Maoz is officially open. Having attracted a flurry of media attention, Bwog joined the ranks of the falafel fiends whose steady flow kept the joint buzzing during lunch hour its first day in the new 111th St location. The premise is simple: choose a form of falafel, either in a pita (whole wheat or white), or in a salad, and then help yourself to fixings and sauces from the unlimited salad bar.

While this seems like a fine idea, in practice it was quite a surreal experience. Having placed your order, you are given a number, which causes a rather awkward traffic near the salad bar, while some people linger at the register and others heap the cucumbers high on their sandwiches.

Read on for Bwog’s full report!

Read more…

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Fight about cabs no more! (NYT)

Apple continues to take over the electronic world. (NY Daily News)

The Times reviews Thursday’s concert in honor of Helmut Lachenmann.

Coyote Update: violence among canids. (Gothamist)

Several tipsters noted last night that the student resource par excellence known as CULPA was down. But after fretting over how we’d pick the easiest classes next semester, we were relieved to learn that CULPA 3.0 (as its staff calls the new version) is now online. 

What’s new, you ask?  Basically, it’s the same CULPA you know and love, with a much better color scheme, the ability to upload and browse current and past syllabi, a section for favorite quotes from professors, and continued integration with the official Directory of Courses (to make navigation of the site and of classes even easier). While you’re checking out the new site, make sure to upload your old (and current) syllabi, so future students can get a concrete idea of how many tests there are. Do it for the children.

For the sake of your children’s legacy admissions, donate!

CC brother, can you spare a dean?

Gay folks for fighting

Gay folks for loving 

Old-time religion it’s not 

No, you’re not in prison, just a Barnard res hall 

Plus: Spec adds new stuff!  

A big Bwog welcome to C-Spot, “a new erotic review produced by Columbia students,” which we delightedly noticed on stands yesterday.

This campus has been bereft of an honest-to-god sex magazine since the short life of Outlet–which never even ended up in print, and is sadly no longer available online–as has Harvard, whose flash-in-the-pan H-Bomb also ceased publication last year.

This professionally (and tastefully!) photographed enterprise features mostly African-American models (including Onyx demigod and campus character Ehizoje Azeke), as well as a personal essay on Craigslist modeling gigs, a review of strip clubs, and the truth about vibrators. C-Spot’s mysterious appearance follows news that the BDSM club Convirsio Virium is launching its own “academic journal”–all Bwog wants to know is, will this sudden infusion of literotica stimulate our sex-poor existences, or just compensate for them?

Oh what do you know, this Saturday regrettable-costume emporium Ricky’s opened. And just in time for you to buy something special for Halloween. This afternoon, Bwog wandered inside the rabbit hole. Join us, as we try to make sense of this thing.

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New parks! New restaurants! The future of Manhattanville organizing! Bwogger-about-town Lydia DePillis reports (with apologies for the sub-par cell phone photos).

It’s taken 20 years and $20 million, and the Harlem Piers waterfront park still isn’t quite open. But a troupe of students got a surprise sneak peek today, as part of a tour featuring expansion from a north-of-125th-St. perspective.

Those who skidded through the rain to the shore near Fairway got through the chain-link fence with the help of Savona Bailey-McClain, chair of Community Board 9‘s Waterfront Economic Development committee, who fielded questions about what exactly people will be able to do there.

“This is really not a park. It’s a wharf,” she said, explaining the absence of typical park features, like stages and athletic fields. “It will feel like a park, it will look like a park, but it’s not.” Read more…

But that’s being a bit cynical, now isn’t it? Besides, New York Magazine says that Community Food and Juice, which replaced the vacated Nacho’s Kitchen (sorry, freshies), has delicious seven-grain waffles with “locally sourced seasonal ingredients.” Healthy, seasonal, local–just like a waffle should be. (As an aside: We’d love to trust this description–really we would–but Bwog greets references to “last night’s John Jay party” with the utmost skepticism. Does their juice also help you plow through that CC paper that’s due in a couple weeks? Just as plausible, guys).

Bright and vaguely minimalist, Community has an aesthetic that one of our editors accurately described as “downtown-y.” It officially opens Thursday, but Bwog spotted people there earlier tonight. Check it out?

-ARR, photo by Hillary Busis