With all apologies to (gag) Dave Matthews, my dream is to one day be watching ESPN late night, and be confronted with this:

“A must-have free DVD — the Cal Bears — capture the Bears incredible championship run with S-I’s famous writing and photography. Call now, free, with a paid subscription.”

I am so damn ready to overpay for a commemorative magazine and DVD.

So damn ready.

Podcasting + Blogging = Delightful Surprises.

My first year at Berkeley I lived on the 6th floor of Putnam Hall in Unit 1. A few rooms down lived a wiry, red-headed nut named Ethan Lindsey. He was taller than I was but probably half my weight, yet he talked as if everyone was 100 feet away and couldn’t hear him. He had an opinion on anything that would enter our floor’s discourse at the time, from Tribe breaking up to vacation planning in Belize to girls with big hands. He introduced me to Michael Antonioni by yelling at me for being a film major and not knowing who Antonioni was, and then promptly fell asleep while watching Blow-up in his room. He signed up to take a film seminar with me but only ended up flirting with the girls in the class on the few days he attended. When Wilkie moved in later in the year, he became Ethan’s roommate, and Ethan was one of the first to point out the buckles on Wilkie’s shoes and to start calling him “Wilma.” He never got up before noon.

Sunday’s NY Times had a great article on the changing demographics at Berkeley.

On how those changes are almost a bellwether for the rest of California, and the country.

It’s interesting in that it really focuses on the racial awareness students have these days, but also about how that awareness may be a important and effective way to fight prejudice. But the most striking, and significant, piece of the article is how the racial breakdown at schools like Berkeley is so totally unreflective of our country as a whole.

Great reporting by National Book Award winner Timothy Egan:

The revolution at Berkeley is a quiet one, a slow turning of the forces of immigration and demographics. What is troubling to some is that the big public school on the hill certainly does not look like the ethnic face of California, which is 12 percent Asian, more than twice the national average.
But it is the new face of the state’s vaunted public university system. Asians make up the largest single ethnic group, 37 percent, at its nine undergraduate campuses.

I was walking through the Portland, Ore., airport and I stumbled upon the scariest of all juice bars: Booya Juice.

Being as that I was in the airport, the only thing I could think of was that if my pilot ordered something there, I wouldn’t get on the flight. I’d be worried that he’d miss the runway on landing.

They can’t win score more than ten points in a football game.

Their locker room couch spreads disease.

And to top it all off, they can’t even manage to cook!

Maybe they should have just surrended to the Cal chefs — those knives are dangerous, somebody could have gotten hurt!

We had a party to commemorate the halfway point of the language instruction class in Kiel, Germany for the Fulbright scholars this year.

It seemed odd to be talking about a “midterm” after less than three weeks. But, you know, some of the students were saying the odd thing is that for universities in the U.S. on the quarter system, midterms feel like they start weeks after the beginning of the term.

I think that longer terms, like the semester system used by Berkeley and most Ivy League colleges, provides for greater depth and intellectual exploration.

I wonder what system Stanfurd uses?

More photos available on flickr: ethanlindsey.

Two years ago, people at Cal talked about Aaron Rodgers as a Heisman candidate. As judges of athletic and mental talent, they should be commended.

But comments about Rodgers as a Heisman winner were also greeted with shaken heads and mutterings of ‘don’t you know how the process works?’

See, as the rest of the world, planet college football has grown more complex and political in the past few years. And so Rodgers had no real shot at college football’s most hallowed trophy.

Why? Well, the athletic department didn’t back him — and he had no national pub before the season. Plus, a QB needs his team to go undefeated if possible in order to win. (More than any other position, a QB’s worth is tied directly to team performance.)

All those reasons lead to exactly why this guy actually has a real chance of appearing at the New York Athletic Club at the end of the season. (I know, I know. I already blogged about him. Get over it — and be prepared for more to come.)
Another reason he’s gonna win the Heisman? He’s just unreal.

Those who know me know that there are few things in my life as important as Cal football. And, as we head into the 2006 season, it looks like we may be on the verge of establishing ourself as a national powerhouse. (Don’t remind me that I’m going to be in Germany when all this is happening.)

Which is why it was such a concern when news broke that our Heisman-candidate running back was involved in a drive-by shooting in Oakland. Some media jumped on the story before all the real news was out — and when it became evident Marshawn was in the wrong place at the wrong time (and is universally regarded as a stand up guy and a credit to his team, his school, and his family) several news sites and blogs had to backtrack and apologize.

But the best apology — or, really, homage — to Marshawn is at Every Day Should Be Saturday. Its in the style of ‘Chuck Norris Facts‘ and includes my favorite line:

7. Made an A on his Industrial Design project last year. He called it “Assignment 3 in Papier-Mache.” You call it “the city of Tokyo.”

Photo credit: Daily Californian.

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