The Witch House in Hollywood, from Weetzie Bat

The legendery witch house, familiar to YA readers from Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series, is more charming and less frightening in real life.  Quirky, yes.  But sweet and intriguing. When we were in the LA area, we drove around Beverly Hills and easily found it off the main drag, not that far from Beverly Hills High School and Rodeo Drive.  The house is located on an extremely well manicured street filled with beautiful suburban-style houses that have clearly been well maintained and constantly upgraded.  There's something rather amusing that these buildings at first glance seem like typical (almost boring) suburban tract houses.  But then this is Hollywood, land of veneer, so on second glance it's clear that the homes are polished, refabbed to look like the dream of suburbs but better.  Every lawn is clipped perfectly.

The Witch House, in contrast, appears a little scraggly with its wild garden, craggy trees, stretching bushes.  Yet, this landscaping is clearly as well planned as the detailed lawns, just in a different way. In the front, behind the fence is a pleasantly landscaped area that features a pond surrounded by bushes, grasses and plants climbing to the sky.  The people who live here obviously adore their home, but like the messed up look, too.

Signs on the fence read "Keep Out" in typical hardware sign and then there's another one that's carved out of wood that also tells people to keep away, but it's artful, almost like an apology for the first sign.

According to several Hollywood blogs, the house was built in 1921 in Culver City where it served as offices and dressing rooms.  It was moved to this location in 1926 and is a private residence.  The house appears in Clueless.  Alicia Silverstone walks by it after flunking her driving test.  Architect Charles Moore as the "quintessential Hansel and Gretel house."   Aaron Betsky, an architecture critic for the LA Times, has noted that it, "It represents the skills of an experienced form-giver to fantasy more than the scrupulous translation of concerns about function and site into built form that an architect might offer."

The house design reflects the popularity of storybook type houses in the 1920s.  Their creators and owners must have yearned for a combination of European sophistication and mystery while still desiring modern updates.  The village of Riverside, IL, always strikes me as having some homes in that style as well and there's a fairy tale type cottage in Normal, too.

Ever since I read Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat and her description of this unusual, legendery house, I have wanted to see it in person.  I'm glad I did. The Weetzie Bat series is an intriguing contemporary literary fairy tale about modern LA, as I wrote about in “The Rebirth of the Postmodern Flâneur: Notes on the Postmodern Landscape of Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat" in Marvels & Tales.

Unfortunately,  I didn't get to Amoeba Records as we couldn't quite figure out where that was.  The rest of my group found it a day later and said it was amazing.

Talk like a pirate: read like a pirate

To Talk Like a Pirate, you must read about pirates.  Here's my list of 10 great books about pirates.

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The incredible 1883 classic told, mainly, through the lens of young Jim Hawkins about his adventures with Long John Silver. 

2. Peter Pan; or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by JM Barrie.  Part of the appeal of Barrie's 1904 novel and play is the tension between adolescent and adulthood.  That's the underlying theme -- the theme we think about, however, is the rollicking fun between Hook's pirate and Peter's Lost Boys.  Check out related film adaptations as well.

3. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss.  The pirate attack is a key element in this 1812 novel about a proper family from Switzerland shipwrecked on island and trying to bring their own form of civilization.  Jules Verne wrote a sequel in 1900 called The Castaways of the Flag.

4. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Crusoe's classic adventures on the high seas in 1651 go wrong from the beginning when his ship is attacked by pirates and he becomes a slave.

5. The Pirates of Penzance; or The Slave of Duty by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.  This delightful 1879 comic operetta features the great song early on "I Am a Pirate King."  Our favorite version of the operetta, and we have seen probably 9 by now, is still the 1980s version with Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstandt and Rex Smith.  

6. High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes.  The 1929 novel is about a group of children kidnapped by pirates.  The boys and girls must defend themselves against the meanness and desires of the pirates.  

7. The Not-so-Jolly-Roger by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.  For young readers who want a pirate adventure but may not be ready for some of the great novels on this list, try Scieszka and Smith's 2004 tale that's part of the lively and funny Time Warp Trio series.

8. The Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle.  How we imagine today what pirates looked like is still influenced by the detailed illustrations by American author and illustrator Pyle.  His Book of Pirates was published in 1921, 10 years after his death, and is a collection of several stories that he wrote and for which he created beautiful, detailed watercolors.

9. Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne. Three teen-age boys are kidnapped and live among the pirates in this 1857 novel that includes death, cannibalism, surfing, stealing and Christian missionaries. William Golding's 1954 Lord of the Flies, another intense novel about boys on an island, is a response to this classic Scottish adventure.

10. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  Tom and his friends love playing pirates at home and on the island in the Mississippi River to which they try to escape from their childhood responsibilities.  As they do, their lives become more complicated in Twain's 1876 novel.  Try reading it aloud.

Update on Monday, September 19, 2011 at 01:53PM by JAS

On another Talk Like a Pirate Day, just wanted to write again that pirate literature continues to be a good way to get kids, especially boys, who are interested in pirates to get them interested in books and culture.  Even when our son was young, he could enjoy watching live and video versions of The Pirates of Penzance because he was so fascinated by pirates.  You might be surprised at kids' ability to tackle books that might be a little difficult to read if they are interested in the subject.  Let them start with Treasure Island, or find the graphic novel version and get them reading that way.

Free Comic Book Day This Saturday!

Free Comic Book Day is always a highlight of spring.  My family and I love an excuse to hang out at our local Acme Comicscomic book store, Acme Comics, and see what's new.  We're always surprised at all the cool comic books and stuff that's FREE.

Two weeks ago we missed the special day supporting independent record stores, but we did get some free things while hanging out after the Ebert Fest at Exile on Main Street in Champaign.  Great samples.

Even though we all like to find interesting items on the web and on eBay, it's still important to support your local stores.  These places create wonderful environments to share ideas in real time -- not virtual reality.  Just like in libraries, I especially enjoy just perusing the stacks to see what might pop out.  I have found great comic books by browsing and also by listening to people's conversations in the stores.