Bridget Marquardt begins re-decorating her room as a dungeon in late August. It’s a fascination she shares with Hef. This week I sat here rewatching episodes and screenshotting like a madman. One evening ends with everyone in pajamas (I know he was big on pj’s) watching a horror film Hef made at 16. It starred him, his best friend, and his crush, Betty Conklin. I know this because it’s mentioned over and over and over. She broke his heart when she invited another guy to the school hayride.

Hef was a storyteller no matter what. If it weren’t for Playboy, I think he still would’ve done something nuts. Before the short film, it was “The Shudder Club”, a horror fan club and zine he made for his friends. He hand drew every copy of the magazine. His biggest influence, which would remain a constant at the Playboy Halloween parties, was Frankenstein (if we’re getting technical, Frankenstein’s monster). He loved Boris Karloff, you know the actor who played the monster in 1931, so much that he invited him to become the honorary president of the Shudder Club.

I obviously love and adore the costumes Holly, Bridget, and Kendra would come up with each year, most of them custom made from Trashy. Holly’s “Jackie Ho” costume feels like a classic for girls who get it. Kendra did her own thing with a simple “Go To Hell” v-neck, or on a different year, having their hairstylist Laurent Saint-Cricq give her an afro.

I love this time of year because everyone gets nostalgic and now there are 1,000’s of pumpkin spice lattes to choose from. Alfred’s has my favorite but let me know if there’s one I’m missing…

I wish I could go back in time and be a painted lady at Playboy’s Halloween party!! Don’t cancel me. I think I may start parroting the millennial woes about life before phones. I can’t even imagine the feeling of slugging some jello shots in a tiny outfit and dancing to horrendous music around Frankie Muniz?? And the best part was no one could document how goofy you looked?? I’m at the gym huffing through assisted pull-ups while tweens film each other flexing in the mirror. Real life is scary enough!

Until we can AI our own Playboy Mansion party or whatever else the future holds, I found a few accounts of what the Playboy Halloween parties really were like…from a creepy dude (went in 2000), a seasoned Playboy partier (2011), and two Australians who had never been to America before and decided to make their first trip an unforgettable one (2009).

Getting there

Australians (2009): We met at Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City and met our host for the night who later become one of my best friends Danny Stewart.

We had mostly girls with us and Jason from VH1’s I Love New York who was really lovely. We walked from the hotel to the check in area Watt Plaza for a 6:45pm check in. It was in a sort of underground parking garage area and we checked in at a table and got our wristband and jumped on the shuttle bus.

It was like a small mini bus, we drank, danced and got excited driving the 6 min drive up to the mansion gates.

Creepy dude (2000): just so you know, there is only one way to drive to Hefner’s Mansion... you must arrive in a Limo... no exceptions. As we approached the Stud Manor, we began passing what seemed like hundreds of parked Limos. Turns out we were approaching from the wrong angle... when the driver attempted the turn... the car began bottoming out on the incline of Hugh’s driveway. We had to continue going straight and perform a U-TURN in a 60 ft limo on a blind turn on some sort of semi-highway type of thing. The folks in this now twisting death chariot began screaming as the driver made the turn... Suddenly we were headed the other direction just as a volley of cars narrowly missed us.

First Impressions

Seasoned partier (2011): It was really fun to get another chance to walk through Hef’s private zoo, which includes the cutest, little monkeys and being spooked by actors hidden in the bushes. The decorations were extremely over the top – in a really great way – and there was even a haunted house that consisted of room after room of scary scenes.

Australians: The entire pool/grotto area and the main area of the party was covered by a huge marquee, projected on the marquee were pumpkin faces and they were playing “Freaks” a classic movie perfect for Halloween. There were fairy lights absolutely everywhere. One of the main centre pieces was this huge tree and they hung fake heads from it, so freaky! The main dance floor and stage area was circled by VIP cabanas including “Hef and GND”. Their cabana had mini chandeliers and two knights in corners with organza curtains and a big red velvet couch. So many poles to dance on and even poles hanging from the roof.

We then went to the see the animals!! A lot of the tropical birds were out with handlers so people could interact, but cockatoos I see all the time so went onwards to the monkeys. These were little spider monkeys who were very excited to see people and potentially get fed. They were noisy and a bit aggressive haha I did not want to feed them.

Creep: Upon arriving at the mansion, I noticed instantly... THIS IS WAYNE MANOR!!! I am so completely serious. Perched atop a hill, trees/semi-jungle surrounding the grounds... There was a large faux inflatable moon floating overhead casting moonlight upon the entire grounds. Mist and graveyard fog flowed everywhere... giving it that mysterious London-y feel... Transylvania....

And I was just in the driveway. I mean, everywhere I looked there seemed to be 6 ft tall 38-18-24 women in 7” spiked high heels and various stages of skimpiness. I wasn’t even in yet. Dear God.

The Grotto

Australians: I then asked to see the Grotto!! I did see a couple having sex in there haha it was pretty magical like a cave with lounges and pool toys all around. There were a few people in the pool by the end of the night.

Seasoned partier: one of my favorite part about parties at the mansion is the Grotto! For the Halloween party, the Grotto was tented and also decorated with lots of ghosts and ghouls. Towards the end of the night, I headed in for a little dip in one of the heated jacuzzis that are inside the grotto. The jacuzzis connect to the cooler pool which has an opening to swim out to the main pool area – where the party is. There are plenty of fun pool toys like floats that make this a popular hang out spot for guests.

Food & Drinks

Australians: We tried tootsie rolls for the first time a weird caramel soft candy.

Seasoned: Keeping the party going, there were servers walking around with C02 cocktails that were perfect for Halloween! There were also several top shelf bars throughout the event as well as two buffet areas with food like pesto shrimp, coconut shrimp, a chicken dish, a noodle dish, steak skewers, salad with garbanzo beans, a coffee & dessert table with yummy treats like chocolate covered strawberries, etc. Everything was complimentary to Mansion guests and exclusive ticket holders.

Creep: This was... the perfect party. I will, never in my life, attend a party that can begin to approach this one. The locale, the guests, the food and the drink (I was consuming masses of Rum and Coke).

The Haunted Mansion

Creep: Alright, admittedly, just a step or two in... I was beginning to think... damn, look at the women! But.. As I proceeded into the middle of the main room... My mouth hung open.

Easily over a thousand monster heads... Harryhausen’s Cyclops, a casting off the real John Merrick’s face, full size beautifully realistic faces of Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Dr Phibes, Mole Men, Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, Invisible Man, The Fly, Brundlefly, Robocop, 3 Mars Attacks Aliens, War of the Worlds alien, The Cat And The Canary creature.... Everything.... Damien, Stay Puff, Slimer, Apes, Gorillas, Saucermen.... You name it... it was here. Alien, Predator, Pumpkinhead... ALL OF THEM... Fright Night, BLOB, Invaders from Mars, Devil Bat, Hunchbacks by Laughton, Quinn, Cagney and Chaney. Werewolves by Chaney Jr, Henry Hull and Oliver Reed. Vampires by Lee, Lugosi and Langella. Frankensteins by Lee, Karloff, Chaney Jr, Boyle and Strange....

This was what I couldn’t believe. I knew going into this that I would be dazzled by the women (I’ll get to them in a second), but what I was completely and utterly unprepared for was the complete extravagance of geek horror/sci-fi coolness.

The Haunted house? Supreme... Hellraiser, Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, a polka dot terror, an amazing living dead room that was truly trippy. There was even a DAY OF THE DEAD room...

Seasoned: The decorations were extremely over the top – in a really great way – and there was even a haunted house that consisted of room after room of scary scenes. One of my favorite parts of the haunted house was a room that was set up to give the feeling of walking across a plank that was high above a dirty and haunted looking room. Mirrors were expertly positioned to create an experience of being a hundred feet or so above the ground – even though I realized pretty quick it was a mirror floor and that I actually couldn’t fall, it was still really scary and played with my head! There was also a really cool wall of masked bushes that every once in a while, one of the masks would jump out at you. I definitely screamed more than a few times which partially explains my laryngitis this morning.

Australians: We walked around the trails in the backyard and there were scare actors jumping out to scare us!! Terrifying. The front yard? I think it was. It was dark and i’ve only ever seen the mansion on TV so I didn’t know where I was. The front yard had gravestones everywhere, I took a photo with Bridget’s headstone. Then further along the path we found Hugh Hefner’s Hollywood star!! Yes he has his own star in his yard!

Next on the tour was a few hidden rooms, it was like a maze with hidden corner rooms like this one that had a mattress type floor and a sunken lounge feel with mirrored walls and hidden bathrooms. Until we found the games room, with vintage pinball machines even a Playboy branded one and Girls Next Door arcade games.

Celebrity Sightings

Seasoned: Friday night, ATB performed while the EC Twins and LMFAO kept the party rockin on Saturday. While at the party I got to see Hugh Hefner, who was dressed as a referee (or maybe a jailbird – his costume had black and white stripes).

Australians: To the dance floor!! Where we saw so many celebs! Adrienne Curry and Christopher Knight - Americas Next Top Model winner and the original Peter Brady. Hill stars Jayde Nicole, Brody Jenner, Spencer and Heidi. We then met Colin Wilkinson who was a sweetheart and let us take photos of him proposing to us haha. There was always something happening on stage I think there was a live auction at one point and live performances. We saw the Shannon twins and Hef with Crystal. There was always a celebrity around or a roving entertainer, like a lady with a snake. Other celebs around were Kelly Osbourne, Keith Hefner, Pauly Shore.

Creep: Now, besides... EVERY PLAYMATE KNOWN TO MAN... there was Elizabeth Hurley, Kirsten Dunst and a bevy of Hollywood Ladies. Besides Hefner, who was the coolest person at the party... Tony Curtis. HOUDINI!!! Son of RAGNAR!!! JOHNNY DARK!!! Father of Jamie Leigh Curtis!!!

I found the event production company that was behind these parties…there are maps showcasing numerous graveyards, a haunted forest, and a detailed blueprint for covering the pool with decking to create a performance stage for an “Oddity Show” of circus performers. They said 80+ actors would be hired each year. Notable performers on their website included Diddy (yikes), Tiesto, Tao Cruz and Flo Rida.

Some things are definitely better left in the past, but you can still live in your own Girls Next Door bubble by shopping for a corset or a mini skirt at Trashy on La Cienega, visiting Laurent at Camden 414 Salon, or stalking Daren Metropoulos (current owner of the Playboy Mansion) on Instagram and CSI-ing his photos for micro updates on the mansion.

I have my weekly estate sale list below, some haunted houses for sure. Probably some scary lines as well. Maybe if you dress up in costume you’ll get a discount, like at Chipotle!

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I wanted to talk about Mount Washington because it’s L.A. eccentric cool. I’ve learned the area through estate sales and open houses. The frequency is different up there.

The last one of these..pieces? I did was on Rustic Canyon. I’m thinking the next one has to have a substantially different appeal. This feels like..maybe the east side version of Rustic Canyon? Or that’s how I organize it in my mind. Idk don’t get all upset over it.

An L.A. Times article from 2016 said Mount Washington is “located just upstream from where the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles River merge..” I’m not a compass I’m just a girl (grown woman). To orient you, you can definitely see the neighborhood in the way beyond while sitting outside Capri Club throwing them back. When I looked it up on a map to get technical, it seems semi-close to the Los Angeles Police Museum, a place I never knew or figured would ever exist. Talk about a buzzkill.

A blog that is really hard to read because it’s littered with ads, wrote that they had lived in Mount Washington in the 70s. At the time, there were rumors circling of the Night Stalker dropping off victims in the nearby hills.

It also said, “if you want a thrill”, try driving up Eldred Street. Apparently it is one of the steepest streets in the United States. Yeah I’ve done it and even in my Jeep it tweaks me out.

It all came together in 1909. Don’t fall asleep. Robert Marsh wanted to develop this expanse of ranchland, occupied only by sheep. It’s crazy to hear these stories, like Los Angeles was once a place where people could have these sorts of revelations. Maybe people would like living on this huge hill close to downtown, where you can also get views of the ocean??? He built a Mission-style hotel at the summit. He also built an incline railway to cart people up there. I read a whole speech about it on the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California website. They said everyone wanted a go, people would hang off the thing just to get a ride.

The hotel was frequented by actors working at a nearby studio. Once the studio moved, the hotel became desolate. In 1922, it turned into a military academy, then a respiratory hospital, and finally, it found a lasting position as the international headquarters of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Typically the grounds are open to the public but they’re currently closed for a three year renovation. Is this another Olympics thing??

As people were clinging to the funicular, taking in the panoramic views, Robert Marsh was busy trying to sell the newly subdivided lots below. He created the Mt. Washington Eagle, a promotional supplement in the Los Angeles Times. In one issue of the Eagle, it stated that the man who buys a lot or home on Mt. Washington has these advantages:

1. Absolute freedom from noise or smoke.

2. No undesirable residential element.

3. The grandest views of mountain, valley, and the sea,

4. Pure mountain air, high, dry, and sanitary.

5. An environment of public and private improvements.

6. The grandest water found in Southern California

I’d bite. Two decades later, John Lautner would ask The Mauers, his prospective clients, “Would you mind living in a warehouse if it gave you the space you wanted?” To which they replied, “Not if you design the warehouse.” It was built in 1947 for $10,000, right down the street for the Self-Realization Fellowship. There was an estate sale a while back, the place is a dump but the grandson is currently restoring it. He said some of the furniture was designed by Lautner (chairs, second pic).

I would initially get to know the neighborhood from an estate sale of a really prolific photographer whom I can’t say much about, don’t get pissed. I also learned the area pretty quickly since you need to park years away and walk in. Most streets feel like driveways.

These are, as you may have figured, all of the houses I’ve been to in Mount Washington. If you haven’t been, hike it up that steep street and take a look around. Los Angeles is the center of the Universe to me. Whether this place is getting blown up by millennials or not, it still has an undeniable pull.

The Termini Residence, 1959 - 1983, by architect and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, James DeLong

I shot an estate sale here in 2023. The wife was a professor of music, the husband a professor of art (and a photographer). I loved this dream sequence like photo of “Olga reading” and their comprehensive Herman Miller catalog, I haven’t seen once like this since. The home sold shortly after for $3,000,000.

The Mary Jane Leland Residence, 1951

An open house I went to, also in 2023. It was the talk of the town…Teslas zig-zagged the street. From the listing, “The longtime residence of Southern California textile artist and educator, Mary Jane Leland. Her body of work spanned various materials including woven and printed textiles and she was one of the pioneers of mid-century linoleum block-printed designs on cloth. Mary Jane would go on to found and direct the Textile and Fiber Arts program at CSU Long Beach for many years, educating hundreds of students. From 1955-1968, San Andreas was the shared home of Malcolm Leland, ceramicist and sculptor, best known as the designer of the American Cement Building facade. Built into the home's porch is a louvered wooden sculpture by Malcolm Leland, believed to be a maquette of the LA County Hall of Records ceramic exterior he created in collaboration with Richard Neutra.”

Sold for $1,800,000.

A 1955 reimagined cabin I saw on a Dwell tour

Originally designed by architect Kemper Nomland Jr., who designed Case Study House #10 in Pasadena with his father, it was recently reimagined by architect Linda Taalman and landscape architecture studio Terremoto. They added an ADU with wide-plank Doug fir floors and marine plywood cabinets and wall paneling. So cozy. I loved the lineup of people (myself included) checking out the view from the deck.

1926 Spanish, I shot a video for the listing

From the listing, “The spacious, light-filled dining room seamlessly connects to the open kitchen, complete with a restored O'Keefe and Merritt stove. Two charming bedrooms share a spacious bathroom, while the versatile bonus room opens to the backyard, offering endless possibilities for an office, studio, or creative space with easy access outside.”

Sold in 2025 for $1,500,000.

Below is my latest estate sale list…11 of them this weekend. I feel like I could’ve kept going but I know not everyone loves sales of glorified junk (you know, cute cookie jars, retro fans…the good stuff). Custom interiors by a famed Hollywood designer, a lot of packed closets…I’m eyeing a 70s silk Pucci set. Major collections, from rugs to insects and deals in between.

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I’m not all in on zodiac things, it feels like a lot to memorize, but when Isaac Mizrahi prescribed Christy Turlington as being sensitive over her feet because she’s a Capricorn…I mean as a fellow Cap I noticed some dots start to connect. Teeth too but I can talk about my mess at a different time.

That moment was captured in the Catwalk documentary, you can watch it in full on YouTube. I had rewatched recently and it kept Mizrahi’s quips on my mind… his fortune cookie statements that I really took to heart. He must be like hanging out with a magic 8 ball just way chicer and he sings.

Recently, the 1995 documentary Unzipped, filmed by Mizrahi’s then boyfriend Douglas Keeve, was restored and re-released in theaters. It felt like I had been dug up from a tomb when I heard the news. Weird Substack notes (like no offense) of people posting runway photos with absolutely zero perspective had put me to sleep. Life in technicolor!!!!! Well most of the doc is black & white. Other than flickering moments. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. If you think you’re detached from fashion, it will still impact you. Maybe even more than so called fanatics. It’s the ups and downs of being so far in with something, it’s an act of complete surrender. The way it unveils is captivating. And it’s Isaac. He could ramble on about paint and you’d still wait until the end to hear just how it dried.

Douglas Keeve revisited the doc with Vogue since it’s been restored: “I knew from the minute we walked to the newsstand and he got that bad review that we had stakes, and we had a story to tell. It didn’t matter to me what happened to him in his next collection—good, bad, whatever. It didn’t matter. The beauty of documentary is that it’s all good news.”

In 1995 I wasn’t alive yet, fml. It’s weird to see something I missed…and so desperately and devotedly want to be a part of. Watching the scenes of Mizrahi’s Fall ‘94 runway at the end felt like a mirage. The place is filled like a football stadium, or at least how I imagine those to look (I don’t go..). A ripple of photographers ebb and flow at the edges of the runway, while the rows of probably cool people sit there and take it all in. It’s an art performance. And I’m watching them watching it, at a slightly busted theater in Sawtelle. Anyway, no phones in sight!!! I just had to say it. Besides, flip phones were so much more fun. Not the new Apple iteration though, that’s just goofy.

I mean I’m not about to give the whole thing away, but Douglas Keeve really sends it home with this one: “It’s one thing to look at a mood board and sort of think you understand a person’s process, but it’s another thing to sit with Isaac and get that education as to what they’re thinking and why. Because it has to do with things like what you learned in high school, whether or not you liked Cheerios, and trying not to repeat yourself, and having been to the Metropolitan Museum and seeing the armor on display from medieval times, and all of that comes together. That’s kind of what Unzipped helps you to get.”

That is exactly the importance. I wish I could force everyone to sit down and take that in.

If I sit on my phone, I’m not seeing people having freedom of creative thought or expression today. It doesn’t exist there. But it does exist sitting on a bench with a neighborhood old person who whittles their own marionettes and has lived through five plus natural disasters. Or something will come to you if you David Lynch it and loiter at a diner with awful food. I mean they can’t mess up pancakes. I think it’s a bit about letting things overtake you, which I understand goes against the time blocking, girl bossing it lifestyle.

I love the in-between moments, and when you pay attention to them it leads to something more. Especially in Vegas, although I know many disagree…

Isaac Mizrahi is one of the greats. There’s a magic in his musings in the bathtub, an easy intimacy as he ribs Naomi Campbell over her steady rotation of engagement rings. He just has that thing you can’t sit here and announce on a Substack post. It rests in the air somewhere. But you can feel it in the doc…especially sitting in a red velvet theater seat with a giant Coke Zero as your guide.

This is the weekend of estate sales! Fall is typically the busiest season for sales. It’s been slow up until now…Whipping through 10 of the best below.

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My quick and easy La Jolla history lesson:

After World War II, Scripps Institution of Oceanography grew rapidly, and the founding of UC San Diego in 1960 drew a wave of scientists, physicians, and scholars to the community. Many of these transplants wanted distinctive homes of their own, and turned to visionary local architects such as Frederick Liebhardt, Russell Forester, and Kendrick Bangs Kellogg. Around the same time, Robert Des Lauriers and James Youngson were designing innovative residences, while Lloyd Ruocco, Mosher & Drew, Henry Hester, Albert Frey, and William Krisel rounded out the region’s mid-century modern landscape.

There’s still a deep respect here for a slower paced way of life. The layout of these homes aligns with the lifestyle. It feels like La Jolla knows something we don’t. People aren’t freaking out…Surfboards are stacked in every backyard, restaurants have open tables. My favorite consignment shop always has deals.

One of the tour’s highlights was designed by architect Russell Forester in 1961 (my favorite year for architecture). The Scharff Residence was built for physicist Dr. Morris “Moe” Scharff and his wife Janice. More than six decades later, it is still owned by the same family.

Forester studied at Chicago’s Institute of Design, the “New Bauhaus,” at a time when Mies van der Rohe’s International Style was really starting to take hold. He was also an artist, and later in life gave up architecture entirely to work as a painter and sculptor.

I felt how perfect life could be in the Scharff Residence. The continuous skylights made any time of day feel serene. I never would’ve guessed this architect also designed the first Jack in the Box restaurant. From modernist residences to sculptures and a casual drive-thru in between…

In the 1950s, Forester had already designed Oscar’s coffee shops in San Diego for restaurateur Robert Peterson, so when Peterson approached him with a new food on the go venture, a revolutionary idea of dispensing burgers through a window, Forester knew exactly what to do. That restaurant became Jack in the Box, a San Diego claim to fame. Years later, he described his approach to journalist Peter Jensen:

“There was nothing fake [in the sense that] we never tried to make it look like brick or somebody’s mansion. It was a billboard. It had a great deal of honesty, and that honesty came from the client, Peterson, who was a purist when it came to design. Today I think that Jack and all the other fast-food restaurants are striving for a look of stability, a sense of belonging, of trying to look legitimate. Instead of looking good, they just look fake.”

While Googie architecture was at its most extravagant, Forester’s design was pure geometry. It didn’t try to be anything more, and it worked. He also went on to design Peterson’s personal residence, which was listed for sale in May 2025 for $16,900,000.

Some of the tour’s other notable homes included:

a 1967 Frederick Liebhardt designed home

The Yen Residence by Ken Kellogg, built in 1983

a 1974 Robert E. Des Lauriers designed home, thoughtfully updated in the 2010s

Word on the street is San Diego has some incredible mid-century modern estate sales. I haven’t been to one just yet, but trust me, I am creeping. My latest estate sale list is below, a major clothing sale, cool chairs made in good old MA, and my favorite lowkey auction house…my hopes/dreams/favorite place for furniture and ways to finesse designer clothing, all below!

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I loved the Pali feature, the random two page Vineyard Vines ad, Devon Carlson’s guide to L.A. with the sticker shop shout-out, and the Romy Mars’ photoshoot with puppies (Shot by Sofia Coppola).

Imagine actually being…a teenager? Who is the desired reader here because I’m sort of feeling like it’s targeting people my age who got stunted over Covid. Anyway, imagine actually being a teenager and getting movie recs from Sofia Coppola. You’d be the coolest bitch at your Midwestern high school.

One contributor that hit me like a ton of bricks was the photographer Eimear Lynch, who shot the photos for the Pen15 spread. That was enough for me, I hurled myself to the Laurel Canyon newsstand (not my favorite by any means) the second I got off of a flight from Hartford CT that ended up taking nine hours.

With Lynch’s photos I feel like I’m part of the club. Like maybe you can’t get it, but me and my 2011 planking photo album on Facebook, feel it wholeheartedly. Her first photo book, Girls’ Night, published in 2024, brings me right back to bartering for Raspberry Smirnoff off my jailbroken iphone. Simpler times. For normal people, the book catalogues teenage girls across Ireland, doing their hair and makeup, sharing clothes, getting that selfie, before a night out…whatever that means at that age. Lynch wrote in the book that they were prepping for the discos…I was imagining the typical, mid school dance. I remember when you could write down song requests, but the chaperone would always deny mine, saying they weren’t appropriate for school. Soulja Boy??

Anyway, a quick Google enlightened me on what discos really can be, check the bizarre video below…

Her W Youth shoot with Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine plays out like moments you’ve lived before, just a bit more editorial. It catches the same candor as the photos of the disco pre-games.

I read this issue cover to cover (each interview is a page at most), while I sat with my cats and waited for movers to drag 12+ boxes of books out of my house. I moved! Life is sweet.

I think I’m excited about L.A. Design Weekend, has this happened before or do I just live under a rock? I do love and appreciate a thorough schedule, which you can find on their website. But I noticed they skipped some of my favorites…and there’s another event, outside of L.A., that I’m going to this weekend and wanted to highlight. If you’re into historic homes…

I leafed through it all and came up with my preferred schedule, which I have listed below, with notes, and a shorter timeline PDF if you just want me to get to the point.

And as always, estate sales 🧘🏻‍♀️ I found an upcoming auction of a local Beverly Hills celebrity I’ve mentioned before…she went “viral” for her closet. Design events and deals all below.

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I’m getting closer to the front door now and I hear running water before I see tiny rocks bobbing in a pond. I walk over a bridge to reach the front door, and realize I’m an idiot because the rocks are a group of turtles’ heads. They’re coming up like they want to talk. Plus a bunch of Koi…it’s like they want out.

(scroll to the bottom for this week’s estate sale list)

The mid-century modern home is left as it always was, it’s not decrepit but it’s just right. Every shade is pastel. There’s no staging, unless the big gulp above the sink was set with intention. The living room has absolutely no place for a T.V., just as it should be. Houses used to live and breathe with you, that’s how I feel anyway. You wouldn’t want to sit there and load up 90 Day Fiancé, not with the walls of windows displaying a life that should be outside. The kidney shaped pool, which was now filled in with sand but could be revived, gazed out onto rolling hills. I don’t know Glendale that well but it feels like I found something special.

The home was designed by architect Gregory Ain in 1955. It was commissioned by William T. Oliver, an executive in the elevator business, his wife Betty Ann Oliver and their six adopted children. At the time, it cost $17,500 to build. The family lived there for over seventy years. A bright blue felted pool table takes up a side room with the longest pocket door I’ve ever seen. Above it is a photo of Betty, in her late 90s, ready to break a game.

I got all of this information because, if a house is special I’m always game for some small talk, and I wanted to know what would happen with the turtles. The realtor had done extensive research on the house and wrote a 24 page PDF on it. He said the turtles came with the house. Koi too.

I’ve never really liked anything about Glendale, but now I’m imagining which window I’d suction my cat’s floating bed to, and really how hard could it be to excavate the old pool?

Gregory Ain once said that architecture was meant “to enhance the quality of living”. Ain’s first job was as a draftsman for R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra. He had attended architecture school for a year, but dropped out because of his disinterest in the Beaux Arts training. Schindler and Neutra would remain as primary influences throughout his career. In 1935 he formed his own practice, focusing on modest homes for working-class families. His designs were notable for their site planning and innovative floor plans. He considered his client’s lifestyles, can you imagine?

In 1940, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his work in low-cost housing. Ain would collaborate with many other architects on various projects over the years. He really believed in enhancing his work for the betterment of others (!!!). When there’s true intention, and it’s not to make a quick buck, the sensibility endures. Because I felt it the first time I found myself roaming around Ain’s Mar Vista Tract. And now, some info on why you should leave that West Hollywood shithole and give Mar Vista a chance.

I settled on Mar Vista as a place to live when I realized I might need to compromise with Colby. I wanted to move back to Malibu because where else am I supposed to go in this short and indeterminate life. But I realized he might not want to head all the way out there (he’s such a Silverlake guy, deep down). Anyway, we’re moving to Malibu next week. But if we were supposed to meet in the middle, literally and figuratively I guess, it would’ve been Mar Vista.

Ain designed the development with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, completing it in 1948. Garrett Eckbo designed the landscapes. It’s a snowglobe world in the middle (of the westside) of L.A. If you enter its ether you feel it immediately. The idea was to create a development that provided cost efficient housing while advocating for Mid-Century Modern design. Ain kept the costs low by utilizing a single house type, adding variety by altering the garage placement and rotating floor plans in differing directions.

It was supposed to be 100 homes across 60 acres, but in the end they only were able to build 52 homes. During this time, Ain was also getting accused of, and being spied on for, being a communist. The FBI as well as the family babysitter, were keeping tabs on him. So things got a bit complicated. The tract is situated across Beethoven, Moore, and Meier Street (Technically: It is bounded by Palms Boulevard to the north, Meier Street to the east, Marco Place to the south, and Beethoven Street to the west).

I got to experience a really rare home tour on Meier St, with a couple that has lived in the Ain designed home since the 80s (purchased it for $150,000). Not to get on another tangent but the tour included a conversation with the architect who designed a stunning gallery/library addition to the home. It blew me away. The husband highlighted how he could display textiles they’ve collected on the substantial pocket doors (similar to the Glendale home). The house is within a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, meaning any additions or renovations need to meet strict guidelines. I was fascinated by what life would be like in this room. We were there around 5pm and the light came in like a sunset on the beach. Corner sliding doors opened up to the Eckbo oriented backyard. It’s perfect, a long pond hugs one corner of the house, lilypads camouflage the surface. My cats would freak.

A fun fact I’d like to throw in here:

Ain believed in bringing good design to the masses. During his youth, he lived for a time on a cooperative farming colony, founded by Job Harriman, a socialist his father had supported in the 1911 Los Angeles mayoral race. Ain belonged to the school of thought that espoused architecture’s potential to shape a more egalitarian world. He is credited as being the first architect to design a house that did not contemplate servants. A lot of Ain’s ideals were achieved in the “Modernique Homes” development, the name under which the Mar Vista Tract was marketed in 1948.

Maybe your house isn’t as cool as something Ain cooked up, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stuff it full of sick pieces, maybe a rare Danish rocking chair? A giant dolphin statue? A plum colored Balenciaga bag? I’ve got you covered…below:

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I can’t remember which Substack I wrote where I reflected on my time in the scammer apartment, I mean yes it was pretty terrible, but it was the first place I had on my own. And I remember doing Youtube workouts in the kitchen and seriously gnawing on bubblegum cigarettes to pretend I smoked to impress guests. It supposedly was a good unit because it didn’t look out onto the 110 freeway, and instead looked down the labyrinth of units until you reached the bottom, a sort of garden courtyard. There was a closet of a gym somewhere down there, which I had tried a few times but people seriously treated the machines like Laz-E Boys and would never get the fuck up. I think this was still when we all scrolled Twitter and I assumed that’s what they were doing.

I was constantly getting notices on my door, saying that they were going to show my unit. I was on the ninth floor, there were hundreds to choose from, most of them likely vacant but for whatever reason, I was the chosen one. I decided to fight back because I’m horrendously bitter. I would turn my couch upside down, spread magazines and bags of tortilla chips and rogue shoes all across the floor. I’m making it sound kind of tame but I really trashed the place in the name of respect. The notices kept coming regardless.

So L.A. was a decision I made when I realized I would like to pursue a career. I wanted to work in fashion in a real tangible way. I was telling this long winded story to a guy at an estate sale the other day and at this part he said (interrupted), “AND YOU DIDN’T FIND IT THERE, FASHION’S IN NEW YORK RIGHT?” I practice the art of patience everyday. I was hired pretty immediately in L.A., this was before I knew the whole thing about how no one has to work here etc. With some good old Western Massachusetts drive, it was….extremely easy. I still think that way about Los Angeles today. You can do anything here. ESPECIALLY if you’re coming from the east coast. It just clicks. Things just appear.

Back to my scammer apartment. I had sent some furniture (via Wayfair) there that the landlord, or whoever manages a mega scammer type complex, said they would leave inside my unit. They left it outside the door…everything was stolen. I was willing to let bygones be bygones but I got food poisoning at SushiStop and was projectile vomiting all day and night. The air mattress made it feel like I was out to sea so I had to lay on the floor. Oh and my AC was broken. September in DTLA…I was a fried egg on the sidewalk. Everyone assumes that I’m exaggerating but I’M NOT, the repairmen for the AC saw what I looked like and asked if they could pray over me. I said yes.

I had one friend in L.A. that I think I met from my time loitering at Umass Amherst (also met my boyfriend doing the same thing), and we would walk to my local liquor deli to get Jack Daniels because that’s the only alcohol I could name off of the top of my head, and a liter of Coke. I never screwed the cap on right and it’d get flat seemingly instantly. I was really into these oat chocolate bar things that you melted altogether and put in the freezer, so we ate those. Later when I got a job, we upgraded to QDoba.

Strange men would knock on my door in the night but I just got used to it. It was like a frat house. Let it be known I wouldn’t open the door. It was a studio apartment, if the knocks woke me up I’d yell from my bed “NO!”.

The elevator was constantly broken, and remember I lived on the ninth floor. As I would start my descent, there were always obstacles. Sometimes women’s underwear, other times drug paraphernalia, one time it was an oozing orange substance, not sure what that was. I’d muster up the courage to complain, and the management office would send me a Visa gift card. I then doubled down on the complaints, there were more than enough to go around. I started to really rack up those gift cards.

In the end, I lasted six months until I broke my lease (they got me good on that one) and moved into a Spanish house next to Mount Saint Mary’s in Brentwood. While there I’d reach the next quintessential L.A. experience, water damage that’s so aggressive it ballooned out of the wall.

I guess it’s always something but I’d much rather temper it over here.

I love L.A. and I love L.A.’s estate sales. People here have good taste, down to their antique cookie jars (if you care about those types of things which…I do). None of that this week but I have some excellent designer furniture, fashion illustrations, a costumer’s estate, men’s clothing for once…There’s a lot going on, below:

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I wanted to discuss some pieces I’m getting rid of, not because they repulse me (haha) but because I’m moving on. Life is ever changing and through extreme examples I’ve learned to go with the flow.

Some of these, I really really loved. Others, I forced it a bit. I think its great to find something you identify with but what about the things you’ve experienced and want to pass on? Deep huh? Who knows. Writing this might make me want to keep everything, we’ll see.

(scroll to the bottom for this week’s estate sale list)

My Danish teak bar cart I used as a desk

This is a very specific choice. I have this “thing” where I hate large pieces of furniture. They’re bulky, I can’t really reinvent them, you need two huge dudes to move it anywhere. Desks seem unimportant to a freelancer like myself. Or maybe it reminds me of when I had a real job, and a grown adult man would come into my office and cry about unopened dms. Bad vibes all around. The bar cart was my solution, and I don’t think you’d really like it. I love anything with wheels. My Olive Garden sensibility. With this, I can be anywhere (between the two rooms on my second floor). It’s not great at being a desk. Besides its obvious functionality, for a reading room I would love to stack my current magazines on it. Maybe fashion ones up top, obscure ones down below. It does make for a great T.V. stand, I’ll wheel that thing into my bedroom and run up a few Sopranos episodes. I just watched True Romance last night and I couldn’t get over little James Gandolfini. I can also see it as a display for accessories. Bags of the month, if you’re into that. I mean it wasn’t the worst desk in the world but I recognize that a lot of people would hate it.

The ten foot long couch that was in my storage unit

I’m such a sucker for a bidding war. This was the easiest win of my life and I should’ve taken it as a sign. It illustrates the rule I mentioned above. I don’t pay too much attention to the specifics…I like to win…This was a half baked idea that brought me to the Santa Monica U-Haul begging for a truck. Truck to Monrovia California, task-rabbiting on the way: two giant dudes.

Long story kinda short, moved storage units. Caused a scene at Public Storage. Now in a subterranean storage unit. The manager likes mid-century modern and gets the couch appeal. Well it sits there for a year. My house burned down, things changed. I start to resent the couch. Then I liked it again. I consider a reupholster. It’d take up my whole tiny living room in Hollywood. What about an office? I think of every possible scenario. I think about the two jacked dudes struggling to maneuver this thing through a stairwell. I have to let it go. I just sold it a few days ago to someone who is actually putting it to use and loves it. So that of course makes me feel great but also like a huge bum, why shove it in a storage unit for no one to use/see/enjoy. Let it go. Get a life. Couches are everywhere. Go rack up some more bids (on smaller things).

Crop tops that make me look 12

It’s more that I don’t like how a crop top disrupts the body. I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting my jeans in an obsessive way, one of my hobbies tbh. Now, when a shirt doesn’t meet the waistline quite right, I might as well stay home. Crop tops feel harder to execute correctly. There’s a certain appeal to getting them right. Or at least that’s how I feel this week. I have this mentality that a cropped t-shirt can only elicit one feeling, something carefree and Abercrombie & Fitch adjacent, which feels so pretend. Life is not like the first season of The Hills. I started getting this nervous feeling around the time of Hilary Duff’s resurgence. Put on your full length tee and do your taxes. I still love tube tops by the way.

Beater heels

Alright let me clarify. I walk around like I have hammers for feet apparently because my shoes sit in the closet lopsided and chewed up. Anyone with me? I was loyal to my cobbler (in the Palisades) until he wasn’t there anymore and now I’m skating around on the nails piercing through each heel. Yes I’ve gotten extremely stuck.

I had a few too many designated pairs of heels that I’d treat like I’m prepping for a marathon in them. And for what?? I go to bed at 10pm… I’m not sure where this persistence or really, neglect came from. I just need a few tried and trues for a solid 6:45pm dinner here and there. My pairs that look like weapons are getting new heel caps thrown onto them, then it’s off to Goodwill.

Thinking about it for a second too long and also having eyes and opening any social media platform, it is so clear we have too much stuff. Clothing especially. It’s gross… and we’ve surpassed the point so long ago. Grabbing something because it has a certain label, and running to your phone to document the success is killing creativity and the lifelong journey of discerning taste! I did a haphazard lap around Wasteland the other day (vintage store in L.A.), and it is legitimately all slop. I was selling some pants and crop tops. Which, even though I’d say my things were okay..I feel like I’m just adding to the overflowing piles of mainly junk. Beside me were all sorts of influencers who I didn’t recognize but who made themselves known, à la boxes of fast fashion still with tags. Wasteland buys it all. It literally is, a wasteland. Haha…

Old Playboys…some of them

I definitely have too many and it’s giving, creepy old man pervert. It was so fun to source them, many aimless afternoons in Northridge and fighting to the death on eBay. But now…what? I do enjoy the articles, interviews and art contributors in Playboy. I used to make videos flipping through Playboys on TikTok (and kept it very PG), talking about the other features, but all it got me was a strike and my account locked for a day. Fml. Maybe I’ll continue that here, if Substack is more with it.

Current issues of Vogue

Self explanatory. They suck. Dropped them off at a used bookstore.

If this has gotten you into the hoarding spirit (kidding kind of) or you just want to scope out someone else’s junk, I have 10 estate sales that are overflowing…a crazy B.B. Simon belt collection hell yeah, some vintage Chanel…a weird dresser that I had to share…a historic estate featured in Architectural Digest. Honestly a lot of oddities this weekend. A haunted napkin holder. You’ll see what I mean.

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(scroll to the bottom for this weekend’s estate sale list)

I’ve been in L.A. all summer (well and a quick trip to Italy, haha). It feels weird not seeing women linking their floats together for a serene drift through the lake while they rip cigarettes (Vermont). Or going to my favorite Keno restaurant for pizza, that is a front, and has literally never had one customer inside other than us (Western Mass). How about actually finding seashells on the beach, where the sand is so soft and cool it feels like butter taken out of the fridge at the perfect time (Cape Cod).

Some of my afternoons were spent sitting in my lounge chair, Amazon Prime coming up the street, scanning one, two, six things for the neighbors, getting stuck trying to turn around. Then Fedex comes up. If you block one ear, the EV delivery trucks backing up sound semi-wave-like. I recognize a lot of people who live here don’t like the beach. For me I’ve decided I need it like air. I’m moving back in a month and of course each day is taking its sweet time. I am a hamster on a wheel until I can get back over there (talking about the Westside).

My next major pillar of summer, the crescendo, is the Malibu Chili Cook-Off. It makes for the perfect occasion for ripped denim shorts and Uggs. It’s a small town experience without having to go home and see your friend still working the same job from high school.

You buy samples of each vendor’s chili, vote for your favorite, hit the beer/wine tent that’s always sponsored by Barefoot Dreams…I love the view from the ferris wheel of Ralphs and the abyss of ocean behind it.

I understand Euphoria had a chili cook-off episode and yeah, it is the exact same thing. But picture more tweens in Chrome Hearts, dads in Chrome Hearts, moms in Aviator Nation.

Malibu is the best place on Earth according to me. I moved there when I was 21 and thought I had life figured out on my first go.

As you spend time there, the locals make themselves known. It goes beyond niceties, they bare their souls to you. I mean it, how else would I have heard a gambling addict’s triumphant escape to a shack in Point Dume, all while waiting in line to buy stamps at the Ed Niles designed post office. I thoughtfully listened to numerous business plans at the Starbucks on the side of Pavilions. The place had a unique energy vortex, for sure, but I went with it.

How is it possible that I was just reading a book on Malibu history in the 60s/70s, where they talk about a pig and two dogs that were all raised together hanging on the beach..and I saw that same scenario a year ago?? Is this a tradition that continues to be upheld??

My next door neighbor was a good old normal guy. He had inherited the property from his parents. There were three bungalows around a pool, two of which he rented out.

A dog I named Buster Brown invited himself over everyday. The only person who kind of threw off the vibe was my other neighbor, the guy who played Thor, but he was never there so we could ignore that fact and appreciate our normalcy.

Something I should mention, I moved in a few months before the Woolsey Fire in 2018, which took out half my street. Including the bungalow property. Buster Brown was okay.

I lived down by Point Dume, evacuating took six hours inching along PCH. There was a topless woman who lived in an RV on the side of the highway, everyone knew her okay? I remember her standing there as we were all idling along. Amongst the chaos, people riding their horses through traffic, she felt like some sort of omen. I was hoping it was a good one.

I have to say Malibu is resilient, actually inviolable, in a way you won’t understand unless you’re there experiencing it.

UGH!!! That is what I miss. One long boiling summer spent in Hollywood has felt like a hex. I think there is too much personality here for it to ever feel, actually personable. Or it could be as simple as I just don’t like it that much. Not to yuck your yum.

My year and a half here wasn’t all horrendously monotonous and stale. I studied Transcendental Meditation through the David Lynch Foundation. I attended my first Krampus Night at the Philosophical Research Society. I have only good memories of spending just the right amount of time at the Blue Room in Burbank. I found a great place for kabobs that I won’t gatekeep for forever, I’m just not done yet. (all of the things I’ve mentioned are not in Hollywood, so maybe it really does suck here idk).

What Malibu means to me:

Malibu Chili Cook-Off is this weekend! Time it right so you can hit the ferris wheel for sunset. P.S. I always just park in the lot across the street.

Estate sale list is below, also giving a couple of local auctions that I’ve been eyeing. A mix of art, porcelain mice in country outfits, vintage Dior…slip dresses and Chanel heels in a home with forrest green carpet. Plus custom furniture, and many reasons to take a lap around the valley.

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One of my favorite places to hang and take in the subpar air conditioning is the hotel where Clint Eastwood chased an assassin around the lobby (In The Line of Fire, 1993).

I have spent many aimless afternoons at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. That’s what it was initially for, anyway. A city within a city.

Designed by architect John C. Portman in 1976, it followed a series of his atrium style, large scale mixed-use projects that helped bring US cities back to life in the latter half of the 20th century.

I’ve been through this gargantuan building for numerous architecture tours, once I received a free room here for some hospitality brand’s sponsored video (rooms are ight)… I was at the lobby bar for the Super Bowl because I knew that was probably the only lowkey place to watch Bad Bunny in peace.

Portman knew how to call upon sensory appeal, how a space could create a lasting impression. He told author Johnathan Barnett in The Architect as Developer (1977), “At the cafes in the hotels I have designed, there are places where you can watch the movement of the elevator cabs, which become a huge kinetic sculpture… People are fascinated by kinetics.”

Today the bar is incredibly low, I’m just fascinated by any place that puts me in a real seating area and not on the curb.

Within this maze of a building, organic elements offer an escape from its concrete systems. Kinda like what I’d imagine our bunker houses will be once we really push our planet to its limit. Spiraling staircases that look like shells, curving ponds lined in baby blue, oval cantilevered pods that feel like the best booths at Casa Vega.

It’s a brutalist building…duh…but all of the different opportunities for wandering, sitting around, grabbing a meal, dancing in a ballroom (if you want), working out in a semi-creepy gym, make it feel like ours.

It’s the futuristic labyrinth of a third space you didn’t know you needed.

I remember a perfectly curated mental b I had while I was still living in New York. It was in Battery Park, early fall. I had just picked up my acai bowl from Juice Generation. It was about time for the next tour group to board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I think I was upset over working with a scammer, ultimately getting scammed myself. Anyway, I had the ideal weather, my favorite meal, and excellent people watching as I cried in silence (Lol).

On the top floor of the Bonaventure, you’ll find the BonaVista Lounge. My life isn’t as dramatic anymore, but my next crisis will definitely be spent at this cocktail bar. It rotates!! Extremely slowly, but they’ll warn you not to put your bag on the windowsill or it will drift away. You get to see every angle of good old Downtown L.A. It actually looks really nice from 34 floors up. P.S. They have great bar snacks, something like a trail mix from Trader Joes but again, with unparalleled ambiance.

I wish I could force everyone to go see it for themselves.

By the way, the building is 34 stories high, with four glass cylinders surrounding a central tower. I haven’t done the best job at describing the depth of this space’s architectural impact. Really, it’s worth the trip, park at the library, its easy. But if you want the breakdown I liked this guy’s review from 2018. He compares it to Portman’s much larger Detroit version, talks about all of the flight attendants that stay there, etc.

I think I want to make a post about my favorite places to loiter around L.A…I know I’ve already included a few, in that Substack where I also talked about prepping for the big one (earthquake talk).

Until then, 10 estate sales below that are better than sweating through your shirt at any flea.

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(this weekend’s estate sale list is at the end)

I’m in overhaul mode like I’ve never been before. I was definitely coasting for a bit since I found myself living in Hollywood Hills (against my will, house burned down blah blah blah), but as that’s coming to a close, I would say that I am, back on my bullshit 🧘🏻‍♀️.

I look at my closet, no idea what’s in there. I look at my accent chair in the corner, this place looks like a roadside motel.

Hurl! Everything holds weight to me because at my core I think I am dramatic. A pink leather handbag is saying something I don’t resonate with. Its that deep!

I’m getting rid of a lot. Not my books…but mostly everything else.

Colby likes minimally designed furniture and decor but it turns my brain into soup. I love things that describe who you are and where you’ve been but my flashing Harley traffic light has no place here unfortunately.

We are redesigning our space, in a fun way. I’m not about to hit you with a mood board but I will show you some cool pieces I’ve seen recently, all exorbitantly priced but I’m still nosing around on eBay.

I’ve made my own furniture in the past (hang on, I designed it. Ex-boyfriend built it), and I’ll probably go that route again. Need someone to build it though so hit me up if you can use a hammer and nails. I hate too much fabric…a regular upholstered couch creeps me out. Dust mites, etc. I have three cats, etc.

Colby and I recently went to Seventh House Gallery and I tweaked over some lamps. So we’re going to start there. The gallery is in a Frank Gehry designed studio and residence, from early in his career. The Danziger Studio and Residence, designed in 1965. Its Gehry at his chillest. It has an impeccable flow to it, there are giant windows that frame tree limbs and utility poles like pieces of art. Its every tumblr girl’s dream loft.

Anyway, my lamps.

a pair of P600 table lamps by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce (his company), from the 1960s. Give them a chance! I like that at first glance they sit there, like two fat candlesticks, or some medical device an old person needs to keep close. I really do.

Their light bounces against the wall and it feels like total harmony to me. The perfect feel for the end of your day. I think I’ve said this before when describing Italian design but they kind of look like Wall-E. The base allows you to orient them all sorts of ways. There are a few sitting on eBay for $500-700 each, I wouldn’t be opposed to selling a bag for a pair. And then I’ll drag them to the valley and have them rewired. Sell another bag.

A beautiful desk that just is. I love the sloped legs, they catch your eye and feel like sculpture. It technically is a dining table, designed by Gerald Summers circa 1935, and excels in that category too. Wow I could stare at it all day long. I think my Substacks would be way more evolved if I could hammer away at the keyboard on that thing.

This would probably be the one thing Colby and I could agree on, stylistically. The Kangaroo coffee table by Mathieu Matégot for Gubi, designed in 1954 and reissued in the early 2000s. It reminds me of the surprisingly considered outdoor spaces you’d find at trailer parks because people really value their afternoon cigarette. For Colby I think he’d like that its simple, no bells and whistles or places for me to store my zine collection. Mathieu Matégot is a guy to love. He created a world we’d be lucky to live in. This gallery had a few of his designs, it felt like a winning streak. I am definitely my most intolerable at these kinds of things, because I have to whip my head around and say, “did you see this????” 10x times in case they actually didn’t see it.

Additional Matégot’s include:

A set of perfectly rusted Copacabana lounge chairs (1955)

DREAM LAMP but its $15,000. The Java table lamp, 1950s as well. Folded and perforated metal.

PK66 coffee table by Poul Kjærholm, 1972. Why does this feel so lifelike to me, like I can tell you exactly who it would be and he’s annoying but too nice to hate. He’s pretentious but not trying to be, he’ll always bring a nice bottle of wine to dinner parties but you’re waiting for him to just come out and say he’s asexual. Anyway these typically go for somewhere between $10,000-20,000. *Not to obliterate the vibe but this was actually at Galerie Half, down the street.

Love a tripod chair. Costes Allumino armchair by Philippe Starck for Driade Aleph, 1988. The other iterations are ight. The aluminum really brings it home.

Two of Donald Judd’s Slant Chairs, 84-8, 84-7. They just have that gravitational pull.

A Dr.Sonderbar armchair by Philippe Starck for XO, 1983. Positioned across from the bathtub. A unique towel holder? Or designated perv chair.

Knubbling floor lamp by Anders Pehrson for Ateljé Lyktan, 1970s. Cute is cute and that’s enough for me.

Maybe the Universe has my back, and I’ll be doing my usual rounds through the Northridge estate sale circuit and strike gold. I saw these at last week’s Handled sale, Joe Colombo for Riedel “Asimmetrico” glasses (1964). So goofy but cool. Why do they look like they’re about to up and leave.

Furniture is on the brain this week (duh). Below are nine estate sales with mid-century furniture and decor, a lot of lighting because its important…I tried to do an equal amount of cool finds, and you know, obscure weird finds. Plus some Chanel for good measure.

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What drew me to the sale was its impending feeling…There was an unease that I don’t even have to describe as the photos say it loud and clear.

It was a different crowd than I’m used to, they seemed unfazed by the mold that made the walls look camouflaged. A lot of people brought their kids too..I was wandering around wishing there was a closed shoe addendum. My flip flops and I tripped along wires layered so thick and hot they felt like my grandpa’s electric blanket. I might’ve gotten a shock or two but it honestly could’ve mellowed me out.

So this was the sale of Bobby Sherman. It was listed in last week’s sales, I had mentioned how I really wanted to go for the house. On the listing it was called his “cavern of curiosities”.

A man that looked like he’s never turned down an arm wrestle, was excited to tell me Bobby Sherman was a huuuuge ladies man, you know in the 1960s/70s. But then he said he preferred some guy in The Partridge Family? He brought it up in a way like I’m supposed to know what he’s talking about, so I didn’t ask any questions. My one contribution was, “did you see this thing??” and I was referring to the ticket bearer looming in a dark corner, outside of the home theater. He looked like Mr. Potato Head and was a traumatizing reveal when I finally figured out how to turn my flash on.

The movie theater grabbed you immediately with a collage of old Hollywood celebrities along the walls. Jean Harlow looking better than everyone, Humphrey Bogart with a cig dangling out of his mouth in a way we never get to see anymore because people huff big vape cartridges. It feels lighthearted, fun. Remember, we’ve tripped over rusty nails and floorboards shooting straight up cartoon style just to get to this room. The history of it all makes you almost miss that it’s a full house of mannequins dressed in obscure outfits? Why do some of them look like the co-star in Lars and the Real Girl?

Other moments that made me take a beat include, his at home flight simulator set up, with notes.

All of the T.V.s that were dangling from the ceiling via chains. If this was an all over aesthetic choice I think I would’ve gotten into it. I do understand that it is a very old man thing to do, I think he wanted to watch T.V. from bed and just thought, a quick Home Depot run will suffice.

If you can’t tell, this house doesn’t need any sort of natural disaster in order to collapse, the exhaust on a tween’s Nissan Altima would do the trick. It feels like it’s slowly dissolving into the earth. Aren’t we all but I won’t get started.

Bobby Sherman was an actor, singer, and “teen idol” in the 1960s and 70s. He released 107 songs, 23 singles and 10 albums between 1962 and 1976. In 1969 Bobby released the single “Little Woman”, which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and spent nine weeks in the Top 20. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in October 1969. The screaming from fans at his concerts was so intense that it left him with permanent hearing loss.

In the 70s he left the industry to become a paramedic and deputy sheriff. There was a ton of vintage EMS equipment in the sale, and parked in his driveway was his own EMS RV? Weird but cool.

On an entirely different note, he built a reproduction of the Disneyland Main St in his backyard. Disney sent him the elevations of the first two blocks, and he just went for it and did the whole thing himself (at a ⅕ scale if we’re getting technical). It took him two and a half years. I did get to see it from a distance…it was pretty incredible. Love a dude with a hobby.

Below are my favorite sales to hit this weekend. You could’ve experienced Bobby’s personal movie theater for yourself! Don’t miss out on a couturier’s phenomenal closet and a sale I’m using as an architectural tour…

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I hadn’t seen these photos anywhere online, so I took to my dented Canon printer/scanner to try my luck at digitizing them...I think I did alright? You can judge for yourself:

After a TikTok on my initial findings, a commenter introduced me to a book Pitt contributed to on the Greene and Greene Blacker House. From there, and some Google ramblings, I was the lone bidder on a “lot” of old Flaunt magazine issues. My sights were set on one in particular, a Brad Pitt 2002 cover that sometimes goes for $200??

I just posted another TikTok, diving a bit deeper into his love and dedication to the Arts and Crafts style. Namely that gargantuan stone house (Greene and Greene) he bought a few years back in the Carmel Highlands for $40 million. I mean I would if I could!

These are my notes from those two interviews. I love when people get rich and obsess over design principles, whether it’s actually an evolved and thorough taste or its plain old ugly. Both sides are interesting to me. But I do love when people get it right.

Around the time of the W Mag and Flaunt issues, Brad was 37/38. He’s got a 25 year old sensibility but in man years that seems to track. I like his enthusiasm for chairs. Its fun and approachable. We should all be lunatics over good design. You’ll see what I mean. Here are all of my notes/thoughts/and some quotes that seem too good to be true…

“House of Brad”, W Magazine October 2001

Written by: James Reginato

Photos: Martyn Thompson

You can read the interview here

Frank Gehry

-Visit to Frank Gehry’s left him “salivating”...

-“...perks for me aren’t good tables or concert seats, for me it’s getting to meet Gehry.”

-Not too crazy of a hook up, they got connected through a mutual acquaintance at Gold’s Gym, where the architect works out (must be OG Venice one).

His views on architecture, and sneak disses

-Pitt has been really taken with architecture and how it mirrors, and speaks for, society. He started with the Arts and Crafts style and progressed to more contemporary.

-Besides Gehry, he loves Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas.

-Says his design work is “more creatively fulfilling” than acting.

-He’s ready to retire from acting “any time soon”. Upcoming releases include: Spy Game and Ocean’s Eleven.

-Aniston (they were recently married) gave him a surprise weekend stay at a private Greene and Greene designed house for his birthday.

-On Aniston’s design style, “She has an, uh, more matronly take on it.”

Combining the back houses

-Pitt’s Hollywood Hills (it is actually Los Feliz) house is made up of three buildings, two of which he connected: a modest 1910 era-stone house and a 1950s studio structure. Both were originally outbuildings to a rambling craftsman-style main house on the estate. He bought the house from Elvira, after a recommendation from Nicolas Cage. Apparently the place is pretty haunted.

-Started “re-assembling” the whole property in the mid 90s.

-Took a yearlong hiatus after Fight Club to work on the house in early 1999.

-Said his crew of designers, landscape architects and a “colorful” Irishman contractor (Mike Cross) whom Pitt describes as the best contractor in the world, operated like Bauhaus, trading ideas, etc.

-A german design firm, Graft, created what they call a swiss army knife of a wall, from which a light box and rare 1934 Zig Zag chair by Rietveld slide out.

-The space will also serve as the couple’s art studio, they work with clay, draw and carve pumpkins here.

-He does not want to ever sell it (sold it in 2023 for $33 million to a Getty heiress).

His stone obsession

-“There is a soul to stone” Pitt said (I do agree).

-Pitt wanted to use the stone Howlite throughout the whole house, after discovering the living room walls were lined with it. The mine from which it was extracted had been closed for years. But, being Brad Pitt, he was able to negotiate its reopening for an autograph to the owner’s daughter.

-He imported “untold” quantities of Travertine from a mine outside of Rome.

-Bathtub is hand carved by artist Jackie del Fonso from a 13-ton slab. The thing weighs about 6 tons.

-To bring the tub in, a crew literally followed procedures used to build the pyramids (10 dudes brought it in using a system of rolling pipes).

-Whole bathroom, which is all Travertine, serves as a shower basin.

-The tub overflows onto the floor.

-“I feel like there is music in this place…” Pitt says.

The exhibitionist bathroom

-“The bathroom was the first thing in the house I worked on at the time when Jenn and I were really hooking up strong. Things come out of those times in your life, things are on your mind..and I guess I had a dirty mind at the time.”

Garage/club

-His stark white plaster walled garage also functions as a party room. It’s souped up with multi hued fiber optic lights, which Pitt says feels/looks like some wild nuclear energy source (this actually feels very functional and a cool choice of his to do, versatility-wise).

-Mica panels glow tomato red at night, which Pitt was “jonesing on” at time of construction (he says “jonesing” in both interviews).

“Not Half Brad”, Flaunt Magazine December/January 2002

Written By: Jim Turner

Photos: Tony Duran

You can read the interview here

On restoring his houses

-He was just finishing a movie when he was moving into one of them (Fight Club).

-”I could inject my own vernacular in this one (referring to 50s studio), whereas the other house (stone house) had a set vernacular, so I wasn’t as excited about restoring it.”

-For 50s studio he used stainless steel, colored mica, colored plaster, stone and wood.

-On his chair and desk being built into the wall, “That was a collaboration with some German guys who are friends of mine, who have studied all over the world (they are Sci-Arc grads). We have great think tanks.”

-Refers to it as a “toolbox wall”, “everything collapses open, folds open with purpose.”

When asked about “McMansions”

-”The biggest example of that is the huge tourist debacle they are building to house the Oscars on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland. It looks like a theme ride. It pisses me off. With all the extraordinary voices in architecture right now, and all the money they put into that thing-why wouldn’t they pair the two up? It looks like a theme ride at a cheesy theme park. But there are some good buildings going on right now in Los Angeles.”

Gehry again

-At the time he was working on the Disney Hall downtown.

-When asked about Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, “I saw a picture of it when it was just finished, and I lost my shit.”

-”What a voice! He’s something special.”

-”People said that his buildings were too sculptural, didn’t make sense, and they didn’t function well. I just say, ‘shut up.’”

On Landscape Designer Jay Griffith

-”He’s a laugh. We fight all the time. He’ll say, ‘No, no, I can’t do that. It can’t be done.’ And I’ll say, ‘All artists must suffer for greatness.’”

-He (Brad) has “big problems” with small specimens of plants because he wants instant gratification.

Favorite architects

-Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, MVRDV (Dutch architects Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries).

-Loves what MVRDV is doing in Rotterdam, how they are “completely redesigning how the masses are moving”.

-Also mentions Stephen Holl (New York) and has been “jonesing” about Daniel Liveskind (Berlin).

-”The first building that got me going was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house.”

Furniture

-Loves the “stuff” coming out of Italy at the moment.

-”Infusing quality with new expressions”.

-Loves chairs.

-Wants to do a chair museum.

Shared design ideas with Jenn

-”We’ve made a point now, where we’re living, that we have an art room.”

-On the art room in their Beverly Hills house, “When the day’s work is done, and it’s night, you can sit in front of a movie on television and have dinner. And you can waste a lot of time-and it’s not really wasted time. I’m a big believer in checking out for a bit. But I get so much more out of life if I use my time to just make something. I just want to make things. My credo has been simplified to ‘just make things.’ ”

P.S. I know he is a scumbag, we’re just talking architecture and design here.

Below are 10 estate sales I’ve found, the vibes this weekend are…erratic. I’m highlighting my favorite pieces at each one, which have really cool/strange/haunted houses, and background info on some very specific design choices.

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I have used that brand as a marker for creeps and losers for as long as I can remember. It has to be my #1…Kith being #2.

When I had a few bucks to spend and decided I wanted to force my way into the fashion conversation, I was in New York City stomping around in Nike Lunar Elite Sky Hi’s (City Pack, Tokyo for the mental image). Probably on my way to VFiles.

I’ve always loved fashion at its most confrontational. When Trump won the election in 2016, I spent way too much time at Search & Destroy buying big ass camo jackets, and cutting gaping holes in them, sort of like a pissed off 13 year old taking it out on his bedroom wall. Fashion as a response. But with minimalism… (here I go), it feels like lying on the floor staring at your grandma’s popcorn ceiling.

I mean, when a man with white hair is claiming to be 32 and rocking an offensive v-neck, and I can even see the white chest hair accoutrement, I have to take my grievances up with the brand. It’s fine for minimalism to elicit not one thought, but to enlighten men who are taking up film photography is just too far.

Maxfield was, still is, could forever be, my center of the universe. James Perse is the son of Tommy Perse. Tommy is the founder of Maxfield. You can imagine how conflicted this left me.

In looking at my subjects, 1. Grown man taking over his dad’s business, 2. Grown man who had after parties in his apartment and 3. Grown man who started a fashion brand and cried at work frequently…there wasn’t much crossover between the two. James Perse was their safe space, Maxfield wasn’t as inclusive for guys with E-bikes. My hating could continue.

Fast forward many many years, life is way different, kinda fucked, and I suppose I’m a grown adult. I sort of resonate with these creeps…like maybe I’ll start lying about my age too…

But more importantly, I’m not seeing any brands I want to rep with an all over print or matching sweat set. I’m feeling way more utilitarian these days. But beyond that I’m feeling like it’s important to be subdued. I’d rather that than run the risk of Lauren Sánchez Bezoing it.

I want…a nice white t-shirt…

Minimalism is my latest response. And also a great way to blend into the background. I just want to wear something that says, I have a to-do list today. Ordinary, hang on, ordinary with an exceptional fit and intention, feels like my Goldilocks middle ground. It is just right.

By the way, James Perse is expensive. I do really like the sensibility of the Malibu store, but instead I’m wheeling and dealing on eBay, ThredUp, etc.

They make these t-shirts that are in a textured slub yarn, or combed cotton that look like a slightly hotter version of a tee Carmela Soprano would wear while yelling at Anthony Jr. in the kitchen. The drape feels like a silk camisole.

I also love their tank tops, an elegant version of the type of man tank you see worn at the beach. The 3/4 length tops make me look like a substitute teacher a little bit but I like to pair with lace or neon whatever underneath.

In the end, I guess it was never really about the brand…actually it definitely was. I don’t know what’s up with the men’s assortment. But the women’s feels like a grown version of Brandy Melville in the best way (my version of a compliment).

White tank top (small), Black 3/4 tee (small), White slub tee(small), Boxy black short sleeve tee (multiple sizes), Long sleeve lilac tee (small), V-neck tank (medium)

*I’d also like to add, for whatever its worth, even though James Perse evokes Southern California casual, I have never not once seen it being worn by a man here in L.A. It was a New York only thing from my observation. An “I’m a chill guy” kind of costume.

**I can’t help a Sopranos reference here and there.

Below are nine estate sales that take you back in time. A house filled with designer mcm furniture and Madonna’s Penthouse issue, a very special architectural home, a closet of Dries Van Noten and Celine…

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Once I had enough of cashmere sweaters, old lady Chanel and earmarked design books, my attention at estate sales pivoted. I was also sick of standing with the ancient old guys looking through Playboys. I had gotten all of the Pam covers anyway.

I became an accent chair kind of girl. Mostly because I could carry them to the car myself. And they’re easier to configure in a tiny space..a chair to greet you at the door, a chair shoved in a hallway corner to display three books and a vase.

Chairs are excellent sale takeaways, you don’t have to entirely commit to the Art Deco living room, but you can take a reasonably sized piece with you.

I don’t want to jinx it but at estate sales (at least in Los Angeles), you almost always are looking at high quality furniture. Obviously if you feel like you can bench press the thing it probably sucks. It was harder to get junk in the past, today we’re drowning in it! Such is life.

It doesn’t always have to be designer, look for the stamp underneath. Made in Denmark is superb, as is made in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia… If it looks Danish but doesn’t have the stamp, it probably was made in the U.S.

Some tips from my estate sale notes:

Danish: teak, clean lines, nice dovetailed joints

Italian: mixes it up more. Glass, marble, chrome. Bolder, sculptural look

American (Herman Miller/Knoll): the experimental stuff; molded plywood, fiberglass, wire

Life is more fun once you notice med spas all decorate their waiting rooms with fake Barcelona chairs, or the correlation between scammers and their mission to offload a Togo at any given moment.

Some of my favorite afternoons are spent researching a list of who, what and where that I’ve complied throughout the week. I love getting into the weeds with it.

Below are, as the title suggests, some chairs I’ve seen lately. Open houses more often than not showcase some genuinely striking design. I was so excited about a historic 1920s Spanish estate that I almost missed the $30,000 chair in the corner.

(estate sale list is at the end)

1. Mario Botta for Alias, 602 Seconda Chairs (1980s)

The most intimidating chair of all time. Feels like it’s about to turn into a souped up delivery robot and wreak havoc. Botta is an architect and designer. His buildings have a commanding formal character, taking notes from his idols, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. From the 20th Century Architecture website, “Botta’s buildings impress through their strong image quality, which might be interpreted as cultural resistance intent on a new order and meaning.”

His furniture leans the same. Where did he want things to go? What does he know that we don’t? I feel like he’s reciting a message from the great beyond.

These chairs really are buildings of their own. I watched a video where a guy said the perforated seat is like windows along a skyscraper but personally I would never say that out loud.

To me, there’s an added depth. Like, if I was stuck on a deserted island and I could bring only one thing, I would consider bringing this chair just because staring at it would truly keep me entertained.

The architectural logic can be felt even by someone with a Restoration Hardware couch (no hate I’m just saying). It’s impressive, and for many that’s enough.

I’d love to see it in one of those quintessential “bachelor pads” that never exists. Or maybe in a Malibu beach house, just sitting there throwing off the vibe.

Cool article about his must see buildings in Switzerland, you really get the gist of his design principles. The guy loves cylinders: https://mostlymuseums.com/mario-botta/

2. George Nakashima, Spindle Lounge Chair with Right Arm (1960s-70s)

You can feel this chair in your bones. On 1st Dibs for $33,785.46. George Nakashima was a Japanese American architect and woodworker. He is considered one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a father of the American craft movement.

While spending time in Japan, Nakashima worked for Antonin Raymond, the architect who had collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Imperial Hotel.

In 1940 he returned to the U.S. to teach woodworking. Shortly after he was interned and sent to Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho. During his incarceration he met Gentaro Hikogawa, a master Issei carpenter. From him, Nakashima learned how to work with traditional Japanese hand tools and joinery methods.

In 1943 Antonin Raymond sponsored Nakashima’s release, inviting him to his farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania. That is where Nakashima established his practice, which continues on through his daughter.

I found this chair in the corner of one of two living rooms, inside a giant pink mansion currently on the market for a bit over $5,000,000. Opposite a huge semi circle of a sofa, it was a piece of art.

I would love to see it in a usable way. A grandma’s craft room, because she knew a guy who knew a guy and he just gave the thing to her. The $30,000+ makes it hard to ever want to interact with it. My cat would definitely chew on the arm…This is the piece I want to see on the news, where some 20 year old found one at Goodwill. I think that’s what Nakashima would’ve wanted too.

3. Allan Gould, String Lounge & Ottoman (1950s)

Kinda hate them tbh. I just got out of a poorly executed Rhino class and this feels like the dopey objects we were forced to create. But its the fugly stuff that’s the most intriguing. Its all too obvious, I saw these at a Schindler house in Hollywood. It reminds me of this Schindler designed dining table I’d love to have a craigslist craftsman recreate for me.

You will probably recognize the Compass Chair, created by Gould for Herman Miller (1940s), which gets ripped constantly.

Gould had an art background. In an 1931 exhibition of his work, critic Edwin Alden Jewell praised him for having “painted the most beautiful chicken wire this reviewer has ever come upon in a gallery.”

MoMA acquired one of his earlier furniture designs, a side chair with the same steel frame and plastic cord seat. His use of geometry in his art clearly remained a constant with his furniture.

This has to be a chair that an old man sits down in and says “woah” like he’s about to roll around like an egg.

Now that makes me like them more… What I will say, they sit perfectly with the nature around them. They catch your eye like they've always belonged there. But it 100% works in this scenario because again, they’re living at a Schindler.

4. Philippe Starck, Miss Wirt Chairs (1982)

It has a very DMV sensibility. The name comes from the science fiction book Ubik by Philip K. Dick, which greatly inspired the designer. Black cotton linen fabric is stretched over two vertical steel tubes. The tension creates the comfortable back of the chair. I’m confident I could still find a way to slouch…my cats would also shred this thing.

A pair sold recently at auction for $1,300. I saw them sitting there at the preview, sort of ignored…Which is weird because, they’re abrupt, like you just walked into a wall. I definitely gave them my signature, “what the hell??”

Out of all of the color variations, I prefer the black, it feels the most sculptural, and a bit confusing. You can’t fully “get it” at the initial glance.

In my googling I also found these just plain dumber, Miss Wirt minis, perfect for your kid/short king.

Starck’s philosophy emphasizes that the only acceptable style is freedom. He pushed to do more with less, using the fewest materials possible while still giving the user the best possible experience. Remember the days when design actually considered its recipient?

You will definitely recognize his Louis Ghost Chair, designed for Kartell in 2002. A staple for every tween’s vanity set up. Draped with a faux sheepskin pelt.

If you’re inspired, I did find a sale for this weekend that has an excellent mid-century modern chair selection. Plus…an artist’s studio, a “fill a bag” sale, and a sale walkthrough with memories of each piece.

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I’ve been organizing my magazines and books, after shuffling stacks around and really testing the strength of my fake nails, I think I’ve gotten somewhere.

One of my favorite (American) Vogues to flip through is the November 1992 issue, otherwise known as the Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere issue. I made a video about it in January, on how a then 26-year-old Crawford aspired to be the Barbara Walters of her generation, and a then 43-year-old Gere was focused on “opening his heart”.

Collecting magazines today has become a mission of begging and pleading with eBay sellers who know what they have or worse, feel like they’re above USPS media mail.

This week I’ve included a speed read of this coveted Vogue issue. The best editorials, style advice, interviews and the most visually inventive advertisements. A world before AI models with 11 fingers and Bezos propaganda! The good old days…

As always, scroll to the very bottom for my estate sale list of the weekend 🧘🏻‍♀️

The Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere Interview

Written by: Julia Reed, Editor: Andre Leon Talley, Photographer: Herb Ritts (a close friend of Richard and Cindy)

Spike Lee interview on his film, Malcolm X

Interviewed by: John Edgar Wideman, Editor: Phyllis Posnick, Photographer: Penn

An Interview with 21 year old Winona Ryder

Interviewed by: Dario Scardapane, Fashion Editor: Brana Wolf, Photographer: Wayne Maser

Vampire Criticism and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 was an exciting year for movies evidently)

Written by: Mary Gaitskill, Editor: Andre Leon Talley, Photos: Herb Ritts

Photos I loved:

Ads of choice:

Bonus! A Vogue cosign for Birkenstocks:

Yikes that’s a lot of images…hope you’re in a place with stable wifi. If not, maybe just buy the issue: Vogue November 1992

Many more images below…this time of sick vintage pieces you can buy around Los Angeles. This weekend only! Come correct.

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My favorite tube top at this stage in my life….is from Brandy Melville. That being said, not all Brandy Melville tube tops are created equal. I like the double layered ones, they have to have presence.

I haven’t listened to the big bad earthquake podcast and I probably won’t, I get what I need to know through my esthetician Gina. She is the best facialist I’ve ever had. I love getting into hypotheticals with her, but beyond that she cares about healing my skin.

I have extremely sensitive/irritated/acne prone skin, which I am very confident is a trickle-down symptom from Lyme disease. I won’t get into all of my theories. I say that because usually when people give me recommendations for my skin, they do nothing. Gina is great because she’ll pay attention and plan a course of action. She’s a normal person who won’t try to sell you a million things or burn your skin off. I love her so much. She’s been in L.A. a long time and also has excellent recs to pass on. I go to her acupuncturist as well.

Anyway, she showed me this 5 day emergency survival kit from Costco, I bought two:

Five Day Survival Backpack

I read this intense deep dive on Marilyn Monroe’s life, from every place she’s ever lived, to her book collection, the art class she took in Connecticut, her most popular conspiracies and so on. I hadn’t known that her mother spent the majority of her life in mental health hospitals. Or that Marilyn went on numerous sourcing trips to Mexico after she bought her Brentwood home. It’s organized so you can just flip through to the parts you want to learn, but I’m obsessive and read it cover to cover. If you love Marilyn for who she really was, or want to know her in that way, it’s a transcendent book. It definitely shades the way I see things.

A few of my favorite places to loiter on a summer afternoon:

LACMA: I love bringing a book to the Erewhon cafe and sitting outside next to the giant oscillating Alexander Calder sculpture. The David Geffen Galleries is now open, which houses their permanent collection. It has mixed reviews because that will always happen, but I like that it doesn’t spoon feed art to you. Love seeing a Robert Henri piece against a big cement wall! And despite it all, I’m into the windows. It’s art and real life and motion and distractions all in a sick Brutalist people watching spot.

Any public library but mostly the downtown one: The Central Library in downtown (630 W 5th St) was built in the 1920s. It’s a Historic-Cultural Monument that has elements of Egyptian, Roman, Byzantine, and Art Deco styles. It used to have a series of fountains cascading down the front courtyard but they’ve been turned off for years. If you want to flip through art and design books, find something niche and weird, like perhaps my favorite of all time, Shit, the Big Brother book, it’s at the library! I love really getting into the weeds here. I’m a public library defender til the end. I also love the Beverly Hills and Malibu locations. The Central Library is hosting an event for its 100th birthday this Saturday.

Bandini: A natural wine bar in Echo Park that is always at the perfect capacity (like 4-6 people inside, more on the back patio but I never go out there). If you want to be that guy you can definitely bring a book here. I feel like that always makes dudes talk to you so unfortunately I hate doing it. Why throw small talk at someone who’s trying to read??? It’s a chill place to hang and gab and not have your eardrums blown out by weird dance music. Excellent place to debrief. They also have food pop ups (check their instagram) that pair perfectly with two glasses of a chilled red. I know nothing about wine or alcohol in general but to me, natural wine= refreshing and delicious, regular wine= tastes like milk.

Paradise Cove: Heaven on Earth. Food kinda sucks. I love sitting at the tables in the sand. Or staring into the abyss in one of the Adirondack chairs. This is a special place for those who get it. I mean I would never hit their beach club, it looks like Times Square over there, but the restaurant and the chairs by the rocks feel like forever summer. It’s also a famous trailer park (properties are a million and up). Pamela Anderson and many others, but most importantly Pam, have lived here. It’s my dream neighborhood! Real life can’t touch you there! At the restaurant, I get the giant cocktail in the watermelon, I like the huge plastic martini glass of calamari, the Poke bowl is actually pretty good, french fries are great…I’m making my way through the menu. You’ll have the best time here. Approved reading spot, dudes mind their business.

Below are my latest estate sale picks for this weekend. One in a very haunted house (you might recognize it). And a clothing sale in one of my favorite modernist homes in all of Los Angeles?? If you don’t want to shop, these double as amazing house tours.

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This is me blowing up some innocent person’s spot in the name of good design.

The Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home was designed in 1957 by John F. Bednarski, a known architect in the Pioneer Valley. It was his personal residence, and the office of his architecture practice. John passed away in 2024, and the house was listed for the first time ever, at $619,000.

Not to be a creep but I pulled some info from John’s obituary. He was a really cool guy. Born and raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts, he spent some time in the Navy, eventually ending up at the School of Architecture, Syracuse University, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1951. John worked in architectural firms in Montreal, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. He opened his own architectural studio in his home on Newell Pond in 1958.

If anyone at all is reading this from good old Western Mass, John’s architectural firm designed a lot of notable buildings, including the classroom building for The Bement School, the Summit House for Mount Sugarloaf, dormitories for North Adams State College, Foster’s Market and Atkins Country Market, in addition to many private residences. In 1969, John designed Holy Trinity Church in Hatfield, MA, for which he won the 1972 Architectural Design Award from the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

John continued to design well into his 80’s (I’m still getting all of this from his obituary, it really is a phenomenal life story). His favorite pastime was spending time in his yard, landscaping each corner.

I had intended to write more about the home, but the architect really struck me. I’m apt to disregard where I’m from. Learning that lives like this existed and thrived over there feels very foreign to me. You really can live a life you want if you force it.

I remember this weird time when a designer I worked for was trying to explain to people where I’m from (like Massachusetts is some incomprehensible place). He said, “People from Massachusetts are very proud.” Naturally, I got offended. He should have said people from Massachusetts are easily pissed off.

As much as I hate to say it, this 45 year old ripped t-shirt wearing man was right. We are extremely proud. Because we know what we have.

I think I learned how to force the life I want from living in Western Mass. It certainly builds character, and leaves more than enough time to daydream.

This house feels like the product of that, it would make the horrific winters and gray in-between seasons bearable. Rain, snow, sleet, and the two months of warm weather before the humidity hits you like a ton of bricks, would be a life well lived here.

The listing had said that photos cannot do it justice, and I’m very tempted to go knock on this person’s door to see it for myself. In true Massachusetts fashion, they’ll probably tell me to fuck off.

What’s more American than hitting the estate sales this Fourth of July weekend? We love a deal! More importantly, we love arguing over a deal! I have a few solid ones below, my personal favorites at least. Good old American antiques, an insane butter dish I’m being so serious, a sale with custom Choppers but I’m more focused on the vintage posters…

Also a mega auction if you want to shop from the comfort of your beach chair. That’s where I will be 💋

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Former co-owner of the Giants and a prominent name in the Epstein files, Steve Tisch, fought a five year battle against Rustic Canyon locals in an attempt to expand his already gigantic property. He also wanted to include a private right of way, but lost the case in the end.

Originally home to the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe, the Canyon had been under both Spanish and Mexican control before Alta California was ceded to the United States in 1847.

About 40 years later, it became the nation’s first experimental forestry station. Abbot Kinney, developer, eucalyptus championer, and connoisseur of the arts, was convinced that the varied terrain of Rustic Canyon was ideal to test trees as cash crops. Kinney persuaded the canyon’s owners to donate six acres in 1887.

Many of his original eucalyptus trees still exist.

In the 1940s a group of dudes from the Los Angeles Athletic Club were looking for a spot for a summer retreat. “The Uplifters Club” took over the old forestry station for 30 years. Rustic log cabins were built around the clubhouse, which each member could lease for $100. During prohibition, they were referred to as the Cuplifters Club.

Writer and canyon dweller Christopher Isherwood described the community in his book “A Single Man”, saying:

“More probably the name was chosen for its picturesqueness by the pioneer escapists from dingy downtown Los Angeles and stuffy-snobbish Pasadena who came here in the early twenties. . . . Their utopian dream was of a sub-tropical English village with Montmartre manners: a Good Little Place where you could paint a bit, write a bit, and drink lots. . . . They were tacky and cheerful and defiantly bohemian, tirelessly inquisitive about each other’s doings, and boundlessly tolerant.”

I love this neighborhood and the character that has endured. The houses are extremely varied, but a synergy exists. I’ve spent some time here photographing homes that are cute, extreme, filled with giant figs bursting through the ceiling and beyond.

Below is every home I’ve had the privilege to step foot in, in good old Rustic Canyon.

I have a disclaimer I’d like to toss in here. One of these homes unfortunately was lost in the Palisades fire. I haven’t talked about it more than necessary but I was living in the Palisades for five years, when I lost my home and entire community.

For the past year and a half I have walked into work and had people say, “Quinn I keep forgetting you don’t live in the Palisades anymore.” I have had friends of friends introduce themselves and almost immediately ask how much time I had to get out of my house.

I’m extremely sensitive about how people bring up the fire. I rarely find it worthwhile to talk about with those who didn't go through it themselves. Because my neighbors were living there for 30+ years and now can’t afford a home. The old people down the street from me who had a dining room table on their lawn for wine and cheese every evening, don’t have a place to do that anymore.

The Palisades is definitely a place of privilege, but there were still pockets of people who lived simply. A 12 year old girl who lived across from me sketched my cats in the window once and left it at my door. We literally had a neighborhood fiddler who would perform on his front lawn.

I included this home because two prolific artists lived there, and because it carried the spirit of Rustic Canyon. You can see how the skylights brought the day in. I remember spotting a closet of various chairs and hoping for an estate sale.

Anyway I think that is all of my bitching and moaning, so…

Here is every single house I’ve been to in Rustic Canyon:

1. 2022 estate sale at a 1951 mid-century home

• house has since been heavily renovated and looks terrible

• currently being rented at $27,500 a month

2. The Hyun Residence, by David Hyun (1960)

• sold in September 2024 for $5,925,000

• drove by a year ago and the house was being completely rebuilt

3. Schwartz House by Pierre Koenig, 1994.

• last project to be completed during Koenig’s lifetime

• sold in November 2024 for $3,490,000

4. 1965 mid-century home by June Veloso

• still on the market, for $5,495,000

5. The longtime home and studio of artists Nicolai Fechin and Sergei Bongart

• consisted of a 3-story Dutch Colonial in the front and a 1930 John Byers designed home in the back.

• this property burned down in the 2025 Palisades fire

6. Brutalist 80’s masterpiece by Ray Kappe

• sold in March 2025 for $3,585,000 (almost 2 mill under asking)

7. The Lenke House by Marshall Lewis, 1987

• sold in February 2023 for $7,722,000

I have a really good walking route for Rustic Canyon, complete with house info…its pretty full on. Message me if you want to give it a go.

Below are 12 estate sales all over L.A. A full Tiki bar set up is for sale, plus Chanel bags, tons of clothes, Hollywood Regency style furniture, vintage lighting. This is a major weekend for sales…I have my favorite pieces and some insider info 🥳 below.

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I also happened to be 24 when I attended her estate sale, grabbing some Gucci boots at the back of a floral carpeted closet for $15.

Loretta lived in a world of powder blue. A grand chandelier and winding staircase jumpstarted the experience, feeling like an ode to her pageant days.

Guess what? The house has been ruined. And someone tried to steal the home from Loretta! Just another day in the valley.

We’ll start with the good, get to the weird and end with the scams.

The house was steeped in Hollywood Regency style, opulent everything, accentuated with blue velvet drapes and portraits staring you down. Loretta passed in 2020. A memory on her obituary described how she, her mother, her daughter, and her daughter's friend all lived in the Encino house together for a while. It was like a much more regal Gilmore Girls. Another memory reminisces on reading Hemingway and Hawthorne by her pool.

The dress she wore to Miss World’s crowning ceremony was for sale. Why I didn’t buy it, I have no idea. Some reseller is probably trying to hawk it on Etsy as we speak.

A photo of her on something I would describe as a decorative soap looking throne was displayed with the dress. She’s completely in her element.

JFK paintings and giant crystal doorknobs let you know who she was.

I love that the parlor had tassel trimmed sofas. Down the hall, a wood paneled den was lined with books and heavy wall sconces, a different side of her.

Some serendipitous moments of the sale really stuck with me. A bustier, leather gloves, one metallic shoe and a photo of a woman with great hair are begging to be labeled “a vibe”.

A wooden enclosed bible, cordless phone and dependable sandals with a casual heel sit on the nightstand. Things dropped off or ignored as people search for whatever their version of a good deal is.

The home is front and center in Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart” music video. You can see a shot of the exterior at the end.

In 2014, when Loretta was in her late 80s, she met a man named David Lee Jones at the hospital, whom she ended up letting rent a room at her house. Three years later, she called the police on him, saying he was slowly destroying her home. It turns out he “allegedly” had her sign over the rights to the house in 2016 after she had a hip surgery and was on morphine??? Its such a deeply twisted scam.

I did not expect this TMZ report would pop up while I was looking for her outfit photos from various pageants.

He was an old timey criminal, using various aliases over the years. You have to be a special type of loser to target old people…He was charged with theft from an elder and vandalism of property worth more than $400.

I’m now feeling like this Substack is a bit depressing because in the end, the house was heavily renovated and now sucks. I’m sorry! Next week’s post will have a happier theme, I’ll talk about my favorite Paulie Gaultieri outfits or something.

Loretta’s dream house sold shortly after the estate sale in 2022, for $2,500,000. Someone thought they knew better and removed every ounce of character. It sits like a shell of a home. I think flippers feel thats the point…or at least that’s how they reason with the $4,000,000 price tag. Rip everything out but put in an electric car charger.

The flippers haven’t gotten to them all, just yet…A few cool old homes to shop in are below. I really went digging this week and came back with some specific ones. If you’re searching for lamps disguised as palm trees, maybe a 90 year old’s perfectly curated mid-century dining set, Chanel slingbacks and Manolo mules to stomp around in… I have lucky number 11 estate sales listed down below. My favorites from each are pictured, and my expert photo analysis might not be asked for but is given anyway.

A few things worth mentioning:

-Saturday June 20th Art Parade at LACMA

-Billings' Summer Modern Art + Design Catalogue

-Marilyn Monroe Exhibition at the Academy Museum

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