Author Archive
December 25, 2017 by tomdalzell
Gabby’s Fez Figurines
My friend had mentioned to Gabby in an email that I was doing a blog about a guy who had a fez collection. Gabby couldn’t let that pass. He put together a quick collection of fez-wearing figurines and mailed it to us. Along with the figurines, Gabby sent a short review of the use of […]
December 23, 2017 by tomdalzell
John Seabury – a Son of Berkeley, Quirky to the Core
On Monday I will write about David Seabury, a recycling master who collects, sculpts, and plays in rock and roll bands. Today I write his younger brother John. They come from a gloriously quintessentially Berkeley family. If you’re interested in the family story, read this. John was a Berkeley High graduate. He finished his […]
December 23, 2017 by tomdalzell
The Seabury Family
As I worked on my posts about Dave and John Seabury, I was drawn into the story of their Berkeley childhood and family. Their father Paul was a Professor of Political Science at Cal. He started his political journey as a liberal Democrat, a supporter of Adlai Stevenson and a member of the Americans for Democratic […]
December 16, 2017 by tomdalzell
The Codornices Club Clubhouse
Well – instead of building up to the best photo in this post, I opened with it. It shows the long-demolished Codornices Club clubhouse, on the top of the eastern hill above the start of the concrete slide. Once upon a time, Codornices Park was Codornices Canyon. The full name of the canyon was El […]
December 9, 2017 by tomdalzell
7 Virginia Gardens
Since I first saw the house in 2013, I have carried a note about 7 Virginia Gardens on my Quirky Berkeley TO DO list. The front of house on a one-block cul-de-sac was very high-level quirky, very very sixties hippie Berkeley. Colleen Neff and I tried to interview the owners in 2016. It was an epic fail, the […]
December 2, 2017 by tomdalzell
The 1100 Block of Hearst
The 1100 block of Hearst is the first block east of San Pablo Avenue. At San Pablo, it is anchored by what San Pablo used to be. Here’s something you probably don’t know – Midas is an acronym for Muffler Installation Dealers’ Association Service. Nate Sherman opened the first Midas Muffler in Macon, Georgia […]
November 25, 2017 by tomdalzell
Ralph Shaffer – The First Small Political Step at Cal
In 1957, history doctoral candidate Ralph Shaffer became the first student at Cal to step from the silence and shadows of the fifties. McCarthyism had driven a generation of Cal Students away from the political activism that comes naturally to the young. Shaffer made a modest proposal to the student government executive committee, that fraternities and […]
November 23, 2017 by tomdalzell
Field Trip to Alameda Point Antique Faire
Every once in a while, I write about a source for any DIYers who want to quirk up their house or yard. We say “once every blue moon.” In Mexico, they say “once every death of a Bishop.” Same thing. I return to this vein today with a notional holiday field trip to the first-Sunday-of-the-month Alameda […]
November 18, 2017 by tomdalzell
Kitsch on Colusa
I recently granted myself a plenary indulgence and embraced kitsch fully and without qualification as an acceptable manifestation of Quirky Berkeley. I continue that embrace today with a photographic essay on the front yard of 1106 Colusa Avenue. There’s a lot of kitsch there. But first – a few months ago I posted about the […]
November 11, 2017 by tomdalzell