At Home On Piety Hill

Denise knows where to shop… when she heard there would be a flea market at a local Lutheran church, she charged right over there. “The churches with the older congregations have all the really cool stuff.” She came home with the most beautiful Christmas tree skirt I have ever seen, as well as some retro Christmas ornaments and… a little “special occasion tree” like my Grandma Louise used to have. Actually, it was a manzanita branch that looked like a tree, about a foot tall. She would decorate it for every season or special occasion. Now, we have one.

The biggest treat was this beautifully illustrated Barbecue Book by the publishers of Sunset Magazine.

For those of you who don’t know, I love to barbeque and I have always dreamed of building a real brick barbecue and smoker in the back yard. Well, now I have some great plans! I prefer the “barbecue as shrine” motif, designing the entire yard around the “sacred flame” on an elevated platform.

The book is chock full of handyman projects and I recognized a number of them as fixtures on patios all over my childhood neighborhood. In fact, we had a couple of redwood lounges just like this one…

My Grandma, the one with the “special occasion tree,” had a barbecue almost identical to this one in her backyard in El Monte California.

The Autumn-Winter Lisbon Fashion Show ended today in Lisbon Spain and Portugese designer Dino Alves showed some… well, some provocative designs.

Did I stumble upon the showing of a collection of “voodoo doll apparel” or is this a collision of fashion, the culture of death and post-modern zeitgeist? I suppose I’m just not very sophisticated.

Have I seen anything I like this season, you ask? Well, I did see some nice prom dresses in the Alloy catalogue and there was a very nice formal white gown, with black flowers embroidered(?) accross the midriff and down the leg. But, I like this one the best. It’s bright and fun!

Men’s clothing is taking a positive, if more conventional, direction. I noticed Billy Joe Armstrong wearing a nice outfit with a black button-down shirt and red tie: this was complimented with narrow suspenders and silver hardware. The band, Interpol, caught my eye on the cover of SPIN magazine and I really like their look. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the photo on the web yet, so this older one will have to do…

Fashion is so fickle. It’s like Maine weather: If you don’t like it, just check back in an hour and it will be different.

Wanna see something spooky… and, beautiful? I’ve been slowly adding links to my left column. Follow the hilmancurtis link under Art / Design I Like. Just keep watching. And, be sure to look at his work. I heard he was moving to Nevada County, but haven’t seen him yet.

Sam’s agent, Marc, got him a mention in the European design mag, Crash. Is this part of a larger strategy to prepare the folks in London and Belgium for the kid from the US with a quirky penchant for drawing and painting women with long necks, in odd settings with little men? Here’s the cover:

Here’s the spread:

I like that title: POWER GIRLS. I suppose that’s as good a description as you can hope to arrive at, when describing Sam’s impressions of the female form. If you are interested in tracking his development, just go to marcjancou.com and visit Emerging Artists or Exhibitions. It seems like Sam has been emerging for some time, has actually broken forth into the potentially toxic atmosphere of the fine art world and should arrive at established status fairly soon. We are happy for him.

Speaking of a load off… It has long been a dream of mine to redecorate our home in a modern theme, but it looks like that will have to wait for another 5-10 years. In the interim, we have decided upon a retro look and have been scouring thrift stores, garage sales and eBay for furniture and accessories from the same era as the ribbon-cutting on our home, i.e. 1961.

Today my wife, Denise, and I were leaving a disappointing garage sale, when we happened upon a young gentleman (who happpened to be from New Zealand), standing in the driveway of his new home, next to this sectional. Nothing ventured, nothing gained… we rolled down the window and asked if he would like to sell it. He said, “sure” and we agreed upon the reasonable price of $50.

As you can see, it is a beautiful piece of furniture and it compliments the entertainment center Denise found months ago, which shook us from our complacency and began the cascade of interior design activity.

It also gave me incentive to learn how to import images into the blog and futz around with them a little. Aren’t you glad?