I’m half-deaf, my nose is sunburned, and my throat feels like sandpaper, but I’m still high on happiness following yesterday’s 52nd birthday celebration for Michael Jackson in Prospect Park. It was 95° in New York City (with zero cloud cover), which made standing in the middle of an open field for six hours akin to roasting in an oven, but no matter. The fun and joy of the day outweighed the unpleasantness of heat and sweat (and for me, that’s saying a lot).

An estimated 50,000 (!!!) people came out to celebrate together, making this year’s event even bigger and more successful than last year’s.

I have a huge amount of respect for Spike Lee as a filmmaker (including the three videos he made for MJ), and I’m so grateful that he’s put this massive—and FREE—party on for the past two years . . . and that he plans to continue to do it every year.

As he did last year, poet and performance artist Lemon Andersen delivered spoken-word pieces that honored both the legacy of the entire Jackson family and the wonder that is BROOKLYN.

This girl was so full of energy and confidence. She did a wicked air-guitar solo during "Beat It" that would’ve made Jennifer Batten proud.

DJ Spinna was amazing again this year. His knowledge and love of all eras of Michael’s career—with and without the Jackson 5—is what makes it possible to spend six hours listening to a single artist (with a small handful of associated acts thrown in) without getting bored.

AHHHHHHH!!! Snoop Dogg!!! (And yes, that’s Warren G behind Spike!) I love me some Snoop, and his appearance yesterday was a complete surprise. I like that the party is really about celebrating Michael’s music (as he recorded it, and not being performed by other artists), but a few minutes of Snoop droppin’ it like it’s hot never hurt anyone.

The Reverend Al Sharpton came out again this year to deliver a beautiful eulogy for Michael and to speak about the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. (No photos, as I was recording video.)

Lots more photos in my Flickr set. I can’t wait to do this all again next year. Happy birthday, Mike.

p.s. Check out Nubby Twiglet’s birthday tribute to MJ, too!

EDIT: Spike has posted a thank-you note on his site that nicely summarizes the day. Thank YOU, Spike!

EDIT #2: Here are a couple of clips from interviews with Snoop and Reverend Al. If you watch carefully, you’ll see me and my camera all hot and sweaty in the front row . . .

This photo and its caption should come as a surprise to exactly no one. That’s me in the fall of 1992 with my pal Geoff*, accepting our honors after having been voted “Class Non-Conformists” by our peers. The shot appeared in the Rhinebeck High School yearbook the following spring, and to this day I consider my elected status one of my crowning achievements in life.

(Hmmm. Maybe we should’ve done like the Sex Pistols when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and not shown up for our photo. Rats. Opportunity to not conform missed!)

I suppose it’s more common to want to be elected to another Senior Superlative position—Most Likely to Succeed, Most Athletic, Best-Dressed, or even Class Clown—but Non-Conformist was the only spot I ever cared about claiming. The rest seemed to me to be popularity contests, but this? This was an unpopularity contest. Sign me up!

Of course, it’s easy to say that with my supposed non-conformity I was, at least outwardly, conforming quite a bit with what was at that time the exact aesthetic of the teenage “non-conformist”. But no matter. I’ve been a non-conformist since the day I was born. I blame Youngest Child Syndrome (in a family of non-conformists, no less) for my need to be “different” in order to be recognized, and that attitude has served me well over the years. There was a patch of time in Junior High (surprise, surprise) when I was determined to conform to a more mainstream ideal, but I quickly figured out that it wasn’t going to work. By the time I was 13 years old, I had begun to alter my outsides to reflect the fact that inside, I wasn’t one of them.

I know, I know—it’s all so transparent and expected and predictable (though I will offer up the excuse that small-town America in the early-’90s was decidedly less “worldly” than it is today, and I thought I was pretty darned radical with my dyed hair and my at-home ear-piercings), but looking outwardly unlike the rest of the crowd has always given me great comfort and confidence. After all, if I’m doing my own thing, I’m not failing at doing what everyone else is. Right?

In my mid-30s, I struggle with how to visually express my non-conformity in a way that is fashionable, “adult”, and forward-thinking. I worry sometimes that I look like the rest of the masses, and it’s especially tricky (if not impossible) in New York City to look like an outsider or a free-thinker. I’ve got the insides taken care of, but the outsides? I don’t know. The older I get, the harder it is. All I know is that I still want to belong to the Non-Conformist Club, even if accepting membership automatically makes me a hypocrite.

*Geoff, the huge guy standing next to me, is now a musician and stay-at-home-dad…and still a non-conformist.

Speaking of non-conformists, I’m about to head out to Brooklyn for the 2nd-annual Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson birthday celebration, hosted by Spike Lee. It’s going to be a fantastic day. See you there?

You know how you always see cool projects all over the place that involve re-purposing old fruit crates? Or old shipping pallets? And then you start getting obsessed with looking for these old fruit crates and old shipping pallets everywhere you go. Where is everyone finding this stuff? It’s like there must be some pile of magical old wood out there somewhere, just waiting for you to take it home and make it into something lovely. Except you never actually find that magical pile of wood—not in a location where it’s up for the taking. At least I don’t.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, fruit crates. I found some! A whole bunch, actually. They’re all piled up in the parking lot of a store that’s gone out of business on the outskirts of Newburgh. We’ve liberated three of them so far, and I think we’ll go back and get some more this weekend. I want to use them for basement storage bins. If I can get my hands on a bigger, sturdier crate, I want to put casters on it and use it for stashing magazines in the living room. Like so:

(via emmas designblogg)

Remember my friend Adam? You know, the guy who did that amazing bedroom renovation a couple of years ago? Yeah, him. Well, he took a little break from working on his house . . . and a not-so-little break from blogging. A couple of weeks ago, Adam came down to Newburgh from Potsdam for a visit with Evan and I, and I gave him some poking and prodding and encouragement to get going again—with the blogging, yes, but more importantly, with working on his house.

Adam was one of the first people to see our house when we first bought it. He saw it before we’d even moved in! He hadn’t been down since then, though, so he really got the full “before and after” effect with a four-year gap between visits. I’d like to think that seeing our progress was a little inspiring. I know it gave me a little perspective on how much we’ve gotten done by thinking about how different the house was the last time Adam was here.

Anyway, Adam is back to blogging, and I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s all set up with a new layout and logo and his own domain, too! You can find him (and me too, from time to time) at Fixing Adam’s House. Yay!

This video made me incredibly happy. Look at these guys go! Of course I knew that rabbits can jump, but I had no idea that they can do it so high, so long, and with so much grace. I wonder if Hank could do that. Maybe if he were Danish.

Thank you, Evan!

I’m feeling pretty pleased with the progress Evan and I were able to make in the garden this weekend. In a total of about 8 hours over the course of two days, we managed to construct two 8-foot mega-planters. That includes the time spent buying the wood and transporting it home! Total cost? About $100 total . . . for both planters. Fifty bucks a pop!

I took a few progress shots along the way just in case someone else wants to make a mega-planter or two. The whole project was super-easy. Seriously. Anyone with a drill and a jigsaw can do this.

After cutting all of our wood to size (we used 1×6 planks that were already 8 feet long, so we really just had to cut the side pieces down to 18″, and cut up a few 2×2s to create the support posts), we got to painting. I like to use Cabot Solid-Color Acrylic Stain for outdoor projects. It has the look of a flat, solid paint, but won’t chip or peel like paint does. The stain is very forgiving and easy to apply, usually only requires one coat, and dries completely in less than an hour. It really does hide the grain (but not the texture!) completely, though, so you might want to use something translucent if you prefer a more “woody” look. Since we already have so much wood going on outside between the deck, the porch, and the fence, I really wanted something subdued. Black has a nice way of receding in gardens, too.

(By the way, one gallon of this stain goes REALLY far. We bought one can two years ago, and even after using it for a gazillion projects, the level has only dropped about two inches. I fully expect this can of stain to outlive us all.)

The assembly process was easy. Screw the posts to the end panels (we screwed through the back so the screws won’t be visible on the finished planter), screw the end panels to the front and back planks, screw on the center posts for extra support (this may not be necessary with smaller planters). We used exterior decking screws that won’t rust. For a finishing touch, we stapled mesh screening onto the bottom of the planter. With all the groundhog* action that’s been going on in our garden lately, I consider any small defense a good one.

*At last count, there are four groundhogs: Haggis, Patches, Scarface, and my arch-nemesis, Fatback.

The planters are in place! We spent a good amount of time leveling them and making sure they were sitting nicely together. We’re planning to throw in a couple of bolts to keep them in line with each other over time, too.

THE DIRT PILE IS GONE! It felt so good to shovel all of that excess dirt that’s been migrating all over the yard for the past couple of years into the planter, let me tell you. We’re going to fill the planters the rest of the way with nice, rich planting soil, of course, but it’s okay to put crummy dirt in the bottom. Ahhhh. Bye-bye, dirt pile! I won’t miss you.

I took a second-floor shot of the whole garden so you can see how much area the mega-planters take up. I’m not sure yet what we’re going to plant in there (possibly something tall and evergreen and bushy, mixed in with some brightly-colored flowering perennials), but it’s so exciting to have another piece of the garden plan DONE.

I don’t usually do “new product” posts, but it’s a quiet Sunday, and geez . . . how gorgeous is this? A walnut Hang-It-All?! We already have the standard multi-colored version in our hallway, but I think we might need to find a place somewhere else in the house for this guy, too.

From the DWR website:

In August 2010, Herman Miller, Inc. introduced this limited edition Hang-It-All made with a black frame and solid walnut balls. This special item brings a sophisticated twist to the classic multi-colored version, and it will be in production for only a few months, ending in early 2011. In the mid-1940s, Charles and Ray Eames began designing toys and furniture for children, including molded plywood animals, colorful building blocks and whimsical masks. “We have to take pleasure seriously,” said Charles Eames, and the Hang-It-All (1953) is an example of this mantra.

Look! Fritz got his first modeling job!

When illustrator Paule Trudel Bellemare contacted me to ask if I’d be okay with her using some photos of Fritz for reference in a series of drawings she was working on called Girls+Dogs, I didn’t hesitate for a second. Paule’s work is gorgeous, and her drawings of dogs in particular are really very sweet. She captures the personalities of the breeds and relationship between the dogs and their humans so perfectly.

Take a look at Paule’s portfolio, her blog, and her shop on Etsy! You can buy Fritz’s portrait, as well as others from the Girls+Dogs series and a number of other beautiful illustrations.

With no further ado, here’s Dave’s long-winded, overwrought narrative (he told me to say that!).

Modern in the Country

Had someone told me it would be almost twelve years to get 1800 sq. ft. and just under 2 acres almost just the way I want it I would have told them they were crazy! Well it is just about as finished as it ever will be so with some friendly persuasion from Anna, I have been convinced to post this progress report for the kind readers of her amazing blog.

I think I can remember the days when we first moved in that I still had about half the energy of Anna and Evan, those were the days when a lot more seemed to get accomplished in a weekend than it does now and the sun setting had little or no affect on your considering stopping a half completed project. Despite this spiraling work slowdown over the years, more than our share of unexpected disasters and the reality of everything taking seven times as long as you intend and costing a minimum of five times as much, here is a tour of the black house in the country.

The house was built in the early 1950’s by New Hope, PA, abstract artist Adolphe Blondheim as his studio and home. Its flat roof, abundance of glass and low-slung profile must have looked quite out of place in such a rural location in the early 1950’s. Originally, the house was designed as a two bedroom, one bath house with a large, 12-foot ceiling, north-facing painting studio. Over the years, and through the work of several subsequent owners, the house has been modified and added to. Unfortunately, from evidence we have uncovered, a majority of the original details have been lost, such as the studio plan, the earliest kitchen layout and most of the steel sash windows. It has through all of its transformations managed to maintain the overall feel and basic character it must have had when it was first built. Like the prior owners, including half of a 1960’s British pop duo, we have completed several updates, all as much as possible in keeping with the character of the original house. Paint color is BM #2135-10 with a custom color for the trim to match the roof coping.

What continues to strike me even after a dozen years in this house is how you are affected by the strength of the relationship between the exterior and the interior and the natural light. What it does do without you thinking about it is put a lot more emphasis on the condition and care of the landscape than you ever had imagined. You spend quite a bit more time tending to the upkeep of the yard and the plantings that are visible and therefore right in your living room year round. As you enter at the front door, the mass of the stacked bond full-wall, inside/outside fireplace anchors the living room and a wall of glass extends the space into the site. By highlighting the planes the walls create with a strong color palette, defining spaces with area rugs and by adding a wall of maple, panelized to mirror the proportions of the six windows opposite we have both given emphasis to the spaces crisp modern edges and warmed up the space. We have been careful with our furnishing selections throughout the house to include a few traditional and antique pieces such as the leather Chesterfield and 18th century oak captain’s box end table to act as counterpoints to emphasize the modern classics like the Chippendale chair by Robert Venturi, four Knoll Hat Trick chairs and a Knoll Face Off table by Frank Gehry. Yellow Bubble club chairs by Philippe Starck and a Frank Gehry Torque table are on the patio.

When we bought this house, we knew immediately there would be a dining room addition sometime in our future. There existed an awkward neither/nor space just barely large enough for a small table and an odd butcher block counter that extended half into the living room. These two areas were the only spaces to entertain or to sit have a meal. When the addition was added, the goal was to blend it as invisibly as we could with the house by using as many existing proportions, materials and elements as possible. We were limited to the size room we could add by the courtyard on the east, the existing kitchen window on the west and by a 60 year old, 20 inch diameter white pine tree on the north that we had no intentions of cutting down. Here we also incorporated glass, maple and strong planes of color to strengthen the visual connection of this space to the rest of the house. The table is a Le Corbusier LC-6 surrounded by six Philippe Starck Costes Chairs. Walls are BM #HC 105 (as is 90% of all of the trim in the house) BM #2131-30 and BM #HC-26.

We currently have the house arranged as two bedrooms and the third bedroom being used as a television room and den. The original painting studio was renovated by the previous owners to be a master bedroom with addition of a master bath and a large walk-in closet. The 12 ft. ceiling give enough space for both monumental pieces of art as well as making room for hanging art stacked. The large amount of glass makes the placement of pieces a real challenge. As a result, large blank wall in the walk in closet has even been pressed into duty as a place to put a collection of smaller special pieces. The 12 ft tall built-in shelves also created a challenge but in the end make for a great place for my larger-than-it-should-be collection of character toys. The high windows eliminate the need for any window treatments and since they are north facing maximizes the light they provide. We are fortunate to live near a well-known auction gallery that twice a year features a outstanding mid-century modern auction and have acquired several pieces there over the years. The travertine-topped walnut dresser and bed stands are Paul McCobb and were purchased there. The bent wood chairs, four in all, were also found at a local auction and all four were a mere $14! Nowhere near the deals Anna regularly gets but not bad! Wall color is BM #OC-57.

We currently use what was originally the second bedroom as a den/TV room although you will not see a black box! I really dislike a television taking over a room (a TV mounted over a fireplace especially sends me to the mat with apologies in advance to anyone reading this that may have such an arrangement!) and we were fortunate enough to have millwork to hide one already in this room. This room has natural cedar wainscoting that has become an art ledge of a series of block print cards from an artist friend of ours that we have been fortunate enough to receive each Christmas for the past 15 or so years. The Knoll Power Play chair and ottoman are by Frank Gehry. The walls are BM #1585.

All photographs are © Matt Wargo. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Thanks, Dave!

We left Brooklyn in 2004. I doubt we’ll ever live there again, but I do still miss it. A couple of weeks ago, I met up with Jenna and Sara (and associated friends and family members!) for dinner on the outskirts of my old neighborhood, and despite the huge amount of change that’s occurred in those parts in the past 6 years, I had some seriously pangs of nostalgia as I walked the length of Smith Street and rounded onto Atlantic Avenue.

So I dug out some old photos, just to remember. All were taken between 1996 and 2004.