Author Archive
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Major Quirky #10: Architectural Quirk at Dwight and King
The architecture and materials used here are, in and of themselves, valid admission to the World of Quirk. The addresses are 2472-2486 King, 1843 Dwight. The corner is Dwight and King, northwest corner. At first glance, this is a fairly conventional house. First glances lie. The nine-unit building seems to be sided with aluminum plates, […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Mail Boxes 1 – Animals
We’ve gotten so caught up in saving our post office that we neglect the back end of mail, the lowly mail box. Quirky mail boxes abound in Berkeley, all waiting for the letter. Where to start with all these wonderful alternatives to store-bought boring conventional mail boxes? Animals, of course. All complying with USPS guidelines […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Mail Boxes #3 – Flowery Quirk
Don’t worry. I have many more mailbox photos. And many more mail-related songs. Such as this: In this installment of mail boxes, I present Berkeley mail boxes with floral designs. They are slightly conventionally whimsical, but they are bright and cheerful and in several ways quirky. A few are obviously hand-painted, the others manufactured. Throw […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Mail Boxes #2 – Arty Quirk
Mr. Postman, is there a letter in your bag for me? We have already seen mail boxes painted and built to depict animals. The mail boxes shown in this album are artistic without, mostly, being representational. Just plain arty. What do I mean? Well – Or Or this: Or art through old cameras: Cameras! […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Ma #1: Cream of the Ma Crop
I shouldn’t say cream of the crop should I? Now who will want to see other ma after I have identified this as cream of the crop ma? I remind you, or tell you in the event that you haven’t looked at shutter ma, that “ma” is a Japanese word for space, negative space – […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Links
I am not the first person to walk every street in Berkeley. Far from it. Or to notice quirky things in Berkeley. Here are some websites of interest for those who, well, like I said in my third-grade book reports for Mr. Drexel (the younger): “I recommend this book for anybody who likes […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Help Us, Lend us your Quirk….
To borrow from Lord Buckley borrowing from Shakespeare – hipsters, flipsters, finger-popping daddies, knock us your quirk. Of course I will miss some quirk. To do this best you walk with two people, one side of the street and then the other, one direction and then the other. That adds up to each block four times. […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Graf #1 – Stencil Graf
When I started this project I was not going to include graffiti. It seemed too ephemeral. It seemed that others had staked out this territory. But I then changed my mind. There is nothing uniquely Berkeley about graffiti, but it is among us and it is quirky and adds to the whole quirky fabric […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell
Gone 1 – 1733 Sacramento – Rustic Birdland
The half-life of quirky is longer than you might imagine. Quirk that was here but is gone still informs who we are and how we see ourselves. So it is with 1733 Sacramento, Michael Parayno’s temple of quirk. Every time I drive by North Berkeley BART I feel the ghosts of quirk gone, and […]
August 10, 2013 by tomdalzell