My good friends live in a mostly latino neighborhood just south of the prestigious snooty Hancock Park area in Los Angeles, and we’d sometimes drive through Hancock Park on our way back from outings or to just be snooty about the snootyness.  On quite a few occasions we’ve passed the Norwood Young house, and I’ve marveled at the numerous statues of Michalangelo’s David outside the white mansion [check 'em out on googlemaps street view]

Well today’s LAist post on Mr Young’s house — “Happy Holidays from Youngwood Court” — titillated me. I was so stoked to see this house decked out with Black Santa and Mrs Santa life-size decorations, beautiful lights everywhere, each of the SEVENTEEN David’s with red tops and no bottoms, and a life-size cutout of Norwood himself. I love the creativity that went into this decoration — probably one of the most unique christmas house decorations I’ve ever seen. And it makes me giggle that he does that in Hancock Park, pissing off many of the neighbors and making them worry about their property values. Koga, who wrote the post on LAist, linked to this article from 1997, about neighbors’ reactions to the ‘House of Davids’. The best line from the article:

“It is like spitting in somebody’s eye,” said Marguerite Byrne, a member of the Hancock Park Homeowners Assn.’s board of directors. “It is individualism run amok.”

Oh, the irony! The irony!

Anyway, Norwood Young’s website is a trip, with full episodes about his house, his costume parties, and his music. All this eccentric youngwood court history I didn’t know of when I lived in Los Angeles. Norwood Young and LAist, you made my christmas day.