Author Archive
Ezra of Vampire Weekend says he’d use Columbia degree to read at library
Today, the guys of Vampire Weekend, the loveliest of Columbia alums, did a Reddit AMA. They answered questions from Reddit users on everything from where they buy their salmon-colored shorts to some of their songs’ origins.
Ezra Koenig, lead singer and guitarist in Vampire Weekend, commented on his time at Columbia in response to a question about how their parents felt about them going into music after time at an Ivy League school.
Pick your favorites at last
A few weeks ago we asked you to tell us about all of your favorite spots in Morningside Heights, from bars, to where to hook up, to even the best bathroom. You chimed in with some things we expected– a battle between 1020, Mel’s, and The Abbey for best bar (no Heights?) and some things we didn’t expect– like a movie theater being one of the best places to spot a celebrity.
Now that the nominations are in, it’s time to vote. Pick your Best of Morningside now!
WKCR compiles offensive tweets from Columbia football players
In response to football player Chad Washington being charged with a hate crime, WKCR compiled a gallery of 46 tweets from Columbia football players that include disparaging remarks about various sexualities, races, and religions. WKCR distributed the gallery via its Twitter account, where it also notes that some of the players have been deleting their Twitter accounts today.
The gallery includes this tweet from Washington:
Again, you can view the full gallery here.
Tell us what you think is the Best of Morningside
HamDel or Milano? 1020 or Mel’s? Butler or Avery? You tell us what your favorite of all things Columbia are, and we’ll enter you in a contest to win a Spectator sweatshirt.
Plus, you’ll get to have your say in the winners of Spectator’s Best of Morningside 2013 awards poll. So nominate your favorites—voting to determine the Best of Morningside will begin next week!
Course evaluations, we’re breaking up.
Dear Mr./Ms./Robot evaluation-seas,
There’s someone else.
You want to know what we did?
Fine, last night, I filled out his survey.
I couldn’t help it, okay! He gives me the attention I need. He told me I can truly make a difference.
You want to know who it is??
It’s Thomas Mathewson, I don’t think you know him.
He sends me kind emails and ends his sentences with exclamation points. He cares about my Quality of Life.
You on the other hand are a crazy stalker. I wake up to dozens of emails from you, haranguing me to do one thing after the next, without even a hello or a how are you.
Sure, he doesn’t address me by name but when he calls me his “fellow student” it’s like hearing a love song. You know how you can just feel that Taylor Swift knew you were trouble when she locked eyes with you after crashing your fam’s wedding and dating your cousin until she traded up? I just can feel that Thomas wants to know about MY time at Columbia.
Besides, Thomas gives me [chances to win] iPads and Amazon gift-cards. You just give me ultimatums and threaten to withhold grades if I don’t do what you say.
#CUSpectrum Instagram contest has begun!
Take a sweet photo of the Steps that looks a little bit different than the thousand that have been posted earlier that day? Find something funny late at night in Butler (no photos of people in the stacks please)? Capture an artsy angle of your drink at 1020 this weekend that probes into gender issues and class politics? When you upload it to Instagram, put #CUSpectrum in the caption and you’ll be entered into our contest.
Your photo will be posted to our Facebook page and if you get in the top five number of likes, we’ll feature your photo in a post on Spectrum, along with a quick interview with you. Get the most likes and your photo will be our cover photo until we find a cat photo that is funnier.
You’ve got until next Friday, May 3, to submit—so get hashtagging!
Computer science: Is it raining men?
After reading “Code Red” in The Eye today, which presented viewpoints of women in tech that I encounter amidst many of my peers, I wanted to present a slightly different perspective that I feel is too often left out of the conversation.
Hi, my name is Sara Garner and I’m SEAS ’15 and a computer science major.
For those of you about to say, “Hi Sara” because you think I must be a part of some kind of “Majors Anonymous” program for being in computer science, I ask you to read on.
After telling someone my major, I’m often asked, “What is it like to be in a major so dominated by men?” and always respond, “To be honest, I don’t even notice.” In fact, until I was asked this question last year, I hadn’t noticed all of the boys in my classes or even thought about how many of them there were. All I cared about was doing well, and that meant competing with all of the other 100-200 girls and boys in my classes.
I only see the need to prove myself to well, myself. At the end of the day, when I haven’t performed, I have to face myself and know that it’s not the professor, the breakfast I had that morning, or the other students’ faults that I did poorly—it’s mine.
Sure, I’m probably subconsciously constantly proving myself to someone, be it the teacher in the first and last computer science class I took in high school who put my code up on the board when I asked for help and suggested everyone look at it so they could see what not to do, or the boys in my classes, or even the other girls. But the only person I care about is myself.
Katie Furr is Fountain Girl: ‘Delivering splashes to the masses’
If you were at Bacchanal on Saturday (and still remember it), you probably saw Katie Furr, CC ’14, splashing around in the fountain during Macklemore’s set. I talked to her in an email interview about how this came about, her thoughts on YOLO, and her plans for Bacchanal next year.
Sara Garner: Give me a little description of what exactly happened.
Katie Furr: So, if you look at some of the pictures you can see that I pulled a gate into the bottom part of the fountain and used that to climb up into the top. Once I was there, I stomped around in the water for a bit until it occurred to me that I could project my splashes onto the crowd around me and that seemed like an even better idea. So, I did that pretty casually for some time.
Courtesy of Katie Furr
As I was up there I watched at least 3 public safety guys descend upon me. I’m not exactly sure by what powers I was able to do this (maybe it was because my splashes were creating a radius of which to steer clear), but somehow I managed to congenially halt their approach and they stood waiting for me to finish my display of about 5 minutes.
Courtesy of Katie Furr
SG: Were there any run ins with Public Safety afterwards?
Columbia Sports Media Conference this Saturday
If you’re a sports fanatic, really into journalism, or both, this event is for you.
Sponsored by the Spectator, WKCR, the fencing club, and women’s ultimate frisbee, the event will be an awesome opportunity to hear from sports journalists and get all of your questions about sports journalism, or just the latest triple play answered by the experts!
The event, the second in the Columbia Media Series, will take place on Saturday, April 20th at 2:00 pm at the Kraft Center and will consist of two panels of sports journalists, including Megan Greenwell, the senior editor of ESPN The Magazine and a former Speccie, T.J. Quinn, reporter for ESPN’s investigative/enterprise unit and adjunct faculty at the Columbia Journalism School, and David Roth, editor of The Classical, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and columnist for VICE.com.
Tickets will cost $5 and can be paid for with cash or card at the door.
What to wear: Bacchanal
Bacchus, the god of drinking, partying, and having fun, will manifest himself in front of Mrs. Alma Mater starting at 11 o’clock! So to rock out a special, more unique look at this festival, make sure you check out these suggestions to live up to the Bacchanal standards of crazy and fun.
Lazy Outfit
All you have to do is stand in the middle of the EC plaza between 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., and poof, come smothered in colored powder! It’s a whole brand-new tie-dye outfit, with zero effort!
I-didn’t-get-to-go-to-Ultra outfit
Basically, smoke a lot of weed (we know you’ll do it anyways) and pick the most neon clothes you have! Matching doesn’t matter. Be creative! Everything looks good when you’re high.
Thrift Shop outfit
Just use anything that, added together, has a total value of less than the 20 dollars in yo’ pocket. Don’t forget your big-ass coat.
I-want-to-get-to-know-you-better outfit (#IfyouknowwhatImean)
Anything with holes in strategic places, stockings, neon bra under white shirt. Urban Outfitters tube tops also work. Show off that bikini top under the sun that was supposed to be here.