Author Archive
October 20, 2013 by tomdalzell
Steps
Steps. How can steps be quirky? First, though, what possible cultural allusion? I can think of only one so let’s just be done with it: Okay. I thought of a second. The Crests “Step by Step.” A pretty cool song. Moving back to our existential question – how can steps be quirky? In Berkeley, […]
October 20, 2013 by tomdalzell
Cars That Neal Cassady Drove*
*Or could have driven. Neal Cassady loved cars. He loved driving cars. He loved driving cars with a woman at his side, as in this iconic photo with Natalie Jackson: I had that photo in my hero scrapbook in 1969 or 1970. Not as iconic, but the same idea – Neal driving a car as […]
October 20, 2013 by tomdalzell
Major Quirky #19 – 2310 9th Street – Baseball!
Put me in coach! Baseball! Summertime, grass, 3 strikes and 3 outs and 3-squared players and 3-squared innings. 9th Street! Wow! Personal privilege time here: My big brother Eric, whom we called Ric, introduced me to baseball when we lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1958: Ric vanished from our lives in 1959 when we […]
October 20, 2013 by tomdalzell
Birds #1 – Big $%^(& Chickens
This is a little album about big chickens. Before my exploration of birds as material culture in Berkeley is finished, there will be, I can promise you, controversy. There is the always-simmering crow-vs-raven controversy, and the vicious ongoing feud about urban chicken coops. Let’s ease into birds though, in an undeniably quirky way. Big chickens await us, […]
October 19, 2013 by tomdalzell
Topiary
Topiary is generally a garden art form of the staid, the establishment. For that reason, when I started my Quirky Berkeley walking in 2012 I was determined to inventory, photograph, and present all topiary in Berkeley. My thought was that the conventional is unconventional-slash-quirky in Berkeley. The world upside-down. As was the case with some […]
October 19, 2013 by tomdalzell
Major Quirky #20 – Normandy Village
When John Storey first saw Normandy Village, he said, as if by reflex, “Carmel.” He has done enough for Quirky Berkeley to earn the right to an opinion, but – that said – Carmel? Seriously? He says he means nothing bad with the comparison, that he is just commenting as a photojournalist. I […]
October 19, 2013 by tomdalzell
Mail Boxes – Painted
So – which version of “Mr. Postman” do you prefer? Press * if you prefer the Marvelettes, # if you prefer the Beatles. I’m pretty sure how this one is going to turn out, but we’ll see and post the results after all votes are tallied. This week’s sermon on the quirky mail boxes of […]
October 12, 2013 by tomdalzell
Grids
I know that almost nobody thinks that grids are quirky. Probably nobody at all. Will you hear me out? Will you keep an open mind? When I was a boy, I loved the grids that I could make with Kenner’s Girder and Panel, a building set toy. The little dovetail pieces of the orange horizontal […]
September 26, 2013 by tomdalzell
Architecture – Hansel and Gretel Cottages
I freely admit – I don’t know how to address Berkeley architecture in the context of Quirky Berkeley. I am not one to embark without a full plan, but I will here. No matter how I decide to deal with our architecture, the Hansel and Gretel cottage will be part of it, […]
September 20, 2013 by tomdalzell