January 27, 2020 by tomdalzell

Ken Stein – Lamp and Menorah Maker

This post is about Ken Stein and beautiful things that he made. Ken checks most of the boxes on the list of why Berkeley is the glorious place that it is. He has been a lifelong disability rights activist. He is a gifted photographer and has documented the history of the Bay Area Disability Rights /Independent Living Movement. He has […]

January 18, 2020 by tomdalzell

Bulwinkle in the Desert

I have written about Mark Bulwinkle and his work many times, more certainly than I have written about anybody. It is fitting, for when I was hatching the idea for Quirky Berkeley and talked the idea over with a mentor and inspiration Sally Woodward, she said two words – “Mark Bulwinkle.” And it is fitting […]

January 18, 2020 by tomdalzell

Bulwinkle in the Desert – Named Pieces

In my main post on Bulwinkle in the desert, I linked to this small post of bigger steel pieces with names.  I dig Bulwinkle’s naming. Lover Boy, Splendido, Willy, Nature, Lucile, Bustin’ Up, Beverly, Good Dog, Father, Bigger Trick. I asked my friend for his take on Bulwinkle’s naming. After he read the post, he […]

January 5, 2020 by tomdalzell

Tyler Hoare: Missing and Searching

  I have written about Tyler Hoare several times.  He embodies what for me is everything good about Berkeley.  In this post, I update readers on his search for missing works and his search for a home for new works. The Snoopy submarine that Hoare launched  in Emeryville on March 15, 2019, disappeared between March […]

December 29, 2019 by tomdalzell

The Best of Quirky 2019

  Another year, another 52+ Quirky Berkeley posts.  How do you do it Tom?  It’s simple – Berkeley giveth, I posteth. This is post #702 in the short happy life of Quirky Berkeley.  To me that is a big number. Quiz: Why this Cosmopolitan?  Prize: a copy of Quirky Berkeley Vol. 3.   As I did […]

December 21, 2019 by tomdalzell

Themed Collections

Last week I posted about collections without themes.  This week it is time collections with themes that my Quirky Berkeley travels have led me to. I know you want to know this – I have had collections over the years.  They include: 1) Cicada shells.  This probably shouldn’t count, but our neighborhood gang In Pennsylvania […]

December 8, 2019 by tomdalzell

Collections

  When I was putting together my latest blog about Will Squier and his ever-changing limit-stretching imagination-busting collection of toys and kitsch, I made a mental list of the other posts that I have written about unthemed collections.  I wrote the list out.  I thought of others to add.  And I made this post. I […]

December 1, 2019 by tomdalzell

Laurel Skye Bio

Laurel Skye wrote me a whirlwind summary of her life experiences.  I illustrate them here with photographs. Lived in Laurel Canyon in ’64, then I got busted for pot, crossing from Mexico. Hung out with Steve Mann, an extraordinary guitarist and singer who played with the likes of Janis Joplin (who was living in his […]

November 28, 2019 by tomdalzell

Thanksgiving Post: Me and Arlo

Today is a holiday, which would normally mean a post about a notional field trip to a quirky place not in Berkeley.  Today, our travel is in time as well as place.  I will tell you about my three close encounters with Arlo Guthrie, fitting because the story told in his brilliant and powerful anti-war song “Alice’s Restaurant” begins […]

November 25, 2019 by tomdalzell

Will Squier (at least) One More Time

I have posted about Will Squier and his every-changing monster collection of kitsch, toys, cut glass and strange things.  In 2016, I updated an earlier 2015 post, so this makes this post a third post. I have seen Will around town, mostly at sales by the Addisons.  He sometimes works their sales. There have been a […]