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Dave Margulius

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Category: Fun

April 14, 2020 Fun / Music

How To Host A ‘Name That Tune’ Party On Zoom

Want to get away from the worry and stress for a couple of hours, and do something fun on Zoom

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April 4, 2020 Fun / Local / Music

Bagpipes Never Sounded So Good

Our neighbor here in Berkeley has been playing bagpipes in the evenings, in his apartment, for nearly 15 years. But

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March 11, 2020 Art / Climate

How Great Posters And Distributed Design Made Extinction Rebellion A Global Movement

Most climate posters are one-offs. And so are most climate protests. But Extinction Rebellion broke that mold, becoming the first

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January 22, 2020 Art

Amazing Cuban Poster Exhibit From the 1960s and ’70s

I recently saw an exhibit of Cuban posters that took my breath away. Pictures speak louder than words, so I’m

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October 14, 2019 Climate / Education / Fun

Climate Escape Room: Make Your Own Fun Group CO2 Learning Game

Last week at the Getting To Zero (carbon) conference I played an excellent group game that showed how with a

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May 8, 2019 Journalism / Vintage

Photoessay: My Private Tour Of The New York Times’ Morgue

Today I spent a couple of hours in a basement archive belonging to the New York Times. It was a

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February 3, 2019 Fun

In The Recording Studio With Dad (Grandpa Harry)

Dad and I finally got into a professional recording studio last week, at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. I

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May 26, 2018 Education / Fun

For A Fun, Educational Project, Build This Cardboard Pinball Machine

What can America do with its mountains of recycled cardboard? Make educational toys, that’s what! Last week, in Burlington, Vermont,

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April 15, 2018 Art / Local

Berkeley’s Wall For Peace, Revisited 30 Years Later

How long can a symbol of hopeful activism last? A long time, in the case of Berkeley’s Wall For Peace,

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January 21, 2018 Art

Life Advice From Letterpress Artist Amos Kennedy Jr… ‘It’s a Joy To Make Stuff’

If you’re a creative person and want to get inspired, watch this talk with Detroit letterpress artist Amos Kennedy Jr.

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January 7, 2018 Music

Bruce

His book is worth reading – and his second act worth considering. A friend snapped this cell phone picture of

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January 6, 2018 Local / Music

Local Music Moments, Caught on Video

Wurlitzer Organ at Berkeley High School, Jan 13, 2018 Was walking by Berkeley High today and saw the door to

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December 26, 2017 Fun / Local

The Best Lap Swim Pools in the East Bay (Updated)

Looking to swim laps in the East Bay? We have some awesome pools here. Here’s my roundup so far, after trying

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December 7, 2017 Art / Local

Bay Area Artists I Like (Updated)

Here’s a list of local (Bay Area) artists I’ve discovered – and liked – for one reason or another. I’ll

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December 4, 2017 Art / Local

Capitola Sea Wall Tiles Project

I was in Capitola last weekend and came across this awesome public art project, on the boardwalk downtown, from 2008. What’s

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June 26, 2017 Music

My House Concert Experiment Was a Hit

Just wanted to post a few pictures and a video from my house concert this Saturday featuring the awesome bluegrass

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May 22, 2017 Local / Music

A Few Local Bluegrass Jam Resources

Here’s a few resources I’ve come across (or am developing myself), that may be useful for people getting more into playing

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April 2, 2017 Vintage

Mystery Bronze Fixture (With Ring)

In many years of going to the Alameda antiques market, I’ve stumbled across some unique and mysterious items, but nothing

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April 2, 2017 Business / Vintage

Cobalt Blue Sign From the Dawn of Global Banking

I bought this sign at the Alameda antiques market after noticing it a few months in a row. I’m into

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March 22, 2017 Fun / Vintage

Abbey Rents Folding Chairs

For years I’d been searching for a matched set of vintage wooden folding chairs. Recently, just as I was about

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March 21, 2017 Climate / Music

Songs About Pollution, 50 Years Later

Most songs about political issues aren’t very good songs. But check out these tunes written in the 60s and 70s,

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March 4, 2017 Climate / Music

Songs From The War on Coal

Every good fight needs some fight songs, but the climate change battle doesn’t have many. People don’t sing much about car

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February 20, 2017 Fun

Hungry, Foolish, Hitchhiking.

“The frame of mind of the young hitchhiker is one of the freest frames of mind there is,” Stewart Brand

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November 25, 2016 Fun

How to Build a Picture Rail Railway

Want a model railroad layout inside your house that takes up almost no space and is barely visible? Got a

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November 18, 2016 Art

In Search of Great Posters

While researching poster art for my virtual poster display, I’ve stumbled upon some great online collections. They’re hard to find, because

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November 6, 2016 Music

House Concerts: Worth Going

I went to my first official ‘house concert’ today – what’s up with these? I’d been hearing about them for

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November 2, 2016 Art / Local

Berkeley Protest Posters, 1968 to ’73

The late 1960s and early ’70s were a period of intense innovation in poster design, from psychedelic music posters to

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October 29, 2016 Art / Climate / Local

BART’s Launch Marketing, 1972

When the sun rose on BART in 1972, it was a joyous, miraculous thing – the future had arrived. At

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October 27, 2016 Vintage

Early Boston Telephone Book

Among all the random stuff I’ve collected over the years, this 1881 Boston phone book is one of the standouts.

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October 19, 2016 Local / Vintage

Inside Berkeley’s Hidden History Vault

It’s no King Tut’s tomb, but the History Room at the Berkeley Public Library is worth a look. Due to

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October 18, 2016 Art

Virtual Poster Display

Bill Gates once spent millions of dollars to build virtual art displays into his new house. Well, now the cost

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October 16, 2016 Art

Tracking Public Art

Over the past few years I’ve been noticing public art more. It’s gotten way more interesting – we’re finally past

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October 15, 2016 Art / Fun

Cast Iron Georgia O’Keefe

Since moving to Berkeley, where I have more space, I’d been thinking I really needed a trophy wall of some

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October 13, 2016 Vintage

1950’s Workbench Stool

Bought this badass stool today… I’m assuming it’s Korean War era, since it’s marked “Selective Service System,” and looks to

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September 20, 2016 Art

Mass MoCA: Creativity at Huge Scale (Hope it Works)

This weekend I saw two breathtaking, ambitious, large scale projects that captivated me: The new Sawyer Library at Williams College, and

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September 19, 2016 Art / Vintage

Love Poster Auction

Saw these Love posters by Yves St. Laurent up for auction in a gallery in Hudson, NY, and thought they

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August 2, 2016 Fun

Hanging Pot Rack (From Old Teller Window)

While looking around a local architectural salvage yard in search of something to use as a hanging pot rack, I ran

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February 24, 2015 Art / Education

Why I’m Buying Books

I’ve been on a strange book-buying binge over the past few weeks. The paper kind. Almost 100 books and counting.

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February 2, 2014 Climate / Education / Music

The Power of Staying Power: Pete Seeger Never Stopped Teaching

[The following is an email I sent out to my team a few days after Pete Seeger’s death on January

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July 19, 2013 Fun / Quizlet

CEO Weekend Project: How to Hang Swings in Your Office

Let’s face it – you need a break from the firehose of decisions, meetings and stress that comes with being

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December 28, 2012 Vintage

My Brief Glimpse at (Maybe) the Last Big Private Wood Type Collection

In December 2011 I got an email that a designer here in SF was selling a large wood type collection,

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August 29, 2010 Vintage

Bank of Really Old Post Office Boxes

I bought this complete bank of fifty one 1880s nickel-plated post office lockboxes in the Sierras from a woman who’d owned

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December 11, 2009 Fun / Vintage

I Saw a Monster Last Weekend

Originally published on Collectorsweekly.com.  Recently I read an interesting obit in the New York Times about a guy who spent

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January 19, 2009 Vintage

The Disappearing Art of Porcelain Signs

Originally published on Collectorsweekly.com. In this interview, Michael Bruner talks about collecting vintage 20th Century porcelain advertising signs. I liked

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December 11, 2008 Music

An Interview with George Gruhn

Originally published on Collectorsweekly.com. In this interview, George Gruhn talks about collecting vintage electric and acoustic guitars. DM: How did

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December 24, 2006 Vintage

Cook Quality Office Chair

This amazing old swivel chair has the original cast iron hardware and is fully adjustable (seat, backrest and back post).

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February 12, 2006 Fun / Vintage

My Brief Wig-Wag Love Affair

In 2005 I bought and had a brief infatuation with a type of antique railroad signal called a ‘wig-wag’. With some

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January 14, 2006 Vintage

1905 Hamilton Manufacturing Co. Catalog

This spectacular 190-page catalog has to be seen to be believed (download the 32MB pdf). If you’re into printing, graphic

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July 9, 2005 Vintage

Best Standing Desk Ever

I got this six foot long standing desk in July 2005. Taking a break from a Microsoft conference in Minneapolis, I

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January 1, 2004 Art

Ice Carving Goes Digital

This article was originally published in the New York Times in 2004, as part of a series I did for their

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