Weekend Report: Spring Break Edition

Hey everybody.  It's John.  While a lot of you will probably be leaving campus for spring break this weekend, here are some things you can do if you decide to stick around.

There are a couple of interesting films being shown at the Belcourt this Friday.  At 7:30, there will be a screening of the documentary A Place at the Table, which addresses the issue of poverty and hunger in the United States.  After the movie there will be a discussion featuring representatives from Nashville Grown and Community Food Advocates.

On a lighter note, later at night there will be a midnight screening of the movie The Big Lebowski.  If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth checking out.  The film features a fairly strange, offbeat style of comedy, but it can be pretty entertaining at times, and Jeff Bridges does a great job playing "the Dude," the film's main protagonist.

This is a pretty low-key weekend for music, but there are still plenty of options if you're looking for something to do.  Venues like Exit/In and Mercy Lounge have bands play almost every night, and admission is usually very reasonable.  On Saturday, the End has a $5 show featuring Kill City, a pretty solid punk/rock band from the area.  Also, if you're a fan of country music, the Grand Ole Opry will have a decent show that night with Blake Shelton as the headliner.

In my opinion, probably the most exciting show happening this weekend will be Buddy Guy this Friday at the War Memorial Auditorium.  For those of you who aren't familiar with him, Buddy Guy was one of the pioneers of the Chicago blues and an early recording artist for Chess Records, which also recorded famous blues artists like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker.  In case you haven't heard his music before, here's one of my favorite songs of his.

While not a weekend event, anybody staying on campus the entire week might be interested in seeing the musical American Idiot , which will be playing at the Andrew Jackson Hall.  It features an interesting take on a number of Green Day songs, not only from American Idiot, but also the albums Nimrod and 21st Century Breakdown.  It also has a few original songs written by the band specifically for this production.

Hopefully this post will provide a few options for anyone staying on campus this weekend.  Hope everyone has a great spring break.  Try not to get eaten by piranhas or sand sharks.

Family Weekend's Here!

Hello there, lovely people of Vanderbilt and the world! You get another lovely upcoming weekend update from Nell, here! :)

I'm going to start the weekend a bit early, because I have something super important going on this Thursday evening. I am on the Holocaust Lecture Series Committee, and we have one of our events tomorrow night! Dr. Sheri Rosenberg will have a lecture at Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School regarding the Responsibility to Protect project (R2P). She will discuss human rights and international laws around the world and this project's goals. She will be speaking from 7:00 to 9:30 pm, and we will have refreshments afterwards, such as cookies, brownies, seriously good stuff, yum!! I would love to see a lot of support from you lovely people tomorrow night.

Friday night, we will be showing a movie in our Mayfield, as always! I believe we determined that we'll be starting at 10 pm, and Linda has picked out Billy Elliot for this week! So if you have the chance, please stop by and join us!

Not only that, but please remember that Friday will be World Arthritis Day. Please remember that many people suffer from arthritis, and they deserve all the funding possible to live pain-free lives. One of my friends suffers with this, and she fights through pain every day, so please wear blue in honor of her and anyone else you may or may not know!

More importantly, however, this weekend will be full of family's visiting their students for Family Weekend! Vanderbilt will be sponsoring lots of fun events, such as Athenian Sing, a campus-wide talent show that will be at Langford Auditorium! It begins at 7:30 pm and ends at 8:45, and the tickets cost $8, but many campus organizations will be taking part. And of course, no Family Weekend is complete without a football game. This Saturday, Vanderbilt will be facing the Florida Gators at 5 pm! You'll definitely want to be there for the excitement in the atmosphere! I'll be there with the Spirit of Gold Marching Band, obviously. So get pumped! We'll be performing our annual patriotic show!

Finally, I will be singing Sunday morning at the 9:30 am Episcopal Service at Benton Chapel with the Vanderbilt University Concert Choir as well. So if you're up for some worship and beautiful songs in the morning, I hope to see you there too!

Honestly, there will be a ton going on this weekend, and you shouldn't miss out on it! Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend! :)