DBD - Cinco de Mayo & Best of CGB: The Instruments / Extracurriculars

BERKELEY – The California women’s soccer team has been recognized for top academic performance as part of the NCAA’s academic reform program. The awards are given each year to teams placing in the top 10 percent in their respective sport based on their Academic Progress Rate scores.

The Bears are one of 35 women’s soccer teams and one of the three Pacific-10 Conference teams to be lauded. Cal scored 995 out of a possible 1,000 in its four-year APR average.

The APR was developed by the NCAA to gauge schools’ academic accountability and provides a “real-time” snapshot of academic success each semester by looking at the current progress of every student-athlete. Now in its fifth year, the APR measures the eligibility, retention and graduation of student-athletes competing on each team, in addition to serving as a predictor of graduation success.

The 2008 Bear squad recorded the program’s 23rd winning season, finishing 10-9-1 overall and going 3-5-1 in Pac-10 play to finish sixth in the competitive league. The 2008 campaign also saw Cal, which is in its second year under head coach Neil McGuire, earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for its fifth consecutive and 16th overall trip to the postseason.

PPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYDDDRRROOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
No. 68-ranked California men’s tennis sophomore Pedro Zerbini was selected to the Pacific-10 All-Conference first team today, as voted on by the league’s coaches. The second-year Golden Bear completed the regular season with a team-high 24-9 singles record while going 13-6 in dual matches (5-1 in conference play). Zerbini also held a 25-11 doubles record (24-11 with partner senior Geoff Chizever) at season’s end.

Zerbini received Pac-10 Player of the Week honors on two occasions this year (March 19 and April 5) and became just the second Cal player to win the award more than once in the same season since Conor Niland in 2006 (three times). Zerbini’s play on the top singles court netted him five wins over ranked players including a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of No. 51-ranked Haythem Abid of UCLA and a 6-1, 6-3 win over No. 40 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of Washington. His three-set (6-4, 4-6, 6-3) victory against No. 68-ranked Jay Goldman of Arizona helped the Bears seal a 4-2 win to send the Wildcats to their one and only home loss of the season.

With Chizever, Zerbini completed the regular season with a team-high 24-11 doubles record and were recently selected to compete in the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Doubles Championship in College Station, Texas. The duo posted a 12-7 record on the top court in duals and helped the Golden Bears win the doubles point in 14 matches this year. Along the way, Zerbini and Chizever claimed marquee wins over No. 5-ranked Donato and Foegelman of North Carolina (8-6), No. 3 Brugues and Stephens of Tulsa (8-6) and No. 38 el-Effendi and Walsh of SMU (8-2).

No. 40-ranked Cal (11-10, 2-4 Pac-10) received its school-record 10th-consecutive bid to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships and will face No. 17-ranked Pepperdine (19-9) in a first round match at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 8, at the Taube Family Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.

Plus, he makes all women weak in the knees:

Don’t forget about the CGB Meme Invitational. Voting on these 6 match ups lasts until THIS FRIDAY MAY 8 AT NOON! So, keep the discussions going. Here are the links:

Tagline v. A-11
Stego v. Hattin’
Chunged v. TuckNJersey
Dorrell Mustache v. Existential Pics
Watercube v. Somebody’s Bitter
Anguish Ape v. Leon Powe

Jamal Boykin Obama Event this Sat:

BERKELEY – California forward Jamal Boykin will hold an art exhibition to showcase his drawings of President Obama on Saturday, May 9, at the Alphonse Berber Gallery located at 2546 Bancroft Way from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Barack Obama Collection features 44 hand-drawn portraits of President Obama, all done by Boykin, with photography by Nican Robinson. There will be a special presentation at 7 p.m. where Boykin will speak along with poetry recited by Cal guard Patrick Christopher. Donations will be encouraged to raise money for art supplies for students at Malcolm X Elementary School. This is the first of a series of shows that will also take place in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Refreshments will be served.

Opened on Feb. 27th, 2009, the Alphonse Berber Gallery is located in a beautiful 7200 square foot Julia Morgan-designed building across from the University of California. The gallery presents the work of dynamic, aggressively innovative emerging to mid-career contemporary artists. With each exhibition, the interior space is re-imagined in order to craft the ideal vehicle for showcasing a diverse range of genres and mediums. For more information, visit the Gallery’s website by clicking here.

Mens golf going to NCAA Regionals:

BERKELEY – Denied a chance to play closer to home at the Lake Merced regional, California will head to The University of Texas Golf Club as the 6th seed in the NCAA Regionals, where it will compete May 14-16 on a course it has never before played. A top-5 finish would qualify the Golden Bears for the NCAA Championships the final weekend of May at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

The par-71, 7,412-yard course is unknown to the Bears, but Cal Head Coach Steve Desimone said its dimension indicate “it’ll be a very stern test.”

“It’s disappointing that we’re not going to play close to home but we’re excited to be in the field,” Coach Desimone said of the 13-team draw in Austin. “We’re the 6th seed. Five teams will emerge [from Texas] to head to the NCAA Championship. We have one shot, so let’s go play and see if we can push it over top.”

Cal will be competing against a mixture of traditional rivals like Stanford, previously faced competition such as UNLV, and a few teams it has not faced recently, including Florida, host Texas and Texas Tech.

The Bears’ lineup could be determined by end of Wednesday. Overall the physical health of the squad is “pretty good,” said Desimone, with senior Kent Yamane’s back a question mark.

The regional format spans 54 holes of competition over three days, with one round per day. Teams get one practice round on Wed., May 13, before the tournament starts the next morning.

Womens tennisers recieve honors:

Five California women’s tennis players have been selected to the 2009 Pacific-10 All-Conference team as voted on by the league’s coaches. No. 11-ranked freshman Jana Juricova became the third Golden Bear to earn the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award (Raquel Kops-Jones, 2001; Susie Babos, 2005) and received first-team honors. Joining Juricova with second-team selections are No. 41-ranked sophomore Mari Andersson, No. 32 senior Bojana Bobusic and No. 26 sophomore Marina Cossou, who takes home the second all-conference honor of her career. No. 54-ranked senior Claire Ilcinkas received honorable mention to go with a second-team selection in 2008.

All five players were recently selected to compete in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Singles Championship in College Station, Texas, after each winning at least 20 matches this year. Bobusic’s 35-9 record is the top mark on the team as she finished the dual season with a 19-2 record and went 7-1 in Pac-10 duals. Juricova was second on the team with a 33-6 record and posted a 13-4 dual record (6-2 Pac-10). Ilcinkas ranked fourth with a 28-10 record as she went 17-4 in duals (6-2 Pac-10). Cossou appeared in only nine dual matches due to injury but still managed to complete the season with a 23-9 record as she won both of her conference duals. Andersson reached the 20-win mark at the Pac-10 championships and posted a 16-3 record in duals with a perfect 8-0 run in Pac-10 duals.

Aaron Boone, a star tOSU player who went undrafted, sounds like he might have his life together with the Niners:

The biggest issue concerns the biggest player on the roster, Boone, who’s a 6-foot-7, 328-pounder. He was arrested for driving under the influence in 2006 and on Feb. 2 of this year, he was arrested for public intoxication in Orange County and had to be subdued by Taser – twice. He had been jumping on car hoods, pounding on garage doors and was combative and uncooperative when police arrived.

Given his size, ability and the fact he was a four-year starter at Ohio State, Boone likely would have been drafted if not for a pattern of alcohol abuse. To address the issue, Boone said he is attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

“You know what you did. There’s consequences,” Boone said. “I’m back in AA. I talk to my parents a lot. My family is behind me.”

He said being involved in football practice “keeps me busy. It keeps me active. I don’t think about alcohol. It keeps me out of trouble.”

I like a little nastiness out of the o-line.

I was in a fraternity, played alto sax in the marching band, alto then tenor in Cal band jazz, tenor in a jazz funk group.

I played percussion in elementary school (5th & 6th grade). I was good on the snare, glockenspeil, cowbell (really!), and the triangle. I gave it up for more baseball, but I’d like to get back into it.

In college I played baseball, rugby, volunteered in the ER, and did undergraduate research. My wife did some interesting things too; she was on the bowling team (she once bowled a 297!) and, in what I find to be most ironical, a Sex Ed Peer Education counselor.

Transbay tube is CLOSED. No word on when it will open.

KenCraw relives Oregon State ’07.

Why?!?

KALX radio (news and sports), some intramural softball, and…and…and…

Good God, is that all I did?!? Sure felt like more. KALX took up a lot of time.

that KenCraw reviewed was the first Cal game I went to….horrible stuff. I was sat behind that endzone, waiting for the glorious victory….and then…well, I think we all know what happened…

Anyone here want a chance to test out stereotypes?

If it’s in a game, it’s not discrimination.

I know you’ve got a bike, are you selling it?

Well, my college time was spent at four different colleges and lasted 6 years, so I’ll focus on my Berkeley time.

IM Soccer, usually I was in 2 leagues, but one semester I was in 3.
CED Peer Advising
Worked for the City Attorney’s Office of Berkeley for a semester.
Took a voluntary arch. internship class (sort of an extracurricular)
Spoke at the CED’s Cal Day
Habitat for Humanity a few times

oh! and studio, lots and lots of studio.

in trouble selling meth to an an undercover cop in Nebraska.

Cuz she really needs the money I guess. I mean her son isn’t making over $400,000 k a year or anything.

In her booking pic she looks like she’s on meth:

Joba looks just like her.

I’ve got to share my excitement.

Do those that have doubt my claims, KVAL News is now following my on twitter. I must be a legitimate news source!

I feel like I have a responsibility to actually tweet now. What I’m eating for breakfast, must be headline news!

Bristol Palin, mother of one (or is it two?), is hitting the lecture circuit on how NOT to get knocked up. She’s traveling to New York, no word on whether her parents or the good honest taxpayers of Alaska bought the ticket.

My Cal activities: played IM softball, flag football, basketball, and indoor soccer; played frisbee golf on stanfurd campus the night before The Big Game and almost got arrested from overzealous campus cops; didn’t play nearly enough real golf due to difficulty in getting to courses; overpaid for shithole apartments; officer of Golden Key Honor Society and abused our surprisingly large budget (an inducted Prof. Filippenko as an honorary member); did lots of Project Open Hand resume-padding stuff; voted in every ASUC election for the Affirmative Action For Hot Chicks party; voted for Perot (no joke); spent 3 hours/day, 3 days/week in the RSF pumping iron with few results to show for it; retched at all the leg and underarm hair sported by the female students in my Peace and Conflicts Studies class; learned to hire bums to purchase beer for me; and overall had a great time.

Oh yeah, played recorder in 3rd grade.

pretty funny riff on cleveland. language is nsfw

I finally realized that the intro to Guns n Roses “Civil War” was a quote from that movie. I always thought it was Axl being himself. Isn’t weird that at one time he was thought of as a bad-ass?

The best instrument is the trombone because the most dirty jokes can be made from it.

DONE

and bowling, dude.

for four years. Livedi n TH for three, staffed at the Lair for two.
Here is a sample of my playing; these are my four different female personalities in a corporeal form. I only split into four women to display my prowess on the aptly named sackbut.

WTF?!?! An excerpt from an article on bad roommates:

My roommate and her boyfriend have some stuffed animals (I think they have about 10 right now) that are their “children.” They talk to the stuffed animals and then they talk in little kid voices and pretend that the “children” are talking back. Sometimes they even go on shopping trips to buy them clothes from Build-a-bear. They even punish the “kids” when they misbehave. The punishments include spending the night in the closet or losing their clothing privileges (yes, they make their “kids” go naked). When we redid our roommate agreement, my roommate said ok when I asked her if she would have her boyfriend leave by 10pm and if she could go out in the hallway if she wants to talk on the phone after 10:30pm. However, when I told her that the whole talking to the stuffed animals thing is really weird and kind of creeps me out, she got all defensive and said it shouldn’t bother me that she talks to them. She went on to explain how it’s part of who she is and it’s like she’s an actor practicing to play the voice of a cartoon character. I guess that was her way of saying that her talking to stuffed animals shouldn’t bother me anymore than watching cartoons? So, she refused to stop talking to her stuffed animals.

I guess the gloves are off:

But long before Wolff owned the team, the city decided to allow Forest City Developers to develop the downtown site with condos — and even provided Forest City with a $67 million subsidy. So instead of a baseball stadium, retail space and housing — at no taxpayer cost — the city, in a monumental example of bad planning, gave away the site to condos. Where was Russo when this deal went down?

What is most noteworthy about Russo’s commentary is what it fails to identify: A single viable stadium site in Oakland. Russo writes a long commentary claiming that “feasible options for a new ballpark” exist, and that it only takes “imagination” to find it, then fails to identify a single feasible option, or indeed, any stadium option.

The time is long past for platitudes and empty rhetoric from grandstanding politicians who aspire to be the next mayor. If you have a secret stadium site and plan that no one else has yet seen, Mr. Russo, let’s see it.

http://www.palvador.com/ (Most of his stories are NSFW, the douchery is overwhelming)

Seems like a really swell fellow.

Living in the dorms you meet some pretty interesting people. Among this group of interesting people, was my roommate: Caveman.

When I first met him I saw this guy with long hair and a full-grown beard chillin hard on his computer. I would pretty much become used to hours of this scene everyday for the remainder of the scholastic school year. The best way to describe his personality is probably along the lines of a very smart, bitter, yet unintentionally hilarious asshole that never had anything positive to say. Thus, I enjoyed his company.

Whenever he did leave his room, it often involved some funny pranks. For example, one day he decided to mob along with Big L and I in Big L’s old civic as we went to Jay-in-da-Bay at around midnight.

After getting our food:
Caveman: You know, back in high school me and my friends would go to McDonalds and buy like 20 hamburgers each.
Me: What the fuck? Why haha?
Caveman: Here, I’ll show you in a little bit..

About 5 minutes later he tells Big L to slow down and stop by this square walking down a block. Caveman rolled down his window, and proceeded to have this exchange:
Caveman: EY! You want a burger?
Square: shakes head
Caveman: Well have it anyway! (as he proceeds to throw his unwrapped hamburger deluxe at this kid’s face.)