September 15, 2019 by tomdalzell

Private Mail Boxes

I find private mail box stores of interest in my exploration of quirky Berkeley.  Not everyone will agree with me. It’s a free country.  You don’t have to agree with me.  Hear me out, though. I have posted on the laundromats of Berkeley.  They are almost without question quirky in some sense of the word […]

September 7, 2019 by tomdalzell

Jon Balderston’s Show in Alameda

I have written about Jon Balderston several times, first about his furniture and advertising/toys collection and then about his sketchbooks. In 2017 I visited the Alameda Point Flea Market with Balderston and Marcia Donahue as my guides and later posted about that visit. Today I write about his show at Julie’s Coffee and Tea Garden, 1223 […]

September 2, 2019 by tomdalzell

The Signs of San Pablo Avenue – Emeryville

I have posted about the signs of San Pablo Avenue -signs  in Berkeley and Albany and neon signs and a post about the bars on San Pablo in Berkeley. When I did my first post about San Pablo Avenue five years ago , I wrote: “San Pablo Avenue is our funkiest boulevard.  South to North […]

August 23, 2019 by tomdalzell

Alan Cohen & his collections – a second sale of quirk!

In late July, I posted about the first three days of the sale that Geneva and Julie Addison conducted of the estate of the late Alan Cohen, a Berkeley psychologist who for almost 50 years collected things. The second half of the estate sale is this weekend, Saturday the 24th through Monday the 26th, from […]

August 22, 2019 by tomdalzell

Alan Cohen – Filling in the Pieces

  The second estate sale of the late Alan Cohen’s quirky estate was a smash hit.  When it was done James Cross of the Telegraph Antique Center came and hauled away things that didn’t sell. I told Geneva Addison that her photo of James and his load made me think of the Joads in the […]

August 17, 2019 by tomdalzell

Masks

You see, what happened was this.  Emmanuel Montoya sent me this photo with a note – “Halloween in Corpus, 1960 – mama would dress us all up.  She’s my creative source.” It got me to thinking about masks. And then came my first post on Alan Cohen and his collections.  This mask was on the wall in […]

August 7, 2019 by tomdalzell

Mini-Post: Nightmare on Haskell Street

  In the fall of 2017, I published a post about the 1300 block of Haskell Street.  It was a typical modest block in southwest Berkeley – unpretentious  homes, a little bit of quirk, a few spectacular gardens, and a gray cat who briefly wanted to be my friend. At 1310 Haskell was A Craftsman bungalow […]

August 4, 2019 by tomdalzell

Mysterious Medallions

These days, just everybody – tout le monde – is talking about the mysterious medallions that are appearing in Berkeley’s sidewalks.  You read about them in Berkeleyside, you see them on Twitter, your hip friends are talking about them.  “Plaque” might be a better word for what these are, but medallion gives us alliteration with mysterious. Colleen Neff […]

July 23, 2019 by tomdalzell

Alan Cohen – Rhinos and oh so much more

I have rarely been overcome by a quirky scene. I confess that I was overcome when I first visited the home of the late Alan Cohen, a clinical psychotherapist who died in May, 2019. I rest my case. Cohen collected for decades, buying from flea markets and garage sales and antique stores and junk stores. […]