California magazine blog

Living Dead

You may have heard about the continued, round-the-clock occupation of Wheeler Hall this week by University students (and probably some non-students as well) upset at the recent fee hike. They've declared it an "open university" and turned dead week (the week before finals) into "live week," featuring things like poetry readings, palm reading lessons, open mic performances, movie screenings, permaculture workshops, etc.. If you want more information about what the protesters are up to, including a schedule of events, visit the website -- that's right, there's a website -- liveweek.net. You can also read more at the Daily Cal and SFGate, which reports that University officials are taking a "wait-and-see approach" to events. Oh blah dee, oh blah dah....

Read all about it

Looking for a copy of Panorama, the new McSweeney's foray into newsprint? Click here for a map of vendor locations. You can also order copies here. If you've already got a copy, let us know what you think of it.

Live Lit

This evening from 5-6 at the Morrison Library, author Daniel Alarcón (War by Candlelight, Lost City Radio) will be reading from an essay he wrote for the journal Granta about book piracy in Peru. (Disclosure: Alarcón is related to this blogger by marriage.) The event is just the latest installment in the excellent series called "Story Hour at the Library," a monthly prose reading hosted by the Berkeley English department's Vikram Chandra and Melanie Abrams. Coming up in December, a reading by Mary Roach, author most recently of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. She will be followed in February by bestselling author and publishing phenom, Dave Eggers. The whole schedule can be found here, plus webcasting of earlier programs, including readings by Michael Chabon, ZZ Packer, and the late great Oakley Hall, whom we remembered in our pages here. 

What Ails Us?

On October 23, the campus will host a conference on the question of "What Ails California?" For now, here's former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School, Robert Reich, with his Top 10 list (with which everyone agrees). Do you?

Hide Your Wives and Daughters

Columbus sailed for India, found Salvador instead/ he shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead/ they got tb and typhoid and athletes foot, diptheria and the flu/ 'scuse me great nations comin through.

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, y'all!

An Anthropologist Walks into a Bar

The Hearst Anthropology Museum will be hosting a beer tasting fair tomorrow featuring -- get this suds lovers -- "moderated discussion on beer and brewing led by distinguished professors and renowned beer experts. Topics include the history of beer and its rituals, the process of beer brewing, and the traditions of beer consumption."

All together now: Go Beers!

Positively Bob Dylan

Dylan plays two shows at the Greek this weekend. For nostalgia's sake, here he is in San Francisco in 1965, at the notorious press conference.

Do-Gooders

You may have seen the Washington Monthly's 2009 college rankings recently. The magazine ranked schools according to "their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country)." Not surprisingly, perhaps, Cal came out on top.

The honor was well-timed with a series of articles that ran in our latest issue, in which we profiled people at Cal who are making a difference in the world by helping improve the lives of others -- people like Jacob Siegel-Boettner, who spearheads Project Rwanda, an effort to get improved bicycles to Rwandans who use the 2-wheeled vehicles for everything from delivering coffee beans to market to delivering pregnant mothers to the hospital.

Today, we hosted the first in our new California Live! lecture series and Jacob was on hand to talk about his project, and he brought along one of his custom-made "coffee bikes." Also speaking were: Mike Bishop, Director of Cal Corps Service Center; Laura Stachel, from the School of Public Health, who brings much-needed solar power to hospitals and maternity wards in northern Nigeria through a program called WE CARE Solar; and Caricia Catalani, a researcher and filmmaker who helped a poor New Orleans neighborhood document their post-Katrina plight.

With Homecoming fans on campus, we attracted a nice crowd of enthusiastic alums, many of whom gathered around the coffee bike afterward. All in all, a pretty successful event for folks whose work is deserving of greater attention.

Laugh while you can

It's April Fools Day, which apparently means the kickoff of National Humor Month. Who knew? It's also the day that the San Francisco Public Library showcases the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor, or SCOWAH. This year's exhibit is titled "The House of Nat," which is billed as a "flouncy romp through fashion history" as found in the collection.

We wrote about that collection and about Nat Schmulowitz himself, Class of 1910, in the latest issue. Mr. Schmulowitz was also a graduate of Hastings Law -- an attorney by vocation, a book collector by avocation. His metier was the acquisition of jest books and humor publications, all of which he eventually bequeathed to his hometown library. The volumes now number in the tens of thousands and SCOWAH rivals a similar collection in -- no joke -- Bulgaria as the largest of its kind in the world.

If you're in town, you should go check it out. What better way to celebrate National Humor Month? And let's face it: with the economic crisis growing more desperate by the day, we could all use a laugh.

How bad is it? Last week the stock ticker in Times Square just read, "What the f**k are you lookin' at?" It's gotten so bad that even the porn industry is asking for a bailout. And it used to be that when you opened a bank account, you got a free toaster. Now, when you buy a toaster, they offer you a bank.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Alvin's kids

The offices of California magazine are located in Alumni House, which is next door to Zellerbach Hall. It's a quiet month for neighbors at Cal Performances, except for the campers at AileyCamp who have lately been making some welcome noise as they prepare to take the stage for their annual dance performance. If you're not acquainted with Alvin Ailey's excellent dance camp, check out this video to learn more about it.