Speaking of the Minstrels Loft

Here's 2 views of it as seen in vintage photo's of the Formal Living Room. Its the arched balcony above the door way. I love how ecclectic, ne gawdy, the room appears. Faboulous! More is MORE!!!!

Creepy Experience. Seriously.

So I took Eleanor into the Movie theater and we decided to be brave and hop the pony wall into the original part of the theater (AFI chopped the long room in half and built a false wall and slapped a screen on it. Behind the wall is the original screen, and a fab stage with columns.) behind the false wall. The woodwork is stunning with a Lyme waxed finish as adorable tole sconces. Eleanor explored the stage while I took photos and she was touching the carving (how could anyone resist that???) and as she walked to the pillar on the right it creaked at her. The floor didn't creek, the pillar creaked. And it creaked right in her face. So we took it as meaning something and we left. When we got outside to the landing I got this weird feeling and felt my left ear throb, as if something flew into it. And there was a buzz too, like an electrical surge of sorts. I don't know if it was psychosomatic or if something really physically affected me. It was very strange.
And if you look at the photos, there's only one orb in the room. There are usually several. But this one appears at the left rear and moved to the right front next to Eleanor. That's also kind of odd.

Minstrels loft passage

Here's a very uninteresting space. It leads from the minstrels loft above the formal living room into what is being labeled as Lucy Doheny's (the daughter) dressing room. It's sort of weird that it leads there, which makes me think maybe it wasn't Lucy's bedroom and it could have been more like a guest room since the dressing room connects to a full bath. Or it could have been a changing room for the band, too. Anyway, I'm showing it because its full of orbs. what a weird place for them to collect.

New Pics!

So i had a visitor today at the house; my friend/instructor Eleanor Schapa dropped in to check our progress. As a commissioner for Beverly Hills she keep tabs on what's happening, especially what's happening to fabulous buildings like Greystone. So of course I gave her a back door tour, even going places I've never been (like the attic children's playroom, the attic mechanical room and the old movie theater) that were wonderful. Loved it!

here's the attic children's playroom. Pay no attention to that fire ladder in the corner. AFI put that in when they were renting the house from Beverly Hills for 1.00 a month. They totally trashed the house, btw. Beverly Hills was going to lease it to UCLA, but the neighbors were afraid it would become overrun with hippies and drugs. So instead, the house was over run with hippies and druggies who went to film school first.
Anyway, I loved this room. What a great place to play! That 3x3 opening in front of Eleanor is an access hatch that hid a cat walk for maintenance and repairs. Those little holes are all over the house so that service men could get inside and make repairs without disrupting the house. The Doheny boys also had fun with these; they would climb in and spy on the parties in the house and even crawl to the maids rooms and peep in through the heating vents and watch them change in the closets. Dirty buggers!

This is the mechanical room. Its mostly electrical and was probably used for storage judging by teh low ceiling and the windows blocked by headers. but look at the orbs! Oh my gosh! I wonder why there are so many little orbs in the electrical room. I wonder.....hmmmm....all that electricity with no where to go if it's in inexperienced hands.....creepy!

So We're Having Our Pictures Took

The thought of this gives me colitis.
Not that I don't want more people to know what I look like, because I do. I think it would be unfair, if not unamerican, to keep people from knowing of me. My concern is that whatever photo is taken of me (or us) will look like it came from the pages of some dust bowl yearbook or a horrible passport photo session (No one ever seems to know what diffused light is in those passport places...and they never take the photo from your good side. It's as if they don't care. The left side is my best side, FYI. Just in case you want to know how to approach me on the street and get the most bang for your buck.).
However, while lounging in exquisite languor, as is my way, I saw this group photo in House and Garden from a few years back. Disregard the people in the photo, who ever they are. I think they're from some fancy pants art gallery somewhere in New York. The kind where all the art is untitled because they don't want to influence your thoughts with subjective and superficial issues such as names. In fact, you probably wouldn't understand it anyway, so just leave. Maybe they shouldn't have put the door on the building after all. Damn fire and safety commission. Apparently, they're also into bricks. And shop lights. However, high concept art and snotty attitudes aside, I love the composition of the photo and I have always been intrigued by the idea of scaffolding. Remember that old Vogue cover with the 20 skinny models in white shirts climbing the wall of scaffolding? I loved that. It had sort of a union strike/house painter vibe. I sort of want the group image to look like that. Hip, young, enterprising, not campy or embarrassing. A dramatic simplicity. And no stupid toothy grins either. Last thing we need is to look like cast offs from Hee-Haw.

just because

because i love madeline kahn and miss her terribly.

and does anyone else think she sounds like heidi klum here? I do.

it was just one of those days....

...for so many of us.

I'm Finished!

It's 3.30 in the moring on Saturday and I'm finally done with the presentation boards that have taken 3 days out of my life, even though it seems they have taken 3 weeks. I have watched TBS throughout the entire process and I can recite the script of Men in Black I & II and some of The 5th Element, which is a very good movie. I'm surprised. I'm really watching it for the JPG designed costumes, but the story's pretty good and I usually don't go in for Sci-Fi, or Bruce Willis for that matter. I was also surprised that Lara Flynn Boyle was in Men in Black and I was even more surprised that her rack was that big. Usually, she's built like a 3rd grader, but in this movie it looked like they had shoved 2 bocce balls down her shirt. And her lips were normal at this time too, after Jack had his way with her she sort of had a swimming pool innertube vibe going on.
Watching all these movies in a row remind me of when I was laid up (at th age of 22) with chicken pox and I drifted in and out of consciousness while watching Mommy Dearest on Bravo and Immitation of Life on AMC. It wasn't that I wanted to watch, its more that I lost the remote and was too incapacitated to try to find it.
Well, I'm going to try to get the smell of art markets out of my sinuses. And watch a little more 5th Element. Woo Hoo! All done!
Now I just have to go to class and risk character assassination. Good times.