AitN: September 24

Jeff Coby

Jeff Coby '17

On September 21, the Knicks signed Jeff Coby ’17 to the team. ESPN’s Ian Begley broke the news on Twitter, reporting, “Columbia’s Jeff Coby has agreed to a deal with the Knicks, league sources confirm. Coby, a Haitian National Team standout, has worked out with the Knicks in informal sessions recently and impressed the staff.”

Hari Nef ’15 stars in the film Assassination Nation, which opened on September 21. On opening day, Entertainment Weekly published an in-depth interview with Nef, who “tells EW about working inside the project’s unique brand of resistance, turning the teen movie subgenre (violently) on its head, and following the lead of a white, cisgender director crafting a tale about a diverse group of marginalized women.”

John Leland ’81 wrote “Seven Ways The Village Voice Made New York a Better Place,” which was published in The New York Times on September 21. In the article, Leland mourns the loss of the Voice and looks at the depth and breadth of articles in the paper in its more-than-60-years run.

On September 17, the 2018 New York World Wine & Spirits Competition announced that Ming River, a baijiu import company co-founded by Bill Isler ’03, was awarded a double gold designation at the competition. “I’m thrilled to see Ming River honored by a professional panel so soon after launching the United States,” says Isler in a press release. “… We’re glad to see baijiu finally getting the international recognition it deserves.

On September 14, The New York Times published “5 Classical Music Faces to Watch This Season” and two College alumni are among the notable musicians. First is Conrad Tao ’15; the author writes of one of his earlier shows, “there was nothing sleepy about his performance: adventurous, agile and often electrifying as he navigated works both contemporary and classical.” Tao’s new piece, Everything Must Go, will premiere on September 27 with the New York Philharmonic. Also featured is Nico Muhly ’03, described in the article as “a wunderkind-turned-war horse”; his new work, Marnie, will debut in October at the Metropolitan Opera.

On September 10, The New York Times interviewed Beau Willimon ’99, SOA’03 in advance of the premiere of his new television series, The First. The show, set in the 2030s, is about the first manned mission to Mars; the article says “The optimism of frontiersmanship, the desire to boldly go where no one has gone before, has long been a fascination for Mr. Willimon.”