Hello, friend! Do you know me, David Morgenstern? Perhaps, you do. Here's some overly-detailed biography that may give you a clue whether you know me or another David Morgenstern.
Family. I live in San Francisco with my wife, Inara Morgenstern, a wonderful pianist and music teacher. My daughter, Ariela Morgenstern, is a terrific singing actress who lives in New York. We have two Maine Coon cats named Hermione (Minnie) and Hercule.
My father, Leonard Morgenstern, lives in Rossmoor, Calif., a retirement community in the hills near Walnut Creek. My brother James, his wife Linda and their daughter, Dara, live in So. Calif. My sister Ann, her husband Jeff Kallman and their daughter Rebecca live in Pleasanton, Calif. My brother-in-law Eriks Upmanis lives in Santa Clara.
On the Job. I currently work at ZDNet.com as a blogger for The Apple Core blog.
In addition, I'm studying to become a chazzan. I am working on chanting and nusach with Cantor Linda Hirschhorn in Berkeley, Calif.
You may remember my recent work for Ziff Davis Media as a contributing editor at eWEEK, a resource for enterprise IT managers, as well as an executive editor there for a number of years in the online news and print features departments.
During the dotcom boom, I directed marketing communications for several startups in the Silicon Valley, including Miro Displays, a color calibration and monitor company; and TeVeo, an Internet video and photo sharing service. Both companies are defunct.
I've written for many publications, including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press, Popular Photography, Macworld magazine and others.
Back in the days, I worked at MacWEEK, an infamous trade newsweekly that covered the professional Mac market. Some called it "MacLEAK" for all the scoops. I worked my way up the ranks and became the Editor there as well as serving as editor for its successor publication, eMediaweekly.
One of my stories was a finalist for the 1999 Western Publications Association's Best News Story/Trade "Maggie" award. I also co-wrote and co-edited the 1997 runner-up award-winning news story awarded by the Computer Press Association.
Other bytes and pieces. I currently serve on the board of trustees for Congregation Beth Israel-Judea in San Francisco. It's a fusion of Reform and Conservative traditions located in the southwest corner of San Francisco.
I also help coordinate the monthly BMUGWest Mac users group meeting at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. In 1989, I co-founded the meeting and at the same time, I served as chairman of the board of directors of BMUG Inc., then the world's largest independent computer user group.
My Youth/Education. I was raised in Moraga, Calif., a small suburban town in the hills east of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area . Our family lived in the 7th home built on Rheem Blvd. and I attended Campolindo High School. My father and mother, Leonard and Mary Lou (Z"L) Morgenstern, were some of the second-tier founders of Temple Isaiah, in Lafayette.
As a teen, I was active in Reform Jewish youth groups and attended Camp Swig, where I worked for the sculptor Helen Burke Z"L.
In 1970-71, I lived in Israel at Kibbutz Menara, studying Hebrew and working on an Ulpan. While there, I worked in an agricultural trailer factory.
I attended both San Francisco State University and San Jose State University.