2010 Winter Inside Out
Econo-Art
Berkeley Art Museum adopts a new building plan for a leaner time. Berkeley isn’t often linked with the likes of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or Dubai in the press or public imagination. But for an evanescent, excitable moment earlier this decade, the University, its art museum, and the Berkeley community were caught up in a very […]
What’s Eating You
The recent uproar over bed bugs barely scratches the surface. Bugs have always been in our houses and on our persons. Truly, the arthropods shall inherit the earth. Or they would inherit it, if they weren’t already running the show—insects outnumber us 200 million to 1. Ants alone may account for as much as one third […]
The Heart of the Matter
Online or off, couples still have to click. She’s hurrying down a city street in an evening dress, high heels clicking. She’s nervous but excited—we know this because we’re watching her in an ad for an online dating site. Opening the door to a restaurant, she pauses, which can only mean …. Look, he’s there at […]
Pas de Deux
Philosopher Alva Noë choreographs the mind. On a stage in Frankfurt-am-Main, Alva Noë is pacing. Back and forth, talking about … dogs, but we don’t know why. The more he says, the stranger the experience seems. The yellow dog is up. The blue dog is down! The red dog is up. The green dog is down. […]
Beyond Wine and Chocolate
Scharffenberger leads a campaign to make tofu cool. John Scharffenberger’s taste buds have been good to him. They guided him to success in his premium chocolate and sparkling wine companies, which he has since sold for millions. Scharffenberger established a U.S. audience for these gourmet goods in what had previously been a European-dominated luxury market. Today, […]
Orchestrating Excellence
The Vienna Philharmonic’s thrilling residency. The very mention of the Vienna Philharmonic makes many music lovers’ hearts beat faster. It’s the orchestra that Gustav Mahler conducted for three years. It premiered Brahms’s Second Symphony, and created the sound that Leonard Bernstein crafted into some of his finest Mahler recordings. The orchestra’s silken strings; unique Viennese woodwinds, […]
Close Enough for Jazz
Joshua Redman at home in Berkeley. Joshua Redman is a living refutation of Thomas Wolfe’s oft-repeated truism that you can’t go home again. After a decade of fame and musical adventures in the Big Apple, the Berkeley-raised saxophonist returned to the East Bay, where he’s continued to flourish on and off the bandstand. Even in the […]
Out of the Gate
An Unusual Protest A dozen friends and I sat around an apartment on Piedmont Avenue, celebrating the end of our grueling first term as graduate students at Berkeley in 1967. Amid the wine and merriment, we were listening to a Beethoven piano concerto on the radio. “Say,” I remarked, “Saturday is Beethoven’s birthday.” Peter Miller added, […]
5 Questions for: Syd Field ’60
Hollywood screenwriting guru and author of Screenplay 1. You met and worked with the great French director Jean Renoir while at Berkeley. How did that encounter affect your life? Syd Field: When I was at Berkeley in the ’60s, Renoir was an artist-in-residence and had readings for the world premiere of his play Carola. I […]
Water Safety
A Berkeley student brings clean water technology back home. Fermin Reygadas, M.S. ’07, left Mexico to study physics at Berkeley. But his desire to work on humanity’s most basic problems led him back to his hometown of La Paz, where he now teaches ranchers to use a simple device called the UV-Tube to disinfect their drinking […]
No Joy in Berkeley
The day the axe fell at Cal Athletics. The news was delivered at a press conference in September. Reading from a statement, Chancellor Birgeneau announced that at the end of this academic year men’s and women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, and men’s baseball would no longer represent the University in intercollegiate competition. Additionally, men’s rubgy, historically Cal’s […]
Killer App
A Berkeley researcher weighs in on cell phones and cancer. Update: In the fall of 2014, the Berkeley City Council is considering an ordinance that would make it the only city in the nation to require cell phone warning stickers. We explore whether, based on the latest science, the proposal is a proper precaution, or paranoia, […]
Interview with Coach Tim McNeill, Cal Men’s Gymnastics
View coach profile California magazine: You and I first talked before the 2008 Olympics. You had just graduated, I remember, and even then we discussed the tenuous future of collegiate men’s gymnastics. Tim McNeill: It’s always an issue, just based on how few teams are left. CM: When you started in the sport, how many […]
Interview with Coach Theresa Sherry, Cal Women’s Lacrosse
View coach profile California Magazine: To start, maybe you can rewind the tape and tell me how you first learned that your team was being cut. Theresa Sherry: Well, we knew that as of this spring everything was on the table in terms of cutting sports, laying people off. You know, they have prettier words […]
Interview with Coach Jack Clark, Cal Men’s Rugby
View coach profile California Magazine: At the press conference announcing the cuts, you were clearly unhappy. But I have to confess that my first thought was, “Jack Clark should probably feel lucky. The other teams were eliminated. Rugby’s just been reclassified.” JC: Hey, listen: I appreciate that. And you’re not the first person who has […]
Interview with Coach David Esquer, Cal Men’s Baseball
View coach profile California magazine: Did you see this cut coming? David Esquer: There were warnings that there could be cuts, but we all saw the chancellor’s committee report and their recommendations were to not cut sports and to try to make it work. That being said, I know Sandy Barbour said a number of […]
Interview with Coach Cari DuBois, Cal Women’s Gymnastics
View coach profile California magazine: These cuts had been mulled over for some time and the administration was clear that any program that wasn’t necessary to Pac-10 membership was a candidate for elimination. But did you take the possibility of your team getting cut seriously? CD: I did take it very seriously until the chancellor’s […]
Getting the Lead Out
Researchers track an outbreak of lead poisoning to a surprising source. It started in 1994 with alarming levels of lead showing up in some Monterey County kids. Lead robs the body of iron and calcium—nutrients crucial to child development. The poisoning triggers progressive neurological damage, and as lead levels rise, a child’s IQ plummets. Looking for […]
Growing Success
A Berkeley professor studies the lasting impact of kindergarten. Kindergarten may seem like fun and games, but new research suggests that what we learn in these early years may have a lasting effect. Berkeley economics professor and 2010 MacArthur Fellow Emmanuel Saez and a team of researchers identified a link between students’ kindergarten classroom experience and […]
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