I've been back to school for two days now, and I am trying to honor my commitment to post more regularly on this blog—even if I have nothing to say. You've heard of the 24-hour news cycle? I'm still stuck in a 24-day orbit.

People keep asking when I'm going to weigh in on the "redesign" of the Oval Office, which has gotten so much attention in recent weeks. On this subject, I truly have nothing to say. Does it offer some insight into the personal tastes and style of the Obamas? No. Does it represent the abilities of decorator Michael Smith? No. It's just a couple of lame sofas and lamps. Who gives a rat's tuchus?

Frankly, given the state of the union and the world at large, the referendum on the Oval Office redo feels more than distasteful. Years of chronicling the lifestyles of the rich and richer have taught me it's usually best to keep politics out of the haute-decor discussion.

Yes, I'm the original Boy in the Plastic Decorator Bubble. But if I'm going to step outside that sphere to engage in a public discussion that has anything whatsoever to do with politics, I assure you it will be about an issue more profound than a beige carpet.

So, what do I have for you today? A lovely, completely apolitical sofa, which is most likely not getting anywhere near the White House. Specifically, it's the Valentine sofa, originally designed in 1950 by the great decorator Billy Haines for the May House in Beverly Hills but ultimately produced for the super-triple-extrachic Brody House in Holmby Hills.

The piece has just been reissued by William Haines Designs. It has walnut legs, a leather-wrapped arm and biscuit tufting (mmmm, biscuits).

For added sustenance, I'll leave you with a couple of images of the modernist dream house the late, esteemed art collector Frances Brody cooked up with architect A. Quincy Jones and her ingenious ensemblier. It's currently on the market for $25 million (Matisse ceramic mural not included).

I've got a birthday coming up if anyone's feeling generous. I could really make that house sing again—and I look fabulous in a pearl necklace.

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Who says nothing happens at the end of August? After taking a couple weeks off to get my new puppy settled (more on Linus later—in fact, all about Linus), I'm shocked to see how many momentous events and announcements I've missed.

First comes the distressing news that a new setting has been designed for the legendary Hope Diamond to commemorate Harry Winston's donation of the stone to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. I'm not sure why they're calling it a 50th anniversary celebration—do the math—but that's neither here nor there.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Cat Doran: So this is our first field trip IRL. (That's "in real life." Woo-hoo! I know the lingo!!) Gentle readers, we ventured all the way to Pasadena to the Museum of California Art for the California Design Biennial, with which I was really quite pleased. I'm not going to beat around the bush—my prize for favorite design goes to Michael Schmidt and his multitalented bedazzling skills. What can I say? I’m a sucker for glitter. I loved the football pads he bedazzled for Madge and all the chainmail stuff.

Mayer Rus: Starting off with what we liked instead of what we loathed? Very Up with People of you, but I'm all for it. My pick isn't a single thing but a category: architecture. Despite thematic umbrellas, biennials and triennials are basically a Whitman's Sampler of stuff that some curator—in this case, five curators—thought was cool and worthy. Since there were only about a dozen entries for architecture, and since architecture is represented mainly by photos on foam core and a couple of models, the selections needed to be really good—which they were. Props to curator Frances Anderton. If I have to choose a pick of the litter, it's Michael Maltzan's Inner-City Arts campus near skid row downtown—a perfect example of looking good while doing good.

C.D.: I love Michael Maltzan, too!! (The Up with People me can’t get enough exclamation points!!!) He’s very underrated, if you ask me. Did anyone ask me? I agree that the architecture section was probably the strongest category here design-wise, but I can’t help myself. I am attracted to the sparkly things, and photos and architectural models in a museum setting are always so tough to appreciate. I felt the same way about the transportation-design category. I loved the idea of the dolphin-inspired Seabreacher submarine/watercraft by Innespace Productions, but I wanted to see the actual thing, not a photo of it. I understand that space limitations make this impossible, but I am very much of the Missouri “Show Me” mindset when it comes to museum going.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Every August, I grouse about the barbaric American summer work calendar versus the enlightened European model of month-long, seaside reverie among legions of bethonged sybarites. Once again, the season is winding down, school is almost back in session and I find myself chained to a computer, if not a desk, far from le beau monde de Bain de Soleil.

Since I'm not free at present to enjoy the rapture of Nature, I decided to soak up a little Culture nearby. Last Sunday, I finally made it to LACMA for the complementary exhibitions Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins and Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape. LACMA may not be Saint-Tropez, but there was plenty of flesh and natural splendor to appreciate nevertheless.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Once in a while, on dreary days when the realness of reality feels more onerous than I can bear, I like to escape to the fairyland of avant-garde design on the Web. It's a magical place where such banal, utilitarian concerns as cost, comfort and commercial viability are all happily sacrificed on the high altar of Concept.

There are many sites that specialize in cutting-edge confections born in the far-flung design laboratories of Europe and Japan. My favorites include Designboom, Dezeen and Mocoloco. In addition to some genuinely interesting, innovative products, I can always depend on these sites for a healthy serving of ludicrous bonbons that tease, enchant and, occasionally, nauseate.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Cat Doran: I woke up so happy on Monday, because I had fallen asleep on the angel wings of Don Draper's 5 o'clock shadow. Once I was fully awake, I got a little sad because old Don has had to turn to a hooker to slap him across the aforementioned 5 o'clock shadow, when I would clearly time travel to do it for free.

Mayer Rus: The genius of Don Draper continues to astonish me. He is so badass. I'm amazed at how Jon Hamm manages to keep the Draper mystique so incredibly sharp. There's absolutely no seepage between Big Don's character and the delightfully dorky comic persona Hamm puts on for his 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live appearances. He was fantastic in the opener, but my favorite line belonged to Pete Campbell: "I can use my expense account if I say they're whores." T&E for T&A. That's what I'm talking about.

CD: I was having a hard time figuring out what year it was until I read somewhere that it’s now set in the fall of 1964. That would explain why Peggy Olson is no longer featuring Dior’s “New Look” silhouette and instead resembles photos of my mom from around the time I was born—like she’s 45 years old when she’s really about 23. Come to think of it, that trend of young women aging themselves has really resurfaced, what with the Heidi Montags of the world getting plastic surgery to look like one of the Real Housewives of Frightville.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Do non-Jewish people know what chazerai is? It means junk in Yiddish, derived from the word chazer, meaning pig.

Here's another word for aspiring Judeophiles: fakakta. It means poopy.

Since Frank Gehry was born Ephraim Goldberg, I have to think he knows from fakakta chazerai. I bring this up because I cannot figure out why the great builder is designing jewelry for Tiffany & Co. The sculptural brio Gehry brought to Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall simply does not translate to his wonky bibelots, baubles, gimcracks and gewgaws. Is a classic diamond solitaire improved upon by imprisoning the stone in a graceless, crooked frame? I think not. A better question: Is anyone buying this?

Frankly, I'm sorry Ephraim hasn't gotten much in the way of important museum commissions since the hullabaloo over Bilbao subsided, but a detour into bijoux is not the answer.

Hubris is an ugly thing. Italian architect Ernesto Rogers coined the phrase dal cucchiaio alla città ("from the spoon to the city") to articulate the desire among his ilk to design things at every possible scale, from the smallest household object to vast urban developments. That sounds good in theory, but the reality is that even the best architects very rarely are capable of designing a great chair--or bracelet. Consider the tragic Tiffany pendant featuring Gehry's abstracted initials, FOG. I don't care if you're a Jew, gentile, Muslim, pagan, Baha'i or Buddhist. There's only one thing to say about this rubbish. Oy vey!

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Following is the first installment of Double the Love, an ongoing series of incisive point-counterpoint discussions in which blogosphere potentates Cat Doran (The Nines) and Mayer Rus (From Rus with Love) weigh in on pressing issues of the day.

Mayer Rus: I've tried very hard to ignore the spectacle of Peter Marino's metamorphosis from cashmere-swaddled decorator to bulging leather dude. He was on my list of Things I Don't Want to Know Anything About, in between Chatroulette and James Franco's annoying "art" project on General Hospital. But I fear there's no escaping him.

Cat Doran: Wait a cotton-picking second. Before I address the changeling that is Mr. Marino, how could it be that the exact three things you don't want to know about are the very ones I can't get enough of? Did I tell you about my one and only foray onto Chatroulette? A group of German teenagers called me a MILF. As for Franco, I find him dirtily dreamy. And finally on to Herr Marino. He ranks up there with Thierry Mugler in the Transformation Olympics. I can't get enough of him either.   READ MORE >

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

No big thoughts or smart-alecky pontificating. Just shilling for cool stuff to see and buy.

Photographer Reuben Cox is exhibiting a group of pictures he took over several summers at watering holes around his hometown of Highlands, North Carolina, at the Hi-Lite Studio & Project Space downtown at 533 S. Los Angeles St. The show opens this Saturday, July 17, with an artist reception hosted by canny curator Audrey Landreth and omni-cool ceramics dude Adam Silverman of Heath.

Cox's images evoke an archetypal American experience of fleeting summer and youth. I'd say they reminded of me of my own childhood, but there's a notable absence of borscht and shame. If I had to do it all over again, I'd grow up in Highlands, where cute boys apparently grow on trees.

Meanwhile, the venerable Reform Gallery has moved a warehouse full of American design treasures (with an emphasis on California furniture and craft) into its gallery at 601 N. La Brea for a blockbuster sale that runs July 15–17. Wily craft connoisseur Gerard O'Brien promises discounts of 40–80 percent on fantastic ceramics, chairs, glass, textiles and other objets de vertu. I came away from the preview with a fantastic gnarled-wood secret-stash box made in 1977 by Raymond Pelton. I'm using it to hide my, um, Social Security card and Miley Cyrus fanzines.

Another one of my favorite shops, Eccola, is having a big moving sale July 17–24 at 326 N. La Brea. (The new space is 7408 Beverly Blvd.) The specialty of the casa is Italian design—Magistretti, Venini, Castiglioni, Arteluce, etc. Just saying the names will make you feel swank and continental. Pull a few things together and make your own facsimile of the ultra-chic Milanese villa from I Am Love, the new Tilda Swinton-as-Russian/Italian-MILF vehicle. Abbondanza!

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)

Dennis Hopper's first major retrospective in America, Double Standard, opened at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA today. It's a curious but likable show with a curious installation by curator Julian Schnabel.

It presents a decidedly sympathetic portrait of an intriguing demimonde character who experimented broadly with abstract expressionism, photography, assemblage, pop, graffiti and film. There's a notable emphasis on painting, sculpture and other less familiar aspects of Hopper's work, but his photos--particularly those of the art world in the 1960s--are still the highlight of the show.

Schnabel, in his opening remarks at the press preview, addressed Hopper's intellectual curiosity and artistic promiscuity by referring to him as a "sponge and conduit." He also chastised the media for giving short shrift to Hopper's output as an artist and instead focusing on titillating gossip and Hollywood lore.

Movie clips from Easy Rider to Speed are deliberately and bizarrely relegated to the back of the show so that the paintings, sculptures and photographs do not come across as some kind of sideline to Hopper's primary identity as an actor and director. I'm not sure about the rationale, but it's a nice way to punctuate the proceedings--revisiting Hopper's turn as Frank, the gas-huffing perv screaming, "Baby wants to f--k!" in Blue Velvet. If that isn't art, I don't know what is.

Photos: Courtesy of the Dennis Hopper estate

COMMENT    READ COMMENTS (0)