As Birgeneau’s tenure comes to a close, the campus has achieved excellence. But the success has come at a cost, to both UC Berkeley itself and the University of California as a whole. Read More…
“It is thrilling, in the most terrifying sort of way, to play the game of What If? What if Ari had been a few blocks closer to the finish line? What if Anne had been wandering outside the medical tent at the moment of the blast? Or what if she Read More…
It has long been established that everything sounds better with a British accent. An American might say he handwashes all of his sweater vests, but he will never tell the world about it with the suavity of, say, Daniel Craig. The same goes for American broadcasters. They may walk the Read More…
Memorial Stadium’s renovation — a $321 million, multiyear endeavor that yielded a gleaming, earthquake-proof temple of football — has long been short on cash. In the beginning, campus officials contended that, recession and common sense be damned, donors would pay for almost the entire cost by purchasing expensive season tickets. Read More…
My first experience with suicide occurred in fourth grade, when a boy three years my senior hanged himself in his family’s garage. I didn’t know him that well, so I didn’t go to the funeral, but I remember trailing one of his best friends — that super cool seventh-grader I Read More…
The most important dunk of Cal’s game against Oregon State wasn’t Richard Solomon’s two-handed flush 30 seconds into the first half, even though it jumpstarted Cal’s afternoon. It wasn’t Tyrone Wallace’s leaping left-handed baseline jam with a minute gone in the second half, either, however spectacularly vicious and emasculating it Read More…
Let’s call it The Shove. No, let’s call it Shovegate. Maybe Shovepocalypse. Wait, I’ve got it — Shovegatepocalypse. Yes, that seems appropriately hyperbolic. For those of you living under a rock — and even then, I doubt you cave dwellers have not heard about this; I am sure ESPN, Grantland, Read More…
For the uninitiated: Jazz, though underpinned by a malleable lattice of chords and rhythms, relies heavily on improvisation and invention. But originality is not always the prerequisite for inspiration. Often, performers call upon the genius of their forebears and insert snippets of past work into their performance. “Those are invoked,” Read More…
Firing a football coach costs a lot of money. For Cal, getting rid of Jeff Tedford three years before his contract ran out was going to set the university back $6.9 million. But on Feb. 4, the university and Tedford settled the remaining three years of his contract. The maximum Read More…
Prior to the Cal men’s basketball team’s game last week against Oregon State, our local pundits labeled it a “must-win” for Cal to make the NCAA tournament. Not only did the Bears beat the Beavers, they pulled off a thrilling upset of then-No. 10 Oregon two days later. But Crabbe Read More…
