SUMMER MINI-ISSUE 2012
. . . E D I S N I y
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S Y O B R O TOYS Fdemics Tracka
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A LETTER TO OUR READERS Dear Readers, As Berkeley students, we are creatures of habit. Our schedules have been branded in our heads by the entity that it Tele-Bears- we know exactly where to go and when. Our syllabi dictates our routine. But then summer rolls around, and our four months of alarm clocks and reminder notes disappear. Summer is anything but routinesummer is a rebellion from routine. Sure we might have a 9-5 internship or a 6 week summer class- but even these stray away from our normalness. Summer is a chance to take a class you wouldn’t, volunteer somewhere you didn’t have time to before, take that long awaited trip, finish that bucket list. It is a time to rejuvenate, explore and discover. Here at Caliber we too have stepped out of the routine of the semester. Gone are Tuesday night meetings, magazine rack filling, weekly editing sessions and daily love column advice. Here are the summer months where Caliber is able to explore and be creative with new ways to captivate our readers. With 6 issues under our belt (look for issue 6 coming in Fall!), it was time to expand- introducing our .5 series, supplement issues to tide over both our writing crazy staff and avid readers. Our first Summer Mini-Issue is filled with the usual Caliber spunk, a bit of risque, some dares from us to you, and above all articles to entertain you during your routine-less summer. So Grab some lemonade, embrace your afternoon sans planners, and enjoy! Griffin Cassara President
While Caliber is a part of the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley, the content of the magazine does not reflect the opinion of the ASUC in any way.
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Berkeley Pop Culture
Pets in Berkeley
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How to Approach Girls 101
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Toys for Boys
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Trackademics
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Campus / Entertainment
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Robert Reich on Late Night with Conan O’Brien; Lonely Island group members Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg, and Akiva Schaffer; Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and George Smoot on The Big Bang Theory; Green Day performing at 924 Gilman; the Counting Crows performing in Lower Sproul
BERKELEY IN POP CULTURE by Briana Flin
IT’S COMMON KNOWLEDGE that Berkeley is famous for its brilliance, academic rigor and Nobel Prize-winning professors. Our contributions to society span from helping a paraplegic student walk at commencement to the invention of the nuclear bomb. But what is less widely known about our city and campus is our imprint on popular culture. Berkeley has been the setting for a number of famous and not-so-famous films, novels and television shows. The city has birthed a number of popular bands and actors. Our professors have been on sitcoms and popular talk shows, and our alumni have gone on to create comic strips, write children’s books and become famous musicians and actors. Cal is the college-of-choice for a myriad of fictional characters. And, of course, there’s always the sporadic mention of Berkeley here and there in songs and on television. If you’ve ever been curious about the numerous ways in which our popular city and campus have appeared in all things popular culture, read on.
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Caliber Magazine / Summer 2012
Campus / Entertainment
BORN/BRED Ben Affleck: Though most people associate him with all things Boston, Ben Affleck’s birthplace is actually our very own Berkeley, California. Nicole Richie: It’s true! Paris Hilton’s former best friend and co-star of The Simple Life was born here in Berkeley.
PROFESSORS ON TV Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on Late Night with Conan O’Brien If you’ve taken Professor Robert Reich’s “Wealth and Poverty” class, you know that this man has a sense of humor. If not, watch his hysterical sketch in a 2008 episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, in which he and Conan parody detective-dramas, and our beloved professor gets positively goofy. He runs around with a giant gun, beats up villains who are attacking Conan, promises to make an attractive woman his “undersecretary” in exchange for information, nearly kills a bad guy with a bat, and tells another miscreant that he indeed has the right to be Reich’s bitch. Criminals cower in fear of his power as the Former Secretary of Labor. His sense of humor about his height comes through in this sketch, too, as the brunt of the joke comes from the height difference between Reich (4’10”) and Conan (6’4”). Watching this sketch should make us proud to have a professor at our university who is so downright hilarious. George Smoot on The Big Bang Theory The Big Bang Theory is one of the geekiest sitcoms on television, with constant allusions to science— particularly physics. So, it makes sense that our very own Nobel Prize-winning physicist George Smoot is a big fan of the show. He loves it so much, in fact, that he wrote its producers to ask to be featured in an episode, which ended up involving the four main characters travelling to San Francisco by train to attend a conference where George Smoot is the keynote speaker. Smoot makes a cameo appearance near the end of the show and wins the label of a diva after he completely rejects Sheldon’s research. Having one of our very own Nobel Prize-winning professors featured so prominently in a work of popular cul-
Adam Duritz/Counting Crows: Adam Duritz, a long-time Berkeley resident and lead singer of Counting Crows, helped form the band in 1991. The band performed many of its first gigs in the Berkeley area. Duritz was an English major at Cal until he dropped out. In multiple interviews and on stage, Duritz has expressed his die-hard fandom for Cal football. The Pack: This hip-hop quartet is native to Berkeley, with Lil’ Uno and Stunnaman having attended Berkeley High School. Though the group’s fame soared with their hit single “Vans,” The Pack hasn’t forgotten its Berkeley roots. In the recently released music video for their newest single “Wolfpack Party,” Stunnaman reps his native town with lots and lots of Cal gear. Green Day: Believe it or not, Green Day got its start right here in Berkeley, California. The band played its first show under the name Sweet Children in 1988 at 924 Gilman, a Berkeley venue devoted to a do-it-yourself ethical code. Within a few years of this first gig, the band soared to fame. And although Green Day was banned from playing in the venue in 1993 after signing to a major label (a big DIY no-no), their side project Pinhead Gunpowder has since played at the venue, and the band has donated money to help keep the struggling venue alive. Lonely Island: This SNL comedy/hiphop trio was born right here in Berkeley. Its three members (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) first met at Willard Middle School and, starting with “Lazy Sunday,” went on to produce a number of wildly popular (and pretty darn hilarious) music video parodies.
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Campus / Entertainment
SET IN BERKELEY RANDOM CAMEOS Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cloudy” off of their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album mentions Berkeley in its lyrics. James Franco in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes wears a Cal t-shirt and supposedly graduated from Cal.
Harold and Maude: Whether you love this movie or hate it, the picnic scene where the young Harold tells the nearly-eighty-year-old Maude that she is beautiful was filmed near the Ashby Avenue exit off of I-80. Both High Fidelity and The Kite Runner have scenes that were filmed in Berkeley’s Cesar E. Chavez Park by the marina, home to our famous kite festival. In an Arrested Development episode, Oscar, the pothead hippie twin of patriarch George Bluth, makes an annual attempt to walk the 420 (get it?) miles from Newport Beach to Berkeley, California. He never makes it past UC Irvine.
Patch Adams features LeConte Hall and other UC Berkeley locations in its classroom scenes. The football scenes in the classic silent comedy The Freshman were shot at the newly built Memorial Stadium, between the first and second quarters of a Cal game in 1924. Go Bears!
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Caliber Magazine / Summer 2012
The Graduate (1967) The Graduate has to be one of Berkeley’s proudest pop culture accomplishments, providing glimpses of our campus and city in all its 1960s glory. Its main character, Benjamin Braddox (Dustin Hoffman), travels to our city to essentially stalk his love interest, a Cal student named Elaine Robinson (Katherine Ross). He watches her walk down Sproul Plaza amid students wearing shift dresses and other sixties-style garb. As she crosses Telegraph Avenue, he sits at Caffé Mediterraneum and looks out the window at an antiquated Moe’s Bookstore. (If you visit Moe’s or Café Med today, you’ll see that both businesses have this screenshot decorating their walls.) Benjamin even boards a super funky, ancient AC Transit bus to follow her to the San Francisco Zoo. And if you look closely, you can even see brief shots of Theta Delta Chi, Unit 1 and Unit 3!. If you’re curious about how Berkeley looked in its heyday, this is the film to watch. Jack Kerouac—The Dharma Bums (1958) Much of the beginning of this beat-generation novel takes place in Berkeley, the destination of the novel’s roaming protagonist, Ray Smith. Kerouac’s descriptions of Berkeley and the Cal campus in this novel range from the romantic to the less-than-flattering. Kerouac gives us enchanting portray-
als of the Campanile in this work, although he does call Cal one of the “grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity.” But hey, any press is good press, right?
Parenthood Although the majority of this NBC dramedy is filmed in southern California, Berkeley is the pivotal place where all the members of the enormous Braverman family reunite. Though its “Berkeleyness” is disputed by native Berkeleyans who argue that the show is too corporate-focused, the show does manage to capture at least some of the Berkeley spirit: characters ingest marijuana (accidentally, but in lollipop form no less); one character is based on the artistic director of the Berkeley Repertory theater; Berkeley street names are mentioned; and characters chow down at Oscar’s Hot Dogs on Shattuck. Parenthood also features a few allusions to the Berkeley campus. The opening credits prominently display the Campanile in its time-lapsed view of Berkeley, while in one episode, the main character Sarah and her daughter Amber stroll in front of a weird mixture of Wheeler Hall and Sproul Plaza. In later episodes, Amber applies to and gets rejected from Cal. Though this show doesn’t always get everything right about our city and school, it is always entertaining to see how they decide to portray us.
Campus / Entertainment
FAMOUS ALUMNI John Cho: Best known for his role as Harold in the Harold and Kumar films, John Cho graduated from Cal in 1996, with a B.A. in English. His first professional performance as an actor was on the stage of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Chris Pine: Playing Kirk in the 2009 film version of Star Trek, this hunky star graduated from Berkeley in 2002, having majored in English. Beverly Cleary: The author of the beloved Ramona children’s book series graduated from Cal way back in 1938, with a degree in English. (P.S. One residence hall in Unit 3 is named after her.) Frank Warren of Post Secret: Warren is a Berkeley graduate who founded the Post Secret website, in which he posts anonymous secrets that people mail to him on postcards. Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind: Even with ADHD and dyslexia, this singer/songwriter managed to graduate as the valedictorian of his class here at Cal, with a B.A. in English. William Hung: This famed American Idol star was once a civil engineering student at Berkeley, as well as the President of the Hall Association and Publicity Director at Clark Kerr, until he dropped out to pursue his music career. Gregory Peck: Cal is the alma mater of this Oscar-winning movie star, and the place where he first gained an interest in acting. After switching his focus from pre-med to English, Peck graduated in 1942 and went on to
FICTIONAL STUDENTS Cristina Yang of Grey’s Anatomy, portrayed by Sandra Oh, has a Ph.D in biochemistry from Berkeley, a decent representation of what some might call the typical Berkeley overachiever. In High School Musical 3, Troy (Zac Efron) decides to go to Berkeley when he graduates, while his high school sweetheart, Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgins) goes to Stanford (…and the rivalry continues.) The character Mary Albright (Jane Curtin) from Third Rock from the Sun reveals that she had some wild times as a Berkeley student in the hilariously named episode “The Dicks, They Are A-Changin”. In Legally Blonde, one of Elle’s (Reese Witherspoon) fellow classmates, Enid Wexler (Meredith Scott Lynn) has a Ph.D in women’s studies from Cal, with an emphasis in the history of combat. So Berkeley. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Sproul Plaza in The Graduate; NBC show Parenthood; Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums book cover; Beverly Cleary; Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird; Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) from Grey’s Anatomy; Chris Pine as Captain Kirk in Star Trek
OCD detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), of the TV series Monk, graduated from Berkeley, where he earned the nickname “Captain Cool” by spending every weekend defrosting his refrigerator. The O.C.’s Sandy and Kirsten Cohen are both Cal graduates. Sandy (Peter Gallagher) went to Boalt School of Law and by the end of the show, becomes a professor. Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) earned a degree in art history. In the course of the show, Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) also decides to attend UC Berkeley and eventually graduates in the show’s finale. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) of the television show 24, supposedly got his masters in “Criminology and Law” at Cal, even though that degree doesn’t actually exist here.
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Lifestyle
Pets BERKELEY
by Gabby Fastigi
REMEMBER WHEN YOU were that giddy five-year-old who tenaciously pestered mom and dad for a furry friend or persistently asked for a puppy or kitten on every single Christmas list to no avail? I’m sure many of us were greeted by the usual caveat that when we are adults and out of the house, we can have as many pets as our hearts desire. But despite the fact that we have now met this condition, many students are wary of owning a pet in college, and understandably so. The life of a Berkeley student is filled with many obligations—adding a pet may only add to your stress. However, if you choose a pet that is the right fit for you and your living situation, owning a pet is manageable, and the benefit of companionship far outweighs the responsibilities it entails, according to students who own pets at Berkeley. Let’s explore the reasons why you should follow through with your childhood dream and perhaps adopt a Fido or Fluffy of your own.
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Lifestyle
FOR THE NONCOMMITTAL. One of the major concerns for potential pet owners is the amount of time and attention that pets require. However, according to several student pet owners, most pets are not too needy. As sophomore Josh Van Bourg, owner of a malamute and husky mix named Koda informs us, “I take him out for about two hours a day, and besides that, I get a lot of help. My friend has a dog too, and she walks him a lot, and a few guys in Pi Kappa Alpha take him on runs or play with him out front.” If you have a group of friends that can help you with pet care, there will be hardly any added stress to your daily routine. Antonella Olivari, a sophomore and owner of a Labrador, says that caring for a pet is easier because her boyfriend helps her a lot. Besides daily feeding, pets really only require exercise, which can be fun if you go for walks, hike or play ball on Memorial Glade. Andrew MacDonald, a senior, adds that caring for his cats “is fairly low-key.” For him, all he needs to do is “basically leave food and water out for them and clean the litter.” As long as you schedule some time in your day, you should be able to balance a pet, school and extracurriculars. As a junior, Eden Amans owns a Border Collie and Labrador mix named Oreo, noting, “It’s prioritizing and time management. He still needs to go out even during finals week or welcome week or when I’m sick. To motivate me, I realize that it’s my responsibility and I am doing him a disservice if I don’t.”
FOR THE PENNY PINCHERS.
Another major concern regarding pet ownership is cost. Pets, like us humans, require food, checkups from the vet, and miscellaneous items such as cages and toys. Not to mention, pets themselves are not free. Adopting a kitten from the local Berkeley East Bay Humane Society costs 75 dollars, while adopting a puppy costs 100 dollars. Rodents and fish are less expensive and typically cost less than 20 dollars. For junior Hailey Parish, “Budgeting for my cat’s expenses— including food, water, litter and vet charges, has been the most challenging part for me as a broke college student, but having Jojo is worth it.” There are plenty of feasible options to avoid hefty vet costs, such as asking other pet owners for advice on simple pet troubles, or going to your local shelter or mobile clinic such as the one at Pet Food Express. JP Souza finds that maintaining upkeep as a freshman has been “very inexpensive” for his pet rat Gus. “I bought a bag of bedding and some food before break and it has lasted me a few months later,” he explains. Owning a pet does not necessarily mean having to break your bank.
FOR THOSE WITH CRAMPED QUARTERS.
Lack of space and fussy roommates or landlords can also provide a barrier to owning a pet for many students but there are ways to work around this problem. Souza, who keeps his pet rat in the dorms, says that “Gus was so small I snuck him in my coat pocket and I put his cage, bedding and toys in a suitcase and pretended they were my clothes when I came back from break.” He has yet to be discovered by his RA, and all of his floormates love Gus, often asking to play with him. Van Bourg adds, “It’s not in our bylaws that we can’t have a dog in the house, so owning Koda is fine.” Many apartments, however, do not allow pets or otherwise require an additional security deposit to pay for a pet, but “there are very animal friendly landlords in Berkeley,” says Olivari.
DEDICATION, COMMITMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY on the part of the owner (and at times, a few friends) can remedy many of the common concerns regarding pet ownership. Nevertheless, it is key to keep in mind that while owning a pet is fun, you are still responsible for taking care of a living creature. In the words of Van Bourg, “I just wouldn’t want to see too many college kids thinking that it was cool to get a pet and then not being able to give it what it needs to be happy.” At the end of the day, it’s all about compromise and the benefit of having a built-in companion. Your pet will love you no matter what, unconditionally in fact, and won’t care if you leave the light on until 4 a.m. to study. It is possible to have a pet in Berkeley. As college students, we’re pros at effective time management, and having a pet will improve your well-being more than looking at yet another UC Berkeley meme. Malyn finds that “living on your own is rough sometimes, and I thought having a little companion would make things better for me—it does. Who is going to be there when you don’t want to work on a paper and your roommate is chatting that long-distance boyfriend or girlfriend? Your pet. Who is going to cuddle up with you after a long day and greet you with kisses as if they are actually happy to see you? Your pet.”
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Love & Sex
Girls
HOW TO APPROACH THEM. by Mark Alshak
Girls are a tricky species. No amount of scientific research will ever be able to crack the code that we know as the opposite sex. And that especially goes for me, an average guy that does his best in social situations, because I don’t really know what I’m doing either. But that doesn’t mean a little experimenting wouldn’t help me figure some things out. What follows are my own experiments on interacting with girls. And no matter what I did, luck played a role in the small things that helped build up to the bigger events. The following are my results:
Experiment: Asking a random girl to play beer pong (or really any drinking game that involves some interaction with her). Observations: Usually at a party when I don’t know many people, I find one of my guy friends and we ask some girls to play beer pong. We either play together against them and try and tease them as we hopefully beat them, or play guy-girl against each other and get some good interactions with them. I’ve been doing this strategy since taking on this article and it has worked wonderfully, especially when we win. There’s nothing like bonding over winning. Conclusion: Success.
Experiment: Asking a random girl to take a shot with you. Observation: I tried this multiple times before I realized something—it is extremely creepy when a random guy is walking up to you and asking you to drink. Even though mostly everyone at a party is there for the same goal—to have fun—having a random guy walk up to you and asking you to drink comes across exactly opposite as what you want it to. However, the couple times that I have been the bartender, girls kept asking me to drink with them and they loved drinking with the bartender. Results: Failure, unless you’re the bartender. Experiment: Asking a girl you know to take a shot with you. Observation: There’s a giant difference between asking a random girl and a girl you know to take a shot with you. Anytime I have recently met a girl and need an icebreaker to interact with her, I usually just walk up to her and say something along the lines of, “Hey! How are you?” And after the initial friendly greeting, I ask her to take a shot with me. It’s an easy way to show that you’re interested in spending more than just a brief moment with her without coming off too strong. Conclusion: Success. Experiment: Saying a cheesy line. Observation: Now I’ve never been a believer in cheesy pick-up lines, but after
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watching some of my friends, I’ve found some faith in them— if the conditions are ideal. One time, my friend walked up to my friend at a party and looked at the tag on her shirt and said, “Hmm, just what I thought. Made in heaven.” My female friend was really confused and didn’t really know what was happening. She didn’t get it. It was pretty awkward and he walked away. However, if a pick-up line is easy enough to understand and cheesy enough to crack a smile, then that’s all the icebreaker you need to initiate a good conversation. WARNING: This is pretty difficult and I have had no success with it. Conclusion: Failure for me, success for others. Dependent on a lot of variables. Experiment: Walking up to one of your guy friends who’s talking to a group of girls. Observation: Sometimes I find myself at a party not sure exactly what to do, so I usually just walk up to one of my guy friends who is with people and try and meet them. However, sometimes my friends aren’t the best at introductions and integrating me into the conversation, so it doesn’t work. If it does work, I ask the group if they want to go play a game or do something else. It’s a good way to keep the interactions interesting and fun. Con clusion: Inconclusive, dependent on the friend variable.
Love & Sex
Even if I embarrass myself (and I do a lot), it’s okay because in the end, what really sticks are the friends that I get out of trying, not the ones that I didn’t by failing.
Experiment: Randomly dancing with a girl. Observation: I have always found it weird when guys don’t ask a girl to dance and just start grinding up on them. It works all the time for some of my friends, but I’m not comfortable enough to do it. I always ask a girl first to dance with her. However, this introduces the rejection variable into the equation. For me, it’s worth asking because then I can easily introduce myself and get to know a little bit about her before we dance. I usually like trying to make her laugh with my dance moves (which aren’t very good). Conclusion: Mixed results, dependent on the girl. Experiment: After a girl says no to you, continuing on asking. Observation: I have to admit, I felt really awkward and creepy for trying this. Multiple times. I basically knew what the result would be much before I tried this, but I had to do it… for science. Conclusion: So much failure. Experiment: Pretending to have a disagreement with a friend and walking up to at least a pair of girls and asking their opinion. Observation: I tried this one on accident and it actually worked beautifully. Even though the girls sided with my friend, which actually works better if your friend is a girl so you look even more less threatening, we got to speaking to the girls and after a little bit, we had already exchanged names and some personal information. I was lucky in that the topic was very mild—it had nothing to do with a heated topic, such as politics or religion. Stay away from those. Conclusion: Success. Experiment: Drunk texting a girl. Observation: These are a little harder to do on purpose, so I’ve just let my friends’
past experiences drive this. What I’ve found is that unless the girl already likes you, the girl will usually not like it. If she likes you, she’ll probably laugh unless what you say is too outrageous. Conclusion: Mostly failure with little success. Experiment: Asking a girl to study. Observation: I have done this more this semester and it’s worked really well. There were some people in my discussions and lectures that I thought were really cool and we would have random weekly interactions, but once I put in the effort to ask them to study with me, we met outside of class and started hanging out and we really became friends. It’s as simple as asking someone, “Hey, we should study sometime,” and actually following up on it. Conclusion: Success.
Experiment: Swearing a lot. Observation: I’ve realized that the more I swear, the more uncomfortable some girls get. Anything in moderation is fine, but there’s a fine line. At least with my experiences, girls don’t really like a guy who has to rely on swearing to round out their vocabulary. Conclusion: Failure. Experiment: Asking for her number. Observation: I’ve always had some trouble with this. I always felt awkward doing it for some reason. What I’ve learned through my experiments is that asking them at the right time is the most
important variable. I’ve started to do it in the middle of conversations and jokes when she’s happy and laughing— that is, when she’s much more willing to give it to me. Conclusion: Mixture of success and failure, but with correct timing, most likely a success. Experiment: Texting her a lot after initial contact. Observation: I tried this a couple times and realized there’s a range in-between barely texting her and texting her too much that girls usually prefer. I always make sure that I show a girl enough interest, but I try to refrain from seeming desperate or too into her. Texting her every day is too much—every other day is much more appropriate. If you think you’re annoying her, you probably are. Conclusion: Lots of failure, but I’ve had some few successes. What I’ve really learned through my few but effective experiments is that girls just like to have a good time. If you’re making her laugh and she’s smiling, then all is going to plan. It’s really as simple as that for the initial approach of girls. I honestly used to be really worried and hesitant to talk to girls, and largely I still really am, but I’ve also learned that I really don’t have much to lose. Even if I embarrass myself (and I do a lot), it’s okay because in the end, what really sticks are the friends that I get out of trying, not the ones that I didn’t by failing.
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Love & Sex
Boys Toys for
by Henry Huang
Toys are made for playing. Yet sex toys for male-bodied people are stigmatized and kept hush-hush. As Good Vibes employee Nancy put it, “There is no sex police—what you do with what you want is your business.” If there were a sex Gestapo, maybe we would better appreciate the luxury of the options we have in Berkeley for male sex toys. Good Vibrations in Berkeley is a bodily friendly, review-based store that only sells toys that pass online customer reviews. It sits between Dwight Way and Blake Street on San Pablo Avenue. Before walking into the store, student Prabhdeep Singh Kehal said, “I’m not touching anything,” for fear of hygienic issues. However, an employee by the name of Naomi later informed us that all displays are cleaned everyday. Good Vibes does not fit the mold of a sticky, sleazy sex shop. Instead it prides itself on being sustainable (to the best of its ability), body-friendly, allergen-aware, body-conscious and customer-oriented. Researching sex toys can be daunting for some people. Especially if you do not use phrases like “cock rings,” “penis pumps” or “dual-function vibrators” in your daily lingo. That’s why you drag your best friends to the sex toy store and make it an excursion—maybe have a picnic afterwards, or some coffee. “Hey Henry, wanna get sex toys and coffee?” Words of a true friend. To avoid making things long and hard, we have focused on four main sex toys to look into: masturbators, cock rings, dildos and vibrators, and the penis pump.
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A Look at Sex Toys in Berkeley for Male-Bodied People Masturbators: For those who want to fit in…
Cock rings: For those who finish first…
Maybe you’re comfortably lounging in your PJs and you abruptly gloss over a scintillating, partially pornographic picture on Tumblr. You then decide on turning your lonely Friday night into a night of heated passion with your right (or left) hand. But wait. Life could be 69 percent better with a masturbating sleeve, which creates more pleasurable sensations, reduces friction and lessens the need to re-lube. And in Berkeley convention, they’re sustainable—a lot of the options are reusable. Toy Model: Succu Dry (Fangbanging) Fleshlight
Better guys finish last (in some respects). And you can do it with so many options of cock rings: silicone, pirate-themed, vibrating, fang banger and many more. How do you even go about choosing? Well you can always coyly pretend you’re getting it for your partner and ask an employee, “If I want to give more pleasure to my partner, what would I get?” Or pick the cock ring that matches your outfit (gotta look dapper, right?). No matter the choice, you can get double the pleasure for you and your partner. Toy Model: Screaming O Vibrating Cock Ring
Dildos/Vibrators: For those who are more anal…
Penis Pump: For those who feel like they don’t measure up…
The prostate exists, even for the heterosexual male, and no sodomy law can stop you from some guilty pleasure. Quick tip, don’t have a stick up your ass when looking for sex toys—omitting options is basically sex-toy prejudice. Ask yourself, is it in you…to be adventurous today? Toy Model: Aneros Prostate Massager
The average college student probably won’t buy this. But maybe you’re not the average college student. Maybe you want to stick out from the pack. Just letting you know, the “effects” are temporary, including the ego boost. But good news, there’s eco-friendly options! Washable, reusable and sustainable—feel good about feeling good. Toy Model: Head Master Penis Pump
Entertainment
trackademicks In 2006, Trackademicks released an unofficial remix of E-40’s “Tell Me When to Go” that momentarily took over the hip-hop world and still probably resides in your iTunes library to this day. Since then, Trackademicks (real name Jason Valerio), along with the Honor Roll Crew, has been steadily producing his own strain of Bay Area hip-hop. >> by Kamyar Jarahzadeh
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Entertainment
With Trackademicks being both a producer and MC, it can be hard to keep up with his diverse output over the past few years. From coining new genre names to working on an ever-developing stream of releases, Trackademicks sat down with Caliber to talk about the past, present and future of the Honor Roll Crew. Q: Favorite Snack? A: Trader Joe’s Pita Chips and hummus Q: Snapbacks or Fitteds? A: I don’t wear hats, but I own a lot of fitteds. Q: Could you describe your schedule on a typical day? A: Morning, I wake up and go to the gym. When I’m in the gym, I write raps. So if I’m on the elliptical machine, I cannot get enough until I write a rap on my iPhone. Then I’ll come back here [to the studio] and work until late at night. Then around ten I go out—I go out a lot. You know, work hard, play hard. Really, studio, gym and party.
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Caliber Magazine / Summer 2012
Q: Early this year you released Cherry 2000, an all-instrumental EP. Can you say a little bit about the project? What inspired you to take on a project so different from most of the hip-hop coming out of the bay? A: It was part of this longer thing I wanted to do that was tentatively titled The Sex Tape, but I thought some people are not gonna get that, it might turn some people off. I wanted to make an instrumental project because I’m definitely known for my productions—I’m an artist myself. I rap, I do beats and remixes for other people, but people haven’t gotten an instrumental thing from me. It was supposed to be an hour-long version of that, but on a whim, I decided to do it in two days. And really, honestly, it was self-serving. You might be hanging with a girl and sometimes you won’t know what to put on. Not necessarily to divert attention from your conversation or whatever you’re trying to get done—but really, you just need something perfect in the background to be the lubrication for that whole situation. Q: How would you describe your own sound? A: So in terms of my music, I guess there’s
a few different components. Definitely the pretty chords and lush soundscapes, but it needs to have what we call a “mob,” or beat with a swing to it. Hyphy was a sped up version of that. Even records like Cherry 2000 have the mob going at certain points, like on the last two tracks. Q: A big genre name going around right now is “cloud rap,” and it could probably be used to describe a lot of your work. How do you feel about that name? A: I can see why they call it that, because it sounds like you’re high and in the clouds. I respect that, but a lot of people don’t like to box themselves into genres. I box myself in sometimes, but my box is a lot bigger than other people’s boxes. It’s funny you say “cloud rap,” I call a certain type of music I make “breeze mob.” I got a bunch of genres. I got “breeze mob,” “sophisti-slap,” “tender knock” and “champagne soul.” Everyone has their own way of describing what they do, and it’s kinda hard. Because if I say “I do hip-hop,” it’s like okay, do you sound like Raekwon or Run DMC or what? So I kinda like when people coin genres, especially when it’s pretty accurate.
Q: How was it dealing with the hyphy
Entertainment
movement if most of your music, as you claim, is more of a laidback temperament? A: Well it’s crazy—I like it all! I’m a fan of all types of music and I know my personal preference looks for certain characteristics in music. A lot of the stuff I like is very chord-based, a lot of minor ninth chords, just pretty symphonic and cinematic soundscapes. That’s my shit. I like that in the context of popular music. But in terms of hyphy, I grew up on Bay Area rap music. Everything from Mac Mall, Too $hort, E-40, JT the Bigga Figga. So I definitely have that in me. When hyphy came out I was already working with Mistah Fab, you know he was one of the biggest proponents of hyphy. I think I understood the energy. It was more than just the beats—it was a lifestyle. I think it gets trivialized. People who look from the outside say “Oh, stunna shades! Doors open! Ghost-riding whips!” But, that’s just a marketing thing. The music was real indicative of what was going on in the Bay Area. It was the first time where people talked about Bay music as a whole, not just “Oakland” specifically, or “Vallejo” specifically. Q: A lot of people talk about the Bay Area’s music scene as a place where a lot
of great things happen but just get stuck and never escape. Do you agree? What do you think it takes to escape a local scene? A: It’s a double-edged sword. If you have a limited scope, you’re only going to go so far. It’s about understanding what people want outside of where you are. If you look at a lot of other scenes, which I do because I like to travel, you realize the Bay Area is a lot better off than other places. Those scenes are nurtured by what you hear on the radio and Clear Channel, not making an original sound. In terms of breaking out of the Bay, it’s been happening a lot in the last year or two. I think it’s a lot less regional, and you have this internet-type situation going on right now. It’s been hard, though, because there is no industry infrastructure here. For a long time there was no place having shows for rappers. Now it’s changed because the music is diversifying—it can’t be denied now. On the Internet everyone is going to the same sites and everybody understands that now everyone is a brand. Look out for The Honor Roll Crew Mixtape and other releases before the year’s end. Find out more at www.trackademicks. com and www.honorrollcrew.com
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Issue 6 coming to all Cal Dining loca
tions Fall 2012
F E AT U R I N G Keenan Allen: Football, Family, and Pump Up Songs Refined Rebel: A Photo Editorial Food Around the World... in Berkeley More than Just Monogamy: Open Relationships Life of a Berkeley Squirrel AND MORE! Get it all in your FREE copy of Issue 6!