Hidey Holes and Hooch Hounds

...sion that most struck me was the elaborate prohibition era hidden liquor accommodations. Ned was a notorious alcoholic and fitted out almost every room with small cabinets tucked into the walls. He even had his own bowling alley in the basement adjacent to a speakeasy cleverly hidden behind a roll up wall. Both were restored for the film There Will Be Blood. Prohibition sparked a lot of creativity in the 1920s even among those with fewer resources...

Read…

Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione

...nails, to offer designs that anyone can make without specialized training. Comrades can download Mari’s 1974 manual Autoprogettazione (roughly translatable as “self design”). The goal of Autoprogettazione is not to just offer measured drawings, rather it’s a manual to teach a vocabulary you can use to design and build your own furniture. Mari says, Therefore the way should be to involve the user of a consumer item in the design and realization of...

Read…

So Cal Alert: Polyphagus Shot Hole Borer

...cer buergerianum) 5 Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) 6. Castor bean (Ricinus communis) 7. California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa)* 8. Mexizan sycamore (Platanus mexicana) 9. Red Willow (Salix laevigata)* 10. Avocado (Persea americana) 11. Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) 12. English Oak (Quercus robur) 13. Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)* 14. London plane (Platanus x acerifolia) 15.Cottonwood (Populus fremontii)* 16. Black cottonwood (Populus trichoc...

Read…

Pepper’s Ghost

...there’s a free version of a video DJ type program called VDMX that you can download and Ellingson also has some videos on how to hook up old TVs to a laptop to create bigger Pepper’s ghost setups. I’m thinking of doing a simple Pepper’s ghost for the huge trick or treat crowds in our neighborhood. How huge are those crowds? Most years we run out and close early at about 300 little customers. Many of our neighbors are in the film industry and put u...

Read…

I Made an Enzo Mari Table and So Can You

...sy hardwood arts and crafts stuff I usually make, which can take months to complete just one piece. You don’t need a wood shop to make Mari’s furniture. That said, John and I were able to reclaim some of his twisted 2x6s using my jointer, planer and table saw. But here’s where things get confusing. European readers please correct me if I’m wrong here, but when Mari calls for a 25mm x 50mm piece of lumber he means literally that, what would be 1-in...

Read…