Poet and UC Berkeley alumna Alicia Zakon, even on the eve of publication, admits embarrassment is still the strongest emotion she has toward her own verse. It is very probable that readers will feel the same way. Read More…
Fighting games have notoriously hard learning curves. Unless you and a friend are willing to spend time learning complicated systems, mastering perfectly-timed button combinations and constantly practicing against one another for weeks, most fighting game matches devolve into button-mashing and hoping that cool moves happen randomly. But “Divekick” removes all Read More…
“Papers, Please” is a strange game in the absolute best sense of the word. It’s Soviet Union meets Berlin Wall, distinctly Slavic and decidedly communist. It’s tense and addictive. In the words of its creator, Lucas Pope, it’s a “dystopian document thriller.” “Papers, Please,” named for your character’s “catchphrase” of Read More…
Michael Bao’s friends call him Mikey, and on the weekends, they all play Mario games on the Wii. Bao, a second-year EECS major at Cal, is known for not being particularly good at Super Mario Bros. — but when it comes to making games, Bao’s friends turn to him for Read More…
On a boozy Berkeley Saturday, a group of friends huddle over a coffee table. One pulls out her iPhone, flips through a website and reads the prompt: “What’s Stanford’s oldest tradition?” The playing cards are dealt. A man in the back reveals his hand: “Playing hide-and-seek with a suggestive-looking zucchini.” Read More…
On the night of Mothership HackerMoms’ Halloween party, the entrance to the hackerspace on Adeline Street is blocked by a handmade wooden gate. A repurposed shipping pallet, complete with added hinges and metal pull-handles, serves as a barrier to stop the half-dozen young children there to participate in Halloween crafts Read More…
Maps showing where meat is slaughtered in Maryland, where barley for brewing beer is grown and where taco trucks travel in Oakland, among others, will soon be combined into a crowd-sourced, crowd-funded atlas, thanks to a UC Berkeley lecturer. Darin Jensen, co-editor of “Food: An Atlas” and a cartographer and Read More…
It’s fitting that folk artist Marissa Nadler’s fifth album is her first self-titled one. She recorded it on her own label, funded it with cash investments from fans using the Internet funding platform Kickstarter, and now owns all of the rights to her material. All it takes is a quick Read More…