Author Archive
April 13, 2019 by tomdalzell
Eugene Tssui in Hillsborough (Not Berkeley)
I have posted about Eugene Tssui, once in 2013 on this the Quirky Berkeley website and twice on Berkeleyside in 2015, first on the exterior of the Mathews Street “fish house” and then once on its interior. He is an extrordinariily creative and energetic polymath. He is best known for his non-rectilinear architecture. One piece of news from Tssui is […]
April 12, 2019 by tomdalzell
BAHA 2019 Spring House Tour & Garden Reception – May 5
Sponsored by The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 1 pm to 5 pm Tickets: $40-$50 This event and this organization win the highest possible praise from Quirky Berkeley. Go if you can! Open on the tour will be gracious and elegant houses designed by major architects such as Ernest Coxhead; Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr.; William E. […]
April 10, 2019 by tomdalzell
My Mother’s 100th Birthday
My mother’s 100th birthday was last week. She was born on April 3, 1919, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Her father, Jean Baptiste Beck, was an Alsatian musicologist. After earning his doctorate at Strasbourg, narrowly avoiding a duel, leading an orchestra in a cafe-conert in Paris, and founding a Tournee classique performing classical drama in the outskirts of Paris, […]
April 6, 2019 by tomdalzell
Reid’s, Where Gospel Music Was King
Something there is that doesn’t love a store where gospel music is king. It’s near the end for Reid’s, 3101 Sacramento. Betty Reid Soskin and her first husband Mel Reid opened Reid’s records in 1945. In the early years, Reid’s didn’t sell gospel, it sold “race records.” There were only two other record stores in the […]
March 31, 2019 by tomdalzell
Delano in 2019
I visited Delano with John Storey on a Saturday this March when we were on our way north from work in Bakersfield to work in Fresno. This post is about a few hours in Delano a few weeks ago. For me, the time we spent in Delano that day was a sentimental journey, a time to […]
March 16, 2019 by tomdalzell
Jeeps – (I NEED YOUR HELP ON THIS ONE!)
This weathervane got me thinking. I wondered if this weathervane was a depiction of Nellybelle, the 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep on the Roy Rogers show. I actually think it is not, and maybe not even a jeep, but it matters not what someone is born, right? Roy Robers owned Nellybelle, but was it driven in the […]
March 9, 2019 by tomdalzell
Scott Page & 3D Scan Quirk
On February 7th, Scott Page wrote me after seeing my Chronological Errors post that included the below photo of the civil defense air raid siren at Indian Rock. He said: “I scanned the Indian Rock civil defense siren just weeks ago. I take my 3D laser scanner out to such places to check the equipment calibration.” […]
March 2, 2019 by tomdalzell
Elephants
Since you asked, yes, I have two strong childhood associations with elephants. My mother grew up in a home where French was the first language. We called her mother “Dami.” Dami read and sang to us in French. She read to us from Babar, who first appeared in 1931 in the French children’s book Histoire […]
February 26, 2019 by tomdalzell
The Bars of San Pablo Avenue
H Bars are as American as apple pie. You probably know of the claim that Eskimos have many words]for snow. For example – here. In a similar vein, in English we have more than a few words for drinking establishments – bar, tavern, saloon, pub, inn, joint, lounge, roadhouse, taproom, ale house, beer joint, ale ouse, […]
February 24, 2019 by tomdalzell