Hints From Virginia
Dear Virginia,
What’s the best way to remove ketchup stains from my husband’s dress shirts?
—Dirty in Detroit
Dear Dirty,
These are the eternal problems facing us each morning with a swell like the redundant waves, eroding and depositing, and we must watch and only watch as they retreat to charge again. I use cool water, mild bleach, and a laundry stain remover.
Dear Virginia,
My husband has been complaining that my mother’s roast recipe is bland. I want to spice it up without completely…
Power Forward
In a move that has sparked controversy, drastically increased game attendance, and warmed the heart of a nation, Columbia has replaced its varsity basketball team with adorable baby seals. When asked to explain the motivation behind the decision, Athletic Director M. Dianne Murphy said “Awwwwwwwww.”
The decision has surprised many, including former head coach Joe Jones, who has been replaced by Steve Meyers. Meyers’ background in animal training consists of a brief stint as a SeaWorld employee, where he held those rings that seals jump through. He also used to play basketball at recess.
Despite…
Letter From the Editor 020107
In hindsight, the election of 2004 was hardly about red state or blue state. It wasn’t about being tough on national security, or faulty exit polling. It was about speaking plainly; it was about arguing reductively. John Kerry’s sailboat-ready haircut was rejected for a stale crow’s nest. Then this week’s top personality was Judith Regan, the infamous O.J. Simpson publisher, who on top of everything was accused of replacing mezuzahs with dollar bills. Vulgarity is afoot.
As for the midterm elections, forget the repudiation of violence, the end of corporate scandal, or the hypocritical sexual discrimination: Nancy…
Judging Leslie Crocker Snyder
One Thursday morning, I got off the subway in midtown and faced a sky-high office building, where I was interviewing Leslie Crocker Snyder,
a lawyer and a judge who challenged Robert Morgenthau in the Manhattan District Attorney election of 2005. Tight security and marble elevators reminded me that I was going to see one of the most versatile and accomplished lawyers in the city, but Snyder turned out to be a very down-to-earth woman with a great sense of humor. I talked to her about breaking ground for women in criminal law, facing death threats, and dealing…
Model Students
Two Columbia students take on the runway
Scantily clad in white briefs and covered in white powder, two male models prance about the exhibition space of the Whitney Museum, greeting guests under the cover of a fog machine. Cast for Terence Koh’s first solo gallery presentation in the United States, Ryan Reineck, CC ’09, and Buck Ellison, CC ’10, witnessed the debauchery firsthand.
“Two people grabbed my ass,” Ellison says. “One was a girl—the other, of unidentifiable gender.”
“The funny thing was, we weren’t allowed to talk to people,” Reineck adds, laughing, “which was especially hard when this one guy started approaching…
An Eye on Nan Kempner
Diane Vreeland, legendary Vogue editor, once remarked, “There are no chic women in America. The one exception is Nan Kempner.” Socialite, jet-setter, and frequent fashion contributor Nan Kempner not only wore couture—she cultivated it as an art form, if not for an unrivaled sense of style, then for the fact that she had acquired the largest collection of privately owned couture dresses. The new exhibit, “Nan Kempner: American Chic,” at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan, displays pieces from her ready-to-wear and couture collection in what is a veritable array of colors, fabrics, and sweeping ball gowns.
…
Opening Up
After a century of terror in the East River, a New York delicacy makes a comeback
New York used to be an oyster town. For centuries, the banks of New York’s rivers were thickly populated with great swaths of oyster beds—until 1927, when the city closed the last one in an exaggerated effort to staunch the spread of typhoid. Cheap and plentiful, the simple, fresh-out-of-the-water oyster was as much a part of quotidian life in New York as the bagel and cream cheese of today. The oyster had yet to be restricted to the province of the wealthy—many of Manhattan’s all-night markets sold oyster stews, and oyster bars were more frequented by dockworkers and fishermen…
Corporate Bohemians
In 1981, a radio interviewer asked Andy Warhol if the artist would like to see his paintings on as many walls as possible. Warhol replied, “Uh, no, I like them in closets.”
A self-proclaimed lover of celebrity (and sarcasm), Warhol rarely shied away from trumpeting his own success. His achievement as an artist was contingent upon his ubiquity in American culture, a quality steeped in the culture of the modern businessman. His mass-reproduced silkscreens of subjects like Campbell’s Soup cans dared other artists, too, to break the boundaries between product and process. In other words: art for…
Letter from Baghdad - Dispatch # 3
Dec. 19, 2006
Life here has for the most part been fairly uneventful and routine since last I wrote, believe it or not. To say that, though, leaves out two particularly notable events, and it would be a disservice if I didn’t mention them.
It was just about two weeks ago to the day that my platoon was waiting as a Quick Reaction Force to respond to events out in our area. The QRF, or Quick Reaction Force, is a unit of soldiers that sits at the base on standby in case another unit comes…
Potluck on 114th St.
Columbia's special interest house offers an alternative to Frat Row
For fun potluck recipes, scroll to the bottom of the article!
Lively discussion and healthy food help the atmosphere of 604 W. 114th every Friday evening when a unique group of motivated students come together for a potluck dinner.
The Symposium House hosts this widely attended dinner for Columbia’s artsy types: resident and Spectator staff writer Mark Holden, CC ’09, guarantees that while the weather is still freezing, the Potluck House—as it is affectionately called—is the “warmest place on campus.”
Founding member Hannah Temple, CC ’07, adds that Columbia can often feel…
Beating the Winter Blues
The busy lifestyle of a New Yorker may make it difficult to overcome seasonal depression
It was the winter of Susan’s first year in college and something just didn’t feel right. She was sleeping all the time, missing classes, and ignoring her friends. What was going on? What happened to all of the excitement she felt from meeting her Carman suitemates at the beginning of the semester? Susan, CC ’09, whose name has been changed by request, was concerned.
“I remember ... coming in August so pumped and willing to take on Columbia,” she says. “But by the time November, hit I remember it hurting my back to get out of bed,…
Champions of the Avant-Garde
George Steel and Miller Theatre Breathe New Life Into New Music
For better or worse, New York is about discovering hidden treasures-—the quietest cafe, that next big band. And Columbia is no different. Whether it be roof hopping or tunnel diving, there persists that desire to experience something unique, if only to share it as your extended circle of closest cool-hunting friends. Unfortunately, this tendency to dig into Columbia’s nether-regions leads students to ignore some of the most prominent resources the university has to offer.
Proceeding north on Broadway, past the Columbia Bookstore, lies what many have come to consider a haven for New York City’s new music…
The Wood Brothers
Restoring Musical Genuiness, One Song at a Time
It’s a tale of two cities, literally.
Brothers Chris and Oliver Wood grew up side-by-side in Colorado, yet when it came time to tie up the oxen, head down the Oregon Trail, and begin a life of their own, their paths began to look like a bad split-end. Oliver’s voyage ended in Georgia, while Chris settled in New York City.
After years of playing in their own respective bands—Oliver played with King Johnson and Chris with Medeski Martin and Wood—and soaking up the flavors of each musically rich region, what started as a jam session…
An Everywhere Indie Band
Get Stockholm Syndrome With Peter Bjorn and John
These are strange times for Peter Bjorn and John. Just one year ago, Peter Morén, Bjorn Yttling and John Eriksson, the three Swedish musicians who comprise the conveniently named rock band, had released two albums no one had heard and had played only a handful of shows in their homeland.
Today, things are different. On Monday, Peter Bjorn and John played their first-ever show in America to a sold out crowd at the Mercury Lounge, which they followed with another sold out show at the Bowery on Tuesday. How did a band on a tiny European label…
Front of the Queue
Annette Insdorf
The cinematic expertise of Professor Annette Insdorf has bedazzled Columbia’s Film Department for many years, and this week, the Director of Undergraduate Film Studies shares her most recent thoughts.
In Deepa Mehta’s superb Water, set in 1938 India, an eight-year-old girl whose husband dies is sent to a home where Hindu widows live in penitence.
Perfume is a sumptuous adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s novel, often reminiscent of The Tin Drum. Director Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) evocatively recreates an ancient and odoriferous Paris.
Dreamgirls, smartly directed by Bill Condon,…