६ ऑगस्ट, २०२२

"As far as Jim was concerned, life was about being forever young, and lusting after this and yearning after that. He was going to be 17 forever, and in some ways he was."

Said a friend of Jim Steinman’s, quoted in "A Gothic Rock Cottage Fit for a Bat Out of Hell/Jim Steinman spent years transforming his Connecticut house into a kind of rock ‘n’ roll museum. Now his friends are trying to sell it — with his belongings intact" (NYT).

Steinman wrote all the songs on the Meat Loaf album "Bat Out of Hell," and the headline's suggestion that the house fits the album title is pretty apt, based on the 24 photographs you'll see if you click there. Or look here, at the agent's website. 

Steinman lived alone in the house for 20 years. He spent $6 million making it a weird, wild place, and you can buy it for $5,555,569 — and that's "with all of Mr. Steinman’s personal belongings still inside." You can step into the forever-young loner's life. Or should I say "fly in" — like a bat out of — into? — hell? 

There's a big stainless steel sculpture that's supposed to look like the crystals in Superman's Fortress of Solitude. There's the Batmobile-themed wheelchair (which Steinman needed after his "series of strokes"). There's the bedroom with art that contains taxidermied bats and an alligator skull. There's the closet full of blue and gray clothes, "few of which he wore."

Here's what I'd advise. Buy it. Select a part of it to live in — it's 6,000 square feet — and open the rest of it as a museum. Here's the floor plan: 

You'll want to live in the leftmost space. Add a door between the TV room and the office and make the office your bedroom and redo the den as a nice bathroom. Put a locking door between the kitchen and the dining room, and everything from that door on, over to the right, is your new tourist attraction. It's not quite the House on the Rock, but maybe it fits on the rock fan's American pilgrimmage. You know: Graceland, Paisley Park, Sun Studio.... What else?

***

I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram/On a silver black phantom bike/When the metal is hot and the engine is hungry/And we're all about to see the light/Nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole/Everything is stunted and lost....

१७ टिप्पण्या:

gilbar म्हणाले...

i've seen Worse looking houses

Ficta म्हणाले...

Room number 8 in the Joshua Tree Motel.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Who wants to relive past glories?

Take your cash and move on...

Psota म्हणाले...

Not a "cottage"

William म्हणाले...

The exterior looks fine. A good home, a place to sit by the fireplace and read Robert Frost. The interior, however, is Satanic. I wouldn't find much repose sitting in those rooms. Maybe they could rent it out on Halloween or as a locale for horror movies....It's a good thing that he got build his dream house, but he's to interior decor as Martha Steward is to hard rock.

Howard म्हणाले...

I'll just go down to the mall and hang out at forever 21. It's cheaper.

Richard Dolan म्हणाले...

"Here's what I'd advise. Buy it. Select a part of it to live in — it's 6,000 square feet — and open the rest of it as a museum."

OK, if living in someone else's personal and very quirky museum works for you, with strangers trooping through to gawk at whatever that stuff is. Not my thing, and besides, way too much French blue. But you do you, as they say.

friscoda म्हणाले...

It looks as if the Ring Room depicts characters from, or the Operas of, Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Maybe as follows: The Rhine Maidens (for Das Rheingold), Brunnhilde for Die Walkure (alone on the right), Wotan and his spear for Siegfried (who breaks Wotan's spear with his father's re-forged sword in the eponymous opera), and lastly Siegfried and Brunnhilde (Gotterdammerung).

Interesting fellow.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

The Golden Age of IP. Big money in rock music back in the day.

I guess Meadehouse is moving to CT.

Narr म्हणाले...

Not to my taste, just like Meat Loaf.

realestateacct म्हणाले...

I'd buy this one close by - much cheaper and you can decorate it yourself. https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3-Eustis-Ln_Ridgefield_CT_06877_M44591-38293?ex=2946346069

Don't think the rock and roll vibe is going to be worth an extra 4 million. I bet the zoning there won't let you run a business there either.

Tim म्हणाले...

Bat Out of Hell was one of the best albums to come out of the 70s. Remember listening to it on a huge old console stereo with colored light panels hooked up to the graphic equalizer (that we picked up for 100$ used) while necking with my wife. Good times!

Tomcc म्हणाले...

Interesting house and story, thanks Prof. He was either particularly neat and tidy, or someone's done a lot of cleaning to get it ready to sell.

Kevin म्हणाले...

Steinman lived alone in the house for 20 years.

And you probably will too if you plan to live there.

It doesn't sound like the kind of place that attracts many women.

Another old lawyer म्हणाले...

2-car garage is a deal-breaker.

gadfly म्हणाले...

$1,111,111 down, $24,350 monthly payment, 30 years of interest totaling about $3,725,000, maybe $150,000 per year in Property Tax, employees to operate the museum, maintenance fees on the property, on and on . . .

I don't think that the cash flow of this investment would pay back just collecting common museum fees. Meat Loaf's composer is just not a big deal.

Left Bank of the Charles म्हणाले...

The bathrooms are all in the museum.