Author Archive
August 25, 2014 by tomdalzell
Chimney Sweep (Mostly Cute) Postcards
Gabby’s major collections involve postcards and record album covers – you have probably noticed this. He had a nice collection of postcards featuring happy chimney sweeps, mostly German. I said we didn’t need to see them. My friend asked to see them. So – here they are. You can like them or not. It just […]
August 24, 2014 by tomdalzell
Jungle Animals
Continuing with the animal theme, here are images of jungle animals found in the streets of Berkeley. Remember – all the lions are elsewhere. No lions here. Here, though, are non-lion jungle beasts. For the musical background, I turned, as I often do, to my friend Gabby. And as a jungle-themed bonus, how about […]
August 24, 2014 by tomdalzell
Jungle Music
My friend sent Gabby a draft of my posting on jungle animals on the streets of Berkeley, and asked what my friend might have in the music department to enhance the posting. We were surprised to hear that he had very little. This is what he had: Two great records, but not much. But – […]
August 23, 2014 by tomdalzell
Jungle Music
My friend happened to be reading David Noebel because our friend Gabby had unloaded his collection of anti-rock books on my friend. This is what both Gabby and my friend came to believe reading these books and pamphlets. The subtext of every attack on rock and roll is simple: This is an opinion. It is […]
August 20, 2014 by tomdalzell
Berkeley Folk Music Festival
The anti-communist cultural repression of the early 1950s included folk music in its net. The folk-singing Weavers were targeted as communists by the House Un-American Activities Committee and the private industry of politically correct consultants. “This folk-singing quartet is well known in Communist Circles,” we learned in the June 9, 1950 Counterattack. The Weavers were a […]
August 20, 2014 by tomdalzell
Charlie and the M.T.A.
The Kingston Trio didn’t look scary. They looked nice. Cleancut. Safe. They did not look like communists or fellow-travelers. They looked American. They achieved fame in the late 1950s, as the anti-communist hysteria of the early 1950s waned. They weren’t risk-takers, but they were not risk-averse either. While most of their early tracks were pure, […]
August 19, 2014 by tomdalzell
Spire Christian Comics
Gabby sent my friend a dozen-plus Spire Christian comics. It is possible that you have never heard of Spire comics. I hadn’t. Horror and crime comic books were huge in the early 1950s. And then came Wertham. In 1954 German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent. With little data and a near-complete absence of […]
August 15, 2014 by tomdalzell
Sapanta Cemetery, Romania
Gabby sent photos my friend photos from Sapanta, Romania. Actually, they say Săpânța. We say Sapanta. I publish the photos below. While in Britany in the summer of 2014, he got word of a collection of hurdy-gurdy player figurines in Romania. He took the overnight train from Paris to Bucharest. Have we not all always wanted […]
August 15, 2014 by tomdalzell
Hurdy-Gurdy Figurines
My friend Gabby visited Romania in the summer of 2014 to view – and ultimately acquire – a collection of figurines depicting men and women and one monkey playing hurdy-gurdies. In the plural, that just looks wrong. Hurdy-gurdy’s? Maybe better: hurdy-gurdy-playing men and women and monkey? In Romania, he came across some quirky and […]
August 8, 2014 by tomdalzell