- Via Columbia University Athletics

The weekend just gets worse for Columbia basketball, as men’s and women’s both lost their games against Dartmouth.

The men’s team once again was unable to hold off a second-half surge, being outscored 42-22 in the second half to fall 67-53. Despite the loss, guard K.J. Matsui and forward Jason Miller each had 19 points.

The women’s team led for much of the game, but were unable to hang on in the end, falling 63-61. Guard Danielle Brown led all scorers with 19 points.

On the bright side for Columbia athletics, the fencing team had a successful Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, winning several individual gold medals. Junior Jeff Spear won in men’s sabre, while sophomore Nicole Ross and first-year Neely Brandfield-Harvey won in women’s foil epee, respectively. The women’s team also had the most victories overall. 

Columbia’s premier electrofunk group is taking a break from intramural collaborations and filling the Bowery Ballroom to provide a public service announcement to junior hipsters on the popular Nickelodeon show Yo Gabba Gabba!  The topic?  Personal hygiene, of course. 

Stereogum has a video of the band performing their catchy anthem, “Everybody Wash Your Hands (Lather Up)” in a giant sink while Mayan pyramids float in the background and blobby creatures dance for joy.  Oh, childhood.

Photo by Jon Hill

A Bwog tipster has sent in a report of dastardly doings in John Jay.

Last Monday, unsavory characters entered the 10th floor lounge and made off with an 8-by-10-foot flokati rug.  JJ10ers point out that “the carpet is extremely heavy,” making it difficult to move very far or very fast, and considering the rug looks like a prop from a Liberace TV special, it’s also rather conspicuous.

Though the freshmen congratulate the Carpet Caper mastermind on the fiendishly filched furry fabric, they also really want their rug back.

“We are not fucking around,” reads one wanted poster in the dorm.

This sounds serious, so please send any information regarding the rug or those holding it hostage to bps2112@columbia.edu or jac2255@columbia.edu or telephone (832)-366-4074 or (203)-285-4346.  If you fear the wrath of 2012, you can also email tips@bwog.net; we don’t bite. Read more…

-  Image by Joe Schumacher

Want to sightsee, but worried about finishing that paper on time? Why not visit an alley?

Well, more specifically, the alley where Barack Obama spent his first night in New York, as he mentioned in Dreams from My Father. Arriving at his new apartment only to find no one to let him in, Obama enjoyed the alley’s fine hospitality, and in the morning availed himself of the local shower (a.k.a the hydrant).

And it’s not hard to access – Gothamist tipped us off yesterday to a Harlem blogger’s fine photos of the locale. You can also check out his photos of Obama’s various former residences on West 109th, East 94th, and West 114th Streets. Hurry, before they’re commercialized!

- Columbia University Athletics

A tough night on Friday for Columbia’s basketball teams: the men’s team fell to Harvard 71-63, while the women lost as well to Harvard, 71-58.

The men’s team went into the night holding teams to a 41% field goal percentage, but Harvard shot 60% from the field in the second half, and at one point led by 15. 4 Harvard players were in double figures, including guard Jeremy Lin (14 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists). For Columbia, guard Nourwha Agho led the way with 13 points.

The women’s team lost in remarkably similar fashion, with Harvard again shooting 60% in the second half to pull away. Columbia’s forwards did their best to keep the Lions in the game, though, with Lauren Dwyer providing 18 points and Judie Lomax providing yet another double-double (15 points, 16 rebounds).

Both teams fall to 6-5 in the Ivy League, and take on their Dartmouth counterparts (the women at home, the men in Hanover) tonight at 7.

- JCD

Here’s a reason (the only reason?) to wish you’d committed your four years to the Bronx instead of Morningside Heights:  a TOP SECRET U2 concert!  The Irish quartet will be gracing Letterman for the first week of March, and Fordham indie radio station the Alternate Side strongly suspects that a Friday morning show (that’s the 6th of March) at the Jesuit university is also in the cards.  

“Professors have reportedly been told by administrators to cancel morning classes ‘for security reasons,’” announces the Alternate Side’s blog.  Lions, feel free to take this opportunity to mock Fordham’s regular Friday classes, but don’t even think of making the convoluted trip to try to see Bono & company–without a “Fordham ID in your name,” apparently you’ve next to no chance of even being allowed on campus that Friday, let alone near the concert.

If this segregation makes you blue, take heart and tell yourself that it’s possible that our favorite vampires will decide not to let Rams into their show if/when they come back on campus again.  Maybe.

Men’s Basketball: Let’s face it – last Saturday’s loss to Yale, after a huge win over Brown was a big blow to the team’s title hopes. With 4 games left in the season, though, anything is possible, and the Lions (11-13, 6-4 in the Ivy League) are at least looking to finish a strong second. Tonight, they take on Harvard (whom they beat on a thrilling last-second shot two weeks ago), and on Saturday, they have a big game against Dartmouth, who are tied with the Lions at 6-4. Both games can be heard at 7 p.m. on 970AM and WKCR.

Women’s Basketball: This weekend is your last chance to catch the women’s team (13-11, 6-4 Ivy League) and star forward Judie Lomax in action at home, as they take on the two teams ahead of them in the Ivy League standings: Harvard (7-2) tonight and Dartmouth (9-0) tomorrow night (both games at 7 p.m.). Behind Lomax, who won her fourth Ivy League player of the week award, the Lions won both games last weekend, defeating Brown 88-57 (Lomax had 16 points, 17 rebounds, guard Danielle Brown had 11 assists) and Yale 77-61 (Lomax had 20 points, 18 rebounds). The team’s 13 wins is in fact their most ever in Division I.

Baseball: The defending Ivy League champions are looking to come back even stronger this year, and open their season against Lamar tonight at 7:30. They’ll be out in Texas, California, and other warmer locales for the next month; the first home game is not until Tuesday, March 24th against St. John’s. Read more…

Image courtesy of FujiTV

Find out in less than an hour whose cuisine reigns supreme.

CCSC’s Campus Life Committee is sponsoring an Iron Chef-style competition in Lerner Hall’s Party Space for teams of three to four beginning at 5 p.m.

The twist is that, instead of challenging the cooks with luxurious ingredients like cod roe or giant eel, this Iron Chef match will force teams to prepare the best possible meal on a college student’s budget.

Hopefully for the judges this won’t mean a dozen versions of scrambled eggs and Kraft macaroni, but no matter the end result, it’s still FREE FOOD.

Free tickets are available at the TIC. Allez cuisine!

Housing and Dining officials now advise students paying by Off-Campus Flex to expect transactions to take “about 45 seconds from swipe to signature.”

You can thank technology straight out of 1996: dial-up modems. Merchants use them to connect to the Flex network, and in an e-mail to Bwog this week, Michael Novielli of Student Auxiliary and Business Services confirms that the wait-times are here to stay.

He says the recent troubles at Nussbaum & Wu and Westside are indeed the result of that dial-up network, and though CUIT is being consulted about faster alternatives, for now, “a faster solution does not exist.”

Until then, before you pay with Flex, you may want to have a few self-deprecating witticisms ready to avert the fury of exasperated customers waiting behind you in line at Westside.

Novielli’s full e-mail to Bwog is after the jump.

Read more…

Image courtesy of NYTimes.com

So much for animals not being allowed in the dorms.

A New York Times article today reveals how two Manhattan exterminators have begun using trained dogs to sniff out bedbugs, and they tell the Times they’ve visited “a big, big university on the West Side.”

The dogs, named Pasha and Ruby, are typically hired by hotels, but some apartments and schools have requested their bedbug-hunting services, including apparently our own fine institution.

The exterminators, Michael Morin and Donald Frey, say they keep the locations of the infestations confidential, but given how readily the pair let slip the Columbia tidbit to a major national newspaper, it’s a wonder no one has entrusted them with any actually important secrets.

Hugh Jackman hosting the Academy Awards

The 81st Academy Awards last weekend sent home Slumdog Millionaire and Milk big winners, but they’re only the latest in a long line of movies deemed Oscar-worthy by the Academy.

Many of these classics are available on Netflix through its “Watch Instantly!” feature, although they’re often hidden amid entire seasons of Hercules and Coach. Bwog knows you have midterms looming and papers piling up, so after the jump is a list of three Oscar-winning movies to help take your mind of classes.

You probably won’t find a better way to spend your time. (Other than, you know, actually doing those papers…) Read more…

 Bridges photo courtesy of Kavitha Davidson

Image courtesy of Parker Brothers

You have been named Dean of the College. Pay each student $50.

College Republicans are assembling to chat about Pennsylvania Avenue.

Columbia takes a page out of Rich Uncle Pennybags’ book and buys up two more properties.

It’s not quite Marvin Gardens, but it’ll do.

A sports column goes directly to jail.

-Photo from Ariel Moger

For the final installment of this week’s Veritas Forum,whose symbol looks bizarrely similar to the Mac Wireless sign, the group hosted a screening of Justin Dillon‘s film Call and Response and brought Matisyahu, the greatest Jewish reggae singer of all time, for a performance that can only be described as “kick-ass.”

Call and Response, an anti-slavery documentary/concert film, mixed its message about eradicating modern slavery with great performances, including one from Talib Kweli. Dillon spoke for a few minutes after the screening, urging the audience to join in his cause.

The night really heated up, though,  when Matisyahu took the stage. The concept of a Hasidic reggae star may seem strange, but the man is no one-hit wonder, especially with his beat-boxing. For his roughly hour-long set, Matis brought down the house, improvising almost his entire performance. During his dazzling beat-boxing, he would flick his finger through the air, conducting his otherworldly beats for himself. His set was interrupted when a microphone shorted out, but he won over the audience despite the technical glitch, and they ended the night on their feet, bowled over by the performance.

- DJB

Since Fat Tuesdays is inconveniently placed during the week, carry the festivities into this weekend with these helpful hints:  

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 

New Voices of Blue Note: A 70th Anniversary Celebration

Nightly 6:30pm-1am, 111 East 27th Street (212-576-2232)

The youngest (and therefore hippest) of the jazz labels, Blue Note, come together to blow you away this weekend.  It’ll be that same, sexy jazz with a contemporary twist.  It’s supposed to appeal to us young’uns, so check it out!

Price: $15-30 

Friday and Saturday 

New York Wine Expo

Friday 6-10pm & Saturday 2-6pm, Jacob K. Javits Center 655 W 34 St

600 different kinds of wine, and those are just the varieties available for tasting.  Wine producers from all over the world will set up shop to answer your questions and tease your palate.  Eat a big lunch before you go (or bringing along plenty of cheese to gnaw on).

Price: $75-95 Read more…