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November 4, 2017 by tomdalzell

The Antique Center – Quirk Acquisition Central

  From time to time, I join the acquisitive culture and suggest destinations for buying quirky material culture.  Today is another of those times. Shown above is James Cross, standing in the back section of the Antique Center at 6519 Telegraph, just north of Alcatraz. Cross and his mother Pamela say it opened in the 1950s.   A […]
November 2, 2017 by tomdalzell

Desperately Seeking Quirky Berkeley Treasure Hunters

On Sunday, October 29, I took Asia From Italy (see my semi-private post about her year at Berkeley High last year) and her mother Silvia Visiting From Italy on a Quirky Berkeley Tour. We went to Frederic Fierstein’s Buddhist shrine on Arch Street north of Eunice, as I had done with Asia’s Farther Visiting From […]
October 31, 2017 by tomdalzell

Happy Halloween! 1075 Alcatraz Avenue

Rules are made to be broken. I originally identified five criteria for inclusion in a Quirky Berkeley Post. Two are relevant here.  Shown above is Moses with the Five Criteria. Criteria #2 is that the material culture under consideration be non-seasonal. Criteria #4 is that the material culture under consideration be in Berkeley. Halloween is […]
October 28, 2017 by tomdalzell

The 2400 Block of Oregon Street

Three generations representing the creative and individualistic bent of Berkeley in different ways, true to their time and the inventive spirit of Berkeley, had homes on the 2400 block of Oregon Street, running between Telegraph Avenue and Regent Street. Obata and Kael and Scherr. Chiura Obata lived at 2430 Oregon. Obata was a Japanese-American artist and […]
October 21, 2017 by tomdalzell

The Berkeley Rubber Stamp – Fourth Generation

This is the third chapter in my look at older Berkeley businesses, an idea suggested by special Quirky Berkeley friend OH. In my biased opinion, this post continues to illustrate that OH’s idea was Very Good – dare I say Brilliant? – one Mike Chilton is the owner of Berkeley Stamps and Engraving at 1680 University […]
October 14, 2017 by tomdalzell

A Big Old Kitsch Combo

  This post and its embrace of kitsch does not represent a complete defeat for me, but I admit – I have surrendered to the charm and allure of kitsch.  I have evolved.  As a Nobel laureate once wrote, I can change, I swear. There is kitsch and there is camp – camp being kitsch with […]
October 7, 2017 by tomdalzell

The 1300 Block of Haskell Street

This is a story about one block on Haskell Street in southwest Berkeley. But before the story, which is something of a polemic, for those who wish, here is a digression about the naming of Haskell Street. The 1300 block of Haskell street runs west to east starting one block east of San Pablo Avenue […]
October 7, 2017 by tomdalzell

The Naming of Haskell Street – A Good Story and Then the Truth

  Wouldn’t it be lovely if Haskell Street were named after Burnette Haskell, a Most Quirky San Franciscan radical born in 1857?  And if Burnett Street three blocks north of Haskell were also named after him? Haskell’s political thinking was influenced by Karl Marx, anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, and a Danish Socialist émigré named Laurence Gronlund. Haskell was a […]
September 30, 2017 by tomdalzell

Pettingell Bookbindery – 91 Years a Berkeley Treasure

My post on Lasher’s Electronics was a well-received mission creep – looking at an older business in Berkeley which in and of itself may not be intrinsically quirky. Let’s try again! Luis Pettingell founded Pettingell Book Bindery in 1926. It was first located on University Avenue, later relocated to Center Street, and again to its […]
September 23, 2017 by tomdalzell

Judy Gumbo – Yippie Girl – Still

There are quirky things in the garden of the house in this Berkeley co-housing community where Berkeley’s most famous female Yippie Judy Gumbo lives, a house with material reminders of the 1960s and 1970s on every wall. Let’s break down the four components of that sentence. (1) There are quirky things in the garden of the house in this […]
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