Looking for a good museum?

The Newseum

Blog post by Matt Rist

Have you seen all of the Smithsonians? Are you interested in Journalism or the media? The Newseum is a must-see destination for D.C. residents and tourists alike. The 250,000 square foot museum opened its doors in Summer 2008 and is known for its innovative use of technology. At 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, the huge structure is just blocks away from the Capitol Building. The buildings modern design makes it a highlight of the block. One look up at the 74-foot high marble engraving of the First Amendment outside the museum is enough to draw in even the most uninformed tourist.

The museum is a brainchild of the Freedom Forum, which was established by the founder of USA Today in order to promote media history and freedom of press in the U.S. and abroad. For tourists or residents too busy to go into the museum, the view from the street is still magnificent. The first thing you will notice as you walk by or into the Newseum is the glass wall of newspapers that rest outside the museum. Each day, staff members at the Newseum post copies of the front pages of daily newspapers across the country and the world. From crises to human interest pieces, members of the community can take a look at what’s going on in the world.

You might be overwhelmed by the seven floors of exhibits, a film theater, gift shops and a rooftop terrace with hands-down one of the best views in the District. One step out onto the top-level terrace and you have a view of the Capitol on one hand and the Washington monument on the other. It’s picture perfect. If you head over to the theater, you can see the 4-dimensional film including sights, sounds and shaking that’s reminiscent of a Disney adventure.

Many of the galleries house permanent exhibits including a history of the media exhibition, a 9/11 memorial and a large section dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 9/11 exhibit is one of the most memorable of the entire museum, featuring a moving documentary, a wall of front pages from the day as well as a piece from the radio tower that was at the top of one of the towers. The exposition on the Berlin Wall features an actual piece of the Wall. It is especially poignant to walk around the wall and notice that one side (the East Side) is without any blemishes while the West Side features graffiti and signs of a more liberalized culture.

And the Newseum is more than just a museum—it’s a fully functional Television studio. The upper level is home to ABC’s “This Week” hosted by Christianne Amanpour. The Newseum offers hourly tours during regular hours of the studio, but unfortunately it’s very difficult to sit in on the live show as tickets are not generally available to the public. 555 Pennsylvania is also home to the Knight Studio, where a number of productions are filmed including a C-Span program.

Turning Hipster

CASE STUDY: Fall Semester 2010

TEST SUBJECT: Nicole Capó, GWU Senior

BACKGROUND: One Urban Dictionary definition of "Hipster" is --

Aged indie kids, hipsters still maintain the air of snobbery, still shop at Salvation Army, and still have a completely astonishing array of knowledge when it comes to obscure music, pop-culture non-sequitors, and political sneers (...) Can be recognized by books like "A Clockwork Orange", "Everything is Illuminated", or obscure philosophy books, by authors akin to Dostoevsky.

Another is --

Someone who listens to bands you've never heard of, wears ironic tee-shirts, and believes they are better than you.

Essentially, hipsters are trendy young folk who know they are trendy young folk. They emanate (originally) from New York and California, they wear flannel, and they caused Polaroid to bring back its instant film. My favorite way to describe what hipsters are like is also one of my favorite jokes:

How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb?

It's an obscure number. You probably haven't heard of it.

PROBLEMS BEING ADDRESSED: With a growing amount of hipster friends, I suddenly find myself attending parties where the playlist involves Grizzly Bear and The xx. I've developed a craving for PBR and Miller High Life and am enamored of dive bars, high-waisted skirts, and food items I can't pronounce the names of. Was this just an inevitable development of my adventurous personality, or is being hipster.. addictive?

APPROACH TAKEN: Give in to my hipster cravings. Try obscure beers in shady bars, shop at Urban Outfitters (a place I avoided for most of my college career), spend hours looking for vintage items on eBay, and pray for high-contrast, slightly blurry disposable camera pictures of myself to appear on Facebook.

PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED: Being a hipster is not as cheap as it seems. While hipsters pretend to be über cool (the use of a "ü" just won me about 100 hipster points) by shopping in thrift stores and buying cheap beer and cigarettes, it's all for show. Turning hipster has put a serious dent in my bank account. Urban Outfitters is expensive. Trying strange new beers from weird countries in fancy bars? Expensive. Hipsters like to spend, spend, spend, and I don't have those kinds of funds.

THINGS YOU WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY: Nothing. My hipster friends are great. Granted, it is vastly entertaining to poke fun at their ridiculousness sometimes, but they're also great people with great taste and serious opinions on a wide range of topics. I've expanded my culinary interests with them, finally discovered that I hate hoppy beers and love wheat beers, and even started riding a bicycle (the most exercise I've gotten in years). Being a hipster may not be cheap all of the time, but I've enjoyed it all the same. Even now, I'm sitting in my living room watching this great TV show I never would have watched normally. Want to know what it is?

It's an obscure show. You probably haven't heard of it before.

-Nicole Capó

Everybody's going loco for 4 Loko

By Matt Rist

Eleven percent alcohol content by volume? COOL!

Wanna get drunk faster than all of your friends? COOL!

Wanna drink an alcoholic beverage that sent a GW student into what was potentially cardiac arrest?

umm...

While the combination of energy drinks and alcohol is nothing new--a relatively new beverage on the market "Four Loko" has brought the question of pre-mixed alcoholic drinks to the media light. Nearly all of the mainstream newspapers have reported on the drink as potentially deadly--from the New York Times to the Washington Post. But despite the fact that some states have banned the drink and the FDA recently decided to mandate changes in the Four Loko brew, students are going crazier than ever for the beverage.

The GW Hatchet reported November 18 that stores near campus have seen a dramatic increase in sales of the not-yet-banned in DC drink. It seems that the negative coverage in the media and the changes by the FDA have done little to curb the average Colonial's use of the drink in their alcohol routines. Why are students drinking it so much? Maybe it's because they are so cheap? Who knows, but one thing is for sure..I don't want to be on the wrong side of a Four Loko hangover. Fellow Colonials, I'd stay away from this drink for now. Perhaps you could sell your stock of Four Lokos on Craigslist for a hefty profit?

Blogging

I never thought much of blogging before this class (SMPA 180). I don’t mean that I didn’t think it was good. I mean I didn’t think about it period. I didn’t read many blogs let alone write one. Let’s face it, I’m writing these words simply because I can think of nothing else to write. Who cares what I have to say. Sure family, friends and the professors that HAVE to read what I write will care, but otherwise I don’t think anyone else would read what I write.

I don’t think I have any great insight to share with the world. Come back to me in a decade or so and I may think otherwise, but right now I’m still deciding what I think/believe about most topics one would discuss for a blog. I have opinions. But, none are so radically different from the general population that I feel the need to share them with people outside my family or friends, except when required to do so in classes.

Some people blog about their day to day lives. This is a great idea for people with interesting lives such as my friends studying abroad, an astronaut, a movie star, or anyone else with something interesting to say. I go to work, then I go to school, then I go to bed, repeat. Sure sometimes I do something new, but not on a day to day basis. If someone is great at storytelling they can write about anything and make it sound amazing. I’m not one of those people. So to save everyone from having to read anything else by me on this blog…I’ll stop.

--Briana Giosta