Quirky Berkeley

The Quirky Material Culture of Berkeley

Quirky Berkeley
  • Walkers
  • Help us!
  • Links
  • Blogs/Albums
  • Contact us
  • Latest Posts
  • Quirky Berkeley in the Media
March 2, 2019 by tomdalzell

Elephants

 

 

925 Ensenada

925 Ensenada

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 de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff. His wife Cécile created the Babar story for their children, Mathieu and Laurent

The story begins with a happy young Babar with his mother.   Then this:

x8npruhkocbjn9ndefol

WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL??????   What was de Brunhoff thinking? Le chasseur a tué la mère de Babar. The hunter has killed Babar’s mother indeed.  Perhaps a life lesson about death and hunting and poaching and ivory, but still and all – SAD!

1200px-T2JB503_-_illustration

From Toomai of the Elephants

In fifth grade (B form) I could read for hours at night without falling asleep.   I remember reading a Kipling story that told of elephants going to their elephant graveyard to die, and their companions singing their grief.  It made me very sad.

In this post I collect photos of elephants in Berkeley, both two- and three-dimensional representations of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea.  Warning – I won’t be using the term “pachyderm.” Yes, I know of Ogden Nash writing “Amighty creature is the germ / Though smaller than the pachyderm.”  But – pachyderm is an obsolete 19th-century taxonomic order of mammals that included elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses.

To begin our elephants of Berkeley tour, I suggest the northeast corner of Cedar and Scenic.

2375 Cedar

2375 Cedar

This elephant was the senior sculpture project of Roxanne Urry at Sonoma State. Roxanne is the daughter of a friend of Mary Kate Morris and Dan Werthimer, owners of the home and creators of a majorly quirky home and garden.

From a website made by Morris and Wertheimer come these historical photos:

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The elephant arriving by U-Haul.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The elephant emerges from UHaul.  Oy!  Heavy!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Son Willy many years ago with the elephant, captioned here as being named Penelope.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Roxanne with her dad.

From Penelope to Baboo.

Unknown

Whoops!  Wrong Sweet Baboo.

1118 Colusa

1118 Colusa

This is Sweet Baboo, made by Mark Olivier, the Genius of Colusa who collects and assembles into sculptures beach detritus. This photo show Baboo in Olivier’s front yard on Colusa in 2012.

Baboo is no longer in Olivier’s front yard.
Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 7.47.00 AM

1428 Stannage

1428 Stannage

Baboo moved a few blocks west, to Stannage.

I have posted about the over-the-top spectacular wonderful quirk outside and inside 2333 McKinley.

2333 McKinley

2333 McKinley

2333 McKinley

2233 McKinley

Among the quirk assembled by Howie Gordon are these elephants on the front porch.

In addition to the three-dimensional elephant sculptures, we have several great two-dimensional representations of elephants.

1040 University Avenue

1040 University Avenue

1040 University Avenue.

My vote for best in class (2D Depiction of Elephant) goes to Eduardo Pineda’s multi-cultural mural on the U.A. Housing / Bombay Spice building on University Avenue.  If you click on the photos they will pop up full-screen big.

930 Ashby

930 Ashby

I was not sure about the significance of the elephant in MacBeath’s logo. Quirky Berkeley reader Crystal Baker provided the obvious answer – elephants are used to move logs and lumber in Asia.  Obviously!

 

macbeath_logo_est1954

 

WOMENS-FRONT

I suspicion that it speaks to the connection between forestry and logging practices and the elephant’s habitat, but that is only a suspicion and come to think of it I don’t think that this is an issue that would have been front and center in 1954.   It is a great elephant image no matter what.

There is an elephant newcomer on Ninth Street just south of Gillman.

Photo: Jane Bitker

Photo: Jane Bitker

It is the Funky Elephant, a new Thai restaurant at 1313 Ninth Street.  Good reviews, tasty menu, killer graphic for the killer name logo.

logo

The Little Elehant Montessori School is at 2008 McGee.

Elephant pharm was an iteration ago on the fluid southeast corner of Shattuck and Cedar, which during my time in Berkeley has changed from the Coop Hardware Store to Copelands Sporting Goods to Elephant Pharm to Walgreens.

d5e3941b9229948a1bfe7c043081ceba

Elephant Pharm i now gone, but an elephant is never forgotten.

logo_05

180s

Except for the crossing sign, there weren’t elephant images that I remember or can find.  I have slipped it in here because of the name and in the spirit of my often feeling  irrationally motivated to complete arbitrary sets of tasks – all things elephant in this case.

elephantpharmacy

elephant-pharmacy_02

It closed suddenly in 2009.  The progression from Coop hardware to sporting goods to hippie pharmacy to chain pharmacy is of interest.

The finest elephant art on a home in Berkeley is on a Painted Lady on Addison.

1841 Addison

1841 Addison

The elephants painted on the front of the house are a relic from Jeffrey Masson, a previous owner.

511qFj4Y6SL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_

Masson wrote When Elephants Weep.

1187 Arch

This mural was painted on the concrete wall of the shell of a garage on Arch Street and was visible from the street for a while.  Kind of cheating, I know, not precisely an elephant but more accurately Big Ganesha – yes, a.k.a. गणेश – on a quirky concrete canvas with ivy tumbling down from above, becoming part of the art.

Artist and tattooist Beth Emmerich used spray paint for this project, which celebrates Few and Far, a tattoo and graffiti “movement that brings together dedicated, talented women all around the world.”

Major-Quirky-1

In 2013, the owner rebuilt the garage, sealing our elephant friend behind garage doors.  Art is not eternal and is not eternally visible. Outdoor art became indoor art, that’s all.  Which makes me want to reread Poe’s The Black Cat.

41nIleDyNXLAnd then there is Stomper.

The Philadelphia Athletics, owned by Benjamin Shibe and managed by Connie Mack [hence Shibe Park and Connie Mack Stadium], wore uniforms with an elephant logo on their jersey.

Unknown

charlie-o_5posnqasd47zzb16tg4hq9yv

In 1963, when the A’s were located in Kansas City, Missouri. Owner Charlie Finely changed the team mascot from an elephant to a mule, the state animal of Missouri.  The mule was known as Charlie-O.

Unknown

After moving to Oakland, the Athletics eventually dropped the mule and shifted to an elephant on the left sleeve of the uniforms. Beginning in the mid 1980s, the on-field elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante. In 1997, he took his current form, Stomper.

Alternate logo, 1994-2002

Alternate logo, 1994-2002

Batting practice logo

Batting practice logo

Where two or three are gathered in Berkeley to cheer on the A’s, an elephant is there.

Photo: @natecfrey : Instagram

Photo: @natecfrey : Instagram

To celebrate 50 years in Oakland, the A’s last year sponsored a public art project with 50 Stomper statues placed around Oakland, each uniquely painted and accessorized.

44671024502_f1d62788f4_o-800x800

Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 10.55.44 PM

This map is of the locations of the 50 Stompers is from this article.  None are in Berkeley, but the Rockridge BART station where #22 is might as well be in Berkeley.

In the same logo/mascot vein, there are the Berkeley College Republicans.

berkley

“The best party on campus” is a decent pun but I’m not buying it.  Here is my suggestion to the College Republicans.  Your party now controls the majority of the City Council.

th

Ask yourselves what Republicans would have done differently than the Council did on February 28th about people living in RV’s  Answer: (1) the GOP would been more forthright; (2) the GOP given the camper-housed four weeks instead of two weeks to clear out. (3) We would not have had to endure Rashi Kesarwani’s self-pitying lament about her pain – no matter how difficult the Council’s displacement order was to those living in the RV’s, it actually was more difficult for her because she had to work so hard on coming up with the ban.   Otherwise – the same.

So, young Republicans on campus, don’t pay attention to what the New Day in Berkeley City Council members call themselves.  Pay attention to what they are doing.  You’re winning and you don’t even know it.

images

logo3

images-1

WES-mural-DerbySt

A final not-in-Berkeley elephant image, the annual White Elephant Sale, which in my defense many people from Berkeley attend.  It is a large annual rummage sale that benefits the Oakland Museum of California.

I took the draft post to my friend to get his critique and commentary.

He was ultra-engaged in a difficult jigsaw puzzle.  He got up and read through the draft.

“Number one.  I’m shocked you said nothing about Lucy the Margate Elephant.”

Point taken.  It’s not a short story but here it is if you want to wander around a little.

“Number two.  I’m shocked you didn’t somehow work the Youngbloods and Elephant Mountain into your creatively narcissistic essay.  The time I visited you at Penn in ’72 when you were living with your friend Peter Korn on 42nd Street, you two were crushing pretty hard on the album.  Especially “Sunlight” if I remember.  I stayed around a week, crashing at Young Emily’s mother on Baltimore Avenue thanks to Gabby. You dudes were all about your Eagle Toys NHL Stanley Cup Table Top Hockey Game and baking bread and listening to the Youngbloods and New Riders and Moby Grape.”

3a16f3a748cd464a6e7ae5124ec2b49a

“Number three, why are you so surprised that the City Council has moved hard to the right?  The pendulum swings – you know that.  Liberals and Progressives had a long run, and now it’s back to conservatives and developers. Sure there are the Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts, but it’s right wing.  Shit happens.”

Point taken again.  I’ve made revisions meeting his elephant concerns.  I asked what he thought of the now-revised post?

Quirky Berkeley 05-12-16

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized. RSS 2.0 feed.
« The Bars of San Pablo Avenue
Scott Page & 3D Scan Quirk »

2 Responses to Elephants

  1. Ruth Tobey says:
    March 11, 2019 at 10:16 pm

    There’s a topiary elephant on Peralta Avenue on the west side between Gilman and Hopkins. It lives in a front yard with a topiary giraffe. If you send me your email I’ll send you a photo of it.

    Reply
  2. eduardo pineda says:
    March 14, 2019 at 7:07 pm

    Thanks for the shout out Tom! I have to share credit for the elephant in my mural at UA Homes with Rob Gibson who along with Nadya Voynovskya assisted in painting the walls. Who know there were so many elephants in Berkeley! Almost as many as bears?!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Here you will find photos of the oddball, whimsical, eccentric, and the near-rhyme quirky material culture of Berkeley.
Read More

Subscribe

Categories

  • Animals
  • Architecture
  • Cars, Trains and Planes
  • Food
  • Gone
  • Graffiti
  • Ma
  • Mailboxes
  • Major Quirky
  • Miscellaneous
  • Murals
  • Painted
  • Peace
  • Signs
  • Walks

All content © 2023 by Quirky Berkeley. Base WordPress Theme by Graph Paper Press