Indoor stuff

Movie theatres

On campus, there's the Pacific Film Archive, four bucks a show for students. The programming there ranges from beloved classics to the most esoteric of esoterica. I went to see the legendary seven-hour Hungarian comedy Satantango there last weekend. Only made it through four and a half hours, though.

Downtown, there are the California and Shattuck theatres, both part of the slightly arty Landmark chain. There's also the more blockbustery United Artists.

There are various neighbourhood theatres which may be convenient for you: the Elmwood (really cheap on Tuesdays), the Oaks, the Landmark Albany. There are also a couple of large multiplexes in Emeryville, if you like that sort of thing.

The arts

We know art and we know what we like: Justin Timberlake. Those with differing taste should note the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley Rep Theatre and Berkeley Symphony are all pretty good at what they do.

Libraries!

The UC system has arguably the best collection on the west coast. Some of the books aren't even about statistics. The Berkeley Public Library is pretty neat as well.

Nightlife

We really don't know about this. Ask some art history students or something.

The great outdoors

Telegraph Ave

Once voted "the best place to people watch" by the San Francisco Chronicle, presumably some decades ago. Still, it has the terrific Amoeba and Rasputin music stores, neat used clothing joints, good bookstores and a ton of bars and restaurants. Plus the local characters, of whom the Hat Lady and Dr. Jokemon are the most charismatic.

Sports of varying extremeness

There are plenty of places to roller blade, skate, or ride a bike, like the Bay Trail, the San Francisco Midnight Ride, the third floor of Evans. The RSF organises a number of intramural sports.

Parks of various cleanliness

People's Park is of tremendous historical importance. The best thing we can say about the place these days is that the pickup basketball games are good. There are plenty of other parks around, though, some with reservable space. We hold a department picnic in Codornices every spring (except when it rains, in which case we hold it in Evans, which is usually pretty depressing.)

Other (allegedly) cool things to do in Berkeley

-- BradLuen - 21 Feb 2007