A band of revelers led by a wildly gesticulating Santa Claus made waves across Columbia this afternoon, prompting several tipsters to ask "wtf?". The possibly drunk, underweight Saint Nicholas and his six disciples marched across campus twice today, interrupting classes, being mistaken for CUMB, and playing, among other things, a rousing rendition of It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing). We may never be intended to understand their full purpose, but we do know that they are part of the Bread & Puppet theater group, based in Vermont and currently on tour in New York for three weeks. They just started their second week of performances, all of which are at 8:00 pm at the Theater for the New City downtown.

- DHI, photo by ZVS

You. Shakin' your thang. Three minutes. Butler group study room #407.

Party time: 12:02 AM TONIGHT

Do it.

Word on the street is that there will be a massive pillow fight midnight at the Sundial, BYOP.

Bwog thinks it might be a good way to wind down after a stressful weekend of procrastination.

UPDATE 12:39 am

Students crept out of nooks in Butler for a few minutes of late-night frenzied glee on the South Lawn, all organized by Nina Bell, an ENGLISH chick who sat crosslegged on the sundial watching the commotion. She called out to the 40 or so fighters that showed up, "Don't steal pillows that aren't yours!"

Bwog Correspondent Mark Holden reports:

The Big Kiss II went down last Saturday, this time at the Whitney Museum. Apparently, an art professor thought it would be hilarious if a bunch of college kids started smooching in the middle of his exhibition. Which is exactly what happened.

This Big Kiss didn't achieve the Low Steps version's turnout, attracting only 20 participants. But these were the real deal: no second rate saliva-swapping this time around. As before, a whistle signaled the beginning and end of the Kiss. A sizable crowd of bystanders accumulated as the Kiss progressed, reacting with everything from disgust to benign amusement to fascinated excitement. One kid got really worked up, taking oodles of photos with his camera phone and exclaiming that "his friends would never believe it!" He also seemed rather titillated by the girl-on-girl action.

One older (i.e. late 30s) couple was standing on the bridge when the
kissers skipped up and set to work. Their faces betrayed their amusement, however, and the two even hazarded a few pecks themselves. When the whistle sounded to end the kissing, the couples skipped off the bridge to amusement and scattered applause from the onlookers.

Apparently a group of kids in the group study room on the fourth floor of Butler have been doing handstands against the wall for the past twenty-five minutes.

Which is probably in the sixtieth or so percentile in terms of weird shit that's gone down in those rooms.

Remember coming to Columbia and thinking that you would do fun, exciting things in the city? Right, we don't either. But tonight, there is an opportunity to redeem yourself:

What: A party in the subway!
When: 1 AM tonight (Thursday night/Friday morning)
Where: Downtown Q Platform, 34th Street/Herald Square Station
Theme: EXTREME LOVE (Dress accordingly)

Few things crack Bwog's aloof, cynical shell. This is one of them.

Bwog correspondent Brendan Ballou reports:

I think I just saw him in Morningside Park, wearing a black sweater and black sunglasses. It would make sense, since he's probably starting his book tour, and I remember some scenes from The Professor of Desire take place in Morningside. Besides, if it isn't him, someone can make an EXTREMELY pretentious reference to Operation Shylock about how there is an imitator trying to steal his identity.

Wow, I realize this email itself is pretty pretentious. Sorry.

Apology accepted, Brendan. As long as you don't masturbate into chopped liver.

Anna Corke reports on today's Low Steps face sucking.



Despite rainy weather, about 30-40 people showed up for The Big Kiss. The event was well-documented: two participants brought personal cameras, 3 campus news groups showed up (CTV, Bwog, Spec). One boy told me that he was planning to "make out with his camera."

First the group gathered around the statue of Pan on the lawn in front of Lewisohn. Conversation ranged from hangovers to class schedules to Shakespeare, with the periodic exclamation: "Does anyone not have a partner!?" Matches were made. Five or six people partook in the complementary honeydew melon slices supplied by the organizers for those without partners. One boy admitted that he "came for the melon." Others frantically searched their purses for mints.

Jim Williams reports:

A recent event in Noha Radwan's Contemporary Islamic Civilization lecture causes this Blue and White correspondent to wonder whether certain students are making a feeble attempt to revive Prangstgrüp or whether said students are merely assholes. About 20 minutes into class, a college-aged male who may or may not attend Columbia University entered the lecture, interrupted the professor and announced to the class that he had a pizza to deliver. The following dialogue ensued:

Radwan: Nobody here ordered a pizza.

Pizza Guy: 501 Schermerhorn?

Radwan: It's not ours.

Pizza Guy: It says here it's for Contemporary Islamic Civilizations.

Radwan: No.

Pizza Guy: Rachel T.? Is there a Rachel T. here? I have your pizza.

Once upon a time, Columbians dared to dream. Musicals in Butler Library. Silent dance parties on South Field. Pornography clubs at Acivities Day. Those dreamers constituted Prangstgrüp.

And it pains Bwog to learn that few Columbians today are aware of the sauciest avant garde prankster group to ever mock Columbia. True, most of Prangstgrüp's members graduated in 2003, but still---do we have no institutional memory of really important shit? Thank goodness they've kept www.prangstgrup.com up and running---with videos of their clever campus antics. Stop studying for midterms. Now. Watch these videos. Now. And if you want the back story, check out this ancient article by a Bwogger before he was a Bwogger.

In the words of one of Prangstgrüp's founders, "It was like, art, dude."

At about 12:45, all 70+ students lunching in a packed Cafe 212 were treated to a soaring gospel rendition over the loudspeakers of "Jesus Loves the Little Children," a favorite with Sunday Schools the world over. Basically, the only words are a repeated loop of "yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so."

Probably not the same Muzak they play in Cafe Nana.

Bwog, in a fit of teary-eyed, second-semester senior nostalgia, decided to attend our first ever Columbia sporting event last night, the men's basketball game against Yale. And while we lost in a heartbreaker, JJ Jumper still managed to provide a moment of amusement.

Not to be confused with Roar-ee, Columbia's own lamely named mascot, JJ Jumper is an all-purpose, all-annoying NCAA mascot that appears at different Division I, II and III games. He must've been tired from all the traveling last night, because during a round of backflips, he crashed into the live CTV halftime broadcast.

Well, at least the 2000 people at the game watched it happen.

UPDATE: Thanks to the Splog, we've got footage!

Anna Corke reports that yesterday afternoon Dodge Hall had to be evacuated due to an electrical fire. The fire was caused by an art studio class on the fourth floor that had plugged in over a dozen electric heaters to keep their nudes from getting cold. No word on whether the nudes were allowed to dress themselves before evacuating.

There's a girl on the fifth floor of Lerner right now looking at hardcore pornography. Well, at least it's not cumsplatter.com.

It apears that Larry Summers may still have a fruitful career ahead of him, not in economic modeling, but in rap. At least, that's what this video would suggest.

Picture at right: LL Cool J gives a shout out to Larry.