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
Sunday Shout-Out picks out the week’s stories that simply slipped our minds.
* Ah, so that’s what happened to “Guide to the Good Life in Berkeley.” Still, we want our goddamn coupons.
* Forget Escape from Berkeley–what about a soapbox derby, bro?
* It’s like an underground book-reading. Or zombie Cody’s, back from the dead.
* OMG, ASUC (past and present) senators gone wild. But more importantly, are they chanting to the tune of “Crank That”?
Image Source: Emma Lantos, Daily Cal
Earlier: We Didn’t Start the Fire …
Berkeley protesters take note: put down your picket signs and loudspeakers and pull out your bagpipes.
In an odd spectacle of bagpipe serenading and pro-Proposition 8 pamphleting this past Monday, a group of very stern-looking, red cap-sporting male members of The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property invaded the Berkeley campus to tell us all why we should stop being gay.
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Some more sitters of the tree variety set up shop outside Wheeler Hall today, but don’t get them confused with the Oakies. The new treewoks on the block sit for student activism, namely “democratization” of the UC Regents and condemning the BP deal.
OK, fair enough. We’re still not convinced that sitting in a tree will gain anything besides extra police patrolling.
But wait! There’s more! SFist tipped us to another tree-related protest scheduled for tomorrow. Called “Toilet-Trees” (oh so clever), the protest calls out Kimberly-Clark for its clear-cutting practices in producing tissue and toilet paper. In the copy of the press release, SFist points to the claim that “there will be great visuals and photo opportunities!”
Oh shit. Take a look for yourselves:
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Like 4-year-olds with paper cuts, extremist groups are experts at exaggerating distress. Code Pink and World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime, for instance, like to throw around accusations of “police brutality,” whenever the 5-0 does anything that interferes with their mission–even if said cops are simply standing there like a stoic Royal Guard (one that got paid about $93,000 in overtime for Tuesday’s rally, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.)
It’s no surprise, then, that these passionate Berkeley super-liberals are usually brushed off as “the extremist groups that cried wolf.” Actually, they pretty much get brushed off, period.
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In today’s Daily Cal article on the Code Pink free speech nonsense, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak states: “We’ve had many contentious meetings and we’ve never had any problems. People in Berkeley tend to pretty much agree to adhere to nonviolence.”
He is, of course, talking about the monster rally that is currently brewing outside Berkeley City Hall, where a mass of polarized protesters awaits the start of this evening’s City Council meeting. The council will decide tonight whether they want to take back their infamous “unwelcome and uninvited intruders” statement against the Marine Corps recruitment center on Shattuck Avenue, which caused an angry ruckus across the nation. But despite Wozniak’s assurance of a peaceful political rally, Cat Moy–a source for conservative blogger Michelle Malkin–has already witnessed “mayhem” go down on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
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So apparently activists are being active again. A troupe has gathered in front of Wheeler and they’re attempting a nine-day fast. Why, you ask? The self-starvation is obviously a means of ending the University’s involvement in nukes. Duh.The news of protesters doing something weird didn’t shock us Berkeley vets, but for some reason, KTVU (local channel 2 news) filmed and interviewed the fasters yesterday. And today, a Chron photographer was spotted ogling the emaciated. Go figure.
The Clog just had a brief conversation with T-Shirt Orgy vice president, Jonathan Fernandez. You may recall that some people were getting quite hot-headed over certain race-focused gag shirts displayed in Fernandez’s store. The controversy climaxed May 2nd with a sizeable protest on Telegraph Ave. So now we’re curious as to the future direction of the Futura basement. Specifically, we want to know if one can still buy a cliche Radiohead tee and something crassly satirical. Here are some highlights from our chat.Clog: Has the pressure from protesters died down recently?JF: I think like um, we were receptive to the message. We’re working together to bring the clothes they (the protesters) want us to carry.Clog: What’s your take on it? Did you think the shirts were offensive?JF: I think it’s obvious that they were offensive because a number of people were offended.Clog: Will business practices change in the future? As in, will you guys still be willing to make offensively comedic shirts?JF: I think they (the protesters) have an ongoing concern that there be positive shirts for sale that they would not construe as being racist—that there won’t be any shirts that are offensive. There might be shirts that are offensive to my parents. We’re going to be careful about shirts that are offensive based on race, though. I’m going to change from negative portrayals to positive.So, apparently, in response to economic pressure, T-Shirt Orgy is going to adopt a system of more stringent oversight. Fernandez didn’t really bullshit us on the topic. This choice to change is a business decision and nothing more. While explaining store’s response, Fernandez said, “You always pick your battles in life. What’s the point of arguing whether a shirt is racist or non-racist?”Well, there is a point as far as society is concerned. Too bad it seems T-shirt Orgy and the protesters have equally little interest in debating satire vs. racism. On a tangential note, we’re sort of hoping that someone will do a counter anti-sensitivity protest to amuse us during this grueling stretch of finals (We’re looking at you, Squelch people.)You won’t get much editorializing out of the Clog, but it must be said that the “Rutgers” shirt seems to be making fun of an offensive statement—not necessarily endorsing it. The protesters might have had some trouble in separating message from messenger there. As for the other offenders, the “Lynching” shirts confuse us, the “Diego” shirts are offensive as well as unfunny, and our opinion on the “Jewbacca” shirts shifts depending on how stereotypically self-hating we happen to be on a given day (remember, the Clog is Jewish on its father’s side).The Clog would like to hear from the protesters on this topic, so feel free to contact us and give your side on this most controversial issue.
We at the Clog have gone protest crazy. Yes, we know there’s one every second. But damn, May-Day and Jimmy Carter Day back-to-back?! Thanks for reaffirming our will to live, Lord.
Based on the knowledge that the mere rumor of a famous person farting near Berkeley will lead to picket signs, the Clog knew Carter’s arrival would mean an orgy of the opinionated.
And the event-within-the-event delivered like an orgy should—an amusingly awkward orgy, that is. The pro-Carter people camped on the left side of Zellerbach, and the anti peeps chilled over by the right side. In between the two groups, frustrated normal people waited in line for a chance to see the bizarro Yellowcard.
So while they waited, we got sound bites from every quirky cluster. Here are the pictures/commentary of the brave souls who said, “Fuck the speech and fuck the webcast. I’m going to stand outside and hold a sign.”
Jewish Student Union-Lev Ingman, who identified himself as Dan Rosen (who is actually his frat brother)
“Okay, so we’re not here to say Jimmy Carter shouldn’t be here. We’re saying his presence is polarizing to the community.”
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the Clog scratching its ambiguity-shaped head. Is “Mr. Rosen” saying, “We’re here to protest the fact that this man makes people inclined to protest”?
Go figure.
And that picture of JSU’s identity-challenged spokesperson is probably the photo of the millennium. We wonder if he ate something as old as Jimmy Carter before we took the shot.
Bay Area Women in Black-Sandra Butler
“We stand in silence. We’re the Jewish voice for peace.”
On the other side of Carterdom is this reticent organization—thankfully spoken for by Mrs. Butler. At first it was somewhat difficult to get an interview with them because these ladies were, well, conducting a silent vigil. So from what Sandra said, we’re deducing that the women were sort of silently protesting the JSU protest of Carter fomenting protest with a Jewish-themed demonstration of their own. We feel an aneurism coming on.
International Socialist Organization-Michael Smith
“It is great that Jimmy Carter is finally waking up to the fact that Israel is oppressing the Palestinian citizens. It’d be nice if he woke up to how they’re being oppressed inside Palestine.”
Workers of the world unite—in your back-handed quasi-praise of the former peanut farmer. We don’t get why a protester would show up just to sort of support somebody.
By the way, Smith’s mug shot is Ingman-level amusing.
handsoffiran.org-Keith Barton
“Well I think Jimmy Carter is the voice of reason and fairness in a polarized world.”
No comment here, but the Clog did find it funny that the group went by the name of “handsoffiran.org”. We’re reminded of Oscar from Arrested D yelling, “I’m Oscar…dot com!”
Jewish Voice For Peace-Glen Hauer
“For me, I appreciate Jimmy Carter’s courage. And also, that I think he’s a good ally for Jews. He doesn’t let his friends drive drunk, though.”
Ugh, more uninspired pseudo-kvetching. Before you bitch at us for saying that, just know that the Clog is Jewish. Well, on its ambiguous Dad’s side.
The May-Day Immigrant Rights Mobilization is a great way to valiantly rail against the injustices of our flawed immigration policy. It is also an excuse to skip class and take pictures of people valiantly railing against the injustices of our flawed immigration policy—all the while observing their noble actions with the detached perspective of the douchiest of bags. So yea, fight the power. And enjoy our pictures/commentary.
Ugh, the Man is here to keep such and such down. We took these pics under the assumption that it’s always a great idea to pull a black object from your backpack and point it towards police officers.
So why didn’t the cops so much as blink? The 30 million “No justice, no peace!” chants probably lulled them into a state of catatonia.
There is just no way to escape Zachary RunningWolf. He’s as ubiquitous as he is relentless.
And now it’s official: If RunningWolf isn’t at your protest, it most definitely sucks.
The Wolf was nice enough to pause and give a little interview mid-demonstration. Here is his fiery spiel:
“My number one problem in this protest is the vocabulary. This is Turtle Island. The white people are the immigrants. It’s totally wrong to call the Indian people here immigrants. Calling the Indian people here immigrants is like calling the Iraqi people insurgents.”
Damn, the Wolf’s turning into a mini-Malcolm X.
Hey look at this couple. Congrats to them on going all-out in the name of the cause. And Jesus, they probably have the weirdest sex games.
Newscaster: And in other news, a giant bird monster ate 50 protesters Tuesday afternoon…..
The last words of one of our clogogrophers: “Oh god! The bird! Run! Run! Oh noooooo! It got my leg! Help me!”
R.I.P Bloggy McBirdfeed. You will be missed.
This guy’s performing some slam poetry in Spanish.
Dude. That’s so blue state.
So apparently these kids took the day off from their elementary school to join the civil disobedience. Wait. Aren’t there laws against, you know—exposing kids to slam poetry?
We’re confused. No more equal work? But, um, ohhhhh. We get it.
Why is the dude dressed like a cow, though? Someone completely sucks at bovine gender differentiation. What bullshit. And it’s utterly confusing. Get it? Get it? Get—oh god!
(Sound of giant bird swallowing a blogger)
Wow. So all this time the satanic version of Big Bird was controlled by that scrawny granola muncher? This is a bit like the end of The Wizard of Oz. What a disappointing finish to a truly great protest.
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