Yesterday afternoon, nearly two hundred Columbia students walked and pedalled downtown to join the Occupy Wall Street protests. Some professors ended class early, and even joined the ranks of protestors. Thank you to skillful photographers Caitlin Watson, Wilfred Chan (both CC ’13) and Peter Sterne (CC’14) for providing these photographs. 

Full images and account below

St. John the Divine to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis, better known as the only day of the year you’ll find llamas, yaks, and snakes integrated into a church service. The animals were present for the Blessing of the Animals, held in honor of the patron saint of all that is creepy, crawly, and furry. Bwog’s Alison Herman and Evelyn Warner were on hand.”>

A most Biblical image

This past Sunday, Morningside Heights residents and their furry companions packed the sanctuary of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis, better known as the only day of the year you’ll find llamas, yaks, and snakes integrated into a church service. The animals were present for the Blessing of the Animals, held in honor of the patron saint of all that is creepy, crawly, and furry. Bwog’s Alison Herman and Evelyn Warner were on hand.

Services began with several hymns, spiced up with “YMCA” style participatory dance moves for the audience. A sermon on water issues that quoted both the Declaration of Human Rights and the Qur’an followed, urging churchgoers to “lift up to God this issue of water privatization.” Although most of the speech was drowned out by barks, squawks, and other unidentifiable animal noises, it was an admirable nod to environmentalism and social justice. (Note: paying attention in church is made especially difficult when there’s a bulldog in a bumblebee costume wandering the aisle.)

Soon enough, it was time for the cathedral doors to open and the Procession of the Animals began. Led by cute little kids and trailed by clergy saddled with the unfortunate task of cleaning up the animals’, er, leavings, creatures big and small paraded up and down the aisles. In addition to congregants’ own pets, animals from Dawn’s Animal Sanctuary and the Green Chimneys Farm and Wildlife Center were invited to take part in the ceremony. Sightings included a tortoise transported by wagon, a monkey wrapped in a blanket, and an extremely reluctant alpaca requiring several helpers to keep it on course.

After the service, attendees were free to wander the St. Francis Day Fair in the cathedral’s parking lot. Notable booths included representatives from Pigeon People—mission: “Teach People to Like Pigeons”—and Anjellicle Cats Rescue, whose unorthodox spelling and adorable kittens made it a crowd favorite.

For those of you who missed out on the festivities, fear not: the Blessing of the Animals will return for the 28th consecutive year next fall.

Pictures of the parade after the break…

The long-awaited fitness room in Carman is complete and opened under the radar and ahead of schedule, and Bwog was on the scene to give a quick tour. The room itself is small, probably no larger than 300 square feet and, for the time being, there seems to be quite a bit of empty space in the back. But, with three cardio machines and a brand new flat screen TV, burning those calories has never been more convenient for resident freshpeople!

Wasn’t it a beautiful night?

Panorama by Robert Colgan

Photo by Hans Hyttinen

Photo by Matt Horwitz

The weather cooperated and spirits were high for today’s improvisational event. Never before have so many poorly dressed kids stumbled around campus blithely unaware of the broader world around them while completely cocooned in the vibrant audio world produced by their ubiquitous white Apple headphones. And that’s an accomplishment considering the quick degradation of all standards during finals season. Nevertheless, everyone involved–participants, spectators, and innocent victims of public mimicry–enjoyed the silent spontaneity.

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The triumphant shouts of eager RA’s echoed around the quad. The sun shined blissfully and the skies were clear. Today was move-in day made in heaven. Irene left hundreds of cancelled flights, blocked roads, and disrupted trips in her wake, so only some freshpeople made it to move-in. The NSOP committee expects the stragglers arrive over the next few days, with a few finally trickling in on Saturday. This made for much less mayhem than we have come to expect from move-in day. Check out some of the highlights:

Happy 257th academic year Columbia!

Thanks to YouTube, you can now watch the whole darn thing! Or at least the highlights. Click for the faculty procession, student procession, and PrezBo’s address.

Photography by Hans Hyttinen

Gallant procrastinators, clashing in epic, fluffy battle, stormed across the Butler median last night. The annual Sundial v. Butler bash had a more dubious commencement than usual because of the unclear Facebook event start time. A handful of freshmen began fighting around 11:30, but then quickly left––their school spirit forever tarnished… Thus, one can conclude, the main event was fueled by the pure ferocity of upperclassman rage. Relive the event via the pictures and video below.

Photos by Victoria Robson and Michael Radtke Jr., video by Ricky Raudales

Bwog’s Zeitgeist Correspondent Jason Donenfeld snapped these pictures of the crowds at Ground Zero last night. Check out his full gallery of pictures and videos.

Update (May 3): In light of the debates going on in the comments, we thought this piece on student reactions across the country might be of interest.

Bacchanal 2011 in picture and video. Stay tuned for tales from the concert!

The grand approach:

See videos of Snoop’s performance

As the flowers by Havermeyer bloom, and we enter our first week of weather with steady highs in the 60s, it’s safe to say, after all the false starts, spring has sprung! Enjoy these wonderful picures by Ravi Bhalla, CC’13.

In case you haven’t noticed, Bwog is kinda a fan of NoCo, a.k.a. the Northwest Corner Building. Check out some photos of our beloved building!

Snow promises great things and while scattered cries for a snowball fight didn’t materialize today, we do have a few pictures of the sights the fresh snowfall brought with it.

Photos by Evelyn Warner.

Stay warm and sweet dreams, all.

Unless you were stuck all day in some windowless room in Pupin—in which case Bwog is sorry—you can’t have missed the torrential winds and elemental forces that struck campus today. It was raining sideways! Or whatever else your grandma says when it rains a lot.

But anyways, it was all worth it since Michael Rady CC ’13 snapped a shot of this beautiful rainbow over Low. Perfect!