Don’t ask me why, but I have always had a huge thing for southern rock. I am a liberal Democrat from the hippie enclave that is coastal California, but put on “Sweet Home Alabama” and I might as well be wearing a Stetson and cowboy boots, dancing in some honky-tonk in Memphis — or, as the case may be, Alabama. I have never, ever been a fan of country music, but southern-inspired rock has always been high on my list of favorites.

It pains me to write this review. Really, it does. As a lover of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and an ardent supporter of Tim Burton’s work, I desperately wanted to like his new take on the classic tale. I had heard rumblings that it was not all the marketing and hype had cracked it up to be, but I did my darndest to push all those thoughts from my mind and go see the movie with an open mind. After exiting the theater, all I could think of was this: Why are people going so easy on this catastrophe in the reviews?

Last weekend, despite the Snowpocalypse and resulting fallout, D.C. held its annual record fair. The Black Cat opened its doors for an audiophile free-for-all, where boxes upon cardboard boxes filled with vintage vinyl records were set up on tables to be combed through by die-hard music fans looking to add to their collections. Somehow, I missed the memo letting denizens of this fair city know that the fair was going on — and let me tell you that I was more than a little peeved about not getting my chance to scour through record after record while DJs spun in the background.

Over the last decade, due to the rise of the Internet and “reality” shows, our society has become extremely, and sometimes uncomfortably, used to getting an inside look at both celebrities and everyday individual’s lives day in and day out. The omnipresent nature of these shows, gossip Web sites, and tabloids is totally commonplace to us now — which may make the premise of The Truman Show seem more plausible, albeit more frightening.

For college students, February is a memorable month for many reasons. First of all, Valentine’s day finally makes its appearance (or rears its ugly head, as the case may be), which can either lead to a romantic night out or to a group of friends eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cake and watching The Notebook and Love Actually in a townhouse living room. It also marks the beginning of the countdown to spring break and often to the first sights of spring itself. This year, February marks the opening of a few highly-anticipated exhibitions at several of D.C.’s famous art galleries

The Grammys and I have always had a very complicated relationship. Every year I sit down to watch them, and every year I undoubtedly have to mute the television when various “entertainers” (I cannot bring myself to call people who neither play an instrument nor write their own ongs “musicians”) go up to collect awards that they have hardly earned. For me, the redeeming quality comes in the form of the performances.

“It came so suddenly. I had my 6-month-old nephew in my arms, and my brother was sitting next to me on the computer. The Internet, then my cable television went out. Next, we saw my mom’s china and Lladro clowns begin to break, one after another. The television and desktop computer also started to break. A split second later, my brother screamed, ‘Run!’”

Last summer, I became a vegan. I didn’t just become a vegan, but I went from being a fast food-loving meat-eater to an all-organic, non-processed, and no-refined-product-eating vegan. Why did I do this crazy thing, you might ask? Honestly, I was trying to lose weight. I grew up with a lot of bad eating habits that I carried into my first years of adulthood, and I wanted to make a major change. It worked, and I felt better than I had in a lot of years, but when I stepped back on campus in the fall, maintaining my strict eating habits became difficult and I fell back into a lot of my old routine

Even if you do not watch late-night TV, have never seen “The Tonight Show” or don’t have any idea who Conan O’Brien is, you have probably heard about the huge pile of — well, you know — that NBC has stepped in with the new battle going down in their weekly schedule. Need a little background?

Alright, here we go:

As you settle back in to life on the Hilltop and rekindle your very special relationship with your favorite floor and cubical in Lauinger Library, don’t forget that even during the bitterly cold months of winter, D.C. still has some excellent distractions from an ever-growing pile of homework and extracurriculars.