The flash mob to take back Low is happening at 1pm! Apparently this is what you have to do:

“1) DOWNLOAD our free podcast by visiting http://tiny.cc/listentolow and following the link to the iTunes store.

2) INVITE at least 10 of your friends who you think would also enjoy taking part in this unique event.

3) ARRIVE at our secret meeting place in front of Butler Library at 1:00pm on Thursday April 8th with the following – ipod/mp3 player with the podcast ready to play – headphones – a book of your choosing in hand

4) AWAIT a sign for when to press play and help reclaim Low Library!”

Photo via Wikimedia

Happy listening!

If you haven’t heard of wait what yet, your playlist is due for an update. Wait what, (aka Columbia alum Charlie Kubal, CC ’08) released his first album last Thursday called The Notorious xx (click for free download), a mash up of Biggie and The xx. It’s caught on: NYMag, Prefix Mag, and the general worldwidewebz have given the mashup their kudos. Charlie, who currently lives in San Fransisco, started out DJing in high school and was once in a band called Jubala. He’s played sets at bars and house parties, but recently has been more into creating new tracks. Here’s what has to say about his music and his time at Columbia.

Columbia’s influence

Columbia played a pretty substantial role for me — I did shows on WBAR for a couple semesters, recorded tracks in my room in McBain, and got to take classes from two of the most awesome music professors you could imagine: Brad Garton and Terry Pender at the Computer Music Center on 125th. ADP and Postcrypt were both really cool venues to check out new music, too.

The Columbia music scene was definitely getting better during my time — there were some awesome artists there: Vampire Weekend obviously leading the pack, but also Supraliminal, The Stolen Cars, Live+Direct, Kane, Reni Laine, Anton Glamb, Farm to Market — lots of people doing really cool stuff.

One thing that’s tough about Columbia is the tendency, that I found, for Columbia kids’ baseline attitude to be to dislike something — there’s a unique brand of hate that Columbia kids tend to have for new things, as if an implicitly negative attitude makes your opinion more compelling. I was guilty of this too, and when the Varsity Show touched on it (my Senior year, so ‘08), and it really resonated.

Read more…

Bwog’s Late Night Dining/Procrastinating Correspondent Carolyn Ruvkun asked the staff of JJ’s Place to compile “celebrity playlists.”  As follows is what they returned with great excitement; Bwog proudly presents you with enough conversation starters to last you through the semester. Procrastinate on, friends.

Willie

• Clear Touch, “Freestyle”
• Noel, “Silent Morning”
• Michael Jackson, “Beat it”
• Cynthia, “Endless Nights”
• Lil Wayne, “Got Money”
• Beyonce, “If I Were a Boy”
• Jay-Z,  ”Jockin”
• Judy Torres, “No Reason to Cry”
• Lil Wayne, “Mrs. Officer”
• Coro, “Where are you tonight?”
• Giggles, “Love Letter”

Read more…

Barnard College Radio WBAR has posted the lineup for their annual outdoor BBQ and concert! On Sunday April 25^th_­­ from noon to 10pm on the Lehman Lawn, you can look forward to hearing:

Cold Cave

Blues Control

Liturgy

Burning Star Core

Jana Hunter

Twin Stumps

U.S. Girls

Thing About Life (They’re playing early, so get there early)

Prince Rama of Ayodhya

Old Men

There will be free food too (and they promise not to run out)!

Bwog’s Dane Cook ventured into Riverside Theater to attend last night’s performance of Black Snow.

The intrigue of Black Snow took hold even before the play began. As the audience filed past to take their seats, a young woman cautioned everyone entering the theater, “Don’t forget your package. It’s here waiting for you.” Standing beside a messy table strewn with documents, she gestured toward several metal pails, each filled with small brown envelopes that read, “Keep in your pocket. Keep closed. You’ll know when to open…”

This unexpected introduction sets the tone for the rest of the production, which follows Sergei, an aspiring writer in Soviet Russia, on a dark journey into a confounding world both comically cruel and utterly unusual. Disappointed by unfavorable reactions to his first novel, Sergei pursues the opportunity to become a playwright and sets out to engage the Russian theater scene. While struggling to make ends meet, he confronts marvelously zany characters and scenarios of dreamlike absurdity. And although he battles desperately to hang on, ultimately his fate spirals out of control.

Read more…

The world’s best known former Ruggles inhabitants, Vampire Weekend, released their new album Contra yesterday. The album has received positive reviews so far, including  a shockingly high 8.6 from notoriously picky Pitchfork Media.  The band was recently interviewed for a Wall Street Journal music blog, Speakeasy. The band talked about books and wore cardigans.

VW also discussed their temporary move to California, and about Columbia’s reputation. Said frontman Ezra Koenig: “I feel like Columbia is a very different place than Princeton or Harvard, but to a lot of people writing about our band it might as well be George W. Bush at Yale in the ’60s. So it doesn’t always pay to be nuanced.”

Koenig even held forth on on Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: “I felt like the central theme was identity.” Uh huh…maybe he took Interpretation of Culture, too!

1980’s New Wave correspondent Jeff Illouian reports–that as we type these very words–Sting is rehearsing with a full live orchestra in St. John the Divine. You don’t have to pay, you just have to swoon!

Thought you had a bad weekend? Not as bad as this cabbie who drove all the way to Long Island, only to be pepper sprayed by his passenger instead of paid. (NYP)

Strangeness occurred downtown as street-level billboards were painted over by artists in an attempt to question their legality, only to be repainted with ads hours later. (NYT)

Start saving up those bottled waters, because starting this Saturday, you can get a nickel back for each bottle you return to a store or redemption center. (Gothamist)

Only in Manhattan is it reasonable to ask the question of which is more precious: a place to park, or a place to live? (Spec)

And finally, not only are Columbia students great at poking fun at pop culture in tune, turns out they’re not too bad at laying down beats about journalistic ethics. (Gawker)

And now for something that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day: three Columbia seniors pay a musical tribute to the Balloon Boy saga:

It may not be the best in autotuning or dancing, but dammit, the chorus is catchy enough to be third on NYMag’s Top Five Balloon Boy Tribute Songs. 

Horchata is really good, apparently. Or so you might think after listening to the newest single from Columbia alums Vampire Weekend, off their second album Contra. Word on the street is that the album (dropping in January 2010) is the heavy favorite for “most formulaic Stuff White People Like Post of the Year.”

Bwog has only ever imbibed Horchata-flavored mixers, but if the taste of Horchata doesn’t remind you of when the weather was nice, the song also contains plenty of references to beaches, sandals, and palm trees to aid you in your quest for summer nostalgia.

Listen below (track via Vampire Weekend’s website)