Caliber Magazine – Issue 7

ISSUE 7 / SPRING 2013

From privatization to demonstrations, the campus icon talks politics

Greek Awards

2013

DECODING

GOVERNMENT surveillance

HIPSTERS in their natural habitat before you Visual Notetaking

Male Contraceptives

Coffee Shops JOIN, ADVERTISE and CONTRIBUTE

www.calibermag.org

8

Caliber Magazine

Spring 2013

9

10

Caliber Magazine

12

38

26

54

12 THE STORY OF THE CREEK: From toxic dump to

46 PURCHASING VS. STREAMING: Streaming models like

14 LEARNING THROUGH DOODLES: Cal alum and master

49 IS LIFE BETTER WITH A BRITISH ACCENT?

learning site, Berkeley’s main watercourse gets a facelift from the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program. doodler Abby VanMuijen talks to Caliber about her popular DeCal and a different kind of note-taking.

18 A REFUGE IN WORDS: Spotlight on CalSLAM and the roots of the spoken word movement.

20 BLIND STUDENTS AT CAL: Judith Lung and Brad

Bettridge open up about the difficulties, and misconceptions, of being blind.

24 BREAKING THE SILENCE: Instances of sexual assault on

campus have almost quadrupled in number within the past couple years, and often, the suspects are no strangers. A look into how defining “consent” determines a crime.

26 HIPSTER TAXONOMY: A FIELD STUDY. Move over,

Galapagos finches. Caliber takes on a Darwinian approach to exploring the origins of the elusive, fixie-lovin’ Hipsterus family.

Spotify and Hulu have made the lives of poor college students easier, but what do the artists get in return?

International student Emily Burt weighs in on why sometimes American spin-offs of British TV shows get lost in translation, and how they can succeed if they are produced by the people, for the people.

52 GREEK AWARDS 2013: The best of the Greek system’s

Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council, as voted by our readers.

54 EDITORIAL — AWAY WE GO: A picture-perfect love

affair inspired by Wes Anderson films, 1960s frocks and wanderlust tinged with romance.

59 FLOORNICATION: What happens when there’s a break-up and a housing contract? A closer look at the all-too-convenient floormate relationship, its perks and pitfalls.

60 THE PILL FOR MEN: A REVOLUTION? For almost 50

29 WHERE DOES HAIR BELONG? How one ad in Harper’s Bazaar determined a social norm for the next century.

years, women have been primarily responsible for birth control.

New developments by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School may change that.

31 THE OLD SCHOOL INSTAGRAM: Different ways that

62 THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT CUP: Caliber’s quest

32 THE UNITED STATES OF OCEANIA: With the

63 HOME GROWN: TIPS FOR YOUR OWN GARDEN.

38 COVER ­— ROBERT REICH: In his office stacked with

64 50 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU GRADUATE

film photography offers a more hands-on approach to creativity. increasingly draconian policies of intelligence institutions in the United States, it’s time to tweet with caution. books, Robert B. Reich—acclaimed political commentator, passionate emissary for the public university, and respected Berkeley legend—discusses losing our public identity, the keys to a successful protest, and big money in politics.

for the perfect cup of coffee leads to six different Berkeley cafes.

Cultivating a secret garden on a windowsill is actually easier than it seems, no green thumb necessary.

65 HIPSTER BINGO 66 COUPONS

calibermag.org

11

the staff Dear Readers,

Even if you’re not a polisci major, you can appreciate the importance of politics.

It’s powerful, it’s contagious, and it gets things done. With the recent presidential election and the continuing UC-wide fight against budget cuts, we are constantly reminded of the intricate web of politics that surrounds us. Yet despite this continuous awareness, we often forget the value of our own participation. It is so easy to put off registering to vote and choose studying for the next midterm over visiting the polls. After all, the world of politics still continues without us, right?

It was in reaction to this laissez-faire attitude that we cultivated a burning desire to re-invigorate students. We sought someone for our cover who could reach out to students, illuminate political intricacies and explain the value of one vote. We found exactly what we were looking for in the legendary political official, author, speaker and professor Robert Reich.

A veteran in the field, Mr. Reich strives to share a message of self-empowerment, encouraging each student to have his or her voice heard in the medley of political shouts. In support of Mr. Reich’s aspirations, we dedicated Issue 7 to the fight to be heard.

We talked with CalSLAM, a student group who finds poetry in their own words and refuses to be silenced. We banished taboo and delved into the uncomfortable territory of where hair belongs while questioning the benefits of a male contraceptive pill. We even shared the touching message of fellow Berkeley student, Tara Rastogi.

But these stories are only the beginning. We challenge you to take this issue as inspiration to do that thing you always said you would.

Start an organization, participate in the next school walkout, and most importantly, never forget to shout loud and be heard.

Cassandra Stephens Editor-in-Chief

CALIBER EXECUTIVE BOARD

EXECUTIVE BOARD President: Griffin Cassara Vice President: Gabbie Guison Editor-in-Chief: Cassandra Stephens Asst. to the Editor-in-Chief: Lara Hovsepian-Ruby Head of Journalism: Nakta Alaghebandan Head of Copy Editing: Manon von Kaenel Head of Photography: Brenden Beckley Blog Content Manager: Hanna Morris Blog Editor: Prabh Kehal Head of Business: Sucheta Salgaonkar Account Executive: Alex Dickey Account Executive: Sarah Milik Social Events Coordinator: Rachel Kang Circulation Manager: Gina Tai Head of Public Relations: Avery Barnes Head of Social Media: Nam Le Campaign Manager: Jaemie Paraon Head of Multimedia: Kelsey Moty Editorial Manager: Jeannine Ventura Editorial Photographer: Sasha Chebil Head of Design: Maya Kulkarni Head of Design: Stephanie Cai COPY EDITORS Isaac Wolf Mark Alshak Alex Dickey Taylor Fugere-Cale Lauren Thomas Rachel Kang JOURNALISTS Nam Le Mark Alshak Taylor Fugere-Cale Sasha Chebil Jennifer Wong Lauren Thomas Rahul Pandya Rohit Upadhya Manon von Kaenel Zack Alspaugh Meg Elison Bridget Vaughan Emily Burt Athena Nghiem Meadhbh McGrath Swapna Dhamdhere PHOTOGRAPHERS Rosa Nguyen May Kim Silvia Cernea Brittany Smith Jennie Yoon Simon Chen Olivia Crawford Shelby Ashbaugh

BLOGGERS Hanna Morris Nina Udomsak Isaac Wolf Surmayee Tetarbe Kiara Daswani Jo Wu Sarah Tang Erica Hendry Avery Barnes Alex Brooks Gabby Fastiggi Meg Elison Denise Lee Kiyana Salkeld Sydney Johnson Krista Kurisaki Arielle Schussler Brea Weinreb Taran Nicholas Moriates DESIGN TEAM Jordyn Alvidrez Bonnie Mata WEB DESIGNER Jessica Ou EDITORIAL TEAM Jeannine Ventura Sasha Chebil Ming Cong

While Caliber is a part of the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley, the content of the magazine does not reflect the opinion of the ASUC in any way.

12

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

Spring 2013

13

| CAMPUS

the story of the creek A JOURNEY TO RESTORATION

IF YOU WERE to stand on the lawn area between the “University of California, Berkeley” sign and the creek bank at the west end of campus just five years ago, you’d be in a very bad place. “I called it the ‘no-go’ zone,” says Tim Pine, Environmental Health and Safety Specialist and Strawberry Creek champion. “All the way across was a solid mass of blackberry brambles and the Chilean Red Currant, another invasive plant. Because this was a real screen from the lawn area, all kinds of stuff was going on back here—we had a semi-permanent homeless encampment; high school students would come back here to smoke out or make out. So it wasn’t a place you would want to meet with your friends or have a class discussion.”

Today, Strawberry Creek boasts a manicured lawn, baby trees, and shrubs growing out of a natural groundcover, while a golden retriever frolics by the riverbank with his happy family not too far behind. “First time I saw a family with a couple of kids climbing that log, having a picnic, I just thought to myself, ‘That’s what it’s all about,’” Pine remembers. “This is such a valuable amenity for the campus, why let it be relegated to just the hardiest members of society who are willing to put up with all the scary, overgrown vegetation?”

Over the past 10 years, restoration efforts led by Pine and students from the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program,

14

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

along with innumerable volunteers, have changed the landscape of the creek by replacing the non-native plants overtaking the riverbanks with a more diverse palette of native plants, in an attempt to rebuild a healthy ecosystem on campus that anyone and everyone can explore and learn from.

“Ultimately the goal of the restoration project is to return native biodiversity to these areas that has essentially been lost over the last couple of decades,” Pine says. “In doing so, we not only reestablish a nice place to hang out, but these areas were supposed to be open laboratories for [Cal students].” The creek offers students the opportunity to observe what a native habitat looked like before the area was developed, as well as to study water quality, look at aquatic organisms like insects and fish, and to learn the impacts of urban pollution on a natural area, for starters. The educational importance of the creek, as an open laboratory for students and faculty alike, cannot be understated.

Strawberry Creek has been a staple in Biology 1B labs for quite a while now. Susumu Tomiya, a GSI for the course, explains that in a particular lab, the students assess the water quality of the creek by analyzing the types of aquatic invertebrates that live in the water. “What I enjoy as an

CAMPUS |

instructor is taking my students out to the creek,” he adds. “Together we look for live animals in and around the stream, and a lot of students get excited to find schools of fish, crayfish and a variety of insects.”

However, to maintain a habitat where this sort of hands-on discovery and learning is possible requires a huge amount of time and expertise. Understanding the full story of Strawberry Creek’s restoration requires a look into its past—all the way back to before the early settlements of the 1770s. Back then, the campus looked a lot like the East Bay hills of today, a mix of shrub land and chaparral forest hosting an array of animals like deer and mountain lions. When settlers came to the Bay during the latter half of the 18th century, the creek was tapped for water and used as a sewage system. Inevitably, the creek habitat became degraded and polluted, even to the point of becoming a public health risk by the 1980s.

The narrative of Strawberry Creek’s redemption really started in 1987 when Robert Charbonneau, from the University of California Environmental Protection Services, assembled a watershed management plan and, incidentally, founded the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program. The purpose was to identify and eliminate harmful discharges from campus labs and community in general in order to improve water quality and reintroduce native fish species, such as the Sacramento Sucker, California Roach Minnow and Threespine stickleback, into the creek.

Today’s restoration efforts began about 10 years ago and focused on restoring the three natural areas on campus through which the creek runs: Grinnell, Goodspeed, and Wickson. Pine took it upon himself to remove some of the ivy along the banks of the creek. “I knew what a place like Cal can look like when it’s relatively undisturbed, from where I

grew up,” he says. After many years of neglect following a decline in university resources, the creek was finally feeling some love.

Pine mobilized a group of student volunteers to bring their enthusiasm and energy to the restoration project.

“Without that volunteerism, without that spirit of the Cal students, none of this stuff would have been done,” Pine says.

“No one person was going to move yards and yards of ivy.”

Now, the program is entirely funded

by The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), and it continues to organize about 35 restoration events per semester with community members and students alike.

The events not only aim to educate the university community about the local ecosystem, but also to bring more people into the flourishing world of Strawberry Creek. At each event, the group clears out yards of ivy and cleans up a decade’s worth of trash, which features “nasty” items like hypodermic needles, sleeping bags and throwing knives, according to Restoration Coordinator and senior Nathan Bickart. However, due to the tireless efforts of countless volunteers over the course of the past few years, “We are literally running out of ivy to pull,” Bickhart says. “So we tried to up our native planting efforts and nursery production.”

To continue to plant native plants where the invasive ones had been removed, the program partnered with the Katherine Suding Lab to develop a student-built and student-run nursery (located by Mulford Hall) where native plants can be grown and observed before being planted by the creek. The next step for the program will be to measure the functional traits of these native plants and develop several test planting sites along the creek.

By bringing back native vegetation, the program hopes to recreate an entire

ecosystem: “With native plants making big blossoms, we have native pollinators and then native birds coming in,” Pine says with a smile. The development of such a diverse and healthy ecosystem doesn’t just benefit the animals involved—it can be incredibly inspiring and gratifying for the volunteers as well.

“When you walk by the creek and get the chance to say, ‘Oh cool, I planted that plant,’ or, ‘I took out that ivy so that that baby bay tree can grow,’ it’s really rewarding,” Bickhart says.

However, despite its successes, Strawberry Creek restoration effort must remain an ongoing and dynamic process. The ivy grows back, and accidents happen—like the December 2011 spill, in which over 1500 gallons of diesel fuel used to power an emergency generator spilled into the basement of Stanley Hall and leaked into the creek via a storm drain. “You’re never really done when it comes to doing restoration work, especially in urban areas,” Pine says.

Every day, the program has to answer big-picture questions facing restoration workers around the world. “How do you find that balance between creating good habitat but also maintaining places on campus where people can really engage with the creek?” Pine asks. A place where humans can hang out and reconnect with nature, for example, may not look the same as a place where fish or bird can hide away undisturbed.

In the end, the Strawberry Creek has grown and developed right alongside the university; it went from being a public health risk in the late 80s to being a place where, today, dogs can frolic and families can picnic and classes can learn. Looking out at the creek from the West End circle, where five years ago we’d be in the “nogo zone,” Pine asks with a smile, “What better to do than hang around here on a warm day, hear the rushing water and see the sunlight shine through the trees?” article by Manon von Kaenel photos by May Kim calibermag.org

15

| CAMPUS

LEARNING THROUGH DOODLES THE PRACTICE OF VISUAL NOTE-TAKING

THE PROFESSOR STANDS before the chalkboards, waving the chalk in his hand like a magic wand. He spews his jargon, which is so incomprehensibly verbose that the vocabulary words all start to blur together: “The approach of metafiction interweaving Icelandic sagas of endothermic reactions in which chair cyclohexanes ponder upon the Madhyamaka perspective of the state of emptiness. . . .”

In the midst of this thorny wasteland of words, there’s a frustrated student, cramped into a seat and scribbling in his notebook behind a much-too-small desk, wondering, “Why the hell are all the desks in these lecture halls so damn

16

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

tiny? My notebook is too obese for this!”

He strives to transcribe every word the professor vomits, but when he peruses through his notes a few days later, he finds that the lines of scribbles are tangled into indecipherable gibberish.

On top of this, he has nothing more to gain from these insufferable lectures than headaches and sleep deprivation.

Such is the dilemma of many Cal Bears.

However, meet Abby VanMuijen: a Cal alum and the instructor for an amazingly popular DeCal called Visual Notetaking 101. The class is designed to teach Cal students how to take notes in a more visual and personalized manner, all while efficiently digesting what they

learn in their classes, as opposed to recording chicken scratch that no one can decipher the next day. The DeCal has two sections with a combined 150 people, and every semester the class fills up very quickly. However, VanMuijen, proud to know that she has much wisdom and experience to share with fellow students, is unfazed by this.

She graduated from the College of Environmental Design just last spring, and surprisingly, she had never had any drawing experiences until taking her first drawing class the summer after her sophomore year. Even more impressive, VanMuijen takes visual notes right on the spot when she attends lectures. With volumes of sketchbooks

CAMPUS |

I like to leave information up in a cloud in my head, and take each piece down one by one and draw it out. I find it much more engaging that way. filled with pages of ink drawings that resemble those of much more seasoned sketch artists, VanMuijen feels that visual note-taking is a creative method that helps her internalize lecture material far more effectively than the traditional methods used by most students. She graciously gives insight into her personalized techniques that many ambitious students can find beneficial, not only for studying, but also for taking their education beyond the classroom and applying it to their

daily lives, even after graduation. After all, isn’t that the point of college, to use what we learn outside of the lecture hall?

Caliber: Where did you get the idea for visual notetaking?

Abby: It was a way for me to translate the information I was being blasted with in lecture into something comprehensible

and engaging that I could look back at when I went to study. I wasn’t magically bestowed with the ability to take notes the way I do—it was something I practiced every day and taught myself how to do.

After I started drawing in Environmental Design 11A, which was a major requirement for environmental design, I found that drawing helped me remember things more easily. Visual note-taking helped me condense and simplify massive amounts of information into a single page.

As I would hear the information, I could process it and organize it into a visual that broke away from the boundaries of lined paper and bulleted powerpoint slides. I had the freedom to design the information as it made sense to me rather than copying it down exactly as it was presented to me. I would look back at my notes and see something much more interesting than a handwritten version of the professor’s powerpoint slides, which were probably up on bSpace anyway. . . .

I started taking notes this way when I was studying abroad, and I cannot emphasize enough that today I have come a long way from where I started. I wasn’t on the type of program where we were going to be taking tests. We were listening to guest lectures, working on projects, visiting sites and being given a lot of information, but the structure of it all made me feel like I didn’t need to remember everything. So I only wrote down the things I really wanted to remember. I started off by writing words really bold and drawing boxes around them and spent a lot of time doodling, drawing and listening. At the end of the trip, I had a sketchbook full of just the things I wanted to remember. When I came back to Cal, I thought, “Hey, why couldn’t this work for my normal classes too?” So I started doing the same thing during my normal

lectures—organizing, bolding, boxing, drawing, doodling and listening.

C: What’s your study strategy?

A: It’s nice to photocopy all my notes, and then cut pieces of them into flashcards.

The ideas are already condensed into little images, and even though there’s not a lot of words, there’s a lot of meaning behind them. I feel that as long as you know the main ideas of the lecture, it’s very effective to look at the pictures and recall what was going through your head when you drew them.

C: Have you ever looked a picture and thought, “What does this mean again?”

A: Not really. I haven’t faced too many problems with that. Since so many professors give you supplements and study guides, the notes are really easy to match up with what they give you. Before I started taking visual notes, it was very frustrating to see that my notes were nothing more than handwritten copies of my professor’s powerpoint slides, which were up on bSpace. But now, my drawings really help my education stick with me, and makes the professors’ lectures much more relevant!

C: Do you ever feel rushed?

A: Not more so than taking notes the way I used to, and the way most people do. One thing that I teach in Visual Notetaking 101 is the importance of paying attention to what’s important and what’s not, since not everything that comes out from the professor’s mouth is the most relevant information to the main idea of the lecture. I like to leave information up in a cloud in my head, and take each piece down one by one and draw it out. I find it much more engaging that way. Before I started taking visual notes, I would fall asleep in class. Now, I never fail to keep myself entertained and awake for the full extent of a lecture.

calibermag.org

17

| CAMPUS

... that’s what I came to UC Berkeley to do, to be inspired each and every day, not just by my professors, but by myself and my classmates.

C: Why did you decide to create the Visual Notetaking 101 DeCal? A: It was when one of my housemates asked me if I could teach her how to take visual notes that I realized, “Yes, if I could teach myself how to do this, why couldn’t I teach other people?” I felt that it was a way to help other students find school more fun, and studying less obnoxious.

We’re at the number one public university in the country, and it sucks to pay a lot of money for our education, only to spend hours and hours of our day falling asleep or being bored in class. So, I thought it was a fun experiment to see if students from all sorts of majors would find this a useful method to retain what they learn, or if this technique only applies to certain types of majors. It’s empowering to turn this hobby into something that other people can use. I really believe that visual note-taking is something that everyone can learn. People from all majors and paths of life take this DeCal, and the class is structured in a way that so that everyone can gain something out of it.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how each of our individual brains interacts best with information and how we can use simple visual strategies to learn more efficiently. We start out experimenting with writing in different fonts and handwritings, and then we move on to drawing boxes, doodling, and implementing colors. We also make visual presentations and visual resumes, which I think is something that can really

18

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

help students who want to stand out. Overall, it’s about making education more visual and interactive. Even if not everyone is primarily a “visual learner,” there are pieces of this class that anyone can find useful.

C: What do you think is the coolest thing you can see a student take from your class?

A: Confidence. A lot of students come into this class with a lot of insecurities about their drawing abilities, and claim, “I can’t draw!” But that’s bullshit . . . everyone can draw, we just don’t practice enough to be good at it. On the first day of my first drawing class, the instructor told us to spend 15 minutes drawing whatever we wanted. I drew a tree that looked like a stick of cotton candy with a small, slightly ill-looking stick figure that I initially intended to be myself, but out of embarrassment, put a top hat on and labeled it as Abraham Lincoln. Needless to say, it was an incredibly unimpressive effort. That was two years ago, before I started practicing my drawing and fonts and visual notetaking for three to fours hours a day in lecture. . . . I have a feeling that my 15-minute effort today would yield something very different.

A goal I have for my students as the semester goes on is for them to say, “I really can draw! And because of this, I’m a much more effective communicator!” Helping students to be confident in being visual is what I’m going for, and it’s great to see them gain this confidence all while succeeding in their schoolwork. Visual note-taking, or at least the capacity to think about the information you learn in a more visual way, can revolutionize your entire outlook on your education, as it did for me. Seeing your thoughts and ideas and opinions come to life, even if it’s just on paper, is empowering.

Rather than feeling sleepy and confused at the end of a lecture and having gained nothing more than a headache and a few pieces of binder paper that I won’t look at until the midterm, I now walk out of lecture feeling brilliant, creative and accomplished every day, just by holding onto a few pages of paper that I might cry if I lost. And that’s what I came to UC Berkeley to do, to be inspired each and every day, not just by my professors, but by myself and my classmates. article by Jo Wu photos by Brenden Beckley

If you were to know just one thin

g, I hope it would be this:

You are loved.

Regardless of what you say, wha t you

think, what you assume, or wha

No matter how dull your days are Or the countless hours you spen When your qualms paralyze you

t you feel;

or how solitary your nights beco

me,

d believing you will forever be alon

e;

to the extent that emptiness is

Or if the notion of feeling at all

all you feel,

has left your consciousness;

No matter how long you have drea

med of falling in love again,

Or even for the very first time;

Regardless of how far you would venture, Just to escape the solitude; No matter how much you resist, It is true.

You are loved, and you always will be.

- Tara Rastogi, Caliber’s Everything Challenge Winner

| SPOTLIGHT

words a refuge in

STUDENTS FIND THEIR VOICE HE STANDS OFF to the side of a crowded room; chairs and couches are arranged in a circle, an unmanned microphone standing alone in the center.

His attire is simple, a typical college student’s outfit of black hoodie and jeans.

Everything seems normal enough.

Then his name is called, setting off an explosion of cheers and catcalls when he rushes up to the mic. Finally, the cheering ceases, and the room falls silent in anticipation, waiting anxiously for him to begin.

The words come slowly at first, but one by one, they fall into place, forming a tale about growing up with a heritage and homeland he had never really known. An enraptured audience sits at full attention, captivated by this intimate, intensely personal narrative, only interrupting to snap in affirmation, approval and understanding. So he continues on, his voice mesmerizing every listener, rising and falling in intensity at all the right

20

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

places, his poetry letting people see into him in a way they would not, and could not, otherwise.

Appreciation. The sound will be heard again and again at this event, just like it is at all CalSLAM events.

“There is a place. Here. Where two worlds are slowly drifting towards each other. This is the closest I’ll ever come—I have ever come—to Panama. And I can taste it between my teeth,” he says, bringing his poem to an end. Another explosion of cheers echoes through the room, filling it with positive energy, only stopping long enough to let the next poet’s name be called.

At a place like Berkeley, where the stresses of academic life can cause people to feel stifled and overwhelmed, students can often find refuge in this sort of venue—a place where stories like this one can be told, a place where they can speak whatever’s on their mind.

The emcees, unsatisfied with the amount of appreciation displayed, ask the audience to give it up once again, which they do, happily. It becomes clear then that the applause is as much for appreciation as it is for encouragement.

Appreciation for the fact that, on this night, he has chosen to open up his life to the room, his message having brought everyone closer together.

For over a decade now, CalSLAM— which was awarded this year’s UC Berkeley’s Dean of Students Engagement award for its “positive impact on the campus community”—has given students on campus exactly that.

“Our mission is to create a safe space for students and community members to express themselves creatively,” says co-director and 3rd year student Jade Cho, especially for those people who say they “used to love to write, but can’t [anymore].”

SPOTLIGHT |

To understand how that space is formed, though, it is necessary to go back to the roots of slam culture.

In the 1980s, there was a movement spearheaded by Chicago poet Marc Smith to make the form more modern and accessible again, as he felt it had become too exclusive, too much the property of academia.

Smith accomplished this by adding a competitive element, hosting events where random members of the audience could judge each poet’s work, rating it out of 10.

While Marc Smith’s system can be seen at many CalSLAM events, that is where the similarities end. The club only uses competition to generate interest—their real purpose is to introduce those people into a community focused on creation, collaboration, and self-expression.

Community. The word is truly the best way to describe CalSLAM when the audience sees the diversity of poets performing on any given night: Asians, Latinos, members of the LGBTQ community, first generation Americans.

And you, too, if you wanted to be.

CalSLAM events are open to anyone, novice and seasoned, awkward or eloquent. A sign-up sheet always floats around before shows, eagerly awaiting

the names of those who wish to share their stories.

This happens whether the night is themed around topics like love or decolonization, or simply free-flowing and open.

The club only uses competition to generate interest—their real purpose is to introduce those people into a community focused on creation, collaboration, and self-expression

They are open to anyone.

Even the people who simply sit and listen.

“We don’t really have one members list or a way to keep track of people,” Cho says. “The only membership is the people who come through to our [weekly] writing workshops, which fluctuates every week. People who come to our shows, they count too.”

Those workshops are an extension of what the club does at their events, she says. After checking in for the week, the group usually tackles “two to three writing prompts, which you’re supposed to free write.”

“That’s where your pen doesn’t leave the page. Get rid of inhibitions and all that,” she explains. People are encouraged to share, but only if they want to— the workshops are more focused on generating actual writing and expression.

Poetry, not performance, is the goal.

However, CalSLAM doesn’t completely ignore its competitive roots. Throughout the year, its judged events are scored

and tabulated, with the top 10 poets eventually facing off for the right to represent Berkeley at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational held each April.

(For the record, Cal finished 3rd in 2011, one place ahead of Stanford.)

Even then, it isn’t about winning.

The focus for Gabriel Cortez, one of Berkeley’s representatives last year, is simply the chance to continue being heard.

“I think it’s always nice, but what I’ve learned from going to national competitions is the reward is to get to perform more. . . . It’s nice to get love from the community, but just because you win doesn’t mean you’ve won the respect of your fellow poets. That’s more of the goal than anything.”

A place where anyone can speak and share the contents of their soul, to a crowd that provides love, support and understanding—all right here on campus. Snaps to that. article by Nam Le photos by Simon Chen

calibermag.org

21

PERSPECTIVE

STUDENTS AT CAL

THE ALARM SOUNDS in Judith Lung’s dorm. It’s early and she needs all the time she can get to prepare for the long day. Like the rest of us, she slides on some clothes and combs her hair . . . and then packs her Braille-Note. She’s almost ready to leave the room, but not before she lets Van Dyke, her seeing eye dog, out of his kennel. After she’s groomed and fed him, she’s off to class and hopes she gets there on Berkeley time.

Most new students at University of California, Berkeley worry about making friends and keeping up with coursework or walking past People’s Park after dark.

Blind students, in addition to this, have to pay special attention to accessibility, transportation and various other aspects

PERSPECTIVE |

It’s a new city, a new environment, and especially if you’re fully blind, that can take some time to orient to. I think obviously it’s a lot to take in. of college life that most students take for granted. Simply getting to class can be a challenge.

“Van Dyke and I get lost all the time,” sophomore Lung says of her guide dog.

“He makes wrong turns or I try to correct him when he’s right.” When asked about the most difficult aspect to transitioning to Cal, senior Brad Bettridge—who is also legally blind—quickly answers, “That one’s pretty easy . . . it’s getting around.”

Kerry Stamps, the Blindness and Visual Impairment specialist for the Disabled Students Program (DSP), says that the first semester is critical to learning the ropes of campus. “It’s a new city, a new environment, and especially if you’re fully blind, that can take some time to orient to. I think obviously it’s a lot to take in,” he says. It’s not only the environment on campus that poses challenges—learning to live independently can also be difficult, just like it is for countless other new students. “The biggest difficulty in the first few months, more often than not, is just not having home-cooked food or things of that sort,” Bettridge says. Lung agrees that it requires effort to live away from home, perhaps more so than for sighted people. “Just learning to live alone, away from home [is a challenge],” she says. “I can make it to the dining hall all week and then somehow, like today, we can get lost. I need to always prepare extra time and learn time management.

It’s a lot of adjustments.”

To help with these adjustments, many organizations exist to provide disabled

students assistance with anything from mobility to dog training to navigating simple daily tasks. The Disabled Students Residency Program (DSRP) helps blind students with home-related challenges.

At one point, the DSRP housed disabled students in the local Cowell Hospital, but in 1975 the residence program was moved to Unit 2 in an attempt to combat the prejudice that hospitalization brought upon disabled students; it is now located in Unit 1. The rooms for disabled students are specially equipped to meet their needs, featuring automatic doors and wheelchair-accessible showers, among other modifications. Lung currently resides in this residence program, and employs a mobility teacher who helps her develop vital skills such as crossing busy streets or navigating public areas, all based on auditory cues and instincts.

However, no matter the extent of the practice, the risk of getting lost is always real and present.

The Disabled Students Program, affiliated with the DSRP, is headquartered in the Cesar Chavez building and serves the entire disabled population on campus.

The DSP was founded during the disability rights movement, started when wheelchair-bound Ed Roberts applied for admission to Cal in 1962 and sparked the general push for more disabled access to the University. During the subsequent decades, new programs and groups such as the Disabled Students Union, the DSP, the Department of Rehabilitation, and the Center for Independent Living worked together to build a more accessible and welcoming college environment for disabled students.

“I like to think that there’s a longstanding tradition [of helping disabled students] here, and we definitely take the accommodations seriously,” Stamps says.

“We want students with disabilities to be successful here so that they can go on and have satisfying careers or whatever they want to do after they leave Berkeley.”

To reach that goal, the DSP equips visually-impaired students—who, on average, number 30 to 40 any given year, according to Stamps—with technology like GPS devices that enhance mobility and access to campus resources. The program also provides various federaland state-mandated services for students with a wide range disabilities, both physical and psychological. Because of the diversity of disabilities and their varying degrees of severity, the types of accommodations disabled students require and benefit from at the DSP differ greatly. “[DSP services are] very individualized,” Stamps emphasizes.

“It’s not a cookie cutter process.”

In the classroom, visually-impaired students require special attention when it comes to note-taking and reading materials. Both Lung and Bettridge use a note-taking device called “Braille Note Apex”; similar to a computer, the tablet-like device has keys and popup braille that allows them to navigate the Internet and read texts. Professors are notified in advance by the DSP if a visually-impaired student is in their class and are, despite some notable exceptions, generally very willing to make any necessary accommodations.

Music professor Tamara Roberts, who

calibermag.org

23

| PERSPECTIVE taught Lung last year, says, “In general, I consider Judith just as I do any other first year undergraduate student—one who is learning the ropes of the university and excited about this next stage of academic life. I treat her blindness as I do many other specificities or challenges students face when they enter the classroom.”

Cal students have generally been very helpful and gracious in offering a helping hand when needed.

One important accommodation required by professors is to ensure reading and lecture materials are accessible to visually-impaired students. All reading materials assigned in class have to go through a process conducted in the DSP’s Alternative Media Department in Wheeler Hall, in which the text is transcribed into braille. However, because this process requires several weeks to operate, students sometimes have to deal with missing reading assignments.

“That’s one of the difficulties, getting the books and articles in advance,” Bettridge says. “But most of the professors are understanding and they try to get me stuff ahead of time and make sure I’m taken care of. Or if they didn’t get it to me on time, they’ve offered to excuse me from assignments.”

Outside of the classroom, blind students clearly also face difficulties related to their disability—making new friends at a new school can be the scariest part of the first-year experience, and it’s no different for disabled students.

“There are social challenges: being new to the campus and making friends can be

24

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

a little daunting, especially if you don’t really know who’s around you,” Stamps says. “But so far I think the students are getting better at making new contacts.”

In order to help guide students through these various social challenges, the “Independent Living” DeCal came into existence. It is a course taught for students with disabilities by students with disabilities—“but open to everyone,” as Bettridge says. “Essentially, its purpose is to teach incoming students how to adapt to Cal life and to prepare for the working world,” says Bettridge, who facilitates the course. “We have a lot of students who can do well at school, but few people go out of their comfort zone and do ‘normal’ things. Our focus in the DeCal is on social development and getting people involved with clubs and opening up a little more.”

Both Lung and Bettridge, however—just like many other Cal students—have very rich and diverse interests, extracurricular activities and social lives.

“I’m a huge sports fan; I love football, especially the NFL,” Bettridge says.

“That is my pastime. I love, on Sundays, just sitting back and watching football with friends or going to some pretty decent bars around here.” Although Bettridge can not clearly see the game on TV, he enjoys the “atmosphere” and culture related to sports watching.

After graduating from Cal, he plans to continue his education. “I’m looking at grad school, but I’m still not 100 percent defined on what I want to do,” he says.

“But I would really like to be a professor, or go into research of some kind.” As a member of speech and debate for the last two years, he adds, “I love politics in general, I just find it fascinating.”

Lung, on the other hand, is very active musically. “My parents think I am musical,” she says with a smile. Lung played violin in her school orchestra, and has been playing piano since a young age. As a blind student, she calls

her musical education “interesting.” “I had really good teachers,” she explains.

“None of my teachers had ever taught a blind student before, so they all came up with different ways.” She first learned to play piano in her native Hong Kong by listening to recordings and playing by ear. When she moved to the US, she learned the violin by reading notes in braille—quite a challenging endeavor, she adds. She continues to play the violin while at college, “whenever I have time,” she says. Like many students at Cal, Lung also plans to study abroad in either Europe or Asia. In addition, Lung has recently become a mentor at the Center for Independent Living—she has gone through training to help peers with disabilities both academically and socially.

Both Bettridge and Lung are involved with the Disabled Student Union (DSU).

Formed by disabled students, it is an oncampus organization designed to create a support system and a community space for disabled students at Berkeley. Bettridge, who is currently the co-president of the DSU, says, “It essentially runs as a group fighting for disabled students’ issues and an area where people can talk about the problems they’re having or what’s really working for them. One of the events we’re planning is the Disabled Awareness Week, in which we’ll have guest speakers and entertainment acts.”

However, there is currently no group solely dedicated to visually-impaired students; Stamps plans to initiate this in the near future. “It’s my plan to build a community among [visually-impaired] students to share resources and to support each other when difficulties arise,” he says.

These groups help raise awareness about disabilities on campus, although, according to both Bettridge and Lung, Cal students have generally been very helpful and gracious in offering a helping hand when needed. Lung says, “[My

PERSPECTIVE | guide dog Van Dyke and I] are always meeting new friends when I get lost and people help me out.”

Yet, blindness, as a noticeable disability, can make some sighted students feel uncomfortable and put a strain on interactions between sighted and blind students. Bettridge insists that ignoring the disability altogether is not a good solution; if sighted students want to help build connections with blind students and overcome the unease, Bettridge says to just ask. “Most people are pretty willing to talk about these things. I think with all

disability. “It’s not like some other students who don’t want to do as much or they complain,” Lung explains.

“The disabled students here are just like any other student, perhaps even more involved.”

Stamps goes further and explains that, through their common stories of overcoming obstacles regarding their disability, blind students can contribute something very special and inspiring to

the Cal community.

“They had to work really, really hard to get here, so I think they can definitely offer that spirit of perseverance and hard work,” he says. “They can bring that spirit of Cal, and they can inspire other students who maybe don’t have those kinds of disabilities to deal with.” article by Manon von Kaenel with Jeannine Ventura, photos by Brenden Beckley

Again, we are more similar than different from the sighted. Blindness is not us; it’s just a characteristic we have [that] makes us unique. disabilities, people feel that if they just raise the obvious, they’re going to offend the individual. I know I’m blind, I know I’m using this technology, I know I have to walk with a cane; if you point that out, that’s not going to bother me. But people are very afraid to come off as offensive [if they mention my disability],” he explains.

Lung agrees that misconceptions about blindness exist. “People think we are either super smart because we can do so much, or they think that we aren’t able to do very much,” she says. “Again, we are more similar than different from the sighted. Blindness is not us; it’s just a characteristic we have [that] makes us unique.” Lung goes on to point out that blind students share some characteristics unique to their experiences with their

calibermag.org

25

| PERSPECTIVE

THE WALK HOME Sexual Assault on Berkeley Campus SARAH WAS STUDYING late in the library one evening for a midterm. She ended up staying longer than she had planned and had to walk home alone.

She wasn’t afraid because she had walked home from that library plenty of times before, and she lived only a few blocks away. She reached a secluded alleyway, which was a short cut to her house, and she decided to take it. Halfway down the alley, she started hearing footsteps behind her. She began walking faster when suddenly the man following her grabbed her and pushed her to the wall.

He proceeded to force her onto the ground, overpower her and rape her.

This situation is the stereotype of rape

and sexual assault—90 percent of sexual assaults are nothing like this.

University of California, Berkeley’s Clery Statistics reports that the number of forcible sex offenses has risen from four to 23 within the past three years. The popular misconception about rape and sexual assault is that of a stranger attack in a dark alley or behind bushes, at night, in a lonely place, with a knife or some sort of weapon. While these kinds of attacks do happen, in reality, over 90 percent of victims know their attacker socially. In a recent study by the National Institute of Justice, female survivors of rape said they knew their attackers as fellow

CAMPUS RESOURCES

26

The Gender Equity Resource Center offers educational workshops, pamphlets, discussion groups and topic-related events. Located in 202 Cesar Chavez, behind the Golden Bear Cafe, right across from the Student Learning Center.

Get connected: http://geneq.berkeley.edu/

Bay Area Women Against Rape offers confidential service toll-free any hour of the day or night. Their highly trained counselors assist with health, counseling or crisis services and can offer further resources.

Get connected: (510) 845-7273

The Vagina Monologues is a movement around the world that celebrates all aspects of the feminine experience, including topics of sexual orientation, assault and empowerment; they have campus performances each February.

Get connected: http://www.vday.org/

Tang Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services gives students five free counseling sessions, available by appointment or with drop-in hours at 2222 Bancroft Way. Get connected: (510) 642-9494

Greeks Against Sexual Assault (GASA) is a new, action-oriented organization that raises awareness about assault prevention and provides resources within the Greek community for members of any council.

Get connected: http://www.facebook. com/ucbgasa

University of California Police Department can assist with any situation that requires legal action. Located in the basement of Sproul Hall.

Get connected: (510) 642-6760

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

classmates (35.5 percent), friends (34.2 percent), boyfriends or ex-boyfriends (23.7 percent) and acquaintances (2.6 percent). The vast majority of attackers (84 percent) does not use a weapon or violence, and instead uses verbal threats and an intimidating stance to control their victims. People tend to perceive only stranger rape as “real” rape, and consider incidents of sexual assault by an acquaintance as simply sexual misunderstandings rather than genuine sexual attacks. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) reported that even victims of acquaintance assault often do not identify their experience as sexual assault. In a survey conducted by Amnesty International in 2005 as part of their “Stop Violence Against Women” campaign, 30 percent of people thought a woman was at least partially to blame for being raped if she was drunk. Twentysix percent of people held the same view if the woman was walking alone in a dangerous area, wearing sexy or revealing clothing, or if it was known that she has had many sexual partners. Around one in 12 people believed that a woman was totally responsible for being raped if she had had many sexual partners.

Sexual assault is defined as any physical act of a sexual nature that is performed without a partner’s consent. It is distinct from rape, as it does not refer exclusively to forced intercourse— rather, it includes any kind of unwanted touch or forced sexual activity. Consent means positive cooperation in an act or expression of one’s intent to engage

PERSPECTIVE | in the act. The individuals consenting must act freely and voluntarily and have knowledge of the nature of the act or transaction involved. Consent cannot be given while the person is coming in and out of consciousness, under the threat of violence, or through other forms of coercion. There is a significant difference between UC Berkeley policy and California state law regarding the definition of “consent” as it relates to sexual assault and rape. California state law emphasizes that a case may be considered sexual assault or rape if the person participating did so against his or her will. That is to say, that the sexual conduct or intercourse occurred even after the complainant indicated that he or she was not willing to participate. UC Berkeley policy has a stricter definition of consent: it emphasizes that the situation may be considered sexual assault or rape if the individuals involved did not actively and voluntarily give consent. This means that silence does not signify consent, and consent must be explicitly expressed.

Sexual assault is particularly prevalent in college communities—the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (1998) revealed that every 21 hours, someone is raped on an American college campus. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice on “The Sexual Victimization of College Women” (2000) found that one in five college women are raped during their college years, and one in four experience sexual assault or attempted rape. According to NYU’s National Statistics about Sexual Violence on College Campuses, one-third of victims are freshman students between the ages of 17 and 19. Sexual assault remains the most radically underreported crime. It is estimated that 81 percent of on-campus and 84 percent of off-campus attacks are not reported to the police. In addition to not reporting to the police, 42 percent of college women who are raped don’t tell anyone about the assault.

Meanwhile, sexual assault within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is frequently overlooked. Same-sex sexual assault has not received much attention from support services, researchers or the criminal justice system, resulting in many survivors suffering from a lack of resources and support. Same-sex sexual violence can occur between friends, partners, acquaintances or strangers. It can occur in relationships, on a date, or even when individuals within the LGBT community are targeted and sexually assaulted or raped as a form of heterosexist social control. In a survey of college students at New York University, it was found that 11.7 percent of gay or bisexual men and 30.6 percent of lesbian or bisexual women reported experiences that met the legal definitions of rape. Same-sex survivors are even less likely than opposite-sex survivors to report the assault to the police or seek counseling—they may either fear that their sexual assault will not to be taken seriously or that their experience will be minimized (or, in some cases, sensationalized) by the police, the hospital, rape crisis center and others.

UC Berkeley’s recently published Clery Statistics demonstrates a staggering rise in the number of forcible sex offences on campus. Such a shocking increase in the incidence of sexual assault on campus calls for active efforts to challenge the culture of rape on college campuses.

Rape culture on campus perpetuates sexual assault by validating rape myths and often blaming the victim, thus intensifying the shame and silence that the majority of sexual assault victims deal with. In order to bring an end to sexual offenses, it is necessary to have an open and honest discussion about the realities of sexual assault and rape, to confront the myths that surround it, and to shatter the silence surrounding sexual violence in our world today.

PARTY SAFE 1. DEFLECTION: To escape a potentially uncomfortable situation, come up with an excuse to leave. Say you need to go to the bathroom. Take out your phone, look shocked and say that your friend had way too much to drink and needs your help. Pretend to spill your drink on yourself and then run away to “clean it up.” Sometimes, excuses are actually the best solution.

2. MONITOR YOUR DRINKS: Pour your own drinks, don’t leave the drinks unattended, and alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. If you’ve had too much, you can always “forget” your cup somewhere, or say you need a refill and get more soda instead of finishing the alcohol concentrated at the bottom of the cup.

3. SET A LEAVING TIME and stick to it, no matter what. If you’re really clicking with someone, exchange contact info and go home before it’s too late and you’re too drunk to make logical choices.

4. LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW whom you are with and where you are going so that they know where to find you after a set time. Make people accountable by making sure they know that you know their name and how to contact them—take pictures with them, become friends on Facebook during the party. Making sure that they are identifiable can minimize risks.

5. DEVELOP A CODE with your friends. Designate a certain dance move or more natural looking hand gesture as a signal that it’s time to leave.

article by Taylor Fugere & Meadhbh McGrath photos by May Kim

calibermag.org

27

| LIFESTYLE

taxonomy THE FIRST RULE of being a hipster is to never admit to being a hipster. So, if it’s not a chosen identity, what is a hipster? Is it a pejorative term, applied to young, artsy kids who slowly gentrify older, poorer neighborhoods? How do we define something that has been so broadly applied? What if we examine hipsters as the “other”? What if we look at them the way Darwin observed an exotic species?

From the diary of a scientist:

Sailing aboard the HMS BART, I left my homeland in search of strange creatures.

I had extensively documented the endless variation of the Brobroentus liftedtruckii and Brobroentus musculocarus species in the south and was in search of a new genus to evaluate. In the territory surrounding the San Francisco Bay, I first encountered the many subspecies of the Hipsterus genus. This species is bashful, often shunning the conspicuous watering holes and avoiding the most popular social sites—an attempt to evaluate the genus via Facebook was a spectacular failure. Hipsterus prefers to congregate in lesser-known areas, seeking always that which has just begun to catch on, or better yet, that which is yet unknown. Once other species join them, they disperse. Thus, my hunt was undertaken in secret. I attempted to camouflage myself in their distinctive garb, but was unsuccessful in passing unnoticed. (More on that later.)

I encountered first the dominant species, Hipsterus franciscus. These fast-moving specimens eluded me, whizzing past on fixed-gear bikes toward wine bars and independent music stores. I stalked them in the embattled indie coffee houses of the Mission District.

There, in the sunless canyons of Valencia Avenue, I first glimpsed the telltale markings of the species. Their jeans have evolved to end some three to four inches above the ankle, ending in a rolled cuff. This appears to facilitate the use of bicycles, but even non-cycling individuals evidence this trait. They commonly display multiple dark ink patterns in the pale epidermal layers and shave their natural follicular growth to a short length. Females of the species adopt an intentional display of conventionally unattractive qualities, often opting for asymmetrical arrangement of the mane and careful draping of the secondary sex characteristics. Thus, mating among H. franciscus is complicated, and I was unable to observe any definite courting behavior.

Embarking again on the HMS BART, I moved eastward, determined to observe the change in the genus as I traveled inland. I gathered evidence of two new species: Hipsterus berkelius berkelidae and Hipsterus berkelius oaklandish. The variation between these two was subtle, but worth documenting. H. berkelius berkelidae has no natural predators. They are the apex of their environment, showing signs of all acceptable social consciousness while still maintaining the aura of cool, cutting-edge information. H. berkelius berkelidae is post-racial, capable of making offensive words sound archaic and ironic. H. berkelius oaklandish displays less presumption than its northern neighbor, opting for less costly living environments and cheaper brands of beer. These

28

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

LIFESTYLE |

two subspecies resemble one another quite closely, but can discern their kinship groups by scent. Rarely will one find H. berkelidae south of the economic lowlands of Telegraph Avenue, or H. oaklandish north of the wide mating grounds of the University co-ops. The two are capable of interbreeding, yet they resist it.

The Berkelius species is notably different from findings catalogued by my colleagues in other nesting sites. Figure A, Hipsterus brooklynidae williamsburgis is described as “fiscally liberal and socially irresponsible.” Figure B, Hipsterus norwich brittanidae imbibes far more alcohol than any other subspecies, yet reigns untouched in its biosphere.

Hipsterus camouflage is subtle and difficult to mimic. I have observed Scenius juventilius and D. Bag officianalis attempt Hipsterus mimicry for mating or domination purposes, only to be rejected

by Hipsterus pods with barely a sniff.

I attempted to don their characteristic markings and pass among them. I styled my hair poorly, in a shape that does not flatter my face. I removed all culturally appropriate makeup and obtained a vintage pair of nonprescription glasses.

Adopting their typical coat pattern, I shopped at their chosen venues of thrift stores and estate sales, choosing to layer a bizarre assortment of fifty-year-old fashions, militaristic garb worn in irony, and attempted a few of their characteristic vocalizations.

“Is this organic?” I asked, pitching my voice to sound unconcerned, but annoyed.

No answer came from the pod watching me from the other side of the café.

“Shit, I lost my Moleskine. Does

anybody have a cigarette? Preferably an American Spirit?” They sidled away from me, eyebrows twitching.

I took out my tattered paperback copy of “Catcher in the Rye,” trying an indirect appeal. In the end, I realized my fatal mistake. They could tell I was trying.

Hipsterus can smell effort, and they’re very sensitive to any form of intentionality or eagerness. Defeated in my attempt to travel with the pod, I returned to my khaki hunter’s garb and pith helmet, and resumed the hunt.

Despite my discouraging results in certain aspects of the hunt, I was able to record valuable habits and traits of all Hipsterus types. All Hipsterus can be found congregating in independent coffee houses (Sack’s, Philz, Ritual) and dive bars (The Stork Club, George Kaye’s, Bar Three Fifty-Five.) Not all Hipsterus are members of co-ops, but almost all co-op members are Hipsterus. Bike churches, bike co-ops, bike collectives and bike organizations are dominated by Hipsterus in every biosphere I observed. It is tempting to label bus drivers as a natural predator of Hipsterus in every environment. Biking Hipsterus and bus drivers compete for the same resources and occasionally the larger vehicle is at a significant advantage.

However, Hipsterus is crafty, highly maneuverable and knowledgeable in its environment. They resist collision and avoid confrontation quite skillfully.

In the end, I was unable to codify the genus completely. Some registered as Hipsterus because of their involvement in independent music, while others attracted attention as food and beverage aficionados. I typed Hipsterus solely on the grounds of fashion, but discovered an entire kin group dedicated to building ukuleles out of cigar boxes who showed no obvious Hipster physicality, yet must be counted among Hipsterus. I soon lost the ability to tell the difference between an art student on a bicycle and a full-blooded Hipsterus, unless he identified himself by use of Instagram and disdain. Truly, nature defies clean compartmentalization.

Further research is needed.

“…endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”—Charles Darwin. ~~~ Learning what we can from our Darwin-esque guide, we must return to the question: what is a hipster? The stereotype tells us they are the people who fill out one whole row on our detachable hipster bingo card (found on page 65). The bingo card lampoons the worst part of hipsterism: the temptation to live life inside-out.

Exposure before experience; Instagram before eating. The pejorative judgment of hipsters begins when the culture becomes associated with insistent and ostentatious gestures of self-definition. The best part of hipsterism is enthusiasm and attention to the authentic, self-fashioning experience of life. It’s the revolutionaries who bravely shopped at thrift stores before it was cool and refused to conform to a culturally ignorant mainstream of consumerism.

But if you look around your classes and dorms, your co-ops and walking trails, in your groups of friends and exes and acquaintances . . . it becomes clear.

Hipsters are you and me; hipsters are Cal. Funny and awe-inspiring, they are our trendsetters and early adopters, as well as our ridiculed performance artists of oddlydressed and over-narrated ordinary life.

Change the rules. Say “I’m a hipster,” to the mirror. Put on your RayBans and be proud. Then, slip past the cultural gatekeepers by creating, not just critiquing, art and music and prose and drama and dance.

The opposite of a hipster is a try-hard.

Nothing is as uncool as someone who is trying too hard to look cool. The things that make you cool are the ones you do so naturally that it looks like you’re not trying at all. The truly hip are always at ease. They don’t try to be what they’re not and they are perfectly comfortable with who they are.

Stop trying. Don’t be afraid. Some of the coolest people in the world are a full row of Hipster Bingo unto themselves. article by Meg Elison photos by Brittany Smith

calibermag.org

29

Kluegel House Student Housing Weird Name, Cool House.

Kluegel House is a private student rooming house located two blocks north of the UC Berkeley campus.

You can live in a gorgeous old mansion, in a spacious and sunlit room, surrounded by 100-year old redwoods, amid a couple of dozen other UCB students.

Rent includes utilities, high-speed wifi, common-area cleaning, shuffleboard, ping pong, T-rex, flamingos, food staples (rice, pasta, flour, sugar, spices, etc.), soaps (bath, laundry, hand, dish), shampoo & conditioner, notary services, and housecats George Clooney & Mabel.

Life can be good.

2669 Le Conte Avenue, Berkeley, CA (510) 356-3523 kluegel-house.com 30

Caliber Magazine / Spring

LIFESTYLE |

WHERE DOES

HAIR IN MAY 1915, an ad appeared in Harper’s Bazaar announcing to American women a problem that until then they didn’t know they had. A photograph of a young woman wearing a one-shoulder dress with her arms arched over her head, displaying perfectly hairless armpits, read, “Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.” This ad launched body hair removal as a widespread social norm that still exists almost a hundred years later.

Rebelling against Victorian ideals of womanhood, the 1920s gave rise to a massive unveiling of the female body and an obsession with the presentation of the physical self. Female clothing of that era, such as revealing flapper dresses, encouraged women to display and feminize their body parts. The body itself became the fashion of the 1920s, creating an obligation for women to be hairless. This change of emphasizing the body rather than clothing in fashion meant that women were required to be more aware of their physical selves.

BELONG?

By imposing uniform standards of beauty, the media then instructed women to dislike and deny their bodies, informing them that they must undergo strict grooming procedures in order to disguise and conceal their natural form.

The strong relationship between the media and gendered body norms persists to this day, and people still declare images of hairy women as embarrassing and physically repulsive. Why do we never see hairy legs or underarms on TV in any context other than as a joke? Every time female body hair is even mentioned in the media, it is usually followed by disgusted shrieks of “Eewww!’ and “Gross!” Media has conditioned American society since birth to think of the natural female body hair as unclean and unfeminine. Why are these same features on a man not seen as unhygienic and disgusting? People don’t look at a man’s underarm hair with the same repulsion as they do at that of a woman. Men have many choices for facial and other body hair, while women are left with just one: hairlessness.

In order to be considered “feminine,” women are expected to negate their adult selves by removing the most visible, prominent physical sign of becoming an adult. In a more naturalized context, the hairless woman could be considered less feminine than the woman who keeps her body hair, as she is removing a feature of her natural, womanly body. However, due to distinctions made particularly in American culture between what is masculine and feminine, perceptions of male and female body hair in the United States are completely different. Students at UC Berkeley described facial hair and other body hair on men as “sexy,” “natural” and “manly,” while they regarded female body hair as “smelly,” “dirty” and “gross.”

Most women don’t even think about removing their body hair, as it is something they do almost unconsciously. Shaving is considered to be a rite of passage for girls in their teens, and then continues throughout their lives. Adolescence is a critical time of identity formation, and so over time,

calibermag.org

31

| LIFESTYLE

The debate over body hair revolves around arguments for personal freedom and control over one’s body. the youth come to understand body hair removal as an everyday, commonplace practice that forms a natural and normal part of grooming. The practice of hair removal is so normative that it generally goes unquestioned.

Influences by the media and society cause women to be perpetually dissatisfied with their bodies and to consider any bodily hair other than what’s on their head as impermissible, unacceptable and ugly.

Women at UC Berkeley who chose not to incessantly shave shared that when they first grew out their body hair, they felt like they were on public display and that everyone was looking at them. People frequently approached them about it, and they recalled other women telling them, “Don’t do this! You’re a cute girl! You can get a boyfriend if you stop this!” Even other women cannot stand to see a woman’s body in its natural state. In her Huffington Post piece “Skinny Versus Curvy: Why Women Can Never Win,” U.K. writer Mary McGill explains: “Women’s bodies are treated as public property, as ‘things’ to be consumed, improved and judged.” She

32

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

goes on to describe how women’s body parts are frequently reduced to “dehumanised ‘bits’— breasts, hips, thighs, bums, legs,” and how women themselves are often each other’s harshest critics.

On the other hand, male body hair, particularly facial hair, has been traditionally linked to power, strength, virility, leadership and, ultimately, the ideal of masculinity. In recent years, however, the male body has also been subjected to intensive scrutiny and objectification. The “metrosexual,” a straight man who spends time and money on his appearance, largely came into popular and consumer culture in the 1990s. The idealized male body was concurrently constructed through the media, primarily in health and fitness magazines. The emergence of a “new kind of man” could be seen in fashion magazines like GQ, in clothing adverts, and even in sports figures like David Beckham. The practice of “manscaping” became popular, and a survey in Men’s Health magazine found that more than 80 percent of men clip, shave or wax their body hair, and 60 percent of men trim their pubic hair.

Male students at UC Berkeley described feeling pressure to trim or tidy their body hair. A number of them explained that

they understood the removal of body hair to be “the polite thing to do” and that they felt it “looks better.” The majority of these students reported beginning to remove body hair once they started college, while some had been removing their body hair for years before that. Male students all indicated different levels of hair removal: a few shaved their whole chest, some trimmed their underarm hair, others paid particular attention to their eyebrows and nose hair, and nearly all focused on their pubic hair. Typically, though, women experience far more pressure than men to conform to the hairlessness norm. Why is it that women are required to shave and men can choose?

The debate over body hair revolves around arguments for personal freedom and control over one’s body. Post-feminism argues for liberation through empowered choice, and some people consider a woman’s ability to choose to engage in beauty practices to be empowering. However, for most women, the “choice” to remove their body hair is not much of a choice at all. Removal of body hair has become tacitly compulsory, and women who say they prefer their bodies to be smooth or hairless, or that it makes them feel sexy, are responding to internalized standards of beauty. Female students had difficulty remembering reasons why they started shaving other than “because everyone else did it and I didn’t want to look weird.” They added that they still remove their body hair “because it’s expected, [and] I don’t want people to look at me funny.” Is this what women will still be saying another hundred years from now? article by Meadhbh McGrath photos by Olivia Crawford

TECH

old school

INSTAGRAM

GET A DOUBLE EXPOSURE ON YOUR DISPOSABLE: A double exposure is when you have two photos overlaid on the same frame. Take your first picture. Don’t wind the film. Now charge the flash. Once it’s charged, smack the camera on the palm of your hand with the lens facing towards your subject and the flash should fire. This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but if it does, the results are always unexpected.

LOMOGRAPHY CAMERAS: With Lomography cameras (lomography. com), the filters and special effects are built into each individual camera. Some have built-in fish-eye lenses; some distort color and add vignetting (I’m looking at you, Instagrammers). The retail prices are the only downside to these quirky items, with prices ranging anywhere from $50 to even $500. The best ways to get your hands on Lomo cameras without spending this month’s rent is to scour Amazon and eBay. UrbanOutfitters also sells these cameras, and when they have their huge 50 percent sales, you may score a great deal.

BEFORE DIGITAL CAMERAS, Photoshop and Instagram filters, there was film photography. It is understandable how film can seem outdated. Unlike digital photography, there is no instant gratification: you have to pay and wait for development. It is not as easily alterable: you have to scan your prints before Photoshopping and adding filters to them. And there is always the possibility that your photos will turn out bad. Regardless of the cons, the risky and nostalgic quality of film prints only make those photos, and memories, more precious. But for those of us whose photographic skills are limited to disposable cameras and 35mm film, here are some easy ways to breathe some extra life into those prints.

ADD A FILTER WITH DRY ERASE MARKERS: Take your disposable camera and color the lens with any colored dry erase marker. Dry erase markers are easy to wipe off on smooth, glass-like surfaces so you can change between colors! Be sure to wipe the lens thoroughly between color changes and to not over-color the lens, otherwise you’ll end up with chunky pieces of ink that will show up as obstructions. Along these lines, you can hold anything transparent against the lens to create a filter, like plastic wrap or funky colored sunglasses.

POLAROIDS AND FUJIFILM INSTAX: For those who love the “insta” in Instagram, this is for you because these cameras produce instant prints! Polaroids are always a classic, but since the company stopped manufacturing analog products in 2008, Polaroids have become an expensive novelty. The Impossible Project (the-impossible-project.com) sells refurbished cameras and film, but they cost a pretty penny. On the other hand, Instax cameras and film are readily available online and in stores, making this the cheaper alternative with the same purpose!

MAKE YOUR OWN “BOKEH”: Bokeh is a Japanese term in photography that means “blur.” With a bokeh, you can change the shape of anything that is out of focus. Note, it’s easier if you have a manual camera with a large lens and it works with both film and digital.

Take black construction paper and cut any shape of your liking in the middle (if you have those specially shaped holepunchers, this is a great opportunity to use them!). Securely attach it the lens; make sure it’s snug to prevent light leaks and set your aperture to the lowest setting possible. Anything that is out of focus in your shot will now be in the shape that you put on your bokeh.

Lesson: film is fun and still has a place in our digitized society. The experimental and accidental results are what makes it so enjoyable and all the more special. Film allows you to create something truly unique, which is much more exciting than simply applying the “Lo-Fi” filter to your plate of French fries on Instagram. article by Gabbie Guison

calibermag.org

33

| TECHNOLOGY

THE UNITED STATES OF

The increasingly draconian policies of the intelligence institutions of the United States has undermined the balance of power between the government and the citizens.

THE TERM “POLICE STATE” often conjures up images of secret police in Eastern Germany, listening in on private telephone conversations using roving surveillance vans. It also brings up the dystopian future of George Orwell’s “1984.”

Unfortunately, the new millennium has seen the United States develop into a situation that bears a disturbing resemblance to the Orwellian states that emerge in both history and fiction. A growing combination of legislation, executive orders and technological innovation has created a state of affairs in which our government has the ability to probe our every electronic action, and tap into the intimate details of our daily lives. Thus, it becomes increasingly important for Americans—and especially for politically active students at universities like UC Berkeley—to be wary of the steadily increasing scope of government surveillance.

Spying on its citizens is nothing new for the United States. Project MINARET, an operation by the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, intercepted and analyzed the electronic communications of thousands of targeted American citizens. Its sister operation, Project SHAMROCK, was of a similar nature; SHAMROCK’s goal was to collect and record all telegraphic messages that entered or exited the United States. Neither of these operations had any judicial oversight or Congressional approval. It should also be noted that during this time period, the NSA had a close working relationship with the private companies in charge of America’s communications infrastructure.

Project SHAMROCK, for example, would not have been possible without the cooperation of Western Union in allowing the NSA to access its records.

It is tempting to think that such activities have remained in the past, as artifacts of the Cold War era. Recent events, however, have proven otherwise. Most everybody

34

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

TECHNOLOGY |

NSA Surveillance building, Fort Meade, Maryland.

has heard of the PATRIOT act, the post 9/11 legislation that made it far easier for law enforcement agencies to collect intelligence within US borders. But not as many people have heard of “Stellar Wind,” a secret Bush-era project by the NSA that replicated much of the surveillance activities it conducted during the Cold War. Its very existence has grave consequences for how we should view our government.

In many ways, Stellar Wind was what MINARET wished it could have been.

While both projects were identical in their intents and executions, Stellar Wind was much broader in scope. Its purpose was to sift through countless Americans’ e-mails, phone records and Internet usage in order to keep tabs on their activities and contacts. U.S. telecommunication companies aided the NSA by handing over access to email and phone records, much like how Western Union handed over copies of telegrams to the NSA and the FBI back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In addition, electronic finance meant that the NSA also had access to credit card transactions, bank withdrawals and debit card purchases.

The alleged purpose of Stellar Wind was to prevent terror attacks on American

soil, and officials claimed that only people suspected of ties to foreign terror groups were listened in on; however, declassified documents show that many of the people who were under surveillance had extremely tenuous, if any, ties to organizations like al-Qaeda.

The program was illegal, and the actions surrounding the program prove as much. There was no official name for the material gathered under Stellar Wind, which was the first of several red flags that lead internal whistleblowers to eventually contact the media. In addition, there was a great deal of unease in the Justice Department over the program (at least among the select few who knew of the program’s existence).

It was this internal controversy that served as the motivation behind those “Arrest John Yoo” posters that may have been seen around Berkeley a few years ago. John Yoo was, in fact, the legal scholar who successfully argued that the NSA domestic spying program was legal, and that Bush had the authority to secretly override Congress and allow unwarranted surveillance on citizens. However, this “secret ruling” was overturned after the Attorney General and his assistant went against

the tides and fought for Stellar Wind’s abolition, eventually refusing to sign off on the program’s renewal in 2004.

Bush attempted to override this refusal, but backed down when faced with the prospect of the resignation of the FBI director, the Attorney General and other high-ranking officials. And thus, with the government’s checks and balances working like they were supposed to, the executive power of the government to spy on Americans was curtailed.

Well, not quite.

Within the last few years, another whistleblower has stepped forward: William Binney, one of the original mathematicians who helped create the program behind Stellar Wind.

Frustrated with the way the NSA has been using his algorithms and codes, Binney has since been increasingly vocal in voicing his insider’s perspective on government surveillance: that programs like Stellar Wind are still very much alive, and are much wider in scope than anybody realizes.

The program is so wide in scope, that Binney believes storing the massive amounts of data that is currently being

calibermag.org

35

| TECHNOLOGY

collected is the primary impetus behind the construction of NSA’s newest facility: a $2 billion, 1 million square-foot data storage facility, the biggest in the United States. Its purpose is to consolidate all of NSA’s activities into a central cloudlike system—including, presumably, the secret domestic spy programs that are still in service.

Another piece of evidence for continued domestic spying is the existence of “listening posts” that was revealed back in 2006. Whistleblowers revealed the existence of 10 to 20 such posts that are scattered throughout the country, and which intercept and record the phone records of calls that are made in the

36

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

United States. While the actual content of the calls are supposedly not available, the details of who is calling who, locations and call length are tracked and stored. One such listening post was revealed to be the AT&T building right here in the Bay Area, in San Francisco.

“. . . it seemed as though the NSA was ‘using any excuse’ to track and monitor the activities of American citizens” However, the notion that phone calls are not directly listened to or recorded

is questionable; voice interceptors for the NSA have since stepped forward and revealed that the agency does, in fact, have the ability to eavesdrop on private conversations in real-time. The voice interceptors who stepped forward were disgusted with the violations of privacy that were inherent in their work, talking about how it felt like they were “going through people’s diaries,” and that it seemed as though the NSA was “using any excuse” to track and monitor the activities of American citizens. And aside from phone conversations, the NSA is also able to penetrate online communication by intercepting data packets traveling to and from the dozens of satellites that support the Internet.

TECHNOLOGY | Sophisticated software allows for the cracking of encrypted emails, in order to conduct automated searches of keywords and language of interest. Emails that contain such content are then copied and sent to the NSA for analysis.

So, what does all this mean for the average Cal student?

It obviously does not bode well that the government has its nose snooping through students’ businesses. It specifically doesn’t bode well for students who are politically active—especially in ways that can be construed as oppositional to the status quo. The increasing amount of political activity at Berkeley, in conjunction with the nationwide trends toward radical political action that are emerging across the nation, has a strong parallel with the ‘50s and ‘60s, when Berkeley activists became increasingly involved with the Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Anti-War movements. And likewise, it is important to be wary of similar parallels appearing in the way the State responds to the movements.

The ‘60s and its lack of easy-to-intercept Internet communication meant that the government had to resort to rather blunt tactics to achieve its ends. The FBI routinely broke into and bugged various Berkeley activists’ houses, and enlisted agents to watch these targets 24/7, gathering as much data as possible.

They were assisted by the NSA, and had access to data collected through Project MINARET. This allowed the State to create comprehensive profiles on hundreds of students and faculty members who were considered to be a

potential threats. Among these targets was the student leader, Mario Savio, and UC President Clark Kerr, whom some in the FBI thought had connections to the Soviet Union. And the results of this spying was not a simple loss of privacy.

With the information that the NSA and FBI were able to gather, programs like COINTELPRO (an FBI program whose purpose was to covertly take down domestic anti-war, civil-rights and other left-wing organizations) were much more effective.

Swinging back to the present, and keeping in mind remarks made by whistleblowers from the NSA, one can see why the present political climate creates a serious need for political activists at Berkeley to tread lightly.

There is the temptation to think that the ‘60s was the ‘60s, and that the government is no longer its paranoid, old Cold War self; but given the facts and figures coming from the mouths of federal officials themselves, it is clear that matters have remained the same since the Cold War, if not worse.

The modern State’s relationship to its citizenry is one of deep intimacy— but not vice versa.

Technological advancements in communications, while being hailed as key factors in revolutions like those of the Arab Spring, are at the same time rendering our own thoughts, motivations and ideals transparent to those in the halls of power. The Internet has been able to supercharge programs like MINARET into dimensions that the intelligence officers of old could only dream of.

Prospects at securing privacy in the future seem bleak. Despite dissent from even the highest positions in the Department of Justice, testimonies from people like Binney demonstrate that there is a certain level of inevitability in state-sanctioned surveillance. And this shouldn’t come as a surprise—the government is, like any institution, a self-interested entity. And we cannot

forget that the United States of America is not exactly the beacon of freedom, democracy and prosperity that many put it out to be; indeed, it is difficult to stick to such ideals when you belong to the biggest military empire in human history. The State will protect itself and its economic interests, especially when it

The modern State’s relationship to its citizenry is one of deep intimacy— but not vice versa. is beholden to the kinds of corporate and military interests that it is today. Thus, it is important that those interested in social change do not become caught up in trying to fight against surveillance purely for privacy’s sake—surveillance has always been a symptom of the much larger problems of corruption, power-mongering and socio-economic inequities.

Privacy is on the decline, and Big Brother is growing ever larger. But at the same time, one can take a small comfort in the knowledge that if the government is in fact fearful of modern dissidents in the same manner that the government was fearful of student radicals in the ‘60s, then perhaps such activists are doing something right after all. All in all, this new era of electronic surveillance changes little about what political dissidents must do, aside from requiring a good understanding of communication security and cyberspace.

But the problems still remain the same, and moving forward is still the only acceptable path. article by Rohit Upadhya

calibermag.org

37

| COVER

40

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

COVER |

From privatization to demonstrations, the campus icon talks politics OF ALL THE CELEBRITIES, public figures and high-status academics on campus, Robert B. Reich is arguably one of the most famous. Once the Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration, he is now an acclaimed political commentator and author—and, of course, the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. His “Wealth and Poverty” class regularly fills Wheeler Hall to the point where its eager occupants are packed like sardines, and he maintains one of the highest ratings of any professor in campus history. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, then, that there was a tad bit of nervousness prior to the interview with this giant of politics.

But of course, as those who have taken his class know, Reich is certainly one of the more charming and personable professors on campus. Despite his mild cold and lack of breakfast or lunch, Reich made every effort to maintain a cheerful and accessible ambience during the interview.

The office itself was a sight to see. Books were stacked several feet high on extra chairs and desks across the

room, papers were scattered all about his computer and workspace, and the walls were covered with various paintings and posters—including a partially covered one that looked suspiciously like an old-school Leninist poster from the revolutionary days of pre-Soviet Russia.

Before we walked in for the interview, he was writing an op-ed for The Hill, a daily congressional newspaper in D.C. that writes while Congress is in session. “The days vary enormously,” he said, twiddling his thumbs.

Even before meeting his op-ed deadline in a seemingly effortless manner, he did some early-morning writing, participated in a teleconference, met with GSIs, and lectured for his class. Later that night, he would appear on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” to discuss problems surrounding the fiscal cliff debate. For him, clearly, every day is a busy day, and there is no such thing as an “average” work day.

Before ending up at the University of California, Berkeley and writing that particular op-ed at his paperpacked desk, Reich had taught at Harvard University and Brandeis University—both east coast private schools. Naturally, the economic, racial and ethnic

calibermag.org

41

diversity at Berkeley is more apparent, and as a strong supporter of the public university, Reich offered yet another reason as to why he chose the west coast’s Goldman School of Public Policy. “In my experience, my students here at Cal have been more appreciative and eager to learn—certainly more than my students at Harvard,” he said, an amused glint in his blue eyes. They possess a depth and calmness that could have only come from his many years of experience in juggling his myriad obligations as professor, author, political commentator and former Cabinet member.

For Reich, it was more satisfying to teach at a university like Berkeley not just because of the students, but also because of the nature and inherent value

42

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

of a public university—an ideal for which he has always been a strong advocate.

Throughout the interview, during which he discussed administrative bloat and privatization, student demonstrations, and big money and national politics, Reich’s passion for the public university was a constant, reassuring force.

public education naturally turned the conversation to the current crisis that the University of California is facing.

Interestingly enough, Reich believed we are coming out of the worst of it, in terms of the fiscal crisis. But, as he explained, the threat of privatization is still well and present.

“It’s the vehicle through which the working class has a shot at making it,” he explained. “It has a different relationship to the public and to the community than does a private university. It is, by its nature, an institution that responds to the needs of the public. And to me, it’s a privilege being part of a public university.”

“It’s tempting for public universities to become ‘public universities’ in name only, and slowly privatize,” he said. “If tuitions and fees get any higher here, we could find ourselves tipping over into becoming a private university, where access is very limited. That’s a danger even now. If we become too dependent on corporate money for research, we also run the risk of losing our public identity.”

Another threat to that “public identity”

“Losing our Public Identity” Of course, discussing the importance of

COVER |

is administrative bloat—or spending more resources at a faster pace on administration rather than on research or education. Upon closer inspection at the numbers today, there are actually more managers and administrators than professors throughout the University of California—the result of a steady trend that started in the ‘90s. That is why some accuse the administration as bearing a large part of the responsibility for the fiscal crisis on campus.

Reich laughingly pointed out that administrative bloat exists everywhere.

Naturally, there is pressure on every large organization—whether private or public—to provide services in an efficient way. “Remember I spent almost half of my adult life in the federal government,” he said. “I mean, talk about administrative bloat!”

The University of California is no different in Reich’s eyes. He was quick to admit that academic administration is very difficult, especially with the pressure the University has been under the past few years. He also worried at the ease with which administrators can create another position under them to delegate their work to—leading to potentially superfluous paychecks. “I think [the administration] is talented and that the staff is among the best in the country, if not the world . . . but do we have too many people in the administration, doing too many things, that are either unnecessary, or duplicative? Absolutely.”

Although the fiscal pressure that the University has faced the past few years has, in the end, led to administrative bloat, Reich insisted that the pressure is not necessarily bad. “It can generate some good things,” he said. “It can force us to be

more creative and re-examine why we’re here, and what we hope to accomplish.”

And this is where one of Reich’s favorite topics surfaced: the protest.

The “Proper” Way to Protest Berkeley has a certain reputation for protests—from Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s to last year’s Occupy Cal and demonstrations regarding tuition hikes. Reich himself was the keynote speaker at last year’s massive general assembly in November, where he gave a speech to several thousand Berkeley students about corporate manipulation of elections.

According to Reich, the students and this culture of protest are the missing link that can help the University to re-examine their goals. Students can and should, he said, put pressure on the state legislature and the Regents through public demonstrations. However, a successful movement is complex and multifaceted.

First, Reich warned about the crucial balance between student demonstrations and lobbying.

“You’re not going to be successful in lobbying Sacramento, unless Sacramento feels some heat,” he explained.

“On the other hand, if it’s just heat, and if it’s just demonstrations, and there’s no connection between those demonstrations and actually lobbying, then the demonstrations have very little meaning. So both are necessary.”

Also, the extent to which the public, the general community at large, is brought along determines in large part the relative success of a demonstration. But how do we bring the public along?

“You make a ruckus,” Reich answered. “But at the same time you educate the public about the importance of some issue. You gradually get not only the attention, but the commitment from the public to the issue and its importance.”

However, Reich warned that a student demonstration like occupying a building could just as likely turn off the public as get their attention. “It may look like a bunch of privileged kids, and that they’re so privileged that they feel they can just take over a public building,” he said.

And this certainly matches some of the critical rhetoric from the media during the various building occupations that have happened over the years.

The trick to avoid turning off the public, Reich advised, is to make sure it doesn’t see the students as just one interest group competing for a limited set of resources— resources that could otherwise go to infrastructure or K-12 education. In addition, Reich emphasized the importance of portraying the University of California as a public good, and as an investment in California’s long-term well-being.

“On the food chain, UC students are really at the top, relative to most people in the state,” he said. “Their prospects are very good. Their earnings will be far higher than the median earnings in California. So the public has to understand that higher education is a public investment, a public good. It is not just a private investment.”

calibermag.org

43

| COVER

This type of unfaltering belief in contemporary democracy and institutional politics is perhaps one of Reich’s most defining perspectives. The truth is, Robert Reich is no radical— he believes that the primary purpose of protests and demonstrations is to involve the public, and to put pressure on politicians, rather than directly challenging the very legitimacy of the Regents—or even of the State—by calling for strikes and disrupting the smooth functioning of the University.

Every Cal student is familiar with the previous Chancellor Birgeneau’s emails reminding students that there is a time, place and method for proper protesting.

For Reich, on the other hand, sometimes it is necessary to cause that sort of disruption or “fuss.” Bringing attention to a particular student issue may require breaking rules—which is not exactly what the Chancellor considers “proper.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong! It would be just as foolish to adhere to every order that comes down from California Hall,” he said.

“Nobody’s going to know that students are concerned about fee increases if students are well-behaved and relatively quiescent.

What is required is a careful calibration of making a fuss, but also—once the public is engaged, and the fuss generates attention— to use that as an opportunity to educate the broader community.”

Reich also admitted to being conflicted about the tactic of building occupations themselves, particularly when they disrupt classes, like his own “Wealth and Poverty” class in Wheeler Hall—a frequent target in building occupations.

“On one hand, it’s great that students are being active and expressing themselves and attracting attention,” he said. “But on the other hand, isn’t it ironic? The whole purpose of this institution is now being compromised because I can’t teach my class, and 780 students can’t attend my lecture.”

44

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

Besides, he offered hesitantly, there are plenty of other buildings on campus that could serve as worthy and effective targets for occupation. “I’d say that if you had to occupy any place, and had to disrupt somebody . . . occupy California Hall, and disrupt the administrators.” With this reluctant answer, the normally confident man’s voice hinted at a conflict between his affinity for student activism and the obvious problems with advocating for occupying his employers’ building.

N a t i o na l l y : “B i g M o n e y in Politics” Just like with the privatization of public universities, Reich’s main concern with national politics, as those who follow his blog (at robertreich.org) know, is that corporate money—and money in general—has a corrosive effect on democracy with its ability to twist elections.

The issue, he believed, should be—and to an extent, is—a bipartisan issue.

“Whether somebody’s a Democrat or a Republican, they should have one thing in mind, and that’s the public purpose, the public good,” Reich insisted. “Not their own political ambitions, not the political needs of contributors and donors.”

There was a growing problem with money and politics even before the 2008 Supreme Court decision for Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which upheld the notion that money is free speech, and that corporations should not be limited in their monetary contributions to political campaigns.

This decision made the issue of finance reform, which Reich believed is crucial to build a stronger bulwark against money in politics, all the more urgent.

“Again, and I say this not from the standpoint of a Democrat or a liberal: I’m just very worried about our democracy, as I think many conservatives are,” Reich clarified. “One of my dearest friends is Alan Simpson, a former Senator from

Whether somebody’s a Democrat or a Republican, they should have one thing in mind, and that’s the public purpose, the public good.

Wyoming—he’s a Republican—and I was talking to him the other day about this, and he’s as upset and worried about Big Money in politics as I am.”

Interestingly enough, this problem that Reich found so threatening to American democracy is largely overlooked in mainstream federal politics. Despite Reich’s mention of Alan Simpson as being a concerned Republican, few in today’s GOP care to mention the problem of money in politics, other than to uphold it as a type of free speech.

And a similar trend holds with the Democrats, who are also largely silent on the issue—other than the more far leftist Congressmen like Bernie Sanders.

Even Obama, whom many progressives seem to view as some sort of liberal Jesus, has taken a lot of flak for not following through on his (brief) condemnations of the Citizens United case and the general state of campaign finance.

The question is, does this lack of mainstream spotlight on the issue of campaign finance mean that Reich is out of touch with the realities of Washington? Or are the people in power simply unwilling or incapable of solving a serious issue, without the threat of a massive public backlash? Given the qualifications of Reich, the answer is most likely the latter.

Looking forward Despite this, Reich was still optimistic for the future of the United States and UC Berkeley. “I don’t think the economy is going to get a lot better anytime soon, but it’s not going to be as bad as it was. In ten years, with a little luck, UC Berkeley will be in very good place,” he said, a quiet confidence evident in his quiet voice.

However, to reach this good place, Reich insisted that creative leadership and dedicated faculty and alumni are key, as is making strategic decisions.

“For example, do we have to cover everything we are now covering if we want to provide a first-class education?

Are there any aspects of our teaching that can be done more efficiently? Are there subjects we ought to be covering that we

are not covering? Are there sectors that are emerging that we ought to be paying attention to, that we are not, in terms of scholarship and research? Are we as much of an international institution as we should be, given the rapid globalization of everything?” Reich believed these questions have to—and will—be addressed and solved within the coming decade.

And given the passionate dedication to his political work and his position at the University, it was hard not to kindle a hopefulness for the future. After all, if somebody as dedicated as Robert Reich was going to be around, then chances are the University is—one way or another— going to be okay. And as he made clear before setting off to finally get that lunch he’d been so looking forward to, he

certainly plans to stick around for as long as possible.

“I absolutely love Berkeley,” he said.

“We are all deeply privileged to be here.

I can’t imagine a better institution, or a better environment. My one regret for students is that they’ll have to leave. I suppose in terms of the larger scheme of life, I’ll have to leave too. But I hope that I have more years left than you guys do!”

Visit our blog at calibermag.org to access web-only content on Robert Reich, including the full transcript and Rohit Upadhya’s op-ed, which takes a more critical look at Reich’s political views.

interview by Rohit Upadhya and Nakta Alaghebandan article by Rohit Upadhya photos by Brenden Beckley

calibermag.org

45

| ENTERTAINMENT

PURCHASING VS NETFLIX, SPOTIFY AND HULU have transformed the way we digest entertainment.

As the Internet continues to become a dominant force in our everyday lives, streaming services have established themselves as a mainstay for us to experience movies, music and television.

Streaming, though drastically different from the traditional mode of accessing media, is a model that seems like the logical direction in which to go, considering the vital role computers and the Internet have in our culture.

Current college students are a part of a generation that grew up with piracy. The advent of iTunes as a digital music organizer in 2001 created the new need to keep an entire music collection together in one place. If these 90s babies began their music collections at age 11 or 12, they did so in a post-Napster world in which downloading music was free, easy and the most accessible means of acquiring music. It was illegal, but to a child, the consequences of stealing music were probably not incredibly obvious.

Purchasing music was the only alternative, but a kid with little to no money was rather unlikely to buy anything, especially as their wallets were unable to keep up with the constant flow of new music. New avenues kept up with technology and the takeover of the mp3, like the iTunes digital music store, but these options still required a credit card.

In contrast, pirating music seemed to work out more conveniently.

As technology changed radically, so did the downloading culture. By the middle of the decade, anything and everything was essentially available online—TV shows, movies, music,

48

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

everything. Peer-to-peer file sharing programs and Torrents, though those models still existed, transitioned to direct downloading services like Megaupload that offered whatever media a consumer desired with a click of a button.

Our day-to-day culture had also changed significantly. The end of the Aughts marked the takeover of the laptop (and later the smartphone and tablet) as people’s go-to device instead of the television. The new technology allowed a constant intake of information and media. Binge-watching entire seasons of TV shows in one sitting became common. Catching up on classic movies became a reality. And there was more and more new music to look out for every week. Entertainment industries refused to address people’s need to consume media instantly, so downloading was the only avenue to keep up with these changes. Plus, since piracy was easy and not easily disciplined, it was essentially legitimized. The industries, instead of adapting, forced the government to step in.

In 2010, LimeWire and other P2P programs were shut down by federal court. Comcast and other Internet Service Providers began tracking and punishing the use of Torrents. Then in 2011, Megaupload was seized and shut down, a move that led to most other file-sharing sites changing their download policies in order to stay alive. Finally, streaming came into the picture. Streaming services, like Spotify, Netflix and Hulu, represented the industries providing an alternative to the “purchase or steal” model that had existed for over a decade, but these services introduced a new problem—how do we decide to buy, stream or steal something?

ENTERTAINMENT |

music

Music-streaming applications like Spotify offer a completely free, on-demand listening experience with access to an extensive catalogue. There are ads, yes, but those are meant to fund the service and provide royalties to those responsible for the music. Spotify addresses an accessibility issue that many young people face today. YouTube streams, the de-facto strategy for hearing free music, are unorganized and of poor quality. To elude copyright infringement rules, songs uploaded to YouTube are likely sped up or slowed down, greatly impairing the listening experience. With Spotify, entire artist catalogues are present in an organized fashion and with official, highquality audio.

Spotify creates a third option beyond the former support-steal. With so many listeners that refuse to pay for music, streaming allows a free listening experience at your fingertips. There is no need to illegally download music when it is available to stream in a model that compensates the artists. The drawbacks of the streaming model—needing an

music piracy have access to plentiful and maybe even unlimited free music, but for many, piracy is actually difficult in this day and age. Spending ten dollars on an album can be simpler than scouring the Internet for a download link that may not even be the proper version of the desired original. The idea of purchasing and the need to download music implies our generation’s obsession with ownership of material. We treat our mp3 collection as prized possessions, a quality that Richard Hernandez, a UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of New Media, explains is becoming a dying characteristic as an even newer generation streams all music.

“We’ve continued to raise a generation of people who don’t see anything wrong with streaming,” he says. If any song you want to listen to is online somewhere, “there’s no need of ownership.”

Still, there always will be a reason to purchase music. Buying a song or album demonstrates an appreciation for the art itself. There are other ways for artists to earn revenue, like touring and merchandise, but the music is still the main medium that the masses digest digest. Spotify and streaming alternatives

may have easily been streamed or stolen, and it does still earn money for artists in a way that the streaming model currently does not. Buying music may be a difficult concept for some to grasp, but for others, as Hernandez tells it, “When something is good, we see the value in it and we do pay for it. We want to consume it because we love it. Then the idea of purchasing comes out.”

movies

Piracy of movies and television shows is a relatively new problem because the ability to easily download large files has only been feasible for the last six years or so.

These respective industries have not been affected to the same extent that the music industry has, yet they’ve incorporated the streaming model relatively quickly.

Netflix offers high quality streams of a film or TV episode as an alternative to options like Redbox or even renting a physical disk from Netflix. “We exist in a world where we’re inundated with entertainment options, and we want the easiest, quickest solutions,” Hernandez says, and this service provides instant enjoyment. It isn’t free, but the success of

As a culture, we need things immediately. The advent of streaming services addresses this issue, but are there not consequences?

Internet connection and laptop—are nonsensical when you realize how often you are around your computer or that there are options to use the service on your smartphone. Streaming lets the consumer learn about and legally digest unfamiliar music, without committing to the purchase. Alternatively, for an audience accustomed to listening first and buying second, it can lead to a purchase down the line, even if that action is largely a symbolic gesture.

Purchasing music, in some cases, can be the easiest way to actually acquire music. Those with an easy method for

like Pandora earn artists just a fraction of a penny per play. Spotify pays independent artists just $0.004611 per stream, to be split among the songwriters, as Damon Krukowski of the band Galaxie 500 reports. (Rates for major label musicians have not been published.) That’s 1/140 the revenue from a single iTunes song download. It’s a scary circumstance for artists and the entire business as streaming grows more and more popular.

Musicians have had to adapt to the new model, and realistically, not everything we digest will be purchased, but the decision to do so shows a gratitude for music that

the service proves that people are willing to pay for high quality content that is available instantly. Netflix Instant’s catalogue is relatively limited, without a huge presence of big-named movies, especially those newly released, but there is an abundance of entire television series, old and new.

In the case of streaming video, services like Netflix, iTunes rentals or Amazon Instant Video exist less to combat piracy and more because of their convenience factor. Movies are larger files that take up space on a hard drive and can be difficult to download. The ability to legitimately

calibermag.org

49

| ENTERTAINMENT cable cord to watch content exclusively online. To them, it is perhaps a looming problem, but a solution isn’t necessary now. Is there a future in which networks will stream content directly to paying online subscribers who don’t pay for cable? “I don’t see it happening in the next three years,” says Vicky Shum, Head of Product Management at Sling Media. The content copyright problems and relationships between networks and cable providers make this an incredibly arduous feat.

stream movies gives an entire generation more attached to computers than television sets actual access to these films.

The alternative for a college student might have just been to not watch the movie at all.

As a college student, there is little incentive to buy movies. Music, at least, has a lifespan that potentially lasts beyond a single listen. Most people only buy movies that they love to watch repeatedly. They become part of a collection. Home theaters and high definition TVs help motivate those purchases, but it’s harder to make that ownership commitment for movies when there are streaming options available, especially for a student with neither a TV nor DVD player. However, the streaming-only lifestyle becomes a problem, as Robyn Lurie, Director of New Media and Digital Entertainment at Universal Pictures, tells it, because people forget that the transaction model exists. Even as DVDs come packaged as special editions with extras to encourage a purchase, more and more people seem to be strictly streaming movies, and this, as is the case with music, earns significantly less revenue for the rights holders and studios.

tv

Cable television has made the shortest leap when it comes to incorporating hi-

50

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

tech solutions for the Internet generation.

As it stands, only Hulu and a handful of networks allow for free online viewing of full episodes. There are restrictions— only recent episodes are listed, only after a certain time, for a limited time—but every other TV streaming application, like HBOGo or Xfinity On Demand, requires a cable subscription. The question becomes, Why can I not watch TV episodes immediately after they air, as I see fit? And secondly, With a new “TV Everywhere” campaign that calls for instant viewing on any device for any cable subscriber, why can’t that same model translate to viewers with Internet subscriptions? As Josh Jackson, a UC Berkeley Media Studies lecturer, puts it, “Once [the TV industry finds] revenue streams that seem to be successful in terms of how to grow their sales, then they want to hold on to that as long as possible.”

Television advertisers have stuck with the standard television experience for so long that “they are resistant to spending lots of money on Internet advertising,” he says.

This makes it more difficult for an online television viewing experience to exist.

Even as the number of people, particularly college students who choose to bypass cable services and only use Internet increases, cable providers maintain that people aren’t cutting the

Perhaps a lifestyle after graduating from Cal will allow for a much freer schedule and more access to TVs and DVRs to make television viewing simpler. Still, there’s no reason for the television industry not to adapt to a streaming model as technologies and lifestyles head in that direction.

As a culture, we need things immediately, and we don’t always want to pay for them. Streaming services address this issue, but are there not consequences?

Entire business models have relied on media being purchased. We haven’t yet fully understood the effects of streaming on the industries, but it seems rather difficult to suggest that they can prosper on streaming alone.

Computers rule our lives, and that is fact.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times. Streaming is the way of the future, but with streaming companies struggling to earn a profit and coveting even lower royalty rates, the compensation model needs altering. Clearly, we still consume and enjoy media, but performers and content creators need to be paid for what they do. As much as a newer generation may disagree, paying for media is a necessary element of the entertainment industry, and if we want the art to continue to exist, we need to do all we can to support it. article by Rahul Pandya photos by Jennie Yoon

ENTERTAINMENT |

is life with a

british accent?

OVER THE SUMMER a deeply offensive piece of media was released over the web, going immediately viral on Facebook and Google and causing consternation throughout the United Kingdom. It was not, as you might expect, a plethora of naked photos of the Royal family, but the teaser trailer for MTV’s brand-new adaption of the British sitcom “The Inbetweeners.” A TV spin-off is a curious phenomenon. Sometimes it can be a huge success, successfully bridging two cultures; sometimes it limps along for a season or two before reluctantly retreating back into insignificance; sometimes it just sags like a deflated balloon. Here’s a basic breakdown of four American spin-offs, and why they fly or fail. article by Emily Burt

the office

“The Office” was first released in the United Kingdom in 2001, and was adapted by Greg Daniels for the U.S. screen in 2005. It’s one of the go-to points for any British-American adaption, and there are a number of reasons why it’s so well loved on both sides of the Atlantic. Firstly, the material is great.

A brilliantly executed mockumentary comedy, easily relatable for anyone who has ever worked a desk job, and laugh-out-loud funny. The layout is fresh, and the characters are simultaneously believable and zany—causing endless speculation over what would occur if Gareth Keenan ever sat down next to Dwight Schrute in a bar.

Creative input from the same producers led to both series’ successfully maintaining both recognizable traits, and creating moments of sparkling originality. They even went so far as to allow a collision of worlds in the tenth season of the U.S. spinoff, when Ricky Gervais cameoed in a short scene with Steve Carrell.

In a CNN interview, Gervais said he had wanted the adaption to be made “by Americans for Americans,” and that “it is different, it has to be different.” The beauty of both productions is that each can thrive happily in their own spheres.

Each version contains aspects that viewers just won’t find in its counterpart.

The original specializes in that cringeworthy deadpan comedy that only the Brits can pull off, while the spin-off reels office-floor agony back from the brink with fleeting moments of genuine warmth and sincerity that would never have succeeded on the more cynical side of the Atlantic.

Whether you’re watching David Brent’s famous charity dance, or squirming as Michael Scott destroys political correctness on every level: if you’re going to watch “The Office,” open your hearts and love both versions. After all, why have one great show when you can have two?

calibermag.org

51

| ENTERTAINMENT

queer as folk

“Queer as Folk” just sounds better with an American accent. With rollercoaster storylines of sex, drugs and backward stigmas, the show was met with controversy and acclaim when it hit U.K. screens in 1999 and transferred to the United States in 2004. As long as viewers don’t take the archetypal characters too seriously, it’s a fun and heartwarming program, which really took off in the United States and ended up running for six seasons. The early 2000s were a perfect setting for the adaption to successfully run: gay culture faced conflicts such as the struggle over civil partnership legality that was threaded through the show’s subplots, keeping it current and contemporary in a way the original couldn’t quite manage.

After the first few virtually identical episodes, the U.S. adaption took its own direction, as the original ended after only two seasons. In terms of content, a key difference between these two rampant rides is the way the U.S. spin-off takes the central romance. Despite the slightly perverse ten-year age gap, it’s hard to stay uninvolved in the touching, if implausible, relationship between central characters Brian and Justin that forms the lynchpin of “Queer as Folk.” Investment in them draws viewers back to the series time and again, even as they roll their eyes at the questionable stereotypes of gay culture embedded in the show’s foundation. By contrast, the British romance revolves chiefly around a stilted will-they–won’t-they dynamic between lothario Stuart and geeky Nathan, which doesn’t even get off the ground until the second season. Perhaps this was a more socially acceptable trajectory—even with Stuart deflowering fifteen-year-old Nathan in the pilot—but ultimately makes for a much less interesting viewing. It’s not the place to turn to for any kind of subtlety, but if you’re feeling the need to glitter and be gay, head to Pittsburgh.

52

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

the inbetweeners “The Inbetweeners” might not have slammed so incredibly hard had it not been such a runaway success in the United Kingdom. Gritty and purile, “The Inbetweeners” is worlds away from the epileptically filmed “Skins,” but endures as one of the most popular youth television shows of the new millennia. Will, Simon, Neil and Jay’s car crash antics give an insight into the lives of teenage boys like never before.

Then MTV, having apparently learned nothing since the flop that was “Skins,” went steamrollering in with their adaption.

Again, the massive flaw lay in the censorship struggle.

Having suffered enough at the hands of what were, in reality, fairly tame sexual situations in “Skins,” how was MTV supposed to deal with the numerous wank scenes, projectile vomiting and use of the word “clunge” (a British name for a vagina) that made “The Inbetweeners” so great? A show about randy teenage boys becomes a soulless vacuum the moment you submit them to madeup swear words, while the sheer mechanics of bleeping out their expletives makes it impossible to understand what they’re saying. After watching the series, one journalist described the show as “someone’s idea of an R-rated ‘Hannah Montana.’ ” Another issue is the slow-motion glamor effect that the American shows can’t seem to get enough of. “The Inbetweeners” are not supposed to be glamorized: they are the polar opposites of the “Skins” kids. Draw them out and underpin them with a heavy bass, and the gaucheness is lost—even if the effects are being used to brain a disabled boy with a football.

In the original show the boys are awful: blindly horny adolescents with no common sense. However, they are also painfully touching. By contrast, the way MTV represents socially awkward characters—something also seen in the “Skins” series—is simply to make them completely unlikeable. The show is reduced to crude plotlines and unfunny jokes, and is simultaneously unable to detach from an underlying sense of the saccharine: Will describing his gaggle of losers as “friends . . . partners on the turbulent road to adulthood.” That’s just not what it was supposed to be. Still, a reviewer at The New York Times described the U.K. boys as “unhappy hooligans, dripping with lust.” So perhaps when you’re spinning a show, quality of humor becomes more a matter of opinion.

ENTERTAINMENT |

skins

When “Skins” emerged onto the box through a haze of dope smoke, it was a watershed moment for youth television in the United Kingdom. With gritty plots about the lives of sixteen-year-olds living in Bristol, it sent underage sex, alcohol and drug abuse blazing into the late-evening slot every Friday night. Every teenage girl had a crush on Tony, unable to believe that the child actor who played socially inept Marcus from “About a Boy” had turned out so well, while every boy prayed that once they hit sixteen, getting laid would really be that easy. So, given that the American spin-off was virtually a carbon copy of the original, why did it bomb so badly upon its release in 2011?

Much of it filters down to MTV’s excessive censorship policies. Even “cleaned up” from the original, there was a huge kerfuffle around a scene in which a naked seventeen-year-old was shown running down the street: breaching, according to the New York Times, various child pornography laws. The Parent Television Council damned “Skins” as the “most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children,” and MTV almost had a lawsuit on their hands, with ads pulling out of the show on the grounds that they felt it delivered inappropriate messages for their brands. May it never be said that Taco Bell is sexy. . . .

Having waded through the political correctness drama, MTV then got rid of the subtler aspects of “Skins” which made it more than a teenage shagfest: the class conflicts, the vulnerability of the characters, Sid’s appalling taste in clothes. Left with suddenly banal plots, and in an effort to distract from the wooden acting, they pushed the less believable moments too far in the opposite direction until the whole formula had abandoned any traces of plausibility. It was nice of the producers to hire teenagers who had no previous acting experience, and it certainly had the potential to work on grounds for “authenticity.” But in all honesty, have any real teenagers ever behaved the way the “Skins” characters do? Surely they all spend their weekends in darkened bedrooms playing RuneScape. All in all, the show took on a decidedly crippled air, and folded at the end of the first season.

5

british shows every american should try

doctor who

Watch: Because it’s a time-travelling alien in a police box.

A crackpot alien travels through time and space in a spaceship disguised as a 1960s police phone box, causing intergalactic mayhem wherever he goes. With a wibblywobbly time-space continuum, the most ludicrous situations are allowed for: want to see Queen Victoria take on a werewolf, or creepy gas mask zombies in World War II London? What’s not to love?

downtown abbey

Watch: For the gorgeous outfits, and Maggie Smith’s incredible one-liners.

“Downton Abbey” is a hugely popular period drama framed around the lives of a wealthy family and their army of servants at the beginning of the twentieth century. If you’re into big names, this is the place to go—the cast boasts big shots such as Hugh Bonnerville, Maggie Smith and Jim Carter.

sherlock

Watch: If you love a good mystery. . . .

English classic meets contemporary crime in “Sherlock.”

Benedict Cumberbatch shines as the sociopathic detective, with Martin Freeman (who also features in the U.K. version of “The Office”) as his ever faithful Doctor Watson.

misfits

Watch: If you loved “Heroes.”

“Misfits” is a U.K. drama about community-service teenagers who, after getting caught in a strange electric storm, start to exhibit strange powers. . . . Rumor mill says this is the next show up for adaptation in the United States, so keep your eyes and ears open.

black books

Watch: For alcohol consumption as you’ve never seen it before.

An Irish, chain-smoking, chronically alcoholic bookkeeper who hates people, sunlight and the state of the world: “Black Books” is British comedy at its best.

Starring Dylan Moran, Tamsin Grieg and Bill Bailey, “Black Books” fits the best of cynical, twisted humor into one tiny, and very messy, bookstore.

calibermag.org

53

| AWARDS

ER V O

!

TES

O V 0

80

2013

caliber

AWARDS Once upon a Piedmont Avenue, the ancient Greeks formed brotherhoods and sisterhoods that would become integral parts of the Cal campus. By ancient we mean a hundred years ago, and the only thing really Greek about them was their house letters.

Technicalities aside, Greek life continues to play a huge role in many Golden Bears’ daily lives, from providing a home away from home to having a dance floor serve as an outlet for frustrated students at the end of the week. Based on votes submitted by both the affiliated and non-affiliated, see who kept their titles this year and who is new on the scene in the annual Caliber Greek Awards.

BEST PARTY DRINKS

PHI KAPPA PSI

Few things in the world taste worse than a plastic handle of Vitali. Yes, it does its job, but as the gentleman of Phi Psi prove, it’s possible to make the journey to Tipsy Town enjoyable. Most frats will remain content with the vodkachaser basics, but Phi Psi opts for classier options that fit their night’s theme: White Russians and dirty Girl Scouts for Christmas, a cosmo for a Vegas night, skittles vodka on Halloween. Count on Phi Psi!

MOST IMPACT IN COMMUNITY

THETA DELTA CHI TDX has a well-deserved reputation that goes beyond just classic film cameos. Their ivy-covered abode was featured in the hit movie “The Graduate,” starring Dustin Hoffman.

However, most of the frat house’s recognition stems from TDX’s annual “Halloween House of Horrors” event, where the brothers construct elaborately chilling decorations for a philanthropic haunted house. The event’s proceeds are donated to Autism Speaks, and with such a large turnout each year, it’s easy to see how the brotherhood manages to make a such a noticeable impact in its community. The fraternity also gives back to Green Stampede, a free tutoring program for Oakland elementary schools. Props to TDX for giving out more than just tricks and treats on Halloween.

54

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

BEST SISTERHOOD

KAPPA ALPHA THETA

You might call Theta the O.G. of the PHC. Founded in 1870 as the first official Greek fraternity for women, Kappa Alpha Theta has had a lot of time to get the sisterhood thing down. In fact, not only do new Thetas receive a Big to look up to, they also pair up with “Kite Sisters,” older academic mentors who help the new Thetas work towards achieving their academic goals.

Sweet and smart!

MOST IMPACT IN COMMUNITY

ALPHA OMICRON PI Alpha Omicron Pi sisters have been huge supporters of Arthritis prevention since they adopted the Arthritis Foundation and Canadian Arthritis Society as their international philanthropy in 1967. Since then, they have given back over $1 million dollars to arthritis research looking for the cure! AOII also manages to keep it local while including the community in fun philanthropy events such as this fall’s “AOII Strike Out Arthritis,” a night of baseball-themed fun and food, as well as an Easter egg hunt last April. The AOII Cookie Festival last year proved to give as much to the community as it did to arthritis with unlimited ice cream sandwiches and hot chocolate! Heroes?

We think yes.

AWARDS |

BEST LOOKING FRATERNITY HOUSE

FIJI

There’s a reason the two-time winner was designated as a Berkeley landmark in 1990. Built in 1928, the gorgeous brick mansion leaves a lasting impression upon any pedestrian walking into Channing circle. In a fratty world where having clean floors is a luxury, FIJI’s stained glass windows, wooden accents and sweeping staircase take the cake. A house fit for a king, or a frat star.

CLEANEST BATHROOMS

ALPHA TAU OMEGA It might sound like a mediocre category to win, but in the world of fraternities, sporting clean porcelain bowls might just be the highest honor. A clean frat bathroom is like an oxymoron; a more typical scenario would involve grimy tiles, scarce toilet paper and unidentified residue in the sink. ATO has a weekly cleaning service, and they also don’t have antiwomen jokes taped to the walls above their urinals...snaps to being clean in more ways than one.

BEST DANCE FLOOR

KAPPA ALPHA ORDER For a house that originally belonged to the mayor, it would only make sense that KA boasts spacious areas for the champion dance floor. The Basement sports a blacked-out room with moving lights, neon paint splatters and a committed DJ. And with the the built-in bar next door, dancers don’t have to make a voyage out of getting a quick drink by weaving through crowds of sweaty people. Plus, being underground means no noise complaints to interrupt your groovin’.

BEST THEMED PARTIES

DELTA CHI

Delti Chi shows an unrivaled commitment to partying that earns it the title for best themed parties the second year running. Whether the theme is Cowboys & Aliens, Oktoberfest or “presidential hats,” Delta Chi’s parties inspire lines that could compete with the ones found at Disneyland. They might be welcoming your cowboy boots into the DX Country Club or enforcing a red and green dress code for Delta X-mas; whatever the theme, you’re guaranteed a fun night.

BEST LOOKING SORORITY HOUSE

KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA That life-sized Barbie dollhouse on Greek Row? We’ve all seen it. Not only was Kappa Kappa Gamma the first sorority founded at Cal, but their house also holds a special history. Their chapter house, complete with white columns and shuttered windows, was originally built for Chancellor Gayley and designed by Julia Morgan, the first licensed female architect in California. Four stories and an expansive roof top sundeck sure make life a little easier....

BEST SORORITY APPAREL

DELTA GAMMA

This fall at Greek Carnival, the two-time reigning queens of sorority apparel debuted edgy tank tops adorned with anchors, skulls and the slogan “GET ON BOΔΓD.” While every sorority undoubtedly has cute gear, DG always manages to kick it up a notch with apparel that isn’t too cliche or too basic. From tanks with Ron Burgundy’s face (“You stay classy, Berkeley!”) to adorable Game Day crop tops, DG knows how to stay fresh.

MOST SPIRITED

ALPHA CHI OMEGA

This year voters chose AXO, arguably one of the most active sororities on campus, as well as the most spirited. They’re in Memorial Stadium screaming at the top of their lungs, they’re having dance parties, they’re giving back to the community with huge philanthropy projects like AXO Runway. Whatever they’re doing, AXO girls kindle a contagious spirit.

BEST THEMED INVITES

ALPHA PHI

With two dance invites per semester, falling back on old, reliable themes might seem like the easy thing to do. Not for two-time winners Alpha Phi, theme extraordinaires. From last year’s MaPHIa to this year’s APHI/DC, Alpha Phi knows how to put the PHI in HyPHI - which happened to be yet another one of their creative invite themes, by the way. What’s next? We’re hoping something along the lines of Disco Phi-ver....

Spring 2013

55

|AWARDS EDITORIAL

Falling for someone. Having that good old feeling when everything feels so brand new. When someone, and the whole world along with them, belongs to no one but you. Sometimes it’s hard to face the real world when love takes hold, and all you can do is get away from it all, even for just for a moment.

Caliber Magazine captures the affair and fashions of two young lovers in a new wave nod to Wes Anderson films, 1960s frocks, innocence and wanderlust tinged with novel romance. Some of Berkeley and the Bay’s most beautiful natural sites—Tilden Park, Indian Rock, Golden Gate Park—were explored in the hopes of following the escapades and rendezvous of a couple in the grips of newfound love.

56

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

EDITORIAL |

page 54 On Alice: Hat (JYJZ SF) Shirt (Sway) Skirt (Mars) Bag (Therapy).

On Miles: Hat (Therapy) Boy Scout Shirt (Mars) Jacket/Pants/Boots (Model’s own). page 55 Trench Coat (JYJZ SF) Dress (Therapy) page 56 Dress (JYJZ) Sweater (JYJZ) Necklace (Sway) Shoes (Sway) page 57 (top) Cape (Rue Atelier) Bag (Sway) Dress (JYJZ) Shoes (Sway) page 57 (bottom) On Alice: Hat (JYJZ SF) Shirt (Sway) Skirt (Mars) Bag (Therapy).

On Miles: Pants (SLASH) Jacket (SLASH) Plaid Shirt (Mars) Shoes (Model’s own). page 58 Dress (JYJZ SF)

Models: Alice Liddell Myles Blackwell Editorial Photographer: Sasha Chebil Editorial Manager: Jeannine Ventura Editorial Assistant & Editorial Team: Ming Cong Brea Weinreb Kiyana Salkeld Denise Lee Silvia Cernea Rahul Pandya Griffin Cassara Cassandra Stephens Lara Hovsepian Contributors: Rue Atelier JYJZ San Francisco SLASH Sway Mars Vintage Therapy

calibermag.org

57

| EDITORIAL

58

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

EDITORIAL |

calibermag.org

59

| EDITORIAL

60

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

LOVE & SEX |

FLOORNICATION FROM FLOORMATES TO BEDMATES UNWRITTEN RULE OF DATING #138: Don’t date the people in your dorm. Colloquially termed “floorcest,” this type of relationship is ill-advised because of the emotional horror stories behind its break ups. But no matter what you say, you can’t stop floorcest from happening. That being said, how do you make it last? And more importantly, how do you deal with the messy, emotional aftermath in the unfortunate event that it doesn’t work out?

The year is 2010. Somewhere in the halls of Unit 2, our friends Kelly* and Zach* have gradually become a couple.

Naturally, they worry a bit over how this could affect the rest of their floor.

“If my boyfriend and I had split up, we would have ruined our floor’s dynamic: our floormates would have inevitably ended up having to choose sides and it would have created a lot of tension in an otherwise very loving family-esque living situation,” Kelly says.

So how did they make it work? They started out as close friends, and it turned out this only helped their relationship, as the floor was already used to seeing them together. Their in-dorm relationship also accustomed them to each other’s personal mannerisms early on. “We had gotten over [each other’s habits] long ago by sheer virtue of the fact that we lived together,” says Kelly. Zach had already been exposed to his girlfriend’s beauty rituals: face masks, hair rollers and other various grooming processes. Meanwhile, Kelly had already witnessed and gotten over her boyfriend’s apocalyptically messy bedroom.

“I also think the fact that we made sure The heart wants what the not to exclude our heart wants, and floormates helped as sometimes the heart wants well; we didn’t lose any friends or make the really cute MCB major any enemies,” said living in room 309.

Kelly. They made sure to balance social time between each other and their courtesy that when a group on their floor friends, maintaining the group dynamic wants to hang out they only invite one person from the ex-couple and not the that they always had in their hall. other. “The actual breakup was clean Come March 2013, Kelly and her and mutual,” Alex explains. “I was fine boyfriend Zach will celebrate their two- with losing a girlfriend, but now that it’s year anniversary. They’ve become less of really awkward living with each other, it’s just another floorcest incident, and more like I lost a good friend too.” of something really special.

But what if you’re not as lucky? What do you do about your living situation when you break up with a fellow floormate?

Living in Clark Kerr, Alex* and Jessica* got to know each other through various outings to Frat Row. What started as a carefree, blissful relationship ended up, well, ending in just a little over two weeks.

However, the emotional aftermath and awkward hallway encounters may last until they move out.

“I thought we could be mature enough to still accept each other on our hall, but now it’s just uncomfortable. I see her in the study lounge, the bathroom, the elevator, everywhere. And we just stopped talking altogether,” Alex says.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also have to deal with dividing mutual friends on their floor. It’s become an unspoken

When asked for tips on how someone could make a post-breakup living situation better, Alex advises that it’s best to maintain at least some form of friendship. As difficult as it may be, platonic interaction will benefit both the recently broken-up couple, and the people living around them. If all is irreparable like it may be for Jessica and Alex, he suggests that you do your best to move on and focus on the things that still make you happy.

Though we can’t forget that there are couples out there that last long after moving out of the dorm, let this serve as a cautionary tale for future floorcest relationships. *Names of couples changed to preserve their privacy.

article by Jennifer Wong photos by Silvia Cernea

calibermag.org

61

|LOVE LOVE&&SEX SEX

the pill for men: a IT STARTS WITH an awkward runin near the jungle juice. You’re hanging out by the bar observing the drunken mayhem around you when you decide that you’re too sober to enjoy the fourth playing of “Levels.” You go for a drink.

Right before you get to the cooler, this guy you’ve seen around the past couple nights swipes the last clean cup. Damn it. He looks down, noticing that you’re cupless and offers you his drink. Hmm. He’s kind of cute. Or is that just the lighting? Does it matter? He asks you to dance. Next thing you know, you’re upstairs, hot, sweaty, and about to get down to business on some poor fellow’s bed. He’s running his hands and lips all over you as you struggle to get your legs untangled from the skirt now around your ankles. Just as he’s about to slip your sticky tank over your head, you remember to be a responsible human. “Do you have something?” you whisper in his ear. He pulls away and smugly replies, “No, I’m on the pill.”

WAIT . . . WHAT? Turns out that he could actually be telling the truth. A male contraceptive pill, investigated recently by DanaFarber Medical Institute, is in the works.

But what would that mean for us?

Because we already live in such a highly sexualized culture, it is difficult to escape the party stories, glorified sex in our media, and the occasional giant penis prowling Sproul, condoms in hand.

This freedom with sexuality has been growing for decades, intensified with the

62

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

introduction of the female birth control pill in the 1960s. While the availability of the pill to young women has encouraged independence, it has also made women more responsible for contraception, since no such pill was ever made available to men. Now that a male contraceptive pill could soon be widely available to the public, we as a population of perpetually horny young adults would feel some of the most profound effects. Some of them make the pill sound like a godsend, while others could make women even more skeptical of male motive.

The pill would make the sense of responsibility more even. Moreover, the shared responsibility would positively affect those in committed heterosexual relationships the most, simply because those men would have a vested interest in preventing pregnancy and fostering a sense of solidarity and trust in the relationship. Sanket Jani, a second year, didn’t hesitate to say that he “could hella do it if [he] loved her. If [he] didn’t, fuck that. She can take it everyday.” An anonymous second year, on her relationship, said that because her boyfriend doesn’t worry about her not taking the pill everyday and even reminds her when she forgets, the two have built trust with one another, not only in terms of control but also in terms of “[respecting each other] in the realm of sex.”

But let’s be honest. Most guys aren’t looking to “foster solidarity,” especially in a college environment where strong relationships aren’t bragged about nearly as often as the hot senior from

your roommate’s math discussion that he managed to bring home last night. A more likely motivator, then, would be the fact that sex is more pleasurable without obstruction by condoms or the hassle of a vasectomy.

It is not surprising, given these two upsides, that in a survey conducted by the Oxford Journal of Medicine of 9,000 men across four continents, 55 percent said they would be willing to try a male contraceptive pill if it ever reached consumers. But what about everybody else? It turns out that there aren’t too many solid medical concerns.

The research at Dana-Farber and other contributing fertility clinics has maintained that there have been no significant side effects to the use of this particular drug. Nevertheless, the rest of the population’s worries lie in those medical concerns. Many men, including Cal students, believe that all birth control will shrink their balls, make them infertile, and a variety of other colorful side effects.

Second year Josh Luther, when asked if he’d take the pill, replied, “No pills are allowed to fuck with my testosterone levels,” reflecting the belief that the male pill might permanently affect hormone function. This opinion is not uncommon though, since female birth control has been proven to do exactly that.

Furthermore, the social effectiveness of the pill is invariably tied to the relationship status and overall integrity of the man in question. Your average college boy is less likely to be invested in equitable responsibility than is, say,

LOVE & SEX a man in a committed relationship who has concerns for his girlfriend’s health.

The consequences of the first lying about taking the pill carry less weight than those for the latter.

concerns about women who claim to be on birth control? Not really, according to many Cal students. Kuhuk Goyal, a second year, would “trust a girl way more to take a pill” than he would trust himself, stating his internalization of the “responsible female image” as reasoning.

He also pointed out that girls “are the ones stuck with the baby, so we get off free.” Oganesian agreed, citing her lack

As journalists who have taken a closer look at all the interplay between age, relationship status and environment, we can say that the pill would not really change the landscape of our relatively promiscuous college culture. The men As a result of this discrepancy between involved, under the suspicious eyes of committed and casual relationships, their women, would not be any less likely the environment the users are in paints to use condoms than before, especially different pictures. At Cal, as at most other given that the pill would not protect colleges, the skepticism associated from STDs, which are usually with usage would be much more more of a concern with hooking prevalent. At a school with up than getting pregnant is. If students who openly embrace guys claimed they were on the While working with cancer drugs on mice, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute sexuality and bodily freedoms, pill while hooking up with a and Harvard Medical School isolated a gene brief and often meaningless girl, more often than not, they within tumor cells, BRD4, associated with tumor hook-ups are not uncommon. would get giggles, puzzled looks growth. To block the expression of this gene, If male contraceptive pills were or death stares begging the researchers developed a compound that they added to this already messy mix question, “Do you think I’m named JQ1. They then investigated JQ1’s effect of college life, not only would stupid?” on BRDT, a gene of the same family, known to be women be worrying about involved in the process of manufacturing sperm. infections and gossip, but also In any case, all of these possible Their results proved promising to the prospects whether or not that cutie from outcomes are still up in the air. of oral male contraception, as they found that the night before actually was on It could be years before any the JQ1 compound successfully interferes with the pill or really just wanted to pill comes remotely close to how proteins find the genetic information to get it in. Second year Medha being approved by the FDA. Or make sperm. In mice, the incurred sterility by JQ1 immediately reversed itself upon ceased Garise echoed an opinion that maybe tomorrow there could administration. With the research of JQ1 on mice, many students share, stating be a scientific breakthrough there were no ill effects on testosterone levels, that she “wouldn’t for a second that suddenly allows for libido or other hormonal function, so men don’t believe them because, you contraceptive cologne. Who really have too much to fear. know, dudes can be shady.” knows? For now, ladies can rest Student Deanna Oganesian assured that their fertility is still said that, “because of all the guys solely in their hands and save all I know, I just really can’t bring myself of trust in men’s sense of responsibility. their skepticism for the next time a man to trust them. And that’s a deterrent “If we haven’t been together for days, sidles up to them claiming to be Ryan for me.” After all, it is a lot harder to hell no. And even then, I’d really have Gosling’s long lost twin. confirm if a pill was ingested than it is to to trust you. Because at the end of the miss the presence of a brightly colored, day, I’m going to be the one with the article by Swapna Dhamdhere photos by Shelby Ashbaugh questionably flavored condom. kid.” Evidently, women don’t really have much of a motive to lie to their partners, But isn’t this lack of faith in our whereas men have less to lose. This, upstanding male population a little though, applies only in the context of biased? Don’t they have the same casual sex.

A CLOSER LOOK...

SPERMY FACTS A teaspoon of semen

The average sperm travels at 28

Beetle sperm travel in pairs.

has 7 calories.

miles an hour during ejaculation.

Buddy system, go!

Up until the 1700s, it was believed that sperm were pre-formed humans that were planted in the egg to grow

calibermag.org Spring 2013

63

| FOOD & DRINK

the

QUEST for the

perfect

COFFEE CAN MEAN a matter of life or death for a college student when there is studying to be done. We’ve all spent countless hours talking with our friends on the benches outside Caffe Strada or studying at the ultra-packed Cafe Milano, but there are tons of other amazing and unique coffee shops right here in Berkeley, waiting to be explored. Be sure to check out Caliber’s list of cool coffee shops to mix up your vibe, whether you’re looking for a place to chat or for a place to cram. article by Taylor Fugere-Cale, photos by Rosa Nguyen

Caffe Mediterraneum—2475 Telegraph Avenue

Guerilla Cafe—1620 Shattuck Avenue

Yali’s—1920 Oxford Street

Sack’s Coffee House—2701 College Avenue

Caffe Med has been the historical home of old school hipsters, activists, Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate,” and as of late, staple Berkeley hobos. Even Jack Kerouac used to hang out here, as a friendly chalkboard sign claims. Try their lattes—they invented them, after all—and if you’re hungry, pick up one of their gigantic, onedollar cookies or affordable grilled paninis (Caliber recommends the Pesto Panini). For you conscious consumers out there, all coffee is fair-trade and most of the food is organic or cruelty-free. Come here if you want to catch up with a friend, to chat with a barista full of stories, or possibly to read a Kafka novel while wearing a beret.

A staple of Northside, this little cafe has even more options than either of the mini-Yali’s in Stanley Hall or the Valley Life Sciences Building.

If you’re looking to spice up your day, pick up a Dirty Chai—a chai tea latte with a shot of espresso and just the right kick. With jolly folks making your coffee in biodegradable cups, what more could you want? Yali’s on Oxford is the perfect place to get that paper done or to have an interview or other professional meeting, as it is fairly quiet, but still warm and inviting, so you won’t feel obligated to keep quiet.

Musical Offering—2430 Bancroft Way

Considering its proximity to campus, this place isn’t really the most typical student coffee shop. In fact, don’t be surprised if you run into your sexy French III GSI. as it has a very mature hipster/ your grandma’s breakfast nook kind of vibe. The fabulously cozy hipster nook boasts perfect lighting and ambient music to work on your senior thesis. You also should come here if you are looking to purchase any classical music piece ever made ever, or if you have a date with someone who only wears plaid and horn-rimmed glasses.

Try their Hazelnut Café Mocha if you need a little caffeine, or an Arnold Palmer for a zippy taste bud experience. They also have gooey, hot mozzarella sandwiches, which is, you know, awesome.

64

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

Guerilla Cafe is the epitome of Berkeley cool: rebellious, hipster, and oh-so-organic. If you think you’re cool enough to handle it, order one of their delicious mochas made with Blue Bottle Coffee, which is essentially heaven in a cup: its fabulous roasted and socially conscious beans are full-bodied without bitterness or acidity. Many of their coffee drinks also come with beautiful latte art. Try to come for breakfast to check out their daily waffle specials—featuring ingredients like walnuts and lavender—and be sure to notice their table “numbers,” named after famous vigilantes and activists like Mother Jones and Che Guevara.

Unexpectedly nestled on College Avenue and surrounded by apartment complexes, this popular coffee shop can be a student’s secluded escape to paradise. Full of strong coffee and plenty of space for a MacBook, this is the quintessential study spot. Their macchiatos are quite strong and well made, the americanos are superbly bold, and the iced lattes are perfectly sweetened. If you’re hungry, their Julia Morgan salad, saluting Berkeley’s famous architect, is probably as equally influential as the woman herself. For fast wi-fi and backsupporting sacks of coffee beans, Sack’s is the cafe of choice.

Philz Coffee—1600 Shattuck Avenue

For serious coffee aficionados, this is the place. Philz individually goes from whole bean to cup in front of you, per person, every time.

The atmosphere is laid-back, although this is probably not the most appropriate place to loudly laugh at everything your friend did at that crazy party last night. If you’re a big fan of straight up coffee, try Jacob’s Wonderbar Brew, or for those who are looking for something a little less intense, go for the “Sooo Good” blend and the Mint Mojito. This place is quite serious about their coffee, so think twice about coming in and asking for a frappuccino—they might just laugh.

FOOD & DRINK |

TIPS FOR YOUR OWN PERFECT GARDEN YOU’RE COOKING some homemade pizza. You’ve got the dough, the tomato sauce, the cheese and the colorful miscellaneous toppings. You’re looking for that extra little savory touch. You head over to your windowsill and pluck a few leaves off of your little basil plant, happily growing in a recycled yogurt cup alongside your oregano and rosemary.

As easy as it might be to buy pre-packaged basil from any supermarket, having a home grown plant of your own can offer a fresh and convenient alternative. It’s easy to find reasons why not to garden—lack of space, time or experience, for starters—but it’s really not that difficult to develop a green thumb and bring to life a simple garden of your choice veggies and herbs. article by Manon von Kaenel

Where

If you have a window, you can grow food. If you have access to a balcony or a roof, you can grow even more food. You can even grow food inside your spacetight room or already overflowing kitchen, as long as you manage to provide your budding plant adequate sunlight. (South-facing windows are best.) The pot itself can come under many different forms: That leftover chocolate milk carton? Yogurt container? Empty egg carton? Anything goes, as long as it allows the water to drain through, so the general rule is to poke some holes in it and you’ve got yourself the perfect receptacle for some soil and a plant.

Try to be creative with the structure of your garden, especially considering your limited space. You can hang your milk carton or yogurt container outside your window, or create some sort of shelf to layer your plants and maximize the space available to you.

How

The typical, and easy, first step to gardening is growing a few herbs . . . thyme, oregano, mint, parsley, to name a few. If you want to move on to some food plants, tomatoes or peas are easy to grow and can be staked to grow vertically, which is a space saver. In either case, all you really need is some potting soil, any type of receptacle, water, a seed or seedling, and some sunlight. A one-step location for advice and supplies is the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, a friendly family-owned retail nursery in North Berkeley. Other useful locations are ACE Hardware and BioFuel Oasis. Educate yourself about the plant you are interested in growing: Is it perennial or annual? How much sunlight does it require? How much water? How long until the harvest? Is it well suited to Berkeley’s climate?

If you’re really looking for a more complete gardening experience, try composting. Collect your food scraps in a bin, add some water, some preliminary soil, and—if you’d like to venture there—some worms. Turn and mix the bin occasionally, and you’ve got yourself the perfect, nutrient-rich natural soil additive.

Note: do not grow your plants right into your compost pile or the nutrients will overwhelm the roots and kill the plant.

Why

Who hasn’t heard about the sorry state of our food system? Cattle antibiotics and hormones in manure-covered feedlots; E. coli outbreaks in lettuce; fruits covered in cancer-causing pesticides. Granted, growing a few beans or some oregano won’t solve the nation’s obesity problem or fix the big food industries, per se, but it’s a way to reconnect with the food you eat, and have fun while you do it. “Growing herbs and vegetables is empowering because you’re gaining control over your food supply, even if it’s just your one herb or your one tomato plant,” says Ashley Ellis, student facilitator for the Berkeley Urban Garden Internship DeCal. Added bonus? You get to save money in the long run. Ellis adds with a laugh, “Perhaps, most importantly, it tastes best when you grow it yourself and you grow it that close to you, because you can pick it ripe and you feel a sense of accomplishment.”

calibermag.org

65

MY BERKELEY

BUCKET LIST 1. BEER SHOTGUN TOUR Wheeler, Chancellor’s Lawn, Dwinelle stage, Campanile, Memorial Glade, Main Stacks, Strawberry Creek, Big C, Sather Gate, Lower Sproul, Memorial Stadium 2. Public places to have sex: Follow the route of the shotgun tour. Hey, maybe you can cross off two in one night. . . .

3. Run all the way up the fire trails 4.

skinny dip

in Strawberry Creek Canyon

5. Figure out who Oski is (all of them) 6. Sleep at

THE BIG

7. Go to The Big Game bonfire 8. Speak at a protest 9. Run naked through Main Stacks, preferably not during finals

16. Sleep on campus

34. Go to a Quidditch match

17. Run to the Berkeley Marina

35. Bar crawl down College Avenue

18. Eat at the

36. Steal a Triple Rock Monkey Head bottle

chez panisse restaurant

19. Take a Global Poverty & Practice class 20. Have a picnic on Memorial Glade 21. DJ for KALX-FM

38. Catch a squirrel

22. Have a Cheeseboard picnic at Indian Rock

39. Get to know the friendly fellows of People’s Park

23

Win the lottery to be in the Hang Gliding Club

24. Camp at Albany Bulb 25. Go to the race tracks on $1 Sundays

13. Organize a flash mob 14. Go to the Oakland Art Murmur 15.

STAR GAZING at Lawrence Hall of Science

66

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

41. Get a letter of recommendation from a Nobel Laureate 42. Go to apple country: Apple Hill 43. Write a paper BEFORE the night before it’s due

27. Perform at The Berkeley Playhouse

44. Pee in the middle of Channing Circle

28. FIND A FAVORITE COFFEE HOUSE

11. Have lunch with the Chancellor

swing tango salsa HIP HOP

40. Get kicked out of Late Night

26. Write on a TYPEWRITER for the entirety of a semester

10. Smoke a joint with a hobo

12. Take a dance DeCal

a foreign 37 Learn language

29. Go on the field at Memorial Stadium 30. Run in the Nike Women’s Full Marathon 31. Pull ivy at Strawberry Creek

45. Go to Holi 46. Go to every game of a football season, including the away games 47. Walk across the

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

48. Swim in Lake Anza in Tilden Park 32. Start composting 49. Don’t wear shoes one day when it’s raining 33. Swim in the Reflecting Pools 50. Mudslide down 4.0 Hill

HOW TO PLAY: Cut card out of magazine and take a look around. Ride on BART, stroll through the Mission or head over to a bike church. Five in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally is a BINGO. This is an especially good game at parties where conversation can offer an opportunity to overhear or directly hear any of the quote spaces.

Share with your friends!

If all parts of the description apply, automatic bingo!

calibermag.org

67

68

Caliber Magazine / Spring 2013

What is an easy class at Cal?

What places have the best boba?

Where should I go hiking?

Does Oski have a girlfriend??

There is no such thing as

stupid question.

What’s a good diet to lean down but build muscle?

Which dining hall has the best food?

Where is the best view?

What can I do on weekends that doesn’t involve Frat Row? Where is the best place to study?

calibermag.org/ask Find answers (or give them!) at