October 21, 2018 by tomdalzell

Roger Carr – Burning Man 2018

  I left off in my first post about Roger Carr with Burning Man 2018. The theme this year is “I, Robot.” The Burning Man website explains: “This year we invite participants to use their native genius to create expressive robots of all kinds. We also welcome art that examines how it feels to live […]

October 13, 2018 by tomdalzell

Ian Wood’s Garage Door Quest – #2

SOCCER!     What a day it was! My final post of 2016 was about painted garage doors. Early in 2017, I posted photographs of painted garage doors taken by Ian Wood. Ian’s interest in Berkeley’s garage doors started in 2016 when he was walking his dog Milky. He wanted to turn the routine into less of a chore and […]

October 7, 2018 by tomdalzell

Our Painted Ladies

  Last week, I posted black and white photos of the last gasps of industrial Berkeley. This week, we’ll reverse course and admire colorfully painted houses, especially Victorians. This is not a scholarly examination of architecture.  The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association sponsored a tour of Berkeley Victorians in 2004.  Several years later, Daniella Thompson gave […]

September 29, 2018 by tomdalzell

Berkeley’s Dark Satanic Mills

The plan was simple – walk 2nd Street from Cedar north to Gilman, through the grit and chaos and decay of Berkeley’s dark satanic mills, humming to myself Blake’s Jersusalem.  The music was written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916.  Blake wrote the words in 1804 or 1808. The poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, […]

September 23, 2018 by tomdalzell

Lovely! Simple! 1613 Derby

I am a day late from my schedule -I almost always post on Saturday mornings -and here we are it’s Sunday morning. I confess, but first I owe you an explanation of what confession means to me.  I was raised in the Episcopal Church.  We did not confess one on one, we had no confessional, […]

September 15, 2018 by tomdalzell

Michael Delacour- His Walk to the Park

Michael Delacour has been the human face of People’s Park since April 1969.  He was one of several who conceived of it and built it, he fought the University and Governor Reagan to save it, he has nurtured it, he believes in it. He personifies the values and vision of Berkeley of a certain time. What […]

September 15, 2018 by tomdalzell

Possible Color Photo Covers

If you click on the photos they go close to full screen The only one that is vertical that I have from what we are using is this:   This one is in between:   Here are some good content ones that are horizontal. Idea – wrap it around to be front and back cover. […]

September 8, 2018 by tomdalzell

Counterculture Stores

  Once upon a time, Telegraph Avenue and its tributaries were home to elegant stores – Abel, Andre Godet, Fraser’s, George Good, Nicole’s, and others.  Sprinkled in there were hints of Bohemia, but an intellectual, academic, sophisticated Bohemia – the used book stores and used record stores, the Éclair bakery with croissants, a few stores selling […]

September 3, 2018 by tomdalzell

Holiday Field Trip: Plastic Water in Santa Cruz

  Today is a holiday, which means a notional field trip. Today is Labor Day, which means many things, one of which is thinking of the Anglican hymn of my boyhood, “Come Labor On.”  I learned what a snare was from the line “The enemy is watching night and day / to sow the snare, to snatch […]

September 2, 2018 by tomdalzell

Arnold Haller of (El Cerrito but who used to work in ) Berkeley Makes Masks

Patricia St. John who I know from the Berkeley Breakfast Club and the East Bay Nursery told me that I should meet Arnold Haller and see the masks he makes. Haller worked on Fourth Street in Berkeley for Cal ink, which became a division of the Flint Ink Company of Detroit. He worked for them for […]