Author Archive
October 19, 2014 by tomdalzell
Early Exoticized Polynesia
The Tiki cultural movement was by no means our first exposure to Polynesian culture. Well before the 1940s we had enjoyed exoticized visions of Polynesian, visions which set the table for the Tiki movement. Paul Gauguin lived in Tahiti form 1891 until his death in 1903, and his primitive paintings of Polynesia were among our […]
October 15, 2014 by tomdalzell
Sex Ed
Here is how I learned about human sexuality when I was a boy. I was born in 1951. From third grade through twelfth grade I attended an all-boys Episcopalian school, the Episcopal Academy, in Merion, Pennyslvania. I saw girls at Sunday services at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, but we sat […]
October 15, 2014 by tomdalzell
The Signs of Little India
I was at first going to name this post “Little Bombay,” but that would lead into the geopolitical/linguistic morass of Mumbai vs. Bombay. Yes, I understand, “Bombay” is an English corruption of a Portuguese colonial name for the city. I am all for rejecting the language of the colonial power, but I am not convinced […]
October 15, 2014 by tomdalzell
India = Exotic!
Books we read in school and after have school left us with an impression of India. First – Forster and his passage, which of course was echoed by Whitman. We read Conrad’s Lord Jim: “No! I tell you! The way is to the destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands and feet […]
October 10, 2014 by tomdalzell
Gone: C.J.’s Old Garage
C.J.’s Old Garage was a doubly quirky joint on Telegraph between Blake and Parker Streets. To be known by the name of the former business is a good start for quirk. The fact that C.J.’s Old Garage was for several years in the early 1970s an indoor mall for hippie craftsmen before the era of […]
October 10, 2014 by tomdalzell
Album Covers – Singers Named Slim
It started out innocently. My friend and I watched Dr. Strangelove one night. We have watched it many times together. Of all the fine performances in the movie, the performance of Slim Pickens was my friend’s favorite. He happened to mention this to Gabby. A week later a carton arrived, full of record albums. Gabby is […]
October 7, 2014 by tomdalzell
Gone: Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac
When we think of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, we don’t immediately associate them with Berkeley. Yet – they were here, among us, in the 1950s. Let’s listen to Natalie Merchant and the 10,000 Maniacs sing about them and review the images. Allen Ginsberg lived in Berkeley from September 1955 until August 1956. Here […]
October 7, 2014 by tomdalzell
Gabby’s Lucha Libre Magazines
Confession – as a boy I was kind of a fan of professional wrestling. I watched it on UHF stations. My father took my cousin Jay and me to see an event or two in Philadelphia in 1962 or 1963. Oh to relive that! We tired of wrestling. Jay headed off into loving drag racing. […]
September 25, 2014 by tomdalzell
Ludwig’s Fountain
The words “quirky” and “Board of Regents” do not appear in the same sentence with any regularity. With Ludwig’s Fountain they do. Ludwig was a German Shorthaired Pointer. I don’t know where the Von Schwarenburg came from. Schwarenburg is a line of the German Shorthaired Pointer breed, that’s all I know. Between 1959 and 1965, […]
September 25, 2014 by tomdalzell