By last night, each GUSA Executive campaign released at least one Youtube video. They range from the expected and mundane to the unexpected and amusing. Some prioritize messaging over cleverness, while others are clearly trying to make a splash. So if you want to vote in the GUSA election but don’t want to read through all the platforms or poorly-done live blogs of debates, here are Youtube videos from every campaign.
The most popular video of the campaign thus far has been Murphy Kate Delaney and Michael Appau’s “Running for GUSA“, which adapts Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “N**gas in Paris” to Georgetown. Both have surprisingly good rhythm, giving them slack for some very contrived lyrics (the rhyme scheme of “He said “Murph can we get married at the Daaahl(grin)” / I said “Maybe when the Hoyas finish balling” / Come and meet us in the Gaston Hall ‘n” as one example), though clearly Delaney needs to articulate her stance on President Obama’s birth certificate after spitting the line, ”Mikey’s straight out of Ghana / Like a Georgetown Obama.”
In what looks like the only campaign video produced by an outside group, vice presidential candidate Markel Starks walks dramatically down a hallway in Healy Hall, and talks about the campaign as the lighting changes dramatically. Although he only makes two references to his running mate, he does describe the fundamental point of their campaign: to institute practical reforms instead of focus on long-term reforms. The LaMagna-Starks campaign is also the producer of a Herman Cain-inspired ad that includes a Hoya smoking on a parked DPS car. Their official Youtube channel has an Introduction, a video Starks filmed from the locker room on the morning before the vice presidential debate, and video that includes Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims endorsing LaMagna-Starks.
Vox loves GUSA elections. Full of semi-self-conscious pageantry and hilarious demonstrations of Hoyas’ varying skill levels with Final Cut Pro, the February presidential elections always offer a good laugh during the doldrums of winter. This year is no different.
GUSA senator Daniel LaMagna (COL ’13), or DJ LaMagnz as he is known in these parts, has launched a juggernaut of a campaign for the presidency. With men’s basketball player Markel Starks (COL ’14) as his running mate, LaMagna has already distinguished himself from other GUSA candidates by submitting the smallest budget proposal of any candidate (a mere 48 words long, including the 10-word title) and asking if candidates are allowed to visit the bathroom during the presidential debate Sunday night.
LaMagna launched his campaign a few days after his competitors in order to avoid being lost in the noise, but if his campaign is anything like this Youtube video and his debate performance, he won’t have any problem standing out from the crowd. We won’t spoil it for you, but we’ll say that LaMagna’s campaign manager Ziad Jawadi (COL ’15) is clearly a graduate of the Mark Block school of videography.
It’s been a while, but Vox Talks is back. Last Wednesday, we asked every student in Lauinger Library at 4:30 a.m. what they wanted from their GUSA President. Candidates, take heed!
Can’t make it to Midnight Madness? Don’t worry, we’ll be live-blogging the event on our Twitter account, @GtownVoice. Now get yourself on the line outside of McDonough.
Although promising to live by these words that he attributed to Spiderman, Bill Nelson (COL ’11) conceded his run for the Georgetown University Student Association on Saturday.
Nelson, who recently also lost in his bid for Mr. Georgetown, ran on the sole platform of dissolving GUSA with the endorsements of threeformerpresidents.
In his concession, Nelson addressed those whom he met on his 40-hour long write-in campaign who told him that they don’t know what GUSA does. Nelson told them to start reading the newspaper more so that they aren’t “such uninformed idiots.” He hopes that then they’ll “maybe have a freakin’ clue.”
While his write-in campaign was for one of the off-campus positions, Nelson received 19 votes out of the 970 total votes cast for the at-large senate seat. He was not listed in the official GUSA Election Commission results as receiving any votes for the off campus spot.
Although he lamented his inability to be able to dismantle GUSA from the inside, Nelson holds out hope that something will go wrong with the election results once again so that he can run a second campaign to dissolve GUSA.
After the jump, we’ve republished Nelson’s concession speech.
Skip to 1:15 if you’re short on time. Trust us, it’ll be worth it.
“PROFESSIONAL, EXTREMELY TALENTED, EXCITING AND A BLAST are a few words to describe BroadSound … perfect for your wedding, Bat or Bar Mitzvah, or corporate event!”
We know what you’re thinking: “Why the hell should I care about some BroadSound?” Well, aside from being a damn entertaining cover band, it just so happens that the group is fronted by Georgetown’s own Aaron Broadus, Director of the University Pep Band.
Through his musical career, Broadus has performed with Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Ray Charles, and Pattie Labelle, but these days he’s jamming with BroadSound, a ten piece band that specializes in “all the top dance hits from pop/ rock to hip-hop, country, jazz, reggae, and salsa,” according to the group’s YouTube video.
Although, you’ll probably recognize Broadus as the man conducting the pep band during games down at the Verizon Center, as well as at the Big East Tournament, NCAA Tournament, and the 2007 Final Four.
But Aaron, if you don’t mind us asking, why haven’t you danced during a basketball game yet?
A few weeks ago, Georgetown basketball blog Casual Hoya ran a post about a YouTube video of two male Georgetown students jumping off the Key Bridge into the Potomac River. The feat was fantastic enough to earn mentions on a few otherblogs, and it seemed all that would come of the escapade was that people would be awed by Georgetown students’ diving skills, if a little worried about their lack of common sense.
However, since the blog posts went up, the jumpers seem to have had a change of heart regarding their public notoriety. The YouTube was pulled and blogs who had written about it were asked to take down their posts. Casual Hoya removed theirs, but another blog, William World News, left its original post up and published the email its author received.
The email claims that a Georgetown administrator saw the video on Casual Hoya and now the two jumpers are facing expulsion:
Please remove your September 22nd regarding the YouTube video “Descending from Heights” from your blog ASAP!
These students are under threat of expulsion because of this post and the Casual Hoya blog post. I’m sure they appreciate the notoriety, but an administrator who follows Casual Hoya saw this and brought it to the attention of Student Conduct. The YouTube video is no longer accessible, and the Casual Hoya post and other blog posts have also been removed. It would greatly help if the post from your site was removed, as a Google search for the appropriate terms brings up your blog. Please remove this so these students don’t get expelled.
As far as Vox can tell, there’s no clause in Georgetown’s Student Code of Conduct [PDF] banning bridge-jumping. The only violations under “Category C” (expulsion-worthy offenses) are arson, use (or attempted use) of dangerous objects, manufacturing or selling drugs, manufacturing ID cards, physical assault, sexual assault, stalking and theft.
We checked with Georgetown’s Director of Media Relations Andy Pino to see if there is any truth to the expulsion claim, and we’ll let you know when he gets back to us…
Like any good summer slacker, Vox spends plenty of time on YouTube. Which led us to wonder: is there a way to find the ultimate Georgetown YouTube video?
With such a lofty goal, we’ve decided to hold the first ever Georgetown YouTube Madness, a tournament that will crown the most delightful Georgetown-related clip on all of YouTube.
Here’s how it’s going to work: We’ve divided the Georgetown YouTube selection into eight categories (GUSA, Basketball, Performances, non-Basketball Sports, Speakers, Activism, Campus Tours and Wildcards). Every week we’ll have a contest with the best five or six videos in a given category and you’ll get to vote for your favorite. You’ll also be able to nominate videos for the next week’s category.
Once we’ve gone through all the categories, we’ll have face-offs between the winners until we get to one final champion. Here’s how the bracket will look:
We’ll be kicking the tournament off with the GUSA round. For this category we have six nominees:
Vote in a Box:2007-08 execs Ben Shaw (COL ’08) and Matt Appenfeller’s (COL ’08) classic GUSA-centric reinterpretation of SNL’s Dick in a Box.
Check out the other five candidates, place your vote and nominate videos for next week’s category, basketball, after the jump!
A Georgetown freshman moves into Village C, and discovers a heavy closet and a dim bathroom light. He does what anyone would do: make a Youtube video complaining about it, without any of that pesky “perspective” that has hindered past Youtubers:
“Flicker flicker flicker flicker!”
Dare we hope for a Georgetown video blog star? There’s surely more to come from this fellow, who’s previously created Tila Tequila reviews. New videos will be nasty, too, because as his Youtube account says: “I didn’t get this thin and pretty being nice.”
Jeff Reger takes us back a few decades this week in his cover story on musicians/songwriters/Georgetown professors Walter Egan and Bill Danoff. In case you haven’t read the cover and are wondering who Egan and Danoff are, no worries: just let YouTube fill you in (and then go read the cover).
Egan’s hit 1978 single “Magnet and Steel” was produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and went on to sell over a million copies. In the video, Egan is rolling six deep and sporting an outfit that could only be described as transplendent (or something).
This next song, written by Danoff, thanks largely to Will Farrell and Mitchell Hurtwitz, needs little introduction. Danoff is the lead singer in the video, wearing a black tux and a pretty boss ‘do.
I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t post either an Arrested Development or Anchorman video along with this. (Unfortunately, videos of Michael and Maeby’s tender duet are in short supply on the interweb.) Video after the jump.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
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