Tonight marked the 3rd Annual Pillow Fight/Primal Scream. Not that we needed to tell you that; anyone who wasn't getting a good night's rest before a final (ha!) or listening to very loud music probably just heard about 25 straight minutes of screaming emanating from South Lawn.

The be-pillowed masses started to gather at 11:50 PM or so, slowly migrating out of Butler and the dorms and congregating by the sundial. An official-sounding girl with a pillow (UPDATE: "The lovely" Nina Bell, founder of the pillow fight Correct UPDATE: Lindsey Kaley, this year's event organizer.) instructed the ranks to split in two, and half retreated to the steps of Butler, while half stayed put at the sundial.

About 90% of Columbia students are outdoors right now, so the unsheathing of the glorious, emerald South Lawn is news only for a cloistered few.

More lawn porn after the jump.

And a top of the Monday to you, Bwogophiles. We begin today's headcount with a pictorial update on one of Fair Alma's proudest and most rankling traditions: making sure South Lawn is closed all the time, no matter what, virtually year-round. Indeed, nothing says "long, depressing winter" quite like the antiseptic layer of tarp that carpets the south end of campus three months out of the year, exiling off-season frisbee-ers to Riverside Park, and heralding endless weeks of general gloom.

But cheer up, Columbians! According to the mobile isolation chamber currently parked outside of Broadway Pres., it's like, 75 degrees in the Carribbean! And American Airlines can fly you there ! The habitat-on-wheels--replete with plastic santa, cardboard travel guitar, mosquito torch and digital newscrawl advertising fares from JFK to San Juan--strikes Bwog as a pretty desperate cry for attention, what with JetBlue's recent attempts at making itself Columbia's airline of choice. Their marketing approach is heavy on the free shit and short on the kitsch; on top of which, the American Airlines traveling Carribbean whatever-the-fuck-it-is looks like a set piece for the weirdest psych experiment EVER.

And in the world of legitimate journalism: you might have read something in the Spec the other day about a New York Civil Liberties Union complaint on behalf of a Columbia grad student of South Asian descent who was detained by the NYPD for taking pictures in a subway station. Important to be sure, but you wouldn't think that it deserves a staff edit in the New York Post, would you? Well, you, reader, are wrong. Further proof that the 'bloids just can't resist the combination of Columbia, liberals, and protest, or, in this case, just can't resist the combination of Columbia with, well...anything.

-ARR

Good gracious! Passersby South Lawn a few hours ago were treated to the sight of Columbia's fine wrestling team thundering down the turf in a series of grueling sprints. One tipster was particularly piqued by the presence of sophomore Sal Tirico--sorry honey, he's taken. All the same, Bwog fully endorses the practice of half-clothed athletic conditioning in public places.

What's the point, exactly, of throwing a Coney Island-themed party on South lawn, complete with burgers, ice cream, a bounce house, a mini-lighthouse, and singing dogs? One eyewitness characterized it as a "fundraiser thingy," but couldn't figure out what the event this afternoon was trying to raise money for.

Maybe just an acknowledgement that most of us won't actually make it out that far on the N, Q, D, or F--next time, can we have a scale model of Aqueduct Race Track?

More photos by Sumaiya Ahmed after the jump.

Class day has transformed the South Lawn into some kind of mass graduation arena! Just in case you're not in Morningside Heights this week, see what your campus has become...


Bring an umbrella and look for wet powder-blue robes. Forecast calls for intermittent showers tomorrow.



And even if it doesn't rain, you still might be swimming through a sea of chairs [groan].

As Bwog was passing by the Senior Dinner on South Lawn tonight, it caught sight of the waiters filling pitchers with water. With a hose. From a spigot in the ground. That's "gray water," right? Ew.

Just for fun, Bwog inquired. The two people guarding the entrance of the tent asserted that the same caterer has done this event for years, and he always fills water pitchers with the hose. They reasoned that, if the caterer is doing it, it it must be ok.

Bwog expresses its sincere condolences to all those with stomach aches at the end of the night.