Ben&Jerry’s is available for gratuitous consumption this evening courtesy of CCSC tonight at 8pm at the Lerner Piano Lounge. Get an extra scoop if you show up in PJs! Donations will also be collected for Save the Children.

There will also be free food at Quarto Literary Magazine’s launch party and reading at 8:30pm in 501 Dodge.

Update, 8:05 p.m.: There’s a lot of people in need of some B&J!

Photo by HEH

Time is running out! While Senior Wisdom is imminent, we thought we’d also give out some advice as well as receive it. Bwog presents hyperlinks and highly recommends getting these under your belt before you leave. Who ever heard of a War on Fun?

• Visit every roof
• Explore the tunnels
• Take the public safety shuttle
• Get CAVAed
• Hook up with a TA
• Do a touristy NY thing
• Camp out for a night on the lawns
• Have sex in Butler
• Go downtown
• Eat a Crack Del spicy special
• Pass the swim test
• Find the Alma Mater owl
• Finally hang out with the people you’ve been making fake plans with for four years
• Watch the sun set over Riverside Park
• And/or watch the sun set from a roof or the Schapiro sky lounge
• Graduate

The demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes

William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology Sudhir Venkatesh (yes, the one who pretended to be a Gang Leader for a Day) organized a group of young idealists, called them the Urban Research Workshop, set them loose in cities like Mexico City, Paris, and Chicago to research public housing, and wound up with this — an event featuring an exhibit of public housing research by the URW, a screening of Venkatesh’s film DisLocation, and a panel discussion featuring Carla Shedd, Assistant Sociology Professor, Catherine Fennel, Assistant Anthropology Professor, and Sarah Martin, the Head of the Grant Houses Tenants Association. Free and Impartial Journalist Anna Kelner gives you the highlights:

“Any chance I get I show this film, just to make the funders happy.” Sudhir Venkatesh’s film DisLocation chronicles the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago’s South Side. Venkatesh explains that national HOPE VI legislation passed in the 1990′s aimed to improve the lives of residents by demolishing old buildings and dispersing poor families into better neighborhoods. The film features interviews with longtime residents, 1960′s footage of politicians discussing their original hopes for public housing, and dramatic shots of objects like eviction letters, Bibles, and cockroaches. DisLocation aims to take the public housing debate out of the intellectual realm and ground it in the stories of the people most affected by it.

“We’re so close, yet there’s not a lot of interaction between the two places.” Becky Davies, CC ’10 and URW alumna, spoke briefly about her attempts to establish a community garden at the Grant Houses on 125th Street. Later Sarah Martin, the president of the Grant Houses Tenants Association, told the audience about her 50 years of experience in the development.

“Public housing in Chicago and New York represent two very different visions of the built environment and how it should be organized.” Catherine Fennel gave an overview of Chicago and New York’s distinct approaches to “how we give individuals the resources to be where they want to be.” While Chicago took HOPE VI grants to demolish most of its projects in favor of mixed-income housing and rental vouchers, New York’s public housing has always been scattered and often integrated into middle class neighborhoods, where it has mostly survived attempts at demolition.

Read more…

As of yesterday, tipster Masud Mahdi informs us that Columbia now is now featured in the integrated Google Earth and Google Maps. Cool!

Read more…

Happy Barnard Spirit Day! Highlights include an I <3 BC t-shirt sale ($8 each), a barbecue, cotton candy, and a Biggest Barnard Fan trivia contest for non-Barnardians. Beacon of Campus Spirit Hannah Goldstein reports tons of people are out and about, enjoying the festivities despite bouts of rain. Don’t spend all your spirited energies at once though, save some for the carnival tonight!

The semester’s latest edition of the Fed is now online. Bwog presents a survey of the topical headlines.

On the military, “Congress has agreed to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military in exchange for a similar policy in the following areas of civilian life…”

On Columbia’s underground social scene, “We present some of the highlights from Columbia’s hidden history…”

On going green, “Rotten fish will be offered in lieu of traditional sushi, in the hope that the subsequent food poisoning causes students to develop a greenish hue…”

On class day controversy, “‘Isn’t President Obama a Columbia graduate?’ said one student…”

On the academic calendar, “Columbia fucks us on a daily basis…”

After a devastating fire left Morningside Heights brunch enthusiasts sans Eggs Benedict from the Gods for 6 long months, Bwog was extremely concerned about a tip received from disconcerted patron Laura Gabriele while dining at Community Food and Juice last night.

Ms. Gabriele’s server informed her that there was a possibility that some sort of short circuit could have set off a small fire. First the NYPD arrived, and then Community called the fire department. The situation was managed within 20 minutes. The fire department inspected the kitchen, bathrooms and basement of Community, and then left.

Bwog was overwhelmingly relieved to hear a cheerful Chad answering the phone at the restaurant this morning. He explained that last night while our tipster was dining, “the manager on duty smelt something electrical, and was being very cautious” (and rightly so!) He asked NYPD officers who were hanging out across the street to come investigate. They agreed that there was an unusual odor, and agreed to call the fire department.

Upon the arrival of the firefighters, it was discovered that the source of the odor was not an electrical fire, but in fact a new generator Columbia had installed in the basement earlier that morning, that had only been operating on a test run for a few hours. The brand new machine was emitting something akin to “a new car smell,” that we were assured was totally harmless and has now completely dissipated. While last night some diners were moved towards the front of the restaurant to escape the unpleasant smell, nobody was evacuated, and Community is open for business as usual.

The long-awaited Maoz on Broadway still causes a stir, along with a mention of NOM^3. (NYMag)

People still can’t figure out how to make those pesky MetroCards work. (WSJ)

The MTA budget is still being cut. (NYT)

New Yorkers still have no compassion for people dying on the streets. (BBC)

And we still cannot get rid of the asbestos. (NYT)

Photo via Wikimedia

The 2010 valedictorian is Seth Davidovits from the Applied Physics department and the salutatorian is Rodney Chang, a mechanical engineer.

Congratulations!

Join Hillel for its first ever Lag Ba’omer Benefit Barbecue! This Columbia-wide festive event will feature barbecue food, great music and social justice activities!
*Vegetarian options available!

Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010
Time: 12:00-2:30
Location: Van Am Quad

$5 full price, $3 with two canned/sealed goods!
**First 100 people get a free Hillel water bottle.

See ya there!

Facebook event: http://bit.ly/culagbaomer10

This event is co-sponsored by: Columbia/Barnard Hillel, CCSC, ESC, and SGB
This program was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Deresiewicz Family

Photo via Ruthie King

As we gathered from the Bacchanal fun facts roundup, the girls wearing diapers and bras on stage with Of Montreal were all Columbia students. We just had to know more, so we asked two of the dancers, Sari [wants to get a job, no last name] SEAS ’10, Ruthie King, CC’11, and Brooke Barrios, CC ’11, what it was like to… Well, wear diapers and bras on stage with Of Montreal.

Update: Oh shit! We forgot the talented diaper diva Ruthie King, CC’11. Her answers are all here. Her summary of the experience: “Halfway through the set we thought we’d go check out the back stage scene. We slipped under the black rope and explained to the security forces who saw that we didn’t have backstage passes that we were the diaper babies. Obviously.”

So how did you get to dance on stage with Of Montreal? You got found for the part after 5? Who picked you? How’d you get picked?

Ruthie: Sari is the one who gave me the opportunity. She is friends with Dan [Weinstein] and he is a big shot in the Bacchanal planning committee. Before the concert I was asking questions about what Kevin Barnes was like and he said “awkward.” Apparently Bacchanal was sent on several missions to collect props for Of Montreal like white body paint and diapers. Dan told us that Kevin Barnes requested a few people to dance for one of the songs– a new one called Tourist. We did some shameless begging and told him to get back to us if they needed girls. I went up to the Kent balcony but was called back down by Sari who said we had our chance and that we needed to go meet with the manager. I ran down and Dan let us under the black rope (!!!!) to talk to the manager.

Sari: My friend Dan Weinstein is one of the people in charge of Bacchanal. He was telling me and Ruthie about how Of Montreal asked them to provide three ladies clad in diapers and bras for part of the concert. We thought it sounded funny and volunteered… but Dan thought that people from Bacchanal were going to do it instead. Then, at around 5:30, we got the call. We were needed.

Brooke: At about 5:30, Alex Kirk came up and asked the girls I was with who had been throwing water balloons if they wanted to do it. And I was like, “Hell yea! Be a part of an Of Montreal show–I’m down!” The other girls were concerned about the diaper aspect, but they’re pretty much my uniform for costume parties so it was nothing new. So then we had a pow wow with one of their performers and got our cue to go backstage.

What was the first thing you thought about?

Sari: First thoughts? It was like I was purposely putting myself in one of those nightmares where you realize you’re in front of your entire school in only your underwear. Except this time, if you pee yourself out of fear, at least you’ll be wearing a diaper.

Brooke: How amazing of an opportunity this was and how I’d never be able to do it again! I once ended up on the Brazilian Girls’ tour bus after a show followed by an after-party with a pregnant Sabina, the lead singer, eating cheese and me accosting her. I never thought something that cool would happen again–but then it did.

Read more…

Be sure to join the Urban Research Workshop tonight for a screening of Dislocation, a documentary by Freakonomics contributor Sudhir Venkatesh; the film will be followed by talks given by Venkatesh and other prominent figures in public housing.

The screening features free pizza and starts at 5:30 pm in Broadway Room in Lerner.

Image via Flickr/The Pizza Review

Congratulations to the both of you!

Valedictorian: Arianne Richard, Biological Sciences Biochemisty

Salutatorian: Jeffrey Spear, Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology

Stay tuned for updates!

A tipster sent in this photo, informing us of a stair-climing competition taking place in Harmony. Man, Harmony residents just must love walking…

Photo by Benjamin Fogarty

The Spring 2010 issue of The Gadfly is soon out in print and now available online. We hit the highlights:

On protest, or Columbia’s recent lack thereof. (p. 4)

On religion and science. (p. 7)

On philosophy and art. (p. 11)

On whatever Finnegans Wake is about. (p. 20)

On love. (p. 24)

On parents. (p. 28)