Where is this place?

And what does it have to do with my story? And what are those pink bulbs?

All questions J.R.R. Tolkien asked when he saw Barbara Remington's cover painting for The Lord of the Rings.

In her defense she hadn't had time to read the books as the publisher was rushing out the paperbacks to squelch the sales of a pirated version. (see here also).

Anyway, the question I asked an indifferent Linda when we found the giant poster in the basement of an estate sale was "Oh my God! Can you believe it?????!!?"

The Ghost and Mrs. Snowblood

Squeaky-voiced 1930's actress Jean Arthur's house in Carmel California, 1976.
Equal parts Lady Snowblood and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
with a little helping of the Mines of Moria and Fangorn Forest.

And that's just the living room.

Lift up your feet and put them on the groundthe grass was greener then, when we were young.....

etc..............

A few random spreads from the brilliant new book 70s Style & Design by Dominic Lutyens and Kirsty Hislop.

This is a mind-blowing book and easily the best 70's resource book you'll ever see. Imagine Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy's Cheap Chic (1975) mixed with Charlotte and Peter Friel's 70's Decorative Art (2000) and how they would make sense together. The research is extraordinary, and the scope is radically extensive.

It's also nice to read a book that doesn't just reduce the 70's to kitsch, but really shows you how amazing it was.

Why Don't You...?

Paint your garage doors to match your car?

Greek

This awesome painting was bought by my in-laws at an estate sale in Florida and arrived via giant tube in our mail last week. Painted by Alex Tavoularis (brother of Dean Tavoularis), who's got an IMDB page so cool you'd expect nothing less than a cute nude blonde crawling around his floor: locations for Coppola's 1974 "The Conversation", art department on The Godfather 2 and 3, production illustrator of Apocalypse Now and half a dozen other Coppola films, designer of the "Taarna" segment of Heavy Metal, the early Star Wars storyboards, etc...

I'm not sure what the story is with the painting, but she could conceivably be anyone: a Playboy Bunny from Apocalypse Now, a girlfriend from Laurel Canyon, a waitress from Marathon, a scuba diver from Key Largo modeling a Taarna look, Teri Garr... but unless informed otherwise I'm going to assume she's most likely an early concept for Princess Leia.

The Secret Policeman

Sting, resplendent in sublimeness at The Secret Policeman's Other Ball benefit for Amnesty International, 1981.

Also, Message in a Bottle

Lou Dorfsman

Type Chess Set, from Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found. (click to enlarge)

Le French Dresser, ibid.

Lou Dorfsman

Two of my favorite projects from our book, and the man who inspired them. Lou Dorfsman, designer par excellence. Our latest post at AT is about it all, read it here.

The New York Times

!

C'etait un Rendezvous

Rendez-vous (Claude Lelouch 1976)

Early one August morning in 1976 the French director Claude Lelouch mounted a camera to the front of his Ferrari and filmed his breakneck drive through the streets of Paris, from Porte Dauphine to Sacre Coeur. After "C'etait un Rendezvous" was shown publicly Lelouch was arrested and the car confiscated.

Not long after it was released our local library had a copy, and my brother and I used to get our dad to rent it constantly, every chance we got. Back then renting movies was a little more complicated, as the movie was an actual big can of film, and my dad would have to lug out the movie projector and thread the film, while we'd set up the giant silver screen on its rickety aluminum tripod. But when the lights went out and the movie started rolling, nothing beat sitting on the carpet staring up at the screen with a permanent smile for 9 minutes, the smell of dusty electricity, the smooth clacking of the projector, and the loud Ferrari engine blaring through the steel speakers.
Happy Bastille Day!