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June 3, 2016 by tomdalzell

Field Trips!

 

My friend and I decided that while the core mission of Quirky Berkeley is stuff in Berkeley, an occasional field trip is a good thing.  On holidays, I will post photographs from a notional quirky field trip.  So far – just California plus one Nevada.  Usually but not always easy driving distance.  This is NOT mission creep – just field trips.

To date, we have these, most recent at the top:

Ron-Sherman

Thanksgiving Post: Me and Arlo

For our notional holiday travel, we will time-travel back to 1967 and 1969 and hear about my three close encounters with Arlo Guthrie.  Prepare to cringe a little along with me.

 

IBEW-Bobo in San Juan Baptista

Labor Day Field Trip – San Juan Bautista

For Labor Day we visit Vicente A. “Bobo” Banuela Jr. and his astonishing collection of electric line equipment and models. Decades of a passionate pursuit by a passionate man.

Quirky Berkeley visits Vallejo, Calif. on September 18th, 2018.

Holiday Field Trip: Dorothy Herger in Vallejo

QB Superstar Doug Heine took me to Vallejo for our Memorial Day field trip to visit his high school art teacher, Dorothy Herger and see her world of art made, bought, given, and collected.

Quirky Berkeley 2-8-2019

Field Trip: Dragon House in Sacramento

For President’s Day, a notional trip to the Curtis Park neighborhood of Sacramento and the Dragon House – spectacular tile work and high-production-value small worlds.

Quirky Berkeley in Reno

Field Trip – Junkee in Reno

For our notional Thanksgiving field trip, we visit Junkee in Midtown Reno.  Antique clothing, kitschy antiques, and handmade crafts, all in a super heavy dose of quirk.

 

Plastic Water in Santa Cruz, Calif. is seen on May 4th, 2018.

Field Trip: Plastic World in Santa Cruz

An undersea environment created with plastic reclaimed from the ocean and beaches. Aerialists. Teaching the dangers of plastics in the ocean. Mark your calendar – October 5 in Santa Cruz.

Quirky Berkeley 6-19-2018

Avenue of Giants – Bell Plastics, Hayward

Our 4th of July notional holiday field trip is to Bell Plastics in Hayward, where owner Bruce Kennedy has collected and restored several dozen fiberglass advertising giants. Ut vides credere. Do you believe in giants?

Memorial-DayRon-Alexander-17B-copy

Memorial Day – Time Travel to 1969

For our holiday field trip today, Memorial Day, we will travel time, not space.  We will visit Berkeley on Memorial Day 1969, when 30,000 people marched in support of People’s Park and against state violence.

Quirky Berkeley 02-18-2018

Allen Sawyer – So Clever!  Such collections!

Our notional holiday field trip to see Allen Sawyer’s collections – Disney, plaster fish, mermen, paint-by-number swans, male ballet dancers, gay and queer book titles and oh so much more.

Quirky Berkeley 08-16-2016

Holiday Field Trip: The Art of John Abduljaami

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we find the wood carvings of the late John Abduljaami, focal point being an eco-industrial park in West Oakland.

 

Quirky Berkeley in Oakland 07-28-2017

Christmas Field Trip – Dave Seabury in East Berkeley

Continuing with our All-Seabury long holiday weekend, a field trip to Orinda and the home of Dave Seabury and his life of music and art and found treasures.  And four cats, three of whom are shown here.

Quirky Berkley 09-03-2017

Field  Trip – Alameda Point Antique Faire

It’s Thanksgiving, and this holiday notional field trip is to the-once-a-month faire at Alameda Point.  Marcia Donahue and Jon Balderston were my guides.  Lucky!  An incredible experience.

Quirky Berkeley-Reno-07-21-2017

Holiday Field Trip – Quirky Reno

Day three of a three-day weekend – a third post.  A first taste of Quirky Reno – the Flintstones, a big VW Bug/Spider, and the Generator DIY workspace.  Shown here, Maya’s Mind by Mischell Riley.

Quirky Berkeley 07-02-2017

Holiday Field Trip -NIMBY in Summer

Snook suggested in the winter that we come back in the summer as NIMBY gets Burning Man real.  We did.  It was hot and dusty and sizzled – and on its way to Burning Man Real.

Quirky Berkeley 02-27-2017

Holiday Field Trip – NIMBY in Winter

The first of three Labor Day weekend field trip posts.  Michael Snook is the creative genius and owner at NIMBY in East Oakland, a DIY/makers space with strong connections to Burning Man.

Quirky Berkeley-San Anselmo

Field Trip: Susan’s Store Room

For the 4th of July – field trip to San Anselmo.  A toy store – sort of – where idea leads to idea leads to idea.  Fanciful.  Whimsical.  Brilliant. The best of the best.  Yes!

 

Quirky-Chico_0200-X3

Field Trip: Chico

Memorial Day! Murals, a yo-yo museum, Asian clutter, crazed memorabilia and oddities on a bar wall, and a fairytale park.  Who knew?

 

Quirky Berkeley 01-30-2017

Field Trip – Bulwinkle Plaza

It’s President’s Day – let’s conserve on gas and just go to Emeryville.  At the Home Depot/Target shopping center we’ll find tons (literally!) of Bulwinkle steel sculpture.

 

Quirky Nevada-Thunder Mountain Monument

Field Trip – Thunder Mountain

We continue our holiday tradition this MLK day with a field trip to Thunder Mountain, Frank Van Zant’s folk art environment in Imlay, Nevada, east of Reno.  Dusty, windy, hot in summer.  And intensely genius.

Quirky Berkeley 10-02-2016

Field Trip – Clayton Bailey

For our Christmas holiday field trip, we visit Clayton Bailey’s museum in Crockett and his home on the road to Port Costa.  Ceramics.  Robots.  Phantasmagorical.  And we are introduced to my friend’s friend Erskine.

Quirky Eureka 04-02-2016

Field Trip – Laurel Skye’s Mosaic World

Our Thanksgiving holiday field trip is to the mosaic home of Laurel Skye in Arcata.  Sensory overload!  Go slowly.  Click on the photos to get full screen.  This is really something.

Quirky Eureka 04-02-2016

Duane Flatmo’s Kinetic Sculpture

It’s Labor Day, so it’s time for a field trip.  We visit Duane Flatmo, creator of El Pulpo Mecanico and other kinetic sculpture at his Eureka workshop.

 

Quirky Eureka 04-02-2016

Romano Gabriel’s Eureka Quirk

The Labor Day field trip is – see above – to see Duane Flatmo in Eureka.  While there, we checked out the preserved folk art of Romano Gabriel.

 

Quirky Eureka 04-02-2016

The Road to Eureka

Our Fourth of July field trip – to Eureka!  Getting there is a significant fraction of the fun, and here are four major manifestations of Old Weird America along the way.

 

Quirky visits Sebastopol

Field Trip: Art Moura’s Unusual/Outsider Art

It’s Memorial  Day, a holiday, so a field trip.  Second stop with Susan Alexander in Sebastopol, Art Moura and his raw, crude, intuitive, outsider – unusual – art.

 

Quirky visits Sebastopol

Field Trip: Amiot and Laurent / Sebastopol 

Another holiday – Berkeley and private – and another virtual field trip, to the home of Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent in Sebastopol, ground zero for Amiot’s junk art sculpture.

Quirky Berkeley 02-10-2016

Field Trip – Cevan Forristt in San Jose

A holiday field trip!  Part Two of Marcia Donahue takes me to San Jose, here to landscape designer genius Cevan Forristt’s Asian-inspired yard, guest house, and house.

 

Quirky Berkeley 02-10-2016

Field Trip – Ted Fullwood in San Jose

Our new holiday tradition – field trip!  For Easter I take you to San Jose to see the tile work, ceramic sculpture, and weaving of Ted Fullwood. A big wow.

 

Quirky Berkeley-Glen Ellen

Susan Alexander / Tom Tollefsen / Glen Ellen

A new feature – a field trip each holiday.  Here, magic house and magic garden in Glen Ellen.  Really something.

 

 

 

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