University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

Page 12 text:

You Better Walk and Don ' t Look Back B. Marley The sudden presence of a rather large mohawk shakes him from his haze and he comes to dwell on present days, and the chang- ing ways: The quality of their bull-shitting has gone down. Their entertainment is better. Their hair- cuts ... well, never mind the haircuts. Never mind the haircuts. That ' s what his long-haired, coffee-housed conscious- burdened buddies used to say. But somehow long hair just doesn ' t match up with the aqua blue tinting. Thinking about coffee houses, however, sends him on that perilous journey which so many before him have taken. After all — all roads lead to Roma. The only place where pretentiousness is a virtue! he exclaims. Beside him, a woman explains to a friend that Godard is phonetically alligned with Godot, and that there must be some connection. A few feet away, he hears a young undergrad say that Beckett, no doubt, believed in a minimalist bout with life and all its absurdities. He feels so at ease among the trivialities, but when the talk turns to I.R.A. ' s, the philosopher realizes that there ' s no capital gain for eaves-dropping on the mundane, so it ' s back to the plaza — back to the basics. With misty eyes he haphazardly clutches the arm off a nervous freshman passing by ... Where is our Utopia? I dunno. Where ' s Le Conte? Feeling the Freudian futility of it all, le philosophique sits brooding over his eternal question: Whatever happened to the Sproul I used to know. I just Kan ' t understand it. He breaks into a sweat. He begins running frantically down Telegraph Avenue and Whoops! Wrong Turn! He ' s headed straight into The Yarmo Zone. Suddenly immersed in a depository of day-glo day-wear and daily minders with pretty pink binders our hero almost arrives at Point Unconsciousness. In- stead, he staggers out the door, and continues his Search For Yesterday. The philosopher meets a girl. Her name is Rhonda. Help me Rhonda. ' Won ' t you please, ' please help me, help me, help nneeee? ' Paul is dead, she says, and goes on her way. Reluctantly trudging back to reality, he comes to the discovery of Sproul ' s new life. Somewhere in between the mindless oration, the verbal constipation, and the non- participation, he comes to something like a revelation. There ' s an ambience here I ' d not noted before. An energy, if you will. I sense life here! Below A Day in the Life: A big part of one ' s college experience is learning how to procrastinate properly. As students, reading something other than homework or catching a quick nap are ideal strategies. Of course, listening to musicians on Sproul is also a time-honored method. Opposite March of the Meanies: Big Fun, located on Shattuck Avenue, showcases wild and crazy fashions for the quintessential- ly unique individual. Ramsey Lewis, always the fashion plate, shops here daily.

Page 14 text:

Suddenly, a sprightly young lad sits down beside him and begins to chow on a yakitori bowl. A duo crooning Beatlesque harmonies ( maybe Paul ' s not dead after all, he thought to himself) and sporting a stand-up bass, fill the plaza with songs about girls they want and never get. At another corner, music for the New Depression gets a rather warm reception. And as the music plays, and the people swoon, our friend looks around and changes his tune: Yes, I see it now! screamed the philosopher. Sproul has become, dare I say it? Yes I must. A bastion for bohemian comedians. Refreshed with his new-found role in the Sproulian rigamorole, the philosopher strikes up a few Platonic in- timacies, and soon finds himself discussing Nicaragua with a couple of skinheads. Soon, however, the newly proclaimed guru raises his arm to his flock and proclaims: I think, therefore I eat. The philosopher ' s epicurian excursion lands him smack in the middle of Bancroft ' s International Assemblage of the readily eatable, and he happens on half of a whole om- nivorous falafel, left baking in the afternoon sun. He returns to the plaza, and while munching on the beggar ' s banquet, the Cartesian character at last feels at home; feels like he once again belongs to the steps. It ' s a feeling he ' s not been able find as the years have yielded. But coming to the real-i-zation of what ' s the 80 ' s, he sees that changing times mean changing lives. Below Got to be a joker ' cause he ' s so hard to please: A long-time on-and-off member of the cam- pus community, street comedian and social com- mentator Stoney Burke examined the meaning of life for a Sproul Plaza crowd, Sometimes Burke per- formed in Dwinelle Plaza where his discourse escalated to such ear-splitting decibels that nearby classes were often disrupted.