Send us publicity pics when you can k? Tanks!

With a whopping ~$100K budget, it’s understandable that people hold such high expectations for the Vshow. The 117th iteration succeeded in tackling this year’s scandals, but failed to deliver the polished production we wanted. Clocking in at over 2 hours (plus intermission), the show strove for topicality, as it should, and handled sensitive issues tastefully and creatively. Whereas last year’s show cleanly executed a safe story, 117 confronted, if messily, the scandals head-on: ROTC, the drug bust, Epstein—it’s all in there. They packed in a lot, but unfortunately the plot collapsed under its own weight.

The first act devoted too much time to introducing the individual plots strands, and got bogged down tying them all together. So let’s run through the threads: the senator’s love story, his sister’s quest for fame, a boy enrolled at Barnard, ADP’s Four Loko operation/revolution against the War on Fun, POTC undercover policemen, and Ke$ho (more on this later.) Phew. It was an impressive feat to weave them all in, but the whole was ultimately less than the sum of its parts. The show opened with a dedication to sticking it to the Man and overturning the War on Fun, but ended incongruously with a message about being true to yourself. There was no consistent theme driving the story from beginning to end. If you turned in a paper that began with one thesis and ended with a completely unrelated one, you would get a B-. Except in Art Hum.
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As the sun sets over our urban beach, Bwog wishes you a rollicking good afterparty.

Steve Welsh“>

He's so photogenic. It must be the pigtails.

Photo by Steve Welsh

is that Snoop Dogg is too high to come out of his trailer. What do we do? Should we call CAVA?

UPDATE: jk

Photo by Michael Young GS ’13

Holi 2011—it happened just this morning in front of Pupin! Scores of Columbia students gathered to engage in the powdered paint fight that is Holi, a whimsically carefree Hindu celebration of spring. This Bwogger (post-shower, thankfully—that paint is super hard to get out of your hair!) can honestly say that the sense of Columbia community at this event was palpable. Participants even broke out into a chorus of “Roar, Lion, Roar!” Seriously guys, when does that ever happen?! Enjoy the photos, friends. If you missed out, make sure you check it out next year!

Photos by Evelyn Warner

Eager fans have just started trickling in. Overheard from an earlybird: “I feel like I’m first in line at the Apple Store for the iPad2.”

The lawn is divided into four quadrants which will be opened as people show up. They’re definitely checking IDs, but bringing in bags seems to be fine. Just don’t bring glass bottles.

Abandonment

The end is nigh.
Run for cover.
It’s finally happened:

THE REFERENCE ROOM IS EMPTY AT 1:15 PM ON A SATURDAY DURING A FINALS WEEKEND.

It’s a sign of the times–the nerds have gone to take cover from the impending doom that even the mighty walls of Butler can’t keep out.

IT’S THE ABACCHALYPSE.

Abacchalypse is supposed to herald?), we thought you’d might like to have a beer (or six) before you go. But in case picking from Morningside Heights’ myriad beer selection gives you a lil’ anxiety, allow us to present your best purchase options at our favorite local shops. Choose wisely!”>

BEERS

Given the world’s going to end today (isn’t that what the Abacchalypse is supposed to herald?), we thought you’d might like to have a beer (or six) before you go. But in case picking from Morningside Heights’ myriad beer selection gives you a lil’ anxiety, allow us to present your best purchase options at our favorite local shops. Choose wisely!

Because Sunday is a day of the week, Bwog was anticipating drinking some alcohol. Specifically, Bwog was tired of wine and was not looking to drink hard alcohol, and had accordingly decided to drink beer. Additionally, Bwog did not want to pay very much beer and preferred to drink said beer within the comfort of our own living quarters instead of a neighborhood bar or restaurant. However, this still left Bwog with a large number of options, and so this past Sunday Bwog set out to determine what options there were for buying beer within Morningside Heights. Thankfully, Bwog also took some notes, and is now proud to present this Guide to Buying Beer in Morningside Heights.

Milano Market

Milano offers a good selection of imported and micro-brew beers. In six-pack form, these range from $8 for Bud, Bud Light, and Coors Light to $15 for Liberty Ale, a San Francisco micro-brew. Milano also carries the high-end beers sold only in 25.5-ounce bottles, but had the highest prices for these that Bwog saw anywhere in the neighborhood, the highest being $13.99 for such a bottle of Delirium Tremens, a beer imported from Belgium. Milano’s biggest positive factors are its convenience, the fact that its beer is always cold, and the $3.75 40s of Bud, Bud Light, and Coors Light.

Go For: Convenience, $3.75 40s

Duane Reade

In contrast with Milano, none of the beer at Duane Reade is cold, which severely limits its convenience. Duane Reade also had the smallest selection of beer Bwog found in the neighborhood, offering only the standard American beers and imports (think Heineken and Stella Artois). For almost every item at Duane Reade, Rite Aid offered the exact same item at a lower price and often cold, only a block away. However, prices were generally lower than stores other than Rite Aid.

Go for: Warm beer, mediocre prices.

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Constantine, dreamin'

Remember the dude who told us some cool stuff about dreams last year? Well, the illustrious Dr. Mark Solms hath returned! Scurry over to Satow Room at noon to nosh on free bagels and drinks while Dr. Solms presents a case of Korsakoff’s syndrome, also known as confabulatory amnesia. Bwog doesn’t really know what either of these terms means, but the lecture is titled “The Man Who Lived in a Dream”—sounds like some crazy Inception shit to us!

Dream sequence via Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes, the news chafes against the restraints of a theme.

Inspired by events in Egypt and Tunisia, one blogger is trying to incite a “Jasmine Revolution” in China, while based in his girlfriend’s Morningside Heights(!) apartment. Revolutions—you can start them from your home computer! (NYT)

The two teenagers involved in the brutal beating of a Chinese food delivery man in a Morningside Heights apartment building have turned themselves in. Didn’t anyone ever tell them that you’re supposed to flirt, not fight, with those who feed you? (Gothamist, NYPost)

As with all other momentous occasions in pop culture, William and Kate’s royal wedding has spawned a few memes: first, the infamous frowning flower girl; now, Princess Beatrice’s “hat.” The Internet is, like, so clever! (Jezebel, Gawker)

Victims of the devastating tornado that hit the South on Wednesday are now using Facebook to track down their scattered belongings. (NYT)

Fret not, emulators of 19th century journal writers. Cursive writing is still alive and well. H8Rs gon’ H8. (Slate, NYT)

Potpourri 4 Sale from Flickr/palindrome6996

Waddup, Bill?

Bwog’s own self-proclaimed shrew, Juliet Schieper, reports from all around campus:

Last night, rain lightly fell upon a crowd of theatre-goers gathered around the Sun Dial. The turn out was less than usual, though still quite impressive, due to the inconsistent weather, for the King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe’s spring show. KCST chose to perform The Taming of the Shrew this semester—a great choice for an outdoor, traveling performance, as it was very easy to follow the plot even if it was occasionally hard to hear the actors.

The performance began with a party scene—the ensemble, clad in black and white, danced about and made merry as the audience waited for the scene to truly begin. The party scene was too long and left this reviewer wondering when it would end. However, it was worth the wait to witness Christopher Sly’s, played hilariously by Brian LaPerche, CC ’12, drunken tomfoolery and his Lord’s, played by Liz Watson, BC ’12, trickery. LaPerche and Watson were a perfect duo. LaPerche played a drunken fool with just the right amount of slurring and stumbling, which is a hard line to draw. As he belligerently fumbled through the audience to make his way to the “stage,” the audience erupted with laughter. Watson wonderfully played her role as a devious and commanding lord, grasping the attention of not just her ensemble but her audience, too.

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Update 10:13 pm: The signs are still up, but the Lerner desk says it’s okay to go inside, but didn’t know what type of vermin was being killed. It doesn’t reek of chemicals; in fact the air in 212 is more neutral and pleasing than it has ever been.

Right now, and for at least the past thirty minutes, Cafe 212 has been closed “for exterminations.” Inside the closed glass doors, a masked exterminator is spraying…something. Some girls entered through the side doors close to Carman while the exterminator was spraying and were quickly shooed out for their health. Facilities people say it’ll be open again later tonight. Clever of them to do this during the Varsity Show!

We knew they were having some trouble, but vermin? We’ll tell you more as we know.

Gross!

Farewell!

Congratulations, you made it through a whole semester’s worth of classes! Now all that stands between you and summer vacation is…finals. Procrastinate by checking out all of the ridiculous things professors said before ending class. If you forgot to send one in, or we just foolishly overlooked it, feel free to share it in the comments. And when you’re done seeing how funny your professors can be, don’t forget to review them on CULPA!

Judith Russell, Intro to American Politics: “The West Wing is like porn for Democrats.”

Joseph Traub, Scientific Computation: ”I appreciate you all being here on such a gorgeous day. If I didn’t have to be here, I wouldn’t.”

Marcellus Blount, African American Literature II: “We’re not going outside today. It’s too distracting. People aren’t wearing a lot of clothes…I didn’t say that.”

Bernard Tamas, Intro to Comparative Politics: “There’s nothing I can teach you about being mad. You sort of just pick that up.”

In Interpretation of Culture:

“You can’t choose your family. You were born this way.”
Class laughs.
“What? Is there something funny about identity politics?”
Class explains that it’s a song.
“There’s a song called Identity Politics?!”

Pascale Crépon, Elementary French II: “It’s amazing how depressing it is on Fridays in this room. I need a mojito afterwards, but I have another class…”

Chris Durning, Transport Phenomena II: “If you go to France and don’t speak French, you’re going to have a hard time finding the toilet.”

Michael Como, Buddhism: East Asian: ”Speaking of compassion and karma, your course evaluations…”

Read on to see closing remarks from Core professors and others!

HamDel is open 24 hours/day—except on Sundays, when it closes at 9 pm, which has led to much embarrassment as this Bwogger has tried to get NYPDs and Twisters at 2 am on Monday mornings. But tipster Cole Diamond sends in a picture that may point to salvation! HamDel will be open 24/7 during finals season. But it looks like you may have to come in costume on Sunday nights. That or it’s just a Spoonerism!

A sign of things to come.

QuickTix spreads the mission of the TIC far and wide. Every two weeks we tell who’s buying which tickets, both on and off-campus. Every once in a while, around this time of year, they get a ton of action and the lines in Lerner lobby can get a little hectic. The organizers of the Varsity Show say they encourage you to buy your tickets in advance, especially for tomorrow’s performance, when access to the TIC may be more difficult than usual.

Numbers of tickets left for the Varsity Show (out of a possible 1100!)

Friday: 128
Saturday: 575
Sunday, 2 pm: 846
Sunday, 8 pm: 835

S-C Double-O P D-O Double-G

Snoop Dogg has said, “When I’m not longer rappin’, I want to open up an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.” But CCSC isn’t willing to wait that long. Instead, they’re out on Vam Am Quad right now until 8 pm, handing out free ice cream, funnel cake, and the last of the College Days t-shirts, while jamming out to Snoop Dogg. If you like free desserts and puns about Bacchanal headliners, you should check it out!