Monday, October 15, 2007

Weekend Update

It's leaf peeping season on the East Coast, and Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter decided to pack our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly into the big BMW and head on up to upstate New York to partake in the russet colored turning of the seasons. Last time we took our pussycat Sugar in the big BMW, she managed to puke, defecate and shred her carrier and since Your Mama was unwilling to take on that feline drama once again, poor Sugar had to stay home alone. So, along with every other urbanite looking for a weekend of autumnal beauty and freshly picked apples, off we flew up the Hudson, over the Shawangunks and to the pastoral spread of our pals Flower and Grandma Bunny, who just completed a magazine spread worthy renovation of their 1940s honeymoon cottage.

Most people outside of New York City might imagine that all rich and famous folks spend their big bucks buying shingled behemoths in the Hamptons. But in truth, the hills, dales and valleys of upstate New York are positively littered with the bucolic retreats of those with household names. While Your Mama is too tired and too bizzy to give y'all a complete run down of every celebrity we know of with a house north of New Paltz, we thought you might be interested to see a few snaps of a couple celebrity weekend getaways that happen to be near the rural residence of our pals Flower and Grandma Bunny.

The photo above is a lovely autumnal vista taken from just behind the home of an actual celebrity, an actress whose name Your Mama feels compelled to keep in our vault. See children, this is a celebrity with whom we are friendly, and if we ever want to be invited back to her lovely house to see the goats, we'd better keep her name to our self.

Just up the road from our mystery celeb's pastoral farmlette is a stunning 160+ acre property just outside of Accord, NY that is rumored to belong to wonky toothed folk singing sensation Jewel (two photos above). Did the children hear Your Mama? RUMORED. Property records reflect the pretty and freshly renovated stone house is actually owned by a woman who lives in New York City, but there are upstate realtors who specialize in this area who commonly tell people that the property belongs to Jewel. Our pal Grandma Bunny also SWEARS she has seen Jewel on the property. So it's a little bit of a conundrum, because the local scuttlebutt is that it belongs to Jewel, but we can't find any evidence of her owing the property.

We complete our upstate celebrity home tour with the strange and unusual house near Kripplebush that is owned by the peculiar and Academy Award nominated actor Willem Dafoe (two pictures above). The children will note that Mister Dafoe's 3 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom house, which sits on a 6.8 acre piece of property, is a dark and modern confection of mis-matched shapes and angles. Contemporary architecture is certainly no stranger in the upstate vernacular of weekend houses, however, Mister Dafoe's house is most unconventional in that the black exterior cladding is neoprene. Yes puppies, Your Mama said neoprene, the very material that is used to make wet suits. The unexpected material does give the house a hostile and wicked presence on the property, but also, because of the non reflective and "soft" nature of neoprene, the house feels much warmer and more inviting than you might imagine from the photos.

Your Mama is back in New York City–for the moment anyway–the Dr. Cooter is back to fixing the crazy people, our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly are sleeping the sleep of the worn out pooch, and Sugar, well...y'all prolly know how angry pussycats can get when they're left alone...Sugar won't so much as look at Your Mama or the Dr. Cooter.

11 comments:

. said...

Mama, I'm sure you would tell your chilrun to learn something new every day to keep their brains from disappearing, and I just have. I didn't know you could clad a house in neoprene. I suppose you have also learned that kitties don't like to go to parties. They require the parties come to them.

Anonymous said...

One of my cats is a pooper in the car too. I now line his carrying case with the usual soft towel and top it with a puppy pee pad. When the inevitable occurs I just swap pads, snap the dirty pad into a big ziplock baggie and everyone is happy. Carry several pads with you cause those little furry beasts have an amazing reservoir of poop that is stimulated by BMWs (maybe it's the sound of a german engine).

Jay
P.S.
Sorry Pheonix I just can't remember my password

Anonymous said...

Kripplebush was the name of the last episode of my now defunked porn career. The left over set was the inspiration of this clumsy tribute to Frank Gehry you see here. The architect used the arch visible at the front of the house, which was once part of my loft apt (our old set in Vany Nuys). My fans will recall this was where Caveman shot me just before SugarHoneyIceTea "arrested" him. Ann B. Davis directed, and was a major piece of work as you would imagine.

Anonymous said...

who is your friend mama?

Anonymous said...

who is your friend mama?

Anonymous said...

Mama, they have sedatives for kitties who don't like car trips...my pissycat does NOT do cars, either.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh.. i see you were in ACCORD NY... i know the house.... and the actress.... small world...
GREAT TOWN!

Anonymous said...

nevermind upstate NY, you should check out northwestern connecticut. way more cool celebrities.......

Anonymous said...

Oh Mama, what a lovely get away weekend....I'm jealous...

Anonymous said...

I wish I knew who the architect of the Dafoe home was. Do you?

Anonymous said...

I do know the architect of the Rubber House. Liz LeCompte designed most of it, and the inside is much more beautiful than the outside. However, due to the rubber exterior, there are moisture problems.