http://kolinateng.com

In the fashion of visiting SF over two consecutive weekends, I spent the last two weekends in Berkeley, CA. Now, I had (and have) plenty of friends who attended Cal in the past few years, but I’ve generally avoided the city like the plague in the same way that I’ve avoided San Francisco. It is unlike the suburbs (San Ramon, Fremont, Davis, and now Sunnyvale) in all senses: parking is horrendous, streets feel dingy and cramped, and one-way streets are like one-way tickets to an overdue accident. Only rarely is there some occasion worthwhile enough to venture into Berkeley, like the annual CMAT held at Haas Pavilion.

But I think I’ve finally found a reason, and that reason is the Cheeseboard Collective. Apparently this place makes only vegetarian pizzas, and only one kind of pizza a day.

Cheeseboard’s mushroom, onion, goat cheese, and mozzarella pizza

Now I wish I had more opportunities to live in Berkeley (and S.F.) and experience its unique culture. Sure, Davis has been named one of the friendliest cities in the U.S. and “America’s Best Biking City” and I learned to ride from one end of campus through to the other end with no handlebars (what up?!), but does it have a Cheeseboard Collective? Nope. Zachary’s Pizza? Nope.

Zachary’s mushroom and spinach Chicago-style deep dish pizza, atop Berkeley at Lawrence Hall of Science

Food aside, Berkeley is now awesome also because Reid took me to the John Legend EVOLVER tour concert at the Greek Theater. He had gotten tickets back in June for my birthday :)With the given name “John Stephens”, the singer later adopted the stage name John Legend, so you can only expect a certain level of showmanship and self adulation - like referring to himself in the third person or stepping onto the top of the Yamaha grand piano during his finale. /Cringe. It was a bit over-the-top, and at the end he introduced all his musicians by name and concluded with “…and I am John Legend!”—the crowd swelled with applause and cheers, and admittedly, yes, I did too.

What else can you expect from a man that sings, “You can’t say that I don’t love you, just because I cheat on you”?

It was an unexpectedly nice treat that India.Arie opened the set for John Legend. I actually hadn’t heard of her before but easily recognized her music. Right off the bat you could see the stark contrast between India.Arie and John Legend. She was down-to-earth, casual, and personal, and her back-up singers were curvy women with beautiful, rounded voices. Flashing lights and glamor surrounded John Legend and his backup dancers called “The Tasties”—you can make your assumptions of what they looked like. Regardless, John Legend can sure play that piano and sing those love songs :) Perhaps too many in the audience took the “PDA” song too literally—sometimes it’s better when it’s publicly…we just don’t care, we just don’t care!

We have one week of summer left, but I’m already celebrating the hints of the fall season. It rained yesterday and the everything smells fresh and cool. I’ve got my boots and my black and brown wardrobe ready for cooler days, and I grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks today. Yep, it definitely feels like fall. Hip hip hooray!

Things to look forward to: