With graduation looming ever closer, I find myself reminiscing about my college beginnings. I can’t seem to stop myself from thinking back to those days when college was still an utterly novel concept: alien, mysterious and exciting — a voyage into the unknown. And I know I’m not alone in this feeling; all over Cornell, seniors are succumbing to this epidemic of premature nostalgia.

Just the other day, some of my friends and I were discussing what our expectations of college were when we were still seniors in high school. A common theme was that going to college provided an opportunity to recreate oneself and leave behind unwanted portions of persona in the pages of high school yearbooks.

Every year since the Grammys’ inception 51 years ago, they have been a crap shoot of controversy. Following convoluted nomination metrics of artistic merit and commercial success, the Recording Academy never fails to surprise (and confuse) with its subjective selection of nominees. And while this year’s leading nom-getters are surprisingly mainstream — Lil Wayne earning top nominations with eight, followed by Coldplay garnering seven, and Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earning six nods — there are bound to be some upset selections when the winners are revealed. As Lil Wayne rambled on his Weezy YouTube blog, “I think they [the Academy] thinks it’s enough just to nominate me,” going as far to predict he will get shutout of all categories.

My roommates are fools. There’s really no nicer way to state it. Whilst having a sing-a-long in my room with said fools this past weekend, I was mixing up a playlist between the oldies but goodies and the newly nostalgic ’90s songs that will never get boring. Song after song, my roommates’ eyes would light up in excitement as each track changed to a different one they both knew and loved. But somewhere between “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes and “Praise You” by Fat Boy Slim, I chose “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. My roommates’ faces fell to perplexity. The song was completely foreign to both of them. I’ll be the first to admit that “Uptown Girl” is not the most famous song in the Billy Joel discography.

Sam Sveen, creator and single member of Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES, misunderstood my first question, “Are you a junior?” to be “Are you a genius?” His answer: “Yes. I’d like to think I’m a genius … but wouldn’t we all? I actually have an acoustic song titled, ‘I’d like to think I’m a genius.’”

I’ll let you decide for yourselves whether Sam is a true genius or not, but I certainly think that someone who can make the world’s most boring question into something far more interesting and fun at least has genius potential. Regardless, even if Sam doesn’t quite make the genius cut, there’s no denying that he’s awesome. In fact, make that awesome awesome.

Sun: So I have to ask you one more boring question. Where are you from?

I know it’s Day One — or maybe Day Two, who knows? — and we should be tapering the celebration and demanding that the Big O get rolling down that bold new course he so adamantly promised us. But I’ve been waiting for eight long years and I’ll be god-damned if I’m going to recede into soberness just hours after watching honor and dignity finally and dramatically be restored to the White House. I think a star-studded concert in the foreground of a national monument is in order!

It’s been a big year in the world, all said — Obama is on his way in, Bush is on his way out and the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam generated more viewers than there are people who voted in the last election. The Academy Awards this year are heavy on late entries; critics were overwhelmed by over 20 films released in the holiday season. True, some of them were barely watchable (see: Frank Miller’s Spirit) while others were at once thought provoking and inspiring, offering us something uplifting in a time when we could all use a little lift.

So we hope you enjoy our choices for the best in film, fashion, music and mayhem, and as you reminisce, perhaps you’ll find that 2008 wasn’t such a terrible year after all.

FEATURE FILMS

In Bruges

The folks over at Gannett might not like my saying it, but addiction’s not always a bad thing. Sure, heroin eats your soul and meth eats your face, but there are subtler pleasures whose tight grip on your sense of self-discipline does neither harm nor detriment. Some people garden; others copulate; but there is only one non-narcotic pastime that can truly take hold of your body and spirit. I am speaking, of course, of music.

You all know the feeling — the irresistible urge to play that song just one more time, the uncontrollable humming in class, the sense of powerlessness before your iPod’s repeat function.

My mom called and exclaimed, “I just saw the commercial!” in one of the most excited tones I’ve heard from her in months. She was calling in reference to a conversation we had had about a month prior, when I mentioned a new band I loved who I originally heard on a Sears commercial. Like most technologically illiterate mommies, mine was fascinated by the Internet’s capacity to help me figure out a random song I heard in the background of a commercial. This all rang a bell in my mom’s head about a song she liked in the background of a commercial. However, she couldn’t remember for the life of her, how the song went or in which commercial it was featured.

Yesterday — whether or not the majority of you readers know — was an epic day of importance in the lives of millions of gay men across the United States. No, Proposition 8 was not overturned, nor were laws preventing homosexuals from adopting. Something more directly correlated to these individuals’ happiness occurred: Britney Spears’ latest album, Circus, was released. This happening coincided with the international star’s 27th birthday, and it signifies the beginning of the entertainer’s latest (and most promising) attempt at a comeback.

In the interest of summing up the semester — this being my final column of 2008 — and because I’m at a loss for things to write about, I’m going to supply loyal readers (that means you, Dad) with a Weiss-a-roni-style list of my favorite musical things. The underlying message here being that because I love these things, you should love them too.

Number One. Les Choristes. Les Choristes is a French film, directed by Christophe Barratier, about a failed composer who goes to teach music at a dreary boarding school for “troublesome” boys. Rebellion and learning ensue, and the movie ends up making me so happy every time I watch it. If you are feeling sad, you must watch this movie. You will grin by the end.