Brown Jenkin in the yard

[essentialsaltes]

Went to an estate sale in Beverly Hills yesterday, primarily the belongings of silent film actor/director Hobart Henley, as well as those of his wife and boys. It's like they all went off to the other house in Florida in 1940 and just left a house full of possessions behind. Lots of great stuff, but with antique store prices on them, even at 50% off most of it when we got there. Sure, it's a tough balance between trying to get what the stuff is worth and trying to empty the house in a weekend, so I have no problem with the prices, but I'm feelin' the vibe of Lock, Stock... these shotguns may be antiques, but we're not paying antique prices for them.

I was interested in the 30's-ish bakelite Mah Jongg set, despite the broken hinge on the case and the rusted out doodads on the racks. A nice prop or curiosity for me, but not for $375. No, not even for the half-off price of $187.

We did get one 'antique', and it's almost comical as the estate agent is talking up this piece, and the legendary status of the manufacturer. OK, I'll take your word that a brand-new Brown Jordan Tamiami loveseat will run you $800, but the last lawnchairs I bought at a yard sale were $5 each. I'm delighted to know that for a few hundred dollars, I could get it sandblasted, repainted and have the vinyl rewoven, but honestly I'm gonna give you $30 and stick it in the yard:

From Public Photos

Now, true, it is a neat piece, and the style originally debuted in 1959 (the design was relaunched a few years ago). Very comfortable and a nice design. Well worth $30. But $800? I am not your customer, Brown Jordan. I think the fainting couch is the probably the most expensive piece of furniture we own, and it wasn't $800 and it doesn't sit in the yard. Definitely a neat estate sale, but mostly not for the likes of us, who live some distance from 90210.

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That evening A&K had a little BBQ for LARP-ish Wyrd-y folks. Fun to get together and socialize with occasional semi-serious discussions of live gaming. I'm sorry Lisa got a bit ganged up on as the only strong proponent for live combat present among a group of people where I'm probably the most sympathetic to LC, by which I mean "eh, it's not my thing".

You can click through the image to see a couple more from the yard/garden. Me in my new boonie hat next to the high (and getting higher) corn (infiltrated by monstrous fennel), and the dark sunflower in front of the volunteer tomato.

Comments

[zorker.livejournal.com]

There was some entertaining live-ish combat in the indiecade area of E3 this year. It basically seemed to be a relatively fast moving turn based honor system combat where you were taking turns moving to tag another person's hand. (I think they could react to move out of the way as long as they didn't move their feet?) Cort played it and found it compelling, he'd be more familiar with the rules than I would. But it did look cool to watch, sort of like a slow motion action scene.