Ministry of Cool

When most people think of competitive eating, thoughts of “all-American” pie and hotdog eating contests come to mind, with rows of sweaty competitors stuffing their faces with as much food as they can fit in their mouths. While such contests are not uniquely American, they did begin gaining popularity in the United States after Nathan’s Famous held its first hotdog eating competition on Coney Island 96 in 1916.

Twenty years ago, when The Real World first aired on MTV, it would have been hard to guess exactly how much influence reality television would have on American audiences. Reality television gives viewers a window into worlds that they would never be exposed to, along with people to root for, and people to hate, while knowing that these characters are “real.” They are not characters that audiences fall in love with, only to find out what a jerk the actor is in real life. They can see the people we are meant to love and hate, and have the satisfaction of knowing that we are judging them as people and not simply as characters.

Tegan and Sara’s seventh studio album, Heartthrob, rings with all of the classic folk-indie-pop sounds you would expect from the identical twin duo, while adding in a new twist of electronica and synth.

You haven’t seen genuine swagger until you’ve watched HBO’s most recent documentary, Beyoncé’s self-directed Life is But a Dream. In the film credits, Beyoncé Knowles…

It was Feb. 13th, and excited concertgoers were gathering inside the State Theatre to see their one true love: Jeff Mangum. Mangum initially achieved fame the frontman of indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, which broke up in 1999. What was so incredibly special about this performance was that this year marked the first time Jeff’s been on tour, playing Neutral Milk Hotel songs since 2001.

Like anyone’s, my younger school years were met with a lot of angst—partially because I couldn’t fit into Abercrombie clothing, and partially because of the people I was surrounding myself with. As soon as my best friend and I hit puberty, she suddenly had a boyfriend, and never hesitated to rub it in my face, saying, “You’d be pretty if you lose weight. You might get a boyfriend then.” Thank you, because my formative years weren’t depressing enough already.

Four score and seven months ago, moviegoers stood proud in their jorts and cheered ‘Murca!’ as they watched an epic battle for justice unfold in Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s comic novel, the film grabs patriotism by the cojones as the 16th president goes all Buffy on a confederate vampire army.

Human civilization has always been dependent on numerical systems to promote order, uniformity and stability. From Sumerians and Egyptians to Greeks and Arabs, the most advanced early cultures were the ones founded on consistent mathematical principles that represented the rule of logic over chaos and the scientific idea that there is a pattern to the events we witness.

In an increasingly competitive academic environment, students no longer merely compete against one another for higher test scores. Today, in addition to the dreaded standardized state testing, middle and high school students are periodically tested by the federal Department of Education, which measures and compares their academic performance to that of students in other countries.

Whether you’re a devil worshipper or a religious skeptic, you’ve probably encountered the number “666” and some of the superstitions that follow. The connotations of this number in popular culture are so strong, there is even a specific word for the fear of the number 666: Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.