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It is commonly said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or that beauty is only skin deep. But how much truth do these common clichés really hold in our undeniably superficial society?

After news broke that Eliot Spitzer had been caught paying for sex, the public displayed a seemingly inexhaustible fascination in the woman involved. Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Showtime’s new series, seeks to tap into this interest by taking viewers into the world of high-end prostitution.

Think of Los Angeles, and what comes to mind? Hollywood, glitz, and glamour.

Winnipeg. The word likely elicits no reaction from the average American: perhaps a head tilt or a slight look of confusion. What reason would we have to go to Winnipeg—much less think of it?

Host Jon Kelly describes the cliché-ridden competition “When Pigs Fly,” on the second episode of ABC’s fifth season of The Mole, by saying that “the players must use the slingshot to launch the pigs into the arena.” Sound enthralling?

While there is no shortage of innuendo or sexual references on network primetime, sex is a subject that seems to belong exclusively to cable. CBS’s new series Swingtown, though, is all about sex: adolescent sex, adult sex, monogamous sex, polyamorous sex, moral sex, immoral sex, safe sex, and unsafe sex.

In the past two years, New York City has become acquainted with the hypnotic language of the Irish playwright, Conor McPherson. His plays Shining City and The Seafarer have both achieved critical success on Broadway and the latest production of his work stands as a testament to the mesmerizing power of storytelling.

With an exceedingly talented and committed cast, Saved is born again—this time in musical form on the main stage of off-Broadway company Playwrights Horizons. Based on the popular indie flick staring Jena Malone and Mandy Moore, the basic story stays fairly true to form, focusing on the plights of senior-year students at an evangelical Christian high school.

How many locavores do you know?

Buzzwords in food this year were “green,” “fresh,” and “local.”

Just how bad was the Writers Guild of America strike, which started Nov. 5, 2007, and lasted until Feb. 12, 2008? Well, because Screen Actors Guild members were unwilling to cross picket lines, there was no 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony—the awards were given out without one.

When Vampire Weekend debuted at number 16 on the Billboard charts, I was admittedly shocked. The band that had put out the self-recorded EP I listened to all summer was now a Billboard topper?

We live in a society that constantly dehumanizes us. We fail to make connections with each other, and this lack of contact transforms the world into a meaningless place.

“I basically started thinking in terms of images that really have nothing to do with anything,” said Harmony Korine in his director’s notes. And so, with the poetic image of blue-frocked nuns marching to a baptism, he opened his newest venture, Mister Lonely.

The trouble with going to see a show for its director is that, unlike going to see a show for a performer, whose presence can be a redeeming quality, the director isn’t actually there. It’s an even bigger problem when an actor diminishes the work of said director—especially when that actor is also the book writer.

Frustrating music critics since 2002, RjD2 is nearly impossible to place neatly within a genre. His cut-and-paste masterpieces leap quickly from hip-hop to electronic to soul and back again. Nonetheless, RjD2 has become a superstar DJ with one of music’s most diverse fan-bases.

Enter Barnard Hall and climb to the third floor, and you will be amazed at the transformation that has taken place. The entire hallway and one giant room have been converted into an art gallery, displaying the artwork of 18 Barnard senior visual arts majors.

Alexander Calder’s Saurien

Sprawling its neon-orange legs across the street in midtown Manhattan, Alexander Calder’s outdoor sculpture Saurien marks the entrance to the IBM building and provides an eye-catching contrast to the glassy gray skyscraper.

Campus traditions, literary classics, and the avant-garde all have a place in the Columbia theater community. This weekend, Columbia students will have the opportunity to see three unique theater productions.

What if we left Earth and someone left the last robot on? This is the remise of Pixar’s latest film, WALL•E, which will be released June 24, and it’s what attracted director Andrew Stanton to the project.

The sound of frantic footsteps, accompanied by distant yelling, fills the theater.

Who knew that there could be life after Sex? Though it’s been four years since Carrie Bradshaw and company found romantic bliss in the series finale of Sex and the City, HBO’s former flagship show is still as popular as ever.

In celebration of this week’s release of Grand Theft Auto IV, why not go back and check out one of the first GTA-style games ever released?

The Brazilian Girls headline the Studio B Rooftop Launch Party. Other acts are slated to perform, but does it really matter?

As the daughter of a Southern California citrus farmer, I pride myself on being fairly knowledgeable about fruit. The mangosteen came out of left field.

At the Payan Theater, the fear of forgetting one’s past resonates throughout Nick Sanzo’s Sunrise at the Quarry.

Many Columbia students may not realize that the closest museum to Columbia’s campus is only a short walk away.

Some people find throwing paint-filled water balloons on giant swaths of canvas in the middle of College Walk to be cathartic.

Amidst the flurry of the green-market-centric food craze, and Spec Food’s obsession with the West Village, comes Market Table.

After the drink-happy hours of reading week have waned and the oppressive superstructure of finals week have begun to weigh on the collective Columbian conscience, casual and hard-core video gamers alike might be tempted to throw up their arms in desperation.

Best Film on Campus, a Web site sponsored by mtvU, allows student filmmakers to submit their work online in a format much like YouTube.

“So if you do the math, numerically, we’re better than There Will Be Blood,” said Executive Producer Jeff Schwartz, CC ’10.

Kent Haruf’s book Plainsong is true to its namesake, a “simple and unadorned melody or air” that is tender in its portrayal of three families in Holt, Colo.

Mswati III is the King of Swaziland, the last absolute monarchy in Africa. He has 13 wives, seven royal palaces, a private jet, and an 11-figure Saudi bank account in his personal name.

Rupert Goold’s Macbeth is nothing short of terrifying.

“I need something sexy, flashy ... Kind of farmer-y,” Josie tells a sales clerk.

The Boredoms are a slippery bunch to pin down.

It’s hard to tell whether Bernard-Henri Lévy, colloquially known (often exasperatedly) as “BHL”, gets a bad rap. On the one hand, he has been one of the West’s most consistent and enterprising critics of human rights abuses.

Quest completed, satiated with greasy sliders and fries, best friends Harold and Kumar return home, and hastily begin packing for a journey to Amsterdam. No rest for the raunchy.

Sometimes the most surprising performance is also the best. On Wednesday, as part of a series of events focused on honoring Paul Simon’s musical legacy, Josh Groban sat down at the piano and played such a heart-wrenching rendition of “America” that some audience members stood up to applaud the young heartthrob.

Race is an issue that is never too far from the surface of American society. Video games, though, are not an arena in which we normally expect race to raise the passions of people who otherwise view the hobby as a form of escapism. Enter Resident Evil 5—the next iteration of the revered Resident Evil franchise—which has made a huge splash in the gaming world despite being a year from release.

There’s no place like Tamasha, Inc.—it treats its hirees well, encourages diversity, and works not on Wall Street, but on Taal Street. On Saturday, a whirlwind force of energy exuded by an eclectic mix of enthusiastic performers swept the stage in Roone Arledge Auditorium.

This week’s events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1968 protests made for an interesting study in alumni relations. With 1968 protester Hilton Obenzinger’s new autobiographical novel Busy Dying in hand, I headed to Saturday night’s reading by alumni, most—if not all—of whom took part in the protests.

Imagine two faces. One is male, with feathered brown hair and a thin goatee drawn in Sharpie. The other, whose gender is uncertain, sports a fierce bowl cut, red lipstick, and a demented smile. Both are slathered with make-up.

The chic couple sitting next to me at Alexandra looked skeptically at the menu. “I think we should do it,” they said, and they flagged the waiter over. “We’re not ordering the usual today,” they told him. “Switch the mussels for the beets.” He laughed with them and headed off, and before tasting a single bite of food, I understood that Alexandra is all about community, a theme that hits close to home for many a Columbia student as of late.

In 1995, Scott Hicks received Oscar acclaim for Shine, the true story of a troubled pianist. Now the director has created another humanizing portrait of a living musical legend with Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. Some might imagine that the daily life of Philip Glass, famed minimalist composer, would be robotic—echoing his repetitive, mechanical music—but the documentary defies this assumption through careful exposition of the psyche of one of the most prolific composers of our time.

Living in New York City, it’s hard not to come across the names of famous artists. Whether by some tourist on the subway raving about the Met or the pretentious kid down the hall dropping into conversation again that he is an art history major, Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, or Pollock are bound to make appearances in conversation.

Anyone who has attended an international film festival in the past three years undoubtedly knows about the hippest new trend: Romanian cinema.

Okay, TV fans, it’s time for an America’s Next Top Model pop quiz. Riddle me this: what do former ANTM contenders Yaya DaCosta, Whitney Cunningham, and Victoria Marshman all have in common? Hint—it’s something besides the fact that none of them ended up winning a CoverGirl contract.