Caliber Magazine - Issue 13

ISSUE 13

LETTER from THE EDITORS

We’ve all heard the millennial generation trope: we move too fast, can’t connect with one another, and are too addicted to our Twitters, Instagrams, and other social media of the like. And to some extent, we, the “millennials,” have similar critiques of our own generation and upbringings. But maybe it’s not just that we move too fast.

Perhaps, it’s that from a grander view, our generation appears to be moving in one particular way, and that way is—for better or worse—always towards “achievement” and “success” in a society that’s rapidly shifting.

Our educational institutions, job markets, media, and development heavily privilege scientific discourse, technology, and illusions of progress. Empiricism permeates our everyday language and experience in unexpected and often stifling ways. We are told to focus on our studies, only to translate it into an arrangement of letters on a scantron.

Rarely, however, are we encouraged to be creative, to let our thinking drift away from the “task at hand,” to allow for something other than instrumentality. So in this issue of Caliber, we wanted to share stories from those who not only deviate from society’s rules and expectations, but also those who encourage others to do the same.

In Issue 13, we’ve brought together local artists who question online dating expectations, dancers who break routine with a little breakdance, and a few esteemed professors who shed their scholarly skin to chat about the unknown. Students share their opinions on shifting music mediums and provide a few suggestions for new genres to explore. We’ve also asked experts to share their thoughts on some of today’s most pressing issues. Influential comedian and activist W. Kamau Bell share’s his thoughts on comedy’s role in activism. You’ll also hear from the fabulous Virgie Tovar, an expert on fat discrimination and body image, fashion icon, and all-around badass.

Here, you’ll find artists, writers, activists, dancers, performers, thinkers, creators, critics, and visionaries. We hope Issue 13 inspires you to go out and embrace your own unique endeavors. Because what’s really going on between the class blocks and club meetings are the interactions, creativity, and bold decisions that form our cultures, friendships, and memories here at UC Berkeley.

With love, Sydney and Hannah

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STAFF designers

president JESSLYN WHITTELL

editors-in-chief

SYDNEY JOHNSON HANNAH BERKMAN

head of copy editing JOANNA JIANG

head of design VALERIE LAW

head of marketing ALLISON JEON

head of photography LANA COSIC

editorial manager ANKUR MANIAR

web content managers KATIE BERLIN SAREEN HABESHIAN RITA GUO

webmaster

SOPHIE PHAM

ISMAT JUNAID IFFAT JUNAID RAINE ROBICHAUD WAVERLY CHAO

photographers

AISHWARYA ARAVIND KINCSO DOMICZI KEVIN CHEUNG ANOUSH RAZAVIAN ADITI RAGHUNATH

print writers

MARINA CHILINGARYAN ANISHA DANGORIA KINCSO DOMICZI KATHLEEN LEUTY DELANEY INMAN SAREEN HABESHIAN RAINE ROBICHAUD RAELINE VALBUENA CHRISTOPHER COX BENNETT SHAEFFER

online writers

RAELINE VALBUENA ANISHA DANGORIA LILLIAN DONG JAMES RYU SABRINA KHAN JASON VAZQUEZ BENNETT SHAEFFER DELANEY INMAN DANIEL NISSEN KATHLEEN LEUTY CHRISTOPHER COX

editorial assistants SOPHIA DUTRA NATALIA CASTANHO

Cover photo taken and edited by Lana Cosic.

Caliber is sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of California. The content of the magazine does not reflect the opinions of the ASUC in any way.

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TABLE of CONTENTS 6. OUT TO LUNCH WITH cal crew space 8. HAVE YOU SWIPED RIGHT ON THIS GIRL? a tinder art project space 10. DORM ROOM DINNER PARTIES bringing sophistication to our humble abodes space 12. AESTHETIC, APPROPRIATION, AND THE ARTISTIC TROPE space 15. PHOTOSPREAD: INTIMATE ROUTINES space 18. BODY LANGUAGE a spotlight on uc berkeley’s hip-hop dance team, main stacks space 20. EXPANDING EGOS thoughts on college rankings space 23. COMEDIC JUSTICE w. kamau bell and laughter’s role in the revolution space

26. WEIGHING IN ON FAT SHAMING a conversation with renowned body-image expert and fat activist, virgie tovar space 32. VIRGIE’S TOP 10 FASHION TIPS space 34. DROP THE BASSICS a guide to the best of the unknown music genres space 36. A HAMANITIES MANIFESTO the stigmatized liberal arts space 38. EDITORIAL: BOXING BAMBINA space 46. 2X4 professors on conspiracy theories space 48. THE SECOND ANALOG REVIVAL the contemporary state of an outdated music format space 50. FOOD REVIEW millennium restaurant moves to oakland

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Out to

Lunch With:

CAL CREW

JUSTIN

NATAN

I

n 1870, a group of Cal students formed a rowing club, sparking the inception of organized sports at the University of California, Berkeley. A century and a half later, Cal Rowing remains salient among the University’s athletic programs. It’s rolled out 19 national championship titles, produced 39 Olympic medalists, and boasts a proud history of dominance against archrival Stanford. Most recently, 15 members of the Cal men’s and women’s rowing teams, six of which represented the United States, qualified to compete in the Under-23 Rowing Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from July 22–26, 2015.

Caliber sat down with four of these athletes to talk about the road to Bulgaria, academics, and what they hope to accomplish in the future, whether that be becoming the leader of the free world or just finally finding the time to take a nap.

Responses correspond to the following questions: 1. How did you start rowing?

2. What are the proudest moments in your career? 3. What are your future goals?

4. What are your goals outside of rowing? 5. What else do you like to do?

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KYLE MARTIN

MARTIN

JUSTIN MURPHY Hometown: Montclair, NJ Major: History

1 My mom signed me up when I was a freshman in high school. I had a successful high school career and then I was recruited. I decided to come to Cal because of coach Mike Teti. He had coached the US National Team and helped develop me.

2 I was Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year my freshman year and Pac-12 Athlete of the Year in Rowing this year.

But my proudest moment was probably getting my first medal at Worlds this summer and winning the duel against Washington.

3 I want to win the National Championship this year.

4 In the future I want to get involved in the military, go to graduate school, open a video game studio with my brothers, and hopefully one day hold a high political office, maybe even the president.

5 I love doing outdoor activities like hiking and camping. I’m an Eagle Scout so that got me into those activities. I also love reading, video games, helping my older brother develop video games, and studying World War II, my favorite time period.

MARTIN MACKOVIC Hometown: Subotica, Serbia Major: Sociology

1 I started rowing 11 years ago. My older brother was rowing so he encouraged me to try it. I picked it up pretty well and then I came to Cal. 2 I won bronze for Serbia in Bulgaria last year.

3 Go undefeated until I graduate.

4 I would like to row after my graduation from Cal, but I am sure that I will not do that for more than eight years. After that I would like to have a job and live in Europe with my family.

5 In my free time I really like reading and hanging out with my family and friends. When my schedule allows, I really like sleeping.

NATAN

WERGRZYCKI-SZYMCZYK Hometown: KrakĂłw, Poland Major: Sociology

1 I have been rowing for 10 years. I started doing it for fun but as I began improving it became more serious.

2 I was very excited to come to Cal. I wanted a new experience and a place where I could both study and row. I also qualified for the Olympic Games in the single scully last year. This year will be very difficult for me, trying to combine school, rowing at Cal, and doing well at the Olympics.

3 I want to win the National Championship with the varsity team.

4 I want to use my time here as best as I can, graduate with good grades, and try to go to graduate school after 2020.

5 I like to read books and watch movies, especially The Lord of the Rings. Back home I do a lot of crosscountry skiing and hiking.

KYLE FLAGG

Hometown: Newport Beach, CA Major: Social Welfare 1 I started rowing in 2012 when I was 16. I knew the coxswain from my high school and he told me to try it because I was tall. Then I was recruited after two years and came to Cal. 2 Taking second place at Nationals with freshman-8 and then second again at Nationals last year with the varsity boat. It was also awesome winning the duel again Washington for the first time in nine years. Oh, and going undefeated against Stanford.

3 Win the National Championship this year and go undefeated.

4 I want to become a social worker in Southeast Asia, possibly Indonesia. I want to help communities incorporate keeping beaches clean and ocean water sanitation into their infrastructure strategies.

5 I like surfing, playing the guitar, and cycling. words by DELANEY INMAN photos by LANA COSIC

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HAVE YOU SWIPED RIGHT ON THIS GIRL?

O

f all the shouts and murmurs one might try to avoid while passing through Sproul, the phrase, “Hey, did we match on Tinder…?” may seem the least likely. However, intrigued by the manifestation of private interactions in public, performance artist and UC Berkeley sophomore Alexandra Pink decided to take on her own flyering shift by asking random passersby if they had swiped right for her on Tinder.

“My main area of interest and inspiration is the weirdness that comes the moment when you run into someone that you’ve matched with on Tinder [in real life],” Pink said. “Why or how is that moment more surprising and uncomfortable than when you run into someone you’ve been on a date with or been intimate with in the past?”

To execute the project, Pink recreated the recognizable Tinder profile layout on

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4” by 5.5” flyers, but with a twist: Her project title “HAVE YOU SWIPED RIGHT ON THIS GIRL?” stares back across the top in black and white print, and in the lower margin, she printed a contact telephone number.

“When you’re flyering, interaction with strangers is expected and accepted,” said Pink. “It’s sort of parallel to interactions with strangers on Tinder, but the intent of the interactions are totally different, and mixing the two is incongruous and uncomfortable for the person who is being approached by the stranger.”

Pink handed her flyers out on two consecutive days in two hour-long flyering shifts as part of a class project for Art 163, Social Practice. On the first day, Pink aimed to adhere to a “patriarchal standard of beauty,” such as shaving her legs—for the first time in a few months,

she noted—and wearing a short dress.

She also applied makeup, perfume, and jewelry in what she said was “an effort to enhance femininity and seem cute or approachable or non-threatening.”

On this first day, Pink distributed flyers by either handing them out silently or asking passersby if they were interested in art. Some of the men Pink approached claimed to not use Tinder, but she said appeared nonetheless flattered. Others who admitted to using the dating app showed a bit more enthusiasm over the confrontation. “One guy actually pulled out his phone to see if I was on his list of matches,” she said.

Not every interaction was well received though. After approaching a man who appeared to be with his girlfriend, Pink said the two looked very uncomfortable. “I created a new dynamic between myself and the guy,

but also with his girlfriend, since the interaction could have caused suspicion [in the relationship] about having been presumably recently active on Tinder.”

In another instance, Pink asked a woman if she recognized her. The woman was curious and friendly, Pink recalls, until she was asked if their previous interaction could have been on Tinder, to which the woman responded in a manner that was scared, disgusted, and angry. Clearly offended, the woman told Pink she didn’t use Tinder and left in a hurry.

After reflecting on the first day of her piece, Pink noticed that she was much more cautious when it came to approaching women. “I don’t care about screwing with guys, especially when I’m dealing with Tinder, because I do that already,” Pink said. But Pink said her interactions with women in real life are usually sincere, and that trying to deceive women felt more wrong.

The next day, she went back out dressed in baggy jeans, a large, paint-stained button-up shirt, a baseball cap, and no makeup.

In this outfit, Pink said she felt considerably more uncomfortable.

“Both were very intentionally extreme outfits,” Pink said, “but it wasn’t until I put the second one on that I realized how much I relied on my appearance to get by.”

The drastic change in clothing choice was reflected by a significantly more uncomfortable reaction from strangers.

“People either stared because they felt put off, or immediately averted their eyes.”

Although the day before she distributed 60 flyers in thirty minutes, it took a full hour to hand out 57 flyers the second day. To distribute even this many was a struggle on day two; she had to strike up a conversation or personally engage with nearly every stranger to get them to take her flyer, as opposed to before when many would grab them as they passed by her, despite her unusual query.

Pink’s outfit change not only opens the conversation for UC Berkeley’s perception of gender roles, but also about people’s responses to self-expression. By putting her perceived beauty on the backburner, Pink realized just how important looks are to strangers in person and online.

In person, just like on the Tinder dating app, the first noticeable thing about someone is usually their physical appearance, which may determine

whether or not we will interact with them. Pink draws a comparison between Tinder users who leave a small bio to reveal a bit of personal information to draw others in with advertisers on Sproul who feed short catchlines to interest those walking by. If we share mutual interests, we “swipe right” on each other.

By asking a question about Tinder, Pink not only confronts the notion of first impressions, but also intimacy in public places. The uncomfortable nature of the responses she received when wearing the less traditionally feminine outfit is perhaps not only the result of her physical appearance but also of the forced public confrontation with one’s “non-traditional” sexual preferences.

“Though crafted personal image is a large part of all social media platforms, Tinder worms its way into an intimate place that the public isn’t usually privy to: our sexual preferences, our interactions with lovers, and how we want to be perceived by our romantic or sexual partners,” Pink said.

In this world, the privacy of attraction seems at war with the overt public nature of social media. Pink believes Tinder users feel more comfortable expressing intimate desires because they’re “comforted by the false protection of anonymity.” Seeing someone unexpectedly in person breaks the unspoken boundary of privacy and protection.

“If you flirt over text with someone you’ve matched with on Tinder and you regret how much you’ve shared, it is easy to block that person and disappear,” Pink said.

“When we see someone in real life, it’s like we’ve broken the societal expectation that there will be no real-world interaction until both parties agree to it.”

Pink’s inquisitive piece opens the door to new conversations surrounding the online dating world, and how virtual interactions and personas play out in real life. Her work compels us to ask, how are the dynamics of interacting with people in person different from interacting online, and how can we count on genuine online interactions when we know how far removed the virtual identities we construct for ourselves are? words and photos by LANA COSIC

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DORM ROOM

DINNER PARTIES Bringing sophistication to our humble abodes.

“Dorm room” and “discreetly snatched plastic Caffe Strada utensils” have rarely made the list of essentials for throwing an over-the-top dinner party—until now, that is. When the Crossroads cheese platter won’t satisfy one’s need for sophistication, a humble dorm room dinner party is a perfect fine dining substitute for those of us craving a change of pace (and a little brie). With a few tips and a bit of planning, your dorm dwellings can be the perfect venue for a sparkling collegiate affair. Here’s how:

1. INVITATIONS

Take the opportunity to select one of the many cursive fonts on your computer that you are so rarely given permission to use.

Make sure to include the date, time, and place of your dinner party. Deliver your invitations to floormates and other friends, slipping them under their doors or handing them out, at least a week in advance.

Friendly Facebook event reminders are, of course, completely acceptable as well.

2. INSPIRATION

Take a bit of time to search through Pinterest for creative and easy snack ideas, preferably those with little to no cooking, baking, toasting, or really anything requiring more than the basic mini fridge and microwave.

Rely instead on dishes that require nothing more than assembling, using “simple snack ideas,” “dips,” and “raw” as key phrases in your stripped-down recipe hunting endeavor. Assemble a list of groceries as you do this, considering about four dishes you would like to serve, including a dessert.

3. SHOPPING

A college budget renders frugal Safeway or Grocery Outlet shopping crucial. A variety of colorful fruits and textures will be sure to add to the aesthetics of your dinner, so focus on buying small amounts of a diverse set of foods. Cheese is one of these simple foods that would do well on your shopping list, even allowing you to make use of your microwave if you opt for camembert—just place the cheese in the microwave for about 30 seconds before serving and you have a warm dish to serve your friends.

3. DESSERT

Although a bit farther away, a trip to IKEA will bump up the bargain dessert game. The Swedish furniture giant has a large variety of cakes with many gluten-free options, all with amazing taste at minimal effort. When plating your dessert, add some color with fruits like kiwis and raspberries to liven up your final dish even more. While you’re there, also check out the clearance section near the checkout for cheap finds like glass jars to serve smaller items like olives or spreads in.

4. SETUP

Clear one of the desks in your room and get to work cutting up fruits and vegetables, arranging your ingredients on the plates you have available. Add color to simple dishes with fruits such as figs that rarely seem to make it onto dining hall menus. Pair your cheeses with a variety of crackers, and adorn with herbs such as rosemary. Decor is also crucial. String lights, paper chains, and recycled-bottle flower vases are all cheap alternatives to the fancy stuff and locks in that coveted DIY aesthetic.

5. ENJOY

With the room set up, the trash taken out, and your beds made, enjoy the food and the company of your guests. Play some background music to set the mood, and relax.

Finally, don’t forget to make a toast: “To a dorm room that may otherwise be bogged down by textbooks and notecards!”

words by KINCSO DOMICZI photo by IFFAT JUNAID

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F

F reshman year in Clark Kerr dining commons.

I’m compensating for the chicken stew, which reeks of acrylic paint, by flirting with my floor’s designated hipster.

I’m fresh out of girl’s school, with a style aesthetic that’s more style-ascetic and a spiral notebook full of poems for which I crave an audience and critic. I imagine I have a lot to learn from this debonair upperclassman, who is cultivating an impressive beard for noshave November, adores Wes Anderson, and drops impromptu lectures on Banksy.

The conversation turns to art, and he recounts his almost-daily excursions to LACMA and MOCA over the summer. Have I seen this artist’s exhibit?

Do I approve of this school of art? If we’re going to namedrop our way through Los Angeles’ museums, I’ll get stuck after Picasso, so I laugh. “I wouldn’t know.

I’m not all that cultured.”

The hipster leans in, waving a spinach-laden fork like a teacher’s baton. “I don’t believe in using the word ‘cultured,’” he says. “All forms of art, whether highbrow or lowbrow, are part of a society’s culture.”

Two weeks later, we cycle back to this table and the menu cycles back to chicken stew. This time, we’re talking about movies. “What’s the last film you watched?” he asks. I haven’t learned to strategically tailor history for my audience, so it doesn’t occur to me to lie. The last movie I watched was The Equalizer, an action-flick starring Denzel Washington, because it was on-demand.

He smiles with indulgent disbelief; I’ve amused him; I’m cute. “The Equalizer?” he echoes. “Why would you watch something like that?”

I don’t remember the rest of our conversation. I

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probably shrugged and changed the subject, betraying none of the irritation or taste for irony that caused me to hoard that memory for the last two years. But evidently there is such a thing as “cultured,” it’s just a word reserved for yogurt companies and licensed hipsters.

I can see him—and it is always a him—now. The starving artist. Bundled in a seedy coat, shuffling through a frosty studio and boozing away their lack of inspiration, this favorite American trope is almost as worn as Roger’s gloves in Rent.

Melancholy, “artistic” types have overcrowded our literature with linguistically impenetrable, conceptually vacant free association poems about avocados and market receipts. There is a whole school of thinkers who believe they have the green thumb when it comes to art, that because they make something, whether or not this something displays any talent, they have distinguished it as beautiful and valuable.

Meanwhile, in some circles and for some people, artistry has shifted from skill and a willingness to engage with raw human feeling to a carefully cultivated reputation. An artist, if properly recognized by their peers to be an artist, can “create” virtual trash and radioactively transmit their cultural expertise to their current project.

Success in art now favors personal branding over actual creation. The mindset has spawned a whole crew of self-made artists living by the motto—it’s okay if you only create one image, and it’s okay if that one image is your profile picture.

The anatomy of this species is as specific as it is impossible. These are the coffee snobs who can recite philosophy at the drop of their sulky beanies but who consume almost exclusively white male art. They spend long nights traversing downtown with their entourage, dress with care, and dedicate vast amounts of time to curated authenticity.

Table the paradox of curated authenticity for the moment. A greater problem with the artistic trope is that it excludes whole groups of people from the life of an artist. For starters, it comes with a price tag.

“Thrifted” designer clothes. Studio space in rugged, edgy neighborhoods (read: gentrification). A chemical fantasy of made-to-order drugs. Airfare to Europe.

Tickets to the hottest gallery openings and concerts.

These things cost money, and only a select few have cash flow to invest in such opulent grunge.

I believe there are artists who live wildly, who dress elegantly, who reject norms out of sincere dedication to craft, but this paradigm devolved into equating looking or acting original with the ability to produce something original. The logic rings like predestination and ominously reinforces homogeneity in the art community by excluding anyone unable to perform this carefree, expensive life.

Even the “starving artist” is a modern messiah, a sacrificial lamb willing to put his body and soul on the line for art, a nonconformist who ironically gets a lot of social currency for his lifestyle. His heroism comes from his choice, from trading work for art. But that artist is often a young, able, educated, white man (or woman, but we all know they’re only good for children’s fiction and campfire crafts), someone who probably came from a middle class family and could crash at home if necessary, someone who has all the qualities of an investment banker or a lawyer, save for their

temperament. In short, someone who had a choice at all.

Most people never get that choice. Most people don’t have generations of parents who accrued wealth and power with the System on their side. Most people have debt to pay. They have families to support.

My EECS and CS classes are populated with artists, musicians, writers and actors as talented as any smug hipster, but like me, they owe a debt to fate and Uncle Sam that interferes with—notice I didn’t say obviates—their creative endeavors.

Society gives no credit to artists who wear suits or aprons instead of overalls, gives no credit for the creativity it takes to stay afloat in contemporary America.

This exclusion gets uglier as economic need gets worse.

The influence of racism, sexism, and xenophobia on economic inequality is undeniable; take it a step further. For people that don’t get a choice, that don’t get to risk everything they love for their art because they need a stable job, that are oppressed by the System, the word is not starving artist; it’s just starving. Society glorifies the artist’s choice, but it’s a choice not everyone gets to make.

I am dismayed by the socio-economic exclusivity of the artist trope, by society’s refusal to appreciate artists that don’t fit the gold-plated mold, but while the ability to buy the illusion of artistry creates an exclusive art community, it also facilitates appropriation.

Seeking to create a façade of worldliness and experience, young hipsters will steal elements of other

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cultures in the name of being “cultured,” and although dialogue around cultural appropriation has finally emerged in our society, white hipsters borrowing culture for a certain aesthetic nevertheless persists.

American hipster society values the worldly, “cultured” individuals who travel, attend art and music festivals, eat at overpriced experimental restaurants, and dress fashion-forward. We give them a heightened authority to judge beauty and value. I think the logic runs along the lines of likening beauty to a drug, and those who have travelled further and seen more have a heightened tolerance, a more finely calibrated taste.

In order to stay original and present themselves as trendy, the young artistic types have a tendency to look for something outside of regular American style.

A lot of the time, it’s a shortcut, creating the illusion of worldliness without engaging with and learning from global cultures, or creating the illusion of originality by stealing any art forms that are uncommon in whitewashed American trends.

As with the starving artist, the allure of cultural appropriation among the “cultured” is the rejection of normative style for something “exotic”—the shock factor of seeing a blonde woman in a sari, in cornrows, in an Sioux headdress. In their hands and to unfamiliar eyes, another culture’s everyday style becomes exciting and original because this “cultured artist” has rejected “normal” for something else. In wearing or buying pieces of another culture, wealthy hipsters try to give off the illusion of having rejected society’s expectations.

Perhaps they have a misinformed desire to show solidarity with another country or culture, or perhaps they have no idea about its history or meaning and only see it as trendy.

It’s condescending and offensive but most importantly, only certain groups of people on the American art scene—again, usually white hipster types—can achieve the “cool” factor by borrowing someone else’s culture, because they can reject social norms and rebel while relying on the protection of a sickeningly biased system.

The artistic trope sends a message that poor, nonmale, and non-white is not the artistic “way to be,”

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that society has no interest in this art. I have struggled only with the first two prerequisites to this trope (rich and male), but I recognize the interplay between all three such social expectations, and more importantly, I see this artistic trope creating a vicious cycle. If we as a society continue to perceive the white male hipster type as the cultured artist, we will validate and consume white male hipster art, which means the next generation of misguided hipsters will try to be artists by rejecting that art ad infinitum.

Not only does this exclusion interfere with diversity, but frankly, I’m tired of the old art. We’ve had the same halcyon nature paintings, the same stories of bars and breakups and manic pixie dream girls, the same stories of the well-meaning observer who pities the poor, oppressed, and alienated.

Where are the stories by the poor, the oppressed, and the alienated? Where are the stories about the agony of the workplace (written by a worker and not a derisive aristocrat)? Where are the stories about parenting?

About anything other than the existential musings of white men who have nothing more immediate to worry about than the meaninglessness of human existence?

There is no single way to create like there is no single story that supersedes any others. We need variety.

We need diversity in the way we brand artists, in our perception of an “artistic look” as much as we need diversity in the art we consume.

Turning the illusion of “cultured” into a commodity undermines art as a space removed from material and social pressures, but more importantly, this paradoxical development tacitly maintains the exclusive network of art and artistry and the state of being cultured. If art can’t democratize society, why create at all?

words by JESSLYN WHITTELL illustrations by LANA COSIC

intimate ROUTINES PHOTO BY LANA COSIC

PHOTOS BY (LEFT TO RIGHT): AISHWARYA ARAVIND, ADITI RAGHUNATH, KINCSO DOMICZI, ANOUSH RAZAVIAN

body

LANGUAGE A spotlight on UC Berkeley hip-hop dance team, Main Stacks

M

ost UC Berkeley students hurry home once class is over and the hustle and bustle of Sproul has settled. Some, however, prefer a different rhythm. These are the students who transform different corners of campus, like the concrete plazas near Haas Pavilion or Moffitt Library, into makeshift dance floors. For them, the late evening is when creative identities come out, and all that matters are the movements that bring freedom from worries, anxieties, and the pressure of routine life.

The dance community at Cal is one as vast and diverse as Berkeley itself, and Main Stacks, UC Berkeley’s non-profit and competitive hip-hop dance team, seems to stand out among the rest. Watch Main Stacks perform and you will see that their esteemed status is unquestionable. Their elegance, precision, and all-around fierce moves take over the stage, and it’s no wonder the group has captivated UC Berkeley students’ eyes, ears, and imagination for years.

Since their formation in 2008 by students Vivian Peng and May Matsuo, the group has carved themselves a prestigious reputation among the Berkeley dance scene. The team brings together UC Berkeley students, alumni, and Bay Area residents, and often holds monthly dance classes that are open to the public. After their debut eight years ago, Main Stacks quickly achieved prestige when they placed third in Prelude NorCal, one of the largest hip-hop competitions in Northern California. Soon, they began replacing the bronze for gold, placing first in competitions such as Battlefest 360 in 2010, Battlefest in 2012, Breakthrough 2012, and BattleGround 360 in 2015.

Today, Main Stacks has become the bridge that connects the Cal dance community with the even larger dance community in California by hosting the competition that gave them their big break, Prelude NorCal. The annual hip-hop competition promotes not only urban dance culture but also gives crews a chance to showcase their moves and talent. According to Main Stacks dancer Victoria Yeh, “[Prelude NorCal] is an event that brings

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together dancers from all over the Bay Area, SoCal, and even the East Coast.”

For Yeh, the supportive dance community and her team are what help her keep from breaking under the pressure of being on stage and what allow her to embrace her own identity.

“I see the Berkeley dance community as an eclectic family comprised of people of all skill-levels, dance and personal backgrounds, and personalities,” says Yeh. “It’s so heartwarming to know there is a group of people supporting you in your academic journey, dance journey, and personal development.”

Main Stacks dancer Angelina Tong says her team goes beyond being a support network, and that the crew has inspired her to push her boundaries and embrace new challenges.

“I joined Main Stacks to have the opportunity to dance with other dancers who never settle for less than their very very best,” says Tong. “People dance for many different reasons, perform for different reasons. But when I perform, a competitive piece is an opportunity to beat my past self, to do better than the last time.”

As one of Berkeley’s premier hiphop teams and organizations, Main Stacks offers dancers a form and place

of expression, a chance to challenge oneself, and serves as a link to a unique and creative dance community at large.

As Yeh puts it, “the dance culture at Berkeley mirrors the greater community in its sense of acceptance, freedom, and devotion to artistic representation of all individuals.” words by MARINA CHILINGARYAN photo by IAN HALILI

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EXPANDI NG EG OS: thoughts on college rankings

T

he University of California, Berkeley is among the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.

It boasts seven Nobel laureates and 77 Fulbright scholars on current faculty, 12 million volumes in its libraries, and over 103 Olympic gold medalists. On top of that, U.S. News ranked UC Berkeley the number one public university in the world in 2015 for the 18th year in a row.

This is no doubt an impressive fact, and going to a world-renowned university is a privilege in itself. However, it seems that on an individual level, students don’t always match the University’s pride in this ranking. In hallways, bathrooms, and emptying lecture halls, it is not uncommon to hear students say they fear not being ambitious or smart enough to attend such an elite university because of its high status and reputation. It lends the question, could these rankings be making us feel more inadequate than not?

Maybe hearing the phrase “the number one public university in the world” does not always elicit a positive response.

In answering this, we must take a step back. Why is it that we put so much stock into college rankings in the first place? People often associate a high ranking with better research facilities, more advanced learning resources, and post-graduation opportunities. It may also be perceived as an indicator that the professors employed at that school are in

some ways more able educators. Some too say that attending a highly-ranked school may lead to a higher starting salary after graduation.

While these factors may be true in some cases, on a dayto-day basis rankings’ obtainable effects often boil down to bragging rights. But these rankings have historically faced fault in their credibility. For instance, in 2012 USA Today reported Claremont McKenna inflated the SAT scores of incoming freshmen that it annually released to U.S. News from 2005 through 2011, moving them from 11th to 9th in the rankings. Though this may seem like only a small boost, it gave

“I’d get pitying looks or haughty remarks from people when I told them I went to a community college,” Swamy continued.

“One person flat out asked me if I was dumb. People just assumed I was stupid for being there.”

Moreover, these stigmas ignore the financial reasons why many attend community college in the first place. Public or private, college is expensive for most. The real financial barriers against paying for a four-year education right after high school are in no way a representation of intelligence or academic ability.

College rankings, arguably subjective in their construction

“The issue is that these rankings create an academic and intellectual hierarchy, which has the potential to create a sense of missed opportunity for those not accepted into higher-ranked institutions and superiority for those who are.”

Claremont McKenna the opportunity to claim a spot in the nation’s top ten universities, but this new reputational edge was more of a reflection of false statistics than of true performance.

Being accepted into a top university is no easy task, and hardworking students should not be ashamed of taking pride in that.

But it is also easy for the pride in one’s academic achievement to conflate with a dismissal of other institutions that have lower rankings. Even at a top-tier institution such as UC Berkeley, there are those who have been rejected by universities such as MIT and Harvard, schools that regularly hit a higher mark for some academic rankings. Yet all three schools offer fantastic academic opportunities; so how, and why, do we feel the need to say one is “better” than the other?

The issue is that these rankings create an academic and intellectual hierarchy, which has the potential to create a sense of missed opportunity for those not accepted into higher-ranked institutions and superiority for those who are.

“I know it doesn’t make much sense, but it doesn’t feel great to think that there’s a more highly esteemed opportunity that isn’t available to me,” freshman Tyler Moy said. “But it is also easy to feel superior to colleges ranked below Berkeley.”

In addition to this, rankings also stigmatize community colleges and other non “top” universities and can make students attending those schools feel less valuable. Junior Vinitra Swamy, a transfer student from De Anza Community College in Cupertino, corroborates this view: “I have faced some stigmatization at Cal for having gone to a community college.

It’s like somehow I’m a less valuable student just because I attended a different school for a couple years.

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and measure, place a value judgment on universities and bring about a harmful yet inevitable element of shaming. Though useful in some respects—they can very broadly speak to a college’s general quality and give some degree of information about the students they admit—rankings can simultaneously damage us by encouraging notions of inferiority or superiority surrounding our education. It’s a distraction we don’t need, and a distraction that’s destructive to building a cooperative academic community. words by KATHLEEN LEUTY photo by KEVIN CHEUNG illustration by ISMAT JUNAID

comedic JUSTICE W. Kamau Bell and laughter’s role in the revolution

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n January 26, 2015, W. Kamau Bell walked into Elmwood Cafe for the second time that day and for what seemed like the hundredth time in his life.

Sporting an “Oaklandish” hoodie and with a MacBook in hand, Bell approached his wife, Melissa Hudson Bell, who was enjoying breakfast with a few of her friends. One of her friends asked Bell about the children’s book he was carrying, titled “The Case for Loving,” which he had recently picked up at a nearby bookstore.

The book depicts a couple who went to the Supreme Court and successfully argued for the laws that banned interracial marriage in 17 states to be struck down—a story that resonates with Bell, as a Black man married to a white woman.

Following some brief introductions

and Bell’s explanation of the book, they heard a loud series of knocks coming from one of the cafe employees inside.

On Bell’s blog, he recounts the event, saying, “The employee then jerks her head to her left aggressively and I see her mouth say something to the effect of…‘SCRAM!’” If not for the technology present, this could have been a scene straight out of 1963, Selma, Alabama. And yet it happened at Elmwood Cafe in Berkeley, California, a place which Bell aptly described in the aforementioned blog post as, “a city so allegedly liberal that even the most progress-y progressives make fun of it.”

Shortly after the incident, a community forum was held at Willard Middle School in Berkeley to discuss implicit

bias and attempt to achieve a broader understanding of racial stereotypes and their impact, specifically in the Bay Area.

In addition to Bell and his wife, the panel included UC Berkeley African American Studies associate professor Nikki Jones, ACLU-Northern California staff attorney Novella Coleman, president of the Berkeley High Black Student Union Kadijah Means, design and leadership coach at the Equity Collaborative Jamie Almanzán, and owner of Elmwood Cafe, Michael Pearce.

At the forum, Pearce, who closed his restaurant so the Elmwood Cafe staff could attend, claimed he would be working in collaboration with groups such as Race Forward, a nonprofit focusing on racial justice, to then establish a curriculum for an implicit bias training

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program in program in Berkeley.

“We wanted to cut through the Internet storm to address the real issues,”Pearce said. “We want a community where everyone feels welcome and we need to raise awareness that implicit bias is an issue that needs to be addressed.”

Despite his attendance at Race Forward’s Racial Justice Leadership training and claims that pamphlets on implicit bias would be distributed to the dozens of businesses in the Elmwood neighborhood, few visible steps have been taken to address the issue on a community-wide level. Pearce was hopeful the pamphlets would establish an organization of Elmwood businesses participating in implicit bias training by January 2016. However, when Caliber checked on their progress with these pamphlets on January 20, 2016, they had yet to meet with Elmwood businesses and the development of the implicit bias program was taking “longer than [they] had hoped.”

Before becoming involved in the conversation around racial justice in the Bay Area, Bell lived in many different places around the country, living with both his single mother, and father and stepmother before starting college at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1990.

Bell says his ardent affection for Bruce Lee influenced his decision to pursue a major in East Asian Studies.

However, Bell’s time at UPenn ended up being comparatively brief after he decided to drop out in 1992.

“I had no real plan,” says Bell. “I was thinking I might open up a martial arts studio one day. But in the end I wasn’t interested enough in East Asian Studies to not fail.” So he left Pennsylvania and moved to Chicago where he soon decided to embrace his creative interests and pursue a career in comedy.

After moving to Chicago, Bell began fostering his love for humor by taking classes at one of the world’s premier comedy clubs and schools of improvisation, The Second City.

However, after a few botched attempts at stand-up, he felt he might not have been quite ready.

“Stand-up is a language,” Bell says, “and like I learned when trying to study Mandarin, learning languages isn’t my strong suit.”

In order to achieve success in comedy, Bell realized he had to define his own path.

In 2007, his search for a creative outlet led him to create the “W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour,” an hour-long act which he is still touring around the country today.

On his website, Bell describes the act as “one part manifesto, one part diatribe, and several parts funny.” The mixed platform allows Bell to speak his mind while expressing his ideas comedically.

Bell asserts that the slideshows make him feel more at ease and allow him to present concrete evidence and reasoning to support his more controversial points.

The slides range from the serious, suchc as data from the 2008 presidential election, to the absurd, such as a “mathematical formula” explaining the inception of American country music, (country music = the blues – slavery); but all work towards Bell’s larger goal of challenging institutionalized racism.

Bell began trying out the act at various San Francisco theaters such as the Shelton Theater and other spaces he described as “not traditionally Black.”

However, he was determined to create a space in which his comedy could forge new connections and change the standard racial makeup of the room. Bell would explicitly encourage listeners to reach out to an acquaintance of a race different from their own and invite them to the show. To achieve his goal Bell created an offer: patrons get in two for one if they bring a person of another race.

“I wanted the craziness of the offer to be a motivator to get a conversation started before the audience even showed up,” Bell says.

And it worked. In a 2012 article, famed New Yorker television critic Emily

Nussbaum deemed his comedic style “intersectional progressivism,” a type of comedy that she says “treats racial, gay, and women’s issues as inseparable.”

Bell says that this “progressive style” was not dominant at the beginning of his comedic career, but that he found his voice as a comedian once he started talking about race.

His material continued to evolve even further after his wife and friends told him that he “can’t talk about ending

attitude on “laughter’s role in the revolution,” an outlook reminiscent of Black pioneers of comedy such as Dick Gregory. He mirrors this genre of comedian: those who were able to provide the masses with a different perspective, who supported the activists while making people laugh.

Kamau describes activism as a “24 hour a day job” and sees comedians as “the troubadours at the fireside chat at the end of the activist’s hard day of work.” He

of UC Berkeley students getting involved and abandoning their comfort zones.

“There are some students who are in a sort of protective environment existing right alongside people who are struggling just to get by,” says Bell. “It is easy to let the work pile on and overwhelm your brain. Get off campus [and] get to know the area. Get to Richmond, Oakland, San Francisco. Talk to people who aren’t students.”

When we asked Bell how people

UNTIL WE ARE LIVING IN A TIME AND PLACE WHERE THE COLOR OF ONE’S SKIN HAS NO BEARING ON ONE’S ABILITY TO CONVERSE FREELY IN A CAFE, THESE STEPS WILL CONTINUE TO BE ESSENTIAL. racism while simultaneously making sexism worse.” According to Bell, there were, and are, many others who sparked the inclusion of LGBTQIA and women’s issues in his comedy, and it is clear that this infusion is a lasting one.

For example, on his acclaimed, albeit short-lived, late night talk show “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” Bell spoke to New Yorkers on the street about catcalling in the city, putting a progressive spin on Jimmy Kimmel-style street polls and letting women tell their stories of harassment in a way that demanded audiences to take notice.

While he mostly spoke to women who voiced their outrage with the phenomenon, his simultaneously entertaining and provocative performance style was most apparent when he spoke to one man who said that he “thinks street harassment is good” and that it “makes [women] feel better about themselves.” Bell responded, “I think that most women would say that it doesn’t make them feel better about themselves, and by a lot I mean 100 percent.”

Examples like these speak to Bell’s

is quick to say that there is still abundant work to be done for activists and their “troubadours,” and when asked about the state of race relations in Berkeley today, Bell described it as being in an “extreme state of flux.”

While Bell loves living in the Bay Area, saying that it, “is a place where all sorts of different people live together and explore new ideas,” he resents the fact that many of those people are struggling to get by due to the effects of institutionalized racism and implicit biases—unfortunate patterns which manifest themselves in pervasive local issues, such as gentrification or being harassed at a cafe for no reason other than your skin color.

But Bell also calls attention to the organizations that are working to combat these issues, some of which he is an active participant in, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Race Forward, Hollaback, and Causa Justa :: Just Cause, an Oakland-based grassroots organization whose mission is to achieve justice for low-income San Francisco and Oakland residents.

Bell also emphasizes the importance

of all skin colors and backgrounds can engage in the fight for racial justice in a thoughtful manner, he replied concisely and honestly, “If you’re thinking about going to a Black Lives Matter protest, just ask yourself, ‘Do I think that Black lives matter?’ If yes, go.”

While a solution to the problems that Bell addresses in his comedy may take time to resolve, he asserts that the first step really is as simple as that. Until we are living in a time and place where the color of one’s skin has no bearing on one’s ability to converse freely in a cafe, these steps will continue to be essential.

words by DELANEY INMAN photos by BETH ALLEN

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Weighing In on Fat Shaming a conversation with renowned body-image expert and fat activist, Virgie Tovar

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t’s no secret when Virgie Tovar enters the room. A self-proclaimed fatshionista, she makes heads turn with bold prints, a statement hair accessory, and signature thick-framed glasses.

Her infectious laugh and quick wit will snap any audience to attention. And at 5’5” and 250 pounds, Tovar has no reservations when it comes to size: “I grew up in a fat family, I was a fat baby, and I was a fat kid.”

But she wasn’t always proud of that.

A Bay Area local, Tovar grew up in San Pablo where she was raised by her mother and two grandparents who immigrated to California from Mexico.

“I grew up in a conservative Christian home,” says Tovar. “Berkeley was this weird place that my grandfather would once-a-year drive us through with the

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windows rolled up. He’d give us a tour of these radical people doing all these crazy things like having sex in public.”

However, the mythology of Berkeley as the bizarrely progressive place that her grandparents helped shape attracted her instead of turning her away. Tovar started her undergraduate career at UC Davis, but quickly realized she didn’t quite click with the community there. The semirural life wasn’t for her, and she felt that Berkeley was where she needed to be. “There was something in my mind, some pull or cosmic sense that I belonged somewhere else,” Tovar says. So she submitted her transfer application to UC Berkeley and soon found out she got in.

Her cosmic senses proved right, as the opportunities Tovar found in Berkeley compelled her to form new interests and

academic pursuits. It was there she says the seeds for her life as a fat activist were planted.

“I ended up taking the FemSex DeCal. It kind of changed my whole life,” she says. “It was the first time that anybody ever pushed me to question political messages and to question my place not only as a woman in a deeply sexist culture, but also to question my sexuality and that shame I had around my sexuality and my body as a fat body.”

Now, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley and a master’s in Human Sexuality from San Francisco State University (SFSU), Tovar is an author, activist, lecturer, and one of the nation’s most influential experts on fat discrimination and body image.

In 2005, Tovar tested her counseling skills on CBS radio as the host of her own on-air advice program “The Virgie Show” and later as a sex educator for Mission Graduates, a nonprofit based in San Francisco’s Mission District. However, later in 2009, Tovar left both gigs to move to New Zealand with her then-partner.

While Down Under, inspiration— coupled with a bit of free time—led to her first book proposal, a manifesto-style novel with the provocative title “Fatties of the World Unite.”

The idea came from a blog post she wrote before leaving the states as part of a friend’s master’s thesis project focused on body image. Tovar’s friend asked her to write about her experiences being fat since she talked about living “the fat life” often, though Tovar says she didn’t realize it at the time.

The post got a lot of attention, fast.

Tovar had done nothing more than share

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her own experiences, her life as a fat girl.

She says in many ways the post was a list of grievances told with “fierce resilience” and a tone best described as “retaliatory, humorous and militant.”

“Most of it was ranting, like ‘this is what dating is like when you’re fat,’ or ‘this is what shopping is like when you’re fat,’” says Tovar. “I was speaking to an experience that at that time was not widely read or heard about.”

The positive response excited Tovar and in 2009 spurred her to send the book proposal to Brooke Warner at Seal Press, a Berkeley-based women’s interest publisher.

Although Warner found the piece interesting, particularly praising Tovar’s unique voice and perspective, Seal Press ultimately decided against the proposal, saying “the market might not be ready for it.” (Tovar says that’s industry speak for “nobody’s gonna buy this.”)

But Warner’s no-go came with a nudge of encouragement. “[Warner] told me that they passed on it, but to ‘keep going because you’re a good writer,’” says Tovar. “I was completely smitten by these words. It was the first time I had ever gotten any encouragement from an influential person. So I grabbed it and ran with it.”

While mulling over her next publishing move, Tovar went on to pursue a master’s degree in Human Sexuality at SFSU, focusing on the intersections of body size, race, and gender—a topic derived from her own personal experiences.

Tovar says being a fat child made her feel gender non-conforming in some ways growing up. “As a fat girl, nothing fit me and I couldn’t participate in fashion trends. The doors of girlhood were getting shut in my face over and over,” she says.

She recalls being excited about a hula hoop dress trend as a kid, but after trying several stores none would zip. Another year she tried buying a Little Mermaid costume for Halloween. Nope.

“My start began in queer, fat separatist spaces. So much of that has to do with growing up feeling shut out of the culture for being fat and also for being the child of immigrants, for being a brown person,” she says.

Realizing how the intersectionality of being a fat Mexican woman shaped her own identity, Tovar grew curious about how this played out with other women. So, she began researching how fatness influenced the trajectory of other women’s gender stories.

Through her studies, Tovar attended conferences on fat activism and met others working in the field, forming a network of voices and experts on the subject and community she was becoming deeply involved in. “It’s very similar to a lot of other movements in their earliest stages in that everybody knows everybody,” she says. “It’s a small, insular community.”

NoLose, an organization focused on ending fat oppression, hosted one of these conferences in 2010. After arriving at her accomodations in Oakland for the event, Tovar says she followed the sound of laughter coming from the end of a breezeway. There, around the hotel pool, she found a group of big women in fashionable bikinis and flashy sunglasses, all laughing, talking, and utterly unselfconscious.

Stepping closer, she narrowed in on one woman who was wearing a vintage polka dot red and white bathing suit and cat eye sunglasses. There was a boy behind her carrying a parasol for her so she wouldn’t burn. “It was like nothing I’d ever seen,” says Tovar. “In that moment, I was converted. I instantly saw my own feminine potential in this world.”

One of the ways her newfound feminine potential manifested was in her own personal style, which Tovar aptly refers to as “aggressive femininity.”

Tovar loves to sport bright prints, big jewelry, and other bold accessories that emphasize and accentuate a larger canvas. “I think of how long I didn’t feel like a real woman, and now I’m so drawn to exercising my femininity through my wardrobe, dresses, outfits, and colors,” she says.

Even while pursuing her academic interests Tovar never forgot about those words of encouragement from Warner.

Through research, interviews, and meetings with other experts in the field, she garnered a deepened understanding of fat oppression, its function as a product of hierarchical forces throughout history and society, and how it affects individuals differently.

After graduating from her master’s program in 2011, she approached Warner at Seal Press again. Now, both agreed, the market was ready. Only this time, the book would be an anthology rather than a manifesto. “I told Brooke it has to be multiple voices,” says Tovar. “It has to be lots of people talking about this. And she said yes!”

The product of that conversation was the book, “Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion,” which has since made a cannonball in the conversation surrounding fatphobia and fat shaming.

Since the book’s release, Tovar has been busy speaking at universities, conferences, and running her “Lose Hate Not Weight Babecamp,” a virtual fourweek course designed to help users break free from society’s way of conveying what people should eat, how people should exercise, and what human bodies should look like. You’ll also see her popping up on various outlets like BuzzFeed, where she is a plus-size style writer, or on the intersectional feminist media outlet “Wear Your Voice,” where she writes a body positivity advice column. Walk around nearby San Francisco and you might also find her at her favorite Bay Area foodie spots, like Andytown in the Outer Sunset or Dandelion Chocolate in the Mission.

Though feminism has had a longstanding conversation with body image, fat is often pushed to the edge of the table.

“If feminism has articulated anything, it’s that fatness is a product of pathology,” says Tovar. “That fat as a feminist issue is a product of overeating resulting from the patriarchy.”

According to Tovar, this discourse instead promotes fat oppression by deeming it a negative effect of sexism, rather than critiquing the forces that shame all body sizes.

Tovar says this stems from what’s known as fatphobia, meaning the fear of fat people or of becoming fat. “[Fatphobia] often manifests in interpersonal hostility toward fat people and a cultural tendency to ostracize fat people from social, romantic, educational, and professional spheres,” says Tovar. She breaks this down into three interrelated main categories: overt, covert, and internalized.

Overt fatphobia is the explicit form of fatphobia most clearly associated with discrimination, such as interpersonal fat jokes and bullying. Covert fatphobia on the other hand refers to more nuanced systemic issues such as media representations of fat people or even the size of desks at schools.

“No one is explicitly telling a fat person they shouldn’t be in a university classroom,” says Tovar. “But fat people may not be able to utilize— or comfortably utilize—the available seating in this environment.”

Exposure to both overt and covert fatphobia often creates a more deeprooted sense of what is known as internalized fatphobia. To explain, Tovar says people do not initially have any idea whether or not fat is good or bad, but are eventually taught one way or the other. When people begin to believe what they are told and the phobia becomes seemingly ingrained, it is then internalized.

Like many others, Tovar says she didn’t have much of an awareness of her body as a “bad thing” until around

age five. It wasn’t until she entered kindergarten that she was introduced to fat shame and the idea that she should change her body by any means necessary.

“By any means necessary,” Tovar reiterates pointedly. “That’s the message that fat people get. That our bodies are a problem and normal people don’t look like this. That normal people who eat regularly and interact with the world normally don’t have fat bodies, and I really believed that.”

According to Tovar, internalized fatphobia affects many aspects of our lives including what we eat, who we are attracted to, or what kind of friends we have. And it’s something that people of all sizes deal with—people with fat bodies can also experience internalized fatphobia, which may manifest as not being attracted to partners who also have a fat body, or avoiding friendships with people who are fat.

Tovar personally attests to this.

For example, she recalls attending a poetry reading at The Bear’s Lair as an undergrad, where a woman read a poem about being fat and having sex with her boyfriend. Hearing the woman talk about her boyfriend loving her fat rolls and loving her body horrified Tovar. “I was not ready,” she says. “I felt like she was exposing a secret of my fatness. Even though it wasn’t a secret, in my mind it was this very private thing that I still had a lot of unresolved feelings about.”

Internalized fatphobia creates an impetus within the fat person to change and conform, as well as a culture that ostracizes the marginalized person. “We have so many things culturally that confirm these attitudes. We are rewarded for engaging in fat shaming and selfhatred,” says Tovar.

That’s why in 2014, Tovar coined the phrase “Lose Hate Not Weight,” a philosophy she says guides her work and aims to combat self-hatred or the “I am never good enough mindset.” It’s purpose was to offer a way out of diet culture by asserting that our culture’s current understanding of health and

beauty is limited and ignores how mental health, sexual health, and physical health are all connected.

While eating and moving are natural to being human, Tovar says diet and exercise in the extreme way they are often presented today is not always a healthy choice.

“I think about what I was doing. I was making my healthy body sick. I gave myself scurvy and I was miserable, anxious and nauseous constantly as a result of my food anxiety,” says Tovar.

“People underestimate the extremes people are taking to achieve this healthy ideal.”

Tovar says social media has played a massive role in spreading the message

positivity are not always one in the same.

According to Tovar, body positivity emphasizes how all people are affected by diet culture and body image issues, but it focuses on editing the culture rather than radically overhauling it. Fat liberation on the other hand, shares many similarities with radical queer politics in that it stems from an anti-assimilationist standpoint that critiques a larger system.

Tovar also explains how fat liberation draws a connection between forces such as racism, capitalism, sexism, ableism, and more, while body positivity tends to isolate the issue as something just about bodies and individuals.

“You could think of it in terms of investment and divestment,” says

one. “What’s so exhilarating about this movement is the power in knowing there is another option besides diet culture.

Most of my work is telling people, ‘Did you know you don’t have to live like this?

Did you know you don’t have to have a pathological relationship to food? Did you know that your body is completely fine the way it is, and you can live your life right now without waiting?’”

The fact that many people might answer “no” to these questions is revealing of how fat shaming often relies on unawareness and acceptance of the messages that everyone from those in the media to the public health sector preaches about weight. Tovar says simply telling people there is an option is radical.

It was inspiring to watch fat people who were living full lives. All people need to see that. behind Lose Hate Not Weight by democratized distribution and access of non-mainstream information. The phrase and its accompanying hashtag was picked up quickly by fans and followers, gaining more momentum with the movement itself. And in many ways, the fat movement found its foothold online through platforms and forums, such as the Fatshionista LiveJournal, where predominantly fat queer women will share photos of their outfits and encouragingly comment on others’.

“It was inspiring to watch fat people who were living these full lives. All people need to see that,” says Tovar.

With many ways to share thoughts on fat activism, the movement has seen much growth in a short amount of time.

“Now there are fat feminisms—plural,” Tovar says.

For instance, fat liberation and body

Tovar. “Fat liberation says divest from the culture at large. Body positivity says invest in educating and editing individuals in a culture they don’t see as inherently flawed [rather than revising society altogether].”

Though she sees the influx of interest and support for fat activism and liberation as a good thing, Tovar says she has mixed feelings about diversification within the movement that’s been enabled through online information sharing. “On the one hand, this means there will be tensions through the different factions.

But on the other hand, it’s through this diversification of a politic that the politic becomes stronger. It’s through that choice and diversification that people become drawn to something,” she says.

Regardless, Tovar believes fat shaming may be approaching a tipping point, or at least the beginning phase of

As Tovar kicks off Babecamp 2016 (including a Jamaican retreat in November for those interested in a delicious getaway), the Sister Spit Tour in March, and much, much more, it’s clear people are listening, and wanting more.

Though what she teaches involves a deep and complex societal understanding and critique, at the end of the day, Tovar says she believes in one simple thing: “People have different types of bodies for different reasons, and people should be allowed to have the bodies that they have.” words by SYDNEY JOHNSON photos by LANA COSIC

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VIRGIE’S TOP 10

FASHIONtips to get you hot and ready for summer

1. ALWAYS GO WITH THE TWO-PIECE

The #fatkini revolution has begun and we’re recruiting!

2. YOU ALREADY HAVE A BEACH BODY

Remember: beach + body = beach body. Spend more time at the beach, or at least wearing beach-inspired attire. It makes every day a little sunshinier.

3. SAY YES TO THE (SHORT) DRESS

Late spring and summer were made for unleashing thighs of all sizes.

4. ACCESSORIZE. ACCESSORIZE. ACCESSORIZE!

Add something bright to an otherwise basic look to bling it up.

5. FIND A STYLE INSPIRATION

If you’re new to fashion adventures, you need someone after whom to model yourself. My fashion inspiration is Miss Piggy.

6. DON'T BE AFRAID TO BE SEEN

Does everything in your wardrobe look like it could camouflage you in the Drab National Forest? Add some color to your wardrobe! Yellow, pink and orange are my favorites for summer.

7. ALTER GARMENTS TO BETTER SUIT YOU

Make a dress shorter with the snip of a pair of scissors.

Sleeves too tight? Cut them off! Want to make something matronly into something bait-ronly, cut a peep hole into the front or just cut straight down the front. Your decolletage called and she says she hasn’t seen sunshine since 2015.

8. THE TAG SAYS NO, BUT THE STRETCH SAYS YES!

I have clothing of every imaginable size in my closet.

Small to XXL. The tag means nothing. Learn to find gems all around you, at any store, by taking the time to look at the garment before you look at the tag.

Spandex? SpandYES!

9. DON'T BUY CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT YOU

Bye bye “skinny jeans.” You have no room in your closet or your life for “inspirational” clothing that doesn’t make you feel good in the body you have right now. Do a purge. Right now.

10. HAVE A SIGNATURE THING THAT DEFINES AND DELIGHTS YOU

Mine is my love of enormous jewelry (esp. necklaces) as well as my insistence upon wearing huge sunglasses over my seersucker prescription glasses. For you it might be silk scarves or a special scent. Change when you’re ready to move on! words by VIRGIE TOVAR

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A GUIDE TO THE BEST OF THE UNKNOWN MUSIC GENRES

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oday’s up-and-coming music styles reveal trends that define our generation, yet they’ve emerged for the very same reasons their established predecessors did: to send a message. As these new genres make their way into our Soundclouds, Spotifys, and Bandcamps, so do the many different preferences and ideals of today’s youth. Here are a few to look out for.

Witch House If music genres had holiday counterparts, Witch House and Halloween would be an indisputable pair.

Both play on elements of darkness, fearfueled adrenaline, and the rebellious rush of indulging in something that society does not always approve of.

First and foremost, Witch House is a mode of expression. It credits its roots to the revival of ’80s gothic music and that musical era’s emblematic resentment of capitalist society. After emerging in the late 2000s, Witch House took the music scene by storm with the unique aesthetic promoted by its artists and followers, one of dark aesthetic and occult characteristics. Performers draw from gothicism as well as indie rock, electronic, and ethereal music. It’s a genre that embodies a mixed apathy and angst felt by the millennial generation.

Taking its place among other cuttingedge sounds, the low beats and heavily synthed minor chords of Witch House distinguish it as modern, yet distinct from the lighter, happier, and more pop-driven rhythms of its contemporaries. When coupled with ambient treble sounds, slower basslines pay homage to the most predominant music groups of the 2000s, from synthpop to hip hop, yet still creates a somewhat sinister and unsettling sound overall.

As a relatively nascent form of music, Witch House meccas are concentrated in urban areas where uniqueness is embraced, such as Los Angeles night clubs and the Pendu Disco Party in Brooklyn, New York. Significant bands include Michigan’s SALEM, San Francisco-based oOoOO (pronounced “oh”), White Ring, and The Synthetic Dream Foundation.

Intelligent Dance Music Intelligent Dance Music, or IDM, was initially coined as such because it was designed specifically for relaxed

and engaged listening. However, its close resemblance to electronica, house, and other forms of dance music quickly made it a mainstay in clubs in the United Kingdom and Japan. Unlike most new music genres, IDM doesn’t explicitly carve out a distinct musical niche for itself. Instead, it draws on individual artist experimentation, and heavily parallels sister genres, such as art techno and armchair techno (both of which were designed for the “stay-at-home” individual). By acting as a melting pot that combines different, but unique aspects of similar genres, IDM has established a following by latching on to those of its contemporaries.

Although it originally emerged in the ’90s, the novel use of underground music influences in new IDM music revived the genre, rebranding it as a more widespread, unified, and modern genre in the late 2000s. Drawing on influences such as breakbeat, hip hop, and acid house, IDM acts such as Aphex Twin, LFO, and Boards of Canada have further increased the diversity of sound within the genre.

Chillwave Chillwave has found a comfortable home here in Berkeley. Toro y Moi, one of the pioneering artists of chillwave, opened the 2015–2016 school year by performing at SUPERB Productions’ Welcome Back Concert. In August 2015, the artist dropped a mixtape—because albums are far too mainstream—called Samantha, which was comprised of songs recorded entirely in Berkeley. Chillwave, also known as downtempo pop or glo-fi, distinguishes itself through the use of bright melodies and varied, disconnected rhythms. It’s best described as a marriage between ’80s retro and bubblegum popEDM, and is known for creating a light and upbeat vibe through combinations of ambient harmonies with melodic major overtones.

Diehards say the genre is more than just sound, but a musical embodiment of a

lifestyle. Centering on the use of laptops, Chillwave seems to epitomize the new digital era. The performance costumes of Chillwave musicians, complete with bright colors, fun prints, and retro cuts, in turn epitomize the genre’s aesthetic— the “baby blue convertible racing down the Pacific Coast Highway while the driver contemplates the meaning of life” aesthetic—that it exemplifies.

Vaporwave Most recent on the list, Vaporwave first became prominent in the early 2010s. But its half-decade run thus far would surprise anyone with the amount of attention, variety and innovation it’s already gathered.

Vaporwave pulls extensively from its recent ancestors, taking inspiration from Seapunk, Chillwave, and Witch House, but distinguishes itself through the heavy use of ’80s and ’90s sounds.

But not the ’80s and ’90s slash metal or hair band sounds you’re thinking of. The meta quality of Vaporwave involves the use of sounds like the distantly familiar Microsoft boot-up chime, creating an audible experience that pays homage to its digital past. Birthed by an economic crisis and a conglomeration of artists described as young, educated, and financially-frustrated, Vaporwave claims to be a statement and art aesthetic as much as it is a genre of music.

Heavy uses of sampling across multiple genres and time frames, from ’60s jazz to ’80s electronic, are used by Vaporwave artists to make a dystopian critique of consumerist, capitalist society—one can only assume that the organized chaos of the music is representative of the chaos rife in the seemingly organized world we live in.

words by ANISHA DANGORIA photo by ANOUSH RAZAVIAN

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A HUMANITIES

MANIFESTO the stigmatized liberal arts

“F

ellow humanities majors, stand with me! May we rise against the tyrannical notion that STEM is the only viable option for the modern college student. No longer will we tolerate the daily condescension we receive from our families and peers. We will resist the constant prodding to select a ‘real’ major by sticking with our ‘fake’ ones. We are not second-rate students and no, we are not taking the easy way out!” *Cue limited applause* In my imagined proclamation, I stand shouting this message through a blaring megaphone to every passerby that sets foot in Sproul. I impose my desire to transcend my subordinate academic status on every individual in sight. I look much like the man who recites his God’s will while dually wielding a microphone and bible, though in my hand instead are media studies and political science textbooks.

This is the fantasy I indulge in whenever I’m faced with academic

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scrutiny from family and friends.

Expressing that I had decided to become a media studies major to my family of computer programmers was something of a second coming out experience. There was similar displeasure, admittedly not nearly as fervent or hurtful. They frequently sling sly comments that aim to trivialize my educational pursuits. If you studied computer science you’d have the luxuries of job security and mobility—not to mention more money. In response, I equip my mental battle armor to survive the incessant skepticism present at every dinner party.

Aslesha Kumar, a political economy major, described similar familial criticism but within a different cultural context. “Within the Indian community, I have felt pressure to study a science, or really anything that involves numbers,” Kumar said. “There is this commonplace reverence of the numerical over the lyrical where we take numbers as truth

more so than we do our own words. I am pursuing a major that allows me to utilize the beneficial aspects of both realms.”

This dynamic extends from our homes to our educational environment.

There is a campuswide stigma that those who choose their liberal arts majors do so due to a lack of abilities.

This perpetual invalidation comes from the ubiquitous grade deflation that constitutes STEM-oriented programs.

Since grades are often lower, this is used as a testament to the rigor of the fields.

Lower grades are used as a justification for greater difficulty, and the greater the perceived difficulty, the more prestige is subsequently bestowed upon the field.

This results in a commonplace disregard for humanities courses, which generally exhibit higher grade averages.

This grade-obsessed lens views those who pursue liberal arts as individuals who took the easy way out, as opposed to fellow devoted scholars undertaking rigorous coursework.

“Humanities majors can selfdeprecate themselves and blame their major choices on their inabilities to do STEM, but that shouldn’t be the reason that one chooses their life path,” Emily Plummer, a peace and conflicts studies major, said. “It may very well be just as hard for someone majoring in computer science to write a 10-page paper as it is for [some of] us to comprehend calculus.”

Kumar agreed, noting that, “We choose our major based on our skill set and interests. We tailor our education to what suits us best and will serve us most in the future.”

What many fail to understand is that although we might be choosing a less lucrative path, we humanities majors are pursuing our passion like anyone else. I am a media studies major because I love entertaining content and have a desire to create some myself, not because I suck at math and had to settle. There is no inferiority in striving to succeed in what we find most compelling.

What’s often glossed over in the stigmatization of humanities majors is that our work has a role to play in tandem with the computer algorithms and mathematical equations. We need coders to create the structural groundwork for websites, and just as importantly, the writers, meme-ers, commenters, readers and everyone else to contribute content and serve as an active audience. Liberal arts and technology are now deeply intertwined, thus saying the former doesn’t matter makes the latter obsolete.

Despite this reality, our campus climate greatly favors the mathematical and scientific elite. There exists a perception that liberal arts classes are not of comparable rigor to many of the other courses offered at Berkeley.

Conversations easily turn into a competition over who has the most work and whose is the most difficult. If your curriculum isn’t math or science intensive then your work is deemed simple and invalid.

The prioritization of STEM courses makes the courses on which humanities

students focus seem trivial, but the fact is that these are the fields where important social issues are most directly discussed.

“Intersectionality, gender, racial and sexual oppression are common themes in many of the courses I’ve taken here at Cal,” said political science major Khaled Bekhit. “This is why breadth curriculum is very important, it allows for an interdisciplinary educational experience,” said Bekhit. “By taking a variety of courses, STEM majors will be able to implement the valuable principles we acquire from—let’s say a GWS course—during their everyday lives.”

There needs to be a dismantling of the STEM-oriented hierarchy that dominates the sphere of higher education. I want to change the conversation from what people believe we “should” be doing

to what we will be doing. By keeping an open mind and learning about our interests, people will be able to truly appreciate the value of what my peers and I seek to accomplish.

So I return to the entertaining musings of my imagination where my faux Mario Savio persona is found back again on Sproul steps, to distract from the real me who’s eating Nutella by the spoonful and staring out of the window at squirrels climbing a nearby tree.

They’re lucky; they don’t have to write two papers by Friday. words by CHRISTOPHER COX photo by LANA COSIC

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G N I X O B

a n i b m ba Photographer Ankur Maniar and model Jimena Pavolvitch-Bedzyk find light and lust in the alleyways of San Francisco

a

4 2 X

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

This is a record of esteemed professors subjugating themselves to discussions of subversive hypotheticals. In other words, let’s see how our university’s finest react to the most scholarly unscholarly topics: contemporary conspiracy theories.

words by RAELINE VALBUENA illustarations by LANA COSIC

PHANTOM TIME

This hypothesis is a conspiracy about history, or rather, “history.” It proposes that the period in the Early Middle Ages from AD 614–911 never actually happened. According to the theory, the Anno Domini dating system was invented by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, Pope Sylvester II, and Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII so that their lives and achievements would occur around the memorable and significant year of AD 1000. “Recorded” history within these years is suggested to have been forged.

Paul N. Hilfinger, Associate Professor in EECS and Computer Science: Forgeries are detectable. If you examine what it would take to successfully pull that off, it would require quite a bit of effort. Once you accept something like this is possible then there are no rules.

You could say the Civil War never happened.

After all, all the people who participated in the civil war are dead. To accept that particular theory would mean to give up any certainty whatsoever about history.

Donna V. Jones, Associate Professor in English: That’s a conspiracy theory that is sort of based on the fact that the information we have is not artifactual as in concrete, which in that case would put all history into question because how we come to know what happened through the past is though chronicles of some sort. Yes, they’re sketchy. But honestly, I don’t have a dog in this race in terms of early Byzantine history. I just like the name Pope Sylvester II because there’s also a disco singer named Sylvester.

ZOO HYPOTHESIS Given the seemingly infinite size and age of our universe and those nearest it, it is plausible that extraterrestrial life of some form exists somewhere other than Earth. The possible time difference between the emergence of these alien civilizations and our own could be extremely large. This theory suggests that aliens have already come in contact with the human race, and that our planet has long been their zoo. Some supporters of this theory have even begun to suspect that the moon is nothing more than an alien viewing platform.

they’d have to invest that much. I mean honestly, if they wanted us to be entertainment they’d just have to get cable. Japanese gameshows alone would be infinitely amusing for alien species. That type of sweat equity of living in the moon just to watch us—it’s silly. Why would you do that? You could use somebody else’s Netflix.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy: In my experience, the only aliens from another planet I’ve come in contact with are Republican members of Congress.

Donna V. Jones, Associate Professor in But they don’t seem to be a more advanced English: Oh, well that’s funny. I don’t think civilization.

CHEMTR AIL CONTROL This theory suggests that airplane contrails are more calculated than coincidental and more corrupt than creative. Perhaps these seemingly innocent cloud covers are chemical trails purposefully distributed by the government for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to control of health and brain development, biological terrorism, or weather altering technology.

something is false does not make it true. That fact that you don’t know something is true does not make it false. It just simply means that you don’t know.

Darren Zook, Lecturer in Political Science and International & Area Studies: Considering that contrails like that show up all around the world, every single government in the world would have to be in on this. It’s Paul N. Hilfinger, Associate Professor in a classic conspiracy theory. It can be neither EECS and Computer Science: A realistic definitively proven nor disproven so there’s knowledge of human psychology suggests that always going to be true believers. Quite you aren’t going to be able to get a huge group frankly if they had chemical trails in the sky I of people to remain absolutely silent about also think they could put them on the ground what is really probably horrifying. There’s an and make people go places they want them to old term that’s relevant: the ad Ignorantiam go or behave in strange ways, and nobody’s fallacy, the fallacy from ignorance. Ignorance talking about that. is not knowledge. That fact that you don’t know

M E R M A I D EVOLUTION Around seven million years ago, human communities flocked to the coastline where resources were abound. However, around 6.5 million years ago, extensive flooding ravaged these villages, pressuring inhabitants to retreat.

But what if, instead of running, some chose to stay and adapt to the new conditions, evolving into the mermaids and mermen of legend? This theory suggests that the modern human may be the mixed offspring from a reunion of hominids and merpeople, resulting in webbed fingers and toes, the ability to hold our breath longer than any other land mammal, significantly less hair than the last hominid, and a layer of fat insulation that is proportional to other marine mammals.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy: I evolved from Hobbits.

I’ve never had a chance to meet a mermaid although I have looked extensively. An interesting but improbable theory.

Darren Zook, Lecturer in Political Science and International & Area Studies: I’m surprised nobody at Berkeley has shut down this myth because we call the men mermen and the women mermaids. If we refer to people as men and maids we get in trouble really quickly. Anyway, I do not think we are living in a world in which we possibly descended from merpeople.

Check out “2 x 4 UNCUT” online at calibermag.org to see more professor responses.

the second

ANALOG REVIVAL THE CONTEMPORARY STATE OF AN OUTDATED MUSIC FORMAT

T

he advent of affordable compact disks in the early 2000s removed the necessity for cassette tapes, which, until recently, were reduced to mere hipster home decor or those things that used to go where your car’s AUX adapter now plugs into. This is mostly due to the numerous advantages the digital format gave us: near-perfect sound reproduction, the ability to easily choose which track comes next, automatic skip and playfrom-start options, and, most importantly, CD players are far less prone to destroying your media.

But those magnetic relics of the past are experiencing a rather unexpected comeback. A quick check on music websites like Bandcamp will reveal cassettes are in vogue, with more and more tape labels popping up and many artists ditching their digital workstation for an outdated four-channel cassette recorder. From the gritty saturation of tape sound to the clunkiness of analog music gear, the spools of the past are back with a vengeance, proving the value of owning a physical copy of music has not faded away unlike other 20th century staples.

Vinyl, another outdated medium, saw a similar recent resurrection in popularity. Yet despite this, old-school records are not always the best route for smaller bands hoping to release a first album. Vinyl is pricey to produce and normally ordered in mass quantities. Though this isn’t an issue for artists with

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millions of fans like Taylor Swift or Daft Punk, the typical bedroom artist may not have the necessary funds to create vinyl records nor the fan base necessary to make the time and monetary investment worth it. Pressing plants have been overbooked as of late, generally taking months for small groups to get their shipment.

Cassettes, on the other hand, are relatively inexpensive to produce. An artist can order 300 tapes to be professionally dubbed, packaged, labeled, and shrink-wrapped for under $2 per tape from pressing websites like duplication.ca, compared to over $9 per 12” record with similar amenities from the same website, and other vinyl pressing plants. And unlike vinyl, the minimum order quantity for tapes is usually a bit more flexible. There is no minimum for the amount of professionally produced cassettes that can be ordered at once, while the lowest minimum order amount for vinyl from any pressing plant is often between 100 to 500 units. This lower price per unit cost is also a win for the consumer—the starting price for a cassette averages about $5, much more affordable than the $12, or more commonly $20, starting point for vinyl. If the entry costs of cassettes are deemed too high by an artist, they could also opt to recycle old cassettes, which are easily found at garage sales or thrift stores and can be recorded over at no cost, bringing the

theoretical cost of manufacture down to nearly $0, a price point rivaled only by non-physical digital mediums like mp3s. This method also allows the artist to dub their own work, cutting out any time constraints set by manufacturing plants.

Like records, the new advent of tape did not just bring back a soulless white chunk of plastic stored in a desolate black tomb; they have become miniature pieces of art. For instance, the traditional j-card, the small insert placed in the jewel case of the tapes packaging, previously mass printed with a measly album cover, has become an individualized canvas, with many artists making unique paintings out of every card.

The cassette itself has had a visual upgrade as well. Many blank cassette distributors have begun making countless varieties of colors, from neon transparent, various glitter patterns, to even metal cassettes. It’s also no longer uncommon for bands to take a more DIY route, such as reclaiming old cassettes and painting over them to create something new.

Artists sometimes choose to include more in the packaging, ranging from hand-written notes and poems to sea shells, flowers, and even, in the case of Whatever Dad’s release, 100% Take Home! + Grade Pending from Mt. Home Arts, a stick of butter.

Even more recently, cassettes have spanned past the independent band scene and have been adopted by various types of labels. Many large, independent record companies show their full support of the format, one example being Burger Records. Other labels, such as Orchid Tapes, have decided to drop the “record” title entirely, going with the “tape” suffix instead.

The independent record company’s mass adoption of the cassette format marked a turning point in the validation of this revival. According to the National Audio Company, the largest cassette manufacturer in the United States, cassette sales rose 20% between 2014 and 2015 alone. Recently, the Japanese electronics manufacturer Teac/ Tascam made the announcement that they are bringing tape machines back into production due to recent demand. The top-selling release on Record Store Day in 2015 was not a record, but a cassette. One organization in the UK even started Cassette Store Day in 2013, a celebration of the format that has grown to span five countries—its most recent edition including releases from labels like Warner Bros., Red Bull Records, and Rough Trade, and bands such as Green Day, Alex G, and Method Man. On the distribution side, retail giant Urban Outfitters now stocks cassettes at certain locations, including nearby San Francisco. Like most items at the retail chain, Urban Outfitters’ cassettes run on the expensive

side, but worth it if you’re looking for releases from chart topping bands and labels like Sub Pop, Atlantic, and Polyvinyl. You can even get your Justin Beiber fix via cassette at the store.

One of the largest influencers of the explosion of vinyl sales, Urban Outfitters frequently comes in at number two for most records sold, second to the online megastore, Amazon. Unsurprisingly, Urban Outfitters took an aggressive approach to Cassette Store Day as well by stocking shelves with free mixtapes for the taking.

However, the re-commercialization that resurrected the analog format has left a sour taste in some fans’ mouths. The announcement of the tape sale by Urban Outfitters stirred up a heavy bout of criticism, with many arguing the company’s high prices will eventually push the smaller groups out of the scene. The days of the corner record store stocked with local releases have slowly deteriorated, giving more shelf space to major corporate labels. A safe haven for these bands has always been in the cassette sections, shelves that store owners are always looking to spice up with new albums. If the push by major labels is successful, and cassettes make a full-fledged comeback with corporate backing, small bands could again lose their advantageous niche.

There will always be bands releasing tapes in a do-ityourself fashion, but with major companies hopping on, could the cassette be propelled to the main stage? Some artists have already moved on to the 8-track, and more curiously, floppy disks, seeing the cassette market already void of its magic.

While each “revival” has its own kinks to work out, the cassette seems to have comfortably found its place back on the shelves, for now at least. words by BENNETT SHAEFFER photo by ANOUSH RAZAVIAN

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Millennium Restaurant moves to Oakland

FINE VEGAN EATS FIND A NEW HOME IN ROCKRIDGE

F

our months after the restaurant’s opening in Oakland, a dedicated crowd gathered outside Millennium in anticipation of Sunday brunch. Around 10:30 a.m., the group of eaters lining College Ave. began to make their way inside, grabbing hold of the burnished metal asparagus and carrot door handles. From the entrance to the menu, to dine in this restaurant means to fully embrace fruits and veggies.

Millennium served exclusively vegan dishes for over 20 years in San Francisco, but relocated in June 2015 to its new location near the Rockridge BART station. The name reveals a lot about the space, whether that be a nod to its birth era or the very “millennial” population that often frequents its grounds.

On the morning I visited, diners of all ages and group sizes filed into Millennium’s wood-paneled dining space. A friend and I were shown to a generously cushioned booth near the window and groups were soon dispersed throughout the restaurant’s high-capacity indoor and outdoor dining space.

The brunch beverage menu was expensive, with items such as a cacao cooler and an apple spice latte. A mixologist was already hard at work behind a bar adorned with seasonal squash.

The cacao cooler was a light combination of mint leaves and bitter chocolate, while the apple latte was rich with coffee but fruity as well. Next came a round of sourdough beignets fried to a fluffy yet crispy perfection that, in all of its cinnamon sugardipped glory, drew the attention of our neighbors at the table to

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5912 College Ave | (510) 735-9459

our right. “Oh, what are those called?” they asked excitedly as they inspected our order, which felt almost too decadent to be eaten before noon.

Quiet xylophonic tones rang in the background as my brunch partner and I contemplated entree options. After serious consideration, I ordered “The Alice,” a sandwich that arrived with an unusual peppery bread topping. One bite in and it became clear I was mistaken—that’s not pepper, it’s okra! An unconventional answer to the standard pickle.

The rest of the meal was as unusual and surprisingly delicious as its introduction. The sandwich was stuffed with crunchy, breaded tofu, a sweet cabbage slaw, and a savory spread. The sandwich itself was substantial owing to a thick, crispy bread, but the side of black eyed peas introduced tangier, lighter flavors. My friend was equally satisfied with her mushroom grits, a stew-like dish that combined smoked portabella mushrooms with tomatoes and bitter greens.

Whether a diner’s preference is sweets, fresh seasonal vegetables, or tasty drinks, Millennium has offerings for everyone. The restaurant serves as proof that vegan dining isn’t just for vegans; it’s for anyone interested in experiencing the unique flavors of an array of fruits, vegetables, and grains. words by RAINE ROBICHAUD photo by ADITI RAGHUNATH

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