JULES: So, what do you think?

KEVIN: Very, uh, subtle…and very pink.

It was decorated by her neighbor Ron:

What’s funny is that it has some touches that remind me of Kelly Wearstler’s current Bravura Modern phase. Very Eighties Miami Vice (what is that thing hanging from the cabinet?!?!):

The piece de resistance is the huge Billy Idol face on the wall, complete with neon light earring. Unfortunately, I could not get a clear shot of this, but you get the idea:

What was most baffling was this clown that remained after Jules’ creditors came an cleaned her out. Apparently the repo men were scared of clowns:

Going back to the beginning of the movie, I can see this thing SAT ON HER BED! Really? Look closely at this bad picture from my tv:

It’s funny, this was really the only set that seemed ridiculously dated. The rest of them are as ageless as Rob Lowe’s face. I’ll share them with you in another post, as this one is getting to be way too long!

Click on the pics above to find out how to get your own Sex and the City sheets!

A few months ago, Andrew Garrison saw my post about Project Row House and sent me a copy of the documentary he directed called Third Ward TX. This is a project that is so genius and moving to me; I’ve been following its progress for years. If you’d like to catch up, you really need to screen this film. I’ve dreaded and thus procrastinated writing this review for months because I know that words can’t do it justice. The last time I was moved to tears by a project or an exhibit was Gee’s Bend Quilts. It doesn’t happen often to this old cynic!

In 1993, Rick Lowe founded Project Row House. He was struck by how much the dilapidated shotgun shacks in the city of Houston reminded him of John Biggers’ paintings. He calls the shotgun shack “a humble abode and a temple.” As Lowe and a group of artists renovated the homes, they created a community where artists-in-residence would come stay and exhibit. Thus, the artists engaged the community and brought attention to a place that had been abandoned by many. Once a neighborhood with a small town feel, the area had fallen on hard times.

The first major result of PRH was eight exhibition houses housing two different artist per year, with exhibitions and exhibitions in progress showing for six months a year. The doors are open for people to walk through. Exhibits range from portraits to this 2001 Walter Hood installation:

After reaching this success, Lowe realized it was only the tip of the iceberg in helping the community. Thus, The Young Mothers in Residency Program was born. Single mothers were able to live in housing that is part of the project, and they are aided by mentor moms. They live rent free for two years while completing educations. These families become part of a thriving community. The amount of dignity this effort brings to people seems too powerful to describe.

Perhaps the best analogy comes from an interview with a local found object sculptor and funny character from the neighborhood. When describing his own art, he says he “takes nothing and makes something of it.” Although this is the way PRW’s site may have seemed before the project began, I believe there was always something there. The energy and spirit from the old community had been stifled in the abandoned houses, but Rick Lowe sensed it and found a vent through which he freed it.

The documentary is so well done, from interviews with Lowe, artists, residents, community leaders, community characters, and even spec real estate developers. The film also finds wonderful images from the days when this was a strong African-American community as well as people who remember what it used to be like. Ironically, the success of the project has caused its next challenge; PRH has brought so much positive attention and improvement to a previously ignored area that real estate prices are rising. This means that property taxes are becoming unaffordable in an area where the average family of four has an income of $13,500 a year.

I can’t think of another project that compares to this one; at the heart of it is community, its other parts include art, historic preservation, urban planning, social work, culture, history, and architecture. The results of these parts working together are respect, dignity, strong families, education, true community and pride. John Biggers, one Lowe’s original inspirations for the project said it best: “Art will save your life.”

Thank you so much to Andrew Garrison for capturing this project so well on film and for sharing it with me. This is the perfect film to screen for artists, urban planners, mayor’s conferences, architecture school lectures, professional design associations, Brad Pitt, the list goes on. If you are interested in arranging a screening, contact Third Ward TX here.

To see a trailer, to purchase the film, or to arrange a screening, click here.

To learn more about The Row House Community Development Corporation, click here.

To learn more about The Young Mothers Residential Program, click here.

To learn more about John Biggers, get this book.

•First two photographs and the Young Mothers program photograph from ProjectRowHouses.org,

•John Biggers painting from The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room

•Black and white photos from The Third Ward TX Gallery

•Walter Hood installation photo from wjhoodesignn.com

•On happier notes, Sex and the City is worth the price of admission just for the fashion. What did you all think of

(SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT: DON’T READ THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET AND WANT IT ALL TO BE FRESH)

Carrie’s apartment makeover? It seemed like good Apartment Therapy philosophy to me – clearing out Aidan’s heavy chair (it was literally weighing down the room), getting some bright new color and prints (I loved the blue), getting rid of the wedding gifts, clearing out so many books and magazines (something I am completely unable to do), arranging all the artwork on the walls instead of leaning it up against the walls. I also enjoyed all of Patricia Fields’ color combos on the clothes – the raspberry pink and red; red and purple; taxicab yellow, black, and white, et. al.

OK SPOILER OVER!

•I’d like to thank my blogger pal Holly over at decor8 for inviting me to dish about design reality television shows. A few of them are gearing up to start this month, like Design Star and Top Design. Holly let me introduce myself to her readers by introducing my block in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood in the city of Atlanta. After journeying out to the ‘burbs for the flick last night, I appreciate my ‘hood all the more!

•Thanks to my neighbor Lily for inviting me over to see her amazing home. Lily saw the blog post I wrote and invited me to come see the inside. I cannot wait, and I’ll be sure to share the experience with you here as soon as I do!

•Thanks to commenter Charlie for giving me the heads up on another fire station renovation (the first post on this topic is here). Engine No. 44 Firehouse is completely renovated and available for the low-low price of $6,375,000. This was one of, if not the first, fire station renovations, originally bought and used in 1959 by an artist couple. Built in 1910, the firehouse included a stable for the horses that pulled their fire wagon. Check out all the photos of this remarkable property here.

• Thanks to Elle Decor magazine for all of the chic inspiration over the years.  I am so happy that I finally own So Chic: Glamorous Lives, Stylish Spaces. Now  I can throw out my copy of the magazine with SJP’s Hamptons house in it.  The magazines I save are starting to overtake my house.  This book deserves its own post, so I’ll try to tell you more about it later this week.

Images:

•Sex and the City image from sexandthecitymovie.com

•Firehouse 44 photos from Firehouse44.com.  Be sure to check out the rest of the renovation photos on their site!

•So Chic photo by William Waldron as seen on from Amazon.com,

Back to the point:  This cinematic view of Boston in Gone Baby Gone was so familiar. It’s been done to death lately – the parts around Boston where everything is gray, from the shingles on the houses to the sky to the skin color of the tired and jaded characters. Whether it be Southie, Chelsea, Charlestown or Dorchester, movies like Mystic River (to be fair, this is also a Dennis Lehane adaptation), The Departed, Good Will Hunting and now Gone Baby Gone all seem to spotlight the same exact view of the city. Were they all filmed on this street we see to the left?  I call it “Code of Silence Avenue.”  We never see nor hear about the yuppie takeover of Southie or the mega-expensive Shipyard of Charlestown. Even Dorchester has experienced gentrification in the past decade. Instead we see the same old Irish  dive bars full of depressing characters (some get the accent right, some completely butcher it into some pseudo-JFK accent mixed with a New York accent), asbestos-shingled three family houses and Code of Silence Avenue  in all of these films. The only other views we ever see of the near-Boston area are across the river in Cambridge, when painfully lame movies like Soul Man or With Honors pretend to film at Harvard. Last I heard, the Harvard campus does not allow filming, so the only authentic view we ever see is of it the usual aerial one before they zoom in on Elle Woods sitting under a tree next to a fake dorm that is not in Harvard Yard.

Here’s the requisite depressing as hell brown and yuck Boston movie apartment.  Have you really ever seen two such heroic, young and good-looking people living with cabinets and wallpaper like that?  I don’t think so:

I’m rambling. My question is, when was the last time we saw picturesque Boston Proper in cinema?  I can’t think of the last time I saw The South End, The North End, the Financial District, Back Bay, Rowe’s Wharf, Comm. Ave., et. al. in a movie. Can anyone remember a film that highlights the rest of Boston and not the surrounding depressing areas? Cambridge doesn’t count, that’s its own city. Please leave your answers in the comments and let me know!