Go Josh go!

…And now for something sports-related at Columbia that’s just straight-up awesome: Josh Martin, who was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs, sits down with Kansas rep Zachary Hendrickson to talk about being a free agent, a band nerd, and successful in general.

Bwog: First of all, congratulations! What did it feel like, being signed by an NFL team?

Martin: It was pretty crazy, man. Obviously, you put a lot of work in throughout your football career. I started playing in high school, continued here at Columbia, and I’ve seen how that work has accumulated into this one – I wouldn’t say final event – but big step in my football career and toward my life as a professional athlete.

Bwog: So you’re are an undrafted free agent, correct? …What does that mean?

Martin: An undrafted free agent is pretty much what it sounds like. I wasn’t drafted. In the draft they gather the rookies for the upcoming season to compete and try to make the teams. I wasn’t selected in that process. So, basically, the leftover guys become undrafted free agents, and I was lucky enough to get signed by a team.

Bwog: What made you choose the Chiefs?

Martin: When it came down to it, the Chiefs offered the best opportunity. They have a new coaching staff, and they have really talented guys at both Outside Linebacker positions (which is what I think they’ll have me playing as). We’ll see what happens! They showed me a lot of love throughout the whole process, especially leading up to the draft. Ultimately, I just felt more comfortable with the Chiefs.

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Need another finals pick-me-up?  Yesterday we showed you The Morningsiders’ new video for their song “Empress.”  Today, we bring you a video set to the Jeffers Win song “I Can’t Call You (I’m in the Army).”  Columbia band, Columbia crew, and some Columbia landmarks for you to point at and say “OMG I’VE TOTALLY BEEN THERE.”  Get some brightness in your ears and eyes, enjoy below:

Congratulations!

Ben Platt CC ’16 of previous Pitch Perfect popularity has just received what many would consider the greatest honor of all: the chance to portray Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Second National Tour of The Book of Mormon. 

Beginning in Chicago, this will be the third production of the Tony Award-winning hit.  Tickets are already sold out for Ben’s production through March 3rd, 2013—par for the course for this hilarious show.

Our heartiest congratulations to Ben on landing this incredible role.  We wish him well on his journey to Chicago, around the country, but most of all, to Uganda.

There aren’t many weather patterns that Chopin can’t remedy.

Last night at 6 pm, as part of the Music at St. Paul’s series, the Columbia Classical Performers held their first concert of the season hardly a month into the academic year.  Bwog sent its Sonorous Sounds Sleuth Alexandra Svokos to investigate.

In case you don’t recall, it was a blustery, cold night yesterday.  There was that awful misty-rain thing spattering our coats and souls, and the world appeared completely grey.  It may have been horrible weather, but it made for a fantastic atmosphere at the Columbia Classical Performer’s concert.  The show began with Silent Woods by Dvorak performed by Justin Zhao, SEAS ’15, on cello and Charlotte Li, SEAS ’15, on piano.  This slow and soulful piece was performed to perfection by Zhao and Li, the emotion only extended by the starkness of the outside world.  They were well in time with each other and Zhao pulled out his legato notes with great expression.

Next up were two pieces composed by  Solomon Hoffman, CC ’14.  He played them on the piano with Caroline Sonett, also CC ’14, on flute.  The pieces were composed for a local performance near Hoffman’s home and were inspired by the paintings of local artists.  The first was Wait for Me, which was about a woman reaching for a man.  The music told this story with desperate pleading.  Hoffman on piano had a plodding three-tone repetition while Sonett’s flute called out over him.  The second piece was called, again appropriate for the night, House in the Storm.  However, Hoffman explained, it was supposed to express the power and positive qualities of storms.  So, while the music was heavy and strong, it also had an upbeat sound to it.  Sonett played the melodies agilely and they came together for some beautiful swells and crescendos.  Yes, it was a storm, but there was no reason to fear it.

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Earlier today, Bwog learned that the residents and R.A. of Schapiro 3 collaborated on this frankly amazing Oppa Gangnam Style video. We’ve been watching it on repeat ever since.

While we’ve come to realize that Columbians may not be the most athletically inclined people, no one can deny that the Olympics are something that the whole world can come together for (mainly because they’re on TV).  This year, at least 10 former and current Columbia students and coaches will be competing.  Check out who’ll be nimble/quick, and when it will air*, so you can finally have that light-blue themed tailgate and BBQ you’ve always dreamed of. On your couch.

Women’s Fencing: Nzingha Prescod, CC ’15, and Nicole Ross, CC ’12, will be fencing in team and individual foil.
Individual: Saturday, July 28; airing 9-9:30am, 4:30-5pm (finals)
Team: Thursday, August 2

Lightweight Rowing: Nick LaCava, CC ’09, will be rowing in the lightweight men’s four without coxswain (we have no idea either). He’s also a chocolate entrepreneur.
Heats: Saturday, July 28; airing 2:30-3pm
Finals: Sunday, July 29; airing Thursday, August 2, 2:20-3pm

Men’s Fencing: James Williams, CC ’07, and Jeff Spear, CC ’10, will be fencing in team and individual sabre.
Individual Sabre: Sunday, July 29
Team Sabre: Friday, August 3
Sherif Farrag, CC’09, will be fencing foil for Egypt.
Individual Foil: Tuesday, July 31
Team Foil: Sunday, August 5

Field Hockey: Caroline Nichols, Columbia field hockey assistant coach, will be competing as a defender on the field hockey team.
USA v. Germany: Sunday, July 29; airing 4:15-6pm (live)
USA v. Argentina: Tuesday, July 31; airing 2-3:30pm (live) - Update: US won 1-0!
USA v. Australia: Thursday, August 2; airing 5:45-7:15am (live)
USA v. New Zealand: Saturday, August 4; airing 2-3:30pm (live)
USA v. South Africa: Monday, August 6; airing 5:45-7:15am (live)
Semifinal: Wednesday, August 8; airing 2:15-3pm
Bronze-medal Match: Friday, August 10; airing 2-3:30pm

Women’s Marathon: Lisa Stublic, CC ’06, will be running for Croatia.
Marathon: Sunday, August 5; airing 6-9am (live)

Men’s 400 Meters: Erison Hurtault, CC ’07, will be running for Dominica.
Round 1: Saturday, August 4; airing 11:15-11:45am
Semifinals: Sunday, August 5
Finals: Monday, August 6; airing 8pm-midnight

Men’s Modern Pentathlon: Michael Aufrichtig, Columbia head fencing coach, will be coaching the fencing portion of the pentathlon (horseback riding, fencing, swimming, rifle, and running).
Pentathlon: Saturday, August 11

P.S. Columbia Athletics is doing a cute feature on the Olympics.  Enjoy!

Good luck to all, continue to make our community proud!

*all times based on NBC New York

Glorious rings via Wikimedia Commons

James Williams

As you may have heard, the Columbia fencing team is pretty freaking baller.  This summer, four of our own fencers will be going to London to compete in the 2012 Olympics. James Williams, CC ’07, was an alternate in Beijing in 2008, where he was called in to help the US win silver.  He is part of the US team this year. Jeff Spear, CC ’10, will be an alternate. Bwog giddily talked to these two sabre fencers about their journey, America, and James Bond.

Bwog: How long have you been fencing? When did the dream of going to the Olympics start to become a realistic possibility?
James: 17 years!  My junior year (2005) at Columbia, I made it onto the U.S. National team and realized that if I could do that again in 3 years time, I could go to the Olympics.
Jeff: I have been fencing for 11 years.  The best answer to when the dream became a realistic possibility is probably when I decided to ‘go for it’ in 2008.  At the time the goal was still unreachable—I had recently dropped off the national senior rankings—but it really was a conscious decision to try to go that made all the difference in the world.

B: James, how does it feel to be the “first Ivy League male to win an Olympics fencing medal in 60 years and the first to finish as high as second since 1904″?
JW: It feels fine. If you use that many qualifiers, you can be first or second in almost anything!

B: Has being involved in the Olympics made you more patriotic?
JW: Yes! Wow. It made me really proud to be an American.
JS: Yes and no. I am very proud to represent my country, but I think an even more important lesson I have learned is how similar people are all across the world. Every tournament there are 200 of us from 30 countries united by a common dream. I spend weeks at training camps with people from different teams, and we tell stories, share experiences, and talk about life.  The Olympics unites countries but I think, even more importantly, it unites the world.

B: Do people make a lot of obnoxious pirate jokes re: swords? Is that annoying?
JW:  Much more so before I made it to the Beijing Games. I mostly hear fencing related puns now. The humor has been exhausted, but I admit that were it someone else, I would be making the jokes, so I take it in stride.
JS: Mostly people make comments about my name, which I guess is tangentially related to fencing.

Emotional Olympics commercials, I Love You Man, and LitHum analyses after the jump

It seems like just yesterday that Bwog was announcing the launch of the Core Scholars program, in which overachievers like us submit creative works inspired by Core texts to win fame and glory. Well, as some core author might have said, time flies when you’re having fun. Ladies and gentlemen, your winners:

2012 CORE SCHOLARS
Anneke Solomon, Columbia College, Class of 2015 – “Departure-in Four Parts”, essay
Gabriela Pelsinger, Columbia College, Class of 2015 – “Ode to Eve”, spoken word poetry
Marian Guerra, Columbia College, Class of 2014 – “The Ecstasy of Sonya”, painting
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Columbia College, Class of 2012 – “Triptych for Ovid”, triptych

2012 HONORABLE MENTIONS
Lesley Thulin, Columbia College, Class of 2014 – “In Flux”, sculpture
Raphael Peterson, General Studies, Class of 2012 – “Ascent”, original composition

They’ll be honored by Deantini at a reception next week. A few samples after the jump.

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In the latest installment of funny CU ladies making it big, we present to you Kate McKinnon, CC ’06 and alumna of VShow 109 (alongside Jenny Slate). Last night, she made her SNL debut, and as a tipster put it, “In her first show alone, she’s gotten more screen time than Jay Pharoah dreams about. Jokes, but not really.” McKinnon is the show’s first openly lesbian cast member. Last night, she parodied a lisp-y Penelope Cruz and the overbearing Tabitha from Bravo’s Shear Genius—check it out here.

Conrad Tao

It’s not every day that the New York Times titles an article about you: “A Promising Star, Rising Above the Horizon,” or that New York Magazine runs a feature on your life before you turn 18. But then again, Conrad Tao is not just any Columbia College student. For one, he is one of the select few enrolled in the Columbia-Juilliard joint program. For another, he’s already travelled the world as a concert pianist. Alison Herman caught up with him to ask what it’s like.  

Bwog: When and how did you start playing?

CT: So we had this old, slightly worn but serviceable Baldwin upright in our living room – and one day I climbed up on the bench (still not sure how that happened) and plunked “Mary Had A Little Lamb” out on the keyboard. I had been listening to these old cassettes of children’s tunes and began to reconstruct the melody by ear – that was when I discovered that I had perfect pitch. That was how it initially started.

Bwog: What’s a typical week for you?

CT: A typical week for me is pretty atypical. Last fall I found myself running between John Jay, class, and my apartment across the street constantly—I’d return home at around 8, try to get close to three hours of practice, and then head up to JJ10 to do work. Or, more accurately, get JJ’s, put off my reading, and only start really working on my papers at 12 or so. I eat and sleep in between! Sometimes I’m traveling so I have to miss half of the week’s classes, but I was fortunate to be in David Yerkes’ Lit Hum section and he was the best and most understanding professor I could ever ask for. . . It’s hectic and I love it to death. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Doing him proud

Last week, Jacob Andreas became the first Columbia student since 1963—and the second in our school’s history—to be offered the prestigious Churchill Scholarship. The prize allows graduating seniors the opportunity to pursue studies in the fields of science, math, and engineering at the University of Cambridge for one year, where Andreas is looking to obtain a master’s degree in computer science.

Andreas has been involved in the study of natural language processing throughout most of his time at Columbia, and will dedicate the majority of his year at Cambridge to working on a research project rather than taking classes. He credits a lack of awareness about the award for Columbia’s comparatively meager number of Churchill Scholarship winners, and stated that “Nobody else even applied.”

Bwog extends congratulations to Jacob, and wishes him the best of luck at Cambridge as he continues to bring the robot revolution ever closer.

Namesake via Wikimedia

Earlier this month, aspiring Columbia app-makers competed in DevFest. One of the featured teams was Mason Silber, Sidharth Shanker, and Zach Reitano, who created ParkAlly. ParkAlly is now entered in NYC’s BigApps competition, which relies on public voting. They are currently less than 10 votes away from first place, so let’s throw them a little love.

Capital illustration by Trenton Duerksen

Our very own former editrix Eliza Shapiro has a story in Capital New York today about Columbia’s recent troubles, the long standing battle between the College and the University, and the particular existential dread of academia. The article is part of an ongoing reporting project with Bwog-friends Claire Sabel, Mark Hay, Sam Schube, Sarah Ngu and Nico Gurian. Some excerpts from the piece:

In late October, Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco took the podium at Columbia’s Casa Italiana, an imperious building best known for its rumored funding from Benito Mussolini, to tell an audience of donor-alumni and administrators that the school’s leadership was betraying them.

“I believe there is today a real threat to the Core,” said Delbanco, who is best known for his biography of Herman Melville and outspoken criticism of American higher education. “Not sudden abolition as much as slow attrition.”

Delbanco was referring to the most recent outbreak of the longrunning tension between Columbia College, home of the liberal-arts-heavy Core Curriculum that has long defined the institution’s brand of education, and Columbia University, which, under the leadership of President Lee Bollinger, is creating a new campus in West Harlem for science laboratories and its professional schools.

—

Bollinger has had a clearly articulated, and truly grand, vision for Columbia since he arrived, but the current perception largely aligns with what one administrator said: “He is a visionary with bad process.”

If Bollinger’s plan succeeds, Columbia will be a top-tier research institution that will rival Harvard and Stanford, a goal that has been the justification for a costly and protracted battle for a new 17-acre campus in West Harlem. The Manhattanville campus will be a school apart from anything Columbia has ever been, and that’s the whole point: it will be shiny and new and focused on research and professional training.

—

While the actual number of tenured and tenure-track faculty, as opposed to adjuncts and graduate students, teaching Core classes has remained consistent over the last five years, the percentage has dropped off significantly, Mercer said: “We have more students and a lower percentage of faculty teaching them.”

Staffing levels at humanities departments have largely stagnated after a university-wide hiring freeze following the 2008 financial crisis. The faculty see a great deal of money being donated to the school, yet most of it was earmarked for Manhattanville. Valentini plans to initiate a “major fund-raising campaign” to create an endowment for the Core, which is, in his words, “as big a statement as one can make about its importance to the college.”

“The college is healthy, but the university is ill,” Mercer said.

Bwog Tech Extraordinaire, Bijan Samareh, headed over to DevFest to report on all the student innovations that came out of last week’s event. To see who the winners were, check out the Application Development Initiative website.

Behind every iPhone game or restaurant search engine is a team of entrepreneurial programmers who work tirelessly to make functional and appealing software. For those who wish to avoid large companies and work intimately with their colleagues or friends, the “App” niche of start-up culture attracts many bright twenty somethings who not only know a thing or two about computers, but also carry skills in self-finance and design. This new trend in the tech world made its way to Columbia last year with the inception of DevFest— a week long application development program where students can develop an app and showcase it to industry professionals for rankings and prizes. Put together by the ADI (Application Development Initiative), the event is a prime opportunity for students to have their work evaluated. Saturday was the 2nd annual showcase, and almost twenty new apps made it to the stage.

Among the panelists were Fred Wilson— VC and Principal of Union Square Ventures, Dave Jagoda of Andreessen Horowitz, and Tarikh Korula of Uncommon Projects. All seasoned professionals in the field, they offered insight and suggestions into each of the apps presented. Chris Wiggins, Associate Professor of Applied Math at Columbia and Co-founder of HackNY, also judged entries, while Ryan Bubinski (CC ’11), Co-Founder of Codecademy, passed down fresh wisdom as a recent graduate who has found success in the app world.

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While most of you have BS’d your way through your last final by now, we know there’s a small, yet valiant group of Columbians who still have an test or two standing in the way of their post-finals freedom. Though nothing is quite as satisfying as turning in that last exam (or as cathartic as drinking a Heights margarita directly afterward), this video really made us smile. So, to all those still trucking along, remember: you’re almost done! Everything will be okay.

We give you a cover of “Yellow” by Coldplay, courtesy of JJ 15-ers Brendan Chamberlain-Simon and Nathan Chan (of String Theory cello quartet fame):

P.S. No matter how terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad everyone’s finals may be, you’re still allowed to smile. Butler bitches may glare, but eff the haters—it’s okay to giggle every once in a while. Grumpiness is overrated, anyway.