If you were living under a rock this summer and didn’t get a chance to watch the London Olympics, you probably missed The Who perform the finale at the closing ceremonies.
Here’s your chance to see them! (sorta.) Pete Townshend, guitar-smashing lead singer of The Who, will be speaking tonight at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Unfortunately, tickets are already sold out, but call before the event to find out about last-minute releases.
Townshend will be signing copies of his new autobigraphy, but he’s not posing for photos. Sorry–we’re not gonna take it. So spot him today on Locust wandering the teenage wasteland, and send us pics!
O-Penn-ing Ceremonies– So! The Olympics start this evening across the pond in London, and who woulda thunk that
two Penn alumni would be representing their countries this year? Yup, Koko Archibong (basketball, Nigeria) and Susan Francia (rowing, USA), both of the Class of 2003, will be doing their thing over the next few weeks. Let's cheer them on and
hope for the best.
In our latest edition of impressive people who go to Penn, we present you with a former Penn swim captain, a current Penn swim captain, and a young woman who holds four University swim records– oh yeah, and they’re also all competing in the Olympic swimming trials this week out in Omaha. Rhoads Worster, a self-proclaimed “really competitive person” (surprising?), Shelby Fortin and Brendan McHugh are all goin’ for the gold in their bid to join a former Quaker who has already secured a spot on the women’s rowing team for the 2012 London Games.
So much for making the exec board of your extracurricular activity the standard of collegiate success! Class of 2016ers, you’re already behind. (Except for you three.)
Relay for Life's On -- Channel your
inner Olympian and register
here for the event on March 31. You might as well sign up now since you’re probably going to end up going anyway.
On the topic of Penn architects doing big things, PennDesign Professor and Chairman of Landscape Architecture James Corner and his team at James Corner Field Operations, designers of New York City’s famed High Line Park, recently won the commission to design the public spaces for London Olympic Park South.
The design team, which includes fellow Landscape Architecture Lecturer Richard Kennedy and a host of other PennDesign Alumni, beat out over 100 teams to win the commission. This counts as the United States’ first win of the 2012 Games in our book.
The Penn University Club (you know, that place you can’t really go to- except to take a prof to lunch- because you’re not important enough yet) has really outdone themselves this time. All week, in celebration of the Winter Olympics, they will be serving a meal each night from a different participating country (sorry, Costa Rica). Tonight kicks things off with Canadian delicacies such as yellow pea soup and Shepard’s pie… yum.
While we probably won’t get to experience any of it, we’d like to salute the University Club for its pro-Olympic spirit. This only draws attention to a larger issue at Penn- the lack of celebration in honor of this international display of talent, athleticism, and sportsmanship. What gives? Would it be so hard to at least use the PennAlert loudspeakers to blast the Olympic theme song nonstop?
Without the Frosted Flakes endorsement, whatever will he do?
You probably know that Michael Phelps, America’s own Water Wonderboy, got caught on camera hitting a bong. (And if you missed it, you can get nicely caught up with Seth Meyers’ excellent “Really?” rant from Weekend Update on this week’s SNL.) But you might want the details of what went down at this USC frat party. Michael Whitworth indecently exposes the gold medalist – and note, the most indecent thing about this exposure is Whitworth’s nickname for Phelps: “Good ol’ Phelpsie.” Really, Michael Whitworth? Phelpsie? Read the rest of the play-by-play (while thinking to yourself that if there’s anyone who deserves to unwind with some weed, it’s a fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist) here.
A tipster tells us that Alicia Sacramone, Olympic gymnast and fellow Ivy Leaguer (she goes to Brown), made a cameo at Smoke’s on Wednesday night. Um, whoa! She totally won us over this summer, and not just because she’s pretty and Ivy League, but also because she seems tough, like that rebel gymnast in Stick It. And we happen to know that she was in town for a gymnastics event at the Wachovia Center yesterday, so she must have decided to squeeze in some Sink or Swim while she was in Philly. Smoke’s is pretty strict with I.D.’s, but we guess exceptions can be made for Olympians who don’t turn 21 until December. (No such luck for fellow Olympians Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, born in 1989 and 1992 respectively. And don’t even get us started on the Chinese women’s team–would they even be able to get into a PG-13 movie?) Anybody have any pictures with Alicia? E-mail us!
