Ah Berkeley in 2020. Glorious Capitalization on every corner, what could be better then spending an afternoon helping to solidify and sing the praises of complete corporatization? That's just what agents Spidere, Beetle bomb, and Firecracker set out to do.



After getting a bit lost on BART and again on the street we came to Sproul Plaza, where we were to find the CEO of the Berkeley Corporation. In 2020, the corporatization of Berkeley was complete, and the naysayers had fallen. Still, though, there were things which the corporation had failed to assimilate and make profitable. Thus, our mission.



We were to gather field research to find out what was on the minds of Berkeleans. We were to tell no one of our mission. Beetle bomb and Firecracker formed one team; Spidere teamed up with a random non-player, Justin. Our tasks:

Spidere: This was the most difficult task...sprinting around, frantically trying to get someone who knew that CPB stood for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (apparently, no one knows where NPR and PBS get their funding, nor do they have any clue what CPB might stand for, as an organization related to public broadcasting...) After that failed, and talking about the bailout plan resulted only in discussions of the universe's flow taking care of everything, we found someone who was willing to talk about lobbyists and who he thought they represented. After some discussion, he eventually answered, "I think they probably run the gamut, from large to small corporations." Thank you, sir!

Beetle bomb and Firecracker: Although everyone did the tasks in different orders we shall acquiesce to the order stated. as the order made little difference to the end result. For this task we at first tried discussing tactics and then just decided to jump into it and try our luck.
We aproached a street vender selling decorative gift boxes. One of the boxes was covered in pictures of muppets. being an honorary muppet herself, Beetlebomb now had a plan. After a bit of small talk about how long she had been working in this vein of work, it went something like this.
BB-"Oh muppets! I love muppets. Too bad they got bought out by disney"
SV-" Yeah, seems like everyone is these days"
BB-"They are just such a huge gross conglomeration of buisnesses"
SV- "Its such a shame all that Corporation Bull Shit"
BB- " It sure is. Have a nice day!"



While our own performances inspired by trees were not captured, we did manage to take this video of another research team's story of one-sided love, inspired by a newspaper.





This was our favorite task.

Beetle bomb and Firecracker: We didn't have to go far for this task. At first we asked a mailman walking into the post office, he said said he had had to get to work, but he left with a smile on his face, so that was a victory. Next we approached two women having a conversation on the street corner. Both very friendly, the first sang "Here comes the sun" but did not sing quite enough of it to count for the task. the second sang "summertime" by gershwin which we sang along with her to encourage her to sing enough of it. we thanked them and bid them farewell

Spidere: In a random shoe repair store in Berkeley, we asked a waiting gentleman if he would sing us his favorite song. He said yes, he would...it turns out he'd been a professional musician for twenty years, and sang us this beautiful soulful tune (sadly, the poor sound quality does not do it justice):





We were fortunate enough to observe Avidd and David's demonstration.





One final task involved the acquisition of things without paying for them. While the Starbucks cup of water, pen, and newspaper were used in the final presentation, it would be the flower which truly inspired us...



We had also gotten a free sample of ice cream, but it melted before we got to the finish line, Firecracker made sure it did not go to waste.

For the final act, we were to create a Commercial for the Corporation. In this act, Spidere, Beetlebomb, and Firecracker were reunited, combining forces! For great profit!



Yes, that's right. Corporate flowers! Far superior to normal, dirty, smelly, natural flowers, Corporate Flowers could be scented and run the gamut from small to large. " They'll love their flowers, more then they love their children." The video should be available soon from the Chain Reaction site...