However, that being said, there was one thing from last year we’d kind of hoped we wouldn’t be reminded of ever again (except for, you know, every single solitary time we step onto campus). That was the sudden appearance of these.

But no, the university couldn’t leave well enough alone, so earlier this year we found ourselves face-to-faces with this and thus, by necessary extension, this.  And that, we naively thought, would be the end of that.

Unfortunately, today we were proven WRONG AGAIN when, to our mingled surprise and horror, we innocently opened our CalMail and were met with an invitation to have our picture taken in Christopher Irion’s PhotoBooth of UC Berkeley self-love, tomorrow from 4-8 p.m. at the Recreational Sports Facility.  Now, we are left to wonder in fear what part of campus they will violate with those obnoxious banners next.  Good lord, is nothing sacred anymore?

Image Source: Jill Cowan
Stop by the PhotoBooth at the RSF [Website]
Earlier: If You Build It, They Will Tag It

Well, who didn’t see this one coming?

Everyone knows that pictures of faces are blank canvas for mustache amendments and unibrow bridges. Duh.

And the banners? We’ve seen the bulletin boards choked with flyers for various extracurriculars and calls-to-arms. Where else would such a banner be hung … in a tree? Scoff.

Image Source: Will Kane, Daily Cal
Protest Banners Displayed on Campaign for Berkeley Portrait Wall [Daily Cal]
Earlier: The Campaign for Berkeley Public Art Installation Unveils More Posters of Students’ Faces

Oh Berkeley campus, you really do know what turns students on. We could care less about your long, tall trees (or who’s sitting in them.) Your sexily schizoid architecture? Meh. Your scent? A grassy musk at best. Even the great phallic Campanile seems a bit too forward at times. No, what we’re really interested in is your lamppost banners, and nothing says “This is an awesome school and everyone who goes here loves it,” like big signs that say “This is an awesome school and everyone who goes here loves it.” Well, in so many words, of course.

In the not-so-off chance that lately, when you walk to class, you devote your entire capacity for sensation to the avoidance of ASUC hopefuls who all want just a minute of your time, and you haven’t noticed the new banners gracing the lampposts around campus, we’d like to point them out at this time. Just keep an eye out for artsy black-and-white portraits of Cal students with their cliche reasons for absolutely loving Berkeley scrawled on top–and in their very own handwriting, too.

We hear that the San Francisco-based photographer, Christopher Irion, who took the portraits back in January, was back for more earlier today. He’ll set up his “PhotoBooth” again tomorrow on Dwinelle Plaza “to capture the campus’s diversity in images and words,” for “a 72-foot-long community ‘billboard’ — to be unveiled on campus next fall.” Wow. 72 feet–that’s a lot of diversity.

All this hullabaloo is supposedly to honor Cal’s big 140th, but we don’t think it’s just a coincidence that all the banners happened to magically appear perfectly in time for Cal Day, that much-hyped event, during which our fair campus is inundated with thousands of impressionable new admits.

Oh, and here’s one more heads up for you: they’re giving out cupcakes tomorrow on Sproul Plaza from noon to 1:30 p.m. Be there, or be, um, without a cupcake …

Image Source: Jill Cowan
Free PhotoBooth “School Portraits” Will Capture Cal’s Diversity [UC Berkeley News Center]
Cal Day [Website]