West Edge Opera: No Suit, No Tie, No Problem
Music director Jonathan Khuner '70, M.A. '73, has been a shaping force for West Edge Opera company since the mid-1980s, when he began conducting for this vibrant troupe. In his choice of repertoire, his own tastes and uncompromising outlook helped define the company's aesthetic, first in its original incarnation as Berkeley Opera and now as West Edge.
Finding His Tribe: The Art of Charles Gatewood
I couldn't decide what made me feel dirtier—looking at hundreds of pictures of naked girls, or rifling through the personal belongings of a man I'd never met. But I was doing both one evening in the Bancroft Library reading room, traversing the late photographer Charles Gatewood's massive archive chronicling the kink, tattoo, and body modification subcultures of America and especially the West Coast.
From the Spring 2017 Virtue and Vice issue of California.
Angels, Protesters and Patriots: What a Long-Ago Skirmish Says About Love of Country
Lately, I've been thinking about an incident that happened in 1965, seven years before I was born. It centered on an antiwar protest in Berkeley, one of the first of countless such protests to come. Though just a blip in the grand scheme of Vietnam era turmoil, it seems to point to something important about America and the nature of patriotism.
It starts with a guy named "Tiny." Tiny was 6'7" and 300 pounds. And he really liked to fight.
From the Spring 2016 War Stories issue of California.
From Ishi to Hillary: Take Our Gallery Tour Through the Berkeley Drop-in Hall of Fame
In countless ways, Berkeley is undeniably different. And that uniqueness is part of what draws people here—not just students and professors, but folks of all walks, many of whom are distinguished in their fields or famous for their exploits.
From the Spring 2015 Dropouts and Drop-ins issue of California.