Columbia to the Met: the most pleasant 45-minute walk of your life

Fall break is already well underway, and many of us are eager to get out of the city for the long weekend. But if your’e not – if you’re stuck in this mouse-infested, temperature-inconsistent place for the next few days, how can you make the most of it? Here are some of Bwog’s suggestions:

• Rush a Broadway show.
• Walk to the Met through Central Park.
• Go for an absurdly long bike ride.
• Walk across a bridge (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, George Washington – any bridge will do.)
• Go to the movies.
• Explore a new borough.
• Wash your sheets.
• Cheer on the NYC marathoners (you might just see Karlie Kloss!)
• Go to the Instragamable food place you’ve been telling yourself you’d go all year and haven’t been yet. Options include Do, Black Tap, the gelato place that does flowers, etc.
• Get your aura read.
• Watch the new season of Stranger Things.
• Go thrift shopping in Brooklyn. (L Train Vintage, Urban Jungle.)
• Go to the Bronx Zoo and/or New York Botanical Garden (they’re right next to each other!)
• Redo your town in Animal Crossing.
• Catch up on that class you’ve skipped for the past two weeks.
• Go to Trader Joe’s (or Fairway!) on Monday and experience normal, healthy grocery shopping (compared to Sunday nights).
• Get a tattoo.
• Bake a pie.
• Clean your room and get rid of all the stuff from the beginning of the beginning of the semester.
• Learn how to pick a lock.
• Go to a museum/attraction that’s free with CUID.
• Stay in your bed for one full day.

And with this, we’re out for the next few days. Get some sleep, Columbia! And if you do anything particularly fun or exciting, tell us about it.

Oh, the humanity!

This is a guide on how to not be an asshole in Ferris, because too many people simply don’t know how to carry themselves in a way that isn’t a giant inconvenience to everyone around them.

Apologies if this post comes off as patronizing. If this is advice you need to heed, you can’t complain. If you’re not a Ferris asshole, this post isn’t meant for you, and you can whine with us about people who need this advice in the comments. If you are physically or otherwise unable to do some things listed below (like walking quickly), this doesn’t apply to you. We are specifically talking about people who don’t have proper etiquette out of ignorance or selfishness.

How to not be an asshole after the jump

Sound, video, and discussion combined to make this a memorable, if confusing, event.

Staff Writer Isabel Sepúlveda attended the recent lecture A History of Echoes Part 2: Sound of Trans Freedom, moderated by Michael Roberson, an adjunct professor at both The New School University and Union Theological Seminary.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this event. Part of a yearlong series of workshops put on by Columbia’s Oral History Master of the Arts program, the event’s description promised a shared listening experience of the oral history of the House and Ballroom Scenes in New York City, and what this meant for LGBTQ communities of color in the city. Ultimately, the discussion proved more far-ranging but I found myself leaving only slightly less confused than when I had arrived.

The discussion was moderated by Michael Roberson, who is, among other things, a public health practitioner and activist focuses on the health disparities of Black gay men and Black gay men in the house/ball communities. He also is a member of Ultra-red, an international sound art collective. It was obvious from the start of the event that Roberson was deeply passionate about what he was sharing with us and that those in attendance were equally excited to engage in what he had to say.

Read our summary of the lecture after the jump

Let the kids study!!

A new phenomenon has been occurring since approximately last April; late-night studiers are being kicked out of the stacks after 11pm. It’s true that the stacks technically close at that time, but before we posted the article about what to do if someone is having sex in the stacks on the book you need at 3am, people who were in there studying before the doors locked could usually stay in there for as long as they wished. Public safety didn’t patrol the stacks, kicking people out, but that’s what’s been happening recently.

The previous salutary neglect in the late-night stacks should make a comeback. It’s one thing if people are hiding out in the stacks vandalizing books or doing whatever other bad things you could possibly do in Butler stacks, but the late-night stack dwellers are just miserable students overloaded with work, trying to avoid human contact and sunlight. Depending on one’s study habits, the stacks, as depressing as it is as a space, can be an ideal study location if one intends to stay there for a long time.

When one goes to Butler in the afternoon, with the sun shining high and bright, rooms like 209, Ref, the 4th and 6th floors, etc. show the progression of the sun setting and, depending on how bad your night is, rising. This explicit demonstration of the passage of time is too reminiscent of how our lives are wasting away with essays and problem sets and finance sell-out jobs that will mean nothing when we all die and our bodies and souls eventually disintegrate. In the stacks, however, where the sun don’t shine, the atmosphere might be depressing, musty, even a bit sterile (of happiness, not germs), but at least one is not constantly reminded of passing time and the ephemeral nature of our lives and the fact that none of this really matters.

I kid. (Not really.) But seriously, if students are peacefully studying in the stacks past 11pm, not burning down the place or something, I don’t see why they should be kicked out. Bring back salutary neglect, I say! The only good reason to kick people out of the stacks at night is if they are having sex on the book I need. I still maintain that stacks sex is sacrilegious.

Stacks via Bwog Archives

This image is sacred.

Happening In The World: The Islamic State has been ousted from their last major stronghold in Syria, according to state media. Though ISIS has been losing territory for a while, many are concerned that the group will revert to its guerilla roots as their caliphate shrinks. (CNN/New York Times)

Happening In The US: For eleven glorious minutes last night, Donald Trump’s Twitter account was deactivated. Twitter later stated that a rogue employee on their last day of the job terminated the account. I say we replace some of those confederate statues with one of the Unknown Employee, but that’s just me. (Washington Post)

Happening In NYC: Beloved local news sites DNAInfo and Gothamist have been shut down by their billionaire owner, Joe Ricketts, after a successful vote to unionize by the staff as well as many unprofitable months of existence. It’s gonna be a lot harder to fill out this section now… (New York Times)

Happening On Campus: The Columbia University Gospel Choir is hosting their mid-semester Open Mic night in Lerner tonight! There will be three choral performances mixed in with a cappella, poetry, and rap. Sounds like a blast!

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