Are you the next Nate Silver? Do you think you know who’s coming to Fling this year? In response to all the smart asses throwing their guesses around with the certainty of biblical prophets, SPEC is holding a contest that gives students the opportunity to predict this year’s lineup for the chance to win a coveted floor pass. It’s easy! Just have your mom’s psychic fill out this form.
Dear readers, we heard your frantic cries, and we’ve responded accordingly. Everyone’s second-favorite weekly roundup is back! So let’s get down to the nitty gritty, shall we? Here’s what’s hitting campus this week.
Bipartisan State of the Union Watchparty
Who: Penn Dems and College Republicans
When and where: Tuesday, 9PM in JMHH F95
Why: The only thing that would make this bipartisan affair better is if the free pizza at the event were half mushroom and half pepperoni. Read the rest of this entry »
Philly-based artists OCD: Moosh & Twist have released a video for their song “This High,” which they aptly filmed on the bacchanalian field and bleachers of Fling. The chorus, “I don’t wanna come back down from this high,” echoes the sentiments and shouts of MERTed roommates everywhere. Moosh & Twist’s video prominently features not only Franklin Field, but the Palestra, too, marking the end of an old era, when all music videos were filmed exclusively at campus bars.
It’s official! Your cab fare to the nearest Shake Shack will be nearly halved as of late summer/early fall, when the newest link in the NY burger chain will make its home at 32nd and Chestnut.
If you’ve been taking SEPTA all this time, however, your trip will still cost the same amount. Sorry.
BroBible posted a notice to the interwebs instructing readers to submit America’s ultimate fraternity domains, and the results are in: Penn’s Psi Upsilon chapter, or Castle, is America’s #7 best frat house—a rather patriotic title for a group of international imports.
Long called the most impressive house on Penn’s campus, the Castle was built in 1899 and, after a short break in the 90s, has remained the Psi Upsilon house ever since. Unanimous sentiment of everyone in the office upon seeing its picture: “Sweet.”
Oddly enough, for a bunch of guys who pride themselves in engaging conversation, Castle is the one house on the list that doesn’t have a “Your Take” section, meaning that the folks over at BroBible scoured the place up on their own with seemingly no submissions or input from anyone at Penn. Sweet.
If you stole one of the small trees from outside Metro, the fine dining establishment (prone to many petty thefts) asks that you please return it. And don’t try to compensate with a larger, better tree that you found outside Tap House, okay, wise guy? They just want their original small tree back. There is planter symmetry at stake!
In other news, who stole the grilled onion cheddar burger sign from McDonald’s?
Yesterday, the NYTimes cast a spotlight on a group of eight Penn freshmen who are questioning not only traditional gender norms but traditional LGBT norms as well, and dubbed them Generation LGBTQIA.
“Q” can mean “questioning” or “queer,” an umbrella term itself … “I” is for “intersex,” someone whose anatomy is not exclusively male or female. And “A” stands for “ally” (a friend of the cause) or “asexual,” characterized by the absence of sexual attraction.
Despite the booming activity and many successful efforts of the LGBT community at Penn, these freshmen hope particularly to expand the definitions and awareness of “non-cisgender” people, or people whose gender identities don’t align with their biological sex. While the L, G and B are heavily emphasized at Penn, these students aim to address the void left by the other letters.
It’s a post-gay world out there, folks. Read about it.
To the lovely gentlemen of the University and the odd lady here and there who’s seriously diggin’ Elmo, check out the menu for this year’s IFC rush. Highlights include Baby Blue’s, Five Guys and Franklin Fountain milkshakes. If you have no idea what a frat is or how to join one, click here and here respectively, and then step out from under that rock—it must be heavy! (Click on the image to make it blow up to full human vision size.)
Today, the NYTimes travel section takes us on a journey across land, sea and time to the mystical land of Philadelphia. Oooooh. Exotic.
But only for 36 hours—two of which you will spend in Rittenhouse Square because, duh, that’s how long it’ll take you to look at “bronze sculptures, like the 1832 allegory of the French Revolution, ‘Lion Crushing a Serpent,’ by Antoine-Louis Barye.” Amirite?
Snark aside, the article does highlight a bunch of Philly notables including the Barnes, Federal Doughnuts, the up-and-coming Fishtown scene, and the city’s weird fixation with the Prohibition era. (Maybe because like Philly’s nightlife, it ended before it even started.)