Coupe de Grace

Your Boulevardier is an habitue of the Village Barber Shop, but he acknowledges that there are many other places in the City of Lite to get one's hair done. One, on Redwood Road near Trader Joe's, sports this charming hand-painted sign.



The stark blue-black-orange color scheme, while unusual, works well for the sign, in Your Boulevardier's opinion. And the images themselves have an endearing retro style; perhaps they are an homage to Roy Lichtenstein. The upper haircut might be a portrait of movie idol George Chakiris, while the lower image could be a subtle appeal to the Mad Men crowd.

The building itself is, if Your Boulevardier recalls correctly, the former office of a Castro Valley real estate agent named Jem Angus. He was Your Boulevardier's first employer, paying this garçon a half-cent each to hang his advertising flyers on Castro Valley doorknobs. Perhaps that is when the love of walking our neighborhoods was first cultivated.