Caliber Magazine – Issue 11 by Caliber Magazine

EGE

COLL

OR’S

HUM

ISSUE 11

AMIR

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, piano, 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. * water surcharge may apply if water gets rationed

2669 Le Conte Avenue, Berkeley, CA (415) 416-2805 kluegel-house.com

caliber MAGAZINE a note

Bell curves, large classrooms, and an even larger city. Studying at UC Berkeley can be daunting, whether you are stepping into your very first class, or stepping onto the stage to receive your diploma. The stress of school, work, or life in general can at times be overwhelming, and we have all felt like skipping a day to fulfill a long-awaited date with our bed and a movie. But breaking down these boundaries and exposing ourselves to opinions, experiences, and situations otherwise unfamiliar is what makes this education invaluable. With this issue of Caliber, our team attempted to highlight the good, the bad, and the bizarre found only at UC Berkeley. We hope that these glimpses of the out-of-theordinary give you, the reader, inspiration to break out of your own mold; get lost on AC transit, take a class outside of your area of expertise, or embark on new gastronomical explorations. We are lucky enough to inhabit a community teeming with opportunity, whether it be vocational or cultural. As Editors-in-Chief of Caliber magazine, we have also been fortunate enough to work with a group of hard-working, imaginative peers. Without their input and ideas, this issue would have never been realized. We pushed each others’ creative and intellectual boundaries to great success. We spoke with a local who has watched Telegraph Avenue evolve since the 1960s, we got our hands dirty in a struggle against privatization, and we had a good laugh with a Haas graduate who ended up in the comedy business. College is a time for adventure, as cliché as it sounds. Many of us may see this suggestive phrase as an anachronism now out of touch with our daily grind. Those who lovingly send us off with these words may not understand the pressures that 21st century students deal with. And yet, as unrelatable as the saying may seem, testing your limits supplies irreplaceable experience. While taking off on an impromptu day trip to San Francisco, making new friends, or beating that post-midterm slump cannot be reflected in your résumé, these challenges are as much a part of what we take beyond our college years as what we have learned from lectures, notes, and degrees. The Caliber Team invites you to take some time and enjoy a few stories written by your peers. We hope you find these selections inspiring enough to take down barriers with us. With Love, Sydney Johnson and Sierra Stalcup

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caliber MAGAZINE

presidents

KIARA DASWANI LARA HOVSEPIAN-RUBY

designers

SIERRA STALCUP SYDNEY JOHNSON

VALERIE LAW ANKUR MANIAR ELIZABETH RYAN CHRISTOPHER SEELEY NICOLETTE TRAN MEREDITH ZELAYA

heads of design

photographers

editors-in-chief

STEPHANIE CAI VALERIE LAW

heads of business

WILLIAM KWAN KIT CHEUNG GIANA TANSMAN

heads of copy editing MARK ALSHAK

social media manager ROSEMARIE ALEJANDRINO

head of photography LANA COSIC

heads of copy editing MARK ALSHAK JOANNA JIANG

editorial manager ANKUR MANIAR

web editor ANNE FERGUSON

web content managers HANNAH BERKMAN JOANNA JIANG SALLY LITTLEFIELD JESSLYN WHITTELL SOPHIE PHAM

webmaster

SOPHIE PHAM

AISHWARYA ARAVIND REMY D’AGNILLO ALYA LAMBA DOMINIC MATIAS MIKAELA RAPHAEL PAULA GOMEZ VILLALBA KATE VLESSIS

print writers

MARINA CHILINGARYAN LANAE CRANFIELD SAREEN HABESHIAN LAUREN KIM KRISTA KURISAKI MICHAEL MA MACKENZIE O’HOLLERAN ANNIE PILL JASMINE TATAH

online writers

KATIE BERLIN AARON CADIZ CLARICE CHO DIANE CHONG RITA GUO SABRINA KHAN NATASHA KHIMJI CRYSTAL LANGER TERRY LOU ROANN PAO PRESSLY PRATT JESSICA ROBERTSON JOSH (CHRISTIAN) ROQUE JAMES RYU SOPHIA SIEGLER JASON VAZQUEZ CARINA ZHAO

business team ALICE CHO PRISCILLA O NG

marketing team

DESIREE DIAZ SASHA DUSBABEK ALLISON JEON MADELINE MCCORMICK SHEREEN NG ADRIAN PENEYRA CHELSEA SKRABAK

Cover photo taken by Brittany Smith and edited by Ankur Maniar. 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 opinions of the ASUC in any way.

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

06 07 11 12 14 15 16 18 24 27 30 31 36 38 39 42 43 48 50 52 54

Out to Lunch With: Jack Soiffer Sidewalk Story: The Evolution of Telegraph Avenue Caliber Eats: Sushi Secrets Critical Mass: UC Berkeley’s Role in Open Access Pugs in the Park The Best Bay Area Bakeries Born in Berkeley Photography Exposition First Generation College Students The Fight for Food REMember to Sleep Funny Business: The Making of Amir Blumenfeld Yes Means Yes Don’t Run Out of Breadth Under Your Skin: An Examination of Body Modifications Ones to Watch Editorial: Brazen Beauty Professor Spotlight: Claire Kramsch Campanile Panorama Calendar: April Calendar: May SPRING 2015 / CALIBERMAG.COM

OUT TO LUNCH WITH

JAKE SOIFFER A

UC Berkeley student wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be a UC Berkeley student without at least five commitments outside of school. Jacob Soiffer is no exception. The secondyear sociology major, a Brooklyn native, is a Fossil Free UC Field Organizer on campus. He has worked with Amnesty International, 350.org, Queer Rising, and 99Rise. His direct action and social justice work was originally sparked by his experience with Occupy Wall Street, a movement that was unfolding at the nearby Zuccotti Park when he was a sophomore in high school.

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: y r o t S k l a Sidew LEGRA THE EVOLUTION OF TE

PH AVENUE

“S

hoot, I’m late!” Hot coffee slid down the rushing student’s hand, leaving an itchy patch of red on the inner side of his palm. Making a second attempt at grabbing the indignant cup, he rushed out of Noah’s Bagels, taking quick strides up Telegraph Avenue towards the campus. His fancy black Ray Bans blocked the vibrations of life around him as he hurried to class, detached from the rich history surrounding him... Every day, thousands of students walk the familiar path of Telegraph Avenue—stalls of vendors and their creations, old cafes and vintage shops, and the awakening smell of fresh brewed coffee, warm crepes, and exotic herbs and spices. But how often do they stop and savor all these familiar sights? According to those who have strolled these streets for several decades, today, the rich history and value of Telegraph lies only in the background for most hustling and bustling Cal students. Behind rows of multicolored pots and ceramics on the corner of Durant Avenue and Telegraph Avenue, Russell, one of the first art vendors to join the Telegraph street scene, silently watches the people come and go. Individuals flicker in front of his aging eyes and disappear back into the endless flow of hurrying students. The wave of pedestrians doesn’t stop; instead, the tide rises as he begins to display the objects that took nearly five days of devotion to create. Although Russell has been in Berkeley for more than 40 years, he sits behind a shield of his handiwork, unnoticed by the people too busy to stop and

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marvel at the crafts that have consumed his livelihood for many years now. From what he has seen, Telegraph’s captivating story has gone unnoticed by the people who travel it every day. Telegraph Avenue has changed—Russell has not. Russell has watched the spirit of Telegraph Avenue evolve for many years, long before he dedicated his life to becoming a street vendor in 1973. Since then, he returns to Telegraph at the same time, week after week, and has become a part of the living history that has transformed this particular street into the soul of a small, yet diverse city. The history of the street dates back to 1858, when a telegraph line was built between Oakland and Sacramento. The street that bordered the newly constructed line was renamed Telegraph Road. Today, many students associate Telegraph Avenue with the five blocks from Bancroft Way to Dwight Way, only a small patch of a 4.5-mile-long street extending from Sproul Plaza to Broadway Avenue in Oakland. Telegraph Avenue encompasses much more than most students think of while darting off to class. Although on most days cyclists, honking cars, and a sprightly medley of music fill the street, Telegraph Avenue has long been the epicenter for radical politics and social activity. With the 1960s came the revolutionary Free Speech Movement, a pivotal point in U.S. and Berkeley history. Under the leadership of Mario Savio, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and many others, Berkeley students came together to fight back against the University’s ban on campus political activity. After heavy pressure from students and relentless protesting, the ban was eventually lifted and students’ right to free speech was recognized across the nation. Many of those involved with the protest also actively engaged in the antiVietnam War demonstrations that soon followed the Free Speech Movement. Rioters walked down the street, caught up in the tumult of indignation. Some were clubbed and injured, as violent

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force had been utilized to control the situation. Russell can still envision Fred Cody’s bookstore down on Telegraph Avenue, the only store that evaded window damage during the anti-Vietnam War riots. During the riots, simply standing on the street could be life-threatening. When the activities were at their peak, Cody’s bookstore served as a safe place for the early Telegraph vendors, many of which had few places to turn to. The vendors, Russell says, protected the windows of the store as if they were the windows of their own homes. By opening his store doors to the injured and tear gassed during these protests, Cody became part of the 1960s legacy that continues to shape Berkeley’s culture today. A defining moment in the history

TELEGRAPH’S

CAPTIVATING STORY HAS GONE

UNNOTICED BY THE PEOPLE WHO TRAVEL IT EVERYDAY.

of Telegraph occurred in 1969, when Governor Ronald Reagan tried to halt the creation of People’s Park. Many inhabitants of Berkeley wanted to turn a small patch of University-owned land between Bowditch Street and Telegraph Avenue into a public park; however this did not fit in with the University’s plans to develop the land. Reagan openly criticized the University’s tolerance of student opposition and dispatched police officers on May 15 to prevent any further activity on the property. After Reagan’s decision to send the National Guard into Berkeley to calm the protesters, the conflict spun out of control when one protester was

killed. Tear gas, smoke, and gunshots filled Telegraph Avenue. May 15, 1969 is now characterized by political fire, transformation, and the birth of “Berkeley radicals.” The day became known as “Bloody Thursday.” As time passed, Telegraph became a hallmark for radicalism and cultural diversity. Vendors who helped cause the shift gradually moved up the street, transforming Telegraph from a route for political movements, into a lighthouse of peace, art, and culture. Marie and Francis, a French couple who worked as street vendors on Telegraph, were the first to relocate to the northern end of the street. The couple’s initiative lit a spark among other vendors, who advanced up the street, growing in numbers. Eventually, the small group of 20 vendors became a “movement” of over 400. “We had to sleep here for the space,” Russell recalls while casting a retrospective glance at his booth. According to Russell, students, Berkeley residents, and tourists have changed. “The weather is beautiful, but it’s not helping. People are focused on other things,” says Russell, watching a girl with an oversized backpack pass by, not even noticing the variety of colorful trinkets he had to offer. “People hurry all the time, headed somewhere, always looking down or in front of them and never sparing an extra glance to notice something small but essential that is always so close to them but what they fail to spot.” Today, the vending culture is regarded as a special feature of Telegraph Avenue. Merchants organize holiday markets in the winter and Sunday street fairs in the summer. However, Russell says the number of vendors is on a steady decline. He believes the coldness and indifference of many people today is bringing an end to the generation of enthusiasts whose lives were about vending their handmade products to excited and appreciative tourists. “They are afraid of us,” Russell sighs and forces a smile. The wall between

IN THE STRE THE PAST, ET WAS FI LLED WIT H

MERRY MELODIES FROM JAZZ AND BLUES CAFES

THAT OPENED THEIR WELCOMING DOORS T O P E O P L E E A R LY I N T H E M O R N I N G ,

SPREADING THE SMELL OF HOT COFFEE & PASTRIES A L O N G T E L E G R A P H AV E N U E . . .

the bearers of the Telegraph spirit and the impassive people who pass by them grows higher every day. “You know what happens when you walk in front of the cement truck with your headphones on? You die.” Russell’s laugh gets lost in the noise from a sports car speeding up the street, flooding the otherwise peaceful atmosphere with dissonant revving. What the vendors have fought for for about fifty years is at the risk of being forgotten and lost behind the world of practicality and profit. The spirit is dying, and with each vendor that trickles away, Telegraph Avenue loses a bit of its historical culture. In the past, the street was filled with merry melodies from jazz and blues cafes that opened their welcoming doors to people early in the morning, spreading the smell of hot coffee and pastries along Telegraph Avenue. Vendors today believe the street is losing its integrity and culture as the people who walk the street become more concerned about the destination rather than the way. Telegraph has become a place to get a fast, on-thego snack for the sake of efficiency and economy of time. Many store fronts have changed, such as Larry Blake’s cafe, which once occupied the space that is now Pappy’s. Yet even the stores that have remained,

such as Blondie’s Pizza and Rasputin Music, seem to get lost in the bright lights of the Chipotles and Subways that first welcome students as they exit campus. Many of the new storefronts fail to convey the long history that stands behind every pioneer cafe or store. Settled on the corner of Durant and Telegraph, Noah’s Bagels was the second cafe within the gradually-expanding chain to open in the United States. Despite its success and longevity, Russell has watched Noah’s Bagels change to meet the standards of the modern world; the Noah’s Bagels Russell recalls with nostalgia had NewYork-subway-style tiles on its facade. As the tiles were replaced, he said, so was its charm. “We are ending, very definitely.” Russell looks around, resting his gaze on every fellow vendor on the street and halfsmiling. “There are less and less of us every time I turn around.” But Telegraph still remains at the center of the vendors’ lives. “I’ll probably stay here till I have a heart stroke,” Russell says in a tone that leaves no doubt that for him, this is the way it should be. The once-large family of vendors has dedicated its life to what it can do and made Telegraph what it is now—an asset to the citizens, a vital part of the unique identity of a city. It’s 3 o’clock and Russell begins

loading the untouched pots back into his truck. Packing and unpacking takes most of his day on Telegraph; the strenuous work is no longer an easy task for Russell. Each week, it seems his routine of driving 13 miles early in the morning, only to unload and reload his ceramics, gets a little bit harder. And yet, he returns to Telegraph Avenue every weekend. “The question that I ask myself is, ‘how long can I do this?’” His answer sounds resolute and firm: till the end. As long as Russell and his fellow vendors continue to garnish the street with their handmade wares and colorful memories, the history of Telegraph will live on. ...The student, detached from Telegraph’s world, quickly sips his hot coffee and hurries along the street towards the campus. He puts his earphones in and quickens his pace, adjusting to the quick rhythm of the song. Passing by Russell’s stall, he doesn’t pause to look at the man who has just packed his handiwork back into an old, rusty truck. All the student sees is the same street he walks every morning. Will he ever question the story of Telegraph Avenue? All he has to do is slow down, and take some time to listen. words by MARINA CHILINGARYAN photos by PAULA VILLALBA

“WE ARE ENDING, VERY DEFINITELY... THERE ARE

LESS AND LESS

OF US EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND.” - RUSSELL

C A L I B E R E AT S :

SUSHI

SECRETS

here we most often see the rich diversity of the Bay Area is not always on the streets, but rather on our plates. Fusion foods bring innovation to the kitchen— they highlight the best parts of their parent cultures while creating unexpected new culinary experiences. It seems that there’s never a shortage of bizarre new food creations to try—from fusion crepes to Korean BBQ tacos to ramen burgers and, of course, the sushi burrito. The sushi burrito is an oxymoron; it’s composed of the elegant ingredients of a traditional Japanese sushi roll but with the shamelessly oversized profile of a burrito. Japanese components, Mexican inspiration—the best of both cultures. The concept was developed by Yo Pratioto, a sushi chef and owner of the LA-based Jogasaki Sushi Burrito food truck. Here he got inspiration from customers who were unsatisfied with a single roll, leading him to make rolls large enough to resemble burritos. This hybrid food item has also found its home in select locations here in the Bay Area (most notably Sushirrito in SF). And now, settled quietly on the corner of Addison and Shattuck is Berkeley’s own version of this modern-day fusion experience— Sushi Secrets, a sushi burrito eatery that opened in August Their most popular burritos? For those who don’t mind spicy, there’s B3:

the Chichibun roll made with spicy tuna, salmon, and assorted veggies with a Japanese kimchee and wasabi sauce. On the sweeter side is B8: the Hokushita burrito with salmon, tamago, and sweet corn, alongside a sweet honey avocado and mango aioli. For a less traditional option, there’s B1: the Amabuki roll with imitation crab, cream cheese, avocado, and shrimp tempura. My two personal favorite menu items are the Bijoubu roll and the Takoyaki (battered octopus balls). If none of these appeals to you, you can always opt for the “make your own burrito” option. The restaurant itself has a very basic interior and limited space for seating. The preparation is fast and while the spot seems understaffed, service is surprisingly amiable. The burritos range in price from $7.99 to $8.99— not bad considering Sushirrito charges $9.00 to $12.00 and classic sushi rolls usually average about $8.00. There’s also a unique drink menu that includes “potted” (cream, Oreo, and mint-topped) smoothies in flavors such as honeydew, kiwi, cantaloupe, avocado, and Thai; and potted or regular “cow” (milk) teas. When it’s busy, the sushi chef goes down the line of patrons, taking orders while the seaweed, rice, and fillings are put together in a kind of assembly line on the other side of the clear glass

window. I was disappointed to find that it more accurately resembled a fast-food restaurant of sorts than a traditional sushi restaurant where the chefs craft each roll as if it were a fine art. Regardless, the burritos don’t disappoint. Each is sliced at a generous angle for that Instagram worthy foodie photo and perfect first bite. There’s a wellbalanced contrast of textures and flavors and because of the burrito’s size, each individual ingredient is showcased— the generous portions of fresh tuna or salmon against the refreshing crunch of the julienned carrots and cucumber, all complemented by an array of sweet and spicy sauces liberally coating each bite. While the seaweed wrap is slightly chewy, the veggies are less than traditional, and the last inch or so falls apart in a crumbling mess; overall, it’s a satisfying and nutritionally balanced meal. It leaves you feeling content yet intrigued enough to come again. And while you won’t get the high-class service or refined preparation associated with most gourmet sushi or fusion restaurants, you will get a unique experience that will leave your gluttonous side satisfied in a very unconventional, very Berkeley kind of way. words by JASMINE TATAH photos by KATE VLESSIS

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CRITICAL

MASS

UC BERKELEY’S ROLE IN OPEN ACCESS

elcome to the Age of Information. At the intersection of rising enrollment and shrinking campus resources, “good education” is synonymous with “good information.” Starting October 17, 2014, University of California Berkeley’s Open Access Week celebrated the Academic Senate of the University

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of California’s decision to adopt an Open Access policy made in July 2013. Forums and dialogues across campus discussed the dependence of free speech, equal opportunity, and education in regards to Open Access, a global movement dedicated to distributing academic research, technological advancement, and other valuable

information free to the public. Open Access advocates equal access to knowledge; somewhat ironically, few students have heard of it. The Academic Senate bill created an online repository called eScholarship with the California Digital Library, through which the public may peruse all UC faculty research. The program exempts

highly profitable works like textbooks, books, and art, and any researcher may opt out. The push for Open Access is not a new feature for the UC System. In 2012, UCSF inaugurated an independent Open Access policy, however, the Academic Senate proceeded with Open Access reluctantly, rejecting an earlier version of an Open Access Policy that same year. Only after a crew of student hackers broke into the UC Berkeley digital archives and leaked private research over the Internet did the Senate revisit the initiative. Over the next year, a written correspondence between Provost Aimée Dorr, Academic Council Chair Robert Powell and UCLA’s Christopher Kelty probed potential shortcomings of Open Access. The administrators concluded that the CDL may only distribute research documents provided they adhere to copyright law and not use the documents for commercial gain. Oversight from both the UC Senate and Office of the President would prove critical to protecting faculty research from exploitation or tampering. The Dorr-Kelty dialogue also hashed out questions of cost. eScholarship requires several digital modifications if it is to swallow an influx of Open Access documents. Furthermore, the UC would need to either purchase material from for-profit journals or subsidize the article processing fees imposed by open access journals: open access journals rely on these fees rather than on sales for profit. The UC system has implemented an Open Access Publishing Fund to handle costs, but as Kelty admits in his letter to Dorr, “for better or worse, saving money is not the goal of this policy” and hopes that money saved by severing pricy relationships with for-profit publishers will offset any expenses that the UC System accrues along the way. So what, then, does this mean for UC Berkeley students? Open Access relies on numbers. In a world of commercialized data, a single

organization could spiral into bankruptcy if it distributes free information; yet if enough corporations and organizations adopt Open Access, customers can refuse to pay for information, which could compel even more entities to join Open Access. The movement for shared information hinges on critical mass, and it needs user support to survive in our volatile digital world. Open Access directly and unequivocally benefits students. As Kelty reminded UC administrators, “In February, new legislation was introduced into both the U.S. Congress (FASTR) and the California Legislature (AB 609). If adopted both the laws would require of UC Faculty that they make publicly available any federally or state funded research publications.” Since taxpayers and tuition support UC research, residents should not have to pay twice for information in which they have already invested. Returning to the question of cost, if enough UC courses structured their lessons around freely available research, students could potentially funnel money once spent on readers to funding for Open Access. Open Access democratizes education. An Internet connection to eScholarship brings priceless information to individuals without access to education. Underfunded secondary schools can build curricula from groundbreaking research. Under the auspices of the Open Access Initiative, Cal students have created a digital setting for students to peruse academic texts and share notes. This online forum, known as the Peer Library, comes as a boon to students who have shell out upwards of $50 for a reader they opened once since the beginning of the semester. The Peer Library’s collaborative annotations open dialogues and dissect controversies in the text. Open Access also democratizes academia. The old system, a remnant of a world populated by floppy disks and library cards, put a price on prestige. Brand names sold both information and reputation, while academia dismissed

free information as unreliable. Open Access undermines the politics and biases of publication. When top professors similarly release their research free of charge, new or underrepresented voices that have always published for free gain credibility, ending domination by balding white Americans (and Brits). This rule especially holds true for undergraduates fighting to break into academia. Finally, Open Access promotes accountability. In recent memory, the UC has altered the budget, appointed a president without democratic elections, and glossed over human rights and sexual assault violations on campus. Despite footing the bill for the UC system, students lack a voice in the higher-up decisions that directly affect them. Since they have already given their social security numbers and bank account information to the University, they have a right to its publications. Everyone wants to make a change, but knowledge is the biggest investment in our future, our biggest asset. Generally broke, young, and lacking power, students have little authority, but information provides an alternative leverage with which to champion resonant causes. For Berkeley’s Golden Bears, Open Access is one of those causes. Students can boycott for-profit journals. They can pressure educators to utilize open source material in the classroom. They can release their own research and source code to the Internet. Most importantly, they can keep doing what they do— exchanging, adopting, and innovating information. Internet culture and the dissemination of information have created an economic and cultural environment that threatens the sustainability of forprofit publication. They are the next generation of researchers and consumers, and they can utilize the newfound authority under Open Access to push the Age of Information closer to completely democratic knowledge. words by JESSLYN WHITTELL photo by LANA COSIC

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oud panting masked the sounds of children playing in the park while shrieks and screams filled the thickening fog around us. The frantic noise overtook all silence and chaos ensued. No, this was not a scene in a horror film. This was the sound of fifty feisty pugs, chasing, playing, and wrestling beneath the misty San Francisco sky. It was almost impossible to hear anything over the heavy, intense breathing, as the plumped pugs chased and played with one another atop the grassy field that is Alta Plaza Park. What exactly was a pack of pugs doing in the park all at once? They were celebrating the event known as “Pugs in the Park,” the first Sunday of the month dedicated to the unusual, “so ugly it’s cute” breed of dog. Bizarre, yes. Fascinating, definitely. Adorable, absolutely. Upon my arrival, I met Mosley, a

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small and spunky pug with a 49ers handkerchief tied proudly around his neck rolls. This pug was naturally curious, running, jumping, bouncing, and playing throughout the park. He didn’t seem to slow down, which in combination with his incessant exhales, made me think he might need to borrow my inhaler. Next, I stumbled upon Ruby, a chunky pug with a face full of grey fur. Her undeniably regal status and charm lured in fellow park-goers as many approached her to rub her neck. Not letting the attention get to her head, Ruby sat nestled in the grass soaking in the constant flow of adoration. Ruby made her fellow canine friend, Beckham, who was a living caricature of the iconic pug breed, a little jealous. With a disproportionate belly-to-leg ratio, he could barely sit or stand without

the assistance of his owner. Underneath his aging whiskers were four paws nearly invisible due to his rotund physique. His face was smashed and his nose seemed as if someone had pushed a button into his skull, making breathing a little difficult. However, nothing stopped good old Becks from waddling around the park, looking for someone to give him some love. For some pugs, this was their first time to the monthly jamboree. Others were regulars who frequent the park every month for some fun in the sun with their fellow furry, squished-face friends. If “animal therapy” is a form of stress relief, then Pugs in the Park might just be cure for the midterm blues. words by MACKENZIE O’HOLLERAN photos by PAULA VILLALBA

THE BES T B AY A R EA

words by LAUREN KIM photo by LANA COSIC

BAKERIES

BERKELEY Masse’s Pastries 1469 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94709 Masse’s Pastries specializes in finely crafted cakes, tarts, cookies, and macaroons. With their focus on craft and presentation, Masse’s Pastries’ cakes and baked goods would be a great fit for birthdays and weddings.

SAN FRANCISCO Golden Gate Bakery 1029 Grant Ave. San Francisco, CA 94133 Golden Gate Bakery is located in Chinatown and has high praise for its egg tarts and moon cakes. If you are looking to try sweet goods from an Asian cuisine, Golden Gate Bakery has you covered.

La Bedaine 1585 Solano Ave. Berkeley, CA 94707 La Bedaine is a French bakery that produces a wide range of quality baked goods, such as croissants, tarts, cookies, and quiches, at extremely cheap prices. Also, Alain, the chef of La Bedaine, offers cooking and baking classes to those who are interested in learning how to make home-styled French meals.

John Campbell’s Irish Bakery 5625 Geary Blvd. San Francisco, CA 94121 This bakery’s specialty is in breads and scones, such as its Potato Bread, Irish Crusty Bread, Brown Bread, Sultan Scones, and Soda Bread. If you are interested in traditional, authentic old-style baked goods, then give John Campbell’s Irish Bakery a try.

Cinnaholic 2131 Oxford St. Berkeley, CA 94704 Cinnaholic produces gourmet cinnamon rolls that are 100% vegan, dairy & lactose-free, egg-free, and cholesterolfree. Additionally, Cinnaholic recently appeared in ABC’s Shark Tank, and after its appearance, business has been booming.

Devil’s Teeth Baking Company 3876 Noriega St. San Francisco, CA 94122 This bakery is no hidden gem. Local press, including SF Weekly, Thrillest, SF Bay Guardian, and 7x7, raves about Devil’s Teeth. The bakers of Devil’s Teeth Baking Company specialize in birthday and wedding cakes and catering, so if you are preparing for a big event, then this bakery would be a great option.

OAKLAND Bakesale Betty 5098 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94609 Bakesale Betty provides a wide range of goods, including shortcakes, friedchicken sandwiches, and banana bread. Australian cook, Alison Barakat, created Bakesale Betty and her baked treats are reminiscent of ones she grew up eating. Pop Art Bakeshop 2307 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94601 Specialties of Pop Art Bakeshop include biscuits and gravy, potpies, quiches, cookies, fudge brownies, mini pies, custards, and cheesecake lollipops. What makes Pop Art Bakeshop stand out is how it takes American bakery classics and recreates them with its “Pop Art” perspective. Mariposa Baking Company 5427 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94609 Mariposa Baking Company specializes in sweet goods and bread that are glutenfree. Better health through food is the foundation of the goods produced at Mariposa, and this can be rooted back to founder Patti Furey Crane’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis ten years ago, which she was able to overcome by managing her diet.

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BORN IN

BERKELEY In my three years at UC Berkeley, I’ve met undergrad business whizzes, rainbow-haired hippie fairies, and several people who passionately informed me of the evils of mass incarceration without ever asking my name. But in all my time here, I’ve never met someone who answered the ever-popular college question, “So where are you from?” with “Berkeley.” And as much as I feel like this city has become an integral part of me since my arrival, I always forget that there are those who have called this grungy mecca home since day one. In this city of beatniks and flower children, the homeless and the hopeful, art and music filter into the lives of all inhabitants. Here are three names you’ve probably heard of but never labeled as BORN IN BERKELEY.

words by KRISTA KURISAKI

THE LONELY ISLAND (ARTIST) Sitting on the 2013 Television Critics Association panel for the TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Andy Samberg still hasn’t forgotten his roots. Chuckling, he recalls his earliest forays into comedy, remembering, “I was literally voted class clown at Berkeley High School. That’s a big school too, so I was a real dumbass.” Fortunately for Samberg and his two friends, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, this particularly clever brand of “dumb-assery” has made a household name of their comedic music troupe, The Lonely Island. The trio formed at Berkeley’s Willard Junior High after discovering a shared love of pranks and skateboarding. The group came back to Berkeley after a brief college separation and collectively moved to Los Angeles. It was in a low-rent LA apartment that The Lonely Island went fullBuckingham Nicks and began to write comedic rap songs and upload their work online. Eventually, their shorts caught the attention of NBC executives and they were hired for the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. The viral success of one of their first official SNL contributions, a witty parody of hardcore rap entitled “Lazy Sunday” gave rise to the creation of their own division on the show, called SNL Digital Shorts, which would bestow upon the world musical masterpieces such as “Jizz in My Pants,” “I’m on a Boat,” and even more foul-mouthed fun with Justin Timberlake. Since their mainstream success, The Lonely Island has recorded three studio albums and directed the cult classic Hot Rod, whose “Cool Beans” sequence is not easily ignored or forgotten. In 2012, The Lonely Island donated $250,000 to the Berkeley Unified School District by way of Doritos’ “Crash the Superbowl” contest. Most of the money was used to support local theater programs. The trio is currently working on their second movie, set to be co-produced by comedy film guru Judd Apatow.

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KATHLEEN KENNEDY (FILM PRODUCER) As How I Met Your Mother sage Marshall Erikson once said, “The only people in the universe who have never seen Star Wars are the characters in Star Wars and that’s ’cause they lived them.” But as amazing of a franchise as Star Wars is, it’s still largely a boy’s club. Enter film producer (and Berkeley native) Kathleen Kennedy. Beginning with small-scale work on news stations and talk shows, she was eventually hired by Steven Spielberg as a secretary. However, her production ideas quickly superseded her typist work and she received her first full producer’s credit on the 1982 classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Though most of her works have been a result of a continuing professional partnership with Spielberg (on the Indiana Jones franchise, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List), Kennedy has since collaborated with other legendary titans of film such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, and Clint Eastwood. Since her start in the industry, she has participated in the making of over 60 films and has earned 120 Academy Award nominations for her work. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm Ltd. and promoted Kennedy to President and brand manager of the entire Star Wars franchise. Kennedy is currently producing the highly anticipated film Star Wars Episode VII, where she will work with J.J. Abrams of the newly rebooted Star Trek films (featuring UC Berkeley alums Chris Pine and John Cho). With a cast list that so far boasts talented ladies such as Lupita Nyong’o and Gwendoline Christie, it looks as if strong women in film will no longer be relegated to a galaxy far, far away.

ARIEL SCHRAG (CARTOONIST, TV WRITER) Name-checked in the electroclash Le Tigre song “Hot Topic,” amid the likes of fellow female revolutionaries Yoko Ono, Joan Jett, and Gertrude Stein, Ariel Schrag is an artist without boundaries. After spending summer vacations illustrating her experiences, she self-published her first comic book series while attending Berkeley High School. Schrag compiled her eclectic graphic autobiography into four volumes depicting various personal stories, such as memories with her family, experimentation with drugs, and the definitive moment when she came out as bisexual and later as a lesbian. An honest and candid depiction of the teenage experience in all of its awkward glory, Schrag’s comics were later distributed among major book sellers and are currently on the way to becoming a feature length film for which Schrag has written the screenplay. Following her success in the realm of comic books, Schrag wrote her first novel, Adam, a humorous yet provocative story that explores transgender rights through the eyes of its main character, the cisgender teenager Adam Freeman. Schrag has also written episodes for the Showtime series, The L Word and has since worked on the HBO comedy-drama How to Make It in America. Her artwork has appeared in many notable publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle and The Village Voice, and has also been displayed in museums and galleries around the world. Schrag graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature and has taught courses on graphic novel writing at many prestigious universities. Today, she gives live performances of her comics across the US and abroad.

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top photo by MIKAELA RAPHAEL bottom photo by KATE VLESSIS

both photos by REMY D’AGNILLO

top photo by KATE VLESSIS bottom photo by ALYA LAMBDA

top photo by PAULA VILLALBA bottom photo by LANA COSIC

top photo by AISHWARYA ARAVIND bottom photo by KATE VLESSIS

FIRST

GENERATION college students

udgment Day has arrived. You proceed towards your inevitable destiny with a trembling index finger, and click on the e-mail that will determine the next four years of your life. “CONGRATULATIONS!” it reads. You have at last been accepted to college, following in the footsteps of millions of your peers, relatives, and community members, reaching the next conventional milestone in the journey towards fulfilling the American Dream. You feel like you are experiencing an academic aneurism, as ideas of what classes you will take, who you will meet, and what you will accomplish flood your mind. Yet for some, this experience is not so much climactic as it is poignant; a college acceptance can mean more than mere validation and realized expectations, it means a different

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future for a unique population: first-generation college students. According to College Board, more than a third of American students between the ages of 5 and 17 are first-generation students. Yet, while 82% of non-first-generation students enroll in secondary education immediately after high school, a mere 36% of students whose parents did not complete high school attend college. At UC Berkeley, 20% of students are firstgeneration students, and nearly all students within this contingent meet low-income criteria. Though the admission rate of this population is deemed “disproportionately small” by the Educational Opportunities Program (EOP), both the challenges and feats of these students are irrefutably large.

MELISSA Melissa Padilla, a 27-year-old Political Science major at Berkeley, defied all odds to pursue her dream of attending this university. This is Padilla’s 5th year as a college student. Padilla was born and raised in Riverside County, CA, along with five siblings. Her father completed a middle school education and moved to the United States from Mexico when he was 17. “He did the whole American Dream without any education. All he needed was a business and a home,” she says. “And my mom, she didn’t really care to go back to school. Her job was just to make sure the house was clean and there was food on the table.” For Padilla, conversations at home never included the topic of college, and higher education was put on the backburner. During high school, Padilla developed an addiction to methamphetamine. After taking time off, she graduated from a continuation school, and three months later discovered she was pregnant. Padilla spent the next three years taking care of her son, Ezikel, and in the interim, lost her job. They moved into a homeless shelter. When it was time for Ezikel to go to preschool, Padilla wanted to change

her life: “If he was going to school, it was my time to go back to school too.” Padilla diligently worked for the next three years in community college; discouraged by an academic counselor at first, Padilla thought, “Screw everybody. I’m getting into Cal.” And she did, along with all of the other UCs to which she applied. “You hit the ground running when you’re a first-generation student, because you need to learn about the institution itself. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how register for classes or apply for scholarships. Everything is so new to you,” commented Padilla. Padilla was overwhelmed with decisions and guilt for her coinciding roles of full time student and full time parent. Yet, in time, she realized: “I am worthy of this education and this experience as a human being. It’s okay to do things for yourself.” Padilla has been able to look at her journey in a positive light. “Yes it is hard. And yes, you are going to experience challenges in having so many identities. But the people you meet and the opportunities you have are so amazing. There are world changers here.” Padilla wants to be one of them. After graduation, she hopes to work in Sacramento to reformulate education,

tuition, and food stamp policies driven by stereotypes. Yet, she acknowledges that Ezikel deserves to have aspirations of his own. “It’s not always about this American Dream of going to college and getting a degree. As long as he works hard at what he’s passionate about, he doesn’t have to go to school, and that’s okay. I just want him to be happy.”

REY “It kind of sucks when I tell people these stories. They feel really bad for me. I’m not trying to give you a sob story. It’s just stuff that happened to me.” Rey Fernandez is a 27-year-old from Santa Ana, California. This is his first year at Berkeley as a junior transfer student. Fernandez’s parents emigrated from Mexico to the United States in the late ’70s and early ’80s, without finishing any formal college education, in hopes of giving their future children an opportunity of a better life. They divorced when Fernandez was eight years old, and Fernandez’s mother left his family. Fernandez, his father, and his brother encountered great toils for the rest of his teenage years. They were never quite stable, physically and emotionally. Fernandez’s father suffered

“

After everything in my life,

EVERY HURDLE I had to go through,

I DID IT FOR MYSELF. I never thought I would have made it BUT I DID.

”

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from colon cancer and alcoholism. They constantly moved from place to place due to financial insecurity. In the summer after graduating high school, Fernandez’s family was evicted from their apartment, and he moved in with his estranged mother out of desperation. Working a variety of odd jobs, he was unsure of his next steps: “I didn’t know about applying to university. No one really pushed me, so I was not going the route I wanted to. I didn’t want my little brother to be like, ‘What are you doing? I’m supposed to be looking up to you.’” It was at this time that Fernandez’s friend presented him the opportunity to reorient his life path through joining the United State Marine Corps; Fernandez could not be prouder of the decision he made. “That was the stage that led my path in the right direction. It taught me honor, courage, commitment and to be faithful to anything I do.” During his five years of service, Fernandez experienced great success and great sadness. He was able to pay for his brother’s college education at Cal Baptist University. “I did everything I could so that he could succeed. He was the first one in our family to graduate,” says Fernandez. “I get really choked up thinking about it.” In his fourth year of service, Fernandez received urgent notice that his father was hospitalized due to a serious head injury and could no longer communicate verbally. He rushed home to meet his dad, who had written on a small note, “I love you. Don’t ever leave school.” Fernandez’s father fell into a coma and never woke up. His father’s message resonated closely with Fernandez. After finishing up his service in Japan, Fernandez enrolled in community college. Fernandez went on to achieve a 4.0 GPA every semester after his first. Working with a program called Puente, which assists in the transition from community college to university, Fernandez was encouraged to take ownership of his difficult past but seek a better tomorrow with higher education.

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After a seemingly endless wait, he was accepted by all of the UCs to which he had applied. “After everything in my life, every hurdle I had to go through, I did it for myself. I never thought I would have made it, but I did.” Though Fernandez’s Berkeley career has just begun, he knows what he wants his future to look like. He would like to work for a consulting program like Puente in order to give back all of the guidance he received. Most of all, he wants to have a home. “I never had one. I just want a place for me and my mom to call our own.”

THE EOP The prospect of maneuvering through Berkeley can be daunting for first-generation students like Padilla and Fernandez. Fortunately, Berkeley’s Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) serves to alleviate many of these struggles. EOP serves three cohorts of Berkeley students: first-generation students, low-income students, and underrepresented minorities. Julian Ledesma is the interim director of EOP. Having been a first-generation college student himself, he believes that this program has been instrumental in promoting students’ success. The EOP’s mantra, he asserts, is that “being at Berkeley as a student is not just an academic journey; it is a lived and felt, highly transformational experience.” EOP focuses on three areas in supporting students at Berkeley. First, they assist in a strong transition from home to Berkeley to help mitigate initial shock. “If you don’t know anyone like you who has achieved a college degree, then it makes it harder to imagine you can achieve it. Even when you have the inspiration and belief in yourself, you don’t have the information on how to do it,” comments first-generation transfer student, Jessica Valone. Working alongside the financial aid office, EOP helps students like Valone to understand the mechanics of obtaining scholarships, grants, and loans throughout their time as undergraduates. The second focus is ensuring students

are engaged on campus. Through EOP, students are introduced to a myriad of organizations, clubs, and public service groups full of like-minded individuals who wish to enact positive social change. “Cal has changed me for the better because I have gained invaluable knowledge, skills, and personal growth in my college experience through participating in mentorship, leadership, peer advising, and working,” notes Valone. Lastly, EOP serves in the preparation and mentorship of students for entry into graduate or professional school through workshops and training sessions. Valone comments, “Just talking to different counselors and alums and hearing their paths has helped guide me in the direction I want to go after I graduate.” Ledesma adamantly believes, “There is no such thing as one size fits all.” EOP has been so successful in its goals because it treats students as individuals with distinct needs and journeys. Ledesma is grateful for the simple pushes, words of motivation, and critiques that he received through EOP and his mentors. His experience proved that attending Berkeley was the entry point to a broader life trajectory, and he wants the students he serves to share in that experience, because they are capable and worthy of thriving. “Work hard and be persistent. Always stay true to your goals and look at the end result and someday that dream will come true,” encourages Fernandez. “Statistics may say you should have been in jail, or on welfare, and that you’re not worthy enough. But don’t feel like that. Everyone deserves to be here,” urges Padilla. These first-generation students, despite all of their trials, can agree that anyone can and is entitled to succeed. If you embrace where you have been, you determine where you can go. Berkeley is just a pit stop along the way. words by ANNIE PILL

THE

FIGHT FOOD FOR

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GILL TRACT FARM

n the corner of Marin Avenue and San Pablo Boulevard in Albany, about three miles west of UC Berkeley, you’ll find the Gill Tract. What appears from the outside to be an impressively productive community garden is in fact owned by the University, and the individuals maintaining this piece of land have been struggling for nearly twenty years to resist private development plans and instead cultivate education, research, and community involvement. Unknown to many students who walk the campus every day, UC Berkeley is a land-grant university, meaning it receives financial benefits as a direct result of the Morrill Act that was originally signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. According to the National Library of Congress, the proceeds for this bill would be used “to fund public colleges that focused on agriculture and the mechanical arts.” Being a land-grant university, UC Berkeley now carries the responsibility of maintaining its promise of agricultural research. Originally 104 acres total, the UC Regents purchased the Gill Tract plot from Edgar and Mary Gill for $400,000 in 1928. Today, less than 10 percent of this land is used for agriculture. After its purchase, a majority of the land was gradually transformed. Most recently, University Village, a UC Berkeley student housing facility that hosts primarily families and students with dependents, covers 50 acres, Ocean View elementary school occupies a western portion of the land, and 10 acres have been reserved for UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. Since 1945, the Gill Tract has been a hub of environmental research, and as the use of pesticides began to increase following World War II, the UC’s Division of Biological Control was studying what we today would call “organic” or “sustainable”

agriculture on this land. This early alternative is mentioned by Rachel Carson in her book “Silent Spring” when she says “California is virtually alone among the states in having a formal program in biological control, and many have not even one entomologist who devotes full time to it.” Noted as a pioneering novel for environmentalism, this reference alludes to the historical significance of this land not only at UC Berkeley, but its significance for environmental studies everywhere. “The research happening on the Gill Tract Farm is part of the legacy that launched the modern environmental movement,” said Master of Public Health Candidate Vanessa Raditz, who is also an organizer with Students for Engaged and Active Learning and the Gill Tract Community Farm. “This history is in danger of being paved over with the development,” she said. In 2012, the University released an open letter stating, “None of the research work at the Gill Tract involves genetically modified crops or organisms.” Despite claims such as these, there was nevertheless great controversy as private companies began funding university research over the years. In particular, a $25 million agreement made with pharmaceutical company Novartis announced in 1998 sparked a wave of both inspiration and resistance to the privatization of a public university. Only a few months earlier in 1997, UC Berkeley faculty and community members came together to form the Bay Area Coalition for Urban Agriculture (BACUA), a coalition of over 30 community organizations, including UC Berkeley students, alumni, and faculty, dedicated to building a universitycommunity partnership for urban agriculture at the Gill Tract. Years went by and the BACUA proposal went ignored. Simultaneously, the Division of Biological Control staff was greatly reduced, and word emerged that the Gill Tract would soon be slated for development.

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Earth Day 2012 marked a turning of events for the Gill Tract’s insecurity, when hundreds of protesters engaged in active civil disobedience to resist plans of turning the land into a Whole Foods Market and assisted living center. The movement known as Occupy the Farm was born. Protesters cut the bolt at the gate and proceeded to farm the land they believed should be used for agriculture. Later into the protest, fences surrounding the farm were closed off; those inside had only the option of leaving, and those on the outside, including UC faculty, were prohibited from entering the premises. “[Occupy the Farm] was a unique form of direct action in that it was intergenerational,” said Occupy the Farm participant Krystof Lopaur. “There were children and seniors there, and it had a strategic coherence. We were clear about our demands and we were building what we wanted at the same time.” “Once it started, the support was overwhelming,” he said. “Food and donations were flooding in from the community. When the water was cut off, water was delivered by the community.” After nearly three weeks of encampment and several arrests, the protest was eventually dismantled by the police force. As a result of the occupation, an agreement between the community, protesters, and University was reached— the north side of the property was given to the College of Natural Resources for agricultural research purposes for the next 10 years. From this, the Gill Tract Community Farm, a collaborative urban farming partnership between the University and community members, was officially created. Established Gill Tract farmer and Agricultural Technician for the College of Natural Resources (CNR), Jon Hoffman said, “We celebrate these small victories. Today, we are celebrating that we have been able to move things and have developed joint governance of the land with supportive research partners in the university.”

One of the few hired workers at the Gill Tract Community Farm, Hoffman has access to the Oxford greenhouse where other university research related to agriculture takes place. “CNR pays for the water we receive at the Gill Tract Community Farm and provided new tools as a way to kick-start the community farm.” Hoffman also mentioned that, in addition to the support from CNR, the Gill Tract Community Farm relies on donations from supporters. Despite the victory, the farmers and researchers at the Gill Tract were not satisfied with only the north side of the farm, and on May 22, 2013, a second encampment occurred. This time, protesters were fighting to save the south side from development.* By then, Whole Foods Market had pulled out of the development plans and Sprouts Farmers Market took its place. On May 14, police force dismantled the protest. “The second encampment may not have had the same concrete outcome as the first,” said Lopaur, “but it engaged students and brought together a community dedicated to saving both the north and south side of the Gill Tract.” At an Albany city council meeting in March 2014, several Gill Tract activists publicly commented on the last appeal against Capital Projects’ proposed commercial development. However, this meeting was unsuccessful for those rallying in support of saving the farm. “We were told there wasn’t much that could be done at this meeting to help us, and that they would need to consult with the University,” said UC Berkeley undergraduate student Dea Oganesian. Their response to this denial was not to back down, but rather an inspired Raditz, Oganesian, and several others began the organization now known as Students for Engagement and Active Learning, or SEAL. A coalition of undergraduate, graduate students, and UC Berkeley alumni, the group’s mission is to encourage hands-on education by calling upon the university “to fulfill its mission as a Public University by expanding opportunities

for community-driven research serving community needs.” Their first goal? Change the course of action surrounding development plants for the Gill Tract Farm. To achieve this, SEAL, along with members from Fossil Free Cal and the Cal Progressive Coalition took part in a protest march that ended with a sit-in on April 22, 2014. There, protesters opened a petition against chancellor Nicholas Dirks, UC President Janet Napolitano, and UC Berkeley’s Capital Projects to halt development plans and develop a food initiative for the remaining 20 acres of the Gill Tract. That petition now has over 2,500 signatures and is still growing. After approximately 90 minutes of occupying the space, the students were finally promised a meeting with UC Berkeley’s vice chancellor of real estate Robert Lalanne to take place in May. Less than a week later, on April 29, the ASUC passed Senate Bill no. 84, calling on the UC to cease development plans and begin to develop a “collaborative design process that is inclusive and accessible to both students and community members, for possible alternative uses of the Gill Tract Farm”. ASUC Senator and signatory of the bill Haley Broder said “We need to turn to local food if we want to address food system issues. [The University] should not be developing this land, but turning it into a place for education and example.” Shortly thereafter, on July 1, President Napolitano launched the Global Food Initiative. The UC stated that “the initiative will align the university’s research, outreach, and operations in a sustained effort to develop, demonstrate, and export solutions—throughout California, the U.S. and the world—for food security, health, and sustainability.” As a part of the Global Food Initiative, all 10 UC campuses are given an outline of how the initiative will be realized at each location. The Gill Tract is now formally written into UC Berkeley’s Global Food Initiative fact sheet as “12 acres of farmland used for agricultural

experiments, as well as 1.5 acres of garden used for participatory community research on agroecology and urban agriculture.” “It’s a start, but it’s all so hypocritical,” said Raditz. “The UC is calling for a global food initiative but the Regents approved a plan that would demolish part of the space that could facilitate this research and allow studies on sustainable agriculture to flourish.” After what both Broder and Raditz referred to as an unsuccessful meeting with Lalanne, the students performed another sit-in on October 1 in the Architects and Engineers building where UC Berkeley’s Capital Projects office is located. On the same day UC Berkeley was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, members from SEAL, Occupy the Farm, Fossil Free Cal, and Cal Progressive Coalition came together to end what Broder described as “ignored requests” for a meeting with the Chancellor. As a result of the sit-in, students were promised regular follow-ups with Capital Projects on the development plans for the Gill Tract Farm, and a meeting with Chancellor Dirks. That meeting happened on November 14, 2014. Approximately 100 supporters gathered outside California Hall as seven students from SEAL spoke with

Chancellor Dirks about a new proposal for the Gill Tract—one that would halt the development of the south side and encourage a community-driven planning process to create a center for both education and farming on all 20 acres. After a two-hour long meeting, the students exited the building and informed the ralliers that the administration was unlikely to change their plans of developing the south side of the land. “We presented our proposal for a Global Food Initiative for the Gill Tract, and they respectfully listened and respectfully disagreed,” said Raditz. “But the fight does not end now,” she continued, “and we need all of you.” While the struggle for all 20 acres moves forward, the positive outcomes that have already taken place will continue to flourish. Several student research positions have been implemented at the Gill Tract, a continuing growth between the community and university lives, and plenty of delicious food is growing everyday. As Raditz puts it, “where the edges come together is where you see the best change and the most growth, whether that’s in the soil or in our lives.” *The College of Natural Resources is not affiliated with the petition for the south side of the Gill Tract. words by SYDNEY JOHNSON photos by AISHWARYA ARAVIND

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REMember

to sleep

UNCOVERING THE EFFECTS OF SLEEP AND MEMORY IN UC BERKELEY’S SLEEP AND NEUROIMAGING LAB

o you find yourself battling to stay awake in lecture? Are you constantly pulling all-nighters to cram for pesky midterms, only to forget it all when it matters most? Recent findings by the UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab offer some clues about sleep’s effects on memory and learning that may help you shake off that grogginess and wake up refreshed and ready to learn. In a recently published study led by Dr. Bryce Mander, participants were asked to correctly identify a series of facename pairs. They were given a name to associate with a particular face, and were then told to go back and recall these pairings. Participants were split into two groups: one group took a nap and the other didn’t in the afternoon of the study. After several hours, participants were once again asked to learn a new set of face-name pairs. Researchers discovered that the group that stayed awake suffered a drop in learning ability and were unable to recall as many face-name pairs as the first time. On the other hand, the group that had a nap between recall tests experienced no setback in their ability to retrieve information and performed similarly to the initial face-name pairs learning test. Dr. Mander attributes this disparity in recall ability to the development of sleep spindles—bursts of brain wave activity produced during sleep that promote learning. As one produces more sleep spindles, learning capacity increases. Further, learning can be broken down cognitively as the active transformation of memories from storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the cortex. Sleep spindles are short

patterns of brain wave activity that result from hippocampus and cortex communication, and are responsible for activation of the hippocampus. The hippocampus, which stores short-term memories, is “freed up” after this process so that it can store novel memories. Memory is also affected by the presence of adenosine in the brain—a byproduct of energy production that is produced when people stay awake for periods of time. Adenosine builds up the longer people stay awake, causing them to grow tired. However, the production of adenosine was reduced when participants of the study took a nap, which in turn cleared up neurotoxic chemicals and restored the ability of neurons to fire. As neurological pathways are freed up, humans are able to process stimuli more effectively. The findings of the study demonstrate how crucial sleep schedules are to human health and learning. For sleep-deprived college students, compromising a good night’s rest for an allnighter may help with short-term recall, but that information is not withheld in long-term memory. Even taking short naps in the afternoon may refresh memory and boost one’s ability to learn and process information. So the next time there is a midterm looming over you, try catching some Z’s if you want to avoid D’s. Information on the above studies was provided by Dr. Bryce Mander, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. words by MICHAEL MA photo by REMY D’AGNILLO

FUNNY

S S E N I S BU THE MAKING OF AMIR BLUMENFELD

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he Haas Student. A relentless money-seeker. A start-up fanatic. A suit-wearing, go-getting, stock-stalking entrepreneur who’s more eager to take on Wall Street than the Wolf himself. In reality though, we know this isn’t always true. We know that sometimes even the businessperson wears a clown suit, or better yet, is a comedy writer for CollegeHumor. Amir Blumenfeld graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley in 2005, and has since been working for the popular comedy website CollegeHumor. What began as a few online submissions to the website between exams eventually landed him a full-time career at the CollegeHumor offices in New York City. Since then, you might have seen him on the web series Jake and Amir, as a guest on the television show Louie, or on the silver screen in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. Now, along with starring in the Jake and Amir videos, Blumenfeld co-hosts a comedic advice podcast called If I Were You, where he and Jake Hurwitz read email submissions and attempt to give listeners their personal, yet not necessarily good, advice. Since Blumenfeld spends a lot of time answering questions these days, we at Caliber wanted to shoot him a few of our own. No, we weren’t looking for relationship advice. We wanted to know what it took for Blumenfeld to become a full-time comedian, and how (or if) his experience at Cal had anything to do with it.

ON LIFE AT CAL It’s been almost a decade since Blumenfeld was enrolled at UC Berkeley, but the memory of his time as a student is still fresh. He told us it was here that his comedy began to take a more tangible form through video, writing, and even a bit of stand-up.

“It was very, very fun being at Berkeley. A lot of joking around,” said Blumenfeld. “I wasn’t the coolest kid on campus, or in the top 90%, really. But I still had a good time.” Blumenfeld began making videos at UC Berkeley before working at CollegeHumor. “I had friends go to the computer lab and sign up for 50 megabytes of storage then I would log in and upload Windows Media files and post them to my website,” he said. “Probably like 200 people saw them, but that was sort of the preamble to what I ended up doing.” As would be expected, there were bumps in the road. Ironically enough, Blumenfeld tried writing for UC Berkeley’s humor magazine, The Heuristic Squelch, but said it wasn’t the comedy niche he was looking for. “‘The Squelch’ was very ‘comedynerdy’ to me. They took themselves a little more seriously than CollegeHumor did. I just never felt like I fit in.”

ON GETTING STARTED For many comedians, “making it” is a steady stream of auditions, putting everything on the line, and hoping to eventually get noticed. For Blumenfeld though, this career took a less conventional route. In fact, Blumenfeld claims he didn’t even have the intention of being a full-time comedian at first, but that writing for CollegeHumor originally began as his version of an extracurricular. “I pretty much just emailed Ricky [Van Veen], the Editor-in-Chief at the time, and said ‘There are funny articles on your site, I think I can write funny articles,’ and he said ‘alright send me a few.’” “I was a sophomore then, so about 19. I sent him a couple and he put them online,” he said. “It was cool, it seemed like a lot of people were reading my stuff.” Blumenfeld told us he wasn’t anticipating any career with CollegeHumor after graduating. To

his surprise though, the timeliness of his graduation set him up with what he described as “college 2.0” when he was hired by the company in 2005. “[CollegeHumor] wasn’t really hiring anybody until I graduated. Those first three years I was just writing for free, then they got a book deal. So they spent their entire advance on hiring two book writers, who ended up being me and my buddy Streeter.” That early friendship with Streeter Seidell launched Blumenfeld’s comedy career into the online world. After the two finished writing “The CollegeHumor Guide To College,” they began what became known as the Prank Wars—a Web series where the two would document pranks pulled on each other. These early videos quickly became an online hit and in 2009, their popular pranks led to their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. That same year, Blumenfeld and Seidell began hosting MTV’s Pranked, where the two would present a montage of prank videos found on YouTube. The show lasted about five seasons, but as Pranked dwindled off air, Jake and Amir was began taking off.

ON FALLING IN LOVE (WITH JAKE HURWITZ)

Blumenfeld’s working partnership with Jake Hurwitz, has been undoubtedly one of the most propelling aspects of his career. The two first met in 2006, a year after Blumenfeld began working at CollegeHumor. Hurwitz was an intern and Blumenfeld was writing the “The CollegeHumor Guide To College” with Seidell. “We got along quickly. We were making each other laugh pretty much from day one and when we moved offices we sat right across from each other. We have the same exact sense of humor, so that’s… good,” Blumenfeld said laughingly.

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The two shot the first episode of Jake and Amir, called “Quick Characters,” back in 2007. Now, the series garnishes over 500,000 per episode on average. Even after eight years and countless side projects, the premise of Jake and Amir has remained in tact. The show centers around two goofy dudes trying to tolerate one another at the office, with Jake as the “normal guy” and Amir as his wacky, mildly deranged co-worker who often experiences delusions of grandeur and has a concerning obsession with Jake (and chicken McNuggets). When asked what his greatest achievement was, Blumenfeld responded that it wasn’t any award he got or landing a big role. Instead, he said it was the remarkable longevity of Jake and Amir. “Not a lot of people can say they have done a web series for as long as we have. The fact that we have had a video almost every week for seven or eight years straight is probably the biggest achievement to me. Not every video is a work of art. Well, I mean, many of them are. I would say 80% of them are straight-up masterpieces,” he laughed. “But the fact that we have been able to do it for this long without pause is worth something.”

DIFFERENT STAGES On Dec. 8, 2013, Deadline Hollywood announced that Jake and Amir could soon be adapted into a television series, with executive producer Ed Helms no less (Andy from The Office, anyone?). “We submitted a script to TBS and they went through this whole regime change, so now we are waiting to hear what the new people think,” said Blumenfeld. “If they like it, we’ll shoot it, and if not then we will try to shoot other TV show ideas that aren’t necessarily like Jake and Amir: The TV Show but ideas that are created by me and Jake.” Despite the excitement of pitching a television series, Blumenfeld explained that jumping from two-minute videos to full-length TV episodes isn’t the easiest of transitions.

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“Firstly, it’s longer, so that makes it more difficult. I equate it to stacking blocks on each other,” he said. “Every page is a block, so when you only put three blocks on top of each other, it’s harder to mess up. They’re probably going to stand up just fine. But once you are putting like, 40, 50, 60 blocks on top of each other, it only takes one small mistake for the entire stack to collapse.” “It’s much harder to keep all these blocks in order. The more you write, the more you have to make sure everything makes sense, that all the characters are expressing themselves logically, getting stories across while still being funny. So that’s a difficult challenge,” he said. Working in television is not a new ambition for Blumenfeld. In fact, he said he had a high school internship related to just that. Still, he said writing for full TV episodes versus the Web series will be new and challenging. “I always thought that [television] was a long shot. Which it still is,” he said. “I’m taking a long shortcut.” In terms of writing and performing, Blumenfeld has a wide breadth of experience. He said his podcast, “If I Were You”, is completely improvised with the exception of reading aloud the questions that listeners send in. The live performances him and Jake will do however, are tightly scripted, and the Jake and Amir videos lie somewhere in between. “I think I prefer a mixture of improv and scripted comedy,” said Blumenfeld. “It’s good to have a script. I’ve done projects where I am just improvising and all the sudden it’s like ‘uh oh... I don’t know where this is going, this is dangerous.’ So it’s good to have a good foundation and then from there you can take things different ways.” Blumenfeld said that of all the mediums through which he works, he is most comfortable with editing video, then with writing, third with performing, and at the very bottom, live performance. “At first we were very hesitant to perform live,” said Blumenfeld. “Jake

and I are not musical-theater types. A lot of comedians are live performers first and writers second, but we were the opposite, so we really had to get used to the idea of performing live.“ His already timid disposition for live performance may or may have not been influenced by a less-than-successful attempt while still a student at Cal. “I did stand-up comedy once at Berkeley and it went horribly so I was still a bit scarred by it. It was very nerve-wracking at first,” he said. Fortunately though, it seems the two have gotten the hang of it, and Blumenfeld was even able to make up for his stand up experience as a student when Jake and Amir performed live at UC Berkeley in 2012. “I think the comfort also comes with age,” said Blumenfeld. “When we were 23 performing in front of 25-year-olds, that was nerve-wracking because our audience was older than us. Now I’m 31, Jake’s 29, and we are performing in front of college students. It seems like there is less pressure.“

THE SOCIAL(MEDIA)ITE In a business where name and image set you apart from others, Blumenfeld said branding yourself can be difficult, but it’s important. Now all it takes is a camera and Internet access to upload a funny video online and potentially get noticed, and this lower barrier of entry can make finding the “good ones” difficult. “It’s hard to sell yourself. We comedians, many of our egos were bruised at a young age so we try to make jokes” he laughed. “It’s hard to be very confident enough to advertise yourself.” “One of the things I learned was that you have to post on as many platforms as you can. At first I erred on the side of caution, like, ‘I don’t have to post every video, I don’t want to annoy people’. But then my friend Dave who runs CollegeHumor social media said, ’you should be posting things multiple times!’ Overall, you want to put yourself out there

as much as possible,” Blumenfeld said. “[Social media] certainly helps at the very least with distribution,” he continued. “If we were to go and create something else, I know that we are able to access a certain number of people just through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit. We have built-in distribution channels that we can always call upon.” Blumenfeld said in particular, Reddit is an interesting channel to turn to. This may be due to the fact that Jake and Amir has its own subreddit—an entire online community whose only common denominator is a steadfast passion for Jake and Amir videos. “We have a very active community on our subreddit. They’re always creating scripts and suggesting ideas, which sometimes slip into our comedy minds,” said Blumenfeld. “To see all these people analyzing our jokes and referencing old videos that I had forgotten about makes me laugh all over again. They’re awesome.” Blumenfeld will often interact with the commenters on the Jake and Amir subreddit. He said he tries to not let the hype get to his head, but joked that “it is fun in a very self-aggrandizing way.” When asked if his background in business set him up for where he is today, if it prepared him for branding himself and his comedy or for building up the success of

his show, Blumenfeld replied by saying “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. Maybe subconsciously?” “I don’t think much of what I do now revolves around the finance or econ or statistics classes I took,” he said. “I will sometimes play that up in the podcast, my mathematical-analytical side. But I don’t know if I necessarily learned that at school or if I gravitated towards that at school because I was already mathoriented.”

CURTAIN CALL On Jan. 27, Blumenfeld and Hurwitz announced on their website that Jake and Amir would soon see its end. “In order to start a new chapter we kind of have to finish the first one,” Blumenfeld said. “Making

the videos has been so much fun, but we can’t keep doing videos and out podcast, while pursuing bigger goals like writing for television or movies; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.” But even with the web series that essentially catapulted the two to where they are now coming to a close, Blumenfeld assured us that the duo is nowhere near the end of their comedy career. On or off camera, there will always be room for a little funny business. words by SYDNEY JOHNSON photos by BRITTANY SMITH page 32 photo edited by JONATHAN READER

AFFIRMATIVE, CONSCIOUS, AND VOLUNTARY

YES MEANS YES

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erkeley has rightfully earned a reputation of sprouting and nurturing many social justice movements. From fighting for disability rights and South African divestment, to breaking down gender barriers and advocating for gay rights, UC Berkeley students are now taking on the fight against sexual assault. One of many challenges obstructing this issue is the undermining of its severity and persistence in today’s culture. Common claims made by people who sympathize with those accused of sexual assault include that victims were asking for it, dressed in a way provoking their assailants, or too drunk to give proper consent. Statements such as these are not uncommon on college campuses today, where sexual assault is not a rare or isolated incident. According to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexaul Assault, one in five college-aged women have been sexually assaulted. A team of student researchers involved with the California Young Women’s Collaborative found that at UC Berkeley, this number is one in three. In the wake of such alarming statistics, increasing headlines, and the creation of the Presidential task force to help eliminate sexual assault on college campuses, Governor Jerry Brown signed the SB-967 legislation into law on September 29, 2014. The bill makes California the first state to prioritize affirmative consent and draws much-needed attention to the issue. Better known as the “Yes Means Yes” bill, this legislation not only defined affirmative consent, but it also explicitly specified a number of things that were previously unclear. First, the law states that both parties must give affirmative consent before engaging in sexual activity. The bill defines consent as “an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.” It is unambiguous, voluntary, revocable, and ongoing throughout the act. Additionally, consent cannot be given when a person is incapacitated or inebriated. The new law is meant to protect students against sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking. With the “Yes Means Yes” law, the burden of proof is placed on the perpetrator instead of the victim. The accused assailant will have to prove their innocence, instead of the victim having to prove that they had been assaulted. Thanh Bercher, anti-sexual assault organizer in the office of ASUC Senator Haley Broder and staff member for the ASUC Sexual Assault Commission explains, “Affirmative consent is less reliant on what has traditionally been needed for ‘evidence’ and more reliant on the scenario presented, which we haven’t seen in the past.” Previously, all California schools had their own distinct sexual assault policies. This lack in state-wide uniformity rendered vague interpretations of consent, and made room for loose regulation. The purpose of the “Yes Means Yes” bill is to change this by concretely defining stalking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. SB-967 affects all state schools in California, including postsecondary schools and public and private institutions that

receive state funding for student financial aid. UC Berkeley has yet to adopt SB967, however the university had already implemented a policy of affirmative consent last spring, as defined in the campus’ Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence. The policy states that both parties must be in a mental and physical state to give consent to any sexual activity. The inability to give consent means the victim was unable to give their consent to the sexual activity, whether that means they were unconscious, under threat of injury or coercion, incapacitated due to drugs, alcohol, or medication, or physically or mentally impaired rendering them unable to understand the act. The consent must be conscious, voluntary, lasting throughout, mutually affirmative, and can be revoked at any time. There are efforts aimed at combatting the problem of sexual

positive values of equal opportunity, and [foster] a climate free from all forms of harassment, exploitation, or intimidation,” as written on the website for the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. Currently there remains a culture of sexual assault on campus. According to the ASUC Student Advocate’s office there have not been any official sexual assault hearings at UC Berkeley between 2008 and Spring 2014, indicating that the issue cannot be resolved by one person alone and is still an issue. Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore explains that students choose whether to carry out negotiations through the school conduct office or to take the case to a hearing; most settle with the student conduct office and do not push the issue any further. Education plays a large role in sexual assault prevention. Previously, the

now been made mandatory—students who do not complete the EmpowerU workshop will receive a registration block. In November, the Redefine Mine march organized by Jfem through the office of Broder aimed to redefine perceptions surrounding rape culture as well as slut-shaming and victimblaming. The march created a safe space for people to redefine their boundaries and prerogatives and featured student speakers as well as campus organizations and resources in attempts to spread awareness. Just because the assailant does not fit a certain harrowing image, just because he or she is an esteemed student, a wellrounded athlete, or a polished member of the Greek system does not mean that he or she are incapable of perpetrating sexual assault. With the “Yes Means Yes” standard, if either party is not in a

AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT IS LESS RELIANT ON WHAT HAS

TRADITIONALLY

BEEN NEEDED FOR

‘EVIDENCE’

MORE RELIANT ON THE

SCENARIO

PRESENTED, WHICH WE HAVEN’T SEEN IN THE PAST. assault on campus. The Title IX officer in the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination is responsible for developing and managing all institutional compliance efforts on gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, sexual assault, athletics equity, and related civil rights investigations. She or he is supposed to “create and maintain a University campus community committed to

administration did not place any class registration blocks on those students who did not complete EmpowerU, a workshop meant to educate students about sexual violence. Students who did not complete the workshop were not being informed of the affirmative consent policy, giving assailants room to later claim in court that they were unaware of the campus policies as a way to defend themselves. Education has

mental state to say yes or no, affirmative consent cannot be assumed. Students should not have to hold their breath hoping they will not be assaulted by the time they graduate. Consent is not only sexy, it is mandatory, and now it is written into law— yes means yes. words by SAREEN HABESHIAN

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don’t run out of

BREADTH

words by MICHAEL MA

SEVEN COURSES TO BREEZE THROUGH YOUR L&S SEVEN COURSE BREADTH REQUIREMENTS Dreading having to wade through the treacherous waters of Tele-BEARS searching for courses to fulfill those pesky breadths? Don’t fret any longer! We asked UC Berkeley students for their favorite courses and have compiled a list ranging from the astronomically exciting to the most laid-back classes on campus.

ARTS AND LITERATURE MUSIC 74: INTRO TO SELECTED MUSICS OF THE WORLD

PHILOSOPHY AND VALUES BUDDHIST STUDIES C50: INTRO TO THE STUDY OF BUDDHISM

Students discover the instruments, styles, and significance of music from different global cultures. Past topics have included gender and sexuality in popular music, hip-hop in urban America, Southeast Asian music, and Israeli ritual performance. Average grade: A-

“This class opened me up and changed my perspective of how I live my daily life. I still apply the philosophies I learned.” – Sara, third-year Students of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are welcome to dive into the fascinating world of Buddhist traditions. The course revolves around the key themes of ritual, meditation, mysticism, image veneration, death, and various interpretations of religious text. Average grade: B+

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY 55: PLAGUES AND PANDEMICS “It’s relevant. We get to learn about diseases such as Ebola. It’s really fun to learn about diseases that have affected a lot of people.” – Gigi, first-year This class spotlights the processes by which infectious agents spread disease and impact our communities. Students delve into both historical examples of plagues and recent epidemics such as Ebola and AIDS. Average grade: B

HISTORICAL STUDIES HISTORY 7B: THE UNITED STATES FROM CIVIL WAR TO PRESENT Unlike your average high school history class, this course is taught in a way that emphasizes stories and personal accounts over cold, hard facts. Topics explored include Western Imperialism, the role of freedom after the Civil War, and evolving perspectives toward citizenship and community. Average grade: A-

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES SLAVIC 50: INTRO RUSSIAN/EAST EUROPEAN/EURASIAN CULTURES In this class, students learn about the diverse culture and history of peoples in the former Soviet Union through film, art, fiction, folklore, and history. Many claim they come away with a rich understanding of this modern cultural hotspot. Average grade: A-

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PHYSICAL SCIENCE PHYSICS C10: DESCRIPTIVE INTRO TO PHYSICS “We do lots of cool experiments. You get shocked by 20,000 volts, play around with rifles, learn how a uranium bomb is made, and make liquid nitrogen graham crackers to eat.” – Jessie, first-year Also known as Physics for Future Presidents, this class explores the most interesting topics in physics with a conceptual focus and applies them to current events. No previous background in physics or math is needed. Average grade: B+

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES COGNITIVE SCIENCE 1: INTRO TO COGSCI “I can really sink my teeth into what the course had to offer. I can see how all different fields come together through cognitive science, like elements of anthropology, and how they interact. There are fantastic guest lecturers. You really get to see the bigger picture.” – Satya, second-year This class introduces cognitive science and its expansive connections with fields such as philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, and artificial intelligence. Past field trips have included visiting the MIND Exhibition in San Francisco. Average grade: B+

UNDER YOUR SKIN

AN EXAMINATION OF BODY MODIFICATIONS

hen Alyssa Trapani was 12 years old, she decided to start stretching her ears. Her earlobes were constantly infected, but she wanted to continue wearing the jewelry. From that point on, she has been modifying her body further, aggregating more than 15 different piercings, larger gages, a three-quarter sleeve tattoo on her left arm, rib tattoos, and tattoos behind her ears. She currently has her bellybutton, septum, and philtrum pierced, as well as multiple ear piercings. She is also a UC Berkeley student working toward a degree in Sociology, and is planning a career in law. Body modifications do not render a person any less intelligent, credible, or successful. Unfortunately for Trapani and other individuals with body modifications, our society has created and upheld a stigma against tattoos, piercings, and the like. This stigma is heavily perpetrated by the media and its portrayals of body modification; its propagation affects their day-to-day lives as well as their future career trajectories.

“I think a lot of people have preconceived notions about people who are body modified,” Trapani explained. “They are seen as more rebellious and dangerous. People underestimate who I am as a person because I choose to modify my body, and people aren’t given the credibility that they deserve.” While tattoos and piercings carry no inherent, objective meaning, our society has attached certain stereotypes to people who are body-modified. Due to her body modifications, Trapani is often treated with disrespect. While working at a restaurant, customers would often grab her arm without permission to get a better look at her ink. “There’s this misconception that people that wear more of themselves on the exterior with body modifications are seen as open books,” Trapani said. “It’s like the pregnant woman thing —‘Oh she’s pregnant, she wants people to touch her belly. Oh, she’s tattooed, she doesn’t mind if I grab her arm.’” In addition to the unwarranted physical harassment, she is often harassed with invasive questions. While working at Buffalo Exchange, a woman asked her how drunk she had to be in order to get her tattoos. She regularly gets asked about the meaning of her tattoos, whether or not it hurt to get them, and what she’s going to do with them when she gets older. “People don’t think that they’re intrusive questions, but they’re incredibly

intrusive,” she said. “My tattoos are all very personal, and a lot of them have to do with death and making something beautiful out of loss. It’s my body, it’s my right to do whatever I want with it, and I shouldn’t have to explain it to anybody.” There are also much more harmful and severe effects that stem from this stigma. Despite driving at the legal speed limit, Trapani and a friend were pulled over while on a road trip from California to Oregon. Trapani was wearing a tank top, tattoos clearly exposed. “The cop looked at me and told me that I had no rights and that he could do whatever he wanted to me,” said Trapani. “I was harassed and molested by Oregon State Troopers. They denied us female officers, put us in handcuffs, and searched my car without my consent. I felt completely powerless and was taken advantage of in a really horrible way.” “Unfortunately when you’re out in the social world, you have to alter who you are to not be targeted,” she said. “They see us as freaks: if you’re defying that aspect of society, what other aspects are you defying?” The treatment she faced from the police sheds light on the enormous reach that this issue has; individuals with body modifications are often discriminated against and become the subject of prejudice. Trapani is fully aware that her ambition to become a criminal defense attorney might be affected by her body modifications; she has

already been forced to make sacrifices in the professional world because of her appearance. While working for companies such as Starbucks, she was forced to cover her tattoos and take out her piercings; her self-expression was stifled and she felt dehumanized. Although Starbucks very recently changed its policy about tattoos and no longer requires workers to cover up, many other workplaces and industries still forbid visible tattoos and piercings on the job. However, to Trapani, it is more important to fight a stigma than to simply succumb to it, and she will continue to pursue her plans for a law career. It is true that certain industries have been and most likely will remain traditional and conservative, especially in their attitudes toward body modifications and unorthodox appearance in general. Dressing up for a job interview, UC Berkeley Media Studies Professor Josh Jackson explained, means playing by the rules. “You as the interviewee make a decision to dress conservatively in order to present yourself as a team player who knows what’s expected of him or her,” Jackson said. In a utopia with no workplace discrimination, people with distinctive haircuts, tattoos, or piercings would be treated as equal to clean-cut people with normalized appearances. Until we reach this, however, we must address why this

“ UNDERESTIMATE PEOPLE

WHO I AM AS A PERSON BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO

MODIFY MY BODY,

AND PEOPLE AREN’T GIVEN THE CREDIBILITY THAT THEY

deserve

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”

stigma is being upheld and what we can do to ameliorate it. The creation of this prejudice has been greatly influenced by media representations of body-modified individuals. The media plays a very important role in helping provide people with models of how to act, look, and be, according to Jackson. “I don’t know if it’s a negative connotation [of body-modified individuals], but what the media makers mainly want to evoke is difference, otherness,” Jackson said. “They want to construct a character that’s different from the mainstream somehow, and the mainstream viewer gawks at this unfamiliar culture.” Media representations also often perpetrate a gender dichotomy – women are shown as highly sexualized while men are portrayed as very powerful. “Women who have tattoos are portrayed as sexualized objects, and that has a lot of negative connotations that reverberate to social interactions,” Trapani said. “People perceive me to be more sexual, or more approachable, because I have tattoos.” The gender norms that are traditionally perpetrated through media are replicated when it comes to the representation of body modified individuals, leading to gender-specific questions and concerns when women decide to get tattoos or piercings. Rarely are men asked, “What will you do about your tattoos at your wedding?” Women, on the other hand, are constantly interrogated about their prospective appearance in their wedding dress. This also operates under the assumption that women are obligated to wear a dress at their wedding, reinforcing traditional aesthetic and gender role ideals. “There are all these questions that adhere to women playing this certain role of being pure, clean and white,” Trapani explained. “That’s not how I see my life or myself. People ask me, ‘Why do you have all that s**t in your face? You’re so pretty, you don’t need that to

be pretty.’ Like that’s my main goal of existence – to be attractive and to be seen by the male gaze in a positive light.” Many media representations of body modification also associate these individuals with crime, drugs, and deviant behavior. If the representation doesn’t hold negative connotations, then it often involves the trope of drunken mistakes used for comedy. This is seen in “The Hangover,” in which lead character Stu wakes up from a drunken night of revelry with a face tattoo resembling that of Mike Tyson. Such representations are not uncommon, creating the impression that body modification is either an intoxicated mistake to be regretted or a deliberate association with some form of deviance or crime. “It happens because it’s easy,” Jackson said. “The media maker wants to use body modification to signify something. It’s a convenient shortcut to show difference or to represent something as edgy, or having a subcultural affiliation. They can do so with dialogue or backstory, but it’s just as easy to slap some gages in there…” This might be a classic “the chicken

or the egg” dilemma – did the media representations create this stigma, or did they simply respond to and represent an already existing stigma? Either way, the media portrayals of body modification are neither accurate nor diverse, and they help reinforce this erroneous and unfair stereotype that people like Trapani must overcome in the modern workforce. Trapani will continue fighting this stigma and has plans to further modify her body; she will not allow this prejudice to dictate her decisions. She continuously subverts people’s expectations and thereby challenges the existence of these negative stereotypes. “I can’t speak for everyone who chooses to go down this path of body modification, but I do it because I want to bring something to people’s consciousness,” Trapani said. “I want to make people ask questions about why they think those who have tattoos and piercings should look, be, and act a certain way.” words by HANNAH BERKMAN photos by ALYA LAMBA

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O N E S T O W AT C H words by JOANNA JIANG

LUCY GUO

programmer

A 2014 Thiel fellow, this 19-year-old Pleasanton native founded multiple profit-generating websites over the course of two years and was an intern at Facebook last year. She’s won numerous awards for various platforms and applications, such as EduGames (which allows teachers to create educational, multi-player games for their students) and GuardMap (which gives users walking directions based on crime reports in a region). Guo was in the Carnegie Mellon Class of 2016 but is currently taking a year off as part of the fellowship. @lucy_guo

SHILPA SHAH

Cuyana co-founder

courtesy of Jason Jaacks Split Frame Media

courtesy of Cuyana

courtesy

After completing the MBA program at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Shah joined forces with Karla Gallardo to launch Cuyana, a pro-minimalism, eco-friendly online retailer. The home page of the site state “less is more” and offers a variety of products from sustainable sources worldwide. The premise, though not a new one, is making waves in the fashion business industry. @leila_c

ALI BOUZARI

culinary scientist

A PhD student at UC Davis, this young scientist works behind the scenes for many of the Bay Area’s top restaurants. In the relatively unexplored field of food science, Bouzari breaks down the chemical reactions that occur in cooking, perfecting the art through science. On a side note, his Twitter feed displays a hilarious affinity for food puns. @AliBouzari

courtesy of Eszter and David

SCOTT MARLOWE

dancer

This San Franciscan by way of Texas gained his first acting role in Chris Mason Johnson’s award-winning Test (2014). The film examines the city’s dance and LGBT scene. Marlowe is the Associate Director of LEVYdance as of 2011 and debuted his first full work as a choreographer in June this year – a highly crowd-interactive performance described as a “choose your own adventure” for the audience.

CHRIS DEHENZEL architect courtesy of Jessy Slim

Holding a Masters in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, DeHenzel graduated from the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley in 2013. The following year, he was awarded a Merit Award in Unbuilt Design from the American Institute of Architects for a proposed Oakland Food Hub. The center is an imagined node for progressing food distribution in the Bay Area and would function “as a wholesale/ retail farmers market, education facility and local business incubator.” DeHenzel has travelled the world studying food systems. @ChrisDeHenzel

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BRAZEN BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ANKUR MANIAR MODEL: SOPHIA DUTRA MAKEUP/HAIR: SAGE BRADLEY STYLISTS: CAILEND ROBBINS, SOPHIA DUTRA, ANKUR MANIAR, LARA HOVESPIAN-RUBY ASSISTANT: KIARA DASWANI

PROFESSOR SPOTLIGHT

he words you are reading at this moment carry more power than you might think; there is a science behind them, a calculated agenda, a manner in which they will shape the way that you, the reader, interprets the world. For Claire Kramsch, words are far from ordinary—they have the power to create our reality. Kramsch is a professor of German and an affiliate professor of Education at UC Berkeley. Known by many students as the professor of the Discovery Course “Language and Power,” and as one of the speakers at the 2014 new student convocation, Kramsch has been enlightening UC Berkeley students and faculty since 1990. Before coming to Berkeley, Kramsch was a German language and literature teacher at the Paris University in France, and continued to teach for 25 years at M.I.T. on the East Coast. Her current concentration is the field of applied linguistics, which encompasses social and cultural aspects of language use, as well the effect language has on the individual.

ON FALLING IN LOVE WITH WORDS Kramsch discovered her passion for this field inadvertently; when she became a teacher of literature in America, she experienced challenges in connecting with her students. “They didn’t have the same worldview as I had. They didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand them.” Kramsch believed that a college education served as a “development of the mind and the personality,” while her students’ culture considered college to be an apparatus of individual entrepreneurship and economic success. “I needed to find out why they asked the questions that they did and why they said the things that they said.” She found answers to these questions by delving into the field of discourse analysis, a part of applied linguistics, which analyzes language as a symbolic system rich with

meaning and intention. It considers the social mechanisms of language: why we choose particular words, what we accomplish through these choices, and how our language shapes the world and is in turn shaped by the world. Though many people view learning a second language as a monotonous classroom task of recalling vocabulary lists, Kramsch became extremely intrigued by second-language acquisition over the years. She fell in love with the German language due to its increased opportunities of emotional outlet in contrast to French. Though she had trouble mastering the grammar of the language, she loved the sounds of it and the way it made her feel, leading her to perceive the wonders of language’s subjective nature. According to Kramsch, “You make out of a language what you want, and it becomes yours.”

ON JOURNALISM As Kramsch studies the power invested in language, she maintains that journalists are “on the front lines of language use. Journalists should definitely be aware of discourse analysis and what language does, for they have the exact responsibility of shaping public opinion.” By shaping the structure of their articles and choosing particular words, journalists convey subliminal but penetrating attitudes that carry an incredible societal influence. “Whether they call a freedom fighter a freedom fighter, or a rebel, or a resistance fighter, or a terrorist, they can have an incredible influence on not only their readers, but how their articles are being talked about in the blogs, and the texts, and the tweets. And before you know it, they’ve had an enormous impact.” Because journalists carry so much power in guiding popular thought, she suggests that they have a great potential for doing good: “Journalists can help young people who feel that they don’t have a voice, that they don’t have any power at all.”

ON HER TIME AT UC BERKELEY Kramsch relishes in teaching at UC Berkeley, for she recognizes how exciting it is to impart her own passions unto her students. “The thrill of being a professor is that you teach what you have discovered yourself and pass it on. So, it’s even better than having kids of your own because you have intellectual kids of your own who go out in the world and continue to spread your ideas,” Kramsch said. Her greatest accomplishment during her time here has been founding the Berkeley Language Center, which provides support and research resources for its faculty, who speak 66 different languages. Because so many students at Berkeley speak a second language, this center serves to foster the university’s multilingual and diverse nature.

ON LOOKING FORWARD AND BACKWARD After decades of teaching, Kramsch is retiring in June of 2015, yet her upcoming plans are far from stagnant. Having recently been appointed as the president of the International Association of Applied Linguistics, Kramsch will be traveling around the world, organizing language conferences and spreading her understanding of the potency of language. When acknowledging her exciting future and fruitful past, Kramsch is humbled by the luck she has encountered. She believes, “There is so much in a person’s life story or career that is due to chance. Sheer luck. And everybody has luck. It’s just a question of recognizing and seizing the moment. It’s amazing how you find opportunities on the way and manage to do exactly what you thought you wanted to do.” words by ANNIE PILL photo by ALYA LAMBDA

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campanile

PANORAMA

TREASURE ISLAND Sadly you won’t find any real treasure here. This man-made island was originally purposed for the World’s Fair, and today it houses numerous swap meets and music festivals, most popularly Treasure Island Music Festival each fall.

words by LANAE CRANFIELD photo by REMY D’AGNILLO

TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID This 853 foot building was the tallest building west of Chicago from 1972 to 1974, and remains the tallest building in the San Francisco skyline to this day.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE Before Joseph Strauss designed the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in 1920, the only way to travel from Marin County to San Francisco was by ferry.

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BERKELEY PIER

ALBANY BULB

This pier originally extended from the end of University Avenue for 3.5 miles into the San Francisco Bay. After the completion of the Bay Bridge in 1936, ferry lines shut down and the pier was taken over by fishermen. Today, the quiet, unused pier slowly rots.

The Albany Bulb, a former landfill, rests on the peninsula in Albany. In the 1960s, conservationist group Save the Bay helped convert the Bulb from a landfill to a public park.

ANGEL ISLAND Two thousand years ago, Angel Island was a hunting site for Coast Miwok Native Americans. In 1775 Spanish Captain Juan de Ayala stationed off Angel Island and named the bay where he anchored â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ayala Cove.â&#x20AC;? Over the years, the island served many purposes: a military fort, an immigration station, and most recently, a state park.

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MUSEUM FESTIVAL FREE SF CHERRY ENTRYBLOSSOM @ MUSEUM OF FESTIVAL CRAFT & DESIGN @ JAPANTOWN

FESTIVAL FOOD & FARM FILM FEST @ ROXIE THEATER

CONCERT ALT-J @ THE GREEK THEATRE

CONCERT HOZIER @ THE MASONIC

CONCERT MILKY CHANCE @ THE REGENCY BALLROOM

COMMUNITY EARTH DAY @ CIVIC CENTER PLAZA

SPORTS SF GIANTS OPENING DAY @ AT&T PARK

CONCERT ARIANA GRANDE @ SAP CENTER

CONCERT GLASS ANIMALS @ THE FILLMORE

CONCERT KACEY MUSGRAVES @ FOX THEATER

ART SPRING OPEN STUDIOS @ HUNTERS POINT SHIPYARD

FESTIVAL CARNAVAL FESTIVAL AND PARADE @ SF’S MISSION DISTRICT

CONCERT THE CAT EMPIRE @ THE FILLMORE

CONCERT SYLVAN ESSO @ THE FILLMORE

DRINK TRIVIA NIGHT @ BEN & NICK’S

CONFERENCE RSA CONFERENCE @ MOSCONE CENTE

ART ART MARKET SAN FRANCISCO @ FORT MASON

GALA STAR CHEFS & VINTNERS GALA @ FORT MASON CENTER

THEATER THE BOOK OF MORMON @ ORPHEUM THEATER SAN FRANCISCO

FILM SF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL @ THE PRESIDIO

DRINK TAPAS GRAND WINE TASTING @ GOLDEN GATE CLUB

DRINK TRIVIA NIGHT @ DAILY PINT FESTIVAL GLEN PARK FESTIVAL @ SF’S GLEN PARK DISTRICT

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FESTIVAL UNION STREET SPRING CELEBRATION @ SF’S MARINA DISTRICT

RUN ROCK N’ ROLL HALF MARATHON @ SAN FRANCISCO

MUSEUM FREE ENTRY @ DE YOUNG MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

MUSEUM FREE ENTRY @ MUSEUM OF CRAFT & DESIGN

APRIL

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READ SPRING BOOK SALE @ FORT MASON CENTER

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SYMPHONY MAX RAABE AND PALAST ORCHESTERA @ DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL

DANCE SF SALSA FESTIVAL @ THE WESTIN SAN FRANCISCO MARKET STREET

CONFERENCE MARTECH CONFERENCE @ HILTON SAN FRANCISCO UNION SQUARE

FILM SF HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL @ PRESENTATION THEATER

CONCERT KIMBRA @ THE FILLMORE

CONCERT STROMAE @ FOX THEATER

CONCERT GEORGE EZRA @ THE FILLMORE

BALLET SHOSTAKOVICH TRILOGY @ WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE

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RUN BAY TO BREAKERS @ SAN FRANCISCO

MUSEUM FREE ENTRY @ THE EXPLORATORIUM

THEATER BOOK OF MORMON @ SF THEATER

CONFERENCE SMART FABRICS AND WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY @ THE HYATT REGENCY SAN FRANCISCO

DRINK TACO TUESDAY @ THE TACO SHOP @ UNDERDOG

CONCERT U2 @ SAP CENTER

MUSEUM FREE ENTRY @ BOTANICAL GARDENS IN GOLDEN GATE PARK

DRINK HAPPY HOUR FROM 4-7 @ SLIVER

SYMPHONY BARTÓK’S CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA @ DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL

CONFERENCE INTERNET OF THINGS WORLD @ MOSCONE CENTER

FILM SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL @ CASTRO THEATRE

DRINK HAPPY HOUR @ THE EXPLORATORIUM

BIKE BAY AREA BIKE TO WORK DAY

CONCERT SPOON @ FOX THEATER

BALLET STUDENT SHOWCASE @ YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS THEATER

CONCERT LORD HURON @ FOX THEATER

FILM SAN FRANCISCO GREEN FILM FESTIVAL @ ROXIE THEATER

PARTY CARNAVAL @ SF’S MISSION DISTRICT

CONCERT THE WOMBATS @ THE FILLMORE

PARTY PIER PRESSURE SF CRUISE @ THE EMBARCADERO

CONCERT SMALLPOOLS @ THE INDEPENDENT CONCERT THE SCRIPT @ FOX THEATER

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FESTIVAL NORWAY DAY FESTIVAL @ FORT MASON

PARTY MOTOWN ON MONDAYS @ THE LEGIONNAIRE SALOON

MUSEUM FREE ENTRY @ ASIAN ART MUSEUM

PARTY CINCO DE MAYO @ DOLORES PARK

MAY W

CONCERT KODALINE @ THE FILLMORE

BALLET SF BALLET’S ROMEO AND JULIET @ WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE

CONCERT MATT & KIM @ THE WARFIELD

CONFERENCE TYPO @ YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

DRINK UNCORKED WINE FESTIVAL @ GHIRARDELLI SQUARE

DRINK INTERNATIONAL BEER FESTIVAL @ FORT MASON CENTER

SYMPHONY MAHLER & BERNSTEIN @ DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL

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caliber MAGAZINE ISSUE 11