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Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

All content by Aleksander Chan

Enjoy Halloween now, because it will be meaningless after college

Aleksander Chan October 31, 2013

I’m here to share with you an important message: You will never care about Halloween the way you do in college. That sense of urgency — for planning the parties, the potent brand of themed...

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Why you should spend your college years in a nearly windowless basement

Aleksander Chan September 4, 2013

Editor’s Note: The Daily Texan’s tryout period runs until Sept. 12. Find out more about employment opportunities on the Texan’s website or in The Daily Texan’s (nearly windowless)...

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Kacey Musgraves breaks a new mold of pop music

Aleksander Chan March 26, 2013

So many recent pop hits have been about living for today like tomorrow won’t come — so drink, dance and do what you damn please. In the immortal words of Drake, “You only live once.”  But...

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Managing editor reflects on years in basement

Aleksander Chan December 7, 2012

Editor's note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in The Daily Texan’s basement office. The term comes from the old typesetting...

The Great Daily Texan Coffee Taste Test 2012

Sarah-Grace Sweeney and Aleksander Chan November 30, 2012

Finals are upon us. Colder weather has finally found its way south. Finishing the semester is a matter of staying alert through exams, papers and projects and staying warm. We’ve asked five of the...

Maxims for the minimalist scholar

Aleksander Chan November 28, 2012

  1. C’s get degrees. 2. D stands for diploma. 3. Due tomorrow?       Do tomorrow. 4. Test tomorrow?        Stress tomorrow. —...

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President Barack Obama wins four more years

Aleksander Chan November 7, 2012

President Barack Obama has been re-elected, multiple news outlets project. Obama's win over Republican candidate Mitt Romney comes after decisive electoral victories in key battleground states, such...

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Taylor Swift’s coming of age through new album

Aleksander Chan October 23, 2012

There is a reason Taylor Swift’s current hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” with its guileless, brand-name gloss, sounds like the music Kelly, Avril and Britney made their...

Looking back on season five of Mad Men

Katie Stroh, Alex Williams, and Aleksander Chan June 18, 2012

It’s been one week since the fifth season finale of “Mad Men” and we’ve pulled together our experts in a roundtable postmortem on Matthew Weiner’s acclaimed ‘60s drama....

Music infiltrates memories, resistance futile

Aleksander Chan June 3, 2012

When “California Gurls,” Katy Perry’s sugary, rollicking piece of pop, was unleashed in the summer of 2010 — out of car stereos, on TV commercials, at bars, barbecues and in the...

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HBO’s ‘Girls’ impresses with convincing cast and humor

Aleksander Chan April 13, 2012

There’s a moment in the third episode of “Girls,” the new comedy created, written and directed by “Tiny Furniture” auteur Lena Dunham, where the show transcends being really...

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‘Mad Men’ to premiere fresh season, AMC-Weiner squabble solved

Aleksander Chan March 23, 2012

Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers from the “Mad Men” season premiere. In the wait time between seasons of Matthew Weiner’s meticulously curated, sumptuous slow burn “Mad...

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Lana Del Rey follows formula for fame

Aleksander Chan January 31, 2012

As quickly as she became Internet famous, Lana Del Rey has become a divisive songstress. Her “gangster Nancy Sinatra” (as her publicist would have it) eyebrows, music video vamping and droning,...

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Portlandia vs. Auslandia

Aleksander Chan January 20, 2012

Fred Armisen, of “Saturday Night Live,” and Carrie Brownstein, formerly of the band Sleater-Kinney and currently of Wild Flag, don gender-bending costumes, floppy wigs and peculiar accents...

Nation-wide events to get excited for in 2012

Editor's Note: This is the second part in a two-day series about the Life & Arts senior staff's most anticipated events and entertainment of 2012. Today's entries are about events taking...

2011 Best Gift Cards

P. Terry’s WHERE: Any P. Terry’s location Appealing to vegetarians and carnivores and the Dublin Dr Pepper can’t be beat. Plus, just $10 goes a long way there, so it’s a good...

Harbach makes baseball enthralling in tale of life and love

Aleksander Chan December 6, 2011

Editor's Note: The Life & Arts senior staff combed through this year’s pop culture and selected the artists, albums, books and movements that they think, in one way or another, helped define...

Winter Arts Preview: TV

Aleksander Chan December 2, 2011

“Luck” Premieres Jan. 29 on HBO From “Deadwood” creator David Milch and director Michael Mann, this drama set in the high-stakes gambling world of competitive horse racing looks...

Zooey Deschanel is too adorkable in ‘New Girl’

Aleksander Chan November 30, 2011

Fox’s new hit comedy “New Girl” is weird. The show, centered on a woman (Zooey Deschanel) who moves in with a trio of single guys she found on Craigslist and created by Liz Meriwether...

New fall dramas occupy primetime

Aleksander Chan November 16, 2011

So far into this year’s fall television season, it seemed that only one show, HBO’s “Enlightened,” took on the drama of the recession with any semblance of adeptness. While the...

Students frustrated with big bank chains plan to close accounts on Bank Transfer Day

Aleksander Chan November 4, 2011

UT students will be participating in Bank Transfer Day Saturday, where they will close their accounts at commercial banks and open new ones at local credit unions. While Bank Transfer Day is not officially...

Sitcoms tempt the public down a weird road

Aleksander Chan November 2, 2011

The most prevalent trend to emerge from the new fall television season is that, by and large, network sitcoms have made a ratings comeback. Most of the new programs to have been picked up for full, 22-episode...

#occupysesamestreet more than just a meme

Aleksander Chan October 19, 2011

Occupy Wall Street, a demonstration movement decrying wealth and income inequality in the United States, has built considerable momentum in its one month of existence. Satellite Occupy protests have cropped...

Shows feature female characters facing challenges

Aleksander Chan October 10, 2011

Out of all the women-centered new shows this fall, two examine the hardships wrought by crashes — one emotional, the other economic — and couldn’t be more different. In “Enlightened,”...

Steve Jobs changed the way we view technology

Aleksander Chan October 6, 2011

Apple co-founder and visionary Steve Jobs died Wednesday, Oct. 5, of pancreatic cancer, Apple announced. Jobs stepped down from his role as CEO of Apple in August, and the newest iteration of the company’s...

Facebook to unveil website’s next phase

Aleksander Chan September 26, 2011

Last Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed a slew of new features for the social network at the company’s annual F8 developer’s conference. Throughout the presentation, Zuckerberg...

‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ explores life’s delicate balances

Aleksander Chan September 16, 2011

There is something inherently disingenuous about Douglas McGrath’s “I Don’t Know How She Does It.” This is not, as much as the marketing for the film would have it, a spiritual...

Fall Forms of Entertainment: Television

Aleksander Chan September 9, 2011

“American Horror Story” Premieres Oct. 5 at 9 p.m. on FX Recovering from an affair, a psychotherapist moves with his wife and teenage kids to a new town and into an old house imbued with...

Fitness expert offers tips for working out in dorms

Aleksander Chan August 24, 2011

Editor’s note: All illustrations by Daily Texan comics artist Andrew Craft. The freshman 15, the somewhat arbitrarily measured amount of weight often gained by first-year college students, is the...

Winehouse remembered for soulful voice, influential style

Aleksander Chan July 25, 2011

Amy Winehouse, the influential vocalist whose career was marked by her jazz, soul and R&B musical style and storied addiction and mental health problems, was found dead in her London apartment on...

Google+ takes different, inclusive approach to social networking

Aleksander Chan July 14, 2011

When you first log in to Google+ (pronounced Google “plus”), the search giant’s new social networking platform, you are likely to be struck by how ‘Googlian’ it is. Like many...

Eisenberg to serve pizza at More Home Slice to promote film

Aleksander Chan July 11, 2011

In his new movie, “30 Minutes or Less,” Jesse Eisenberg plays Nick, a pizza delivery driver who is unwittingly caught up in a bank robbery scheme. Eisenberg won’t be holding up any...

Gay rights movement sparks conversation on gender vocabulary

Aleksander Chan July 7, 2011

When New York passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage June 24, it proved a major victory for the gay rights movement and reflected the growing change of Americans’ attitudes toward gay...

Summer singles show growth toward mainstream sound

Aleksander Chan June 27, 2011

“Crystalline,” Björk The first single off the Icelandic songstress’ forthcoming iPad-LP-multimedia project, Biophilia, is the offbeat artist’s way of leading us...

MyPlate looks good but lacks substance

Aleksander Chan June 20, 2011

Earlier this month, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and first lady Michelle Obama unveiled MyPlate, a national nutritional guideline that would replace the food pyramid and bear the official seal...

Stellar characters redeem tiresome monster plot

Aleksander Chan June 10, 2011

J.J. Abrams has a maddening tendency to oscillate between almost transcendent poignancy and superficial enigmas. Perhaps best known for his TV show “Lost,” his monster movie fake-out “Cloverfield”...

Streaming services boast convenience, lack reliability

Aleksander Chan June 9, 2011

Steve Jobs unveiled the new iCloud service, which will sync your computer’s music, photos, calendar and email across all of your devices (including iPhones) instantaneously over the Internet,...

Summer TV: what to watch, what to avoid

Aleksander Chan June 7, 2011

Unlike the bountiful lineups of fall, summer TV offers slimmer pickings. That makes it easier to decide what’s worthy of your time after a day of summer fun. Here are the most high-profile new and...

Summer singles set the beat for a variety of genres

Aleksander Chan June 6, 2011

Beyoncé, “Best Thing I Never Had” When the pop diva dropped her debut single, “Run the World (Girls),” from her forthcoming album, 4, it raised a curious eyebrow....

Finales abound on TV, in careers

Aleksander Chan June 2, 2011

LADY GAGA: NEVER BROKE, ONLY EVERGREEN When Lady Gaga sings “there ain’t no other way,” she isn’t mincing words. Her second album, Born This Way, is devoted to her two favorite...

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Tips allow summer travel on budget

Aleksander Chan May 6, 2011

With a typical shoestring student budget culled together by a part-time job, parental subsidies, financial aid and student loans, an exotic international summer vacation seems far beyond reach. Finding...

1970s reality show offers insight, depth TV Tuesday

Aleksander Chan April 26, 2011

Reality television is often thought of as the ugly stepchild of modern television. Unless it’s a competitive series of slightly esoteric taste (such as the foodies’ “Top Chef” or...

Celebrity CEO may run for president

Aleksander Chan April 26, 2011

Donald Trump — mega-millionaire, star of “The Apprentice” and pre-eminent comb-over guru — is making headlines for his announced exploratory committee into a potential presidential...

Tina Fey’s book explains comedy’s role in daily life

Aleksander Chan April 18, 2011

There’s been debate about what exactly Tina Fey’s book, “Bossypants,” is. Is it “a sort-of memoir” as The Washington Post describes it? Or is it, as Entertainment...

Latest movie in franchise loses steam in final scenes

Aleksander Chan April 18, 2011

Wes Craven’s “Scream 4” is less of a fourth installment in the horror-satire series and more of a throwback to the 1996 original. But retro is in: This movie operates at a bizarre...

Producers of pop hits rule Billboard

Aleksander Chan April 12, 2011

Katy Perry’s second album, Teenage Dream, is a force to be reckoned with: Each of its successive singles has climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the definitive measure of a song’s...

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