Author Archive
April 27, 2015 by tomdalzell
Say it with (artificial) flowers
I repeat an earlier claim – I don’t use the term “kitsch,” and I don’t refer to something as “low-brow” or “garish.” Who am i to judge? Well, I judge what is quirky, but that’s different. I avoid put-down words. Berkeley is a natural kind of place. We pride ourselves in our aversion to […]
April 26, 2015 by tomdalzell
The Sun
Goodness knows there are lots of tangents with which I could start this post about depictions of the sun in Berkeley yards. Let me just mention one, the myth of Icarus. We all know that Icarus ignored the counsel of his father and flew too high, too close to the sun. We tend […]
April 26, 2015 by tomdalzell
Frogs!
What up with frogs? We have long been fascinated with frogs. In the book of Exodus (7:25-8:11) we read that frogs raining from the sky were one of the ten plagues of Egypt. Yuck! In Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 movie Magnolia, we saw frogs raining from the sky on John C. Reilly. Yuck! The Brothers Grimm gave […]
April 25, 2015 by tomdalzell
Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House – Postcards
Gabby and I share an enthusiasm for the mid-century modern architecture of John Lautner. I sometimes can take or leave Gabby’s postcard collections, but this modest set that he sent my friend depicting Bob Hope’s Lautner-designed house in Palm Springs interested me. I like it from an aesthetic point of view, but also I […]
April 18, 2015 by tomdalzell
Shipping Containers
When a friend directed me to the shipping container behind a house where she had lived on 5th Street, I knew that I had a posting. It is a thin one, but the quirk of shipping containers and the degree of difficulty involved (most,you would think, would be out of sight behind a house) added […]
April 5, 2015 by tomdalzell
The Quirky Art of Emil “Izzy” Sher (1912-ish to 1999)
Contrary to widespread opinion, Berkeley-as-Rebel was not born with the Free Speech Movement in 1964. Our non-conformist heritage stretches back to the early 20th century. In the 1950s, we had our poets and musicians and bookstores and guest appearances by Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. And we had Izzy and Edith Sher. In 1954, Izzy Sher opened […]
March 29, 2015 by tomdalzell
Webster and College – Julie Partos and her Quirky Installations
At 2634 Webster Street, just west of College, there is a regularly changing themed sidewalk art installation. “Regularly” might not be the perfect adverb there, though, because there is no schedule for changes, no plan for changes, not sketches for the next one – just changes when the moment is right to change. When […]
March 29, 2015 by tomdalzell
Marcia Donahue’s Sculpture, Flora, and Magic Interior
Marcia Donahue has lived at 3017 Wheeler (just below Ashby, just above Shattuck) for 37 years. She has gardened there for 37 years, exquisitely and creatively, favoring lush and jungle-like plantings that change with the changing sunlight of the day. She has created art there for 37 years. In the early years she carved […]
March 13, 2015 by tomdalzell
South Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
Philadelphia! For me, the 30th Street Station is a near-sacred place. So many images from my past. From 30th Street, one walks east and south. To South Philadelphia. I did not spend much time in South Philadelphia in my Philadelphia years, just occasional trips to the Italian Market. My friend Gabby, on the other […]
March 8, 2015 by tomdalzell