Ambiance Part Deux - 111 Archer Avenue

My favourite house is both fictional and real. 111 Archer Avenue is how it's known in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums", but the house where the film was shot really exists on the corner of Convent Avenue & 144th Street in Harlem.

The simple answer to what I love about the Royal Tenenbaum house would be everything, but its all about the details.

One thing I quite like about The Tenenbaum house is that almost everyone in the family has an "office" or in Chazzie's case his room is an office.

Chaz's Office

Now I don't particularly like the "70's" office feel of Chaz's room, but I do like where he positioned his desk. I love the nooks and crannies of the Tenenbaum house. In terms of location though, Etheline (who shares her office with Henry) has what would be my ideal spot for an office and if there was a way to enter the house's courtyard it'd be even more perfect.

But the best room in the house is Margot's.

In the film Margot likes her secrets. She also apparently likes her privacy.

I love the wallpaper.

Have I mentioned I love the wallpaper?

I wouldn't transform my bathroom into a darkroom, but it's a cute idea.

Margot's "Library of Plays". Also she's the only Tenenbaum with a working fireplace.

Richie also has great wallpaper, which he paints himself.

In fact Richie is the "artist" of the Tenenbaum family. He has an art gallery in the ballroom.

There are other great rooms in the house with little details I'd love to find in my own dream house. Lots of beautiful wood, swinging doors, a phone cubby, and a closet full of old board games.

Game closet. With two sets of Operation.

The library.

The phone cubby (doors open).

The phone cubby (with doors closed for privacy).

Smaller kitchen or breakfast nook.

The stairway before Javelina (the boar's head) is stashed in the game closet.

Obviously my dream house would need its own flag. Aa "A" for Ama!

But what I love about the Tenenbaum house, aside from what I've posted above has always escaped me. Now that I'm house hunting for a move to Amsterdam I need to be able to tell someone what I'm looking for - and that hasn't been easy.

I can say I want this and this and that - I want more than one bathroom; a library; two offices; an extra bedroom for guests; a massive dining room for dinner parties. I can specify the neighbourhood or that there's a garden of some kind, but it doesn't mean I'm going to get it.

I found this great interview of Wes Anderson talking about the Tenenbaum house where he specifies the things I haven't been able to quite put my thumb on. I want my own little world. A sort of castle. Surroundings that are "dated and dusty". Bohemian. I want a house where each room seems to have its own identity.

Then I remember a house I lived in once. It was massive. Most of the walls were paneled with mahogany. There was a similar sort of staircase and a quirky bathroom with a claw footed tub and a window I always forget to pull the blind on (thankfully there were lots of trees). I like Richie had the attic bedroom.

But I'm being sentimental. Despite what I can call to memory like the porch that ran along the front of the house where I hung a porch swing (that I bought at a junkyard for $5), it was a boring house. I was a poor student. I didn't care very much about the ambiance of where I lived so much as comfort and that I could get 200 people inside it on a Friday night.

Still, looking at the last picture of the Tenenbaum flag flying over the neighbourhood I see houses with fascades like those found in Amsterdam. Haarlem was originally a city in Holland (and New York once owned by the Dutch was called New Amsterdam). It keeps me hopeful that eventually I'll see a place and I'll have that moment when I think to myself - 'this is my Tenenbaum house'.

Now all I need is a Chazz to help me close the deal when that day comes. I've already tracked down Margot's wallpaper.

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I Know Why the Nicolas Cage Acts

I don't blog about this kind of stuff often, but having recently seen "Seeking Justice" and the boycott surrounding the upcoming release of "Ghost Rider", I thought it was time for me to discuss the WTF-ness that is Nicolas Cage.

I've been a fan of Nic ever since the film "Peggy Sue Got Married". I blame my emerging puberty for the little crush I developed on Cage, but this was back when he was kind of good. He was really good in "Moonstruck" and to this day his portrayal of Sailor Ripley in "Wild At Heart" is what makes it my favourite of David Lynch's films.

"This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom."

A quick look on IMDB and I see a gap in Cage's career - the films he starred in between "Wild At Heart" and the film that won him his Oscar, "Leaving Las Vegas", which he followed with very Oscar unworthy films such as "The Rock", "Con Air", "Face Off", and "City of Angels" (which gave the world the song "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls that seemed to play on a continuous loop on every American radio station).

Now those weren't horrible films. "Con Air" had brilliant moments. John Malkovich's Cyrus Grissom might be my favourite movie bad guy since Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber from "Die Hard". Steve Buscemi is also brilliant as Garland Greene, the mild-mannered serial killer. But Cage? He saves the day, but not the movie.

"Don't move or the bunny gets it."

And that's it. Not another "Leaving Las Vegas" level performance from Cage until 2002 when he starred in Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation". And not another one since.

Julie Miller of Vanity Fair posted Cage's explanation of his career choices:

 It’s not important to me. In fact, I think that if you go about making movies to win Oscars, you’re really going about it the wrong way. I think that it’s ... right now, what I’m excited about is trying to create a [pauses] kind of a cultural understanding through my muse that is part of the zeitgeist that isn’t motivated by vanity or magazine covers or awards. It’s more, not countercultural, but counter-critical. I would like to find a way to embrace what Led Zeppelin did, in filmmaking.

Then she asks what did he mean? Here's my analysis.

"It's not important to me. In fact, I think that if you go about making movies to win Oscars, you're really going about it the wrong way."

Pretty straight forward and other Oscar winners such as Meryl Streep have said very similar things.

"I think that it's ... right now, what I'm excited about is trying to create a [pauses] kind of cultural understanding through my muse that is part of the zeitgeist that isn't motivated by vanity or magazine covers or awards."

Now it gets tricky. A cultural understanding? For whom? Himself? His fans? The world in general? Traditionally "a cultural understanding" implies a belief that underneath 'we are all the same'.

"That is part of the zeitgeist" could also be straightforward.

 "It's more, not countercultural, but counter-critical. I would like to find a way to embrace what Led Zeppelin did, in filmmaking."


To understand this part you don't need to be a fan of Led Zeppelin, but it helps. The band once called "The Yardbirds" until Keith Moon quipped "this is gonna go down like a lead zeppelin" - a possible reference to the Hindenberg crashing and burning, had a major influence on aspects of the music industry during their career. Musically, it's been claimed that while they're known as a mostly "progressive" rock band, their music managed to transcend any music genre.

So simply put, one translation could be "I don't choose my roles based on winning Oscars because the statue means nothing to me. In fact, I don't like the attention. I want to make films the public will like. I don't want to be type cast because winning an Oscar type casts you. I also really like Led Zeppelin."

Now if Cage likes Led Zeppelin half as much he likes Elvis it can be sure that whatever path the muse has led him down, Cage will probably stay on course. I mean look at how much he likes Elvis. He even married his daughter.

Plus given Cage's tax problems (at one point someone claimed he owed the IRS and the state of California about $18 million), it's not like he can afford to stop making movies. In 2011 alone Cage starred in 5 movies.

But don't trust my translation. Cage's quotes page on IMDB pretty much say the same thing minus the crazy.

One last thing before I go. BleedingCool.com posted an appeal to Cage to save the Ghost Rider creator who recently lost a lawsuit to Marvel to the tune of $17,000. You can read it here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/09/appeal-nicolas-cage-on-behalf-of-gary-friedrich/

As someone who has always watched Cage's films because of what made me love him, even when I cannot understand why I'm watching say, "Season of the Witch" for example, I really hope Nic takes the opportunity to reach out to Friedrich.

It would be very Ben Gates of you Mr Cage.

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