins during spring break. While their record is 2-3, they have been neck and neck with ranked teams such as Stanford. 1-1 in Ivy League play, they take on Yale this weekend at 1 pm at home in Harvard Stadium. Leading the Crimson in goals are Danielle Tetreault with 15, Jennifer Vandermuelen with 13, Melanie Baskind with 11, and Jessica Halpern with 10.

Sailing

Sailing had quite the week by competing in both the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the Truxton Umstead Trophy, a coed competition. The women’s team took ninth out of 18 teams at the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the coed squad finished ninth out of 19 teams at the Truxton Umsted Trophy. At the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional, juniors Emily Lambert and Alexandra Jumper had a total of six top-three finishes over the course of 14 races and even managed to sail past beat Georgetown to win the division. The teams set sail again March 26 with the women’s team competing at the Women’s Duplin Trophy Race at Tufts and the coed squad at the Owen, Mosbacher & Knapp Trophies at Kings Point.

yep.

OMG MOOSE!

Unless you have been living under a rock, are Amish, or were raised by wolves, you must be aware of the phenomenon that is Twitter and how it is taking the world by storm. Everyone from professional athletes to to acne-covered tweens is tweeting, but there is one particular account that caught our eye at the Voice.

The account name is “Harvard Hoochies” and the bio reads that the account holder(s) are “BU biddies, hooching and husband hunting at Harvard Final Clubs. We ward off RUHGs (random ugly Harvard girls)…frequently.”

One gem of a post reads, “when you slip a final club man your number, make sure it’s not on a piece of historical paper with their founders’ story#oopsydaisies” while another boasts, “Owl, ad, fly… All conquered last night”.

BU Biddies talking after a successful night of Final Club raging...

To follow the BU biddies on their search for love, money, and men, simply visit https://twitter.com/harvardhoochies and let the amusement begin!

Hamburgers or hairy girls...that is the question...

While Harvard has record numbers of applications coming in year after year, its competitiveness is no match for numbers of McDonald’s managers vying to be trained in this prestigious program. In addition, there is NO tuition to attend Hamburger University, while tuition at Harvard has steeped to approximately $54,000. McDonald’s pays approximately $1,500 per person for them to partake in this intensive 5-day program.

Why are so many Chinese vying to learn the ways of Ronald McDonald? As of July 1, 2010, 26 percent of China’s 6.3 million college graduates were unemployed, and the fast-food giant offers the possibility of employment as well as opportunity to move up through the hierarchy of the system.

So ditch your psets, burn your books, and give away your winter coat–it’s about time we all head to China for a lesson off the Dollar Menu. How’s that for food for thought?

NOMNOMNOM food for thought NOMNOMNOM

Neon Indian is a “chillwave band” (read: superhipster) from Texas. For those of you not hipster enough to know who Neon Indian is, don’t bother going. For the rest of you, GO because the show is free!

The show is first come, first served; doors open at 3pm and the show starts at 4pm.

Additionally, Urban Outfitters is giving away gift cards courtesy of UO and Levi’s at the show. Tweet pics from the show to @urbanoutfitters with the tag #UOxLEVIS and you could get one.

Why study on a Sunday when you can have you some free Neon Indian?

To inspire the sox defeat the orioles 6-1, kuumba performed the national anthem, the national champion women’s squash team strutted their stuff.

oh baby!

THE drew faust threw the ceremonial first pitch (even better than Obama did, we must say), and many of your fellow Harvardians either attended or volunteered to make the night quite a pah-ty!

Guess harvard really is the bomb, after-all!

All photos courtesy Humbi Song.

That’s probably telling you more than you ever wanted to know about my obsession with everything Jude. Well, the younger Jude, at least.

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

But I digress. Based on the 2009 HarperCollins novel The Repossession Mambo by Cornell grad Eric Garcia, Repo Men, which came out in early March this year, is an extremely gory sci-fi action flick that traces the adventure of Remy (Jude Law). Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, it boasts an enviable all-star lineup with names like Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber. The film takes us to the year 2025 when illnesses abound and organ transplantation is in demand. A highly streamlined, highly efficient company, The Union, steps up to the plate and offers perfectly functional prostheses for every body part imaginable. The only problem is that these body parts, termed “artiforgs,” are priced at well over $600,000. They are hence paid for in installments, and should a client fall too far behind in his payment, these Repo Men – “repossession mambos” – step in and retract the organs by literally slicing open the poor bastard and taking the “rented” organ out, still dripping with fresh blood. Well, as fresh as blood can possibly get in films anyway.

Jude Law as Remy the professional butcher is, first of all, very toned and buff. And there is no shortage of money shots to show off his bulging biceps and muscular torso, clearly one of the main draws of the film. I feel obliged to give the producers brownie points for savviness. He starts off as a serial killer who treats the extermination of other human beings as nothing more than a job. He’s efficient, he’s ruthless, and he’s good.

However, pressured by his wife’s apparent disgust of his job and her ultimatum to “make a decision,” Remy decided to transfer from the Thug department to the Sales one. Seems like a logical transition. Obviously, in the typical Hollywood tradition, things do not proceed as planned. In his last assignment, while trying to reclaim the heart of a musician named T-Bone, he is knocked unconscious and wakes up to find himself the owner of an artificial heart. He is angry, tries to reject it, and fails miserably. From this point onward, his heart is a ticking bomb that threatens to explode any second.

Not too surprisingly, when Remy gets a heart transplant, he also undergoes a change of heart. Lo and behold, he actually becomes more humane. “I can only think about how that schmuck [that I am about to kill] got a family, a wife and kids.” “Something changed,” he says. As the story goes, his grim wife leaves him, and Remy launches into a race to evade the very team of Repo Men he once was a part of. Obviously, Remy doesn’t fly solo, because he’s Jude Law and also because this is Hollywood. His partner in crime is Beth (Alice Braga), who possesses a body of artiforgs. They run together, fight alongside each other, and share the same bed. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, really. Except for the fact that practically everything on her body is fake. South Korean plastic surgeons should take note.

I was the only girl in the theater. The other 4 attendees were much older males, and for good reasons. It is certainly no Valentine’s Day movie. 2 minutes after the opening credits, you see Jude law physically slicing open a man’s stomach and taking out his liver. It is, in a nutshell, a testosterone-heavy and high-speed blood fest. There’s the perfunctory knifing of multiple bodily organs and then there’s also a typewriter crushing a guy’s head into five million pieces. Sometimes the gory details seem a tad redundant and make you cringe in your seat. It’s not how many people that die, it’s how they die. At times I feel as if I just fall into a hot tub time machine and wake up in the 1990s. You know, when fake blood and studio-produced “murders” were still so amusing to moviegoers that they needed to be shown every five minutes.

The premise is new and somewhat intriguing, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Many IMDB users who reviewed the movie (it has a meagre 6.3/10 average rating from over 2,000 votes) point out that Repo Men is a classic example of a film that has tremendous potential in its concept but is ultimately crippled by an identity crisis. Comic-thriller flair, check.  Sci-fi, check. Quasi-medical influence, check. Dystopic satire a la 1984, check. Weird, indecipherable ending a la Dallas, check. Bionic Woman, check. Philosophical parable, check. Violence and gore, triple check. So what is it, exactly? The answer is I’m not entirely sure. It’s like an attempt at taking the best of all worlds that ends up being a messy collage of everything mediocre and clichéd in filmmaking. I squirm in my seat and chuckle as Remy retreats to an abandoned room with his Bond girl and writes – hold your breath! – a memoir. It is a laugh-out-loud moment, but I doubt it is intended to be.

That said, Repo Men certainly has some comedic moments. I particularly enjoy the part where Remy and his bionic girlfriend walk into an underground Chinese medicine place so that she can get her fake leg fixed. The whole scene is just a nice and much needed distraction from all that killing and blood spilling. The skilled “surgeon” is a 9-year-old super skinny Chinese girl who has apparently done this “since she was 4.” Med school schmed school! The moral of this entirely redundant but nonetheless very entertaining segment is that the Chinese really are taking over the world. The underground clinic is demolished in the end and everyone killed, so Patrick Brennan and his brethren need not be alarmed yet.

Interestingly enough, in the aftermath of the healthcare brouhaha, the film  has gained much more attention and favorable reviews for its value as a cautionary tale against skyrocketing medical costs and hyper-powerful health insurance conglomerates that will literally come to keep everyone on life support. have gained more attention and favorable reviews. In the spirit of this review, however, I will refrain from delving into a political argument and leave you to decide for yourself.

Ultimately, despite giving its protagonists all sorts of prostheses, the film ends up lacking one crucial organ, the brain. It needs major editing and remixing. And more of a shirtless Jude Law, obviously.

The bottom line is, Repo Men is a perfect time-killer for Jude Law enthusiasts (such as yours truly) and bored middle-aged men who crave a literally bloody flick. The rest of you should just stick to watching reruns of Nip/Tuck.

Jay-Z plays TD Garden on March 11 and Alicia Keys plays Agganis Arena on March 22

Another great month for one of the country’s best music scenes.  This month offers concert occasions for every music fans.  Lots of fun indie pop is coming through the city.  Let them warm you up as winter slowly withdraws into spring.  Two of New York’s biggest stars, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, come up to Boston this month, playing two of the city’s largest venues, the TD Garden and the Agganis Arena.  Escape midterms for at least one concert this month.  Hop on those tickets soon.  Many of these shows will sell out.  Some of them are already sold out, leaving you to beg for your friend’s extra ticket, take your chances with scalpers, or buy the higher priced tickets from a secondary seller.

3/2: Surfer Blood, Great Scott:

Get ready for this fun, indie rock band from Florida to rock a bar sure to be filled this night with Pabst and Pitchfork lovers.

3/3: Tally Hall, Great Scott:

Light and poppy, Tally Hall come across as one of the sillier bands in indie rock.

3/4: Joe Pug, Great Scott:

The Allston bar brings in a great artist for the third night in a row in row in singer-songwriter Joe Pug.  Joe Pug has garnered a following for himself by mailing free sampler CD’s to anyone who asks and making his EP available for download free on his website.  He now tours in support of his first full-length, Messenger.

3/5: Cage the Elephant, Paradise Rock Club:

There ain’t gonna be no rest for the wicked at this show.  Cage the Elephant will keep your bodies moving for the whole show.

3/5: Margaret Glaspy, Club Passim:

Glaspy brings her charm and soulful folk back to Club Passim, a familiar venue for the Massachusetts singer-songwriter.

3/6: Hey Mama, Paradise Rock Club:

Led by the duet of Avi Salloway and Celia Woodsmith, this band makes music the way rocking roots music should be made: full of blues, soul, emotion, and fire.

3/11: Jay-Z, TD Garden:

Jay-Z is coming to Boston with Young Jeezy and Trey Songz.  Need we say more?

3/12-3/17: Dropkick Murphys, House of Blues:

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Boston than by going to one of of the Murphys’ seven shows leading up to March 17?

3/17: Joanna Newsom, Sanders Theatre:

Newsom brings her harp and “unique” voice to Harvard’s wonderfully acoustic theater.

3/18: Mat Kearney and Ingrid Michaelson, House of Blues:

Two talented pop artists co-headline this Thursday night at the House of Blues.

3/19: Disco Biscuits, House of Blues:

The band that defined the genre of trance fusion/jamtronica comes to Boston.  If you’re into jam bands, you need to be at this show.  Consider yourself forewarned: the band’s shows have been known to be associated with heavy drug use.  “Disco Biscuit,” itself, is a street term for MDMA.

3/20: Air, Berklee Performance Center:

Creating a very different sort of electronica-influenced music, this French duo has been putting out beautiful ambient music for over a decade now.

3/21: Roz Raskin and the Rice Cakes, The Middle East Upstairs:

This young indie-pop group from Providence performs upbeat, but soft acoustic tunes sure to make you a fan.

3/22: Alicia Keys, Agganis Arena:

On the first day back from break, the beautiful R&B singer from New York performs at Boston University’s Agganis Arena.

3/25: Toubab Krewe, Harper’s Ferry:

A festival favorite, the instrumental band, Toubab Krewe, fuses the music of Mali with US southern music and jam rock.

3/27: Spoon with Deerhunter, House of Blues:

Two of  this past decade’s most popular indie rock bands are still going strong and touring together.

3/28: Beach House, Paradise Rock Club:

The Baltimore dream pop band’s January release, Teen Dream, further raised the bar created by their first two albums.  They now tour in support of their best CD, thus far.

3/31: Miike Snow, Paradise Rock Club:

Everyone knows the best indie pop and electropop comes from Sweden.