With Midnight Madness over three months away, Hoya fans are hard-pressed to find any new basketball information. So while yesterday’s Big East men’s schedule announcement doesn’t even include the dates of the match-ups, it’s more than enough to start speculating about next season.

The announcement revealed where the Hoyas will play their Big East foes, as well as which three teams they will face twice. Georgetown, who ESPN’s Andy Katz says “arguably could be the third-best team in the league” in his schedule breakdown, draws Final Four contender Villanova, hated rival Syracuse, and, um, Rutgers as its home-and-away opponents.

Georgetown had one of the conference’s toughest schedules last year, and this year’s slate doesn’t look much better. In addition to the Orange and the Wildcats, the team will travel to face perennial powerhouses Louisville and Pitt, as well as a scary West Virginia team. Meanwhile, the Hoyas’ nine game home draw includes six of last year’s bottom eight teams. Of course, thanks to Georgetown’s woeful finish last year, we’ll be looking to avenge losses to four of them. Still, it’s hard to get excited about the likes of USF.

After the jump: the three matchups that should have you camping out on the sidewalk outside the Verizon Center…

Villanova - Last year an all-but-finished Hoyas squad took down the Wildcats in Philadelphia just before ‘Nova embarked on a surprising Final Four run. This year ‘Nova won’t be surprising anyone, adding one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to a mostly intact squad. The Hoyas will get two shots at the Big East favorites, but the home match-up will be their best chance to get a win over a top 5 team.

UConn - Another Final Four team from last season, and another team looking to avenge a loss to the Hoyas. Last season’s victory against the undefeated Huskies in Hartford was undeniably the high point of Georgetown’s season. This year UConn will come to D.C. without co-Big East Player of the Year Hasheem Thabeet, but a talented core of Kemba Walker, Stanley Robinson, and Jerome Dyson means the Huskies won’t slip too far.

Syracuse - Sure the Orange have lost star point guard Jonny Flynn and a easy jeers-target Devendorf, but a rivalry’s a rivalry. Syracuse still has the look of an NCAA tournament team, and fans have a new least-favorite player in Georgetown turncoat Dashonte Riley.

More details about this season’s games will continue to trickle out, but it likely will be late September before the full schedule is released.

Sunday

Jay Reatard. The name alone sells it, and his unique mixture of punk, indie, and No Age-esque chaos has made him the new face of Pitchfork punk. Head to the Black Cat with $12 in hand for a hipster/punk-rock fest!

Monda

If you missed out on your chances to see the Bowerbirds last year, make sure to check them out this time around at the Black Cat. With their newest release, Upper Air, coming out on July 7th, they’ve got a whole new arsenal of tracks. The combo of Phil Moore and Beth Tacular taking stage is priceless, but if you had to put a price on it, I’d say to give the man at the door $12.

Wednesday

Bryan Scary and The Shredding Tears probably has a killer live set based on their band name alone. Primarily based around pop musician Bryan Scary (who plays all instrumentation save the drums), the Shredding Tears is equal parts early Beatles, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Sufjan Stevens. Tickets for their show at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel are a remarkably low $10.

Friday

If you’re sick of hearing all of Spencer Krug’s Wolf Parade side projects, maybe you’d be more interested in guitarist Dan Broeckner’s Handsome Furs. They’re touring on their March, 2009 release, Face Control, which draw from a variety of inspirations, from New Order to simple hand claps. Go see Dan and his wife perform at the Black Cat for a simple, even $12.

Next Monday & Tuesday

A little out of the ordinary, as you’ll have to wait more than a week to see one of these shows; but this surprise show is sure to sell out quickly. The Dead Weather, Jack White’s newest project (featuring members of The Kills, The Raconteurs, and Queens of the Stone Age), will be performing July 13th and 14th, the latter being the release date of their debut album Horehound. So buy those tickets quick—the 9:30 club is asking a steep price of $35, but it’ll be more than worth it.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are getting closer to pinpointing the cause of last week’s Metro crash.  They discovered that WMATA had replaced a crucial component of the signaling component, the “Wee-Z bond” which maintains a safe distance between trains, and it malfunctioned.  There have already been a couple lawsuits filed against Metro, including one by Johnnie Cochran’s law firm.  WMATA General Manager John Catoe announced that the system will keep operating in manual mode until outside experts have a chance to examine the signaling system, which could as long as a year.

In some rare “good on you, WMATA” news, the embattled transit agency just re-launched its NextBus service this Wednesday.  NextBus allows you to see when the next bus will be arriving for any route and can be used from the internet or a cell phone.  The service was launched as a pilot program about two years ago for 32 routes, but it was only 80 percent accurate.  The improved version covers all 335 bus routes.

Harriette Walters, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employee who masterminded the largest embezzlement in city’s history, was sentenced to 17 and half years in prison.  It was revealed in 2007 that over the course of two decades Walters’ had defrauded the D.C. government to the tune of $48.1 million through issuing tax refunds to fake businesses.

Speaking of OTR, this year they mistakenly sent tax refunds to people who actually owe the District taxes. One resident who got the unmerited refund was D.C. Councilmember David Catania’s (I—At Large) parter, Brian.

After the jump: the Washington Post wipes out, medicinal marijuana makes progress, legal fireworks fun and more.

D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D—Ward 1), thinks the city has too many cab drivers and has introduced legislation to put a “cap” on the number of licensed cabbies.

The Washington Post found themselves in hot water after Politico reported that they were offering lobbyists tickets to exclusive “salons” where they would have access to “those powerful few” for up to $250,000.  The Post scrapped the salon plans after the ensuing PR disaster.

Yesterday, the Real World D.C. cast moved in to their Dupont Circle digs.

The House appropriations committee lifted a longstanding ban on the D.C. government spending money to decriminalize marijuana, meaning D.C. could have a referendum on legalizing pot for medicinal purposes.

A D.C. Superior Court Judge upheld the Board of Elections and Ethics ruling that there cannot be a ballot referendum on same-sex marriage as it would violate the D.C. Human Rights Act.

The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has posted a map of legal fireworks stands (the closest one is near Logan’s Circle)—enjoy!

Image from Flickr user brhefele, used under a Creative Commons license.

All Time Low have never been in their eponymous emotional state: their particular brand has always rung out with crisp dynamics and happily chanted choruses about girls and all the fun of summer. One can always expect an onslaught of this type of music being released throughout the summer, as teeny boppers look around for a new soundtrack to their dramatic lifestyles and their first experiences with boys, alcohol, and the like. Not that you can blame them: there is something comfortable about blasting over-produced pop-punk on your car stereo while driving to your friend’s house, expectations for the night ahead rushing through your mind.

So with the July 7th release of their latest album, Nothing Personal, All Time Low are sure to find their way into the stereos of anyone looking for a way to pass the time with a smile on their face. Don’t expect your indie or punk cred blasting this while rolling down M Street—there is no vast soundscape or Pitchfork-glam material to be found here. But for those with more easygoing taste, for the most part, something about this just works.

Ever since they released So Wrong, It’s Right, with its hippity-hoppity, chart-riding hits in 2007, All Time Low has found success in many scenes: the fact that its fans range from the colorful, Hot Topic-adorning bunch to the more straight-laced demonstrate how much of a guilty pleasure these guys have become. With their swelling, simple riffs that fall into half-tempo breakdowns, it’s clear that they haven’t reinvented the wheel with their sound; but it’s also clear that they do what they do far better than the hundreds of similar bands that find their way onto MySpace and Warped Tour every year.

From first single and opening track “Weightless,” it takes a mere 29 seconds for you to understand what you’re in for. Alex Gaskarth’s lyrics fall somewhere in between honest and cheesy, but mixed with undeniably catchy hooks and pounding drums, you’re sure to get the chorus of this song and the majority of the next eleven stuck in your head on repeat. The second single from the album “Damned if I do ya (Damned if I don’t)” is one of the catchiest songs (and most apt to play in Hollister) that I’ve heard in a long time; and with a Butch Walker production, you know the “Woah-oh-oh” won’t stop until completely necessary.

That being said, every track isn’t guilty pleasure-worthy—when the track counter ticks to seven and you find yourself listening to “Hello Brooklyn,” you’ll be want to say goodbye instead. Intense over-production, average lyricism, and discussion of an apparent “party at the end of the world” that everybody seems to know about makes this song a little too standard for its own good. Two tracks later, “Too Much”, you’ll find a track produced by The-Dream that is the epitome of its title, as the band drops the guitars and picks up the boy-band aesthetic. (And isn’t their some unwritten rule about how many times a band can repeat a song’s title?)

But with the listener’s discretion and an avid use of the skip function, this album presents a little over a half an hour of pop gems. Its only real problem is that this album could have easily been titled So Right, It’s Wrong—it feels a little too expected. And while “Keep The Change, You Filthy Animal” might be a blatant rip-off of all things New Found Glory, this is a fit soundtrack for the remaining summer nights.

Head to MTV’s The Leak to here the album in its entirety before its release this upcoming Tuesday.

Until this year, Georgetown farmers’ market aficionados only had one option: the Wednesday afternoon market at Rose Park. This summer, though, the Burleith and Glover Park Citizens Associations teamed up to put together a second farmers’ market Sunday mornings at the newly-renovated Hardy School.

So how do the Rose Park and Hardy School farmers’ markets stack up? Vox visited both this past week—check out our findings after the jump!

Rose Park

• Hours: 4—7 p.m. every Wednesday
• Location: Rose Park (at the intersection of 26th and O Streets), 1 mile from campus
• Number of Vendors: 5
• Offerings: When we visited yesterday, there were a couple of stands selling baked goods and three with a limited selection of produce. One produce stand also had an impressive selection of honey and another had hand-knitted hats and very nice looking sunflowers.
• Free Samples: None to be found.
• Ambiance: With vendors set up between the baseball field and basketball courts, the market has a cozy, community feel.

Hardy School

• Hours: 9 a.m.—1 p.m. every Saturday
• Location: Hardy School parking lot (at the intersection of 34th Street and Wisconsin Avenue, across from the pile of dirt that used to be Safeway), 1.1. miles from campus
• Number of Vendors: 14
• Offerings: In addition to six produce stands (each with a pretty ample selection of fruits and veggies), last weekend the market also had vendors selling flowers, bread and pastries, pasta (”These are free range pastas!” the owner boasted), sorbets made from local ingredients, soaps from Union Street Soapworks, and coffee.
  
• Free Samples: About half of the produce stands were offering free tastes of some sort. You can also get a free spoonful of the sorbet of your choice and the “free-range” pasta stand (which also boasts a small selection of meat products) was offering free tastes of sausage.
• Ambiance: Housed at the fenced-in, concrete Hardy School parking lot, right next to noisy Wisconsin Ave., the venue is somewhat discordant with all the farm-fresh offerings.
• Extras: Last weekend, a bluegrass duo was performing live at the market. Possibly the biggest boon, though, was that the District Department of the Environment was giving away free reusable bags to raise awareness about the new 5-cent bag fee.

The verdict? It looks like the newbie’s got the old standby beat. Unless you’re committed to sleeping in on Saturdays or you need a mid-week infusion of fresh fruit, the Hardy School market’s the clear choice.

The Corp has recently received project approvals to move forward on their newest venture, a café in the Davis Performing Arts Center, according to Corp CEO Ryan Callahan (SFS ‘10). Callahan predicts that the new venue will be open by late October or early November.

The new café will serve full meals and is being worked on in cooperation with the Davis Center in attempt to make the building more of a “cultural hub” on campus (the Davis Center and the Corp are splitting the costs upfront). According to Callahan, the menu for the café is not yet set, but will probably include sandwiches, breakfast foods and possibly Sweetgreen-style frozen yogurt.

The Corp hopes that the new café will have strong cultural programming, with a performance area that could be used for open-mic nights, a cappella groups, or staging promotional scenes for campus productions (if the café takes Uncommon Grounds’ mantle as the “artsy” Corp venue, UG might work on being more oriented towards the new business school, Callahan said).

According to Callahan, the café will be the Corp’s alternative to new on-campus restaurants like Così and Epicurean. He said that the Corp won’t be sure what the impact of the newly-opened Così and Starbucks has been until the after fiscal year, but that they haven’t noticed much of a drop in business at Vittles and UG.

They are worried, though, about what the effect of a new Grab ‘n Go station in Leavey could be. Callahan emphasized that Vittles is working on being more of a full-service grocery store, expanding their produce and meat options, now that Safeway is closed.

Although the Corp had hoped to open the Davis Center café as well as another new venue in the new MSB building, the MSB project didn’t work out because of space constraints.

The new café hasn’t been named yet, and the Corp is currently working with an architectural firm on the design. The café will probably have a staff of about 30, according to Callahan (by comparison: Vittles has a staff of approximately 60 and UG has about 40).

4th of July

The best day of the year for free events, and there is no better place in the country to celebrate the nation’s independence. Starting the day off with an Independence Day Parade at 11:45 a.m., find yourself en route on Constitution Avenue from 7th to 17th streets, and enjoy the marching bands, the military persons, the floats, and whatever else happens to be coming down the street.

After the parade, head down to the National Mall anytime between 11:00 a.m .and 5:00 p.m. to witness the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, an experience filled with music and dance performances, storytelling, and cultural discussion. The themes of this year’s program are Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture, The Americas: A Musical World, and Wales Smithsonian Cymru. For more information on the programs and the festival itself, head over to the website.

When you’ve finished getting culturally certified by the Folklife Festival, head over to the Washington Monument grounds for a 6:00 p.m. concert, featuring the U.S. Army Concert Band and the U.S. Army Band Downrange. Make your way to the Southwest corner of the grounds to see the troops.

If you haven’t been musically sated by this point, head down to the West Lawn of the Capitol Building by 8:00 p.m. for the 4th of July tradition, including a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra. If you’re more into the pop scene, we can’t bring back the King for you, but the concert will be sure to satisfy your needs too, with performances by Aretha Franklin, Natasha Bedingfield, and even the cast of Sesame Street.

When all is said and done, you’ll surely want to find a spot on the National Mall by 9:15 pm for fireworks (they’re scheduled for “at dark,” but generally begin around that time). Launched from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and up over the Washington Monument, the District’s monuments provide a perfect backdrop. This is not to be missed.

First Friday

On the first Friday of the month, Dupont Circle’s many art galleries open their doors a little later. Head down along R Street and Connecticut Avenue from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm this Friday and see what this long-standing celebration of the area’s art scene still has going for it. Drawing in artists, art lovers, and the simply curious, you’re bound to fit in somewhere; even if it’s just next to the free offering of wine and snacks.

You Bloom. We Bloom.

BloomBars in Columbia Heights will be hosting a fundraiser this Thursday, July 2nd, at 9:30 pm. This art ‘blooming’ experience, located at 3222 11th St, NW, hosts any and every possible experience that can help growing artists grow. As a non-profit group, their doors are open as a performance space, art gallery, theatre, dance studio, screening room, and center for wellness. So head down to this fundraiser, completely donation based, in an effort to ‘bloom’ their impact on the community

View Georgetown Voice Crime Map: June 2009 in a larger map

Like May, June was a quiet month for Georgetown, with a total of 19 on-campus incidents reported in the DPS log. They breakdown as follows:

• 11 thefts
• 6 cases of unlawful entry or trespassing
• 1 case of destruction of property
• 1 case of threats

Probably the most intriguing incident of the month is the case of threats, for which the DPS log entry reads as follows:

June 12, 2009. 8:03 p.m.
Leavey Center—GUASFCU
Suspect threatened complainant over phone. Suspect identified. MPD notified.

We asked GUASFCU CEO Justin Lo Iacono about the incident, but he said that “the credit union does not discuss member details with the press, as all member details are confidential.”

The 11 cases of theft were mostly standard stuff (bicycles, wallets, electronics, laptops, etc), but there were a couple odd ones. On June 11, DPS reports the theft of “an electronic game and cord” from McCarthy Hall. On the 20th, someone stole hubcaps from a vehicle in the Southwest Quad Garage.

The real fireworks at last night’s meeting were over the proposed moratorium on additional seating for restaurants in the Georgetown Court complex near the intersection of Prospect St. and Wisconsin Ave. The complex houses seven successful restaurants (such as Cafe Milano, Bangkok Bistro and Morton’s) and is one of the few areas in Georgetown not subject to the liquor license moratorium.

When Morton’s recently applied for additional seating, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved the request despite neighbors’ protestations, but said that it would “entertain a motion for a moratorium on additional seats,” according to ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels.

Starrels and Karen “Cookie” Cruse, a member of the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown’s Board of Directors, argued at last night’s meeting that the area is already “over-saturated” and that neighbors are tired of spending time fighting every request for more seats.

Robert Elliott, Georgetown Court’s landlord, countered that the alleged complaints about lack of parking and traffic problems are exaggerated and that the ANC and neighbors would still have input into future seating expansions even without a moratorium. Elliott also raised objections to the fact that he was only presented with the nine page text of the proposed moratorium 90 minutes before the ANC meeting started, despite asking for it a week ago and offering to collaborate on it.

ANC Chair Ron Lewis was dismissive of Elliott’s complaints, telling him that he was just “throwing sand in our eyes.”

“I know nothing I say here is going to affect what you do,” Elliott replied. “You could’ve called me. I don’t think you should’ve had this document put together in private. I don’t think that’s right.”

Elliott was at least partially correct—his objections didn’t have much of an impact on the ANC. They voted 4—1 to co-sponsor the moratorium with CAG, with Georgetown University student rep Aaron Golds (COL ‘11) casting the lone vote of opposition.

After the jump: We finally get around to replacing 109-year-old bridges and Tackle Box proves no match for Cookie Cruse.

The other big project on the ANC’s plate is the replacing of three bridges over the C & O Canal. The bridges at Thomas Jefferson Ave., 30th St. and 29th St. are 109 years old and, understandably, not in the best shape.

The D.C. Department of Transportation just started a three year project to replace them. They’ll be doing work on one bridge at a time, starting with the 30th St. bridge.

For the first time in quite a few months a representative from the Metropolitan Police Department showed up to give a public safety report. When asked by ANC Commissioner Ed Solomon how many calls they’d been getting about “quality of life” issues in West Georgetown and Burleith (read: student noise), he replied that since school’s been out, complaints are down by 50 percent or so.

The folks who own Hook recently bought their neighbor, Tackle Box and nearly got away with their request to have a dual Voluntary Agreement (which permits them to serve alcohol) last night. The owner’s request that Tackle Box be allowed to operate under Hook’s VA so as to avoid the hassle of trying to get ahold of a new liquor license was almost going to be approved when Cookie Cruse (the force behind the aforementioned Georgetown Court moratorium) pointed out that the agreement would have to be approved by CAG, too.

And if Cruse’s feelings on the subject are any indication, it doesn’t look like getting CAG’s approval will be any small feat. Cruse decried the move as an attempt to get around the liquor license moratorium by “piggy-backing” and called it a “terrible precedent.” The ANC ended up tabling the request and it will now have to be reviewed by CAG.

Photo by Flickr user Tuffer (belgian edition), used under a Creative Commons license.

Usually the only Georgetown athletes fortunate (or unfortunate, if you believe in the cover jinx) enough to see their name in Sports Illustrated are the University’s basketball stars. But this week SI’s editors showed that Hoya sports extend outside of the Verizon Center, featuring sailor Charlie Buckingham in the current issue’s Faces in the Crowd section.

Buckingham, who was featured in the Voice’s cover story on the sailing team earlier this year, earned his place in the magazine by winning the Everett B. Morris Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate sailor. Only the second sophomore ever to win the award, Buckingham joins Andrew Campbell and Chris Behm as the third Hoya to take home the Morris Trophy in the past four years.

The rising junior skipper helped lead the Hoyas to a third-place finish at this year’s sailing national championships. With the collegiate sailing season concluded, Buckingham now hopes to bring home hardware for a new team: the USA. He will spend his summer with the US Sailing Team, travelling the world to compete in regattas.