Kevin O’Connor, Despair Fest, and the Columbia of years past By Neda Ravandi Illustration by Iris Pope In the darkest recesses of the Columbia University Digital Archives, beyond famed fine art collections and architectural vignettes illustrating a newly constructed Butler Library, there lies something even more Columbian: “Kevin M. O’Connor Student Life Collection, 1988-2022 [Bulk 1988-1992].” The lengthy name does little to inform what fills up pages and pages of “fliers, p

Revisiting the erotic thriller. By Neda Ravandi Illustration by Justin Chen In July I was obsessed with James Spader. Houston heat meant long, sun-soaked afternoons, which I’d spend on my bed, laptop open to a sketchy movie site when the humidity got too unbearable for tanning by the pool. So, my Halloween began in the summer, when I watched David Cronenberg’s Crash, a decision prompted not by an interest in cars or stomach-churning violence, but more so James Spader. After