January 1, 2017 by tomdalzell

The Best of Quirky 2016

I published more than 50 Quirky Berkeley posts in 2016.  That’s a lot!  Here I subjectively choose some of the most popular Quirky Berkeley Posts of the year. A review of 2016 has to begin with publication by Heyday Press in the summer of Quirky Berkeley, the book.  I have talked with hundreds of people about the […]

December 31, 2016 by tomdalzell

Garage Doors

Mary Kate Morris painted these circles on the Scenic Street side of her house on the northeast corner of Cedar and Scenic. The circles are inspired by the art of Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  My now-retired doctor Alan Greenbaum had Hundertwasser prints in his office.  I ran into somebody who remembered that not long ago.  I didn’t notice […]

December 25, 2016 by tomdalzell

Field Trip: Clayton Bailey’s Museum in Crockett

  For several years, Mark Bulwinkle has been encouraging me to meet Clayton Bailey and see his art.  Bulwinkle is, in my book, the true north of Quirky Berkeley art.  His recommendation carries weight. I didn’t know much about Crockett.  I have passed it hundreds of times. I notice the C&H Sugar plant there.  The […]

December 24, 2016 by tomdalzell

Bungalow Courts – Again! More! Encore!

    I have previously posted on some of Berkeley’s bungalow courts. I waxed eloquent on my fantasies of a simpler life.  These fantasies remain, and my fascination for bungalow courts remains.  As I walk (and, um, drive) Berkeley I spot more. Readers write and tell me about more.  I present you more, in the […]

December 23, 2016 by tomdalzell

Barry Wagner

Barry Wagner moved in to his home at 2809 9th Street in 1989.  He soon got to know his back-fence neighbor, Martin Metal.  He admired Metal’s German Shepherd Friend so much that he tracked down and acquired one of Friend’s half brothers Wolfie,  Friend and Wolfie and Wagner and Metal became fast friends. Wagner and Metal […]

December 17, 2016 by tomdalzell

Sheri Tharp’s Carved Picket Fence

When photographing the murals at the Starry Plough and La Pena, I noticed the carved picket fence across the street.  I knew that there had to be a story and that in time I would learn the story.  I have! Sheri Tharp grew up in San Jose. She moved to Berkeley in the 1980s and […]

December 10, 2016 by tomdalzell

Star Grocery and the Quirkiest Commercial Block in Berkeley

  Quirky is not a precise scientific term.  It can float and adjust.  It can mean many things. I have occasionally presented what might seem to be “normal” as quirky, based on the premise that when quirky is the norm, non-quirky is heterodox and thus potentially, um,  quirky. The application of this world-upside-downism to Berkeley […]

December 3, 2016 by tomdalzell

Recently Lost Murals

Art is not eternal.  Murals are intrinsically temporal – they come and they go.  We seem to be in no danger of losing our mural identity, but over the last year we have lost more than a few murals.   The “Welcome to Lorin” mural above has been overshadowed by a new building in what […]

November 26, 2016 by tomdalzell

Martin Metal: Berkeley of the Past, For the Ages

I first heard the name Martin Metal (pronounced Met-AL) in an animated conversation between Mark Bulwinkle and Zalman Sher, son of the late wire artist  Emil “Izzy” Sher.  Bulwinkle had known Metal over the years and they both worked on installations at the original Rasputin’s.  Zalman had worked for Metal.  They spoke of him in almost […]

November 25, 2016 by tomdalzell

A Young Bruce Duncan

  I have written about Bruce Duncan before, including a short post about his comic drawings – definitely NSFW. Duncan was an outsider’s outsider, a quiet and brilliant presence on Telegraph for decades.  He survived on a modest disability payment, and was generous to a fault with the little resources that he had. When Duncan […]