Unusual Life

These uncredited photos just in from Steve Bard:

Every home is unique but these properties take it a step further. For those who can appreciate uncommon tastes, Realtor.org presents this collection of listings.

After all, not every buyer wants 1920′s bungalow on a tree-lined street. In fact, some buyers don’t even want their home to resemble a typical residence.

Each the following homes sets itself apart from the “usual” by its architectural style, location, or history. It begins with a dome home in the heartland.

Unusual Homes Sold or For Sale on Realtor.org

In our never-ending quest for more Unusual Life, we met with the renowned Hanan Levin of Grow-a-Brain, the quintessential blog of the known universe. He took us to this fabulous artist-created restaurant and folk-art environment in Riverside, CA (photos to follow shortly) where we spent a few hours touring, eating and getting to know one another.

Thanks for the great day, Hanan! It was a highlight of our trip.

The Jesus of Peeps (JoP), created by Seattle artist Janet Galore, is 4.5 ft tall x 3.5 ft wide, from 6 colors of Peeps. What a lovely way to commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ.

t e l e m e t r y: Transmissions from the Galores

It was love at first sight for Nick Agoff and Jean-Francois Godbout when they saw this storybook cottage in Seattle’s Mt. Baker neighborhood. At the time, it had only two other owners and was a daycare for about 20 years, so the home was ripe for a makeover.

Nothing in the house was as challenging as the landmark roof, however. After a few desperate calls to Historic Seattle and local roofers, they finally found a company in Portland, Oregon, Quality Plus Roofing, who could rise to the occasion.

With huge pots of water to boil the shingles and bend them into place, the crew labored for weeks to get the job done in a timely and professional manner and restore the home and its roof to its former brilliance and glory.

View more photos HERE.

One-time Russian gangster Nikolai Sutyagin’s home is certainly unusual. The eccentric former convict’s seemingly accidental 15-year project begun in 1992 stands 13 floors, 144 feet high. He claims he was only intending to build a two-story house – larger than those of his neighbours to reflect his position as the city’s richest man.

Read the story here.

I’m a sucker for travel slideshows and creative documentation of people and places. Stephen Cysewski has created an intriguing personal vision in his “Wandering” travelogs. When viewing in particular his “Wandering in Seattle” I feel like a fly on the wall viewing photos taken years ago in Seattle giving it a unique historic reference filled with memories for anyone who has spent time downtown. One finds so many familiar locations and a sense of rare nostalgic purity in Cysewski’s carefully thought out compositions. I almost expect to find myself in the crowd in some of the beautifully captured personal visions presented in these photos. Treat yourself to the treasure of this poetic journey.

Wandering In Seattle: Stephen Cysewski

The Emerald City Comicon is in town this weekend, the largest comic book and pop culture convention in the Northwest.

Comic publishers, panels, artists and speakers from around the country will be in attendance, plus local favorites and friends Jim Woodring, Jim Blanchard and Ellen Forney (the author of I Love Led Zeppelin and lady wrestler with the Pin-Down Girls.)

One publisher with a huge fan base is Fantagraphics Books. Fantagraphics has been active in comic publishing since 1976 and found itself at the forefront of the burgeoning movement to establish comics as a serious art medium.

Fantagraphics has been in the news recently because science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison is suing them and its co-owners, Gary Groth and Kim Thompson, for defamation and “violation of right of publicity.”

Says the Seattle Times in “Fantagraphics’ friends come to its financial aid“.

I first met Harlan Ellison when asked to chauffeur him around town for a Foolscap convention and accompany him to local collector Steve Bard’s very unusual home and Palace of Arts and Oddities in Seattle.

Mr. Ellison wrote “A Boy and His Dog” that was made into a film starring Don Johnson in 1975 and the novel “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. He’s won ten Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Stoker Awards (presented by the Horror Writers Association) including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He was one of my favorite science fiction writers until I actually met the man, but I digress…..

Mr. Ellison is known to live in an unusual home in Los Angeles himself, so was anxious to view Mr. Bard’s domicile.

Steve’s house features some of the following items, the list being somewhat incomplete and less than exhaustive:

Circus Sideshow Smallest Mummy
Frog Babies (pickled punks)
Siamese Twin calves, weasels, goats, etc
Two-faced pig, cow and kitten
Painting on the head of a pin
Victorian Art & Artifacts
Wreaths woven from human hair
Hundreds of Art Nouveau and Deco statues
Lovely paintings/prints covering walls & ceilings
Ornate carved antique furniture
Natural History specimens, exotic taxidermy, skulls/bones
Medical Specimens / Equipment
Human skeletons, skulls
Assorted Fetuses
Antique medical instruments & machines
Quack-medical electrical devices
Funeral Paraphernalia & Memorabilia
Antique coffins and carriers (adult/child)
Casket plate collection
Embalmer/mortician tools & tables
Library of Curious and Esoteric Tomes (25,000+ books)
Thousands of autographed Science Fiction 1st Eds
Hundreds of Fantasy and Lowbrow art books
Hundreds of antique Erotica, Curiosa & Sexology
Hundreds of Victorian Art books
Toaster Museum (150+ antique toasters)
Garden Architecture, Statuary and Art
13 foot tall Minotaur bust
25 foot tall Rapunzel castle tower
15 foot diameter formal fishpond w/ tiered fountain
Sinister Cemetery / Satanic Altar
New Treehouse
Funky Future Room (ie Jetsons / Barbarella decor)
Hundreds of cool kinetic art and lighting gadgets
Egg-shaped furniture (Stereo chair, sensory-deprivation tank)
Other Curiosities, Antiquities and Gadgetry too numerous to mention

Meet Mr. Bard and take a little tour of his unusual home…..

Steve and I always talk about “listing” the house for sale and having an Open House, coinciding with April Fools Day. Can you imagine the look on potential buyers and agents faces when I welcome them to this spectacular Open House?!?

If you liked that, you can view more photos of Steve Bard’s House here.

Or take a Virtual tour of Steve’s house, courtesy of VR Seattle.

And see photos of Steve’s house on Flickr

And friend Kirsten Anderson also had an entry on Boing Boing of Steve Bard’s Odditorium.

If you’re a science fiction fan, do not miss Kirsten’s science fiction art show at her gallery Roq la Rue, Amazing Visions. (And see photos of Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols at Fantagraphics Books on Kirsten Anderson’s blog “That Ain’t Art”.

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Other events of note, next weekend will be the Japanese comic and popular culture convention Sakura-Con. Very cool.