[ (insert dry sarcasm here) Iconic image of Telegraph Avenue courtesy Peter DaSilva for The New York Times]
The New York Times sent its intrepid travel critic to Berkeley for it's regular "36 hours in ..." feature. Our visitor hit some of the obvious spots— Moe's Books, the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Bowl, what have you— dropping more than a few oh-so-astute observations along the way. Oh Gulliver, you amuse us so:
· "College Avenue, the town’s main drag, is packed with more hipsters with BlackBerrys than hippies with beards ..." Let's try "Cal" swag and L.L. Bean backpack-sporting engineering majors squinting over graphing calculators. OK, so there is an American Apparel in the 'hood, but it's Friday— let us have our fun.
· On the Saturday Farmers' Market: "The Berkeley market is run by actual farmers and has a workingman’s vibe." On Berkeley Bowl: "grab a roasted chicken and fresh beet salad at the deli counter, and snack on it while arguing with the various activists who congregate outside the Bowl’s doors."
· "Skip the Berkeley Art Museum, which has only a middling collection." Note that the BAM was the first institution in the United States to actively collect conceptual art. So ...
Mentions of hippies, activists, and "grungy-looking graduate students": 5 or so, depending on how you count. Mentions of Alice Waters: 0. Adjectives used: hipsters, hippies, crusty purple-haired free love followers, little folks, middling, eclectic, bookish, know-it-all
· 36 Hours in Berkeley, Calif. [NYT]
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