Jonathan Richman, 6:00 Friday at the 9:30 Club, $12

If you show a little hustle out there in the field, you can still make it down to 9th and V to catch an early show with the godfather of Velvet Underground-worshipping lo-fi indie pop, who has spawned a thousand adenoidal voices and snarky-yet-sweet senses of humor since his early ’70s proto-punk group the Modern Lovers defined what awkward New England college kids could do with electric guitars. Then put on your black zip-up hoodie, run over to Ben’s on U Street to grab some vegan chili, and head up 14th to catch…

Lifetime, World/Inferno Friendship Society, 8:30 Friday at the Black Cat, $15

Jersey’s best dancers (or so they would have you believe) have reunited after seeing the hardcore emo sound they pioneered in the mid-90s get its edges sanded down and sell millions thanks to the likes of All-American Rejects, Fall Out Boy and MTV, natch. World/Inferno, meanwhile, is the band every weird kid in your high school with stringy hair and too much eyeliner spent their Friday nights going to see.

Deerhoof, 8:30 Sunday at the Black Cat, $13

If Richman was a little too nice and sincere for you and Lifetime was a little too moshy and loud, Portland’s favorite art-punks will be bringing the fractured beats and manic, noisy, shape-shifting pop melodies of their new album Friend Opportunity to the Cat for you to stand impassively in your skinny jeans and pretend to ignore.

Thunderbirds are Now!, Oxford Collapse, 8:00 Monday at the Rock and Roll Hotel, $12

Now this show is where we separate all the sniffling indie kids from the clustered up clever kids and figure out who actually wants to have a good time. It’s hard to find two bands this loud, energetic, likeable and just plain fun sharing a stage these days, so make the hike out to H Street Northeast and take the edge off the beginning of the week with a few drinks, a little jumping around and a lot of the best rock you can expect from some guys who sound like they should be playing at your party in your living room.

Posted by Chris Norton, Senior Writer

The Voice is pleased to announce an open call for nominations from its readers for the hottest professors you’ve spent hours batting your eyes at in countless dreary seminar rooms and lecture halls. They might be an Eros of economics like Sanjay Chugh, a foxy Portuguese prof like Valeria Buffo or some as-yet-undiscovered starlet out of a more remote department like Cell Biology or Polish. The discipline doesn’t matter, as long as your heart’s set a-flutter at every irregular conjugation, supply graph and textual analysis that floats like a gentle breeze through your lovelorn ears.

Email your favorites to thevoice@georgetown.edu, or just leave a comment right here. We’ll start posting the results by next week, with accompanying interviews, bios and high-resolution photos of the cooperative winners.

Posted by Chris Norton, Editor in Chief

We all saw signs around campus; there was a Facebook.com event registration with an RSVP; it was looking to be the hot event of the minute, with the sophisticated and intriguing title, “The Art of Kissing.”

Michael Christian, who told the Voice, “kissing has taken over my life,” is touring the college circuit with a live stage show based on his book of the same name. The show did not live up to expectations, though, and while it got laughs, it seemed to me more of a tasteless scam posing as an informative evening of discussion and innovation with demonstrations to richen the show. It entertained, but fell short on information.

Freshmen and transfer students were the target audience, some attending in groups with their floor mates. Students were there to learn a new trick or two or simply to see how the advertised attraction of kissing demonstrations would play out.

“I hope to see making out on stage,” said Jen Lancaster (COL ’09), with a laugh. “I wanted to see how they were going to go about demonstrating”.

Marcus Howard, (COL ’08) said jokingly that he was, “working on my kissing skills”.

Chelsea Irwin, (COL ’09), attending with her boyfriend Marcus, was interested in hearing about the social psychology of relationships and kissing, a frequent topic of casual conversation with her friends. Perhaps the blurb introducing the event that read, “topics covered include the psychology of kissing,” caught her attention.

But as soon as the show began it was clear that it would play out more like a Vegas stage show than a book tour. With music accompanying choreographed movements and a stiff, rehearsed script that nevertheless drew laughs from the crowd, the show could have had success as just that: an entertaining moment.

There were some successful moments, namely the demonstration of tongues inside the mouth during a French kiss, in which two male subjects put red pillow-cases over their arms and heads and play-acted the twirling of tongues in the mouth. Katie Elder, (SFS ’08) agreed with her friend, “We liked the tongues—very insightful … flicking action is a great idea.”

Some of the other displays were less agreeable to some of the audience, namely the repeated spanking throughout the show. The demonstration of the “spank” to accent a kiss was performed of the males on the females, a big SMACK on the bum followed by hoots and cheers in the audience. Linsey Purdy, (SFS ’08) said about the spanking, “I thought it was kind of aggressive and weird.”

In the end, people seemed to have been entertained but did not necessarily leave with any new kissing knowledge. One of the on-stage participants, who asked not to be named, said that he had thought it would be more informative and educational, “not just play acting the weird fantasies of this guy.”

Given the choice, he would not have participated again.

Posted by Lauren Gaskill, Associate Editor

The Voice’s long-simmering curiosity about the disgusting lumpy gray hair that seems to grow on the ceilings of stairwells inside campus buildings has reached its peak. Here’s an image of one particularly foul stairwell, straight from Leavey’s fourth floor…

…and here’s a closeup of the noxious stuff.

Certain reporters brave enough to grab a fistfull and rip it loose observe that it does indeed feel like some kind of hair, or maybe dead mold. Did some disgruntled Facilities workers plaster the stairwell ceilings of Georgetown with the contents of their industrial-size vacuum cleaners? Did you? Vox Populi is looking to you, the readers, for answers as to what this hair is, where it comes from, which campus building may have the hairiest stairs, and what should be done about its invasion.

Posted by Chris Norton, Editor in Chief

A few upcoming shows that didn’t make it into this week’s print edition:

Tonight (Thurs 8/31): Shellac at the Black Cat

Legendary punk/indie rock producer Steve Albini and his veteran Chicago noise-rock band are on the road in a big way for the first time in years. Loud, scratchy, angry and probably vaguely insulting.

Fri 9/1: Comets on Fire at the Black Cat

These West Coast psychedelic rockers lean more towards the heavier Jimi Hendrix guitar-wrangling side of the genre than the Byrds or the Beatles; think less “Yellow Submarine,” more “A Day in the Life.”  Their new record Avatar is much more melodic and all-around friendlier than their older stuff, so don’t be surprised by any “Freebird” or “Layla” style piano interludes.

Sat 9/2: Violent Femmes at the 9:30 Club

LEMME GO WHIIIIIITE!! LIKE A BLISTER IN THE SUN!!!! That’s really all you need to know, but yes, they do have other songs, and yes, those are good too.

Wed 9/6: Radio Birdman at the Black Cat

The Land Down Under’s finest ’70s punk rockers are back in action, and back in the U.S. for the first time in maybe 25 years. Aussie Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi and all that.

Posted by Chris Norton, Editor in Chief

Welcome to the new blog of The Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University’s weekly alternative newsmagazine. We, the editors, have decided to launch Vox Populi as an official companion to our print and web editions to transcend our once-a-week publication schedule, to expand the scope of the Voice’s coverage and commentary upon campus, city and national affairs, and to provide a reader-friendly forum for issues that might not otherwise make it into the paper.

Look for twice-daily updates across all of our traditional areas and some new ones, and let us know what you think by commenting, emailing or writing in. Let the Voice be your forum for commentary, debate and ideas as well as ours.

Posted by Chris Norton, Editor in Chief