Loading ...
One hundred days ago, media studies major and former hardcore frontman Blake Kasemeier and his bike hit Berkeley pavement on a human interest quest. The premise of his blog, The Hundreds, is simple: “100 people who ride bikes in 100 words in 100 days.” He’s interviewed our rocket scientists and beloved pariahs alike, a rag-tag bunch of Berkeleyites with a singular two-wheeled hunk of metal and rubber bringing it all together: bike. read more »
We’re currently in the lead of a little (non-meathead) neighborly competition to get Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday to come watch a free screening of their new movie “Youth in Revolt” with us on our campus. Seems fitting, seeing as Berkeley is mentioned by name in the theatrical trailer. Well, in the context of Michael Cera burning it down in the name of hapless, unrequited hipsterlust.
Regardless, we’ve seen Michael Cera through some pretty endearing awkward stages, and even though he got a lil’ too indie for L.A. and hightailed it to Portland, we still want to show our puppy love by winning this thing big. Your last chance to participate is Nov. 29, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST, so get those votes in! C’mon, we can’t be the only ones who want to get a sneak preview of George Michael as a mustachioed cocksman with a penchant for the arson of UC Berkeley!!
Image Source: wvs under Creative Commons
“Youth In Revolt” competition [eventful]
At the corner of Alcatraz Street and Telegraph Avenue sits a magical book vault called Book Zoo. At the risk of gushing, we’ll just say this: their dollar section is seriously psychic.
We’ve also seen some pretty innovative (and free) music acts at this place, including Sacramento’s Agent Ribbons and an improvised four-piece symphony played from the four cardinal points. read more »
Print This Post
Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, a Berkeley legend was born: beat poet Gary Snyder. This man is so much more than Jack Kerouac’s zen sidekick in Dharma Bums. He is a sailor. He is a logger. He is a former Berkeley grad student in the Oriental languages department. He’s got a mind like compost. And he’s a literary badass.
Snyder will read selections from Riprap at the Morrison Library this Friday, Nov. 13 from 4-6:30 p.m to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking work.
Be there, or be hay for the horses.
Image Source: Tom Spaulding under Creative Commons
UC Berkeley Events Calender [site]
Print This Post
A unanimous vote in the Berkeley City Council chambers yesterday has banned the procedure of cat declawing in all veterinary clinics within the city limits. Violators could face a $1,000 fine or six months in the slammer. It’s cat justice, baby.
Moral of the story? Kittens are people too, people. And your brand new upholstered couch just happens to be the best darn scratching post this side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Deal with it: this is kitteh territoreh.
Image Source: Artamnesia under Creative Commons
Berkeley bans cat declawing [Inside Bay Area]
City Council Approves Ban On Animal Declawing [Daily Cal]
Print This Post
West Berkeley’s Nina Wanat makes the kind of chewy candy coating that pays your dentist’s electric bill, without high-fructose corn syrup. At the recent Foodbuzz Blogger Festival across the bay, her organic BonbonBar candy bars were a major hit.
We sort of wish we’d attended. It’s no secret that the Clog lives for free samples, especially of Nina’s “single-malt-Scotch ganache—made with Talisker 1992 Distillers Edition Scotch from the Isle of Skye, topped with Maldon sea salt—and spunky pumpkin-pie caramallows, whose chewy-smooth coating contains butternut squash bought at farmers’ markets.” Almost worth a diabetic coma.
After great chapters in the Berkeley Foodie Chronicles such as this, we realize with horror that there will be a day after we graduate when we are forced out of the East Bay and into a cubicle in a boring city where “candy bars” are called “candy bars” and not “artisan confections.”
Image Source: SusieFoodie under Creative Commons
Berkeley-Made Marshmallows a FoodBuzz-Fest Fave [East Bay Express]
Print This Post
Every girl you know with a septum piercing and a thing for Jews hightailed her androgynous-footwear to the Multicultural Center Friday night with a single hope: to get extremely loud and incredibly close with bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer. And his glasses. After a reading from his new non-fiction book, “Eating Animals,” Foer engaged in an hour-long dialogue with Berkeley meat eaters and others alike.
While some think the book is nothing more than a glorified PETA pamphlet with cutesy cover art, we did learn some neat stuff: read more »
Print This Post
So you’re pedaling north on Shattuck Avenue. Fast. It’s about 1:30 a.m., you’ve had a couple beers. In fact, you have a couple beers duct taped to your helmet. Reserve stash. You’re about to blast through Addison Street and swing an artful left-hand turn onto University Avenue,when suddenly the light turns RED.
Do you come to a screeching halt? Do you yell “F*CK DA read more »
Print This Post
Mark Yudof released a little love letter to the UC system this week. After reviewing his proposal to enlarge the role of the federal government in public education several times, we give you our reader’s digest version of his strategy:
1. Reward bleeding hearts. Gives Pell Grants to schools that “enroll the neediest students.” Payola: about $2.5 billion for university core operations.
2. Give more money to read more »
Print This Post
Perhaps in rebuttal to the Mission District’s Dia De Los Muertos freakshow (complete with Michael Jackson tributes, elaborate headdresses, and San Francisco skeleton babies up way past their bedtimes), B-town is hosting its own celebration of the inevitable: a “Green Funeral Fair.”
Because people in Berkeley love to compost things, including each other.
Regardless, nothing says “Fun In the Sun” on a Saturday afternoon like writing your own environmentally conscious obituary. read more »
