Exclusive Web-Only: An Excerpt from Robyn Schneider’s Better Than Yesterday
From p. 152-154 of the novel… Skylar, Charley, and Marissa have just come to New York to try and find their friend
Blake, who ran away from summer session at their boarding school. This portion is told through Charley’s perspective. This excerpt is reprinted with permission.
When we got off the subway and made it back onto the street, I stared at Columbia in awe. From the street, we could just see the
backs of buildings, immense pillars, and green roogs obscured behind high iron gates. We walked along the block. (It was…
Letter From the Editor—020807
Those of you who have read my Letter From the Editor for the last three weeks (admirers, detractors, my father) will have noticed a pattern. I begin my template letter with an event—preferably concerning the media, preferably polemical, insightful even—tease the anecdote into a grandiloquent pronouncement, and then weave three or four of the week’s stories through it.
Some of you may already be appalled that I am using my own articles as an example of a media event.
Others will recognize that this meta-analysis could be applied to almost every other article in this…
Holy Calamity
The Scandal and the Souffle at St. A's
The walls are painted an apt wine; the carpet, a tattered oriental. Abused status symbols—grandfather clock, grand piano, appointments of worn mahogany—complete the impression. This is the smoking room at Saint A’s, a rare vestige of Ivy League glamour where Columbia’s top-shelf set may be glimpsed through latticed balcony windows, indulging in postprandial cigarettes. Upstairs, the ballroom lies fallow until the next party or movie night. Further up is Tony’s room, the attic, and former squash courts. The house was grand once, but over a century of collegiate caresses have left the place looking decidedly shabby, more Miss Havisham…
Wild $ex at Poi$on Ivy
Anarcho-fa$ci$t$ $tudy porn and $ubterfuge
Maybe they should call it the hard-core curriculum.
The latest discovery in Fox News’ ongoing investigation of the out-of-control anarcho-fascist liberal-jihadists that populate Columbia University’s New York City campus is the pornography and left-wing propaganda forced down the throats of any Columbia College student with the audacity to demand a degree.
In a course called “Masterpieces of Western Literature,” entering students are forced to read about anal sex in a book by Giovanni Boccaccio called The Decameron, lesbian political domination in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, and even bestiality in The Golden Ass, by Apuleius.
In…
(S)exchange Of Power
Columbia's BDSM group "Conversio Virium" opens up for Valentine's Day
It’s the same procedure every year. Valentine’s Day is coming up, and lovers all over the world are getting ready to profess and celebrate their attraction. With posters advertising the sale of flowers in Lerner, Feb. 14 promises to be another annual commemoration of red roses and romantic cards. But can’t we do better than that?
Author and political commentator Ann Coulter might be getting a very interesting Valentine this year.
“We’re thinking about sending her a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ card,” says Tyler, BC ’08, and Vice President of Columbia University’s now-notorious BDSM club, Conversio…
Letter from Baghdad - Dispatch # 4
Last time, Josh wrote about a lopsided gunfight that pitted dozens of American infantrymen against one AK-47-wielding Iraqi. Josh was especially proud that his men had shown restraint and had refrained from shooting civilians. The story continues…
Dec. 19, 2006
That night, the platoon and I felt pretty good about ourselves and our disciplined actions as we returned to the battalion headquarters, briefed the commander and intelligence officer, and then returned to our staging area to continue our role as a Quick Reaction Force. That was still our mood the next morning when we were…
Just Don’t Call It Kid-Core
What were you doing your sophomore year in high school? Whatever it was, Julian Bennett-Holmes has got you beat. He’s the cofounder of Beautiful Records, which puts out rising stars (and sixth graders) Care Bears on Fire. Bennett-Holmes, along with partner Lucian Buscemi, records seven other underage artists, as well as two bands Julian is in himself. He caught up with The Eye to talk about his label, growing up in Park Slope, and why he won’t record bands with over-involved parents. —Sara Davis
Do you actively seek press? Clearly, you’ve got a commitment to school. Is…
Better Than Chick Lit
Robyn Schneider takes on the publishing world
“Being a writer is a lot like being a physician—you’re obsessive,” Barnard student and published author Robyn Schneider says as she methodically rips off another piece of her cheeseburger.
Fellow writers and pre-med students probably know what Robyn means. What they may not know, though, is that she isn’t just another stressed-out undergraduate venting about her course load—Robyn’s first novel, Better Than Yesterday, was released Jan. 9 and she has two more books coming out this June and early next year.
“I started writing Better Than Yesterday as a senior in high school,” Robyn says…
An Inorganic Truth
Official Standards Frequently Fail to Meet Consumers' Expectations
When you see the word “organic,” what comes to mind? For many, the word conjures images of rolling green pastures on small family farms, chickens brightly clucking as they roam free-range, and orchards brimming with fresh, crisp apples. People buy organic foods, believing them to be healthier for both the earth and the consumer.
But after last year’s publication of Michael Pollan’s best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which painted a picture of organic corporations that increasingly resemble the industrial food chain in scope and in environmental effect, and the recent E. coli outbreak stemming from bagged organic spinach,…
Fashion Week A-Z
A Fashion week opens and closes with André and Anna, Vogue’s power team. The duo is known for their anticipated entrances, quick exits, and for always having the best seats in the house.
B Designer Marc Bouwer showed a stunning collection of faux fur coats that look like the real thing—without the emotional baggage.
C Celebrity sightings are one of the reasons many trek through numerous shows each fashion week. Rumor has it Baby Phat held up for an hour to wait for Britney Spears (who was…
The Rebirth of a Troubadour
How Vashti Bunyan survived a 30-year musical hiatus
If the only way to get to Carnegie Hall is through practice, Vashti Bunyan has beaten the odds. “Carnegie Hall is just beyond my wildest dreams… There was no way I could have ever thought that, in a year, I would see myself on that stage” she said. “I suppose you could just take 30 years off and then wake up one morning to an e-mail from [Talking Heads star] David Byrne in your inbox.”
When Just Another Diamond Day was released in 1969 to virtually no commercial response, Vashti Bunyan gave up writing and moved to…
The Importance of Being Earnest
Girl Talk and the rediscovery of pop music
Laptops cannot experience loneliness, but if ever they could, Girl Talk’s Dell notebook, onstage before his performance at the Mercury Lounge, was as lonely as they come. Perched on a small table on an otherwise empty stage, it’s a small wonder that a concert—and one as complex as Girl Talk’s—was about to emerge from it. But as the opening Ciara sample filled the room, and Girl Talk (nee Greg Gillis) pushed his way to the stage in a three-piece suit and orange sunglasses, the crowd was hardly prepared for the 90-minute performance accompanied by the shedding of layer after…
Anything But Country
Dock Oscar brings a little bit of small town to the big city
Kings County is the most populated county in New York State and home to the Kings County Opry, a monthly celebration of bluegrass and country music. As the county—better known as Brooklyn—and its burgeoning country music scene blossoms, it’s becoming home to hipsters and Hank Williams fans alike. You’re likely to see some of both at the third annual Brooklyn Winter Hoedown, Feb. 15-18.
The festival, hosted by Brooklyn Country Music, is as straightforward as its name. Founded by two musicians, Alex Battles and Oscar Stern—though he prefers the country moniker Dock Oscar—Brooklyn Country Music grew out…
Front of the Queue, Fashion Week Photographer
Steven Kelly, professional photographer
As a photographer at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Steven Kelly will be spending the next seven days fighting for camera space, not bathing, and subsisting on free coffee samples for the sake of fashion. But after that, he has some definite cinematic plans. Here are the next five he’s planning to see:
Pan’s Labyrinth: “I just saw it last week, but I really want to see it again to figure it out.”
Day for Night: “I studied film in college, so I’ve been meaning to watch this one.”
The 400 Blows: “I’m…
DVD Double Feature
Mommie Dearest meets Running With Scissors
Who needs Frankenstein when you have mothers? In two of the best screen-monster performances from the past 25 years, Annette Bening and Faye Dunaway take bad parenting to new heights in Running with Scissors, out on DVD this week, and the classic Mommie Dearest, respectively. Many may already be familiar with Dunaway’s infamous portrayal of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, with her over-the-top delivery of such classic lines as, “Christina, bring me the axe,” and, of course, “No. Wire. Hangers. EVER!” Yet, Bening matches Dunaway’s commitment to scenery-chewing and scene-stealing by crying, screaming, and, yes, even dancing her way to…