CALAPALOOZA: UC Berkeley's "Club Day"(Vincent Ooi) Looking back seven years at Cal’s Club Day, when students sign up for what interests them to get involved in campus community life.
Are there any all-girl acapella groups to join?
Summer is over. Everyone is back. This is the slow wind up to the beginning of instruction at the University of California at Berkeley (Cal), the world's greatest public institution of higher learning. Move in days just happened, and everyone is bracing for the full moon day of August as everyone returns to class and studying. Thursday, which is coincidentally also a lunar eclipse, marks a big event on campus: Calapalooza:
With over 1,400 student-registered organizations on campus, a student community is right around the corner. Learning a new skill, meeting like-minded friends, and discovering passions are only a few of the perks of joining a student club. Establishing these connections through activities that members have in common enriches the college experience. life.berkeley.edu
FREE. Open to the public. Twice a year, Rhythms of the Village and Oh Happy Day Vegan Cafe sponsor a giant community festival of live music, healing arts, crafts, Aztec dancers, entertainers, and good old fashioned fun. Post Eaton Fire, it is now held on the much larger Muir High School campus on Lincoln Ave. It has grown exponentially. Come try vegan and other food trucks, free spiritual healing modalities, and see Baba Onochie and Ameca plus Vegan John. Keeping the community alive!
(2b.alwaysloved, May 5, 2026) Indigenous, aboriginal, copper-colored people of Turtle Island who are called "American" Indians are misclassified as "African" American Blacks.
Health and wellness at Spring Fest
They are actually the original inhabitants of the Americas and the Caribbean who built civilizations here long before Eurasians, Africans, and Europeans came to Turtle Island. They had kings and queens. Native Americans of Eurasian [Siberian, etc.] descent are not indigenous to the Americas or the Caribbean but rather are descendants of slaves from China, Japan, the Philippines, India, Southwest Asia, who arrived on Spanish and Portuguese Manila Galleons. They also came from Europe, including the UK, and married the indigenous American Indians misclassified as African American Blacks, who were taught in church schools how to be Indians and signed on Indian Rolls for $5 to take over the lands and identity of the indigenous American Indians misclassified as African American Blacks.
References: 1828 Webster's dictionary and the New Oxford American English Dictionary definition of "American." The Library of Congress. The U.S. Census records (Rev 7:9,10). (Posted on Instagram, edited for clarity by Wisdom Quarterly).
On a recent night, practitioners gathered, took to zafus and zabutons (sitting cushions), chanted Sanskrit the Japanese way then English, and started a session of shikantaza, just sitting.
Then came time for kinhin, the relief of getting up to stretch and walk slowly and mindfully before another sitting session. Then the fireworks: question and answer with discussion.
"Those who know don't say, and those who say don't know" is a Taoist saying and sentiment. Many things can be known, and many of them can be expressed. So we hit the meditation leader with two barrels' worth of questions. Next time we finish off with koans of such subtlety and complexity, he stands no chance.
First anniversary commemoration of the Eaton Fire starts at 4:30 pm, Wednesday eve.
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Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster
Firestorm (Jacob Soboroff)
This hardcover -- released January 6, 2026 -- by victim and author Jacob Soboroff has 3.0 out of 5 stars (with 4 reviews) yet is somehow already a #1 Best Seller in Natural Disasters on Amazon.
Why? [It is] A "gripping, unshakeable firsthand account" (San Francisco Chronicle) of the firestorm that consumed Los Angeles, from the MS NOW reporter and New York Times bestselling author of Separated, who covered the fires on the ground as an LA native.
"Read[s] like a sci-fi thriller.” — Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles reporter Jacob Soboroff
[One year ago,] on the morning of January 7, 2025, a message pinged the phone of Jacob Soboroff, a national reporter for MS NOW. “Big Palisades fire. We are evacuating,” his brother texted within minutes of the blaze engulfing the hillside behind the home where he and his pregnant wife were living.
“Really bad.” An attached photo showed a huge black plume rising from behind the house, an umbrella of smoke towering over everything they owned. Jacob rushed to the office of the bureau chief. “I should go. I grew up in the Palisades.”
Pacific Palisades: 'They let us burn!' protest
Grocery Outlet of Altadena has been a hub for events since the Eaton Fire
Soon he was on the front line of the blaze—his first live report of what would turn out to be weeks covering unimaginable destruction, from both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, in Altadena.
In the days to come, Soboroff appeared across the networks of NBC News as Los Angeles was ablaze, met with displaced residents and workers, and pressed California Gov. Gavin Newsom in an interview on Meet the Press.
But no story Soboroff has covered at home or abroad—the trauma of family separation at the border, the displacement of [NATO's] war in Ukraine, the [CIA's] collapse of order in Haiti—could have prepared him for reporting live as the hallmarks of his childhood were engulfed in flames around him while his hometown burned to the ground.
But for Soboroff, questions remained after the fires were controlled:
What had he just witnessed?
How could it have happened?
Is it inevitable something like it will happen again?
This photo is very misleading because two LA fire departments stood down and let it burn.
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New date and location: Jan 11, 2026
This set Soboroff off on months of reporting—with firefighters, fire victims, political leaders, academics, earth scientists, wildlife biologists, meteorologists, and more—that made him keenly aware of how the misfortune of seeing his past carbonize was also a form of time travel into the dystopian world his children will inhabit.
This is because the 2025 LA Fires were not an isolated tragedy, but rather they are a harbinger—"the fire of the future," in the words of one senior emergency—management official.
Firestorm is the story of the costliest wildfire in American history, the people it affected, and the deeply personal connection to one journalist covering it.
Eaton Fire burned LA foothills
It is a love letter to Los Angeles, a yearning to understand the fires, and why America’s new age of disaster we are living through portends that—without a reckoning of how Los Angeles burned—there is more yet, and worse, to come. More
Who's to blame? - Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom
Jacob Soboroff (book); FOX 11 LA News; Grocery Outlet of Altadena; Gary and Shannon, Michael Monks (KFI 640 AM); compiled by Ken W., Paige, Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
Through the gloom of clouds and mist, muddy streets and threats of "rain," we made our way to big house in Shadow Hills in the Foothills of the Valley. It was warm and bright inside, pulsing with lights and DJs. In a room to the right were throw pillows, tapestries, chocolates of all kinds and the massage area. On the ceiling was a map of the night sky in colorful lights or a psychedelic representation of it anyway. We gathered in a giant circle that spanned three rooms and the dancefloor, spilling into a fourth, for introductions. Pick a word that represents the year we are leaving. Introduce yourself to the person on your left, mimic their every move, share deeply. Raw vegan foods and cheesecake by Rawsheed were cooling, and warm curries were bubbling. Hibiscus tea filled a punch bowl with stevia and lemon essence.
There was socializing all around in every room and a long primary dinner table set to serve two dozen people as others retreated to an adjoining room to eat, talk, and plan their karaoke, dancing, and singalong routines. The massage room became a healing chamber with too many signing up too late as hours rushed until the ecstatic moment of the countdown: 10, 9, 8...2026 was on its way. Is this happening simultaneously in New York, or did it happen three hours before? It's already tomorrow in Oceania and Australia. Dancing, screaming, hoots and howls to welcome in the new year, it's something Gatsby might have overseen from West Egg. Where's Daisy? She's dancing somewhere.
Others are developing mindfulness and meditating, healing and letting go, and the drizzle has stopped down below in the Basin and Valley that is Los Angeles. People settled into corners for deep talks about the environment, human potential, psychology, saving the world, lamenting the Levant, and strategizing for paths to health and greater prosperity.
This is a good crowd with Vanessa and Annie outdoing themselves. Not since this past summer's pool party in Beverly Hills and book release has a compassionate celebration been so celebratory. Everyone was full, and it was approaching 2:00 am as we cleaned up, hugged, and meandered back down to the City of Angels.
Enter the glittering world of Arcana and find your Tarot Dreams. Once you arrive, find a host of figures to illuminate your chosen path. Draw in ultraviolet colors on the walls of your inner landscape.
Purchase a vegan food ticket ($40) to receive Alchemical creations by Chef Rawsheed (Facebook) and special elixirs. Appetizer, a main course, and dessert are all included.
Or just come to party ($15).
Everyone in attendance will be provided an elixir of sparkling cider for the midnight toast.
A DJ will be playing for our dancing pleasure at this ball between open mic and karaoke sets. Bring instruments!
Tip jar massage will be available.
Come dressed like a celestial Devi in silver or gold outfit for the ball. Or dress however you feel inspired with comfort as the goal.
Strut down a glittering catwalk in vegan ball attire for everyone to admire. (Please consider ahimsa, "non-harming," and avoid wool, silk, fur, leather, and feathers stolen from tormented animals).
Payment for the food ticket due by Dec. 29th.
Address of location given upon RSVP by Dec. 30th.
Venmo: @Vanessa-Marsot
Zelle: 818-383-5998
PayPal: vmarsot@gmail.com. Questions? Contact Vanessa at (818) 383-5998 or Annie at (310) 892-9617.
This event is advertised on multiple sites, so the Meetup numbers do not reflect the total number attending?
DISCLAIMER: Event organizers assume no liability; all participants do so at their own risk. By attending, you agree that neither you nor any third party will hold any of the group's leaders liable for any injury, loss, or damage to your own person or any members of your family, friends, acquaintances, children, pets, or property, arising directly or as a consequence from a group activity.
The School of Self-Reliance annual get together (holiday sale and celebration) is this weekend, December 13, 2025, at 10:00 am at Hahamongna Watershed Park. It's not a formal class, but rather sharing survival and food foraging tips, hiking, living in nature, sourcing water, cooking, camping, and looking at products and packs. Stuff is offered for sale by various people. There's lots of food (of course). There might even be live music, as often happens. All are welcome to join for this end-of-year gathering. FREE. (There is no charge to attend).
See the list of classes offered by prolific author, nature guide, and regional expert Christopher Nyerges at SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.
Outdoorsman Ed Parker is featured in the Pasadena Weekly (pasadenaweekly.com) in an article by Christopher Nyerges (Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025). Read it online, pick up a hard copy, or see the one Parker pasted on the wall of the REI in Arcadia so all the customers could enjoy it.
What happened?
It was a spectacular, warm, sunny Southern California day to be out in nature. Participants gathered to learn what should go in a "go bag," a survival pack to meet all expected and unexpected challenges after bugging out or heading for the woods to camp. Christopher Nyerges (author of more than 25 survival, foraging, and prepper books) is very generous and had many giveaways, lots of healthy hiking snacks, and a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to impart.
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