Top Flight Birds

From the October 2009 issue of The Blue and White:

For Toby, a small but loquacious kelly green parrot, the fence around the 91st Street Gardens in Riverside Park is a stage. Toby delights a crowd of adoring fans and his rather demure caretakers by performing afternoon concerts of The Magic Flute. His aria of choice? "Papageno, Papageno, Papageno," of course.

According to Bob, one of said caretakers, Toby is a double-headed Amazonian parrot, which, "you know, is the national bird of Belize." Officially, the Keel-Billed Toucan is cited as the country's national bird, but what Toby doesn't know can't hurt him. Besides, he doesn't even speak Spanish.

He does have a bit of French under his belt, though. The conversations between Toby and Audrey, a francophone Chow Chow, whom he meets from time to time in the park, are casual and consist mostly of him repeating, "Allons, Audrey, Allons, Audrey!"  In addition to Audrey, Toby's network of friends extends to Slyvie, an African Gray Macaw, who unfortunately prefers her Riverside Drive apartment to the park.

The Spirt of Community: Columbians in Stuy Town

From the December 2009 issue of The Blue and White:

“See you in Brooklyn!” were the parting words for many Columbia graduates last spring as they packed up their EC townhouses and headed to Bushwick and Greenpoint in search of low rent and big sky. But the jeune BoBo outer-borough experience is not for everyone. Such is case for the young graduate who finds himself in Stuyvesant Town, a 110-building complex developed in 1947 for World War II veterans and middle class families as a “suburb in the city.”

With a 24-hour security staff, residence ID card-carrying policies and borderline fascistic aesthetic, Stuy Town appears to be part-gated community, part-college campus, part-utopia. "Most people think it's a housing project at first," said Marc Tracy, CC '07, of his Stuy Town apartment building. Despite a 2007 renovation that brought Stuy Town a putting green, an in-house library, gym, lounge and entertainment center, vestiges of Cold-War era conformity remain. The complex's Web site depicts the Stuy Town Resident—his life, work, and recreation—as the admirable, if not glorious, apotheosis of the young professional.

An image of a strong-jawed banker-type whispering into the ear of svelte downtown hipster alternates with a photo of two sports-bra-clad girlfriends gossiping in the midst of cardio intervals on side-by-side stairmasters. A gallery featuring residents enjoying the various neighborhood amenities recalls the Socialist Realist posters of Maoist China: always smiling, always productive, and always filled with the Spirit of Community, these young twentysomethings embody the Stuy Town marketing motto of "love your space." “After college there’s no longer that community of young people living together so it was nice to have what they give you—to just be able to have beers on the lawn on a Saturday afternoon with your neighbors,” said Stuy Town denizen Alissa Ochs, CC '07.

In Class, In Treatment

From the February 2010 issue of The Blue and White

Campus Character: Melissa Repko

From the May 2010 issue of The Blue and White

Tell the Teacher They're Surfing

From the September issue of The Blue and White

Rat Rock

From the November 2010 issue of The Blue and White