A few months ago I posted photos of the murals on the ground floor of Cloyne Court, a housing coop on Ridge, which we first visited on an August afternoon.

A refresher course on Cloyne:

Daniella Thompson has written about the history of Cloyne Court – designed by John Galen Howard as a hotel, built in 1904, bought by the University Students Cooperative Association in 1946, sold to the University in 1970 and leased back by the University Students Cooperative Association since then.  Her history, as always, is meticulous and thorough.

Cloyne is a large coop house – 140 residents.  For the last few years it has been substance-free, meaning that the consumption or storage of intoxicating substances is expressly forbidden.  It has also been an academic theme house with a Cloyne Academic Theme Charter.

Late in 2016 we went back and photographed the second and third floors.  It was a challenge.  The halls are narrow and the light is less than optimal.  That said and expectations lowered, here we go.

As I did on the ground floor, let’s start with the murals which are allusions that I recognize. And, as we did on the ground floor, let’s invite Quirky Berkeley readers to guide me when we get to the murals that I don’t recognize.

The mural above?

It is from Madeline and The Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans.  He wrote the original Madeline in 1939.  Madeline and the Gypsies – 1959.

Sponge Bob and his friend Patrick.Sponge Bob we have had with us since 1999.  That’s a long time.

John Searle is a philosophy professor at Cal. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “The argument and thought-experiment now generally known as the Chinese Room Argument was first published in a paper in 1980 by American philosopher John Searle (1932- ). It has become one of the best-known arguments in recent philosophy. Searle imagines himself alone in a room following a computer program for responding to Chinese characters slipped under the door. Searle understands nothing of Chinese, and yet, by following the program for manipulating symbols and numerals just as a computer does, he produces appropriate strings of Chinese characters that fool those outside into thinking there is a Chinese speaker in the room. The narrow conclusion of the argument is that programming a digital computer may make it appear to understand language but does not produce real understanding. Hence the “Turing Test” is inadequate. Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics.”

The quote is from “Sweet Loaf” by the Butthole Surfers.

“Daddy, what does regret mean?
Well son, the funny thing about regret is,
It’s better to regret something you have done,
Than to regret something you haven’t done.
And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend,
Be sure and tell her, SATAN, SATAN, SATAN!!!”

They are a hardcore punk band.  They’ve been around since 1981.  The idea had been expressed by others long before the Butthole Surfers.

Lots of Dr. Seuss in this stairwell.

The lyrics are from “Career Opportunities” by The Clash.

They offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I’d better take anything they’d got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Career opportunities, the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock

I hate the army and I hate the RAF
I don’t wanna go fighting in the tropical heat
I hate the civil service rules
I won’t open letter bombs for you

Career opportunities, the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock.

The song is from 1977.

Guernica is an oil painting on canvas by Pablo Picasso completed in June 1937.  The painting, which uses a palette of gray, black, and white, is regarded by many art critics as one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.  It shows the suffering of people wrenched by violence and chaos. Prominent in the composition are a gored horse, a bull, and flames.

The painting was created in response to the bombing by Nazi German and Fascist Italian planes of a Basque village in northern Spain.

This mural alludes to the Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time cartoon.

The show is set in a fictional continent called the “Land of Ooo” in a post-apocalyptic future about a thousand years after a nuclear holocaust called the “Great Mushroom War”.

This refers to the 2014 Clone card from Magic: The Gathering.

Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game.  When launched in 1993 it was the first of its kind.  It thrives still.

The first association with this is probably from the Silence of the Lambs movie poster.

Dig a little deeper though –

In Voluptas Mors” is a carefully designed and planned out portrait of  Salvador Dalí, made in collaboration with photographer Philippe Halsman (1951).

The image depicts Dalí posing beside a giant ‘skull’, a tableau vivant (or “living picture”) comprising of seven nude female models. It took Halsman and Dali three hours to arrange the models according to Dalí’s precise sketch.

Simple –

This is a Paris Metro vector map.

In Greek mythology, the Phoenix was a bird that was cyclically reborn, arising from the ashes of its predecessor.

Easy!

Pooh and Piglet.  Piglet is Pooh’s closest friend.  He first appeared in Milne’s 1926 Winnie the Pooh.  “Oh bother,” said Pooh.  “What next?”

The White Rabbit in Alice.

Dressed as a herald, blowing a trumpet.

While dealing with classic children’s literature, here are Dorothy and her friends on the yellow brick road that leads to Oz in The Wizard of Oz.

Puerile humor involving Kermit the Frog and his friend Miss Piggy.

Stop Making Sense was a 1984 concert film of a live performance by David Byrne and the Talking Heads.

These three are self-titled.  Well, two are.  I assume that the middle image is Jackie Chan.  Somebody please tell me if I am wrong.

I had a hunch on this one but it took me a while to come up with the right search terms to find it.

It is a Ralph Steadman portrait of Hunter S. Thompson, aka Dr. Gonzo.  Good job Tom!

Both murals are from Dragon Ball Z, a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation.

Characters in the bottom mural include Kid Goku, Picolo, and Bulma.

These next few seem like allusions I should get – but I don’t.  I hope that the Quirky Berkeley universe will help with these and others.

There are many rainbow unicorns.  Which one is this?

Now for the ones where I have no clue as to the allusion.

Bonus – a couple pieces of quirky material culture that are not murals.

Matt’s Rock Collection!  And – sneakers on the ceiling!

I am inspired.

From Butthole Surfers singing about regret Clash singing about unemployment to Vegan Revolution (indeed!) to Pooh to Ludwig Bemelmans.  I have a special place in my heart for Bemelmans.  In the summer of 1972, in my final months living at home in Pennsylvania, I read everything that he wrote, trekking into Philadelphia to William Allen’s used and rare bookstore to buy another Bemelmans.  His portrayal of Europe enchanted me, the grand hotels, the elegance.  To this day, the Bemelmans Bar at the Hotel Carlisle on 76th Street in New York is a Very Special place for me.  It is like going to church.

Cloyne inspires.  No drugs, no alcohol, academic themed.  And chock full of creativity.  Roll on Cloyne, roll on.

My friend had a good time with the photos.  “One problem though” he said.  What could that be?  “We have yet to see an allusion to the Beastie Boys.  Gotta be one somewhere.”

I’m sure there will be.  But what is his verdict on these Cloyne murals?