Auction fun

20th Century Props in North Hollywood is calling it quits and auctioning off its inventory this week.

You can bid on these chandeliers used in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.


Or this marlin from the set of Days of Our Lives. (A stuffed marlin on Days of Our Lives? Well, whatever . . . )


Or this beauty parlor chair, which served double duty in both Ugly Betty and Mad Men.


Loads of Heywood-Wakefield furniture going on the block today (Wednesday).


All the merch comes with a big-screen or small-screen pedigree, no matter how insignificant. You have been advised.

Excess in Encino

For the past two years I've worked in the San Fernando Valley. I've become quite fond of my local Starbucks and its creative, writerly vibe, and I resolved a while back never again to pre-judge the Valley.

But on a drive today through the Encino hills, south of the Boulevard, I ran across more than a few examples of the kind of architectural excess that can literally result in migraine. (Thanks to blogger Bobolini of proun 21 for suggesting the excursion.)

Pretension to grandeur fail!

With the possible exception of the air-conditioning, nothing about this house works, least of all its pompous portico. Corinthian??! In Encino?

Déja vu all over again, on a slightly larger scale.

Busy, busy.

I frequently have architectural nightmares, but this house, unfortunately, is real. Is it just me, or is the open-cylinder entryway making some oblique reference to the dreaded May Company building (aka LACMA West)?

Faux-pourri.

I appreciate the severity of the façade (and its earthy, neutral color), but the proportions are disconcertingly wrong. And why the Shingle Style dunce caps?

A gate in Klingon Nouveau.

As I was leaving the area, I ran across what must the largest estate in Encino, with an unbreachable perimeter wall that goes on and on. The wrought-iron gate is equally forbidding: part Art Nouveau, part Klingon shield.

Holy guano, Batman!

Mirabile dictu! The Virgin Mary has appeared under the 101 Freeway overpass at Argyle Avenue in Hollywood. She has taken a kneeling position, almost directly facing the nearby Monastery of the Angels, and has a wing-shaped aura about her caped head (an angelic protector, no doubt).

Our Lady of the Hollywood Freeway

The apparition seems to be composed of pigeon excreta, but my sources at the Vatican tell me this does not invalidate its holiness or its value as a tourist attraction, the Holy Ghost often being portrayed as a dove.

Neighborhood residents are bracing for the onslaught of pious pilgrims who will no doubt swarm the site within the next several days, continuing to worship the stain until CalTrans sends out the pressure-washing squad. (Note to CalTrans: while you're at it, please take care of the clichéd peace sign as well.)

Crime of the Week

A hot pink disaster.

I am a long-time renter, but I do sympathize with property owners (aka "landlords") who are faced with the vandalization of their rental units by tenants. It may be even worse when the damage is done by naive renters who think they are improving the place.

The bedroom above is in a 1926 Hollywood building that is in the midst of a long, meticulous, and expensive restoration to bring it back to its silent-era charm and appeal.

The tenants in this unit, however, (who have now been evicted for other reasons) took it upon themselves to paint the walls a frightening shade of electric raspberry sorbet that even Angelyne would blanche at. But the real crime is that they also slathered all the woodwork with a nice heavy layer of gold metallic paint that will have to be laboriously removed.

The owner, who is a friend of mine, had just paid workers thousands of dollars to strip, refinish, and repaint the trim and the 28 original sash windows in the building.

The gold heart crudely drawn above the bed—upon which the couple, both "artists," must surely have celebrated their masterwork with domestic champagne and a good round of hot pink sex—is the tawdry icing on this disaster.

Addendum to "A nice find"

Thanks to Anonymous (there are so many of you, Anon!) for clarifying my last post.You learn something every day.

Turns out the L.A. Times published an informative article on the Brookside neighborhood on Feb. 27, 2005. Worth reading. And they used a shot of the same house to illustrate the "magical" qualities of the neighborhood, without mentioning its Québecois origins; the author calls it a "Moorish-style Scottish-influenced castle," which is not even close. But it just proves you can have anything you want in L.A. (minus the snow).

Vieux-Québec in L.A. (from the L.A. Times)

A nice find

This quirky 1926 storybook house (but aren't all 1926 L.A. storybook houses quirky?) just south of Hancock Park sold for $1.4 in May, according to Trulia.com, and is now being thoroughly renovated, with new trenches dug for garden walls and a thorough refurbishing of the turrets, among other sensitive preservations.

It's hardly the most beautiful house in this neighborhood of lovely, undertstated manses, but I was certainly struck by the commitment the new owners are showing to preserving the movieland ethos of this only-in-L.A. original.

846 S. Longwood Ave. under renovation

846 S. Longwood Ave. before (from Realtor.com)

A handful of workmen were still there on Saturday when I drove by just at quitting time (and witnessed a bit of after-work wagering going on in the driveway). They generously let me take a peek inside.

The best features of the interior are being preserved.

The detached garage and its upstairs unit are utterly charming. I think I could be quite happy living up there.

Garage and second-story unit

Due to the curvature of the street at this point, the house faces a stretch of Longwood just north of Olympic, one of the most beautiful residential blocks in Los Angeles.

If anyone knows more about the history of this house, please post in the comments.