As I feel the final month of summer inching towards me, I have been forced into cramming everything I wish I did all summer into one last month.

While this makes for lots of late nights and some memorable moments with my favorite girls from home, I often find myself missing my friends from college. If this were last summer, my longing wouldn’t be much of an issue.

Unfortunately, my friends and I are approaching our junior year of college, a year plagued by the ever-so-popular study abroad program.

Whether it be Italy, Nicaragua, China, or South Africa, a semester abroad is a semester of discovery and growth. Some countries have limited access to computers and telephones, making communication difficult. Read More »

Welcome back to my weekly rant on all things bothersome. Things that we all experience, that we often think: “Whyyyy?? Is that really necessary?!”

This week: claiming rights to a band.

Example: The Fray, Maroon 5, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Backstreet Boys, Jesse Palter, Madonna, Ok-Go Tally Hall.

Some of these musicians you’ve heard of- some maybe not… some are or were huge stars, some are unsigned. Yet, if you listen to any of these artists’ songs in front of another person a conversation like this will ultimately ensue:

You: “How good is this song?”

ITRNO (Is That Really Necessary Offender): “Oh, this song? Yeah, this song is good, but I’m so sick of it now. I started listening to The Fray loooong before they were signed to a major label and way before their CD was available to the public. In fact, I knew every single word to this song before they even wrote it. So, ha! I am so cool. Way cooler than you because I listened to this band first.” Read More »

I’m sure some of his rabid fans will want to kill me after I say this, but I just don’t get the hoopla over Matthew McConaughey.

Everyone freaks out about this guy. Magazine after magazine goes nuts for his abs and workout habits and his abs and single status and his abs and his muscular, muscular abs.

Enough about the man’s chest! He’s just a guy, being fit. I don’t think it’s possible for him to get any fitter, so let’s just discuss something else.

Like how he’s part of the Paris and Britney club of Being Famous For Just Being Him. When was the last time McConau-hot had a movie that wasn’t lame?

Failure to Launch? Eh.

Sahara? Eh.

Two For the Money? Ugh.

We Are Marshall? Better than eh, but still not good.

And how come we never see MMc with a chick? He hasn’t been photographed with a girl on his arm since…I mean, I have no idea (didn’t he date Penelope Cruz at one point?).

Is he single because he just doesn’t go out? (too busy playing naked bongos?) Read More »

If you don’t know who Jenna Jameson is, then good for you you clear-minded, tasteful lady, you! The famed & fortuned porno star recently enlisted Hollywood hoochie Scarlett Johansson to play the ‘honorable’ role of Jameson herself.The movie will be based on Jameson’s bestselling autobiography, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star.

I’m happy to see that this is what consumer America is spending their disposable income on.

Pardon me as I shed a tear for all the respectable authors out there with unpublished novels, sitting around in discontent and considering, bemused, why none of their English professors ever advised they explore the prominent field of adult film. Read More »

The female orgasm is a complex, complicated, mysterious wonder. This we all know, and know all too well.

But sometimes the idea of taking chemically-induced substances to bring these babies out (orgasms, not actual babies) just doesn’t sit well. And with the new trend in going organic and au-natural, why not try out a diet plan that promises to get you off in a better and faster way?

The New York Daily News reports the Orgasmic Diet by Marrena Lindberg.

Ok, so the diet wants you to eat dark chocolate every day, take LOTS of fish oil supplements (which increases blood flow) and cut down on carbs. Not bad. You’ll probably lose weight while boosting your libido. But, you have to give up coffee. Yikes.

The NY Daily News journalist who wrote the article was bold enough to try the diet out and give her own account first hand. She wrote:

“…keen to discover the New and Improved Libidinous Me, I stuck to the rest of the diet as best I could for three weeks. With growing excitement I waited for the wakeup call to my senses, the hormonal reveille. Read More »

Silversun Pickups: “Well Thought Out Twinkles”

From the album Carnavas. Download it here.

Nothing ruins my morning quite like hearing a leering stranger mutter his commentary on my appearance under this breath. If you’re a woman who’s ever walked a block or two in a city, you can probably relate.

Trading stories of street harassment with friends, I learned that it doesn’t stop at lewd mumbled comments. I have friends who have been flashed on the street, and even treated to a one-man self-pleasure show while riding the subway. Read More »

Many months ago, CC introduced you to a new club at Harvard University called the “True Love Revolution”. Sounds exciting, right? Well, if you read the previous article, you know the name is a little misleading.

Begun around a year ago at Harvard by students Justin Murray and Sarah Kinsella, the “True Love Revolution” club is all about abstinence.

That’s right. A club devoted to sexless—until marriage—relationships.

As of today, Murray and Kinsella are still dating, still keeping their club alive (with activities like sending out 800 pink cards to female Freshmen last Valentine’s Day which read “Celebrate love, celebrate life, celebrate you: Why wait? Because you’re worth it”), and still doing almost nothing except “kissing and cuddling”.

How they’re holding on is anyone’s guess. Read More »

If your supply of Cucumber Melon Nair suspiciously starts going missing, blame your boyfriend. If designers like Prada have their way, men will soon take fashion cues from the runways and start wearing shorts that look like they came out of your closet.

I’m all for personal style and taking fashion risks, but short shorts on men make a fashion statement that, frankly, I don’t want to see. From easter-colored to formal, this new trend of thigh-skimming shorts just looks inappropriate—more suitable for the bedroom than strutting down the street. Besides, how many men do you know that could actually pull off this shorter length with their board-short tan lines and carpet of leg hair?

Fashion forward? Maybe. But looking through Prada’s collection, each short-shorts look more nauseating than the last, I can’t help but think fashion is playing a big joke on us all—-as evidenced by the pairing of formal shorts, sandals, and what suspiciously looks like a pair of slouchy wool socks.

Until I see this fashion nightmare in person, I’ll just hold on to the hope that this eyesore will stay confined to the runway and away from my line of vision.

Short Shorts For Boys?

I live in New York City. Therefore, I should be used to Random Acts of Rudeness. Small things should no longer phase me. But because I am a nice, sweet, mostly polite girl, I am still very often radically offended and crazily frustrated by rude people acting obnoxiously. Here are a few examples of my most recent run-ins with RAR.

• At a job interview, the interviewer answers his blackberry not once, not twice, but three times in the middle of my answers to his questions. No sorry, hold on a moment, just a complete switch from looking at me and listening to typing away on his stupid toy. Each time he would chuckle at whatever inside joke was taking place on the tiny screen, leaving me nothing to do but admire the bare walls and stare out the window. Needless to say, I’m taking that job the day hell freezes over. Read More »